I Shall Come Forth as Gold (1)
It was the day after Han Seoyeon had suffered a humiliation measurable in terabytes.
"Yes. I see. That is unfortunate."
She murmured it quietly to the person on the other end of the line, then let out a sigh. Being caught by Ninomae with that secret "brown-eared bulbul" was one thing. The work that had to be done still had to be done.
Yesterday had been two things at once: the day of an unintended meetup, in the flesh, with an internet friend, and the day the investigation results they had been waiting on finally arrived from the Hyakurenno family.
What could be inferred from the name Hermes Trismegistus was that its core consisted of three people — in all likelihood a trio of the same sex, and, by Apostle John's reasoning, women to the last. An instigator directing the organization's movements, a vampire supplying the samples, and a prophet supplying the information. That was the shape of it.
By Han Seoyeon's own judgment, that prophet carried the blood of Japan's imperial house. Working from there, the likely suspects to whom Hyakurenno Yuri had narrowed the field numbered thirteen. Filter them once more by sex, following John's deduction, and three remained.
Higashikuni Naomi. Forty-eight. President of Yozakura Foods. A company that had held a commanding share of the market for shelf-stable retort meals had, with convenient timing, destroyed itself over a hygiene scandal, and she rose by swallowing the vacancy it left behind. Since then she had released, again and again at precisely the right moment, products that happened to be in fashion, and secured a place as the country's undisputed number one — a standing no one could deny.
Kan'in Tomoe. Twenty-three. A YouTuber devoted to music, active under the name Tomoe. A great many of her original songs had been taken up as the backing tracks for dance challenges on short-form video platforms and swept into fashion, while the minor clips she uploaded caught the algorithm and showed a miraculous climb in subscribers.
Yokohara Ren. Seventeen. Daughter of the businessman Yokohara Yuji and of Yokohara Yoko, formerly Kitashirakawa Yoko. A high school student still in school. Despite appearing to possess no particular expertise, she had several times turned large profits in stocks and cryptocurrency, and had produced results by offering a few pieces of advice even where her father's business was concerned.
All three had achieved outcomes that looked like the work of someone acting on a foreknowledge of what was to come, and each carried points of suspicion on several other counts besides. And so everything was meant to begin with investigating them… except.
…To think I would end up hobbled like this.
A rash approach against a prophet was, of course, out of the question, and if one meant to dig carefully into what lay behind them, the cost was bound to be steep. That cost might be money. It might be manpower. It might be time. And Japan, as it stood, was short of all three — because of the many spirits being eaten away by evil spirits.
Even at this very moment, there was no telling who was having their body gnawed at by something unholy. Naturally, that was the first priority under investigation for both Japan's Onmyoryo and the Church. Administrative power was already running hot from the "health checkups" of the eight million spirits, and on top of that a number of the Holy Knights within the Church had run wild. There was simply no spare strength left to turn anywhere else.
What they had now was what she had managed to wring out of the available personnel by means of her authority as an Apostle. If the masterminds behind the Vampire Syndrome had engineered this situation themselves, then it was nothing short of a genuine critical hit.
"You sure it's all right to be taking a call like that out here in the open?"
The one who addressed Han Seoyeon, as she stood there full of regret, was a shrine maiden with a broom in one hand.
Akane had originally meant to leave the affairs of Mary Shrine entirely to the Kure family, its former masters. But after hearing that the shrine was running far busier than she had expected, she had taken to coming out like this every time to lend a hand with the work. There was the cat left in the shrine's care, too — no, Sanmedora. She had left it neglected, and before much time had passed Ninomae was swept up in an incident, which had left her uneasy for no good reason.
At any rate, where she stood now was of course the rear garden of Mary Shrine, and the same was true of Han Seoyeon. Which was to say that the call just finished had also been placed somewhere wide open — hardly the place for a secret conversation.
"When one has secret business to conduct, an open space can at times serve better."
Han Seoyeon denied it with a faint smile. To be open on every side was also to say that it was difficult for anyone to hide.
"A shrine is a god's domain, besides. It is hardly a favorable set of conditions for some other anomaly to come rooting its way in."
So however lax it might look at a glance, it was in truth a space quite thoroughly sealed off, both physically and spiritually. For discussing the prophet hunt, which had to be carried out in secret, it was entirely fit for the purpose.
"If a professional says so, I'm sure that's how it is."
Akane had no mind to press any further, and let it pass at that.
"Anyway, so now I head back— mmph."
The errand that had brought her to the shrine was finished. She had been on the point of asking whether that meant she was leaving, when a yellowish ball of fur sprang up onto her face and the rest of the sentence died where it stood.
"Damn it. What the hell are you doing, you little bastard."
"Yip!"
Scowling, Akane picked the thing up. A fox kit. Hers was a sharp look that had, back in her school days, readily made her something to be afraid of, but the fox only cried out in high spirits, as though she were no threat at all.
A wild animal that had trailed after yet another fox yokai, when some of the anomalies dwelling on Mount Goryeo relocated to Mary Shrine.
"…If even a few fewer of the people visiting this shrine had come for this little runt, I'd have run it straight off."
