CHAPTER 3
The English Puritan Church’s Women’s Dorm
Russian_Roulette.
1
London’s morning came nine hours after Academy City’s.
With birds chirping and the soft sunlight shining down, Kaori Kanzaki stood, stupefied, in the changing room of the women’s dormitory.
In front of her was the latest in fully automatic washing machines made in Academy City.
“This is why I told you not to… Don’t believe the advertising saying you can put a whole futon in!”
It had finally started getting colder out recently, so in addition to her usual T-shirt and one-legged jeans, Kanzaki wore a jacket that reached her navel. Similar to her jeans, though, the jacket’s right sleeve had been removed, exposing her arm all the way up to the shoulder.
“After all, this washing machine already operates on complicated theories…”
Kanzaki heard a clatter. Her Seven Heavens Sword, which she’d stood against the wall, had fallen over, but even that didn’t distract her.
She was assigned to clothes-washing duty on this day, October 3. Agnes Sanctis, however, had said something about the machine being able to wash futon bedding, too, after which she’d rolled up her thick bedding like sushi and shoved it into the washing machine. That was how it all started.
Currently, the precision appliance, complete with artificial intelligence, was bouncing from side to side, emitting low, anxiety-inducing groans, as though it were going to start spurting out black smoke at any moment.
“…”
The culprit who had caused this whole mess, Agnes, seemed to be at a loss herself; her face had gone white, and she was nearly tearing up. Her back was up against the wall of the changing room, probably to get as far away from the machine as possible. She was shaking nearly as hard as the machine was, which was practically hard enough to make whipped cream. As such, Kanzaki couldn’t find it in her to blame the girl.
And that was when Orsola Aquinas arrived.
Veiled from head to toe in an all-black habit save for her face, the very well-endowed nun smiled at them and called, “It’s time for breakfast!”
“Where did you come from?! Please, be a little more conscious of timing!!”
“Oh! But we always have breakfast at this time. In fact, I would say the washing machine is what’s irregular today.”
Kanzaki grunted and fell silent. She had to admit Orsola was right, now that the nun had pointed it out.
Meanwhile, Agnes took advantage of Kanzaki’s lapse in attention to race out of the changing room singing “I-i-i-it’s time for breakfast! Breakfast, breakfaaast!”
Kanzaki breathed a sigh, scratching the base of her black ponytail. After retrieving the katana that had fallen to the floor, she headed for the dining hall. Next to her, Orsola actually seemed a little sleepy; despite walking down the hallway with a smile, she would sway to the left or right from time to time.
“By the way, Miss Kanzaki?” Orsola asked.
“Yes?”
“What was in the package addressed to you that arrived the other day? If I recall, it was from Mr. Tsuchimikado in Japan.”
Kanzaki’s shoulders gave a shocked start. Her index finger and thumb twirling into her bangs, she said, “Uh… Nothing, nothing much. Nothing special to report.”
“Oh, is that right? It had the words Fallen-Angel Maid Costume written in big letters on the label, and everyone was treating it with trepidation. It was nothing to worry about, then?”
“N-nope!! Nothing to worry about!!” cried Kanzaki, her neck swinging side to side at an alarming rate.
“By the way,” continued Orsola, perhaps not catching on to Kanzaki’s behavior, or maybe her train of thought just veering back on course, “does that katana not get in the way with its prodigious length?”
“A-actually, the extra weight makes it a little easier for me to wield.”
“Oh, I see. I had thought the length held religious meaning.”
“I mean, it has a meaning in Japanese mythology, too, of course, but…,” Kanzaki said as she walked with her down the hallway, sighing with relief now that the conversation had finally gone in another direction. “The only reason there are so many religious katana is because the ruling class in Japan valued katana and swords so highly. If they’d valued axes more, there would be more axes. Some regions also respect fish or vegetables, while still others honor knives or pots. What matters is what the people of the area considered to be most important.”
Her finger stroked the Seven Heavens Sword’s hilt.
“In the case of Shinto, people generally believe in the Myriad Kami theory, which states that kami, the essence of divinity, resides in all things, and that every object has the potential to become a tool for sorcery, no matter what the object is. The Amakusa-Style Crossist Church’s frequently used tactic of utilizing everyday items to weave spells is one application of that theory. Of course, different kami reside in different objects, so you can’t use a single item to cast any spell you want.”
Orsola gave a big yawn. “I am just so sleepy today!”
“!! You were the one who asked me, and now it’s going in one ear and out the other!” cried Kanzaki, baffled, but Orsola just rubbed under her eyes and went straight for the dining hall.
Left behind, Kanzaki let her shoulders hang and trudged in after her.
The inside was large. There was a time when this space served around seventy people, but the former Agnes unit and its 250 or so members had suddenly been added to their ranks. The room was still able to host their numbers, which gave a good idea as to how much space was left over.
Necessarius didn’t have a set time for its activities, so the nuns ate their meals at various hours. This meant the dining hall was never normally filled to capacity. Normally.
“…We only have a full house on the days Orsola is in charge of cooking duty. It feels…extremely calculated on the part of the diners.” Kanzaki sighed as she arrived at the table.
