===2===
Itogami Island was a man-made island floating right in the center of the Pacific Ocean within the vicinity of three hundred and thirty kilometers of Tokyo’s southern sea. It was a completely man-made city that was connected and built with gigantic floating-type structures known as Gigafloat.
Its total area was about hundred and eighty square kilometers. Its total population was about five hundred sixty thousand. From the standpoint of the administrative division, it was called Tokyo Metropolitan Itogami City, but it actually was a special administrative region that held an independent political system.
Under the influence of warm currents, the climate was calm, and its average temperatures exceeded 20 degrees Celsius even in midwinter.
It was a so-called everlasting summer island, positioned in the tropics.
However, this island’s main industry was not tourism.
On the contrary, there were strict inspections for entering and leaving the island, so it was impossible for ordinary tourist to visit it.
Itogami City was a scholar city. Representing Japan, enterprises of pharmaceutical, precision machine, high-tech material and other industries, and perhaps research institutions of famous universities were gathered on this island.
That was because research of certain fields was approved only on this island that’s separated far apart from the Japan mainland.
Demon Sanctuary. (TL: Rather than sanctuary, it’s actually SAR(Special Adminstrative Region).)
That was the other name given to Itogami City.
Therianthropes, spirits, half-ghost-half-demons, artificial living beings, and vampires—these demonic beings had decreased in numbers due to the influence of the destruction of nature and their conflict with humans, and they were on the verge of the crisis of their extinction. They were officially recognized and were being sheltered on this island. And, their physical structures and special abilities were analyzed and that was used for the development of the science and industry fields.
—Itogami City was a man-made city built for that reason.
The majority of the inhabitants of the island were researchers and their families, as well as the special ability users that the city recognized.
There were, of course, also demonic beings that would be subjects of research included among them. The demonic beings that cooperated with the management of the sanctuary would be granted citizenship and be permitted to things like studying, working and living as compensation.
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Itogami City was, so to speak, a model city for demonic being and humans to live together.
Or, a grand laboratory cage.
“—Even so, at least spare me from this hot weather, damn it.”
While Kojou lowered the hood of his parka over his eyes and resisted the sun rays with all his might, he cursed.
On this hot and humid island, the temperature experienced was higher than the reading of the thermometer. Warmed on the surface of the midsummer sea, the winds, in a certain sense, was nastier than the hot desert winds. Before even mentioning that vampires are weak against the sun, it was a considerably harsh environment even to normal humans.
It would take about 15 minutes traveling through the city by monorail from the family restaurant to Kojou’s home. However, in order to also not used what little small change left, Kojou was left without any choice but to walk. While being basked in the evening sun that was like scorching his skin, he was walking through a coastland shopping mall.
Then, he checked his behind in a nonchalant manner, and cooed at something seemingly not amusing.
“I’m being tailed…huh?”
A girl was walking behind about 15m from Kojou. It was the girl carrying the bass guitar gig case he happened to see when he left the family restaurant.
She was an unfamiliar face. She had pretty facial features but she somehow had an air to her resembling to that of a wild cat being not used to people. She was probably not used to short skirts, as her movements were defenseless and dangerous once in a while.
She kept a fixed distance away from Kojou, and had been walking with her steps matched with his. When Kojou stoped, she also stopped and also hid herself behind the roadside trees. On the other hand, she showed no sign of calling out to him. He was clearly being tailed. Furthermore, she seemed have the intention of not letting Kojou notice her.
“…Is she someone Nagisa knows?”
After considering several possibilities, Koujou reached to that sort of conclusion.
Akatsuki Nagisa was Kujou’s one-year younger sister, and a student of the middle school of Saikai Private Academy. If an unknown middle-school student had an interest in Kojou for some reason, there’s the likelihood that she was someone related to his sister.
However, even considering that, he didn’t understand the reason that the girl didn’t call out to him, despite that a tailing game under the blazing sun was probably not easy in any way.
Correction, honestly speaking, it wasn’t like there wasn’t another reason for a stranger to be tailing Kojou around. However, that was a possibility that he really didn’t want to think about.
“I guess… I’ll check things out.”
Upon saying that, Kojou entered into a shopping mall that happened to catch his eyes. His destination was the game center near the entrance of the mall. Kojou didn’t know how the guitar-case girl was going to tail him, but he thought that there’d be some kind of movement if he had entered the center.
Then, the truth was that the girl was clearly shaken. She had even forgotten to hide, and stopped before the center, seemingly at a loss.
She wanted to avoid losing sight of Kojou, but—on the other hand—if she entered the center, the possibility of unexpectedly facing Kojou was high, and that was also troubling. She seemed to be torn between such conflicts.
No, to be exact, it was something simpler where she was being vigilant about the '''strange''' store called the game center.
It was evening time. The appearance of a girl standing stone still alone before a desolated shopping mall felt rather frail and helpless. While observing that from the other side of the housing of the crane game, Kojou was assailed by feelings of guilt like he had done something terrible.
“……”
Making a long sigh, Kojou reluctantly walked into the passageway. He also couldn’t just be hiding the whole time, so he thought of trying to call to the girl himself.
However, in an unlucky case of event, the guitar case girl also seemed to have thought of the same thing.
The moment when Kojou was about to get out, he clashed into the girl, who had entered the center with determined expression, at the entrance.
Both of them mutually looked at each other without saying a word for a short while. The one, who responded first in a way or another, was the guitar case girl.
“The…The fourth progenitor—“
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She shouted that with a high-pitched voice, lowered her center of gravity and took a stance.
Even when seen close up, she was a pretty girl but that made Kojou’s disappointment was greater.
