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Strike the Blood - Volume 16 - Chapter Ep




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OUTRO 

Shizuri Kasugaya Castiella was in a hospital waiting room, rooted to the spot. 

There was a vending machine right next to her. It had a large liquid crystal display with images of various kinds of drinks and logos from famous coffee chains. However, she did not know how to use the machine. Perhaps it was because this was a foreign land unfamiliar to Shizuri; or maybe the methods used to operate such machines had greatly changed during the six years she had been asleep. It could have been the vending machine simply wasn’t user-friendly. Yes, that’s got to be the case , thought Shizuri, glaring resentfully at the vending machine. 

Just then, someone’s voice addressed her. “Hello. Pleased to meet you. By any chance, are you having a hard time?” 

Shizuri warily turned around. 

Standing there with a warm, pleasant smile on her face was a small-statured girl dressed in pajamas. Her black eyes were large, and she had an adorable face. Her long hair was tied up short behind her head. 

“Y-yes… Perhaps you could teach me how to buy a drink from this machine…” 

Shizuri’s slightly hesitant reply brought a deep, sympathetic-looking nod from the girl. 

Due to being inside a hospital, Shizuri was not wearing her wimple. The girl had to have noticed the presence of her horns, but she showed no sign whatsoever of minding. 

“This vending machine is a tough one to understand, huh? First, you have to touch the sensor with your card. Do that and it’ll let you pick the product you want. After that, you pick whatever drink and size you want and press the confirm button at the end. R and L means “regular” and “large,” and you pick your toppings with this button over here.” 

“R-right…” 

The girl’s explanation was quick and wordy, but strangely, it was easy to understand. In contrast to her baby-face appearance, the girl must have a good head on her shoulders , thought Shizuri. 

Following the girl’s explanation, she operated the touch panel–style display, and the drink she desired popped out with ease, making her consternation up to a few moments prior seem like a mirage. She’d chosen hot royal milk tea. 

“Thank you. I am grateful for your kindness.” 

“No, no, you are very welcome.” The girl gave a pleasant, grinning smile as she too operated the vending machine. Her selection was a chocolate drink with a large helping of fresh cream. I should have chosen that one myself , thought Shizuri, secretly jealous. 

“I’m glad to have been of service. This one gave me a hard time at first, too.” 

“Are you also hospitalized…?” Replying without any deep thought, Shizuri immediately regretted her rather unrestrained question. 

However, the girl showed no sign of particularly minding. “That’s right,” she said with a display of easily recognized chagrin. “It’ll be almost a month any day now. It’s not like I have an illness. My spiritual energy was just super-exhausted. It’s because my older brother is so overprotective. I’m bored stiff thanks to him.” 

“I understand. This week I, too, have nothing but tests. As I have spent the last six years asleep, it cannot be helped, but I am quite fed up with it already,” Shizuri spontaneously said along similar lines. 

It had been the day before yesterday when the six thousand people of Onrai Island, herself included, had been freed. 

Normally, having such great numbers of refugees come pressing close all at once would have resulted in falling into a large panic, but Asagi Aiba’s prior arrangements had ensured there was no eye-catching ruckus to be had. Perhaps that was as much the Ark of the Sinful God and its vast horde of artificial isles surrounding them as anything else; there was plenty of land to spare. 

The evacuees were largely in good physical health, and their mental distress had not been particularly great. 

Shizuri was the only one who was ferociously depleted. This was why she was admitted to the hospital the same day and subjected to a diet of examinations like this. 

“Six years,” said the girl, echoing Shizuri’s words as she adopted a thousand-yard stare. “I see… One of my friends is a girl trapped in a deep sleep, too… There’s so much I want to talk with her about, so I’ve been waiting all this time for her to wake up, but…” 

Shizuri felt some kind of deep, impenetrable anguish and sadness from the girl’s murmur. Perhaps this girl has experienced even greater misfortune than I , Shizuri unwittingly felt. 

Despite that, the girl immediately had a cheerful smile, shaking off all hint of sadness. “But thank you. Thanks to you, I’m brimming with hope.” 

