Strike the Blood - Volume 1 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE 

DEMON SANCTUARY 

1 

Powerful sun rays poured down mercilessly from the red-dyed western sky. 

“So hot… I’m gonna burn. To a crisp. I’m gonna be ash…” 

A family restaurant, in the afternoon. Kojou Akatsuki muttered weakly as he lay facedown on the window-side table, utterly exhausted. 

He was a high school student, complete with uniform. Aside from the hooded white parka, there was nothing you could really say stood out; just another male student. Thanks to the languid expression he made with his face and his narrowed, sleepy eyes, it felt like he was sulking. 

It was the last Monday of August. The weather was clear. The external temperature had already surpassed the internal temperature of the human body, and even here on the verge of sunset, there was no sense that it was dropping whatsoever. Even with the air conditioner on full blast, the cold air didn’t seem to have enough margin to reach all the way to Kojou’s seat inside the shop. 

As murderous levels of ultraviolet rays penetrated the paper-thin blinds, a listless Kojou glared questioningly across the table. 

“What time is it?” 

What escaped from Kojou’s lips was a murmur, as if speaking to himself. One of his friends, sitting in a seat across the table mixed a laugh with his tone of voice as he replied. 

“It’ll be four thirty soon, in…three minutes and twenty-two seconds.” 

“…Geez, already? Tomorrow’s make-up exam is nine a.m., right…?” 

“If you don’t sleep a wink tonight, that’s still seventeen hours and three minutes. Gonna make it?” 

The other person sitting at the table asked in a lighthearted, not-my-problem sort of voice. Kojou made no reply. He directed an expressionless gaze at the pile of textbooks for a while. 

“Hey… I’ve been kinda thinking about this lately.” 

“Mm?” 

“Why do I have to take this huge pile of make-up exams?” 

Kojou muttered his question as if to himself, and his two friends looked up at him. 

Kojou had been ordered to take a total of nine make-up exams, including two for both English and math, plus a phys ed half marathon on top of that. Certainly there weren’t many souls who had to go through this on the last weekend of summer. 

“…I mean, the range of questions asked in these make-up exams is too broad. I haven’t even had classes in this stuff yet. And supplemental lessons seven days a week—what the hell? Do my teachers have some kind of grudge against me?!” 

The two friends glanced at each other’s face as the young man bitterly cried out. They wore a male and female uniform, respectively, from the same school. They shared a brief glance at each other, as if to say, What’s he going on about now? 

“Er… Yeah, they do have a grudge.” 

It was the male student who replied, twirling a mechanical pencil round and round, headphones hanging around his neck, hair short and combed spikily back. His name was Yaze Motoki. 

“You just casually skipped out on their classes all that time, day after day. Of course they think you’re dissing them. …Plus you were absent without permission for the tests before summer, too.” 

Aiba Asagi smiled, gracefully touching up her nails as she spoke. 

She had a gorgeous hairstyle and a uniform decorated right up to the limit of school regulations. Rather mysteriously, she still didn’t come off as overly gaudy, perhaps because she had good taste. At any rate, she was a girl whose appearance stood out. 

She’d be an undisputed beauty if she’d kept silent, but perhaps due to always having that smirk on her face, she wasn’t very charming. Perhaps that’s why being with her felt like being with one of the boys. 

“…But that was an act of God. There were circumstances! For starters, I told that homeroom teacher over and over that my physical condition makes it hard for me to take tests first thing in the morning…” 

Kojou made his excuses with an irritated tone. The thin lines of blood in his eyes were not out of anger, but from simple sleep deprivation. 

“What do you mean, physical condition? Got hay fever or something, Kojou?” 

Asagi inquired curiously. Kojou, realizing he’d made a verbal slip, halted his tongue. 

“Ah no. I mean I’m a…night person. It’s hard waking up in the morning.” 

“How’s that a physical condition issue? It’s not like you’re a vampire.” 

“Y…yeah. Ha-ha.” 

Kojou smiled stiffly as he made a verbal parry. Vampires were not a rare sight in this city. The very fact that you were just as likely to bump into one as a hay fever patient was the real problem for Kojou. 

“I love Natsuki-chan, though. She has wonderful taste. And she’s letting the insufficient-attendance thing slide with the extra lessons, isn’t she?” As Asagi spoke, she sipped her juice, making small slurping sounds. 

“I guess,” Kojou agreed. 

“Plus, I’m taking pity on you and tutoring you, too.” 

“Don’t apply for sainthood when you’re eating whatever you like on someone else’s dime.” 

Asagi glared vilely at Kojou across the top of the textbooks piled before her. There was no sign of where it all fit in her slender body, but Asagi was a huge eater beyond all bounds of common sense. He wished he’d remembered that when she’d told him I’ll teach you how to study, so treat me to lunch. 

“Just to say it, you’re paying for Asagi’s lunch with the money I lent you. You’d better pay up, Kojou.” 

Yaze pointed that out in a calm voice. Rich man’s son or not, he was really uptight about this kind of thing. 

“I get it. Dammit… And you call yourselves warm-blooded human beings?” 

“No, no, any way you slice it, it’s he who thinks he can shirk his debts who is the villain…and, besides, talking about hot blood vs. cold blood, that’s discrimination. Better watch yourself.” 

“On this island, at least,” Yaze said with a cynical laugh. 

“What a bothersome world…not that they give a damn, though.” 

At the very least they don’t give a damn about me, Kojou thought with a sigh. 

“Aw, look at the time. Well, I’m off. Job and all.” 

Asagi gazed at her cell phone, and she gulped the last of her juice all at once as she got up. Kojou looked up at her. 

“What was it, again? Part-time at the Gigafloat Management Corporation…?” 

“Yep. Security division computer maintenance. Good stuff.” 

After acting like she was tapping a keyboard in midair, Asagi waved with a “Later!” and left the restaurant. Her carefree tone was like someone heading out to work at the cash register at a grocery store, but the Management Corp’s security division was no place for an ordinary person to enter. 

“I’m always thinking it, but it’s totally unfair for a genius programmer to have those looks and that personality. It’s still hard to believe, but… Yeah, her grades were way up there since she was a kid.” 

Yaze rested his chin on his hands as he gazed at Asagi as she departed. 

Yaze and Asagi had known each other since before they’d been in primary school. They’d lived on this island for more than a decade, making them an older generation of Itogami City residents than Kojou’s. It hadn’t even been twenty years since this city, built atop the artificial island, had been completed. 

“If it means getting tutored for the tests, anything’s good.” 

Kojou spoke without raising his face. Yaze observed Kojou, his tone very casual. 

“Actually, I didn’t expect Asagi to tutor you. She hates that kind of thing.” 

“Hates it? Why?” 

“She hates people thinking she’s smart, she’s a crammer, and so on. It doesn’t look like it, but she had a tough time about it as a kid.” 

“Huh… I didn’t know that.” 

Kojou spoke with a blunt tone while a complicated factorization problem was giving him fits. 

It’d been four years since Kojou had moved to Itogami City. It was right after he’d entered junior high. Soon after, he got to know Yaze and Asagi; they’d hung out together every so often ever since. He didn’t remember what brought it on, but his memory held that Asagi had spoken to him first. 

“She didn’t make one complaint about teaching me, though. She let me copy most of her homework this time, too.” 

“Oh ho. Quite mysterious. I wonder why you’re a special case, Kojou. You ever think about that?” 

Yaze made an exaggerated tilt of his neck, making what seemed to be a pointed cough. 

However, Kojou only replied, “Not really,” and shook his head. “I mean, I’m paying her back in every way she asked. Treating her to lunch, daily expenses, pushing her cleaning chores onto me… I’ve had it pretty tough here, too.” 

Yaze dropped his shoulders in resignation, his eyes saying, They’re both hopeless. Kojou raised his face at his friend’s odd behavior. 

“Something wrong?” 

“No, it’s nothing. Guess I’ll head out, too.” 

“Huh?” 

“No, just I’m done copying the homework, and Asagi isn’t here, so studying like this is meaningless. I’m only taking an extra test in one subject, so I should manage with just tonight to study. Anyway, hang in there.” 

Kojou gazed up with an absentminded look as his friend put his things in order and rose up with a “Later!” 

Apparently, while Kojou had been adrift in turmoil Yaze had finished shrewdly copying his own slice of the homework. On the other hand, Kojou was largely unable to grasp his own homework whatsoever. Since this went well beyond simple preparations for a make-up exam, that was only natural, but the visible, overwhelming disparity was sufficient to smash Kojou’s fragile heart to pieces. 

“I don’t even feel like trying…” 

Now left all alone in the family restaurant, Kojou slumped over the table once more. 

He realized he was actually quite hungry. But Kojou’s wallet had no margin left for another order at the moment. The ability of all-you-can-drink soda to fool his empty stomach had finally hit its limit. 

The popular image was that at least vampires could get by on drinking wine or tomato juice alone, but in actual fact, they got hungry and ate solid food like anyone else; he felt let down somehow. At any rate, sleepiness during daylight aside, being able to go have a normal life was a blessing. 

Kojou, still ghastly pale, gazed vaguely at the pile of study problems. 

Suddenly, he remembered something he’d heard during class. Among the various life-forms that evolved, those with the highest probability of survival were the species best adapted to their environment, and accordingly, the present survivors are the children of those best adapted—according to theory, anyway. 

The logic of survival through adaptation was known as natural selection. 

Some thought it was too simple, but the theory was widely accepted. 

To put it another way, the species that had been naturally weeded out were those that had not adapted to their environment. 

The same logic could be applied to the heroes of old, with power rivaling the gods in their hands, and similar species with supernatural powers that had not survived. 

They had not adapted to their environment. 

Kojou Akatsuki understood that very well. 

No matter how much power you possess, no matter how resilient your flesh, even if you were called the mightiest vampire on Earth, such powers counted for nothing in modern society. 

It couldn’t even help him finish a single sheet of problems covered by the make-up exam— 

“Guess I’ll go home… Hope Nagisa didn’t forget to make something to eat.” 

As Kojou muttered to himself, he stuffed his textbooks and problem sheets into his satchel, picking up the check as he stood up. He paid up at the cash register. His wallet, which always left him feeling dismayed, contained only a little small change now. At this rate he wouldn’t even have money to pay for breakfast tomorrow. 

What kind of excuse should he make to borrow money from his little sister? …As Kojou thought seriously about it, he made his way to the restaurant’s exit. Then he suddenly halted. His eyes narrowed from the dazzling, setting sun. 

