Strike the Blood - Volume 20 - Chapter 4.5

5

Kojou and the others were sprinting up the emergency stairs, heading to the tenth aboveground floor of Keystone Gate.

The elevators and escalators were out of commission and considering the threat of being sniped by Beast Vassals, they couldn’t have Glenda airlift them, either. In the end, they’d had no choice left but to hoof it.

“Kojou Akatsuki! Who was that girl? And why was she k-kissing you…?!”

It was around when they’d climbed as far as the eighth floor that Sayaka, who’d maintained her silence to that point, suddenly asked Kojou to explain. Her expression was tinged with an air of anger that threw him off.

“Why are you upset?”

“F-fghh!!”

It was easy to tell that Sayaka was flustered. She must never have even dreamed her question might be thrown right back in her face.

Wearing an expression that indicated he found this tiresome, he glanced back at her.

“Besides, a kiss like that is basically a good luck charm.”

“If anything goes for good-luck charms, how about I slit open your belly and examine your entrails this very moment?!”

“What kind of good-luck charm is that?! That’s scary! Himeragi, say something to her, please.”

Kojou stared at Sayaka, baffled as to why she’d blown up on him for some reason.

“I believe she has a point.”

However, the very woman he’d sought aid from glared back at him with an even more sour expression than Sayaka’s.

“Senpai, what are you doing here at Keystone Gate to begin with? Do you understand the position you’re in? What did you plan on doing if your recklessness started up the Blazing Banquet?”

“If you wanna whine, send your complaints to Cas. She’s the one who headed into Keystone Gate all alone, so I had to follow her, all right? And then those Unknowns came out on top of everything…”

“Would you still speak the same way if Miss Avrora’s sacrifice had been for nothing?”

Yukina asked this of Kojou reproachfully.

It was then that he finally realized why she was angry. He had thought Yukina was pouting because he’d put rescuing Shizuri over her, but it wasn’t that at all.

In a sense, Shizuri falling into peril after charging into Keystone Gate was her reaping what she’d sown.

If Kojou had gone on a rampage to rescue her and triggered the banquet as a result, everything would be rendered meaningless: Shizuri’s reckless actions to bring the Electoral War to an end all by herself, Yukina’s decision to stop the banquet from activating even if it took killing Avrora, and even Avrora’s very existence.

Kojou hung his head like a puppy being scolded by his master, weakly and haltingly trying to justify himself.

“With Avrora, I figured since you were there, it’d turn out all right.”

“Eh…?”

Yukina’s eyes swayed in shock. She clutched her chest, unable to endure her own feelings of guilt.

“B-but I went in intent on…killing Miss Avrora…”

“That may have been what Professor Kitty and the others told you to do, but no way you were gonna do that, right, Himeragi? Hey, Kirasaka. You think so, too, right?”

“Eh? W-well, yes. On occasion you say something nice, Kojou Akatsuki.”

With the conversation suddenly tossed to her, Sayaka nodded proudly multiple times as if to say, Yeah, yeah.

Yukina’s cheeks reddened as she lowered her face, a conflicted expression hovering over it for a time. But finally, she lifted her head enthusiastically, her spirits restored.

“Be careful, senpai. The Blood has likely abducted Avrora so that—”

“I get it. So I can’t consume her, right?”

He twisted his lips into a painful grimace.

“Yes. The Blood yearns for the Blazing Banquet to come to fruition.”

“Hearing that makes me rest easier. At the very least, we don’t have to worry about Avrora’s safety unless it comes to that.”

“Yes…”

Yukina raised her eyebrows, slightly surprised. The Blood wouldn’t harm Avrora in any way since he had a reason not to. It didn’t change the fact that he’d abducted her to drive Kojou into a corner, but the situation wasn’t all bad, either.

“It’s all right. The Blazing Banquet won’t happen. I won’t let Avrora fade away.”

Kojou smiled as he looked straight at Yukina. His invigorated, smiling face breaking through from parts unknown frightened her for no discernible reason, causing her to plant her feet. Kojou continued regardless.

“But if the time comes that my Beast Vassals go berserk, please, Himeragi. Kill me.”

“Senpai…?!”

“You’re the only one who can, right? If it’s that or living on after stealing the memories from Nagisa and Yaze and everyone at school, I’d rather you do me in. So please.”

His laid-back request left her speechless.

The Lion King Agency had dispatched her to be the Fourth Primogenitor’s watcher. If he caused a large-scale sorcerous disaster, it was her duty to destroy him before things got out of hand.

Kojou was just reinforcing that fact. He wasn’t saying anything the slightest bit strange.

But she couldn’t bring herself to nod at his plea.

“…I… I…”

The silver spear trembled in her hands as her voice caught in her throat.

Then, before Yukina could reply, they heard a quiet voice from above.

“Do not be concerned, Yukina Himeragi. I shall allow no such thing.”

Yukina gasped and looked up. Sayaka reflexively held her sword at the ready.

Sharpening his gaze, Kojou stared up in the direction of the voice’s echo.

Atop a long stairwell, which led to the Keystone Gate’s uppermost corridor, they saw a golden-haired boy.

