I Shall Come Forth as Fine Gold (3)
The moment she bit into the strawberry, sweet-tart juice burst and flooded her mouth.
"So."
Akane worked it over a few times, swallowed, and spoke — slouched at a crooked angle, elbow planted on the table, chin propped in her hand.
"It was... an accident."
"Yes. That's correct."
At Han Seoyeon's answer, Akane tossed another strawberry into her mouth.
An accident? If one of them had been a man, that accident would've come with a baby.
Her eyes sharpened on their own. What kind of accident left two people tangled together like that without meaning to?
Well. What they meant to say, no doubt, was that they hadn't done it with any intention of sleeping together. Akane sighed and let the point go, more or less.
More than that — they weren't even dating?
That was the thought that came next. The conclusion she'd drawn after hearing Han Seoyeon and Ninomae out.
It startled her even more than the rest. From the way the two of them usually behaved, there was no possible reading except that they were already a couple. True, they had never once said, in their own words, that they were seeing each other... but she had simply taken it that they believed themselves to be conducting a secret romance.
No — which one's stranger?
That they had tried to hide it in the first place, or that they had done all that without even dating. Neither sat anywhere near ordinary.
For the sake of her own sanity, Akane decided not to dig any deeper.
"Anyway. What are these supposed to be?"
She pointed instead at the things she had fished out of the mailbox a little earlier.
The first was a parcel addressed to Akaba Akane herself, so asking someone else what it was might well have seemed unnatural. The question came out all the same, because of the return address: her family home — which was to say, the church near Takaku Shrine. Akane had lived her whole life with no ties to the Church, and of course no church person who might send her a parcel came to mind.
"Any idea what it is?"
"Hard to say. I imagine it has something to do with the attack on the shrine. We'll have to open it before we can be certain."
Han Seoyeon didn't seem to have a sure answer either. Her attitude was that they would need to see the contents first.
"...What is this? A silver platter?"
"Forget that — there's a name engraved on it. Who is this supposed to be?"
Akane, having torn the parcel open, and Ninomae, watching from beside her, could only stare in puzzlement.
"That would be the name of the Bishop of the Yokohama Diocese... Ah."
"What. You know what this is?"
Han Seoyeon, by contrast, seemed to have understood. A faint, bitter smile touched her face.
"Akaba-san. Are you familiar with John the Baptist?"
"Huh? I've heard the name, I guess... What, Ninomae. You've got that look like you get it too."
"U-um..."
The way Ninomae's expression turned complicated the moment the name came up made it plain she had caught on as well. Asked outright, she hesitated, then spoke.
"John the Baptist was beheaded. A princess won the king's favor and a promise that he would grant her one wish, and the queen — who couldn't stand John — put her daughter up to wishing for his head, cut off and brought to her on a silver platter."
"Wait. So this is..."
"Yes. It was sent to mean, 'We were in the wrong — shall we dispose of the one responsible?'"
"..."
Understanding reached Akane at last, and her face darkened.
"...So this is just vigilante justice."
"It is vigilante justice."
"This is... the twenty-first century..."
"In the hidden world, it is not especially rare."
In the hidden world, it was not impossible for a single person to hold the power to fight a nation and win. When the Japanese Church might be wiped out in its entirety at a stroke, who was going to quibble over the rule of law?
"I heard the real culprits were already punished."
"If that failed to satisfy you, Akaba-san, then the meaning is that they will hold those men to account for their failure of oversight and take the bishop's head."
She was going to lose her mind. Akane tipped her face up toward the ceiling and muttered.
"Tell them I don't need it, so they can knock it off."
"Even so, please accept the platter. At the very least, it will serve as proof that you are someone the Church is watching this closely."
"Keeping it just feels awful..."
"If you send it back, the situation becomes awkward. From their side, they will have no way to tell whether you are genuinely declining, or applying pressure because this is not enough."
"And if I refuse anyway?"
Akane asked it with her brow furrowed.
"Next time, I imagine, a platter would arrive bearing the name of the Archbishop of Tokyo."
"Damn it."
The Catholic Church in Japan is divided into three ecclesiastical provinces. He would be, in other words, one of the three highest figures in Japanese Catholicism — an archbishop, by office.