Right in front of the family restaurant. Toward the intersection. 

A lone girl stood amid the lighting. 

A female student, in uniform, carrying a black guitar case over her shoulder. 

She stood without a word with the sun at her back. 

The girl continued to stand, not moving an inch, as if she’d been waiting there for Kojou. 

2 

Itogami Island was an artificial island floating in the middle of the Pacific, some three hundred and thirty kilometers south of Tokyo. It was a completely man-made city, built from a linked series of giant floating constructs known as Gigafloats. 

Its total area was approximately a hundred and eighty square kilometers. Total population was about five hundred and sixty thousand. Administratively, it was known as Itogami City, and was part of the greater Tokyo metropolis, but in reality it was a special administrative district with an independent political structure. 

Thanks to the influence of a warm current, the climate was gentle, with temperatures averaging above twenty degrees Celsius even in the middle of winter. It was located in the tropics: an island of everlasting summer. 

However, the island’s main industry was not tourism. 

In the first place, there were rigorous inspections of all those entering and exiting the island. No mere tourist would ever visit. 

Itogami City was an academic city. Representatives from major Japanese industries, such as pharmaceuticals, precision machinery, high-tech materials manufacturing, and so forth, along with research organizations from famous universities, all tripped over each other on this island. 

That was because of one field of research permitted only on an artificial island, far from the Japanese mainland. 

“Demon Sanctuary.” 

That was the other name that Itogami City had been given. 

Beastmen, spirits, half demons, artificial life-forms, and vampires—on this island, these demonic races, their numbers depleted to the verge of extinction by the effects of environmental devastation and battling the human race, were officially recognized and protected. And their physical makeup and special powers were analyzed and used in science and development in several fields of industry. 

Itogami City was an artificial city built precisely for this purpose. 

The majority of the island’s residents were either those very demons, researchers, or those with special powers recognized by the city. 

The demons that were the object of research were of course included as well. The demonic races cooperating with the management of the special district were in turn accorded residential rights, the same as human beings, and were permitted to study, work, and live their lives. 

Itogami City was a model city of communal existence between demonic races and mankind— 

Or, perhaps, a giant, caged laboratory. 

“—Crap, wish they’d at least do something about the heat.” 

Kojou cursed as he wore the hood of his parka low over his eyes, resisting the rays of the sun with all his might. 

On this hot, humid island, the body felt the heat more than the thermometer level indicated. In a certain sense, the wind heated by the midsummer ocean’s surface was harder to deal with than hot desert winds. Never mind vampires being weak in the sun—this was a pretty harsh environment even for regular humans. 

Kojou’s home was about fifteen minutes away from the family restaurant by monorail. However, the small change in Kojou’s wallet meant he had no choice but to hoof it. Bathed in the setting sun, feeling like his skin was going to burn to a crisp, he walked along the seaside shopping mall. 

And, checking behind him with a casual motion, he made an unamused snort. 

“I’m being followed…aren’t I?” 

A lone girl was walking about fifty meters behind Kojou. It was the girl with the bass guitar case over her shoulder that he’d seen when he left the family restaurant. 

The girl was wearing, as Asagi did, a Saiga Academy girl’s uniform. That she had a ribbon around her neck instead of a necktie marked her as a junior high school student. 

He couldn’t place the face. While she was pretty, she gave off an aura like that of a stray cat unused to having people around her. Perhaps she wasn’t used to the short skirt, but her movements threatened to leave her dangerously unguarded from time to time. 

The girl was maintaining a constant distance from Kojou, walking at a pace that matched his own. When Kojou stopped, she stopped, too, hiding behind a roadside tree. All the same, she showed no sign of coming to speak to him. 

She was clearly tailing him. Furthermore, she had apparently not meant for Kojou to notice. 

“…A friend of Nagisa’s maybe?” 

Kojou weighed various possibilities and came up with a conclusion. 

Akatsuki Nagisa, Kojou’s younger sister by one year, was a Saiga Academy student as well. A junior high school student he’d never seen before taking an interest in him was likeliest to have some relation to his little sister. 

But he had no idea why she didn’t just talk to him if that was the case. Tailing someone under this burning sun couldn’t be a fun thing to do. 

No, to be frank, there was indeed one other reason why someone Kojou didn’t know might be following him around. He just didn’t want to think about the possibility. 

“Guess I’d better check, at least…” 

This said, Kojou entered a shopping mall he’d noticed. His destination was a video game arcade near the entrance to the mall. He didn’t know why the girl with the guitar case was following him, but Kojou was wondering what she’d do if he went into a store. 

And as it turned out, the girl was clearly thrown off. She forgot about hiding herself and stopped right outside the store, seemingly having lost her way. 

She didn’t want to lose Kojou, but if she did go into the shop herself, the odds of coming face-to-face with him were fairly high. That was no good, either. She was caught between two conflicting interests. 

No, more accurately, it was simpler than that; this strange and unfamiliar place called an “arcade” had her on her guard. That’s what it looked like. 

The sight of the girl standing all alone in front of a beat-up shopping mall at sunset gave Kojou a vaguely miserable feeling. As he observed her from the other side of a crane game cabinet, Kojou was assaulted by guilt, as if he’d horribly wronged her. 

“…” 

Making a long sigh, Kojou reluctantly went back out on the street. It wasn’t like he could remain in hiding forever, so he figured he’d try talking to her instead. 

But, unfortunately, it seemed that the guitar case girl had thought of the same thing herself. 

The instant Kojou tried to go outside, the girl entered the shop with a determined look on her face, encountering him right at the entrance. 

For a few moments, their gazes met without a word between them. Somehow the guitar case girl was the one to react first. 

“F…Fourth Primogenitor!” 

As the girl shouted in a nervous voice, she adopted a stance with a lower center of gravity. 

Up close she still looked like a pretty girl, but that only made Kojou feel even more dejected. 

With that one utterance just now, he knew very well the reason why she’d been following him. She was searching for the vampire known as the Fourth Primogenitor. She didn’t seem to be a demon after the life of a Primogenitor, or some kind of bounty hunter, but there was no doubt she was a troublesome opponent. No one sane was part of a group that would address Kojou as “Fourth Primogenitor.” 

For only a moment, Kojou silently pondered what in the world to do. 

“Oh! Mi dispiace! Auguri!” 

And suddenly he spread both his arms in an exaggerated gesture. 

As Kojou recited foreign words he barely remembered, the guitar case girl looked up at him, dumbfounded. 

“Huh?” 

“I am…an Italian passing through. I do not…know Japanese very well. Ciao! Arrivederci! Grazie! Grazie!” 

Yelling such things rapid-fire, Kojou quickly made his escape. He slipped past the side of the dumbstruck girl and left the store. A moment later… 

“Wha…?! Wait, Kojou Akatsuki!” 

Suddenly regaining her senses, the girl called out Kojou’s name loud and clear. 

Annoyed, Kojou looked over his shoulder with a grimace. He’d inherited the title of the world’s mightiest vampire a mere three months prior. Since he’d worked hard to conceal it, only a very small number of people knew of the fact. 

At the very least, here in Itogami City, only a single person besides Kojou himself should have known that Kojou Akatsuki was the Fourth Primogenitor. 

“Who the hell are you?” 

Kojou glared at the girl to display his wariness. 

The girl returned Kojou’s gaze with serious eyes, replying with a hard, somewhat grown-up voice. 

“I’m a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency. By the command of the Three Saints of the Lion King Agency, I have come on assignment to watch over the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

Ha, thought Kojou, listening to the girl’s words with a stale face. He had no idea what the girl was saying. Lion King Agency. Sword Shaman. He’d never heard of those terms before. 

The only thing conveyed was that his premonition that this was trouble had been exceedingly prescient. 

Utterly perplexed as to how to deal with this, Kojou finally decided to act like he hadn’t heard any of it. 

“Ah… Sorry. You’ve got the wrong guy. Go try someone else.” 

“Eh? Wrong guy? Eh…?” 

The girl’s gaze wandered about, looking confused. Kojou had just made up the wrong-guy thing on the fly, but she seemed to have actually bought it. 

Perhaps she just had an unusually frank personality. 

As Kojou seized the opportunity, turning his back to her and running off, the girl hurriedly called out to him. 

“W-wait, please! I don’t really have the wrong guy, do I?!” 

“No, keeping watch and stuff, that’s got nothing to do with me. I’m busy, so…!” 

Kojou made a sloppy wave as he left the place in a rush. 

The girl with the guitar case on her back stood in place where she was, a dumbfounded, bewildered expression still on her face. Whether his assertion of mistaken identity had done the trick or not, she seemed to have given up on tailing him. Even so, he still had no idea what she really was, so the matter remained fundamentally unresolved, but that was still better than being sucked into something troublesome on the day before a make-up exam. 

Arriving around the entrance to the shopping mall, he looked back one more time to make sure the girl wasn’t following him. The scene that greeted his eyes startled him. 

Two guys he didn’t know were standing together in front of the guitar case girl from earlier, obstructing her path. 

They looked twenty years old, give or take. They had long, extravagantly dyed hair and gigolo-style black suits that didn’t suit them all that well. They seemed to be frivolous, easy-to-understand men. 

“…Hey, you there, baby. What’s wrong? Guy-hunting didn’t work out?” 

“If you’re bored, how ’bout you come play with us? We just got paid, so we’re loaded…” 

He heard bits and pieces of the men’s voices over the wind. They seemed to be hitting on the girl he’d distanced himself from. 

The girl brushed the men off with a cold attitude, but that only seemed to make the atmosphere stormier. One of the men yelled at her in a rough voice; Kojou saw the girl talk back with a sharp expression. 

“…Little old to be layin’ a finger on a junior high schooler, aren’t you, geezers?” 

Color faded from Kojou’s face. He knew he should let things be, but the girl knew of the existence of the Fourth Primogenitor and had been following him around. If by some chance this got out of hand and became a law enforcement matter, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t lead straight to Kojou. 

And Kojou had another reason for concern: the metal bracelets around both men’s wrists. Those were Demon IDs, with biosensors, magic sensors, and transmitters, etc., inside them. Those who wore them were not human. They were special registered citizens of the Demon Sanctuary. In other words, inhuman. “Freaks”—that’s what they were sometimes called. 

It wasn’t often that bracelet-wearing registered demons caused harm to human beings. If they did, the Island Guard’s Counter-Demon Agents came after them in force. Therefore, the girl was in no immediate danger. 