“It is nothing. Um, I was also saved by a precious friend, you see,” Shizuri admitted, feeling less like she was comforting the girl than excusing herself. 

“Wow, really? By what kind of friend?” 

The girl bit into the topic with greater vigor than anticipated. It seemed that she truly was bored from prolonged hospital life. 

Shizuri felt a little overwhelmed by the girl’s vigor, and the face of that precious friend arose in her thoughts. 

“If I were to describe him in one phrase, he is a most high-maintenance man. He is rude and ill-mannered, dense and violent, and if you take your eyes off him for even a moment, he will immediately get into trouble… That is why I must properly keep watch over him!” 

“O-oh…” 

For some reason, a conflicted look came over the girl as she made that frail utterance. 

There really are similar people in this world, huh , she muttered to herself in a reflective tone of voice. It seemed that the girl had someone close to her with a personality greatly resembling that man’s. She must go through considerable difficulties herself , thought Shizuri, feeling a sense of kinship, when… 

“But I bet you love him, right?” 

“Huh…?!” The girl’s sudden assertion made Shizuri clear her throat ferociously. “L-love…?! N-no… You are mistaken! That is utterly out of bounds, for me at least. Certainly I did let him touch me that one time, but that was because he was so adamant, and I…” 

Shizuri clutched her head as she squatted down. Her face glowed bright red. Shizuri’s maidenly reaction made the girl peer at her with deep interest. 

“Huh,” said the girl, tilting her head. She was staring at the tote bag placed at Shizuri’s feet. The bag contained brand-new clothes wrapped in vinyl. It’s inconvenient not to have a change of clothes , Asagi had astutely noted when bringing her those clothes. 

“Hey, this uniform—” 

“It is the uniform of the school I shall be transferring to next month. The formalities for enrollment and the entrance exam have yet to take place, though. Saikai Private Academy, I believe?” 

“Eh, really?! What year?” 

The girl leaned her body forward in apparent surprise. Shizuri recoiled as if mildly fearful. 

“Th…third year of middle school, as a matter of fact…” 

“Hee-hee-hee. I see. Guess that makes me your senior. Nagisa Akatsuki. Pleased to meet you.” Smiling happily as she spoke, the girl in pajamas offered her right hand. 

The girl’s words made Shizuri’s heart leap. “A-Akatsuki…?” 

Sweat dripped down Shizuri’s back. Shizuri did not know how common a family name Akatsuki was in that nation. However, it seemed far too ominous to dismiss as coincidence. 

When Shizuri thought about it more, the people who had brought her to that hospital, as well as arranged which school she would enroll in, were people connected to that boy. There was nothing strange at all about his little sister being there. 

The problem was her misunderstanding that Shizuri was in love with him. 

If she realized that the “him” in question was her own older brother— 

“Incidentally, this has been bugging me since earlier but…can I touch those horns a little?” 

Nagisa Akatsuki clasped both hands together as she continued gazing at Shizuri’s face. “Eh,” Shizuri muttered, freezing in place. 

“Please, just for a little bit. Just the tips, pretty please!” 

“…?!” 

Staring at Nagisa making that request in an adorable way, Shizuri became certain, beyond a shadow of any doubt, that they were siblings. 

This was Shizuri Kasugaya Castiella’s first step into a life of turmoil, trials, and tribulations in the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Island. 

 

“This is your afternoon schedule.” 

A particularly grave expression came over the Fourth Primogenitor, Kojou Akatsuki, in a government office building room in the very center of Itogami Island—Keystone Gate. A tablet device had been placed before his eyes. The tightly packed lines of the schedule were written in text small enough that it was illegible unless he squinted. 

“Six meetings with industry, three courtesy meetings with ambassadors of various nations, eight internal Gigafloat Management Corporation meetings. The documents requiring your signature are over here. The budget for next year must be finalized by the end of this month. Please memorize the important points of the documents over here…by tomorrow.” 

Asagi Aiba, dressed in a suit like a capable secretary, spoke in a businesslike tone. The outfit was essentially a type of cosplay so that government and corporate VIPs would not underestimate her when meeting her face to face, but it meshed with her extravagant looks mysteriously well. One might even say it suited her terrifyingly well. 

