Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou Vol 9 Chapter 2

When Junko came to, she realized her injuries were healed and she stared at her own hand.

She seemed to be up in the sky. She looked down at the surface far, far below. She saw the city and the crater torn from it.

She could tell she was not ascending into heaven because she felt warmth in her body. She looked up and saw Akuto right there.

“Ee!” she shrieked without thinking.

When Akuto noticed she was awake, he nodded and spoke worriedly.

“Oh, you’ve come to. Are you okay?”

“Y-yes…”

She looked away in embarra.s.sment and went over the situation in her head, but then she recalled Kazuko and Akuto’s conversation before she had lost consciousness.

“Y-you did not choose me as the one person you saved, did you?”

A frightening thought entered her mind. Kazuko had predicted Akuto would only be able to transfer a few people. And that meant…

“Well…”

Akuto gave an embarra.s.sed smile.

—Do not tell me you really did!

For an instant, Junko trembled in joy. She had never thought he would choose her from among all those people. But her delight was immediately followed by fear of all of the people who had died and of her own self-righteousness.

“D-do not tell me you really did only save me,” she said in a trembling voice.

“No, I transferred everyone else too,” said Akuto with the embarra.s.sed smile still on his face.

“Everyone else?”

“Everyone in the range of the blast,” he said casually.

“You transferred all of them?”

Junko’s voice cracked a bit and he nodded.

“I tried it and it worked. I grasped everyone’s position, searched for a safe place for all of them, and transferred them.”

Surprisingly, not a single person had died in the giant explosion in the center of the imperial capital. The explosion had covered an area a kilometer wide and it had left behind nothing but a giant crater, but no one had died.

There had of course been a large number of people around the palace where the explosion had occurred. All of those people only remembered seeing the scenery before their eyes change. A moment later, they had seen the explosion in the distance. After thinking for a second, they had realized someone had transferred them to safety.

But they had no way of knowing who had done so or how.

“Is that even possible?”

Junko could not believe it.

There had been tens of thousands of people there. It was beyond amazing that he could have grasped each and every person’s location. And to then transfer them all would have required truly unbelievable mental strength. It was similar to grasping the location of each and every grain in a box full of sand and then moving them elsewhere one at a time.

Kazuko had caused the mana burst because she had believed it was impossible for him to do so. She had a.s.sumed Akuto could only transfer a few people.

“Well, I managed it. I transferred the others not far from here, but I took you with me because you were unconscious. I went ahead and healed your injuries.”

Akuto made it all sound perfectly normal.

“S-so that is what happened.”

Junko was relieved, but she also felt a bit disappointed.

“Anyway, let’s head down to the surface where I transferred the others,” he said before beginning to descend.

He moved horribly slowly and Junko grew incredibly embarra.s.sed over how he was holding her against his body. She may have felt a bit guilty about her previous thoughts.

“U-understood. B-by the way, could you let me go? I can use flight magic,” suggested Junko.

But Akuto shook his head.

“Sorry, but could you put up with this for now? If you move away from me, you won’t have enough oxygen. I’m gathering oxygen and heat around me. Also, the mana isn’t dense enough here to use normal flight magic.”

He sounded unsure what else to say.

“We are that high up? But then shouldn’t we descend more quickly? You could do it in an instant, right?”

Junko squirmed as she spoke.

“The thing is, I wanted to have a private chat with you.”

“Eh?”

Junko looked up at him in surprise. He averted his gaze awkwardly and actually looked like a teenage boy for once.

“Wh-wh-wh-why are you acting so differently all of a sudden?”

His strange behavior left Junko feeling fl.u.s.tered.

He then began speaking in a slow apologetic voice.

“I can fully use the power of the G.o.ds now, so I can view the records of other people’s lives.”

“Eh? Wait a minute. Are you saying you saw the records of how I have lived?”

She started to panic.

He nodded awkwardly.

“Sorry. I wanted to apologize in private.”

“Y-you idiot! That is like peeking!”

“Th-that’s why I’m apologizing. But I only saw what was related to me, so…”

“That is bad enough! D-d-do you mean you know what I have done while you were not around?”

Junko blushed and shook her head back and forth.

