Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 28 - Chapter 6

Start of the Trial

Tuesday, March 29th

At first, Koutarou and Clan simply thought that Maki had spotted a suspicious character and gone off to tail them, but they soon realized that wasn’t the case. They waited a long time for her, but she didn’t come back. She hadn’t contacted them either. And when Koutarou and Clan tried to call her, they couldn’t get through.

“It looks like her cellphone is out of range.”

“Gravitational waves aren’t reaching her bracelet either. It’s either been turned off or it’s being jammed.”

“What does this mean? Where did Aika-san go?”

“I can’t imagine that she was kidnapped. Personally or practically.”

Considering the circumstances, it was highly unlikely Maki alone would have been attacked by an enemy, And since gravitational waves weren’t reaching her, that would imply that either a Folsarian, an underground dweller, or a Forthorthian was responsible. But none of them had any reason to kidnap Maki. Even if someone from the anti-government groups was making a move, there would have been better choices. If it was about Folsaria, Yurika would have been the go-to choice; and if it was the People of the Earth, Kiriha. Yet if Maki hadn’t been kidnapped, all signs pointed to her disappearing of her own accord.

“Did your machines record anything?”

“I stowed the observation devices already, and unless its an emergency, the computer only automatically records what’s in my line of sight...”

“Guess that’s a bust, then. Let’s try checking out the places she might have gone to.”

“Please wait a moment. I’ll ask Theiamillis-san and the others to look for Maki too.”

“Good idea.”

Maki had disappeared without a trace. Being unable to contact her, Koutarou and the others decided to split up and look for her. Koutarou would go with Clan and check out places they thought she might go. And since it was already nighttime, the other girls would form groups of two or three and try searching other places. They made sure no one was alone, however, because while it was unlikely, there was still the possibility that Maki had been kidnapped.

Koutarou and Clan first headed to Kisshouharukaze High School. They were the closest to it, and it was the first place that came to mind for Koutarou considering how they met. They made their way towards the class 1-A classroom.

“...How did you and Maki meet?”

“Aika-san was after the mana gathered in room 106.”

“Signaltin’s?”

“Considering how things turned out, probably. And she transferred into this school to observe us and keep her identity hidden.”

“A high school student would be able to walk around the town more naturally than some random unemployed young woman, after all.”

Maki was an evil magical girl from Darkness Rainbow. In preparation for their battle with Rainbow Heart, she’d come after the vast pool of mana gathered in room 106. Operating undercover, she’d started attending Harukaze High to blend in.

“There was also the cosclub. As long as she was part of it, no one would think it was weird to see her in a magical girl costume.”

“...Now that you mention it, that’s true. It’s such a simple, obvious idea, yet it works brilliantly.”

Maki had copied Yurika, her enemy, and joined the cosplay society. She had been under the false impression that she was using it as a way to hide her real identity. It was all a misunderstanding, but it turned out to be quite an effective strategy. Who would ever think that a real magical girl would be part of the cosclub? Even if she openly paraded around in her magical girl outfit, people would only think of her as an oddball cosplayer.

“Actually, Aika-san had it rough from the start. Yurika introduced her as an evil magical girl the day she transferred in.”

Koutarou could remember the look on Maki’s face even now. When Yurika called her out in front of the whole class, she completely froze.

“Satomi-san, Satomi-san! Look! Please look!”

“What is it, Yurika?”

“They came! They finally came!”

“Who did?”

“The enemy! The evil magical girls are finally here!”

“Wha?!”

At first, Koutarou had thought Maki was just mortified over being outed as a cosplayer, but thinking back on it, he knew what she was really thinking. She must have been completely stunned that Yurika had revealed something that should have been an absolute secret for both of them.

“But people knew Yurika as a member of the cosclub, right? I can’t imagine it actually caused any trouble.”

“Yeah. Everyone just thought Maki was an old cosplay friend of Yurika’s, and that Yurika was being dramatic.”

