Chapter 4
"" – Speech
'' – Thought
"" – Distorted
…
(One Semester Later)
The bell continued ringing in his ears.
The time-honored bell of an anachronistic alarm clock.
With an anguished sigh, Ayato Hosokawa fumbled around, silencing the clock. And as he tossed back into bed, just about to return to tranquil sleep once more…
"Ayato, wake up. It's morning. You set your alarm because you have your final make-up exam, right? I made breakfast, so eat it quickly! And laundry's not done. Your futon's all sweaty, so move already."
The rapid-fire babble was punctuated by the theft of his bedsheet, and Ayato, at his wits' end, rolled right off the narrow bed. As he looked up with unfocused eyes, there stood the familiar form of his Auntie Kurono.
This morning she was in casual attire—short pants and a tank top—with an orange apron on top of that. Looking down at her Nephew, who had not moved since falling on the floor, Kurono put her hands on her hips in exasperation.
"Hey now, wake up. Still sleep-deprived? Did you study for your test till dawn? You mustn't make so much trouble for Ms. Minamiya. Don't slack off on extra lessons. If I see your name posted on the staff room billboard again, it's going to be so embarrassing! Ah, geez, and I told you to get those uniform trousers off and put them on a hanger!"
As Ayato listened to his Aunt's ceaseless complaints, he rose sluggishly
Perhaps he was biased in his thinking, but Kurono was a capable Auntie. Her looks were quite Sexy too. She was skilled at all varieties of housework. But there were flaws of course. One was that she was a clean freak to the point of illness, a demon of disposal. The other was the avalanche of words.
Anyway, Kurono spoke medium. It wasn't that she did it to everyone, but against family with forgiving hearts, she showed no mercy. He didn't feel like he could win a verbal spat with her, ever.
The one saving grace was because of Kurono's Laid-back personality, she rarely had an ill word to speak about others, but when she was angry it was quite terrifying.
Back in junior high school, when Yaze had inadvertently let her see he had a porn video on him when coming over to play, Kurono gave him enough of a tongue-lashing in her fit of rage to turn him gynophobic for a while.
As Kojou was remembering that, absentmindedly gazing out of the window…
"—Hey, Ayato-kun, are you listening?!" Kurono switched to rapid-fire yelling. Kojou hurriedly corrected his posture.
"Yeah, sorry. What'd you say?"
"Geez…! I said, a transfer student." Kurono pursed her lips, perhaps out of annoyance that her Nephew hadn't heard her story.
"…Transfer student?"
"Yeah. Our School had a transfer student come since the start of summer break.
A girl. Yesterday, Ms. Sasasaki introduced her when I went to school for filling out stuff for.
She came for formalities before transferring, Ms. Sasasaki said.
She's this really cute girl.
There'll definitely be rumors about her even in the high school, really soon, I think."
"Huhhh…" Ayato ignored that with a cold shoulder.
However cute she was, she was a middle schooler. And his Aunt's new student. Totally outside of Ayato's field of interest. However…
"Hey, Ayato. Did you do something to this transfer student?"
"Huh? What the heck?" Ayato asked back incredulously at Kurono's sudden question.
What could he have done to a transfer student before she'd even transferred? However, Kurono seemed displeased somehow, looking back at her Nephew with a serious expression…
"I mean, she asked about you. Once I introduced myself, she asked me if I had an older brother. What kind of person he's like, and stuff."
"…Why?"
"That's what I wanna know. I was sure she must've met you somewhere before…"
"No, I don't think I have any younger acquaintances, but…" Ayato crossed his arms and sunk into thought.
He had a vaguely unpleasant premonition.
"So, what'd you tell her?"
"Well, I did kind of properly explain things, some true and some not."
"What?!"
"Kidding, I spoke only the truth. Like about the city we lived in before moving here, your school grades, what foods you like, the gravure idols you're into, about Yazecchi,Asagi-chan,Stella , and then about your big blazer wins from Elementary School…"
"Geez… Why'd you have tell all that to someone you'd just met?"
"Er, well, she's cute?" Kurono said it with an amused tone.
It was the answer he'd expected.
Even under normal circumstances Kurono was tempted to speak to anyone at all, which made the protection of secrets a nearly impossible undertaking.
Her habit of saying exactly what it was she wanted to say, and her difficulty in not doing so was her personality, too.
"Well, a girl having an interest in Ayato-kun's such a rare opportunity. I thought I'd be as helpful as I could."
"Liar…you just wanted to talk, didn't you?" Ayato exhaled at her laid back-and-forget attitude.
That moment, an ominous thought floated up into a corner of his sleep-deprived, fast operating head.
Though he wouldn't call her an acquaintance even by mistake, there was one, and only one, name that came to mind: that of a certain junior high schooler who might be checking into Ayato.
"Wait a sec. What's the transfer student's name?"
"Mm, her last name's a bit odd. Err… Right, it had a flutter to it, like the name of a queen."
"'Flutter'? Himeragi, by any chance?" Kojou bitterly asked back, his ominous premonition swelling larger and larger. Nagisa's expression brightened.
"Ah yes, that's it! Yukina Himeragi-chan."
"…She's…the transfer student…?!"
"That's right. So you really do know her? Hey, hey, how do you know her? Explain it to me! Hey, Ayato…!" Kurono continued shouting something, but Ayato wasn't listening. All he could think of was the spear-using girl who'd tailed him all over the place and finally annihilated a vampire's Beast Vassal with a single blow.
So she'd transferred to the same School as Ayato and Stella.
But why?
For what purpose? Such tortured thoughts made an unpleasant sweat break out, drenching Ayato's entire body.
Somewhere along the way, Ayato's sleepiness had entirely vanished.
Natsuki Minamiya was Saikai Academy's English teacher.
She claimed her age was twenty-six, but she actually looked considerably younger than that, enough that, the terms beautiful girl and lovely child suited her better than beautiful woman.
The line of her face and shape of her body were both on the small side, almost doll-like.
On the other hand, maybe she'd inherited noble blood from somewhere; she was oddly dignified and charismatic.
Thanks to that, she was a highly capable teacher, with high regard among students as well.
"Er… Aren't you hot there, Natsuki?" Ayato asked, his loose uniform disheveled amid the oppressive, sweltering heat.
Ayato was the only student in the classroom for the make-up exam. Of course they didn't permit the use of a civilized invention like air-conditioning.
Against the hellish backdrop of the pouring midday rays of the sun, an incessant hot wind blowing in through the window, Ayato was translating the suspicious English text "Researching the Shape of Mythology in PostPrimitive Man" under the supervision of a teacher who looked younger than he was.
This was no longer an exam; a better term for it might be discipline, or perhaps torture.
"I've told you before. Don't address your teacher by her first name." He heard Natsuki's haughty voice from the center of the platform as she sat atop the luxurious, velvet-covered chair she'd brought in from somewhere on her own, drinking hot black tea.
She wore a lace-heavy, black, one-piece dress.
Except for the frills from the cuffs and the front of the neck, her hip proportions were being flaunted by a laced-up corset.
For so-called goth loli, it was rather high-end, but that didn't make it seem any less stifling in this heat.
However, as Natsuki elegantly fanned herself with a black lace folding fan…
"This level of heat is nothing compared to the start of summer."
"Er… It looks hot from where I'm sitting, though." I just don't get it, thought Ayato, resting his chin on his palms.
It was this charismatic teacher, Natsuki Minamiya's, greatest shortcoming.
Her fashion sense had an absolute lack of consideration of time and place.
Natsuki's wearing of a stifling dress in this heat, on an artificial island in the tropics, was violence to his eyes in and of itself.
Not that it didn't look good on her…
"And what are you drinking there, all by yourself?"
"Ah yes. I tried adding some light flavor based on candy from Ceylon using herbs; also, just the right amount of brandy to bring out the taste of black tea."
"Not sure you should be waving the smell of alcohol in front of a student taking supplemental lessons, but… May I go now?"
"As if I could supervise tests during summer break without a drink. I'm grading, so wait a minute." As the smell of Western liquor hung in the air, Natsuki picked up the supplemental test's answer sheet, which Kojou had somehow managed to finish writing, with her fingers. She crossed out several errors with a red pen. "Hmph. Well, fine. Make sure you pass your Second Blazer Year."
"Sure thing." As Ayato said so with an unenthused voice, he began putting his things on top of the table in order. Natsuki silently watched that for a while, tilting her teacup, but…
"Ah, Hosokawa. Apparently some idiot vampire let a Beast Vassal loose at a shopping mall in Island West yesterday. Do you know anything about that?"
"Huh?" His homeroom teacher's abrupt question brought Ayato's motions to a spontaneous halt.
The shopping mall in West.
Beast Vassal.
Vampire.
Of course he knew, but there was no way he could talk to Natsuki about that.
After all, Yukina Himeragi was intertwined with the incident the day before.
If by some chance she was questioned as a witness to the incident, it would be very awkward for Ayato.
After all, no hybrid vampire such as the Fifth Primogenitor existed here in Itogami City. In other words, Ayato was an unregistered hybrid.
It would be exceptionally troublesome if his true nature was exposed to the Island Guard.
Ayato shook his head as if his neck were a rusted gear. Natsuki made a hmm, exhaling.
"I see. Fine, then. I was worried some Attack Mage who knows your true nature had encountered and come into conflict with a stray vampire while following you around." She said it like she'd seen the whole thing. At Natsuki's all-too-accurate inference, a twitchy smile came over Ayato.
"Ha-ha-ha… There's no way…"
"Surely not. That's fine. Let me know if you do notice anything." So saying, Natsuki pulled back surprisingly easily. Kojou made a sigh of relief. Though her arrogant tone made her difficult to understand, her saying she was worried about Ayato was probably the truth. Natsuki Minamiya, English teacher, also bore the title of Counter-Demon Attack Mage.
The Demon Sanctuary's educational institutions were obligated by treaty to employ a certain percentage of teachers bearing National Counter-Demon Agent licenses; Natsuki was one among these.
Furthermore, she was a combat veteran.
She was very much an active professional Attack Mage, also serving as an instructor with the Island Guard. And she was one of the extremely few people who knew Ayato was the Fifth Primogenitor as a hybrid.
Kojou's being able to go to school like an ordinary person, in spite of having the physical makeup of the so-called world's mightiest vampire, was due to Natsuki's machinations. That was why Ayato couldn't look Natsuki in the eye. From time to time, Natsuki had Ayato assist her in her private work, but he could only accept that as fate and move on.
"Ah, come to think of it, there is something I wanted to ask you." Suddenly remembering, Kojou raised his head. Natsuki gloomily looked back at him. "What is it?"
"The Lion King Agency… Know of it?" Natsuki was silent at Ayato's question, a clear expression of displeasure coming over her.
"How do you know that name?"
"Er, it's not that I know it, it just slipped past my ears a little."
"Oh ho. That really makes me want to prod you for details. Slipped past these ears?" As Natsuki spoke, she pulled on Ayato's ears without restraint. As Kojou yelled out,
"Ow, ow…"
"…Are you, uh, angry about something?"
"I'm just a tad annoyed at hearing an unpleasant name. They're the competition, after all."Ayato exhaled roughly as Natsuki let him go. As Kojou pressed on his stretched earlobes…
"Competition…to National CDAs, you mean?" Natsuki gave Ayato a frosty warning as she looked him over.
"They'll come to kill in earnest, even against a Primogenitor and The Heavenly Dragons. That's what they were made for, after all. Do take care not to approach anyone related to the Lion King Agency."
"…Made for?" Ayato asked with a dubious look, but Natsuki clicked her tongue as if she'd said too much and did not say another word about it.
It seemed that in the end, Natsuki's answer was: Don't go near the Lion King Agency.
"Ah, right. Natsuki, there's a staff meeting for the middle school today, isn't there?"
As Natsuki moved to leave the classroom, Ayato stopped her with another question.
Natsuki dubiously raised an eyebrow. "And what business do you have with the middle school, Akatsuki?"
"As if I'd know anything about the people in junior high. Go see for yourself."
"…I'll do that." Ayato meekly went along with Natsuki's words. He instinctively determined that this wasn't a subject he wanted to get dragged into. However, that was hardly enough to restore Natsuki's humor after being bent out of shape. "Incidentally, Ayato…"
"Yes?" Natsuki's black lace fan lashed out. He didn't know she'd done it, but Ayato's forehead was struck with enough force to cave a normal person's skull. Ayato fell right on his back.
"Why do you call her Ms. Sasasaki and me Natsuki?! I told you, don't you Natsuki me!"
Her skirt in a flutter, Natsuki left those words behind as she violently took her leave.
"Shit… Corporal punishment's…not cool," Ayato murmured weakly, looking up at the ceiling as he held his forehead.
Saikai Academy was a coed institution with Elementary middle and high school integrated. Itogami City had a large, youthful population, and the large-scale, mundane school was a reflection of it. But, fated to share the critical lack of land as all construction on Itogami Island, the school site was difficult to call spacious.
The gym, pool, cafeteria, and many other facilities were shared between the middle and high school sections; for that reason, there was an unusually large number of chances for high school students to see junior high school students on school grounds.
On the other hand, it was rare for a student of the high school section to visit the junior high school section; it just wasn't necessary. As Ayato thus felt a mix of vague familiarity and vague unease, he found himself standing absentmindedly before the junior high school section's staff room, somewhere he hadn't visited in quite some time. Kojou held in his hand the white wallet he'd picked up at the shopping mall the day before.
