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Chapter 5 - Blue and Pink 4 page

If he got involved with her, he would be troubled even further, and so, sorry. It seemed that Natsume had apologized like that several times in that shot letter. She had said she was doing fine.

Natsume had said she had always wanted to apologize. She had used yesterday's letter to apologize for the moment.

But Natsume's feelings couldn't progress. Although Takahiro had warned her beforehand and although she had already realized that - it didn't change the anguish of it.

"......Maybe I've troubled Tenma-kun."

"Eh?"

"After all, I suddenly apologized to him for something a year and a half ago by letter...... Tenma-kun has his own life right now......"

Natsume spoke in a quiet tone like normal, but even Akino understood that she was forcing herself. No, rather than forcing herself, maybe she was deliberately talking about negative things to balance out her feelings.

Akino often did similar things. People would put up defenses beforehand when they predicted pain. Doing things to hurt themselves beforehand to get used to pain was one of those defenses.

Akino wanted to say 'that's not true', but she didn't give it voice. Because Akino didn't understand the boy Momoe Tenma. She didn't understand Natsume's other friends either - her companions. It was meaningless if Akino, who didn't understand anything at all, frivolously consoled her with words.

......Or was a simple consolation better than nothing? She didn't know. Natsume was the first friend Akino had ever made. Akino still hadn't learned what to do when her friend was in pain.

But, at the least......

"......Ugh."

She turned her consciousness towards the top of her head. The rabbit ears sticking out. She slanted her head towards Natsume who sat next to her and stroked Natsume's head with one ear. She kept her face pointed towards the courtyard because she was embarrassed. But she looked sideways to see whether she was surprised.

Natsume's eyes widened in shock at the sudden touch.

But when she saw Akino who was trying to console here even while she looked straight ahead with a reddened face, she smiled warmly. Akino was relieved.

Of course, Natsume's melancholy[41] wouldn't go away from just this--

"Natsume-chan!"

Suddenly, Chizuru's voice came from the house, and then she sprinted to the porch.

She spoke to Natsume and Akino who turned back in surprise:

"The Onmyou Academy's performance is being broadcasted on TV! The girl they're showing right now was Natsume-chan's classmate - a girl called Kyouko? The Kurahashi." Natsume was dumbstruck. Then, she rose and jumped up onto the porch. She passed by Chizuru's side and went into the house. Akino also hastily followed afterwards.

The television was placed in the living room. When Akino caught up, Natsume was standing motionless in front of the television. Takahiro was sitting on the tatami next to her watching the broadcast.

On the screen was showing an idol-like, pretty girl wearing a similar kind of uniform as Momoe Tenma's - but a white one instead of a black one. A white and a black shikigami were materialized to either side of the girl and were elegantly slashing their katana and spear.



Returning, Chizuru said from behind them:

"Oh? That girl's Kyouko-chan, right?"

Natsume didn't immediately reply. She couldn't. She stared blankly at the screen as if her entire body were frozen. But her eyes suddenly became moist and she nodded to affirm Chizuru's question. First in a whisper, then louder, and then finally in a trembling voice, she answered: "......Yes."

Akino also stared at the girl shown on the screen with wide eyes, then looked back towards Natsume. Natsume stared straight at the girl. Various emotions spilled from her face.

She looked to be smiling and crying, and even angry. But if the expression that emerged on Natsume's face were to be expressed in a single word, it would be 'moved'. It was the first time in Akino's life that she saw an expression as deep and intensely emotional as the one that emerged.

"......Kyouko-san...... Looks like she's doing very well......"

Natsume muttered tearfully.

Akino returned her gaze to the television again. This girl was Kurahashi Kyouko. A name she often heard from Natsume. Natsume's friend, like Momoe Tenma. An extremely pretty person. And cool. Also, since Natsume kept talking about her, she was definitely a good person. A jealous pang twanged deep inside her heart, but she didn't care about such things after she saw Natsume's current expression.

"Natsume. That's great, you saw your friend's face."

After Akino said that, "Yeah." Natsume nodded. For some reason, Akino became slightly happy. Behind the backs of the children, Takahiro and Chizuru glanced at each other, smiling slightly.

But maybe because they had run here halfway through, her dance ended soon after. The girl bowed amidst the applause and walked offstage. In her place, other students moved forward in large numbers.

What was starting next? Akino stared intently at the screen.

"Ah. Natsume. Maybe they'll show that Momoe Tenma person from yesterday? Maybe you can see him, even though you can't meet each other!"

