Strike the Blood - Volume 21 - Chapter 2.3

3

“Is it really all right for you to not sleep?”

A worried look passed over Yukina’s face as she addressed Kojou, who was tottering as the midday sun poured down upon him. The two were walking on a coastal path about ten minutes from their apartment building. There were no prominent buildings in sight; the only thing in front of them was a deserted artificial isle undergoing expansion.

“It’s not like I can sleep smack-dab in the middle of a residential district. There’s no telling when the Beast Vassals are gonna start going haywire…”

Kojou pressed his right hand to his chest as he gave that forlorn reply. The wound Zana had left when she plunged the knife into him had closed, but his physical condition was only getting worse. Additionally, the strange sensation he felt—akin to magma coursing through his veins—was growing stronger with time.

Kojou’s body was trying to reject the foreign substances poured into it. In other words, the twelve black Beast Vassals left behind by The Blood were raging around, demanding he let them out.

For the time being, Kojou was just managing to keep them at bay, probably due to the seal Zana had left behind, but he didn’t know how long that would hold. He couldn’t even conceive of how much damage they’d do if they broke from his control and began going on a rampage. That was why he’d relocated to as remote a place as possible, small comfort that it was.

“I sent a shikigami to Master. Aid shall come soon enough. Can you contact Aiba?”

Yukina spoke in a serious tone as she lent Kojou her shoulder. He shook his head in response, seemingly mocking himself as he took the remnants of what used to be a smartphone from the pockets of his parka.

“If I knew this was gonna happen, I’d at least have gotten a spare phone.”

Maybe it was the fight with The Blood, maybe it was damage sustained from combat prior to that, but Kojou’s smartphone had long been damaged past the point of usability. The screen and its contents were in tatters. Even if it had been physically whole, no doubt its batteries would have been dry either way. He hadn’t had any chance to charge his phone since getting caught up in the Electoral War. Of course, he could use the phone in his apartment, but Kojou wasn’t diligent enough to have memorized Asagi’s contact information.

“How is your physical condition?”

Yukina had sighed once to get her spirits back in order before asking this of Kojou. He listlessly shook his head.

“Figures I wouldn’t be in tip-top shape. To be honest, I’m not really sure how I’m still alive.”

It had only been one short hour since Zana had stabbed him in the chest with a knife, forcing the Beast Vassals of his onetime foe into his system. If anything, it’d be far crazier if he could have shrugged all that off.

“More to the point,” said Kojou, glancing back at Yukina. “What do you think of what the First Primogenitor said back there? I mean, about vampire power still being left in me?”

“It adds up at the very least. If it is a curse of the gods that truly makes up a vampire—vampiric factors, if you will—then the current Avrora certainly should have inherited hers from Miss Hektos rather than you.”

“So it wouldn’t be weird if the factors Avrora handed down are still inside me, then…”

Kojou nodded. It was the answer he’d expected.

Avrora had been born not as a demon but as an artificial vampire, probably created along the same lines as a homunculus. In other words, her vampiric factors had been implanted after the fact. That was what had enabled her to hand them to Kojou, which was otherwise impossible. Moreover, it seemed that the factors she’d given Kojou were still right there inside of him.

“So the problem is whether the factors or whatever still in me can keep The Blood’s Beast Vassals at bay, huh?”

“That’s…”

Yukina lowered her eyes a little as she hesitated. Kojou wasn’t hanging on her answer because the reply to his question was obvious. It was impossible for him to control The Blood’s Beast Vassals.

After all, it had taken over half a year for him to get the Beast Vassals he’d inherited from Avrora into usable condition. Considering that, he didn’t think he could immediately do the same with a fresh batch of twelve. On top of that, Kojou had been locked in mortal combat with the Beast Vassals’ prior host a mere half a day earlier.

Standing beside Kojou as he took in the hopelessness of the situation, Yukina mulled something over. She then tugged on the sleeve of Kojou’s parka.

“Um, ah… Senpai, come with me for a moment.”

“Himeragi…?”

A questioning look came over Kojou’s face as he went with Yukina down to the shore. Here, the gigafloat’s foundation was bare. This was a desolate artificial coastline still in mid-construction.

Concealing them in the shadow of a breakwater, Yukina made sure no one else was in sight before undoing the ribbon on her chest. She proceeded to unbutton her school uniform, revealing her light pastel-colored bra.

“Wh-what do you think?”

Yukina’s cheeks ran bright red as she inquired with upturned eyes. Kojou gazed at her strange, sudden pose with a stunned expression.

“Think…? Ahhh… Mm, I think it’s cute. Looks pretty good on you, I guess?”

Even as his own voice went somewhat shrill, Kojou strenuously picked the most harmless words he could muster. Yukina apparently hadn’t anticipated his reply based on how her eyes widened with some degree of confusion.

“L-looks good on… Just what are you speaking about?!”

“Hey, you’re the one who showed me your bra out of the blue?!”

“I—I am not referring to that! I am trying to say it is fine to drink my blood!”

Yukina covered up her exposed breasts with both hands and angrily shouted at him for some reason. You’re the one who showed them to me, thought Kojou as he gazed up at the sky.