The one dropped by Yukina Himeragi. If the story he'd heard from Kurono was true, that spear-wielding girl had apparently transferred into the Saikai Academy junior high school section. The student ID in the wallet also backed up Kurono's testimony. That being the case, it'd be faster to get it back to Yukina Himeragi by handing it to her homeroom teacher than to the police. That thought was Kurono why he'd come out of his way here to the junior high school section.
"Sorry, Akatsuki. Ms. Sasasaki doesn't seem to have come in today." So said an elderly teacher who Ayato didn't recognize, suddenly bringing his plan to a halt. "Ah, that so…"
"Something to give her? How about you leave it with me?"
"Er, well… I do, but I'll just try again tomorrow. Bit of a troublesome thing." Ayato thanked the elderly teacher, making his way out of the staff room.
With only two days until summer break ended, Misaki Sasasaki seemed to be making the most of what was left of her vacation.
This is becoming a real bother, Ayato thought. If he could, he wanted to put the wallet into the owner's hands ASAP. If not, he'd have a misunderstanding with that short-tempered junior high schooler, and that might get him suddenly impaled to death from her spear.
Natsuki's words, Don't get close to the Lion King Agency, tugged at him, but trusting a nonhomeroom teacher to return a wallet with actual money in it seemed rather irresponsible, and Ayato wasn't of a mind to request it.
Leaning on a pillar of an adjoining corridor, Ayato absentmindedly gazed at the campus.
Here in broad daylight in the middle of summer, there weren't all that many students doing club activities.
Even so, he could see athletics club members doing solo training here and there on the grounds.
Cheerleaders were practicing a dance in the shadow of the school building.
On the tennis court, club members seemed to be having practice matches against each other.
As he watched the flutter and sway of the female members' skirts, they made him remember Yukina Himeragi the day before.
She had such a bizarre level of combat power she'd faced down a demonrace male and utterly crushed him, and her silver spear had annihilated a vampire's Beast Vassal in a single instant. And the flushed look of her face when she held down her skirt over her pastel-colored panties.
It was such an impactful scene, even if he thought of forgetting, it wasn't something easy to forget at all. There may have been suspicious parts about her, but she really was a pretty girl. Those legs were pretty, too… Ayato clicked his tongue a little as he casually thought about that. At the same time a light dizziness assaulted him, his throat felt extremely parched. It was an unusually bad sign.
"If she'd at least put a contact number or something in here…" To break his train of thought, Ayato hurriedly averted his eyes from the campus and opened up the wallet he'd picked up. It didn't seem to be a luxury brand, but it was a nice wallet that he could tell had been well cared for.
It had a faint, pleasant smell to it. The wallet itself was made of common, readily available textiles; in other words, this smell was no doubt the lingering scent of its owner. It was not the strong scent of perfume, but a gentle, comfortable, pleasant scent. Well, the point being, this must be what a girl smelled like— The instant he subconsciously thought about that, this time Ayato's whole body was assaulted with a strange thirst.
"Ugh…" Not good, thought Ayato as he covered his own mouth.
With a pale face, he locked his knees together as his shoulders shuddered a little.
Not now! he thought as his lips twisted. Sharp, tapered canine teeth poked through the gap between his lips. However, it wasn't that Kojou was in bad physical shape. What was causing him distress was a simple physiological reaction. However, this was an abominable, troublesome condition specific to vampires: the urge to drink blood.
—Not good not good not good not good… Ayato desperately wanted to fight the desire to drink human blood that gripped his entire body.
He knew all too well the crimson-dyed hallucination filling his field of vision.
There were still many things misunderstood by the world at large, but the species known as vampires did not drink the blood of others to satisfy hunger.
Food and drink were sufficient to address simple hunger and thirst.
Certainly vampires could replenish their magical energy through the act of drinking blood.
Magic also existed that used blood as a catalyst.
However, these were nothing more than by-products.
A vampire's urge to drink blood was triggered mainly by sexual arousal. In other words, by lust.
A fierce impatience.
Oppression that felt like it was tearing your body apart. Thinking of someone, you felt like you couldn't just stand still any longer.
Then, suddenly, you attacked without warning. To escape from that suffering, many half vampires in the past, unable to control themselves, attacked whoever was nearest them, sometimes even their own loved ones. But conversely, one could still say that it was merely sexual arousal.
"Shit… Gimme a break."
Kojou groaned as he felt a dull pain inside his nose. The taste of metallic blood spread within his mouth.
The urge to drink would not continue for long.
A little surprise or fear could be enough to make it vanish; once it did, even he wouldn't understand why he'd suffered so much.
In aYATO's case, the solution was bleeding from the nose.
In other words, as he'd simply come to love the taste of blood, there was no problem if it was his own blood he tasted.
When he was aroused, his nose bled—perhaps because happened to have that predisposition, it always returned Ayato to his senses when assailed by the urge to drink blood. As Ayato wiped away the trickling blood flowing out of his nose, he made a tedious sigh.
It was good it'd passed without causing trouble for anyone else, but the problem with this predisposition was that it looked very uncool.
A human being unaware of his circumstances watching Ayato just now would have simply seen a boy who sniffed the scent of a girl from her wallet and suddenly had blood spurt out of his nose.
Most would think him a simple pervert. The form of a female student wearing a uniform entered the corner of his warped field of vision.
Ayato became intensely nervous. Here in the junior high school section corridor, there was no place to hide, and his nosebleed had not yet stopped.
The approaching female student came, stopped, and stood behind Ayato, who still had his knees locked. The girl exhaled calmly.
"To think, aroused by sniffing the scent of a girl from her wallet. You are a dangerous individual indeed." So said the familiar-sounding voice.
"…Wha?!" The girl standing behind Ayato bore a guitar case on her back over her schoolgirl uniform.
She was a female junior high schooler with somewhat adult looks, but she looked over Kojou with scornful eyes.
"Yukina… Himeragi?" In shock, Ayato called her by name.
He wondered for a moment if this was a hallucination caused by the urge to drink blood.
However, Yukina asked back in a cold tone, her expression never changing:
"Yes, what is it?" Ayato made an even more relieved expression.
He'd suddenly realized the urge to drink blood had completely vanished. Perhaps it was due to his heavy surprise. His nosebleed had stopped, too.
Confirming that his extended canine teeth had subsided to their normal length, Ayato lowered the hand he'd covered his mouth with.
"What are you doing here?"
"I think I should be asking that, Hosokawa-senpai. This is the middle school section of campus, isn't it?"
"Er…" When the younger girl calmly pointed it out, Ayato had no rebuttal. Yukina made an exasperated sigh and pointed to what Kojou held in his hand.
"That's my wallet, isn't it?"
"Y-yeah. Right, I came to get this back to you. They said Ms. Sasasaki was off for the day, though." When Yukina held a pocket tissue out to him, Ayato wiped his nosebleed with it, nodding in grateful acceptance. Yukina fell silent as if determining the truth or falsehood of Ayato's explanation.
"Did sniffing that scent arouse you enough to make your nose bleed?"
"It's not like I was turned on by the scent of the wallet. Just, I remembered about you from yesterday—" Ayato's words made Yukina's voice slip in a bewildered-sounding
"Huh?" For a moment, she stiffened as if she were a doll.
"…?!" Far too late, she subconsciously held down the skirt of her uniform. She bit her lower lip with a flushed face. No doubt she was recalling the incident that had taken place when she'd encountered Ayato the day before. And realizing that she herself was the cause of the sexual arousal Ayato had felt.
"P-please forget about yesterday." Yukina spoke with a tone containing all the calm she could muster.
"Er, even if you tell me to forget it…"
"Please forget it."
"…" As Yukina glared at him, Ayato silently slumped his shoulders.
"Also, please return my wallet. That's what you came here for, isn't it?" Yukina made her legitimate request in a gentle tone.
However, Ayato did not fulfill that request. He raised the wallet up high, beyond where Yukina's hands could reach.
"I want to ask you a few things first. Who the heck are you? And why are you looking into me?"
"…Understood. So I may take you to mean that I will have to take my wallet back by force." Yukina gave Ayato a long stare as she made her declaration.
As if drawing a katana from its sheath, her hand reached toward the guitar case on her back.
So this is how it's gonna be, Ayato thought, halfheartedly giving up as he decided to draw Sirenia.
As though playing defense in blazer fights, he adopted a posture from which he could deal with any attack. Yukina's eyes grew guarded.
Grrrrrrr. …The next moment, a low sound reverberated across the corridor.
Ayato's eyebrows rose without a word. When Ayato realized what that low growl was, a somewhat awkward expression came over him.
It was a grumble from Yukina's stomach.
"Err… Himeragi, are you hungry, by any chance?" Ayato asked Yukina as she remained frozen stiff.
Yukina was silent.
That was her answer.
"Haven't you eaten since yesterday? Ah, because you didn't have your wallet? Himeragi, you actually live alone, don't you?"
"Wh-what of it?!" Yukina tried to keep her voice calm, but of course it came out a bit flustered.
Somehow he'd felt like that was the case, but apparently Yukina had come to live here on Itogami Island apart from her family.
Since she'd just transferred, she didn't have any friends yet, and having dropped her wallet, she had no money.
That had to be why she hadn't had a bite to eat since the day before.
With a somewhat flustered look, Ayato tilted his head and gently presented the wallet in front of Yukina
. Even as Yukina became agitated, as if wondering, Wh-what are you doing? her guarded expression never faltered.
"So, uh, treat me to lunch. The guy who picked up your wallet has a right to ask that much, right?" Ayato spoke with a voice drained of tension.
Yukina blinked over and over, looking at Ayato as if trying to weigh his true intentions.
Like a plaintive, hungry puppy, her stomach made a low growl once more.
He realized that if he got her overly upset here, she might break that lance out and go on a rampage just as she had the day before.
Yukina Himeragi ordered a retro-version Classic Teriyaki Burger, onion rings, and grapefruit juice combo. They were a five-minute walk from Saikai Academy at a big burger chain franchise on Island South. With refined etiquette, Yukina, sitting up straight in her seat, gripped her teriyaki burger with both hands, a happy look on her face. Ayato watched her absentmindedly.
"What are you looking at?" Yukina asked dubiously, noticing Ayato's gaze.
"Ahh, er… I was thinking, so you eat hamburgers like normal people, too, Himeragi."
"What do you mean?" Yukina's eyebrows flattened in a scowl. Ayato sipped on an iced coffee that was heavy on the ice and thin on the coffee.
"Err, somehow I had the impression you hadn't been to this kind of place, like you'd be asking where the knives and forks were, and stuff…"
"I am not entirely sure, but might you be making fun of me?" Yukina made a sigh, as if a little wounded.
"Certainly, the town High God Forest is in is no city, but it does sell hamburgers at least."
"…High God Forest? Is that the school you were at before?"
"Yes. On the surface, it's a girls' school for Shinto adherents." Yukina's explanation was oddly roundabout. Kojou made an mm sound and lifted his face.
"On the surface—meaning there's something behind it?"
"…It's a training ground for the Lion King Agency. You know what the Lion King Agency is, right?"
"No, not a clue." As Yukina saw Ayato shake his head, she blinked. "Why don't you know of it?"
"You say it like of course I'd know about it, but…this is the first time I've heard the name." Kojou spoke with a conflicted expression. Yukina murmured,
"Huh?" with a perplexed look.
"The Lion King Agency is a special agency established by the National Public Safety Commission."
"Special agency? So you're civil servants?" A pretty extravagant name for a government institution, Ayato thought. He wondered if that name carried some kind of special meaning.
"Yes. The agency conducts information gathering and strategic sabotage to stop large-scale magical terrorism and catastrophes. As its roots go back to the Takiguchi Musha, the guards who protected the Inner Palace from evil spirits and apparitions during the Heian period, it is an organization older than the present government of Japan."
"I don't know about the roots thing, but…the gist is, it's like a police force?"
Kojou could understand it in those terms. If regular police forces had special squads for dealing with organized crime and terrorist organizations, it was no surprise that there was a government agency besides Counter-Demon Agents that dealt with magical terrorism and catastrophes. That'd explain why Natsuki referred to the Lion King Agency as "the competition."
No doubt the vague-sounding "special agency" bit was because demons were its opponents. After all, a lot of people with counter-demonic abilities, like psychic mediums and sorcerers, didn't like dealing directly with the government.
"So, Himeragi, since you came from their training ground, you're part of the Lion King Agency, too?"
"Yes. Though as an apprentice," added Yukina frankly after a humble nod. Figures, thought Kojou as he nodded once more. She was still just a junior high schooler, after all. Thanks to her explanation, he somehow understood the true nature of that spear Yukina carried. It had to be some kind of special antidemon weapon developed by the Lion King Agency.
"So why were you tailing me around, then, Himeragi? That special agency thing's job is dealing with magical terrorism and catastrophes, right? What does that have to do with me?" Ayato asked in a blunt tone. Yukina's eyes bulged a bit. "Huh?"
"Yesterday. You were tailing me, right?"
"Don't tell me you noticed…?!"
"Wha? Er, did you think I wouldn't notice that…?" It was the fact she was surprised that surprised him. Yukina made a faint ugh sound.
"That being the case…er, Hiryu …senpai…? Perhaps you really don't know?"