Near her sat Agnes, Orsola, Lucia, and Angeline. Judging by how the stern-eyed Lucia was pulling on the cheeks of the smaller, round-shouldered Angeline, Kanzaki wearily guessed that the latter had been secretly swiping food before mealtime again.
“I shaid I was juft trying to afk Fifter Orfola her fecret!”
“What secret? Don’t be absurd.”
“You might say that, but even I wanna know how to make my boobs bigger!”
Kanzaki put her hands to her head. What were they even talking about?
In the meantime, Lucia and Angeline continued their loud argument.
“Sister Angeline. Nuns have no need for cleavage. What would you even do with the ability to entice strangers—you, a nun, who is supposed to be cut off from worldly desires? In fact, you could say Sister Orsola and I are more lacking than you in that respect.”
“What the—?! Did you just casually brag about having huge breasts?! Why wouldn’t I rebel against such a coldhearted line in the sand! Anyway, Sister Lucia, you were so worried when you came to me and said I thought I’d stopped growing, but lately I feel like I’ve been getting bigger. It feels like it’s straining, and it hurts a little… So how could you ever understand my feel—aghu?!”
Lucia, red in the face, pushed Angeline’s blond, braided head onto the table before she could finish. Every time they struggled, the knives and forks on the table clattered.
Next to them, Kanzaki had seen and heard quite enough. She decided to warn them. “Angeline—and you too, Lucia. It’s time for grace, so stop flailing around like that.”
But Angeline wasn’t in the mood to listen to anyone. Casting a glance somewhat below Kanzaki’s face, she cried out, “The secret is Japanese food!!”
“Would you please give this profane topic a rest already, Sister Angeline?! Kaori Kanzaki, you too. If you are a nun, then you should rethink such slovenly attire!!”
“I… I’m not exactly trying to show off, you know!!” Kanzaki nearly shouted in spite of herself, but the other nuns who watched in a modest way (in both body and mind) looked away from her or tsked softly to themselves.
Even with the strange unfriendliness tainting the air, they offered their pre-meal prayer and began eating breakfast.
The meal system in the women’s dormitory could hardly be called well organized. First, they’d take all the cards submitted by those who would be eating breakfast the next day, then get an enormous pot that could have been a huge heated bath and threw in all the ingredients everyone requested, creating one type of meal every time.
But Orsola was quite skillful in this regard, preparing several different meals for a single breakfast. She couldn’t prepare breakfast for hundreds of people by herself, of course, so she borrowed the help of a dozen or so other nuns. She knew many different recipes, and she was very good at accurately describing them to others.
So while Kanzaki had white rice and miso soup in front of her, Agnes and Lucia had pasta, and Angeline had a French home-cooked meal.
After putting her hands together and murmuring “Amen,” Kanzaki picked up her chopsticks and said, “Still, I wonder what will happen with that washing machine. It took the color out of my yukata obi, and it malfunctioned quite easily today. Don’t tell me Academy City sent us the machine so they could remove the Soul Arm effects from our clothing…”
“H-ha-ha-ha. Why don’t you focus on the rice for now? Look, see?” said Agnes, changing the topic with an awfully dry laugh.
Meanwhile, as for the tall Lucia and the round-shouldered Angeline…
“Er, is that all you need until lunch, Sister Lucia? The pasta is only filling half your plate.”
“Sister Angeline, you simply have far too much to eat. What is going on with that dish of yours? A nun’s breakfast requires no chocolate drinks nor ice cream for dessert. If you always take care to eat in moderation and give thanks for your food with discipline and faith, a single plate’s worth of pasta should fill you. In fact, you could say I have been blessed far more than I should be.”
“Really… Well, if you don’t want it, then I’ll eat it for you.”
“?! Get your fork out of my pasta, Sister Angeline!!”
Kanzaki sighed at the big-small pair of nuns wrestling over their meal as she skillfully removed her pan-fried fish’s skin from its bones. For all their previous arguing about chests or whatever, Kanzaki would have never guessed she’d be seeing something like this from people who were, just a few weeks ago, raging about killing all heretics.
Does human worth really change that much based on your perspective…?
Feeling strangely subdued, Kanzaki finished removing all the fish bones and then popped open a small jar and took out one of the umeboshi within. The pickled Japanese apricot was closer to beige than red, possibly because food coloring hadn’t been added.
Then.
She looked up abruptly to find Lucia and Angeline staring wide-eyed at her.
“What…what is it?” she said, drawing back.
The two nuns whispered to each other.
“(…Sister Angeline. The Asian woman is about to eat something strange, something I’ve never seen before. Could that be the rumored ooh-may-boh-shee from the land of the samurai?)”
“(…She probably needs it for an Amakusa spell. Don’t they have this thing called the rising sun bento over there? I hear it’s supposed to resemble their national flag.)”
“(…Perhaps there is some religious meaning attached to the act of eating the national flag. This may be a good chance for us to learn the origins of Amakusa spells, since they followed a unique direction in their development.)”
While worrying about whether she should correct the strange misinterpretation, Kanzaki felt Agnes tap her on the shoulder.
Kanzaki looked over and saw Agnes’s eyes glued to her umeboshi.
“What does that taste like? Can you share one?”
