The Eminence in Shadow

“It’s okay, Dr. Yuuka. You can tell him.”

On Akane’s urging, the lab coat–clad Yuuka hesitantly goes on. “The boy just woke up.”

There are two beds in the room. One of them has a boy on it, the other has a girl.

The girl’s eyes are still closed fast, but the boy is sitting up and looking their way.

“U-um… Where am I?” he asks nervously.

“You’re at Nishino University. We found you passed out at the hospital and took you in,” Yuuka says gently. “How much do you remember?”

“The hospital…? Why was I at the hospital…?”

Yuuka lowers her voice to a hush. “He seems to be suffering from memory problems.”

“Is he okay?” Akane asks.

“It’s probably temporary, caused by overexposure to magic.”

“He might have seen the Brute firsthand,” Akane theorizes.

“The apex beast from your report?” Akira says. “If that’s true, you need to get his memories back, now.”

Yuuka gives him a weak nod, then turns back to the boy. “Can you remember anything? What’s your name?”

“My name…? It’s, uh…it’s Minoru.”

When the boy named Minoru says his name, it doesn’t seem to come easily to him.

Upon hearing it, Akane finds herself reminded of

him

.

The boy in front of her even kind of reminds her of him.

She can’t put her finger on why, but he does.

“What about your last name? Do you remember it?”

“It’s Kage—err, no, I can’t remember…”

“What about the girl you were with?”

“The girl…” The boy’s eyes go wide. “Wait, you mean Natsume?! Is Natsume okay?!”

“Her name’s Natsume, then? Don’t worry, she’s right there next to you.”

Minoru breathes a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God… If my little sister got hurt, I dunno what I’d do.”

“Ah, so she’s your sister. What can you tell us about her?”

“She, um… Well, uh…”

“It’s okay, we already know. She’s an Awakened, right?”

“Huh? Oh, sure, yeah! She’s got pointy ears and silver hair…”

“But she’s a good kid, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, for sure! It’s just, the thing is, she can’t talk.”

“Really…? That must be so difficult.”

The fact that the girl lost her ability to speak means that her mutation must have been pretty severe.

The boy must have had a hell of a time trying to get through to her.

“I’m Yuuka, the doctor here. As far as her care goes, I intend to take full—”

“I’ll look after her personally,” Akira says, cutting her off and speaking to Minoru directly.

“W-wait…who’re you?”

“I’m Akira Nishino, one of the people in charge here. I’m also a researcher by trade, and I spend my days working as hard as I can to research magic and the Awakened so I can help people.”

“I—I see…”

“Your sister’s had it rough because of her mutation, and that’s something I can appreciate better than most. My sister’s an Awakened, too.”

“Really?”

“Can you trust us with your sister? I swear to you, I’ll do everything in my power to help her talk again.”

“I—I dunno… I’d have to ask her first.”

“Ask her? I thought she couldn’t talk.”

“Oh, uh… Right, she can’t talk, but we still manage to communicate through gestures and stuff.”

“I see. So, she’s retained a certain degree of her sanity…”

Akira sinks into thought. His expression is mixed.

“Brother dear,” Akane says, “she hasn’t even woken up yet, and the boy is clearly still getting his bearings. Maybe it would be better if you came back later and asked them then.”

“You’re right,” he replies, then turns back to Minoru. “I’m sure this is all a bit sudden for you. For tonight, just rest easy. You’re guests of Messiah now.”

“Th-thank you for being so welcoming.”

After gently comforting the boy, he takes Akane and leaves the room.

Once they’re out, he laughs coldly. “What a naive child.”

“What do you plan on doing with them?”

Akira doesn’t answer. He just lets out an ominous laugh and heads for the schoolhouse.

Cid’s voice echoes through the dimly lit infirmary. “The room’s clear.”

It’s been a little while since the earlier conversation, and the lady doctor has left, too, meaning that Beta and Cid are now alone.

“Master Shadow…”

When Beta opens her eyes, she finds her lord sitting on the windowsill and looking up at the moon. She can see the anguish lurking just below his expression’s surface. Those ebony eyes of his are fixed on the distant future; he’s surely weaving elaborate plans in his head.

“I can’t believe you’ve learned to speak this world’s language already.”

Out of everything that’s happened so far, his earlier conversation with the locals is what surprised Beta the most.

His learning to read the language in just a few short hours came as a shock, sure, but who could have even dreamed that he would be able to figure out the pronunciations as well and actually be able to put that knowledge into practice?

“I listened to their conversations while we were pretending to be unconscious and pieced together their meaning through a combination of the sounds they made, the way they moved their mouths, and the expressions they made. It’s a simple trick.”

Shadow’s nonchalance toward his own feat makes Beta’s awed gaze grow even more fervent.

He may have listened to a conversation, but it was only a short one. Plus, Beta could tell from the locals’ reactions just how absurdly proficient her lord’s pronunciation was.

The feat he’s performed—arriving so directly at the answer to understanding a language’s underlying logic, even going so far as to master its phonetics—can only be described as divine.

“I’ll be going as Minoru in this world, and I told them you’re called Natsume. Our backstory is that you’re my little sister.”

“We’re siblings?”

“I figured it’d play better that way. Also, I told them you can’t talk.”

“Well, I technically can’t, so that works out nicely as well. Though I’ll be doing my best to rectify that, of course.”

“Nah, I think you should stay the way you are. I just feel like that’s a better route.”

“Oh, I see… Then in that case, I’ll remain mute.”

Clearly, he wants her to continue

feigning

being unable to talk as a way to gather information by making the other side let their guard down. Using her muteness to their advantage is a clever trick.

For that trick to work, however, she needs to learn the local language as fast as possible.

“Now, here’s the plan moving forward. I want to use this base as a place to gather information from.”

“I see, so intel gathering is the name of the game…”

In other words, he’s saying that he came to this world in order to gain power.

What kind of power, though?