"Know what?" He felt like he wasn't going to get used to Yukina calling him senpai. "Senpai, your very existence is treated identically to war or terrorism."
"Huh?"
"The Primogenitors who rule the Dominions each possess, by themselves, the might of a national army. The Fifth Primogenitor is treated the same way, of course. If you were to cause trouble within Japan's national borders, Senpai, it would be seen not as a criminal act, but an act of war. I think that is why it is the Lion King Agency, and not the Police Administration's CounterDemon Section, that is acting," Yukina explained to Kojou with a tone of concern.
"Treated the same as an army… What the heck…? Who the hell decided that…" As might be expected, Ayato couldn't hide his agitation. He was being treated on the same level as a war or a terrorist strike; or rather, his very existence was being treated as a national crisis.
Even though he was suffering through his half vampiric condition, now he wasn't even being treated as a lifeform, let alone a human being.
"So you really didn't know, Senpai…" Yukina made an exasperated sigh.
The pitying look that came over her face rubbed Ayato's nerves the wrong way somehow.
To calm himself down, Ayato thrust some hard-fried potato into his own mouth.
"I dunno about the other Primogenitors, but I don't remember bein' treated like that. I haven't done anything, and I don't rule any kind of empire, anyway."
"That's true." Yukina quietly nodded. She shot Ayato a cold, antagonistic look. "I was already planning to ask about that. Senpai, what do you intend to do in this place?"
"To do… Er, what?" "Yesterday, I asked your little sister about you."
"Yeah… I heard." Ayato unintentionally scowled at Yukina's words. He remembered the fact that Shizuku had already spilled to her all the secrets of his past. However, Yukina's expression remained completely serious.
"You're hiding the fact you're a half vampire from your Auntie, aren't you and A-Rank Knight?"
"Well, I am, but…"
"Don't you have some kind of objective, infiltrating the Demon Sanctuary, hiding your true nature from even your family? For instance, ruling Itogami Island from the shadows, adding the registered Demons to your own army and the like? Or perhaps you've come to commit slaughter for your own pleasure…you monster!" Yukina muttered in a tone that could be taken either as brooding or fantasizing. Ayato groaned in a low voice,
"Why does it have to be like this?"
"Now, just hold on a minute, here. Himeragi, aren't you misunderstanding something?"
"Misunderstanding?"
"I'm not infiltrating anything; I lived in this city since before I became a vampire."
"…Before you became a…vampire, you say?"
"Yeah. Check the records or anything you like. I've had this condition only since spring of this year.
"I moved to this island when I was in this elementary school and won the U 12 World Tournament and Little League Tournament so, that's almost 12 years ago," Ayato explained in an unpleasant tone.
That's right. Ayato Hiryu had not been born a vampire.
Until a mere three months prior, he'd lived as a Hybrid being with no relation to demons whatsoever. However, during spring of that year, an incident Ayato had become wrapped up in changed his destiny. Ayato had encountered the one called the Fifth Primogenitor and had taken her powers as well as her life.
However, Yukina shook her head, as if to say, I can't believe that. "The Fifth Primogenitor was a hybrid? That cannot be so."
"Huh? Uh, say that all you want, but it's the truth."
"Normal humans cannot change into Mixed blood Hybrid midway. Even if one is infected from drinking vampire blood, the person would be a mere 'Blood Servant'—an imitation vampire."
"Yeah. Seems that way."
"So why make up an easily exposed lie like this?"
"It's not like I'm lying to you, geez, I was born a Mixed Blood Hybrid." Ayato made a tired sigh. He was bad at explaining things to overserious types like this.
Yukina adopted the tone of a private tutor addressing a slacker of a student. "Now listen, Senpai. Primogenitors are the oldest and first vampires who received the curse of immortality from now-dead gods." "I am kind of aware of that, but…"
"The only way for a normal human to become a Primogenitor would be to become undead by using a secret curse from the lost gods on oneself. Are you saying you are capable of that, Senpai?"
"Uh, no. I don't have any gods for BFFs, sorry."
"So how did you become a vampire hybrid, then? There's only one other way to become a Primogenitor, and that's…"
Having said that much, Yukina suddenly cut off her words as if she'd realized something.
The color of her face turned faintly pale.
Aside from being cursed by the gods, there was but one other method by which a hybrid being could become a Primogenitor . She'd just remembered what it was.
"Senpai… You don't mean, you…consumed a Primogenitor and took his power into you…?! But that's not…" The softness that had been in Yukina's expression a short time before had vanished.
In its place, a look of fright came over her. If you couldn't become a Primogenitor yourself, there was but one way that existed to obtain a Primogenitor's power.
That was to consume the Primogenitor's existence and to take the power, and the curse, into one's own body.
However, there shouldn't have been any way for someone inferior in magical power to take the quasi-godlike power wielded by a Primogenitor hybrid into oneself.
Clumsily laying a hand on a Primogenitor would only result in one's own existence being consumed and annihilated. All the more so where an ordinary human was concerned: consuming a vampire simply wasn't possible. And yet, in point of fact, Ayato was saying he'd obtained the power of the Fifth Primogenitor.
"'Consumed a Primogenitor'… Uh, please don't put it like that. It makes me sound like a ravenous beast." Ayato sluggishly rested his chin on his hands as he sipped on his iced coffee. Yukina's expression remained sharp and impregnable.
"Are you saying you obtained a Primogenitor's power by some other method, then?"
"Sorry, but even I can't explain the details. I just had that idiot push this troublesome condition onto me, and that's it."
"Pushed onto you…?" Yukina blinked in what seemed like surprise.
"Senpai, you didn't become a vampire of your own will?"
"Who the heck would want to be like this?" Ayato spoke in an offhand tone. Yukina glared at Ayato with a dubious look.
"And who is this idiot?"
"The Fifth Primogenitor. The previous one."
"The previous Fifth Primogenitor…?!" Yukina sucked in her breath in shock. "You're talking about the real Michaela Blood?! You're saying you inherited those powers? Why did the Fourth Primogenitor choose you as his successor? How did you even encounter the Fifth Primogenitor in the first place?"
"Er, that's…" As Ayato tried to speak, his face suddenly grimaced, as if assaulted by a fierce headache.
The coffee cup he'd been drinking from fell over, spilling the melting ice and thin liquid that had been within.
Without noticing that at all, Ayato lowered his face onto the table, clutching his head.
He let out what seemed to be anguished pants from having bitten his tongue.
Like a curse, Kojou's lost memories brought torment to his entire body.
"S-Senpai?" Yukina spoke in a flustered voice at Ayato's completely unexpected reaction.
"Sorry, Himeragi…" But Ayato did not raise his face.
He suppressed the fierce pain in his heart, as if impaled by an invisible stake, and simply panted painfully.
The only thing that came into the back of his mind was a lone girl whose face he could no longer remember, smiling amid the flames.
"I'm gonna have to leave it at that." Ayato spoke in a frail tone. Yukina tilted her head a bit. "Eh?"
"I don't have any memory of it. When I try and force myself, this is what I get."
"Is…that so? I understand… In that case, it cannot be helped."
An expression that seemed relieved came over Yukina as she watched Kojou finally lift his face.
It seemed she'd believed without any doubt what Kojou had said about having no memory.
She must have had a fundamentally straitlaced personality.
Ayato was actually a bit disappointed in Yukina's all-too-quick reaction.
"You believe me?"
"Yes. I believe I understand you at least well enough to know you are not lying, Senpai." Yukina spoke matter-of-factly. A conflicted expression came over Ayato. He wondered if that was a roundabout way of saying he was a simpleton.
Yukina got up and wiped up the coffee spilled on the table with a napkin. After that, she came beside Ayato and leaned over him, pulling out a handkerchief.
"Turn toward me. I'll wipe your pants clean."
"Er, ah. That's okay, I…" "They'll get stained. See?" Yukina spoke as much as she reached toward Ayato's pants. Ayato couldn't breathe or move a muscle.
Yukina didn't seem to be aware of it, but if anyone they knew saw them, they'd get a really big misunderstanding from this posture, to the point that Ayato wanted to suspect that she was trying to trigger his half vampiric impulses on purpose.
Yukina leaned over between Ayato's legs, her pale, white neck defenseless before him.
"Senpai, I have been ordered by the Lion King Agency to watch you, but…also, to eliminate you if I determine you to be a dangerous being, Senpai."
"E…eliminate?!" Ayato's whole body stiffened in an entirely different sense at Yukina's calmly delivered, matter-of-fact words.
However, Yukina spoke in a gentle tone.
"I think I understand the reason why. You lack a certain self-awareness, Senpai. I sense great danger in you."
"Er, I think you're pretty dangerous yourself, Himeragi…" As Ayato unwittingly added in a mumble,
"Plus, you dropped your wallet," Yukina glared at him.
"Anyway, as I shall be observing you from this day forward, do take care not to try anything strange. After all, I do not completely trust you yet, Senpai."
"Watch… Huh." Well, fine, thought Ayato as his shoulders eased.
Some parts made him uneasy, but Yukina didn't seem to be a bad person.
He didn't foresee that being watched would have any serious drawbacks, and if he was going to have someone keeping tabs on him, he was a little glad it was a girl and not some stiff-necked male Attack Mage doing it.
"Oh, right, Himeragi. About Aunt Kurono…" Ayato suddenly shot Yukina a concerned look. With a bit of a mischievous smile, Yukina nodded. Rare for her, it was a youthful, smiling face that matched her age.
"I understand. I shall keep the fact you are a vampire hybrid secret from her, Senpai. So please do the same for me."
"Yeah. I just need to treat you as a normal transfer student, right?" Ayato shrugged his shoulders as he replied. Either way, even if he told people a junior high schooler like her was a watcher from a secret organization, it wasn't like anyone would believe him.
"Thank you very much." With those words, Yukina stood erect. She already had the usual serious look back on her face.
"Well then, Senpai, what do you plan to do after this?"
"Oh yeah… I kinda meant to go to train for the Next Seven Stars Sword Art Festival , but…" As he spoke, Ayato had an unpleasant premonition. "Himeragi, you don't mean to go with me, do you?"
"Yes. Is that a problem?"
"Er, it's not a problem, but…is this, like, um, full-time?"
"Of course it is. It's my duty to watch you." Speaking without any special change in expression, Yukina pulled the guitar case containing her spear over her back and began cleaning up after dinner.
(The Next Day)
Island South, Itogami Island's southern district, contained Ayato Hosokawa's residence among many others. He lived on the seventh story of a nine-story apartment complex. On this Gigafloat, where building height was severely restricted, it was a comparatively tall building with a commanding view. Though it was the last day of summer, the sun was already high when Ayato slipped out of bed.
At this hour, he might barely make it in time for that day's Training. Ayato had been nocturnal to begin with, but his turning into a hybrid vampire had only ratcheted that up another notch. Rather than being stronger at night, it was simply that his head didn't really kick in before noon.
.
"Ugh… So sleepy." Ayato made a languid murmur, his expression gloomy. He had training with his Aunt and Nene. He still had homework and a half marathon left, too.
If he could, he'd just drop everything and flee the island altogether, but that'd mean the last semester would start without him, and he'd have to repeat the year for sure.
More than that, he was terrified of His recovering mother would give him the lecture.
Even so, it was somewhat better than the desperate situation it had been up until the day before.
That was because Yukina had helped him study until nightfall.
Somehow, at that Lion King Agency thing, she'd already gained a high school graduate–level education, and was better than Ayato at pretty much every subject he was taking.
As she said things like studying is something you need to do for yourself, she answered questions for him one after another. He was grateful for how she taught from the basics on up, unlike Asagi, who was the genius type.
Ayato did feel rather pathetic to have to be taught all this by a junior high schooler younger than him, but with his back against the wall, he had no leeway for worrying about petty pride.
(Another Day Later)
The next day, the mysterious explosion that occurred in Itogami City blanketed the news media.
The newspapers printed photographs of the demolished warehouse district on the front page; television and video sites had interviews with survivors on a continuous loop.
The sixty or so damaged buildings had all been warehouses belonging to a major food conglomerate. About twenty thousand households had lost power; of those, half had no scheduled date for restoration as of that morning.
The monorail track connecting Island East to Island South had been destroyed; direct damage alone was estimated at seven billion yen.
When indirect damage was included, the figure climbed to fifty billion yen. The lone saving grace was the complete absence of fatalities.
"Whoa, scary. And the cause remains unknown, they said." With an apron over her school uniform, Shizuku was casually speaking while cleaning up after breakfast. "Well, uh… It could be a warehouse fire started by lightning strikes, you know?" Sipping on coffee to wake him up, Ayato replied with nervousness in his voice. His face seemed tired because he hadn't slept a single wink the night before.
In the process of escaping the scene of the incident with Yukina, making an anonymous tip to the police, and carrying the Elder vampire on the brink of death to the hospital, night had turned to dawn at some point.
"No one's gonna believe it was a lightning strike. Everyone's saying things, like it was a terrorist bombing or an accident from a cargo of rocket fuel, but I suspect it was a meteor strike. You know, like the Tunguska impact? Sudo said a big incident that happened in Russia a long time ago was a lot like this."
"Meteorite, huh… That's the good version, I suppose…" Ayato gazed into the distance as he muttered to himself.
Judging from what he saw on the news, the fact last night's widespread devastation was Ayato's work remained unexposed.
