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School Without Victorique – Part 04

Weekend. Morning.

Avril woke up and got dressed for the day. She combed her short hair, put on her favorite polka-dot blouse and flared skirt, and carried a small round bag. She rushed out of the girls’ dormitory and into the vast gardens of St. Marguerite Academy.

On the other side of the flowerbeds, she spotted a golden, pointed object for a moment. Avril stopped and narrowed her eyes. The flowers in the flowerbed were a little shorter than Avril, but she could no longer see what she saw, even when standing on tiptoe. Avril brushed it aside and scurried away again in search of Kazuya.

Kujou seems to be acting differently than usual…

Avril looked around the garden and found Kazuya sitting alone in a gazebo in the distance.

I’m sure he’ll cheer up once we have some fun in the village, she thought as she made his way toward him. It’s not like him to be depressed all the time…

As she got closer, she tried calling for him.

“O-Ouch!”

But something sharp poked the back of her head. Avril shrieked and turned around, clutching her head with both hands.

Two golden drills were glistening in the morning sun.

---

Kazuya, sitting in the gazebo, was holding a white ceramic pipe in his hand. He kept fiddling with it, pretending to blow on it, or holding it in the palm of his hand and just staring at it. When he heard people arguing nearby, he lifted his head.

“Ouch! Please be more careful, Inspector. You have two hazardous things on your head!”

“I’m still getting used to it. It hasn’t been long since this thing split into two.”

“That doesn’t mean you can just poke a girl’s head with it. I could have you arrested!”

“It’s only hair.”

“It’s a deadly weapon! It really hurt!”

Kazuya turned his gaze to the commotion. Outside the gazebo, Avril and someone that looked like Inspector Grevil de Blois were arguing about something. Inspector Blois was dressed impeccably as usual—glimmering silver silk blouse, silver cufflinks, and tight-fitting riding pants.

Kazuya got up. “What’s the mat… ter…?”

Inspector Blois turned around, and Kazuya let out a squeal.

“Stop screaming,” Inspector Blois said. “Come here.”

“No way! Not until you explain what’s going on with your head!”

“Things happened.”

The Inspector’s golden, drill-shaped hair was divided into two, one on top of the other. The space between the drills looked like the mouth of a crocodile with its jaws wide open, an eerie golden darkness that threatened to swallow Kazuya as he studied it.

“What in the world happened?” Kazuya asked as the inspector dragged him along.

“Nothing.”

“So you came here to make me laugh?”

“And why would I do that? No. I said things happened. Right at the end of summer.”

“Okay…”

“With Jacqueline…”

“Oh? Wh-What happened?”

“Hush. Keep your mouth shut. Stop thinking about stupid things and just continue walking. Left, right, left, right. If you ask questions, I will arrest you. Do you understand?”

“Talk about tyrannical,” Kazuya mumbled as he walked across the grass.

He looked back at Avril and waved. “See you later, Avril.”

“What?! What about our plan to go shopping?”

“You can go shopping later,” Inspector Blois huffed and shooed Avril away.

Miffed, Avril stuck her tongue out at the Inspector once he had his back turned.

Inspector Blois dragged Kazuya somewhere, no questions asked.

Kazuya looked up at the two drills glistening under the morning sun. “Inspector,” he murmured. “Where’d they take Victorique?”

“Beelzebub’s Skull,” Inspector Blois answered promptly.

A wind whistled past, tousling Kazuya’s black hair. The inspector’s hair, however, remained still. Leaves rustled.

Surprised by the inspector’s reply, Kazuya looked up at the drills again.

“Stop staring at my head!”

“I can’t help it. It draws attention. So what’s this Beelzebub’s Skull?”

“It’s a monastery in Lithuania.” Another quick response. “Lithuania and Sauville have been allies for a long time. Since the days when the old powers still ruled Europe. It’s supposed to be a place for nuns to live quietly, the best place to keep the little Gray Wolf in check. It’s located right by the sea. The nunnery closes its sluice gates when the tide rises to prevent water from entering. It’s far from any human settlement, with only one unmanned station nearby. The rest of the area is closed off by the dark sea. A lone small wolf would not be able to escape.”

