Ren followed Principal Kawkobashi's massive bulk through the darkened halls of the school. His sword hand flexed and unflexed in an unconscious exercise. The target would be in here somewhere, he was sure of it. No vampire would be out in that horse arena, light shining through all those windows. The windows would need to be boarded up- which any fool could see they were not.
Still, it was an excellent way to get Niijima out from underfoot. The last thing Ren needed was a famous aristocrat getting herself killed. He would inevitably take the blame. Lose the contract. And be forced from the city, unpaid, while she would gain local martyrdom for the vampire kill.
Plus, the idea of a world without Niijima was undesirable to Ren. He didn't want her dead over some hobby she was currently romanticizing. Killing ferals and a single high-grade? Well, half killing… and that wasn't hunting. Not really.
But... it was interesting to watch her change her masks as she learned new things; confidence, to insecurity, to realization, to confidence again; and all of them were beautiful. Not that aesthetics had anything to do with anything, of course. It was because humanity needed people like her in the world. She was a rising star of the species, and it would be irresponsible to allow some exile noble to snuff her out.
Kobayakawa led Ren down a long hallway, their apparent destination was another set of stairs going to the third floor. The school structure was elaborately windowed, but each pane of glass was covered by multiple layers of lacey drapery- all of it apparently meticulously cared for and sheening white. The hallways stretched along these lightly billowing linens in dull shadow; the white fabric glowing with indirect daylight. Ren winced against it and put his spectacles back on.
The rotund Kobayakawa wheezed his way up the third-floor stairwell with Ren following silently behind. The school decor was curious. Was this a recent change? An attempt to limit the amount of sunlight inside the school?
"How long have the windows been thus?" asked Ren.
"Huh? Huhhhh…. The- the-? Huhhhh… hhhhhooooohhhhh…. huhhh.. The windows?" gasped Kobayakawa on the apex of the third floor. "They- hohhh... they'vealwaysbeenthatway… huuhhhh… a tradition of the school."
"I see."
So, not a new addition. And Ren didn't think a noble vampire could withstand the light, anyway. If it was this hard to his own eyes, it would kindle a noble in an instant.
"Mr. Hiruta's office is just down this hallway," said a recovering Kobayakawa.
"Has he been teaching his classes?"
"Of course!"
"Does he keep the classroom dark?"
"He teaches natural science. I know he keeps it dark when he brings the damn fruit bats in. He started that last month. The students bring candles to class and light them at their desks."
"I see," said Ren.
**Sounds like our man.**
For once, Ren agreed with Morgana. Kobayakawa halted his lumbering pace in front of a door. Mr. Hiruta's name was emblazoned in baroque lettering on the dark wood. As Principal Kobayakawa knocked, Ren edged back and looked under the door. It was dark. No lights were on in the room. No windows were open to daylight. What sort of human sat in a pitch black office in the middle of the morning? Ren's right hand drifted under his coat to the hilt of his longsword.
"Mr. Hiruta. Are you in there? I called an assembly."
Silence. Amamiya sniffed. Nothing vampiric, but that didn't mean anything with a noble. He called to Morganna:
Do you sense anything?
**Nothing.**
"Mr. Hiruta," said Principal Kobayakawa again as he knocked a second time. "I know you're in there! Why didn't you attend my assembly!"
"Oh! Uh! Mr. Kobayakawa!" said a nasally male voice from beyond the door. "I'm sorry. I'm a bit under the weather today…"
"Are you ill? Shall I call-"
Ill? Hell.
Ren stepped forward and pushed Principal Kobayakawa aside. The obesce man stumbled sideways and fell, shaking the floor. Ren had used too much strength on him, but it wasn't the time to worry about it. Mr. Hiruta was hiding in the dark and refusing to come out. That was almost confirmation enough. Ren raised his foot and kicked the office door in.
A squeal emanated from the darkness as the door flew open in a small burst of splinters from the frame. The tidy office was shrouded in shadow, two obviously massive windows were thoroughly curtained by thick drapes- blocking out almost all the daylight. Ren strode in, his eyes easily picking out a huddled humanoid form on a divan couch which rested between two small bookshelves. The person was enwrapped in light sheets.
"Who- who are you!" said the huddled form.