The scale of the damage was so massive that it seemed no one could believe that the incident was brought about by a single vampire with hybrid blood.
However, he couldn't be optimistic that would continue. Surely there had been many witnesses who'd seen the Beast Vassal running wild right there just prior to the incident. It wouldn't be surprising for someone to deduce Ayato's existence from that. It was also possible Yukina would expose everything before anyone could; he hadn't felt like sleeping with that on his mind. Fifty billion yen in total damage. No way I can make up for that, thought Ayato. Incidentally, this Sudo character Shizuku had mentioned was an actor and radio personality local to Itogami City. Not that it mattered.
"Well, I have a Cheerleading Club meeting, so I'm going ahead." Shizuku spoke as she ran out of the room with a patter. Ayato tossed a wave her way. "'Kay."
Close the door after, okay? And don't you be late, Ayato. Clean the mag cup and put it away when you're done drinking coffee. Make sure the lights are out before you go out the door… Ah, right, I put new handkerchiefs and tissues here in the hallway so—"
"Get going already!"
"'Kaaaay!" After making sure Shizuku, boisterous to the very end, had left, Kojou limply exhaled. September first. His first day of school since the end of summer break. As Saikai Academy had two semesters, it didn't engage in any special commencement ceremony.
After a long homeroom session, normal classes were scheduled to begin. Even if he felt like he hadn't gotten a break at all, his homework was nowhere near done, and last night's incident was guaranteed to add to it. He wanted to just skip class and go on a journey far, far away.
Just as Ayato began absentmindedly thinking about that, the chime in the entryway suddenly rang. Projected onto the intercom monitor was Yukina, in school uniform with the guitar case on her back. "Himeragi…? What are you doing here at a time like this?" Ayato asked, suspecting it was an ill omen. Yukina replied in her usual serene tone. "I came for you. We'll be late if we don't finally get going, Senpai."
"For me…? What, you want to go to school together?"
"I don't mind if going together is too much, so I'll just watch you covertly if that is your preference."
"So I'm being watched either way, huh…? Fine, just hold on a sec." Ayato cut the intercom and headed for the entrance with his usual schoolbag. When he opened the door and went outside, Yukina was standing in the hallway, lowering her head with proper politeness.
"Good morning, Senpai."
"Ah yeah." Even though, like Ayato, she'd probably barely slept at all, he could feel no sense of fatigue from Yukina's perfectly put-together look. No doubt her well-honed physique at work; that, or it was pure youth. However, even she could not conceal her weary expression.
"…You were rather extravagant last night, weren't you?" Keeping silent until they boarded the elevator, Yukina spoke with apparent anger included in her tone.
Ugh, said Kojou, averting his eyes.
Apparently, Yukina's real objective in having come to get him this morning was to chew him out on the way to school. "They say the total damage is fifty billion yen."
"Ugh…"
"As you are an immortal vampire, Senpai, you might be able to pay that back in about five centuries or so. You'd still have to repay a hundred million every single year, though. Interest adds up, after all." "…By any chance, you report on last night already to your higher-ups at the Lion King Agency?"
"I really must report to them about it, but I am somewhat hesitant."
"Hesitant?" Ayato was surprised to hear that word coming from the overly serious girl's lips. Yukina lowered her face, looking conflicted.
"Yes. I share responsibility for last night's incident, after all; I think it was absolutely not your fault alone, Senpai…and you did save me, after all… Um, thank you very much for that." She conveyed the last phrase in a voice so tiny that it seemed like it'd vanish.
"I—I see. Well…when you think about it, it was legitimate defense and all. I had no choice but to take measures to protect myself, so, self-defense, right?" Kojou unintentionally put great firmness into the words he spoke. Yukina made a disappointed shake of her head as she looked at him.
"However, there is no proof of that."
"Proof?"
"Yes. Of course, I would testify to that effect, but as to whether it would be believed… In the first place, the police and the Lion King Agency are on poor terms. My being on the scene might actually hurt more than it helps."
"Is that, ah, so…?" Having reconfirmed the difficult situation he was in, Ayato deflated. He didn't know where the fault lines were exactly, but the departments within the government for demonic countermeasures apparently had various turf wars going on.
When he thought about it, Yukina was still just a junior high schooler anyway; he could understand her testimony not carrying much weight. Of course, it wasn't likely they could get the "Old Guard" man on the verge of death to testify that Ayato engaged in legitimate defense. The stifling atmosphere hung over them as they continued to walk, finally boarding the monorail headed toward the academy.
The devastated warehouse district was very visible from the train window. There was also the stark sight of the fracture midway along the bridge connecting the Gigafloats. The greater-than-usual amount of chaos inside the monorail was no doubt due to the messed-up travel routes.
This, too, was caused by last night's incident. As he was the responsible party, Kojou had no right to complain. As they squeezed aboard the tightly packed train, Yukina, too, made a rather sullen face.
"…The main thing is, you overdid it, Senpai. Certainly it was a dangerous situation, but that was clearly excessive defense. Surely you had no need to go that far."
"It's not like I did that because I wanted to, you know," Ayato muttered somberly as if sulking. Perhaps taking that as him desperately making excuses, Yukina raised her eyebrows and glared at Ayato. "So why did you command a Beast Vassal to engage in such excessive destruction?"
"I didn't order it to do anything. It's not like that live wire's my Beast Vassal anyway."
"Why are you telling me such an obvious lie?" Yukina sighed, making an expression as if she was dealing with a wayward child. "The Fifth Primogenitor, 'Michaela Blood,' is said to possess thirteen mighty Beast Vassals, each rivaling the monsters of myth and legend. Surely you are not telling me it is not so, given the damage that actually happened?"
"No, it's not like I'm trying to paper it over or something." Ayato's voice was ragged from aggravation.
"They don't listen to any orders of mine. Now, if I could use the things like I want, that's a totally different story."
"…What do you mean by that?" She must have sensed Ayato's words were not simply something made up at random. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Yukina's expression turned quite sober. Ayato looked like this wasn't easy for him to talk about. "They don't think of me as their master. Yeah, I did inherit thirteen Beast Vassals from Cordelia, but they don't accept that for themselves yet."
"Cordelia…meaning, the previous Fifth Primogenitor you spoke of before, Senpai?" Yukina looked up at Ayato to confirm. Ayato made a sloppy nod. "So because of that, I can't control 'em. Usually I keep 'em under control somehow, but being attacked by other Beast Vassals is a bit much."
"And then they'll…go berserk like last night?"
"Well, maybe. Just because I come knocking doesn't mean they'll come out, I think. It's not like I've put it to the test, though."
"That is common sense. Please do not test it." Yukina spoke with what seemed like sullen anger. "…But, if what you're telling me right now is the truth, you are indeed a more dangerous being than I had thought, Senpai. If you do not somehow become able to properly control your familiars…" As Yukina murmured, she sank deep into thought.
Ayato silently gazed at her for a while as she did so. Without thinking, he said what he really thought. "You're quite an oddball, Himeragi."
"Eh? …Is that so?" Yukina's eyes widened as if taken completely off guard. "Although I do not want to hear that coming from you, Senpai, what is odd about me?"
"I mean…that's not what most people would think of if they heard me talking just now. They wouldn't think further than 'a vampire who can't control his Beast Vassals is dangerous; better stay away from him, or maybe destroy him sooner rather than later!' Stuff like that, I figure." Ayato spoke with a pained smile mixed in.
Yukina put a hand on her own chest as if reflecting on it. "Is that so? Now that you mention it, I do feel like that, too, but… I mean, it's you, Senpai."
"…What do you mean?"
"Er, there's no deep meaning. It's just, I don't think you are all that bad a hybrid vampire. A little sloppy, occasionally lewd, but that's all." Yukina's eyes narrowed as she spoke, as if replaying her memories since the moment they met. She wasn't speaking in a joking tone whatsoever. Apparently this was truly what she thought of him. As any rebuttal would only kick up more trouble, Ayato twisted his lips without a word.
The monorail arrived in front of the academy; students wearing the same uniforms as Ayato and Yukina got off the train. Yukina took out her train pass case."But, if you inherited the power of the Fifth Primogenitor, Senpai, why can't you control the Beast Vassals, I wonder?"
"That's probably 'cause I'm a blood-drinking hybrid virgin." Yukina tilted her head and looked at Ayato. "Blood-drinking hybrid…virgin? What do you mean by virgin?" Did she seriously just ask me that? Ayato thought, looking sharply at Yukina. However, Yukina simply blinked her eyes with a mystified look. Ayato remembered that she'd been raised at an all-girls school somewhere, and on top of that, she'd been training as a Sword Shaman from dawn to dusk.
"In other words, I have no experience. I've never drunk another person's blood before." Ayato explained, picking the least offensive words he could find. Actually, the fact that beside the Beast Vassals, Ayato couldn't use a single proper vampiric power was no doubt connected to that. Not that this had particularly bothered him until now.
"Ah, so that's what you meant by virgin…eh? You haven't done it?" Yukina asked back in apparent surprise. Ayato's confession that he'd never experienced drinking blood was apparently hard for her to connect to her image of a vampiric Primogenitor. "No 'experience,' Senpai…? Is that so…?"
"Come on, it can't be that strange. I mean, I was a Hybrid being till just lately."
"Well…that may be so…but…" While perplexed, Yukina seemed vaguely pleased for some reason. For his part, Ayato's expression twisted in displeasure.
"Anyway, could you stop saying how I have 'no experience' and 'haven't done it' so loud in a place like this?"
"Eh, why? You said those things yourself, Senpai…"
"Er, well, that's because, um…" As he made anguished thoughts about how he should explain this, Ayato drew his face close to Yukina's ear. A moment later…
"Heya, Ayato." A sudden impact assaulted Ayato from the rear. A very familiar arm wrapped around Ayato's neck as an equally familiar voice spoke.
"Don't go sayin' suggestive words to a girl first thing in the morning like this, man."
"Y-Yaze?" The voice speaking this cheerful, energetic tone first thing in the morning belonged to a male student with short-cropped hair and headphones down around his seemed to have been riding the same went through the turnstile, still grappling with Ayato's shoulders.
"Heya… Wait, that's not Shizuku-chan. Who is that? We had a girl like this in our junior high?" Noticing Yukina walking beside them, he looked at Ayato's face in what seemed a bit of surprise. Ayato gloomily thrust Yaze away.
"Transfer student. She's in Shizuku's class."
"Ohh, I see, I see. …So, Ayato why are you going to school together with the little transfer here?"
"I just bumped into her on the way 'cause she lives close to us. A bit of talking's normal, geez," Ayato replied while keeping his cool. It's not like he was lying. He might've met her when leaving the entrance to his apartment, but that was still on the way to school, technically.
"I am Yukina Himeragi. And you are Yaze Motoki, right?" Yukina spoke while lowering her head in perfect courtesy. Yaze suddenly made a very pleasant expression. "Oh, what's this? So he's been talkin' about me?"
"No, there was information on you in Hiryu-senpai's file."
"Ah? File?" Looking at the question mark that came over Yaze's expression, Yukina apparently realized her mistake. Her blank expression twitched faintly as she shook her head. "No, it's nothing at all. I'm kidding."
"R-right. Well, nice to meet ya." Yaze made a friendly, smiling face while giving her a thumbs-up.
"Hey, so you're a musician girl? What kind of genres do you do?"
"Musician… Ah yes. Er, actually I'm not very knowledgeable about music."
"Eh? Ah, I mean, that's a guitar on your back, right? Maybe a bass?"
"Ah…yes. You're right." Remembering she had a "guitar case" on her back, Yukina hurriedly tried to gloss over , when Yaze suspiciously raised an eyebrow, she awkwardly averted her eyes. "Um, I'm sorry, Senpais. I have to go now."
"R-right. Later, Himeragi." Ayato waved in recognition as Yukina ran off like that to the junior high school campus. Yaze silently gazed, watching her for a while like that.
"Hey, Ayato. That girl, she's kinda mysterious, ain't she?"
"Nah, she just transferred, she's just a bit scrambled about stuff still."
"Is that so… Hmm. If this doesn't become trouble of some kind, then great," Yaze murmured in an oddly serious tone. Ayato shot his friend a doubtful look back.
"Trouble?"
"Yeah. Make sure you pull this off right, Ayato, for your sake and the sake of not messing up my peaceful, lively school life. I mean, you are kind of my precious childhood friend and stuff." What's he talkin' about? thought Ayato, shifting his gaze to Yaze with a perplexed look. Yaze was looking at the blazer high school campus, at Ayato and Yaze's classroom on the second floor. Asagi, sitting right at the window with Stella, was waving her hand, having just noticed them arriving at school.
"Good morning, Ayato. You're really looking laid-back here first thing in the morning. Well, you always do." Homeroom, right before classes began. As Ayato sat in his own seat, Asagi, sitting just ahead, spoke to him. As usual, she was dressed in a gorgeous way with a hairstyle to match, but today, her usual liveliness served to conceal a shadow, as if an aura of ennui hung over her somehow. Ayato waved back with the same listless expression.
"Gee, thanks. Hey, you look sleepy yourself."
"I am. Thanks to that, my makeup isn't sitting well… You saw about yesterday's explosion on the news, right?" Asagi spoke while fussing over imperfections under her eyes with a hand mirror. Gulp. Ayato was somewhat suspicious as he responded.
"Y-yeah. A little bit."