Koutarou looked into the pitch black classroom. Though it was dark, he could imagine Maki standing there, clear as day. But Maki then was hardly the same Maki he knew now. Back then, she’d been full of hostility.

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not...”

“Considering how it all turned out, I think it was good.”

“Was it? It certainly doesn’t sound like it...”

“Because we all got involved, it drew out the battle between Aika-san and Yurika, so she got to experience a little bit of life as a normal high school girl. It seems like that was what ultimately led to her change of heart.”

“...So she wasn’t much different from me.”

“Hmm?”

“In my case, I was blown into the past with you, remember?”

“Yeah... Because of unavoidable circumstances, we ended up working together, and that changed things between us. That does sound like what happened with you and me.”

Maki had at first appeared as Koutarou and the girls’ enemy. All misunderstandings aside, that part was undeniable. But what slowly led to that changing was her everyday life. Slowly she learned to live, not as Dark Navy, but as Aika Maki.

Unfortunately, Maki wasn’t in their old classroom. Koutarou and Clan went and checked the cosclub too, just to be sure, but she wasn’t there either.

“Is there anywhere else Maki might go?”

“Yeah, but it’s all pretty far away.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. Let’s use the Cradle.”

“Good ol’ Cradle.”

“Yes, the very same one who betrayed me, its owner, and brought you back to Earth.”

“Forgive it already. It wasn’t its fault.”

“Indeed, it was 100 percent your fault.”

“Forgive me already too.”

“No way. Until you become more honest with us, I reserve the right to hold it against you.”

Next, they used the Cradle to take them to the ski resort where their class had gone for their winter excursion during their first year of high school. Even though it was in the mountains, there was hardly any snow right now. April was just around the corner, so the last of winter was chased away weeks ago. But even though it was out of season, this was a special place for Koutarou and Maki. What had transpired here had greatly changed their relationship.

“Next time, I’d like to come here at a better time. During the day, for starters.”

“Haha, yeah. But since we’re looking for Aika-san, this might be just about right.”

“What happened here?”

“It was over there. Let’s talk on the way.”

Koutarou took Clan with him to the ski resort’s woodland course. The incident with Maki had taken place at a steep slope deeper into the forest.

“One night on our trip, Maki disappeared. We found this out later, but it seems a demon from Folsaria had made its nest here, and she tried to tame it.”

“Tame it...? Ah, I see. Her specialty is mind manipulation magic, after all, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. But we didn’t know about that back then, so we were concerned about our classmate who’d gone missing.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense.”

“But she made a miscalculation. It seems like the demon knew about us, and when it realized that I was coming, it went into a panic yelling, ‘Fatra, Fatra!’”

“So it was one of the ones that Grevanas and Maxfern used...”

“Yurika got frozen, and Aika-san was seriously injured. And I dragged the wounded Aika-san... to this lodge.”

Creak...

The door to the lodge was unlocked. Since it was far off the course and people rarely visited it, it was never locked to begin with. It was a dusty, rather bare room with an unshaded lightbulb for lighting. There was a snow shovel and some firewood lying on the floor. It seemed the place hadn’t changed a bit in the year since Koutarou had last been there.

“What happened here?” Clan asked.

Koutarou’s worried eyes turned soft as they entered the lodge. Clan could tell that he was waxing nostalgic.

“Aika-san was badly hurt. She was on death’s door, so I called for Signaltin.”

“Aaaaaahhh! I remember now! You’re talking about that time, aren’t you?!”

“Hmm?”

“The time you forcibly called for the sword and made a mess out of my lab!”

“Ah, right, I remember that.”

Back then, Koutarou and Clan had only just returned from the past. Only Clan knew that he was the Blue Knight, and because of that, they left Signaltin on the Cradle to keep it a secret. Clan was researching it, and she’d had it hooked up to all kinds of sensitive equipment when Koutarou called on the Cradle to transfer it. It ruined the whole experiment, as well as some of the equipment. This was the first she’d ever heard of why he’d done it.

“I asked you to wait three minutes! The Cradle betrayed me then, too!”

