Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - Volume 13 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1 
AKARI YACHIGUSA II 
Akari Yachigusa had never seen her mother smile. 
Even in her earliest memories, her mother’s expression had always been like a sheet of ice, her eyes cold and indifferent as she looked down on Akari. If, from time to time, some hint of emotion might shine through, it would inevitably be nothing other than hysterical anger or hatred. And while she had never resorted to physical violence, she had rained down tempests of verbal abuse more times than Akari could remember: 
“Why did you have to be a monster?” “If only I had never had you…” “I wish that you had never been born!” “It’s all your fault!” 
You—her mother had never once even called her by her name. 
But even so, Akari had always wanted her mother to love her. 
All it took was for her to show even the slightest hint of a smile, and her mother would scowl at her, as if she couldn’t even bring herself to cry. And so, before she knew it, in order to keep from upsetting her mother, Akari found herself wearing a permanently ambiguous expression, a look that contained no suggestion of either joy or sorrow. But even so, her mother would inevitably avert her gaze as soon as she caught a glimpse of Akari’s face. 
The Yachigusa family was an old and noble lineage on the verge of collapse, obsessively clinging to their antiquated traditions, unable to adapt to a changing world. They had managed to hold on to some shred of their former glory through their dealings with the integrated enterprise foundation Galaxy, but even so, they were now little more than a faint shadow of what they had been before the Invertia. For the Yachigusa family, the Invertia wasn’t just a calamity that had reshaped the world—more than that, it was a nightmare that had cast them down into ruin. 
And to that family had been born a product of the Invertia, a Genestella. It was only a matter of course that they would act the way they did. First, they drove away Akari’s father, who had married into the family, and then they began to look down on her mother with unmasked contempt. 
Akari’s misfortune was further compounded by the fact that she had been able to manifest her Strega abilities even while still an infant. Stregas and Dantes unable to control their abilities were known to rampage and, given their physical and mental characteristics, were capable of causing considerable disruption to the lives of those around them. Considering that her ability granted her the power to completely halt the flow of mana within a given range, she had often inadvertently shut down electrical appliances and other utilities that relied on meteoric engineering. This, of course, had only further served to ostracize her and had made her mother’s position even more precarious. 
Before long, her mother’s health had deteriorated to such an extent that she stopped seeing anyone. For her part, Akari was driven out of the residence and forced to live alone in a small detached building that had previously served as a storehouse. Her meals and daily necessities were all taken care of by the servants, and so she came to lose all contact with the other members of the family. She wasn’t even permitted to walk around freely and was essentially in a state of perpetual confinement. The family did everything in their power to conceal her very existence. Unable to attend school, she had spent her childhood holed up in that cramped, gloomy building. 
Her sole comfort was an old-fashioned computer terminal. It was through this terminal that she first learned about the Festa—and about Asterisk, a place where Genestella could live in freedom, a city where it was possible to make a name for oneself through one’s own efforts. She devoured every piece of information she could find about this dreamlike world and, though she couldn’t exactly recognize it at the time, found her heart longing for it. 
The first turning point in her life came when she was ten years old. 
A banquet was being held to celebrate the seventieth birthday of the head of the Yachigusa family, Akari’s grandfather. While the family had fallen on hard times, and while the other old houses may have looked down on them with scorn, they nonetheless sought to maintain appearances in whatever paltry way they could. 
Of course, Akari wouldn’t be attending. The bustle and commotion of the event didn’t reach her corner of the vast grounds—indeed, she couldn’t hear anything but the usual rustling of the trees that closed off the building from its surroundings. But then, all of a sudden, she detected a faint presence outside and opened the sliding door to the veranda. 
As she glanced around, she caught sight of a girl standing stock-still with a puzzled expression on her face, alone in the middle of the path leading through the grove. She appeared to be around the same age as Akari herself and was dressed in an extravagant, tailored outfit. She was undoubtedly the daughter of one of the guests. 
When the girl noticed Akari, a wave of relief washed over her countenance, and she hurried toward the small building. 
“Ah, thank goodness! I went out to get some fresh air, but then I got lost… I mean, how can those adults expect me to just stand there looking pretty while they get to do all the talking? It’s so boring, don’t you think?” The girl smiled at her as she sat down on the edge of the veranda. She had a somewhat frivolous attitude, at least as far as Akari could tell. 
“Ah…,” Akari responded with a vague, forced smile, unsure what to make of her visitor. 
The girl, however, shone a beaming, flawless grin. “I’m Kotoha Rokujou. Are you from the Yachigusa family?” 
Akari found herself lost for words at this simple, innocent question. 
