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Strike the Blood - Volume 20 - Chapter 2.3




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3

Their meals finished, Kojou and the others ended up staying at Sorcery Lab Number Six for the night.

They still hadn’t pinpointed The Blood and the Order of the End’s whereabouts as of the night before, and with the primogenitors’ armed forces occupying the other regions, they couldn’t do anything that would draw attention to them. Since Kojou carelessly moving about would only spell more trouble, they’d concluded there was no good option save watching how the situation developed.

There was one more reason they’d stayed put—the fact that Kojou wasn’t altogether physically fit yet.

Since the lab had been designed to serve as a prison for sorcerous criminals, they couldn’t hope for the comforts of a five-star hotel. Their bedrooms were like cells, furnished only with a bed, and luxuriant theater rooms and gym rooms were nowhere to be found. The only noteworthy thing it did have was an excessively spacious shower room.

“Shit…it’s no good…!”

It was the dead of night. As cold water sprinkled over Kojou, he kept bumping his head against the wall of the shower.

The sense of racking hunger he’d felt upon awakening had only grown fiercer with time.

It wasn’t an issue of insufficient food. He’d been offered so much sukiyaki that he hadn’t been able to eat it all, and he’d drank enough of the black tea Shizuri had insisted on pouring him to get sick of it.

Despite that, Kojou’s hunger and thirst hadn’t been sated in the slightest.

He continued pouring water onto his head in an effort to soothe his nerves even a little when…

“Akatsuki, are you there?”

From outside the shower room, he heard a girl’s gentle voice.

Kojou turned off the shower and wrapped a bath towel around his hips.

Standing outside the frosted glass door was Kanon, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. Kojou tensed up for no particular reason; he wasn’t used to seeing her in such a plain outfit.

“Er…Kanase? Why are you here at a time like this?”

“I brought you a change of clothes, Akatsuki.”

As he opened the door halfway and poked out his head, Kanon grinned and told him that. She was holding a fresh bundle of menswear against her chest.

“A new outfit?”

“Yes. Abbess provided them to me.”

“Alchemy, huh…? What were the original materials?”

Kojou raised an eyebrow as he posed the question. Kanon was referring to Nina Adelard, the self-proclaimed Great Alchemist of Yore. After a series of twists and turns, Nina had become the size of a doll not even thirty centimeters tall, but her prowess as an alchemist remained intact, so she could make something as simple as clothes with ease even while tiny. She did, however, require ingredients to use as “fuel.”

“She used Chinese cabbage and fried tofu for the western-style clothes.”

Kanon replied in a tone of voice lacking the slightest hesitation. Kojou’s eyes popped wide open.

“Those are sukiyaki ingredients, aren’t they?! Wow, alchemy’s amazin’!”

“I am kidding. She actually used spare white sheets and prison uniforms.”

“You were kidding?! Er…prison clothes…prison clothes, huh… Well, that’s fine…”

Kojou made a weak, pained smile at the surprise twist. Either way, a new outfit was something he was grateful for. Now that she’s done, Kanon’ll probably head off, thought Kojou, as he thanked her and tried to return to the shower room.

Kanon, however, set the clothes down on the changing room bench and slipped past the half-open glass door.

“Do you mind if I come in?”

“Eh? Come in… You do know this is a shower room, right?”

He replied to her sudden request obtusely.

The silver-haired girl seemed to accept something or other as she blinked heavily.

“Would it be better if I took off my clothes as well?”

“W-wait a sec! How did it turn into that?!”

As she put her hands to the hem of her T-shirt out of the blue, he hastily tried to stop her. However, he hesitated to approach her when he recalled that he was only wearing a towel himself.

Kanon, on the other hand, glanced back at Kojou with a thoroughly serious look.

“My clothes will get soaked if I don’t take them off.”

“Never mind that—why did this turn into us getting into the shower together?!”

Thrown for a loop, he tried to shoo her away. But Kanon just stripped without hesitation and moved closer to him.

“Kanase…why…?!”

Kojou murmured this in a daze, captivated at the sight of her so exposed.

Obviously, Kanon must have had some scruples about being fully nude, because she still had on her underwear. But the pale flesh she’d bared was plenty to tempt him.

