Come Forth as Pure Gold (6)
"Divinity suppressed or not—a Gravekeeper who's climbed all the way to Apostle Candidate, an ordinary vampire, and a body carrying oni blood, even if it isn't as thick as her sister's..."
Han Seoyeon murmured it under her breath.
"...I don't know much about basketball, but they're simply strong, aren't they?"
"Mm, yeah... No, more than just strong. I'd say they're a better team than back when Akane and I were on it."
Tenka answered with a bitter smile. The basketball club of her school days had been hauled along entirely by the charging tank that was Tsunashi Tenka and by Akaba Akane, the only one who could even begin to keep up with her. Given that Akane's role had been nothing but support for Tenka, it was fair to call the whole thing a one-woman team.
Even so, the Goroneto basketball club had been spoken of as a sleeper powerhouse—and looking over the current roster, there were three players of that same Tenka caliber. Honoka, Oka's younger sister, fell well short of Tenka by comparison, but an Apostle, an existence outside any ordinary measure, more than made up the gap, with change to spare.
"That Yokohara Ren girl looks like she's keeping up with Akane pretty well, too... Honestly, aren't they just the strongest team in the school's history?"
Tenka said it and scratched her cheek.
"Still, it is kind of weird, this many anomalies piling into a single school club..."
"Is it?"
"I mean, it's not exactly a common thing, is it?"
"Hmm."
Han Seoyeon quietly closed her mouth. She had enough tact not to point out, just then, the anomaly ratio over at Anathema Production.
Oni blood, a vampire variant, the miko of Sanmeedora no Kami, a demon contractor, a living god who was likewise contracted to a demon, a werewolf returned from study abroad, Hyakuren no Nomiya, blood of the Seven Sisters, and a descendant of a fox youkai besides. Every last one of them was an anomaly, or at the very least someone who knew the hidden world existed. At that point, she could hardly avoid the thought that their side was the true singularity.
Hasn't the agency itself already become a kind of anomaly—one that draws other anomalies in...?
If a third generation debuted next, and if things came out looking like this again... then she would be certain. But that was something she would only know when the time came, so for now she set it aside.
Her gaze went to the cluster of girls chatting now that the match was over. Among them, of course, was Yokohara Ren.
...She isn't the prophet.
That was the conclusion Han Seoyeon had reached after watching her for a good while today. Akane, who had seen how the girl acted before Seoyeon arrived, agreed. The chance that Yokohara Ren was Hermes Trismegistus was extremely low. Any precognitive ability was either wholly absent or negligible at best. The investment successes she was said to have pulled off were, it seemed, simple luck—or at least the work of something other than prophecy.
It might not have been enough to lay suspicion to rest entirely, but it was enough to push her well down the list of priorities. Even if not, Seoyeon had the scent memorized. Should the girl ever step to the fore, she would know her at once. Or, since Ren would likewise have realized that Han Seoyeon had met her, they could hope that very worry would make her keep her head down.
Today, that was enough. Thinking so, Han Seoyeon slowly let out a breath, then quietly caught Tenka's eye.
"I've already spoken with Miss Akaba, but I'd be grateful if Miss Tsubasa would keep this matter as quiet as possible as well."
"Yeah. I know, so don't worry."
It was a way of minimizing the chance that word would leak and the mastermind would run. It was also, at the same time, for the protection of the suspects.
Kill all three and it's solved, isn't it... They're bound to come out with that.
Considering the disposition of the Japanese Church, that was exactly what they would say the moment they had the suspect list in hand. Ten or twenty might have been another matter, but with only three, there was no chance they wouldn't argue for swallowing the sacrifice in the name of the public good.
And if that was an answer, it was a correct one. It was not, at least, a wrong one—a method of cutting out a terrorist organization's key source of information at the cost of two lives. Perhaps the argument would have been just as ready to surface even somewhere other than the Japanese Church, where the hardliners held the mainstream.
Even so, the unease she felt at the words necessary sacrifice was surely the fruit of the education she had received since she was small. For one who held a miracle that could raise the dead, the notion to guard against above all others was precisely this: that it was easier to kill them, since they could always be brought back later. On that point, her master had taught her thoroughly.
"What are you two talking about so happily~?"
Sakuragi Oka came up to them beaming, her younger sister Honoka gathered in her arms. Honoka herself stood nearly five foot seven, but given who she was up against, Oka still had to bend at the waist just to rest her chin on top of her sister's head.
"Just, you know... a little talk about sports?"
"Ugh... you even gossip about exercise? Athletic people are impossible to understand."
Tenka's excuse seemed to have been the model answer. Oka recoiled at once and hid herself behind her sister—still smiling, and not hidden in the least. The matter of the prophet was not something to raise. Oka was a person of the surface world, and even if she had set a foot in the hidden side, they could not speak openly of the prophet with a suspect standing right there.
"Sis, please, just exercise a little. Letting a body like that go to waste is a loss to society."
Honoka, likewise a resident of the surface, said it with a tilt of her head. Innately sturdy, and past six and a half feet even as a woman—it certainly made one think the athletic world must have come calling at least once. Perhaps not the professionals, but club recruiters must have been after her with a persistence that bordered on harassment.
"Why is everyone so desperate to torture themselves, I wonder."
"You really do seem to have built a wall between yourself and exercise..."
"I know, right? That's what I keep saying!"
When Ninomae said it with a wry smile, Sakuragi Honoka nodded fiercely in agreement.
"And even like that, with that height and that figure—she's my sister, but it's honestly amazing."