Ren strode towards the man, sword tip up. The dull metal incited a panicked scream of terror and the figure tried to scramble from the couch, but tangled as it was, it fell to the rug with a hard thump.
Ren paused, sword pointing at the cringing, sobbing figure. Doubt was now playing over his mind. This was exactly how Kobayakawa had reacted to Ren's blade. And that lard was no vampire. If this Hiruta was a disguised noble, he was deeply devoted to staying in character.
Any of Ren's other targets would have dropped the act and attacked by now. But perhaps this one was simply more subtle.? Well… subtlety was easy enough to end.
Ren strode for the window drapes and tugged at them savagely. The poles above the windows wrenched from the wall, showering plaster over the room as daylight suddenly blazed over the walls, white and harsh after the darkness.
"Ahh!" said the cringing figure and Ren saw a glimpse of red-rimmed eyes before a flailing arm of Mr. Hiruta desperately pulled the tangling sheets over his face to hide from the light. He was sensitive to the light!
… But he was not catching on fire! Was he a dhampir? A dhampir gone to the other side? Ren's sword hand tightened, he thought about striking now and ending the battle before it began- but-... He couldn't kill an innocent person by mistake. He needed to risk further confirmation.
Ren stepped forward and used his left arm to pull the cringing, wormish form of the sheet-wrapped teacher up to its feet. Then he shook the man as hard as he could.
"Arrghh! Stop! Stop! My head! God!"
The sheet fell from Mr Hiruta's face. Revealing a red-rimmed, blood-shot-eyed man with a sickly pallor. Ren sniffed lightly, and an overwhelming blast of stale gin-breath seared up his nose. He snorted and let Mr. Hiruta go. The teacher staggered but remained standing, holding his head and wincing against the light. This isn't the fucking vampire. It's just a hungover drunkard.
"Amamiya!" called a distant and frantic female voice from outside the window.
KOOM!KOOM!
Ren's head snapped towards the window he'd exposed. Down below him and across the campus yard, Makoto was pointing her gun towards the entrance of the equine arena.
She'd found the target. No question. But the windows! How? Fuck! An illusion! An illusion or windows, or an illusion of unblocked windows. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! How stupid could he be? Forgetting the fucking basics!
Ren didn't have time to head back through the school. He raised his left hand, palm outward towards the office window.
"Amamiya damnit!" came Niijima's voice again.
Morgana! The window!
**Zorro! Garu!**
Wind burst from Ren's palm, pushing his arm back. He held firm against the expected blast, but the window exploded outward in shards of glass and wood. Ren leaped out after the debris. One gloved hand holding his hat firm against the brightest part of the morning sky.
Makoto wavered before the silent blackness that was now the interior of the horse arena. What was the creature doing in there? Was he eating the Sakamotos? Was he escaping? Was he just watching her? Waiting for her to go in after him, too? Should she?! She was a vampire hunter, right? If anyone was supposed to step forward in these situations, it was her!
But- God! Into the pitch black? Darkness even a flare couldn't illuminate? That sure seemed a damn stupid thing to do. What would be the point? Go in. Be blind. Get killed?! That might be what just happened to Sakamoto Ryuji. But at least he tried! And what am I doing? Pointing my gun at a doorway and pissing my pants!?
Go in, coward!
No! It's stupid!
Help. She needed help. They all did. Makoto forced her jaw to open. "Amamiya damnit!"
Almost as a response, a loud whooshing, snapping, shattering sound came from her right side. She turned her head to see Amamiya falling from one of the school windows amidst a cloud of sparkling glass shards. He landed in a crouch, gloved hand on hat, then Amamiya's grey eyes focused on her as he exited the crouch into a sprint towards her. Quickly eating up the distance.
"He's in there! Kamoshida's it!" said Makoto frantically as Amamiya came to a skidding halt in the dirt next to her, his eyes immediately on the doorway to the horse arena. "He has Ann. Unconscious or something. Ryuji is in there, too, and I think he's badly hurt. He ran into the dark, but my flares don't work!"
"That's not dark. It's a blanket," said Amamiya. "Only a fool would run into that."
