VOLUME 5

Chapter 4: Part 2

I ran together with Haruna through the city at night. Saras was probably right in the middle of her pa.s.sionate live performance right now. I should probably prepare myself to get pushed around by her a lot back at school.

“Haruna, are you sure they’re here?”

“Of course! You saying you don’t trust me?”

Well, Haruna definitely was one of the most random, strangest people I knew.

But I also knew I could count on her.

“Ayumu! It’s that! That huge triangular thing!”

That was… I looked up.

Tokyo Tower. Kyouko was in Tokyo Tower? Why… were we going to that place again?

Right, hadn’t someone said that there was a really good oden restaurant near Tokyo Tower?

Ahh, maybe those over there? I could see a few food stalls sprinkled around. I’d have to try them out sometime later.

Hm? That girl over there… looked really familiar…

I saw a girl dressed in Gothic Lolita fas.h.i.+on. Her face was hidden by the shop curtain, but that was definitely… Chris.

The enemy I had to beat was right in front of me.

I felt my brain buzz to life.

Right now… Kyouko was the priority.

Yes… Chris had been living like an old man. So if I looked for her in places where old men liked to go, I should be able to find her. I need to ask those old vampire ninjas I had seen earlier where the “old men hotspots” were around the city, and I’ll be able to track her down again.

But right now, Kyouko was the only thing on my list. If I let her get away now, I’ll certainly regret it in the future.

In other words… I couldn’t let Chris see me right now.

“Haruna…”

“Hueh?”

“Let’s try to sneak past. We need to make ourselves completely invisible.”

I pulled Haruna by the hand, and shuffled towards Tokyo Tower in the style of a thief from a cheesy 80s movie.

It was good there were a few trees nearby. We could use the s.p.a.ce between those trees to get by.

We tried to make ourselves as inconspicuous as possible as we continued on. All the while, I kept a watchful eye on Chris’s back.

“Nnyuu?”

Swish The shop curtains opened, and a cute girl came out, looking all around her with a bottle of shouchuu in her hands. I felt my heart speed up, like I had just been shocked by a thunder bolt.

I suddenly hugged Haruna to me, and held her mouth with my hand even though she hadn’t even spoken a word.

“Hey there, something wrong?!”

I heard the energetic call of the oden shop owner coming from inside the restaurant.

“Hmm, it felt like someone was watching Chris, but… old man! Another gla.s.s of hot sake!”

“Got it! Coming right up!”

Chris c.o.c.ked her head to the side in confusion, but then once again went back inside the shop. That was close. Way too close. Way, way, way too close.

“Hey, Ayumu.”

“What’s up, Haruna?”

“Why are you feeling up my nice body right now?”

“Try to understand the situation we’re in! We can’t be bothering with that girl right now. You know that, right?”

“Hm, just this once then. If you try to touch my body again, then I’ll show you my Hundred Step Divine Fist technique from the school of the White Flower Fist!”

We entered Tokyo Tower while I dealt with Haruna. We went up to the first observation deck, and I looked around. Maybe it was still a bit early, but there were still a few people scattered around. But, the two people I was looking for weren’t there.

We went up again, to the second observation deck. Still nothing.

Yuu was so distinctive that I could probably recognize her even if she as a kilometer away.

We went up again, to the special observation deck.

I saw two people on that floor.

They were both looking out of the gla.s.s onto the city below.

This was the second time I had found Yuu like this, in exactly the same position.

“Yuu?! You’re safe?!” I ran up to her and called out.

Yuu gave me a firm nod.

Kyouko was right next to her, and was giving me a smile with both her hands around her back. When she smiled so nicely like that, it almost gave me the impression that she had done nothing wrong.

But, I sent her a fierce glare.

“Kyouko. You completely tricked us, didn’t you? But, not everything is going to go like you want it to.”

“My my, whatever could you mean?”

“I know why you wanted to go to the party.”

“Oh really? Please explain it to me.”

Kyouko gave me a teasing smile, and then slowly walked towards me.

I didn’t put my fists up, but just slowly walked towards Kyouko, keeping a wary eye on her.