"Right after that, a big shot from the Gigafloat Management Corp was crying to me over the phone. Their mainframe for disaster countermeasures got blown away, and they had to put together a replacement system from scratch. That's what happens when you buy your hardware from the lowest bidder. It's not tuned at all, and its inbound filtering is like a sieve."
"I don't really follow, but…sounds like a big mess… Sorry." As Ayato appropriately ignored Asagi's technobabble, he was tortured by a guilty conscience.
To think that even people this close to him had been harmed by yesterday's incident. Asagi shot Ayato a dubious look as he sunk into silence. "Why are you apologizing?"
"Uh…no reason. So anyway, you're helping people across the whole island, then, Asagi?"
"It—It's not that huge a deal, though." Asagi spoke quickly, seeming to blush a little. Then her usual leering grin emerged. "But, maybe you should be thanking me all the same. There's a restaurant at Keystone Gate that has a cake buffet…"
"Yeah, sometime, sure. I'll think about it once I get my summer break homework settled." Ayato tried to paper it all over.
Keystone Gate was the section where the four Gigafloats connected—the giant building literally at the center of Itogami Island.
It was the island's most fashionable spot, brimming with high-end brands and specialty stores. And this restaurant was right there. An expensive one, no doubt.
"Homework, huh." As Asagi rested her chin on her hands, she muttered in an indifferent tone, seemingly on purpose. For some reason, she was glancing sideways at Ayato intermittently. "B-by the way Ayato , I thought I'd ask… Whatever happened after that?"
"After that?"
"You know, yesterday, the girl you were at the station with. Nagisa-chan's classmate, you said? "I mean, not that it matters to me either way."
"Oh yeah." Something like that happened, too, didn't it? Ayato recalled. Thanks to the intensity of the disturbance that followed, he felt like it was already something in the distant past.
"Oh, we just went home like normal."
"Is that…so?"
"Yeah, I was just helping her carry back the stuff she bought."
"Th-that so? Hmm… I see." Asagi's expression seemed to brighten as she lifted her face. Right around then, in a corner of the classroom, there was a small commotion punctuated by oohs.
Several boys had gathered in the corner around a single raised cell phone.
"What's that all about?" Ayato watched his worked-up classmates looking as if he'd spotted something unpleasant in a train station washroom. Asagi called out to Rin Tsukishima, a friend of hers who just happened to be passing by.
As soon as lunch break began, Ayato darted out of the classroom and rendezvoused with Yukina in the corridor in front of the staff room.
By the end of morning classes Ayato was tired enough to keel over, but Yukina looked considerably weakened as well, enough that she'd actually forgotten to bring that guitar case with her.
Having seen his own classmates' excitement, Ayato could largely picture what had happened, but being the center of the school's attention seemed to have been quite an ordeal for her.
"Hey, Rin. What's up? What are the guys getting all worked up about?"
"Ah, that? Seems some girl transferred into junior high." Rin Tsukishima was the class representative.
She was a student whose height and style made her seem very adult.
She had meager social graces and was a girl of few words, but there were surprisingly many boys who went for that. Among first-year high school boys, she was number one in the Girls I Wanna Be Walked All Over By rankings by a rather glowing margin; she had apparently been rather shocked to learn of that result.
"A junior high school transfer student…?" Ayato 's face grimaced a bit as he made a low murmur. "
Good grief," Rin murmured, watching the boys in exasperation. "Apparently the rumor is that she's extremely cute, so they've ordered the juniors in their clubs to send them pictures." As Asagi's brow furled, she drew her face close to Ayato.
"Hey, this transfer student, is that the one in Shizuku-chan's class?"
"Yeah, probably."Ayato nodded with a pained expression. It was a pretty safe bet it was Yukina. Rin watched the exchange between Ayato and Asagi with mild amusement.
"Not going to go and look, Hosokawa?"
"Nah, not interested." As Ayato tossed his reply, Rin said, "I see," nodding with apparent satisfaction.
"I suppose. You have Asagi, after all, Akatsuki."
"Huh?" Ayato looked up in surprise.
He met the very close Asagi's eyes, and both hurriedly separated simultaneously.
Asagi, even with her cheeks reddening, maintained her cool attitude as she looked up at Rin.
"There you go again, Rin… Ayato and I aren't like that. We're just friends from back in junior high. Right?"
"R-right. Asagi & Stella, hangs out with me and Yaze a lot. It's just natural." Ayato, too, conveyed it as the plain truth.
For some reason, Rin made a disappointed-looking face as she listened.
"So, in the end, no progress this summer, either? Even though Yaze seems to be making out fine with an older girlfriend?"
"That's 'cause Yaze and his girlfriend are both weirdos." Ayato nonchalantly asserted it like it was inconvenient to be compared to either.
Certainly, in spite of appearances, it was a fact that Yaze had a girlfriend.
As soon as he'd graduated to high school in April, he'd fallen in love at first sight with a third-year senior.
After a number of passionate approaches straight out of a romantic comedy, they'd finally become a couple just before summer vacation.
"I suppose so," Rin agreed, looking at Ayato with a meaningful expression.
"Certainly I think she is a bit eccentric, too, but, Hosokawa-kun, I don't think I want to hear you calling anyone odd. I have the feeling you have some very interesting secrets yourself."
"No idea what you're talkin' about, Tsukishima."
"Heh-heh." As Rin watched Ayato feign ignorance, seemingly sulking, she narrowed her eyes and laughed.
Her grandfather was a famous scholar of demonic ecology.
Perhaps due to that, Rin was very learned about the characteristics of various demons; sometimes she acted as if she realized Ayato was not a normal human being.
However, Rin did not regard Ayato with enmity; she seemed disinclined to raise any special fuss in any case.
It seemed like she was observing Kojou simply because she found him interesting.
Here in Itogami City, where there were more demons and blazers, etc., than foreign residents, it wasn't a big deal.
Saikai Academy had a number of demonic and Blazer students, after all; they weren't looked at in any special way, enough that a beautiful girl transferring into junior high attracted far more attention.
That said, even Rin would surely be surprised to know that Ayato was actually the Hybrid Fifth Primogenitor.
"Oh yeah, Ayato. I brought that World History report I mentioned yesterday… You wanna look?" Asagi, whose mood had improved slightly at some point, spoke as she fished a pile of copying paper out of her bag. Ayato nodded in a flash.
"Yeah. Of course."
"So! Cake buffet at Keystone Gate!"
"Ugh… All right already…" Heartbroken, Ayato nodded. It was a matter of priorities; he was more worried about how he was going to do the homework in front of his face than the condition of his wallet.
"Good, good," Asagi replied, nodding with a smiling face as she handed the copying paper to Ayato.
"Ah? I wonder what's with Natsuki-chan?" That moment, Rin quietly muttered.
It was too early for the homeroom session, but the class's homeroom teacher, wearing a stifling, jet-black dress, entered the classroom with an expression of displeasure.
"Ayato Hiryu are you here?" The charismatic homeroom teacher, small enough she looked like a little girl, called for Kojou at the classroom entrance with the aura of a ferocious deity. Ayato had a bad feeling about it as he sluggishly waved back.
"…'Sup?"
"Come to the student guidance room at noon. I need a word with you." Natsuki made a frigid declaration.
Incidentally, her outfit on this day was a miniskirted, goth loli–style dress and socks with black-and-white borders.
It was completely stifling as per usual, but it looked nice and cool compared to most of what she usually wore.
The frostiness and bloodlust of Natsuki's implied threat sent a small shudder through Ayato.
"Eh? Er, you said I had until the first class of the last day of the week to turn in that English homework…"
"Also, bring that junior high transfer student with you."
"Himeragi…? Why?" Ayato's voice unwittingly slipped. The murmurs among the students broadened as the name of the muchrumored transfer student emerged from his lips.
"Would you understand if I said, last night's incident?"
"Er, ah… No idea what you're talkin' ab—"
"Don't play dumb with me. I'm going to speak to you very thoroughly about what the two of you were doing after running out of the game center late at night." Natsuki left that monologue behind her before departing without waiting for Ayato's reply. After that, Kojou was sweating bullets while bloodlustfilled glares from the male students poured upon him.
And then… "Hosokawa… What was she speaking of just now? Could you explain, in detail?" The tall Rin stood beside the seated Ayato, leering down at him as she asked. She was so quiet normally, but at times like this, she was impressively intimidating.
"T-Tsukishima… Er, Asagi?" Ayato spontaneously called for an assist. However, Asagi, who should have been sitting right there, had vanished at some point.
"If you want Asagi, she's over there." Rin pointed to the back of the class with a straight face.
For some reason, Asagi was standing right by the garbage bin, innocently ripping to shreds the pile of paper in her hands over and over. Geh!
As the sheets turned into shreds, Ayato sucked in his breath as he realized what the pile of paper was. "W-wait. That wouldn't be the World History report I asked you for, would it…" As Ayato hurried to his feet, Asagi glared at him, eyes half-closed and filled with silent rage. Without saying a word…
"Hmph!" …she made a hard snort, tossing the thoroughly destroyed paper into the garbage bin.
Since Yukina didn't have a cell phone, Ayato had to go through Shizuku to call her over.
Thanks to that, Nagisa had insistently grilled them about this and that, adding one more reason for them to be exhausted. Somehow, Ayato and Yukina finally arrived at the student guidance room together.
When Ayato and Yukina knocked and entered, Natsuki was already sitting on the sofa, waiting for them. "So you came, Hiryu." Natsuki spoke as she reclined with her legs crossed like she was some sort of princess. Huh. And, as she noticed that Yukina was standing behind Ayato, the corners of her lips curled upward.
"So you're the transfer student in Misaki's class."
"Yes… Himeragi, junior high, third year." Speechless for a moment as she beheld Natsuki's beautiful, doll-like looks, she replied in an overly serious tone. Natsuki, her behavior filled with an air of charisma, seemed satisfied as she looked back at Yukina.
"Welcome to Saikai Academy. It's a pleasure to have you, particularly if you do not stir up any unnecessary trouble."
"Y-yes." Yukina's faltering reply was likely due to remembering the top class trouble that had stirred up just the day before. The warehouse district destroyed; fifty billion yen in damage. It wasn't the level of problem you got called in by your homeroom teacher for. And so… "Now then, both of you. You know about the fireworks that occurred on Island East yesterday, yes?"
"Well, uh, yeah, sure." Ayato nodded with an uneasy feeling as Natsuki's question got right to the point. The cold sweat moistening his back made his uniform shirt cling uncomfortably.
"Actually, an Elder vampire was secured near the scene. He was gravely wounded and on the verge of death, but someone apparently made an anonymous tip to the fire department. This information hasn't been released to the public yet. Does any of this ring a bell with either of you?"
Shudder.
Ayato heavily shook his head. Beside him, Yukina was like a statue, paralyzed.
That Elder was a trading company executive on the surface but police seem to have long suspected he's part of the leadership of a smuggling ring. It would seem yesterday he was in the warehouse district in a place where he'd done many deals in the past. The underlings apparently say they don't know anything about the other party for this deal."
"…Oookay." Ayato watched Natsuki with a guarded expression.
He was pretty interested in this information, but he didn't know what Natsuki was telling Yukina and him all this for.
"Witnesses saw a Beast Vassal on a rampage in the area a short time before the explosion. In other words, the nearly dead man who was found had been fighting someone, an enemy who could push an 'Old Guard' vampire to a comatose state. I believe it is extremely likely that this person was involved in the explosion… I wonder who?"
"Wh-who knows?" As Ayato twisted his neck, seemingly on purpose, he remembered "Eustach," the Lotharingian Armed Apostle, and the homunculus he had with him. Who they were, why they were fighting, and what it was they desired remained mysteries to Ayato and Yukina. Seemingly finding both of their reactions interesting to watch, Natsuki continued in a blunt tone,
"Indeed… Actually, yesterday was not the first time a vampire was found on this island on the brink of death."
"Eh…?"
"In the last two months, the police have ascertained that at least six similar incidents have occurred. That makes this the seventh, though, of course, this is the first time an Elder was involved." As Natsuki said all that, she roughly tossed a thick pile of files onto the table. He didn't want to know how she obtained all that, but they seemed to be copies of police investigation files. There was a jagged photograph attached, an enlarged image from city surveillance camera footage.
"Wai…! Natsuki, what is this?" Kojou's expression hardened as he looked at the men depicted in the photo. The charismatic homeroom teacher glared at Ayato, looking displeased at being addressed by her first name.
"This is the list of demons assaulted to date. The ones displayed here are victims of the sixth incident. They were found two days ago, but… Do you know them, Ayato Hiryu?"
"No, I don't know them…but…" Ayato's lips twisted unpleasantly. When he stole a glance at Yukina beside him, Yukina's face was pale as she clenched her fists without a word. The men depicted in the photo were the beast-man-and-vampire team.
The men Yukina had sent flying for flirting with her the day he and she had first met. At some point after they'd fled Ayato and Yukina's presence, someone had assaulted them and inflicted nearly fatal wounds.
If this was somehow related to the combat in the warehouse district the night before, chances were very high that Eustach was the one who'd assaulted the two of them. Either way, Ayato and Yukina had become more deeply involved in this incident without ever realizing it.
"So what…happened to all of these people?"
"Hospitalized. They're in no danger of dying, but none have regained consciousness as of yet. Not that I know what could do that to a dog with a powerful life force and a nonaging bat." Natsuki elegantly rested her chin on her hands as she glared at Ayato with sharp eyes. "This is why I called both of you here."
