A few days passed without incident. Then one morning, things began to escalate with an anonymous e-mail sent to Yosho. It contained a message that could be taken either as a warning or a threat. It expressed that his interactions with Airi were not desirable. There were no clues as to the sender, and Kanemitsu confirmed that Kasen had not done anything. Yosho hurried to see Airi, and her unexpected indifference had him slightly confused.
“Oh, that e-mail? Yeah, I got it, too.” “Huh? Oh…”
“Don’t look so serious. I get this kind of harassment often.” “Have you been in danger before?”
“Sometimes. So I know how to deal with it, don’t worry. There’s the Guardian System, too.”
“You mean Kaunack?” This was the high-end GS maker run by the Academy.
“Yes, it’s fully customized, tuned by each country’s combat technician in tandem with Kaunack’s engineers for each user’s individual needs.”
“Then please keep it set to the maximum level.”
“It’s not like we’re going to a battlefield. We don’t want to kill anyone by accident.” Airi was appalled.
“Their reaction speed will be able to adjust to an ordinary attack.” “Don’t make this into a big deal. Besides, I can’t walk around all threatening like that. Walking in a crowd would set it off into alert mode and continuous pseudo-materialization. Thanks for your concern, but I got this,” Airi said with a laugh, and Yosho’s face clouded over.
Even a full-version GS wouldn’t impede a top-rate Jurai fighter as long as they figure out the quirks in the programming. An Imperial Family member would be worse. If I could at least put Airi-dono’s GS under Royal Tree control…
“What’s with that face? You take things too seriously. If someone is actually after my life, they wouldn’t be sending letters.”
“What about when they realize you won’t do as they demand?” “Shall we part ways, then?”
“That’s not my intent. I…” Yosho looked at Airi and was speechless.
A tear fell down her cheek. “A-Airi-dono…?”
“So that’s the world you live in. I can’t speak for others, but…” She sadly cast her eyes downward, then glanced over at him. As soon their eyes met, Yosho felt a chill…but then it was too late. “Arrrg! Being so high-strung will make you go bald!!” She pounced on Yosho and put him into another incomprehensible joint lock. This seemed to be her pattern.
“A-Airi-dono. People are watching. This isn’t becoming…” “Quiet!” They were in the courtyard. Passing students snickered at them, and people who knew Airi even called out to her to not bully him so much.
“A-Airi-dono…” “Quit complaining!!”
Tangled up in Airi’s joint lock, Yosho could hear joyful laughter, not only from the students, but laughter audible only to him. Funaho…? Is that you? I see…you’ve taken a liking to Airi-dono. All right, thank you.
A few minutes later, Yosho was sitting up, impassively fanning Airi, who had slumped to the ground panting, just like on their date. “Are you all right?”
“You’re so irritating. Play along with me a little. I’m acting the idiot by myself!!”
“You are?”
“Stop that, you idiot!!” She jumped up to yell at Yosho, who impassively held out his hand. In it was a wooden ring. “What’s this…?”
“It’s a good luck charm. Please hold onto it.” “It’s very pretty, but I can’t accept this.” “Why not?”
“I can’t take something so valuable without reason.”
“No, I carved this myself. What looks like jewels is hardened tree sap.
Good-quality ones are like charms back on Jurai.” “You carved this yourself?”
“Yes. You’ve taken such good care of me, so I would like you to have it.”
Airi took it and put it on the ring finger on her right hand. She raised the back of her hand to show him. “Thank you. It makes me happy… Well?” “Huh…?”
“Isn’t there something else you say in these cases?” “Oh, u-uh, it looks good on you.”
“You sound very reluctant.”
“No, it looks very good on you.” Yosho repeated and laughed. Partly because Airi was not upset about the e-mails, and he was happy that she accepted the ring but also because the ring really did look good on her.
Airi held the ring up to the sun. “It’s so pretty…” Yosho wondered about the expression on her face as she turned her back to him.
There were more anonymous e-mails, but they continued their lives at the Academy without paying much heed to them, as they were practically harmless. One day, there was a pounding at the door, almost breaking it down. It was eight o’clock at night, way past curfew.