The problem was, it was possible the fact that he was the Fourth Primogenitor might slip from the girl’s lips. 

If that happened, the name Kojou Akatsuki would be on every demon’s lips in no time. And naturally, there would no doubt be those who wanted to make an ally out of Kojou, those who’d want to use him as a guinea pig, and perhaps even those who wanted to kill him to raise their notoriety. Any way you sliced it, it’d herald the end of Kojou’s days of peaceful living. He had to smooth things over here somehow before that happened. 

With a deep sigh, Kojou began to run back toward the guitar case girl. 

The next moment, the skirt of the girl’s uniform fluttered up. 

One of the men, having flipped the girl’s skirt, spit out a reckless remark that sounded like, “Well, ain’t you all high and mighty.” Kojou unwittingly stiffened, the checkered pastel colors that had appeared filling his field of vision. Then… 

“Young Thunder!” 

The girl’s beautiful eyebrows raised high, she chanted a spell; the next moment, the body of the man who’d laid his hand on her skirt was blown away with enough force to flip a truck. 

3 

Probably an open palm strike, he thought. 

But whatever had actually occurred, there was no way Kojou had an accurate understanding of it. What he did understand was that with a single blow, the small girl’s thrusting arms had blown a grown man away. 

He hadn’t felt any flow of magic. He had not sensed the work of spirits. Of the remaining possibilities, some kind of qigong or arcane art perhaps. At any rate, there was no question the girl had considerable skill. 

Kojou surmised that the girl might be much older than she appeared to be, but he immediately corrected himself: No, couldn’t be. There wasn’t—couldn’t be—any long-lived species that would wear cute panties like that. 

The man who’d been blown away seemed to be some kind of anthropomorph; in other words, a werewolf or close cousin thereof. Though he didn’t seem all that powerful, his physical strength and toughness still far surpassed that of a human being. Yet receiving a single blow from a delicate girl had sent him smashing into a wall, from which he did not move. 

“This brat’s an Attack Mage—?!” 

The other man had been in shock, and finally shouted once he regained his senses. 

Counter-Demon Attack Mage was a catchall term for human beings who possessed various skills, such as sorcery and spiritual power, to oppose demonkind. Be they employed by armies, police S.W.A.T. units, private security corporations, or yet other organizations, they belonged to many groups, and the skills they used came in numerous varieties, but whatever the case, there was no doubt they were the worst enemies of demonkind. No small number of Attack Mages made a living exclusively as demon hunters, much like assassins. 

Of course, in the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami City, the activities of Attack Mages were as strictly regulated as those of demons. At the very least, one didn’t get attacked just for talking to a girl on the side of the road. 

But, the man was surely unnerved because it had happened so suddenly. 

His expression twisted by fear and anger, his true, demonic nature asserted itself. Crimson eyes. And…fangs. 

“A D-type—!” 

The girl’s expression turned grim. Among the various types of vampires, D-type referred to those who claimed the “Lost Warlord” as their Primogenitor, chiefly seen in Europe. They were the vampires that best fit human beings’ common perceptions about vampires. 

What’ll you do? Kojou asked himself, bewildered. 

By normal thinking, you should go rescue a girl being attacked by a vampire, but it seemed that this girl was no ordinary middle schooler. 

The girl had been following Kojou around, to begin with. Worst case, she was Kojou’s enemy. The chances of an Attack Mage targeting Kojou were certainly not zero. 

But even so, he couldn’t just let her be. 

Her opponent was no ordinary demon. He was a vampire. No matter how skilled an Attack Mage she was, he didn’t think she could defeat a vampire all by herself. 

Even if this was before sunset, vampires had physical powers far surpassing common sense, and resisted magic as well. And they had incredible regenerative abilities. Moreover, they had one other, overwhelming trump card to play, suited to those called Lords of Demonkind. 

“—Shakti! Take her out!” the vampire man yelled out; a moment later, something spewed forth from his left leg. 

It resembled fresh blood, but it wasn’t blood at all. This was black fire, shimmering like yin and yang. 

From that black fire finally emerged the distorted shape of a horse. 

Its high-pitched neigh made the air shudder; the flames that enveloped it scorched the asphalt. 

“To employ a Beast Vassal in the middle of a city—!” the girl shouted with an angry expression. 

The bracelet the man wore on his left hand, having detected offensive magic, emitted a noisy alarm. A siren blared, urging those at the shopping mall to evacuate. 

A Beast Vassal. Yes, the monster that the man had summoned was a familiar called a Beast Vassal. 

The existence of Beast Vassals was the very reason Attack Mages feared vampires. 

There were numerous demon races that matched vampires in brute strength, agility, and innate special powers. In spite of that, why were vampires alone feared as the Lords of Demonkind…? 

The answer was Beast Vassals. 

Beast Vassals came with a variety of forms and abilities. However, even the least powerful among them surpassed the combat strength of an attack helicopter or a state-of-the-art main battle tank. It was said that the Beast Vassals employed by the “Elders” were capable of blowing away entire villages. 

Naturally, the Beast Vassal of the young man was not quite that capable. However, no doubt the incandescent ghost horse could do enough damage merely running around to take out an entire shopping mall. 

He’d turned and set loose a dangerous summoned beast like that against a single girl. 

Surely the man who was its lord had never turned a Beast Vassal on a human in the flesh outside of a laboratory setting. His expression was gripped by fear, the strain of magical feedback apparently heavy. 

The Beast Vassal he’d let off the leash was in a quasi-berserk state, mowing down trees along the street and melting down metal streetlights. It was literally a mass of destructive energy with a mind of its own. Surely a single graze would turn a human being’s body to ash in an instant. 

In spite of that, the girl’s face showed no sign of fear whatsoever. 

“Snowdrift Wolf—!” 

The girl drew something out of the guitar case still on her back. 

It was no musical instrument, but a silver spear with an icy sparkle. 

In an instant, the spear’s shaft slid longer, and at the same time, the main blade stored within thrust out as a spear tip. Side blades extended to the left and right of the main blade like the wings of a variable-geometry fighter plane. Its appearance was that of a weapon refined for modern times. 

But there was no doubt this was a primeval thrusting weapon. He didn’t think it could oppose the Beast Vassal scattering tremendous flames all about. Indeed, he had his doubts a girl of such small size could even swing the thing around. However, the girl’s alert eyes glared coldly at the Beast Vassal as it pressed near. 

Whew. A quiet exhale escaped the girl’s lips. 

The girl easily controlled the beautiful spear’s nearly two-meter length, thrusting it toward the flaming ghost horse running amok. However, the ghost horse did not halt its charge. 

A vampire’s Beast Vassal was a sentient mass of magical power so ultradense as to take physical form. In other words, it was magic itself. Once released, there was no way to stop a Beast Vassal except by smashing it with an even more powerful magical force. 

For the girl to attack it would be like turning a single spear against an overflow of lava. 

The man laughed because he knew as much. It was not a laugh confident of victory. It was a straightforward laugh of relief. He was simply afraid of her. Afraid of the unknown Attack Mage girl who’d blown away his pal with a single blow— 

But, in a single instant, the man’s laugh of relief was drenched in fear. 

“Wha…?!” 

For he saw his Beast Vassal had stopped, impaled by the silver spear. 

The girl had wordlessly thrust her spear in a flash. The ghost horse’s giant body warped, ripped apart, and vanished without a trace. 

It had been as quick as snuffing out the flame of a candle. The form of the Beast Vassal had completely vanished. All that remained was the scorched asphalt. 

“N…no way! Wiping out my Beast Vassal in one shot?!” 

The man gave a much-delayed shudder at the loss of his familiar. However, the girl’s expression remained a grimace. 

She glared at the man with anger-filled eyes, poised her spear, and charged his frozen, unmoving form. And, just as the silver spear was about to impale the man’s heart— 

“Whoa there!” 

The spear’s tip suddenly veered up, changing course. 

“Huh?!” 

The girl’s eyes, brimming with cold rage, widened in surprise. 

It was Kojou who stood there. 

Kojou leaped in from parts unseen, deflecting the spear just in the nick of time, halting the girl’s attack. He hadn’t wanted to get involved in a fight between a vampire and an Attack Mage, but he couldn’t just stand back as a life was taken. Surely the vampire didn’t want to die by impaling just because he’d made an unsuccessful pass at a junior high schooler. 

“Kojou Akatsuki?! Stopping Snowdrift Wolf with your bare hand…!” 

The Attack Mage girl leaped back with a shocked expression. As she put some distance between them, wary of the suddenly appearing Kojou, she landed on the roof of a station wagon parked nearby. 

“Hey, you. Grab your pal and get out of here,” Kojou yelled in an agitated tone to the man, still rooted in place behind his back. “And learn your lesson already. Don’t pick up junior high schoolers. And don’t use Beast Vassals irresponsibly, either!” 

“Y…yeah… S-sorry… I owe you one!” 

The man nodded, his face pale, then carried off his pal’s unconscious body. The girl glared at their backs with hostile eyes. Kojou made an exasperated sigh. 

“You, too… I don’t know what you meant to do, but it’s too much. Just let it go.” 

When she heard the seemingly tired Kojou’s words, the girl’s shoulders shook with surprise. Alertly keeping her spear’s guard up, she gave Kojou a sullen glare. She spoke with a scolding tone. 

“Why did you interfere?” 

Kojou’s expression became even more languid. 

“‘Interfere,’ huh? I think it’s normal to stop a fight that’s happening right in front of you. Why do you know my name, anyway?” 

“…To turn demon in a public place, and furthermore, use a Beast Vassal in an urban area, are flagrant violations of the Holy Ground Treaty. Surely no one would question it even if they were killed.” 

“Since you’re gonna put it like that, weren’t you the one who struck first?” 

“That’s not—” 

The girl went silent midway as if calmly reflecting on the matter. She seemed to be recalling how the dispute with the men had began. See? thought Kojou, giving the girl a strong stare. 

“I don’t know who you are, but waving that thing around and trying to kill people over having your panties seen a little is a bit much. Just because demons are concerned…” 

As he spoke to that point, Kojou realized he’d slipped up. The girl poised with the silver spear glared at Kojou with a disgusted look. 

“Did you see them, by any chance?” 

“Ah, er, that’s…” 

Kojou’s lips fumbled for an excuse. Surely she thought he was a guy who’d not only abandoned a girl getting hit on, he’d arbitrarily saved demons running wild in an urban area. And as that was in fact the case, all he could do was try to explain it away. 

