Strike the Blood - Volume 19 - Chapter 1.2

2

Like the Island Guard, the coast guard was an agency external to the Gigafloat Management Corporation, an autonomous paramilitary organization assigned to preserving order and safety in Itogami Island’s maritime zone.

The scope of its mission was broad, including search and rescue, managing maritime traffic, apprehending smugglers and foreign infiltrators, and on top of that, magically surveying the ocean and even the capture or elimination of marine demon beasts. It was a crucial organization supporting the safety of Itogami Island, a city atop the ocean, from the shadows.

However, in contrast to the importance of its mission, one could not call its budget extravagant. In particular, the coast guard’s air base was a little sub-float tethered to Itogami Island’s shore, and the base’s “facilities” amounted to one narrow runway. The actual station was a two-story prefab wooden cabin, with even lampposts scarce in the surrounding area.

“This is my first time here, but it’s something, huh?” Asagi said as she disembarked the runway.

“That’s because this is a staging area for search and rescue teams and patrol planes.” Yaze strained a smile as he walked down the ramp and surveyed the area. “Well, thanks to that, we were able to land even in this situation… ’Cause there ain’t anything around these parts.”

In spite of Kojou and the others’ tension prior to the landing, the Aldegian private jet arrived at Itogami Island without problems. The pilot really had been the best of the best. The narrowness and shabbiness of the runway and landing manually without air traffic control hadn’t posed any trouble whatsoever.

All that said, seeing a cutting-edge, high-class private jet parked at a station that looked practically abandoned was a disquieting scene in itself. The fact they were currently in an emergency situation had really been driven home.

The young lieutenant acting as a guide bowed politely. “We will be immediately departing for the Japanese mainland. We have a responsibility to convey this situation to our home nation.”

From beside her, Nagisa grinned as she stood straight with perfect politeness. “Thank you for all the help. Please give our best regards to Miss La Folia.”

“As you wish.” The officer smiled, enchanted with Nagisa. Or perhaps the smile was relief that she’d somehow managed to carry out her mission.

When partings were finished, Kojou shot a worried glance toward Nagisa. It hadn’t even been thirty minutes since she’d gone unconscious from her spiritual energy going berserk. “Nagisa, are you feeling okay already?”

However, all Nagisa gave him was a surprised blink of her eyes. It seemed that all memory of her time in Spirit Sight had dropped away from her mind.

“What are you talking about? If you wanna worry about someone, I think you should worry about Yukina.”

“Ahh… Guess you’re right.” Kojou appeared conflicted as he agreed.

Certainly, any observer would say Yukina was far more worn down at the present juncture. Finally liberated from her fear and panic from when they landed, she was leaning against Kanon in a half-dazed state.

Asagi curled her lips as she checked the signal strength on the screen of her smartphone. “…It’s no use. Seems like the cell phone towers are down, too.”

“The street lighting feels pretty dim across the board.” Yaze narrowed his eyes with a pained expression.

It was past 3:00 AM, less than three hours until daybreak. However, many of the residents were nocturnal demons, so Itogami Island was normally rather bright even at that hour, particularly in the case of Island West—Itogami Island’s downtown—which evoked an image of brightly shining LED billboards and neon signs.

On this night, though, the entire island had gone quiet. That bright image seemed like a fairy tale. There was light from neither apartment buildings nor even vehicle headlights. The place was deserted, practically a ghost town.

“So what should we be doing from here?” Kojou asked as he came down from the airplane with everyone’s luggage. He hadn’t had a proper overseas trip since elementary school, so he’d thoroughly forgotten the fine details of the formalities upon returning.

Asagi raised both hands up, at a loss. “Normally we’d be going through customs, but where do we even go for that in this case? I’d ask someone working here at the air base among other things, but…”

She was the most accustomed to travel among them, but even she had no experience with this kind of situation.

Yaze grimaced a bit with a suspicious air. “Come to think of it, why isn’t anyone here to meet us?”

Here they were with a completely out-of-place high-end private jet helping itself onto their base with a bunch of high schoolers getting off it. The normal reaction would surely be for armed guards kept on standby to rush out and surround Kojou and the others.

