Chapter 85

Act 2 Angel with No Name 1 Rinka played gleefully with her little sister’s hair in the backseat of Josh’s truck. Runa kept looking ahead expressionlessly, letting her big sister do as she pleased. At their feet there was a pure-white dog-sized Moujuu. The scene was typical of a couple of sisters out on a family drive. If only the truck bed weren’t loaded with firearms. “Ahh… It’s been so long since I enjoyed this sensation. You’ve grown so much, Runa. Has Nuemaru been good?” Rinka sighed with satisfaction while pinching her little sister’s cheeks. Runa gave her a sidelong glance and flatly responded, “You’ve grown pretty, too, Rinka.” “Y-yeah? Hee-hee.” Rinka scratched her head, bashful about her taciturn sister’s surprising praise. “How’s Ayaho? Did she find a boyfriend yet?” “B-boyfriend?!” Ren jumped a bit in the passenger seat and listened, thinking they hadn’t noticed his reaction. Runa, the youngest of Iroha’s siblings, had stayed in Japan with Ayaho. Which meant she was the only one present who knew how she was doing. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend,” she said flatly. “Oh.” Rinka pursed her lips with disappointment. Runa then shook her head softly. “But she gets a lot of attention from the shop’s clients.” “What…?” Ren sucked back in the sigh of relief he’d just let out and stared anxiously at Runa. Ayaho worked at the gallery Giulietta and Rosé ran in Ginza. Most of the place’s clientele were rich old men with nothing better to do. The attention she got was like that of a grandfather talking to his granddaughter. Ren realized this, but even so, as her brother living abroad, he was worried. Rinka shot a cold look at the pathetic little guy. The wrinkles on her brow showed how much she didn’t like how he only cared for Ayaho. “We should be seeing it soon… Oh, there it is,” Josh said while looking at the scenery around them, unaware of the unrest within the truck. Strange rock mountains sat at the center of a flat basin surrounded by more mountains. The kids gasped at the realization that the rock mountains were human-made. There were pyramids built out of giant boulders, and multiple temples. Everything before their eyes was part of the ruins of a vast holy city. “Wow…” “That’s Teo…whatsitsname?” “Teotihuacan. The one at the front is the famous Pyramid of the Moon. About two hundred thousand people lived here from the sixth to second century BC. There’s no writing left, though, so we don’t know a lot about the civilization,” Josh answered. Rinka sighed with admiration. “It’s full of tourists, though.” “Well, it is a World Heritage Site.” Josh chuckled. He parked at the ruins’ parking lot. It was already nearly evening, but the place was still bustling with tourists. Josh carried the bag full of weapons to the entrance and paid their admission fee. He thought the staff would say something about Nuemaru, but they didn’t even mention it. They probably thought it was a plush doll. The most eye-catching part of the ruins were the tourists taking selfies like there was no tomorrow. The place was lined up with stalls selling colorful souvenirs, too. It was a peaceful sight. “Are there really Moujuu here?” Rinka gave him an incredulous look. Josh nodded awkwardly. “It was at midnight. A group doing a ritual on top of the pyramid got attacked and people died. That’s the survivor’s statement.” “What ritual?” “They were calling UFOs or something.” “…UFOs?” Rinka narrowed her eyes. “Apparently, Teotihuacan is a famous spot in Mexico for that. There’s a lot of UFO sightings. Psychics come here to train because they feel a special power here, they say.” “For real?” “Hey, don’t ask me. But apparently, the ruins here were built for precise astronomical observation. One theory says aliens gave the original inhabitants knowledge of astronomy.” “Uh-huh…” “So anyway, that’s why weirdos sneak in here at midnight and try to contact aliens,” Josh explained while looking away from Rinka’s cold stare. Rinka sighed. She could not believe that she’d been brought to Mexico based on delusional people’s testimony. “So they ended up summoning Moujuu instead.” “If we’re to believe their story, yeah. The local police closed the case, though, saying it was a stray dog.” “And you don’t think it was a dog?” “I don’t know. But I’m sure the princess sent us here because she thought something was up. Maybe our dog might pick up on something,” Josh said while looking at Nuemaru in Runa’s arms. Nuemaru might be able to notice a trace of a fellow Moujuu. And it would be impossible to track them otherwise, so Galerie Berith had sent Runa and Nuemaru. Ren and Rinka were there to take care of them. A sensible decision, in a way. Josh might be suspected of kidnapping if he traveled with Runa alone. “So, you feel anything?” poor Josh asked Runa. She simply shook her head in silence. “Of course.” Josh shrugged with no hint of disappointment. He couldn’t believe the extinct Moujuu had appeared there. “Well, all’s well if there’s nothing. Let’s take this as a sight-seeing trip, eh?” “Doesn’t sound bad. I can get some nice pictures here,” Rinka agreed. She took out her phone and opened the camera app. It wasn’t a famous tourist spot for nothing; the place was full of good photo spots. And with Runa and Nuemaru as the perfect subjects, Rinka got lost in photography. Meanwhile, a