3 (part 2/2, pages 70-85)

†

The headquarters of Scepter 4 were provided at Tsubakimon.

It was officially registered as nothing more than “Annex 4 of Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau”, and the nameplate at the gate said as much, as well. Except it was a humungous installation, on which grounds, besides the office facilities like the main, the west and the south buildings, there could also be found a dojo, a garage, warehouses and even dorms for the troops. One look at those headquarters was enough to realize that the sign designating it as a simple annex was there only pro forma.

The men in blue uniforms with sabers strapped to their hip were currently lining up in orderly rows on the grounds of Scepter 4 HQ.

Midsummer sunshine blazed down from above, casting short and dark, ink-like shadows near their feet. The sakura trees planted along the outer perimeter of the installation were resplendent with the emerald of fresh leaves, and buzzing of cicadas could be heard from their branches.

The sky was cloudless and colored transparent blue.

Awashima Seri, clad in a blue uniform like the rest of the rank and file, was facing the troops.

She pulled her chin up and nodded. “Men, draw!”

On Awashima’s command, the troops unsheathed their sabers all at once. The blades, freed from their scabbards, sucked in the sunlight as the synched motion released sharp flares of silver light at equal intervals.

All the troops a.s.sumed the stance with sabers held to their chests, blades held up vertically and the points of the bristling sharp swords sundering even the sunlight that rained down on them.

Awashima’s face became stern and she gave another order, “Swordplay practice, figure 1, ready!”

“…One! …Two!” Awashima’s carrying voice echoed throughout the grounds. With each command dozens of sabers rendered the air, repelling the glittering sunrays.

The synch was perfect - or it was supposed to be but actually wasn’t, due to the division having been formed only recently. However, if anything, one had to rate highly how well the corps had come together in only such a short time. The division was mostly comprised of former members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, National Defense Force, or Fire Defense Agency, so it didn’t take them long to adapt to the organization’s activity; their stamina and potential were also high. It could be said that the division was taking shape, though imperfect, precisely because the rank and file possessed a talent to excel as soldiers.

They were the combat troops that were to function as the core of Scepter 4 - its swordsmen division, comprised of only newly enlisted members.

“…Three! …Four!”

They swung their sabers in time with the commands. The “kata” they were practicing were very different from kendo, fencing, and other existing types of swordplay. Actually, rather than fencing, their style might have been better described as “sword dancing”, and that was because they swung their swords not with the objective to physically kill the opponent.

All the troops had already gone through the Blue King’s rite of pa.s.sage - the installation - becoming his clansmen. That is, supernatural power holders. So naturally, it was their special power that became their greatest weapon.

Consecutively, for special power holders, the most important thing was the ability to control their power. Such was the ideology of Scepter 4.

For that reason, in Scepter 4, releasing one’s power without authorization was prohibited. Also, in order to ensure that it would not go out of control under the influence of emotions, it was enforced that invocation and manipulation of the power were to tie in closely with the sword “kata”. In other words, this practice was held with the purpose for the troops to master how to manifest the power they possessed as the Blue clansmen with precision.

The saber they held in their hand was the “staff” that allowed them to manipulate their power, as well as the “tact” to discipline themselves.

Awashima continued to give orders.

Yes, at this point it was hard to call their coordination flawless. But the day when their synch would be perfect was not far. At first, the plans for Scepter 4’s reorganization and the schedule that they were supposed to follow seemed outright reckless to her, but as of now, it was looking more real by the minute. Presently, the force was already operational, and the fruits of training were starting to show.

…Still.

Awashima came to her senses and suppressed the urge to break into an ironic smile.

—To think that I…

Until a short while ago, Awashima was just a normal college student you could find everywhere.

…No, it was probably wrong to say that people like her could be found everywhere. She was always a high achiever and a changeless top student in her academic grade, talented in both leadership and business. Predictably, she was appointed as the vice-president of the student council. She was also good in all types of sports, but especially in kendo where she held the 4th dan. All in all, she was a cla.s.sic example of a person accomplished both in academics and sports, and on top of that, she also had beauty and a killer body that won her landslide victory in Miss Campus contest at her university with the 2nd place finisher’s score doubled - the fact that she didn’t remember entering that pageant in the first place notwithstanding. Despite being that gifted in both intelligence and beauty, she was always humble and polite, so no one hated her, and she was considered an excellent student all around.

Still, all her accomplishments didn’t change the fact that she was very much an “ordinary person”.

And there she was now, standing on the grounds she had never seen before, clad in a military style uniform, with a saber - no less! - strapped to her hip, and racking her brains over how to improve proficiency of the troops which were pretty much an urban legend. Frankly speaking, her current reality looked less convincing that a dream. She couldn’t help thinking about the rapid developments her life underwent.

