Strike the Blood - Volume 2 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR 

THE BICORN 

1 

The boy god Nezha worshipped by Taoists had three faces and eight arms. He was a god of combat with an artificial body constructed of lotus roots and gold, wielding a fire-spitting spear and an armband that could smash the heads of his foes… 

However, the Nalakuvera, modeled in homage of the god Nezha, bore a form far too twisted and fiendish to be called a god itself. 

Shrouded in thick armor, it had six legs it used to trample armored truck wreckage and mow down the cranes that towered over the area. The dazzling crimson beams spat out from its head rent the steel-enveloped sub-float with ease, creating tremendous explosions in the process. 

That destructiveness, far beyond what was par for conventional land weaponry, surely rivaled that of vampire Beast Vassals. 

Kojou understood very well why the Black Death Emperor Front wanted this. However, this ancient weapon continued to move of its own volition, regardless of its controller’s will. 

Even without Yukina spelling it out, there was no way he could let a dangerous monster like this enter city limits. 

However, looking upon the Nalakuvera up close, he didn’t know how he should take on something this ridiculously huge… 

“What will you do, Kojou Akatsuki? How do you intend to slow that monster down?” 

Reluctantly standing right beside Kojou, Sayaka spoke in a scolding tone. Kojou’s eyes widened at her. 

It was thirty meters, at most, between them and the Nalakuvera. Judging from the ancient weapon’s great size, they were in just as great danger there as if they were standing right in front of it. 

“Kirasaka?! What are you coming along for?!” 

“Yukina said she wanted you to buy time, so it’s natural for me to cooperate, you know!” 

“Th-that’s what it is?” 

Though that was unlikely a calm, rational thought, Sayaka’s vigorous assertiveness made Kojou accept it immediately. Sayaka added a nod, her face quite serious. 

“Absolutely. Besides…” 

Before she finished speaking, a beam burst from the Nalakuvera’s head. 

The fire-spitting spear…in modern terms, it was a large-caliber laser cannon. The spear, moving at the speed of light with a temperature surpassing twenty thousand degrees at its focal point, no doubt could turn even a vampire’s flesh to ash in an instant. 

But Sayaka had completed her motion before the beam had been unleashed. 

The Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency saw and acted a moment into the future through her Spirit Sight. Sayaka’s defense was therefore faster than the Nalakuvera’s speed-of-light attack. 

“…Kirasaka?!” 

“My Lustrous Scale has two abilities… One of them is to neutralize physical attacks. Be grateful, Kojou Akatsuki. Had I not been here you would be cinders right about now!” 

It was not physical matter that Sayaka’s sword had severed, but the space that held it together. No matter how fast an attack, no matter how hot an attack, it could not dish out damage across a rip in space itself. For that single instant, the space that Lustrous Scale had rent was transformed into an absolute, invincible defensive wall. 

Before Kojou’s eyes, the Nalakuvera’s large-caliber laser seemed to slam into an invisible wall obstructing its path, vanishing into nothingness. 

“And so, the wall that can defend against any attack is, in other words, the world’s most resilient blade. There is nothing my sword dance cannot cut, even a weapon of the gods…!” 

With the Nalakuvera having finished firing its laser, Sayaka sprinted toward the now-defenseless ancient weapon’s feet, sword raised. 

It was an entirely too huge sword for a slender girl to be using. Sayaka controlled it as if it was part of her own flesh and blood in a beautiful dance. She struck the Nalakuvera’s leg with the silver blade, slicing it in spite of its thick armor; then she sliced it again. To the eye, it was a sword dance that contrasted magnificence with ferocity. 

All Kojou could do was attentively watch the spectacle. Yukina’s combat ability was inhuman, but Sayaka’s sword art was no less so. In one sense, she, who could face a monster on equal terms, was quite a monster herself. 

Sayaka continued her ferocious attacks. Though she was indeed unable to slice it in two, her ceaseless slicing attacks severed one of the Nalakuvera’s legs. 

Sayaka continued, focusing her attacks upon the two remaining legs of that side. Finally, the Nalakuvera’s damaged legs were unable to sustain its weight; the huge body slowly collapsed. A single girl, with a single sword, had brought the weapon of the gods to its knees. Kojou could only call it nonsensical strength. 

He wondered if, at this rate, the girl would defeat the Nalakuvera all by herself… 

It was a moment after Kojou embraced such fleeting hope that the ancient weapon’s body underwent a sudden change. 

“Eh…?!” 

Sayaka’s sword, having one-sidedly slashed through the Nalakuvera until that point, suddenly bounced off the surface of its armor. Sayaka repeated her slicing attack, but it fended off this as well. 

A mysterious symbol emerged over the Nalakuvera’s armor, enveloping the machine with the faint glow of magical energy. Sayaka exclaimed as she realized the true nature of that glow. 

“A repulsion ward?!” 

The blade of Lustrous Scale sliced through connecting space. However, this also meant the blade could only sever space it was in contact with. The repulsion field enveloping the surface of the Nalakuvera’s armor had evolved to repel Sayaka’s sword before the blade even touched it. 

Her attacks would no longer work against the Nalakuvera… 

“This…is what the weapon of the gods is capable of…?!” 

A learning, self-evolving weapon. Sayaka shuddered at the thought. That became a momentary opening. 

The Nalakuvera’s feelers were watching Sayaka from above her head. 

By the time Sayaka realized this, it was already too late. The tips of the feelers shot out crimson beams. The late-reacting Sayaka could not fend them off. 

The incandescent spears could sear through thick steel in an instant. 

No doubt, should Sayaka’s body be bathed in them, not a trace of her would remain. 

But what assaulted Sayaka was not an incandescent beam, but a simple physical impact. 

Someone had thrust Sayaka away with a clumsy tackle. 

“…Are you all right, Sayaka?!” 

It was Kojou who had plunged headfirst into Sayaka, but as he yelled, she tumbled on top of the hard ground. 

Sayaka’s well-trained body broke the fall without thinking, immediately bringing her to her feet. All serious damage had been averted. However, her mental unrest was profound. 

“Kojou Akatsuki?! That wound?!” 

Kojou, rising to his feet, had white smoke rising from his gouged-out left thigh. It had been bathed in the Nalakuvera’s laser when Kojou had shielded Sayaka. 

“I’m all right. A wound this small’s gonna close up in no time.” 

Kojou smiled even as his face grimaced in pain. 

A vampire progenitor was unaging and undying. However, the pain they felt when injured was no different than that of any normal human. 

No doubt Sayaka was well aware of that. Sayaka paled a bit, seemingly unable to find the words she ought to address to him. 

“…Anyway, what’s that guy doing?!” 

Forcing himself to stand on his injured left leg, Kojou turned his eyes to the Nalakuvera. The ancient weapon, damaged by Sayaka’s attacks, had apparently given up on moving. 

Instead, the gently curved armor over its back slowly opened. 

They beheld a series of wings stretching that resembled those of beetles. On the inside of the armor were cylindrical-shaped thruster nozzles. 

“It’s trying to fly?!” 

The data Asagi had on the Nalakuvera suggested flight capability. Kojou ground his teeth as he recalled that fact. 

With a roar, the Nalakuvera’s nozzles scattered, blasting wind all about. 

This was not winged flight as birds and pterosaurs understood it. This was powered flight by brute force. 

But Itogami Island’s city limits were but a few short kilometers away. If it could go up, it could surely land at a moment’s notice. They could not allow the Nalakuvera to escape. 

“…Smack it down, Regulus Aurum!” 

Kojou raised his right arm above his head. Fresh blood spurted from it. 

His fresh blood created a mass of enormous magical power that transformed into a golden beam of magical energy. The condensed beam shaped itself into the form of a giant beast in midair—a great lion shrouded in lightning. 

This was Kojou Akatsuki’s, aka the Fourth Primogenitor’s, Beast Vassal, Regulus Aurum… 

In spite of being nominally tamed, he’d hesitated to call upon its all-too-great might. But this was no longer the time or place for such concerns. 

“Oooooooooooooo…!” 

The lightning lion responded to Kojou’s fighting spirit, racing across the heavens. 

From a higher altitude than the climbing Nalakuvera, it transformed into a lightning bolt and raced toward the ground. Light scattered in all directions from the golden bolt of lightning, closing rapidly upon the ancient weapon. 

The primogenitor’s Beast Vassal, said to rival a natural disaster, struck. 

The Nalakuvera machine withstood it. Despite the smashing apart of both sets of wings, the severing of its legs, and the loss of about half the armor over its entire body, somehow it managed not to explode. 

However, it was impossible to negate the entire ferocious impact. 

The lightning lion continued its vigorous descent, smashing the Nalakuvera into the ground. 

It was might that the sub-float’s hollow construction could not withstand. The thick steel covering the front’s surface turned inside out, smashing the steel framework stretched within. 

The Nalakuvera’s huge body became a cannonball, breaching the surface and tumbling deep underneath. 

And quite naturally, Kojou and Sayaka were caught in the shock wave that resulted. 

“Uoooh?!” 

The ground Kojou and Sayaka were standing on caved in without any warning. 

A great hole opened at their feet that seemed like it continued all the way to the underworld. Kojou knew that he was falling when an unpleasant feeling of weightlessness assailed him. 

Sayaka was right beside him. Amid the echoes of turbulent blast winds and the roar of falling debris… 

“You idiot…!!” 

…somehow, the sound of her shout was the only thing that registered to Kojou’s ears as strangely distinct. 

2 

Sub-float No. 13, constructed as a giant trash bin, was fundamentally built just like an oil tanker. The only differences were that it was meant to store compacted garbage, not oil, and it was an order of magnitude greater in size. 

Though divided by numerous bulkheads, it was, in essence, an empty box enveloped by a hardy, steel shell. 

