—There might be a little problem waiting for you.
No matter how I look at it, this is a classic setup for trouble—seriously, you’ve got to be kidding me. I had no idea how much of her former power Ayano had managed to reclaim, but she must have gotten hold of something—something significant enough that she’d decided to send me to Kyoto.
As for where she’d gotten her information…
Maybe she’d sent one of her familiars or servants to investigate. Or perhaps she’d pulled some strings through Sougen-san and had someone from the Magetsu family look into it. Whatever. That part didn’t really matter. The real problem was that I was being maneuvered exactly where someone wanted me to go.
I knew it was childish, but I’d never liked the feeling of being a pawn in someone else’s game.
“Yoshito-sama, are you feeling hungry?”
We were on the road to Kyoto, and Tokita-san, the butler, seemed determined to feed me at every possible opportunity. Specifically, he kept offering me the jar of dried squid Ayano had handed me.
“The young mistress went to the trouble of preparing this especially for you, Yoshito-sama. I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy it.”
“Sorry, but I actually get carsick pretty easily. I think I’ll save it for after we arrive in Kyoto.”
More importantly—
Was this thing even safe to eat?
There was definitely some kind of magical energy wafting off it. And every now and then, something seemed to wriggle at the edge of my vision. The image that immediately came to mind was the mass of tentacles that had wrapped themselves around Sougen-san.
Come to think of it…
Those things had looked an awful lot like squid.
“Come to think of it, I vaguely remember hearing that dried squid helps prevent motion sickness…”
“I don’t believe it does.”
And so our rather pointless battle of wills continued until the car finally merged onto the Expressway. Lush green mountain ridges stretched out on either side of us. After passing through several tunnels, we stopped for a break at Tsuchiyama Service Area.
“Since we’re here anyway, perhaps you’d care to have some squid—”
“Sorry, but that just won’t fly.”
“…”
“…”
“Y-Yoshito-sama certainly has some squid-ly excellent wit.”
Tokita-san’s expression was as gentle as a father’s. I was struck by an unbearable sense of embarrassment at my own terrible pun, so I got out of the car.
…I know. That one was really forced.
It was Saturday, so the service area was crowded with people. If I’d had the money, I would’ve gone for Jiraiya’s tamagoyaki for 300 yen, or Suehiro’s Omi beef skewer for 500.
“Should I ask Tokita-san for some money? But knowing my luck, he’d just say, ‘Do you want some m-o-n-e-y? Then eat some dried s-q-u-i-d…’ instead.”
I was standing near the shops, absentmindedly muttering yet another painfully bad pun to myself when—
Something happened.
“Wow, how interesting. (Rolling with laughter) ”
A voice I vaguely recognized rang out from somewhere behind me, and suddenly both my eyes were covered.
“Guess who. But I have no name worth telling you. I’m Reona Kaminagi. Nice to meet you.”
Oh, no. Of all the times and places to run into someone completely insane…
“So, go ahead and give me your answer. Who am I?”
“Didn’t you just tell me?”
“Even so, a maiden’s heart wants to hear you say it.”
“Reona Kaminagi.”
“Nope. The correct answer is Kosh○ Seika.”
I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about anymore.
I turned around.
Just as she’d introduced herself, the girl standing behind me was—Reona Kaminagi. The girl who had crossed blades with me during Ayano’s kidnapping. For some reason, the little man-slayer had apparently taken a liking to me. Her emotionless eyes stared straight into mine.
The last time we’d met, she’d been wearing a red-and-white shrine maiden outfit. Today, for some inexplicable reason, she was dressed in a black leather motorcycle suit. It suited her surprisingly well, especially with her streamlined figure that looked practically designed to minimize air resistance—
“GAAAH!”
My cheek was suddenly being pinched by Reona.
“I felt an impertinent gaze upon me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I told you before, didn’t I? Breasts are merely decorative. I was deeply hurt by what you said. I demand compensation.”
Reona’s hand flashed. Before I knew it, she had snatched the jar of dried squid right out of my hands.
…Huh?
“Hey, Reona.”
“I’m not giving it back.”
“I don’t really care about that, but… when did I even start carrying this jar?”
Something was wrong. I was sure I’d left the dried squid in the car.
“What are you talking about? You’ve been holding it ever since, as though it were something precious.”
Whaaat?
That’s creepy. Could it have some kind of automatic homing function?
“Hmm.”
Reona lowered her gaze to the dried squid.
“There’s something rather strange about this thing. (Hup.)”
She casually tossed it away. Her voice was utterly devoid of enthusiasm. Reona gave the jar a completely half-hearted karate chop right across the middle. The moment she did, the dried squid inside withered and wilted.
“What did you just do?”
“That was Harai Tamae and Kiyome Tamae.”
“…‘Purify and cleanse’?”
“Yes, I do.”
Her answer was delivered with such an aggressively Japanese accent that it was almost impressive. Though, in this case, it really should have been “I do,” neither “I” nor “do” seemed particularly relevant.