Easy—this world’s knowledge and technology.

Compared to their old world, this civilization is far more advanced.

Taking its fruits back with them will allow the Shadow Garden to progress by leaps and bounds. To the Shadow Garden, that’s the most valuable kind of power there is. That’s what he wants it for. Beta is sure of it.

“Now, my suggestion is that we act independently,” he says.

“What do you mean?”

“Because Natsume’s ears and hair color are different, they’re under the mistaken impression that you have a disease.”

“Ah, of course.”

He must have used his masterful conversational skills to engender that misunderstanding. Now, they’ll be able to gather information from two places at once.

Joining an existing community is the best way to get information fast.

Thanks to how skillfully he stayed flexible and played things by ear, he was able to get them accepted into this one without anyone suspecting a thing.

Now, all they have to do is milk these people for all the intel and tech know-how they’re worth, then head back home.

As far as the heading home part goes, they simply have to trace Mordred’s magic. He merged with Ragnarok, and he’s definitely linked back to their original world.

Once they find him, they’ll be able to reactivate the Black Rose. Beta is sure of it.

“Now, one of the big shots here wants to examine Natsume’s illness himself.”

“Understood. So that’s what’s going on…”

In short, he’s telling her that her job is to place herself right in the heart of the community and steal information from there.

“Yup, that’s exactly it. Just remember to pretend to be sick twenty-four seven. Make sure you don’t go wandering around at all.”

“Of course. I would never blow my cover like that.”

He’s saying that she needs to make sure her acting is impeccable so their hosts underestimate her. That way, she’ll be able to proactively use her position to steal the information they need.

“This Akira Nishino guy is gonna come by as early as tomorrow to pick you up.”

“Understood. How do you want me to handle my reports?”

“I’ll come get them in person.”

In other words, there’s no fixed schedule, and he’s leaving the details up to her discretion.

“As you wish.”

“Cool, cool.”

With a composed look on his face, her lord takes the nearby pitcher and pours himself a cup of water.

They’re in an unfamiliar place—an unfamiliar world, even—and yet he doesn’t seem nervous or tense in the slightest. It’s like he already thinks of this place as his second homeland.

The only explanation for that must be his unshakable self-confidence.

Her lord is confident that no matter the time, place, or situation, he’ll be able to overcome anything that stands in his way.

Beta hides beneath her blanket and jots this moment down in

The Chronicles of Master Shadow

so she’ll never forget it.

Tomorrow, the information gathering mission will begin in earnest.

However, it took her lord but a scant few hours to master this world’s language, gather the essential intel, and come up with the perfect plan. He even managed to insert Beta right in the heart of this local community.

It’ll only take them a few days to strip their unwitting hosts bare of any information worth taking.

Beta is certain of it.

A new morning has arrived, and hot damn, how I’ve waited for it!

As soon as the sun comes up, I immediately pawn Beta off on Akira Nishino and suck in a big lungful of the brisk air.

That should do a pretty good job of restricting her movements.

It’ll also inhibit her ability to study Japanese, and all my lies will be safe for that much longer. Now, I just have to use this time I’ve bought to find a way to get back to our original world.

“Heh-heh-heh… It’s the perfect plan.”

The question is, how long will it take her to learn the language? I mean, she

has

always been a smart one.

I wanna say…six months, probably?

I should keep my estimate conservative to be safe, though, so let’s go with three.

With three months to work with, I’m sure I can find a lead on how to get us back home. The fact that we got here in the first place means there’s gotta be something somewhere linking back to our world.

For the time being, however, as I’m gathering intel on the black hole and any powerful magic I can find…I don’t see why I can’t have myself a little fun here in Japan.

I’m, like, pretty much certain that this is the world I lived in during my old life.

It’s got my house—destroyed as it is—and it even has my old classmate, Akane Nishino. When I saw her just now, she looked like she was about twenty.

That means it’s been a couple years since I died here. Something happened during those years, and whatever it was, it was big and magicky.

I can feel it in my bones. Something really, really fun is afoot.

I think it’s time for a certain almighty jet-black badass from another world to make his appearance here in the tatters of Japan.

As a profound grin spreads across my face, I hear a knock on the door.

“Good morning, Minoru.”

“I—I remember you. From last night…”

“Oh, right, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Akane Nishino, a knight here at Messiah.”

The infirmary door swings open. Akane Nishino is standing behind it dressed in a uniform I remember fondly.

She’s got black hair and red eyes. Her eyes used to be similarly black, but I guess something magicky must’ve happened to turn them red. Dunno what, though.

As for the outfit, though, she’s wearing a white blazer, a checkered skirt, and black tights. It’s the uniform from my alma mater, Sakurazaka High School. She was dressed the same way last night, too.

“That uniform…”

“What, this? It’s Sakurazaka High School’s. In Messiah, all the knights wear this. You know how police officers wear uniforms? It’s the same idea.”

She does a little twirl.

“Oh, huh. I guess my memories are still pretty jumbled…”

“I don’t blame you. Just take it slow and remember what you can, okay? If there’s stuff you’re confused about, you can ask me anything.”

“Thanks, that means a lot. Actually, I did have something I wanted to ask.”

“Of course. Before you do, though…”

She smiles kindly.

“…what would you say to some breakfast?”

There’s a big group of people gathered around one of the university’s pavilions and waiting in line for food to be handed out.

The two of us join the back of the line.

“Surprised?” Akane asks.

“What? Oh, for sure.”

I dunno what it is I’m supposed to be surprised about.

“It really is amazing, just how many people Messiah is able to feed. We generate electricity on-site, so we’re able to use cutting-edge equipment to produce food,” she says with a touch of pride. “Because of how peaceful and consistent things are here, we’re the most populous base in the region.”

“That’s incredible.”

“Although that prosperity is a double-edged sword.”

“Oh?”