“Yes. …I’m not sure what to say.”

“Waaaah! Stop! And does that mean you know how I feel?”

“Yes, it does,” answered Akuto with a small nod.

Junko let out a high-pitched shriek and covered her face with her hands, but Akuto remained silent. She had either resigned herself to what was to come or she was completely desperate because she spoke up in a trembling voice.

“Then… Will you accept me?”

“Of course,” he said with a perfectly serious expression.

“Eh…? Eh…?”

Junko spread her arms and looked up at Akuto with a look of disbelief. Tears formed in her eyes and her lips trembled in joy.

“Th-then you…you…”

She wrapped her arms around Akuto.

“Don’t worry. I will protect you. I know you rebelled against the empire because you sympathized with my ideals,” decisively stated Akuto.

Junko realized this was heading in an odd direction, so she loosened her arms.

“W-wait. I sympathized with your ideals?”

“Eh? Didn’t you? You were cautious of Yos.h.i.+e-san, but once you met her and spoke with her, your mental state changed. You gained the will to fight.”

“A-about that…”

Junko trailed off.

That was due to what Akuto had said about Yos.h.i.+e and Junko getting along. Yos.h.i.+e was a girl, but Junko had first met her in the virtual alternate dimension where she went by the name Yos.h.i.+hiko and looked like a guy. Junko had thought Akuto was saying she should get to know “Yos.h.i.+hiko” as a boy.

That had nothing to do with his ideals. Junko could only a.s.sume Akuto understood nothing about what she had been thinking.

And Akuto confirmed her suspicions with his next decisive statement.

“You spoke with Yos.h.i.+e-san, heard what I planned to do, and agreed with me. That is why I fought here in order to live up to your expectations.”

“You said you saw what I did, but was that all you saw? You didn’t see what I do in bed each night or what I mutter to myself when no one else is around?” asked Junko quickly with a complicated expression.

Akuto looked confused.

“No. I didn’t look at anything private. That would be rude.”

“Ha…ha…ha ha… Right. Of course you wouldn’t.”

Junko laughed while half in a daze.

“By the way, were you worried I would see something strange?”

“No, no, no! Of course not! I do not do anything like that! N-now, we need to hurry to the others. I get how determined you are.”

Junko then exhaustedly looked up into the heavens.

“Are you okay? Are you in pain or are you cold?” asked Akuto when he noticed.

“I am fine. But let me hit you.”

Junko then swung her fists down on Akuto’s head again and again.

“Ow, that hurts. My body may be st.u.r.dy, but I still feel pain,” complained Akuto.

“I do not care! Just let me hit you for a bit!” shouted Junko angrily as her fists gradually gathered more and more strength.

“If he managed that transfer, it means the empress was wrong about his power,” said Yos.h.i.+e as she stared at the distance crater in admiration.

“Did A-chan really do that?” asked Keena.

She was wearing her clothes now. Her removed clothes had been transferred along with her.

They stood on the roof of a building from which the remains of the palace were visible. Yos.h.i.+e, Keena, Keisu, and Hiros.h.i.+ had been transferred there. Hiros.h.i.+ had been transferred along with the rest after his suit had run out of energy.

“He’s the only one who could have. It’s hard to believe it was possible even for him, but I know he would try to save everyone.”

Hiros.h.i.+ sounded somehow embarra.s.sed as he spoke.

“Saving everyone there makes him sound like a G.o.d. But that’s exactly why no one will think the demon king did it,” said Yos.h.i.+e as she looked down at the ground.

The roads were filled with the people who had been gathered at the palace. Yos.h.i.+e could not hear what the people were saying, but they likely believed Kazuko had saved them.

“This was pretty much a miracle, so you can’t really blame them.”

Hiros.h.i.+ did not bother disguising his voice around his group.

“As impressive as that was, we have some questions we need to ask.”

Yos.h.i.+e suddenly turned toward Keisu.

Keisu nodded with a serious expression she had never shown before. Her tone of voice was also more business-like.

“My memories have returned and it was likely due to Zero’s awakening. My brain seems to be linked to him.”

“So that’s how it works. And what do you mean when you say he awakened?”