"Eh?"
"I don't know the purpose is, but whoever's been indiscriminately hunting demons remains at large. In other words, Kojou Akatsuki, it is possible that you, too, may be assaulted."
"A-ah… I see. Suppose so." Having little self-awareness of his being a vampire, he hadn't realized it until Natsuki said it, but she had a point. Eustach already knew Ayato was the Fifth Primogenitor. If his objective really was to hunt demons indiscriminately, Ayato might well be his next target. In fact, when Eustach had encountered Ayato, he'd said as much.
That it was not yet time to fight a Primogenitor—
"Corporation-raised demons and their families have apparently already been warned to beware of demon hunting. I'm sure you don't know anyone that high up, so I'm warning you instead. You should thank me."
"Uh-huh. Well, thanks." "So for that reason, no more playing around at night like you did yesterday. At least until this matter is resolved."
"R…" Natsuki's tone had been so nonchalant that Ayato had almost unwittingly replied, Right, and was on the verge of nodding. However, just before he did, he noticed Yukina's reproachful glare and caught himself. "Er, ah, what do you mean, playing around at night?"
"…Hmph, very well. Anyway, you have been warned." Natsuki, speaking like she was bored with it all, dismissed them with a wave of her hand. Ayato and Yukina did as she indicated, rising up and leaving the student guidance room together.
"Ah, right. Wait a moment, transfer student." That moment, Natsuki suddenly called out to Yukina. Huh? Yukina turned around and looked at Natuski, seemingly on her guard.
Natsuki pulled something out of the breast of her black dress and lightly tossed it over to Yukina.
It was a tiny mascot doll, small enough to fit in the palm of Yukina's hand. She caught it by reflex, unwittingly speaking the doll's name.
"…Nekoma-tan…" Gasp! Looking up at how Yukina covered her mouth, Natuski made a broad, leering smile.
"You forgot this. It is yours, isn't it?" Yukina said nothing in response to Natsuki's question. A puzzled expression came over Ayato as he watched Natsuki and Yukina glare at each other, tension hanging in the air for some unfathomable reason.
Finally, Yukina made a polite nod and left the room. Watching Yukina as she left until the very end, Natsuki seemed quite pleased with herself for some reason.
"So Ms. Minamiya knew." Yukina spoke as she walked along a corner of a passageway, as if to hide from prying eyes. The oddly happy way she gazed at the doll she'd received from Natsuki made her truly look like a regular female junior high school student.
"Guess so… We really slipped up, leaving the doll behind like that." Kojou replied with a serious expression. He'd meant to make a clean getaway the night before, but Natsuki seemed to have indeed known it was him from the start.
Now she has something else on me, he thought, deflating somewhat. Yukina made a somewhat exasperated sigh as she looked at Ayato.
"No. Not that. About the opponent we fought last night."
"Eh? That old man, Eustach or something?"
"Yes. And that homunculus girl, too… Apparently the police already knew about their engaging in demon hunting." Ayato nodded as he remembered the photograph Natsuki possessed. If the assaulted demons had been caught on camera, it wouldn't be a surprise if the same surveillance camera had filmed Eustach and the girl. So the police no doubt knew about them.
"However, it seems they do not as yet know their identities."
"Identities?" "That the perpetrator is a Lotharingian Armed Apostle."
"I see… She said the guys who'd been attacked are still unconscious…"
"Yes. It would seem that we are the only ones to have directly fought them unscathed." Yukina calmly pointed it out. At the time, Eustach had readily exposed his name and title because he was confident in the certainty he would defeat Yukina then and there.
When one considered the combat capability of the girl called Astarte, it couldn't be dismissed as overconfidence.
However, Kojou intruded, and consequently, Yukina made it back safe and sound. To them it was no doubt a grave miscalculation.
"Why didn't you say that to Natsuki earlier? Appearances aside, she is a C-card holder. She has her Counter-Demon Attack Mage license. She seems to know the police pretty well, too."
"Senpai…are you serious?"
"Huh?" Yukina glared at him eyes half-closed, throwing Kojou off. She seemed angry for some reason. "I have a C-card, too. Why does someone from the Lion King Agency need to go crying to the police?"
"Er, it's not really a 'why' thing, but…" Come to think of it, Natsuki said the Lion King Agency and the cops don't get along, Kojou recalled. Perhaps that accounted for the odd tension in the air between Yukina and Natsuki.
"Geez," Yukina exhaled. "A simple serial killer case is a job for the police, but since this was someone from the Lotharingian Orthodox Church, an Armed Apostle–class man no less, it is very much an international sorcerous crime. That's in our jurisdiction."
"O-oh. So it's not just a turf thing."
"Of course it isn't. Also, Senpai, have you forgotten?"
"Eh? Forgotten what?"
"About how to get what you did recognized as legitimate defense."
"Ah… And about there being no proof. Huh. And you said your testimony won't be enough, Himeragi… Ah!" That's when Ayato finally grasped what Yukina had in mind. "Himeragi, you can't mean…"
"Yes. This opponent has been indiscriminately hunting demons and even defeated an 'Old Guard' vampire. Anyone would recognize the danger he poses, so if you can prove he attacked you, I think something can be done about your own crime, Senpai. You are technically a Primogenitor hybrid, after all."
"The gist being, if we can catch the Armed Apostle geezer and his girl, it's all good…?" Oh boy. Ayato made a sigh. So capturing Eustach would cancel out his own crime. The opposite was also true: Until they were captured, he couldn't go to the police for help. If Ayato explained about last night to the police, the chances were high he'd be detained on the spot, no longer able to move freely. It would also expose to Shizuku and Keiko the fact he was a hybrid vampire.
"Either way, the police are not equipped to deal with that Lotharingian Armed Apostle. I believe it would only add more casualties." Yukina, who held the trump card called "Schneewalzer," conveyed that plainly, with no elation whatsoever.
Her tone conveyed that it was simply her calm analysis of the facts as a Counter-Demon Attack Mage.
Fed up with it all, Ayato scrutinized her eyes.
"Bottom line is, if we don't find the old man and the girl before the cops, nothin' we can do, huh?"
"I do not believe this is impossible. We are the only ones who know the perpetrator is a Lotharingian Armed Apostle. And given their distinctive appearance, the places he can hide in are limited."
"Well, you're right about that… Imagine walkin' around the city dressed like that." And that's another thing, Ayato grasped.
He was a middle-aged man almost two meters tall going around with a half-naked girl. That was almost a crime by itself. You could get arrested at any moment like that. "Actually, thinking along those lines, I sent for data this morning."
"Data?"
"A list of Western European Church facilities on this island." As Yukina spoke, she fished a notepad out of her pocket. It was a fancy notepad with Nekoma-tan drawn on it. However, it had a dreary list of church names and street addresses written on it.
"There is a single Lotharingian Orthodox church. There are also seven facilities belonging to other sects. No doubt he is hiding in one of them with his associate."
"…I wonder," Ayato muttered offhand. Yukina blinked in apparent surprise. No doubt she never imagined he'd contradict her. "Is there something mistaken?"
"No, it's not that, but just wondering if we should be going about it so simply."
"Hmm?" Yukina's lips tapered in what looked like a small pout. Kojou's face grimaced.
"I mean, even if they don't know they're Lotharingian, I think they at least know what those two look like. That includes the old man wearing that vestment."
"I see… You might be right…"
"If that's the case, wouldn't the police have investigated the Western European Church already?"
"Ah…" Yukina inhaled slightly. She shook her head, seemingly mildly confused.
"B-but if that's so, where are they now?"
"Yeah… Hmm, maybe a foreign branch company?" As he tried to think of where Eustach could walk in broad daylight without anyone being suspicious, he said the first thing he could think of. "What?"
"I mean, just 'cause he's an Armed Apostle doesn't mean he can't be somewhere other than a church. In the first place, we don't know that the old man's an actual Armed Apostle. He might just have claimed to be one."
"I—I see…" A perplexed expression came over Yukina as she politely conceded the point.
No matter how great her combat capability, she was still an inexperienced, apprentice Attack Mage.
Having such a frank personality to begin with, she might well have been particularly vulnerable to maliciously spread misinformation.
"Having said that, I don't think he can really hide with looks like that. I think he's gotta have some kind of trick. The easiest place for a Lotharingian to avoid suspicion is in the middle of other Lotharingians, so somewhere like a Lotharingian embassy… Well, there probably isn't one in the city, though."
"So a branch company headquartered in Lotharingia…or such?"
"Right, right. That's what I mean." Ayato nodded without a conscience.
He did feel like it made sense, but the idea lacked even one shred of evidence supporting it.
If anybody asked, he wasn't confident enough to say he was absolutely sure.
But Yukina had a serious expression as she thought about something.
"Senpai…I'm impressed."
"Eh?"
"I'm quite surprised. To think that even you are capable of logical thought like this, Senpai." She looked up at Kojou with sparkles in her eyes. Without thinking, Ayato averted his face from her radiant gaze.
"Is—is that so… Kind of doesn't feel like much of a compliment, but…"
"However, if it is a branch company inside Itogami City headquartered elsewhere, how should we investigate, I wonder?" Yukina spoke as she immediately snapped back to a serious expression.
"Yeah, that has me stumped, too… The Gigafloat Management Corp must have data on all the corps, but they won't hand that out to just anyone, after all…"
"Wait," Ayato muttered as he remembered something.
"The Gigafloat Management Corp, huh?" From the back of Ayato's mind emerged the face of a very familiar classmate.
1 That day, after school. Asagi Aiba was arriving at her part-time job, still in her school uniform.
Twelve levels under the Keystone Gate.
The Security Section of the Gigafloat Management Public Corporation.
As what one might call the nucleus of Itogami Island, security was extremely strict in this area, but Asagi easily passed through each gate with one swipe of the System Administrator ID Card prepared just for her.
Though normally, such a card was not issued to anyone short of the mayor, the blunt truth was that if Asagi was serious, she could easily disable security of this magnitude.
Knowing this full well, the public corporation's director had given her the card as a special case.
Such special privilege was recognition of Asagi's superior genius as a programmer.
"Hiya, m'lady. You seem displeased. Your fine beauty will go to waste." As Asagi sat down and logged in at her terminal, her assistant AI spoke to her in an overly familiar manner.
The artificial intelligence Asagi had dubbed Mogwai was the avatar of five supercomputers holding all of Itogami Island's city functions within their grasp.
Though its operational capacity was no doubt on par with the world's most powerful computers, it was said to be difficult to handle because of its…quirks. But for some mysterious reason, Asagi rather liked it.
"Oh, shut up. Cut the boring flattery and the helpful spirit act, 'kay?"
"Heh-heh. Concerns about love, I presume? It seems that genius programmers' affairs of the heart are different from those of mere mortals."
"Oh, stuff it or I'll upload a virus." Asagi began her work while shooting the breeze with the AI.
The job she'd accepted for today was cleaning up after the explosion incident in the warehouse district the night before.
Hundreds of detailed subjects, such as managing the maintenance of destroyed pieces of the electrical grid and water and sewer systems, rearranging the service schedules of transport facilities, calculating restoration estimates, and so on, all required the writing of new, custom programs.
It was a job that would take a group of dozens of excellent programmers a full half year, but Asagi and Mogwai teamed up would need about three days.
With Asagi's skill, she could have chosen any number of higher-profile jobs, but Asagi rather liked having a part-time job where she could use one of the world's top supercomputers as her personal chew toy.
Her lone regret was that taking this job meant she had no free time to help Ayato with his homework.
She thought, feeling a bit wistful, it was a bit of a shame to have ripped up and tossed away that World History report… But that was Ayato's fault any way you sliced it. Plus the idiot had skipped school so early in the term and never even made it back. She didn't even need to confirm it.
That transfer student Himeragi had been with him, after all. What surprised Asagi had been how much it burned her inside.
A disagreeable thing was a disagreeable thing, but she didn't think that Ayato, of all people, had the resourcefulness to skip a class to go out on a date with a younger girl.
There had to be some circumstances involved.
What put Asagi in a bad mood was that Ayato hadn't told her those circumstances, instead trying to cover things up with a clumsy lie.
She vaguely realized Ayato was just trying to be considerate of her feelings, but she really didn't like that.
There was one other thing she didn't like: the girl, Yukina Himeragi.
Asagi had no evidence to back her intuition, but Ayato probably had a weakness for her type.
She behaved with a resoluteness that didn't feel feminine in the slightest and spoke very frankly.
No doubt the athletic aura she gave off appealed to Ayato, who'd still trained as a Blazer day and night when he was in elementary high League and Dominated top of that, Yukina looked beautiful to Asagi even in spite of their being the same gender. Though Ayato didn't appear to pay attention to the opposite sex at all, even he might fall for an opponent of that level. "Not that I think I'm giving up anything in style points…" Lost in her work, she didn't even seem to realize she'd spoken out loud.
The AI's sharp ears picked up on it. "Well, in this world there are rascals who go for all kinds of things." "Don't answer when I'm talking to myself." "I'm just having a conversation with my partner." "None of your business. And when did I turn into your partner, anyway?" "Isn't the reason it's not going smoothly because you're not honest with yourself?" "Y-you don't have to tell me something obvious like that. But…!" Asagi's hands unwittingly stopped tapping the keyboard as she raised her eyebrows in was the moment right after when a dull vibration and impact shook the room Asagi was in.
