Editing Ultimate Antihero:Volume 3 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 2===

{Active movement?}

Dorothy nodded against Sumika’s question.

{Yes. Whether it’s America or Britain, recently the movement of the military is very fishy. It’s really suspicious.}

{Specifically it seems they are steadily progressing their preparation for battle. We can feel the sign as if a war will happen somewhere in the near time.}

{…The times are like this. Is it natural to arrange war preparation because of that?}

{Certainly it’s natural to take the war stance in preparation of demon attack. However… the current movement of the military is… no matter how I see it, they look like they are preparing to fight humans. An amount of ammunition and explosives that is too much to be called a reserve amount is coming and going through the life sphere.}

{……!}

Sumika’s expression turned severe from that information.

Ammunition and explosives… fundamentally, modern weapons like those didn’t have any power to affect demons.

Demons could only be injured by an attack that was clad in magic power.

That was the reason why magicians like Sumika were highly treasured.

Yet despite so, to increase the reserve modern weapons like those was… certainly like what James had said, it was a movement that couldn’t be thought of as anything other than preparing to fight against humans.

Moreover, James pointed out that there existed a causal relationship between the Five Great Leaders and Japan that supported this bad premonition.

{I said this to you because you are a S-rank magician, but in order to make their rule even more rock solid, the Five Great Leaders are trying to enforce a reorganization of the <United World Government>’s member-nation with a plan called the <One Year Plan>. …By any chance, perhaps they are trying to make a bold movement with the pretext of the fairy race’s acceptance here.}

{But, the acceptance was unanimously decided under the presence of the <Holy Path Church> and both America and China. I was present at that place so I know that.}

{They will surely deny that fact.}

{This is an information of my country, but Alfaro, who is currently unconscious, was transported into the Detroit life sphere. The possibility that they might invent a story that the <Holy Path Church> as well as the <Five Great Leaders> were trying to prevent the acceptance of the <Fairy race> with his presence as the proof cannot be denied.}

{…………-}

Sumika felt unpleasant sweat perspiring on her forehead.

The prediction of these two, …until the end was only in the realm of conjecture.

However, it was too fishy to be considered as groundless fear that could be easily dismissed.

Certainly, something like that might really be done.

If it was the <Holy Path Church> that broke their promise with the <Fairy Queen> and came attacking, then they really might do it.

They would do something that shameless calmly without any hesitation.

{So that’s why, you two came here.}

{Exactly―. For the Republican Party and also for the Queen faction, it will be bad if Japan which is one of the pillars of the <Anti-Five Great Leaders> force collapsed.}

{I see… If it’s something like that then I also can understand why two S-ranks came together to Japan.}

{…Well, it’s nothing more than speculation in the current stage. However it’s not an impossible scenario, the suspicious actions of my home country is a fact. It’s best to be alert. …Miss Grimoire, you too, please have the readiness for the worst case. You must be able to act quickly in the case of emergency.}

{Understood. Thank you for your advice.}




――The unrest that was surrounding the Tokyo life sphere.

After hearing that, Sumika made use of her break time and lightly patrolled the city.

If the <Five Great Leaders> were really moving in the scenario exactly as James said, then the possibility of their hand already reaching into the inside of the life sphere was extremely high.

She was on a lookout for suspicious people in this town that was jammed with people due to the victory commemoration festival.

It was a bone-breaking work, but it was not really that hard if one had reached the level of a magician as Sumika.

She put the magic for seeing-through objects in her eyesight and searched if there was someone that was carrying a weapon.

But, even after walking around for thirty minutes, she hadn’t found anyone that was like that.

(At the very least there is no one that is that suspicious… I wonder.)

That was also natural.

Right now, the security level of Tokyo life sphere was increased to the highest level to match the festival.

In addition, there was also that incident with Alfaro.

The action of the <Special Missionary> Alfaro who caused battle inside the life sphere by his own accord and ignored the decision of the government leaders made Kinugasa send an extremely strong protest towards the <Holy Path Church>.

Just as James said, if they had discovered a corpse of a demon in that place, the standing of Japan’s government would become extremely dangerous whether in the external or internal.

That attack couldn’t be thought of as anything else other than having the objective of aiming for that.

Innocentius claimed that it was the arbitrary movement of <Paladins> and the <Special Missionary> and denied his own involvement, but it was clear that it was only sophistry.

Since then, Kinugasa imposed an extremely strict immigration check towards any person related with the <Holy Path Church>.

As it were Japan was in a super high alert on the double.

Breaking through something like that couldn’t be done half-heartedly.

――No, in the first place,

(…Will they really, make a movement that bold…)

Sumika also had such a doubt.

Certainly James’ conjecture was not an impossible story in light of the disposition of the <Five Great Leaders> and their political relationship with Japan. …No, rather, it could even be said that it was only obvious they would cause such a thing.

But currently, there was an existence in Tokyo life sphere that could deter and obstruct their movement.

Kinugasa beat them to the punch by calling the <Evil God User> Kamishiro Homura here.

He owned the strength that far surpassed the whole battle strength of mankind just by his lonesome.

As long as Homura resided in this land, their ambition wouldn’t be realized.

No matter how much large an army they prepared to challenge him, everything would only come to nothing.

It would be Hecatoncheires and its army all over again without fail.

Homura would surely protect the innocent people to the end from all kind of selfish malice.

Even if he was just alone he would still…

“――――……”

After thinking until that far, suddenly Sumika’s expression clouded.

……Yes, certainly if it was Homura then he could do that.

However, the result from that was easily imaginable.

Her memory of the battle with Jambure was still fresh, where even the people that Homura had saved were looking up at him with a scared gaze after witnessing Homura’s power with his summoning of Ithaqua.