“I, er, I don’t mind, but… Wait, on your pasta?!”
As Kanzaki looked on blankly, Agnes had already dropped the umeboshi right into the white sauce covering her cream-colored noodles and mixed it in, mashing it into a paste with her fork. The pasta’s color steadily changed to a light pink.
Kanzaki blanched as she watched, but when Agnes twirled some pasta and put it in her mouth, her expression softened, making it look like it was good, surprisingly.
“Hompf. This is a new taste. And it’s quite refreshing.”
“Seriously?!” “Truly?!” Lucia and Angeline both flared up with an odd excitement. The most surprised, however, was Kanzaki. When it came to seasonings added to pasta to make it more Japanese, most thought of soy sauce or mentaiko, the roe of a pollock served with spices. Was mixing umeboshi with creamy sauce really that good?
Incidentally, Orsola, the only one who hadn’t jumped at the opportunity, had had her head bent to the side for a while now with an extremely happy expression. She murmured “Hee-hee. I wonder how many meters of pasta there are here…” and twirled her fork around endlessly in empty space. She must have been asleep. Kanzaki couldn’t help but wonder about how her own rice tasted so good when the cook had been…like that.
Setting that aside…
“K-Kanzaki! Here, here! Me too!! Please! I want to eat the ooh-may-boh-shee, too!!” called out Angeline, leaning over the table. Her main dish was a soft-looking croissant. Kanzaki nearly wondered aloud where she planned to put the umeboshi, but then she had a thought.
No, I cannot let myself be shackled to the preconception that umeboshi must be eaten with rice. I must have an open mind like Agnes. First, I’ll introduce them to the taste of umeboshi and use that as a jumping-off point to show them true Japanese cooking. There should be no problem with that.
“O-okay. Well, I have enough, so if you want to try one…”
It was a reserved affirmation, but these umeboshi were actually ones that Kanzaki, unsatisfied with store-bought products, had made herself, having borrowed the rooftop to sun-dry them. Worried about them getting enough sunlight in the ever-changing London weather, she’d guarded them with a plastic greenhouse; the results were satisfactory end-products of a trial-and-error phase that saw her going back and forth between “Just use magic to create light” and “No, the sunlight would have no meaning, then.” At this moment, with the pickled fruits about to be approved and accepted by her peers, Kanzaki was actually delighted on the inside. But she played the part of the ideal traditional Japanese woman and hid all those emotions behind a mask of still calmness.
Kanzaki used her chopsticks to take one out of the jar, setting it on a small plate. Angeline gave a whoop and took it.
Kanzaki watched Angeline’s expression, waiting to see what kind of reaction she’d get.
“Ooh-may-boh-shee is eaten with the main dish, right? I just can’t help myself with fruit stuff like jam and marmalade.”
What? Kanzaki’s eyes shrank to pinpoints. Was Angeline misunderstanding something really important?
Ignoring her concern, Angeline said, “Asian sweetness tastes different from ours, right? What was it called—wah-gah-shee? I’ve always been interested in it!” And then, with zero caution, she plopped the umeboshi into her mouth.
A moment later.
Angeline’s eyes turned into big Xs, and her lips puckered before she fell over backward in her chair.
Abandoning her food, shouting something in her wake, she dashed out of the dining hall.
These umeboshi, a concentration of the essence of Amakusa-Style Crossist Church history and expertise, were on a whole other level compared to the store-bought variety.
2
With breakfast over, it was at last time to resume the battle with the washing machine.
“Instruction manual, check. Screwdrivers and other tools, check… A-and if things come to worst, the warranty… Wait, the customer service center’s phone number is from Japan… Does that mean it would incur international fees?!”
Unable to tell whether her determination had hardened or dulled, Kanzaki plodded wearily down the hallway.
Then one of the doors lining the passage suddenly opened.
Sherry Cromwell emerged, scratching her head roughly, looking like she hadn’t gotten enough sleep. She ran her hand through the mane-like blond hair that hung wildly around coppery skin the color of wheat. The sun was nearly at its summit, but she was still wearing a black negligee.
Her hands gripped a chisel and hammer for sculpting.
“…Hey, Kanzaki. Any breakfast left?”
“Were you so preoccupied with carving stone again that you forgot the time? There’s probably no breakfast left, but Orsola was on cooking duty today. She’ll probably make you something if you plead with her,” Kanzaki advised, peering into the room over Sherry’s shoulder.
Sherry was borrowing two of the rooms in the women’s dorm. One for sleeping, the other for working. More than a few rented multiple rooms for purposes such as maintaining their Soul Arms, but it was relatively rare for someone to have an extra purely for a hobby.
Although she’d named it the sculpting room, there were no sculptures in Sherry’s room, just piles of smashed-up stone fragments.
Save for one—a statue of a young boy, standing in the room’s center.
Carved on the marble pedestal of the life-size statue was the word Ellis.
“Another failure,” sighed Sherry in annoyance after realizing what Kanzaki was looking at. “Not even fit to show other people. But for some reason, I can’t bring myself to break it down,” she continued in a mutter to herself.
Still, Kanzaki didn’t know anything about this Ellis except for the fact that it was the name of Sherry’s golem. She decided to be straightforward and asked, “Is that the name of the spell, or…?”