From the surface to the deepest section, it was about thirty meters… 

As that was equal to a ten-story building, it was actually taller than the apartment building Kojou and Nagisa lived in. Naturally, it wasn’t a height one could climb without gear. Having fallen from such a height, it was near miraculous they were alive at all. 

“Somehow we’re all right…huh?” 

Standing upon a mountain of debris, Kojou made a very deep sigh. 

It wasn’t that they’d dropped thirty meters straight down; their descent had been relatively lenient, like riding the flow of a landslide. They’d smacked into several bulkheads on the way down, with that slowing their falling speed even further. 

Kojou and Sayaka’s being all right was the product of coincidences piled one over another. 

They had been fortunate the under-construction sub-float was empty. 

Had it been full like other trash bins, they’d probably be buried alive under tens of thousands of tons of garbage by now. He figured that even an undying primogenitor was unlikely to recover from such a situation. 

And as Kojou breathed a sigh of relief, Sayaka raised a “Kii!” in a high-pitched voice. 

“We are not all right! What were you thinking?! Don’t you have any concept of restraint?! You didn’t have to make it punch through the whole float!!” 

“Couldn’t help it, I was all worried ’bout that monster crab getting away…and that was trying to hold back…” Kojou replied in a small, halting voice. He really had meant to limit damage to the surrounding area, even though there was little point since they had a barrier. But… 

“Good grief,” said Sayaka, seeming taken aback as she shook her head. “Certainly I can accept that’s power worthy of the World’s Mightiest Vampire, but that Beast Vassal’s nothing but trouble. One wrong step and you, its master, would be caught up in it and killed, too.” 

“I’ll admit it’s trouble…but it shot that monster crab down, so things worked out.” 

Kojou tossed his reply out while brushing down his dusty parka. 

Seeing Kojou look not the least bit sorry, Sayaka glared in a bit of anger. 

“And the Nalakuvera?” 

“Who knows? You’d think it’s buried down there, though.” 

Kojou pointed to the pile of fallen debris as he spoke. The spot where the ancient weapon had apparently crash-landed had a pile of debris some ten meters high piled on top of it. 

With such a large amount of rebar and steel plates piled in the way, there was no sign of the Nalakuvera. However, neither did Kojou sense anything wriggling around beneath it. 

“Did you destroy it?” 

“Probably. That or so much damage it can’t move without an overhaul.” 

“I see. That’s fine, but…well, what should we do now?” 

Kojou scratched his head in response to Sayaka’s question. 

The sub-float, built solely for storing an enormous amount of garbage, had a suitably immense interior. On top of that, since the facility was still under construction, there’d be very few diagrams and little lighting available; only the bare minimum required in the event of an evacuation. They hadn’t really expected anyone to just wander in there, after all. 

“If we look around, we should be able to find an inspection ladder at least.” 

As he spoke, Kojou looked around the area as he walked to a suitable place. 

“H-hold on, you’re not thinking of leaving me?” 

Sayaka, who seemed about to be left behind, hurried after Kojou. 

“Ah!” 

That moment, her legs went out from under her. Climbing up a pile of unevenly shaped debris, the seesawing angles made Sayaka lose her balance and tumble. 

“Wh-whoa?!” 

Luckily, Kojou was right there, reflexively catching her back as she fell faceup. He raised his eyebrows as his palms conveyed the presence of something quite ample and flexible. 

“…Hya?!” 

As Kojou ended up generously squeezing Sayaka’s breasts, she let out a very girlie yelp. 

Realizing the true nature of what he was grasping, Kojou quickly pulled both hands away. 

Thanks to the summer sweater, he hadn’t noticed, but Sayaka was apparently the well-endowed type. In spite of being so slender, the volume of her breasts was incredible. 

“Er, sorry.” 

Kojou felt awkward as he apologized. Sayaka pressed her hands over her own breasts while glaring up at Kojou. 

“What are you apologizing for? Did you do it on purpose? So you indeed have foul, evil intentions?” 

“I do not. It’s not that, but…Himeragi told me about it on the phone earlier.” 

Sayaka tilted her head with a puzzled look. 

“Yukina? What did she…?” 

“The reason you hate men.” 

Kojou looked down at his own feet as he spoke, lowering his voice. 

The look on Sayaka’s face stiffened, becoming like that of a doll. 

“Sorry. I didn’t know you’re scared of men touching you.” 

Yukina hadn’t explained the fine details, but Kojou had a pretty good idea of the circumstances. 

As a child born with excellent spiritual ability, she was frequently treated badly by her parents. Sayaka’s one and only father was apparently the type of man who routinely used violence against her. When her father died before Sayaka entered primary school, the Lion King Agency took her in. 

However, the fear she felt toward her father at such a young age still remained in her heart in the form of a general hatred of men. Kojou didn’t want to offer some kind of cheap sympathy, but he didn’t think Sayaka could be faulted for it. 

Even though it was an emergency situation, Kojou reflected on the fact he’d picked her up, pinned her down, and insensitively touched her quite a bit all around. 

For a while, Sayaka gazed at Kojou, an astonished look on her face. 

Then, she suddenly grabbed hold of Kojou’s lips, roughly twisting upward. Kojou, unable to brush her hand off, objected without offering any resistance. 

“What are you doing?! That hurts!” 

“I wonder why Yukina talked to you about that…” 

Sayaka spoke as if she was posing the question to herself. His lips still being twisted, Kojou shrugged his shoulders. 

“She lectured me not to do anything that’d scare you. She was worried about you.” 

“It’s not that I’m scared of it, it’s more like, it’s disgusting? Gross?” 

“That’s even worse. Normally that’d put me down.” 

Forcefully shaking his head, Kojou finally freed his lips from her grasp. Sayaka watched his red, swollen lips with a smile. It was a gentle, smiling face with no hostility whatsoever. 

“You really are a strange vampire.” 

Sayaka gently touched the back of Kojou’s hand with the fingertips of her freed-up right hand. 

She increased the strength of her grip, as if carefully confirming something. 

Kojou watched her with bewilderment, having no idea whatsoever what she was up to. 

But he somehow understood that for Sayaka, touching a boy of her own volition was very much an act of courage. 

“Is that wound from before all right?” 

Sayaka looked at Kojou’s leg with a worried look. The leg wounded when he’d shielded Sayaka. 

Kojou lightly flexed his knee up and down. Some pain still remained, but he’d regained almost all sensation. 

“It’s healed enough I can walk on it at least?” 

“I see, that’s good… Um…th-thank you for saving me.” 

As if blushing, Sayaka lowered her face as she spoke. Kojou’s heart made a heavy thump and blood rushed through his arteries at her cherubic, white cheeks, the refined bridge of her nose, and her long emphasized eyelashes. 

“Cold?!” 

“Wh-why?! I was finally nice to you and everything…!” 

Sayaka’s cheeks fiercely swelled at Kojou’s completely unexpected reaction. 

Kojou shook his head as he put a hand to his back. 

“No, it’s not you… There’s something cold against my back…” 

That moment, a delicate cry of “Hya!” came out from Sayaka’s mouth. 

When she pressed on her uniform’s shoulder, it had somehow become thoroughly drenched. Water was falling like rain from all over the sub-float’s framework. 

“What’s this? Seawater?!” 

“Shit…this float’s goin’ all to hell!” 

No matter how stoutly constructed a sub-float, Vattler’s Beast Vassal recklessly severing it, the Nalakuvera’s rampant laser fire, and the finishing blow with Regulus Aurum, had apparently exceeded its limits. Kojou and Sayaka simply hadn’t noticed how water was already leaking in from all quarters. 

“This isn’t the time for complaints! We have to find a way back to shore and fast!” 

Sayaka coolly pointed out the situation. The water wasn’t leaking in especially strongly, but if the seals of the anti-flooding bulkhead were to rupture, escape would become far more difficult. It didn’t feel very good being dripping wet and holed up in a place like this. 

“So how ’bout we walk along one of the walls like when you’re lost in a maze?” 

“Anything’s good as long as it’s fast!” 

As they traded silly banter, Kojou and Sayaka began to walk forward. 

That moment, the thin darkness beneath the sub-float was bathed in a dazzling, crimson light. 

The beam slashed apart the darkness in every direction, indiscriminately slicing its way through the sub-float’s framework. It was the large-caliber laser of the Nalakuvera. 

A mountain of debris came crashing down with a roar. 

Within, the ancient weapon emerged, surrounded by a pale white light. The shapes had been slightly altered, but the armor and legs that were surely destroyed had been repaired. 

“No way?! Why’s it moving after we damaged it that much…?!” 

“It can’t be transmutation?! It merged with the sub-float’s building materials to regenerate! It doesn’t seem to have regained its flight, but…” 

The ancient weapon had fused with the debris all around it to repair the damage it had sustained. 

Its two feelers pointed above its head, it had no doubt concluded it could not escape by going up. 

The Nalakuvera inclined the barrel of its large-caliber laser toward its own feet. 

The outer wall of a sub-float extended thirty meters underwater. The incandescent beam blasted through the steel-alloyed wall, dozens of centimeters thick, in an instant, opening a huge hole. 

Seawater accelerated by water pressure gushed high like a geyser. It suddenly became a muddy stream advancing on Kojou and Sayaka’s feet. 

“Shit…seriously?!” 

The Nalakuvera escaped through the hole of its own making. However, neither Kojou nor Sayaka had any time to worry about that. Thanks to that laser attack, fierce flooding had begun all over the sub-float. 

Hand in hand, the two made a run for it. They were entirely drenched in seawater from head to toe. 

3 

Asagi continued deciphering the command codes in the room with a refrigerator-like chill. The smooth way she tapped the keyboard looked less like a programmer and more like a well-trained pianist. 

Blowing white breaths, Asagi used the chat mike to call her “partner” across the network. 

