The Amphisbaena (2 page)

It was not actually the first meeting between the two of them.

However, the first memory she—Asagi Aiba—had of Kojou Akatsuki was that night at the dimly lit waiting room in the hospital.

That night, Asagi was sitting on a bench all by herself, gazing absentmindedly at the laptop open on her lap. She was wearing a Saikai Academy middle schooler uniform, with plain, black hair.

It was sometime after nine
PM
. There were no longer any outside guests visiting patients. It was dark outside the window; the hospital was quiet. The still-young girl was illuminated only by dim emergency lights.

Kojou, who just happened to be passing by, suddenly halted, his eyes glued to the side of her face.

Half of the reason was that he thought he’d seen the girl before.

The other half was that she looked like she was crying.

Noticing Kojou gazing at her like that, Asagi suddenly lifted up her face.

He hadn’t expected her to glare straight at him with firm, tear-moistened eyes.

That surprised Kojou a little. When he’d seen Asagi Aiba in class, she seemed nothing more than a mature girl who didn’t really stand out much. “You’re…the newbie in my class at school, right?” Asagi asked in an unexpectedly peaceful tone.

Kojou made a short sigh. “At least call me a transfer student. It’s been almost two months since I transferred over.”

“Oh… Well, not like it matters, anyway,” Asagi shrugged indifferently. He didn’t learn this until later, but apparently she’d lived on the small, artificial island known as Itogami Island from since she was kindergarten age. Certainly, Kojou’s having come to the island less than two months before made him nothing more than a Johnny-come-lately from Asagi’s perspective.

“What happened to your glasses?” Kojou asked, as he realized what was different from the way she normally looked in class. So far as Kojou could remember, Asagi was always wearing a pair of plain, unfashionable glasses.

But Asagi dismissively shook her head. “They’re just for show. It’s not like my eyes are bad.”

“Is that so? Just seems…”
Like a waste of your good looks
, Kojou was about to say but thought better of it and swallowed his words; it wasn’t any of his business.

Asagi shot him a suspicious glare, her eyes narrowed. “More to the point, what are you doing in a hospital at this hour? Sprained a finger?”

“…I wouldn’t come to a huge hospital like this for a finger sprain, y’know.” Kojou grimaced as he replied. Apparently Asagi knew that Kojou was a basketball player, at least. She made a somewhat mischievous smile, even with her eyes still red and puffy from crying.

“So what is it? Player on your team got life-threatening injuries?”

“Cut that out. Got nothing to do with that.”

Kojou lowered his voice as his lips made a serious, disagreeable twist. He tried to convey things as casually and factually as he could, as if to not make things any graver than they were.

“My little sister’s hospitalized… Been that way ever since we came to this island.”

“Is…that so…?”

Asagi’s expression didn’t change. But he didn’t think the faint wariness and hostility toward Kojou in her voice was just his imagination.

“Why are you standing up? Sit, would you?”

Folding the notebook computer on her lap, Asagi pointed to the seat right beside her.

“Er, but…”

“It’s fine. I’ll feel pathetic if I’m just sitting here crying all by myself.”

“My being here isn’t gonna help anything, y’know.”

She’s got another thing coming if she’s expecting me to console her
, thought Kojou as he spoke, but Asagi leered at him.

Despite her obvious beauty, her smiling face was awfully plain and frank. “It’s fine. After all, if you tell anyone else, I’ll be the one making you cry.”

“The heck’s that? Aren’t you treating me a little rough here?”

“Put up with it. It’s your fault for seeing me cry in the first place.”

Her irrational declaration brought a strained smile to Kojou’s face. He was relieved that she didn’t seem at all concerned about the opposite sex. Her attitude was refreshing. He felt like he was dealing with a guy he’d known for years.

That memory was before the youth known as Kojou Akatsuki was to be called the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire…

—So that’s how it was.

Kojou gasped and lifted his face as the soft sensation of her lips and the teasing tone of her voice came rushing back to him.

He was in a packed monorail station. The unenthused train conductor spoke rapid-fire in a sleep-inducing tone. Outside the window were the man-made skyline of Itogami City and the morning sun shining upon the open, blue sea. These were the familiar sights of the Demon Sanctuary.