“We don’t have enough knights to go around. Each of us is in charge of protecting over a hundred residents. It’s stretching us thin, and we’ve already started suffering more casualties. That’s where she comes in.”

“Who?”

“It was…Natsume, right? I saw her over in my brother’s lab this morning.”

“Oh, yeah, I figured he would be the best person to treat her.”

“Ah… I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry about what?”

Akane goes quiet for a moment, then shakes her head. “It’s nothing. Just leave her to us. I’ll do everything I can to help her.”

“Thanks, I’m counting on you.”

Counting on you to keep her on a short leash, that is.

“My brother is… He’s an amazing researcher. He’s the one who got the generator and all the equipment up and running. But those same facilities make us a target for other bases.”

“Oh, makes sense.”

“That’s why we’re in such a hurry to expand our combat assets,” she says quietly so as not to be heard.

The two of us finally get our food and head over to a nearby clearing on a lawn.

“By the way, about that question,” I say as we sit down and start eating.

“Of course, ask away.”

Our breakfast is a brown rice and vegetable gruel seasoned with what tastes like miso. It’s healthy, but it’s definitely not winning any awards.

Still, given how proud Akane sounded when she talked about it, I guess this is a pretty hearty meal by the world’s new standards.

“My memories are pretty jumbled up, and there’s a bunch of stuff I don’t remember, so I was hoping you could give me a quick refresher, starting from the very beginning.”

“What do you mean, the beginning?”

“Like, the day Japan got like this.”

“Oh, you mean the event three years ago?”

Interesting. So, that’s how long it’s been.

“Yeah. Just the general rundown is fine.”

“Sure. Now, I’m sure you remember how three years ago, the beasts appeared out of nowhere and turned the world on its head overnight. Our existing weapons did little more than slow them down, and over the next year, the human race’s numbers plummeted. People throw around numbers like us being at a tenth or a hundredth of our original population, but nobody knows the exact figures anymore. But during that same time, we were slowly learning.”

She finishes her gruel and puts down her bowl.

I’m still only halfway through mine.

“The beasts are nocturnal. During the day, they sleep in nests. Once we realized that, we started getting things done during the daytime and spending nights keeping watch. At first, we were afraid of attacks twenty-four seven, but now we know we don’t have to worry about that. Little by little, we amassed more knowledge and power.”

When she says “beasts,” I guess she’s talking about those weak magical beasts.

It makes sense; most magical beasts are nocturnal. Not all of them, though, so she should probably still be careful.

“From what I understand, the first ones to discover magic were a group of researchers overseas. Most of the old communication methods don’t work anymore, so it was hard to verify anything, but the word was that there were people in foreign countries called knights who could fight back against the beasts. Once those rumors spread here, Japan started researching magic as well. Back then, we would’ve tried anything.”

Sounds like things around here got real interesting real fast.

Those two magic lights I saw right before I died might’ve been a portent of the beasts that were about to arrive. In fact, I’m sure they were.

“After that, about a year ago, Japan got its first knight. Her golden hair was an oddity for a Japanese person, and people looked to her as a beacon of hope and called her the Original Knight. But it wasn’t long before they found those hopes betrayed. As an Awakened, her tremendous power took a similarly tremendous toll on her personality. Eventually, she slaughtered Arcadia’s people and disappeared.”

For some reason, Akane’s voice is trembling.

I shovel down the rest of my gruel. Breakfast of champions, baby.

“Arcadia was a base hailed as the last true utopia in Japan. Scholars gathered there from all over, countless knights became Awakeneds there, and tons of people journeyed there to seek shelter. The whole reason it was able to exist was because of the huge throngs of beasts the Original Knight killed, but at the same time, that was what made losing Arcadia such a blow. It was like we lost our only paradise.”

She clutches her shoulders, almost as though she’s scared of something.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m fine.”

Well, if you say so.

I’m not sure I’m following all this stuff about the “Awakened,” but I guess it’s probably similar to the possessed.

“Once we were robbed of our hope, humanity became more and more selfish, and battles started breaking out between bases. Knights were kidnapped, supplies were stolen, and lives were lost by the legion. Now, Japan is in ruins.”

Eh, I doubt any of the other countries fared much better.

“From what I understand, my brother is a survivor from Arcadia.”

“…You aren’t sure?”

“I don’t remember much from back then. Apparently, my magic wreaked havoc with my memories,” she says gloomily. “Our family was supposed to all be here at the university, but he went off to Arcadia for his research. That’s why he knows so much more than everyone else about knights and the Awakened. Everything he’s doing is to help people… At least, I want to believe it is. But the thing is, all his research is so complicated, no one understands any of it but him…”

“Oh, man…”

I do my best to look awed.

“I’m sorry, Minoru. I know talking your ear off about this stuff isn’t going to fix anything.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t know why, but it feels like I’ve known you forever. I get this sort of nostalgic calm when I’m with you, and I start thinking about the past… It’s weird, right?” She gives me a sad smile. “What about you? Did any of that help jog your memory?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, I feel like stuff might be starting to come back…”

“If you don’t remember, no worries, but could you tell me what happened to the base you two were at before this? Was it attacked by beasts? Or by people…?”

“Rrgh… My head…!”

“D-don’t push yourself!”

Thanks to my “memories being messed up,” I don’t have to “remember” the answers to questions I’d rather not answer. No point in letting her kindness go to waste, right?

“It’s okay, you can take it as slow as you need to.”

She rubs my back as I clutch my head in feigned concentration.

The rest of our conversation is all harmless and uninspired, and eventually she has to go do knight stuff, so I head back to the infirmary.

“Where did you run off to?!”

When I get back, I find Dr. Yuuka waiting for me in a huff, with her cheeks puffed out. I tell her what happened and apologize.

“That Akane… She should’ve told me. I was worried sick! There’s a stampede coming up soon, so everyone’s rushing around in a tizzy. It’s dangerous out there.”

