Strike the Blood - Volume 21 - Chapter 3.4

4

The Murakumo Coffee Shop was one of the eight café franchises operating in Itogami City. It offered high-end coffee for middling prices and boasted wide popularity; men and women alike rated it highly for its many good-looking employees.

On that one day, though, it wasn’t the staffers attracting the customers’ eyes.

“Hey, look at that.”

A university student with a stereotypical womanizer’s deep tan and blond hair tapped the shoulder of the friend next to him, pointing to the counter at the back of the store.

Two high schoolers were waiting for drinks at the counter.

One was a small dark-haired girl wearing a Saikai Academy uniform. The powerful glint in her large eyes left a deep impression and gave her an otherworldly vibe. At any rate, she had an exceptionally lovely face.

The girl beside her was a high schooler wearing a uniform unfamiliar to the college guys. She had a neatly done bob cut and was also quite pleasing to the eye.

They seemed to have a very close senior-junior relationship. Despite the serious impression they gave off, their eye-catching looks made them quite charming indeed.

“Who the heck are they? They seem pretty high-level… Celebrities maybe?”

His friend, who still had his sunglasses on indoors, seemed taken aback as he made an offhanded comment. These were natural questions to have. The blond womanizer sank into serious thoughts of his own.

“I wonder. They’re wearing uniforms, so maybe they’re just normal schoolgirls?”

“…Must be. How ’bout we make a pass? I’ll take the black-haired one on the right.”

The man in sunglasses slapped his cheeks to psych himself up. Flirting with girls like these wasn’t easy, but they were obligated to give it a shot. This pair were too beautiful to pass up.

“Then the one with the big boobs is mi—”

When the blond man sipped on his coffee and tried to say that, something went swoosh past his ear and made him think he was hearing things.

“H-hot!!”

The coffee spilled out of his cup and drenched his fingers.

On closer inspection, a silver needle had pierced the cup through the gap between the man’s index and middle fingers. It was thin, metallic, and around two centimeters in length. The dart had poked a hole in the cup and sent its contents bubbling out.

“A n-needle? Why’s this in a coffee shop…?!”

The man exclaimed about this, shaking off his hand.

His porcelain coffee cup had been penetrated by a needle. Judging from the size, he didn’t think it was the kind you sewed with. If this hit you in the wrong place, you’d drop dead on the spot. Somehow, he sensed that it had been expressly made for just that purpose. It was like a hidden weapon for an assassin or something—

“What was that about breasts…?”

The blond man gasped and snapped back to reality at the quiet voice. A high school girl whose short hair covered both sides of her face was standing right before his eyes. The uniform she wore was identical to the one the medium-bob girl at the counter had been wearing.

When the man realized the girl was holding metal darts in both hands identical to the one that had pierced his coffee cup, he let out an incoherent shriek.

His whole body broke out in a cold sweat as he glanced conspicuously at his friend for help. However, what he heard in response was his friend screaming for mercy.

“H-help me…! Someone…help…!”

The man in sunglasses who’d been gearing up to flirt with the black-haired girl was now holding his arm up at an unnatural angle. Against his neck was a naked blade; a tall girl whose long hair was done up in a ponytail had touched a silver long sword against his throat.

“This is why catcalling men are the scum of the earth…!”

The tall girl glared at the man in sunglasses with a look of disgust as she spat her words in a low growl.

“That’s my Yukina!”

“My Yuiri!”

““Paws off!””

The tall girl swung her sword upward, and the short-haired girl with the needles brought both hands down.

This time, their undiluted, vivid bloodlust made both men scream from the deepest reaches of their bellies.

“U-uwaaaaa…!”

“Hiiiiiii!”

Spurred by the primal fear of death, the pair ran away without a single glance back. The girls grudgingly lowered their weapons as they watched them go.

“Hmph… Goodness.”

Shio sourly exhaled as she tucked her concealed weapons back into the sleeve of her uniform.

“Weren’t you a little easy on them, Kirasaka? I don’t think two or three good slices to their carotid arteries would even count as a crime.”

“If you are going to say that, then it’s you who was going easy, Shio Hikawa. Don’t you realize I wouldn’t have had to get involved if you’d just blown them away with a ritual spell artillery attack?”

Sayaka puffed up her cheeks while putting her long sword back into the instrument she used as a scabbard.

The next moment, they heard someone snap their fingers. Both yelped as shock waves struck their foreheads out of the blue.

“What do you two think you’re doing against ordinary citizens?”

The owner of that frosty, exasperated voice was a small-statured girl wearing an elaborate dress. Appearing out of thin air, Natsuki Minamiya coldly chewed out Sayaka and Shio. She must have seen them brandish their weapons to chase off that pair of flirts.

“Owww…!”

“Guuuuh…!”

Thanks to their grueling combat training, Shamanic War Dancers of the Lion King Agency were accustomed to pain, but it seemed that Natsuki had cranked up the pain levels on her invisible shock waves to more effectively hurt them. It had worked, too: Sayaka and Shio were paralyzed and had tears in their eyes.

“Shio? Kirasaka, too? What are you doing?”

With a questioning expression, Yuiri, carrying back the drinks she’d ordered, looked at Sayaka and Shio curled up.

“Um…nothing at all.”

“Just driving off interlopers.”

Shio and Sayaka tried to explain this in quivering voices.

Yuiri was too pure to realize she was popular. Even as Shio clutched her forehead and moaned, she vowed with renewed determination to protect Yuiri from men looking at her with indecent eyes.

“Haaah…”

Yuiri stared at the pair with a vaguely concerned expression.

“I wonder, are all the Shamanic War Dancers in the Lion King Agency this dumb?”

Kiriha Kisaki, sitting under a parasol providing shade on the Murakumo Coffee Shop’s open terrace, casually commented with that while gazing at the interior of the establishment through the windows. It was right around when Natsuki was chastising Sayaka and Shio for brandishing weapons against ordinary citizens.

“I have no rebuttal to give.”

Yukari Endou’s black cat familiar replied to Kiriha’s comment. Pets normally weren’t allowed in places that served food, but apparently, they overlooked that here if you sat in the terrace seats outside.

Two girls of the same age hanging out with a cat at a coffee shop made for quite a sight. Of course, Kiriha and the Attack Mages of the Lion King Agency weren’t visiting the café for a friendly get-together. This was where they’d agreed to meet in order to draft countermeasures to deal with the Beast Vassals raging inside Kojou Akatsuki.

It was already a fair bit past one PM.

About ten hours and change remained until Kojou Akatsuki would be released once more. They’d requested reinforcements from the mainland, but thanks to the chaos of the Electoral War, neither the Lion King Agency nor the Bureau of Astrology could mobilize large forces. Chances were high that they’d have to resolve the Kojou Akatsuki incident with only the people they had on hand.

“Here’s a hot salted caramel cappuccino for Miss Kisaki and goat milk for Master’s cat.”

Yukina returned with a tray in hand and served the sighing duo the drinks they’d ordered. Kiriha wore a sardonic smile as she looked up at Yukina.

“This look really suits you, Yukina Himeragi. Why don’t you give up being an Attack Mage and become a barista instead? You’d become the star of the shop in no time.”

“Ah-ha-ha…”

It wasn’t clear if Kiriha had said that out of praise or malice. Yukina hedged her bets and replied with a vague laugh.

Yukina had Nagisa to thank for why she was so accustomed to waitressing. The woman whipped up numerous dishes with an aim-to-please mindset. Ever since she’d started being treated to supper at the Akatsuki residence at nights, part of Yukina’s daily routine had become carrying those dishes to the dinner table.

If she couldn’t save Kojou, those peaceful days would never return. The thought added to her anxiety.

“Please stop pouring strange ideas into one of our precious Sword Shamans.”

Goat milk droplets all around her mouth, the black cat told that to Kiriha while giving her an annoyed glare. She shrugged her shoulders in silence. Yukina sat down beside her.

It was around then that Sayaka and the others still in the shop came out onto the terrace. Sayaka and Shio seemed crestfallen as Yuiri wearily led them in. They were still down from Nagisa’s tongue-lashing.

After those two, the next to appear was a girl wearing a slightly askew Saikai Academy uniform, along with a pair of primary schoolers clad in outfits from a famous girls’ school.

“Aiba…!”

Yukina looked at her with relief. She’d been worried Asagi would refuse to cooperate after blowing up at Kojou and storming out of school.

“So what’s this all about?”

Asagi sullenly turning her iced coffee cup around in her hand while posing that question.

Yukina gave no reply as she looked at Yukari’s black cat familiar in search of a lifeline. There was too much she wanted to convey to Asagi, so she honestly didn’t know where to begin. The feline, however, was engrossed in her milk. It didn’t look like she’d be getting an answer out of her any time soon.

This left Yukina thoroughly at a loss.

“Oh my, Yume Eguchi?”

A smile came over Kiriha when she saw the primary schooler behind Asagi. Her villainous smirk was quite convincing.

“Eep…!”

Yume let out a tiny yelp and froze. Once, Kiriha had used Yume and placed her in mortal peril. The other girl took this as a slight.

“What’s with that attitude? It’s not like I’m going to eat you. I’ve always wanted to apologize to you for what happened. Come over, dear.”

“Hssss—”

Opening her big eyes wide and going on guard, Yume let out her breath in a hiss at Kiriha, threatening her like a cat. However, this did nothing but amuse Kiriha as she slowly approached.

“Stop it! You’re just scaring Yume!”

Sayaka thrust herself in front of Yume and glared at Kiriha, somehow managing to avert a larger incident. Yukina nevertheless shrugged at the cloudy prospects ahead. The interaction only fueled her worries about having a proper conversation.

“Um… Why did you even bring Yume and Lydianne?”

Yukina asked Natsuki this in an unintentionally resentful tone. Natsuki, who’d arrived at the table at some point, was grimacing as she sipped her black tea; perhaps it wasn’t to her taste.

“Because they were with Aiba. She was making a fuss about being Akatsuki’s fiancée, so I brought her along. The more girls with a connection to Akatsuki the better, don’t you think?”

“That might well be the case, but…”

Yukina sank into silence, displeasure plain on her face. No matter how much she yearned for Kojou, Yume was still a primary schooler. As far as Yukina was concerned, there was a real problem getting her involved in a discussion about vampire Blood Servants.

“So…? What’s the deal with bringing all these girls who know Kojou together like this? You gonna put us in a locked room so we can go at one another’s throats?”

Asagi inquired about this with a barbed tone. She sounded annoyed that they were beating around the bush rather than getting right to the point.

Of course, Kiriha responded to her taunt.

“My…that would be most enjoyable. In fact, I think you would be the first one to go down if that happened. Is that fine with you, Priestess of Cain?”

Yukina felt sick to her stomach watching Asagi and Kiriha glaring at each other. They were primed to explode at the slightest provocation.

This time, Sayaka didn’t hesitate to stop Kiriha.

Normally, there was no way a civilian like Asagi could win a brawl with a Priestess of the Six Blades, but this was Itogami Island. Asagi had the entire infrastructure of Itogami Island at her disposal, weapons and satellite laser cannons included. On top of that, it was said that Itogami Island, the sorcerous device for The Cleansing, actively protected Asagi because she was the Priestess of Cain.

It would automatically invoke the forbidden spell and rewrite the world to ensure Asagi’s survival. Even Kiriha would have difficulty felling Asagi, who would have fortune on her side.

It was precisely because she knew this that Kiriha had conspired to kill Asagi at a time when she was visiting Blue Elysium, but—

“Er… Sorry, who are you again?”

Asagi stared straight at Kiriha and asked her this in a constrained tone of voice.

Faced with Asagi’s aggressive stare, Kiriha uncomfortably averted her gaze. Since Kiriha had been tasked with eliminating Asagi, she’d obviously been aware of her, but Asagi was clueless about that. This was the first time they were actually meeting face-to-face.

Shio, the first to realize this, went “pfft,” unable to keep herself from bursting into laughter. Yuiri hastily covered her mouth.

“Pff…khh… Y-you mustn’t, Shio. Laughing would be rude to Miss Kisaki…”

“It’s just…getting all worked up like that and challenging someone you only just met, that’s…”

Both girls’ shoulders shook as they spoke in hushed tones to each other.

Kiriha desperately endeavored to maintain her composure despite the circumstance.

“…You have a point. I apologize for my rudeness in failing to introduce myself. I am Kiriha Kisaki of the Bureau of Astrology. Previously, I used Yume Eguchi over there in an attempt to blow you away, along with Blue Elysium. Perhaps you recall?”

“Ahhh… That did happen, yeah. I’ve had so many people trying to kill me I just plain forgot.”

Kiriha’s words made Asagi break into peals of laughter.