“It is called his second stage. He has no central object he controls and instead becomes almost entirely fused with the G.o.ds.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Zero we have seen so far is nothing but a terminal. By abandoning that terminal, his core can begin making its way into the G.o.ds’ network.”

“We heard Zero acts as the core that makes the G.o.ds the G.o.ds, so are you saying that core is taking over the G.o.ds like a computer virus?”

“That sums it up well enough.”

“How do we seal him? If that’s what his second stage is, is there an anti-virus program we inject into the network?”

“No. Zero’s true form – that is to say, his sense of self – is fixed in the location of his birth. I must suppress that sense of self. That is how he is sealed,” explained Keisu.

“His sense of self?” asked Yos.h.i.+e while tilting her head.

“Think of it as what makes you aware of your ident.i.ty as yourself and what is located at the center of your thoughts. The G.o.ds and L’Isle-Adams do not inherently have a sense of self. Zero is the only artificial intelligence that has one and his sense of self is what supports the G.o.ds’ autonomous thoughts. I must suppress that sense of self. However, that sense of self is a black box, so direct physical contact with Zero’s true body is needed.” Keisu pointed at herself. “I must touch him and suppress his sense of self. I will link with the body surrounding Zero’s black box. You could say I am a component of Zero, so I have the ability to essentially put his sense of self to sleep.”

“I see,” said Yos.h.i.+e with a nod. “So we need to go where Zero was born. Where is that?”

Keisu moved the finger she had used to point at herself. For some reason, she held it straight up.

“Up? Is something coming?”

“I don’t see anything.”

Keena and Yos.h.i.+e were confused because they could only see the bluish-white moon visible in the daytime sky.

A sudden thought came to Yos.h.i.+e.

“You don’t mean…”

Keisu nodded.

“The moon. We must go to the moon.”

“Well, that’s a problem. These days, nothing but satellites are sent into s.p.a.ce.” Yos.h.i.+e was surprised and she spread her arms. “I think we just have to give up.”

“I heard in history cla.s.s that there used to be a research city on the moon,” said Keena.

She had always been good in her normal studies.

“It was abandoned after it produced no real results and it was forgotten once we developed our magic society. No one even thought about heading into outer s.p.a.ce because it isn’t compatible with our magic society,” said Yos.h.i.+e to double check what she knew about that research city.

“That is incorrect.” Keisu shook her head. “Despite what your history cla.s.ses may have taught you, the moon city was abandoned in order to seal Zero. He was also the control program for the moon city, so it cannot function without activating him. There was no option but to abandon the moon.”

Yos.h.i.+e was shocked to hear that. It made sense since Zero’s creation had been related to the dawning of magic society, but this was much too different from what she had learned.

“I can’t believe it… But wait. If we need to go to the moon to seal Zero, how was it possible to break that seal from earth?”

“Because Zero acted as the base of the G.o.ds’ system as he slept, I was able to maintain a link to him even here on earth. I was modified to act as a safety valve. Because the workings of Zero’s black box are unknown, they wanted to be able to regulate him via me.”

“Then there must have been a research inst.i.tution behind it. I worked in a temple, but I’ve never heard any rumors about that. It would have to be the black magicians or CIMO 8.” Yos.h.i.+e suddenly felt as if several events were pointing toward a single point. “All of the mysteries up until now are forming a strange sign. Why did s.p.a.ce travel become taboo? Why did the empress herself allow the black magicians to survive? Why did the original demon king war happen?”

Yos.h.i.+e seriously yet interestedly spoke her thoughts.

“Maybe we should think about this later,” cut in Hiros.h.i.+. “Don’t we need to figure out how to get to the moon?”

Yos.h.i.+e turned to Keisu.

“Given what you said, there has to be an easy way to get to the moon.”

Keisu nodded.

“Yes. There is a transfer circle leading there.”

Hiros.h.i.+ clapped his hands together.

“Oh, I get it. They left a way back in case they needed to reseal him. So where is it?”

“Below Constant Magic Academy.”

“I see. The first war must have been fought over access to that circle,” muttered Yos.h.i.+e in admiration.

Keisu continued speaking without giving a direct response.