She simply didn’t know for herself whether she was really considered a Yachigusa, nor whether it was all right for her to admit as much to a complete stranger. On top of that, this was her first time ever talking to another girl of a similar age. She simply had no idea how she was supposed to act in this situation. 
In the end, she could respond with nothing more than a slight nod. 
At this, however, the girl named Kotoha leaned forward in excitement, trying to get a better look at her. “Really?! What’s your name?” 
“…Akari Yachigusa.” 
“Akari. Akari. Hmm… That’s a wonderful name! But what are you doing out here by yourself, Akari? Isn’t it lonely?” 
She had never thought about that before. It was certainly possible that she was lonely, but she had been living like this for as long as she could remember, and so she felt as if she had long since become numb to such feelings. But now that she thought about it, there seemed to be no other way to describe the desolate, empty hole in the middle of her heart. In which case— 
Kotoha waited, swinging her legs back and forth, while Akari mulled this over. 
“I wonder…,” she said finally. “I don’t really know.” It was a vague answer, said with a vague smile and a vague tone of voice. Indeed, that word—vague—seemed to describe her very existence. 
“Wow, really? If it were me, I’d be so lonely I’d end up crying!” Kotoha, however, was nothing if not straightforward. “Say, Akari. Do you mind if I stay here for a while, so we can talk? I mean, if I went back, it’d just be so boring!” 
Akari startled at how direct the girl sitting across from her was, and she could do little but nod along in silence. 
With that, the two entered into an almost rambling, directionless conversation, talking about their favorite foods, their families, the flowers blooming in the garden, the dreams that they’d had the previous night, and more. 
Strictly speaking, Kotoha did most of the talking, with Akari merely listening. Every now and then, however, she would ask her a question, or put in a word of her own, until the details of her life began to leak out one drop at a time. 
“So you’re a Genestella, Akari? That’s so cool!” Kotoha’s eyes opened in wonder as this, too, came to the fore. “I know another Genestella, you know? A boy. His family is a long line of swordsmen, and he can even stand up against the adults. Well, I mean, I don’t know him all that well… The Toudou style, I think it’s called? Something like that anyway. Have you ever heard of it?” 
“…A little.” 
Among those she had seen competing in the Festa, there were several sword fighters who belonged to that school. From what little Akari knew, it seemed to be one of the more prominent ones, with branch dojos all throughout the world. If Kotoha’s family had dealings with such an important house, then they, too, must be of considerable status. 
“There are two brothers, right? The older one, Kou, he’s just a normal person, but the younger one, Sei, he’s a Genestella, and he’s so nice, too! He was the first Genestella my age I’d ever met, you know? So I kept asking him all these questions, but he answered every last one of them without even getting the slightest bit annoyed!” 
“…He sounds like a good person.” 
Kotoha wasn’t exactly letting her thoughts run free, but her gentle voice continued without pause. “Right? Ah… I’ve done it again, huh? Heh-heh, sorry. Maybe I went a bit overboard? I’m just so happy to have a second Genestella friend.” Kotoha broke out into a cute grin, jokingly hitting herself on the head. 
“…Friend? Do you mean…me?” 
“Ah! Maybe I went a bit too fast…? But you know, I really want to be your friend, Akari!” 
“A-ah, I mean… I…,” Akari stammered, unsure of what to do or say. 
To think that someone like her could make a friend… 
However, at that moment— 
“Well, well, look what we’ve got here. Just like they said.” 
“Looks like it paid off.” 
All of a sudden, two men appeared on the small path leading through the grove. 
One was dressed in a tank top, even though spring had only recently begun, his muscled physique covered in tattoos. The other man was wearing sunglasses, a leather jacket, and jeans. Judging by their appearances, they certainly didn’t look like the kind of people who would have been invited to the banquet. 
“You shouldn’t wander off alone, little lady,” the tattooed man said with a vulgar smile. “You know these people can’t afford proper security, right? They ain’t like you Rokujous.” 
It was clear from the way the two men held themselves that they harbored malicious intent. 
“Um, who might you be?” Kotoha asked quizzically, perhaps yet to grasp the situation. 
“Come on, you don’t expect us to give you our names, do you? Just play nice and come along now.” 
They had come, it seemed, for her. 
“What should we do ’bout the other one?” the one in sunglasses said, pointing toward Akari with his thumb. 
His tattooed companion let out a short chuckle, before waving his hand unconcernedly. “Can’t have her making a scene. We’d better dispose of her.” 
“Got it.” 

The next moment, the man in sunglasses quickly circled around behind her. “Sorry ’bout this.” 
With that, he put his right hand over her mouth, bringing a knife-shaped Lux toward her neck with his left—but before he could push down, Akari shoved him with her elbow, grabbing him by his wrist and hurling him away. 