“Aika-san would have been dead in three minutes.”

“Urk...”

“Well, that’s how it is.”

“...There’s no replacement for Maki. I’ll forgive you.”

At the time, Koutarou hadn’t bothered explaining what was going on to Clan. Even if he had, she likely wouldn’t have chosen the life of an enemy over he precious lab equipment. She was only able to understand what he’d done now after time had passed and their relationships had changed.

“I’m sorry, Clan.”

“It’s fine. So what happened after that?”

“I treated Aika-san with Signaltin. That was when something strange happened. Signaltin showed me a vision of Aika-san’s solitude. And according to her, she saw the same thing about me.”

Within the light that Signaltin had unleashed to treat Maki, Koutarou had seen a much younger version of her. Maki had seen Koutarou as a boy as well. And through those visions of each other’s pasts, they came to understand what the other was missing. What they needed. And it was from there that they took the first steps to saving each other.

“That sounds less like it was Signaltin, and more like Alaia-san.”

“I think so too. I’m always in her debt...”

“You just can’t match Alaia-san... We’re both princesses, so how is it that she’s so different from me?”

Clan hung her head down, closed her eyes with a sigh, and laughed at herself as she played with her hair. When she recalled how Alaia had been as a princess, she became extremely self-conscious. She felt there was an insurmountable gap between them.

“There’s no reason for you and Her Majesty to be the same. You both have your own good sides.”

“Veltlion...”

Clan hadn’t been expecting any words of comfort, but she took great consolation in what he said. She realized that she wanted someone—preferably Koutarou—to say exactly that to her.

“Two Alaias couldn’t have saved Forthorthe; we needed you, too. Have some more confidence in yourself. You’re planning on becoming the empress, aren’t you?”

“...You’re being awfully kind today. Normally you’d be saying all sorts of things.”

“That’s the kind of promise we had, right?”

“That’s true... I don’t hate that dutiful side of yours.”

“Besides, we’re not in that kind of situation right now.”

“Indeed... Just where has Maki gone?”

And it wasn’t just Koutarou and Clan looking for Maki; Theia and the others were all searching too. But no one had been able to find her. It was hard to believe that Maki would be able to fully escape Kiriha, Ruth, Sanae, and Yurika. That’s why everyone expected something serious had happened, but they couldn’t imagine what. Koutarou and the others continued their search as a growing feeling of anxiety loomed over all of them.

The last place Koutarou and Clan visited for the day was the coastal side of Kisshouharukaze City where the amusement park was. They didn’t have any business with the amusement park itself, however, but a nearby warehouse.

“If we don’t find her here, I don’t know where else to look. I hope she’s here...”

“I remember this place. Let’s see, it was...”

Koutarou took Clan with him to the alley behind the warehouse. It looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place it. Since her computer retained map data, however, she quickly realized its significance.

“I see. This is where I sent your armor that time.”

“Yeah. It was back when Darkness Rainbow launched their attack.”

“I wasn’t sure what was going on when Pardomshiha sent a rescue signal.”

Koutarou and Maki had come here because the evil magical girls of Darkness Rainbow had made their move. They’d split Koutarou and the others up, then attacked. Clan had transferred Koutarou’s armor to this back alley so he could pick it up and go save the other girls.

“I came here to get the armor, but I ran into an unexpected obstacle.”

“Maki, you mean?”

“Yeah. It turned out Aika-san was an evil magical girl too.”

When he tried to put on the armor, Maki stopped him. After all, she was the evil magical girl Dark Navy. Her mission from Darkness Rainbow that day was to keep Koutarou at the amusement park while the girls were taken out and his apartment was seized.

“Activate Engage. Activate Safeguard, using the exception article to preserve life. Make Satomi-kun unable to walk.”

“Wh-What?! I can’t move my legs?! What is going on?!”

“I activated the contract between us, Satomi-kun. If it’s to protect you, it will even do things like restrain you.”