“But Zero knows where the transfer circle is, too. Now that he has further fused with the G.o.ds, he will have become a more accurate combat machine and he will try to destroy me. He can use every single system which is based on mana to destroy the demon king and me. That includes everything down to the traffic lights and air purifiers.”

Keisu’s statement was frightening.

“That doesn’t sound good. I guess that means we shouldn’t stay in the city too long. Zero can’t detect your location, can he?” asked Yos.h.i.+e.

Keisu nodded.

“That is correct. I predict he will use L’Isle-Adams to attack anyone who tries to approach the magic circle.”

“This is getting closer to all-out war. Then again, he makes up all of society now, so I guess we’d be the villains. And instead of all-out war, this is just us rebelling against society. The scale of the conflict is a bit big for that, though.”

Yos.h.i.+e gave a bitter smile.

“I feel bad about getting all of you involved in this,” responded a sudden voice.

Akuto was descending from the sky while holding Junko.

“A-chan! Junko-chan!” cried Keena as she ran over to them.

Hiros.h.i.+ also looked up at Akuto, smiled, and began to run over to him, but he stopped as soon as he saw Akuto’s face.

He of course still wanted to approach his friend.

However, he was reminded of the look he had seen on Akuto’s face when he had shot down Akuto for his act earlier.

Hiros.h.i.+ had intended to make it an act from the beginning. He had believed that was what Akuto wanted, but just before the plasma had burst to fry only Akuto’s outer layer, Akuto had not been smiling. His expression had been one of quiet resolution.

—That was the look of someone who did not care if I killed him.

He had known Akuto had that side to him. He had seen that same expression the last time they had directly clashed. But last time it had come from a belief that being killed was better than committing suicide or from a belief that Hiros.h.i.+ could not kill him. In other words, it had been a fearless and confident expression.

But the meaning was completely different this time.

—He planned to leave everything to me afterwards.

Akuto had tried to leave it to Hiros.h.i.+ to settle things after his death. It sounded good if one said Akuto fully trusted Hiros.h.i.+, but it felt heavier than that to Hiros.h.i.+. Essentially, Akuto wanted him to decisively stand on the side of “justice”.

No matter what happened in this battle, Akuto planned to end it with his own destruction. But he could not allow justice to be destroyed or to lose. Even if it was weakened or powerless, justice had to continue fighting with pride. He would never see peace.

But for the moment, Hiros.h.i.+ suppressed the discomfort in his heart and walked over to Akuto.

“Did you hear all that? I can’t believe we have to find a transfer circle leading to the moon.”

“I heard, but I will not ask the rest of you to fight alongside me,” said Akuto.

Hiros.h.i.+ felt a p.r.i.c.kling in his heart. Those words were not directed toward him. This proved Akuto recognized his power, but it still weighed heavily on him.

Even so, Hiros.h.i.+ held his hand out toward Akuto for a handshake.

“Now that we know the truth, we can’t just back out.”

“Thanks.”

Akuto accepted the handshake.

Hiros.h.i.+ understood why the warmth and strength of that handshake added to the weight in his heart.

Akuto viewed him as an equal.

—He’s overestimating me. I’m not that strong. I can’t do anything without the suit.

Hiros.h.i.+ changed the subject so as not to be distracted by his thoughts.

“If we’re going to do this, shouldn’t we take a look at the overall situation first? Can you pull up a screen showing the area around the school?”

“Sure.”

Akuto nodded and opened a mana screen. It displayed Constant Magic Academy from the side.

Yos.h.i.+e looked impressed.

“With Zero in control, it’s hard for us to use magic, but you can do anything. But what’s all this? It looks like they gathered as many of their forces as they could.”

L’Isle-Adam soldiers covered the academy’s grounds. Those grounds were large, but there were thousands of L’Isle-Adams and hundreds of combat vehicles.

“They couldn’t deploy the army around the palace because of all the innocent people there, but it looks like the academy is different. Defending the magic circle is their main goal, so we should probably count ourselves lucky they didn’t send out a battles.h.i.+p.”

“But with this much firepower gathered, only aniki and I can fight,” said Hiros.h.i.+.

“The two of us will have to take Keisu then,” said Akuto with a nod.

Keena had remained silent for a while, but she finally spoke up.