Makoto felt a small twinge of relief. It wasn't cowardice keeping her out here! She'd been right not to go in! But that didn't help Ann or Ryuji! Her mouth opened to ask Amamiya what they should do, but he raised his left hand, palm outward towards the dark interior of the equine arena. He was going to employ the cat-hand? What could it do?
At first, it seemed to do nothing. Amamiya stood there quietly, palm towards the arena. But then Makoto noticed that a long string of the darkness was threading its way out of the doorway towards Amamiya's palm. Then more strands of darkness followed the first, and then thicker strands of darkness started flowing. Soon it was like the black soup which filled the arena was being sucked into some insatiable drain in Amamiya's palm. A new sound emerged, a repetitive thumping and creaking, getting steadily louder. What was that?
In a final, hissing slurp- the black string was gone, revealing a sawdust-floored horse arena bathed in the normal light of day. And a four-horsed black coach charging directly at them. Makoto had time to realize that sound she'd just heard was hoof beats, then she flung herself to the side to avoid being trampled by the stampeding coach.
Ren crouched lightly as the coach thundered down upon him. Sun-tight coach. Interior reins. Semi-autonomous navigation via the four mechanical horses. The go-to vehicle for a vampire with somewhere to go during the day, and wanted to hibernate while doing it. These common vehicles were metal, and not counting the horses and wheels, almost entirely free of moving parts. They were annoyingly easy to find in the wilderness, rusty but serviceable to both mechanical and living horses. It seemed like every exile with a brain found one of these things first thing after landfall. But four mechanical horses? That was uncommon extravagance.
But these coaches were also heavy and relatively slow. They couldn't handle wet terrain- and a hunter slayer on a single horse would always be faster. But no need to chase when one could just hitch a ride…
Ren leaped easily into the air, the horses thundering over where he'd just been standing. He landed lightly on the shafts connecting the animals to the coach. Startled screams erupted as surprised students fled the path of the careening team. Ren glanced to see the school gate and narrow alleyway coming up behind him. He crouched and held tightly to the horse tack as the team shot through the gap, metallic hooves sliding on the cobblestones as they turned tighter than any living horse would attempt. The trailing coach slammed into school gateway. Stone debis exploded into the air, but the metal rear wheel was unaffected.
The coach accelerated down the alleyway, mercifully free of pedestrians. Amamiya took advantage of the brief straightway to move to the shafts of the inner pair of horses. Meanwhile, a lithe figure in spiked armor climbed on top of the school wall just after the coach passed. Niijima. She didn't give up, that's for sure. He saw her leap to the alleyway cobbles as the coach took the next sharp turn onto the main street and then buildings cut her and the school off from view.
Louder screams erupted as the coach careened into morning traffic. Organic horses shied away, a few bucking their riders. A cart of fruits and vegetables disintegrated as the skidding metal bulk slammed into it. Then they were off on the straightaway of the main street, allowing Ren the stability to hop lightly to the coach itself.
Wait. This was the street his horse was on. He looked left just as the alleyway passed and spotted his own horse, standing idly next to Niijima's motorcycle- still attached to that fucking school cart. Well, there was no helping it now.
"Sequor!" Ren yelled.
The horse started moving towards him, but then he lost sight of it as the alleyway fell behind Kamoshida's rampaging escape coach. It would do its best to follow him, but the cart would slow it down- assuming that damnable thing didn't get stuck on something.
The coach skidded into another turn. Ren snagged the edge to hold his balance. They'd just turned onto a west-bound avenue. Where was Kamoshida going? The nearest gate was south of here. Well, in the city, outside the city, it didn't matter to Ren. He just needed to get this damn tank open.
The flat top of the coach was for luggage, mostly, but the one vulnerability in the otherwise solid frame was where the doors met with the main body. Ren scooted himself over to that part of the roof, holding the luggage bars to keep him steady as the coach careened left and right down the city streets, avoiding some obstacles- plowing through others. Ren found the door joint, lifted his left fist, and slammed it down atop the metal surface. Bone cracked. Ren gasped against the agony of a shattered wrist. The metal showed a very slight dent.
A hammer. I need to bring a fucking hammer, Ren said to himself as he waited for his wrist to heal. In a few moments, the pain vanished. He clenched his left hand experimentally, then raised it, and slammed the coach again.
Crrrunch. Ren gasped again and waiting for the pain to recede once more.
