Strike the Blood - Volume 7 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO 

SHADOW OF ANOTHER KALEID BLOOD 

1 

The narrow alley was heavy with the scents of salt water and rusted steel. 

A jumble of abandoned structures lined the street. The walls of the buildings were cracked, and even the interior steel framework was exposed. Unsightly graffiti decorated the shutters. Finding an intact pane of glass would have been a substantial task. 

However, a large number of drunken souls reveled in that filthy district, searching for decadent pleasures—men fishing the waters for women, as well as the prostitutes they sought. Others were drowning under large quantities of alcohol and illegal narcotics. Those roaming that place were finely attuned to the scent of blood, violence, and money. 

It was a heretical district, unworthy of the Demon Sanctuary city that was the pinnacle of scholarly research. Yet, in another sense, this was the inevitable by-product of that success. The district was known as Itogami Island Abandoned Zone No. 27. It was the ruin of Island Old Southwest, which had sunk into the sea due to an unforeseen accident—the “erased district” literally wiped off the map. 

A lone man walked along a chaotic street in that district. He was a tall, handsome young fellow. 

He was not wearing his beloved white coat, but rather a black leather biker jacket. Due to the district’s atmosphere, the outfit did not stand out much. Even so, the young man himself attracted a great deal of attention thanks to his perfectly combed blond hair and flawlessly symmetrical face—as well as a refined elegance in his every motion. He shone among men as brightly as a gold coin among mere pebbles. 

A few minutes after entering the district, the young man found himself at the center of a group of roughneck men. 

“Hold on, bro.” 

It was the instinct of all district residents to drive outsiders away, but they directed outright hostility at him. Another voice came from behind, apparently cutting off his avenue of escape. 

“What are you doin’ ’round here? Had a fight with Mommy and left home?” 

Before he realized it, the number around him had swelled to about ten. However, he paid that no heed, glancing sullenly at the locals. 

The residents pulled back a step, seemingly cowed by that silent gaze. The young man resumed his walk like nothing had happened as the locals stared without a word. 

The roughnecks were not especially smart, but their instincts told them loud and clear that, should the blond young man have willed it, they would have been instantly annihilated. And they had been allowed to live thanks only to his whim. 

The young man was headed to a run-down tavern, a less than popular establishment making use of a condemned building. The number of patrons could be counted on one hand. The scent hovering inside came from a narcotic made from cactus extracts. It was a powerful hallucinogen, enough that a normal human taking even a small quantity would die from an overdose. It worked fairly well even on demons resistant to drugs. 

Behind the counter was a bartender who appeared to be the owner. He was over three meters tall, and beyond that, his physique was clearly not that of a normal human. He was a so-called Gigas, a race of giants low in number and rarely seen, even in Demon Sanctuaries or Dominions. 

The barkeep addressed the young man in a rumbling voice like a bass instrument. 

“Haven’t seen your face before.” 

Behind those words was a clear undertone stating, Now get lost. However, the young man calmly walked to the barkeep and put a stack of bills on the counter. It was probably more than a half-year’s worth of profits for the tavern. 

The blond young man quietly asked, his voice elegant yet acidic, “I’ve heard that a young female vampire has been hiding out here. Could you introduce us?” 

The barkeep took the stack of paper while bluntly shaking his head. 

“Haven’t heard one word about that.” 

“Hmph.” As he smiled charmingly, sharp fangs protruded from the gap between his lips. He casually realized that a pair of men who had been drinking inside the tavern had walked over to the counter, hemming him in on both sides. Like the owner, each was over three meters tall, likely weighing over four hundred kilograms each, forming an impressive and imposing wall of muscle. 

“—Get lost. This place is for Gigas only,” one of the giants threatened. 

However, the young man calmly disregarded the warning. 

“Not enough chips on the table? How about this?” 

He placed a few dozen coins known as Northern Imperial krones on the counter. They had to be worth over one hundred thousand Japanese yen. Special measures were employed to prevent counterfeiting of the North Sea Empire’s silver coins, and many were used for dealings among criminal organizations. 

Without thinking, the storekeeper stretched his hand toward the silver coins, but he stopped at the sound of patrons’ angry voices. 

“Hey, you have a lot of nerve ignoring us, brat!” 

The giant on the right wrapped his arms around the young man and lifted him in the air in a bear hug. 

“What, you thought you could walk all over a Gigas in the middle of a Sanctuary?” 

The young man probably weighed less than twenty percent of any of the giants. However, his expression revealed no panic. On the contrary, he gazed at the bracelets the giants wore as he used one hand to restrain the giant’s arms. 

They were demon registration bracelets issued by the Gigafloat Management Corporation—simultaneously serving as citizen identification and a monitoring shackle. When demons committed acts of violence within Itogami City limits, that information was conveyed to the Island Guard. However, in spite of the giants’ rage, the bracelets showed no response. 

The blond man calmly surveyed the area as he said, “Hmm, so the bracelet infrastructure doesn’t work out here?” 

Apparently, the erased district was outside of the operating range of the system, like an electromagnetic blind spot. In other words, even if demons ran riot in the district, no one would notice, not even if someone were to die as a result… 

“Even in a district that shouldn’t exist, it would be quite a problem if word of this got out.” 

“If you understand, then get the hell out right now. Or do you want me to suffocate you?” the giant to the right replied. 

“…What is making you so nervous, hmm?” 

The man’s chuckling comment froze the two giants’ faces. 

“What?!” 

He easily released himself from the vice grip. This was not a feat that his body ought to have been able to perform. And yet, it was the giant whose bones creaked against overwhelming strength. 

The young man’s eyes were dyed red as his fangs gleamed white once more. The giant staggered back as he was completely thrust away. 

“A vampire?! But that power…!” 

In the meantime, the man on the left drew a weapon from his back. To a giant, it was no more than a simple knife, but its blade looked like a great sword to human eyes. 

“You’re…Dimitrie Vattler?!” 

The eerie man—Vattler—smiled up at the knife-wielding giant in obvious delight. 

“And you turn your blade toward me, knowing this? I see. It seems you are not simple thugs.” 

Vattler’s tall body suddenly swayed. The concrete building’s floor warped as if about to collapse, but only in the area near him. Surely it was the air inside the tavern, groaning in agony from a sudden change in air pressure, causing innumerable cracks in the walls and pillars of the building. 

Utterly calm, Vattler endured the incredible pressure bearing down on his entire body. 

“A weapon of the Gigas, who control elemental power… I would expect as much from self-declared children of demigods.” 

The Gigas did not rely on the strength supporting their giant bodies alone. Perhaps their suitability for barren deserts, wastelands, and other harsh climates made their flesh especially compatible with elemental spirits. In other words, many Gigas were natural-born Spirit Mages. In addition, since ancient times, giants had been renowned for their mining, metalworking, and forging techniques. Weapons forged by them borrowed power from spirits to enable high-end sorcery for a variety of special powers. Indeed, the kingdom of Aldegia’s Völundr System had been developed from the study of Gigas weaponry. 

The Gigas man’s knife was one such magic weapon, a vile demonic blade able to manipulate gravity. At a hundred times normal gravity, Vattler’s body weighed several tons; a ten-centimeter fall had the same impact as falling ten meters to the ground. Furthermore, the super-gravitational area of effect was confined to where Vattler was standing. The two giants were unaffected by the magic blade’s effects and could attack him at will. 

But a moment after the giants became certain of their victory… 

“…G…wah?!” 

Thud came an impact with the force of an iron maul, sending both giants flying. 

Vattler had not yet summoned a Beast Vassal. He had merely loosened the reins holding the demonic energy inside his body for one brief moment. The explosive magical energy easily nullified the gravity attack and battered both Gigas. 

In the process, the surge of power blew away an exterior wall of the aging establishment, and fragments of the collapsing ceiling poured into the tavern. 

The bloodstained giant on the right side murmured ruefully, “Ugh…damned rabid dog…” 

…and promptly lost consciousness. The giant on the left was more gravely injured, the price he had paid for using the magic blade until the bitter end in the hopes of weakening the vampire’s counterattack even a little. 

Vattler stood alone amidst the thick dust, completely unharmed. 

The only other person in the tavern, the barkeep, simply stood behind the counter, dumbfounded. 

Vattler glanced at the two giants, satisfied by their will to fight to the end. Then he turned his crimson eyes toward the shivering barkeep and smiled cruelly enough to turn his blood to ice. 

“Now, if I may continue my questions…” 

A woman was standing on the roof of a half-collapsed building. 

She was a foreign girl wearing a white hood, and her graceful legs were as pale as a ghost’s. The unmoving figure staring at the sea resembled a beautiful piece of engraved glass. 

And at the dark bottom of the clear water lay a vast ruin. She was by herself, gazing at this submerged urban area. 

Vattler walked up a set of half-destroyed stairs as he spoke to the girl. 

“—Island Old Southwest, the tragic district that sank here a half a year ago.” 

His tone was as conceited as always, but his words were tinged with frigid bloodlust. The reason for his anger was not that he had been unexpectedly delayed in discerning her location. Rather, the fact that she was standing in that place at all rubbed Vattler the wrong way. 

The ruin of Island Old Southwest was holy ground that held a host of feelings for him. It was the gravestone of a particular group of girls and not a place for unrelated outsiders to tread. 

However, the girl in the white hood did not even turn her head as she murmured, “So you have come, Dimitrie Vattler…” 

His lips curled into a smile. The girl knew he was coming. In other words, she had prepared herself for the eventuality of combat. 

“Who are you? When did you sneak into Itogami Island? And what are you looking into here?” he asked quietly. 

She was not a legitimate citizen of Itogami City. She was an unregistered demon and an illegal visitor. But on the other hand, she knew about the erased district and the existence of Island Old Southwest at the bottom of the sea. She knew, then, a great level of detail about the happenings on Itogami Island. 

On top of that, she had co-conspirators concealing her even at the risk of their very lives. He very much doubted members of the proud Gigas race would offer their loyalty to a simple vampire girl. 

But the little girl casually blew off Vattler’s doubts. 

“Pay me no heed… I am very generous tonight, so as a special exception, I shall let you go. Leave, Master of Serpents.” 

A joyful look came over Vattler. 

“How lovely. Snuck in on a boat, did you? All the more amusing for me…!” 

Behind him, the vacillating shadow of a giant Beast Vassal floated up into the air. If the opponent was a fellow vampire, there was no reason for Vattler to refrain from summoning his Beast Vassals. 

The girl waved with a sleeve of her robe as she slowly turned around. “Hmm, so you disregard my warning? Just as well.” 

“Quick and to the point.” Vattler laughed. Apparently, the girl meant to fight him head-on. A combat maniac such as himself couldn’t ask for a better situation. Worst case, he would consume the girl and extract his information that way. 

Vattler summoned two Beast Vassals. 

“—Nanda! Batsunanda!” 

He merged both of these together to create a new Beast Vassal, its magical power amplified several times over. Together they became a steel-colored dragon engulfed in incandescent flames. The vast magical energy, on par with a Beast Vassal from a primogenitor, made the abandoned artificial ground shudder and created turbulent ripples on the surface of the surrounding seawater. 

The girl exhaled in admiration. 

“Ohh…!” 

Vattler had two reasons to use a Fusion Beast Vassal at the outset. First, to rob his enemy of the will to fight with a display of the overwhelming superiority of his might; second, to unleash maximum power against an opponent of unknown caliber, faithfully adhering to the fundamentals of tactics. 

Even if the opponent was a little girl, Vattler did not underestimate his enemies—his pure combat instincts had always saved his life in the past. 

“So this is your much-rumored Fusion Beast Vassal? Certainly, its strength is impressive.” 

The instant the mighty creature attacked the girl, she raised her right hand, fending off the attack with the greatest of ease. The fused Beast Vassal was annihilated in the shock wave of its own attack. 

Vattler groaned from the ferocious backlash. “Ugh?!” 

Unable to maintain its physical form, the fused Beast Vassal split apart, returning to the alien world from whence it came. 

The girl had not blocked Vattler’s attack—quite the opposite. In the instant the Beast Vassal had collided with the girl, it had barely managed to nullify the incredible demonic power she released. Even the stalwart Fusion Beast Vassal had been unable to withstand the girl’s attack. 

“That’s crazy… How could you…?” 

The girl looked back at the shaken Vattler with delight. “Why are you surprised? I am the World’s Mightiest Vampire. Is my blocking your attack so unexpected?” 

A surge of wind blew back the girl’s hood, revealing her face. She was around fourteen or fifteen years old with fairy-like beauty. The hair that reached her hips was blond, but in the light of the sun, it reflected all the colors of the rainbow. Her large eyes glimmered like blue flames. 

She continued, “What is wrong, Master of Serpents? Have you forgotten my face? Or do you find it mysterious that I am here when I should be dead?” 

Vattler’s teeth ground deep inside his mouth. 

“Flaming eyes… Avrora…Florestina…?!” 

The density of the destructive magical energy flowing from his entire body was on a completely different level than before. He summoned three serpents at the same time, merging them into a single, four-legged golden dragon. The miasma it released was enough to turn the nearby air into poison. The vegetation in the surrounding area turned brown, withering and crumbling away. 

The girl let out a small giggle, smiling with childlike innocence. 

“Triple fusion… How amusing. To be so frenzied at the mere sight of me—there is an adorable side to you, young Vattler.” 

“—Since you have shown yourself in that form, surely there is no need for restraint. Apologies, but I will make you pay an appropriate price,” Vattler said coldly. 

It was not possible for Avrora Florestina, the previous Fourth Primogenitor, to be standing before him. 

It couldn’t be her because Kojou Akatsuki had already inherited the power of the Fourth Primogenitor. Avrora no longer existed. There was a reason why she could not exist. 

However, these were trivial concerns to Vattler. Whether the girl before his eyes was the real Avrora Florestina or not mattered little. His reasoning was straightforward: If she was the true Fourth Primogenitor, she would survive Vattler’s attack, and if she was an imposter, she would perish then and there. 