Her lips were delicate, fairylike. She had slender shoulders and a slight swell to her chest. The pure-looking underwear she wore only made the effect more sensuous still.

“I hear voices.”

Kojou went rigid, and Kanon quietly walked close to him, speaking with an earnest expression.

“…Voices?” he asked, his own raspy. Kanon’s blue eyes beheld Kojou within them.

 

 

 

 

“The voices of the beasts. The beasts inside you.”

She gently touched her ear to his damp chest. He could feel her warmth through the skin she pressed to his own. The sweet scent of her silver hair pricked at his nostrils.

Suddenly, a ferocious sensation raced up Kojou’s spine. Pleasure accompanied by powerful destructive impulses dyed his consciousness white.

“Don’t! Kanase, get back!”

Grabbing hold of her shoulders, he tried to force her off him.

But Kanon moved her hands around Kojou’s back, firmly embracing him with a strength and power he never saw coming.

“It’s all right… It’s all right; you don’t need to be afraid.”

“K-Kanase…?”

“I want to assist you, Akatsuki. I can’t fight by your side like Yukina and Shizuri, so if I can do at least this much…”

She bared her slender neck right before his eyes, like a holy maiden offering her own body up as a sacrifice. He was keenly aware of the blue blood vessels visible through her delicate skin.

“Kanase…!”

A ferocious hunger and thirst wrecked Kojou’s sense of reason as he moved his hands around Kanon’s back.

The instant that his lips touched against her nape—

Click, went the changing room door as it opened. He sensed someone coming in.

“?!”

Kanon froze as if she’d been struck by electricity. Kojou, on the other hand, numbed as he stopped moving.

Cold sweat gushed from his back, leaving him thoroughly drenched.

After all, the only men in the facility they were spending the night with were him and Kensei Kanase. And given that Kojou was in the shower room, it was unthinkable anyone other than Kensei would enter the changing room.

Just how would the former Court Sorcerous Engineer react when he saw Kojou and his daughter disrobed and embracing each other? Kojou went pale with fear just picturing it in his mind.

But what he heard from the changing room was the voice of an individual he’d expected even less.

“Ehi… Kojou? Are you there?”

“C-Cas?”

Though liberated from his initial fears, Kojou was struck by fresh confusion.

Shizuri Kasugaya, self-proclaimed Paladin of Gisella, was louder about infringements of moral standards than most. To Kojou, a girl like her entering a men’s shower room in the dead of night was no small matter. He would’ve liked to keep their breath down so that she might move on, but given the tension of the situation, that possibility was distinctly unrealistic.

“Sorry, but could you hide in here for a little while?”

Kojou requested with a hushed voice. Yes, said Kanon’s nod. She was cooperative by default.

Pushing her to the least conspicuous corner of the shower, he turned toward the changing room.

Then he opened the glass entrance before Shizuri could come in.

She was glancing over her shoulder when she noticed him.

“Kojou. If you are there, I would appreciate a prompt repl— Why are you undressed?!”

Her eyes bulged wide as she instantly placed her hand on the hilt of her long sword.

Kojou stroked his drenched forelocks up with an air of annoyance.

“You’re the one who decided to come in here! I was in the middle of showering, y’know!”

“Sta zitto! Quiet! Other people will notice!”

“Don’t come in if you don’t wanna be noticed.”

He waved his hand dismissively, as if shooing away a stray dog that was in the way.

Fortunately, Shizuri hadn’t noticed Kanon’s doffed outfit. That being said, there was no guarantee his good luck would persist indefinitely. He had to get Shizuri to leave before that happened.

The next moment, however, she did the exact opposite of what he expected.

“…Wouldn’t you be inconvenienced if someone noticed?”

Dauntlessly, Shizuri approached Kojou as he stood there with nothing more than a towel wrapped around him.

“What do you mean?”

Cowed by the mysterious intensity she exuded, Kojou questioned her back in a trembling voice. He was worried that it was already no longer possible to cover up Kanon’s presence.

Shizuri stopped right in front of him, reaching her index finger out and gently pressing it to his lips.

“I am speaking of—vampiric urges.”

