Son of the Dawn (5)
A two-headed bear yokai. The first encounter with him had come before the shrine was ever renamed the Mary Shrine. In the course of Mary succeeding the spirit Tatari no Moyoko, long eaten away by countless evil spirits, the yokai sealed inside had burst out all at once. Han Seoyeon had not been the only one there, of course. Hitomi, under contract to Philotanuss, was present as well, and so was the maid Momomomo Chisa, who had once made quite a name for herself. Between them, the matter was over almost at once.
The sole survivor on the yokai side of that affair was the very one now seated behind the wheel, turning it with an easy hand. While every other yokai ran wild, he alone had struck his comrades from behind and thrown in with Han Seoyeon. Had he merely tested the wind and come sidling up with flattery, she would have cracked his skull without a second thought—both of them, naturally. But he had finished his judgment the instant he woke from that long sleep and changed sides at once, and for that he had been spared.
He possessed, moreover, enough strength to survive the yokai who tried to execute the turncoat for switching hands. Since the chance was there, she had told him to help with the work of the shrine and left him to it. With judgment that sound, she had figured he would pull nothing strange even if she didn't keep a close eye on him. Why that person—no, that bear—was here now, however, remained a complete mystery.
"Wait. More importantly, are you even allowed to drive?"
Thinking again, that was the real problem. If anyone caught sight of a bear in the driver's seat, what would they make of it? The hour was close to midnight, but that hardly meant the streets were empty. In Russia, perhaps, people might have shrugged and let it pass. In Japan, it was a sight no one could possibly accept.
"Oh, that goes without saying. Here, take a look at this."
So saying, the bear picked up something resting on the front seat and held it out to Hitomi. A driver's license, its term of validity printed against a green ground. In the photograph, the two-headed bear was grinning from ear to ear.
"How do you even have this?!"
If anything, seeing it only left Hitomi more stunned. A bear with a driver's license. Hidden world or not, it was difficult to imagine. More than anything, had an identification photo of a bear's face actually passed? She turned the license this way and that, her brow tightening. Had he used some art to transform himself before the picture was taken, she might have understood. It wasn't even that.
"Is it... a forgery?"
Her head understood that it couldn't be. How would anyone present a thing like this to ordinary people? Even so, she had to ask.
"A legally issued license. I passed the official examination."
"How is that even possible...?"
"I heard the Freemasons were researching perception alteration. It seems they've nearly reached the stage of completion."
It was Han Seoyeon who answered the dumbfounded Hitomi. As she spoke, she drew a terminal resembling a smartphone from her pocket and worked it, and a moment later a ring of light slowly appeared above her head.
"You've seen this a few times yourself, haven't you, Hitomi?"
"Ah. Right. I think I was told it's something that blurs how people perceive you..."
It was a tool Seoyeon used now and then in the course of her duties as a Holy Knight. Unless someone already knew her, it rendered the impression she left exceedingly vague.
"This, too, is a work of the Freemasons. More precisely, Mister F developed it... At any rate, I've heard they're using it as the basis for a technology meant to integrate aberrant beings into society."
Unlike the halos the Holy Knights used, this one photographed perfectly well, which suggested a rather extensive improvement had been made—though the underlying principle itself was probably not so very different. That was Seoyeon's guess.
"Just as she says. You might call me a clinical trial subject for the prototype."
The bear shrugged as he said it. In short, even if someone who didn't know him looked at the driver's seat right now, they would be unable to properly register that a two-headed bear was sitting there.
"Of course, as a precaution against the unexpected, I'm only permitted to operate a vehicle when accompanied by a member of the Freemasons."
A natural measure, if one cared to call it natural. They were testing a new technology; the absence of any safety device would have been the stranger thing. While Hitomi was coming to terms with that, the vehicle gradually lost speed and at last came to a stop.
"Yes. We've arrived."
"...Here?"
Hitomi looked out the window, and her eyes went round. Tokyo Tower rose so near that a stumble would have put her nose against it—a hundred meters in a straight line, two hundred at the outside. That was how close they were. She had never imagined that the building of an organization trailed by conspiracy theories of world domination would sit this deep in the middle of the city, and the realization left her faintly unsettled.
"People take less interest in places like this than you'd think. A great many live this close and haven't the slightest idea."
Han Seoyeon said it with a wry smile. The name, at least, was famous, so if you told the people living nearby that a Freemason lodge stood right here, every one of them jumped. Hitomi herself hadn't known there was a lodge in a place like this.
At length the bear yokai climbed out, went around to the bed of the truck, and hoisted the large crate loaded there. Talismans, sacred rope, and iron chains were wrapped thick around it. Lucifer was shut inside. Just in case, Seoyeon stole a look through a gap. The caterpillar wound round and round in rope seemed to have tired even of thrashing; it had curled into a ball and fallen asleep. If she would only hold still, she really was a beauty, with a strangely cute air about her... Han Seoyeon let out a small sigh.