Asagi let out a brief yelp. Itogami Island, floating on top of the Pacific Ocean, didn't have any earthquakes. It was the first impact Asagi had felt since she'd immigrated to the island."Mogwai, what was that just now?"
"…Well, this is unexpected. Intruders." The AI spoke with something like admiration. Asagi furrowed her eyebrows in surprise. "Intruders?" "Yes. They are in combat with this building's security forces. The vibration from just now was from a support pillar being cleanly broken during combat."
"Broken… You're kidding, right?" Asagi murmured in a low voice as her face changed color. This was no ordinary building. This was the Gigafloat's underground infrastructure section. Its main support pillars, designed to hold up tens of thousands of tons, were not so easily destroyed, even with explosives. "It's not just the support pillar. There's quite a bit of damage to the upper floors as well. I believe it is still safe here for now, but it might not be possible to escape. The elevator shaft was also destroyed."
"You mean I'm shut in here?"
"The emergency stairs are still intact, but I do not recommend using them right now. Not unless you want to meet the intruders in person. The security forces have already been routed." "Routed?" Asagi asked back, dumbfounded. Even in peacetime, the Keystone Gate was garrisoned with nearly a hundred and fifty security personnel. And they had been beaten? "Who are these intruders? A terrorist group? Or are we under attack by a Dominion army?"
"Err, no. Neither…" The AI replied to Asagi, who'd expected some kind of demonic military incursion, with an oddly human-sounding tone. A fierce explosion shook the room once more.
"…There are only two intruders. One a mere human; the other, a homunculus." 2 Keystone Gate was the name of the giant composite structure located at the center of Itogami Island. At twelve stories, its aboveground section was the tallest building on the island.
You could look up from pretty much anywhere on the island and see its majestic reverse-pyramid shape.
Within the facility were government administration offices, including city hall, and numerous hotels and commercial facilities built one after another, functioning as the island's nucleus in both name and fact.
On the other hand, the giant construct also fulfilled one other, crucially important role, performed by the forty levels under the surface of the water as well as the Gigafloat Management Facility.
This structure, just under two kilometers in diameter, bound together the four Gigafloats that together composed Itogami Island.
Keystone Gate was designed to absorb the effects of ocean currents, wind, waves, and so forth, such as bending and vibrations between the Gigafloats.
Without this, the four districts of Itogami Island would suddenly collide, or perhaps break apart, drifting atop the Pacific Ocean.
It was a critical facility, truly worthy of the name keystone. Furthermore, it was heavily defended.
Itogami City was under the jurisdiction of the Island Guard, four hundred and forty men strong, divided into three battalions.
One of those battalions was assigned to guarding Keystone Gate.
This included a platoon of sixty Counter-Demon Agents, numbers equal to those of all CDAs under the jurisdiction of a typical midsized prefectural police headquarters. Such a large number of personnel had been assigned to protecting Keystone Gate in anticipation of assaults by large-scale terrorist organizations.
In simulations, they could hold out for several days, even against a company of beast men troops from the Dominion.
That was why, that day, people were in utter shock. That a mere two intruders had shattered the security forces and penetrated the gate— They had already broken through the tenth underwater level's airtight bulkhead, heading for the gate's central section, having not made a single demand.
"—Complete. The airtight bulkhead's seal has been destroyed." The homunculus girl, shrouded in Beast Vassal armor, made an austere report. Right now the girl appeared to be wearing a twelve-foot-tall golem, glittering in rainbow colors, as armor. A single brush of its fingertips instantly destroyed the barrier protecting the seventh level's airlock. This was the work of the DOE sealed within Astarte's body.
Completely merged with the man-made Beast Vassal "Rhododactylos," she was able to neutralize various mystical forces and slice through barriers. It was this ability in particular that Eustach the Armed Apostle had long sought. For it was this, the power to destroy barriers, that was indispensable for the achievement of his fondest wish.
"Go, Astarte. That which we seek lies beyond."
"Accept." Quietly murmuring, Astarte climbed over the destroyed bulkhead. Ahead was the central section, under the jurisdiction of the Gigafloat Management Corporation, extending down to the twenty-fifth floor underwater.
If damage was inflicted on this block, it was possible that severe damage would be caused to the inhabitants of Itogami Island. For hospitalized patients, a power outage could be fatal; food could no longer be preserved in the fierce heat of Itogami Island.
Here on the Pacific Ocean, three hundred kilometers from the mainland, it was not possible to evacuate some five hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants in a short time frame. That was the very reason why it had been a target of terrorism time and time again and why security had been beefed up to cope with it.
It had been the Island Guard's finest that awaited Eustach and Astarte's arrival into the central section.
There were two CDA squads and one heavy, mechanized platoon.
"Hmm… An adequate response for an emergency situation. They are well trained."
As they spotted Eusatch and Astarte on the path below, they engaged with one great volley.
These were Blessed Bullets for use against demons.
Even Eustach's armor-enhanced clothing would not emerge unscathed from a straight-up hit.
Eustach slipped behind a wall to avoid direct hits but appraised with a very calm voice,
"Still, it is all for naught. Exterminate them, Astarte."
"—Accept. Execute 'Rhododactylos.'" The humanoid Beast Vassal, glimmering in rainbow colors, assailed the mechanized troops as they continued to fire.
The giant moved with unimaginable agility.
The Beast Vassal's overwhelming power mowed them down.
The barriers that protected the mechanized forces shattered like thin glass; now defenseless, they were dispatched with the greatest of ease.
Having determined that normal Blessed Bullets were having no effect, the CDA fired ballista at Astarte.
These were small-scale siege weapons that launched javelins, but when their heads were charged with ritual power, they became powerful weapons against demonkind—enough that their use had been treaty-restricted, being able to inflict lethal wounds to beast men and vampires in a single blow.
The javelins, glimmering with a dark gray light, assaulted the humanoid Beast Vassal with a speed rivaling that of a bullet.
And then the armor deflected them as easily as raindrops.
The unbelievable display made the CDAs stop dumbfounded in their tracks. Only Eustach made a quiet smile.
A Beast Vassal, being a mass of magical power, could not be damaged save by even greater magical power.
However, Rhododactylos was now neutralizing the magic power of all attacks, and reflecting them back. Now no one could stop the Vassal Beast—or its lord, Astarte. Not even the Beast Vassal of a Primogenitor.
The CDA continued to resist, but with their most powerful weapons rendered powerless, their chances of victory were nil.
With overwhelming physical might, Astarte's Beast Vassal annihilated them.
This was no longer combat.
It was a one-sided slaughter.
"Hmm, a wise decision." No doubt they'd noticed that Eustach was the one giving orders to Astarte the homunculus.
The several surviving CDAs attacked Eustach directly.
"However, I cannot be defeated by such dull skills. Compared to that Sword Shaman girl, 'tis mere child's play." A grand smile came over Eustach's face as he struck back.
His physical strength amplified by his augmented robe, swinging his metal bardiche, swept the security force's Counter-Demon Agents away.
He had been an exorcist sufficient to be granted the title of Armed Apostle by Lotharingia.
His might far surpassed that of the average for National Counter Demon Agent.
"—Perhaps things have been put in order?" Eustach spoke coldly as he looked around at the completely silent security forces.
The vestiges of scattered bullets and of the Beast Vassal's destruction had changed the floor from a battlefield into a ghastly ruin.
All members of the elite force, over sixty strong, had fallen, heavily wounded. No one moved aside from the two intruders.
No— In a place a short way from the battleground, one girl stood. She was unarmed.
All she had was a cell phone and a little notepad computer. From her posture, she had no combat training; he felt no magic power from her.
She was neither combat personnel nor demon, a mere human being. She had the aura of someone in the passageway by chance who'd come to see what was going on and had happened upon the battle.
As Eustach gazed at her trembling form, his face scowled in suspicion, for the uniform she wore greatly resembled that of the Lion King Agency's Sword Shaman.
Though the chance they were comrades was not high, perhaps it was best to neutralize her just in— Amid his thoughts, Eustach shook his head. It was not necessary. Even if the Sword Shaman herself came after him, she could do nothing against Eustach and Astarte.
Not anymore. Besides, to take the girl's life here was meaningless. She would die soon enough as it was. Not only her but every person who lived on this island. Yes. This forsaken land built by criminals, Itogami Island, would soon sink into the sea.
Ayato Hosokawa awoke amid the thin darkness of twilight. He faintly heard a sound. He didn't recognize the landscape, but it seemed to be a park near the coast.
His outstretched arm felt cold, perhaps because he was lying atop the concrete on his side.
That made it a less comfortable place to sleep. His cheek conveyed pleasant warmth.
"Senpai… Would you mind getting up already?" Ayato suddenly heard a voice above his head. It was Yukina's voice, seeming to pout somehow.
"Sorry… Five more minutes." Feeling like he was watching a dream, Ayato's lips meekly made the request.
It'd be a waste to pull away from this tranquil warmth that seemed to envelop his head.
But… As Ayato heard a "Good grief" and a light sigh above his head, something pinched his cheek.
"Do not get carried away. This isn't the time or place to be doing this."
With an Ow," Ayato opened his eyes without thinking, realizing the unexpected existence of a girl at point-blank range looking down at him. "H-Himeragi?"
"Are you finally awake, Senpai? Making someone worry about you that much… You're really quite something." Yukina spoke in an uncommonly sarcastic tone.
Seeing her expression, Ayato remembered what had happened. He and Himeragi had encountered Eustach at the pharmaceutical company lab; then he'd sustained an attack from a battle-axe meant for Yukina.
A blow powerful enough to slice through his heart and smash his torso to bits. It wasn't a wound even a vampire could survive.
"I see… I died, didn't I?"
"Yes." Yukina bit her lip as if remembering what she'd seen at the time. And as her face seemed close to tears once more…
"A little while after you died, your wounds healed on their own… Even the blood spatter came back, as if time was rewinding itself…"
"So that's why I've been sleeping here for a while, huh?" Ayato asked while pressing on his right shoulder.
The shoulder, which ought to have been severed by the bardiche, was attached to his torso, which should have been torn to pieces, not even a flesh wound remaining on either of them.
Of course, his uniform shirt was still wrecked, but it was still wearable— as long as he didn't mind looking a bit like an anarchist.
As Kojou's fingers wandered, seemingly confirming the state of his wounds, Yukina glared bitterly.
"If you're going to come back to life, please say that before you die. How much do you think I worried about you…!" As Yukina spoke, she held Ayato's head and began beating it with her fist. As Ayato was about to object to the absurdity of that, he realized his head had been resting on her lap. Yukina had been here the whole time until Ayato revived. As Ayato looked up at Yukina's tear-filled eyes, he made an exasperated sigh.
"Sorry I made you worry, but I didn't know. So this is what that Cordeila was talking about."
"Cordelia? The prior Fourth Primogenitor said something about…?" As Ayato slowly rose up, Yukina watched blankly with wavering eyes.
"Yeah… She said, to the Primogenitors, immortality isn't a power, a curse."
"Curse?"
"Primogenitors don't die. Even if you impale their hearts or crush their heads, they still live on. To live alone for centuries or even millennia, even if you want to die… Yeah, you can't call that anything but a curse." Yukina watched silently while Ayato grumbled as if making a sigh.
Even though vampires were said to be ageless and undying, that did not mean they were completely invulnerable.
In particular, their brains, which controlled their magic power, and their hearts, which governed the circulation of their blood, were lethal vulnerabilities.
Even for the Elders, receiving severe damage to either meant certain death.
However, as the Fifth Primogenitor, Ayato's body was different.
Even his completely destroyed heart had regenerated; most of the blood he had lost had flowed right back into him.
But there would be no coming back if he managed to get himself turned to ash like vampires in legend.
"Even so, why did you shield me like that?! Curse or not, you had no proof you could come back for sure! What if you didn't come back to life?!" Yukina asked Kojou with a tone of genuine anger.
"Well, that's true, but I'm still glad."
"What are you glad for?!"
"Er, that you're all right." A curious expression came over Yukina as the words came casually out of Kojou's mouth. She had an expression like that of a broken doll, too anguished to either laugh or cry.
"…And…that makes you glad?" Yukina's lips weaved the words without emotion. Kojou tilted his neck a bit, seeming perplexed. "Eh?"
"You would have been better off not shielding me. Have you forgotten already? I came here to kill you, Senpai." Yukina murmured expressionlessly, seemingly without emotion. Kojou's eyebrows grimaced as if to say, The heck are you talking about? The aura Yukina gave off that moment was just like that of the girl called Astarte. Just like the sad homunculus girl, bound by the orders of her creator.
"What that Armed Apostle said is the truth. I'm a disposable tool. I realized it long before, but I just didn't want to admit it. My biological parents sold me for money; I was raised as a mere tool for fighting demons… That's why, even if I die, no one will be sad, but you're different, aren't you, Senpai…?"
"Himeragi…" Hanging her head in shame, Yukina turned away from Kojou, seemingly holding back tears. Kojou finally understood why Yukina had hesitated in the middle of the battle with Eustach. Only fourteen years of age, a Lion King Agency Sword Shaman bearing enough combat ability to overwhelm a Lotharingian Armed Apostle. Wielder of a demon-slaying spear, a combat expert raised solely to fight demonkind.
