Strike the Blood - Volume 21 - Chapter 1.1

CHAPTER ONE

DAWN OF BEGINNINGS

1

“Please do not…let go of me, senpai.”

Yukina Himeragi’s voice quivered as she looked at Kojou with moist eyes. Her slender fingers, pleasantly cool to the touch, were clenched tightly around his to ensure they would not come loose.

“Absolutely not, understand?! You absolutely must not let go! I will be angry if you do!”

“Er, we’re going down a staircase, so it’s the handrail you should be grabbing, not me.”

Kojou turned to Yukina in exasperation as she pleaded with him, an especially serious look in her eyes.

They were on the topmost floor of Keystone Gate—the giant structure located at the very center of Itogami Island.

An enormous crack ran along its outer wall. The ceiling was half wrecked. Pieces of the building’s interior had collapsed all over the place as if someone had clawed them right out. These were vestiges of the deadly battle with The Blood.

The stairs they’d used to go up had already been annihilated without a trace. The power had gone out, leaving the elevators immobile. It was a long way down from here to the floor below. On top of that, rubble was piled up everywhere. Now that he’d lost his vampire powers, Kojou definitely wouldn’t get away unscathed if he jumped down.

Fortunately, there was a fire escape outside the windows on the topmost floor.

This was a folded metal ramp—emergency stairs, in other words.

At first glance, the stairs seemed shaky and unreliable, but making them compact for storage had probably been priority number one.

On top of that, Keystone Gate had been constructed in a peculiar manner, like an inverted pyramid, which meant the fire escape seemed rather warped as well. Kojou felt as though he were a rock climber descending a sheer cliff.

That said, since it really was a fire escape, it came installed with minimal safety features. Caution was important, but he figured they didn’t need to be especially afraid, either.

“I know it’s cheaply made, but I never expected you to be scared. Normally, you’d leap onto footing way less steady than this without any problem, right?”

“Y-you are mistaken. I am merely questioning the stability of the fire escape. It is not that I am frightened whatsoever. You are mistaken, I assure you.”

Glaring at Kojou as she watched him descend the stairs, Yukina raised a voice that didn’t sound very assured.

Though she pretended otherwise, Yukina had a whiff of acrophobia. More accurately, she wasn’t really scared of heights per se but of any place unnaturally separated from the ground—she had a hard time with artificial constructions like airplanes and viewing platforms.

From her perspective, misshapen emergency stairs against Keystone Gate’s uppermost floor were probably nothing short of pure terror.

“Ahhh, got it. I’ll go down first, then. That should make you feel a little safer.”

“Er…no, that’s…but…aaah!”

Yukina uneasily bit her lip when Kojou shook her hand off his.

He stepped onto the aluminum alloy staircase and leaned outside the building.

The thin stairs creaked from the weight of his body. The strong ocean breeze ruffled his hair.

Kojou was sixty meters or so off the ground. Little wonder that looking at his feet was somewhat unnerving; still, the handrails had fall prevention straps, so the fire escape wasn’t quite as dangerous as it appeared.

“S-senpai, please wait! I am not yet e-emotionally prepared for…!”

Yukina hurried after him, worried about being left behind. When she descended the stairs with precarious movements, Kojou glanced up at her only to immediately avert his gaze. Given his relative position, he’d naturally ended up staring straight under Yukina’s skirt.

Striving to maintain his emotional composure, Kojou kept his head lowered and his mouth shut as he went down. The staircase was a fair bit longer than he’d imagined. To Yukina in her stressed-out state, the staircase had to feel even longer still.

Kojou was right about halfway down when she abruptly raised her voice.

“Senpai, look!”

“Eh?”

Doing as Yukina told him, Kojou looked up. An unfortunately timed gust of wind had made the hem of her skirt rise with a flutter. Her white, slender, taut, supple thighs dazzled his eyes.

“Wait a… Just where are you looking?!”

Noticing his gaze, Yukina let out a distinct yelp.

“You’re the one who told me to look!”

“I—I did not mean at me. I meant the sky! Look at the sky…!”

Kojou glared back and lobbed an objection as she pointed above them.

“Sky?”

He dubiously narrowed his eyes as he looked up.

It was a gray sky just after daybreak. The ocean horizon glowed red to the east.

