Chapter 23
Dareda Kimi is an ordinary adult man currently sheltering in Shibuya Ward after being driven from Minato Ward by fire.
Through middle school, Dareda belonged to the track-and-field club; even on days without practice, he would go jogging with his father. He loved running and was an outdoorsman.
But in his third year of middle school, he was in a traffic accident and suffered complex fractures in both legs. Surgery let him walk again, but he could no longer run as he once had.
Despondent, Dareda soothed himself by watching videos of the World Athletics Championships.
Though he could no longer run himself, studying the form used for running made him feel as if he remained on the outskirts of the running world.
As he watched videos of the World Athletics Championships, his hobbies gradually began to change.
At first, he watched videos only of sprinting and middle-distance races, but he eventually started watching marathons as well.
After marathons came triathlons.
Inspired by triathlons, he watched swimming, then cycling, then acrobatic biking, moved on to movie stunts, and immersed himself in the world of film.
One interest led to another, and after many twists and turns, Dareda, who had originally been an outdoorsman, became a full-fledged fantasy-movie fanatic.
When that fantasy-movie fanatic grew up and became an adult, then encountered the Gremlin disaster, he found himself hoping, though it was something he could never tell anyone.
It was an unprecedented disaster in which electronic devices were wiped out and even laughing aloud seemed taboo, but monsters and witches had appeared. Magic had appeared.
Was it really so wrong for him to hope for healing magic, to let his heart leap at the thought that his legs, which modern medicine could not restore, might be completely healed as if by magic?
Even as he watched people die from that very magic—the magic wielded by monsters—he could not have said, even if his mouth were split open, that magic was wonderful and gave people hope.
Dareda took a keen interest in the magic that the disaster had brought to the world.
He submitted an application to join the Minato Ward Municipal Security Corps, and after being assigned as an archer because of his bad legs, he never failed to sketch every monster he encountered, carefully recording its features, the magic it used, the date and time it appeared, the location, and the details of the battle.
His fellow officers fought monsters desperately with their lives on the line, putting their bodies between them and danger until the Vampire Wizard responsible for Minato Ward arrived. But Dareda, a rear-line crossbowman, had it easier than the front-line fighters, and he had enough leeway to take out his notebook after a battle. Of course, he also sketched the Vampire Wizard and took analytical notes.
Even after a giant monster landed in Minato Ward from Tokyo Bay and drove him from the ward in flames, Dareda recorded the creature's appearance and jotted down data.
By collecting data rather than merely doing the day's work, Dareda soon realized that the Blue Witch's magic was abnormally powerful—the spell had annihilated the giant monster in a single blow.
Most Tokyo residents praised her while fearing her, saying, "As expected of the Blue Witch" and "The strongest witch of all." But Dareda, who gathered data not only on monsters but also on wizards and witches, sensed that something was wrong.
Neither witches nor wizards were invincible.
They sometimes struggled against powerful monsters, and sometimes they were forced to retreat.
Magic's power also had limits.
It was only a matter of personal impression, but judging from the scale of the damage, the Blue Witch's magic seemed to exceed the limits of what a witch should be capable of.
While continuing his work with the security corps in Shibuya Ward, where he had taken refuge after fleeing Minato Ward, and carrying out his investigation in the territory ruled by the Eye Witch, Dareda learned of the Blue Magic Staff Cuanos.
Those who knew about them knew that magic stones were mystical treasures capable of amplifying the power of magic.
The Vampire Wizard openly carried his own magic stone, Blood Moon, and magic stones had been a major point of contention during the Wizard of Iruma's coup.
After piecing together the few eyewitness accounts of the Blue Witch, Dareda concluded that Cuanos was some sort of tool that used a magic stone. Perhaps the stone had been attached to a staff to make it easier to carry around? He had no idea.
The power of the magic the Blue Witch had displayed during the Iruma coup was extraordinary, but even taking into account her use of a magic stone, her defeat of the giant monster this time was abnormal.
There had to be some secret behind it. Perhaps, if he obtained Cuanos, he might be able to use magic himself. It was the sort of object that made him want to cling to such a baseless hope.
Once, Dareda secretly took a pair of binoculars from the security corps' supplies and went on a reconnaissance mission to Ome City.
After staking out the city from a distance for half a day, Dareda succeeded in spotting the Blue Witch patrolling the city by running across the rooftops. But when she looked in his direction through the binoculars, he panicked and fled.
