Strike the Blood - Volume 21 - Chapter 3.5

5

“W-wives? You mean as in bride, newlywed, spouse—that wife?”

Sayaka was the one who responded first. She most certainly hadn’t recovered from her initial shock. Rather, the impression she gave was of someone so rattled that she was saying whatever was on her mind.

“You mean marrying Kojou Akatsuki?”

Shio followed up to make sure. Though Shio seemed comparatively levelheaded among those present, the fact that she was desperately trying to take a sip of her iced coffee despite the lid getting in her way betrayed that she, too, was quite flustered.

“Relax. It’ll only be a fake union. All you need to do is be with Kojou Akatsuki for tonight.”

Natsuki turned to Shio and lobbed even more suggestive words toward her.

Shizuri was agape, seemingly as hard as stone, but those words made her gasp and return to her senses.

“Wh…what do you mean by this?! A marriage for but a single night?! As a Paladin of Gisella, I cannot approve of such a scandalous relationship!”

“R-right! I mean, what about the ceremony and the reception?”

Shio threw in a statement that was totally off the mark, a testament to her confusion.

Yuiri gave her sleeve a couple of tugs, taking things in with surprising calmness.

“Cas, Shio… I believe by wife, she means being a vampire’s servant.”

“…Huh?”

“A vampire’s Blood Servant?”

Shizuri and Shio blinked hard and stared at Natsuki. “Hmph,” went her curt snort.

“What else did you think I meant?”

“Did you put it like that so we’d misunderstand?”

Yukina sighed wearily, glaring at Natsuki with half-lidded eyes.

“I wanted to see your reactions.”

Natsuki checked the faces of everyone present as she shamelessly fessed up.

Sayaka and Shio were still drowning in shock. Shizuri was visibly enraged. Yuiri was surprisingly calm, whereas Kanon’s face was flushed with embarrassment. Kiriha put her hand against her cheek with a sulky expression, while Yume accepted Natsuki’s words as the natural course of events. If anything, she seemed disappointed to hear this was only about being a Blood Servant.

Meanwhile, Lydianne was serenely sipping on some orange juice like this had nothing to do with her. Asagi remained silent, twirling a straw around with her fingertip in apparent tedium. Yukina had no idea what was going through her mind.

“But what would being Kojou’s Blood Servant even entail now? I heard he relinquished the power of the Fourth Primogenitor and became a normal human being…”

Shizuri cocked her head and expressed her doubt.

She hadn’t actually witnessed the final battle between Kojou and The Blood. Shizuri had been getting her wounds treated at Itogami Island North’s Sorcery Lab Number Six. The Lion King Agency’s Koyomi Shizuka must have informed her there that Kojou had lost the power of the Fourth Primogenitor.

“—There’s no way he completely gave it up, right?”

Asagi sounded subdued as she dismissed the idea.

“He may have handed the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor to Avrora, but his body kept vampire characteristics instead of returning to that of a complete human being. Or am I wrong?”

“You realized?”

Yukina looked at Asagi in surprise.

“That’s the only way any of this adds up.”

Asagi said this like it was obvious. Apparently, she’d already caught on to something that Yukina hadn’t realized until the First Primogenitor had pointed it out.

“…Yes. Akatsuki-senpai’s body was in an unstable state, neither fully human nor fully vampire. He was doing so poorly that the First Primogenitor’s servant implanted The Blood’s Beast Vassals into him.”

Yukina explained from the start so that even people unfamiliar with the details could understand.

She hadn’t expected this in particular, but Shio and Yuiri were the first ones to raise cries of pure shock in response.

“The First Primogenitor?!”

“The Blood’s Beast Vassals? But how…?”

“I see… That’s why Zana Lashka was…”

Sayaka was the only one to bite her lip, visibly vexed. Sayaka, who’d fought Zana at Yukina’s side, only then realized why she’d appeared in that place.

Zana Lashka had overwhelmed Yukina and Sayaka even while preparing to seal away The Blood’s Beast Vassals when he dissipated. Despite the fact they were both taking her on, she’d done this on top of fending off the pair with ease. Consequently, Kojou had gone on a rampage, and they found themselves in the present situation: a crisis threatening to wipe Itogami Island off the map.

“Of course, in his current state, Akatsuki-senpai cannot control the Beast Vassals of The Blood. He has neither the time nor the demonic energy to seize their reins.”

Yukina continued on, suppressing the emotions in her voice.