“Ahhh, that…”

“Wh-what? Are you saying I am no longer a worthy object of your vampiric desires?!”

“No, it’s not that. It ain’t that at all. Look.”

Kojou put a finger to his own lips and pulled them straight to the side. His exposed canine teeth were those of a normal human; they weren’t peculiar in the slightest.

“I don’t know much about this factor stuff, but right now, I’m closer to a normal human being than a vampire, so I don’t think vampiric urges are gonna happen to begin with.”

“Ah…”

Yukina was stunned in the face of Kojou’s atypically sensible assertion. Her cheeks reddened further as her delicate shoulders bashfully trembled.

“Th-then why did I have to do something so embarrassing…?”

Covering her face with both hands, Yukina hunched her back like she was despondent. The tips of her ears poking through her hair were deep crimson in the sun.

Kojou somehow felt responsible for this as he gazed at the guitar case on her back. He knitted his brows before suddenly realizing that something was odd.

“…Weird.”

“W-weird?! So you really don’t think my underwear looks good on me?”

Yukina turned back toward Kojou with a forceful glare. How’d it turn into that? thought Kojou with a sigh.

“Not that. I mean this Blood Servant talk!”

“Eh?”

“That First Primogenitor geezer said I’ll be able to tame The Blood’s Beast Vassals if I get twelve Blood Servants together, right?”

“Yes.”

“But if I can’t drink blood right now, how am I supposed to get more of them?”

“Ah…”

Yukina’s expression hardened when she realized what Kojou was actually worried about.

To create a Blood Servant, a vampire needed to open a powerful, tangible spiritual pathway between master and servant. Blood and flesh were the catalysts for this. The servant offered the vampire her blood, and in recompense, the vampire master-to-be granted her a piece of his flesh.

The silver-colored chain Zana had provided her functioned as a substitute for Kojou’s body. If fashioned into something that was always against the wearer’s flesh, like a ring, it would serve well enough as a magical catalyst.

After that, Kojou could complete the spiritual pathway by drinking his new servant’s blood. But if he couldn’t engage in vampiric acts in the first place, however—

“I-it’s possible that the First Primogenitor did not anticipate this situation…”

Yukina lowered her voice, murmuring with concern.

“Coming from them, it is…”

Kojou covered his eyes and groaned. Even to the First Primogenitor, the world’s oldest vampire, seeing a human with vampiric factors alone must have been a first. Little wonder that he hadn’t anticipated Kojou losing his ability to drink blood.

If that hypothesis was on the mark, the situation Kojou and Yukina were in had become far graver. This was because they had no way of assembling the twelve Blood Servants required to bring The Blood’s Beast Vassals under control.

“What to do?” Kojou murmured under his breath.

His heart leaped with a heavy thump, as though mocking his anguished concerns.

Kojou’s vision constricted and reddened as an agonizing scream escaped his throat. Vile, destructive impulses welled up within him, and his breathing grew ragged. He could feel vast demonic energy swirling within the deepest recesses of his body.

“Senpai…?!”

Realizing something was wrong with Kojou, Yukina stood up without even putting her disheveled uniform back in order.

“Himeragi…the spear…!”

Desperately hanging on to his thinning consciousness, Kojou shouted out to Yukina. Suddenly, she blinked hard, as though she couldn’t understand what he was trying to tell her.

“Huh?”

“Get it ready! Hurry!”

“Y-yes!”

Overwhelmed by Kojou’s intensity, Yukina drew her silver spear. The lance extended to its full length with a familiar metallic sound, and a pale glow enveloped its blades.

Kojou turned toward the main blade and slammed his right arm into it.

“Senpai! What in the world are you…?!”

Yukina let out a brief yelp. Her spear had passed through his right wrist, its bloody blade thrust near his elbow. Though she tried to pull it out an instant later, she stopped before she had the chance to finish. That was because Kojou’s arm, poking out of what remained of his parka, had morphed into a grotesque form.

“Your arm…!”

“So this is the power of that chick’s blood…!”

Kojou spat out his words as he glared with disgust at his repulsively transformed right limb.

There was no longer anything remotely human about it. Yet it also differed from the arm of any demon Kojou was familiar with. If he had to compare it to something, it most closely resembled the limb of a dragon.

Glossy scales resembling metal armor now composed the resilient flesh of his arm, and his fingers had become talons as sharp as knives. Inside his newly enlarged limb pulsed raging, high-intensity demonic energy. It was so dense that it would have torn his body to shreds had he not gained the resilient constitution of a dragon.

“Zana’s blood will protect your flesh for a little while—”

That was what the First Primogenitor had told Kojou. He’d probably anticipated that Kojou would transform like this.

“Beast Vassal demonic energy is…altering your physiology…?!”

As she kept her grip on the silver spear, Yukina exclaimed this. The scales covering Kojou’s arm were pitch-black—the same color as The Blood’s Beast Vassals. The demonic energy they gave off was beginning to leak out against his will. Had the blood Zana bequeathed him not changed the composition of his flesh, Kojou’s body would have long burst apart, unable to withstand the surging demonic energy.