When he used it to save Maki’s life in the lodge, Signaltin had formed a magical contract between the two of them. Maki had invoked that contract to deprive him of his freedom and keep him from leaving. She was trying to save his life, because she genuinely believed the others couldn’t win against Darkness Rainbow. She thought Koutarou would be walking into a death trap. That’s why Maki had taken on the mission of stalling Koutarou—to keep him safe.

“Aika-san tried to keep me away from the fighting to protect me.”

“But you wanted to protect everyone. How did you get free?”

“I persuaded her.”

“That’s my Blue Knight.”

Unable to move, Koutarou tried to persuade Maki to free him. But it was no simple matter. Her underlying fear of being alone made her cling to him even harder.

“You don’t have to fight me just because you let me go, right?! You should never have to! You’re not the kind of girl who should be fighting!”

“I can’t do that! We would definitely become enemies! Letting you go would mean I have to annul the contract! And if I do that, you won’t think of me as important! I won’t think of you as important either! We’ll only be able to see each other as enemies!”

Maki didn’t fear enemies or death, but solitude. She was scared that if the magical bond between her and Koutarou was dissolved, she would return to that solitude. She would much rather have Koutarou. Even if it meant he hated her, she’d rather feel that burn than the numbing coldness of isolation.

“Back then, Aika-san had already begun to make real friends. She just had to realize it. So it wasn’t by my hand; Aika-san saved herself.”

“Jeez... how stupid...”

“It’s not stupid. It’s important.”

“No, I meant that you’re stupid.”

Clan, a dumbfounded expression on her face, poked the tip of Koutarou’s nose with her finger. Koutarou’s eyes opened wide.

“Why?”

“Because you don’t understand how women feel at all! Maki herself believes she was saved by you! You really are so stupid!”

Boop, boop...

Clan repeatedly poked at Koutarou’s nose. She was one part astounded, and one part envious. She was amazed that Koutarou didn’t understand anything, but at the same time she was jealous of Maki’s spectacular romance. It was all part of her complex feelings as a woman.

“The way you girls think is too much for me...”

“You really are stupid... You’d only have to admit one thing... I’m sure Maki had a hard time with this stupidity of yours too...”

“Stop it with the stupid stuff. It’s started to hurt lately.”

“I can imagine... Anyway, Maki is more important right now.”

Clan then moved to operating her bracelet and had the observation device stationed above them gather information on the area. Several holograms popped up.

“How does it look?”

Koutarou looked at the holograms with Clan, but he didn’t speak much Modern Forthorthian. He would need Clan to interpret the information for him.

“She doesn’t seem to be nearby. Sound, heat, electric and gravitational waves... I’ve tried every method I could think of, but I can’t find a pattern corresponding to Maki. What about you?”

“I can’t feel Aika-san’s presence. She probably hasn’t come here.”

Even between Clan’s technology and Koutarou’s psychic powers, they couldn’t find a single trace of Maki. Unless she’d perfectly concealed her presence, there was no way she was in the area.

“Then we still don’t know...”

“Yeah. Aika-san, where did you go...?”

They had searched everywhere they could think of, but had come up emptyhanded. Unease brewed in their hearts. The worry that something might have actually happened to Maki grew stronger and stronger in Koutarou and Clan. As their shoulders slumped, both of their bracelets began emitting a shrill sound.

Beeeeep...

“Koutarou, glasses girl, can you hear me?!”

Before the tone even ended, a transparent version of Sanae’s face was displayed in front of them. It wasn’t an astral projection, but a hologram created by their bracelets.

“What is it, Sanae?! Did you find Aika-san?!”

“No, just the opposite! We can’t find her anywhere!”

“Yeah, I mean, that’s why we’re looking for her...”

“No, that’s not... Um, we went to the place where you lost sight of Maki, just in case. We tried lots of ways to pick up her tracks, but it’s like she’s just gone! We can’t find any clues at all. It’s really weird, Koutarou!”

“What?!”

Maki had literally disappeared. All traces of her ended at the promenade by the forest. There would be footprints if she had just walked away. If she’d flown, there would be lingering abnormalities with the gravity in the area, and if she’d used magic, there’d be traces of mana left. Same with spiritual energy. A person disappearing without a single trace was impossible.