His outward age was about ten, give or take. He’d folded back the cuffs of the tailcoat of mismatched size, but it was a poor fit to a comical degree. However, both of his blue eyes glowed like flames.

“The Blood…!”

Yukina turned her spear toward the boy.

“You’ve gotten a lot smaller since the last time I saw you.”

Kojou ascended the stairs slowly to reach the same floor where the boy was.

Behind The Blood was a mass of ice about two meters in height.

Sleeping inside that transparent chunk of ice was Avrora. He’d no doubt frozen her over to seal her, averting even the remotest possibility she might unleash the Beast Vassal within. It burned Kojou on the inside, but the boy’s method wasn’t wrong so far as ensuring Avrora’s safety was concerned.

“Gotta say, you look pretty horrible there. If you give back Avrora right now and say you’re sorry, I’ll spare you the spanking?”

Kojou provocatively curled up the corners of his lips as he gazed at The Blood’s wounded form.

“Unfortunately, I cannot do that. I have no reason to give up on the banquet. As you can see, I am a failed model with little life span remaining.”

The vampire boy made a self-deprecating smile. The Blood had lost his right arm, and there was no sign of it growing back. He no longer had enough “negative life force” remaining to repair all the damage done to him. Even as they spoke, demonic energy was vanishing from his body, accelerating his lethal age-regression process.

“But do you not also have little time left, Kojou Akatsuki? Just how long can you keep your Beast Vassals from running amok in your current condition?”

His calm assertion brought a pained smile out of Kojou.

Even if The Blood had little life span remaining, his abilities were on par with Kojou’s—no, the fact he had twelve Beast Vassals in his possession no doubt put him on top. If he fought The Blood like that, it was highly likely Kojou’s Beast Vassals would begin running amok as they sought even greater demonic energy than The Blood’s.

“I get it… The game is this: Do you use up all your life span first, or do I hit my limit first? I don’t mind things being simple like that.”

“What a coincidence. Neither do I.”

The Blood jeered in reply.

“But are you truly satisfied with this? Even if you defeat me, you’ll be forced to annihilate Dodekatos in order to prevent the Blazing Banquet.”

“Well…who knows about that?”

Kojou shook his head evasively. The Blood knit his brows with displeasure. His diction was thrown off ever so slightly.

“The Electoral War and contact with the other primogenitors are nothing more than the triggers. Even if you see this fight through, sooner or later, you will end up consuming the Twelfth, Avrora! Surely you realize this!”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“Kojou Akatsuki…!”

Unbridled ire radiated from The Blood’s entire body.

“And yet, you duel me even so, Kojou Akatsuki—for the sake of annihilating my pitiable elder sister! Then I shall stop you using all the remaining power that I possess!”

“—No, I won’t let you!”

Yukina raced past Kojou, charging toward The Blood.

If he only needed to stop the Electoral War, Kojou didn’t need to fight. All she had to do was defeat The Blood before Kojou’s Beast Vassals began going berserk. With her Snowdrift Wolf and Paper Noise ability, it was by no means impossible.

She activated Stillness—time that should not have existed.

But her privilege of absolute initiative attack was interrupted in a most unexpected manner.

When she deployed the technique, another Stillness user intervened.

“Oh, no you don’t.”

“?!”

A woman suddenly appeared before Yukina and blocked her spear with the silver pieces she wore over her fists.

The woman made a leering smirk at her surprised opponent. She was beautiful; gorgeous, in fact. She had a sunny smile that seemed as radiant as the sun itself.

“I am your opponent.”

“Miss…Zana Lashka?!”

Yukina exclaimed this as she realized the woman’s identity. With Stillness foiled and the time that should never have existed erased, she returned to the normal flow of time. Kojou and Sayaka didn’t understand what had happened yet. They were simply taken aback by the arresting woman’s sudden appearance.

“The Blood Servant of the First Primogenitor is…?! Why…?!”

Yukina readjusted her lance and stepped backward.

Even as she posed the question, however, she already knew the answer.

The First Primogenitor was staying on Itogami Island to participate in the Electoral War. It would inconvenience him if The Blood lost and the Electoral War came to an end. Zana no doubt had the First Primogenitor’s intentions first in mind when she lent The Blood her aid.

Of course, Yukina couldn’t dismiss the possibility this was purely Zana’s whim. She didn’t think she’d serve as the “companion” of a vampire primogenitor if her personality wasn’t at least selfish and egotistical.

“Yukina! Get down!”

To support her friend, Sayaka unleashed a slicing attack toward Zana’s footing. She was trying to cut right through the floor to pound the woman into the level below them.

Zana, however, simply lashed out with the metal knuckles on her right hand to completely erase Sayaka’s technique.

“She nullified the…pseudo-spatial severing?!”

“Divine Oscillation Effect…! How…?!”

Zana’s absurdly overwhelming might left both girls shaken. The woman was toying with Snowdrift Wolf and Lustrous Scale—divine armaments from the Lion King Agency’s secret trove—with nothing more than simple-looking metal knuckles.

“Oh nooo, you’re really cute, too…like.”

Brushing back her vibrant red hair that approached gold, Zana Lashka gave her lips a little lick. A beautiful smile came over her as she beckoned Yukina and Sayaka condescendingly.

“I’ll take you both on. Now let’s dance.”