While she talks, she checks my temperature and blood pressure and stuff.

“Uh, what’s a stampede?”

“You’ve forgotten so much… There’s nothing wrong with your body, so your memories should come back as soon as the magical aftereffects wear off. The simplest way to explain a stampede is that it’s when a bunch of beasts go on a rampage.”

“But why?”

“You know how packs of beasts come together to build nests, right? That’s where they breed to increase their population. Now, once their population crosses a certain threshold, they start rampaging. We think they do it to split up the pack once it gets too big.”

“So, what happens during these rampages?”

“They start gathering food and making preparations to build a new nest. And by food, I mean us. Once a beast starts stampeding, the only way to make it give up is to kill it. That’s what makes stampedes so dangerous.”

“…So in other words, there’s a nest nearby that’s so big it’s going to have a stampede?”

“That’s exactly right,” Dr. Yuuka says gravely. She spreads out a map. It’s covered in marks and dates. “This is the hospital we found you two at. It was the newest nest in the area, so it’s lucky we were able to destroy it before it got out of hand.”

With that, she draws a slash through the mark on the hospital and writes yesterday’s date and the word

“destroyed”

next to it.

“Wow,” I say. “There’s so many of them.”

“That there are. There were originally twenty-nine nests in the area around Nishino University, and we’ve only been able to destroy fourteen of them.”

“Meaning, there’s still fifteen left…”

“As you can see, we’ve dealt with most of the ones right next to us. Those are the ones we have the easiest time finding before they get too big.”

“What happens if they do?”

Dr. Yuuka shakes her head. “Messiah doesn’t have the man power to take out larger nests on our own. We have to team up with other bases to destroy them, and even then, doing so comes with its own problems. Because of how far the larger nests tend to be from our base, sending knights out to destroy them leaves Messiah underdefended. That makes us vulnerable to beast attacks and raids from enemy bases…”

“Ah, that makes sense. And at the same time, sending out a smaller force would defeat the point.”

She nods. “After you head a certain distance away from the base, you start seeing huge nests all over the place. Take a look at these dates. Seven more of them have popped up in this past year alone.”

“Sounds like you want to get them while they’re small.”

“Our knights do what they can to destroy smaller nests they come across on their patrols, but there’s only so many patrols we can even send out with our current numbers. And it’s not like the other bases are doing any better.” She heaves a heavy sigh. “But it’s not the far-off nests we need to worry about, it’s the nearby ones. When stampedes start at the distant ones, there’s a good chance the rampaging beasts won’t even come Messiah’s way.”

“You’re saying they might go after other bases instead. Heck, they might even just head off into the distance.”

“That’s right, and that’s why

this

nest is such a problem.”

Dr. Yuuka points at a spot on the map. It’s a spot that has a lot of memories for me.

“Sakurazaka High School…,” I mutter.

“Right here, less than a mile from the university, is the biggest nest in the area. There’s a stampede there every three months, and whenever that happens, the beasts always come straight after us.”

“Ah, so just because things are good inside Messiah doesn’t mean that the area around it is actually safe.”

“That nest is a nightmare for us. We’ve tried getting nearby bases to help us destroy it, but we’ve never gotten anyone to agree.”

“Well, sure. They know that if the high school nest stampedes, it’s just gonna attack Messiah. There’s no reason for them to want to help.”

“We’ve tried offering all sorts of different deals, but nobody’s ever bitten. That’s why Messiah needs new combat assets so badly. Every stampede, we lose knights. Sometimes even dozens of them… And this time, we might have an apex beast to worry about, too.”

“A what?”

“It’s a subspecies that’s far more powerful than the average beast. We’ve found evidence of one in the area recently. We suspect that all the traces have been left by the same apex beast, and so Akane’s named it the Brute.”

“The Brute, huh?”

So what’re we talking about here, like, a kinda strong magical beast?

“If the Brute takes part in this upcoming stampede, we’re going to lose a lot more than just a few knights this time. People are terrified that Messiah will eventually run out of knights altogether and get wiped out. And because they’re afraid, every time the stampede rolls around…”

Suddenly, I hear angry voices and violent noises coming from outside the room.

This isn’t one or two people being rowdy. There’s gotta be at least a dozen people involved.

“…there are fights. Sometimes they’re so bad, people die. Make sure you don’t leave the room until knights come around. If it weren’t for the stampedes, Messiah would be flourishing. We could even become a second Arcadia. That’s why things are usually so peaceful here. We have our share of problems, sure, but people know when to start listening to reason.”

The fighting outside doesn’t seem to be stopping. In fact, it’s growing in intensity.

Is this melee gonna devolve into a one hundred–man brawl?!

Right as the urge to barge in on it threatens to overtake me, I hear Akane’s voice off in the distance.

“It sounds like Akane got there, so things should settle down now,” Dr. Yuuka says with a sigh of relief. “Now, it’s time for me to go out there and treat the wounded.”

“Be careful.”

She rolls up her sleeves and leaves the infirmary.

I roll up mine and spread out the map.

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe…”

The sun begins setting, casting the sky a brilliant shade of vermilion.

Akane looks up at it and sighs. She’s finally done with work.

She’d had the day shift, which is divided into two main responsibilities—patrolling the outside of the base, and patrolling the inside.

The former mainly involves making the rounds and catching new beast nests before they grow out of control, but there are sometimes other things the knights are asked to investigate as well. Apparently, Akira told the outside team to look into some potential apex tracks. Akane wasn’t with that squad, though, so she doesn’t know the specifics.

Today, she was in charge of patrolling inside the base, a task that usually involves breaking up fights like a police officer would. Normally, it’s dead easy.

However, the days before a stampede are hardly normal. A huge fight broke out that morning, and there were smaller kerfuffles all throughout the afternoon.

Plus, starting tomorrow, she’s going to be on the dangerous night shift.

She gives her arms a big stretch. “I’m so tired…”

“Good work today.”