“Hey, now, it’s not anything to get that worked up over. It’s not like I’m interested in a junior high schooler’s underwear, and they were kinda cute and all, so it’s not like having them seen should get you all bent out of shape. I th…” 

“…” 

As she gazed at Kojou making excuse after excuse, the girl made a deep sigh. However, the scornful look she made toward Kojou remained. And that instant, as if he’d chosen it that way, the strong wind characteristic of isolated islands blew across the seaside shopping mall. 

As she stood on top of the station wagon’s roof, the girl’s skirt casually soared upward, leaving her defenseless. 

Kojou’s posture stopped moving then and there. His gaze was unconsciously sucked in, leaving him unable to move. 

An oppressive silence fell. 

“Why are you looking at them again?” 

The girl asked, keeping her spear poised with both hands. 

Her voice finally caused the completely frozen Kojou to regain his senses. 

“Er, wait. You can’t blame me for that just now. It’s because you’re standing in a place like that—” 

“…It’s fine.” 

The girl said that in a sobered voice, gazing down icily at the flustered Kojou. 

She released her posture, sheathed the extended blade, and returned the spear to the size of a guitar once more. The girl replaced it inside the guitar case, dropping down to the ground without a sound. 

“Ah, wait a—…” As she withdrew without a word, Kojou somehow managed to call out to her. 

“Pervert.” 

The girl glanced at Kojou, leaving that word behind, and this time she was the one to turn her back on Kojou, running off. 

“…” 

Whew. Having been left alone, Kojou thrust his hands into his parka’s pockets and leaned against a nearby wall, exhaling. 

He felt he’d been arbitrarily and severely slighted, but for some reason, he just didn’t feel angry with the girl. 

That was probably because the girl’s face had been beet red just before she’d run off. 

However calm she pretended to be, she was still just a kid, he thought. 

Having detected the magic power of a Beast Vassal, the Island Guard would surely be here in no time. They were armed Counter-Demon Agents charged with maintaining law and order on the island. Even if he felt a bit guilty, staying here any longer would bring nothing but trouble. 

“Hmm…?” 

His eyebrows rose as he belatedly noticed something that had fallen onto the street. 

It was a simple wallet, with a red border around a white background. 

It was split into two parts, one for bills and one for small change. The part for bills held several one-thousand-yen bills, and one ten-thousand-yen bill. It was a large enough amount of money to make Kojou jealous, but not enough to make anyone’s eyes dizzy. 

The card holder had a single credit card and a student ID inserted into it. 

The student ID had a photo of an awkwardly smiling girl’s face, and a name inscribed—Yukina Himeragi. 

4 

Finally, the sun set, and the night grew late. And morning approached. 

The bell continued to ring. The bell that he seemed to hear from far away in the past. 

The Fourth Primogenitor dreamed. 

The moon peering from the broken sky was crimson. The sky illuminated by the moon, as well. The flames of the ground that enveloped the old castle shone crimson as well. A small shadow stood against that crimson sky. 

The shadow bore hair as scarlet as the surging flames, and blazing red eyes. 

Victory is yours, the shadow announced. White fangs drenched in blood peeked out from her lips. 

I shall fulfill my promise, the shadow announced. I shall grant thy wish. 

Now it is your turn, the shadow announced. Her eyes were wet. Her shining crimson eyes were wet with tears. 

It was a nightmare seen many times over. 

Kojou Akatsuki had a dream. 

He passed the night in shallow sleep. And morning came. 

The bell continued ringing in his ears. 

The time-honored bell of an anachronistic alarm clock. 

With an anguished sigh, Kojou Akatsuki fumbled around, silencing the clock. 

And as he tossed back into bed, just about to return to tranquil sleep once more… 

“Kojou, wake up. It’s morning. You set your alarm because you have another make-up exam, right? I made breakfast, so eat it quickly! And laundry’s not done. Your futon’s all sweaty, so move already.” 

The rapid-fire babble was punctuated by the theft of his bedsheet, and Kojou, at his wits’ end, rolled right off the narrow bed. As he looked up with unfocused eyes, there stood the familiar form of his little sister. 

She was an expressive girl with impressively large eyes. 

The way she wore her hair up made it look like her long hair suddenly came to a halt, giving her what looked like a short-cut style at a glance. 

Though her looks and physique gave her a somewhat childlike impression, she surely wasn’t that far off from average for a junior high schooler. This morning she was in casual attire—short pants and a tank top—with an orange apron on top of that. 

Looking down at her older brother, who had not moved since falling on the floor, Nagisa put her hands on her hips in exasperation. 

“Hey now, wake up. Still sleep-deprived? Did you study for your test till dawn? You mustn’t make so much trouble for Ms. Minamiya. Don’t slack off on extra lessons. If I see your name posted on the staff room billboard again, it’s going to be so embarrassing! Ah, geez, and I told you to get those uniform trousers off and put them on a hanger!” 

As Kojou listened to his little sister’s ceaseless complaints, he rose sluggishly. 

Perhaps he was biased in his thinking, but Nagisa was a capable little sister. Her looks were quite adorable, and her grades were up there, too. She was skilled at all varieties of housework. 

But there were flaws of course. One was that she was a clean freak to the point of illness, a demon of disposal. The other was the avalanche of words. 

Anyway, Nagisa spoke a lot. It wasn’t that she did it to everyone, but against family with forgiving hearts, she showed no mercy. He didn’t feel like he could win a verbal spat with her, ever. 

The one saving grace was because of Nagisa’s guileless personality, she rarely had an ill word to speak about others, but when she was angry it was quite terrifying. Back in junior high school, when Yaze had inadvertently let her see he had a porn video on him when coming over to play, Nagisa gave him enough of a tongue-lashing in her fit of rage to turn him gynophobic for a while. 

As Kojou was remembering that, absentmindedly gazing out of the window… 

“—Hey, Kojou-kun, are you listening?!” 

Nagisa switched to rapid-fire yelling. Kojou hurriedly corrected his posture. 

“Yeah, sorry. What’d you say?” 

“Geez…! I said, a transfer student.” 

Nagisa pursed her lips, perhaps out of annoyance that her older brother hadn’t heard her story. 

“…Transfer student?” 

“Yeah. Our class had a transfer student come since the start of summer break. A girl. Yesterday, Ms. Sasasaki introduced her when I went to school for club activities. She came for formalities before transferring, Ms. Sasasaki said. She’s this really cute girl. There’ll definitely be rumors about her even in the high school, really soon, I think.” 

“Huhhh…” 

Kojou ignored that with a cold shoulder. However cute she was, she was a middle schooler. And his little sister’s classmate. Totally outside of Kojou’s field of interest. However… 

“Hey, Kojou. Did you do something to this transfer student?” 

“Huh? What the heck?” 

Kojou asked back incredulously at Nagisa’s sudden question. 

What could he have done to a transfer student before she’d even transferred? However, Nagisa seemed displeased somehow, looking back at her older brother with a serious expression… 

“I mean, she asked about you. Once I introduced myself, she asked me if I had an older brother. What kind of person he’s like, and stuff.” 

“…Why?” 

“That’s what I wanna know. I was sure she must’ve met you somewhere before…” 

“No, I don’t think I have any younger acquaintances, but…” 

Kojou crossed his arms and sunk into thought. He had a vaguely unpleasant premonition. 

“So, what’d you tell her?” 

“Well, I did kind of properly explain things, some true and some not.” 

“What?!” 

“Kidding, I spoke only the truth. Like about the city we lived in before moving here, your school grades, what foods you like, the gravure idols you’re into, about Yazecchi and Asagi-chan, and then about your big heartbreak story from middle school…” 

“Geez… Why’d you have tell all that to someone you’d just met?” 

“Er, well, she’s cute?” 

Nagisa said it with an unapologetic tone. It was the answer he’d expected. Even under normal circumstances Nagisa was tempted to speak to anyone at all, which made the protection of secrets a nearly impossible undertaking. Her habit of saying exactly what it was she wanted to say, and her difficulty in not doing so was her personality, too. 

“Well, a girl having an interest in Kojou-kun’s such a rare opportunity. I thought I’d be as helpful as I could.” 

“Liar…you just wanted to talk, didn’t you?” 

Kojou exhaled at her fire-and-forget attitude. That moment, an ominous thought floated up into a corner of his sleep-deprived, slowly operating head. Though he wouldn’t call her an acquaintance even by mistake, there was one, and only one, name that came to mind: that of a certain junior high schooler who might be checking into Kojou. 

“Wait a sec. What’s the transfer student’s name?” 

“Mm, her last name’s a bit odd. Err… Right, it had a flutter to it, like the name of a queen.” 

“‘Flutter’? Himeragi, by any chance?” 

Kojou bitterly asked back, his ominous premonition swelling larger and larger. Nagisa’s expression brightened. 

“Ah yes, that’s it! Yukina Himeragi-chan.” 

“…She’s…the transfer student…?!” 

“That’s right. So you really do know her? Hey, hey, how do you know her? Explain it to me! Hey, Kojou…!” 

Nagisa continued shouting something, but Kojou wasn’t listening. 

All he could think of was the spear-using girl who’d tailed him all over the place and finally annihilated a vampire’s Beast Vassal with a single blow. 

So she’d transferred to the same class as Kojou’s little sister. But why? For what purpose? Such tortured thoughts made an unpleasant sweat break out, drenching Kojou’s entire body. 

Somewhere along the way, Kojou’s sleepiness had entirely vanished. 

5 

Natsuki Minamiya was Saikai Academy’s English teacher. 

She claimed her age was twenty-six, but she actually looked considerably younger than that, enough that, the terms beautiful girl and lovely child suited her better than beautiful woman. 

The line of her face and shape of her body were both on the small side, almost doll-like. 

On the other hand, maybe she’d inherited noble blood from somewhere; she was oddly dignified and charismatic. Thanks to that, she was a highly capable teacher, with high regard among students as well. 

“Er… Aren’t you hot there, Natsuki?” Kojou asked, his loose uniform disheveled amid the oppressive, sweltering heat. Kojou was the only student in the classroom for the make-up exam. Of course they didn’t permit the use of a civilized invention like air-conditioning. 

Against the hellish backdrop of the pouring midday rays of the sun, an incessant hot wind blowing in through the window, Kojou was translating the suspicious English text “Researching the Shape of Mythology in Post-Primitive Man” under the supervision of a teacher who looked younger than he was. This was no longer an exam; a better term for it might be discipline, or perhaps torture. 