Kojou timidly raised a hand. “Um…Miss Asagi?” 

“What is it, Fourth Primogenitor?” Asagi’s reply was curt, full of composure. Kojou creaked under the pressure as he continued his words. 

“I’ve only just finished supplemental lessons during spring break, you know…” 

“Yes. What of it?” 

“What’s with this ultra-dense schedule?! There’s only a total of fifteen minutes for meals altogether, and three hours to sleep across two days—are you trying to kill me?!” 

“You’re the one who went off and disappeared for three days! How much trouble do you think I went through making this schedule?! On top of that, there are temporary entry passes and public assistance for six thousand people, and on top of that , construction of temporary housing and the like. I’ll be signing paperwork until tomorrow.” 

Slam . Asagi angrily snarled as she violently pounded the table, leaving Kojou at a loss for words. It accurately reflected how he was rocked back, yet had nothing he could say in reply. 


“H-Himeragi…” 

Kojou frailly sought aid from Yukina, standing at his side. 

Yukina Himeragi, her body clad in a black suit in the style of a bodyguard, coolly looked down at Kojou. 

“I have been ordered by the Lion King Agency to observe Senpai, and that is all.” 

She spoke in a dismissive tone, essentially declaring, I have no intention of interfering with the Fourth Primogenitor’s duties as liege of his Dominion. 

All that said, Yukina had been helping Kojou with everything under the sun until a few days before. Her aid had been a large factor in Kojou somehow making tangible progress with it. 

Put another way, Kojou couldn’t have managed whatsoever without Yukina’s aid. 

“Y-Yuuma…” 

“Sorry, but I have to get back to the Attack Mages. The investigation of the Witch of the Dusk is still ongoing, and I have to write up some reports, you see.” 

Wearing a suit of her own, Yuuma Tokoyogi replied bluntly. Her expression was as amicable as usual, but for some reason, the smile did not reach her eyes. 

“Hey, Kojou. About the extra expenses for those Iroise evacuees countermeasures…if we patent the data Asagi got by analyzing those nano- shikigami , we could cover the expenses using the patent fees—what’s with the atmosphere here?” 

Motoki Yaze, entering the room with a thick file under one arm, widened his eyes and raised his brows when he detected the perilous atmosphere hovering in the room. 

“Why’s everyone glaring at Kojou? Ah…because he drank Missy Kasugaya’s blood behind everyone’s back?” 

“Yaze, you idiot…!!” 

“!!” “……!” “………” 

Yaze spoke with a needlessly astute-sounding tone of voice. The already tense atmosphere within the room decisively creaked. However, Yaze seemed not to read that atmosphere at all, making a deliberately exaggerated shrug of his shoulders. 

“Well, the situation was what it was. Emergency and all that.” 

“Y-yeah, that’s right.” Kojou made slight nods over and over. 

In that situation, to save Shizuri and Onrai Island, drinking her blood had been an unavoidable emergency act of survival. 

The fact Yukina and the others hadn’t complained to Kojou’s face surely meant that they understood as much. Tell ’em more, why don’t ya? said Kojou’s expression. 

Leave it to me , nodded Yaze. 

“Besides, if a girl like that goes into a hot spring with him, even Kojou’s gonna find her irresistible. She might be a babe in the woods when it comes to sexy stuff, but Missy Kasugaya is still pretty easy on the eyes. Young, too.” 

“…Young?” 

Some follow-up , thought Kojou, unwittingly slumping against the table when the last of Yaze’s words made him lift up his face with a questioning look. 

“You didn’t know? Missy Kasugaya’s younger than us. According to the documents, she’s chronologically twenty this year, but her physical age is still fourteen. That’s ’cause the caster of Prison Barrier is basically sleeping in suspended animation.” 

“Oh…is that right, now…?” 

Kojou, gazing at the data on Shizuri that Yaze presented to him, abruptly broke into a little smile. 