If that was all, the morning scenery would not deserve special mention, but a bizarre sight, which by rights should not have existed, stretched through the sky above Itogami Island.

A floating metropolis the color of steel hovered like a mirage. It was a fantastical, mechanized city, an artificial isle that was the spitting image of Itogami Island. This phantom ruin covered the entire sky. It was the city called Nod.

Shahryar Ren, president of MAR, had used the Keystone Gate, an enormous sorcerous device, along with the demonic energy of the Fourth Primogenitor to summon it from another world.

This was the place where the ancient gods known as the Devas had exiled their criminals. They’d also employed the fortress in conflicts with fellow gods.

But now something strange was happening to Nod.

Color was gradually fading from the steel city illuminated by the rays of the sun.

The contours of the geometrically shaped buildings had faded and warped, allowing Kojou and Yukina to see the sky behind it. Its very existence was growing less and less tangible.

“Nod is…vanishing? The sorcerous device’s effect gave out?”

Kojou murmured this, looking up at the sky in a daze from farther down the staircase.

Just because he couldn’t see it didn’t mean that Nod had ceased to be. The obvious explanation was that the magical gateway connecting Nod to their world had closed.

“No, the Keystone Gate continues to function as a sorcerous device even now. I bet the gate to Nod only appears at night.”

Yukina, still clinging tightly to the staircase midway, spoke with a calmness that belied the frightened expression on her face.

Much magic was affected by time and geography, and a decent amount of spells could only be activated at particular times. The magic Shahryar Ren had employed seemed to be one such ritual.

“So when the sun sets, the gate will open again?”

“I can’t say for sure, but I think so.”

“I see… If not, he wouldn’t be able to come back to our world from Nod, either.”

Kojou’s lips twisted as he absorbed her words.

Shahryar Ren’s objective was to monopolize the Legacy of the Sinful God and its power so as to place the entire world under the Devas’ rule once more. He would never have gone to the floating city without having prepared a way to return beforehand.

“Either way, chasing after MAR is futile until night falls.”

“That was all part of his plan, too, huh?”

Yukina’s words brought a languid sigh out of Kojou.

The Electoral War had already brought attention to Itogami Island even before something as spectacular as this happened. The entire world had to already know about the gate to Nod.

Kojou was sure that the governments of every nation and the forces of the Dominions had already begun preparing to go after Ren.

The president of MAR no doubt thought that proceeding with his subjugation of Nod ahead of everyone else put him squarely in the driver’s seat. The more time passed, the more relics MAR Inc. would get its mitts on, and the more their combat strength would grow. This also meant that rescuing Avrora would only get progressively more difficult.

“Well, not that I could do anything even if the gate was open right now.”

Kojou weakly shook his head as he took a swipe at himself.

Even if the gate was open, Kojou had neither a way of getting to Nod, nor the means to oppose Shahryar Ren. Now that he wasn’t a vampire anymore, he was no more than a powerless high school student unable to cast a single spell.

“Let’s leave Keystone Gate for the time being. We need information about Nod, and you need some rest, senpai.”

Yukina saw right through his nervousness as she spoke in a tone that made it clear she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Kojou didn’t have any complaints. Their lack of information was a pretty big deal, and he was dead tired.

On top of all that, Kojou had just transformed from a vampire back into a human being, which wasn’t something that happened every day. He had no guarantee there wouldn’t be significant aftereffects. For the time being, the best thing he could do was go to a hospital to rest.

Whether that was actually possible was another matter entirely.

“It’d be great if they just let us pass through without fuss…”

“…I suppose it would.”

Kojou and Yukina peered gingerly from a balcony railing to the ground below.

A horde of rioters surrounding Keystone Gate burst into their field of view.

Explosions that appeared to be the work of Beast Vassals were bursting up into the air, and sparks from sporadic bullet impacts were flying. Spirits gave off a dazzling radiance as their summoners unleashed them. Howls from beast people and gigas echoed all about.

The rioters were citizens of Itogami City—registered demons doubling as ruler candidates, plus their subjects.

The pair hadn’t noticed while on the topmost floor, but the area around Keystone Gate’s entrance had turned into the site of a spectacular armed clash between a horde of MAR Inc. robots and demons on a rampage.