Chapter 53
It was 1992. When Arataki Kotaro was twenty, the Anti-Organized Crime Law was enacted. It was commonly known as the Anti-Boryoku Law.
Until then, the Arataki-gumi had championed honor and chivalry and preached that it was a necessary evil, all while making a fortune behind that respectable facade. But now it entered an age of darkness.
The Anti-Organized Crime Law was an unreasonable law, unfit for a nation governed by the rule of law.
Its provisions were so outrageous they might as well have said, “If you anger the police, they can crush even a yakuza whenever they please.” Even mild threats, minor kidnappings, or petty drug sales got yakuza thrown in prison.
Arataki Iwao, the first boss of the Arataki-gumi and Kotaro’s father, shot and killed two executives of a rival gang in the entertainment district to avenge the killing of one of his young men. Yet he received a prison sentence for that alone. He had shown mercy, gone out of his way to avoid involving civilians, and limited the dead to members of the underworld, and this was how he was repaid.
After taking over from his captured father, Arataki Kotaro became the second boss of the Arataki-gumi. He rode the waves of the times and developed all kinds of businesses.
He ran host clubs and brothels. He carried out telephone scams. He sweet-talked foolish youngsters into becoming errand boys for robberies, and had intermediaries handle drug sales so police investigations would never reach the Arataki-gumi.
The Arataki-gumi had once put down roots in the major corporations of its hometown and lived in luxury, but the Anti-Organized Crime Law had made that impossible. Even so, it survived by making use of petty businesses.
Sometimes they managed to make a fortune in one big score, but the organization shrank year after year. Their former rivals either disappeared naturally or dissolved themselves and vanished.
Despite Kotaro’s efforts, the Arataki-gumi grew smaller and smaller, as if its neck were being slowly strangled by a silken cord.
Even when the era name changed to Reiwa and the world buzzed with excitement over the new age, the Arataki-gumi remained trapped in its age of darkness.
Thinking of his father’s regret at dying in prison before achieving his dream of unifying the country under the Arataki-gumi, anger welled up inside him.
Then the Gremlin disaster occurred, changing the world forever.
By astonishing good fortune, Kotaro’s younger brother, Arataki Torajiro, and his mistress, Kiwada Yoko, awakened as a wizard and a witch.
This was their only chance.
Kotaro was certain the time had come to vent all the frustration he had built up over the years.
His father’s dream, his own dream, the Arataki-gumi’s dream. The time had come to embark on the conquest of the entire country—a dream every yakuza had shared, but none had ever achieved.
The time had come for the Arataki-gumi, despised as the scum of society for more than thirty years, to show the world just how terrifying it could be.
The time had come to show true power to those well-behaved, high-and-mighty good little boys who had looked down on the Arataki-gumi for far too long!!
Kotaro immediately appointed his younger brother Torajiro as the third boss of the Arataki-gumi and took the position of adviser himself.
When Torajiro became a wizard, he made his already powerful body even stronger and began radiating something like charisma. Torajiro, a child born to their father late in life, was in his early forties and still quite young compared to Kotaro. He was not lacking in intelligence, either. He was more than qualified to lead the group as its third boss.
The only problem was that becoming a wizard had caused him to develop an unnecessary sense of mercy.
Raised under their father’s tutelage, Torajiro had been a merciless hardliner and fighter. But his transformation had awakened him to a baffling, almost chivalric sense of honor. He did not merely use honor as a pretext; he seemed to genuinely believe in it. In some ways, it resembled the spirit of knighthood.
As part of the third boss’s policy, the Arataki-gumi established merciful treatment for those who surrendered.
No matter who the enemy was, if they surrendered honestly and swore loyalty to the Arataki-gumi, they would never be killed or bound by contract magic.
Kotaro was irritated by the organization’s far too soft guiding principles, but managed to swallow his frustration by telling himself that he could help as adviser.