Without a single moment of hesitation, Vattler made his decision amid the chaos. 

The girl’s fangs protruded as she grinned, pleased with Vattler’s judgment. 

“Indeed.” 

He charged at the girl with the giant Fusion Beast Vassal. He was enveloped in incredible demonic energy well surpassing that of a vampire noble. His reputation as a man who had butchered several Wisemen above that rank wasn’t for nothing. Surely, only the true primogenitors themselves could stand against Vattler now—any one of the three primogenitors occupying the thrones of their Dominions, or the Fourth Primogenitor, whose very existence was in question— 

Then the girl narrowed her blazing eyes with delight as she noted to herself, “Eliminating you first was indeed the right decision, Master of Serpents.” 

The next instant, he saw the girl move away from him at incredible speed. 

No, it was not the girl who was moving away. Vattler and his Beast Vassal alone were cut off from the real world. Darkness obscured his vision, leaving him unable to see anything. Sound, scent, and even gravity disappeared. Finally, he was even doubting his own existence. 

“…Spatial control… No, this space itself is a Beast Vassal?!” 

It was Vattler’s abundant wealth of combat experience that enabled him to grasp his current situation. The girl had landed her attack on Vattler before he managed to strike her. 

The space itself, a world of infinite darkness, was a materialized Beast Vassal. Her weapon now comprised the entire world around him. 

Unsurprisingly, even Vattler could not contain his shock. She had to be a real primogenitor to control a Beast Vassal of such a scale. 

Imprisoned by darkness, Vattler heard the girl’s voice speaking directly to the back of his mind. 

“Do not think I shall take your life. You will remain on the sidelines here until I have concluded my business.” 

He could detect no hostility in her words or in the wry laugh that accompanied them. 

Vattler exhaled and then murmured, “I see—So this was your objective from the beginning. To cut Kojou off from the Warlord’s Empire surveillance…” 

Somehow, his expression looked like a pout, something he would never display under normal circumstances. 

The girl abruptly altered her tone, sounding amused yet somehow sincere. 

“This is not personal, Dimitrie Vattler. I understand why you are attached to the Fourth Primogenitor. However, it is not the Lost Warlord alone who takes an interest in him.” 

“You will pay dearly for this—” he threatened, still floating in darkness. 

“I shall remember, Dimitrie Vattler—my good, old friend,” she teased. 

With that, the girl’s presence grew distant, leaving the vampire aristocrat in darkness, alone. 

2 

Thursday, near the end of November— 

It was late autumn on the calendar, but on the tropical Itogami Island, the rays of the sun still streamed down in force. 

That morning, the slumber of Kojou Akatsuki, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, was disturbed by his apartment’s doorbell. The melodic electronic chime stubbornly echoed throughout the household several times. 

Kojou had pulled up his sheets in an attempt to ignore it, but this, of course, could only do so much. 

He sluggishly sat up, reaching toward his bedside alarm clock. 

“A guest…huh?” 

The sunbeams filtering through the curtain burned Kojou’s defenseless skin. Well, not that it dealt any actual damage, but it was uncomfortable and distinct unpleasant. His mind felt like it was covered in cobwebs, still vague and nonfunctional. Now that Kojou was a vampire, he was decidedly not a morning person. 

“Who the hell is it on a normal morning like this…? Do they even know what time it is…?” 

Kojou grumbled to himself as he peered at the face of the clock. A moment later, he was unable to control the idiotic-sounding cry from his throat. 

“Nuoooooo!” 

The small arm of the clock was at an impossible angle, displaying that it was a full hour past his normal wake-up time. At this rate he’d be late for sure. He didn’t even know if he’d make it if he left the apartment right that moment— 

In haste, Kojou leaped off the bed and picked up the intercom receiver. 

“H-Himeragi?!” 

He heard the voice of an all too serious girl from the microphone at the front door. 

“Good morning, senpai.” 

It was Yukina Himeragi, a girl in her third year of middle school at Saikai Academy—and Kojou’s watcher, dispatched from the Lion King Agency. 

In contrast to the flustered Kojou, Yukina was calm and composed. Thanks to her being a federally licensed stalker, she was always monitoring Kojou’s activities through the use of mysterious ritual spells. She had known from the start that he’d been asleep. And having waited until the last possible moment for him to wake up, she had no doubt begun ringing his doorbell rapid-fire in exasperation. 

With Yukina waiting for him at the front door, Kojou offered a tentative suggestion. 

“Sorry, I overslept. I’m getting ready right now, so go on ahead, Himeragi.” 

An honors student like her doesn’t need to be late on my account, he thought with, for him, great consideration. 

Yukina brushed off his words and said, “No, I will wait.” 

“But that might mean you’ll be late with me—” 

“Surely you are not thinking of skipping the first hour of classes, senpai?” 

With a quiet “ugh,” Kojou was lost for words as Yukina hit the bull’s-eye. If he was going to be late even if he rushed, he thought the damage would be lessened if he just accepted his lateness and got to school on his own time, but… 

She tolerated no dissent. 

“Get ready as fast as you can. I will be waiting right here.” 

He abandoned further resistance. He ruefully felt like Yukina’s stalker tendencies had grown even fiercer of late, which scared him a little. 

Kojou put the intercom receiver back down and headed for his little sister’s room. Normally, she was the one who’d be waking him up if he overslept. It was rare for her to be in bed this late. 

“Nagisa, I’m coming in!” 

Deliberately knocking loudly in rapid succession, Kojou opened the door to his little sister’s room. 

The bedroom was scrupulously neat and tidy, unsurprising for a neat freak like her. Nagisa Akatsuki, lying atop a bed next to the wall, her belly on display and her pajamas in disarray from sleep, lifted up her head, rubbing her eyes. 

“Mm… Kojou…what’s wrong? Had a nightmare or something?” 

“Wake up. It’s morning.” 

“Mm?” 

Roll. Nagisa did a 180-degree turn and looked up at the digital clock on the wall. Then her eyes suddenly snapped wide open. 

“Wha—no way?! Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?!” 

“I only just woke up myself. Get changed fast or you’ll be late.” 

“R-right. That’s right!” 

Nagisa raised a shrill yelp as she rolled off the bed in a panic. Her long, sleep-disheveled hair swished wildly as she retrieved her uniform from its hanger. 

For his part, Kojou offhandedly mused, No breakfast, huh, and began to return to his room when— 

“Oh, right. Himeragi’s waiting out front, so—” 

He stopped right before leaving his sister’s room and suddenly looked back. 

“Hyaaa?!” Nagisa shouted. 

Though he didn’t mean to, he saw that Nagisa had stripped off her pajama top. Apparently, she was so flustered at being almost late that she’d begun changing before he’d even left the room. 

Nagisa, taken by surprise a second time, tried to turn around, but her ankle got caught in the pajama top, making her lose her balance and tumble forward. Her pose thrust her panties straight out toward Kojou, giving him an eyeful. 

Nagisa, rubbing her forehead after bumping it against the bed, made an even bigger fuss in a loud voice. 

“Hey, why are you looking?! Kojou, you pervert!” 

How’d it turn into that?! He unwittingly stared all the more. 

“How am I the bad guy?! You’re the one who started stripping before I’d even closed the door—” 

“Shut up! And get out!!” 

Nagisa righted herself and hurled a teddy bear Kojou’s way as he left her room. 

They caught sight of the Saikai Academy campus moments before classes were set to begin. 

They could still see students filtering onto the school grounds from the street in front of it. Kojou and the others, judging they had somehow managed to avoid being late, slowed the pace of their run. Nagisa panted heavily as she said, “Looks like we made it…somehow.” 

As one might expect, she, too, had survived the full-strength morning scramble. She was incessantly fussing over how her loose hair, usually bound in a ponytail, was a mess from sleeping. 

“But how strange. You usually don’t oversleep.” 

In contrast to Nagisa, Yukina, carrying her black guitar case on her back, had an invigorated expression. Her breathing was perfectly calm even though she’d run the same distance as Nagisa. No doubt it barely qualified as a warm-up by her standards. 

As someone hiding his own true nature, Kojou would have preferred it if his watcher put a little more effort into pretending to be an ordinary high school girl, but— 

“Looks like I fell back asleep after I turned the alarm clock off the first time. That’s not something that happens often,” Nagisa said. “It’s, like, even monkeys fall out of trees—wait, I’m not a monkey! Oh, by the way, they say you can tell monkeys and humans apart because monkeys have tails. And because humans swim. A bit of trivia there. Also—” 

With his little sister functioning as both comic and straight man, Kojou lightly bopped her on the head to shut her up. 

“Cut it out, Nagisa. You’re scaring Himeragi stiff and being annoying.” 

She was a comparatively well-rounded little sister, but one of her few flaws was her chattiness. Apparently, she’d put aside the shock of oversleeping and had returned to her usual self. If anything, she was even more hyper than usual. 

For no reason at all, Nagisa looked up at the sky, suddenly changing the subject. 

“Oh, right, it’s going to be winter soon.” 

Thanks to Itogami Island’s eternal summer, the four seasons looked the same, but it was nearly the end of November. Winter vacation was less than a month away. 

Kojou felt a vague sense of unease. “Yeah… Come to think of it, Himeragi, what do you do for New Year’s?” 

He wondered if the Lion King Agency intended to have Yukina continue her surveillance of Kojou even on the holiday. 

“New Year’s Day…?” 

“Err…I mean, like—you’re not going back to see Professor Kitty or anything?” 

“No. I do not have any special plans at present, but…” 

Yukina looked up at Kojou. Based on her reaction, it was plain that she indeed intended to continue her mission to watch Kojou during winter vacation. 

Incidentally, “Professor Kitty” referred to the sorceress who was Yukina’s mentor. Kojou had decided to call her by that name on his own. 

“Do the two of you have plans?” she asked. 

“Kind of… If the Public Corporation gives us a permit, I’d love to go up to see our grandma, but…” 

As Kojou murmured, Nagisa piped up in obvious agreement. 

“Wow, I really wanna go see her! I mean, we haven’t seen her in four years. I hope Grandma’s doing all right.” 

At Nagisa’s fond comments, Yukina tilted her head with a questioning look. 

“By your grandmother, you mean…?” 

“Yeah. She does some kind of religious work at a little shrine in the Tanzawa Mountains,” Kojou explained. 

“Religious…work?” 

Yukina blinked her eyes in mild surprise. Kojou scowled with a hint of a bitter smile. 

“She’s really sweet on Nagisa, but she’s a strict old lady… She’s pretty scary when she’s angry, and rumor has it she used to be some unregistered Attack Mage or something.” 

“Eh…?” 

Yukina’s face stiffened as she stopped in place. Kojou followed suit and halted, with Nagisa promptly colliding into his back. She’d apparently been strolling along with her head in the clouds and hadn’t even noticed Kojou had stopped. 

“Owww!” 

“What are you doing…?” 

Nagisa, still on the ground after grandly falling on her butt, glared at Kojou unhappily. 

“Ugh… It’s because you stopped all of a sudden, Kojou…!” 

It was apparently Nagisa’s destiny to randomly fall down that day, perhaps a jinx because of her oversleeping. Kojou was lending his little sister a hand when he saw the car parked in front of the school gate and frowned. 

“…So what’s that? Is something going on around the school here?” 

It was a luxury car manufactured in Europe, the sort of thing you didn’t see much on Itogami Island, and a black, armored limousine at that. 

“Perhaps there’s…been an incident?” Yukina muttered in concern. 

Certainly, he could understand the girl’s worry. No respectable commoner would come to school in a car suited for a shootout. Kojou and Yukina traded glances and hesitant musings. 

“Nothin’ to do with me…right…?” 

“That…would be good, but…” 

Heedless of their concerns, a clamor spread among the students on the school grounds when they noticed people coming out of the limousine, obstructed from view by the gathering flock of curious onlookers— 

3 

Despite the difficulty of getting to school, the first class of the day was study hall. Apparently, seven short-term exchange students had shown up without prior arrangements, throwing the school administration into chaos. The morning staff meeting must have dragged on for a while. The armored limousine in front of the gate had dropped those students off. Naturally, the exchange students warranting such a high level of security posed challenges in the classroom as well. 

Kojou, in a classroom separate from Yukina and Nagisa, was bewildered when he heard: 

“…Oceanus Girls?” 

He wasn’t familiar with that group. 

Asagi Aiba pulled out her beloved pink tablet computer and held it out to Kojou. 

“Haven’t you heard? They’re a girl group that’s been popular lately on some video-sharing sites.” 

The screen displayed a group of foreign girls clad in adorable outfits. Their ages ranged from the low teens into the early twenties. He felt like he’d met them somewhere before, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. 

“The singing and dancing seem pretty amateur, but those five are pretty by Japanese standards, right? They show up in magazines a lot, too,” Asagi said. 

Motoki Yaze wedged himself into the conversation. “Incidentally, I recommend the blond.” 

To leave no room for doubt, he pointed to the shortest girl at the edge of the image. He instantly broke into a falsetto, singing a catchy techno-pop song as he began a robotic sort of dance. His singing was nothing to write home about, but his dancing was surprisingly good. 

Yaze’s got some talent for that, Kojou thought in silent admiration. 

“Ahh, yeah, come to think of it, I’ve been hearing that song all over the place,” he remarked. 

“Gotta say, Motoki, you’re copying that dance way too well. Totally gross,” Asagi chimed in. 

“Why?! What’s wrong with me being good at it, dammit?!” Yaze seemed genuinely wounded, raising a tearful objection. 

Truth be told, Kojou thought it was a bit creepy, too. He gazed at the tablet’s screen with a dubious expression. “So why is this girl group studying here at Saikai Academy?” 

“Dunno. Isn’t it just a coincidence?” Asagi sounded uninterested. 

Yaze, stubbornly continuing his dance, nodded along. “The timing is a little odd, but it’s not exactly rare Itogami Island gets short-term exchange students from a Dominion. Just happens to be some famous people this time.” 