He had no desire to be killed for angering her.
He confirmed that the Blue Witch carried a beautiful staff set with a blue jewel, but he had no time to observe it in detail. Investigating the Blue Witch was too dangerous, so Dareda gave up and returned to his days of working for the security corps.
About half a year later, word spread throughout Tokyo that a Magic University would be opening in Bunkyo Ward.
Magic University!
Needless to say, Dareda eagerly seized upon the opportunity.
Only a fool would fail to ride this wave. The promise that students would be taught magic was overwhelmingly appealing. Some people decided to take the entrance exam, their hearts pounding at the thought that they might become like those witches and wizards, while others applied simply to be exempted from work during their time as students.
Dareda's motivation was the former, but he was rejected outright and left crestfallen.
He passed the enunciation test and scored excellently on the magic-power test, but he failed the intelligence test.
A fellow security officer from the same intake, certainly more intelligent than Dareda and a graduate of a national university, had also been rejected. So it was probably not because Dareda was stupid; the standards for admission to Tokyo Magic University were simply too high.
Only a tiny handful of truly outstanding people could enter Magic University.
Crushed by his rejection and the failure of his hopes, Dareda nonetheless continued gathering information about Magic University.
The president of Tokyo Magic University, Ohinata Kei—a once-in-a-century genius girl, professor of magical linguistics, and a woman with strong connections to the Blue Witch—carried an imposing staff called Aleister, a regular-dodecahedron fractal magic staff.
Professional guards were always discreetly stationed around her, never allowing suspicious people to approach. So Dareda searched for information about Aleister through the word of mouth of the university's students.
Aleister was a magic staff unlike Cuanos, and just as its name suggested, it had the shape of a regular-dodecahedron fractal.
Dareda suspected that Aleister was a staff made with a special magic stone.
Natural pyrite crystals were famous for forming beautiful cubes. If they became magic stones, then surely they could naturally form fractal shapes as well.
Some people claimed that it was a work crafted by someone, but to Dareda that was ignorant nonsense from people who did not understand the realities of a craftsman's work. Processing Gremlins was extremely difficult. In a world where precision machinery had broken down and could no longer be used, who could carve the intricate fractal shape people described? No such craftsman existed.
While carrying out his daily security duties, Dareda investigated staffs, witches, wizards, and monsters, all while studying for the next Magic University entrance exam.
His days were busy.
But his efforts bore no fruit.
Dareda failed the entrance exams the following year and the year after that as well.
The exam two years later had been especially close.
The Magic University, which until the previous year had only had a Department of Magical Linguistics, was going to establish four new departments: Gremlin Engineering, Monster Studies, Mutation Studies, and Combat Studies. It was recruiting professors as well as students.
Dareda hoped to become a professor in Combat Studies by drawing on his experience with the security corps, or a professor in Monster Studies based on the monster data he had painstakingly compiled. But there were people who surpassed him in both fields.
The Combat Studies professorship went to a genius who was not only skilled with staff fighting and shooting, but had independently imitated and learned to use the witches' magic. The man appointed to Monster Studies had not merely collected monster data like Dareda; he had statistically organized it and classified monsters by type.
Dareda had believed that, compared with the majority of citizens who were desperately busy just getting through their daily work, he had devoted a considerable amount of effort to his own research. But there was always someone better.
Dareda was talented too.
He was simply one step short of passing through Magic University's narrow gate.
A turning point finally came for Dareda, who could never seem to make things work, eight months after he received his rejection notice.
Dareda had failed the Magic University entrance exam three times and the professor examinations twice, but the university had kept his personal information from when he applied.
The Witch Assembly itself approached Dareda directly about participating in the Minato Ward Recapture Operation, valuing his abundant magic power and the fact that he was from Minato Ward.
Dareda was stunned.
Before the Gremlin disaster, it would have been like an amateur zoologist suddenly being summoned by the Japanese government for a top-secret operation.
Naturally, he accepted the offer with enthusiasm.
Wondering if this was some sort of prank, he passed through the gates of the Tokyo Magic University he had long admired and entered a meeting room on campus. There he found others who had been summoned just like him.
Some looked anxious, while others burned with determination, thinking, At last, the time has come to take Minato Ward back from the monsters.
Once the meeting-room chairs had filled, a cute beastkin girl with fluffy white fur entered last.
She dragged a step stool from the corner, climbed onto the lectern, and gave them a friendly smile before bowing.