However, the coast guard station remained silent without a single person coming into view. There probably wasn’t anyone left at the station.

Perhaps personnel had been ordered to disperse, or perhaps they’d been wiped out—either way, there was no mistaking that the situation was extremely dangerous.

“No point sticking around in the middle of a runway, is there?” Yaze said.

“I suppose not. Maybe we can figure out something if we go to that building,” Asagi agreed. She walked toward the weathered, prefabricated cabin.

She had barely taken a few steps when she warily came to a stop. She’d noticed that there were human silhouettes leisurely approaching them from the other side of the base, about ten people in all.

They all seemed to be in their twenties. Every last one wore shredded jeans and leather jackets and the like, biker chic from an age long past, and they wore sunglasses despite it being the middle of the night. They were really lacking in taste.

Nagisa noticed something sooner than the rest. “Kojou…!” Hiding behind her brother in fright, her shoulders trembled with worry.

“Are they from the coast guard? That’s pretty far-out as uniforms go…,” Yaze said, only half-serious.

“Like hell they are!” Asagi exclaimed, playing his joke straight.

However, both no doubt understood the gravity of the situation. The group’s fashion sense wasn’t the problem.

“Senpai, these are…”

Yukina was clutching her guitar case to her as she walked to Kojou’s side. Somehow, she’d apparently recovered from her earlier despondent state.

“Demons, yeah.”

Kojou nodded a bit. Because he lacked Yukina’s training, Kojou was less sensitive to demonic energy than others, but even he could tell that these weren’t normal human beings.

The man in the middle of the group coming off like its leader seemed particularly dangerous.

He was a full head taller than Kojou, probably close to two meters tall. However, what stood out far more was his breadth. He must have weighed over two hundred kilograms with room to spare. His physique wasn’t buff like a sumo wrestler, either. He came off like an obese slob. His long, heavy metal rocker–style hair gave off an even more unsightly impression.

“What the heck? All brats, ain’tcha? You on a school trip or somethin’?” The long-haired big man gazed at Kojou and the others with a taunting laugh. “Well, fine. Welcome to the Ugaki Domain, brats.”

“Ugaki…Domain?” Yaze repeated.

“The heck is that?” Asagi said in a guarded tone.

The term was unfamiliar to both of them. They had no clue how to respond to this “welcome.”

An awkward silence passed between them. The big man hastily began to explain in an effort to smooth things along.

“Right. Figures ya don’t know if you’re overseas. A domain is an autonomous region. So to put it bluntly, this place belongs to me, Mark Ugaki.”

“Mark… Okay…,” Kojou said.

That name sure doesn’t suit him, thought Kojou as he politely went along with it. This place belonged to the long-haired big guy.

Asagi boldly raised a hand. Having lived in a Demon Sanctuary for many years, her personality wasn’t prone to flinching even when dealing with demons. “I’m not really sure what you’re saying, but the gist is something like a delinquent turf war?”

Apparently, Asagi’s attitude and question was rubbing them the wrong way. The minions around Ugaki were stirred up, going red-faced in unison.

“What’d you say?!”

“Who’s a delinquent?! Don’t look down on Ugaki, you bitch!!”

Asagi yelled back in a voice just as loud as the minions, “A-anyone would call you delinquents with one look at you from both your clothes and your attitude!”

Ugaki gave off a hearty laugh with an attitude that was oddly like a big shot. “Ha-ha. Well, fine. We can sweat the details later. Lemme get to the important part. Become my subjects. All of ya.”

“…Subjects?” Kojou muttered. He glanced at his friends.

Based on appearance alone, they’d expected Ugaki to request money and, failing that, to flirt. However, it was unexpected and downright creepy for their objective to be neither money nor women.

“The gist is to become members of my domain,” Ugaki explained. “If you become my subjects, I’ll protect ya from the other candidates. When this Electoral War ends and I become the ruler, it’ll be easy livin’ fer ya.”

The details remained unclear.

“…You’re sure this really isn’t a delinquent turf war?” Nagisa whispered to Asagi.

“So what, this is to become the boss of all the delinquents on Itogami Island…?” she replied quietly.