“!!”

His heart jumped. He tried to force himself to remain calm, but it was too late. The momentary expression that came over him changed Shizuri’s prediction into conviction. She shook her head with exasperation.

“I am your former watcher. Did you really think you could pull wool over my eyes? No matter how much you drink and eat, the thirst in your throat will not subside, yes?”

Speaking as if lecturing a young child, Shizuri took off her sword belt, placing the long sword with its scabbard onto the bench. Next, without fanfare, she began unfastening the buttons of her uniform, exposing the cleavage of her modest breasts and a floral-patterned bra.

“H…hey?!”

“The ‘Demon Sanctuary of Iroise’…my homeland…no longer exists.”

Cheeks burning red, Shizuri spoke in a strong tone of voice. She was equally embarrassed. Even so, Shizuri’s hands did not stop removing her clothes. She looked straight up at Kojou with a sober, serious gaze.

“No matter how much I may wish to, I cannot regain Iroise. However, Itogami Island is different. There’s still time to return to those peaceful days. Your power is necessary for this purpose.”

Stripping off her skirt, Shizuri reached her hands out to embrace Kojou. But instead, he backed off as far as the wall, as though rebuffing her.

“Cas, you can’t…!”

“A-are you dissatisfied with me?! Are you saying that since you engaged in such acts once prior, you have no further use for my body…?!”

Her features stiffened as her voice trembled with hurt. Shizuri’s eyes moistened even as he watched.

Kojou swiftly and heavily shook his head.

“Not that, idiot. It’s not that at all!”

“I-idiot?! Did you just call me an idiot?”

“Right now, my thirst ain’t no ordinary vampiric urges. I can’t control myself anymore.”

Reaching a hand out to push her away, he averted his gaze from her disrobed body.

“You can’t control yourself…?”

She blinked several times. He exhaled painfully, raggedly.

“It’s not…gonna end with taking just a little blood from a spirit medium. I’ll keep on consuming power without limit until this thirst is sated. No way can I go ahead and drink from you if I can’t even guarantee your life!”

“Then that’s all the more reason you should pick me!”

Shouting with irritation, Shizuri forced Kojou to press his hands against her breasts…beneath her bra, at that. The raw sensation conveyed through his palm brought his mind to a screeching halt.

“Wha…?”


“I am an ogre. If the body of other girls can’t satisfy you, I shall please you with mine.”

“N-no…that’s…”

Kojou opened and shut his mouth like a fish flopping around on land. With all reason seared away, he could no longer resist Shizuri’s temptations. She gave her jaw a little lift, moving her refined face close to his as if going in for a kiss.

Just then, there came a knock, knock from someone at the changing room door.

Coming back to their senses with a gasp, Kojou and Shizuri looked at each other’s faces, flustered and panicked.

“—Akatsuki-senpai. May I come in?”

The voice he heard across the changing room door belonged to Yukina. As Kojou’s watcher, she was no doubt well aware he was in the shower. Perhaps she’d come to check on him because he’d been taking an unusually long time. It would be impossible to get through this by pretending he was not there. On top of that, the changing room entrance was set up so that you couldn’t lock it from the inside.

“Why is Yukina Himeragi here?!”

At her wits’ end, Shizuri pressed close against Kojou with a reproachful look. He fiercely shook his head.

“Hell if I know…! Just hide already!”

“Hide where?!”

She looked around the area before locking her gaze onto a corner of the changing room. Standing there was a locker for storing cleaning supplies.

“Senpai, I am coming in.”

The tone of Yukina’s voice grew stronger. Perhaps she thought the noise was suspicious.

“W-wait, Himeragi!”

Kojou hastily pressed upon the inner side of the door to prevent it from opening. Yukina, however, forced the door open with an unexpected exhibition of strength.

“What are you so nervous abo—?! If you weren’t dressed yet, you should have said something…!”

“That’s why I told you to wait, sheesh.”

Confirming that Shizuri had finished hiding in the locker by a hairbreadth, Kojou let out a sigh of relief. If he could use being in the middle of showering as an excuse, he could send Yukina away to resolve the situation immediately.