"Hello, everyone! Thank you for gathering here today despite the sudden invitation. I am Ohinata Kei, and I serve as the president of this university. At the request of the Tokyo Witch Assembly, I have been entrusted with teaching you ritual magic."
According to Professor Ohinata, the recapture of Minato Ward had been planned for some time, but they had finally assembled all the necessary pieces.
Minato Ward, once ruled by the great Vampire Wizard, had been reduced to scorched earth by the giant monster's advance.
Ideally, another witch would have taken over management of the ward in place of the deceased Vampire Wizard, but the Witch Assembly had reached its limit. Its members were already responsible for areas so vast that none of them could take on Minato Ward as well.
Even the Eye Witch, who controlled six wards while freely manipulating more than a hundred familiars and monitoring one of the widest areas under the Witch Assembly's jurisdiction, had been unable to manage a seventh ward.
The vacant Minato Ward quickly became a den of monsters.
The Witch of Itabashi, who often went out on sorties even among the Witch Assembly, regularly culled their numbers. But she was also responsible for routine exterminations in other vacant areas—Katsushika, Ota, western Hachioji, Inagi, and so on—as well as repelling monsters that invaded from Chiba and Saitama. She was so busy she hardly had time to blink. She could not possibly concentrate solely on Minato Ward.
Even if a witch of exceptional ability temporarily wiped out all the monsters, the situation could not be maintained.
But the situation had changed.
It was no longer like two and a half years earlier, when they had fled Minato Ward with no means of resistance and could only watch helplessly as monsters occupied it.
Research by the Department of Magical Linguistics had increased the number of practical spells that humans could cast.
Research by the Department of Gremlin Engineering had produced enough ordinary magic staffs to distribute one to every member of the Minato Ward Security Corps.
Research by the Department of Monster Studies had produced a draft field manual classifying monsters by threat level and recording their traits and weaknesses.
Several Wizards trained by the Department of Combat Studies had volunteered for the recapture operation.
The Tokyo Witch Assembly judged that the time was ripe.
The plan was as follows.
A Wizard carrying Blood Staff Vampir, a staff made from the magic stone Blood Moon—the relic of the Vampire Wizard—would spearhead the operation and seize the center of Minato Ward in a lightning strike.
They would use the remains of Tokyo Tower to construct a watchtower and station a ritual-magic group there. From the high ground, they would monitor the entire ward and curse-kill the monsters one after another with ritual magic.
Even after Minato Ward was secured, the ritual magic from this watchtower would serve as the heart of the ward's anti-monster surveillance and response system.
"Blood Staff Vampir, made using Blood Moon, is the first magic-stone staff manufactured by this university. Its performance is far inferior to that of the Blue Magic Staff Cuanos, but we outsourced only the final polishing, leaving the core as a perfect sphere. To allow for expansion in anticipation of future discoveries and advances in processing technology, we have not given the interior any multilayered processing.
Blood Staff Vampir comes from Minato Ward's past, makes its debut in the present recapture of Minato Ward, and will be passed down into the future.
Kyogoku Yamato-san, top student of the Department of Combat Studies. Step forward."
When the brawny giant was presented with Blood Staff Vampir, a thunderous round of applause broke out in the meeting room.
Next, staffs fitted with pale blue twisted rings were distributed to thirteen people, including Dareda.
"The Thirteen Ritual Magic Implements I have just handed you are specially made staffs required for humans to cast ritual magic, which consumes vast amounts of magic power. The cores are covered with protective material, but they are extremely delicate, so please handle them with care.
Centered on the focus staff given to Kobayashi-san, the thirteen of you can divide the burden of the magic power among yourselves and cast a single grand spell."
Professor Ohinata drew a diagram on the blackboard and lectured them on how to use ritual magic.
Since the owner of the focus staff determined where the spell was aimed, Dareda's role was essentially to serve as a magic-power tank.
That was exactly what he wanted. Even if he was a failure who had been rejected by Magic University time and again, if he could wield magic as a member of the Minato Ward recapture force, he did not care whether he was the main character.
"You said we would be responsible for curse-killing the monsters, but what exactly is curse-killing magic?"
When Dareda raised his hand and asked the question, Professor Ohinata tapped her palm with a pointer and answered solemnly.
