Strike the Blood - Volume 19 - Chapter 3.5

5

Kojou was still scared stiff in his room at the love hotel.

Standing in front of him was Kensei Kanase, the former Court Sorcerous Engineer of Aldegia and Kanon’s adoptive father.

Kojou and Kanon were in bathrobes, stiffly sitting side by side on the same bed. Awkward didn’t even begin to cover what they were feeling. It was a dangerous situation. If this man slugged Kojou in the face, Kojou wouldn’t blame him.

After a few more tense moments, Kojou asked in a weak voice, “Why is…Kanase’s old man here…?”

Kensei, a well-respected sorcerous engineer, used spatial control magic. Appearing suddenly was not out of the norm for him—but why now of all times?

Kensei slowly surveyed the area before taking a step toward Kojou and his daughter.

“Wait. You have it all wrong!” Kojou hastily insisted, overwhelmed by the intimidating aura of Kensei’s presence. “Me and Kanase were just washing our clothes! We haven’t done a single indecent thing!”

Given the situation, Kojou could not hope to avoid the man’s ire, but he couldn’t take being scolded by Kanon’s adoptive father for something he hadn’t even done.

Plus, I’ve gotta resolve the misunderstanding for the sake of Kanon’s honor, he thought.

Kensei blatantly ignored Kojou as he addressed the black cat on Kanon’s lap. “My apologies. Setting the coordinates for teleportation was more trouble than I expected. Truly, I cannot emulate the Witch of the Void.”

The black cat yawned a little while grooming her face. “I don’t mind. Thanks to that, I was able to have a nice, long chat with these children.”

In the end, Kensei was there only because Yukari had summoned him. They were acquaintances of a sort.

Kojou looked up at Kensei, whose demeanor was unchanged. “You’re not…upset?” Kojou asked.

Kensei nodded somberly. “Whatever she may seem, Kanon is a very levelheaded girl. She has surrendered herself to you because she trusts you. There is nothing for me to say at this late juncture.”

“Wait. Like I said, she’s not doing anything like that. We’re just waiting for our clothes to dry.”

“But I do demand that you take responsibility as a man, Fourth Primogenitor.”

“You’re kidding, right?!” Kojou clutched his head as he wailed.

Suddenly, a light digital tone coursed into the room. It was coming from the washer and dryer machine placed in the corner of the bathroom.

Oblivious to the current mood, Kanon went to get the laundry. “It seems the clothes have just finished drying.”

A sense of fatigue washed over Kojou. He turned to Kensei. “So what are you doing here anyway? I thought you were in the custody of the Gigafloat Management Corporation.”

“That Gigafloat Management Corporation is all but annihilated. There is no reason for me to remain captive, is there?”

“Is that, um, okay?” Kojou blurted out. Doesn’t that make you a fugitive?

“As far as public records are concerned, Kensei Kanase is not a criminal, you see,” Yukari said through the cat, grinning as much as a feline can. “In this situation, they no doubt allowed him to walk right out. His circumstances are different from a demon prison escapee or other sorcerous criminals.”

Kojou felt uneasy. “The way you said that makes it sound like there are actual sorcerous criminals who escaped from prison…”

“Inmates no doubt form some percentage of the ruler candidates. Otherwise, public order would not have crumbled in the span of two days, no?”

“I was thinking it was weird that guys like the Rogues Alliance just crawled out of the woodwork. So that’s what it is…” Kojou clicked his tongue in annoyance. As he did, Kanon came back beside him carrying the dry clothes she had meticulously folded.

When she began to change her clothes beside him, Kojou hastily shooed her to behind the partition, then continued his questions with a weary voice.

“But the really bad ones are under Natsuki’s management, so I guess we don’t have to worry about that, right?”

For some reason, the vibe inside the room abruptly changed. The gloominess of Kensei’s expression deepened, and the black cat looked away from Kojou.

“What? What’s with the silence…? Hey, Professor Kitty?”

When Yukari sank into silence and started behaving like a normal cat, Kojou scooped up the cat to try to pry out an answer. Even so, he was met with silence.

Kanon broke that quiet space when she returned from changing. “I am sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Then let us be off.” Kensei Kanase seemed outright delighted.

Kojou glanced between his expression and that of the black cat. “Go? Go where? And what about the hotel fees?”

“I’ll have it put on the Lion King Agency’s tab for today. Yukina can pay for it later.”

“Like hell you will!” Kojou shouted in a shrill voice, despite knowing Yukari had said that only to make him angry.

He thought that if he didn’t hammer in the nail then and there, the black cat would genuinely order Yukina to settle the tab.