“…When the time came to name it, that was all I could think of,” Sherry said, sulking. “When I created the puppet to protect myself, and I needed to give it a name, his was the first thing that came to mind. Clearly, I don’t know how to let go…”
Sherry casually tossed the sculpting implements into the room behind her, then locked the door before heading to the dining hall without another word. Kanzaki didn’t know what to make of all that, but for some reason, Sherry looked small as she retreated.
Well, I probably shouldn’t pry. Meddling in other people’s affairs isn’t always the best way to save them.
The magic name Kanzaki bore—a hand of salvation for the unsaved—itched within her, but she decided to leave it alone for now.
“Oh! There you are, Miss Kanzaki…”
Just then, Angeline came to her at a trot. She’d run off during breakfast, but for some reason, she was now holding what looked like a tube of toothpaste. There was probably chocolate ganache in it.
“What’s the matter, Angeline? Where have you been? Oh, yes—I believe the rest of your breakfast has already been cleaned up.”
“Nooo… W-well, it’s okay. I don’t mind. It’ll make lunch taste even better.”
“In that case, would you like another umeboshi for lunch? You can put it on rice like you’re supposed to—”
“No, thank you. I am totally fine!! What even was that ooh-may-boh-shee anyway? Food of the devil, I say! It made my mouth feel all weird, and even drinking hot milk didn’t help at all, so I’m eating chocolate now!! All that wonder I felt toward Japan, gone in an instant!”
Kanzaki was as downtrodden as anyone would be at hearing that, but she aspired to the traditional Japanese ideal of being a woman who could control her emotions in a calm and graceful way, so outwardly she showed none of her inner turmoil. Though, contrary to what she thought, her shoulders had visibly drooped.
“I won’t force you, but… Anyway, did you need something from me?”
“Oh—right! Well, not me in particular, but, um…”
“Ah, has someone given you a message for me? Is it from Agnes?”
“Um, no, it wasn’t a message, but she wanted me to call the dorm’s representative, so… Oh, and also, um, it’s not from Sister Agnes.”
“Lucia, then?”
“Um, well, no, not Sister Lucia—or Sister Orsola, either. Or Sister Catherine or Sister Agatha or anyone else from the dorm, for that matter.”
“???”
This was, after a fashion, an English Puritan Church’s women’s dorm. Who else would be here aside from the tenants? wondered Kanzaki.
“Er, what did she say her name was again…?” Angeline muttered, tilting her head. “Oh, that’s right. Sasha—Sasha Kreutzev.”
3
Sasha Kreutzev.
An official member of Annihilatus, a special team of the Russian Catholic Church geared for sorcery combat. Their field of expertise was the annihilation of the inhuman Unhallowed. For that purpose, they didn’t hesitate to make use of magic, which was completely forbidden in Russia ever since the scandal-tainted Rasputin era; they were also purported to completely demolish entire areas the Unhallowed appeared in, along with any historical sites, often totally changing the geography. Apparently, this reputation led certain nations intent on protecting cultural landmarks to bar the group from entering their lands.
In terms of individual combat abilities, they were generally inferior to the English Puritan Church’s Necessarius.
Sasha, however, made up for that disadvantage by equipping herself with several English-made torture devices like a saw and a hammer. Physically, she was a petite girl with blond hair, but just as with the seven tools at her waist, one could call her a versatile sorcerer who could respond to any situation by quickly adapting. Her true abilities were probably quite close to ideal for an agent of her organization.
…Kanzaki had also apparently seen a different side of “her” on the Japanese coast once, but it seemed prudent to discard that from her memory.
In any case, Sasha Kreutzev was an agent of the Russian Catholic Church.
Why was she in London? And why, specifically, at the English Puritan Church’s women’s dorm?
She clearly wasn’t a tourist or a lost child.
With the Roman Orthodox Church and Academy City in a touch-and-go situation, Sasha’s visit naturally smelled of politics.
Consultation? Conversation? A deal? Or perhaps a warning?
Kanzaki had steeled herself for all the possibilities that came to mind as Angeline brought her to the dorm’s front entrance.
“Answer one. I seem to be lost.”
“What?!” Kanzaki cried in spite of herself.
Sasha watched her astounded expression and nodded slightly. “Answer two. Thank you for the good reaction.”
“You were lying?!”
Kanzaki was dubious. Was Sasha Kreutzev always the type to make jokes like that? She and the other girl seemed to be separate people.
“Answer three. As I’m sure you’ve surmised, I come here as a messenger of the Russian Catholic Church. To give additional explanation, however, I am not here for an official meeting of the Church. I have personal reasons in mind and simply wish to speak with you in an unofficial manner.”
It seemed, then, that this wasn’t an overt display of hostility from the Russian Church.
Kanzaki relaxed her guard somewhat. “I see… Well, let’s not talk while standing around. Please, come in.”
“Answer four. Thank you for your consider—”
Sasha suddenly paused.
Kanzaki turned around, then thought she saw the girls’ fingertips trembling unnaturally, but…
“Question one. Is there a magical defensive mechanism applied to this facility, as I thought?”