"That's a good question. Curse-killing magic was the spell of the Witch of Koganei, who died during the early days of the Gremlin disaster. Someone with perfect pitch happened to hear and memorize her magic, and the university has a single record of the curse spell known as curse-killing magic.
Curse-killing magic consumes a great deal of magic power, but it can curse anyone caught in the caster's sight to death. If the target has less magic power than the amount the spell consumes, they die instantly."
The meeting room buzzed at Professor Ohinata's words.
Magic included many utterly outrageous things, but the curse-killing magic they had just heard about was especially beyond the pale.
The professor waited for the murmuring to subside before continuing.
"However, if the curse kill fails, you will suffer a backlash curse. This can happen if the target has more magic power than the spell consumes, or if they divert the curse through magic-power control.
In that case, the spell's violent feedback will kill the caster. Even mitigation by the magic-power backflow prevention mechanism cannot guarantee your life.
When we summoned you, we told you that we could not guarantee your safety. That is partly because you may lose your lives fighting monsters, but the feedback is an even greater reason.
Use the monster classification table. Do not attempt to curse-kill monsters with too much magic power; request aid from a witch or wizard instead."
The meeting room fell silent for a while, and eventually several people withdrew.
They said they could accept being killed in battle against monsters, but they wanted no part in dying by blowing themselves up.
They had a point. To be honest, Dareda wanted to withdraw as well.
If he died fighting, he could accept it. But if he misjudged the target's magic power and died stupidly on the spot, he would never be able to rest in peace, even in death.
But the monster classification table existed to prevent precisely those mistakes. After agonizing over it, Dareda remained in his seat. Someone had to do this job at the risk of their life. Dareda chose to see himself positively, as someone qualified to become that "someone."
Since the ritual magic was expected to be activated multiple times a day, nearly forty people in total had been assigned to serve as magic-power tanks. Even with several people dropping out, the recapture operation was going ahead.
After learning the incantation for curse-killing magic and undergoing thorough training in ritual magic and coordination, Dareda and the others departed for the Minato Ward Recapture Operation two months later, amid a grand send-off by former Minato Ward residents gathered at Magic University.
The abandoned vehicles that had once overflowed the city center had already been removed, making bicycle traffic possible. The Minato Ward recapture force formed a single-file line on bicycles and eventually reached the edge of the ward.
Kyogoku Yamato, the field commander of the recapture operation, raised Blood Staff Vampir with the burned-out ruins and the sun behind him and delivered a short speech.
"Everyone! We have come back! We have returned to Minato Ward! Each of you must have your own reasons for being here! Some of you may have no particular feelings about it and have come simply to do a job! But today, at this very moment, we unite beneath a single goal!"
Kyogoku paused, turned on his heel, and shouted.
"We will take Minato Ward back from the monsters! Operation, begin!!"
A battle cry rang out, and the recapture operation began.
The advance toward the center proceeded with the planned lightning speed. They would not have enough magic power if they stopped to methodically exterminate monsters and eliminate every danger along the way.
Maintaining only the minimum necessary vigilance, the force hurried along National Route 1 toward Tokyo Tower.
Fortunately, their opponents were not human, so there was no need to worry about stepping into traps. Some monsters lying in ambush were slow enough to outrun; those they could not shake off were swiftly exterminated under a concentrated barrage of magic from the Wizards wielding their staffs.
If an overwhelmingly powerful monster blocked their path, they were prepared to go around it or turn back. Fortunately, there were no such monsters along National Route 1. This meant the second force following behind them should be able to establish a supply route without difficulty.
Several members of the force dropped out along the way after tripping over rubble and spraining their ankles or being attacked by monsters leaping from the ground, but the group reached the base of Tokyo Tower in about an hour, as planned.
While taking a short break at a burned-out kiosk overlooking Tokyo Tower, Kyogoku, their captain, commended Dareda and the others.
"Everyone, well done. All that remains is to climb the tower, secure the high ground, and deploy the ritual-magic force.
Once we can fire curse-killing magic in every direction from a high vantage point with a clear view, it will be as good as having taken Minato Ward back."
"But, Captain..."
"Yes. The problem is whether we can make it all the way up the tower."
In response to one unit member's words, Kyogoku nodded and peered outside through the kiosk window.
Tokyo Tower had become a nest of monsters.
Large, human-sized cocoons clung here and there, tended by groups of grotesque monsters that looked like a bizarre fusion of beasts and praying mantises.