“Mogwai, no need for more morphological analysis. Apply ER algorithms, reassess all preliminary parameters, execute speculative process based on zeta distribution, and after that, begin step-by-step data comparison.” 

“You’re as hard a taskmaster as always, young lady. The system bus is at its upper limits. Any more than this and it will interfere with Itogami Island environmental maintenance.” 

It was a mechanical composite voice that responded to Asagi’s call. It was the voice of the five supercomputers that held all of Itogami Island’s urban functions in its grasp. Asagi had dubbed the AI “Mogwai.” 

Judging that using the single Souverän Nine inside the ship would take too much time, she’d used the network to call Mogwai and enlist the brain of Itogami Island itself to decipher the command codes. 

“Keep it up even if the buffers all go to hell. We’re settling this in under fifteen minutes.” 

“Ku-ku-ku…feels good to have you back to your old self.” 

“Oh, shut up,” Asagi said, a fierce smile coming over her face. “I finally get the rules of this puzzle. They keep calling it a weapon of the gods, right? This is why the linguists all threw in the towel. They never imagined a language that doesn’t need logic or thought processes.” 

Logic was unnecessary. In other words, the Nalakuvera did not assess the situation. After all, it was a weapon that existed solely to destroy. The ancient weapons did not think for themselves any more than a gun or a bomb. 

When something for it to destroy was found, the Nalakuvera destroyed it, and that was that. It was the same fundamental logic of a god—“Let there be light,” and light appeared—the words of gods that fundamentally differed from men. 

“But if you understand how it’s put together, it’s just obsolete architecture like any other.” 

Having finished debugging the analysis program, Asagi let out a “hmph” through her nose. 

There were fifty-two stone tablets containing the Nalakuvera’s command codes in total. The analysis would be complete in fifteen minutes. That meant the fearsome ancient weapon would come under the complete control of terrorists. But now that the Nalakuvera was active, this was the only way it could be stopped. 

Since the Black Death Emperor Front wasn’t a pack of fools, they were surely monitoring Asagi’s work from somewhere. 

In the current situation, with Nagisa, Yukina, and Itogami Island itself taken hostage, there was no point slowing her work down or trying to pull a fast one. 

But it wasn’t Asagi Aiba’s style to just let herself be bossed around like this… 

“What should I do now, I wonder…?” Asagi murmured while subconsciously stroking her earring. 

How would she get back at a bunch that had deigned to make her work for free? 

As a bloodcurdling look came over Asagi’s face, Yukina quietly slipped out of the room, leaving her behind. 

Yukina didn’t really know what Asagi was doing. However, her unsurpassed genius was obvious, even to Yukina’s untrained eyes. Asagi’s sense and insight about programming was not really a product of a logical thought process; it was closer to Yukina and Sayaka’s Spirit Sight or even divine possession. 

To her surprise, had Asagi been raised by the Lion King Agency, she might already be a Sword Shaman surpassing even Yukina. She, too, was very much a resident of the Demon Sanctuary. 

“…Why?” 

Against her expectations, there were no guards keeping watch outside the girls’ room. 

Yukina had slipped out of the room because she’d had suspicions about that. 

Even on a ship with nowhere to run, it felt a little too careless, not something one would expect from the highly trained Black Death Emperor Front. As she pondered such doubts, Yukina headed down a corridor along the ship’s side. But she just couldn’t make out guards anywhere. 

The Oceanus Grave was so quiet that it almost seemed like a ghost ship. 

She realized that one of the Oceanus Grave’s lifeboats was being lowered onto the surface of the sea. The ship’s crew and Black Death Emperor Front noncombat personnel were boarding the lifeboat one after another. No doubt that was the reason why there were no soldiers standing guard. 

“…Why evacuate noncombatants at a time like this?” 

Yukina was perplexed, but of course no answer came to mind. Right now the Oceanus Grave was in no special danger. She saw no reason why they should abandon ship on the verge of seizing the Nalakuvera, creating a decisively favorable situation for them. 

If there was any kind of danger, it wasn’t from outside the ship… 

“It can’t be…?!” 

Following her Sword Shaman instincts, Yukina sprinted. Her destination was not up to the bridge, but down, toward the cargo bay at the bottom of the ship. Though the Oceanus Grave was a cruise ship, it also had a stern gate like a freighter. In other words, it was capable of transporting a huge amount of cargo. 

As if to confirm Yukina’s expectations, the corridor that continued to the cargo bay had armed Black Death Emperor Front troops standing guard: two beast men armed with automatic pistols. 

She had no time to hesitate. Yukina leaped down the corridor, sprinting with all her strength to close the distance with the soldiers. As she expected, the soldiers were unprepared for this, their reactions dulled. 

Yukina soared in midair before they could aim their guns. 

“…Crouching Thunder!” 

She delivered a ferocious roundhouse kick to the temple of one of the soldiers as he turned. 

Though beast men had exceptional endurance, their anatomy was identical to that of human beings. If you rattled the brain around, you could inflict a slight concussion, especially if you did it before they bestialized. 

“Raw Lightning!” 

Crouching to use the unconscious soldier as a shield, she continued with a thrust to the solar plexus of the other soldier, releasing the ritual energy inside her body in the process. The stout beast-man soldier fainted in pain from the single blow. 

Yukina turned toward the cargo bay, not even glancing at the fallen soldiers. She pushed open the heavy metallic door, her eyes widening in shock at the sight. 

“This is…” 

The vast cargo bay contained densely packed, thickly armored weapons. Each had six legs, two feelers, and a crimson, glowing laser-gun eye. 

“It can’t be… These are all Nalakuvera?!” 

There were five inactive ancient weapons in total. There was something even larger positioned farther within, but Yukina couldn’t make it out from her location. 

Yukina heard a voice from behind her that was ferocious yet calm. 

“…Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, is it? Even better than rumored. In Europe, not many people can take down a beast man unarmed, even by surprise. Splendid work.” 

“Kristof Gardos…!” 

Yukina called out the man’s name. The aged officer of the Black Death Emperor Front smiled as he watched Yukina, utterly composed. 

“Not even Vattler knows about these. He might not have cooperated with us if he knew.” 

“So this is your true objective? Getting your hands on a Nalakuvera army?!” 

Gardos nodded solemnly. 

“War is not decided by the abilities of each individual weapon, but by combined military strength. The First Primogenitor’s combat ability is fearsome, but a single man cannot defend all of the Warlord’s Empire. A flock of combat machines that consume debris to repair themselves, able to fight in perpetuity…a sight to make the heart flutter, don’t you think?” 

Taking enjoyment in watching the horrified Yukina, Gardos continued his voluminous explanation. Apparently, in spite of being the leader of a terrorist group, he was blessed with a gift for oratory. 

“Even if we do not destroy the First Primogenitor, the collapse of his Dominion will make the Holy Ground Treaty unsustainable. In so doing, we will achieve our objective. That combat maniac Vattler surely cannot understand our reasons.” 

“So you’re saying, you’ll sacrifice not only Itogami Island, but the people of your own homeland, the Warlord’s Empire?” 

Yukina glared at Gardos with a look of rage. Gardos nodded, his expression unchanged. 

“Of course. That is why they call us terrorists.” 

Without a word, Yukina lowered her center of gravity. 

Even a single Nalakuvera threatened to destroy the entirety of Itogami City. And the Black Death Emperor Front had five more of them. She could not allow such power to fall into their hands. 

If she could take down Gardos here, even it meant sacrificing herself… 

“Hu-hu-hu, quite ambitious, aren’t you? What a pity. If I’d had people like you in my unit, I wouldn’t have had to watch my old friend, the Black Death Emperor, killed right before my eyes…” 

Watching Yukina enter a combat stance, Gardos seemed pleased as he stroked the old scar on his cheek. He drew a knife from his back. His physique let out a creak as his muscles swelled all over his body. He was bestializing. 

However much intellect he displayed, his instincts were those of a terrorist who craved battle and destruction. Raising his voice in joy at the expected slaughter, he thrust his knife forward with incredible force. 

Yukina evaded the gale-like attack by a paper-thin margin. 

“Ha-ha! Splendid. Dodging my knife!” 

Gardos immediately altered the arc of his knife. But the powerful movement created an opening to his side. Yukina slipped past Gardos’s attack and placed a palm on his flank. 

“…Distort!” 

She unleashed a palm strike at point-blank range. 

In close combat, this was Yukina’s trump card—sending the force of an impact past a beast man’s thick flesh straight into its innards. She had once used the same technique to destroy the Lotharingian Armed Apostle’s armored augmentation suit. 

But the feedback of Yukina’s palm was odd. Her face grimaced as she put distance between them. 

There was no damage to Gardos’s body. Yukina’s palm strike had not worked upon him. 

“…Bio-barrier?!” 

“That is the skill you call qigong, is it not? You thought I was unversed in the martial arts because I am a beast man, didn’t you?” 

Gardos made an amused smile as he repositioned his knife. 

To Yukina, the knife wasn’t the real threat. Gardos’s grip could easily shatter Yukina’s bones; a tackle using that massive frame would no doubt smash Yukina’s body to pieces. 

Even knowing that, retreat was not an option for Yukina. 

“…Roaring Thunder!” 

Kicking off the wall and ceiling for acceleration, Yukina launched a tricky flying kick, using it to strike the side of Gardos’s head. 

There was no evading the attack, but Gardos stopped it cold with his forehead. His reaction speed and quick decision-making were products of a vast amount of combat experience. 

“Hnng!!” 

Gardos altered his direction with a shake of his head, sending Yukina’s light body flying back. 

Yukina somersaulted in midair like a cat and landed on the floor. Gardos chose that exact moment to barrel forward with his shoulder. Yukina barely managed to pull back and avoid him. 

Gardos’s action looked suicidal, but the aged officer broke through the outer wall of the Oceanus Grave, heading straight out with barely a scratch. 