Natsume's depression would probably fade somewhat if she were able to see the face of her friend who had received the letter. Akino spoke believing this, but Natsume smiled tearfully for some reason.

"Yeah. But there's so many students...... Also, Tenma-kun's...... not really someone who stands out."

When Natsume replied, the sound of the students chanting incantations came from the television. Akino hastily prepared to look back at the screen--

But she stopped halfway through when she noticed Natsume's expression change.

Natsume's expression, which had calmed down slightly after seeing her friend's figure, suddenly went pale. All of its emotion vanished as if her soul had escaped.

Akino was taken aback by the abrupt change, but she had seen Natsume's current reaction at the monastery once. She would show that kind of expression when she was truly shocked from the bottom of her heart.

Akino said--

"Natsume... are you alright?"

Though it seemed like Natsume heard Akino's worried voice, Natsume couldn't respond.

"Hmm?" Chizuru felt confused as well.

"What's that? Is it the group dance? The movements aren't consistent at all - wait, that's completely wrong. Did one of them lose control?"

She spoke out of shock, surprise, and later worry, but even if those words reached her ears, they didn't reach her heart, and her mind didn't understand. Takahiro muttered "Hmm--" and stroked his bearded jaw. His eyes were sharper than before as they watched the screen, but it just entered a corner of his vision, and he wasn't conscious of it.

Natsume's soul was nailed to the television image.

The shikigami group dance performed by the students. The ones dancing on stage were 'M1 Attendants' and 'M3 Asura'. Both were commercially available general-purpose shikigami. There were fifty in total. The movements for the dance performance had probably been originally coordinated expecting a group of fifty shikigami.

However, the shikigamis' movements were completely uncoordinated. Maybe it was because of the shared spell, but when they tried to make the same movement, the movements of each of them were stiff, and there was even one in the center that was experiencing lag[42]. The anchors covering the broadcast were also confused and excited.

Takahiro stared at the screen for a while, and then muttered, "......I see, it's someone's prank."

"What do you mean, prank?"

"Yeah, it looks like a shikigami charm that originally wasn't intended was mixed in with the group spell. Therefore, the supply of magical energy isn't enough. Also, the base spell went out of sync too because of the extra shikigami. It was added nicely to the spell, but some of the minor adjustments failed. ......But if it's a prank, then the culprit is probably quite outstanding, since he wasn't able to test the spell before it activated.

My, my. Takahiro voiced his thoughts with that kind of expression. Chizuru, hearing the explanation, furrowed her brows in suspicion.

Then.

"But...... It's extremely pretty."

Akino said as she watched the screen.

Those words also reached Natsume. Natsume had the same thought. Right. It was extremely pretty. She hadn't seen that beautiful scene since that summer night.

Takahiro and Chizuru looked at each other, perhaps surprised at Akino's naive thought. "A prank, huh." Chizuru murmured.

"Why would someone do this kind of thing?"

"Who knows?"

"Who did it?"

"Hey hey, kids. I'm not clairvoyant or a detective--"

"It was Tenma-kun." Natsume asserted as if to cover Takahiro's wry words. Takahiro, Chizuru, and also Akino looked back at Natsume in surprise.

Still engrossed in the scene on the television, Natsume said:

"Tenma-kun's replying to the letter."

On the other side of the screen, the 'Attendants' and the 'Asura' moved stiffly.

On the stage.

But if one surveyed the entire arena, they would notice the small figures of beautiful, free, and agile shikigami flying through the vast space.

A group of blue swallows.

The manmade 'WA1 Swallow Whip' shikigami manufactured by the Witchcraft Corporation.

Unlike the general-purpose shikigami, the 'Swallow Whips' weren't all moving the same way as they flew. Certain ones traced out strange paths, often turning and often rapidly descending as they flew freely through the air. However, there was an overall coordination. Their movements looked unrestrained, but actually they were flying while considering the movements of the other bodies. They moved individually, but became one entity. As if it were a message.

Then, the exteriors of the 'Swallow Whips' changed slightly. All of the swallows held a certain object in the front of their beaks.

Something thin and fluttering in the wind--

A pink ribbon.

Natsume's expression instantly crumpled.

How far out had he thought this? Were the insufficient magical energy and the disorderly spell really mistakes? Maybe he was extremely anxious and pale-faced right now. Or did he not mind it?[43]

It was as if her friend's unadorned voice reached her from the other side of the screen.

Welcome back.

Also, I won't let you get away.

'Swallow Whips' were binding shikigami.