Akane muttered it like a grievance. As she said, the reason Mary Shrine had grown famous was not solely the distinction of being the first VTuber shrine in history. That was, without question, the greatest reason. Even people who were not fans of Mary, or of the other members of Anathema Production, had come in numbers out of sheer curiosity at a shrine built around a VTuber character.
But if there was one more reason besides that, it was precisely this fox kit. Put plainly, a cute and fluffy beast that took to people extraordinarily well was toddling all over the shrine grounds. Of course a thing like that would grow famous across the internet. The Kure family had even, it seemed, quietly put the fox to work in their publicity — dressing it in shrine-maiden robes the way one dresses a pet dog, and seating it out in front of the shrine. This was a family that would make use of even a 2D character, if it served the shrine's revival. Something of this order was not so much natural as simply inevitable.
At any rate, borne up by all of that, the animal had been contributing considerably to drawing in visitors.
"They do say that where marketing is concerned, the three Bs are a cheat. With every one of them present, there is no way people would fail to gather."
Han Seoyeon nodded. The so-called three Bs: baby, beast, and beauty. Three elements as good as a cheat key when one was making an advertisement.
"Yeah, well. This one's sitting on two of the Bs all by itself…"
A baby fox. What better conditions could there be for being fussed over? She had answered along those lines when, all at once, something felt off, and Akane frowned.
"Hm? Hold on. What about the other one?"
To claim that all three Bs were present, they were one short. To that question Han Seoyeon did not open her mouth. She merely looked at the woman in front of her — Akane, turned out in her shrine-maiden robes, the fox kit already up on her shoulder and rubbing the tip of its nose into the nape of her neck. With that, the three elements were complete.
And by then there was no way Akane would fail to catch what was meant. Her expression hardened a little further.
"What the hell kind of nonsense are you spouting, you bastard."
In the next instant she swung the broom in her hand on reflex, as if in rebuke — the habit of how she usually handled her childhood friend, surfacing to cover a faint flush of shyness.
"?!"
But this time, the one on the receiving end was no ordinary person. Han Seoyeon lightly kicked aside the shaft swung at her legs, caught it in her hand, and hauled. The hand Akane had closed around the broom was dragged forward, her balance broke in an instant, and she went down with a thud, straight into Han Seoyeon.
"…Ah. I apologize. It was reflexive."
"What in the world — countering without even thinking…"
Held against that body as if in an embrace, Akane muttered as though she could not believe it. Just what kind of reflexes were those? Then again, at the level of an Apostle, a habit of this sort would hardly be strange. Yes. What stood before her eyes, however lax an appearance it sometimes showed in ordinary moments, was in truth a powerhouse of a caliber one could never afford to dismiss.
"Are you all right?"
"Ah — ah… yeah."
A being of such strength that a woman like Akaba Akane would feel fragile enough to need protecting. Why was it? The moment she thought that, the solid, thoroughly trained shoulder hidden beneath the clothes began, somehow, to weigh on her. Her face was pressed against it, and that dependable chest started to nag at her in a strange way.
Akaba Akane — ordinarily treated as a fearsome delinquent, and at best as an older sister to be admired and envied — was caught, within that embrace, by a sensation like an itch deep in the chest. The heartbeat inside her, a thump loud enough to ring in her ears, began for some reason to grate. And yet it was not entirely unpleasant…….
"…Mind letting go already?"
"Ah. I apologize. Just in case, allow me to confirm once more — you truly are not hurt anywhere, yes?"
"I said I'm fine."
Akane drew away from Han Seoyeon and dragged a palm down over her face. What was she thinking? This was not someone it was all right to be having strange thoughts about. More than that, this was a person who already belonged to someone else. It was nothing more than her brain thrown into confusion for a single moment, and she forced the feeling down quickly.
"……Hm?"
"Mm?"
A crow seemed to cross the blue sky, and then something dropped between the two of them with a soft thud. It happened in the very next instant, and both their gazes turned of their own accord toward the object.
…It was a newspaper.
"What the hell is this?"
"A newspaper, it would seem."
"No. I can see that much just by looking."
Akane picked it up with a dubious look.
"Anomaly-style newspaper delivery? No — but I'm sure I never heard that this shrine subscribed to a paper……."
The contents themselves were ordinary, too. A completely ordinary edition of today's paper, carrying stories she had seen on the news only a little while ago.
"One moment. Might I see that page?"
"Hm? Ah, sure. Not like there's any reason I can't."
But as they turned through the paper, Han Seoyeon spoke as if she had found something, and Akane spread it wider so it could be seen all the better and held it out to her.
"This is…"
"What. Something there?"
She checked the article from the corner of her eye. What Han Seoyeon was looking at was a piece set beneath a photograph of the current Pope.
It was an article touching on a speech by the Pope. Judging by Han Seoyeon's reaction, however, this was not merely her interest stirred as one of the faithful.
If that were so…
"A speech with something to do with the hidden world? To do with the Holy Knights, probably."
"Yes. That is correct. I had been thinking it was about time for something of this sort, but……."
Han Seoyeon nodded at the guess.
"So what is it, really? Something that's hard to say?"
"No. Not that. Everyone is going to be in an uproar over this before long anyway, so there is no reason to hide it."
She let out a sigh, and went on with a faintly bitter look.
"It would seem that an Apostolic Council is to be convened before long."