“You can’t do that, A-chan.”

“Why not?”

“It’s dangerous.”

Everyone was surprised to hear Keena state the obvious. As he stared blankly at her, Hiros.h.i.+ was both confused and impressed.

—She can honestly say whatever she’s thinking.

And that had a way of drawing out Akuto’s honest side.

“Well, I know it’s dangerous, but…”

“I know what you want to do, A-chan. And I feel like it’s something you have to do, but still.”

Keena looked up at Akuto with teary eyes.

“I know I can’t keep escaping death like this, but I know I was born to bring this all to an end. I have no other choice.”

Akuto had a peculiar look in his eyes as if he had lost interest in everything and resigned himself to his fate.

But Keena puffed out her cheeks.

“C’mon! If you say that again, I’ll get mad!”

“I think you’re already mad. And I understand why you are. You were put in danger too and you saw that tremendous explosion.”

“That’s not it!”

Keena was clearly angry now.

Hiros.h.i.+ understood how she felt. In fact, he felt pathetic because Keena was saying what he had been unable to say himself.

—I hope nothing horrible happens.

Just as Hiros.h.i.+ thought that, Akuto suddenly looked behind him.

“What is that!?”

An odd distortion in s.p.a.ce had appeared on one corner of the rooftop. It resembled the visual sign of something being transferred via mana, but it was clearly different. The others did not seem to understand, but Hiros.h.i.+ immediately recognized that distortion.

“That isn’t mana.”

His eyes widened in surprise. This was identical to the distortions in s.p.a.ce when he called in his suit.

He had only ever seen one person use those distortions other than the Brave suit.

“Yamato… Bouichirou…” muttered Akuto.

That man had once tried to use Keena in a strange ritual sacrifice to the G.o.ds. He had claimed to come from the future where he had seen mankind’s destruction.

The man who had just arrived via a transfer using technology impossible to recreate with modern science was slender and wore a lab coat. He did not seem full of himself, but he was indeed good looking. He adjusted the position of his gla.s.ses and began speaking with no introduction.

“I have a plan and I will have you carry it out.”

Hiros.h.i.+ took a defensive stance toward this strange man.

—This man uses the same powers as Yamato Bouichirou.

“What do you mean a plan? Who are you?” called Hiros.h.i.+ while hiding the tension in his voice.

The man shook his head as if to say “oops”.

“Oh, that’s right. I have a bad habit of stating my business before introducing myself. My name is Kurahas.h.i.+ Kento. I am a member of CIMO 8, but I believe I can earn a certain sort of trust from you.”

This man named Kento was the last CIMO 8 member to speak with 2V.

“CIMO 8? That was Yamato Bouichirou’s organization,” muttered Hiros.h.i.+.

However, none of the other members had used the same power as the Brave suit. It was possible this man knew more than the others.

“Wait,” said Yos.h.i.+e suddenly. “Are you Codename USD?”

Kento nodded.

“That is what I am called within CIMO 8.”

“Kita-san, do you know him?” asked Junko.

“He graduated from Constant Magic Academy with the highest grades in the school’s history,” said Yos.h.i.+e in an oddly excited tone. “He won the Alpha Award which is the highest honor one can achieve in magical research and he is well-respected in other fields ranging from mathematics to art. In short, he’s a genius. At some point he half-retired from his job as priest and the rumor among the priests was that he became a member of CIMO 8. Other than Yamato Bouichirou, the group’s leader, he’s the only member of CIMO 8 whose real name is known. Basically, he was too skilled for his name to remain hidden. From what I had heard, his codename is USD. He’s known as history’s strongest.”

That profile was exactly the sort of thing Yos.h.i.+e would love.

Kento adjusted his gla.s.ses as if to say this was a troublesome group he had gotten involved with, but he did not correct anything she said.

“That transfer didn’t use magic. If anyone uses magic, I can detect it,” said Akuto. “But if you learned that from Yamato Bouichirou, it makes sense.”

Kento nodded.

“Yes. This is the ‘certain sort of trust’ I mentioned.”

That comment meant the most to Hiros.h.i.+.

Yamato Bouichirou had been the one to give him the Brave suit.