bored Ren pointed at the ruins at the front and asked, “What’s that building?” “That is Quetzalcoatl’s temple,” Josh answered while looking at the tourist guidebook. “Quetzalcoatl?” “The main god of the Teotihuacan civilization. A feathered serpent who ruled the wind—a dragon.” “A dragon… This is a dragon’s temple?” Ren looked at Josh with wide eyes. “Yeah.” Josh nodded. “You heard about this world collapsing a few times before, right?” “Yes. The dragon who created the world reached the end of its life, and every time, a dragon medium created a new world like Iroha did…” “Our princess and lady think these ruins might be a remnant of a past world. An entrance to the Afterlife like the one in the Myoujiin mansion.” “So that’s why…they believed the rumors…” “I don’t know if they believe them, but yeah, that’s why they wanted us to investigate. But well, if the kid and the dog say there’s nothing, I guess we came here for nothing…” Josh tried to laugh Ren’s worries off, but then Runa interjected. “Wait.” “…Huh?” “Something’s coming.” “Runa?” Runa put Nuemaru down on the ground and looked up at the sky with her usual blank expression. Then something emerged out of the blue. A shadow about five meters long fell across the half-broken stone temple’s roof. It was the dark silhouette of a beast covered in rainbow luster like an oil slick. The kids froze at the ominous sight oozing from the gaps between the rocks. “Wh-what is that?!” Rinka was paralyzed by the appearance of the monster. The vibrant monster held her gaze as if drawn to her. Its dark claws broke through the stone as it shot toward her. “Rinka!” “…Ren?!” She was saved from the monster’s attack by a hair’s breadth thanks to Ren’s powerful tackle. They rolled on the ground. His baseball cap’s bill was slashed down the middle. “I’m fine. Let’s run.” Thankfully, Ren himself was unharmed. He stood and pulled her up, too. They booked it. “What’s that thing? A Moujuu?” Josh glared at the monster while pulling a gun out of his backpack. It was a colorful bird of prey with giant wings. The monster roaring atop the temple did in fact resemble a Moujuu, but the aura it gave off was different. While the Moujuu burned with their hatred for humanity, this monster was as lifeless as a ghost. “No.” “Huh?” “That is not our world’s Moujuu,” Runa asserted. Josh loaded the first shot into his shotgun and grinned. “Either way, it’s our enemy, right?” He shot at the monster as he spoke. He used slug shots meant for hunting. These could kill even a brown bear if he aimed well. Yet against the shadow monster, they did no damage. The rainbow luster across its surface wavered, but there was no other effect. “Seriously…?!” Josh ground his teeth and retreated while firing rapidly. Although it took no damage, it was annoyed by Josh’s attack. The monster let out a bellow like scraping metal as it leaped toward him. Out of ammo, Josh pursed his lips and glared at the monster as it descended. Then Runa called her Moujuu’s name softly. “Nuemaru.” The white dog-sized beast immediately swelled up to eight meters in height and shot powerful bolts from its whole body. The oddly colorful shadow staggered under the lightning strike. Josh yelped and ran, nearly struck by lightning himself. He didn’t yell at Runa because he knew he would be dead without Nuemaru’s assistance. “Josh!” “Don’t worry about me! Use this, kids!” He pulled a gun out of his bag and threw it at Ren. “W-wait… Is this the CFA’s Relict…?!” The young man’s jaw dropped in confusion as he caught the firearm. The gun was big and had a strange shape. It had no cartridge holder or firing hammer. Instead, it was encrusted with a crimson crystal. It was an artificial Relict amplifier meant for non-Lazaruses to use Regalia. “I can’t use it, but you just might,” Josh said casually. Although the artificial Relicts’ firepower greatly exceeded that of normal weapons, not everyone could use them. Even with an amplifier, only Deservers could use Regalia. Not to mention, too much use could put one’s life in danger. But this was the only hope to fight against Moujuu, which were unaffected by bullets. “What do you mean, we just might?!” Rinka yelled back at Josh. “I mean we won’t know until you try it!” “You didn’t think anything through, did you?!” “Just do it! I’m counting on you!” “I can’t do this outta nowhere! Nobody taught us how to use Relicts!” Ren objected with a pitiful look on his face. Ren and Rinka had lived with the dragon mediums Iroha and Runa for over four years. One could infer that they had been affected by the high-density dragon factor, and so perhaps they could be Deservers, just as Ayaho Sashou was of Vanagloria’s Relict Regalia. The twins had sent them to Teotihuacan based on that theory. “Don’t worry,” Runa said to teary-eyed Ren before softly placing her hand on his back. Ren held the giant gun up, encouraged by the girl’s gesture. He didn’t need to take aim. The colorful monster was already right before his eyes. “U-uwaaaaah!” Ren pulled the trigger, praying that he would protect Runa and Rinka behind him. The artificial Relict embedded in the pistol glowed as it shot flames. It carried the same power as Avaritia, the fire dragon. The purifying flames whirled into a tornado that engulfed the colorful monster. The effect was dramatic. The psychedelic beast shattered like glass.