Strike the Blood, Vol. 7: Kaleid Blood Page 15

  But unlike Yaze, who’d had the support of others since the day he was born as a Hyper Adapter, Asagi hadn’t had any close acquaintances. In particular, she spent a lot of time during primary school isolated from others.

  In truth, it was less a result of being hated than being feared. Asagi was blessed with great grades and looks that were almost too graceful, but other girls stayed far away from her. With the exception of a sister removed in age, Asagi had few people of her own gender to play with. She spent far more time doing stuff with Yaze.

  It was none other than Kojou Akatsuki who’d turned that situation around.

  For some reason, spurred by a brief conversation during a chance encounter in a hospital waiting room, Asagi had taken a great liking to Kojou. From then on, she had a new mission in life. Despite her awkwardness at getting along with people, she invented excuses to speak with Kojou, and poured her body and soul into makeup and fashion—perhaps a bit too much. She even mastered the rules of basketball, to the point that she could argue NBA game strategy with Kojou.

  Asagi’s demeanor changed the attitudes of the other girls in class, the way girls always rallied around the many tragic heroines in the world. Her clumsiness unexpectedly became common knowledge in school. Her previous reputation as beautiful and unapproachable changed into that of an adorable classmate who was hopeless in all matters of romance.

  Once that wall came crashing down, Asagi’s good looks were enough to make her well regarded by her classmates. The once-hidden Asagi became the Asagi known to everyone around her.

  However indirect the process, the end result was that Kojou had saved Asagi. Of course, Yaze never said a word about it, but he was secretly grateful toward Kojou.

  In spite of all that, Yaze had not declined going to visit Nagisa in the hospital out of consideration for those two. He had other reasons for being unable to accompany them.

  “…”

  There was an unfamiliar individual behind Kojou and Asagi, keeping a more or less constant range of two hundred meters. The bondage-style, black leather one-piece coat was rather suspicious on a young woman. She was carrying a metal attaché case that was just the right size to hold a submachine gun.

  Island North, where Kojou and Asagi were walking, was a research and development district lined with corporate and university facilities. The pursuer, dressed in the attire of an old-fashioned assassin, couldn’t help but conspicuously stand out from the modern atmosphere of the district—all the more so because of the gleaming, brand-new metal bracelet on her wrist.

  Yaze carefully kept his own distance as he observed her conduct.

  “A demon registration bracelet… Why is a registered demon…?”

  Yaze had detected her presence when Kojou had quietly continued his free throws in the park. There was no doubt she was tailing him, but Yaze couldn’t put his finger on why. Not even a single demon had gotten close to Kojou in the two years since Yaze began monitoring him.

  Kojou and Asagi crossed a pedestrian bridge as they neared the hospital.

  The suspicious woman walked up the stairs to follow them. And a moment after she left Yaze’s line of sight, all sense of her presence vanished.

  Yaze was immediately shaken.

  “What the—?!”

  He pulled his headphones off his ears and focused on his sense of hearing.

  Yaze was a Hyper Adapter specializing in sound. If he felt like it, he could detect the footsteps, breathing, and even the heartbeats of everyone in a radius of several hundred meters around him. However, even Yaze’s ability couldn’t find any trace of the girl who’d been following Kojou and Asagi—

  The only thing left behind on the pedestrian bridge was the metal attaché case she had been carrying.

  Yaze murmured in bewilderment, “I…lost track of her?! That’s crazy!”

  His voice echoed across the empty pedestrian bridge and vanished.

  With his ability deployed, Yaze heard a very faint discrepancy in the echo, a slight delay in the speed of the sound. The cause was an abnormality in the moisture of the air.

  Yaze looked over his shoulder as he realized what she was.

  “She turned to mist?! I see, a D-type—!”

  If Yaze had been a trained Attack Mage rather than a natural psychic, he would have no doubt noticed the high density of magical energy hovering in the area much sooner.

  She was a vampire, and more specifically, an Old Guard vampire of the Lost Warlord’s bloodline. Such vampires could turn to mist to conceal their presence with little difficulty.