The monsters had not been there the last time the Witch of Itabashi conducted a sweep. They must have spread in the aftermath.
"Captain, excluding the cocoons, there are sixteen beast mantises. I don't see any other monsters."
"I checked the monster classification table. They're two types of chimera, beast and insect, so their threat level should fall somewhere between here and here."
"I see... We can't take them all on at once. I want someone skilled at long-range magic fire to provide sniping support. If we take out or weaken four or five of them at the start, the fight should be manageable."
Sitting on a kiosk chair and listening to the captain and the others discuss their strategy, Dareda suddenly noticed a faint sound.
It was a tiny noise, but something about it bothered him. When he looked outside through the window, he saw a beast mantis that had crept up from the roof beheading one of the unit members standing watch.
Dareda's heart leaped into his throat, and he screamed.
"Enemy attack! The sentry's down! One or more monsters on the roof!"
The fact that he was able to give an accurate report on the situation in an instant despite nearly panicking was probably the result of his two months of training.
But not everyone could act as Dareda had. Two beast mantises smashed through the kiosk window and rolled inside, throwing the force into confusion.
Kyogoku, their captain, moved with impressive speed, raising his voice to restore order as he quickly aimed Blood Staff Vampir at the beast mantises.
But before he could do so, the mantis fired a shotgun blast of spines from its rear at the unit members.
Most of the spines missed everyone and embedded themselves in the kiosk wall, but one of them was an absurdly lucky unlucky shot.
It struck Vampir from Kyogoku's hand and sent it flying out through the broken window.
That was not all. The staff went rolling toward the feet of a particularly large and flamboyant rainbow beast mantis creeping toward them from Tokyo Tower.
The rainbow beast mantis halted on its many legs, tilted its head with an insectile motion, and regarded the staff that had literally rolled in with interest.
Kyogoku, stunned by an accident that seemed to bring a lifetime's worth of bad luck all at once, met Dareda's eyes for an instant.
Then, in the next moment, Kyogoku was knocked down by the charging bulk of a beast mantis.
The situation had descended into utter chaos.
Inside the kiosk, people were screaming in terror, but they could not attack the beast mantises properly for fear of hitting their allies. Their captain had not only lost their trump card but had been pinned beneath a beast mantis, while the crucial weapon lay at the enemy's feet.
As Dareda was seized by such overwhelming confusion and terror that he felt he might go insane, he thought he heard something inside his head snap.
His mind became clearer than it had ever been. Dareda made a split-second assessment of the situation that he would probably never be able to repeat, snatched the focus staff from the panicking Kobayashi, shoved his own staff into Kobayashi's hands, and ran for the exit.
"Prepare ritual magic! Origin point: Dareda! Countdown: three, two, one!!"
Dareda kicked open the kiosk door and burst outside, shouting in a voice that was almost a scream.
"I love you."
Dareda ran.
He ran with all his strength for the first time in ten years.
His body had completely rusted over, but he remembered the form.
The incantation he had practiced until it rolled off his tongue hundreds and thousands of times spilled from his mouth, and he could hear everyone behind him chanting the same words.
"But I'm a demon."
Both his legs screamed, and every step felt as if the bones in them might shatter, but Dareda roared the spell like a beast and endured the agony.
"This is what my love looks like!!"
The murky black wave of ritual curse-killing magic, cast with Dareda as its focus, struck the rainbow beast mantis just as it seized Vampir in its scythe and took flight.
He ran to the corpse of the rainbow beast mantis, which had lost its strength in midair and fallen, and wrenched Vampir free from its scythe.
When he turned around, he saw the blood-covered captain through the kiosk window, holding a short sword in his right hand and keeping a beast mantis at bay. He thrust his left hand through the window and gestured for Dareda to hand it over.
Having spent many years as a member of the security corps' shooting unit, Dareda had also mastered throwing.
The Blood Staff Vampir he threw flew straight into Captain Kyogoku's hand, and in an instant it blasted away the two beast mantises that had plunged the kiosk into a whirlpool of chaos.
That was the decisive blow.
The rainbow-colored one had apparently been the leader of the pack, because the beast mantises' movements visibly lost their sharpness.
The beast mantises' ambush claimed several victims.
But after that, there were no further casualties, and Tokyo Tower was secured.
As planned, they used curse-killing magic from the high ground to secure the surrounding area.
It was December 25—Christmas.
At the cost of blood, Minato Ward returned to human hands after two years and eight months.