“Clan, could someone erase the traces afterwards?”

“It wouldn’t be impossible, but it would take time. It’s a pain to do because covering up tracks leaves its own tracks. So it’s not something that can be taken care of quickly, and certainly not to the extent that those girls wouldn’t be able to tell.”

It was impossible to think anyone could fool all of them. Each of the girls looking for Maki was an expert in her own techniques.

“What does this mean...?”

“I couldn’t say...”

Sanae’s report confused Koutarou and Clan, but that wasn’t the end of it. Sanae’s hologram disappeared and was replaced with Ruth’s.

“Master, Clan-sama! I found footage from the cameras in the park!”

“Well done, Pardomshiha.”

“Show us!”

“Right away!”

Making use of her wits, Ruth had hacked into the computer at the park’s management office and found recorded surveillance footage. She located the closest camera to where they’d been, and narrowed it down to the time Maki should have gone missing. She played that footage for Koutarou and Clan now, and they saw themselves standing in the park a few hours ago.

“Aika-san is still there...”

“But this is definitely it. Look, there’s where you turn around, and...”

That was when it began. All of a sudden, Maki’s body was wrapped in an indigo light.

“What’s that light?!”

“Maki!”

After looking at her hand with a confused expression, she reached out to the two people in front of her. Her mouth moved like she was trying to tell them something, but no sound played. Either she was too quiet for the microphone to pick up, or her voice couldn’t come out at all.

“She disappeared?! She really disappeared!”

“What is this?! It’s as if she was never there to begin with!”

All that happened was Maki being wrapped in the indigo light. And when it disappeared, she went with it. There was no sign of her after that. It was like she’d never been there in the first place. Like they’d just been seeing an illusion or a dream. But before Koutarou and the others could recover from the shock of seeing Maki disappear, something else strange began to happen.

“Clan, what’s with that light?!”

“Huh...?”

Before she knew it, Clan’s body was surrounded in an orange light. It wasn’t anything of her doing. It was like her body was emitting the light on its own.

I see, so this is what it was!

The moment Clan became aware of the light, she understood the situation. It was happening because it should. The promised time had come. They barely had any time left. And all she could do was pray.

“Veltlion! If you stay stubborn until the very end―”

Like with Maki, Clan was vanishing, and her voice right along with it.

“Clan?!”

“―I will never forgive youuu...!”

Perhaps because she’d realized what was happening sooner than Maki, Clan was able to say what she wanted before the end. She then wrapped her vanishing arms around Koutarou’s neck.

Please, grant us a miracle... Please listen to our wish...

Clan brought Koutarou closer with her arms, and pressed her lips against his in her final moments. But by then, she’d already lost most of her substance, which was why Koutarou couldn’t feel the sensation of her lips.

It was a dim room built out of stone. The walls had beautiful sculptures engraved into them that made elegant use of curving lines, indicating this room was a grand, special place. The splendor of the engravings, however, was partially obscured by the dust that covered them. This was a long forgotten room where time had stopped and nothing happened.

But a few hours ago, that had changed. All of a sudden, a modest indigo light appeared in the middle of the room. At the center of the room was a circle of nine pillars, each topped with a translucent sphere. One of them had begun glowing.

And with the indigo light of that pillar shining, the statue in the middle of it all was softly illuminated. It was a statue of a person, but it was impossible to tell who in just the dull indigo light shining on it from behind.

But soon enough, a second light came on. From the top of another pillar came a warm orange glow. It was on the opposite side of the statue from the indigo one, and revealed the front of the statue.

Together, the indigo and orange lights illuminated the stone figure of a young girl. She had long hair and wore an outfit much like a shrine maiden’s. Her eyes were closed, and her hands were clasped in front of her chest as if she were praying for something.

She was waiting. For the time a certain person would visit again. And she really was praying... for a small miracle across endless time and immeasurable distance.