“Yosho-kun, Yosho-kun, Yosho-kun! Come on out, Yosho!!” The muffled voice of Airi was on the other side, so Yosho hurriedly opened the door.
“Airi-dono, what’s the matter?!”
Airi grabbed him by the collar, her face twitching. “I-I-It was a…” “What?”
“A voice! I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, and then some hooligans came out and…”
She was panicked and not making any sense. The students in other rooms heard the commotion and gathered to see what was going on. Yosho determined that inviting her into his room in these circumstances would only lead to gossip and decided to use the counseling room.
He placed a cup of tea on the table and looked at Airi sitting on the sofa. “Are you calmer now?”
“A little… Sorry, I was so shocked,” Airi laughed weakly. Yosho was sure something must have happened for her to act in this unimaginably uncharacteristic way.
“What happened?”
“Well…” Airi started to explain about the events that just transpired.
After class, Airi was on her way home. The path through the park, usually full of pedestrian traffic, was deserted at the time. Right when she noticed that something was off, Airi’s GS activated, and sparks flew between her Guardian and a black shadow.
“Who’s there?!” There was no answer, but sparks continued to fly here and there in the darkness. What’s going on? You’ve got to be kidding me. She felt fear as she had never felt before. The opponent was invisible. Only the sparks as it clashed with her GS and the sound of plasma indicated its existence. She remembered Yosho’s warning, and right when she tried to reset the GS to maximum level, she noticed shadows in front of her.
“We warned you.” They spoke through mechanically synthesized sound.
“W-warning? You mean in the e-mail…”
“Stay away from him, or else…” After a heartbeat, the shadow raised its hand. The sword it held glowed a pale light.
Right when she thought she was done for…
“Get away from her!!” Someone’s voice rang in her mind, and a Guardian she had never seen before knocked down the shadow. She could see it as it happened right in front of her.
“Impossible!!” The two shadows melted into the darkness. But even unseen, the unknown Guardian was clearly superior. The energy emitted was an order of magnitude beyond anything else. It was giving off pressure that could actually be felt. Right after a few sparks, silence suddenly fell again.
“You’ll be all right now. He’s gone.”
“Wh-who are you?” She forced the words from her lips into the darkness. She was shocked, but there was strangely no fear.
The voice started giggling and then broke into a laugh as it called Airi’s name over and over before eventually fading far away. Airi was left alone in the park.
By the time she finished explaining, Airi was back to her usual self, perhaps due to the sense of security of being next to Yosho. “…And so I came here wondering if you had done something!!” She slammed on the desk in her usual way, pressing on Yosho.
“Are you hurt?”
“No! Just answer me!! What was that?!” “Well, I mean…”
“It has to do with the ring you gave me, right?! I figured it was going to be something like that, but I thought, could it mean anything else if I was wrong… I mean, shadows attacking me, and a weird voice!!”
“Were you scared?” “Huh?”
“Were you more scared of the voice than the attackers?” “Why?”
“You seemed to be in quite a panic.”
“Not at all…!” Airi declared. The fear had been blown away, only left with curiosity about the voice.
It’s so typical of her… Yosho laughed internally, and she leaned closer. “Wh-what is it?”
“It wasn’t male or female, not young or old… It tickled. Oh…you know, I love dogs.” She started a non sequitur.
“Dogs…?”
“Especially bouncy puppies. And it felt like I was being swarmed by a herd of puppies… That’s how it felt.” She clasped her hands in front of her, euphoric, and Yosho finally understood.
“I see. So that’s how that was related…” He could not tell her about Funaho right now, but he doubted she would let this go peacefully in this excited state. He still tried for the time being, “It’s gotten late already today, so…”
“No!”
“I figured…” He knew how she would answer, but this flat-out refusal was tiring. It is…too early to go to sleep yet. I have no choice, I suppose.
Yosho resolved to take her to Funaho. “All right. But we can’t talk here. So…” There was no telling who was watching.
He whispered into her ear, and she grinned, “I knew it was your fault!” Yosho smiled wryly.