Kazuya bit his lip. “And that’s where Victorique is…” He glared at the inspector’s two drills. “But why? Why all of a sudden?”

The inspector turned his eyes away from Kazuya’s fiery gaze. “We needed to lure a certain person for a certain purpose. For that, we absolutely needed that little Gray Wolf.”

“A certain person? Who?”

“I can’t tell you,” the inspector replied in a low voice. “But the little Gray Wolf is weakening more rapidly than we expected.”

“What?!”

“We must keep it alive for the next storm. In exchange for its bizarre and vast intellect, she was given a small, weak, and fragile body. I’ll say it again, Kujou. We don’t want it running around freely, but we can’t let it die either.”

“You can’t just…!” Kazuya raised his voice. “Is she… Is she all right?”

The inspector didn’t answer. He just kept pulling on Kazuya. Eventually, the boy realized that the inspector was headed toward the flowerbed maze that hid a small candy house. Kazuya gave the inspector’s head an inquisitive look.

“We received word from the monastery that it doesn’t eat, doesn’t read, or even howl. For a week now, it has done nothing but sit in a corner of the monastery like a figurine. It doesn’t eat, speak, and just gets weaker and weaker. If this goes on, a tiny breeze might be enough to extinguish the remaining embers of her life.”

Kazuya hung his head, shocked.

They made their way through the maze and arrived at Victorique’s dollhouse. Ms. Cecile was there, just about to unlock the door. Hearing footsteps, she turned around to see Kazuya and Inspector Blois. She gave a smile of relief.

“Kujou,” she said.

“Teach.”

“Hurry up and open the door,” the inspector said irritably.

Ms. Cecile did as told, and the three entered the house.

A small house, dim even in the morning.

Swinging his drill-shaped hair from left to right, the inspector said, “I was thinking of sending her stuff to the monastery. Help me pack up, Kujou.”

Kazuya said nothing.

“She may be my sister, but she’s an aberration who can only live under certain conditions. Perhaps she’s a much weaker creature than we thought… Take this.”

Inspector Blois found a huge empty suitcase and tossed it toward Kazuya, who quickly caught it. Kazuya kept her head down for a while, silent. Biting his lip, he stared at the suitcase. Then he placed it on the floor and rose to his feet.

Kazuya gave Inspector Blois a sharp gaze. “Inspector, I…” He raised his voice. “I’m going to get Victorique.”

“Oh?” Inspector Blois looked a little relieved.

Kazuya kept his eyes on the man. “But I’m not doing it for you or your father. Or anyone else, for that matter. I’m her friend, and I’m worried about her. That’s why I’m going.”

Inspector Blois suddenly turned. Kazuya swiftly took a step back, preventing the dangerous drills from stabbing him. In the dark room, Kazuya Kujou, a foreign student from a small country in the Orient, and the drill-headed inspector, the heir apparent of the de Blois family, stared each other down.

Kazuya never pulled his eyes away from the drills. “I…”

The inspector sniffed audibly. “Get ready, then.”

“Inspector, I…”

They held each other’s gaze.

The words of Brian Roscoe, the enigmatic magician with upturned green eyes, a sinister man with flaming red hair, came to Kazuya’s mind.

“Keep an eye out for the transfer.”

“Can you protect her with what measly power you have?”

Ms. Cecile, standing in the corner, stared at Kazuya and the inspector for a while. She was stamping her feet anxiously, her gaze darting between the two.

“You can fight later,” she rebuked. “For now, you go and get her back, Kujou.”

Kazuya snapped back to his senses. “R-Right!” he said, nodding.

Inspector Blois snorted.

Ms. Cecile pointed to the suitcase. “Let’s pack her stuff. Victorique didn’t bring proper clothes with her.”

“Not even clothes?” Kazuya said. “The Victorique who carried ridiculously large luggage like she was going for a round-the-world trip when she’s really just gone for one night? I guess this huge suitcase being here is proof enough.”

“She used the time to pack to write a letter to you instead.”

“Uh…”

“She must have had something very important to tell you,” Ms. Cecile mumbled sadly.

Kazuya fell silent, wearing an awkward look.