Kyouko had some long, thin object wrapped in a coat. Did she steal a billiard cue or something? That would be…

“You wanted to go to this party because you were planning to escape all along. You knew Dai-sensei loved parties, and you also knew she really liked the food in this world. The most convenient fact was that Dai-sensei got drunk off fizzy drinks. But, if you suggested she drink some, she wouldn’t trust you, so you completely used me to get her drunk, and in the gap that created you ran away.”

Kyouko clapped.

“Took you quite a while to realize that, didn’t it?”

She gave me an angelic smile… give me more credit, dammit. Look at this proud smile I have on my face.

“Well, thanks a lot for the complement. Anyways, how exactly did you get that bracelet off?”

“Ahh, that bracelet is meant to seal the powers of a masou shoujo.”

As she said that, Kyouko summoned a small tornado in her palm. Her eyes bled red.

In other words, the bracelet hadn’t sealed the powers she had received from the King of the Night.

“In any case, too bad for you. I won’t let you escape.”

Kyouko’s skirt swished as she turned around.

Her expression had been cheerful before… but it suddenly turned serious.

Her coat gently fell to the floor. And I saw in Kyouko’s hand… a single j.a.panese katana.

That was the same katana that had graced my entranceway for a short period of time. It was Dai-sensei’s masou renki.

It was a nitem that allowed a masou shoujo to transform.

Don’t tell me… I hadn’t expected her to steal that as well.

c.r.a.p… I couldn’t let her transform.

When a masou shoujo transformed, their strength multiplied like crazy.

“Nomobuyo, wos.h.i.+, has.h.i.+tawa, dokeda, gunmiicha, dei, ribura!”

Kyouko’s clothes changed to a cosplay-like outfit right before my eyes.

She thrust Yuu’s body at me, and then broke through the gla.s.s. The winter wind suddenly blasted through the observation deck, while Kyouko threw herself outside.

I could barely breathe as I protected my face from the strong wind. However, I still managed to find Yuu through narrowed eyes and catch her body.

The wind soon stopped, and the gla.s.s returned back to normal. Seemed like Kyouko had actually fixed the gla.s.s back up.

But, that gla.s.s was just going to get broken again… by me!

I punched the gla.s.s so we could take pursuit of Kyouko. With around 308% power.

Boing. My powerful attack bounced off the gla.s.s.

No, it wasn’t the gla.s.s. It was like I had tossed a stone in a lake, and wave-like disturbances flowed through the air.

This was… a masou shoujo’s barrier.

Why did she go out of her way to erect a barr-… ah! She didn’t want us to chase after her?!

“Haruna!” I turned around to tell Haruna to call the elevator, but before I even could…

“Come on! Ahomu! Get on!”

The elevator door was already open. Also, I get the feeling she had gotten my name a bit wrong there…

As expected from a genius… is what I should say here, right? I pulled Yuu’s gauntleted hands and dashed into the elevator.

The elevator was trying its very best to get us back down to the ground, but I felt myself getting really annoyed just standing here.

“Yuu, are you okay?”

Yuu didn’t show any emotion as she nodded.

“She didn’t do anything to you? Didn’t hurt you?”

That b.a.s.t.a.r.d… did she harm Yuu in any way?

Do not worry.

“I think she’s okay…”

Haruna had been staring at the elevator ceiling all this time, and she muttered with a dazed look in her eyes.

“How do you know?”

“Because that girl just wanted to come here. The gloomy necromancer was acting like a guide and led her here, right?”

Yuu gave a clear nod. What did that mean? Acting like a guide?

The elevator reached the ground floor, and we rushed out.

“That girl is too easy to read. Ayumu, remember, you beat that mist guy here before, right?”

I see. This was where the King of the Night had met his death at the hands of Yuu. Kyouko was a fervent follower of the King of the Night. I see… she wanted to see where he had died?

“Yuu, you go back and stay safe with Anderson-kun and the others.”

Now that Kyouko had transformed into a masou shoujo, we couldn’t hope to win against her with normal methods. And Yuu wasn’t suited for battle. I wouldn’t let her be put into any danger.