“I’ve told you before. Don’t address your teacher by her first name.” 

He heard Natsuki’s haughty voice from the center of the platform as she sat atop the luxurious, velvet-covered chair she’d brought in from somewhere on her own, drinking hot black tea. 

She wore a lace-heavy, black, one-piece dress. Except for the frills from the cuffs and the front of the neck, her hip proportions were being flaunted by a laced-up corset. For so-called goth loli, it was rather high-end, but that didn’t make it seem any less stifling in this heat. However, as Natsuki elegantly fanned herself with a black lace folding fan… 

“This level of heat is nothing compared to the start of summer.” 

“Er… It looks hot from where I’m sitting, though.” 

I just don’t get it, thought Kojou, resting his chin on his palms. 

It was this charismatic teacher, Natsuki Minamiya’s, greatest shortcoming. Her fashion sense had an absolute lack of consideration of time and place. Natsuki’s wearing of a stifling dress in this heat, on an artificial island in the tropics, was violence to his eyes in and of itself. Not that it didn’t look good on her… 

“And what are you drinking there, all by yourself?” 

“Ah yes. I tried adding some light flavor based on candy from Ceylon using herbs; also, just the right amount of brandy to bring out the taste of black tea.” 

“Not sure you should be waving the smell of alcohol in front of a student taking supplemental lessons, but… May I go now?” 

“As if I could supervise tests during summer break without a drink. I’m grading, so wait a minute.” 

As the smell of Western liquor hung in the air, Natsuki picked up the supplemental test’s answer sheet, which Kojou had somehow managed to finish writing, with her fingers. She crossed out several errors with a red pen. 

“Hmph. Well, fine. Make sure you pass the rest of the make-up exams.” 

“Sure thing.” 

As Kojou said so with an unenthused voice, he began putting his things on top of the table in order. Natsuki silently watched that for a while, tilting her teacup, but… 

“Ah, Akatsuki. Apparently some idiot vampire let a Beast Vassal loose at a shopping mall in Island West yesterday. Do you know anything about that?” 

“Huh?” 

His homeroom teacher’s abrupt question brought Kojou’s motions to a spontaneous halt. 

The shopping mall in West. Beast Vassal. Vampire. Of course he knew, but there was no way he could talk to Natsuki about that. After all, Yukina Himeragi was intertwined with the incident the day before. 

If by some chance she was questioned as a witness to the incident, it would be very awkward for Kojou. After all, no vampire such as the Fourth Primogenitor existed here in Itogami City. In other words, Kojou was an unregistered demon. It would be exceptionally troublesome if his true nature was exposed to the Island Guard. 

Kojou shook his head as if his neck were a rusted gear. Natsuki made a hmm, exhaling. 

“I see. Fine, then. I was worried some Attack Mage who knows your true nature had encountered and come into conflict with a stray vampire while following you around.” 

She said it like she’d seen the whole thing. At Natsuki’s all-too-accurate inference, a twitchy smile came over Kojou. 

“Ha-ha-ha… There’s no way…” 

“Surely not. That’s fine. Let me know if you do notice anything.” 

So saying, Natsuki pulled back surprisingly easily. Kojou made a sigh of relief. Though her arrogant tone made her difficult to understand, her saying she was worried about Kojou was probably the truth. 

Natsuki Minamiya, English teacher, also bore the title of Counter-Demon Attack Mage. 

The Demon Sanctuary’s educational institutions were obligated by treaty to employ a certain percentage of teachers bearing National Counter-Demon Agent licenses; Natsuki was one among these. Furthermore, she was a combat veteran. She was very much an active professional Attack Mage, also serving as an instructor with the Island Guard. 

And she was one of the extremely few people who knew Kojou was the Fourth Primogenitor. Kojou’s being able to go to school like an ordinary person, in spite of having the physical makeup of the so-called world’s mightiest vampire, was due to Natsuki’s machinations. 

That was why Kojou couldn’t look Natsuki in the eye. From time to time, Natsuki had Kojou assist her in her private work, but he could only accept that as fate and move on. 

“Ah, come to think of it, there is something I wanted to ask you.” 

Suddenly remembering, Kojou raised his head. Natsuki gloomily looked back at him. 

“What is it?” 

“The Lion King Agency… Know of it?” 

Natsuki was silent at Kojou’s question, a clear expression of displeasure coming over her. 

“How do you know that name?” 

“Er, it’s not that I know it, it just slipped past my ears a little.” 

“Oh ho. That really makes me want to prod you for details. Slipped past these ears?” 

As Natsuki spoke, she pulled on Kojou’s ears without restraint. As Kojou yelled out, “Ow, ow…” 

“…Are you, uh, angry about something?” 

“I’m just a tad annoyed at hearing an unpleasant name. They’re the competition, after all.” 

Kojou exhaled roughly as Natsuki let him go. As Kojou pressed on his stretched earlobes… 

“Competition…to National CDAs, you mean?” 

Natsuki gave Kojou a frosty warning as she looked him over. 

“They’ll come to kill in earnest, even against a Primogenitor. That’s what they were made for, after all. Do take care not to approach anyone related to the Lion King Agency.” 

“…Made for?” 

Kojou asked with a dubious look, but Natsuki clicked her tongue as if she’d said too much and did not say another word about it. 

It seemed that in the end, Natsuki’s answer was: Don’t go near the Lion King Agency. 

“Ah, right. Natsuki, there’s a staff meeting for the middle school today, isn’t there?” 

As Natsuki moved to leave the classroom, Kojou stopped her with another question. Natsuki dubiously raised an eyebrow. 

“And what business do you have with the middle school, Akatsuki?” 

“Ah, er. Just had something to ask Ms. Sasasaki, my little sister’s homeroom teacher.” 

“Misaki?” 

Natsuki’s face grimaced unpleasantly. Now that he thought about it, she and the junior high school teacher Misaki Sasasaki shared the same alma mater, and for some reason, got along famously poorly. Sure enough, Natsuki made a blunt, sharp expression. 

“As if I’d know anything about the people in junior high. Go see for yourself.” 

“…I’ll do that.” 

Kojou meekly went along with Natsuki’s words. He instinctively determined that this wasn’t a subject he wanted to get dragged into. 

However, that was hardly enough to restore Natsuki’s humor after being bent out of shape. 

“Incidentally, Kojou…” 

“Yes?” 

Natsuki’s black lace fan lashed out. He didn’t know she’d done it, but Kojou’s forehead was struck with enough force to cave a normal person’s skull. Kojou fell right on his back. 

“Why do you call her Ms. Sasasaki and me Natsuki?! I told you, don’t you Natsuki me!” 

Her skirt in a flutter, Natsuki left those words behind as she violently took her leave. 

“Shit… Corporal punishment’s…not cool,” Kojou murmured weakly, looking up at the ceiling as he held his forehead. 

6 

Saikai Academy was a coed institution with middle and high school integrated. Itogami City had a large, youthful population, and the large-scale, mundane school was a reflection of it. 

But, fated to share the critical lack of land as all construction on Itogami Island, the school site was difficult to call spacious. The gym, pool, cafeteria, and many other facilities were shared between the middle and high school sections; for that reason, there was an unusually large number of chances for high school students to see junior high school students on school grounds. 

On the other hand, it was rare for a student of the high school section to visit the junior high school section; it just wasn’t necessary. 

As Kojou thus felt a mix of vague familiarity and vague unease, he found himself standing absentmindedly before the junior high school section’s staff room, somewhere he hadn’t visited in quite some time. 

Kojou held in his hand the white wallet he’d picked up at the shopping mall the day before. 

The one dropped by Yukina Himeragi. 

If the story he’d heard from Nagisa was true, that spear-wielding girl had apparently transferred into the Saikai Academy junior high school section. The student ID in the wallet also backed up Nagisa’s testimony. 

That being the case, it’d be faster to get it back to Yukina Himeragi by handing it to her homeroom teacher than to the police. That thought was why he’d come out of his way here to the junior high school section. 

“Sorry, Akatsuki. Ms. Sasasaki doesn’t seem to have come in today.” 

So said an elderly teacher who Kojou didn’t recognize, suddenly bringing his plan to a halt. 

“Ah, that so…” 

“Something to give her? How about you leave it with me?” 

“Er, well… I do, but I’ll just try again tomorrow. Bit of a troublesome thing.” 

Kojou thanked the elderly teacher, making his way out of the staff room. With only two days until summer break ended, Misaki Sasasaki seemed to be making the most of what was left of her vacation. 

This is becoming a real bother, Kojou thought. 

If he could, he wanted to put the wallet into the owner’s hands ASAP. If not, he’d have a misunderstanding with that short-tempered junior high schooler, and that might get him suddenly impaled to death from her spear. 

Natsuki’s words, Don’t get close to the Lion King Agency, tugged at him, but trusting a nonhomeroom teacher to return a wallet with actual money in it seemed rather irresponsible, and Kojou wasn’t of a mind to request it. 

Leaning on a pillar of an adjoining corridor, Kojou absentmindedly gazed at the campus. 

Here in broad daylight in the middle of summer, there weren’t all that many students doing club activities. Even so, he could see athletics club members doing solo training here and there on the grounds. 

Cheerleaders were practicing a dance in the shadow of the school building. On the tennis court, club members seemed to be having practice matches against each other. As he watched the flutter and sway of the female members’ skirts, they made him remember Yukina Himeragi the day before. 

She had such a bizarre level of combat power she’d faced down a demon-race male and utterly crushed him, and her silver spear had annihilated a vampire’s Beast Vassal in a single instant. And the flushed look of her face when she held down her skirt over her pastel-colored panties. It was such an impactful scene, even if he thought of forgetting, it wasn’t something easy to forget at all. There may have been suspicious parts about her, but she really was a pretty girl. 

Those legs were pretty, too… Kojou clicked his tongue a little as he casually thought about that. 

At the same time a light dizziness assaulted him, his throat felt extremely parched. It was an unusually bad sign. 

“If she’d at least put a contact number or something in here…” 

To break his train of thought, Kojou hurriedly averted his eyes from the campus and opened up the wallet he’d picked up. It didn’t seem to be a luxury brand, but it was a nice wallet that he could tell had been well cared for. 

It had a faint, pleasant smell to it. 

The wallet itself was made of common, readily available textiles; in other words, this smell was no doubt the lingering scent of its owner. It was not the strong scent of perfume, but a gentle, comfortable, pleasant scent. Well, the point being, this must be what a girl smelled like— 

The instant he subconsciously thought about that, this time Kojou’s whole body was assaulted with a strange thirst. 