Kojou relaxed his expression and exhaled. 

“Well, that’s certainly true.” 

The fact they were popular mainly on a video-sharing site meant they were on the amateur end of the scale. It wasn’t exactly strange for them to go to school like normal people. Given that only a Demon Sanctuary would be accepting exchange students from the Warlord’s Empire, the chances of Saikai Academy being chosen to receive them was actually pretty decent. 

But in spite of all that, Kojou wondered why he still felt an undercurrent of unease— 

As if in support of Kojou’s premonition, a group of unfamiliar girls poured into the classroom, a bright, cheery voice leading the way. 

“Ah, he’s here. Master Kojou!” 

The five foreigners were wearing the Saikai Academy girl’s uniforms. They seemed like sisters who got along nicely, but their faces and hair color had nothing in common. If there was a commonality between them, it was that all the girls were beautiful, suggesting they had been high-class from birth. 

“It has been a while, Master Kojou.” 

“I-I wanted so much to meet…you.” 

With the other classmates paying rapt attention, the five surrounded Kojou and lavished words of passionate affection upon him. His eyes remained wide open in shock as he stood as stiff as a statue. 

Someone in class murmured in a quiet voice, “The Oceanus Girls…?!” 

That signaled everyone inside the classroom to erupt in envious surprise. 

“Eh? No way? The real deal?” 

“Oh, damn, they’re cuter than I thought.” 

“But why are they around Akatsuki…?” 

“…Him! Again!!” 

Cold sweat rolled down Kojou’s brow as he stood exposed to his classmates’ curious gazes. 

“…” 

Finally, he remembered who the Oceanus Girls really were. These were the daughters of royals and high ministers of nations neighboring the Warlord’s Empire. At first, they were “hostages” handed over to Dimitrie Vattler in exchange for the safety of their homelands, but the combat-manic Vattler took no interest in female hostages, so he treated the girls as simple guests, or so Kojou had been told. 

Along the way, the Warlord’s Empire noble had used the girls as bait to try to awaken Kojou’s Beast Vassals, and the girls themselves had aimed to use the power of the Fourth Primogenitor as a tool to rise above their station—things that made dealing with them extremely difficult for Kojou. 

Asagi glared at the bewildered Kojou and asked in a foul mood, “Kojou, these girls are acquaintances of yours?” 

He stiffly shook his head in denial. 

“Errr… I don’t know them well enough to call them acquaintances…” 

The real problem was that Kojou had no idea what the girls were doing there. On Vattler’s cruise ship, the Oceanus Grave II, they enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and wanted for nothing, didn’t they? 

The blond girl acting as the group’s leader forcefully hugged one of Kojou’s arms and said, “Whaat? You’re horrible, Master Kojou!” 

She was probably twenty years old, give or take, but the outfit suited her. While her figure was nothing glamorous on its own, even a regular school uniform looked oddly risqué on her. 

Dressed in that seductive uniformed look, she gently entwined her arm with Kojou’s and said, “Have we not already bathed together?!” 

“B-bathed together?!” Asagi shouted in a shrill voice over the rest of the class’s eruption. 

Kojou shook his head as vigorously as he could. “It’s not like that! When we were on Vattler’s ship a while back, they barged in all on their own!” 

“No way! That ship’s bath was where I joined you, wasn’t it…?!” Asagi insisted. 

Her careless statement only increased the classroom uproar. Yaze quietly said, “Ohh,” to himself. 

“Ah…?!” 

Seeing her childhood friend’s reaction, Asagi realized her own verbal slip. She clutched her head with both hands. With an “Ahhh!” she turned deep red to the tips of her ears. “No! It wasn’t like that! Aw, just shut up!!” 

Asagi shouted defiantly and vented her rage with a smack to Yaze’s head. Unable to react to the sudden surprise attack, Yaze spun and sailed straight into the nearest wall. 

During that time, the five Oceanus Girls were clinging all over Kojou, completely reducing the study hall to a hopeless mess. But the voice dripping with hostility brought the chaos in the classroom to a screeching halt. 

“Pathetic. Do not get overly excited, Kojou Akatsuki. The girls merely tagged along because they were bored.” 

Kojou reflexively turned his head and retorted, “I’m not excited! I’m seriously in a bind here—!” 

Standing in the doorway to the classroom was a silver-haired exchange student with a demon registration bracelet on his left wrist. He was a handsome young man as cold and sharp as a naked blade. 

“Wait, you’re that vampire from Vattler’s ship…!” Kojou exclaimed. 

“Tobias Jagan. We shall be attending this school for a little while from today onward.” 

The exchange student named Jagan gave his uniform a malevolent glare as he spoke. Apparently, it wasn’t his idea to attend the same school as Kojou. 

“What are you all doing as exchange students…?!” 

On the surface, there wasn’t much difference in age between them, but Tobias Jagan was an Old Guard vampire. His actual age was probably in excess of two centuries. Having to pretend to be a high-school student had to be humiliating for him. But the true reason for his irritation was because he would be at this particular school. 

Jagan approached Kojou and said aggressively, “I’ve heard that Japanese schools are very strict about senior and junior hierarchy…” 

He showed off a sophomore badge on his uniform. Apparently, he intended to pull rank as a second-year student. 

Kojou glared back at him with such force that they seemed ready to physically butt heads. “Sorry, this is a shut-in island nation. It’s Japanese tradition to give the new guy a hard time, y’see?” 

Jagan continued scowling at Kojou at point-blank range, clenching his teeth. 

“Ugh… If His Excellency didn’t command it, I would never serve as bodyguard for someone like you…!” 

Kojou suspiciously raised an eyebrow. Hmm? 

“Vattler ordered this…? What do you mean my bodyguard…?” 

“I have no obligation to explain it to you, fool.” 

As Jagan dragged his feet, a soft, androgynous voice gently rebuked him. 

“—Tobias.” 

A handsome, mild-mannered vampire—Kira Lebedev Voltisvala—intervened to defuse the explosive situation between Kojou and Jagan. He possessed gray hair and jade green eyes and was small for a boy, with a very refined appearance. He wore a hooded jacket, no doubt to avoid sunlight, but under it he, too, had a Saikai Academy uniform. 

“Kira? Don’t tell me you’re here at our school, too…?” Kojou said. 

“Yes. Please take good care of us.” 

Kira timidly offered his right hand. As Kojou shook it, he felt a light headache coming on. 

Certainly, he’d heard there were seven short-term exchange students from the Warlord’s Empire. If the five Oceanus Girls had simply tagged along, that made the original exchange students Kira and Jagan. 

Kira whispered in Kojou’s ear, “The Duke of Ardeal left written instructions; namely, should anything happen to him, we were to serve and protect you, Master Kojou.” 

“Written instructions? From Vattler?” 

As if taking pride in that for some reason, Jagan haughtily declared, “That’s how it is. At least try to behave and not cause us any trouble.” 

Kojou’s lips curled in annoyance. 

“Well, your being here is causing me trouble, you know—” 

At Kojou’s sarcasm, Kira lowered his long eyelashes, as if troubled. “I’m quite sorry.” 

“Ah, nah, you don’t need to apologize, Kira… Wait, Vattler’s not around? Did something happen to him…?” 

“I do not know. Just…this is hardly the first time the Duke of Ardeal has given commands on a whim.” 

Kira bit his glossy lip, concerned. 

Jagan announced, “We’re done here,” and stormed out to return to his own classroom. At some point, the five Oceanus Girls had disappeared. 

With half-lidded eyes, Asagi looked up at Kojou still clasping Kira’s hand. 

“So…just how long are you two gonna hold hands here?” 

Kojou didn’t even realize he was red in the face as he hastily withdrew his hand. 

“Oh, ah, right.” 

Asagi knitted her eyebrows in even greater chagrin and exhaled. 

4 

At the time, Yukina and her fellow classmates were in physical education class. It was girls’ volleyball that day. Once the basic preliminaries were complete, the class continued training for matches. 

Yukina, dressed in a gym uniform, mingled with her classmates and earnestly participated in the match. 

The serve from the opponents’ side descended like an avalanche. The rear guard received the serve at the very edge of the court. The ball danced up into the air, sailing toward the unguarded edge of the net. It’ll probably hit the sideline and be out, everyone thought, but that instant… 

“Geh… Yukina?!” 

“Yes!” 

Yukina ran under the ball and lunged lightly from the floor. Her small body effortlessly sailed into the air, gently touching the ball with her left hand and tapping it into the opponents’ court. 

She landed soundlessly. The opposing students just stared dumbly at the ball before them on the floor, unsure of what had just happened. 

Seeing what she had done, Yukina was a bit crestfallen. 

“Ah…” 

Raised and trained as a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, Yukina’s athletic ability was far above the norm for girls her own age, even without augmentation via ritual spells. She was able to hold back appropriately during individual events like track and field, but it was much harder to do so in a volleyball match. 

As Yukina stood rooted in place, a current member of the basketball club, Minami Shindou, aka Cindy, smiled and ran over. She was a sports prodigy in her own right, so maybe seeing Yukina’s crazy ability was no big deal to her. 

“See what I mean? You’re really cut out for sports, Yukina,” Cindy said. 

Yukina’s smile twitched a little as she took the praise in stride. 

“Y-you think so…?” 

Cindy gave Yukina a rather amused look. 

“You sure don’t look it, though, what with that ditzy, spaced-out look you have.” 

“D-ditzy…?” 

The unanticipated change of direction gave Yukina a rude shock. Seeing herself as a very levelheaded girl, she couldn’t hide her consternation at her friend’s assessment. 

With Yukina’s match concluded, Nagisa and other girls came on to the court. Cindy remarked, “Ah, Nagisa there is pretty lively, too, huh?” 

Just as Cindy said, Nagisa was a trooper on a mishmash of a team. Due to her short height, she wasn’t good at spiking, but she more than made up for it with how she received serves. Somehow, she seemed like an adorable little animal. 

As they sat on a bench against the wall, Yukina asked Cindy, “I heard Nagisa was in the hospital a while back?” 

Cindy smiled fondly. 

“Yeah, she was. When I was in my first year here, she was away from school for almost six months. She was always watching from the sidelines in gym class, too. I’d say she’s been doing better since about autumn of last year… That’s about when she joined the cheerleading club, too.” 

“Autumn of…last year?” 

Yukina bit her lip and fell silent. Her Sword Shaman instincts told her something was odd about that. 

She’d heard that an incident had been the reason Nagisa Akatsuki came to Itogami Island. Heavily injured in a demon-linked terror incident, she’d needed treatment that could only be found in a Demon Sanctuary. No doubt the treatment had worked on her, and she’d been fully healed as of the preceding autumn. 

And a very short time later, her older brother, Kojou Akatsuki, suddenly obtained the power of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire. It was too unusual to be mere coincidence. 

What further worried Yukina was the power Nagisa had used during the Wiseman incident just a short time earlier, and the mysterious spiritual entity that had possessed her—a sentient mass of enormous demonic energy capable of instantly creating a mass of ice several hundred meters across. As far as Yukina knew, only the Beast Vassals controlled by vampires could manage such a feat, and only those of Old Guard vampires, or even primogenitors, at that. 

She couldn’t understand how Nagisa had summoned such a thing. But if she truly had controlled a Beast Vassal, it was surely connected to Kojou obtaining the power of the Fourth Primogenitor for himself. 

Maybe Yukina had it all wrong. Maybe it wasn’t that the Fourth Primogenitor’s little sister just happened to wind up in a Demon Sanctuary hospital. Maybe it was because she’d been in the hospital that he’d become the Fourth Primogenitor to begin with— 

Yukina felt her entire body go cold when she realized what that frightening possibility would mean. Because of that, she didn’t realize what had been happening on the volleyball court. 

Someone had sent the ball off the court, right for the wall where Yukina was sitting. Another student was running after it, with her attention completely focused on the ball, not even noticing Yukina. They were just about to collide. 

From the court, Nagisa yelled, “—Yukina, look out!” 

Yukina moved subconsciously before Nagisa’s voice brought her back to her senses. She beat away the flying ball with the back of her hand and turned to face the charging girl. Dodging her would be simple, but that would guarantee the girl would get hurt. Instead, Yukina moved forward. She caught the lunging student’s arm in a lock and redirected her momentum. 

Direct motion transformed into centrifugal force. Before Yukina’s eyes, the girl floated up, flipped over once, and landed softly on the floor in a near perfect cross-legged position, with virtually no force of impact. 

No doubt the schoolgirl herself had no idea what had just happened. After the two switched places, the ball fell down in front of their eyes. The Sword Shaman quietly caught it as if nothing had happened. 

Yukina suddenly paled when she realized just what she had done. 

“Ah…” 

The gym had gone silent as everyone in the class stared at Yukina. However, not a single one of the stares directed at her had any hint of fear. Ordinary schoolgirls couldn’t even grasp what a crazy-high skill level Yukina’s maneuver had involved. They might not have understood what was going on, but seeing that everyone was safe and sound, someone began a round of applause. 

Still clutching the ball Yukina couldn’t help but blush. 

Only Cindy, having witnessed the event from right next to Yukina, asked with some surprise, “What did you do just now…?” 

A thin bead of sweat trickled down Yukina’s forehead as she seemed somewhat dazed. 

“Er… It just, ah, happened?” 

“You see? You are a ditz,” Cindy declared, clearly amused by that reaction. 

But the next moment, she suddenly paled. Yukina’s breath caught in her chest when she realized why. 

With the action on the court purportedly paused, someone there collapsed without a sound. It was a girl with a familiar hairstyle—a long ponytail. Lying prone on the court, she looked even smaller than usual. 

Yukina cast aside the ball she’d been holding and rushed to her side. 

“…Nagisa?!” 

Cindy immediately followed. The other students realized something was wrong, staring at Nagisa from a distance. Misaki Sasasaki, the gym teacher refereeing a match at an adjacent court, came running. 

“Hey, Nagisa, what’s wrong?! Nagisa—?!” Cindy yelled. 