“Ngh?!” 
No sooner did the man hit the ground flat on his back than Akari lunged toward him and, without even the slightest hesitation, crushed his throat with her fist. 
“!” The man writhed around, letting out a hoarse rasp, but Akari paid him no further mind as she turned her gaze toward his companion. 
“What the…?!” 
“Huh…?!” 
The tattooed man’s eyes had opened wide in disbelief, while Kotoha, too, was staring toward her blankly. 
“Y-you little…!” The man quickly returned to his senses, reaching for a pistol-shaped Lux at his waist. 
But he was too slow. 
Before he had time to aim it, Akari lunged toward him. She delivered a powerful kick to his crotch, and then she slammed her elbow into his jaw as he bent forward in pain. He fell to the ground, the whites of his eyes showing, foam spewing from his mouth. 
“Phew…” Akari let out a deep sigh. 
She had no fighting experience, and of course she had never been trained in self-defense. On top of that, these were the first Genestella other than herself that she had ever met. 
So she had imitated the actions she had watched on TV, of the people whom she had seen in the Festa. That was all. She had been confident, however, that learning those moves would be effective. After all, the two men were clearly far from those fighters that she had seen competing in Asterisk. 
“…A-amazing! You’re so strong, Akari!” Kotoha was jumping up and down in excitement, applauding her. 
“I…I was just protecting my friend,” she responded, working up her courage. 
At this, Kotoha broke into a wide smile. 
And with that, a group of panicked men in suits came rushing toward them from the mansion. 
From what Akari heard several days later, the two men had intended to kidnap Kotoha. The Rokujou family had played a major role in the founding of Galaxy and, even today, had strong ties with its upper management. The would-be kidnappers’ plan, it seemed, was to use Kotoha to blackmail her doting father and, through him, force Galaxy to meet their demands. 
Kotoha was, of course, partly in the wrong for having left the mansion by herself; but to allow attackers to infiltrate their own residence—the primary responsibility clearly lay with the Yachigusa family. The only way they were able to save any face at all was thanks to the fact that Akari had come to Kotoha’s defense—and because Kotoha’s father wanted to keep the incident private. This wasn’t, however, an act of goodwill toward the Yachigusas—rather, the Rokujous seemed to have their own reasons for wanting to keep knowledge about the attack from entering the public arena. 
Nonetheless, Akari began to be treated a little differently. She was still loathed, still ostracized, still kept at a distance—her situation in that respect hadn’t changed—but ever since the incident, Kotoha began to pay her regular visits. The Yachigusa family, for their part, wasn’t in a position to turn down the attentions of the all-powerful Rokujous. Which meant they could no longer afford to treat Akari the same way they had up till now. 
Akari, of course, had no hand in these deliberations. In any event, Kotoha was her first and only friend. Those hours she spent with the cheerful, innocent young girl became, in a way, a sort of salvation. 
After all, it was thanks to Kotoha that she was finally permitted to attend school. Kotoha had insisted, it seemed, that she be in the same class. Viewing her very existence as a source of shame, her family—her mother included—would have no doubt preferred to keep her holed up in her little corner of the residence grounds for her whole life and resisted this with a litany of excuses. The most significant of these was apparently their concern that she couldn’t control her Strega abilities. Every now and then, she would still go on her little rampages and halt the flow of mana everywhere around her—if she did that outside, the damage, they argued, would be enormous. 
So she showed them over the following year that she could control herself. While she didn’t have her ability fully under control, strictly speaking, she stopped trying to run away, and she stopped rampaging around the grounds. Until now, she had always hated her abilities, had always hated the fact that she was a Genestella, a Strega. It was those qualities that lay at the root of all her troubles, and it was because of them that her mother wouldn’t see her. The fact that she had come to accept herself for who she was wasn’t because she longed to go to Asterisk, but rather because she had etched her hopes into her mind from an early age, and they were now exerting a powerful effect over her abilities. In other words, she suppressed them through sheer force of will—no matter the toll it exerted on her physical well-being. 
In the end, having lost their main reason for holding her back, Akari’s family eventually gave their permission for her to start school. That had been helped along, it seemed, by the insistence of Kotoha’s father. There may also have been, Akari thought, some degree of economic assistance involved. But, she suspected, the one she really had to thank was Kotoha. While her father didn’t hold the same prejudices toward Genestella as the Yachigusa family, he did not have any particular fondness toward Akari himself. He had helped her, no doubt, simply as a token of his appreciation for her having saved his daughter and because he wanted to keep Kotoha happy. 
In any event, Akari began attending the same girls’ middle school as Kotoha. She was the only Genestella there, but with the Rokujou family looking over her, she was able to experience a comfortable, peaceful student life. 