She hears a voice call out to her from behind. She turns and finds an attractive woman in a lab coat.

“Dr. Yuuka…”

“Things were pretty rough today, huh?”

“For you, too, I bet. A lot of people got hurt back there.”

“We’re just lucky nobody died. If you hadn’t gotten here as fast as you did, I don’t know if that still would’ve been true.”

The two of them exchange weary smiles.

“Now, about our friend…”

“Who?”

“Minoru. I spent most of the day looking after him, and physically speaking, he’s fine. All that’s left is to wait for his memories to come back.”

“Oh, that’s so good to hear.”

“Now, I can keep him in the infirmary tonight, but he’s going to have to go tomorrow. Today’s fight left the infirmary at capacity, and there just isn’t room for him to stay.”

“Ah, right. I’ll go ask the Facilities team to set him up with a room.”

Yuuka frowns awkwardly. “Actually, about that…”

“What’s up?”

“Minoru’s memories are still jumbled, and there are a lot of things he doesn’t seem to understand. The thing is, we still need to teach him about Messiah’s rules, and once he gets settled in, he’ll need to start working. I don’t know how well he’s going to be able to get by without someone looking after him. That would normally be my job, but what with the fight today and how busy the infirmary is…”

“Oh, you’re right…”

Now that she thinks about it, it’s obvious. Things are peaceful in Messiah, sure, but a boy with amnesia is still going to run into a lot of problems, especially with a stampede right around the corner.

His face flashes through her mind, and she gets an idea.

“I’ll take care of Minoru.”

“You will?”

“Sure. There’s plenty of room at my place.”

“Wait, you actually plan on cohabitating with him? You know Minoru’s a guy, right?”

“He’s what, fifteen? He’s a kid.”

“You’re only twenty.”

“Sure, and that makes me an adult. Plus, I’m a knight. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“You’re actually serious about this. Well, I’m sure you know what you’re doing…,” Yuuka says defeatedly.

Even Akane herself isn’t quite sure why she’s so eager to look after him. It would be far more logical to ask one of her male knight colleagues to take Minoru in instead.

For some reason, though, she wants to have him by her side.

“He’s all yours, then. I’ll keep him in the infirmary for tonight, and you can come pick him up in the morning.”

“I guess I should probably go clean up my place, huh?”

The two of them part ways with a smile.

It’s already pretty dark, so Akane quickens her step.

It doesn’t do her any good.

“That was some interesting stuff back there.”

A large man strides out from behind a nearby building.

Akane grimaces. “Vice Commander Saejima… Good work today, sir.”

Yuudai Saejima narrows his steely eyes and grins. “Hey, whoa, don’t get all formal and stuffy with me. We go way back, you and I. Same high school, same class…”

Yuudai’s physique is tough and bulky, and though his face resembles a gorilla’s, she’s told that people find him quite handsome. Akane doesn’t see the appeal herself, but by all accounts he’s the hottest guy in Gorillaville.

Back when he was in Sakurazaka High School, he was a regular badass in judo club and even went to nationals. Akane was his classmate at the time, but even back then, she never much cared for him.

No, that’s selling it short. She despises him and always has.

The thing she hates more than anything is the way it always feels like he’s trying to undress her with his eyes.

“You’re still my superior, sir.”

“C’mon, hon, don’t be like that.”

He thumps her shoulder in an overly familiar way.

It gives her the heebie-jeebies.

As awful as he is, he’s still the vice commander of Messiah’s knight order, which means he outranks her. He’s also a skilled knight, and not counting Akane, he’s one of the strongest people in Messiah.

“So, I heard you picked up some guy last night. All the knights are talking about it.”

“I’m off duty, so I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Hey, not so fast. I’m here on business. You did good, grabbing that silver-haired girl. A new Awakened is gonna make a good addition to our roster. But you shoulda left the boy. You know as well as anyone how up to our eyeballs we knights are. Don’t go making more work for us.”

“I know we don’t have enough knights to go around, but surely a single boy isn’t going to make or break us.”

“Hey! Remember what you just said about me being your superior? Don’t talk back to me.”

Yuudai squeezes Akane’s shoulder tightly.

“…Yes, sir.”

“That attitude of yours is a problem, hon. Sure, a single dude isn’t gonna make a big difference. But what if everyone else starts following your lead and taking in stragglers? Pretty irresponsible of you not to realize what a big deal one guy can be, ‘Savior.’” It feels like he’s trying to peer right through her face. She hates his ugly mug so much. “You ignored your orders last night and went and got a bunch of our knights injured. You need to shape your ass up. Shit like this is why you’ll never make vice commander.”

“Who says I even want a promotion?”

“I

said

, quit talking back to me.” Yuudai pulls Akane toward him, almost like he’s hugging her.

“Let go of me…”

“Think of this as a disciplinary action. One of my problem knights picked up some guy, and what’s more, she’s thinking of letting him stay at her place. The hell happened to decorum, huh? I wanna meet this guy. See what he’s about.”

“Just…drop it…”

“What, you’re saying I can’t? I can always dump him off in a beast nest, if you’d rather. I mean, who knows what this guy is capable of? As vice commander, it’s my job to get rid of him ASAP! But you know, Akane, you might be able to convince me to let him off the hook. You get what I’m saying?”

Yuudai brings his face right up next to hers.

“STOP.”

Then, he goes flying like he just got punched.

Akane’s body is wreathed in a dense shell of magic. It’s on an order of magnitude stronger than anything Yuudai is capable of generating, and she’s not even using her full power.

Cold sweat streams down Yuudai’s face.

His face flushes red as he bellows, like he’s trying to hide how scared he is. “Y-you little… Who the hell do you think you are?!”

“I know exactly who I am, thank you very much.”

“Nah, you don’t know shit! I know, though. I know everything!”

“Everything? What are you even—?”

“You’re a murderer.”

Akane’s expression freezes.