“Ugh…” 

Not good, thought Kojou as he covered his own mouth. 

With a pale face, he locked his knees together as his shoulders shuddered a little. Not now! he thought as his lips twisted. Sharp, tapered canine teeth poked through the gap between his lips. 

However, it wasn’t that Kojou was in bad physical shape. What was causing him distress was a simple physiological reaction. However, this was an abominable, troublesome condition specific to vampires: the urge to drink blood. 

—Not good not good not good not good… 

Kojou desperately wanted to fight the desire to drink human blood that gripped his entire body. He knew all too well the crimson-dyed hallucination filling his field of vision. 

There were still many things misunderstood by the world at large, but the species known as vampires did not drink the blood of others to satisfy hunger. Food and drink were sufficient to address simple hunger and thirst. 

Certainly vampires could replenish their magical energy through the act of drinking blood. Magic also existed that used blood as a catalyst. 

However, these were nothing more than by-products. 

A vampire’s urge to drink blood was triggered mainly by sexual arousal. In other words, by lust. 

A fierce impatience. Oppression that felt like it was tearing your body apart. Thinking of someone, you felt like you couldn’t just stand still any longer. Then, suddenly, you attacked without warning. 

To escape from that suffering, many vampires in the past, unable to control themselves, attacked whoever was nearest them, sometimes even their own loved ones. 

But conversely, one could still say that it was merely sexual arousal. 

“Shit… Gimme a break.” 

Kojou groaned as he felt a dull pain inside his nose. The taste of metallic blood spread within his mouth. The urge to drink would not continue for long. A little surprise or fear could be enough to make it vanish; once it did, even he wouldn’t understand why he’d suffered so much. 

In Kojou’s case, the solution was bleeding from the nose. 

In other words, as he’d simply come to love the taste of blood, there was no problem if it was his own blood he tasted. When he was aroused, his nose bled—perhaps because happened to have that predisposition, it always returned Kojou to his senses when assailed by the urge to drink blood. 

As Kojou wiped away the trickling blood flowing out of his nose, he made a tedious sigh. 

It was good it’d passed without causing trouble for anyone else, but the problem with this predisposition was that it looked very uncool. A human being unaware of his circumstances watching Kojou just now would have simply seen a boy who sniffed the scent of a girl from her wallet and suddenly had blood spurt out of his nose. Most would think him a simple pervert. 

The form of a female student wearing a uniform entered the corner of his warped field of vision. Kojou became intensely nervous. 

Here in the junior high school section corridor, there was no place to hide, and his nosebleed had not yet stopped. 

The approaching female student came, stopped, and stood behind Kojou, who still had his knees locked. The girl exhaled calmly. 

“To think, aroused by sniffing the scent of a girl from her wallet. You are a dangerous individual indeed.” 

So said the familiar-sounding voice. 

“…Wha?!” 

The girl standing behind Kojou bore a guitar case on her back over her schoolgirl uniform. She was a female junior high schooler with somewhat adult looks, but she looked over Kojou with scornful eyes. 

“Yukina… Himeragi?” 

In shock, Kojou called her by name. He wondered for a moment if this was a hallucination caused by the urge to drink blood. However, Yukina asked back in a cold tone, her expression never changing: 

“Yes, what is it?” 

Kojou made an even more relieved expression. 

He’d suddenly realized the urge to drink blood had completely vanished. Perhaps it was due to his heavy surprise. His nosebleed had stopped, too. Confirming that his extended canine teeth had subsided to their normal length, Kojou lowered the hand he’d covered his mouth with. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“I think I should be asking that, Akatsuki-senpai. This is the middle school section of campus, isn’t it?” 

“Er…” 

When the younger girl calmly pointed it out, Kojou had no rebuttal. 

Yukina made an exasperated sigh and pointed to what Kojou held in his hand. 

“That’s my wallet, isn’t it?” 

“Y-yeah. Right, I came to get this back to you. They said Ms. Sasasaki was off for the day, though.” 

When Yukina held a pocket tissue out to him, Kojou wiped his nosebleed with it, nodding in grateful acceptance. Yukina fell silent as if determining the truth or falsehood of Kojou’s explanation. 

“Did sniffing that scent arouse you enough to make your nose bleed?” 

“It’s not like I was turned on by the scent of the wallet. Just, I remembered about you from yesterday—” 

Kojou’s words made Yukina’s voice slip in a bewildered-sounding “Huh?” For a moment, she stiffened as if she were a doll. 

“…?!” 

Far too late, she subconsciously held down the skirt of her uniform. She bit her lower lip with a flushed face. 

No doubt she was recalling the incident that had taken place when she’d encountered Kojou the day before. And realizing that she herself was the cause of the sexual arousal Kojou had felt. 

“P-please forget about yesterday.” Yukina spoke with a tone containing all the calm she could muster. 

“Er, even if you tell me to forget it…” 

“Please forget it.” 

“…” 

As Yukina glared at him, Kojou silently slumped his shoulders. He realized that if he got her overly upset here, she might break that lance out and go on a rampage just as she had the day before. 

“Also, please return my wallet. That’s what you came here for, isn’t it?” 

Yukina made her legitimate request in a gentle tone. However, Kojou did not fulfill that request. He raised the wallet up high, beyond where Yukina’s hands could reach. 

“I want to ask you a few things first. Who the heck are you? And why are you looking into me?” 

“…Understood. So I may take you to mean that I will have to take my wallet back by force.” 

Yukina gave Kojou a long stare as she made her declaration. As if drawing a katana from its sheath, her hand reached toward the guitar case on her back. 

So this is how it’s gonna be, Kojou thought, halfheartedly giving up as he lowered his center of gravity. As though playing defense in basketball, he adopted a posture from which he could deal with any attack. Yukina’s eyes grew guarded. 

Grrrrrrr. …The next moment, a low sound reverberated across the corridor. 

Kojou’s eyebrows rose without a word. 

When Kojou realized what that low growl was, a somewhat awkward expression came over him. It was a grumble from Yukina’s stomach. 

“Err… Himeragi, are you hungry, by any chance?” Kojou asked Yukina as she remained frozen stiff. 

Yukina was silent. That was her answer. 

“Haven’t you eaten since yesterday? Ah, because you didn’t have your wallet? Himeragi, you actually live alone, don’t you?” 

“Wh-what of it?!” 

Yukina tried to keep her voice calm, but of course it came out a bit flustered. 

Somehow he’d felt like that was the case, but apparently Yukina had come to live here on Itogami Island apart from her family. Since she’d just transferred, she didn’t have any friends yet, and having dropped her wallet, she had no money. That had to be why she hadn’t had a bite to eat since the day before. 

With a somewhat flustered look, Kojou tilted his head and gently presented the wallet in front of Yukina. 

Even as Yukina became agitated, as if wondering, Wh-what are you doing? her guarded expression never faltered. 

“So, uh, treat me to lunch. The guy who picked up your wallet has a right to ask that much, right?” 

Kojou spoke with a voice drained of tension. 

Yukina blinked over and over, looking at Kojou as if trying to weigh his true intentions. 

Like a plaintive, hungry puppy, her stomach made a low growl once more. 

7 

Yukina Himeragi ordered a retro-version Classic Teriyaki Burger, onion rings, and grapefruit juice combo. They were a five-minute walk from Saikai Academy at a big burger chain franchise on Island South. 

With refined etiquette, Yukina, sitting up straight in her seat, gripped her teriyaki burger with both hands, a happy look on her face. Kojou watched her absentmindedly. 

“What are you looking at?” Yukina asked dubiously, noticing Kojou’s gaze. 

“Ahh, er… I was thinking, so you eat hamburgers like normal people, too, Himeragi.” 

“What do you mean?” 

Yukina’s eyebrows flattened in a scowl. 

Kojou sipped on an iced coffee that was heavy on the ice and thin on the coffee. 

“Err, somehow I had the impression you hadn’t been to this kind of place, like you’d be asking where the knives and forks were, and stuff…” 

“I am not entirely sure, but might you be making fun of me?” Yukina made a sigh, as if a little wounded. “Certainly, the town High God Forest is in is no city, but it does sell hamburgers at least.” 

“…High God Forest? Is that the school you were at before?” 

“Yes. On the surface, it’s a girls’ school for Shinto adherents.” 

Yukina’s explanation was oddly roundabout. Kojou made an mm sound and lifted his face. 

“On the surface—meaning there’s something behind it?” 

“…It’s a training ground for the Lion King Agency. You know what the Lion King Agency is, right?” 

“No, not a clue.” 

As Yukina saw Kojou shake his head, she blinked. 

“Why don’t you know of it?” 

“You say it like of course I’d know about it, but…this is the first time I’ve heard the name.” 

Kojou spoke with a conflicted expression. Yukina murmured, “Huh?” with a perplexed look. 

“The Lion King Agency is a special agency established by the National Public Safety Commission.” 

“Special agency? So you’re civil servants?” 

A pretty extravagant name for a government institution, Kojou thought. He wondered if that name carried some kind of special meaning. 

“Yes. The agency conducts information gathering and strategic sabotage to stop large-scale magical terrorism and catastrophes. As its roots go back to the Takiguchi Musha, the guards who protected the Inner Palace from evil spirits and apparitions during the Heian period, it is an organization older than the present government of Japan.” 

“I don’t know about the roots thing, but…the gist is, it’s like a police force?” 

Kojou could understand it in those terms. 

If regular police forces had special squads for dealing with organized crime and terrorist organizations, it was no surprise that there was a government agency besides Counter-Demon Agents that dealt with magical terrorism and catastrophes. That’d explain why Natsuki referred to the Lion King Agency as “the competition.” 

No doubt the vague-sounding “special agency” bit was because demons were its opponents. After all, a lot of people with counter-demonic abilities, like psychic mediums and sorcerers, didn’t like dealing directly with the government. 

“So, Himeragi, since you came from their training ground, you’re part of the Lion King Agency, too?” 

“Yes. Though as an apprentice,” added Yukina frankly after a humble nod. 

Figures, thought Kojou as he nodded once more. She was still just a junior high schooler, after all. 

Thanks to her explanation, he somehow understood the true nature of that spear Yukina carried. It had to be some kind of special antidemon weapon developed by the Lion King Agency. 