During that silly exchange between Kojou and Yukari, Kensei began preparing the magic circle. Teleportation was high-level magic, so even Kensei couldn’t use it without preparation. The only ones able to go without were a tiny portion of powerful witches, one of whom was Natsuki.

“Grab ahold of me, Kanon. You too, Fourth Primogenitor,” Kensei instructed.

Kanon took hold of his extended hand, and then Kensei used his other open hand to grasp Kojou’s.

Next, Kensei chanted a complex incantation to activate the spell. Kojou and Kanon felt dizzy as their vision distorted. They were struck by a momentary sense of being freed from the power of gravity. By the time that sense abated, Kojou and the others were inside an unfamiliar building. It was an unadorned, windowless underground room.

A large quantity of documents, computers, and magical experimentation devices were arranged within.

Kojou’s eyes swept the room. “Is this…your lab?”

“This is Itogami Island Sorcery Lab Number Six. It is a sorcerous research facility assigned the highest level of secrecy because it deals with forbidden classes of magic. It is also one of the few Gigafloat Management Corporation–related facilities that has survived beyond the start of the current war.”

Kensei showed the building’s location on a map via a nearby monitor.

The lab was on the lowest underground strata of Island North and close to a prison. Because it was in an isolated environment, it was spared from the fighting. The Island Guard unit protecting it seemed to have survived unscathed as well.

“This building’s water and electricity are supplied through an independent system separate from that of Itogami Island proper. It has sufficient stores of food as well, and we have a mutual nonaggression pact with the ruler candidates of the bordering domains. It is safe for the time being.”

“For now… Well, I’m pretty glad you’re safe and sound, though.” Kojou shot Kensei a suspicious look. Surely Kensei hadn’t used teleportation for the mere purpose of providing safe shelter.

Standing beside Kojou, Kanon suddenly raised a voice of delight. “Abbess!”

Sitting on top of a worn-out sofa in the lab was a beautiful oriental doll not even thirty centimeters tall. The doll lifted her face in response to Kanon’s call. Then, it opened its mouth with an oddly haughty demeanor.

“Ohh, Kanon. You must be tired from your long journey. Are you tired from the time difference?”

“That’s not the first thing you should be worried about, sheesh…” Kojou sighed.

The doll was actually Nina Adelard, the Great Alchemist of Yore—at least, what was left of her.

Due to a certain incident, she had lost most of her physical body, reduced to the size of a small animal, and Kanon had taken care of her ever since. However, her haughty demeanor had remained. Perhaps that was impressive.

“Why is Nina together with Kanase’s dad?” Kojou asked, his wariness growing even more.

“I called her over,” Yukari answered. “After all, alchemists know the most about repairing a homunculus. As they say, sense comes with age.”

Nina’s cheek twinged as if something had snapped inside her. “You are the last person I wish to treat me as an old woman, O elven elder. I have barely managed to reach two hundred years of age.”

The black cat’s ears twitched. “Aren’t you leaving out a good seventy more? I wasn’t even alive when you had your two hundredth birthday.”

“What an obvious lie, far too sore for the eyes. Were you not the one to pass agriculture and rice farming down to Japan?”

“I don’t recall even elves living that long!”

“Can you fight about your ages later?” Kojou interrupted, exasperated. “More importantly, what’s this homunculus repair business?”

Before Yukari could answer Kojou’s question, Kanon let out a gasp.

“Akatsuki…”

“Huh?”

Following her unnerved gaze, Kojou squinted at the back of the lab.

On the other side of a glass wall inside a dimly lit chamber rested a clear, cylindrical tank resembling an aquarium for tropical fish. The interior of the cylinder was filled with blue fluid, and something was floating within.

That something was a small girl.

Inside the water, her long indigo hair floated like seaweed. Her delicate white skin dazzled the eyes.

Aside from the tube supplying her with oxygen, the girl wore nothing on her body. In place of clothes, her skin was covered in bandages. Her slender torso was immobilized with a cast, and the liquid inside the vat was contaminated with blood droplets seeping through.

“Astarte…”

Kojou called out the girl’s name. Floating inside the vat was a homunculus girl Kojou knew well. Astarte, Natsuki Minamiya’s assistant, was asleep after sustaining grave injuries.

“What’s the meaning of this?! What happened to Astarte…?!”

“The Order of the End happened,” the cat said as Kojou closed the distance.

“What…?!”

“This girl fell into peril while supporting the Island Guard on the night the Order of the End assaulted Keystone Gate…along with Natsuki Minamiya.”

“Her Beast Vassal…? Didn’t Astarte use her Beast Vassal?” Kojou pressed, bewildered.

Astarte was the world’s one and only experimental artificial life-form Beast Vassal symbiote. Even though she was a homunculus, she could summon a Beast Vassal.