“Trust? But all we know is your ident.i.ty. Which side are you on? Are you our enemy or our ally?” strongly asked Hiros.h.i.+.

“I would say I am on neither side. At least, I am not on the empress’s side or on your side. However, I must cooperate with you for the time being. I want you to seal Zero,” kindly explained Kento.

“What are you after?” asked Hiros.h.i.+ because he could not figure it out.

“I cannot say at the moment. But you…”

Kento pointed at Hiros.h.i.+.

Hiros.h.i.+ gave a start.

“What?”

“You have no choice but to do what I say. You are using the suit we gave you.”

Kento’s words seemed to stab into Hiros.h.i.+’s heart.

“What…?”

Akuto then cut in.

“ ‘We’? Do you mean Yamato Bouichirou is with you?”

Kento shook his head.

“I do not know where he is. I a.s.sume he is dead, but I have no real confirmation.”

“Then have you inherited his technology?” asked Akuto.

“Completely,” said Kento with a nod. “It is still being argued whether history can be altered or not, but I am sure to go down in history as the inventor of this technology.” Kento turned a slight smile toward Hiros.h.i.+. “Simply put, I am lending that suit to you. It is set so only you can use it, but I can freely take it from you.”

Hiros.h.i.+ was unable to hide how much this bothered him.

“Are you threatening me?” he asked in a trembling voice.

Kento’s smile grew.

“You can view it that way if you wish, but I am merely making a request. I have nothing to offer you in return, but if you aren’t going to fight, why do you need the suit? Or do you plan to become a vigilante?”

Kento was not trying to provoke Hiros.h.i.+. His was completely serious. And that made his words. .h.i.t Hiros.h.i.+ all the harder.

He knew he was only borrowing the power of the suit, but he felt it all the more when the person who gave him that power stood before him. In fact, he felt it was possible he would become a slave to that person.

But he also knew he could not choose to give up the suit. He needed to fight alongside Akuto.

“I will fight only when I believe I should fight. That is all I will say,” stated Hiros.h.i.+ in a pained voice.

Kento laughed.

“Yes. That is what you call a vigilante.”

Hiros.h.i.+ could say nothing in response.

Akuto must not have liked Kento’s att.i.tude because he spoke in a low voice.

“Then why won’t you help us directly?”

“I am an onlooker,” replied Kento. “That is what I must be.”

“Can you really remain an onlooker in this situation?” asked Akuto half in disbelief.

Kento nodded.

“If you look at this incident from a higher level, there is nothing I can do but watch on.”

“From a higher level? Enough nonsense. Just tell us what you know.”

Akuto did not even bother trying to hide his displeasure.

“Fine.”

Kento began explaining his surprising plan. Hiros.h.i.+ would play the central role.

Hiros.h.i.+ listened while groaning internally.

Meanwhile, Etou Fujiko was elsewhere.

She was in a park on the outskirts of the city. She could see others who had been transferred there. They were clearly shocked by the miracle that had occurred and they spoke with each other.

Fujiko spoke to a nearby middle-aged woman. Fujiko looked like a nice person on the outside, so it was not hard to get the woman to speak. She learned the woman fully believed the empress had caused the miracle.

—I see. How foolish of her.

Fujiko kept her surprise to herself and pretended to agree with the woman. She praised the empress, cursed the demon king for causing the Mana Burst, spoke a word of parting, and left.

She of course did not mean the curses, but she decided cursing Akuto might be a good idea after all once she walked through the park a bit and realized she was the only one of their group who had been sent there.

“Ahh… Honestly, Akuto-sama. Why must you treat me this way just because I ran off on my own?”

As she complained, she suddenly spotted someone she recognized out of the corner of her eye.

Her mouth opened in surprise and she muttered under her breath.

“Oh, my! What a coincidence! No, this might have been Akuto-sama’s intention. How clever of him!”

It did not seem like a coincidence. Akuto had to have transferred her near this person. Fujiko took back the curses yet again and began pursuing this person from a distance.

The person seemed to be worried about drawing attention to himself. He was walking from empty area to empty area and he was currently headed deeper into the park where the trees grew thick. These were the distinctive actions of someone up to no good.

“Oh, my. How convenient.”