I will go with you.

“It’s fine. Haruna’s here, so I’ll be fine… please.”

I looked into Yuu’s blue eyes with a serious look in mine. I was really worried that Yuu would end up getting hurt… and without saying that out loud, it seemed that Yuu understood. She seemed a bit reluctant, but she gave me a small nod.

“Of course!”

Haruna shouted as she ran with her ahoge jumping back and forth.

“Haruna, do you know where Kyouko’s going next?”

“Around there!”

Around there… there wasn’t anything but oden restaurants nearby.

“Nyah?”

The oden restaurant curtain flipped upwards, and Chris turned her eyes in our direction.

My d.a.m.n heart was about to burst! My. d.a.m.n. Heart. Was. About. To. Burst!

Chris slowly turned her head, looking all around.

“Ayumu, where do you think your hands are?! You d.a.m.n… mghfh!”

Haruna began to shout, so I desperately clapped my hand to her mouth and hugged her tight.

I waited for a brief opportunity before putting strength into my muscles and using that explosive burst of power to dive in between a few trees.

“Hey there, something wrong?!”

The restaurant owner once again called out to Chris as she stood still outside the shop.

“Hmmm… Chris feels a bit like she’s being watched again…”

Her cute voice was filled with suspicion. c.r.a.p… it was just a matter of time before she discovered us…

“Probably because you’re so cute~~.”

“Ehh? Really? Alright, old man! Another gla.s.s of shouchuu!”

Chris seemed to be swayed by the simple flattery, and responded with a softened voice while heading back towards the other side of the shop curtain.

“Got it! Coming right up!”

T-Thank G.o.d. Nice one, old man.

The three of us lined up and tiptoed across the oden restaurant, looking like we were coming right out of the Sazae-san ending sequence.

That was way too close.

We didn’t have time to fight with Chris right now. Also, there was a chance that Haruna and Yuu would get killed by Chris. I would defeat her later.

We couldn’t let her discover our presence.

I kept an eye on the oden shop while we ran at full speed away.

If we didn’t hurry up, we might lose Kyouko.

“Haruna. Could it be that you don’t really concretely know where Kyouko is right now?”

“… Well, she’s probably off sulking somewhere…”

“Anyways, Yuu. Please head back.”

I gave Yuu a worried look, but she began to walk back towards the mixer, leaving me a single memo.

Please take care of her.

Take care of her? I really didn’t know what Yuu was feeling when she wrote that memo, but I couldn’t help but feel it would be rude to shout after her as her back receded into the distance, her silver hair flying in the wind.

Alright. Now we just had… I suddenly saw Haruna stop, her ahoge standing straight up.

“I see. Now I see…”

“Did you figure something out?”

“She’s above us!” Haruna pointed at the sky.

Above? I looked up at the black expanse over our heads.

There was not a single star up there in the night sky that stared back at us.

“There’s… nothing up there.”

I looked all around us. And I caught sight of two twinkles of light.

One was a girl in a cosplay outfit, holding a j.a.panese katana.

“That’s Kyouko? Why is she still back there…?”

“When she strengthened that gla.s.s back there, she was trying to fake us out! She wanted us to think she was going somewhere far, but she was planning to go back to the tower!”

Certainly, I had thought she had run far away. Kyouko definitely liked to tease people… so Haruna’s idea was certainly plausible.

Did we have to walk around Chris again? Ugh, she really might find us out this time…

Kyouko clashed with the other point of light.

That light was… the owl. That owl who Haruna had been getting along with silently sent Kyouko flying with a kick to her back.

The owl was wearing a boy’s school uniform… she was the masou shoujo’s mortal enemy, a Megalo.

And Kyouko, now transformed into a masou shoujo, began to fall right into s.h.i.+ba Park.

“Let’s go!”

“You don’t have to say it every time! Let’s go, Ayumu!”

I used every bit of my zombie leg strength and dashed towards Kyouko’s crash site.

All the while keeping a wary eye on Chris, of course.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES