Strike the Blood - Volume 21 - Chapter 3.3

3

The lobby on the first stratum of Keystone Gate was in a pathetically ravaged state. On top of the Order of the End trampling through it, it had borne the brunt of the rioting demons’ assault.

Store after store carrying high-end brands had been cruelly and thoroughly destroyed, with even barely a light fixture surviving.

To the residents of the Demon Sanctuary, however, this level of trouble was an everyday occurrence.

Even surrounded by rubble, the portion of the facilities remaining intact had reopened for business as if nothing had happened. One of the establishments running strong was a hamburger shop from a major franchise.

“Asagi! Hey, Asagi! How long are you gonna pout like this?!”

Asagi was occupying a box seat right by the window. Yaze was calling out to her from his seat just across the aisle.

When Asagi stormed out of Saikai Academy, she’d marched straight to Keystone Gate. She’d been sitting in that shop ever since.

A seventh combo tray had just joined the other six piled on top of the table.

This wasn’t really binge eating from stress. This was a normal amount of food as far as she was concerned.

She often claimed she got hungry when she used her head. Yaze figured that might well be true where Asagi was concerned because her programming ability was simply that far beyond the norm. The fact that he always ended up splitting the bill evenly, thus helping pay for her dinner expenses, was something he was somewhat less accepting of.

“I’m getting complaints about you, y’know! The Five Elements’ computational resources are tight ’cause some process of unknown origin is sucking ’em up. Apparently, it’s even worse than when the Order of the End was occupying the place.”

A pained expression came over Yaze as he pointed to a protesting e-mail on his smartphone.

While she was technically a “part-time student worker,” Asagi actually held root access rights to Itogami Island’s main computer cluster. This was because making maximum use of her abilities was directly linked to the entire island’s prosperity. Asagi had built all its firewalls to begin with, so the fact that she could access it whether she held the rights or not loomed large in that thinking.

This also meant that if Asagi monopolized the main computer’s computational resources for herself, Itogami Island’s operations would inevitably grind to a halt. You wouldn’t think even she would use it in that selfish a manner.

“It’s not me who’s doing it. If you wanna complain, tell it to Cain.”

Asagi languidly sipped on her iced coffee.

Yaze dropped his jaw, visibly dumbfounded.

“Cain…? What the heck does a guy who died before recorded history have to do with Itogami Island’s main computer?”

“Even if he’s dead, he left legacies and relics behind. One of them is right above our heads.”

Asagi jutted her right index finger straight up.

Yaze gasped and leaned forward with a sober look.

“…Nod?! You’re saying…Nod is interfering with Itogami Island’s information network?”

“They hid a function to open the gate in Keystone Gate’s physical structure, right? Do you really think it’s strange there’d be something that can mess with our end from up there?”

“So that’s it…!”

Yaze nervously pulled up his smartphone, swiftly typing and sending off a message. He was probably relaying Asagi’s “something” to Kazuma Yaze, his older brother.

“So you realized someone in Nod was interfering with Itogami Island?”

“Well, yeah.”

When Yaze inquired with a sharp look, Asagi bluntly gave him a shrug of her shoulders. He irritably sighed under his breath.

“The hell is his goal?”

“…There’s no actual damage, so it’s fine to just ignore it. For now anyway.”

“Nah, there has been damage.”

Yaze sullenly commented with this as he crossed his legs. Nod interference stealing Itogami Island computational resources was absolutely harm in his eyes.

“So what gives? If you know we’re being hit by a cyber attack from Nod, the heck are you doin’ in this place?”

“I’m just here for a meetup. It’s more convenient for Tanker this way.”

Asagi replied to Yaze’s reproachful question without the slightest change in her expression.

“Tanker?”

He felt like the sudden invocation of the elementary school hacker’s moniker was an ill omen.

Lydianne Didier, one of the Elite Children of Didier Heavy Industries, a firm involved in managing the Demon Sanctuary, held a recklessly granted special license to drive an anti-demon Micro Robot Tank within city limits.

As if to prove Yaze’s premonition true, a roar echoed throughout the lobby of Keystone Gate. The engine’s roar sounded like that of a fighter jet; clearly the operator wasn’t worried about being a nuisance.

“Lady Empress! I am most sorry for my tardiness!”

The crimson robot tank barged into the lobby, making panes of glass in the area audibly shake. Yaze burst out of the hamburger shop, and his jaw dropped.

“The hell is this?!”

“Oh, Sir President! I see that thou art interested in the Momiji! But of course, but of course.”

A girl’s voice with a historical stage play tone came out of the tank’s exterior speakers. It boosted her voice to a level of obnoxiousness that rivaled the sounds of the engine.

Yaze scowled as he used his ability to protect his particularly sensitive hearing.

“M-Momiji?”

“’Tis the ultimate in personal weaponry developed by Lady Empress and my humble self. Itogami Island’s flight restrictions having been lifted, the first prototype hath arrived fresh from the mainland.”

“That doesn’t mean you can bring a robot tank into the lobby of Keystone Gate! The Island Guard’s already on edge after the riot this morning…!”

Yaze gave a sigh of deep despair. The Island Guard was in lockdown mode. There was no way it would have let a robot tank as suspicious as this through a checkpoint.

He had no doubt at all this Momiji had dropped in through the rift in Keystone Gate’s ceiling. The proof was in the Vertical Launching System and Landing-Ready Jet Engine Flight Unit on the robot tank’s back. This was the origin of the roaring.

“Seems your operational test went well?”

After coming out of the hamburger shop, Asagi asked Lydianne this with a laid-back expression.

When the jet engines at last finished cooling down and came to a stop, the lobby regained some semblance of tranquility. The top hatch of the tank opened, from which a young girl with red hair poked out her head.

The tank must have been designed for a crew of two to begin with. This Momiji was a couple of shirt sizes larger compared to the robot tanks Yaze had seen to date. Perhaps the extra room in the cockpit was why Lydianne had opted to wear a high-quality sailor suit—the uniform of the renowned girls’ school she attended—over her typical skintight pilot outfit.

“Control software shortcomings aside, the hardware receiveth a passing grade. There shall be no hindrance sending it into combat with all— Ah, Lady Yume, what is amiss?!”

After Lydianne expressed her satisfaction with the tank she was examining, her expression suddenly grew clouded. Just then, she realized that the girl in the rear seat of the tank right behind her was slumped over with a listless look on her face.

“I’m…all right. I just feel a little sick…”

As she spoke those words, Yume Eguchi crawled out wearing the same school uniform as Lydianne. An adorable girl with a mature complexion, she evoked the image of a temperamental kitten.

At the moment, however, she was pale in the face from her ride in the unfamiliar tank. It seemed like she was holding down vomit as she shakily climbed down from the chassis.

“So even li’l Yume was on board… Wait, whaddaya mean sending it into combat?”

Yaze inquired about this with a casual demeanor. Yume pouted in dismay at his use of the nickname.

Lydianne turned back to Yaze, surprised that he would ask that.

“I hath heard its mission is to proceed to the land of Nod and rescue the vampire princess.”

“Huh?!”

Yaze glared at the side of Asagi’s face in abject shock.

“Hold on a sec—don’t tell me you plan on going to Nod and bringing li’l Avrora back all by yourself?! This isn’t just sour grapes over Kojou dumping you, is it, Asagi?”

“Since when did he dump me? I was just finding out for sure if he loves Avrora, got it?”

Asagi glanced at Yaze with a skeptical expression.

“Ahhh—er, now that you mention it that’s kinda how it was, but…”

Yaze muttered vaguely as he recalled the exchange between Kojou and Asagi that morning.

Kojou most certainly hadn’t professed his love for Avrora. Nor had Asagi even confessed to Kojou yet; saying she’d been dumped was quite the exaggeration.

“From the looks of him, I think his reaction would be pretty much the same if it hadn’t been Avrora who’d been taken, whether it’d be Nagisa or Himeragi—or even me.”

“…I guess you have a point. I think so, too.”

Maybe it took being his friend and years of close observation to tell, but Kojou Akatsuki hated few things more than the people close to him being put in harm’s way. The way he went from laid-back as usual to dynamic when he was protecting someone was proof of that.

Yaze didn’t know if Kojou acted that way out of guilt over failing to protect his little sister, who’d been hurt so gravely at such a young age, or whether that was just who he was at his core. Either way, Yaze had seen that inclination only grow stronger since he’d gained the power of the Fourth Primogenitor.

That was why Kojou was most likely motivated to bring Avrora back from her fall into Nod by something other than romantic feelings. Apparently, Asagi had picked up on that as a matter of course.

“So why were you angry this morning, then…?”

Yaze cocked his head to the side as he posed the question.

Asagi widened her eyes and flushed as if getting angry all over again.

“Huh? Well, anyone would be angry, right? That idiot said I had nothing to do with it, didn’t he?! That’s just not right!! Aren’t times like those when you’re supposed to say, I know you of all people will lend me your strength, or like, I can’t do this without you, or whatever?!”

“Ahhh…”

Asagi had gone on such a tangent that Yaze was stricken by a severe bout of exhaustion. He’d vaguely picked up on this before, but his childhood friend’s grasp of romance was just as awful as Kojou’s.

“Er, so… Basically, Kojou trying to rescue Avrora all by himself annoys you because he’s not treating you like you’re special?”

“It’s not being treated as special; I am special! Why does he have to lump me in with those Lion King Agency chicks who are always popping up? I’m Avrora’s friend, too!”

“R-right…”

Yaze was a little taken aback by Asagi’s tremendous force.

Since both their memories had been consumed in the Blazing Banquet, Yaze and Asagi didn’t remember it with any more clarity than Kojou, but they’d both hung out with Avrora, too. Now that she was finally revived, Asagi was just as concerned about and eager to rescue her as Kojou.

In that sense, Asagi really was unique. She’d just proudly proclaimed as much. Yet Kojou of all people had completely forgotten about it. That was what had sent her into a fury.

“But, well, did you ever just, like, ask Kojou why he had to go rescue li’l Avrora?”

“Thing is, I had to check if he had an ulterior motive. Just thinking of him rescuing Avrora all cool so he could speak sweet nothings to her would piss any girl off.”

“I—I guess it would.”

That certainly would annoy a girl. He could kind of understand how that had made Asagi feel this way.

“I get that, but how’d that turn into you going to Nod all by yourself?”

“Well, that idiot won’t appreciate me if I do anything less!”

Asagi began leaping with her logic once more. Yaze wondered if Kojou would find this off-putting instead of appreciating it.

“If I go and bring back Avrora in a jiff, that means Kojou won’t have to put himself in danger, won’t it?”

Lowering her eyes, Asagi finally revealed her real feelings.

Yaze exhaled with just a sliver of genuine admiration.

Asagi Aiba was a very proud girl. It really didn’t matter to her how Kojou felt about Avrora. She genuinely thought everything would be fine if she just brought Avrora back and settled things between them out in the open. If anything, Asagi must have thought leaving Kojou heartbroken over Avrora being gone was worse.

But still, thought Yaze while he skeptically scratched his head.

“Doesn’t that mean you’re just puttin’ yourself at risk instead?”

“…I wonder about that.”

For some reason, an impetuous expression came to Asagi’s face as she glanced at the sky through the crevice in the ceiling. She wasn’t merely bluffing out of stubbornness. Apparently, the girl also known as the Priestess of Cain had information about Nod that Yaze and his people did not.

“Thou need not worry, Sir President. I shall accompany her to the ends of existence. Momiji was a multi-seat craft to begin with.”

When an even more conflicted expression hovered on Yaze’s face, Lydianne turned her powerful smile on him. In spite of this, being consoled by a primary schooler only worried him further.

Yume, who had recovered from her car sickness, bowed beside Lydianne.

“So it is. I will be accompanying Asagi as well.”

“Huh?! You’re going to come, too?!”

Asagi raised a shrill voice of surprise. “She didn’t tell you, either?” went Yaze, flabbergasted as he glanced between Asagi and Yume.

“But of course. I need to show my fiancé Kojou that I am a capable woman.”

Yume spoke those words in a tone no less bold than the one Asagi had used just earlier. Ever since the Leviathan attack incident at Blue Elysium, Yume was adamant that Kojou had proposed to her.

Furthermore, from the way Yukina had reacted at the time, it wasn’t wholly a misunderstanding on Yume’s part, either.

“Wait. What do you mean ‘fiancé’?! That wasn’t just something you made up?”

Naturally, Asagi couldn’t let that slide and pressed the issue. Nevertheless, Yume remained completely composed for some reason.

“Did you not know, Miss Asagi? An oral contract is a contract nonetheless.”

“Er, I know that, but…! Awww, sheesh, what the hell’s going on here, Tanker?!”

“Things became as you see when I elucidated the situation to Lady Yume on the eve of our departure from school. Lady Yume is the ruler of my domain, so I cannot defy her.”

Lydianne made a light, frustrated moan. Yume was the reincarnation of Lilith, Witch of the Night and the World’s Mightiest Succubus. She currently served as the ruler of Tensou Academy Domain, which boasted the strongest forces on Itogami Island. Since Lydianne was one of Yume’s subjects, she viewed her as a liege to be served. A duty-minded girl like her would never refuse Yume’s command.

That was why Lydianne hadn’t been able to say no when Yume had insisted on going to Nod with them.

“Um, but isn’t this tank a two-seater?”

Asagi stubbornly objected with this, but Yume broke into a powerful grin.

“It is all right. I can fly, after all.”

“Grrr…”

Unaccustomed to losing in wars of words, Asagi pursed her lips in frustration.

Since the gate to Nod was in the sky, you needed an aircraft such as a transport helicopter to reach it. Lydianne had undoubtedly attached the optional flight unit to the tank with this in mind.

On the other hand, Yume could take to the skies with her wings. She also had the option of employing her succubus mind control ability to ride a flying demon. Yume could go to Nod on her own no matter how much Asagi might object.

“…Man, this is really messed up.”

Yaze muttered this with an irritated tone even as he started calculating things in his head.

Now that Kojou had relinquished the power of the Fourth Primogenitor, Yume was one of the most powerful demons on the island since she could control the divine beast Leviathan. Considering that Asagi would be wielding The Cleansing aboard Lydianne’s tank, those two could also exhibit overpowered combat performance.

When you got down to it, these girls were probably the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s only cards in their deck with a real shot at fighting the MAR forces under Shahryar Ren’s command. They could send the three girls into Nod with all the Island Guard’s units on escort duty. He couldn’t dismiss that plan as unrealistic.

He wondered, however, about the girls’ chances of coming back alive—

Perhaps his preoccupation with these cruel thoughts was why he didn’t notice someone approaching him from behind until the very last moment.

“—Mr. President.”

That flat, cold voice made Yaze let out a goofy-sounding “Whoa!” as he whirled around.

Standing in the dimly lit passage through the lobby was a woman in a secretary suit. Her evenly cut blue hair reaching just past her shoulders marked her as a homunculus.

“What is it, Miss Anato? Urgent business again?”

A wary look came over Yaze as he posed that question to the homunculus secretary from the Gigafloat Management Corporation.

Though he was the president of the Yaze consortium on paper, the man really at the helm was his older brother Kazuma. At the very least, Kazuma’s secretary chasing Yaze to a place like this meant there was an urgent matter to take care of. He felt trouble brewing.

The blue-haired secretary nodded. Her expression was neutral to the end.

“Affirmative. However, the first order of business concerns Miss Aiba, not you, Mr. President.”

“Me?”

Asagi grimaced, visibly perplexed. She’d never expected the woman to mention her name.

The next moment, a small-statured girl emerged from behind the secretary’s back.

“So this is where you were, Asagi Aiba.”

“Huh? Natsuki?”

The sight of her young, beautiful, doll-like teacher left Asagi bewildered. She’d never dreamed that Natsuki, whose whereabouts had been unknown, would be there looking for her.

“We need to talk. Sorry, but you’ll have to come with me.”

Natsuki, however, spoke with her usual haughty tone of voice as she refused to explain a thing about what was going on.

Somewhat annoyed, Asagi glared at the homeroom-teaching Witch.

“Right now? Why?”

“Kojou Akatsuki’s Beast Vassals have run amok.”

“…Huh?”

Asagi went silent for a moment. Even she’d never expected that reply.

“Wh-what do you mean, Kojou’s Beast Vassals ran amok? Didn’t he relinquish the power of the Fourth Primogenitor?”

“I’ll fill you in later. There’s no time to explain.”

When Asagi closed the distance, Natsuki coldly rebuffed her pupil.

Natsuki then trained her emotionless eyes toward Yume and Lydianne, who had both gone still. That instant, the two primary schoolers jumped a little and huddled shoulder to shoulder, stiffening in fear. Apparently, Natsuki had put them both through the wringer before. The girls wore expressions of undiluted terror as they stared at the Witch, who was even smaller than they were.

“The enhanced human from Didier Heavy Industries and the succubus girl, right? Good. You’re coming, too.”

“Nnh…?”

“Um, umm…”

Natsuki activated a teleportation spell without bothering to wait for the two to reply. A ripple spread through the air, and the two schoolgirls and their tank vanished without a trace.

“Hey, Natsuki!”

Yaze’s voice went ragged when he saw her make that executive decision. Before his statement could even reach her, however, Natsuki activated another spell and disappeared from sight. Somewhere along the way, Asagi had also teleported out.

Yaze was the only one left behind.

“…Whaddaya mean, Kojou’s Beast Vassals went bonkers? The hell’s goin’ on?”

He clutched his head in earnest over the completely incomprehensible situation.

For some reason, Kojou had Beast Vassals who were going berserk even though he’d relinquished his vampire powers. Natsuki had whisked Asagi and the primary school duo away because she knew why. He didn’t get how any of this had happened.

“—Mr. President.”

“Waah?! Miss Anato, you’re still here?”

Face still twitching, Yaze glanced back at the blue-haired homunculus whose presence he hadn’t sensed at all.

The secretary’s expression remained unchanged as she presented a bundle of paperwork resting on a clipboard.

“Director Kazuma Yaze requests that you sign these papers.”

“R-right… What, is that all?”

Yaze picked up the attached pen and examined the paperwork. His eyes went bloodshot as he drew in his breath.

The documents were nothing special in themselves. This sort of request was an everyday formality of business. The individual who’d made the request, however, was special, hence why the papers had gotten bumped up to Yaze.

“—Permission to enter Keystone Gate airspace? Wait, hold on a sec. What the hell is that woman thinking…?!”

Beside himself, Yaze muttered as he stared at the elegant stamp signing the request form.

The sheet had a letterhead drawn on it portraying a Valkyrie wielding a great sword.

It was the emblem of a certain royal family.