“No… This women’s dorm is like bait to draw out disruptive elements within the United Kingdom, so we purposely didn’t do anything like that.”
“Question two… Then has there been any other magic-related work done inside the facility?”
“Well…” Kanzaki thought for a moment. “Come to think of it, some of the members here do use preservation spells to keep Soul Arms safe. But I think barely any mana leaks out this far.”
She tilted her head. Was this related to her fingers trembling before?
Meanwhile, Sasha, seeming satisfied with that explanation, nodded a little. “…Answer five: Never mind, then. Where can we go to talk?”
The girl put a small hand to her chest as she took a deep breath, then looked forward again. Kanzaki must have been imagining it; she couldn’t see anything wrong with her fingertips anymore.
Moving to the side to allow Sasha room to pass, Kanzaki wondered where she should bring her. This was a dormitory, so it didn’t have any spaces meant for entertaining guests. But with Sasha having come as a special envoy of the Russian Catholic Church, Kanzaki couldn’t invite her into a private space like her bedroom.
It’ll have to be the dining hall, she thought. “But why have you come? The English Church’s representative should be in St. George’s Cathedral.”
“Answer six: Vasilisa—oh, as an addendum, she is my superior whose personality I don’t wish to describe in detail—she has headed there. That conference was to be the main goal of the visit. I entered the United Kingdom as her aide.”
Kanzaki, Angeline, and Sasha all walked back along the hallway.
“That makes the situation even more confusing,” Kanzaki noted. “If you’re her aide, shouldn’t you be at the Russian Church’s representatives’ side for the conference?”
“Answer seven. It has to do with internal Russian circumstances. This may come off as rude to the United Kingdom, but for me, personally, this felt more important.”
“…”
Under these unstable circumstances, no Russian Catholic sorcerer would enter the United Kingdom on a whim. That must have meant Sasha had used the conference to her advantage to come here.
Kanzaki’s sense of caution heightened. Things had just gotten more suspicious.
“(…Um, excuse me, Miss Kanzaki…)”
Angeline tugged on Kanzaki’s pants a little to get her attention.
“What is it, Angeline?”
“(…Do you know this person? She, um, has a very unique outfit on, and…)”
Sasha Kreutzev’s shoulders gave a start.
Her outfit consisted of only a black belt, a very exposing straitjacket that looked like underwear, and a red mantle worn over it.
“Shh!” Kanzaki put a finger to her lips. “(…There are many cultures throughout the world. I’m sure it has an important meaning in Russian Catholicism.)”
“(…R-really? Is that true? To me she just looks like a strange old man who would show up in a dark alley—)”
“(…Angeline! You mustn’t speak like that. If someone was making a mockery of your faith, you’d be mad, too, wouldn’t you?)”
Sasha trembled, but she didn’t explode. From her mouth, however, came muttered fragments of sentences, like “…not wearing this because I like it…,” “…the Church isn’t a bunch of perverts…,” and “…going to kill Vasilisa…”
In the meantime, they arrived at the dining hall.
Breakfast was over, but a lot of people were still at their tables chatting—mainly, the formerly Roman Orthodox sisters. They didn’t have a fixed time when they had to go out, and while they were standing by, they simply stood by.
“Hmm?”
Sherry was eating a ham and lettuce sandwich, which Orsola had probably made with whatever ingredients were on hand (the sandwich’s innards were poking out, evidence of Orsola’s sleepiness). Noticing the three who had just entered the cafeteria, Sherry wondered aloud: “It’s not even summer yet. Why’s she wearing a swimsuit?”
A vein popped out on Sasha’s temple. It must have come as quite a shock to be told off by someone wearing a negligee that was even more exposing. Scarily, she started repeating “death to Vasilisa” over and over again.
Kanzaki raised a finger to her lips to silence Sherry. “Er, this is Sasha Kreutzev,” she said. “An agent of the Russian Catholic Church. She says she’s come for an unofficial meeting with us.”
Everyone in the dining hall started listening in. The only exception, possibly, was Orsola. She must have been very sleepy, because she was moving between tables in a wobbly fashion while holding a tray with an expensive tea set on it in both hands.
In her place, Agnes, currently holding playing cards, gave a sigh. Kanzaki shifted her gaze their way. Across from her sat Lucia, who was maintaining a poker face; they were joined by a teary-eyed Catherine, who was next to Lucia, and Agatha, glancing at her cards, looking pleased.
“And this Sasha wants an unofficial meeting…,” said Agnes. “What, does she want to defect or something?”
“Could be,” responded Lucia, the two of them placing their cards on the table. “With literally only the clothes on her back, too. You’ll be safe here, so please, rest easy.”
Sasha’s lips turned down and she hung her head. Kanzaki desperately gestured for them to stop mentioning her clothes. She suggested Sasha sit down to collect herself.
Eventually, Orsola, who seemed to have come out of her spell of drowsiness, brought a cup of black tea over.
Sasha raised the cup to her lips and, after taking a drink, said, “I come to you today with question three.”
The words carried clearly through the dining hall, creating a solemnity in the air.
“During the war that will break out between the Roman Orthodox Church and Academy City… Which side do you plan to support?”
4
War.