These shikigami were second-class magic that Tenma released at Natsume, who had tried soaring into the night sky alone, magic to keep her close to her friends. Even if they couldn't meet, even if they couldn't communicate, it tied Natsume to her friends' sides.

Kyouko, who in the same place, also saw the same scene. Maybe Touji and Suzuka were watching through the broadcast. Also, maybe Harutora was as well. Maybe the friends from a year and a half ago were watching the same scene and receiving the same message. That would be nice. She hoped it were true.

Tears trickled from Natsume's eyes. Even so, Natsume couldn't blink as she continued watching the same scene with her friends.

The grand flurry of 'Swallow Whips' joyfully continued with no end in sight.

 

Part 4

"......Got it."

Suzuka found that file in complete darkness, relying on the light of a small penlight[44].

There were countless libraries in the Onmyou Agency building. After all, it was a government institution, so there were tons of management information and accounting numbers, and they also kept countless books of magic. The magic-related objects weren't put in a database, and there probably wasn't a single person in the Agency who knew where every single thing was. It was even possible that mysteries of magic that hadn't seen the light of day and were still unknown to man slept within the countless libraries.

But what Suzuka just found was a report unrelated to those romantic notions. It was a file of the Mystical Investigators.

"............"

After Suzuka sat down on the ground, she held the penlight in her mouth and rapidly flipped through the file using the illumination of that beam of light.

It had already been seventeen hours since Takiko visited the research lab in the morning bringing just-baked bread. It had just passed two in the morning now. Though there was basically no one left in the agency building, she had still turned off the library's lights for caution's sake. If Suzuka took a single step out of the research lab, she would be followed closely by surveillance shikigami, but she had hijacked them momentarily by forcing a camouflaged spell into them. She couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't be exposed, and it was hard to stay calm.

Suzuka had been provoked by the television broadcast she had watched this morning. The shikigami group dance finale embellishing the Onmyou Academy New Year's Ceremony. The 'Swallow Whips' in midair during the dance were doubtlessly not part of the plans for the performance, and it was clear who had planned them.

She couldn't stay still after being shown such a thing.

Right now, Suzuka had started seeing the enemy's blueprints in her eyes bit by bit. Also, that was evidence that the enemies' goals were gradually approaching their ends. That wasn't something so easy to see. Suzuka had been able to realize this because of the second-class magic cast by their arrogance.

What was their goal?

Until now, scattered parts had slowly depicted a huge magical pattern. But Suzuka had seen a large part of it. It was the biggest 'move' among anything they had done so far.

The spiritual disaster terrorist attack.

The 'Great Hinamatsuri Purification' and the 'Hinamatsuri Repurification'. Two complex spiritual disasters brought about by humans in Tokyo on the same date. Emphasizing the threat of the Twin-Horned Syndicate had expanded the jurisdiction of the Onmyou Agency as a countermeasure. Amami had believed that was the goal of the strategy, self-profit. That was undoubtedly one facet of the truth.

But was that really it?

If they wanted to expand the jurisdiction of the Onmyou Agency, then there ought to have been a multitude of methods. Why had they deliberately chosen bringing about spiritual disasters? More importantly, there were two. On the same day, Hinamatsuri.

"............"

She had already been in the library for three hours. Suzuka's face showed exhaustion. But the zeal that had emerged in her eyes didn't show any sign of cooling down. She looked through the file without letting up.

Then.

"......Tch."

She clicked her tongue and tossed away the file. She let go of the penlight in her mouth and leaned backwards, putting her hands on the ground.

"Not this either...... The Mystical Investigators really didn't collect much information on the Lingering Spirit Division......"

Immediately after the first spiritual disaster terrorist attack occurred, the Mystical Investigators infiltrated into the Twin-Horned Syndicate's stronghold of the Imperial Household Agency Lingering Spirit Division and caught all of its members. But allegedly, most of the information in the Lingering Spirit Division had been destroyed afterwards. Because of this, the Twin-Horned Syndicate continued being a mysterious secret society even after a sweeping investigation.

"......The goal of the spiritual disaster terrorist attack......"

Two spiritual disaster terrorist attacks, and both by manipulating Tokyo's aura flow, caused by disrupting the spiritual stability inside the city. Hence, the numbers of naturally-occurring spiritual disasters still rose even after purifying the spiritual disasters caused by the terrorist attack. That had already been confirmed by checking the database of the Exorcist Bureau.