“I know all your secrets, little miss murderer.”

All the blood drains from her face, and her eyes go wide like she’s just witnessed something she can’t believe.

“You’re gonna wanna think loooong and hard about the position you’re in. I’m letting you off the hook right now, but this isn’t the last disciplinary action you’ll be getting.”

“Th-that’s not true… I’m not…”

“Of course it’s true. You’re a killer.”

Yuudai turns and walks off, leaving Akane standing shell-shocked and alone.

The corridor is as white as white can be.

All of it, from the ceiling to the walls to the floor, is a cold, blank white. Akane Nishino, with her black hair and red eyes, walks down its length with an equally cold, blank expression.

Her gait is rhythmic and dispassionate. It’s like she’s left her emotions behind somewhere.

She reaches a door and stops in front of it.

The door is white as well. She puts in her password to unlock it and goes inside.

“Oh hey, she’s awake,” she remarks with a smile. Her cold, blank expression is gone like it was never there.

“Oh, hello Akane. Yes, she woke up around noon,” replies a researcher in a lab coat. The researcher is one of Akira’s employees.

The room has a white bed in it, and there’s a pretty silver-haired girl sitting atop it. The girl—Natsume, the Awakened—has a mole under one of her blue, catlike eyes.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Akane Nishino.”

When Akane introduces herself, Natsume gives her an adorable little tilt of the head.

“As far as we can tell, she can’t understand a word of what we’re saying,” the researcher says.

“She can’t even read and write?”

“It doesn’t appear so, no. I was just in the middle of reading her this picture book. She seems interested, so I’m sure that if we keep this up, she’ll be able to talk eventually.”

The researcher opens the book back up.

It’s a picture book, and a relatively obscure one.

The university library’s catalog has plenty of better-known picture books in it, but all of them were probably checked out already. The base’s birth rate has been increasing year by year.

They’re having trouble supporting the population they already have, but it’s not like they can just force people to stop having children. Without progeny, the human race will wither away and die.

“She’s a cute kid…”

“She really is.”

Due to her looks, anyone can tell at a single glance that Natsume’s an Awakened, and between that and her not understanding Japanese, she’s probably been through more than her share of hardships.

In spite of that, though, the way she’s looking at Akane is downright cherubic. She doesn’t seem to be scared of people at all. She was probably a kind soul before she became an Awakened.

“I wonder what she’s staring at?”

Natsume’s blue eyes are fixed on the room’s desk. There’s a slim liquid crystal clock sitting atop it.

“Do you want to see the clock?”

Akane hands it over, and Natsume’s eyes go wide and light up with delight. It’s just a normal old clock, yet the curiosity she shows in her face as she fiddles with it seems to be genuine.

Her personality is like a child’s. It’s like she’s an innocent little kid who doesn’t know anything about the world.

“Heh, looks like she’s enjoying herself,” Akane says.

She really does. She turns it over again and again, fiddles with its components, and stares at it from close up. She’s the spitting image of a child who’s just been given a new toy to play with.

“It’s incredible how interested she is in everything. She spent ages checking out her bed frame, and her eyes went wide at every little bolt and screw,” the researcher says.

“Looks like we’ve got a curious one on our hands,” Akane replies.

“You’re telling me. When I lent her my mechanical pencil, it took me half an hour to get it back from her.”

“That’s adorable.”

“Oh, it was.”

Then, something starts beeping.

“Ah!”

Natsume is so surprised, she ends up dropping the clock.

Akane pats her head and says softly, “Oh, the clock’s alarm went off. Did that startle you? I’m sorry.”

Natsume watches wistfully as the researcher picks up the clock and puts it back on the desk.

“Oh hey, the time’s wrong,” Akane points out.

“I guess she must have changed it when she was fiddling around with it.”

The researcher goes to readjust the clock.

Upon reaching her hand into her pocket, however, she stops and tilts her head in confusion. “Huh, where did I leave it…?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I have this digital watch that I was going to set the time by, but it’s not in my pocket…”

“Did you leave it in your room or something?”

“I always have it on me, so I shouldn’t have. That’s weird…”

“Could you have dropped it somewhere?”

“You might be onto something. The wristband is pretty worn out, so maybe that’s it.”

The researcher lets out a defeated sigh. Her eyes and Natsume’s eyes meet.

The girl’s blue eyes are focused squarely on her and Akane. It’s almost like she’s observing them.

The researcher is pretty sure she’s just imagining things, though.

Not a moment later, Natsume gives her an innocent smile and tilts her head. It’s like she’s saying

Who, me?

“She really is adorable.”

“Yeah, like a little princess.”

The two of them forget all about the watch and pat Natsume’s head. Natsume takes their head pats with a smile.

However, her gaze is fixed right on the way their mouths are moving.

As she watches, she mimics them and moves her lips and throat in the same way. She takes care not to make a sound or get spotted, but she repeats the small movements over and over.

Then, the door swings open.

“Hey, have any of you seen my camera?”

It’s Akira Nishino.

“What camera, the one you use to keep records?”

“Yeah, that one. I swear I had it this morning…”

Akira makes sure to always carry around a small digital camera so he can document things.

“Well, it’s not in here. Maybe you dropped it somewhere?”

“Dammit, where is that thing?” As he looks around the room in irritation, his gaze lands on the blue eyes that are staring right at him. “Was it you? Did you take it? The last place I saw it was here, this morning, right before you got here.”

“W-wait, Akira, hold up,” Akane butts in. “Why would she do something like that?”

Natsume gives Akira an adorable head tilt and smiles at him like a child with an empty head and a heart of gold.

“…Fair enough.”

Not even Akira can stay mad when he sees a face like that. He lets out a long exhale to get his head back on straight.

He flips open the room’s laptop, puts in his password, and gets to work.

“Brother dear, do you think you’re going to be able to cure Natsume’s mutation?”