Her confident attitude must have really gotten under Kiriha’s skin. She pushed her breasts of considerable size forward.

“Incidentally, I was with Kojou Akatsuki when he went to a hot spring ryokan.”

“Huh?”

Asagi’s face tensed up for the first time since they’d met. She wasn’t the only one who was taken aback, though. Sayaka and Yume and Yuiri and, for some reason, even Shio glared at Kiriha all at once.

Finally satisfied with their reactions, Kiriha curled her lips.

“Of course, we went there together.”

“Wh-what the heck?! Would you explain this in more detail?!”

Sayaka closed the distance with Kiriha and grabbed her by the collar.

Yuiri, on the other hand, simply stared at Yukina with confusion.

“Yukii, is it true?!”

“Er, well… It is not exactly a lie.”

“And you were okay with that, Himeragi…?!”

There was a bang as Shio slammed the table and stood up.

“There were, ah, various circumstances involved, you might say.”

Yukina gently lowered her eyes as, in an awkward tone of voice, she replied. If she went into detail, it would come out that Yukina had accompanied him to the inn and spent the night with him.

Of course, she’d kept the part about falling asleep while nursing a comatose Kojou and waking up on the same futon with him the next morning out of the report she’d submitted to Yukari, her superior. She really wanted to avoid provoking Kiriha, the only other person who knew that fact, and avoid causing her to spill the beans.

As though granting Yukina’s silent plea, a voice suddenly rang out on the patio.

“Ohhh, everyone’s here. Sorry to keep you waiting!”

That voice belonged to a woman who wasn’t even thirty centimeters tall. Her features were that of a beauty. Carrying her like a doll was a silver-haired girl in a uniform identical to Yukina’s. She wore a reserved smile.

“…Who?”

Kiriha glanced toward the doll as if she saw it as a nuisance.

The plaything made an exaggerated nod as if it had been waiting for that exact moment.

“Yes, listen well, girl with the foul look in your eyes. I am the scion of Hermes Trismegistus, master of the Magnum Opus, Nina Adelard of Parmia.”

“…This strange creature is Nina Adelard, the Great Alchemist of Yore?”

Gazing stone-faced back at Nina, Kiriha shook her head with an incredulous expression. Her reaction was only natural. After all, Nina Adelard was said to have been over two hundred and seventy years of age. Having a strangely dressed doll invoke such a name wasn’t something to be accepted lightly.

“I take it that means you’re Kanon Kanase?”

Kiriha somehow put her thoughts back in order and prompted the silver-haired girl.

“Yes, it is I. Apologies for being late.”

Kanon nodded with a soft smile and bowed her head to everyone present.

Kiriha probably had meant to get a few resentful remarks in, but she must not have thought Kanon would apologize first. Her timing thrown off, Kiriha lapsed into an awkward silence. It seemed even she had a hard time dealing with someone as difficult to pin down and airheaded as Kanon.

“—Surely you need not apologize.”

The last girl appearing on the patio stepped in front of Kanon to shield her from everyone’s gazes. She wore a long wimple over her lengthy white locks. She moved a hand toward the sword sheathed in the broad scabbard attached to the belt she wore over her Saikai Academy middle school uniform.

“I get woken up and dragged over here, and who do I find? If you intend to lock us in a room and have us go at one another, I’m up for the challenge.”

Shizuri Kasugaya put a hand on the hilt of her sword as she surveyed the Attack Mages before her.

Even in a Demon Sanctuary, having this many Attack Mages and demons gathered in one place was rare. Since no one had explained to Shizuri why everyone was here, it was unsurprising she was wary.

“Ahhh…sorry, we covered that already.”

With an annoyed wave of her hand, Asagi replied to her. Shizuri twisted her lips.

“What?! I am saying I demand an explanation! What do you mean it is ‘covered already’?!”

“You make a fair point. Shall I explain, then? We do not have much time.”

Natsuki, who’d been silent up to that point, suddenly interjected with this.

Everyone fell silent and focused their attention upon her. The girls differed in affiliation, species, and social standing, but one thing united them—they were all related somehow to Kojou Akatsuki.

Gazing upon them all, Natsuki spoke calmly.

“I’ll skip the formalities. Sorry, but I need you to all become Kojou Akatsuki’s wives.”

That instant, the nicely sunlit café terrace seating seemed to creak from the strange sense of tension enveloping it.