The word was no longer one that anyone could treat as irrelevant.
Wars in the past had been conducted along national borders, but in the future, they would be different. There were no borders in a clash of ideals, and they carried the threat of suddenly evolving into a war that spanned the globe, excepting none. Stories of safety in a specific country or so-and-so having strong defenses were just that—inapplicable legends. In the worst cases, conflicts could arise even within individual teams or units.
“Answer eight. This is a nice city,” said Sasha, looking out the large windows. “As an addendum, the Roman Orthodox and science-side protests seem to be mostly absent from London. My homeland of Russia, however, rests on a razor’s edge. Many stores have completely closed up for fear of abrupt riots, even during the day.”
English Puritanism and Russian Catholicism were both the national religions of their respective countries, but they didn’t force everyone in the nation to adhere to the state faith. Roman Orthodox followers likely lived even in Russia. As for science, it didn’t need to be explained—there were fewer who didn’t rely on its fruits.
With such circumstances coming to mind, Kanzaki asked, “But why did you come to us? We’re only one part of the English Puritan Church, and we’re forbidden from taking independent organized action. If you wanted to know about what we’d be doing with regard to the war that is probably about to begin, wouldn’t you have been better served by visiting the Archbishop in St. George’s Cathedral after all…?”
“Question four. Is that truly the case?”
“What?”
With that one short question, Kanzaki, Agnes, Lucia, Angeline, Sherry, and all the others turned a dubious expression on Sasha. Only Orsola was dozing off, without a care in the world.
“Question five. In this war, do you all truly plan on continuing to follow the English Puritan Church?”
“…”
The vast cafeteria was silent save for the Russian Catholic’s words.
“As an addendum, Kaori Kanzaki and Agnes Sanctis hold symbolic positions in other organizations—the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church and the former Roman Orthodox Agnes Unit, respectively. The same goes for the majority of other Necessarius members… You are aligned with the English Church in order to fulfill your own goals; you did not join Necessarius because you were followers.”
It was a direct, straightforward assertion. She seemed to have come prepared for today, not the least of which was actually getting into the United Kingdom.
Sasha continued. “To elaborate even further, it is the view of the Russian Catholic Church that the Roman Orthodox Church and Academy City are currently evenly matched in terms of combat strength. The two other players, the English and Russian Churches, will likely be vital in determining the war’s outcome. We of the Russian Church have little interest in the war. We don’t care who wins or who loses, but we would like to secure an advantageous position by joining the winning side. That’s why I wanted to get your opinions on how the United Kingdom might move.”
The English Puritan Church was a sorcery-side faction.
At the same time, however, its relations with the Roman Orthodox Church were poor due to religious differences, and it had a special connection with Academy City.
It would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to predict which side this large magical organization would ultimately go with.
In addition, there were countless others in the Church, like Kanzaki and Agnes, who were simply smaller organizations that happened to be working under the Puritan umbrella. There were individuals like that as well. Stiyl would serve either side as long as he could protect a certain girl, and it wasn’t even clear whose camp Tsuchimikado was truly in. Others, like Sherry, while purely followers of the English Church, had even targeted Index’s life, despite her being in the same organization, because of internal disputes.
The key to this great war that would rock the world was utterly unpredictable.
It was only natural Sasha was looking for answers.
…Or maybe, by creating a stir about it, she wants to guide our decisions in a way that is predictable.
If that was what Sasha was doing, then her actions could be taken as a demand to start infighting. Kanzaki decided to think for a moment about the war.
Kanzaki had already distanced herself from the Amakusa-Style Crossist Church, but that didn’t mean they were no longer people she needed to protect.
Plus, the current Amakusa had opposed the Roman Orthodox Church during the Orsola Aquinas rescue. Considering that Amakusa had only about fifty members capable of fighting, it would be essentially impossible for them to continue overt operations without the English Church’s backing.
In the same way, after the incident with the Queen of the Adriatic, Agnes’s former unit was now entirely considered an enemy by the Roman Orthodox Church. They wouldn’t gain anything from using the war to cut themselves off from the English Church.
To add to that, there were people who were precious to Kaori Kanzaki in Academy City. Ones who had been saved in the past—more precisely, saved by a certain boy who lived there.
My heart tells me Academy City…
If the Roman Church won this war and expanded its influence throughout the world, the English Church’s checks on their power would fail, and both the current Amakusa and the former Agnes unit would be destroyed. Thinking about it that way, she’d want to cooperate with Academy City.
But they’re still on the science side…
They’d also be in a dangerous situation if Academy City won. It was possible that the science side might ride the wave of their victory to obliterate the sorcery side completely. If that happened, it didn’t matter whether a group was big or small. Both Amakusa and Agnes’s unit would be annihilated as just two more magical organizations throughout the world that needed to be expunged.
War was very multifaceted.
Thinking about it that way, it started to seem like the English Church stood to lose a great deal no matter which side won and no matter which side they were on. The Archbishop, then, would likely devise a plan to stop it from ending in the worst way possible.
Kanzaki could understand why Sasha and the Russian Church would be interested in how they moved. They would need plans within plans in order to overcome this situation, and it was important to decide how they’d position themselves during it, but…
Ugh… Is there truly no recourse but to fight?