  So she must have realized Yaze was tailing her, turning to mist to conceal herself. He had completely fallen for the ruse.

  The woman materialized atop one of the bridge’s railings with a flutter of her black coat.

  “An Itogami Island resident…a student? It would seem you are no mere human.”

  She looked a lot younger than she had from behind. She was perhaps seventeen or eighteen years old, certainly no more than twenty. Her glossy, silk-like brunette hair fluttered in the twilight as she glared at Yaze with crimson eyes.

  She removed her demon registration bracelet before asking, “Do you intend to honestly answer why you were tailing me?”

  She might well have intended to summon a Beast Vassal, even at the risk of informing the Island Guard. Naturally, Yaze lacked the power to do battle against a vampire’s powerful servant. His back was drenched in cold sweat.

  “…Well, what are you doing quietly following a middle schooler around? Trying to rob the cradle?”

  He shoved his nervousness down and boldly smiled.

  It was said that in spite of vampires’ long lives, their mental ages often corresponded with their external appearance. If she was mentally immature, that’d give him an opening.

  And just as Yaze had planned, the vampiress swallowed the bait whole.

  “Wh-who—?!”

  She forgot she was standing on a slippery railing and stepped forward, losing her balance in the process. The girl fell right onto the bridge, and the hard hits to her hip and back made a painful sound.

  The vampiress held the back of her head with tears in her eyes.

  “Owwwww…!”

  The look on her face was adorable somehow. Yaze stared at her, having completely lost his fear. This was no vampire who fought for a living; she was too full of openings to be anything but an amateur. Perhaps he should have expected that from how inappropriate her clothing was for tailing other people.

  “Um… Hey, are you all right…?” he asked.

  The vampiress desperately pressed down on the hem of her short skirt as she rose to her feet.

  “O-of course I am all right! I, a daughter of Caruana, can withstand this much…”

  Yaze felt faint consternation at the word she had inadvertently uttered.

  “Caruana…? A survivor of the house of Duke Caruana of the Warlord’s Empire…?”

  A look of abject shock came over the vampiress.

  “Wha—?! How do you know that…?!”

  Yaze stared at her with a vague sense of exasperation.

  “Uh, you just said it yourself, didn’t you…?”

  “Er…gh?!”

  The girl, upset by what Yaze had pointed out, furiously shook her head.

  “N-no… I mean, a resident this far east shouldn’t know something like that. Er, meaning—You shouldn’t know the name of Duke Caruana, or the slaughter of the family—”

  “Nice comeback there…”

  “Shut up!!”

  The girl’s temper finally snapped. She grabbed Yaze by his neck and violently lifted him off the ground. Though she may have been an amateur, she still had a vampire’s physical strength. Yaze could put up minimal resistance, but he didn’t have any hope of escape. Seeing that he wasn’t so tough, she finally smiled. Her beautiful, pure white fangs poked out from her lips.

  “That uniform is the same as Kojou Akatsuki’s!” she said. “So you were purposefully placed at his
school to monitor him? What faction assigned you?”

  Yaze found it hard to breathe. “…Faction?” he groaned.

  Based on the vampiress’s statement, there existed multiple forces besides her that were after Kojou. Yaze could not ignore that situation, neither as Kojou’s watcher nor as his friend.

  “I don’t think either of us wants to make a scene here…,” he noted.

  The girl apparently judged that Yaze’s lack of an answer meant he was noncompliant. Her fingers slowly increased the pressure on his neck.

  “Why…is a vampire after Kojou…?!” His voice was breaking.

  That instant, her eyes betrayed hesitation. Apparently, she had finally realized Yaze might be completely unrelated to her objectives.

  “Me, after Kojou…? What are you talking about? Are you not searching for the Key?” she asked.

  “…What…key…?”

  After biting on her lip in apparent thought for a time, the vampiress’s fingers relented and let Yaze go.

  He frailly coughed as he silently glared at his attacker.

  Apparently, the brunette vampiress wasn’t after Kojou. Even so, she’d been following him. The jury was still out as to whether she was friend or foe.