"Everything I eat just goes to my height, that's all."
"...Wait, Sis. You haven't stopped yet?"
"I've pretty much stopped, though? All last year I only grew a centimeter and a little. It'll quit for good any day now~"
"What is even going on with this one's growth plates."
Akane, who had been listening in silence, cut in as if she couldn't believe her ears. To think that even after reaching that height, she was still growing, however slowly.
"The goal was eight shaku, you know. Still a long way off."
"Two hundred and forty centimeters? Are you out of your mind..."
"But we live in an age where Hasshaku-sama doujinshi show up whenever you start to forget about her, right? Don't you think it's a surprisingly marketable trait?"
"Damn it. I don't know about that crap. Why the hell is erotic manga the standard."
"Because it's my job? And more than anything, ero saves the world!"
Oka said it with her shoulders squared in triumph, and what little patience remained in Akane's expression vanished altogether.
"At least it definitely saved one person. Me."
"......"
Before Akane could get a word of protest in, Oka murmured it, low. The voice was as strengthless as ever, but Akane caught in it a strangely grave feeling, unlike her usual easy air, and closed her mouth again.
"Sis...?"
Whether she had read the mood or not, Honoka too looked up at her sister with worry. No—perhaps it was closer to a question. Is it all right to bring that up?
"It's fine. It's not some grand story or anything~"
But Oka only laughed her usual vacant, silly laugh.
"A kid who got teased for the huge height she was so complexed about happened to see a Hasshaku-sama ero doujinshi, and realized there were people who could like even a body like this... That's all it is. A stupid little story, right?"
Of course, just because she laughed that way, just because she tossed it off lightly as if it were something ridiculous, Akane, on the receiving end, could not do the same. Not with someone standing in front of her who had unconsciously opened even the eyes she almost always kept nearly shut, staring blankly off somewhere with those red irises. It was all the more impossible then.
Most likely, it was something she could recall with a smile only now, because it had become a thing of long ago. For some reason, Akane felt certain of that. She knew well how cruelly children could cast out a being who stood apart among them. It had been compressed into the single phrase I got teased, but the past would not have been as light as the length of those words.
"...I'm sorry."
Akane murmured it. She looked, by now, as though she had overcome it, and yet speaking carelessly about her height had never been a good thing. They had already known each other three years as colleagues, and still—did she really know all of her? The thought had flickered past, and the apology carried it.
But Sakuragi Oka smiled brightly once more, as if it didn't trouble her in the least. As if she were forgiving the words Akane had so carelessly let slip—
"If you're going to apologize, then as compensation, could you let me check that anal sensitivity I didn't get to confirm last time?"
"...Huh?"
And in an instant Akane's face went rigid. Not a shred of apology remained in those eyes.
"Damn it, you rotten bastard. I lost out worrying for nothing!"
"But I really do love Akaba-chan, who keeps worrying about me every time even while getting caught like this every time."
"Ugh, let go! Let go of me right now! All that useless strength—"
"S-Sis, if you're going to hug her, at least move me out from between you first—mmph."
Naturally, the sight of the two of them—no, the three, counting Honoka—pulled every eye nearby. They were already drawing looks as outsiders; raising a commotion on top of that made it inevitable.
"Haha... so that really was true."
"Miss Ninomae? What do you mean, all of a sudden?"
"'The thing I couldn't do last time'—I guess the rumor was true, that she tried to put a finger in at the first offline collab."
"Ah... you mean that..."
Han Seoyeon had some idea what she was referring to as well. It was a famous story online, famous enough that malicious rumors treating she put it in as established fact were already making the rounds. Of course, everyone saying it knew perfectly well it was a smear—nonsense they spread just for a laugh.
"All anyone had was Maya-senpai saying she 'tried and failed,' while Tama-senpai testified she'd 'never even attempted it,' so the prevailing theory was that the whole thing was made up."
"Well, given Miss Sakuragi's personality, I did think she might at least have tried," Ninomae added, with an ambiguous smile. "Ah, but looking at that, it wasn't a case of 'I really meant to and failed,' was it. Not with a difference in strength that overwhelming."
Akane was resisting with everything she had, and still she couldn't get free of Oka's arms. Seeing that, if Oka had truly meant to force the issue, she would certainly have succeeded. Perhaps Akane, knowing the act had not been sincere, was able to keep the relationship without ever coming to loathe her.
"They've gotten along without any major conflict for three whole years since debut, after all."
"Speaking of years—Gen 2's first anniversary is coming up soon, isn't it? How are the preparations going?"
"I think they're going pretty well. Everyone's working hard, not a single person left out..."
At Han Seoyeon's question, Ninomae answered with a bright smile. From that radiance, it wasn't courtesy talking. The preparations really must have been proceeding to her satisfaction.
"I'll look forward to it."
"Yes. This time, you really can."
Or perhaps it was because, this time, she was not alone. Humble as she was about her own affairs, her estimation of the people around her was almost always high. Either way, if Ninomae herself was willing to say that much, it was safe to look forward to it. Han Seoyeon smiled faintly back at her.
"Miss Shion. More importantly, isn't your phone ringing?"
"Ah, so it is. Excuse me."
At Ninomae's prompting, Han Seoyeon drew the vibrating phone from her pocket. She had set it to silent for class and forgotten to turn it back.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's me. Miss Mary—I'm right outside Narita International Airport."
"A call out of nowhere—what is this about...? Miss Alejandra. No, wait a moment. Where? Tokyo? Just like that?"
The flustered look that followed was quite a sight, Ninomae thought, quietly and to herself.