This wouldn’t last for long, though. If he couldn’t control the Beast Vassals, he would eventually hit his breaking point.

“Himeragi! Kill me with the Beast Vassals! If they go haywire, this island will get blown away!”

“Wh…what are you saying?! I cannot possibly do that, senpai! You only just regained your humanity after all this time…!”

Yukina promptly rejected his plea and the tragic resolve therein, but Kojou would not yield. As the host of the Beast Vassals, he knew better than anyone how close they were to rampaging.

“Please. There’s no more time… I can’t…hold them back anymore…!”

“Ghhh…”

Yukina’s hands trembled as she gripped her spear. She shook her head to banish her hesitance, then quietly regulated her breathing. All emotion vanished from her open eyes as the dazzling glow of spiritual essence enveloped her small form.

“Himeragi!”

“I will stop the Beast Vassals! If I deploy a D.O.E. barrier with Snowdrift Wolf—”

“Stop! Are you trying to do the job of twelve spirit mediums all by yourself?!”

Kojou’s expression twisted in desperation. The unconstrained spiritual energy Yukina was releasing enveloped him like wings. She was trying to counteract the demonic energy gushing out from the Beast Vassals to stop them from running amok.

“It’s no good! Keep using that power, and you’ll vanish before I do…!”

Pulling his right arm back from the spear, Kojou tried to thrust Yukina away.

At that moment, Yukina was not the Blood Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor. She couldn’t use Kojou’s demonic energy to offset and neutralize her spiritual energy. Consequently, Yukina’s spiritual energy, boosted by Snowdrift Wolf past all human limits, was purifying her own flesh, morphing her into a higher-dimensional being. In mysticism, this was known as taking flight to the Land of the Immortals—or to put it more crudely, angelification. It meant Yukina would vanish from the mortal realm.

Yukina knew this full well, yet she did not cease her release of spiritual energy.

“Senpai, what will happen to Miss Avrora if you die? Weren’t you going to bring her back…?”

Yukina gave a fleeting smile, her spear still trained on Kojou. As the number of wings she deployed increased, she continued to speak, seemingly for her own benefit as much as his.

“It will be all right. I am not a good enough girl to become an angel so easily.”

“Guh…”

“Quit it,” retorted Kojou powerlessly, but his voice never reached Yukina. The power of the Divine Oscillation Effect unleashed from Snowdrift Wolf increased, forcing the demonic energy in Kojou’s body to dissipate.

Perhaps this would halt the Beast Vassals’ rampage. This thought lasted but a single moment.

The next instant, a cloud of demonic energy gushed out of Kojou’s back to shrug off Yukina’s spiritual energy. This turned into a misshapen black wing resembling a Grim Reaper’s scythe that burned Yukina’s asunder.

“Himeragi! Run!”

The wing of dense, materialized demonic energy ignored Kojou’s will, howling as if it was a living creature with a mind of its own. It stretched beyond ten meters in height with room to spare before slicing through the air to assault Yukina. He could do nothing but watch.

“…!”

Yukina thrust up her silver spear to just barely hold the black wing at bay. Unable to withstand the recoil from her glowing, demonic energy–nullifying wings being so deeply rent, she went flying backward.

Though she managed to land on her feet just short of colliding with the breakwater, another wing soared as she tottered off-balance. No, this wasn’t a wing. It was a giant summoned beast enveloped in pitch-black lightning—a Beast Vassal.

“Gwaaaaaaaaah…!”

Kojou screamed, unable to endure the backlash of demonic energy from trying to stop the Beast Vassal’s movements. The impact felt like it would tear his whole body apart. It turned out he really was incapable of controlling his familiars in his current state.

“—Senpai!”

Distracted by his agony, Yukina reacted an instant too late. This was a fatal opening against a raging Beast Vassal. Snowdrift Wolf was powerless to intercept the sprinting creature as it morphed into a pitch-black flash of light. No human could react to evade an attack like this.

At this rate, Yukina’s body would be torn asunder with ease. The instant she thought this, however, an invisible wall sprung up before her to halt her assailant as it swung down its front paw.

Somehow, an invisible bulwark had fended off the Beast Vassal’s enormously destructive blow. It was a rift torn into space itself, a pseudo-spatial severing created via ritual magic. Even a Beast Vassal, with all its power, could not rend space that had already been torn.

“…Let us call it Ricercare Type Six, shall we?”

As Yukina took a knee, she heard that mocking, sarcastic voice from behind.

Standing there was a girl with long, black, old-fashioned hair, wearing an equally old-fashioned sailor-style school uniform. She carried an odd spear with a forked tip in her hands.

“Huh…?”

Yukina raised a clueless voice as she gazed up at the girl in bewilderment. The fact that this person had saved her must have been difficult for her to digest.

Sending Yukina a scornful glance, the girl elegantly twirled her spear.

“Itogami Island’s travel restrictions are finally lifted, and here you are having a lovely time without me. Could I have you explain the situation in detail?”

Kiriha Kisaki smiled boldly as she stared at the grotesque monster Kojou had become.