If it were up to Kotaro, he would cast contract magic on every enemy and ally alike, binding them so none could ever rebel. Betrayal and defection were everyday occurrences among the yakuza, after all.
The new boss was not completely blinded by peace, either. He had declared that anyone who betrayed them after being shown mercy would be punished with death, so Kotaro could just barely give him credit for that.
As adviser, Kotaro drew up the plans, and Torajiro, as boss, made them a reality.
The brothers joined forces and pacified Fukuoka in the blink of an eye. Amid the great disaster, they built a major survivor community with a population of roughly four hundred thousand.
Of course, not every witch and wizard who had been subdued by the boss and his mistress’s perfectly coordinated violence was loyal to the boss from the beginning.
Many merely wore expressions that said, “Just you wait,” because they had been forced into contracts and could not rebel.
Kotaro, serving as adviser, patiently worked on such people.
He tortured them, then shook them up with good-cop, bad-cop tactics.
He took hostages, or gradually dragged them in by making them commit minor crimes they found easy to commit. Sharing meals with them was effective, as was winning over their families first and using those family members to bring down the real target.
Once they became accustomed to the group, everything afterward was easy.
The raid and forcible takeover of the Biwako Accord in particular increased the Arataki-gumi’s unity and loyalty through fierce combat.
Though they suffered one casualty, a witch who had been one of the Biwako Accord’s hardliners and had guided the Arataki-gumi into the place joined them in her stead. The numbers evened out, and the Arataki-gumi gained momentum.
When things went well, everything went well. The Arataki-gumi secured the mana-enhancing drug itself and its manufacturing process, which the dovish faction of the Biwako Accord had kept hidden, and grew stronger still.
The mana-enhancing drug was made by refining the sap of a grotesque monster with a face on its trunk, known as a Treant. Simply drinking it restored mana even beyond its normal reserve limit, giving the drinker a boost.
Thanks to it, the Arataki-gumi’s underlings could secure enough mana to cast spells and became a fighting force. Of course, compared to witches and wizards, they were still only minor combatants.
The mana-enhancing drug also had drawbacks. The Arataki-gumi’s leadership decided not to use it themselves, but to distribute it to the underlings or use it as leverage in their recruitment schemes.
The mana-enhancing drug increased mana with nothing more than a drink. But the effect was temporary, and the extra mana vanished when used. Worse, every dose reduced the drinker’s maximum mana. Some idiots among the underlings used so much of the drug that they turned to dust and disappeared.
Just as tobacco and alcohol become more addictive when people start using them young, this mana drug displayed dependence according to a certain rule. The less mana a person possessed, the greater the sense of omnipotence the drug produced, increasing both its addictiveness and its habit-forming power.
Witches and wizards never got hooked. A powerful mana-doping agent for ordinary people was barely a boost for transcendent beings. It could even be said that losing maximum mana made it a net loss.
But for weaklings who did not even possess enough mana to cast Fertility magic, it was no different from a narcotic. Once they used it, they could never let it go—a powerful drug indeed.
Armed with this new weapon, the Arataki-gumi seized control of the core of the conquered Biwako Accord with contract magic and the mana drug, making it impossible for them to rebel, then surged onward toward Tokyo.
With the magic stones stolen from the Biwako Accord, every member of the Arataki-gumi came to possess one. It was like putting wings on a tiger. There was no reason to halt their invasion.
The boss started saying something softheaded about owing Tokyo a debt for Fertility magic, but when Kotaro told him there was no debt because they had brought in the mushroom disease, he accepted that explanation.
The Tokyo Witch Assembly, which ruled the former capital of Tokyo, was the largest survivor community in Japan.
Its total population was between two and four million, with fifteen to thirty witches and wizards. The information extracted from the Dragon Witch was not entirely reliable, but there was no doubt that the Dragon Witch, the future-seeing wizard, and the Blue Witch were dangerous. If they could take down those three, the Tokyo Witch Assembly would fall.