Thanks to her haughty demeanor, he hadn’t pegged her as someone younger than he was, but now that he mentioned it, Shizuri did seem awfully young in contrast to her big-sister attitude. 

There was also her being shaken by Rui and Yuno hooking up and that her knowledge of affairs of romance was oddly childish. There was also her physique. 

“I see. It’s too early to give up, then.” 

Kojou made that off-handed murmur as he gazed at the breast-enhanced photo printout of Shizuri included with the documents. 

“Where are you looking as you say that, Senpai?” 

As Kojou did so, Yukina glared intently at him, tapering her lips in a visible pout. 

 

“Yukina Himeragi… Himeragi, huh…?” 

Gazing at the slowly rotating 3D image, she narrowed her eyes with amusement. 

Reproduced by CG, the appearance of the girl named Yukina Himeragi had, even by the most modest assessment, quite beautiful features. Though she was small of stature, her physique was quite refined, her limbs delicate. She had a comely face and eyes from which she could sense a glint of powerful will. Her fairly classic hairstyle and school uniform bore their own respective charm. 

“More than that, so young! Hey, Moegi, have you seen this image?” 

She called out to her older sister-in-law while lying, still dressed in a bathrobe, faceup on the lab room’s sofa. 

The girl, clothed in white with a vibrant face, stopped the hand with which she was tapping an electronic keyboard and she looked back. 

“I saw. You call her young, but she’s the same age as you are now, right?” 

“I mean, yeah, but it just feels weird. It feels strange that that girl went through a time like this, too.” 

She giggled, smiling as she rose to her feet. The glossy black hair she’d inherited from her mother danced with a flutter. Large, white canine teeth poked out from her shapely lips. 

“Take this seriously. You understand what your job is, yes?” 

The sister-in-law clothed in white made a weary-sounding sigh. Amid the little screen of her device, an AI avatar in the form of a teddy bear went “Keh-keh” and made a crooked smile. 

Placed directly in front of the sister-in-law was a metallic pedestal about five meters across. 

It seemed both like a parabola antenna for measuring something and an electromagnetic turret for firing something or other. Or perhaps it looked like a stage—the sort on which priestesses made holy dances to the music of the gods. 

“I get it, sheesh. You’re such a worrywart, Moegi,” the girl said as she operated the device. 

The screen switched, and new 3D images floated up one after another. One was an extravagant, beautiful girl improperly wearing her uniform in an adorable fashion. One was a boy with a flippant, smiling face with headphones dangling from his neck. One was an amiable-looking girl with her hair tied up. And one was a vampire with a languid expression hovering over him— 

“You can’t take any luggage with you, so you have until you leave to memorize all these faces.” 

“It’s all right. I’ve already memorized them.” 

It’s not like they’re people I don’t know , the girl murmured inside her own mind. 

Not that she could hear that voice, but her older sister let out a sigh once more. 

A small alarm sounded. It was an electronic noise from the device alerting them of the time that the experiment was scheduled to begin. 

“Are you ready?” 

“Anytime.” 

The girl shot a confident grin at her worried older sister. 

The lighting in the laboratory dimmed, which was less her sister being considerate than the electrical supply being diverted to the experimental device. The girl showed no particular hesitation as she smoothly stripped off the bathrobe. 

Her pale, naked body was highlighted amid the dim emergency lighting. 

The girl had not a single stitch of clothing on and carried only a golden spear. 

Still clutching that spear, the girl stepped onto the metallic platform. 

“—Reina.” 

“What, Moegi?” The girl smiled as she gazed at her sister-in-law. 

A synthetic voice narrating the countdown echoed within the laboratory room. Thick cables deployed in a spiral glowed dimly as vast magical energy coursed through them. 

Magical energy gathered from every corner of the artificial isle was converging upon the metal platform. 

This was a large-scale sorcerous device meant to support a temporal shift ritual. 

Just before the countdown finished, Reina saw a seemingly bashful Moegi waving to her. 

“Be careful. Take care of Papa Fourth Primogenitor and company for me.” 

The girl listened to the gentle voice of her older sister-in-law as her consciousness was swallowed up by light… 



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