Overhearing this, the minions grunted at them, stirred up once more. Thanks to that, the conversation wasn’t moving forward at all. What they did manage to understand, if barely, was that Ugaki wanted Kojou and company to become his subjects. They’d come to that abandoned base to recruit him and the others to be part of their citizenry.

“Well, if ya don’t wanna become my subjects, that’s fine by me. That means becomin’ my enemy, though. I don’t show mercy—even against brats.”

Ugaki brazenly bared his teeth. His already large body swelled to over twice its previous size. His skin turned grayish with a blue-green sheen and seemed to harden into some kind of armor. His long, depressing-looking hair also turned gray. It resembled a beast person’s divine bestialization phenomenon, but he came off more like a wicked giant than a beast.

Kojou’s expression did not change even after seeing this transformation. “What’s with this guy?”

Yukina’s face also remained calm as she gazed at the raging Ugaki. “A giant who can transform… A troll, I would think. They are considered rare across the globe. It is said that they have resilient bodies and high regenerative abilities.”

“…That’s it?”

“Er, well, yes.”

Perhaps irritated by Kojou’s and Yukina’s less than impressed reactions, Ugaki suddenly punched the ground right before him. “What are you two yammerin’ about? Look at my peerless, herculean strength, dammit—!”

The runway’s surface caved in as if some giant hammer had slammed into it. As Ugaki squatted, there was also a large hole spreading from under his feet, sending asphalt fragments flying all over the place.

Ugaki’s underlings thrust their fists into the air as they cheered in unison.

“Whoaaaaa!”

“That’s our Ugaki!”

“He’s totally invincible!”

“The Fourth Primogenitor’s got nothin’ on him!”

“Fwa-ha-ha-ha, ya see now?!”

Bathed in praise from his underlings, Ugaki pushed his chest out, soaking in their cheers.

However, the right hand with which he had punched the ground was oddly bent right around the wrist. Unlike civilian roads, which just had an asphalt surface on top of gravel and sand, aircraft runway asphalt ran more than two meters thick. In addition, the artificial isle construction materials underneath it were hardened to withstand the impact of landings. It was only natural to be hurt from punching that with your bare hand.

“Um, that was impressive…but doesn’t your hand hurt?” Kojou grimaced.

Ugaki’s bloodied middle and ring finger joints were bent in odd directions, sending a slight chill up Kojou’s spine just from the sight of them.

However, Ugaki seemed to have been waiting for him to ask that question, full of pride as he thrust that very hand toward Kojou.

“Hey you, don’t take me for a softy! It’s from here on out yer gonna learn the true terror of Ugaki the Great!”

Ugaki’s entire body was enveloped with the glow of demonic energy.

The glow was coming from the demon registration bracelet Ugaki wore on his right wrist. This was both the identification that proved he was a demon officially registered as a citizen of Itogami City and a demon monitoring device that transmitted the wearer’s physical state, location data, and more for tracking purposes.

The bracelet activated small-scale magic that sent Ugaki’s body into overdrive. Ugaki’s injured wrist mended with incredible force, displaying a speed of healing that put a vampire’s regenerative ability to shame.

“What’s with this magic…?!” Asagi’s voice quivered.

A demon registration bracelet had simple magical circuits on the inside, but it wasn’t the first time she’d seen them used contrary to their proper purpose. Previously, they’d been hacked from the outside to force the wearer’s demonic energy into a berserk state, but the bracelets had been further improved since to close that security loophole. She would know—it was Asagi herself who had carried out the work.

At present, interfering with the demon registration bracelets was only possible via the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s City Management System at Keystone Gate. That was why Asagi was shaken. That meant someone had hijacked Keystone Gate.

“Ritual magic,” Yukina concluded, analyzing the nature of Ugaki’s spell from the flow of his demonic energy. “His comrades’ demonic power is being sent to him with spell symbols.”

It wasn’t just Ugaki surrounded by the glow of demonic energy. Little magic circles hovered on the skin of the henchmen surrounding Ugaki, with lines of demonic energy linking them to Ugaki’s demon registration bracelet. He was using the demonic energy thus absorbed to heighten his own healing ability.

“So that’s why he’s gathering followers,” Yaze said with a smidgen of admiration. “In other words, the more subjects he gathers up, the greater the demonic energy he can absorb.”