Feeling an itch in his nose like he was about to have a nosebleed, Kojou sighed.
A dream, huh?

“Senpai.”

“Whoa?!”

Kojou made a vivid yelp as Yukina Himeragi called out to him from point-blank range.

Yukina hmphed, her lips twisting in displeasure as she looked up at Kojou.

She was a middle school schoolgirl in uniform with a black guitar case on her back. She had a refreshing beauty to her, almost too nicely arranged. He ought to have been a little more used to seeing her, but
when she suddenly popped into his vision looking like that, he got nervous for no good reason. However, she had not the slightest inkling of the effect she had.

Yukina spoke to the shaken Kojou in a blunt, dubious tone. “We’re going to arrive at the station shortly.”

Right on cue, the monorail was just beginning to decelerate before reaching the next station. This was the station closest to Saikai Academy, where Kojou and Yukina went to school. This was the normal time slot for the school commute, so there were a good many other students on the train at the same time as they were. Numerous jealous and hate-filled glares fell upon Kojou for being able to go to school with a girl as pretty as Yukina.

In reality, Yukina was simply performing her duty as watcher, but under the circumstances, no one would believe any such claim. Nor would they believe that the guitar case Yukina carried over her back contained a demon-slaying spear said to be able to kill even a Primogenitor.

Gimme a break here
, Kojou murmured internally as he made a frail sigh. “R-right. Sorry. Dozed off a little there.”

“I can see that.”

“C-can you now.”

“…Is something on your mind? You seemed to be having a nightmare of some sort.”

Yukina had an overly serious expression as she inquired. Kojou’s expression wavered once more. Of course, he didn’t say something like,
Oh, I was remembering how I got kissed by my classmate.

“N-nah, nothing like that at all. Just surprised me, that’s all.”

“…Did something happen with Aiba?”

“Eh?!”

How did you know?
Kojou nearly said, furiously swallowing down the words. Yukina’s spiritual sensitivity as a Sword Shaman was not to be underestimated.

As Yukina drew closer, staring intently at him, Kojou averted his gaze as a cold sweat came over him.

“N-no, of course not… Ah-ha-ha…”

“Really?”

“Nothing. Didn’t do nothing.”

“…Why are you looking away, senpai?”

“I-if you’ve really gotta ask, this angle is kinda…,” Kojou mumbled hesitantly. Yukina was all but pressed up against him as she looked up.

“Angle?” Yukina blinked with a blank look.

She was a short girl; Kojou was nearly two hundred centimeters tall. From his vantage point, if he looked down at Yukina while she was at point-blank range, he had just the right angle to stare down at the bust of her uniform.

In other words, at the pale white skin visible through the gap in her collar and at the valley between those softly swelling peaks—

“Senpai…!”

With a sudden move, Yukina covered her bust with both hands and glared at Kojou.

Kojou desperately shook his head. “Wait, wait! It’s not my fault!”

“…I suppose not. It is a relief you are being your normal self, senpai.” Yukina sighed deeply as if surrendering.

Like your being relieved by that is a good thing
, Kojou thought with a grimace on his face. It was good that he’d managed to get off that topic for the moment, but for some reason, he didn’t feel like the air had been cleared.

The automated monorail reached the station, and the doors opened. Kojou and Yukina mixed with the noisy flock of students getting off the train and made their way to the ticket gate.

It wasn’t even a ten-minute walk from the station to Saikai Academy. Kojou listlessly walked along the undulating road. Glancing up to see the side of Kojou’s face like that, Yukina’s eyebrows frowned in apparent concern.

“Senpai, are you really all right? You don’t look so good.”

“Can’t be helped, can it? It’s seriously tough for someone with a vampire’s constitution to come to school at this time of day.” Kojou made a resentful expression as he looked up at the excessively bright blue sky.

This was Itogami Island, the artificial city of eternal summer floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Even in October, there was no sense of autumn whatsoever; powerful sunrays poured down, as was their wont. Truth be told, it was tough on everyone, not just vampires.

“Besides, I’ve been sleep deprived all the time lately.”

“Sleep deprived?”