“Even if I am a god-slayer, I’m still a Kaminagi. Purification happens to be one of my specialties.”
She paused.
“And before you misunderstand, when I say ‘even if I am rotten,’ I don’t mean I have a particular fondness for men getting up to… certain things with other men. It was merely a figure of speech, so please don’t read too much into it.”
“Was that clarification really necessary…?”
“You have the sort of face that makes me think women of that particular persuasion would take a liking to you. So I thought I’d deliberately go in the opposite direction.”
Well, she wasn’t exactly wrong. Back at kindergarten, I was already getting some very intense attention from the fujoshi girls. These days, things had gotten to the point where they’d sigh and whisper, “How precious…” just from watching me look at Kosuke.
“Incidentally, in my professional opinion, you’re the type who pretends to be a pathetic pushover, only to reveal yourself as a sadistic top.”
The fact that Reona could casually throw around phrases like that made me wonder if she wasn’t secretly just as rotten herself.
“Well then, now that our little exchange of witty banter is over, I’d say it’s time we crossed blades…”
She paused.
“And no, I don’t mean that in a sexual sense. If that’s what you’re hoping for, you’ll have to wait until you’re at least in middle school.”
“I’m not hoping for that…”
“Now that’s disappointing in its own way. In that case, perhaps I should declare that I’ll come sneaking into your room about ten years from now. Don’t worry. I’ve recently unlocked not only immortality, but eternal youth as well, so I’ll stay fresh and youthful forever.”
She nodded solemnly.
“Though characters like that do tend to die rather easily. But this is reality, so I’m sure I’ll be fine. …Wait, we’ve gone off topic again, haven’t we? You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Was that not an absurdly unfair thing to say?
“Anyway, if we start trying to kill each other here, we’ll only cause trouble for all the families out enjoying their weekend. So let’s handle this peacefully. If there’s anything you want to eat, I’ll treat you. I recommend Jiraiya’s tamagoyaki and Suehiro’s beef skewers. After that, we can grab some tapioca drinks from one of the stalls outside.”
Eh? What’s this? Were we secretly soulmates?
She had named the exact same things I’d been planning to eat. My opinion of Reona instantly hit MAX.
Seriously, I’m such a pushover. No, wait. Since I’m a guy, would that make me a *chō-rō*?
Chōrō… no, Zhang Lu. There was a guy like that in [Romance of the Three Kingdoms], wasn’t there? Some faction out west that somehow managed to survive until well into the middle of the story. If we’re talking Nobunaga’s Ambition, he was basically the Anayama-slot kind of character.
After the two of us had thoroughly enjoyed the gourmet offerings at Tsuchiyama Service Area, I borrowed 100 yen from Reona and went our separate ways. Incidentally, it seemed she had ridden all the way here on her motorcycle.
Come to think of it, she’d said something before about “betraying Big Sis and going over to your side.” I wondered what had become of that.
Knowing Reona, there was a good chance she’d simply forgotten about it without a second thought. Well, if that was the case, I wasn’t exactly going to complain.
Once I was alone, I made a phone call to someone.
Then I leisurely returned to the car.
“Welcome back, Yoshito-sama. …Oh my. What happened to the dried squid?”
“Um… I happened to run into a woman I know, and she took it with her.”
“What?”
Tokita-san stared at me in genuine astonishment. Then he hurriedly pulled out his cell phone.
“Please wait just a moment.” He dashed outside.
What on earth had gotten into him?
I had secretly attached one of my familiars to Tokita-san’s back, so I figured I might as well eavesdrop a little.
The following is a transcript of the conversation between Tokita-san and Ayano.
『Young mistress, we have an emergency. The dried squid has been stolen by an unknown individual.』
『What happened? I’m sure I put a curse on it so that it couldn’t be separated from Yoshito-kun.』
『We’re having some difficulty determining exactly what occurred…』
『Well, I suppose unexpected things are bound to happen as long as you’re alive. In any case, could you continue on to Kyoto as planned?』
『Understood.』
Apparently, even Ayano hadn’t anticipated Reona showing up.
Tokita-san returned to the driver’s seat as though nothing had happened and started the car. I watched the scenery roll past the window and began to think.
A year ago. The kidnapping of Ayano Magetsu. Back then, I fought two formidable opponents. Reona Kaminagi and Aria el Samaria. I failed to capture either of them, but I did manage to plant a “hidden camera” and a “bug” on Aria.
They only worked once. But that one time, I learned something extremely important.
My father—Naoki Ishirogi—wasn’t dead. Whether he had survived the plane crash or simply hadn’t been on the plane in the first place, I had no idea. Either way, one thing was certain: he was concealing his existence and secretly plotting something.
Then again, according to what I overheard through the bug, he was supposed to be “vacationing on a tropical island for about three years.”
So was Reona simply wandering around on her own, doing her own thing?
Or was my old man—or perhaps his mistress—about to stir up some trouble?
If I had a choice, I’d much rather it be the former.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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