“Who knows?” he replies bluntly. He continues working.

As he does, Natsume’s eyes are darting around like bullets. She’s looking at the laptop screen and the way Akira’s fingers are moving.

“Do you even

care

about helping her?”

“Right now, I have bigger fish to fry. The stampede is right around the corner, and the inspection today found new Brute tracks. If Messiah gets hit by both of those at once, that’s it for us.”

“What are we going to do?”

“My hope was that we could at least kill the Brute before the stampede starts, but I’m not optimistic. All we can do is fortify our troops and pray.”

“Have you considered asking other bases for help?”

“Ha. If I tried, they’d try to shake us down for our generator. Not happening.”

“What would you have us do, then? You’re not seriously thinking of using that monster head from the incident last week, are you?”

“And why wouldn’t I be? The power that thing has hidden away inside it comes from a whole different dimension than the beasts. If we can just

harness

it…”

“…You’re actually serious.”

“And that’s not all. The girl is blessed with tremendous power as well, and her blood work revealed all sorts of fascinating things.”

“Fascinating how?”

“Heh-heh-heh…”

Akira lets out an inscrutable laugh and refuses to elaborate any more.

After a little while, he finishes his work and heads out. Akane and the researcher follow soon after.

“See you tomorrow!” they say as they go. Natsume sees them off with a demure smile.

However, those blue eyes of hers are watching everything. She’s observing the door’s structure, the lock’s mechanisms, and the way people’s fingers move as they put in their passwords.

Once she’s alone, the lights go out.

Her blue eyes move in the darkness, and her gaze darts straight toward the laptop.

The sound of clicking and clacking fills the room for the rest of the night.

I end up getting kicked out of Dr. Yuuka’s infirmary.

Apparently, the big fight yesterday meant that there weren’t enough beds left. Them’s the breaks.

Honestly, this works out pretty all right for me.

The fact of the matter is, there were too many people in the infirmary for me to easily sneak out. I was all pumped up about picking what nests I would get to destroy last night, but in the end, I had such a hard time leaving that I had to call it quits after just knocking over the nest at the elementary school.

My current theory is that checking out places with tons of magical beasts will help me find leads on the black hole, but alas.

So, what to do now? Should I try to dig up more intel here, or should I go smash up another nest or two? I guess I could also try looking for Mr. Bat Guy’s head.

There are so many good options to choose from, but there’s one big problem.

“This’ll be fun, Minoru.”

“Yeah, fun…”

I never thought Akane Nishino would be in charge of looking after me, but apparently, we’re going to be living together for a while.

She and I were classmates back in the day, and while she obviously had no idea who I was, she does know about a couple of incidents I’m not too proud of.

The problem wasn’t her; she had all the makings of a fantastic protagonist. Or maybe she was gonna be one of the protagonist’s love interests, I dunno.

Either way, though, the big tragedy was what an amateurish eminence in shadow I was back then. Due to my general inexperience, most of my victories came as last-second comebacks after I got my back pushed against the wall. That’s no way for an eminence in shadow to be.

Those moments are like a black stain on my legacy. What I wouldn’t give to be able to do them over.

Now that I think about it, though, this situation is my chance to do exactly that. The shadowbroker moves I’ve got at my disposal could blow my high school self out of the water.

This might just be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Plus, her knight duties keep her away most of the time, so it’ll be dead easy to sneak out now.

I guess today’s just my lucky day.

“You look so similar…”

“…Huh?”

As I spend my time envisioning all my perfect shadowbroker moves, the girl walking beside me continues peering at my face.

“What, is there someone I look like?”

I literally changed my entire face, so the possibility seems slim.

“It really is uncanny. I don’t know what it is, but that expression you make when you’re thinking is just like his. What is it you were thinking about?”

“Nothing worth sharing…”

She chuckles. “See, he did that same thing. You don’t want to tell anyone, right? You want to keep your secrets all to yourself.”

“I dunno what you’re talking about, ma’am.”

My denial goes in one ear and out the other. “It’s fine, I get it. That was just the type of person he was. He had something precious to him that he never talked about. And now, he’s gone.”

Did this guy she’s talking about move away or something?

“But even though he didn’t talk much, I like to think I understood him a little. I spent a long time watching him, after all.”

What’re you, a stalker?

“Oh, and Minoru, you don’t have to be so formal.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to call me ‘ma’am.’ It’s not like you’re doing it because you actually respect me, right?”

Damn, busted.

I will say, though, that isn’t quite it. It’s not that I

don’t

respect her, I just don’t feel like throwing in a “sir” or a “ma’am” here and there is a meaningful display of respect one way or the other. However, society doesn’t see it that way, and as a dutiful background character, I always make sure to obey societal norms.

Personally, though, I show my respect to the people I respect in my own way.

“I respect you just fine,” I say, to set the record straight.

She laughs, seemingly amused. “I thought you might say that.”

From there, the two of us share some more small talk as we walk through the residential area.

It kind of reminds me of the past.

“We’re here. This is me.” She stops in front of a door. It leads to a room in one of the university’s classroom buildings. “The student dorms were too small to hold everyone, so we expanded them and built more rooms, but even that wasn’t enough, so we ended up remodeling the classrooms, as well. I’m a knight, so I ended up with one of the slightly larger ones.”

She opens the door and reveals the smallish classroom inside. All the chairs and desks that people once learned at have been removed, but the big whiteboard on the wall has been left as is.

The classroom is split with wooden partitions, and the section we’re in right now is the largest combined living room-dining room of the lot. The bedroom off to the side is mine.

“This is where you’ll be staying.”

My new room is just over one hundred square feet. It’s furnished with a bed, a small desk, and nothing else.

“And this room right next to it is mine. Don’t you go peeking on me,” she says with a playful grin as she continues the tour. There’s no door separating our rooms, just another partition.

Over on the other side, her room is basically the same as mine. The sole difference is that she’s got a gray locker.