"So there's no helping it..."
"If keeping it truly displeases you, you are free to sell it. Silver of that size ought to fetch a considerable price."
That, in the end, was the conclusion. She would keep the platter for now, and word would go back through Han Seoyeon that there was no need to punish anyone responsible.
"All right. We'll call this one settled... so what's this?"
What Akane's finger indicated next was a single printed sheet. Some mark was drawn across the top, and beneath it a line of text had been printed—
"Mm. A notice concerning the class observation."
"No — I'm asking why it's in the mailbox."
Han Seoyeon nodded, perfectly calm, which did nothing whatsoever to answer Akane's question.
"Oh, wait a moment. Coronet Girls' High... isn't this the school Tsunashi-san attended?"
Ninomae cut in, eyes gone round. It was a school she had heard about from Tenka once before.
"Yeah."
"Then this came for you as well, didn't it, Akaba-san?"
Tsunashi Tenka and Akaba Akane were childhood friends, and high school classmates besides. Akane shook her head.
"I graduated ages ago. Why would they send this to me?"
And even supposing there were a reason to send it, the printout didn't so much as have an address on it. How was anyone supposed to have mailed the thing? It hadn't come through the post. Someone had put it in by hand. And as far as Akane knew, there was no one who would do that for her.
Whether Han Seoyeon or Ninomae might have such an acquaintance was enough to make her tilt her head... still, she could at least ask. When she said as much and turned her eyes their way, Han Seoyeon picked up the sheet.
"Ah. This one did come for me. I've reason to visit that school as a guardian this time."
"A guardian?"
"Yes. Someone you have met before, Akaba-san. Do you remember the holy knight from the hot spring trip?"
"...Ah. The one in the school uniform."
Akane thought for a moment, and the memory came back. The schoolgirl who had been holding onto Ninomae, back when a fox had nearly spirited her away. She had stuck in the mind precisely because she had not looked much like a holy knight at all.
"You mean Mika Eru-san?"
"Yes. That's right."
Ninomae remembered her with certainty; they had met again in February over a matter of taxes.
"So Mika-san graduated from the same school as the two of you."
Well, she was a student. Of course she went to school somewhere. Akane simply hadn't imagined for a second that she would turn out to be an alumna of the same school as herself and Tenka. From the flicker of reaction, Han Seoyeon hadn't known that part either.
"More importantly, what do you mean by guardian?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I'm going with her, in the role of guardian, for the three-way conference — the career counseling."
"Does she... need that?"
Mika Eru was a Holy Knight whose name had already been put forward once as an Apostle Candidate. She did not look like someone with a single worry about her future.
"How shall I put it. My father holds a fairly ordinary Korean view of education."
"Uh... what does that mean?"
"He is of the opinion that, barring anything unusual, one ought to at least finish university. I'm the same way, aren't I?"
"Ah..."
Come to think of it, the standing Han Seoyeon held outranked Mika Eru's. Mika was an Apostle Candidate; Han Seoyeon was a sitting Apostle outright. And yet she was attending university.
At first Ninomae had assumed it was only for the sake of a cover identity. The more she learned of the hidden world, the more she felt there was no need for any such thing. Someone on the level of an Apostle was the sort of person a nation ought to forge a false identity for and deliver to her door, with no call for cumbersome measures like this. Even if they did go this route, simply having her name sitting on a university roll would have been enough.
Let an ordinary student fire off a do-it-yourself leave of absence like it was a skill, and they would be expelled, and that would be the end of it. Someone of Han Seoyeon's caliber had no need at all to show up dutifully to lectures. That she was attending university like anyone else — setting aside the occasional class she skipped when Professor Senjoji called in a favor — could only mean the choice was plainly her own.
"So what you're saying is, Mika-san's adoptive father is also..."
"Yes. He is my master, and my adoptive father as well."
"The one who shoots beams out of his eyes, right..."
"Beams out of his eyes? Hold on — what?"
"Ahaha... Apparently there's someone like that. I haven't met him yet either."
"In any case, when you get down to it, my position is something like that of Mika Eru's stepsister."
She was not a parent, but surely an adult sister was enough to attend a high school in the role of guardian. Han Seoyeon said as much, and shrugged.