But Nagisa did not respond. Even though she’d been moving fine only moments before, her breathing was heavily labored, and she seemed to be in great pain. 

When Yukina lifted Nagisa up, her friend’s entire body felt very cold, like Yukina was touching a corpse. And as soon as Yukina had touched her, she knew the cause of Nagisa’s deterioration. 

“Nagisa… It…it can’t be… How could this be…?” she murmured, but no one heard her pained whispers over the classmates’ loud voices. 

Nagisa’s still-sleeping body was surprisingly light. With her eyes closed, her profile resembled a fairy’s… 

5 

That afternoon, Kojou heard what happened and rushed over to the MAR laboratory. 

Magna Ataraxia Research Incorporated, or MAR for short, was a huge conglomerate based in Eastern Asia. 

It was one of the world’s few sorcerous manufacturing groups, handling everything from foodstuffs to military weaponry. 

Kojou’s mother, Mimori Akatsuki, was Chief of Research at MAR’s medical research and development laboratory on Itogami Island and the attached hospital. She was also the primary care physician for her beloved daughter, Nagisa Akatsuki. 

Yukina was sitting in a corner of a waiting room when she noticed Kojou rushing over. 

“—Himeragi! Is Nagisa all right?!” 

She nodded awkwardly. Apparently, she’d declared herself a next-door neighbor and half-forced herself on the ambulance that brought Nagisa to the hospital. 

“I believe she will be fine,” Yukina replied. “She hasn’t regained consciousness yet, but her breathing and pulse are completely stable.” 

“Is that…so…” 

She could almost hear the taut wire of tension being cut as Kojou squatted down, depleted. No doubt he’d heard that Nagisa was all right over the phone, but he had worried nonetheless. 

Yukina giggled with a little smile, her expression seeming to say, That’s his sister complex speaking. 

“Earlier, your m—Miss Mimori came and took Nagisa to the medical wing. I am waiting here because unrelated persons are not permitted to enter, but you are family, senpai, so—” 

“No, I’m not allowed over there, either… Well, they’re the experts, so I think it’ll be all right. It’s not like I can do anything by being there, anyway.” 

Yukina sent a dubious glance over Kojou’s shoulder and said, “I must say, though, you came with quite an entourage.” 

“Eh?” 

At Yukina’s comment, Kojou looked behind him and yelped, “Whoa!” like a complete idiot. A group of people in student uniforms was entering the waiting room through the automated doors. Kojou saw Asagi, Yaze, and the two so-called exchange students from the Warlord’s Empire— 

Kojou glared at the quartet that had nothing to do with any of this. 

“Wh-what the hell are all you doin’ here?!” he wailed. 

Yukina looked amazed as she muttered, “You had not noticed this whole time…?” 

Asagi averted her eyes with a somehow guilty look. 

“W-well, I was worried about Nagisa and all… And then these two guys were chasing after you, so—” 

Asagi had shifted responsibility to Jagan, but he grandly stuck out his chest without the slightest reservation. 

“We have not come to visit your younger sister. We are merely fulfilling our duty.” 

Beside him, Kira nodded in complete seriousness. 

“Yes. So please pay the two of us no heed.” 

Kojou, forgetting he was in a hospital, yelled out, “I do heed!!” 

He had little doubt Vattler had put them up to protecting him, so they were only faithfully carrying that out, but… 

“You’re exchange students! Why the hell are you skipping class on your first day?! And why are you here, Yaze?!” 

“Er, well, it looked interesting so—I mean, of course I’m worried about Nagisa, too.” Yaze deliberately affected a serious expression as he spoke with obvious delight at the unfolding spectacle. 

“Geez.” Kojou roughly clicked his tongue. 

He hadn’t thrown the lot of them out yet because he had a faint grasp of Asagi’s and Yaze’s real feelings. It wasn’t that they were worried about Nagisa; Kojou was their true source of concern. 

Yukina, still sitting on a little bench in the waiting room, slumped her shoulders in dejection. 

“I’m sorry… I was right there with her, but I didn’t notice that Nagisa wasn’t well…” 

Apparently, she felt responsible for Nagisa’s collapse right before her eyes. 

Kojou sat down beside her and shook his head tiredly. 

“If anyone should be saying that, it’s me. The fact she overslept should’ve been enough to make me wonder if she was sick. It’s not like this is the first time she’s had a weak body.” 

Her waking up late, her tumble when getting to school… There’d been any number of chances to deduce that Nagisa hadn’t been well. It was Kojou, part of her own family, who was responsible for not noticing. He knew well enough that Nagisa never complained about anything—she only increased the number of words flying out of her mouth. 

Asagi spoke out of concern for Kojou. “Then Nagisa’s injuries…weren’t completely healed?” 

Kojou made a weak smile with a sigh. 

“Nah. It’s nothing that stops her from living a normal life, but they said she still has to get regular checkups. They’re still trying different drugs and stuff.” 

“Oh… That’s rough.” 

Kojou gazed at the familiar sight of the waiting room and mused aloud, “She hasn’t collapsed much since she got out of the hospital, though…” 

During middle school, he’d been in that very room numerous times, waiting to see Nagisa. 

Yukina sent Kojou a serious look. “Senpai, about the reason Nagisa was hospitalized—” 

Kojou shrugged his shoulders slightly. Even if it was technically private, there was no point hiding it from Yukina, who’d gone with Nagisa all the way to the hospital. 

“Demons made a terror attack in Rome four years ago. They set a bomb on a train. You know about it, right?” 

“Yes…” 

Yukina’s eyes narrowed in surprise for some reason. Kojou paid no heed and continued, “Nagisa and I just happened to be there at the time. Neither of us can remember much about what happened before or after…but Nagisa’s had a fear of demons ever since. I think it’s probably leftover fear from back then.” 

“…Is that so.” 

Yukina then fell into silence. Kojou felt faint unease watching the side of her face as she considered this information. The attack four years earlier was a slaughter, with numerous casualties, but it was in the past. All the assailants had been shot and killed, and the organization behind it had been wiped out. He didn’t think there was anything left for her to ponder. That incident no longer had anything to do with Kojou’s and Nagisa’s current lives— 

Kojou looked up at the waiting room clock. “Sitting here won’t solve anything, so how about we get some dinner?” he suggested. 

Since they had run off from school as soon as lunch break began, Kojou and the others hadn’t had dinner. Given the fact Kojou had missed breakfast, too, it was small wonder that he was famished. A full stomach clears up a lot of worries, he thought. Then… 

Asagi responded with a buoyant voice that was completely out of place. “Eh?! Dinner?! You’re going to treat me, Kojou? MAR’s employee cafeteria is famous. It’s listed as a hidden gem in Itogami Island’s Gourmet Guide!” 

“Why you…” 

Looking back at Asagi’s twinkling eyes, Kojou rued his verbal slip. In spite of her slim appearance, Asagi was a glutton. She could eat four or five servings’ worth of a family restaurant’s lunch plate and still have room to spare. 

If she went to a “hidden gem” she wouldn’t normally get to visit—on someone else’s tab, no less—she undoubtedly meant to order without mercy. 

“Ah, well. I’ll just bill it to Mom anyway,” Kojou said defiantly. 

Besides, it would calm the general mood. After all, the odds of Asagi making a huge fuss out of it probably weren’t zero. 

“Hmph. I have no intention of playing nice with you,” Jagan said bluntly. “We will go our separate ways.” 

Kojou listlessly rested his chin on a hand and glared at him. “Do what you want. I didn’t invite you in the first place.” 

With only the smallest hint of regret, Kira smiled pleasantly and courteously bowed his head. “I am sorry. Then, if you will excuse me…” 

“Ah, yeah. Later.” 

“Yes.” 

With that exchange of oddly amiable pleasantries, Kojou good-naturedly bid them farewell. Asagi glared at Kira’s back as he left, as if on guard. 

Yukina watched them leave with an identical look of suspicion. “Those two are nobles of the Warlord’s Empire, are they not? Why were they with you—?” 

Kojou scowled as if something had caught in the back of his mouth. “I’m not too sure myself. From what they said, apparently Vattler wrote for ’em to protect me if he disappeared.” 

Yukina looked conflicted as she let out a murmur. “…The Duke of Ardeal has disappeared?” 

Her bewilderment was entirely natural. Dimitrie Vattler might be a whimsical vampire, but his conduct was easy to understand. His goal was to fight strong opponents—period. To a vampire aristocrat with a nigh-unlimited life span, fighting a powerful foe able to threaten his own life was the greatest, and only, way of killing time. 

Vanishing without a word to his subordinates was uncharacteristic behavior for a man who viewed combat as the highest form of amusement. What Kojou understood even less was why he’d assign his own subordinates to guard Kojou. 

He didn’t think there were all that many opponents capable of harming the Fourth Primogenitor and World’s Mightiest Vampire. And if such a powerful foe were to arise, it would be Vattler himself merrily rushing to challenge him. 

Asagi, listening in on their conversation, looked at Yukina with a provocative smile. 

“Well, I was thinking it could be something like that, anyway. So, Miss Himeragi, you do know Mr. Vattler? This is a good chance, so how about I finally ask it: What’s your relationship with Kojou? What are you hiding? Mr. Vattler and Kojou don’t have that kind of a relationship, right?” 

From the side, Kojou instinctively retorted, “—Hey, what do you mean, that kind?!” 

Apparently, Asagi still suspected that Kojou and Vattler were in some kind of amorous relationship. He couldn’t dismiss it as a complete misunderstanding, but it was a rather dangerous one nonetheless— 

Yukina, receiving Asagi’s gaze head-on, said, “Understood.” 

The girl’s unexpected reply startled Kojou. “Uh…um, Himeragi…” 

Yukina continued, “However, before I answer, would you consider a request of mine?” 

“Ugh,” Asagi groaned as she faltered, perhaps not thinking Yukina would attach a condition. In spite of that, Asagi recovered and nodded, having come too far to back out now. 

“S-so that’s how it is? Fine then. Let’s do this.” 

“Please do. There is something I would like you to look into, Aiba.” 

For some reason, invisible sparks were flying as Yukina and Asagi glared at each other. A strangely tense and oppressive atmosphere began to hover over the waiting room, and Kojou was beset by a vague urge to flee for the hills. 

Then, as if to forestall Kojou from doing so, Yaze suddenly began smoothly backing away. 

“Ah… Excuse me.” 

“Y-Yaze?” Kojou asked. 

“Sorry to interrupt with everyone worked up, but my stomach hurts all of a sudden. Gonna go to the john for a bit.” 

“Th-that so. Then I’ll go with—” 

Kojou immediately tried to piggyback on Yaze’s escape, but Asagi cut him off. 

“You stay right here, Kojou!” 

“Please stay right here, senpai!” 

Vetoed by both girls, Kojou groaned and stopped moving. 

“Sorry, Kojou. See ya later!” Yaze said. 

Kojou sighed in exasperation as Yaze seized the chance to make his getaway. 

Asagi got her beloved notepad PC out. “So what did you want me to find?” she asked Yukina. 

You couldn’t tell from her gorgeous looks, but Asagi was actually a world-renowned hacker known as the “Cyber Empress.” If she felt like it, she could probably access the most confidential files of the North American Union’s intelligence agencies. 

And so, Yukina calmly made her request. 

“The incident four years ago. I want to know if the terror incident really happened as claimed, and if senpai and Nagisa were truly caught up in it by chance…” 

6 

Tobias Jagan was leaving the MAR-operated hospital when he sullenly spat out, “I can’t stand it.” 

He was directing his anger at Kojou Akatsuki, of course. 

“—He lacks class, ambition, and grandeur. Can someone like that truly be the Fourth Primogenitor? We need to guard him? His Excellency’s whims are truly vexing.” 

“It looks to me as if you get along with him surprisingly well,” Kira said in his energetic, prepubescent voice. 

Jagan twisted his lips in anguish, appearing wounded as he immediately fired back an objection. 

“Don’t even say that as a joke, Kira. It disgusts me.” 

“Ha-ha…” 

Kira laughed merrily as he leaped off the ground. The off-the-charts strength peculiar to demons vaulted him to the roof of a neighboring building six stories high. 

“Besides, we do understand the reason His Excellency commanded us to guard him.” 

Jagan landed right beside Kira, grimacing from the strong sunbeams as he strained his eyes. 

“Yes, that we do.” 

He was glaring at an organic jumble of buildings—Island North’s research and development district. It was a futuristic, heavily mechanized mini-city that strongly reflected its artificial island roots. Atop a gray transmission tower that loomed above its peers was a girl with a white hood pulled over her head. 

The girl was gazing down at the MAR-operated hospital, monitoring Kojou Akatsuki’s location like a sniper in pursuit of her prey. 

The instant Jagan was sure of her, he unleashed his Beast Vassal. 

“Irrlicht—!” 

A giant bird of prey materialized from a flash of light with immense demonic energy. Its body was composed of highly concentrated magical flame reaching tens of thousands of degrees Celsius. This became a searing beam that instantly traveled the several hundred meters toward the place where the girl stood. 

Beautiful fireworks scattered against the backdrop of the blue sky, with a shock wave following a moment later in its wake. 

The ultra-high temperature created by Jagan’s Beast Vassal did not cause anything as crude as an explosion. By executing a slash like a sword master, he had instantly sliced through the steel tower with the precision of a plasma cutter. Of course, no living creature should have been able to survive the aftermath of such an attack. 

None save the girl before their eyes, in all likelihood— 

The edge of the girl’s hood fluttered as she landed on the roof of a nearby building. 

“A rather rough welcome.” 

The attack from Jagan’s Beast Vassal hadn’t even scratched her. A delighted smile came over the girl’s beautiful, fairy-like visage. 

“Perhaps I should have expected as much from Vattler’s right-hand man, Tobias Jagan?” she said. 

Jagan had recalled his Beast Vassal and had it stand by overhead as he glared at the girl. 

“That was your one warning. The next shall strike you instead.” 