That was why, faced with Astarte, likewise constructed as a tool for combat, Yukina had seen that they were alike.
That was why Eustach's words had hurt Yukina so much—they'd hit too close to home.
That was the cause of her hesitation.
Kojou thought that maybe he had been the reason Yukina was so hard on herself.
In the several days since he'd met her, she'd continued to watch him the whole time, seeing him struggle to live as an hybrid Blazer being in spite of having obtained the power of the Fifth Primogenitor.
Yukina had abandoned a normal, everyday life to obtain her combat prowess.
And here was Kojou, who had been granted power mightier than anyone's, who'd chosen that banal, everyday life.
Perhaps to Yukina, Kojou's actions looked like a rejection of how she'd lived her life until now.
That's why she'd said it. That it should have been her who died, not Kojou…
"…" As Yukina remained motionless, still covering her face, Kojou gazed at her with a puzzled expression.
And he realized he was faintly indignant.
It wasn't that he didn't understand how Yukina felt, but her reasoning was messed up any way you looked at it.
It wasn't a good thing for her to be hurt instead of Kojou.
What the heck is she saying? he thought to himself.
However, right now it was probably difficult for Kojou to convince Yukina with mere words.
After all, in a manner of speaking, his very existence was causing her pain.
The sight of Yukina's curled back felt all too ephemeral, as if she'd disappear the moment he took her eyes off her.
She was like a little lost girl in tears.
That was irritating Kojou more and more. "Now, hold on here, Himera…gi!"
"Eh…?" As Yukina kept her back to him, Kojou tried to gently reach out and touch her shoulder.
However, sensation apparently hadn't returned in full to Ayato's barely regenerated flesh and blood.
As he tried to stand up, he lost his balance, falling right on top of Yukina.
Yukina's body went rigid at Kojou's completely unanticipated action. Pressing down on her as if embracing her tightly, the incident put Kojou in rigor as well.
Even so, Kojou couldn't abandon Yukina now, so he remained locked like this without moving.
"Um… What are you doing, Senpai?" After a while, Yukina asked him with a low voice that seemed angry.
Kojou replied with an intentionally pained-sounding voice.
"Er, it's aftereffects from when I almost died earlier, so…"
"You're lying, aren't you?"
"Er… Yeah." Without a word, Yukina, still held down, continued to glare at the silent Kojou.
For a while Kojou wondered how he could excuse himself, but he changed his mind midway.
In this situation, he thought it best to lift Yukina's spirits, even if it made her a little angry in the process.
And so, with Yukina's body still rigid, Kojou gently brought his face to her neck.
He took in a deep whiff of the scent of her hair.
The odd sensation from the nape of her neck made Yukina let out a yelp.
"You smell good, Himeragi." Kojou informed her of his thoughts with frightening bluntness. Yukina's shoulders trembled a little.
"Wh-what are you saying, all of a sudden?!"
"Your hair's so silky, too. It feels good."
"Please stop that! Wh-where are you touching?!
" "You're softer than I expected, Himeragi. And really light…" "S-Senpai! Th-that tickles, geez!"
"…You really do smell great."
"So you really are a pervert…!" With tears welling up at the edges of her eyes, Yukina made a yell devoid of strength. Kojou still had his lips right at Yukina's ear.
"Yeah, that's right. Pervert is fine. So don't go saying you should've died instead of a pervert like me."
"Th…that has nothing to do with it, does… Ah, aah!" As Yukina attempted her rebuttal, Kojou put his tongue against Yukina's neck and blew his breath onto her. Yukina's body twisted as if desperately trying to escape from within Kojou's arms, but her struggles were weakening.
"Besides, I don't at all get this thing of you being raised to be a tool, Himeragi."
"Eh?"
"I mean, you're so cute, Himeragi."
"Quit saying things like that right n… A!… St!" As Ayato gave the nape of Yukina's neck a long-winded lick, strength drained out of Yukina's entire body. Somewhere along the way, her white skin had developed a pinkish tinge.
"Yeah, maybe it wasn't your parents who raised you, Himeragi, but I can tell just by looking that the folks at High God Forest took really good care of you. I mean, you said yourself you had fun training to be a Sword Shaman, didn't you?"
"I get it… I get it already, Senpai… Please forgive me! I can't take any more of…!"
"R-right." As Yukina asked in a frail voice, Kojou's arms around her loosened a little. After all, if he'd let her go completely, he'd have fallen right on top of the exhausted girl.
"…" Breathing rather roughly, Yukina touched up her uniform without a word. Then, her eyes still moist from tears, she glared sharply at Kojou.
"This time I know for certain. You truly are an indecent person, Senpai."
"Er, no, I don't really think so. Besides, what you were doing there, Himeragi—"
"Hai? I did…what?"
"…Er, never…mind. Sorry, I got carried away."
"Well, reflect on it! Goodness…" Yukina made a violent sigh as she spoke.
Seeing that Yukina was somewhat noisy and rather resolute, and therefore back to her usual self, a smile spontaneously came over Ayato.
Seeing this, Yukina glared at Ayato with her eyes half-closed.
"And what are you grinning at?"
"Er, I was thinking you really are cute, Himeragi."
"…" Yukina silently poised Snowdrift Wolf at Ayato
On the floor the intruders had passed through, they saw a tragic scene.
More than sixty security personnel were laying all over the area, gravely wounded, the scent of their lost blood filling the air.
About ten of them could somehow move on their own power.
However, they no longer had any combat ability remaining; their hands were full from performing field medicine for their comrades.
The only unwounded person left was Asagi, gazing at the tragedy in a daze, half-absentmindedly. That was when Asagi's cell phone rang.
The facilities within the Gate had suffered severe damage from combat with the intruders, but somehow the cell phone relay station had emerged unscathed.
With a sluggish, robotic motion, Asagi checked the screen of the cell phone.
When she saw the name that was displayed, her eyes suddenly came back to life.
"—Ayato?!"
"Asagi…! I'm so glad! Are you all right?" She heard Ayato's voice via the cell phone.
For no real reason, that somehow brought tears of relief pouring out of Asagi.
Her voice rose shrilly, as if she'd plotted to vent her anger the entire time.
"Geez, what the hell…? I'm not all right at all! The Public Corporation got attacked, there's a lot of people hurt. I'm trapped in the rubble of a building… What's wrong with those people?!"
"You saw the people who attacked? A hard-ass old man in priest robes, right? A humanoid Beast Vassal, too."
"You know them?!" Asagi asked back, dumbfounded. At the same time, fierce concern advanced upon her.
Why would Ayato know what those who'd attacked Keystone Gate looked like unless he'd somehow come across them before Asagi had?
If that was the case— "Yeah. I almost died thanks to those two."
"Almost died…?! Ayato you…," Asagi simply exclaimed at Ayato's blunt confession. Normally he'd just make some banal joke to make light of it, not that she'd have believed a word of it, having seen the atrocity the intruders had committed with her own eyes. There was no doubt Ayato really had stared death in the eye.
Finally, without a word, she lightly spun the silver spear she held. The spear turned one and a half times—turning the spear tip toward her. And so, Yukina rested the blade on the part of her neck. Without a sound, she gently pulled the spear. A thin red line ran across Yukina's skin. Drops of blood finally began to emerge.
"Himeragi…wh-what are you doing?" Ayato was seized by shock as he watched Yukina's bizarre conduct. She seemed to have lost her mind, as if that austere expression she'd worn up until now was just a lie. Yukina's breathing was ragged as she looked back at him.
"Senpai. Please…drink my blood." Her voice conveyed quiet determination. Ayato stiffened completely. He couldn't understand why Yukina would say such a thing.
"Senpai, you said that…your Beast Vassals didn't recognize you as their lord because you have not yet drunk human blood, yes?"
"Y-yeah. I did say that, but…" "So please drink my blood, here and now."
"Hold on. It's just a hypothesis; there's no guarantee that just by my drinking blood they'll serve here and now…"
"If the possibility exists, that is enough."
"Why do I have to do a thing like that?… Even if the Beast Vassals won't serve me—"
"That is a problem, since I cannot stop Armed Apostle Eustach by my power alone."
Yukina spoke, interrupting Kojou's words midway. "Huh?"
"To defeat a Beast Vassal with magic-canceling ability on par with Snowdrift Wolf's, a stronger mass of magical energy is necessary—a Primogenitor-class Beast Vassal. Senpai, you're the only one who can stop them." Yukina's intensity, leaving no room for dissent, made Kojou recoil in spite of himself. "Er, but…I don't intend to fight the old man and the girl. That's for people who aren't us to think about, isn't—"
"You're lying."
"Yeah?" Ayato began an immediate rebuttal to Yukina's one-sided scolding, but his argument died on his lips. That was because Yukina's eyes were gently watching him as blood continued to flow from her neck.
"I don't have any doubt you really do want to stop them, for you have that power, Senpai… Deep down inside, even you want to use the power of the Fifth Primogenitor any way you like, don't you, Senpai?"
"No way. Since when have I wanted to do something as bothersome as that…?!"
"Senpai, if you want to protect the people of the island, please do as you like. If you can't bear the responsibility by yourself, I'll bear it with you."
"Huh…?" For some reason, Yukina smiled gently as Ayato stared at her.
"Of course I will. Have you forgotten? It's my duty to watch you, after all —" As she made her declaration with an unruffled expression, Ayato watched her for a while, dumbfounded.
Thrusting her spear into the ground, Yukina loosened the chest ribbon of her uniform.
Then she undid the buttons, exposing her breasts. In so doing, she exposed her white flesh, her slender collarbone, and, of course, her slender neck. And Yukina slowly stepped forward, as if posing for Ayato to admire.
As she looked down at Ayato, his vision was compelled toward the tidy underwear she wore and the modest bulge of her breasts. He let out a light yelp.
"H-Himeragi…?"
"Senpai, you said earlier that I'm cute, didn't you…"
"Y-yeah…I think I might have, but that and this are—"
"So please take responsibility and act accordingly."
"Wha…? Whaaa?!"
"Or…am I just not…good enough?" Yukina softly pressed her own breasts as she murmured in a timid voice. Ayato realized that her slender shoulders were trembling bit by bit.
Bashfulness…or rather, fright, he thought. Yukina was really afraid, too.
Afraid of offering her own blood to a vampire and afraid of exposing her flesh before Kojou like this— She was a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency.
A Counter-Demon Attack Mage dispatched solely for the purpose of watching Ayato—a Hybrid vampire who, originally, would have been merely a target for her to destroy.
And now it was as if she was offering up her own body to Ayato.
Surely this was more for Ayato's sake than for protecting the people of Itogami Island, so that Ayato would not someday regret his decision—his decision not to wield the power of the Fifth Primogenitor.
"S-Senpai?" Yukina called out in a voice of surprise as Ayato suddenly embraced her.
Kojou could feel faintly warm, pleasant scents coming from her slender, quivering body. The clean scent of her hair, and other sweet scents of her body.
And the smell of blood— His canines, no, his fangs ached.
Lust was the trigger for vampiric behavior.
Vampires only drank blood from targets they recognized as desirable.
Surely Yukina had seduced him with all her might in full knowledge of that.
But… She doesn't get it, Ayato thought.
"Ah, ow… Sen…pai…" Yukina didn't understand just how desirable she was.
She didn't understand at all just how hard it had been for Ayato to restrain his vampiric impulses around her.
Yukina closed her eyes intensely, enduring the pain.
Yukina's lips let out frail sighs.
Finally, embraced by Ayato's arms, all strength drained out of Yukina's body.
It was as if both of their shadows melted together under the peaceful crimson moonlight as Ayato starts to Drink Yukina's Blood.
His eyes beheld Ayato thrusting his right arm out, fresh blood spurting from it. "Ayato Hosokawa, successor to the bloodline of the 'Michaela Blood,' releases thee from thy bonds—!" That fresh blood transformed into glimmering lightning.
The light, heat, and shock wave of the lightning was incomparable to that which had come before.
This was the same Beast Vassal of the Fifth Primogenitor that had devastated the warehouse district.
But unlike before, the light did not burst indiscriminately in all directions; instead, its shape condensed, changing into that of a giant beast.
This was the Beast Vassal's proper form.
The true form of a Beast Vassal of the Fifth Primogenitor, completely within Ayato's grasp.
"C'mon, Beast Vassal Number Five, 'Regulus Altairyu'—!"
What had appeared was the Cryo Lightning Lion Dragon —a mass of magical energy in the form of raging cryo lightning, as huge as a main battle tank. Its entire body emanated a radiance that dazzled the eyes; its roar shook the air like Cryo thunder itself.
Ayato had inherited twelve Beast Vassals from the previous Fifth Primogenitor.
But, in the end, drinking Yukina's blood had only made this Beast Vassal of lightning recognize Ayato as its lord.
(The Next Few Days Later)
Ayato and Yukina Defeated Euchach and Astarte, then Ayato gave astarte to Natsuki to watch over her.
The male students bore expressions of envy and jealousy, but disgust came over the female students' faces like they were looking at a filthy criminal.
As Ayato felt their gazes prick his back, he unwittingly looked out the window.
Someone kill me, now.
So long as his flesh bore the curse of immortality, that was a prayer that would go unanswered.
However, he did not yet realize…
…That the daily travails of the World's mightiest Hybrid vampire, the Fifth Primogenitor, Ayato, had only just begun…
to be Continued