Kanzaki agonized about the very act of being shrewd about the whole thing.
If there’s any type of thinking I hate, it’s this—and it’s why I have the magic name I do. Is there not a single option that will allow us to choose a path that will avoid bloodshed?
Depending on what happened, Kanzaki might need to brandish her blade against an “enemy.”
She would have to recognize them clearly as such—and to kill them, not save them.
She might even wind up tearing apart the peaceful life that boy and girl had seized with their own hands.
Sasha Kreutzev had presented them with a poignant question.
Which faction would they side with in this war?
I’ll…
Kanzaki unconsciously clenched her teeth.
I will…!!
“I believe we will be perfectly fine.”
But then there came a sudden statement from Orsola Aquinas, who had supposedly been dozing until now.
Everyone in the dining hall looked to her.
They doubted how much of the conversation she’d actually heard, but her assertion had been awfully unreserved nevertheless.
“Question six. What do you mean by ‘fine’?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like.”
Her response came smoothly. She didn’t even seem to think about it. Or perhaps it wasn’t worth worrying over, for her.
“No matter what faction we ally ourselves with, it will not change what we need to do. We help those who seek salvation. We heal those who suffer from pain. We mediate for those who don’t desire conflict. That is all we need to worry about, isn’t it?”
“Question seven. That would be easy if it were possible. As an addendum, kind words won’t be enough for the war about to—”
“Even so,” said Orsola, cutting Sasha off, “it does not change what we need to do. Just because a war breaks out, we have no reason to reject those who seek salvation. We have no reason to neglect those who suffer from pain. We have no reason to force those who don’t desire conflict to hold swords.”
“…”
Sasha Kreutzev fell silent for a moment in the face of such clear-cut words.
Orsola was an expert at spreading Crossism to pagan lands. She had, countless times, walked alongside hostility and violence that Sasha had never dreamed of… And still, she never once came close to picking up a weapon. She had carried through, using only words to accomplish what she needed to.
“We understand what it means to have a small strength.”
That was probably why her words held so much weight.
More than Kanzaki’s, at least, who brandished her weapon whenever a conflict started.
“A small power that has allowed us to move forward without ever breaking, resolving quarrels that others believe to be unavoidable, saving lives thought to already be lost. The power that has given us all the chance to come together like this, to grant salvation to the future of our allies without taking from those of our enemies… Why would he, with no authority or background, be able to do something that we could not? If he could save so many, by himself, then how many could we save if we all came together? There is no meaning in giving up. If you want for meaning, indeed, you must not give up.”
Everyone listened to those words.
Agnes sniffed and turned a cheek; Angeline lightly grabbed Lucia’s clothing. Lucia put her hand on the shoulder of her short colleague, and Sherry narrowed her eyes. The other nuns reacted the same. Each had heard Orsola’s words, remembering a certain young man, wondering about what to do now. About the paths they needed to follow.
Kanzaki naturally thought back to her first meeting with him.
She’d sliced into his fist with the wires of her Seven Glints, whipped his entire body with the sheath of her Seven Heavens Sword, and even then, standing in the way of a saint, the young man had said this:
What the hell are you doing here?!
What had her…?
You have all that power; you have all that talent…so why can’t you do anything…?
Kanzaki wondered—what had her face looked like?
“Then…”
The only one among them who didn’t know that young man, Sasha, spoke carefully.
“Question eight. What do you plan to do?”
“Personally,” said Orsola, “I could do without this two-dimensional logic of winners and losers. If we cannot choose the third option, to, at the very least, create a happy ending where nobody has to die, I doubt I would ever be able to face the one who saved us.”
And still, on the verge of war breaking out, she brazenly offered a trite opinion—the most radiant in the world.
5
Sasha Kreutzev left, saying only that, in the end, she’d learned nothing.
Kaori Kanzaki remained in her seat in the dining hall after that, leaning back against it, staring at the ceiling for a while.
That which I must do…
Her particular circumstances were different from Orsola’s. As someone bearing the talents of a saint, one of less than twenty in the whole world, she possessed combat strength equivalent to the science side’s nuclear weaponry. In a war scenario, she could not only use her words, but take direct action by herself.
How will I remain loyal to my magic name and its meaning?
She wouldn’t hold the key to victory or defeat in a major conflict, but in smaller, more local battles, she could turn the tides.
Those little victories could add up, chaining into something that would affect the situation at large.
She had a mountain’s worth of options before her.
She worried—not because she couldn’t do anything in a war, but because she could.
The power to fight, which I alone possess… What an arrogant way of thinking that is. I would be better off worrying about the washing machine at this point, she thought, a sigh escaping her.
Her philanthropic mindset could largely be attributed to the existence of her immense powers as a saint. She had the power, and more freedom to use it than others, so in theory, she should be able to save that many more people…
That could be seen as looking down on others, and self-admittedly, it derived from a terribly warped nature.
From Kanzaki’s point of view, the way Orsola and that boy lived, staying true to their principles and reaching out to help others despite their distinct lack of power, glowed radiantly in her eyes. The very expression felt to her like it indicated her own lack of training.
“Miss Kanzaki? Is something the matter?”