  Yaze might not have had the strength to fight a vampire directly, but it was a different story if she was a registered demon afraid of causing a ruckus. Furthermore, the girl was careless by nature and easily goaded. Yaze was sure he could drag useful information out of her if he deftly made use of those traits—

  “—?!”

  But before he tried to bargain with her, his entire body was wracked with incredible pain, driving him down to his knees. A tremendous impact seemed to rip through the very air, rending asunder the Soundscape he was using to track Kojou’s and Asagi’s movements. The evening sky was dyed pale blue, reflecting the thunderbolt that had abruptly appeared.

  She gasped, her eyes narrowing at the dazzling electric crackles.

  “It can’t be!”

  She contorted her face in fright as she gazed upward at the roof of a building lit by the sky behind it—where a single girl stood, enveloped by pale lightning.

  4

  Yaze’s gaze shifted to the girl he’d never seen before.

  “Who’s that…?!”

  A moment later, the calamity began.

  His vision was whited out by a dazzling beam that made his skin burn like it was on fire and blew him and the brunette off the top of the pedestrian bridge. The stench of ozone pricked at his nose, and the charged atmosphere made his hair stand up.

  Yaze saw the headphone around his neck give off sparks. He clicked his tongue and tossed it aside.

  “Ugh…a lightning strike?!”

  It happened so fast that he didn’t know what was going on. The impact had blasted Yaze and his previous attacker the instant his eyes met the girl on the rooftop.

  The vampiress, having collided with the pedestrian bridge railing hard, held the back of her head as she rose back up.

  “No! That’s—”

  “You know her?” he asked as he shifted his gaze to the brunette. He unwittingly let slip an “Ah!”

  Without warning, Yaze had a clear view of what was under the skirt on her upraised butt. The black lace garter belt was a little too much for a middle school boy.

  “Y-you saw?!”

  “Is this really the time?!”

  “What a humiliation for a daughter of Caruana such as I—!”

  The vampiress’s cheeks went red as her entire body shuddered. She’s not listening, Yaze thought, giving up on her as he looked to the top of the building again.

  The girl enveloped by lightning was petite, fourteen or fifteen years of age. Her blond hair was cropped boyishly short, and her flame-like eyes gave off a pale blue glow. She was wearing a silvery suit of armor embroidered with gold—clearly some kind of combat outfit.

  “Shit. What the hell’s with her—?!” Yaze said.

  The vampiress looked up at the armored girl and muttered in shock, “That lightning… Pemptos! Directly from the King?! Why…?!”

  No doubt the shudder through her whole body wasn’t from the thunderbolt alone. She was afraid of the armored girl.

  “Is she a vampire, too?” he asked. “That attack… It didn’t seem like a Beast Vassal, but…”

  The vampiress shouted in reply, “Vampire?! That isn’t funny. She’s a simple monster, a god-killing weapon!”

  The term surprised Yaze. The beautiful girl dressed in silvery armor looked nothing like any weapon he could imagine.

  Then the armored girl commanded in a dignified tone:

  “—Veldiana Caruana, hand over the Key.”

  Based on where the blazing eyes were directed, Veldiana was apparently the name of the vampiress at Yaze’s side.

  “Key…?” he murmured.

  Thanks to her words, Yaze understood what was happening. The earlier beam was purely for intimidation. She’d kept the power under wraps and deliberately avoided a direct strike, apparently to obtain some sort of key Veldiana possessed.

  The armored girl spoke again. “Hand over the Key. Or do you wish to die?”

  “Urk.” Veldiana bit her lip as she glanced at Yaze. “You, what is your name—?”

  Yaze replied honestly, “…Yaze. Motoki Yaze.”

  He thought, If that’s what it takes to buy her trust, it’s a bargain.

  Veldiana nodded in visible satisfaction. She stood in front of Yaze, apparently shielding him.

  “Listen to me, Motoki. I will buy you time. So please get this case to Mimori Akatsuki at MAR!”

  “Hey, uh…?!”

  Yaze’s face froze over when he realized just what Veldiana was asking him to do.

  Bloody mist shot out from the vampiress’s entire body, changing into a giant, ferocious dog, a three-headed Beast Vassal. Apparently, she intended to duke it out with Beast Vassals right there in an urban area.