It was ridiculous destructive power even by the standards of hardy beast men. 

Yukina pursued Gardos out onto the deck. She thought combat there would be more advantageous than in the narrow confines of the ship. However, at this rate, even if she continued to fight, she had no sense she could win. 

Their combat skill was roughly equal. Gardos held the absolute advantage in speed; Yukina had the advantage in explosiveness. But the power difference was just too great. 

Even though one blow from Gardos would put Yukina out of the fight, none of her attacks had worked on him at all. 

Furthermore, Gardos was not holding back or underestimating Yukina whatsoever. 

At this rate, defeat was inevitable. The moment such a feeling of despair began holding Yukina in its grip… 

…A gust of incredible force assaulted both of them. 

“What’s this wind?!” Gardos exclaimed in response to the sudden shift. It was a fierce wind one could only call a windstorm. The wind speed was surely the rival of that of a Category 5 typhoon. The lightweight Yukina was in danger of being easily blown away at the slightest loss of concentration. She couldn’t breathe with the mass of air directly slamming into her. 

But what was truly surprising was the tranquillity of the sea all around the Oceanus Grave. The gust was raging in the vicinity of Yukina and Gardos alone. 

Something was flying, riding on the wind. It had a beautiful silver blade. Its tip was split into a triple fork. The silhouette resembled a swept-wing fighter plane. It was a completely metallic, silver-colored spear— 

“Snowdrift Wolf?!” 

In midair, Yukina snatched the flying spear that had ridden the wind. 

That moment, the raging windstorm abated, as if now that Yukina had received the spear, its duty was done… 

“Who did this…?!” 

She gazed with a shocked look on her face at the spear that had returned to her own hand. 

The all-metal Snowdrift Wolf was by no means a lightweight weapon. Even though it had approached much closer to land, the Oceanus Grave was still some four to five hundred meters from Itogami Island. 

To hurl the spear from that distance to deliver it to Yukina…she didn’t know who it was, but it had to be someone extremely capable. 

She personally knew of no one capable of such a feat. Furthermore, for that person to know Yukina was the wielder of the spear meant he or she knew exactly who and what Yukina was. But she’d worry about the person’s identity later. The man she had to strike down was right before her eyes. 

“Hmm. A Wind Master, is it?” 

Gardos muttered while unhappily brushing down his wind-battered forelocks. 

“As expected of the Far East’s Demon Sanctuary; so many people making use of irregular talents. However…” 

As Yukina glared at him, spear poised, his lips curled upward in delight. 

“So this means I finally get to see your true power. Interesting. A strategic battle of probing, thrusting, steel and blood; this is what war should be like.” 

The joy of combat burned brightly in the beast man’s eyes. But what flowed from Yukina’s lips was a serene chant the polar opposite of the aged officer’s ferocious roar. 

“—I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee.” 

Ritual energy surged within Yukina’s body, amplifying Snowdrift Wolf. The glow made Gardos narrow his eyes. He realized that the silver spear in Yukina’s hands was extremely dangerous to demonkind. 

Gardos raised his knife and charged the defenselessly dancing Yukina. Yukina moved to intercept the blow, her movements rather sluggish… 

“Oh, purifying light, Oh, divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your divine steel will, strike down the devils before me!” 

Victory and defeat were decided in an instant. As the beautiful silver light crossed and vanished, the single attack Yukina unleashed had severed Gardos at the upper arm, taking the knife-wielding hand with it. 

“…Splendid, Sword Shaman. But I shall be the victor of the war.” 

Even as fresh blood gushed from the open wound, Gardos laughed. He picked up the severed right arm and leaped over Yukina’s head, heading toward the upper deck. 

There stood two of Gardos’s men. 

One was clutching a tablet PC to his chest; the other was holding one school uniform–wearing girl in each of his arms. 

“Asagi-senpai?! Nagisa?!” 

Yukina let out brief screams as she beheld the sight of the soundly sleeping girls. 

Giving in to anger, she raised her spear and charged toward them. But a crimson beam of light suddenly swept before her: fire from a large-caliber laser. 

“Nalakuvera?! It can’t be…?!” 

Blood drained from Yukina’s face as she beheld the ominous sight of an ancient weapon piercing the surface of the sea as it emerged. 

Even as the Nalakuvera clung to the hull of the Oceanus Grave, it did not attack anyone. 

When Yukina realized this, she truly knew fear. 

This ancient weapon was not in a berserk state. It was moving according to its controller’s will. 

“The stone tablet decryption?” 

Gardos pressed his men for information. One of them answered while setting Asagi and Nagisa down on the deck. 

“It seems to be finished. Grigore has already confirmed that the contents are correct, as you can see.” 

“I do see,” said Gardos, making a satisfied nod. The bleeding from where Yukina had severed his arm had already stopped; pressing the lower arm section to the upper, they had already begun to fuse. His vitality was on a level shocking even for beast men. 

“…So, that’s how it is. Surrender now, Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency. I’ve waited a long time for Vattler. I have no time to play with the likes of you.” 

Yukina was completely backed into a corner. Even with Snowdrift Wolf, taking on Gardos and another pair of beast men at the same time would prove a difficult battle. On top of that, they had Asagi and Nagisa hostage; furthermore, they had the Nalakuvera under control. Any way one sliced it, Yukina had no chance of victory. 

The Oceanus Grave pulled alongside the free-floating Sub-float No. 13, Nalakuvera in tow. 

No doubt Gardos and his group’s objective was to transport the inactive Nalakuvera in the cargo bay ashore, activating them once there. They meant to fight Vattler with all six Nalakuvera at once. 

Even knowing this, there was nothing Yukina could do about it. With a roar echoing from its hydraulic pump, the stern gate of the Oceanus Grave opened. 

A moment later… 

Yukina’s ears were pierced by a screaming, bestial howl reverberating through the air. 

And the sub-float shuddered fiercely, countless fragments scattering about, as if it had been hit by a bomb. 

4 

“Shit…this one’s a dead end, too, huh?” 

Kojou’s tired voice echoed amid the darkness. They were inside one of the narrow maintenance shafts spread throughout the sub-float. 

Logically, the path would continue all the way to the surface, but it was not so simple in practice. On top of being like a maze, various sections were blocked off by rubble. After going back and forth several times over, Kojou and Sayaka had completely lost track of where they were. 

However, seawater continued steadily lapping at their feet. Water leaking from overhead had already drenched Kojou and Sayaka from head to toe. 

“This isn’t good. The water level’s rising faster. At this rate, it won’t last ten minutes before sinking.” 

Sayaka sent a hateful glare toward the rubble blocking their path as she murmured. 

Kojou kicked aside a girder at his feet. 

“…I can’t just blow it away with Regulus Aurum, though, can I?” 

Sayaka stared straight at Kojou. 

“If you summoned a mass of electricity into a drenched place like this, I’d be burned to a crisp along with anyone on the surface… Even you’d be hit pretty bad, wouldn’t you?” 

“Yeah, suppose I would.” 

Kojou sullenly slumped his shoulders. He’d had a vague sense of this before, but there were too many situations where a vampire’s Beast Vassals were of no use whatsoever. Even the backlight of his cell phone was a lot more useful as a wannabe flashlight than that fiendish lightning lion. 

“Lustrous Scale can’t do anything about a pile of debris this big, either.” 

Sayaka spoke while dragging her heavy-looking sword along with her left hand. 

Well I suppose that’s true, too, thought Kojou. 

“Even if a master swordsman can split a boulder in two, you can’t dig a tunnel with a katana, huh.” 

“Yeah.” 

Making a weak smile as she spoke, Sayaka sneezed; it was oddly charming. 

Kojou noticed that her drenched shoulders were shivering a bit. 

“Figures it’s cold down here, all wet like it is.” 

Murmuring as he made white breaths, Kojou’s eyes suddenly fell upon Sayaka’s breasts. 

Her wet, open-neck blouse was clinging to her skin, with her bra easy to see through it. The light pink floral pattern wrapped around two bountiful hills separated by an enchantingly deep valley. 

To a vampire’s night vision, it was an image far more vivid than was necessary. 

“What is it?” 

As Kojou suddenly went silent, Sayaka peered at his face, as if there was something mysterious about it. 

“R-right,” went Kojou as he averted his eyes in a hurry. Sayaka looked squarely at Kojou, a suspicious look on her face, and finally gasped before covering her own breasts. 

“Kojou Akatsuki…!” 

“I-I’m not! I thought, it’s cold, so I figured maybe I should lend you my parka…” 

“As if I’d wear a parka drenched with your hormones! I’d get pregnant!” 

“Like hell you would!! What—do you really think vampires are here?!” Kojou yelled quite loudly. But for some reason, he did not hear the expected retort from Sayaka. She hung her head on the spot and began messing with her fingernails. 

“…I-it makes me feel bad for Yukina somehow.” 

“Ah? Yukina’s got nothin’ to do with this. Here, put it on already.” 

Kojou forced his own parka onto the girl’s shoulders. She was still drenched, but the warmth from Kojou’s own body heat would surely help a tiny bit. 

As if tasting that body heat for herself, Sayaka pulled the parka’s collar closer. 

“Hey, Kojou Akatsuki?” 

“What now?” 

“Do you think it’d work out if you used a different Beast Vassal?” 

“Well…in this situation, I suppose, yeah.” 

Kojou frowned as he remembered someone having asked him a very similar question not long ago. 

Kojou had inherited the twelve Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor. Surely one of them could blow the debris to bits in this situation; the one that had been on the verge of pulverizing the school’s roof, perhaps. 

“…But when Regulus Aurum came against my will before, it burned a section of Island East to a crisp. If something like that happened here, an artificial island on its last legs like this would sink straight to the bottom of the sea.” 

This said, Kojou made a sigh. Why did the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor have to be so difficult to use? 