In contrast to Ugaki’s oddly high level of vigor, the followers whose demonic energy he was absorbing were being exhausted at an incredible pace. However many subjects he’d gathered, it wasn’t enough. If he had a sufficient number of subjects, the demonic energy he could use would be nigh inexhaustible. It might even be on par with a vampire primogenitor.

“Okay… I get the gist of the situation.” Kojou shook his head with annoyance.

He didn’t know for what purpose someone had given Ugaki such a spell, but he understood Ugaki’s objective and his motivation for action. He was also keenly aware that he did not have the luxury of sympathy.

In short, this man was drunk on the great power he’d obtained. He was an idiot living for the thrill of the moment. He didn’t even notice that his underlings were being whittled down as they paid the price for his use of their power.

“Himeragi, please.”

“Yes.”

Nodding at Kojou’s words, Yukina slowly stepped forward. She opened the lid of the guitar case she carried, drawing the sheathed Snowdrift Wolf from within. With a small, grating sound, its various parts deployed, transforming into a full-length spear—a fully metallic, silver-colored spear.

“Hey, hey, are you planning to take on Ugaki the Great with that toothpick?” He laughed and raised his middle finger.

With a stout body and a fast healing ability, from Ugaki’s point of view, a spear or two couldn’t have felt threatening in the slightest, all the more so if the wielder was a little girl.

“…Huh?!”

The instant Yukina’s spear flashed out, Ugaki’s eyes went round, stiffening from shock.

This was because the glow of demonic energy enveloping his surroundings had vanished without any warning. He’d been cut from the demonic energy lines stretching from his underlings, and the magic symbols marking them as subjects had disappeared, too. This meant that no matter how much they hurt Ugaki, his henchmen wouldn’t be the ones bearing the brunt anymore.

“Sorry, Ugaki. I’m tired from a long trip. Sucks to be you, but I’m gonna cut this short.” Kojou ferociously curled up the corners of his lips. Their surroundings were enveloped in crimson mist that transformed into malevolent demonic energy: a mass of energy so dense that it possessed its own sentience.

“H-hold on a sec… What’s with this ridiculous pressure…?! What the hell are you…?!” Ugaki shrieked, only for the sudden whipping of a vortex to erase his words.

“C’mon over, Al-Nasl Minium!”

Rising amid those rampaging winds was a huge bicorn, flickering like a mirage. This was a Beast Vassal, a summoned beast from another world serving a vampire from within his own blood.

The bicorn bellowed, and its roar mowed Ugaki down along with his minions, digging a massive hole into the runway. Ugaki’s punch didn’t hold a candle to the yawning crater, easily tens of meters in radius.

“Well, I guess that’s that.”

Kojou languidly murmured as he released the Beast Vassal from the summons. A few lingering ragged gusts were all that remained as the scarlet bicorn vanished.

Ugaki rolled at the edge of the crater gouged out by the Beast Vassal, eyes spinning in terror. Witnessing the sight, his underlings lost their senses and scattered, running for the proverbial hills.

“So what is this ‘Electoral War’ thingy anyway…?” Kojou asked as he stared down at the still-prone Ugaki. Of course, the unconscious giant didn’t reply.

Nagisa let out a shrill cry. “Kojou! Look!”

She was looking in the direction of a canal cutting right through the center of the island.

As a result of the Beast Vassal’s indiscriminately raging winds, the nighttime mist shrouding the runway’s environs had been blown away. Thanks to that, they were able to get a clear look at the state of the island.

Aside from the minimal level of lighting, it looked virtually unchanged from when Kojou and company had departed. It was the familiar skyline of the artificial isle…except for one thing, obvious to everyone’s eyes.

They were looking at the building in the center of the island. There were cracks running across a huge building shaped like an inverted pyramid that stood at the center of the island. It looked like the aftermath of someone driving a gargantuan sword into it.

The sight felt akin to a declaration of war against Itogami Island itself.

“Someone…wrecked…Keystone Gate…?”

With a parched voice, Kojou somehow managed to wring out those words.

The disaster that had befallen Itogami Island had finally hit them in the face.