However, a grave look came over Yukina as she looked up at his visage. The earnestness of her gaze bewildered him.

“Senpai, what’s with your hair…?”

“Hair?”

Touching his still-damp locks, Kojou turned his eyes toward a mirror on the wall.

Superstition would have it that mirrors did not reflect vampires, but this applied only to a particular subset of the furniture. At least he’d never had any trouble using them.

In that large, horizontal mirror was a very familiar sight.

He saw a slender, muscular physique with only a bath towel wrapped around his hips. He saw a very plain face with a languid look in the eyes.

But for some reason, on that day alone, he felt as though he gave off an impression so vivid he was almost like another person entirely.

That was undoubtedly due to the gorgeous blond locks, which changed color depending on the angle you viewed it from.

Yes, at some point, Kojou’s hair had changed to a spectacular shade of blond.

“What the heeeeeck?!”

He shrieked at the mirror hanging in front of him. His hair was completely blond, without a hint of bleach or die, as though it had regrown entirely. He came off very much like a punk from out in the sticks with frighteningly poor taste, although perhaps that was an issue with his face to begin with.

“You didn’t do this yourself, senpai?”

Yukina asked this as she touched Kojou’s hair.

“There’s no way I could pull off something this fancy!!”

He gave a corner-cutting retort. The Third Primogenitor, Giada Kukulkin, could alter her appearance and even her gender at will, but he had no such ability, of course.

Kojou couldn’t tell when he’d gone blond—but the vampiric urges that kept assaulting him were probably the root cause.

Perhaps Kanon and Shizuri had noticed the change in him, but neither girl had broached the subject. Both of them had hair that was plenty spectacular in color to begin with, so neither probably had much reason to go out of their way and make a fuss about it.

“Aw man,” muttered Kojou, messing around with his bangs.

“I’m pretty sure Natsuki will say something if she sees me like this. What are the hair regulations for our school again?”

“That’s the first thing you’re worried about…?”

Yukina sighed, exasperated. Then, shaking her head as she composed herself, she looked up at Kojou with her usual overly serious expression.

“Besides, isn’t there a more pressing issue at hand right now?”

“Issue?”

“—Vampiric. Urges.”

“Ah, er…well…”

Feeling a sense of déjà vu at his conversation with her, Kojou vaguely hedged his answer.

His turmoil over the change in the color of his hair did not mean he’d been freed from his vampiric urges that had been hounding him up until moments before. If anything, he was nearly at his limits after enduring so much teasing.

On top of that, since Yukina had just showered herself, the heated glow of her flesh and her freshly washed hair were oddly sensuous. She remained unaware of this as she drew close to him.

“I am your watcher, senpai. Did you really think you could deceive my eyes? You’ve been suffering from vampiric urges ever since the rampage back at the station, haven’t you?”

“No…you’re wrong, Himeragi… That’s…”

Kojou covered his mouth, trying to conceal the throbbing of his canine teeth. Yukina’s gaze remained full of earnestness and obligation as she gently loosened the necktie of her uniform.

“Senpai. If my blood will suffice…”

“…I’m trying to tell you, that’s no good. I won’t drink your blood, Himeragi.”

Averting his eyes from her neck, he attempted to thrust her away.

Yukina grasped Kojou’s hand, her eyes wavering with visible concern.

“…What’s the meaning of this? Is it because there’s someone else you…l… You…would rather drink from…?”

“No, I’m telling you, it’s not like that at all…”

What kind of logic is that? thought Kojou, twisting his lips.

“If I drank your blood right now, my brakes wouldn’t work anymore, so I’d end up going all the way…”

“A-all the…way…”

She made an audible gulp. For just an instant, she lowered her eyes in fear, touching the ring on her left hand. Then she steeled her resolve as she lifted her face once more.

“Please…take responsibility, okay?”

“What…?!”

As Yukina embraced him and leaned her body into his, her cheeks reddened, and he felt a sensation akin to dizziness. With his final shreds of reason beaten down, he slid his hands around her back just as his urges commanded.

The next moment, he heard an adorable achoo from the shower room, which halted his movements. It was Kanon sneezing, left there in her underwear.

“Achoo…?”