"Ordinarily, when something like this comes up, Father comes in person. This time there are a few things I need to confirm myself, so I asked his leave and decided I would go to the school."
If not for that, there would have been no particular reason she had to go. Eru's path forward was, for all practical purposes, already decided, so the counseling was nothing but a formality. They could have picked out any seasoned person from the Church, called them a relative, and that would have been plenty.
"Yokohara Ren."
The name that then left Han Seoyeon's mouth belonged to someone Ninomae had never heard of. Akane, on the other hand, seemed to have a guess; her eyes twitched, just slightly.
"That was the 'suspect's' name, wasn't it?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
"I overheard a bit of the call back then."
The suspect — more specifically, the mastermind behind Vampire Syndrome. Among them, the prophet candidate presumed to be handling the greater part of the information.
"From what I hear, she is Mika Eru's classmate. The very same class. An opportunity like this isn't one I can let pass."
The other party was a prophet, and the one in charge of information at that. Try to approach without a proper pretext, and there was a good chance they would read this side's intent. In a prophet hunt, where the snare had to be drawn tight slowly and without mistake, the most important thing was not letting them realize they were being pursued at all. The approach had to be as natural as possible — as if they had met by chance, over some entirely separate matter. Under those conditions, the suspect sharing a classroom with Mika Eru was nothing short of heaven-sent.
"And on top of that, you yourself are an alumna of the same school, Akaba-san... I don't suppose I could borrow a hand?"
"Borrow a hand."
"It's a period when the school opens its doors to outsiders. Would it be difficult to time it so that it looks as though you came to see your juniors?"
"Mm... I don't see why not. If I haul Tenka along and we frame it as going to watch the basketball club..."
Akane sank into thought for a moment, then nodded. This wasn't just anything — it was for catching a criminal, wasn't it? And given how much she already owed them, what with the house and the shrine and all the rest, a thing like this didn't even qualify as repaying the favor.
"Then what should I do?"
"Let's see... wouldn't it be better for you to go with Akaba-san's party rather than with me, Ninomae-san? You aren't family to a student, so..."
It would be a little awkward, the shape of having tagged along with friends when she wasn't even an alumna herself... still, it was better than clinging to Han Seoyeon. Visiting a school a friend had attended could pass for curiosity. Following along to a guardian's meeting for the fun of it was plainly strange.
"Why not just go as a married couple?"
"M-married... whaaat?!"
The bombshell Akane dropped next made Ninomae jump.
"Well, legally it's impossible, so it'd be common-law lovers... but if you frame it as a de facto marriage, it might not be all that strange. Both parents attending a class observation is a perfectly natural thing."
The position was an older sister's rather than a parent's, but going to a place like this as a guardian meant you were the one who would provide for the student if it came to that. If you were in a position to raise even one student, there was nothing odd about a couple talking it over together.
"B-but that's — I mean — Shion-san's image..."
Ninomae would be going this once and done with it, but depending on how things went, Han Seoyeon might have cause to visit that school several times. A same-sex couple, honestly speaking, was still not accepted as entirely ordinary even in the twenty-first century. She had no wish to stick a negative image onto Han Seoyeon if she could help it.
"If it's you, Ninomae-san, I don't mind..."
"Eep?! W-wait. Th-that — you don't mind — ngh... you mean you don't mind people you barely know taking you for a lesbian, right?"
"Ah. Ah, yes. That's right. That is what I mean."
Her true feelings had slipped out without her meaning them to, and Han Seoyeon scrambled into an excuse. It was a remark that plainly smelled of something, but Ninomae herself was even more flustered, and didn't seem able to find it strange.
They live together, so they really are as good as common-law, aren't they?
Put another way: from where a third party stood, Han Seoyeon's heart was perfectly transparent. Set aside the fact that neither of them was sure what the other felt, and it didn't look like a cover identity at all. The thought occurred to Akane before she could stop it.
Well. They clearly had feelings for each other, so giving them a quiet little push like this probably wasn't a bad thing. Even if, set beside the debt of lodging under their roof and imposing on them, it felt like far too small a kindness.
"..."
But a push was a push, and for some reason her side ached with a cold little pang today. Akane looked up at the ceiling once more and let out a small sigh.