He was not disturbed that the girl knew his name. He believed she had just saved him the chore of stating it himself. 

Kira moved into position to cut off the girl’s retreat and inquired, “We know that you are tailing the Fourth Primogenitor. May we know the reason why? Along with your name and affiliation.” 

Vattler had commanded Kira and Jagan to guard Kojou Akatsuki. In other words, he had anticipated the arrival of an enemy endangering the Fourth Primogenitor. 

If that was the case, this girl must be that enemy. Anyone who could sustain a Beast Vassal attack and still smile calmly was certainly a foe powerful enough to warrant the pair’s combined strength. 

However, the girl’s shoulders shook as she burst into giggles. 

“I, tailing the Fourth Primogenitor, you say…? It seems you do not know anything. Vattler did not tell you?” 

“…What are you trying to say?” Jagan’s hostility oozed out of every word. 

The girl’s apparent attempt to undermine his trust in Vattler got on his nerves. But she continued warmly, as if to mock Jagan’s indignation. 

“I suppose Vattler dispatched you to guard him. If you wish to protect the Fourth Primogenitor, I am no enemy of yours. Or do you intend to waste the consideration I have shown Vattler?” 

A bewildered expression came over Kira. 

“…What do you mean by this? Do you know the Duke of Ardeal’s whereabouts?” 

The girl’s statement implied she knew exactly what Vattler was up to. Seeing Kira try to soberly extract information rather than rush to kill her, the girl gazed at him as if to say, Good boy. 

“Do not be concerned,” she replied. “I have not killed him. As I expected, not even my power can completely destroy that one with ease. I shall release him once I have finished my business.” 

Jagan’s handsome face twisted ferociously. 

“You took His Excellency captive?” 

“Indeed,” she murmured, apparently wondering what was surprising about that. “You do not believe me? Or rather, is there any credible proof the likes of Vattler can stand against me?” 

A faint trace of doubt came across Kira’s face. 

“Who are you…?” 

He didn’t think the girl possessed the power to face Kira and Jagan, two pureblood vampires directly descended from the Lost Warlord, let alone someone with Vattler’s level of might. It was unthinkable that Kira and Jagan wouldn’t know the name of someone so powerful. 

But the vampire’s veteran combat instincts told him that the girl’s unbridled confidence was probably not unfounded. 

Jagan, finally at his wits’ end, coarsely spat, “Enough of this. Back off, Kira. There’s no reason to put up with this farce any longer.” 

His crimson-dyed eyes radiated a ghastly, demonic light. This was the glow of Wadjet, an invisible Beast Vassal, permitting Jagan to enter an opponent’s brain through the eyes, seizing control of his opponent’s mind— 

The glow of Jagan’s eyes increased. 

“You will speak of everything you know, woman!” 

The girl calmly looked back at him with admiration. 

“Oh, a mind-control Beast Vassal? That is the Warlord’s bloodline for you. It seems you possess a rare power—” 

Jagan’s body snapped backward before the girl had even finished speaking. 

“Wh…at?!” 

Jagan’s lips let out a loud guoh as the backlash of vast demonic energy drove him to his knees. He covered his left eye. 

“It can’t be… Your eyes… Why you…!” 

The girl had resisted the Beast Vassal attack, and the recoil had struck its summoner, Jagan. She stated in a sympathetic tone, “Do not take it personally. It is you who gazed into my eyes.” 

The eyes visible under her hood emitted a pale blue light. That glow had blocked Jagan’s Beast Vassal’s attack, leaving Jagan to suffer the consequences. 

A moment later, an energetic cry came from Kira as a bloody mist leaped from the tip of his finger. 

“Nephila Ignis—” 

The scorching cloud transformed into lava, covering the area around the girl like a spiderweb. 

“Kira, what are—?!” Jagan exclaimed. 

“Move back, Jagan. I shall deal with this—” Kira asserted with a calm laugh. 

A beautiful, glimmering amber spider emerged at Kira’s feet. It was a Beast Vassal with molten rock coursing through it. 

The creature’s webs were scorching lava, too. They formed a beautiful geometric formation as they completely enclosed the white-robed girl. If she so much twitched a finger, she would surely be burned to a crisp by the lava threads around her. 

The girl impetuously scrutinized the network of amber webs that left her no avenue of escape. 

“So this formation is a single Beast Vassal? Impressive indeed.” 

Within the cage Kira had deployed, she could neither transform into mist, nor employ spatial control magic. It was impossible to escape from the formation. 

“I, too, have only one warning. Surrender now,” Kira said quietly. 

His voice was tinged with the worry that he would have no choice but to kill her if she didn’t. 

However, her piercing eyes twinkled as she burst into laughter. 

“Your warning is unnecessary, Kira Lebedev. You cannot harm me. Even if it is to protect your comrade, you shall pay for baring your fangs against me.” 

“—?!” 

That instant, Kira was struck speechless at the massive wave of demonic energy from the girl. The threads of lava around her, part of the flesh of Kira’s Beast Vassal, were ripped asunder. Unable to withstand the demonic power of the girl’s newly summoned Beast Vassal, it had blown apart from the inside. The girl’s violence declared, If the formation is inescapable, simply rip it apart. 

Even Jagan was virtually lost for words at the cataclysmic energy of the Beast Vassal that had appeared. 

“That’s a Beast Vassal?! That’s crazy, this power is—!” 

The monster was bizarre, amorphous. It boasted a density of demonic energy far surpassing that of Kira’s and Jagan’s Beast Vassals, likely surpassing even Vattler’s fused one. The only beings that could control Beast Vassals of such a scale were the primogenitors, the oldest and mightiest of all vampires. 

“This puts my plans in slight disarray, but it cannot be helped,” she declared. “No, you left them as guards in anticipation of this, damnable Master of Serpents. A fine nuisance you are.” 

The girl laughed haughtily as she unfurled her might. 

The explosive demonic energy made the sky above the Demon Sanctuary quake, filling it with pale blue lightning. 

7 

Jagan and Kira weren’t the only ones who had detected the mysterious girl’s attack. Motoki Yaze, a Hyper Adapter, had picked up the presence of Kojou’s pursuer through the Soundscape deployed around him. 

Yaze had tentatively guessed that Jagan and Kira would engage the girl in combat, but the scale of the Beast Vassal the girl had summoned was leaps and bounds beyond his expectations. 

“Hey, Mogwai.—What the hell is that?! No one told me about this!” Yaze shouted at his smartphone. 

He was speaking to the artificial intelligence Asagi had dubbed Mogwai, the avatar of the five supercomputers that administered Itogami Island. 

Mogwai replied in an oddly human-like voice, “Ahhh…to be honest, I’m surprised, too. There’s no record of entry, and the magical power wave is off the charts, so I can’t analyze it. She’s a complete unknown.” 

Yaze didn’t think he was genuinely surprised, but his claim that he lacked data was probably true. Mogwai had no reason to deceive Yaze in a situation like this. 

“What about images? Can’t you do a body structure analysis?” he suggested. 

Mogwai should have an enormous stockpile of photographic data on Itogami Island’s residents from surveillance cameras all over the island. Matching the girl to one of those images was likely to provide some sort of lead. 

Naturally, Mogwai must have had the same thought. His reply was accordingly swift. 

“There’s only one hit. She matches the sample with 98.779 percent certainty—” 

“And the sample’s name is Avrora Florestina?” 

“Got it in one. The twelfth Kaleid Blood,” Mogwai replied with amusement. 

Without thinking, Yaze slammed a fist against the building wall beside him. 

“That’s crazy…!” 

“Keh-keh… It couldn’t really be Avrora, huh? So who is she, then? She’s a monster that can squash nobles from the Warlord’s Empire flat. Maybe she’s the real thing after all…?” 

Mogwai posed the question as if he’d sensed the doubt troubling Yaze’s heart. The rainbow-colored hair like surging flames, the blazing eyes, and the fairy-like, youthful beauty—they were all specific to a girl who had once visited the island, one deeply connected to Yaze himself. And yet… 

“Yeah, well, that isn’t possible…and you know the reason as well as anyone, Mogwai.” 

“I suppose. But if the girl is an imposter, what are you gonna do about it?” 

Mogwai’s verbal jab left Yaze’s words stuck in his throat. Yaze’s role was as a mere observer. Even with his heaven-sent skill and backup from the Gigafloat Management Corporation, there was no way he could hope to fight a monster like that head-on. It was a fact he resented at the moment. 

“So all I can do is watch without lifting a finger, again…?” 

Mogwai answered with some pity. “Ah…doesn’t look like you can do that, either.” 

Just when Yaze was going to ask Mogwai what he meant by that, a voice suddenly said from in front of him— 

“No, I suppose not.” 

What the—? Yaze inhaled. A lone man was standing just a few paces away on the lonely roof of a building. He wore loose, black, Chinese-style clothes, giving off the air of an ancient hermit. However, that was all that stood out about him. Even close up like this, his presence was surprisingly difficult to sense. 

Yaze was shaken by the impossible truth. 

“You got close to me, and I didn’t notice…?!” 

With his abilities amplified, Yaze could discern the footsteps of each individual human being within a radius of several kilometers. Even with the mystery girl holding his attention, how could he possibly have let someone get this close to him without realizing? 

The young man gazed unemotionally at Yaze as he drew his weapon. It was a short, metallic spear, just barely exceeding a meter in length. Both tip and shaft were composed of uniform blackness, as if they absorbed all light falling upon them. And then, he drew another just like it— 

The young man touched the short spears in his left and right hands together to create a single spear—a bizarre, long spear with tips on both ends—and said, “Your ability is somewhat of a nuisance to me. This is where you depart from the stage, Motoki Yaze. There will be only one observer.” 

At that, Yaze realized the identity of the young man. 

“I see… There were seven escapees from the prison barrier. So you’re the seventh!” 

He was referring to the prison escape of sorcerous criminals that had occurred about one month before. That day, Aya Tokoyogi, the Witch of the Notaria, escaped from the prison barrier with seven others. 

Of those, six had been sent back inside the barrier, leaving only one escapee left, whereabouts unknown—namely, the young man in the black clothing. His crime and his abilities were unknown, for all records had been erased. The only data left was his name, which Yaze shouted out— 

“…Meiga Itogami!” 

Yaze took a capsule pill out of his pocket, popped it into his mouth, and crunched it down. The next moment, wind began to blow all around him and eventually turned into an incredible gust. 

Held back by the swirling, whistling storm, the young man let out a light sigh. 

“I would rather you did not call me by that name so casually… Ah, well.” 

Finally, the light distorted before his eyes as a giant emerged, born from the gale force winds. Yaze had temporarily boosted his Hyper Adapter power to create a duplicate of himself—Aerodyne. Its body was a burst of air condensed to several times atmospheric pressure, possessing localized destructive power on par with a tornado. Furthermore, since it was formed of simple air, magical defenses could not block it. Even Yukina Himeragi’s Schneewaltzer was unable to nullify Yaze’s attack. 

Gazing at the wind giant, the young man calmly poised his weapon. 

“A Hyper Adapter controlling the air flow… An interesting ability. However…” 

The ominous grayish glow emitted by the pitch-black spear was like a will-o’-the-wisp quivering in the darkness. And when the gusting giant’s attack touched that sinister light…the double vanished, and the raging flow of the air with it, as if it had never existed in the first place. All that was left afterward was a faint breeze. 

Yaze gawked, short of breath. 

“Aerodyne’s been nullified…?!” 

The young man had not destroyed the wind giant. He had not even blocked the attack. He had merely erased the power Yaze was using to control it. 

“That spear… It’s a Schneewaltzer?! No, not that…! It can’t be!” 

Yaze finally understood what the black spear truly was, and he realized this was a man he must not fight. He used the remaining trace of wind to propel himself backward in an attempt to evade the young man’s counterattack. 

Unfortunately, before Yaze could succeed, the slash of the black spear caught him. Fresh blood spurted from the slice in his chest. Yaze’s body busted through a fence, tumbling toward the ground. 

Meiga Itogami scowled at the shallowness of the cut and gazed down at the ground through the gap in the fence. Yaze, who should have fallen below, was nowhere to be seen. There was only a large pool of blood spreading over the asphalt below. He should not have been able to move with such a wound, and yet— 

The young man in black calmly reflected to himself, “As tenacious as one might expect…but, mm, that is fine.” 

A smartphone that had rolled over to a corner of the roof abruptly caught his eye. Yaze had no doubt dropped it in the heat of combat. 

There were cracks on the screen, but the characters identified the speaker on the other end, and indicated that the call was still connected— 

With a satisfied tone, Meiga Itogami murmured a reverent greeting. 

“And so I finally meet our King.” 

Then he slowly stepped on the smartphone. He added the full weight of his body, violently stomping it to pieces with his heel. The glass smashed into fine dust. The last thing he could hear from the phone before the line went fully dead was a strange laugh. 

“Keh-keh…” 

8 

Asagi stuffed her cheeks full with thick pancakes, glaring at the screen of her laptop as she spoke. 

“There was definitely a terror bombing on a train in the Roman Autonomous Region on the Italian peninsula four years ago—or more precisely, the March that was three years, eight months ago. The damage included over four hundred fatalities, including train passengers and people at the station. There was a lot of coverage about it even here in Japan.” 

There was a pile of four large, empty plates near her. This amount, moderate by Asagi’s standards, no doubt reflected her concentration on her work. 

Asagi was accessing local law enforcement’s internal data. Where political incidents like terrorism were concerned, there was always at least some information intentionally withheld from the public, or even falsified outright, in the name of averting panic. 

Since it was past lunchtime, the MAR employee cafeteria was vacant. Kojou and Yukina forgot about their meals as they listened to Asagi’s explanation. 

“The incident occurred at one PM local time. The same day, past eight PM, Nagisa was transported to Itogami Island on a MAR charter flight while in critical condition.” 

Having said this much, Asagi covered her eyes in distress. She sighed and shook her head. 