Everything started with that plane hijacking incident. Or, to be exact, with her meeting a young man named Munakata Reishi and being selected by him.

Munakata had stopped the falling plane from crashing - she was aboard that plane, and when he had put it under his control, Munakata’s reign extended to her world as well. When he suddenly declared that he was a king all along, her reasoning faculties, desperately searching for a logical explanation, arbitrarily concluded that he went crazy from fear, even though her instincts readily accepted his words. At that moment it struck her: she would serve this king.

Her premonition came true very soon.

She recalled the first time she visited the HQ she was currently on the grounds of. It was the morning of the day following the release of the pa.s.sengers of that hijacked plane. Munakata left the airport and headed to Tsubakimon, Awashima following him. Munakata invited her, but the reason why she agreed was because she had too many questions that needed answers. She was sure that if they went their separate ways there with everything still shrouded in mystery, she simply would not be able to return to the life she had been living till then.

Unlucky for them, about that time, thunderclouds rapidly developed and caused local downpours in several areas of the city.

When they arrived, they found most of the headquarters facilities tied-up. The swordsmen corps had been disbanded, and almost all of the logistical support staff were working at Mihashira tower. Under the dark clouds, the HQ building, with its facade of old-fashioned design, getting beaten down with whips of intense rain and almost devoid of human presence, appeared to be taken out of some horror flick.

At the time, only a handful of clerks remained in HQ.

It was those few who heard it first.

“Nice to meet you. I am Munakata Reishi, the newly enthroned Blue King - that is, your king. I will be in your care from now on. It may be sudden, but I wish to familiarize myself with the doc.u.ments stored in this facility. I would like one of you to show me the way.”

The clerks stared on in mute amazement as Munakata called upon his Sword of Damocles specifically to show it to them. Since the first time it manifested Awashima was inside the plane, it was her first time seeing it with her own eyes, too. The giant sword, blue and solemn, soared high amidst the dark clouds surrounded by flashes of lightning. Moreover, the sword pushed away the heavy rainclouds, making a tear in them. The sky above was overcast, as if it was still the gray of early morning, with hardly any sunrays making it through, but one area - around the sword - was clear and white sunlight shone through it brilliantly.

Awashima could only stare fixedly at the sword floating above, not even realizing that she dropped the hand holding the umbrella and her body was being beaten down by the rain, which was beginning to let up. She got herself involved with something immense and incredible. What that conviction sparkled in her, however, wasn’t fear. It was excitement and something akin to a hair-raising sense of inspiration.

After that, Munakata entered the office building, and, drawing on all of the clerks, began to read through all the doc.u.ments - from paper ones to the electronic database - that were stored at HQ. The next day, a messenger from the Gold King appeared, inviting Munakata to Mihashira tower; Munakata received him politely, but turned down the invitation and kept doing so with every next messenger for the next few days. In the end, Munakata didn’t take a step outside HQ for the whole 3 days, reading through the doc.u.ments and not sleeping even an hour a day.

And then, finally…

“Well, that should do, I suppose.” With this, he suspended his reviewing of the doc.u.ments and, later, accepted the Gold King’s invitation.

Returning the doc.u.ments to where they belonged, he showered in the troops’ dorm and chose a uniform of a suitable size from among the standard issue articles that were left in the warehouse.

“I would have liked to have this, too, made anew for me, but I shall make do for the time being,” he commented, equipping a saber from the ones that were also left.

Then, he slowly took another saber, turned to Awashima and presented it to her, his accompanying words sounding as lightly as if he was offering her to lunch together.

“—The choice is yours, Awashima-kun.”

Awashima took the saber, and underwent the Blue King’s installation.

Now that she thought about it calmly, she found it baffling, but at the time, it was as if she had forgotten what doubts and hesitation were. Munakata didn’t even attempt to say or do anything to coerce her, and she didn’t remember her composure failing her at the time. For all intents and purposes, even Awashima, a firm believer in swift decisions and quick actions, should have taken a moment to consider her choices there. Except in reality she didn’t - she felt no sliver of hesitation to compel her to.

And it couldn’t be written off as the heat of the moment either. If, for argument’s sake, she was presented with the same choice once more this very instance, she would not hesitate again, even if it baffled her immensely. What decided her was not reason. It was some kind of instinct that the young man Munakata Reishi roused in her.

—Whatever the case, the path to take has already been shown to me and is now fixed.

All what was left to find out was whether she had what it took to walk this path or not.