Fujiko laughed quietly. She followed the man while making sure he did not spot her when he occasionally checked behind him.

The distinctive man with messy hair was Suzuki Issei.

He was the leader of the black magicians, but that position had been given to him by the empress in secret. His duty was to keep their secrets and hide the true form of the black magicians.

For an ardent black magician like Fujiko, that was more than enough reason to hold a grudge against him. He had deceived everyone for a long, long time and he had stood in the way of progress for the black magicians.

—I will make the most of the opportunity Akuto-sama gave me.

Fujiko quietly laughed again. Once she saw Issei lean up against a tree and sit down in a deserted area, she slowly snuck up behind that tree and wrapped her whip around his neck from behind.

She carried out the action without making any noise and did not give Issei enough time to shout out. He jumped in shock and then brought his hands to his throat when he had difficulty breathing.

“Is it a coincidence I found you here?” Fujiko tightened the whip from behind the tree and peered at his head from behind. “Or was this planned? Either way, I do not want you doing anything suspicious. Or rather, if you are going to do something suspicious, you need the guts to boldly do so in front of everyone.”

Her voice seemed to clue Issei in to who was strangling him.

“S-stop… I saw what Kazuko did… I didn’t realize she was that crazy… Please forgive me…”

Issei did his best to speak, but Fujiko spoke in a truly cruel tone of voice.

“Forgive you? I would say what you did deserves my hatred, not my forgiveness.”

“I-I know that… I will tell you what secrets I know… So let’s work together…”

“Work together?”

Fujiko tightened her grip on the whip.

“C-cough… Okay… We won’t work together… I’ll obey you…”

“You do not seem to understand my personality very well, but I suppose someone who only just met me might need some help. I am greedy,” she said teasingly while beginning to regulate the strength of the whip.

“O-okay. I’ll give you the rights to the inheritance of black magic… Surely that’s enough…”

Fujiko grinned at that condition.

“That will do. But I am not letting my guard down. I will let you live, but we can talk here and now.”

Fujiko loosened her grip a bit, but she was skilled enough to not quite let him breathe easily.

“Who would have thought my experience killing in the virtual alternate dimension would come in handy here?” she said dangerously.

“Kh… Cough… Here, I’ll give you the pa.s.sword to transfer to the secret room from that store. I simply memorized the keyword, so I’ll write it in my memo pad.”

Issei reached into his pocket with a trembling hand, pulled out a standard mana memo pad, and wrote something in it. He hid the page with his hands, so Fujiko could not see what he was writing.

“I wrote it…in here…”

Issei then threw the memo pad into the distance. Fujiko would have to let go of the whip to reach it.

She understood why he had done that.

“You think you are quite clever, don’t you?”

“Heh heh,” laughed Issei weakly but with a hint of relief. “I’m glad you’re so greedy. I don’t care about my job as a grave keeper, but I need to stay alive if I’m going to keep eating more bowls of ramen. I think I wrote the real pa.s.sword, but it’s possible I made a mistake.”

“Hmph. I suppose you have managed to keep your life for now.”

Fujiko loosened the whip, jumped away from him with the tree between them, and circled around the tree from a distance.

However, he had already run off.

She saw his receding back, knew she could not catch up, and walked over to pick up the memo pad.

It contained a string of characters. It contained too little regularity for something he made up on the spot, so she a.s.sumed it was real. She would not know for sure until she tried it, though.

“I do not want him to think he tricked me. I must revive true black magic, but something must be done about Kazuko and Zero before that can happen.”

Fujiko checked through the memo pad. It did not seem to have any other important information, but it did have Issei’s contact information. She could directly contact him telepathically and she could use that to determine his location.

—He was probably lying when he said he would help me defeat Kazuko, but he might actually have information on her.

Fujiko had no intention of defeating Kazuko if it meant putting herself in danger, but she wanted to help Akuto if she could.

“Perhaps I can sell this information to the student council president. She must be desperate to get back at Kazuko, so she might end up torturing Issei. This could be interesting to watch.”

Fujiko was satisfied with how evil the idea was. She memorized the pa.s.sword and erased it from the memo pad. If it was real, she would be able to revive true black magic.