  Even a Demon Sanctuary native like Yaze had rarely seen a vampire’s Beast Vassal so close. The explosive demonic energy from the monstrous canine was overwhelming.

  “Ganglot, please—!”

  Veldiana commanded her own Beast Vassal to attack the girl in armor.

  As she did, Yaze picked up the metallic case that had tumbled to a corner of the pedestrian bridge. The contents were likely the Key that the girl in the armor was after. By taking the case, Yaze was making the girl in armor his enemy. Even so, he did not hesitate. After all, Veldiana had spoken the name of Mimori Akatsuki, Kojou’s mother. If Veldiana was working with her, he had to be correct in seeing her as Kojou’s ally. That gave him reason enough to cooperate with her.

  And Yaze had a chance for victory—the boosters he’d received from his half brother.

  He’d already tested the effect of those vile-tasting capsules on his own flesh and blood. Amplified by the chemical drug, Yaze could freely manipulate the flow of the air with his Hyper Adapter ability, creating a tornado. With that, he could sprint at the incredible speed of ninety kilometers per hour—enough to cover a hundred meters in four seconds flat. It wouldn’t take even forty seconds to arrive at the MAR lab and Mimori. All Veldiana had to do was hold on for under a minute and Yaze could fulfill his objective.

  But before Yaze could put the capsule into his mouth, Veldiana screamed and buckled.

  “Aaaaaah—!”

  A giant lion enveloped by lightning had appeared in the evening sky.

  Veldiana’s Beast Vassal was approximately four meters long. That made the Beast Vassal a shocking monster suitable for an Old Guard, but the giant lightning lion was far larger than this. It generously cleared ten meters long, and its presence felt like it filled the entirety of the sky.

  Yaze stood rooted in place, dumbfounded as he gazed up at the scene overhead.

  “What the hell is that…?!”

  The lightning lion was likely also a Beast Vassal, a mass of dense, sentient magical energy that could take material form. But that thi
ng was simply too huge. It was a summoned beast impossible for a single vampire to employ. If it released its demonic energy indiscriminately, worst case, half of Itogami Island would be wiped out, burned to cinders.

  Veldiana, having lost her Beast Vassal, collapsed in a half-dazed heap. The armored girl glared down at her.

  Obeying her command, the lightning lion raised a front paw once more.

  Stop, Yaze mouthed, extending a hand, but his action was meaningless. The beast’s attack enveloped Yaze as well as Veldiana—an attack that would instantly annihilate the huge walkway all the way to the next crossing.

  However, Yaze was not assaulted by the impact he dreaded. He could no longer hear the sounds of the explosion, the scream, or even the wind. Yaze and Veldiana were enveloped only in perfect silence.

  That silence was broken by the gentle, slightly removed voice of the girl that had appeared out of nowhere.

  “Stop, Pemptos—fifth Kaleid Blood.”

  The moment she spoke, sound returned to the world.

  The hot shock wave from the vaporized walkway became a gale that slapped Yaze in the face.

  He lay on top of Veldiana at a street curb only thirty meters or so from the walkway. They had been instantly relocated without even noticing. Yaze violently shook his head with the sick feeling that he had a hole in his memory.

  “What…the heck…?”

  He wasn’t feeling the seasickness peculiar to spatial control spells. It was more like the disorientation from watching a movie with dropped frames.

  As Yaze embraced Veldiana and sat her up, she lifted her face and murmured in a daze, “Paper Noise…!”

  What she saw was a girl wearing a school uniform and standing in the center of the deserted roadway. She wore glasses and held a book under one arm, appearing rather plain.

  The armored girl called Pemptos raised her eyebrows in anger.

  “Why you…!”

  She pointed at the book-carrying girl with her right hand and commanded the lightning lion to attack.

  In that instant, once again the world was ruled by silence. Without a sound, the armored girl’s right arm was cleanly severed at the elbow.

  “—!”

  Her body was blown back as if struck by an invisible iron maul. She crashed right before Yaze’s and Veldiana’s eyes, forming an impact crater in the asphalt.