But Sayaka continued to look up at Kojou. 

“If you can control it, it’s fine, right? Yukina let you suck her blood so that you could, right?” 

“Kirasaka?” 

Kojou raised his eyebrows at Sayaka’s acting like she was mulling something over. 

For some reason, Sayaka’s cheeks were red, her gaze wandering all about. 

“Er, ah, y’know, I really am…big, aren’t I?” 

As she posed her abrupt question, Kojou’s reply got caught in his throat. His gaze subconsciously shifted to how her breasts poked out from the parka’s seams. 

“W-well, you’re certainly not small compared to Himeragi.” 

“I suppose not. Not cute at all.” 

Sayaka spoke with a self-deprecating smile. 

What does she mean? Kojou wondered, perplexed. Perhaps she couldn’t wear cute bra designs because her breasts were too big or something? Certainly one might argue Sayaka’s body was too curvaceous for that. But… 

“It’s nothing you need to worry about, though.” 

“Eh?” 

“A lot of guys like big, right? Feminine.” 

Kojou spoke while his head throbbed from recalling his best friend. 

But Sayaka tilted her head with a perplexed look. 

“Feminine? Smaller isn’t cuter?” 

“Well, ah, there’s certainly people who like that, too. People have different tastes about that. Well, it might be hard on a girl’s shoulders and stuff, though.” 

“…Hard on the shoulders? What do you mean?” 

Sayaka’s eyes blinked a few times. Kojou tilted his head a bit, just like she was. 

“Er? It’s not like that? I thought I saw some gravure idol talking about that once…” 

“Gravure idol?” 

Sayaka’s face turned serious, the confused look vanishing. Finally, her shoulders began slow, angry tremors as she spoke. 

“…Who’s talking about breasts here?! I’m talking height, height!!” 

“Ah? Why are you talking about height all of a sudden?” 

“I’ve been talking about that from the beginning here!” 

Sayaka growled in her throat like a ferocious dog. 

Kojou had a languid look on his face as he looked down at Sayaka. 

“Kirasaka, it’s not like you’re that tall, anyway. A hundred sixty-six or seven, about there? That’s normal good looks in my book.” 

As a former basketball player, Kojou found height of Sayaka’s level to be completely normal. He even thought that her eye level made her easier to talk to up close. 

Perhaps the last phrase came off well, for Sayaka’s mood improved slightly. 

“Even so, I was the tallest girl in my whole school! Thanks to that, I kept getting the royal princess treatment…” 

“Royal princess treatment…?” 

Kojou remembered how she’d desperately yelled, “This doesn’t count.” She seemed oddly worked up about it, but to Sayaka, who was so sensitive about her height, it was a pretty big deal. 

“Th-that’s why I was just a little happy. That’s never happened to me before.” Sayaka spoke, beet red to the tips of her ears. “S-so it’s really just that. It’s not that I fantasized about someday having a fateful encounter with a man who sweeps me off my feet and falling in love with him or anything…!” 

“R-right.” 

Kojou was a bit relieved that Sayaka wasn’t actually angry. 

Right now, she looked like an ordinary high school girl, just like Kojou’s classmates. You wouldn’t think she and the War Dancer who fought the Nalakuvera so valiantly were one and the same. This was probably the Sayaka that Yukina had always seen as her roommate. He could even agree with the thought that she was cute. 

Sayaka grabbed Kojou’s uniform over his stomach and gave it a gentle pull. In doing so, she pulled herself closer to Kojou. Before Kojou knew it, the two were close enough that their breaths were mixing together. 

“So…keep this secret from Yukina, okay?” 

Sayaka’s voice trembled as she murmured. It was no doubt because of cold and fear. 

But seeming to have made her decision, her trembling ceased the instant she leaned fully into him. 

“I thought I’d let you suck my blood to thank you, just once. Or perhaps I’m not good enough?” 

Kojou was moved by the sight of Sayaka’s teary eyes looking up at him. 

“No, nothing like that, but are you all right with this, Kirasaka…?” 

Sayaka responded to Kojou’s concerned inquiry by gently moving her hands around his back. 

Kojou and Sayaka’s bodies were still cold and dripping wet. However, their skin, pressed together like this, conveyed gentle warmth to the other. 

“I’m…not afraid of you. Strange, isn’t it…? You being the World’s Mightiest Vampire and all…” 

As Sayaka said that, she gently touched Kojou’s mouth, Kojou’s sharp, tapered fangs… 

The flow of water into the corridor increased in vigor, strongly enough that they might be swept away if they were not embracing each other so strongly. Finally, their two silhouettes merged into one, with Sayaka’s minute pants echoing across the surface of the water. 

5 

“Shit…it just ain’t gonna work.” 

Yaze made ragged breaths as he spat out the remnants of the capsules he’d stuffed down his throat. 

The chaotic vortex of air around him was an aftereffect of having used his ability. 

He’d hurled Yukina’s left-behind Snowdrift Wolf all the way to the Oceanus Grave floating atop the ocean. It was makeshift work only possible with Yaze’s control of the wind, but that much had worked out. 

Yukina had defeated Gardos as he’d hoped. According to Yaze’s calculations, Yukina and the other girls would finally be safe. He hadn’t counted on the Nalakuvera’s control codes being deciphered faster than he expected. 

“Even Himeragi can’t do anything against that ancient weapon. Damn you, Asagi, I risked an adverse reaction to help you, but you just had to work so damned hard…” 

Yaze spat out frail complaints while slumping down to the ground. 

Watching Yaze like that with an amused expression, Vattler, wearing his gaudy three-piece suit, spoke. 

“I see. So as an observer, you are forbidden from direct intervention in combat. This must be quite hard on you…” 

“Only ’cause you got in my way back there. Would’ve gone a little better if you hadn’t.” 

Yaze glanced sideways at Vattler, glaring. Yaze had realized the Black Death Emperor Front had been aboard the Oceanus Grave right after Asagi and the girls had been kidnapped. If he’d been able to leak that intel to the Island Guard, they wouldn’t have fallen for the decoy operation; things would’ve no doubt unfolded much differently. 

“But thanks to that, it’s been quite an amusing sight.” 

Vattler said that without the slightest bit of shame. 

Five Nalakuvera units were being hauled out of the Oceanus Grave just as it pulled alongside Sub-float No. 13. 

Even one of the ancient weapons wielded considerable combat ability, but they had six in total. To Vattler, that surely made it a deeply fascinating battle. This was what he’d come all the way to a small island in the Orient for. 

“Now then, Gardos’s preparations appear to be complete, so perhaps it’s my turn finally?” 

Anticipating a battle to the death as he had not known in some time, Vattler began cheerfully walking forward. 

Yaze made a sarcastic laugh behind his back. 

“Don’t be so sure. Let me say this as the Fourth Primogenitor’s best friend… I don’t think you should expect him to behave according to plan.” 

As if to back up his words, the area around Vattler and Yaze was bathed with a painful, high-frequency ringing. 

What followed was a ferocious tremor that made the entire sub-float creak and tremble. 

“…Oh my,” Vattler murmured with what seemed like admiration. An incredible mass of magical power had emerged from beneath the sub-float, releasing an ominous, indiscriminate surge in all directions. 

It was a wild, violent mass of energy surpassing even Vattler’s fused Beast Vassal. Such a thing did not exist on Itogami Island, with the sole exception of the Beast Vassals of Kojou Akatsuki, the Fourth Primogenitor… 

“There you are, Kojou.” Yaze murmured in apparent satisfaction, closing his eyes, his strength seemingly exhausted. 

An explosive sound gushed out from underground, becoming a shock wave that blasted through the surface of the sub-float, sending a huge amount of debris swirling into the air. Even so, the roar that shook the ground did not vanish. 

The tremor warped the condensation in the atmosphere, creating a shimmer; finally, the shimmer changed into the form of a beast: a giant beast, bearing two horns, with an incandescent, glittering mane… 

Gardos’s conduct was swift and decisive. 

“One of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals! Grigore! I’ll head out in the queen. Hold him off until then.” 

“…Copy that, Lieutenant Colonel.” 

With that final phrase over the radio, the first Nalakuvera went on the move with a roar. It headed toward the twin-horned Beast Vassal as it scattered its crimson beam all about. 

“Wait, Kristof Gardos!” 

Yukina turned her silver spear over and chased after them. With a scornful, annoyed look at her, one of Gardos’s men threw something. It was a metallic cylinder about the size of a tin juice container. 

Yukina was terrified the moment she realized it was a grenade. 

Their hostages, Asagi and Nagisa, had been left behind on the upper deck. If they took that at point-blank range, the defenseless girls would be blown away without a trace. 

Yukina gave up on pursuing Gardos and rushed to cover the girls lying on the deck. Her intent was to use her body as a shield to protect them both from the grenade explosion. 

“…!” 

But Yukina was not struck by the impact she had resigned herself to. 

Far into the distance, a small bit of water spray flew up and scattered over the sea. 

“Eh?” 

Confused, Yukina rose to her feet. There had been no time to pick up the grenade and throw it. There certainly hadn’t been enough time to spare to hurl it that great a distance. 

But the grenade had been moved regardless, as if someone had teleported it along with the space around it… 

“…It would seem you’re all safe, relatively speaking.” 

Right before Yukina’s eyes, empty space formed what seemed like a ripple, with a small woman gently walking out of it—a woman with an elegant dress and a black-frilled parasol. 

“Thanks to your swinging that spear around, the barrier around this ship was torn, so I was finally able to teleport in. I must thank you for shielding my students, Yukina Himeragi.” 

“Ms. Minamiya?!” 

Yukina was struck with surprise as she looked up at the void from which Natsuki had emerged without a sound. 

Spatial teleportation was a type of magic of the utmost difficulty. Even within the Lion King Agency, only a few people could use it on an individual level. She’d never even heard of a user who could employ it with the same ease as entering a neighboring room. 