Fuck me. Hammer. Bring a hammer next time. Or maybe something like Niijima's gauntlets. Those things looked pretty firm.
The coach turned again. Ren looked around them. It was a part of the city he was unfamiliar with; Smaller buildings; A bit rundown; Less traffic and more wide-eyed loiterers and morning drunks. Where was Kamoshida going? Was he even trying to get out of Tock-Yo? It didn't matter. The longer the ride, the better. All Ren needed to do was open this door and let the light in.
Ren lost his balance and leaned forward slightly. He looked ahead of the coach's path. It was angled downward as the street sank into a decline. A dark tunnel loomed around him, encompassing Ren and the rambling coach in artificially smooth stone walls. Daylight faded, and the far entrance was but a speck in the distance. It was a ruin: some ancient construction of the old imperial city that Tock-Yo must have been built over.
The underground dark was the only place a harried traveler could safely exit and remove a stowaway like Ren. The coach came to a sudden stop, then Ren stepped back from the coach door frame and drew his sword. The door opened.
Kamoshida's hand shot out as he leapt from the interior of the coach, swinging easily up and over onto the roof, his own longsword ready for battle. Ren froze. His heart skipped as he saw the murderous look on his cousin's face. A look that abruptly turned to one of wide-eyed surprise.
"Kurusu Akira?" said Kamoshida.
"Bathory Suguru?" said Ren.
Ren's mind whirled with forgotten childhood memories of this man visiting Ren's home during the summer. Suguru always accompanied his mother when she visited: Ren's aunt, Countess Camilla Bathory. Back then, Ren was twelve years old. Meanwhile, Suguru had likely been closer to twelve-hundred. More an uncle than a cousin, really.
Brief flashes of nostalgic visions crossed Ren's inner eye. Nightly hikes to the small river to swim. Dirty jokes and pranks on local women (human and noble.) All the fun things a young boy could enjoy with an immature older male relative.
Kamoshida lowered his sword, but he didn't sheath it. "Small world. I'd heard you went hunting exiles."
Ren lowered his sword slowly. "... I heard you were exiled for poaching serfs."
The man humans called Kamoshida laughed bitterly. "You know my mother. Insatiable. But I'd rather get tossed off Shikoku for a few hundred years than deny one of her requests."
"Your mother is dead, Suguru."
"Yeah, but you know how she is. She's not letting that stop her." Kamoshida smiled disarmingly. "I'm glad its you- I wasn't looking forward to a fight with a slayer. Not with the cargo I have. You should see this girl I got, Akira! She's going to be delicious. I'm willing to share."
Ren kept his face carefully neutral as his mind recalled an image of Sakamoto Ann. She seemed like the type who would be uniquely delicious, though Ren had no frame of reference for what that flavor might be. Apparently, blood capsules and corpse blood didn't come close to the real thing, or so Ren understood from others.
"No, thanks," said Ren, keeping his voice light. "Her brother?"
Kamoshida shrugged. "Just a snack till I can savor the girl. I broke his leg, so he'd have to be put down anyway."
Suguru never did pay attention to the serfs. Ren accidentally let some exasperation into his voice as he said: "Humans can recover from broken bones, Suguru. They're not horses."
"Oh? Really? Well… you learn something new every day," Kamoshida laughed again. Then he sighed, his smile fading slightly. "This was a surprising meeting, Akira, but I need to get going. Sorry I ruined this contract for you, but I'll pay you back someday, okay?"
He was expecting Ren to let him go. Well… he was family. Sort of. But he was also a monster feeding on innocent young human women. Did a few fond memories forgive that? Was that enough to doom the Sakamotos to being drained alive? For a cousin… and at that a deadbeat cousin only a pre-teen boy could love? Ren was not that boy anymore. His hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. This cousin was the personification of everything wrong with his mother's people. Family or no- an exile was an exile. A beast was a beast.
Ren realized he should take the opportunity to strike now while Suguru wasn't ready for it. But then, just as Ren made the decision to kill his cousin, he realized he'd hesitated too long. The mask of cousin Suguru was already melting away, and the creature who chose the name Kamoshida was standing before Ren now. His smile just barely twisted enough to no longer be friendly. Virulent energy abruptly surged between them as they both realized the other would have to die.