“…Next. Swordplay practice, figure 2, ready!”

Following Awashima’s command, the troops changed the “kata”. But in the next moment, a few members faltered ever so slightly in their motion.

She already knew the reason. From one of the office buildings, a single young man came out - their king, Munakata Reishi.

Awashima tossed a glance at him, and he acknowledged her with a small nod.

Awashima then ordered to a member standing in the front row, “Akiyama! Take over!”
“Yes, ma"am! Swordplay practice, figure 2!” As ordered, the member continued giving commands in Awashima’s stead. “One! Two!”

Once the practice resumed, Awashima left the training grounds and walked up to Munakata.

He was tall and lean. His posture was very nice, and even if all he did was stand there, his perfectly proportioned and balanced frame was striking. With intellectually added by the gla.s.ses, his entire countenance gave off the feel of refinement and elegance.

But what it made the observer feel even more was likely the presence of an enigma.

There was no telling who this person was. Yet, he absolutely could not be ignored. The measure of that enigma - its depth - varied depending on the beholder. The keener an insight said beholder was capable of, the more unfathomable Munakata would seem to them.

“It appears it is going smoothly,” Munakata commented, addressing Awashima, who stood by his side, as he gazed at the troops. Awashima looked up at his profile and found a calm, peaceful smile on his lips. This was the countenance he always showed, and that smile was one of the causes that made Munakata seem such an enigma.

“Yes, it is, sir”, Awashima affirmed in reply to the King’s remark. “As you predicted, this swordplay style proves working. At a glance, it may seem old-fashioned, but in order for beginners like us to grow accustomed to manipulating a supernatural power, it is a very fitting and effective choice.”
“That is not its only purpose. The true value of the fencing motions it drills into the troops lies in their application in group combat. Through coordination between several people, the individual ability can be enhanced and amplified, which, in turn, would tie in with strengthening our "power” as a whole. In that sense, the effect that this style produces is connected at a fundamental level to Scepter 4’s ideology,“ Munakata said with satisfaction - at least to Awashima it sounded that way.

The idea to reinforce the ability of the force, as well as that of its individual members, through special swordplay practice belonged to the previous King, Habari Jin. Munakata found it when he was going through the materials left at HQ, refined it further with his own original improvements and put in practice.

It was strictly Awashima’s personal sentiments, but she thought she really could feel the overarching "philosophy”, that wasn’t limited to swordplay style only, lying at the root of Scepter 4 as an organization, and the Blue clan as a gathering of people. In the beginning, there existed the philosophy, which then defined the structure of the organization and its policy as one; the disposition its members were to possess was determined by the nature of the clan’s ability; as a result, everything about Scepter 4 was built upon that philosophy as the foundation, from the means like swordplay style to various regulations enacted within the corps.

Summed up in one word, that philosophy was “order”, or, perhaps, it could also be called “rationality” or “integrity”.

Giving that what should exist its proper shape. Guiding events and things to their “right shape”. And then maintaining said shape.

Use of “power” in the process of doing so was permissible - or even necessary, in her view. The “rightness” that Scepter 4 set - at the moment Awashima couldn’t find a better word to describe it - was the optimum rightness: macroscopic, long-lived and all-encompa.s.sing.

It was the kind of rightness that was extremely difficult for an individual, no matter how great a position he was in, to create on his own.

But what if that individual were to be a “king”?

—Can the Captain…

Could Munakata see that “rightness”?

Presently, under the young King named Munakata, Scepter 4 was in the process of rapidly becoming the embodiment of that philosophy. What kind of organization would Scepter 4 that Munakata Reishi was building become in the end? What would it accomplish? When she tried to imagine it, a small shiver of excitement ran down her spine.

“…I have to wonder…”
“Yes, sir?”
“If I… If the Blue King is like this, then what the other kings are like?”

It wasn’t only Munakata who wondered about that; Awashima was very interested - or rather, extremely worried - to know that, too. After all, the Dresden Slate was said to choose 7 kings, and Awashima had yet to meet any king besides Munakata.

According to Munakata, the Gold King, Kokujouji Daikaku, was a figure of immense importance and greatness. Seeing that that description came from someone of Munakata’s caliber, the Gold King apparently was far beyond anything Awashima could imagine. He was the true leader of this county, Munakata explained, but to Awashima, who didn’t have any experience of being a working and fully functional member of society, it was something straight out of a fairy tale, just like the kings’ existence.

What begged a question, though, was that if there existed seven kings in total, then were the other five as remarkable as Munakata himself and Kokujouji whom Munakata appraised so highly?

—To begin with, what’s the meaning of the kings’ existence?