Her appearance might have been cherubic, but she was apparently more of a monster than Yukina had imagined. 

Perhaps it was to be expected of the Fourth Primogenitor’s homeroom teacher. Her constant haughty attitude toward him wasn’t for nothing. 

“I’ll take them to a safe place. What will you do, transfer student? Coming with us?” Natsuki inquired as she embraced the sleeping Asagi and Nagisa. 

Yukina shook her head as she rose up. 

“I will rendezvous with Akatsuki-senpai. I’m his watcher, after all.” 

“Hmph. Quite the workaholic. Do as you like,” said Natsuki as space bent nearby. She roughly tossed the still-asleep Asagi and Nagisa into it. Then, with a slight hint of mischief, she smiled with a small chuckle. “But your help may not even be needed.” 

“Huh?” 

Leaving that significant-sounding comment behind, Natsuki vanished into thin air. Still confused, she searched for Kojou, who was surely in combat with the Nalakuvera. 

Above the sub-float, Kojou’s Beast Vassal was dominating the damaged ancient weapon: a bicorn with an incandescent mane; a Beast Vassal unknown to Yukina. 

There was only one thing that could mean. Somewhere Yukina couldn’t see, Kojou had sucked on someone’s blood. 

For some reason, thinking of that fact made Yukina distinctly uncomfortable; she was a little perplexed at how irritated she felt. 

But from a rational perspective, of course Yukina was angry at his sucking on another person’s blood off on his own, without even a word to his watcher. Yes, that’s all it is, Yukina told herself. 

It was then that Yukina heard the ringtone for an incoming call beside her. The ringtone was from Asagi’s smartphone. 

Looking at the name displayed on the screen, Yukina answered the call. 

“Hey, young lady. The job’s finished.” 

The voice she heard through the digital link was the artificial voice of Asagi’s partner. 

With Itogami Island’s citywide functions in its grasp, making a call to a cell phone was no great feat. 

“Err…Mogwai, was it?” 

Yukina very timidly called out its name. Mogwai seemed to immediately identify the speaker through analysis of her voice. 

“Oh my. You’re the transfer student, the young lady’s rival, yes?” 

“Eh? Rival?” 

“And Asagi is?” 

“Right now she’s being evacuated to a safe place. She should be asleep.” 

Mogwai made a “hmm” at Yukina’s words, looking like he was contemplating something. For an artificial intelligence, it was quite a refined trick. No doubt his over-the-top appearance mixed with actual subtlety was a reflection of his master’s personality. 

“I see. What will I do? She told me to send it to her cell phone without the terrorists noticing but…” 

“What are you talking about?” 

Yukina raised her voice louder. Asagi had been covertly working on something right under Gardos’s nose. She thought it had to be very important. 

“Well, y’see.” 

Mogwai reluctantly opened his mouth, as if cowed by Yukina’s threatening manner. 

“It’s a command code for the ancient weapon thingy…the fifty-fifth.” 

6 

Kojou and Sayaka were standing together on top of a road on a gently sloped hill. 

It was the first time in a while they could see the bright sun above their heads. The summer sea breeze felt good over their cold, wet bodies. 

Behind Kojou and Sayaka, there was a crater one could mistake for a dried-up lake about three hundred meters in diameter. 

In a concentric circle, the steel plates that covered the sub-float’s surface had caved in; and in the center of that sunken crater, an incandescent bicorn raised an ear-splitting roar. 

“…You’re really something else.” 

Looking back at the crater, Sayaka made a sigh of lament, looking utterly beside herself. 

But her words were tinged with a tone that seemed somehow amused. 

“Certainly that got us back to the surface, but you didn’t have to make that ridiculously huge crater, too. If I hadn’t protected us from the debris with Lustrous Scale’s barrier, we’d both have been buried alive.” 

“If you’ve got a problem with it, tell it to him. I was gonna be happy if it just did somethin’ about the debris blocking the corridor.” Kojou retorted in a voice that oozed mental fatigue. 

Yes, the power of the newly obtained Beast Vassal had blown away the debris in the corridor. 

That’s all Kojou wanted. However, what actually happened was that the Beast Vassal, figuring, If the ceiling’s too high to escape, just lower it, engaged in wholesale destruction. Thanks to the vibration and shock waves, the sub-float’s internal pillars and walls were pulverized, making the ceiling cave in on them. 

Regulus Aurum was a huge heap of trouble, but this wild, twin-horned horse was every bit as much so, perhaps even worse…or perhaps that exceedingly horrid sense was just a figment of his imagination. But right now, he was relying on that ferocity. 

“Yukina really is in danger from being close to someone like you.” 

Sayaka looked up at Kojou as she spoke. There was none of the old sharpness in her voice. She nestled against him as they stood, a smile coming over her face. 

“That’s why, this one time, I’ll take very good care of you. Let’s settle this quickly.” 

Sayaka’s gaze was turned toward the sight of the ancient weapon landing once more. This was the wounded Nalakuvera that Kojou and Sayaka had initially fought against. 

Its form hadn’t changed since the last time they’d seen it. However, its movements were clearly different. They were intelligent movements reflecting the will of a pilot. It used the caved-in terrain as a shield as it launched a crimson beam from its sub-arm. 

On his own, Kojou probably could have never dodged such an unorthodox attack. 

But Sayaka’s sword stopped the speed-of-light attack cold. Taking good care of him as she’d promised, she was acting as Kojou’s shield. 

“Get over here, Beast Vassal Number Nine: ‘Al-Nasl Minium’…!” 

The flesh of the seemingly shimmering Beast Vassal was like an incredible oscillation given form. 

The two horns that thrust out of its head resonated like a tuning fork, spreading about a fiendish, high-frequency vibration. This vibration could reduce boulders to dust, rip through metal. In terms of annoyance to the neighbors, it was without question the most awful of Beast Vassals. 

And the roar of the bicorn became a barrage of shock waves that assailed the Nalakuvera. 

The titanic magical energy possessed by the primogenitor’s Beast Vassal transformed the “oscillation” into a mass of physical energy and pounded it home. It wrecked the weapon of the gods to its core. The armor was shattered, the endoskeleton broken, and the radical change in the air pressure heated the surrounding air thousands of degrees Celsius, scorching the machine. 

Blown several hundred meters away, the Nalakuvera came to a halt. 

“Oh, crap…is the pilot inside…dead?” 

It was Kojou who was beside himself at the bicorn’s merciless attack. 

There had to be a Black Death Emperor Front terrorist inside the Nalakuvera. He didn’t think anyone could survive being blown away that spectacularly, but… 

“A beast man’s life force is too strong to die from just this. I don’t think he’ll be moving for a while, though.” Sayaka shouted right into the unnerved Kojou’s ears. “More importantly, the five units over there! Smash them before pilots can get in!” 

“R-right!” 

Sayaka was pointing at the Nalakuvera that’d been brought out of the Oceanus Grave. Lacking pilots, the units were inert, even now. Like that, it should have been possible to smash them without any difficulty. 

However, when the incandescent bicorn moved to attack the swarm of ancient weapons, its giant body was struck in the side by an equally giant explosion. 

“…The heck?!” 

What halted the advance of the bicorn was a flying disk spewing out flames. It greatly resembled the chakrams used by a certain god of battle from western China. And the chakram that violently crashed into the bicorn exploded, becoming enveloped by a giant whirlwind of fire. 

Apparently the chakram was really like a missile with a warhead packed with explosives. 

Its power was probably equal to or greater than guided missiles for attacking built-up urban areas. It wasn’t enough power to defeat a primogenitor’s Beast Vassal in a single blow, but it certainly was capable of halting the bicorn’s charge. 

The annoyed incandescent Beast Vassal shook off the flames that lingered over its entire body. 

The bicorn glared toward the aft deck of the Oceanus Grave. Something massive ripped apart the beautiful megayacht’s hull and emerged. 

It was covered in the same type of armor as the Nalakuvera, but much, much larger. It had eight legs and three heads. Its torso was swollen like that of a queen ant. Chakrams poked out of gaps in the armor covering the torso, resembling a multiple launch rocket system… 

It launched a massive volley of chakrams toward the menacingly roaring bicorn. 

“Kojou Akatsuki, get down!” 

“Wha…?!” 

Sayaka swung her sword, creating a defensive barrier. The air above the barrier protecting Kojou and Sayaka was filled with exploding flames. The bicorn had released its own oscillation wave to counter the volley of chakrams. The two mighty forces violently clashed overhead, spreading incredible destruction around the entire area. 

As the blast winds buffeted him, Kojou looked up, dumbfounded. 

The damage wasn’t limited to Sub-float No. 13. Having lost their target in the flames of the explosion, several of the chakrams fell on Itogami Island proper. 

One great explosion erupted after another. Black smoke spewed from inside the city. 

“Why…is this happening…?” 

Kojou, weakly falling to one knee, gave into anger and punched the ground hard. 

Nearby residents should have been evacuated by the Island Guard. But that didn’t change the fact damage had occurred. Like a true terrorist group, the Black Death Emperor Front was indiscriminately destroying the lives of completely unrelated people. 

The Queen Nalakuvera, already on the move, gently landed onto the sub-float. 

The remaining five Nalakuvera moved as well. 

Operating in perfect sync, they surrounded Kojou and Sayaka. No doubt they were being commanded by the Queen Nalakuvera. 

So this was the weapons’ true form. Weapons meant to fight as a unit in pursuit of operational objectives. 

“Hmmm…so this is the Nalakuvera’s true might?” 

As Kojou ground his teeth without thinking, his ears detected a man’s voice floating up from somewhere. It was Vattler, casually walking over amid the charcoal-scented smoke. 