Ren lunged. Kamoshida's sword flicked into defense. The blades clanged and then ground into each other as both men leaned forward and reached for their belts with their other hands. Kamoshida flashed out a knife, blade streaking for Ren's eyes. Meanwhile, Ren pulled the trigger on his new acquisition.
POP!POP!POP!POP!POP!
Kamoshida's dagger arm faltered as his torso jerked from the close-range pistol shots. The strength in his right arm faltered, so Ren surged forward against their grinding swords and pushed Kamoshida down to the roof of the coach. Then he stepped back and aimed at Kamoshida's head.
POP! POP!
Blood and white bone splattered across the coach roof as Kamoshida's upper jaw collapsed inward. Damnit! Too low again! Anticipating the jump of the crossbow bolt was built into his muscle memory, he was aiming too low! No matter. It was enough. Ren swung his sword arm, aiming for the neck.
"Pabilsag," slurred Kamoshida's broken mouth. A monstrous scorpion tail shot out from his back.
It moved faster than Ren could follow and embedded its stinger into Ren's descending wrist.
"Gah!"
Ren's sword tumbled from his grasp, his wrist suddenly not following commands. The blade hit the coach roof and tumbled to the concrete below. Then the stinger jerked out of Ren's arm and plunged into Ren's chest, driving the air from his lungs in a surprised gasp. Ren's mouth yelled silently in agony.
**Persona! He's got a persona, Ren!**
Obviously!
Ren struggled to recatch his breath, but he wasn't getting much air with the stinger digging into his lung. He grabbed at the impaling tail, trying to get a grip on the hard red carapace, but his right hand was numb and useless.
Kamoshida was pulling himself to his feet- his eyes burning with rage while his mouth knitted itself back together. The tail pressed harder into Ren's chest. Ren started to feel a bit woozy. It was injecting him with something.
"Think you can really kill me!? I was already old the day you came out your mother's serf-fucking cunt!"
Ren raised his left hand again, aimed the pistol, and emptied the rest of the clip into Kamoshida's head. Bone shards and grey slime erupted into the air and Kamoshida's expression of rage transformed into meaty ruin. The gun clicked empty as Kamoshida's torso fell limp against the ground.
The dead weight of the giant scorpion tail brought Ren to his knees as he pulled uselessly at the thing. Every effort to get it out brought fresh pain searing through his chest. His body was healing around it, then the new flesh was tearing with every effort to get the fucking thing out.
Never mind. He needed to finish Kamoshida off, then deal with the tail. But his sword was on the ground below them... Though Kamoshida's sword was still in the man's limp hand. It was out of reach. Ren leaned for it, but the stiff mass of the impaling limb in Ren's chest pushed back against him. He couldn't reach Kamoshida's sword, and his own was farther away than that. Kamoshida's head was already regenerating. Ren's small window of opportunity to decapitate the noble was rapidly closing.
Fuck! Morgana! Can you suck the sword to me?
**No! Nothing material! You know that!**
Fuck!
**Get your knife out!**
Oh! Right!
Ren drew his sword breaker and stabbed at Kamoshida's tail. The tip bounced off the hard exoskeleton. The force on the limb pushed the stinger around inside his chest, sending new agony through his mind.
Fuck! Calm down! Not the shell. The joints!
Ren jabbed the blade into the soft spot between the carapace segmentation. The metal bit in there and moved the stinger again, but Ren was ready for it, and there was no helping it. At least he was getting somewhere. Ren stabbed again, sinking the knife in further. The tail twitched slightly. Ren looked at Kamoshida. The man's fingers were twitching, too. Ren was almost out of time. He tried slicing the joint. Not much progress. He turned the blade over and tried using the serrated sword-catcher side. A bit better progress.
"Stuck like yakitori, are you?" laughed a gargling voice.
Ren felt life return to the tail and it pushed upward, the stinger poking and slicing his insides all over again. He grunted in pain and was forced to stand up as the tail lifted him, then he used his arms to hang on to it as it lifted him off his feet. It wasn't enough, he could feel the stinger slowly slicing him through as gravity pulled his body. Ren continued to tug at it, but it just wouldn't let him go.