“This is just…” 

Much like Asagi, Yukina lowered her eyes and murmured in quiet pain, “So I was right…” 

Kojou was shaken by the girls’ attitudes. 

“Huh? What’s with those reactions…?” 

Kojou thought that things were just as they’d been explained to him. He and Nagisa were at the scene when the terror incident occurred, and Nagisa, in critical condition, was shuttled to Itogami Island to heal. He didn’t think the time difference was an issue either. 

Asagi looked at him with an amazed expression that seemed to say, You are sooo dense. 

“Hey, you. How long do you think it takes to fly from Rome to Itogami Island?” 

“Er? Ohh…” 

Kojou finally picked up the discrepancy. Even by the shortest possible route, the flight time from the Roman Autonomous Region to Tokyo was eleven hours, give or take. From there, it’d take a bit under an hour to get to Itogami Island, and switching planes doubtlessly added even more time. Even with MAR providing a private jet, it was too fast to arrive at Itogami Island. 

“Er, wait, there’s a time difference, too, right? It’s what, eight hours off or something…?” 

Yukina calmly pointed out, “Rome has a seven hour time zone difference from Japan. If it is seven PM here, it is noon local time.” 

Kojou felt like the floor had fallen out from under him as he shook his head, dumbfounded. 

“…What does that mean?” 

Asagi shrugged her shoulders. “It means Nagisa was already hospitalized when the terror bombing happened. Her injuries are unrelated to that incident. They just used something that coincidentally happened on the same day as a cover story.” 

Yukina picked up where Asagi left off. 

“I think it is natural for you and Nagisa to have no memory of before or after the incident, senpai. After all, neither of you were involved in it to begin with.” 

“That being the case, I have my doubts that you two were in Rome to begin with,” Asagi added. “The customs records definitely show that you were headed to Europe, but…” 

Kojou stared at his own palms as he weakly muttered, “Then…they’ve been lying to us all this time…?” 

The thought of all the adults gathered around them lying to their faces was unpleasant, if not outright creepy, because it meant both of their parents were fully involved in the deception. 

“Why would they lie to us about that? Why would they need to?!” 

Yukina quietly shook her head with concern for Kojou. 

“I do not know… However, it is surely related to your condition, senpai.” 

With a start, Asagi lifted her face and looked at Yukina. “Kojou’s condition?” 

If you want to know what Kojou’s been hiding, I want you to look into this incident first—that was the iron-clad condition Yukina had set. Yukina had probably discerned from the start that the memory pushed onto Kojou was false. 

Asagi continued, glaring seriously at Kojou. “I see… You did promise to explain, didn’t you? I want you to tell me everything the two of you are hiding from me.” 

Kojou nodded in resignation. Either way, he’d figured he’d have to eventually come clean with Asagi. 

But there was one thing he wanted to confirm for himself before he began. 

“Hey, Asagi. There should be records of Nagisa’s treatment at MAR, right…?” 

Perhaps sensing what Kojou was getting at, Asagi spoke with some hesitation for once. “Well…probably. Looking at it without authorization is illegal and a violation of privacy, you know?” 

But Kojou had a brooding look as his eyes shifted to an exterior window. A white-walled building stood on the other side of a broad, grass-covered courtyard—the MAR medical laboratory, and the building where Nagisa had no doubt undergone treatment. 

“The MAR people lied to us first, so we’re even. If they’ve been using Nagisa without us knowing, that’s a crime in itself, right?” 

Asagi exhaled deeply and called to her partner, the AI. 

“…Well, you heard the man, Mogwai.” 

Even with Asagi’s skill, hacking into MAR, one of the world’s few magical high-tech corporations, would be no easy task. Having the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s main computer backing her up might be a different story. 

However, there was no response from the AI. 

“Mogwai…?” 

Asagi smoothly tapped her keyboard, inputting a search command. The sarcastic avatar normally popped up even when he didn’t need to, but that day, Asagi’s call to him went unanswered. Something or other seemed to be jamming the signal. 

Simultaneously, Yukina and Kojou let out cries of surprise. 

“Eh…?!” 

“—?!” 

They saw a titanic level of demonic energy in a place not far from the MAR complex. It was a magical power so great that even Kojou, not exactly the most sensitive person around, could keenly detect. 

“Himeragi, that’s—!” 

Yukina leaped to her feet, grabbing her guitar case as she ran to an open window. 

“Yes, a Beast Vassal. But what is this off-the-scale demonic energy…?!” 

She saw, in a gap between buildings, a broadcast tower gently falling and collapsing as if it had been sliced by a giant knife. 

This was most certainly the work of an Old Guard vampire’s Beast Vassal, and a nobleman-level one at that. Furthermore, there was more than one source of demonic energy. A short time later, she sensed the presence of a newly summoned Beast Vassal. 

Kojou and Yukina first thought of Jagan and Kira. As nobles from the Warlord’s Empire, it would be no surprise if they could summon Beast Vassals of that class. The bigger problem was the existence of an enemy that required the use of multiple Beast Vassals. Furthermore, there was no sign of the battle abating. For two of Vattler’s confidants to be struggling in combat— 

The very next moment, Asagi let out a loud yelp. 

“What the—?!” 

It was as if the dead of night had fallen over them, with ferocious lightning filling the entire sky. The artificial island shuddered from a great impact, as if a meteorite had crashed right into it. 

Kojou and Yukina stiffened, unable to say a word, because they realized just what that shock was. 

The mass of demonic energy blotting out the sky above the man-made island was the Beast Vassal summoned by Jagan and Kira’s enemy—if one could even call something capable of such an incredible change a Beast Vassal. 

Similar to how a sufficiently large mass would interfere with gravity, the mere presence of a huge amount of magical energy sent the man-made island’s systems into chaos. Their fields of vision were distorted, like they had been dragged up from deep underwater, unable to even breathe easily because of the difference in pressure. 

Until now, Kojou and Yukina had known only one category of Beast Vassals in existence that unleashed such enormous demonic energy: those of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire. 

A thunderbolt ripped through the air close by. Together with the lightning, a silhouette landed on the ground in the courtyard of the hospital. Asagi pointed to it and shouted, “—Kojou, over there!” 

It was a girl wearing a white robe. This was no doubt the foe that Jagan and Kira had been fighting. 

She gently pointed her finger. 

A giant ball of lightning followed, hurtling to the ground. Any lightning rod or defensive barrier was powerless before its incalculable destructive might. An impact accompanied by enormous heat slammed right into the medical wing building, blasting the exterior wall to bits. 

The cutting-edge research facility had been transformed into a ruin on the verge of collapse. 

One more hit, and no doubt the structure would be annihilated without a trace. 

Seeing this, Kojou finally regained his senses. 

“What the hell’s with her?! Nagisa’s in there!!” 

It did not matter to him who the attacker was. What mattered was that she was trying to destroy the building with Nagisa inside. That was an act of savagery he absolutely could not permit. 

But Kojou wondered if he could really stop a girl who could control a Beast Vassal equal, or superior, to his own— 

She turned toward Kojou and looked at him, giggling as if she saw right through his hesitation. 

She stripped off her robe, revealing her fairy-like beauty for all to see. Her rainbow-colored hair rippled in the violent wind. She had blazing eyes and a defiant smile. 

As Kojou shuddered, Yukina’s sharp voice reached his ears. 

“Senpai, I’ll look after Nagisa—!” 

From her guitar case she removed a long, fully metallic spear that glinted silver. Once in her hands, the thick blade deployed with a smooth shing. 

“Himeragi?!” 

“Take care of Aiba!” 

With that one-sided statement, Yukina broke the reinforced glass and leaped outside. 

In the garden, electrical currents were still running around from the girl’s lightning attack. Yukina charged straight in. A single flash of her silver spear wiped the sputtering lightning out. Yukina’s Schneewaltzer was a purging spear able to rend any kind of barrier and nullify magical energy. Yukina, bearing that spear, was the only human in that place able to withstand an attack from a primogenitor’s Beast Vassal. 

“What is that spear?! Just what is she…?!” Asagi said, dumbfounded. 

Asagi didn’t know who Yukina really was. Seeing her in Sword Shaman form for the very first time left her as overwhelmed as one might expect. 

However, Kojou couldn’t say a word to Asagi, because he was shaken far more than she. 

“No…way…” 

Asagi, noticing Kojou’s abnormal state, looked up and to the side. 

“Kojou?” 

His eyes were wide open, absentminded except for the single thing he was focusing on: the girl with rainbow hair and a charming smile, enveloped by ferocious thunder— 

The anguished question that came from Kojou’s throat sounded like a lament. 

“Avrora… How…?” 

9 

Magna Ataraxia Research, or MAR, was one of the world’s few sorcerous manufacturing conglomerates. Even just the laboratory it had established within Itogami City was an enormous enterprise employing nearly a thousand researchers. It was designed with considerable security features in mind, like security pods constructed with sorcerous circuitry and colorful miniature robots about the size of a garbage can. Somehow, their rounded external appearance was humorous and adorable. However, intended for security, this was simply for show. On the inside, MAR security pods were military-grade unmanned attack robots, prototype weapons developed with anti-demonic combat in mind. 

These unmanned attack robots barreled toward the invading girl, slamming her with a downpour of gunfire. The bullets were small-caliber, high-velocity cursed rounds made with cutting-edge platinum-rhodium tips, able to inflict lasting damage upon demons. 

Amidst the 2,000-rounds-per-minute volley inflicted by some thirty security pods, the rainbow-haired girl wryly smiled and commanded her Beast Vassal to attack. The darkness shrouding the sky above them unleashed giant balls of lightning, which then transformed into countless arrows of light that poured down onto the laboratory grounds. The high-temperature shock waves they released pulverized the attack drones, gouging huge holes in the ground and the exterior walls of nearby buildings in the process. 

The security personnel on standby behind the security pods shrieked and began to flee. 

The girl trod upon the wreckage of the autonomous attack robots as she gazed at those fleeing with a look of surprise. Her expression said that she found it strange they were still alive after having turned their guns upon her. 

Licking her lips in obvious pleasure, she acknowledged the silhouette standing amid the smoke from the blast. 

“Hmm. So you are the one who saved their lives—” 

She was addressing the small girl with the silver spear who had fended off her Beast Vassal’s attack. 

“I see,” she continued. “There was a rumor that a wielder of a Schneewaltzer had been dispatched to monitor the Fourth Primogenitor. How intriguing—I now have a modest interest in you. Name yourself, girl.” 

Yukina replied to the girl’s haughty question with a firm tone of voice. 

“Yukina Himeragi. Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency.” 

Up close, the girl’s dreadful aura was beyond Yukina’s wildest expectations. If she faltered for a single second, she would completely lose all will to fight. Her enemy gave off a sense of overwhelming might far surpassing all the various foes Yukina had faced until that day. 

Watching the Sword Shaman keep her spear poised at the ready, she grinned in admiration. 

“Do not move. Please release the Beast Vassal you have summoned and obey my instructions,” Yukina ordered. 

With a giggle, the girl’s lips formed a wild smile. 

“You deign to command me? I rather like reckless young ones unaware of their standing, Yukina.” 

A particularly enormous ball of lightning emerged above the girl’s head, with the static electricity in the air prickling Yukina’s flesh. The giant storm cloud blotting out the entirety of the sky was likely the girl’s actual Beast Vassal. 

The girl continued: “I shall not comply, for my objective remains unaccomplished.” 

She unleashed a pale beam toward Yukina, but the spear swatted down the attack no normal human could ever have seen coming. The Sword Shamans of the Lion King Agency were able to see an instant into the future with their spirit sight. By reading the future, she had intercepted the Beast Vassal attack occurring literally at the speed of lightning. 

Yukina ran toward the girl. 

“So you will stop me by force? I like you even more!” the rainbow-haired girl said. 

An expression of delight came over her as she unleashed another attack. However, Yukina did not stop. She slashed her way through the scalding lightning strike, making a beeline toward her. 

“The purging spear that can rend any barrier and nullifies magical energy—you use it well for someone so inexperienced. But that is not enough to stop me!” her foe declared. 

“—Eh?!” 

The instant Yukina thought Snowdrift Wolf’s blade had impaled her foe, she let out a sound of complete shock. The spear, able to sever any demonic energy, had been struck from the side, throwing it off course. It hadn’t sustained a blow from the Beast Vassal. 

Rather, the girl had knocked Snowdrift Wolf away with her bare hand. 

Then she moved to press her advantage with a kick, but Yukina’s spear fended it off. By the skin of her teeth, she dodged the girl’s karate chop. With Yukina now off-balance, the girl launched a ferocious pummeling blow. The speed was too great for Yukina to counterattack; that instant, it took everything the Sword Shaman had just to fall back. 

Intense anxiety came over Yukina as she moaned, “It can’t be… Those movements…” 

The girl before her eyes was surely a powerful fully fledged vampire. The destructive might of the Beast Vassal she controlled was equal or superior to that of Kojou—of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals. But if that was all, she would prove little match for Yukina with Snowdrift Wolf in her hands. 

Yukina was shocked that the girl had overwhelmed her in melee combat. Yukina, who had held her own and then some against a Lotharingian Armed Apostle and beast-man mercenaries, was being dominated one-on-one by a girl her own size. 

However, the rainbow-haired girl also seemed to be evaluating her opponent. She gave a large nod of admiration that Yukina had escaped her attacks unscathed. 

“Hee-hee-hee, you took that well. But… Go forth, Xiuhtecuhtli!” 

A new Beast Vassal emerged at her feet, a pillar of incandescent flame reminiscent of a volcanic eruption. The explosive inferno surged around like a giant serpent and assaulted Yukina from above. 

“Snowdrift Wolf…!” 

Even as the off-the-charts level of heat struck her with awe, Yukina poured all her spiritual energy into her long spear and intercepted the flowing flames. Even if it appeared to be a fiery torrent, it was still a pure mass of demonic energy underneath. A single blow from the magic-nullifying Snowdrift Wolf caused both heat and flame to vanish. 