“Those are the only clothes you’ve got, right?”

“Yup.”

I’m still wearing the hoodie from the Tanakas’. That said, I’m a short supply run away from however many clothes I want.

Akane opens her locker and retrieves an outfit. “Here, try this on for size.”

Damn, that brings me back. It’s a Sakurazaka High School male student uniform.

“Aren’t only knights supposed to wear those, though?” I ask.

“You shouldn’t take it out of the room, but it should be fine to use as loungewear. You’ll need something to wear while you do laundry.”

“Well hey, thanks.”

I take the uniform.

“Now hurry up, try it on!”

“Wait, now?”

“Come on, time’s a-wastin’! I’ve got a big load I want to do.”

Oh, that makes sense. The weather’s nice today, so they’ll dry pretty quickly.

She gives me a little push, and I head over to my room and slide my arms through the uniform for the first time in ages.

“Huh.”

Oddly enough, it fits as snugly as an old glove. It feels even better on me than my slime bodysuit, which shouldn’t be possible.

“Huh?”

Then, I spot a stain on one of the cuffs. It almost looks like a bloodstain, and what’s more, it’s in the exact same spot where I got my own uniform stained in a fight.

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, though. It’s been so long, I can barely even remember what that stain looked like.

“How’s it going over there? Does it fit?” Akane calls.

“Yup.”

“Well, let’s see how you—”

She pops her head through the partition, then goes speechless mid-sentence.

It’s like she just saw a ghost.

I turn around and check, just to be sure. No ghost.

“I-I’m sorry. I just… I’m sorry.”

Dunno what she’s apologizing for.

She wipes away a tear and lets out a strangely sad laugh. “Sorry about that, I just got hit with a lot of memories…”

“Don’t worry about it. Thinking about the past makes me break out into laughter and stuff all the time.”

Every time I reminisce on a time when I got to pull off some sweet shadowbroker move, I always end up grinning like an idiot.

“I’m going to go do the laundry, but I’ll be back soon.”

She turns her face away from me, picks up my clothes, and leaves.

“Now I am alone.”

I appreciate that she’s washing my clothes, but I wouldn’t have minded a bit more of an explanation before she dipped.

I’m left with nothing to do for the time being, so I head over to our living room area and take a seat on its tattered sofa. The university must’ve kept it around for visitors or something.

On the table, I spot a cup, a pen, a notepad, and also…

“Wait…are those drugs?”

There are two different kinds there. The first is a white pill I recognize as some sort of over-the-counter medicine, but the other ones are large blue capsules that I’ve never seen before.

“C’mon, kids. Say no to stimulants.”

If you’re gonna dope, there are tons of drugs that are way better for that. She seems pretty straitlaced, though, so I guess that’s probably not it.

What could they be, then?

I think about it for a little while, then ultimately conclude, “Eh, whatever.” I do a big stretch.

“Hnnngh…”

Then, out of the blue, I sense someone approaching. I quickly straighten my posture.

A moment later, the doorknob rattles. Then, it keeps on rattling.

Rattle, rattle, rattle.

I wonder if whoever it is has ever heard of locks.

I spend a minute pondering whether or not I should do something about it, but I end up just watching things play out after deciding that I can’t be bothered.

The rattling grows louder and louder until eventually the lock snaps.

“I’m comin’ in.”

It’s a gorilla.

I guess Japan’s really gone to the dogs. As I stare at it in shock, though, I realize that it isn’t a gorilla at all, just a person who happens to be a dead ringer for one.

He looks kinda familiar, but I might be imagining things.

“So, you’re the kid Akane adopted, huh?”

I make sure to tremble in my boots like a good background character should. “Y-you can’t just barge in like that!”

“Hey, no need to be so scared. I’m Yuudai Saejima, vice commander of the knight order. I’m one of the good guys.”

“Yuudai Saejima…”

Now that

definitely

sounds familiar. Then, just like that, it comes back to me.

He’s the gorilla who was in my class.

With looks like his, I knew he’d make for a great supporting character, so I made sure to remember who he was.

I’m so glad he grew up into such a splendid adult gorilla!

“W-were you looking for Akane?’

“Nah, you’re the one I’m after. See, there’s something about you that just doesn’t sit right with me.”

Yuudai plops himself down right across from me.

“What did I do?”

“We’ve got a rat in our base. A spy, if that wasn’t clear enough. Someone from an enemy base is messing with Messiah.”

“I-I’m not a spy!”

“You say that, sure, but the knight order can’t just go around believing everything it hears.”

“N-no, really, I’m not!”

“Shaddup, you!”

Yuudai’s voice suddenly turns rough and threatening. He grabs me by the collar—

“I could throw you into a beast nest right now, you know.”

—and shouts at me with his gorilla face.

As a humble background character, all I can do in the face of such a terrible threat is quiver. “Ahhh!”

Then, the cavalry arrives.

“The hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Akane storms over, shaking with rage.

“What do you mean? I’m interrogating him, duh,” Yuudai replies, not letting go of my collar.

“You’re

what

? On whose authority?”

“On my authority as vice commander, that’s who. You know about the rat just as well as I do. The way I see it, he’s just about the only suspicious person who’s shown up lately.”

“He hasn’t even been here for two full days yet. We have confirmation that the rat’s been here longer than that.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I still gotta interrogate him.”

Yuudai and Akane stare daggers at each other, and eventually—

“…What are you hoping to get out of this?” Akane asks.

“You know exactly what I want.”

—Yuudai lets go of me and turns around.

“Oh, right, and the commander’s holding an emergency meeting tonight. See you there, hon.”

He gives her a light thump on the shoulder and leaves.

“I bet that was pretty scary. Don’t you worry about him, all right?”

Akane smiles like nothing just happened and starts filling me in on what life is like in Messiah.

Sounds like she’s gonna be working tonight, so I’ll be able to sneak out to my heart’s content.