Her only real concern was her mother, who had opposed her leaving the Yachigusa residence until the very end. When Akari had sought out her permission directly, the woman had merely railed abuse at her through the sliding door, without even coming out to see her. The fact that, in spite of her mother’s opposition, Akari was nonetheless permitted to attend school was a sign of how low her mother’s status had fallen in the eyes of Akari’s grandfather and other relatives. Indeed, from what Akari could tell, her mother was now viewed as even less important than she herself was, given that she at least had a connection to the Rokujous. In the end, her mother’s pent-up resentment began to consume not only her heart but her body, too, and she was sent to a distant hospital far off the beaten path. 
Since then, Akari hadn’t seen her even once. After all, even if she went to visit her, her mother would no doubt just turn her away. 
The second turning point in Akari’s life came during the winter before her graduation from high school. She had been chatting with Kotoha on the veranda outside the building she had come to accept as home, when her friend broke the news. 
“Say, Akari, there’s something I want to tell you. I’m thinking about getting married once I graduate.” 
“Huh…?” Akari found herself turning tense at this sudden confession. 
“You know him, right? It’s Sei.” 
“…Ah, from the Toudou family.” 
Now that she mentioned it, Akari recalled having met the earnest young man on several occasions. He was the second son of the main branch of the Toudou family and had been Kotoha’s friend since childhood. Akari herself had been invited to visit his dojo a few times and had even faced off against him in a mock duel. 
“That’s… Congratulations.” 
“Heh-heh, thanks. But if I told Dad that I wanted to join his family, I’m sure he’d be really opposed to the idea,” Kotoha said with her usual bright smile. 
Akari had no doubt about that. Kotoha was an only daughter, so of course her parents and relatives were all expecting any prospective husbands to marry into their own family. 
“But I’m not going to give up!” she added, putting her hands together as she worked herself up. “I’ll bring him around. Just you wait!” 
Akari couldn’t help but be impressed. 
No matter what Kotoha set her mind to, no matter how long it took, she would unquestionably see it through to the end. The fact that Akari had even been able to attend school in the first place was due to her friend’s stubborn perseverance. 
Just as she would no doubt ultimately persuade her family in this case, too. 
“So what about you? What are you going to do once you graduate?” Kotoha asked her. 
“Huh? Uh, I… I don’t know yet.” Akari was caught by surprise at having so suddenly become the topic of their conversation, but her answer was an honest one. Unlike Kotoha, who always knew precisely what she wanted, her own thoughts were as vague as ever. 
“I see… But you know, you should do what you want to do.” 
Faced with a sentiment that seemed to see through to her innermost desires, Akari could do little but return a forced smile. 
As it happened, she was wrestling with herself over precisely that. 
She wanted to go to Rikka—to Asterisk—to that fabled city where Genestella were celebrated. If she did, she felt, she would be able to transform her vague, noncommittal self into something more. 
But of course, her family would never allow that. Rather, they would oppose her every step of the way. And more than anything, she couldn’t rid herself of the thought that it would only end up bringing further suffering to her mother. 
“You know, Akari… As the daughter of a wealthy family, I guess I’ve led a sheltered life, wanting for nothing, so maybe I’m not really capable of fully understanding your troubles…” 
“Indeed. But you know, I like that straightforwardness of yours.” 
“Still, I’ll do everything I can to support you,” Kotoha said, gripping her hands tightly. “So I want you to go for it.” 
“…Thank you,” Akari responded, lightly grasping her hands in turn. 
It was a selfish thing to say—but at the same time, it was so like Kotoha. 
That night, Akari told her relatives what she wanted. They didn’t approve, as she had expected, but their opposition wasn’t as strong as her own resolve. And besides, her existence was no longer a secret, so they seemed to have resigned themselves to the reality of their situation. Perhaps that was why they had yielded to her so much sooner than she had expected. Or else, perhaps having realized that they could no longer carry the secret of her existence to the grave, they saw it as an opportunity to send her somewhere far away and out of sight. 
They did, however, make her agree to several conditions. First, they wouldn’t support her financially—not so much as a penny. In other words, she would have to pay for her tuition and living expenses herself. Second, she wasn’t to bring any more attention to herself than she already had. That meant that she wasn’t to enter the Festa, nor the rankings either—nor anything else that might drag the Yachigusa name through the mud. 
Given that all she wanted was to live in the city of Asterisk, she accepted those conditions without complaint and penned a letter to her mother to convey her feelings. 
Shortly afterward, she passed the entrance exam for Seidoukan Academy’s university program without a hitch and took her first steps into the bright, sunny world of the famed Academy City on the Water. 
And then, one night, she met Madiath Mesa.