The rainbow-haired girl declared in a voice that seemed more lighthearted than ever, “…So you leaped in to slice the flames from within. Had you turned your back for a single second out of fear of Xiuhtecuhtli, you and your bones would have been consumed without a trace. Well done. Even if I am being discreet, there are few souls that have fended off my Beast Vassals twice. Take pride in this.” 

Her inexhaustible self-confidence wrapped Yukina in a doubt that resembled deep-rooted terror. 

“What are you…?!” 

The girl before her eyes was different than any foe Yukina had encountered previously. In terms of strength, Kanon Kanase had been closest during the time she had become Faux-Angel, possessing inexhaustible magical energy and absolute immortality, and an overbearing might that rivaled the gods. The girl was a being on a different plateau—compared to normal demons, she was in a different dimension. 

What differed from Faux-Angel was that it was not divinity that hovered around her, but an infinite negative life force. Incomplete as he was, Yukina knew only one being similar to her: Kojou Akatsuki, the current Fourth Primogenitor. If he had obtained all the abilities that were properly due to him as primogenitor, that might have made him a being on the same level as the girl. 

But the girl couldn’t be a vampire primogenitor. The girl’s young, beautiful features were completely different than anything she had heard about the three lords of the Dominions. They, and the Fourth Primogenitor, the vampire primogenitor that should not have existed, were the only primogenitors— 

If Kojou was the Fourth Primogenitor, then this girl could not be one. If Kojou was the real Fourth Primogenitor— 

Yukina’s hands quivered as they gripped her spear. 

“That power… Your appearance… No, it can’t be…?!” 

It felt less like remembering than being suddenly struck by an unpalatable truth. 

The rainbow hair like billowing flames… The blazing eyes of pale blue flame… This was the appearance of the true Fourth Primogenitor, Avrora Florestina, whose name was a synonym for terror. 

The vampire whose form was that of a young girl as beautiful as a fairy… 

If this girl had only Avrora’s willowy appearance, Yukina would no doubt have deemed her an imposter. However, she used Beast Vassals, and ones so powerful that none but primogenitors could employ them— 

With Yukina standing frozen in place, the rainbow-haired girl seemed to lose interest in her. 

“Go, Camaxtli.” 

The black storm cloud blotting out the sky unleashed a dazzling bolt, but it was not aimed at Yukina. The electric flash ripping through the air struck the building behind Yukina—near the half-destroyed medical wing. 

Even if Yukina had bought some time, the staff couldn’t have finished evacuating already. Furthermore, the hospital attached to the laboratory contained numerous patients who could not be moved. 

However, the girl’s attack showed them no mercy. The building’s lightning rods had already been destroyed, and Snowdrift Wolf could not protect the entirety of an enormous laboratory. Yukina had no way to protect the people there from the attack—and the attack of a primogenitor’s Beast Vassal wrought destruction and despair on par with a natural disaster. 

Yet a low sound of surprise escaped the girl’s lips. 

“Hmm?” 

The lightning strike falling from the heavens was struck down by another, from the surface. The bolts scattered by the ferocious collision shifted into the form of a giant lion enveloped by lightning. A roar ripped through the air. 

Yukina looked up at the lightning lion and shouted: 

“Regulus Aurum—!” 

The rainbow-haired girl murmured, “So he finally comes,” shifting her gaze with a charming smile. Her eyes reflected Kojou, whom the Beast Vassal served. He glared at the girl without letting down his guard as he stepped forward in Yukina’s place. 

With pale lightning wrapping around his entire body, Kojou turned to the Sword Shaman. 

“Himeragi, you all right?” 

Yukina stared at him, dumbfounded. “Senpai—” 

Kojou’s dry voice seemed on edge somehow. 

“Substitution. Take care of Asagi.” 

Yukina and Kojou weren’t the only ones present. It went without saying that Asagi had seen him call his Beast Vassal forth. 

Asagi was probably more shaken by the truth than Kojou was by the revelation of his secret. However, neither Kojou nor Yukina had any time for considering Asagi’s feelings. The only thing they could do was ensure her safety. 

“Senpai, this person…” 

Kojou made a weak, bitter smile as he glared at the rainbow-haired girl. “Yeah… She looks a lot like Avrora.” 

Yukina hesitated before voicing what she feared was the truth. 

“If it is her, does that not make her the real Fourth Primogenitor?” 

Kojou’s eyes glowed red. 

“Then that’s all the more reason I have to fight her.” His entire body was giving off dense magical energy. He continued, “And if she’s after Nagisa, that’s just more of a reason to fight her! I’m not letting you put one finger on this hospital. From here on, this is my fight—!” 

Kojou’s shout was accompanied by the lightning lion’s roar. The giant mass of magical energy bared its fangs toward the rainbow-haired girl. However, there was no fear on her face. The only thing there was a delighted smile. 

“Regulus Aurum. This really takes me back—Very well, go, Camaxtli—!” 

The two Beast Vassals, each enveloped with enormous electric charges, clashed head-on. The ferocious shock wave became a blast of wind that indiscriminately assaulted the surrounding area. Kojou’s face twisted in nervousness. 

“…Regulus Aurum’s being pushed back…?!” 

It was an unbelievable sight. Regulus Aurum’s charge halted before it could touch the girl. The lightning lion, priding itself in its invincibility, was being overwhelmed by the might of the girl’s Beast Vassal. 

The raging gale swept the girl’s hair as she shouted wildly, “You call yourself the Fourth Primogenitor, yet you indeed still lack full control of your Beast Vassals! Do not disappoint me so!” 

A pillar of fire erupted from the girl’s feet, changing into an incandescent torrent that assaulted Kojou. 

“Go, Xiuhtecuhtli!” 

“Ugh! C’mon over, Al-Nasl Minium!” 

Kojou shot down the scorching torrent with a blast from the Beast Vassal he had summoned. The girl released the summons of her own Beast Vassal to avoid the fiery backlash. 

“Hee-hee-hee… You defended well! Then—!” 

She suddenly leaped off the ground with monstrous speed only achievable with a vampire’s raw physical strength. A distance of several dozen meters turned to zero in an instant as the girl thrust her right arm at Kojou. Vile claws that seemed unsuited to the girl’s slender hands extended from her fingertips. 

“Why you!” 

Intuitively judging that he could not dodge the girl’s attack, Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal. His entire body transformed into mist, and the girl’s right arm, on the cusp of impaling him, turned to mist as well. 

“The Beast Vassal of Mist, Natra Cinereus—not a bad choice, but a careless one!” 

The girl used her own demonic energy to materialize the right arm that had been turned to mist against her will. 

This action seemed to drag Kojou back, releasing him from his own mist form, tearing his left breast and sending fresh blood scattering. Apparently, Kojou’s Beast Vassal, able to transform any kind of physical matter to mist and annihilate it, was ineffective against a vampire equal or above his own level. 

He moaned as he glared at the girl’s bloodstained right arm. 

“Guo…a…!” 

The girl’s arm had transformed into a beast man’s even though she was a vampire— 

“I…see! You’re—!” 

“So you finally realize it. But it is too late! Go, Xolotl!” 

She summoned her third Beast Vassal. This was an enormous, skeletal giant. Its eye sockets, having lost their eyes, were large hollow cavities; the gaps between the exposed ribs were filled with a dark space that did not reflect even a single ray of light. 

The rib cage opened like a door, unleashing the overpowering darkness as if firing a cannon. It was a ravenous black missile that consumed space itself. 

This is bad, thought Kojou as his whole body froze. The skeletal giant’s target was not Kojou, but rather, the building behind him. As if the rainbow-haired girl’s aim was to goad Kojou, the target was the medical wing! 

But how was he to stop an attack that consumed space itself?! 

“C’mon over, Al-Meissa Mercury!” 

Kojou summoned another Beast Vassal, a two-headed dragon covered in quicksilver scales. Its giant maws opened wide, swallowing the surrounding space, and the black cannonball, whole. 

Still, taking the brunt of the attack from a Beast Vassal of equal class brought visible strain to the two-headed dragon known as the Dimension Eater. Its demonic energy evaporated, and Kojou dropped to his knees. 

It was plain that the rainbow-haired girl was just as depleted. Perhaps she was satisfied at having used her power so much, for she released the summons of all her Beast Vassals with a pleasant, satisfied smile. 

“—Splendid. To think you would gouge out Xolotl’s annihilation space and the dimension with it instead. I see, such quick-wittedness is how you survived the Blazing Banquet…” 

“Blazing…Banquet…?!” 

Those words, ones Kojou felt he had heard before, made him feel like his chest was tightening. He felt a stabbing pain from the purportedly lost memory. 

At long last, the dazzling sunbeams returned and made the girl grimace as she said, “I had hoped to size you up a little more, but it seems I am out of time. That’s all well and good, for I have fulfilled my objective.” 

She looked at the medical wing building. Even if Kojou had interfered, her Beast Vassal had gouged out a great deal of its exterior wall, ripping open the experimental facility constructed deep underground. 

It had thick metallic interior walls reinforced with steel girders. There were high-voltage cables, devices for circulating liquid coolant, and countless monitoring instruments. It was as sterile as a factory floor. 

A small girl slept atop the metal bed placed at the center. The girl, wearing nothing but a thin medical gown, looked like a human sacrifice lying upon an altar. 

Kojou stood rooted in shock as he gazed at the sight of his still-sleeping little sister. 

“Nagisa…?!” 

Lying beside Nagisa, another girl slept; it was as if they were mirror images. This girl was enveloped in a clear, pale blue mass of glacier-like ice. 

Kojou stared wordlessly at the block of ice that was once called the Fairy’s Coffin. 

10 

Apparently, Kojou’s battle with the rainbow-haired girl had been tentatively settled. A silence descended, and what abruptly broke it was Asagi’s question. 

“So Kojou’s really the Fourth Primogenitor?” 

Asagi’s question was addressed to Yukina, who had doubled back to protect her. Seeing her sullen expression, Asagi clutched her head. 

“What the hell…? That idiot became the World’s Mightiest Vampire? And you’re a watcher assigned by a special federal agency? None of this makes sense. What’s with all this…? Aw, geez!” 

Yukina solemnly lowered her head. “I’m very sorry. I apologize for hiding it until now. However…” 

There was a faint echo of bewilderment in Yukina’s voice. Even if it was natural that Asagi was upset, her reaction was a little different than she had anticipated. 

“Er, you do not seem especially surprised…,” she timidly pointed out. 

Asagi puffed up her cheeks as she stroked her hair back. 

“I’ve lived in a Demon Sanctuary for over a decade. I’m not going to scream just because people I know turned out to be vampires and Attack Mages. Now that you mention it, a lot comes to mind. In the first place, I can’t exactly not believe you after seeing that firsthand.” 

“Yes…I’m very sorry.” 

By rational thinking, Yukina had no reason to apologize, but she lowered her gaze nonetheless, cowed by Asagi’s aggression. 

“And another thing, Himeragi!” 

“Y-yes!” 

Yukina’s whole body seemed to shrink as she lifted her head. Before Yukina’s eyes, Asagi brought her face very close, staring at Yukina’s slender neck. 

“Have you done it with Kojou yet?” 

“P…pardon me?” 

Asagi violently pounded the table close at hand. 

“I’m asking if he drank your blood!” 

Yukina’s head went blank at the girl’s provocative question. 

“Eh?! Er, that was… I mean, there were exigent circumstances…!” 

“You have?! How many times?!” 

“Th-that’s—” 

Yukina began meekly counting on her fingers. Her heart having been completely unprepared, she was unable to think of any way to gloss this over. 

The corners of Asagi’s eyes rose as she watched Yukina bend her fingers. 

“Why, that guuuy…!” 

“Ah, Aiba…?” 

Apparently, the important thing from Asagi’s point of view was not whether Kojou was human, but whether he’d placed his lips upon Yukina’s flesh. 

Yukina tried to find the words to smooth things over, but her face abruptly hardened. 

“I’m very sorry, Aiba, but we must leave this for another time—” 

Yukina turned her silver spear around and walked forward without a sound. She headed toward the young man who had unexpectedly appeared out of nowhere, a youth with delicate features wearing black clothes. 

Asagi, having a bad feeling about the man’s presence, adopted a guarded stance. 

“Who’s that…?” 

“An escapee from the prison barrier.” 

Asagi’s face stiffened at Yukina’s curt explanation. 

“The prison barrier?!” 

She had a very good reason for not laughing off that barrier as a mere urban legend. Back on Harrowing Festival night at the end of October, Asagi had engaged in a lethal running battle with one of its escapees. She knew better than anyone just how frightening they were. 

The man in black, Meiga Itogami, laughed wryly at Yukina in a show of scorn. 

“Ah… You are the Sword Shaman from back then.” 

Meiga gripped one short spear in each hand. Then he powerfully fused them together to create a single long spear. Yukina’s eyes widened in surprise at the eerie glow of the pitch-black weapon. 

“That spear, it can’t be—” 

“So you have indeed noticed that this is Fangzahn—a failed, ‘rejected weapon’ of the Lion King Agency.” 

“—!” 

Yukina’s gaze sharpened further at the young escapee’s mention of the Lion King Agency. It was not out of anger, for she had understood from a single glance that the wicked spear he wielded was constructed from the same technology as Snowdrift Wolf. 

No, what threw Yukina completely off was not the spear but the faint scent of what stained the spear—very fresh blood. 

“What have you done with Yaze—?” Yukina asked. 

Yukina’s question made Asagi’s shoulders tremble. In this situation, if the young jailbreaker had laid a hand on someone, the odds were high that it was Yaze, who’d never returned to the courtyard. 

Meiga gently smiled, almost charming, as if to confirm Yukina and Asagi’s worst fears. “It’s all right. He is probably not dead…yet.” 

“Urk—!” 

The next moment, Yukina leaped at him like she’d been shot out of a cannon. In her mind, there was no point continuing the conversation. First, she needed to render him powerless. 