As her thoughts lingered on the subject, Orsola herself arrived in the dining hall again.
Kanzaki kept her eyes on the ceiling, somehow feeling too uncomfortable to meet the nun’s gaze. “…Just being ashamed at my own lack of training,” she said. “It makes me shudder to think that someone as inexperienced as I would have ever led Amakusa, even for a short time.”
“All people take time and effort to mature. It is simple to decide one has understood the Lord’s teachings, but it is incredibly difficult for one to truly realize the path. Even I feel as though my comments earlier were somewhat inexperienced and lacking.”
“Really? I generally agreed with what you had to say: We can’t fixate on killing people just because a war breaks out. I think you’re right.”
“Hee-hee.” Orsola laughed mysteriously.
Still leaning back in her chair, Kanzaki shot the woman a sidelong glance.
“Generally, you say?”
“What about it?”
“Oh, nothing. That simply means you have additional reasons to fight. It would seem Mr. Tatemiya and the others were correct in their statement that their Priestess was in love with someone from Academy City.”
Kanzaki fell backward in her chair with a crash!!
Having fallen to the floor, she cried out, “That’s… That’s so inappropriate! What is happening in Amakusa right now anyway?!”
“Oh my. It was when the Knight Leader visited Japan Town, stiff as a boulder, with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. Mr. Tatemiya, the vicar pope, responded by telling him that. The Knight Leader had wanted to invite the Amakusa Priestess to a ball, but Mr. Tatemiya kept telling him it was useless. When pressed, he claimed that you, and I quote, ‘like taking the lead with younger people, not being led around by older people,’ and then explained what I just mentioned. It is becoming something of a legend.”
“That… That is utterly unfounded! And why are people passing it down as a legend?! Curse you, Saiji Tatemiya! You could have picked something a little more tactful for your excuse!!”
“I also remember Miss Itsuwa, also from Amakusa, reacting to this incident by asserting that she’d be giving it her all as well.”
“Why are you telling me all this like you’re reporting the daily news?!”
Kanzaki loudly lamented, but Orsola was never one to listen much to what other people said. She smiled warmly, said, “Oh, I wonder how our stock of tea leaves is doing,” and withdrew to the kitchen.
Belatedly notified of the current situation, which had turned grave without her realizing it, Kanzaki remained baffled for a few moments, her face pale.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!”
But this time, she heard Agnes shrieking from outside the cafeteria.
“It’s just one thing after another today!!”
Kanzaki stood up and rushed out of the cafeteria.
She didn’t know where Agnes’s voice had come from, but she had a rough idea of the direction. She just had to run down the long hallway now.
And then she discovered Agnes sunken to the floor in front of the changing room.
When Kanzaki approached, she pointed into the room, still sitting. “The… The washing machine… It—it…”
Veins visibly popped on Kanzaki’s head at those breathless words.
The washing machine again?
It had caused a problem before breakfast, too, which they hadn’t solved yet. And now it was making more trouble?
Kanzaki already had enough to worry about, between the war and the rumors of lovers. Why the washing machine now?
Was it a hateful high-tech AI spy sent by Academy City after all?! That’s the only way to explain all the trouble it’s been causing!!
Commited to tearing the machine up with the Seven Heavens Sword if it caused any more issues, Kanzaki charged into the changing room.
The tub next to the room was a large communal bath, rare in the Western world, and so the changing room was large, too. The washing machine in question should have been in the corner of the vast room, along with the scale.
She looked that way.
She looked at the piece-of-trash, Academy City washing machine, that good-for-nothing, useless thing that had taken the color out of her yukata obi and started malfunctioning when they had put the futon into it.
And as it gave off a loud clattering—it was properly cleaning the futon stuffed inside.
“Wha…?”
Kanzaki’s breath caught.
The quietness of this washing machine was originally its selling point, so it was strange that it was making that noise at all. It must have meant the machine was working that much harder. Exceeding its design limitations, accepting an order far beyond its operating restrictions, and yet still, it endured, it withstood, it had borne its duty until the end—and now, it was finally about to accomplish the titanic feat of washing all those futons at once.
I don’t believe it…
The strength left Kanzaki’s body. Her legs buckled underneath her, and she knelt down on the changing-room floor.
The emotion of anger had been replaced with an intense shame.
She had been reflecting on her own inexperience not moments ago. And it had happened again. Even after they’d stuffed it with all those futons it couldn’t possibly have washed, even after they’d forced it to turn on, even after they’d given up on it and left it alone, that washing machine had kept on doing its best, all alone. It endured the pain, endured the agony, always working dutifully to complete that which needed to be done, and now, at last, it was about to accomplish an impossible task. And yet she—she had wanted to tear it apart with her Seven Heavens Sword if it caused any more trouble…
The washing machine said nothing.
It was only natural that the onboard AI would have no speech functions.
But Kanzaki knew she could hear it.
She could hear the voice of the AI.
Kanzaki, it said.
I did it, just like you asked.
“~~~~!!”
Tears burst from the corners of Kanzaki’s eyes.
She was speechless. She tossed her Seven Heavens Sword aside, then clung to the washing machine’s square body, hugging it, as though reuniting with a long-lost family member.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login