"Welcome to the Tokyo Grand Lodge of Freemasons~"
Sakuragi had set out late, but those long legs of hers closed the distance in a few strides. Beaming, she spread one arm wide. The familiar emblem—a compass joined to a square—declared the owner of this building beyond anyone's denial.
"If it's a Grand Lodge, is it somewhere special?"
"You might think of it as the difference between Tokyo Cathedral and an ordinary church. It's easiest to understand as Japan's representative lodge, the one that oversees the other branches."
Seoyeon answered lightly as she walked into the building at Hitomi's side.
Another thing that struck her as strange was that, late as the hour was, she could not find a single place inside where the lights had been put out.
"There's no day or night when a deadline's coming up, you know."
"...R-right."
It was Sakuragi who explained. Coming from a working doujin artist and from no one else, the words carried considerable weight.
...Somehow, the doors along one side of the corridor drew the eye. Packed tight together, each room looked quietly cramped. Aside from the fact that you couldn't see inside, they called prison cells to mind...
Hitomi got that far and made herself turn her attention elsewhere. No matter how she looked at it, the wish (?) that some readers only ever mentioned as a joke seemed to be coming true in there. She decided she simply hadn't seen it.
The room they were shown into had, at a glance, the air of a parlor: an interior imitating Western Europe, with several antique-style chairs set about. The bear yokai set the crate holding Lucifer down in a corner, then, with practiced movements, began to pour tea. Sakuragi, having glanced sidelong at that, smiled.
"Wait here a little while, and the Grand Master will be along in no time~"
"Um, Sakuragi-san, weren't you going to stay with us?"
"Hitomi-chan, do you happen to know when summer Comiket is?"
"...Ah."
The doujin festival that could fairly be called the largest in the world was held in mid-August. It was nearly upon them, and for Sakuragi, participating as a circle, this was the busiest season of all.
"And you still came to pick us up, even that busy."
"I owe the Freemasons a fair bit, you know? They're helping me out with the book I'm putting out this time, too, one way and another. Anyway, take care~"
With that, Sakuragi tied the conversation off neatly enough and swept out of the parlor. A short while later, the sound of a door opening and shutting came from not far off. She must have gone into one of the rooms they had seen a moment ago.
"Manga artists really do have it rough..."
And that was only putting out her own doujinshi, not even a proper serialization. Hitomi gave a bitter smile. When the concert lineup had been decided, the discussion had apparently gone back and forth between her and Akane right up to the end... The biggest reason it had finally settled on Akane was probably that very schedule.
"By the way, Shion, exactly what sort of post is a Grand Master?"
"The branch head of a Grand Lodge, the representative of a given country. In the Church, the role is similar to Archbishop Ibuki's, though in practice it's a little higher. There's no other office above it, and they hold the right to attend the supreme council."
The center, however, did not interfere in any great way, so the arrangement was closer to a half-cellular network. Authority, yes; power, not so much. That was the fair way to put it.
"Even so, Japan's Grand Master has a stronger voice than most among them."
"Why is that?"
"Because it's an organization that gathers faith through creative works. It's hard to speak of that while leaving this country out."
"Ah... that does make sense."
Hitomi nodded, persuaded. The country held a considerable share of the subculture world, and if one thought about the Freemasons' methods, it was practically treated as a great power that had just struck a massive oil field.
"The person about to arrive, however, is not Japan's branch head. When the Church says 'Grand Master' in the ordinary way, it isn't that office they mean. The title refers to one specific person."
That the Grand Master was the highest post was, in the end, an internal matter of the organization. The Church had no need to concern itself with a rank that existed once in every country. Put in a request—could you make something like this?—and the other side finished it properly and sent it up on their own. The Church took little interest in the process. And so, within that organization, there were only two individuals who held the Church's particular attention.
One was Mister F, who single-handedly displayed a capacity for development surpassing the Grand Lodge of any ordinary nation. The other was the Grand Master of Freemasons' Hall in London, the headquarters of the order. When the Church used the words "Grand Master" without further qualification, it generally meant her.
"What kind of person is she, to be treated that way?"
"Hmm... that's..."
Han Seoyeon was still choosing how to explain when she glanced past the closed door. A scent she had caught once before was approaching, and fast.
"...She's here."
BANG! The door flew open. With a crack that might as well have been a kick, it spun halfway around and slammed hard into the wall.
The one who had burst through the door was a woman with beautiful silver hair, tied into twin tails with ribbons. Even giving her every benefit of the doubt, she looked to be in her late twenties at the youngest, and the gothic-lolita dress she wore lent her a considerably unbalanced air. Her heels clicked as she came—one of them had snapped, perhaps from the hurry, though she didn't seem to care in the slightest—and she drew a series of rough breaths before throwing her arms around the crate that held Lucifer.
The crate itself was not even a meter tall, so embracing it meant bending quite low, but she solved that problem by dropping to her knees on the bare floor. Then she pressed her cheek to the side of the crate and began to rub against it furiously.
"...Yes. As you can see, it's conduct like this that has the Church watching her with considerable care."
"Ah..."