“You really pulled a fast one on me, Gardos, keeping a trump card like this under your sleeve. What will you do, Kojou? Perhaps I should take him on in your place?” 

Vattler spoke to Kojou with his white fangs bared as if making a challenge. Even under these circumstances, the snobbish man behaved with a peculiar courtesy. 

Kojou made an unpleasant click of his tongue and glared at him with a hostile look. 

“I told you to butt out of this, Vattler…! I’ve just about had it with everyone just doing whatever they want!” 

As if exceeding its boiling point, Kojou’s body was enveloped in true anger. The flame had been lit, awakening the fighting spirit that lurked within Kojou, making his primogenitor “blood” seethe. 

“I don’t care if it’s against your terrorists or ancient weapons or whatever. From here on, this is my fight!” 

Vattler looked upon the ominous aura that shrouded Kojou with a smile of admiration. 

And, immediately to Kojou’s right, a small silhouette walked forward, as if naturally taking its proper place. 

“…No, senpai. This is our fight.” 

It was a young girl in a school uniform, poising a silver spear. For some reason, there was a pouty look in Yukina Himeragi’s eyes as she looked up at Kojou. 

7 

“H……Himeragi?” 

Kojou called out her name in surprise. Yukina’s eyes remained cold and expressionless as she tilted her head slightly. 

“Yes, what is it?” 

“Er, ah…why are you here?” Kojou inquired, a baseless uneasiness mixed with pangs of guilt. 

She had to have been on the Oceanus Grave with Asagi and Nagisa until just now. Meaning, both of those girls had been evacuated to a safe place, and furthermore, she’d been able to obtain Snowdrift Wolf once more. Good work in such a short time frame. 

“I’m a watcher, after all. Your watcher.” 

For some reason, Yukina placed emphasis on that last part while turning the tip of her spear toward Kojou. Her face remained expressionless as she looked over Kojou, Sayaka, and the incandescent bicorn emerging from the flames of the explosion. 

“So you tamed a new Beast Vassal, senpai.” 

Yukina stated it in a frigid, inflectionless voice. Kojou gulped and nodded, meeting Sayaka’s eyes. 

“Y-yeah. Somehow stuff just happened and it turned out like this.” 

“R-right. It was an unforeseen emergency that arose, a veritable act of God.” 

As Sayaka awkwardly lowered her eyes, her fingertips tugged at the collar of the parka she was wearing. 

Yukina watched her behavior with a somewhat surprised look on her face. 

“I see.” 

They’re both hopeless, she might have said, making a long sigh. She repositioned her silver spear, pointing it toward the Nalakuvera. 

“We will postpone this discussion until later, then. First, we must get closer to them.” 

“R-right.” Let’s do that, let’s do that, nodded Kojou. 

Yukina made another brief sigh, glaring at the giant ancient weapon crawling over the ground as she spoke. 

“Senpai, Kristof Gardos is inside that Queen Nalakuvera.” 

“Queen…so that’s their command unit?” 

Before Kojou even finished his sentence, the queen of the ancient weapons let loose another volley of chakrams. The bicorn’s roar shot them down, filling the air around them with flaming explosions once more. 

The five smaller Nalakuvera followed by scattering crimson beams about. 

Sayaka desperately cut down each incandescent ray as they assailed the area around Kojou and the girls one after another. 

The attacks set the hull of the Oceanus Grave ablaze as an aftereffect; the sub-float Kojou and the others were on made an ominous creak. Little surprise that even the stoutly built outer wall was finally at its limits. 

“Aw, crap, they’re all goin’ nuts…!” 

Kojou groaned as he covered his ears at the incessant sounds of explosions. 

Sayaka was breathing heavily as she yelled out, “Kojou Akatsuki. This is getting worse and worse!” 

“I know that!… Get over here, Regulus Aurum!” 

Kojou raised his right arm up high, summoning his other Beast Vassal. 

The thunderbolts flung about by the lightning lion danced toward the enemy formation, blowing away all five ancient weapons in an instant. 

Then, like a flash, it charged toward the command unit. The Queen Nalakuvera’s giant body plunged into the sea. 

The lion moved to pursue the submerged command unit. 

“Senpai, don’t! If a mass of lightning like that hits the water…!” 

Yukina rushed to restrain Kojou. However, by then, the lightning lion had already completed its dive toward the surface of the sea. Its massive electrical current scattered across the surface of the ocean, with the heat causing a massive explosion of steam. 

“Gwa…!” 

A giant waterspout rose hundreds of meters into the air as the explosion’s tremors shook the sub-float. Kojou faltered from the unexpected impact. Apparently, the nature of Regulus Aurum made it a Beast Vassal impossible to use underwater. 

“Then, I’ll do this…!” 

The chakram attacks having just ceased, the freed-up bicorn howled. Its twin horns resonated, amplifying the oscillation. The spreading impact made the ground shake and caused giant waves to form. And like something out of the Old Testament, the sea parted, with the incandescent Beast Vassal at the center. 

Watching Kojou and the others fighting, Vattler clapped his hands as he made an admiring “ha-ha!’ 

“So you parted the sea, Kojou! As expected of a Fourth Primogenitor Beast Vassal. It’s quite a lovely spectacle.” 

“This ain’t some pony show!” 

Tossing an angry shout back at the young nobleman’s innocent act, Kojou continued with more ferocious attacks. The bicorn pounded shock wave bullets toward the giant body of the now-exposed Queen Nalakuvera. They collided with the dry bottom of the sea, burying over half of the large ancient weapon and holding it in place. 

The parted sea returned to its former self, with the violent waves covering up the Queen Nalakuvera. 

“Did we get it…?” Kojou muttered in a languid tone. Controlling two Beast Vassals at once was of course mentally draining. If he let up for one second with these two, they could go berserk at any time. 

But Sayaka sharply scolded the half-relieved Kojou. 

“Not yet, Kojou Akatsuki!” 

Her sword flashed, protecting Kojou from a crimson beam from below. 

The five Nalakuvera that he thought Regulus Aurum had destroyed were on the move again. And on the opposite side, the first unit, destroyed by the bicorn, was getting up, its body still scorched all over. 

“Self-repairing…?! They can come back even from that?!” 

“That’s not all. They altered their damaged armor’s composition to better resist vibrations and impacts. They analyzed your attacks and took countermeasures against them.” 

Sayaka assessed the situation with a calm expression. It was the same as when it had blocked her sword dance. Once sustaining an enemy attack, it learned and altered itself to resist that attack. 

Furthermore, it seemed they were able to instantly trade information to other Nalakuvera units over a joint network. Even if one Nalakuvera was put out of the fight, the other units had already girded themselves against the same attack. And through self-repair of destroyed units, even they returned to the front lines. 

“So the reason they resisted Regulus Aurum’s attack is because they learned it already. Getting stronger from taking hits…how the hell do you beat a thing like that?” 

Kojou realized he felt overwhelmed. No matter how many he destroyed, they regenerated; furthermore, the more one attacked them, the stronger the weapons became. Perhaps they truly did have the power to defeat the primogenitors. 

But as unease assaulted Kojou, Yukina looked up at him and made a gentle smile. 

“No, senpai. It’s all right—we will win this.” 

As she spoke, she brought out a small light purple smartphone. 

She called out to the artificial intelligence that looked like a teddy bear floating on the LCD screen. 

“…Isn’t that so, Mogwai?” 

“Oh yeah. The counterattack’s going all according to Li’l Miss Asagi’s plans.” 

“Asagi’s…?” 

Kojou was beside himself at the mention of the unexpected name. What could Asagi, supposedly a helpless high school girl, do against an invincible ancient weapon? 

“While Aiba was analyzing the Nalakuvera’s command codes, she was secretly putting together a new command code.” 

“It’s a type of computer virus…corrupting the Nalakuvera self-repair function so that they destroy themselves. She calls it, ‘The Final Words.’” 

“A virus… Was it something easy to make?” 

Of course, Kojou was well aware that Asagi was a brilliant programmer. 

However, the opponent wasn’t a personal computer or a game machine. It was a weapon of the gods, not something created by man. For her to have analyzed stone tablets that had resisted the efforts of scholars all over the world and used their weaknesses to plant a virus on the side… 

The word genius seemed inadequate to describe such jury-rigging. This was complete insanity. 

“I’d say that young lady’s the only one who could have done it… The terrorists’ luck ran out when they angered the Cyber Empress. Make sure you don’t get too far on the young lady’s bad side. Ku-ku-ku…” 

Mogwai spoke in what seemed like a teasing tone. Kojou silently shrugged his shoulders. 

“So, what are we supposed to do, Himeragi?” 

“The Nalakuvera are audio controlled. If we get inside the Queen Nalakuvera and use the audio file Aiba made, it should put a stop to all of them.” 

As she spoke, Yukina shifted her gaze to the sea. The large ancient weapon, which should have been at the bottom of the sea, was just surfacing after finishing its own self-repairing. 

“So get inside the big one… Uh, how? They’ll cut us to pieces. If we could just stop ’em from moving for a bit…” 

Kojou groaned as his despairing premonition ate at him. Kojou’s two Beast Vassals had already moved to protect them. They had their paws and hooves full defending against a storm of descending chakrams and ceaseless large-caliber laser fire. 

The Beast Vassals’ attacks would have little effect now that the Nalakuvera had learned them. 

For the moment, they were still pushing the enemy back with overwhelming brute force, but that superiority surely wouldn’t last for long. 

Kojou thought that he and the girls approaching the Queen Nalakuvera in the flesh under these circumstances was nothing less than suicide. 

If they could destroy them even one more time, making an opening while they regenerated, they could manage, but… 

Just as Kojou ground his teeth over his own powerlessness… 

“I’ll pin down the Nalakuvera, Yukina.” 

Sayaka walked forward, her long, beautiful hair swaying behind her. 

“Kirasaka?” 