He clearly understood the reason she was tailing Kojou with the few words just now. It was that this middle school student had been searching for the vampire called the fourth progenitor. She didn’t seem like a demonic being or bounty hunter aiming for a progenitor’s life, but, even so, she was certainly a troublesome person to deal with. Kojou had never known of decent people among those that called him the name of the fourth progenitor.
Kojou contemplated just for a moment on what to do:
“Oh, mi dispiace! Auguri!”
And, he abruptly opened up both his arms with exaggerated gestures.
Dumbfounded, the guitar case girl looked up at Kojou, who shouted in a foreign language he vaguely remembered.
“Huh?”
“I’m an Italian passing by. I don’t really understand Japanese. Arrivederci! Grazie!”
Sprouting that rapidly, Kojou tried to escape for that spot. He slip through the side of the petrified girl and exited the center. Then, immediately following that:
“Wh…!? Please hold on, Akatsuki Kojou!”
The girl suddenly came to her sense and clearly shouted out Kojou’s name.
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Kojou frowned with a fed-up look, and turned back. It had only been just 3 months, since Kojou took over the absurd title of the world’s strongest vampire. The great effort he put to cover things up had bear fruit, so there weren’t many who knew that fact.
At least on this island presently, there should only be one other person other than Kojou himself who knew that Akatsuki Kojou was the fourth primogenitor.
“Who are you?”
Kojou glared at the girl with wary.
The girl stared back at Kojou with honestly serious eyes and replied with a slightly mature and stiff voice.
“I am a swords shaman from Lion King. By the order of the three saints of Lion King, I came here after being dispatched to observe you, the fourth primogenitor.”
Kojou went “Huh”, listening to her words with an exhausted look. He had no idea what she was saying. Lion King. Swords shaman. Three saints. They were all words he heard for the first time.
Just the premonition of trouble was intensely passed over.
He was extremely lost on how he should reply. In the end, Koujou thought of pretending to not hear anything.
“Ah… I’m sorry. You’ve got the wrong person. Go look somewhere else.”
“Eh? I’ve got the wrong person? E-Eh…”
The girl’s line of sight wandered about as she was bewildered. She seemed to have honestly believed in Kojou’s random speech of finding the wrong person. Unexpectedly, she might have an honest character.
At that moment, Kojou turned behind and tried to leave, and the girl called him to stop in a fluster.
“P-Please wait! I really didn’t get the wrong person!?”
“No, I really had enough of observations. Well then, I’m in a hurry.”
Kojou rudely waved his hand, and quickly left that spot.
The girl, carrying the guitar case, kept a confused face on her and was standing still in a daze at that spot. His insistence that she had gotten the wrong person might have succeeded, as she seemed to have given up on tailing him. Although, her true identity was still a mystery too, so it didn’t mean that this would be basically settled. However, it was somewhat better than getting involved in troublesome things the day before the supplementary papers.
Finally arriving at the exit of the shopping mall, Kojou looked back to confirm once more that the girl wasn’t following him. Then, he widened his eyes startled at the scene he witness there.
A pair of unknown males was standing there trying to block the path of guitar case girl from just now. They were around their twenties. With their gaudily dyed hair, they were wearing rather unmatching host-style black suits. They were easily understood to be frivolous guys.
“—Hey, hey, you there, girl. What’s the matter? Did you fail to pick up a guy?”
“If you’re bored, why don’t you have a good time with us? We just got our wages, so we’re plenty rich—“
Riding on the winds, the guys’ voices could be heard intermittently. They seemed to be trying to pick up the guitar case girl that Kojou got away from.
The girl tried to drive the guys away with a cool attitude but, probably because of that, the mood had turned slightly dangerous. He saw one of the guys shouting with a rude voice and the girl talking back with a sharp expression.
“…Act your age, don’t lay your hands on a middle school student… geezers.”
Impatience surfaced on Kojou’s face. He even thought about whether he should leave her alone, but that girl knew about the existence of the fourth primogenitor and was tailing Kojou around. If, by any chance, there was a great uproar and it involved the police, it would even be unlikely for him to not be dragged into it.
And, there was another reason why Kojou was impatient. It was the presence of metallic bracelets on those guys’ wrists. They were demon registration cards that were built-in with organism sensors, magic detectors and transmission devices. Possessing that, they weren’t normal humans. They were special registered citizens of Demonic District. They were nonhuman entities, Freaks.
There weren’t many cases of a registered demonic being with the bracelet hurting humans. If they did that, the attack magic bureaucracy of Island Guard would rush in in large numbers at once. Therefore, it didn’t mean the girl was in danger now.
The problem was that there was a possibility for the true identity of the fourth primogenitor to be leaked out from her mouth.
If that happened, the name of Akatsuki Kojou would be well-known among the demonic beings immediately. Then, naturally, there would certainly be those that would try to win over Kojou as their comrade, those that would try to make him the subject of their research and those that would try to kill him to gain fame emerging amongst them. In any case, it would probably mark the end of Kojou’s tranquil life. Before that happened, there was a need to settle this situation somehow peacefully. Kojou took a deep sigh, and decided to dash back towards the guitar case girl.
It was immediately following that that her uniform skirt gently flipped upwards.
“Don’t act all high and mightly.” Sprouting abusive words of that sort of meaning, one of the guys flipped the girl’s skirt. Placing the pastel colored, checkered piece of cloth that appeared there in his field of vision, Kojou spontaneously stiffened. Then,
“Youthful lightning—“
The girl had her eyebrows bristled as she shouted out the incantation. In the next moment, the guy that laid his hand on her skirt was blown away with a force akin to that of being hit by a truck.