The Witch Assembly had little unity. If they crushed its head and defeated or recruited the special combatants capable of turning the tide in a single stroke, they could finish off the rest one group at a time.
The Arataki-gumi had ten witches and wizards in all. The Tokyo Witch Assembly had thirty at most.
However, the ten were united, while the thirty would be nothing but a rabble once the handful of people forming its core were eliminated.
They could win.
That was Kotaro’s assessment.
Kotaro had drawn up a plan that brought down the Biwako Accord with few casualties, but the future-seeing wizard was not someone who could be dealt with so easily, as the name suggested.
He tried to contact the Setagaya witch, who seemed the easiest to bring over, in order to create an inside agent, but every attempt failed. These were not failures caused by mere coincidence; they were clearly the result of interference.
Trying to rot the organization from within with the mana drug also failed.
Tokyo had an underworld of its own, with black-market dealers handling prohibited goods. But they were utterly terrified of the future-seeing wizard. Although the mana drug was delivered to them through intermediaries, they simply hid it away, and none of it reached the surface.
Kotaro gave up on creating an inside agent and circulating the mana drug, then tried to have the witch best at stealth steal the Blue Witch’s famed strongest magic wand, Kyanos. Even that failed.
Although she had shown no sign whatsoever that she intended to steal it, the Blue Witch suddenly began conspicuously keeping watch, making it impossible to act.
No matter how united the Arataki-gumi was, with their plans being read so thoroughly and the enemy’s greatest force on alert, they could not make a move.
But there was an opening.
Kotaro had been exchanging schemes with the future-seeing wizard beneath the surface, and he noticed the limits of the wizard’s foresight.
Their plans were being obstructed. It even seemed as if the wizard wanted to drive the Arataki-gumi away. But apparently the group’s total numbers were unknown, and not every scheme they launched was being meticulously crushed.
There was a limit to the future-seeing wizard’s ability to respond.
So Kotaro advised his younger brother, the boss, to launch a multipronged attack that would overwhelm the future-seeing wizard’s ability to respond.
Rather than having all ten attack as one, the nature of their enemy suggested that dispersing their forces to some degree would be more effective.
Kotaro’s plan hit its mark.
It seemed that roughly half the plan had been read, but a red smoke signal rose from the Bunkyo Ward Office announcing that a witch had been defeated. Red smoke also rose from the Magic University, announcing that it had been taken and hostages secured. A red signal could be seen from Chofu as well.
The Arataki-gumi’s invasion of Tokyo had made the best possible start by any realistic measure.
But things went poorly after that.
The black smoke signal confirming the future-seeing wizard’s death did not rise.
No smoke announcing the neutralization of the Blue Witch or the Dragon Witch appeared, and evening came as night drew near.
Arataki Kotaro was the Arataki-gumi’s adviser, with little combat ability.
He could cast the Shoot spell thirty times and dominate ordinary people, but he would die instantly if caught up in a battle between transcendent beings.
Therefore, Kotaro secretly took up position with his men on the top floor of a safe high-rise apartment building in Koto Ward and watched the overall course of the battle through a telescope.
Just as the sun was about to set, the battle, which had remained deadlocked since the initial strike, finally began to shift.
And it shifted in a direction bad for the Arataki-gumi.
A dragon that had come from the mountains landed near Bunkyo Ward. Just as it seemed to take off again, it flew toward the Flower Witch’s territory, where a gigantic white vortex suddenly appeared overhead, fell to the ground, and dyed the streets white.
That was not all. The dragon flew at high speed between the buildings, causing another enormous white vortex to appear several wards away and freezing the buildings in its whirl of cold air.
Kotaro clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked, threw away the telescope, and began hurrying down from the high-rise with his men.
The Arataki-gumi had lost.
The fact that the dragon was flying freely meant that Kiwada had been killed. Kiwada had been one of their greatest forces, and the one with the best compatibility with the Dragon Witch. That told him one person was already down.