Yukina’s expression suddenly went rigid as she slowly turned her attention toward the glass door of the shower.

“Is someone in there?”

“N-nobody’s there. No way anyone would be, right?”

Kojou responded to her strangely glacial voice with a hasty shake of his head.

As he barred the way with both arms spread out, Yukina calmly pushed him aside. For some reason, he sensed that the bloodlust radiating from her entire body was directed squarely at him.

“Then there’s nothing wrong with me entering, is there?”

“No, no, that’s bad. You can’t do something as, uh, impure as goin’ into a shower room after a guy just used it.”

“Please step aside!”

Kojou was earnestly trying to persuade her when she moved his hand aside with a snap. The blow barely brushed him, but the ferocious pain it transmitted to his wrist made him let out a fervent yelp.

“Wait! It might be a passing household spirit or something!”

“All the more reason a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency cannot overlook this!”

“Whoa?!”

“Augh!!”

When Yukina thrust Kojou aside, he lost his balance and crashed into the locker behind him.

It was an old locker of steel construction for storing cleaning supplies. The force of his impact made the door open, sending mops, scourers, and the half-naked girl within tumbling out. Kojou also toppled over and ended up tangled with her on the floor.

“Owww…”

“What is the meaning of this, Kojou…? Are you trying to crush me…?”

Shizuri, who was pinned beneath him, shoved his shoulders and glared at him resentfully.

Yukina stared down dumbfounded at them jumbled up.

“M-Miss Kasugaya…? What were you doing…in a place like…?”

“Y-you’re wrong, Himeragi. Don’t misunderstand.”

“Th-that’s right, Yukina Himeragi. I wasn’t trying to jump ahead of you or anything…!”

Kojou and Shizuri remained mutually entwined as they blurted out excuses.

The next moment, an achoo came from the shower room once again.

Without another word, Yukina approached the glass door, giving Kojou no time to stop her as she slid it open.

Kanon, who’d been hiding in there, poked out her head to look at Yukina and Shizuri with a strained expression.

“K-Kano?”

“Ah—…”

“Do whatever you want already,” went Kojou as he flopped onto the floor. Yukina stood in a daze. Even Shizuri was speechless.

“I am sorry, Akatsuki. You told me to hide, but…”

Kanon projected a pitiful, dejected air. Perhaps she felt guilty about slipping up and sneezing. Of course, this wasn’t a situation that she could reasonably be blamed for.

“Wh-wh-what is the meaning of this, Kojou?! What’s she doing in the shower room…?!”

Thoroughly worked up, Shizuri straddled Kojou as she interrogated him.

Yukina glared at Shizuri as she did.

“Please don’t change the subject! Miss Kasugaya, what were you doing hiding in the locker?!”

“I-if the issue is a nighttime tryst, aren’t you just as guilty?!”

“N-nighttime tryst…?!”

Accused of misplaced anger, Yukina pressed a hand over her exposed cleavage as she yelped.

“Gimme a break…”

Kojou limply murmured in a deflated tone as Shizuri continued trying to wring his neck.

That instant, Kojou’s heart leaped with a hard thump. He let out an agonized scream as dizziness and throbbing overwhelmed him, as though his blood were flowing backward through his entire body. This time, his long-smoldering vampiric urges had surged beyond critical mass.

“Gr…ah…!”

“Akatsuki?!”

Kanon, the first to realize something was wrong with Kojou, went pale as she raced over.

“Ko…Kojou?”

“Senpai?!”

Shizuri and Yukina reacted virtually simultaneously. When the girls tried to sit him up, he violently thrust them aside, desperately cautioning them with a raspy voice.

“It’s no good; run for it…!”

Yukina embraced him powerfully. The soft sensation pressing against his right cheek made him stop breathing for a moment.

It was Shizuri who next hugged Kojou from his left.

He felt their body heat, the beating of their hearts, from his left and right.

“It’s all right. I’ll always be with you.”

Finally, as though addressing a tiny child, someone’s gentle voice gently tickled Kojou’s eardrums.

Kanon touched him from behind. He was in her warm embrace as his mind sank into a blank darkness.

Then sweet, alluring droplets filled his mouth.



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