But mysteriously, after the number of spiritual disasters grew, it didn't return back to normal after the aura flow was stabilized. Though it was better than right after the spiritual disaster terrorist attack, the numbers didn't return to where they were before the spiritual disaster terrorist attack. They had definitely increased. One step after the 'Great Hinamatsuri Purification'. And one more step after the 'Hinamatsuri Repurification'.

"......Come to think of it, these few years I've always been hearing rumors that there aren't enough exorcists...... That also started after the spiritual disaster terrorist attack."

Because the baseline number of spiritual disaster occurrences increased, it surpassed the workload of all the exorcists.

Of course, the Exorcist Bureau - or at least the Exorcist Command Room - had long since known the relationship between the spiritual disaster terrorist attack and the number of subsequent spiritual disaster occurrences. But how many people were there who were paying attention to the meaning hidden in this? Even if there were such people, it had already been a year and a half since the Twin-Horned Syndicate had been swept clean. There probably wasn't a single person left who was concerned about why they had brought about spiritual disaster terrorist attacks in the past.

The Twin-Horned Syndicate had certainly been eliminated.

But the people controlling them from behind were still alive.

Also, there was one more concerning thing.

The main culprit of the 'Great Hinamatsuri Purification' was Suzuka's father, Dairenji Shidou. He had been pulled into the spiritual disaster terrorist attack he himself had caused and died. Then, he had been resurrected as Yashamaru.

The main culprit of the 'Hinamatsuri Repurification' was her father's subordinate, Mutobe Chihiro. He had killed himself after causing the spiritual disaster terrorist attack. Then, he had been resurrected as Kumomaru.

What was the relationship between those facts and their goals? Or had they just simply become shikigami after dying?

The 'Great Hinamatsuri Purification' had happened four years ago. The aura flow had been greatly disrupted. The number of spiritual disaster occurrences had increased sharply.

Two years later, not long after the disrupted aura flow regained stability, they caused the 'Hinamatsuri Repurification'. The number of spiritual disaster occurrences had further increased.

Then, it had been two more years until now. The aura flow that had been disrupted by the spiritual disaster terrorist attack two years ago had already completely regained its stability.

On the other hand, their goal seemed to be gradually nearing its end, and had already gradually reached the phase where 'it wasn't a problem if people knew of it'.

She had a bad premonition.

Of course, it was just a prediction. Suzuka had never gotten ahold of 'certain clues'. Right now, she couldn't rush to conclusions.

But she couldn't sit still and wait.

After all, until the next Hinamatsuri, there was only--

"......Only two more months......"

Just then.

"You're working hard so late. How motivated you are, Suzuka."

The library lights turned on. Suzuka's body went stiff, then goosebumps rose over her entire body and she rose from the ground as if she had touched a piece of ice.

When she looked back, there was a young man in front of her. A young man with a fashionable and refined air. But he also gave off the image of a corrupt aristocrat. He wore a shirt and vest, slacks, and an ascot tie. He wore white gloves on his hand and had a round lens over his right eye - a monocle glinting with light.

He was Takiko's shikigami and Suzuka's past father, Yashamaru.

"......!"

Suzuka's face paled as she looked at Yashamaru. Yashamaru was no different from usual, showing a 'gentle cold smile' as he looked at Suzuka.

"I haven't seem you for a while. Happy New Year."

"............"

Suzuka didn't reply. The work she had done to the surveillance shikigami had been exposed. Though she had realized the danger, maybe she had stayed too long.

But ironically, although she had fooled the surveillance shikigami and snuck out of the research lab, she hadn't obtained any results to show for it. The files she had found were far from a decisive blow that could expose their plans. Originally, Yashamaru and the others had used Suzuka knowing that she was a double agent. Then maybe they wouldn't punish their stupid captive who hadn't accomplished anything at all after slipping past the surveillance.

As Suzuka pondered those things:

"I knew it. Next time will be for real."

Yashamaru grinned as he spoke. She felt as if her heart was being unconditionally squeezed.

"You should research properly until that time. I'm expecting a lot of you."

Yashamaru suddenly vanished after only saying that much. He had dematerialized and left. But even though Yashamaru left, Suzuka's heart still felt the intense feeling of being enveloped by those white-gloved fingers.

Suzuka couldn't move, standing frozen in the library. Her breathing trembled lightly. She couldn't control it on her own.

Suzuka gritted her teeth and closed her eyes with a pained expression. Then, inside her eyelids, the trails of blue and pink she had seen back then repeated themselves again and again.

Again and again. Until the sensation vanished from her heart, again and again.

 


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 611


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