“You understand, Kojou Akatsuki? If they evolve according to our attacks, we have only one chance at this. If Yukina and I are holding you back, we’ll all burn to a crisp.” 

Gripping her sword with her left hand, Sayaka thrust it forward. 

The silver sword blade suddenly split to the front and back. Using the part joined to the hilt as a fulcrum, half of the split blades turned 180 degrees. Pulling a silver bowstring taut, it changed form into an entirely new weapon. 

“…A bow?!” 

Kojou let out a voice of admiration. Sayaka’s sword was now transformed into a beautifully arched, silver bow. It had the modern, occidental shape of a recurve bow. 

Lifting up her own skirt, she drew a metal dart from a leather holster wrapped around her thigh. 

“Der Freischötz. This is Lustrous Scale’s true form.…” 

In one smooth, beautiful motion, she notched an arrow and powerfully drew the bow. 

“…I, Dancer of the Lion, Archer of the High God, beseech thee.” 

A crystal-clear chant flowed out from Sayaka’s lips. 

The ritual energy welling up in her body further amplified the bow’s power as she fired the silver arrow at the heavens. 

Sayaka had said Lustrous Scale had two abilities. The first was to nullify physical attacks with an absolute defensive barrier. If that was so, what was the other…? 

“Most Brilliant Flaming Horse, Illustrious Kirin, He Who Governs Heavenly Thunder, pierce these evil spirits with thy wrath…!” 

Sayaka loosed her silver arrow. 

Soaring with a shrill sound as it split the air, what seemed like a voice of lament that morphed into an ominous thunderclap. This high-pitched sound was the true ability of Der Freischötz, the Cursed Magic Bow. 

“…Sound?!” 

Kojou, too, realized what calamity the magic bullet had wrought. The arrow Sayaka had loosed was not aimed at the Nalakuvera. The silver arrow was in actuality a whistling arrow, a ritual arrow releasing a great sound to banish demons. 

Sayaka had chanted in a ritual as she had used the magic bullet. The cry of the whistling arrow enveloped the entire battlefield in its spell, drawing a giant, invisible magic circle over a kilometer in radius. 

Then, the enormous miasma that spewed forth poured over the ancient weapons, neutralizing their mechanical functions. 

“Senpai!” 

Yukina’s silver spear flashed out as she sprinted. 

The miasma was so grand that even weapons of the gods could not resist it. The life of any normal human bathed in it was surely forfeit. It was unclear if even vampires could withstand it. But Yukina’s spear, able to slice apart any magical power, neutralized the miasma. 

Kojou ran as well, chasing after her. They had one target: the Queen Nalakuvera. 

But it had already learned the attacks of Kojou’s Beast Vassals. Then what should he do…? 

“C’mon over…Regulus Aurum! Al-Nasl Minium!” 

That instant, the sight of Vattler fusing his two Beast Vassals together rushed up from the back of Kojou’s mind. 

As things stood, Kojou was incapable of such a skillful feat. But if it was a simple simultaneous attack… 

The lightning lion and incandescent bicorn rose up, withstanding the miasma, and attacked the Queen Nalakuvera. It was not lightning. It was not a shock wave. It was an enormous, explosive pressure spawned by the simultaneous attacks from the left and right. That was Kojou’s goal. 

Having not learned this attack, even that weapon of the gods could not endure it. With nowhere to run, the super-high pressure smashed the huge ancient weapon’s armor, loudly crushing its interior frame. 

Thanks to the queen being rendered inoperative, the small Nalakuvera all around them became inert as well. 

It was not a mortal blow. But until it finished repairing itself, they were nothing more than piles of junk. 

“…Ha-ha-ha, war is so much fun, Sword Shaman!” 

Kojou and Yukina heard the voice of Gardos from above them. The bestialized aged officer opened the Queen Nalakuvera’s cockpit, emerging with his body covered in blood. 

No doubt he meant to fight them even in the flesh. Gardos drew his knife with his left hand. 

As the madness of battle held him in its grip, Yukina looked up at him and shook her head, as if pitying him. 

“This is not a war. You are a mere common criminal. Someone like you without a country to protect has no right to speak about war!” 

Yukina’s murmur made Gardos’s smile twitch. Kojou realized that a single sentence from a young, “helpless” girl had engraved decisive defeat upon the bottom of the aged officer’s heart. 

Roaring in rage, Gardos charged toward Yukina. 

Yukina did not even poise her spear, making but the slightest movement of her body. 

A soaring, wind-ripping arrow pierced Gardos’s left shoulder, staggering him. Of course, Sayaka had fired the arrow. And furthermore: 

“…It’s over, old man!” 

Kojou powerfully rammed his fist into Gardos’s wide-open belly. 

Kojou punched him again. And again. For having abducted Asagi and Nagisa. And one more for Yukina. 

Finally, Gardos’s tall frame gently fell to the ground, his strength seemingly exhausted. 

The Beast Vassals, too, had finally reached the limits of their robust constitutions. 

“Break thyself, Nalakuvera.” 

Yukina, climbing into the now-empty cockpit, played the audio file Asagi had provided. 

Leaving sounds like frail, lamenting voices behind, all of the ancient weapons fell to the ground like rotted trees. 

Unable to withstand the impacts of the falls, cracks ran all across the Nalakuvera armor. They resembled heavily eroded boulders, finally making a great sound as their giant bodies cracked open. It was the work of the program Asagi had made. 

Sending their self-repair function into berserk, the Nalakuvera had dismantled themselves. Finally, all of the ancient weapons crumbled to dust, carried by the wind into the sea, vanishing. 

The entire process had taken less than five minutes. 

“…Got any problem with this, Vattler?” 

Kojou languidly looked back as he asked his question. The young aristocrat of the Warlord’s Empire, who hadn’t even broken a sweat, had just come close, clapping his hands with a “bravo!” 

“Ahh, not at all. You have quite satisfied me, Kojou. I shall not be bored for some time, I think.” 

“Ah?” 

Kojou’s bloodlust rose at his implication that when he did get bored again, he’d kick up a brand-new incident. 

Vattler made no sign of noticing as he approached the fallen Gardos. 

“Fine if I take the Black Death Emperor Front members into custody? They shall be punished according to the laws of the Warlord’s Empire. They sunk my ship after all; I would feel amiss if I did not do at least that much.” 

“…Do as you like.” 

Kojou acknowledged Vattler’s egotistical statement with an annoyed wave of his hand. If Kojou refused, Vattler would just demand the Japanese government extradite the criminals itself. If he wanted to deal with the fallout, it was best to leave it all in his hands. 

Having lost all of the Nalakuvera, the Black Death Emperor Front no longer posed any threat. For Kojou and the others, their duty was done. 

“Oh yes. Do not be concerned, they shall not be executed. I would find it so boring to kill a mighty foe trying to kill me; they’re quite precious.” 

As Vattler dropped that disturbing statement just before leaving, Kojou felt his headache increasing that much more. 

Apparently that man had learned absolutely nothing. He’d surely search for another enemy to come for his head and kick up a similar incident someday. All Kojou could do was pray he wouldn’t be caught up in it. 

And there was one more reason Kojou’s spirit was weighed down… 

“So you sucked on Sayaka’s blood, didn’t you, senpai?” 

Yukina looked up at Kojou as she inquired, her eyes like a very deep lake. 

Kojou’s breath caught. This was the situation he was most afraid of. In the first place, as Kojou’s watcher, Yukina had been granted the authority to eliminate Kojou according to her own judgment. 

He’d sucked on her friend’s blood where Yukina couldn’t see. It would be natural if Yukina flew into a rage over it. He’d hoped if he said nothing that maybe it wouldn’t come out, but unsurprisingly, that hope was in vain. 

“Ah, er… No, that’s ah, well…” 

“An emergency situation. Yes, it was an emergency situation, Yukina.” 

Side by side, Kojou and Sayaka desperately made excuses. Yukina was expressionless as she looked them over. 

“Is that so?” 

“That’s right. We were buried underground with debris plugging the exit with water coming in on us.” 

Yukina’s unexpectedly calm reaction unnerved Kojou and Sayaka even further. 

“R-right. At that rate, I thought we were gonna drown underground. Feeling we should keep it secret from you was just…” 

“Why are both of you so nervous?” Yukina asked them in a calm, composed tone of voice. Then, Yukina unexpectedly shifted her gaze toward Sayaka. 

“Come to think of it, Sayaka, that’s senpai’s parka, isn’t it.” 

Sayaka made a “hiuu” sound as her entire body froze. 

“You’re wrong, Yukina. This man suddenly forced his parka on me against my will…” 

“Now hold on,” Kojou said loudly in her direction. 

“I didn’t have to work that hard to get it onto you! And didn’t you like getting the royal princess treatment?!” 

“You idiot! Why are you saying something like that now?!” 

With a sound of annoyance, Sayaka began smacking Kojou’s forehead. Yukina stared for a while as both engaged in what could only be thought of as a lover’s quarrel. 

“I’m glad both of you are getting along so well. Though I’d be quite upset if you’d sucked on Sayaka’s blood against her will, senpai.” 

Finally, she made a very deep sigh. Kojou awkwardly turned his head and looked at Yukina. 

“Then…you’re not angry now…right?” 

“No. Not at all. Not even a little.” 

Yukina made a strained smile. Seeing it, Sayaka was so relieved that she limply slumped to the ground. 

It was a show of weakness that made her earlier valiant fighting seem like a mirage. As Sayaka clung to her, saying “I’m so glad,” Yukina gently petted her head, going “There, there.” 

When, seeing the two of them so intimate, Kojou breathed a sigh of relief, he suddenly met Yukina’s eyes as she looked straight at him. Yukina had a pretty grin on her face as she spoke. 

“…It’s not as if I’m thinking whatsoever about how senpai called me cute when he sucked on my blood!”