“Yeah, ’cause that Kirasaka girl’s been calling me in the middle of the night.”

“Calls? From Sayaka to you, senpai?”

Yukina’s eyes were wide in apparent shock. Kojou didn’t even notice.

“Yeah, she’s been doing that from time to time lately. Like asking how you were that day, and after that, long lectures for who knows what. What the hell’s she thinkin’, calling me over little things like that?”

“Lengthy…and over…little things?”

“She said she’s gotta talk to me because you don’t have your own cell phone, y’see.”

Without displaying any special suspicion, Kojou relayed the explanation exactly as it had been given to him.

For some reason, Yukina had a serious look on her face as she murmured to herself.

“…Sayaka’s hated phones since way back. It caused a bit of trouble at times. She’d even turn down calls from her Lion King Agency superiors, saying she couldn’t endure the voice of a man in her ear.”

“Oh yeah… She hates men, doesn’t she?” Kojou sighed as he remembered how prickly Sayaka’s attitude had been just after they’d met.

Sayaka Kirasaka was an Attack Mage affiliated with the Lion King Agency, just as Yukina was.

As a child, she’d been physically abused by her father routinely because of her excellent Spirit Sight power. Thanks to that, she held a grudge against all men, even now.

“I’ve gotta say, though, she really cares about you to be going out of her way to call me like this. Maybe you could call it concern for her friend, overprotectiveness maybe…”

“Senpai…”

Yukina turned a reproachful glare at Kojou as he murmured in apparent annoyance. Kojou was a little thrown off by her unexpected reaction.

“Himeragi?”

“No, it’s nothing at all. I suppose you’re right.” Yukina stopped walking as she replied flatly. She seemed to be pouting somehow, but Kojou had no idea why. Yukina kept a blank expression on her face as she robotically went through the motions. “Well then, I must excuse myself. I am going to the middle school campus, after all.”

“R-right.”

Kojou tilted his head slightly as he watched Yukina head off into the distance. With the guitar case over her small back, she soon vanished into a sea of similarly dressed schoolgirls.

“What the heck was that about?”

He stood in place as the dazzling morning rays of the sun poured down without mercy. It seemed this would be another sweltering day.

Kojou heard a voice behind him as he changed into his indoor shoes at the entrance. “Mornin’, Kojou. Man, you’re looking worse than usual. You all right?”

The male student, with headphones hanging from his neck, waved at Kojou with a high-tension demeanor. It was his “bad” friend from his middle school days, Motoki Yaze. Kojou waved back as if barely bothering.

“Just short on sleep. Leave me alone.”

“Hmm… Short on sleep, you say?”

Hearing Kojou’s indifferent reply, it was Rin Tsukishima, passing by at that moment, who smiled and wedged herself into the conversation. She talked and acted cool, and her style was second to none, making her very popular with the boys; she was also the class representative for Kojou and Asagi’s high school class, 1-B.

“Is there something on your mind? You can speak to me about it, if you like.”

“No, it’s not like I’m…worrying about it…”

“Interpersonal relations, then?”

As she watched Kojou seemingly glossing things over with vague words, Rin made her declaration without any hint of hesitation. Kojou was rocked back on his heels by her confidence-filled words.

“The shape of your brows and the angle of your nostrils form a face gripped by concerns regarding interpersonal relations.”

“…I-is that so?” Kojou subconsciously touched the tip of his nose in bewilderment. He’d heard that Rin had a knack for divining by the facial features, but it wasn’t as if he lacked a reason why he’d be concerned about interpersonal relations.

In contrast to the unnerved Kojou, Rin spoke with a majestic tone.

“The cause of your anxiety is a person very close to you, yes? The coloring of your spiritual aura suggests…trouble with the opposite sex?”

“H-how did you know?” Kojou spoke on reflex as he remembered about Asagi.

It had been over two weeks ago when she’d kissed Kojou. It was right after the conclusion of a certain terror incident.

Since coming to know Asagi in middle school, Kojou barely realized she was a member of the opposite sex, but naturally, he couldn’t say the same after something like
that
had happened. Even someone as dense as Kojou could not fail to realize at least the fact she was favorably disposed toward him.