“So why were you tailing me around, then, Himeragi? That special agency thing’s job is dealing with magical terrorism and catastrophes, right? What does that have to do with me?” Kojou asked in a blunt tone. Yukina’s eyes bulged a bit. “Huh?” 

“Yesterday. You were tailing me, right?” 

“Don’t tell me you noticed…?!” 

“Wha? Er, did you think I wouldn’t notice that…?” 

It was the fact she was surprised that surprised him. Yukina made a faint ugh sound. 

“That being the case…er, Akatsuki…senpai…? Perhaps you really don’t know?” 

“Know what?” 

He felt like he wasn’t going to get used to Yukina calling him senpai. 

“Senpai, your very existence is treated identically to war or terrorism.” 

“Huh?” 

“The Primogenitors who rule the Dominions each possess, by themselves, the might of a national army. The Fourth Primogenitor is treated the same way, of course. If you were to cause trouble within Japan’s national borders, Senpai, it would be seen not as a criminal act, but an act of war. I think that is why it is the Lion King Agency, and not the Police Administration’s Counter-Demon Section, that is acting,” Yukina explained to Kojou with a tone of concern. 

“Treated the same as an army… What the heck…? Who the hell decided that…” 

As might be expected, Kojou couldn’t hide his agitation. He was being treated on the same level as a war or a terrorist strike; or rather, his very existence was being treated as a national crisis. Even though he was suffering through his vampiric condition, now he wasn’t even being treated as a life-form, let alone a human being. 

“So you really didn’t know, Senpai…” 

Yukina made an exasperated sigh. The pitying look that came over her face rubbed Kojou’s nerves the wrong way somehow. To calm himself down, Kojou thrust some hard-fried potato into his own mouth. 

“I dunno about the other Primogenitors, but I don’t remember bein’ treated like that. I haven’t done anything, and I don’t rule any kind of empire, anyway.” 

“That’s true.” 

Yukina quietly nodded. She shot Kojou a cold, antagonistic look. 

“I was already planning to ask about that. Senpai, what do you intend to do in this place?” 

“To do… Er, what?” 

“Yesterday, I asked your little sister about you.” 

“Yeah… I heard.” 

Kojou unintentionally scowled at Yukina’s words. He remembered the fact that Nagisa had already spilled to her all the secrets of his past. 

However, Yukina’s expression remained completely serious. 

“You’re hiding the fact you’re a vampire from your little sister, aren’t you?” 

“Well, I am, but…” 

“Don’t you have some kind of objective, infiltrating the Demon Sanctuary, hiding your true nature from even your family? For instance, ruling Itogami Island from the shadows, adding the registered Demons to your own army and the like? Or perhaps you’ve come to commit slaughter for your own pleasure…you monster!” Yukina muttered in a tone that could be taken either as brooding or fantasizing. 

Kojou groaned in a low voice, “Why does it have to be like this?” 

“Now, just hold on a minute, here. Himeragi, aren’t you misunderstanding something?” 

“Misunderstanding?” 

“I’m not infiltrating anything; I lived in this city since before I became a vampire.” 

“…Before you became a…vampire, you say?” 

“Yeah. Check the records or anything you like. I’ve had this condition only since spring of this year. 

“I moved to this island when I was in this junior high school so, that’s almost four years ago,” Kojou explained in an unpleasant tone. 

That’s right. Kojou Akatsuki had not been born a vampire. Until a mere three months prior, he’d lived as a normal human being with no relation to demons whatsoever. However, during spring of that year, an incident Kojou had become wrapped up in changed his destiny. Kojou had encountered the one called the Fourth Primogenitor and had taken her powers as well as her life. 

However, Yukina shook her head, as if to say, I can’t believe that. 

“The Fourth Primogenitor was a human being? That cannot be so.” 

“Huh? Uh, say that all you want, but it’s the truth.” 

“Normal humans cannot change into vampires midway. Even if one is infected from drinking vampire blood, the person would be a mere ‘Blood Servant’—an imitation vampire.” 

“Yeah. Seems that way.” 

“So why make up an easily exposed lie like this?” 

“It’s not like I’m lying to you, geez.” 

Kojou made a tired sigh. He was bad at explaining things to overserious types like this. 

Yukina adopted the tone of a private tutor addressing a slacker of a student. 

“Now listen, Senpai. Primogenitors are the oldest and first vampires who received the curse of immortality from now-dead gods.” 

“I am kind of aware of that, but…” 

“The only way for a normal human to become a Primogenitor would be to become undead by using a secret curse from the lost gods on oneself. Are you saying you are capable of that, Senpai?” 

“Uh, no. I don’t have any gods for BFFs, sorry.” 

“So how did you become a vampire, then? There’s only one other way to become a Primogenitor, and that’s…” 

Having said that much, Yukina suddenly cut off her words as if she’d realized something. The color of her face turned faintly pale. Aside from being cursed by the gods, there was but one other method by which a human being could become a Primogenitor. She’d just remembered what it was. 

“Senpai… You don’t mean, you…consumed a Primogenitor and took his power into you…?! But that’s not…” 

The softness that had been in Yukina’s expression a short time before had vanished. In its place, a look of fright came over her. 

If you couldn’t become a Primogenitor yourself, there was but one way that existed to obtain a Primogenitor’s power. That was to consume the Primogenitor’s existence and to take the power, and the curse, into one’s own body. 

However, there shouldn’t have been any way for someone inferior in magical power to take the quasi-godlike power wielded by a Primogenitor into oneself. Clumsily laying a hand on a Primogenitor would only result in one’s own existence being consumed and annihilated. 

All the more so where an ordinary human was concerned: consuming a vampire simply wasn’t possible. 

And yet, in point of fact, Kojou Akatsuki was saying he’d obtained the power of the Fourth Primogenitor. 

“‘Consumed a Primogenitor’… Uh, please don’t put it like that. It makes me sound like a ravenous beast.” 

Kojou sluggishly rested his chin on his hands as he sipped on his iced coffee. Yukina’s expression remained sharp and impregnable. 

“Are you saying you obtained a Primogenitor’s power by some other method, then?” 

“Sorry, but even I can’t explain the details. I just had that idiot push this troublesome condition onto me, and that’s it.” 

“Pushed onto you…?” 

Yukina blinked in what seemed like surprise. 

“Senpai, you didn’t become a vampire of your own will?” 

“Who the heck would want to be like this?” 

Kojou spoke in an offhand tone. Yukina glared at Kojou with a dubious look. 

“And who is this idiot?” 

“The Fourth Primogenitor. The previous one.” 

“The previous Fourth Primogenitor…?!” 

Yukina sucked in her breath in shock. 

“You’re talking about the real Kaleid Blood?! You’re saying you inherited those powers? Why did the Fourth Primogenitor choose you as his successor? How did you even encounter the Fourth Primogenitor in the first place?” 

“Er, that’s…” 

As Kojou tried to speak, his face suddenly grimaced, as if assaulted by a fierce headache. 

The coffee cup he’d been drinking from fell over, spilling the melting ice and thin liquid that had been within. 

Without noticing that at all, Kojou lowered his face onto the table, clutching his head. He let out what seemed to be anguished pants from having bitten his tongue. Like a curse, Kojou’s lost memories brought torment to his entire body. 

“S-Senpai?” 

Yukina spoke in a flustered voice at Kojou’s completely unexpected reaction. 

“Sorry, Himeragi…” 

But Kojou did not raise his face. He suppressed the fierce pain in his heart, as if impaled by an invisible stake, and simply panted painfully. The only thing that came into the back of his mind was a lone girl whose face he could no longer remember, smiling amid the flames. 

“I’m gonna have to leave it at that.” 

Kojou spoke in a frail tone. Yukina tilted her head a bit. 

“Eh?” 

“I don’t have any memory of it. When I try and force myself, this is what I get.” 

“Is…that so? I understand… In that case, it cannot be helped.” 

An expression that seemed relieved came over Yukina as she watched Kojou finally lift his face. It seemed she’d believed without any doubt what Kojou had said about having no memory. She must have had a fundamentally straitlaced personality. 

Kojou was actually a bit disappointed in Yukina’s all-too-quick reaction. 

“You believe me?” 

“Yes. I believe I understand you at least well enough to know you are not lying, Senpai.” 

Yukina spoke matter-of-factly. A conflicted expression came over Kojou. He wondered if that was a roundabout way of saying he was a simpleton. 

Yukina got up and wiped up the coffee spilled on the table with a napkin. 

After that, she came beside Kojou and leaned over him, pulling out a handkerchief. 

“Turn toward me. I’ll wipe your pants clean.” 

“Er, ah. That’s okay, I…” 

“They’ll get stained. See?” 

Yukina spoke as much as she reached toward Kojou’s pants. Kojou couldn’t breathe or move a muscle. Yukina didn’t seem to be aware of it, but if anyone they knew saw them, they’d get a really big misunderstanding from this posture, to the point that Kojou wanted to suspect that she was trying to trigger his vampiric impulses on purpose. 

Yukina leaned over between Kojou’s legs, her pale, white neck defenseless before him. 

“Senpai, I have been ordered by the Lion King Agency to watch you, but…also, to eliminate you if I determine you to be a dangerous being, Senpai.” 

“E…eliminate?!” 

Kojou’s whole body stiffened in an entirely different sense at Yukina’s calmly delivered, matter-of-fact words. 

However, Yukina spoke in a gentle tone. “I think I understand the reason why. You lack a certain self-awareness, Senpai. I sense great danger in you.” 

“Er, I think you’re pretty dangerous yourself, Himeragi…” 

As Kojou unwittingly added in a mumble, “Plus, you dropped your wallet,” Yukina glared at him. 

“Anyway, as I shall be observing you from this day forward, do take care not to try anything strange. After all, I do not completely trust you yet, Senpai.” 

“Watch… Huh.” 

Well, fine, thought Kojou as his shoulders eased. Some parts made him uneasy, but Yukina didn’t seem to be a bad person. He didn’t foresee that being watched would have any serious drawbacks, and if he was going to have someone keeping tabs on him, he was a little glad it was a girl and not some stiff-necked male Attack Mage doing it. 

“Oh, right, Himeragi. About Nagisa…” 

Kojou suddenly shot Yukina a concerned look. With a bit of a mischievous smile, Yukina nodded. 

Rare for her, it was a youthful, smiling face that matched her age. 

“I understand. I shall keep the fact you are a vampire secret from her, Senpai. So please do the same for me.” 

“Yeah. I just need to treat you as a normal transfer student, right?” 