Strength that was too powerful would lead to isolation.

Since the case with Hecatoncheires, it seemed that people were gathering around Homura, but it was nothing more than something temporary.

Surely they would take distance once again from Homura when he wielded his power even more.

It was impossible for the tiny humans to accept the threat of the likes of <Evil God>.

Sumika who understood well about the threat of <Evil God> more than most people realized that.

No――rather, getting scared and then distancing oneself was the more wholesome way.

What was the most deplorable were the people who thought of Homura’s existence as a deterrence, just as a convenient phenomenon that protected them yet ignored his sacrifice and hardship.

With such a situation, the young boy named Kamishiro Homura became all the more distanced from being human.

He was becoming unable to live as a human among humans.

…Homura didn’t mind that and even accepted that selfish weakness with tolerance, but… something like that was wrong.

Even Homura was just a single human. He was nothing more than a youth the same age as Sumika.

He was an individual human, with the same heart like her that could get hurt, that could grieve the same like her.

That was surely the reason that Homura could be kind until that far to other people.

To push such a youth to loneliness and isolation until that far, that was absolutely something wrong.

(……No, this is not about wrong or not wrong.)

This was not about reasoning anymore.

It was nothing but Sumika herself that hated this.

That future where that compassionate youth would walk such a lonely path.

…She wanted to be beside him.

Not as just a mere baggage, but as an equal comrade, as a friend, and then as an opposite sex.

She wanted to be together and loved him.

――But, each time Sumika thought that, her expression fell into an even deeper shadow.

(…I’m just all talk, aren’t I.)

What she remembered was a bitter memory.

Her battle with Alfaro.

At that time Sumika couldn’t do anything.

If she wasn’t saved by Homura, her life would have surely been lost in that place.

She couldn’t do anything but be protected.

She couldn’t become anything but baggage.

The memory of that battle weighed on Sumika’s both shoulders as a feeling of powerlessness.

(…I want power.)

A power that wouldn’t let the person she loved to be alone.

But, Sumika didn’t know what she should do to achieve that.

In any case, the girl was a hard worker by nature.

The book collection of Tokyo life sphere. Knowledge of sorcery.

Everything that she could read using her authority as a S-rank magician had already been carved into her brain.

That was the reason for her S-rank designation.

But if she was going to try to stand equal with Homura, she had to search for something more than that.

What should she do to answer that wish?

When she was struck with an idea, she could think of nothing else than to obtain a grimoire of <Artifact> class like <Liber Legis> that Homura owned――

“Eh?”

Suddenly, Sumika was returned from the world of her thought back to reality from the darkening sunlight in her field of vision.

And then she noticed how she had unconsciously went off course from the main street while she was strolling aimlessly being absorbed in her reverie, and now she had entered a back alley where not even sunlight reached this place.

“Get a hold of yourself… me.”

Scolding herself, Sumika lightly knocked her forehead with her small fist.

She was glad that this place was a back alley.

If she wandered aimlessly and then unconsciously stopped at the middle of the road, it would be a big trouble for her.

The cause of death of a S-rank magician was a traffic accident, if that happened then she wouldn’t have the face to look at the other heroic spirits who died in battle.

But even so, garbage dump with its contents scattered everywhere, outdoor machinery covered in spiders’ nests, rusty pipe that looked torn, what a filthy place. The place was smelling of mold perhaps because the sunlight couldn’t enter here.

When her break time was over she had to go back to work where she would handle food stuff, so this was not a good place to stay for long.

“…Let’s go back.”

But――in the sight of Sumika who was going to turn back,

“Hm?”

Something that bothered her was reflected in her eyes.

It was the dead-end ahead of the back-alley.

There was a single western-style house built in a very small empty plot.

It had the appearance as if it had been there since the Bunmei era in 1469.

That small house which was surrounded on four sides by square concrete of apartments had a stylish signboard dangled on its frontage.

The signboard had the letters [John Doe’s Old Book Hall] written on it.

“…An old book shop, in this kind of place?”

A shop located in a really unsuitable place.

Maybe it was cornered to this kind of place because of the progress of the city’s development.

Sumika guessed the history of the building like that from its weathered state that made the one looking at it feel the small house’s age, as if it had been there all along since the far past.

And then, that conjecture led to her thinking from before.

(Unexpectedly, I might find <Artifact> level grimoire inside lying around.)

――It was not something impossible.

In fact, most <Artifacts> were treated as antiques in the era where humans still hadn’t noticed magic.

Grimoires were also like that.

A lot of them was passed around all over the place as merely old books that were impossible to understand, from secondhand book stores in the city until the secondhand book market of the Shimogamo shrine.

However――

“Well, as expected, there is just no way something like that still happens in the current era.”

Correct, Sumika laughed off her own convenient thinking.

Certainly there was also a period like that, but it was something in the past.

The demon attack rapidly elevated the demand for sorcery, the antiques that possessed that kind of power… the government of countries all over the world strove to be the first to gather <Artifacts> and <grimoires>.

Japan was also the same.

To say nothing of how this was in the middle of Tokyo. It was right inside the turf of the Japan government.

One century had passed since the appearance of demons, there was no way something like that still remained free.

(…………)

But, just why was it?

The appearance of that old bookstore strangely touched the heartstring of Sumika.

Her gaze was mysteriously sucked to it.

She was unable to ignore it and turned on her heel.

In that case, Sumika walked heading to that old bookstore.

――She still had some time in her break time.

She guessed it wouldn’t be bad to just take a peek and glance around.

Sumika laid her hands on the brass knob that was attached with a note of [Shop Open].

Perhaps the hinges of the door had rusted, the door heavily creaked while it opened.