All the while, Kamoshida was getting to his feet, sword in hand, skull steadily reshaping itself. The first of his eyes slowly regained its form as Ren looked. That eye immediately focused on him. The sword arm cocked back, now with a target in sight.
"You fucking hafu..."
Ren brought up his left palm. It was all he had left.
Morgana!
**Zorro! Garu!**
Kamoshida staggered back under the wind gust. The opposite force pushed at Ren's stiff left arm, propelling him backward. He screamed as the stinger wrenched free of his body. Then his heels hit the coach roof, his upper body still traveling backward, and he fell from the coach. The top of his shoulders slammed into the broken gravel of the tunnel road. His neck twisted painfully as his lower body tumbled over him and he flopped into a gasping tangle of coat and limbs.
Knowing his attacker would be on him immediately, Ren frantically rolled onto his back so he could see the attack coming. Kamoshida was staring down at him, teeth bared, scorpion tail up and raised over his right shoulder. Ren had to avoid that thing. Morgana's wind trick wouldn't work a second time.
Then a roaring noise interrupted the tense silence. Kamoshida looked up and away from Ren, looking at something down the tunnel. He grimaced and then turned and vanished from Ren's sight along the coach roof. Ren rolled and spotted his sword laying nearby. He scrambled over to it as he heard the coach door shut. The mechanical horses jerked into motion. Ren snatched up his blade and stood as the coach began moving away from him.
He stepped forward to grab it. But he teetered slightly, his vision going blurry. He took a step, lost his balance, staggered into the tunnel wall. The coach moved out of his reach. Fuck. Ren's legs gave out and he slumped to the ground again.
Morgana, he poisoned me.
**Obviously! I've been holding it back as long as I could. Give me some time to clean this stuff out!**
We don't have time!
**I'm doing the best that I can! Your horse needs to catch up anyway.**
Ren sighed in frustration. That much was true. Where was that thing? And also: what was that roaring sound?
He looked back down the tunnel. It was a flickering lamp approaching at high speed. A motorcycle. A motorcycle carrying a human woman.
Well, fuck me. It's her.
Ren winced against the headlamp as the roaring machine drew close. The roar mellowed. Tires locked and skidded along gravel. Niijima was stopping to check on him. No… don't stop. The coach! There was still hope!
"No! Don't stop. Go! Go after him!" Ren waved with his arm, indicating for Niijima to go past. "Don't lose him. I'll catch up! I can follow the tires! Wait for me!"
Niijima stopped her bike next to him, crimson eyes flashing under her armored mask.
"Just get on!"
She scrunched forward on her cycle, revealing a portion of seat for Ren to sit on.
Oh… that was a much better idea. Ren staggered to his feet, his legs not quite obeying his commands.
"What happened?"
"Poisoned. He has a scorpion tail."
"What?!"
Ren decided that was a rhetorical question. He lifted his leg, couldn't quite get it high enough, and fell into Niijima's back as he settled onto the seat. He thudded against her leather armor, her stance surprisingly firm. She barely budged under his abrupt weight.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'll get through the poison. Just need some time."
"All right. Hold on!"
She accelerated abruptly. The force surprising Ren. His arms clenched around her waist, but his grip was weak. He felt himself falling backwards, his greater height dragging his hands upwards and back with him. His hands slipped up Niijima's leather tunic, fingers weakly clenching for purchase, trying to resist the forces pulling him back and off the motorcycle. He gripped her utility belt, lost it, his hand sliding to her lowest rib, he gripped but his fingers failed him, he slipped backward again, the rear fender pressing into the small of his back. Then his hands finally found purchase on the mound of armor over her breasts.
Niijima's right arm shot up, snagged Ren's forearm and yanked his arm back down. The force of the yank pulled his chest down and firmly against Niijima's back, his other hand falling limp to her waist. Ren felt his center of gravity settle onto the seat. He was no longer in danger of falling off the back.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Niijima's voice was shrill over the roar of the motor.
"Falling! My limbs are weak! I can't grip!"
"Oh!"
She kept a firm grip on his arm with her right hand and held onto the handlebars with her left. The motorcycle continued at pace, however. Did she have another throttle somewhere? She must have. It didn't matter. They were traveling quickly now. The coach was far ahead, but it was just passing back into the sunlight. They weren't far behind!