Kojou shrugged his shoulders as he replied. Either way, even if he told people a junior high schooler like her was a watcher from a secret organization, it wasn’t like anyone would believe him. 

“Thank you very much.” 

With those words, Yukina stood erect. She already had the usual serious look back on her face. 

“Well then, Senpai, what do you plan to do after this?” 

“Oh yeah… I kinda meant to go to the library and do my summer break homework, but…” 

As he spoke, Kojou had an unpleasant premonition. 

“Himeragi, you don’t mean to go with me, do you?” 

“Yes. Is that a problem?” 

“Er, it’s not a problem, but…is this, like, um, full-time?” 

“Of course it is. It’s my duty to watch you.” 

Speaking without any special change in expression, Yukina pulled the guitar case containing her spear over her back and began cleaning up after dinner. 

8 

One of the four Gigafloats that composed Itogami Island, Island West, was a city that never slept. In this district, where many restaurants and business establishments were gathered, many stores continued operating until daybreak. 

Much of demonkind loved the night. In addition to that, many demonic residents flocked to this city because of the wealth of services geared toward them. In one sense, this dazzling neon nighttime display was emblematic of Itogami City and the peaceful coexistence of humans and demons within. 

However, no matter how much light shone through, it did not completely banish darkness from the city at night. 

“—Would you come play with us?” 

It was night at the park, emptied of signs of human life. As the drunken men passed along the scenic street that overlooked the sea, they suddenly heard a voice calling them to a stop. 

A lone woman stood below a faintly glowing streetlight. 

She was small with long indigo hair. 

Her eyes were a lighter shade of blue. She wore a one-piece cape coat over her body, but she didn’t seem to be wearing anything under it whatsoever. She was barefoot. 

“Hey, whoa? Fishin’ for men in a place like this?” 

“Tch…another kid, ain’t it?” 

As the faces of the two men met, they spoke loosely with lewd expressions. As the girl seemed to beckon them, they staggered closer because of her oddly beautiful appearance. 

She had almost transparent white skin and big eyes. Her face was perfectly symmetrical. 

Somehow, her presence was faint for a living being. The girl seemed fairylike. 

“You sayin’ that knowin’ we’re Freaks, little girl?” 

“You ain’t gettin’ off with a few laughs for gettin’ our attention in a place like this. We’re in a real bad mood today, especially toward little girls.” 

The men spoke as they approached, seemingly hemming the girl in from the left and right. They were both around twenty years of age. They both had brown hair and wore black gigolo-style suits, with an air of roughness floating around them. 

One of the men bared his fangs, revealing his true nature as a demon. He was a D-type vampire. Surely he was being assaulted by vampiric impulses from a series of sexual arousal. 

The other individual violently ripped off an armband from his own right arm. 

Now there was nothing to restrain his demonic powers. As he pulled off and tossed away his upper garments, his musculature swelled up as a brown-colored mane rose over his spine. It was a beast man’s transformation. 

“This might get just a bit scary for ya, but don’t take it personally.” 

“If yer gonna hate, hate the brat who picked a fight with us yesterday!” 

The men glared at the girl with angry, excited looks. However, the girl’s expression did not change. She somehow seemed sad as she looked up at the two men, as if her eyes swayed from pity. Then— 

“—A district without night where demons strut about in plain sight…Truly this island is a cursed, forsaken city.” 

A gentle voice spoke sadly from behind the two demons. 

In surprise, they turned around to face the odd presence that had appeared without any warning. 

Standing in the shade below one of the trees along the roadside was a man dressed in what seemed to be the robes of a priest. 

He was a blond foreigner with a short-cropped military-style haircut. 

He had a metal monocle buried in his left eye socket like an eyepatch. 

He had to be over a hundred and ninety centimeters tall. His age was forty years, give or take, but based on his broad, powerful shoulders, it did not seem he had weakened any with age. 

In addition to his imposing physique, he was wearing some kind of metal armor under his vestment. It was some kind of armored augmentation suit used by heavy infantry in the military. It gave off an overbearing feeling. 

The man’s right hand gripped a metal bardiche, a battle-axe with a giant blade. It had to be rather heavy, but the man easily carried it with one hand. 

“Who the hell are you, an Attack Mage?” 

The vampire man asked with bloodlust in his tone. 

“If you were watchin’, you get it, then. Just now, she invited us. You got no right to butt in on this. So stay out of it and get lost!” 

The beast man also spoke, his voice husky and hard to understand. 

The man in the vestment looked over both demons without emotion. 

“I am well aware. However, did she not ask you to play with us?” 

As he spoke, he turned the blade of his axe toward the two demons. 

And then he tossed the baggage he had been carrying in his left hand at the two demons. The weapons piled within easily thrust through the long narrow sports bag. There was a sword, a katana, a javelin, and an axe. The bare katana blade thrust straight through the bag, piercing the ground. These weren’t replicas; these were real weapons. 

“If you would claim you cannot fight unarmed, please pick your fancy. What’s wrong? Do not tell me you are afraid, pitiable demons.” 

“Don’t look down on us, gramps… So the brat’s in on this with you, huh?” 

As the beast man exclaimed, he picked up the sword, which was nearest to him. He was a belligerent demon by nature. He growled as he bared his fangs, unable to contain his murderous impulses. 

“I’ll kill ya just like ya want—!” 

The beast man kicked from the ground, his body accelerating with explosive force. He charged the defenselessly standing man from the front, moving to beat him down with the sword by brute force. However, mid-way through the sword’s attack, the vestment-wearing man’s axe easily knocked it aside. The beast man’s expression twisted in shock, and he redoubled his attack. However, the outcome was the same. 

“A lycanthrope, is it? As fast as I’d expect. Yet all too simple.” 

“What?!” 

“Indeed, no comparison to the beast men who serve in Dominion regular forces. Pathetic…” 

The augmented suit beneath the vestment emitted a revving sound like the roar of a beast. With his strength increased to its absolute limit, his lunging step split the asphalt covering the street and cracked the air. His battle-axe flashed, leaving a blur trailing behind it. It was a blow too swift for even a beast man to react. 

“Gaha…!” 

Slashed from its armpit down to its hip, the beast man’s huge body was blown away. Fresh lukewarm blood splattered, filling the surrounding area with the scent of blood. The sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing came after the fact. A human being would have no doubt died instantly. Even for a beast man, with such a resilient life force, it was a grave, potentially fatal wound. 

“Wh-why you—!” 

Gazing dumbfounded at his wounded comrade, the vampire man howled. He picked up the javelin that had rolled onto the ground and hurled it at the man in the vestment. 

The vampire’s brute strength was even greater than that of the beast man’s. The spear he’d thrown flew at bullet-like speed would have pierced the man’s chest—had the latter not easily knocked it down a moment prior. 

“Shit… What the hell are you?!” 

The man in the vestment replied to the vampire’s question with majesty. 

“My name is Rudolf Eustach. An Armed Apostle of Lotharingia.” 

“Armed Apostle? What’s a priest from the Western Church doin’ out here—?!” 

“I have no obligation to answer.” 

Tch. The vampire man clicked his tongue. Pitch-black flames welled up from his left leg. 

“Kill ’im, Shakti!” 

The flames took the shape of a distorted horse and assaulted the man in the vestment. The Beast Vassal burned at a thousand degrees Celsius. The air shimmered from the heat; the melting surface of the ground left a burning smell behind. 

“Hmph. I had heard there was a fool using a Beast Vassal in urban areas; it appears that is true. So our search has borne fruit.” 

A smile came over the man’s lips as if this is what he had been waiting for. 

And then the man halted the charge of the flaming Beast Vassal with his own left hand. 

“What…?!” 

The vampire man’s eyes bulged at the completely unexpected display. Something like an invisible wall had emerged in front of the man in the vestment, stopping the incandescent spirit horse’s attack cold. The girl, standing beside the Armed Apostle, had extended a strange barrier to protect him. 

The flaming Beast Vassal could not reach the man with the barrier holding it at bay. 

However, it seemed that even the girl’s defensive barrier did not possess the power to completely repel the Beast Vassal. 

As the intense flames slammed against the wall, the very air creaked from the strain. Finally, as if unable to bear the strain of the clash, a frail sigh escaped from the girl’s lips. 

“Evidently even this degree of Beast Vassal cannot be completely neutralized. It seems there is indeed room left for improvement.” 

“Huh…?!” 

Not knowing the meaning of the man’s utterance, the vampire raised a cry of triumph. No doubt he’d judged that continuing to press on meant victory. 

However, as an anguished expression came over the girl, the man in the vestment seemed to have lost interest as he called out. 

“Tonight’s experiment is over, Astarte.” 

“Yes, Armed Apostle.” 

The girl with the indigo-colored hair he’d called Astarte gently closed her eyes. As she stretched out her cape coat, she reported in an artificial, robotic voice. 

“Accept. Execute ‘Rhododactylos.’” 

At the same time as the voice finished, something gushed out from the seams of her coat. 

It was a transparent arm with a dim white glow to it. It was a giant arm larger than the girl’s slender body. That arm, stretching from her abdomen as if thrusting right through it, lashed out like a living snake and impaled the vampire’s Beast Vassal. 

“—Shakti?! The hell?!” The vampire exclaimed at the unbelievable display. 

The flaming Beast Vassal, its torso pierced, howled as if in anguish. Yet the transparent arm’s attack did not relent. It mowed down the flaming Beast Vassal over and over, as if consuming it. 

“What the hell have you done…?!” 

Unable to maintain its physical form, the flaming Beast Vassal dissipated; the vampire man collapsed on the spot. Unable to move from the vast loss of magical energy, the man’s lips quivered from terror. 

The man in the vestment casually explained. 

“A Beast Vassal can be defeated by striking it with a stronger Beast Vassal. ’Tis a simple thing.” 

“No way… That’s a Beast Vassal…?!” 

The vampire exclaimed as he gazed at the giant arm that stretched from the girl’s body. 

The man in the vestment coldly looked down at both fallen demons. 

“Though you are not worth killing, you would perish along with this island soon enough. You can at least fill Rhododactylos’s belly. Astarte, grant them mercy,” he told the expressionless indigo-haired girl. 

Realizing the meaning of those words, the vampire shrieked. 

“S-stop…! Don’t…!” 

The girl looked at the man with her pale blue eyes. A great melancholy dwelled in her eyes; her lips trembled. 

“—Accept.” 

The giant arm, glowing faintly white, wriggled like a malicious beast. 

The man’s screams reverberated.