She felt she could have understood it somehow if there was only one king - the absolute king the Slate gave birth to so he would lead mankind. This way the Slate’s purpose could also be explained.

But the Slate produced not one but seven kings. And not only kings: it was also said to be what caused strains to appear as beings who failed to become kings.

—Is there some meaning in several kings existing?

If the Blue King’s attribute was “rightness”, then what were the other kings’ attributes?

If that was what determined the nature of their power, the answer would be a little easier to grasp. For instance, the Blue King’s power was symbolized by “order”. The Gold King’s by “prosperity”. If those two could be combined, the unity would probably produce a mutually beneficial property.

But what about the other kings?

—That’s the question. Especially when it comes to…

The tragedy of the past floated through her mind. Awashima was aware of the real circ.u.mstances behind it since she first visited HQ.

The other side of having a majestic sword floating high in the sky in the gray of a rainy morning. The reason why the symbol of the king’s power was christened “Sword of Damocles”.

“One cannot help being curious about the Red King, can they?”

It was as if a bucket of cold water was dumped on her.

She snapped her head up to look at Munakata who apparently observed her as she allowed herself to get lost in thought, and was now looking at her with an all-knowing gaze, his trademark smile still firmly in place.

He saw right through her, it seemed, and she felt her cheeks heat up against her will. But she didn’t try to awkwardly gloss it over, opting for a honest confirmation instead, “Yes, sir.”
“I, too, am wondering about that,” Munakata smiled. “When I had the audience with the Gold King the other day, I inquired about the character of the person in question.”
“And what was the Gold King’s answer, if I may ask, sir?”
“"He, too, is the Red King,” was all he had to say on the matter.“

Hearing that, Awashima bit her lip. Though terse it was, from where she now stood as a trusted retainer of the Blue King, she didn’t like the characteristic the Gold King provided one bit.

So Awashima spoke up with conviction, "Now that we know that the cause of that crater was the previous Red King… and that the previous Blue King, Habari Jin, was also involved, we simply cannot ignore it. Of course, I would like to think that Kagutsu Genji’s case was an exception rather than the rule, but still, concerning the current Red King–”
“Suoh Mikoto.”
“Yes, concerning Suoh Mikoto, I strongly believe that we need to see with our own eyes just what kind of person he is, as soon as possible. Additionally, as far as the duties of Scepter 4 are concerned, there is quite a few issues to work out in Shizume town. Sooner or later, our paths are bound to cross.”

Munakata nodded in agreement.

In the absence of Scepter 4, Homura came to rule Shizume town which they made their home base, with their “power”. As such, it was highly probable that the Red clan, Homura, would become a big obstacle in the course of fulfilling Scepter 4’s duty of registering and supervising strains.

Moreover…

“I have investigated the situation in Shizume town as well, and it does seem that currently there is a warped kind of pecking order in place with Homura at the top.”
“As I suspected…”
“The lower part of that organization especially appears to have a group of exceedingly violent individuals. Just the other day, there was a conflict between them and the mafia. I have confirmed that that, too, was because the group in question carried their show of force too far.”
“And that group, sir…?”
“As you have guessed, I have already identified them. If left them to their own devices, it would only be the matter of time before they caused another disturbance.”

With that, Munakata shared the information on the members of said group with her.

Awashima bit her lip again.

Admittedly, a certain order did exist in Shizume town. But it was hard to call it “proper”. At present, the rate of crimes attributed to strain power holders was on the rise. Moreover, a certain percent of those crimes evidently was committed by the members of Homura.

No Blue clansman and no member of Scepter 4’s troops could turn a blind eye to that. At the very least, Awashima couldn’t.

Awashima might not have understood all the nuances of the relationship between the kings and their positions in regards to each other, but…

“…Captain. In my opinion, that group could serve as the ideal pretext to intervene in Shizume town,” Awashima suggested in words loaded with implications.

Munakata didn’t give an immediate answer. He only nodded lightly with a smile, like a teacher looking at his favorite pupil who gave a satisfactory required answer to the problem they were presented with.

“Indeed, but…”
“—Yes, sir?”
“I feel it is a bit premature for us to venture that deep. I do not know that King, Suoh Mikoto, yet,” Munakata said and turned on his heels unhurriedly.

Awashima fixed his back with an intense stare as if questioning his real intentions.

But…

“…Please carry on. Proficiency of the swordsmen corps still leaves much to be desired.”

With that offhanded comment, Munakata headed towards the office building.

Awashima continued gazing at the King’s back until he disappeared in the building.

After that, she went back to her original spot and followed the King’s order.