Her artificial Beast Vassal, Rhododactylos, was a powerhouse in defensive measures; not even Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor could defeat it with ease. He didn’t think the Order of the End could easily hurt her if she’d had her Beast Vassal summoned at the time.

However, Nina coldly shook her head. “The Order of the End’s attack cut the Beast Vassal and Astarte both.”

“It cut them?”

“Indeed. Astarte was injured by a slash from a sharp bladed weapon.”

For a moment, Kojou was so surprised that he forgot all about his anger.

Since Beast Vassals were dense masses of demonic energy, simple physical attacks were virtually worthless against them. Bullets or even cannon shells were probably meaningless. For a mere bladed weapon to penetrate a Beast Vassal and harm its host was virtually impossible. It sounded like nothing short of a bad joke.

“Why are you surprised? Do you not have someone who bears a similar weapon very close to you?” Nina inquired.

“What…?”

Of course Kojou knew that weapon’s name. He’d borrowed the strength of its wielder to defeat Astarte’s Beast Vassal in the past.

“The Schneewaltzers of the Lion King Agency and Rosen Chevalier Plus,” Kensei said. “The principles differ, but these weapons can slice a Beast Vassal apart. After all, they are divine armaments crafted for that very purpose.”

A Schneewaltzer, a weapon of the Sword Shamans of the Lion King Agency, could nullify a Beast Vassal’s demonic energy, while Rosen Cavalier Plus could slice through space itself.

“And there is another, a weapon one might call the mortal foe of the artificial Beast Vassal Rhododactylos. That would be the demon sword of Gisella—Hauras.”

Kojou blinked, staring hard at Kensei. “Did you say…Hauras?”

The current bearer of that weapon was Shizuri Kasugaya. It was utterly impossible for someone with such a stifling, overwhelming sense of justice to harm Astarte. Kojou knew that for a fact, and he was enraged by the assertion that her weapon had hurt someone.

However, the gloomy sorcerous engineer remained calm. “Because it can seize the demonic energy of the opponent it slices and transform this into might for itself, Hauras—or a demonic blade on par with Hauras—can slice Rhododactylos apart. After all, this would mean using Rhododactylos’s own demonic energy against it. That is the truth behind the attack that harmed the homunculus.”

“A demonic blade on par with… I get it… So the Order of the End must have a Hauras of its own…!”

Kojou’s fist trembled. He finally understood the reason why Kensei Kanase had brought him there.

This was a warning. The enemy had a weapon that could slice Rhododactylos apart. There was no guarantee a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor wouldn’t meet the same fate. That’s what they were warning Kojou about. He couldn’t afford to underestimate the Order of the End.

“Can you save Astarte?” Kojou asked.

Nina laughed with a haughty expression. “Who do you think I am? In the name of Nina Adelard, the Great Alchemist of Yore, I shall save this girl without fail.”

“Please.”

“Leave it to me. And while I’m at it, maybe I’ll increase her bust size, too.”

“Uhhh… Maybe show a little restraint. Okay?” Kojou smiled at Nina’s casual words. Kanon smiled a little, too.

Looking up at Astarte as she floated in the vat, the black cat let out a weary sigh. “By the time I arrived at Keystone Gate, this girl was giving first aid to the wounded Attack Mages despite being gravely wounded and on the brink of death herself. If not for her, Koyomi would have passed away long ago.”

“That’s the kind of girl she is,” Kojou said. “She’s not cut out for combat in the first place. Even Natsuki knows that, which is why she brought her to our school, to give her as normal a life as possi—”

Kojou’s movements came to an abrupt halt.

He was so unnerved that blood seemed to drain from his entire body. His throat trembled. He couldn’t breathe properly. He cursed his own foolishness for not having noticed such an important thing until that very moment.

“Natsuki…?! What the hell is Natsuki doing?! How could she leave Astarte to go through something like—?”

“Natsuki Minamiya seems to have been consumed,” Yukari said, bereft of emotion.

Kojou was dumbstruck. “What do you mean…consumed?”

“Astarte witnessed the tentacle wielder of the Order of the End taking Natsuki Minamiya into her own body. Her status is unknown.”

“But Natsuki’s…”

“Yes. The Witch of the Void’s true body exists within the other-space created within her own dream. So long as she remains asleep, no one can hurt Natsuki Minamiya in a true sense.”

“Then—!”

Kojou attempted to cling to a sliver of hope, but one cold glare from the black cat stopped him in his tracks.

“However, if the enemy has a spatial magic user even greater than the Witch of the Void, that is another story. Perhaps they are able to use her alter ego in the real world as a ‘key’ with which to invade the Prison Barrier.”