The powerful cold spell belonged to the Blue Witch. Since no warning signal had risen until the Blue Witch began rampaging, Kurihara, who had been watching her, must have been killed. That made two.
The hostages were clearly not functioning, which meant the boss, the underboss, and the head of the junior members, who should have taken the Magic University, had been killed. That made five.
Given the timing, the three who had taken the ward office should already have joined the others at the Magic University. Yet the dragon that landed in Bunkyo Ward had met no interception at all. The Blue Witch had fired a powerful spell, an ideal target for a runaway spell, and nothing had happened. In other words, the three witches assigned to the ward office had almost certainly all been killed. That made eight.
Ikaruga had been attacking the Flower Witch’s administrative district. If a spell like a natural disaster had rained down there from above, Ikaruga, who would have been wearing down their mana in a battle of attrition, would have been unable to defend themself and must have died. That made nine.
Shishido, who had successfully defeated the Chofu witch and was taking her away, must also have been killed while moving by the Blue Witch’s final spell. There was no doubt of it.
That made ten.
Every witch and wizard in the Arataki-gumi had been killed.
Arataki Kotaro fled.
He fled for his life.
Terrified that a dragon might fly overhead at any moment and rain down a white vortex of despair, he ran and ran.
He headed north. He could not flee south, toward the headquarters.
If the boss had died, everyone who had been forced into a contract would be free.
Even if he somehow managed to reach the headquarters, the enraged populace would beat him to death.
If he was going to flee, north was his only option.
Kotaro ran through the night. He left his men on watch and fell into a shallow sleep in the back room of a roadside service-area shop along the national highway.
When he woke, he was alone.
Every one of his men had fled.
Kotaro was stunned.
He staggered out of the shop and stood alone on the desolate highway.
Branches poked out between rows of abandoned vehicles, their metal rusting after years of exposure to wind and rain.
He heard birds chirping, while a deer nibbling on fresh shoots at the edge of the mountains along the highway stared intently at him.
A surge of anger welled up inside him, and Kotaro fired a shooting spell at the deer.
But the spell missed. The deer startled slightly and backed away, then after a brief pause resumed leisurely eating the fresh shoots. It was not particularly frightened.
“You dare look down on me! On me, on the Arataki-gumi! You dare, you dare, you daaaare!! Aah! Aaaaaaaaaah!!”
Half-crazed, Kotaro fired magic wildly in every direction.
When he came to his senses, the deer was gone.
With blue veins standing out on his forehead and breathing heavily, Kotaro took a deep breath and calmed himself.
Then he thought. Thinking itself was his weapon. It was a first-rate weapon that had even troubled a wizard who could see the future.
After pondering for a while, Kotaro decided to take over the Tohoku Hunting Association.
Another period of lying low would come. But if he ingratiated himself with the witches and wizards of the Tohoku Hunting Association, reviving the Arataki-gumi would not be a dream.
The Arataki-gumi had endured a long age of darkness.
This time, too, he would endure. As long as Arataki Kotaro lived, the Arataki-gumi would never end.
Kotaro walked toward the Tohoku Hunting Association, rumored to be in Sendai, silently grinding his teeth as he swore revenge on the Tokyo Witch Assembly. That was when he encountered a group coming toward him, pulling a wagon.
There were about twenty people in the group, and every one of them carried a hunting rifle on their back.
When they came within roughly thirty paces of one another, the group stopped and called out suspiciously.
“I have to ask, but you’re not a monster, are you!? Sorry, but could you say something?”
“Yeah! I’m not a monster!”
Kotaro replied with a friendly expression plastered on his face, raising both hands. A relieved mood spread through the group.
The group relaxed all at once and approached Kotaro, pulling a wagon loaded with goods. A good-natured, bearded man who appeared to be their representative asked him curiously, as if he were something rare.
“What happened to you, walking around here alone? Even a mage would be in danger by himself. You’re not a wizard, either, are you?”