Yukina’s blow, faster than a demon’s reaction speed could handle, knocked down the man’s spear, then struck him in the side of the head—or so she thought. 

She stopped moving, in shock at the lack of feedback from her own spear. 

“Eh?!” 

The young man calmly spoke to Yukina from behind. 

“What is the matter?” 

He had done nothing save make a single step to the side to evade Yukina’s charge. 

“Impossible,” she uttered. 

Without a doubt, her Spirit Sight had seen the young man’s next action. It should not have been possible for Yukina’s attack to miss. 

The young man’s tone of voice sounded patronizing, as if he was scolding a bungling pupil. 

“I suppose I should warn you that you cannot defeat me. It is precisely because you are an excellent Sword Shaman that you cannot do me any harm.” 

From the beginning, the young man had not regarded Yukina as any match for him. 

Yukina quietly intoned a chant. 

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

She poured all the refined ritual energy inside her body into Snowdrift Wolf, changing its glow to a Divine Oscillation Effect that cut away magical energy. Surely, whatever sorcery Meiga Itogami had deployed, its effect would vanish within that glow. 

However, the beautiful radiance emitted by Snowdrift Wolf winked out before touching the young man’s body. It was not his spell that had been negated, but Yukina’s Divine Oscillation Effect instead. 

Seeing Yukina too shaken to move, Meiga smiled as if to mock her. 

“…Fangzahn is a failure. Type Seven nullifies warped magical energy and amplifies your spiritual power as a priestess—however, Type Zero nullifies both magical and spiritual energy. And so, this spear was sealed away, for it was too dangerous.” 

“But…with both spiritual and magical energy cut off, how can you be…alive…?” 

Nervousness crept into Yukina’s voice. Just like how all things possessed yin and yang, the end and the beginning, spiritual and magical energy were the opposing poles of life itself. Whether one was human or demon, one could not survive when cut off from both spiritual and magical energy. It was less a matter of being alive or dead—without either, one could not even exist. 

The young man turned his spear toward Yukina. 

“Such is my physical nature. No supernatural power affects me. My flesh makes me nothing but a spectator so far as they are concerned. Indeed, were it not for this spear, this condition would be quite useless. However…” 

Yukina’s Spirit Sight could not predict his next action. Certainly, it was as Meiga had said. His spear was the mortal enemy of a Sword Shaman employing Spirit Sight, for the more exceptional the Sword Maiden, the greater the power she lost as a result. 

None of the martial art skills she had acquired through long training had been stolen from her. But Yukina, lacking the reaction speed brought by seeing into the future, and unable to amplify her physical strength through ritual spells, was reduced to a fairly athletic but otherwise normal girl. Could she really defeat an escapee from the prison barrier in her current condition? 

Yukina resigned herself to a suicidal attack just before Asagi wildly shouted: 

“Stop it, now!” 

Then, suddenly, a ferocious gunshot echoed through the room. 

“That’s far enough. Hold it right there!” Asagi continued. 

Asagi had her notebook open as she gave Meiga a threatening look. At her feet sat a colorful machine like a loyal guard dog, an MAR security pod with its gun barrel trained on Meiga. 

Asagi had gone through the laboratory network to hijack control of the security pod. The unmanned attack robots were ineffective against vampires, but they were more than capable of inflicting fatal wounds against an ordinary human being. 

Asagi kept her finger on the keyboard as she solemnly announced, “If you can nullify magical and spiritual energy, that means you can’t block physical attacks, right? Take one step, and I’ll have this security pod turn you into Swiss cheese.” 

Yukina stared at the side of her face, dumbfounded. Asagi’s knees were faintly shaking. She certainly felt fear. Of course—she was an ordinary high school girl with no combat training whatsoever. However, that ordinary high school girl had saved Yukina in her moment of need. 

Meiga was just as surprised as Yukina was, suddenly raising his voice in laughter. 

“Ha…ha-ha-ha…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” 

Although, this was not a laugh of scorn nor was it resignation. It was a laugh of unbridled joy. 

“Is something funny here…?” Asagi asked, obviously irritated. 

She might have thought he was making fun of her. Meiga slowly shook his head, lowering his spear in a gesture of solemn respect toward Asagi. 

“So in that brief span of time, you hacked into a security pod with heavy protections, reprogramming it to do your own bidding… It seems you truly have no idea what astounding ability you possess…” 

“Huh…?” 

Asagi listened to the young man in black’s praise with complete befuddlement. No doubt she was unsure how to react to his complete reversal. 

Yukina was just as perplexed. Certainly, Asagi’s hacking skills reached a plateau above all common sense, but she couldn’t fathom why Meiga admired them to that degree. 

Meiga smiled pleasantly in satisfaction as he separated his twin spear once more. 

“I have seen your work before. It is your power that He has awaited.” 

Then the spiritual and magical energy he had previously blotted out returned. Yukina had regained her power as a Sword Shaman, but Meiga, too, was able to employ ritual spells. Countless glyphs seemingly drawn in ink floated into the area around his body. 

“A spatial control ritual—?!” Yukina exclaimed. 

“What the hell?! That’s not fair!” Asagi shouted. 

She commanded the security pod to open fire. Her targets were the short spears in Meiga’s hands. However, the bullets bounced right off the ritual spell barrier deployed around Meiga. 

With a calm voice, the black-clothed young man said, “Well, then. We shall meet again, Asagi Aiba, Cyber Empress—or rather, Priestess of Cain.” 

With that, he vanished. Yukina and Asagi could do nothing but watch, astounded. 

11 

Kojou could hear sirens from somewhere, no doubt the Island Guard’s public order unit. Even if MAR hadn’t sent word, two primogenitor-class Beast Vassals clashing in an urban area naturally resulted in the Island Guard running over. 

The MAR grounds had been reduced to a pathetic sight. The once-beautiful courtyard was burned to a crisp, ripped down to the innards of the artificial island. Rows of structural glass had been smashed to smithereens, particularly at the medical wing on the verge of collapse at the center of the destruction. 

Although, if one looked solely at the results, the damage could be considered nominal. After all, two vampire primogenitors had fought head-on, yet that was as far as the damage went— 

As Kojou and the rainbow-haired girl stood amid the still-smoldering remnants of vast demonic energy, he heard a witty and polished male voice. 

“As expected of a battle between our revered primogenitors—I must say that I am most satisfied.” 

Finally, with an ear-piercing sound like that of glass scraping glass, a rift opened out of thin air. 

Then a golden mist appeared. The fog brightened and changed into a handsome man: a blond, blue-eyed vampire aristocrat. 

The girl clicked her tongue in annoyance. 

“To think that you made your own way out while my Beast Vassal held you captive… First, I suppose I should call it splendid. I imagine you could have escaped even sooner. Does the fact you did not escape mean that you aim to take my head as I sleep, Vattler?” 

Vattler, now completely materialized, lowered his head in a gesture of respect. 

“Surely you jest, Your Highness.” 

His words seemed courteous, yet they did not carry a single whiff of submission. It was a gesture befitting such a snobbish, aggravating vampire. 

The girl sighed with a twinge of exasperation. 

“Such an unpalatable man. Small wonder you are a confidant of that damnable Warlord. I wish I could make my own daughters learn a thing or two from you.” 

Kojou expressed some doubt as he asked Vattler, “Highness?” 

Based on their conversation, it seemed Vattler had already fought the girl, who had then held him captive somewhere. But to Vattler, the rainbow-haired girl was apparently someone worthy of great respect. 

Yes, he had definitely said that Kojou and the girl were primogenitors, plural— 

“It is you, is it not?” Vattler inquired. “She is the ruler of the Chaos Zone in Central America, served by twenty-seven Beast Vassals, the formless Third Primogenitor of a thousand guises…the Chaos Bride.” 

Instead of denying Vattler’s deduction, the girl laughed teasingly. 

“I do not like being addressed by such a bombastic name. You may call me Giada.” 

At some point, the girl’s hair color had changed, from a blond that reflected the colors of the rainbow to a lustrous, emerald green. The glow of her pale blue, flame-like eyes changed to the jade of a deep lake. 

Her outward appearance was still young, but the fleeting, fairy-like beauty had vanished. What emerged in its place was a powerful but lovely beauty reminiscent of a wild leopard. She looked like a completely different person than she had a few short moments before. This was no doubt her original appearance—the true form of the Chaos Bride, the Third Primogenitor. 

“Impersonation…?” Kojou asked. “A transformation ability? You used that power to turn into Avrora?” 

“I apologize for my impoliteness, Kojou Akatsuki. It was not my intention to mock you,” Giada replied quietly. The girl’s jade eyes looked straight at Kojou, as if probing deeper into him. She continued. “But I thought this would be the easiest way to make you serious.” 

Kojou’s voice shook with quiet anger. 

“…Yeah, I suppose so… Thanks to that, I remember. Everything—all of it.” 

He didn’t direct his anger at Giada; he was indignant at his past self and enraged at himself for forgetting all about that incident—Nagisa and the girl sleeping in the block of ice. His battle with the girl taking Avrora’s form had dredged up his memories from where they had sunk into the sea of oblivion, along with the anger and despair frozen with them. 

“Is that so? Then my role ends here.” 

Then a cruel glint appeared in her eyes as she glared at the half-destroyed medical wing building. 

“However, I believe the humans of MAR should pay an appropriate price for toying with the remains of poor little Avrora—” 

Kojou’s eyes were filled with silent rage as they shifted toward Giada. “Stop.” 

Their gazes crossed like clashing blades. 

“You’re not involved, so hands off. This is my fight,” he said. 

Giada nodded in satisfaction. 

“…A strong spirit. So this is why Vattler has taken a liking to you. Very amusing. Then I shall leave this in your hands, Kojou Akatsuki. Sooner or later, my Chaos Zone shall paint it with blood. You should reclaim that which you have lost before this comes to pass.” 

The girl became insubstantial, seeming to dissolve into thin air and vanish. She’d no doubt used the power of the same Beast Vassal that had shut Vattler in a space in another dimension. 

The vanishing of her presence made the air around them feel lighter somehow. The Chaos Bride possessed a sense of overwhelming might far beyond Kojou’s expectations. 

Vattler shot Kojou a sympathetic glance. 

“A frightening old crone as always, yes? You’ve gone through quite an ordeal, Kojou.” 

The words seemed like a joke, but Kojou sensed it was mixed with an echo like a smoldering flame. Vattler, a cannibal combat maniac, no doubt saw Giada as one of the enemies he would eventually consume. And Giada, fully aware of Vattler’s schemes, had let him go. Perhaps both of their abominable demonic instincts craved ever more powerful foes. 

Kojou’s face scowled in annoyance. 

“You’re not one to talk here, geez.” Then he added with an extremely grudging tone, “…But you saved my bacon back there, so thanks.” 

Hearing Kojou’s words of admiration, Vattler murmured, “Hmm?” with a small smile. It was a wry one that seemed to say, Ah, you noticed? 

At the end of her battle with Kojou, Giada had said she was out of time. By that, she probably meant Vattler’s return from other-dimensional space. If Vattler and Kojou fought her at the same time, even the Third Primogenitor might get the short end of the stick. That was why she was compelled to give up fighting with Kojou at that point. 

If combat had continued at that rate, even if Kojou did manage to survive, the damage would have been far more extensive. Consequently, Vattler had saved Kojou and Itogami Island both. 

The Duke of Ardeal opened his arms wide as an invitation and said dramatically, “Ha-ha, how reserved you are, Kojou, my beloved Fourth Primogenitor!” 

Instinctively sensing danger, Kojou unwittingly retreated a step. 

“Kojou!” 

A third party interrupted Kojou and Vattler’s fight, changing the looks on their faces. The girl had extravagant hair, wore a Saikai Academy school uniform, and was using her favorite notebook as a shield to check Vattler’s advance. 

“A-Asagi…?” 

“I knew it! The two of you really are…!” 

“Eh?!” The gaze Asagi directed at Kojou, as if she had witnessed something highly impure, prompted a vehement, shrill reply. “Y-you’re wrong. This guy’s sayin’ that stuff all on his own—” 

“Is that so?!” 

Asagi glared at him, clearly with her guard up. Thanks to having hidden so many things from her, Kojou had completely lost her trust. Clearing up this misunderstanding would be no easy task. 

Vattler seemed fairly bemused as he looked at the interaction between Kojou and Asagi. 

“I’m really sorry, Kojou. I would like to speak words of love in leisure, but I am concerned for my subordinates. I shall leave the cleanup in your hands.” 

“Eh?!” 

Vattler’s unhesitating words made Kojou even more nervous. 

A large Island Guard force would soon be pouring in. The MAR facility was in ruins. There were numerous wounded. The damage to the facility wouldn’t be a mere one or two hundred million yen. And Giada, the culprit, had long fled. Was he telling Kojou to take responsibility in her place…? 

“The Priestess of Cain… Lovely. This should be fun. It is time you prepared yourself for the inevitable.” 

With that, he transformed into mist and vanished. 

Kojou, left behind and drenched in despair, looked up at the needlessly clear, blue sky. Next to him, Yukina got his attention. 

“Senpai, that girl…?” 

Yukina was staring at the girl lying in the giant block of ice in the medical wing’s underground facility. 

With a broken voice, Kojou spoke the name he had once forgotten. 

“…That’s the real Avrora, the twelfth Kaleid Blood.” 

Asagi drew close to Kojou and gently tugged at his sleeve. 

“Is she sleeping?” 

“Nah.” He shook his head. 

Inside the eternally frozen block of ice, the girl’s eyes were closed. 

Her hair was all the colors of the rainbow, billowing like flames. She had fleeting, fairy-like beauty. Once, those very lips had smiled when they spoke Kojou’s name. 

But she would never open her eyes again. 

“She’s already dead.” 

A silver light glowed in the chest of the girl in the ice. It came from a small, metallic stake, apparently impaling her heart. 

Painfully, Kojou lowered his eyes and murmured… 

“I killed her with my own hands—”