“What would the Order of the End want with the Prison Barrier after all this…?”

“If we knew that, things would be simpler.”

“But if we use this well, we might have a lead for ascertaining their true natures.”

“…A lead?”

“Why do they have someone who wields a demonic blade on par with Hauras? Why do they seek to invade the Prison Barrier? If we learn these reasons, we might be able to determine the Order of the End’s objective.”

“Wow. Not convoluted at all,” Kojou replied with all the sarcasm he could muster.

The black cat seemed to crack a strained smile. “That is how troublesome this opponent is. You understand that as well, do you not?”

“…How do we look into this stuff?”

“We’ll take over that part. Information gathering and analysis is the foundation of terrorism countermeasures. This is the Lion King Agency’s area of expertise.”

Since they couldn’t get government permission, Yukari couldn’t request reinforcements from Lion King Agency headquarters, but she could indirectly cooperate through the sharing of information.

It wasn’t a bad proposal by any means. With networks unusable on Itogami Island, it was leaps and bounds more advantageous for them to gather information from the Japanese mainland.

“Got it. Please gather information about The Blood.”

“The Blood…?” The black cat made a dubious wiggle of its whiskers.

Kojou nodded with a bitter expression. “He uses the same Beast Vassals as I do. That has to be a lead.”

“A vampire controlling the same Beast Vassals as the Fourth Primogenitor while claiming to be him? That is a deeply intriguing tale indeed.”

“Save your intrigue for some other time.”

“That certainly constitutes a considerable hint. Very well. We’ll gather what information we can.” The black cat made a leering grin.

“Yeah, I’ll count on you for that part.”

The Order of the End had kept throwing him for a loop, and he didn’t know why. Now, though, he’d finally grabbed ahold of a thread that might allow him to strike back. These were slender hopes, but it was a lot better than having none at all.

“So, Fourth Primogenitor lad, what do you intend to do from this point forward?” Yukari tested him.

“Good question.” Kojou hesitated for a little while.

If he could believe Kensei Kanase’s words about the lab being safe, all he had to do about Astarte was leave her in Nina’s hands. Kojou’s next priority had to be finding Yukina and the others.

“Pops,” Kojou said, turning to Kensei, “can you teleport me as far as Saikai Academy?”

Kensei glared at Kojou with a dour expression. “When did you get the impression you could call me your father?”

“…Hey, I don’t mean it that way! Geez!”

Kensei’s expression morphed into a somber smile. “I am joking.”

Kojou clutched his head in an exaggerated fashion. It was way too hard to figure out when that man was joking.

“But teleportation…” Kensei hesitated. “That is likely futile.”

“Why?”

Kensei looked up at the ceiling with a grave expression on his face.

Dust danced in the air on its way down, and LED lights flickered on and off. There was a dull sound resembling a boom of thunder, faintly shaking the lab building. Itogami Island’s ground was shaking.

“What was that?” Kojou asked.

Kensei shook his head. “A large-scale spatial quake, in all likelihood the Order of the End’s doing.”

“The Order of the End…? And what’s a spatial quake?”

Assaulted by ferocious vertical shaking, Kojou was blown all the way to the edge of the wall. Kanon nearly fell as she tightly embraced the black cat, then Nina.

Kensei turned on a wall-mounted monitor. The image was a display of all of Itogami Island: the blue, tropical sky through which warm rays shined, white clouds, a horde of dense, tightly packed modern buildings… All of them were swaying like a ripple in a pond.

Like raindrops upon the surface of the water, there was a rainbow-colored opening connected to another world. The giant shaking of space covered the whole of Itogami Island. This was the truth behind the tremors shaking the island.

Finally, as if a surface of water had parted, figures appeared out of thin air.

They were human-shaped and clad in all-white robes.

There were hundreds…or perhaps thousands…

Each of them wore upon their heads masks patterned after the skulls of various creatures.

It truly looked like a horde of Grim Reapers had descended upon Itogami Island.

“What is this…?!”

A raspy murmur escaped from Kojou’s lips.

Aftershocks began making the artificial isle tremble once more.

Explosive flames gushed up in the background of the monitor imagery.

Ruler candidates and acolytes of the Order of the End were fighting.

Itogami Island was divided into numerous domains. Ruler candidates were either allies or enemies. And now, thousands of Order of the End acolytes came on the attack.

This conflict was turning into a real war that would burn Itogami Island to cinders.

“What the hell is wrong with you people…?! Order of the End!”

Kojou’s howl echoed throughout the underground lab.

From off in the distance, he felt like he heard the mocking laughter of the handsome boy calling himself The Blood.