“No, I’m not. Is it really that unusual to be walking around here alone?”
“Of course it is. The Tokyo witches and our hunters carry out regular exterminations, but it’s not uncommon for monsters to appear. My team has an excellent mage as an escort, but if a Class A shows up, even running away is tough. You were walking along all alone, so I thought you were a humanoid monster.”
The bearded man introduced himself as a trading merchant and asked Kotaro why he had been walking alone.
Kotaro quickly worked out a story and answered.
“The truth is, I made a huge mess of my business in Tokyo. You know how they issued a new currency? I made a terrible blunder because of that. My wife and kids left me, I’m penniless, and I can’t bear to stay in Tokyo. So I was wondering if I could start over under the protection of the Tohoku Hunting Association. I admit walking alone was careless. I must have been out of my mind from the shock of being abandoned by my family.”
“That’s a sad story. I’m sorry, but we have to take a load to Tokyo now. We can’t take you with us to Sendai, but…”
“No, no, that’s fine. You should put your work first. I’d feel bad making you waste time on an old man like me. But you’ll be returning to Sendai after unloading in Tokyo, right? Could I travel with you on the way back?”
“Oh, in that case, no problem at all. What’s your name?”
“Kiwada.”
The false name that came to him on the spur of the moment belonged to his younger brother’s mistress. Hiding the Arataki name left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he had no choice right now.
“Kiwada-san, why don’t you return to Tokyo with us for the time being?”
“No, I’d feel awkward if I ran into someone I knew. I’ll hide at the nearby service area and wait for you to return. I’ve decided that the next time I go back to Tokyo will be after I become an official merchant for the Tohoku Hunting Association.”
“Ha-ha, aiming pretty high, aren’t you?”
The bearded man laughed cheerfully, and Kotaro laughed brightly along with him.
They were about to part ways when a hooded man raised his hand and joined the conversation.
“Sorry, but I’m a little worried about leaving Kiwada-san alone like this. Whatever the circumstances, it’s incredibly dangerous to walk the trade route alone. I want to teach him at least a few simple things he needs to know to protect himself.”
“Ah, you’re right. That would be best. Kiwada-san, he’s an escort for our caravan. He’s an excellent mage, so I think you’ll find his advice useful.”
“Would that be all right? I’d like to teach him some simple magic and basic precautions that will help him defend himself.”
“Of course. I’d be grateful.”
“Then let’s go over there. It would be dangerous to cast magic here in case someone got hit.”
Kotaro was led by the hooded mage into a stand of trees alongside the highway, a short distance from the caravan.
Kotaro smirked. There was no harm in learning any number of spells that ordinary humans could use. Kotaro’s greatest ability was planning operations, but he also possessed a considerable amount of mana. To gain more options in a place like this—his luck was finally turning.
Perhaps once you hit rock bottom, the only way left was up.
The hooded mage cautiously looked around the grove, nodded once, and said flatly to Kotaro,
“I smell a vicious beast on you. Sorry, but I can’t let you near the rabbits.”
“The rabbits? What are you talking—”
The hooded mage’s hands seized Kotaro’s neck and rotated it 360 degrees.
The hooded mage looked down at the fallen corpse with cold eyes, then kicked it over and shoved it into a thicket.
After that, the hooded mage leaned against a tree trunk to pass the time. Once enough time had passed to avoid suspicion, the mage returned to the caravan.
“Welcome back, Murakumo-san. Where is he?”
“Ah, Kiwada-san decided to go on alone rather than wait for us after all. He left before I had a chance to stop him.”
“Oh, really? I thought that was dangerous. Well, he did seem a little strange. Maybe he had some urgent business.”
“That’s right. He must have had his own circumstances. But we have our own business as well. Come on, let’s go. We need to deliver the trade goods to Tokyo today.”
“That’s right. Break’s over! Let’s get into the Witch Assembly’s administrative district and take a breather!”
And so the caravan set off for Tokyo without incident.