“Indeed. So that is why he requireth companions.”

Lydianne, silent up until then, murmured this in understanding.

Yukina nodded a little and placed a silver chain upon the table, the one Zana had employed as a catalyst.

“Miss Nina, can you use this to make rings? We require eleven of them.”

“…Goodness, this is Ashglow silver. This is quite a rare metal…!”

“Abbess, you are drooling.”

Kanon gently chided Nina when she accepted the chain from Yukina and rubbed her cheek against it in joy. This chain, forged of a metal that resembled the variety used in Snowdrift Wolf, was actually rare enough to delight even the Great Alchemist of Yore.

“What a shame, though. Were it not for the impurities within, you could trade this amount of Ashglow silver for enough money to build your own castle…!”

“Impurities?”

When Nina spoke with resignation, Kanon inquired further. “Indeed,” said Nina with a nod.

“Kojou’s blood and flesh, I presume. I see—so you mean to build spiritual pathways with this catalyst?”

Divining Yukina’s intent, Nina wasted no time in sending magical energy coursing through the chain.

The links came separated like loosely assembled puzzle pieces. Eleven links transformed into an equal number of rings. They were not encrusted with gemstones, but their unexpectedly elaborate designs were a matter of goodwill on Nina’s part.

“With my ring, this makes enough for twelve—according to the First Primogenitor’s estimates, with this many Blood Serva—no, Blood Vassals, Akatsuki-senpai will surely be able to control the Beast Vassals of The Blood.”

Yukina spoke as the eleven freshly wrought rings formed a tidy circle.

“In other words, we’re supposed to be human sacrifices? To serve as offerings to the Beast Vassals?”

Kiriha provocatively crossed her legs and arrogantly leaned back. Yukari’s black cat familiar made a pained smile and narrowed her eyes.

“We have no intention of forcing you, of course. We lack the authority to force you to do that in the first place. Therefore, all we can do is bow and ask.”

“Is a cat bowing really sincere?”

Kiriha put a hand against her forehead and sighed.

“If Akatsuki’s Beast Vassals run rampant, this island will be blown away without a trace.”

Natsuki Minamiya spoke with a neutral expression. Shizuri’s shoulders made a twitch. She’d seen The Blood’s Beast Vassals up close enough to realize Natsuki’s words were no exaggeration.

“Where is Kojou Akatsuki right now?”

“Giada—the Third Primogenitor—has him locked in another dimension. The time limit is midnight tonight. She told us she cannot hold him any longer than that.”

“Not nearly enough time to evacuate the civilians, is it?”

Shizuri sharply bit her lip. She’d already lost one homeland, the Demon Sanctuary of Iroise, to large-scale sorcerous terrorism. Her peers had exhausted all their strength to evacuate every last one of its residents, and all but Shizuri had lost their lives in the process. Perhaps she was being reminded of that.

“Va bene—then I shall offer myself up as a sacrifice!”

Shizuri stood proud and beaming, as though she’d just cleared something from her mind. Despite this, an unexpected individual repudiated her resolve.

“You cannot, Shizuri.”

Kanon announced this softly as usual but with a hint of firmness.

“Wh-why not?!”

While Shizuri nervously questioned this, Yukina looked closer and saw that the girl was covered in bandages. The ring and pinkie fingers on her right hand where a ring would go were as firmly immobilized as a battened hatch.

“Are Cas’s wounds that bad?”

Yuiri asked Kanon this in a worried tone. Shizuri seemed a little consternated as she frowned. Thanks to Shizuri having missed out on her chance to explain, Yuiri had mistaken Cas as her real name.

“Th-this is nothing significant.”

“She has four broken ribs and a shattered right ulna, along with contusions, sprains, and torn muscles. Her tendons are also inflamed. To be blunt, it is something of a mystery she can even stand and walk.”

The black cat ignored Shizuri’s stringent bluff and calmly enumerated her injuries.

Yukina and the others were astonished at how worse for wear Shizuri was. She needed strict bed rest for wounds as bad as those. This wasn’t the time for her to be worried about Kojou.

“An ogress’s body is resilient, but it lacks the regenerative abilities found in beast people and vampires. The white-haired girl seems to be on a temporary high from the demonic energy provided to her via her ruler privileges.”

“This is the blessing of a Paladin of Gisella…!”

Shizuri rebutted Natsuki’s dispassionate elaboration with a tiny voice. Yukina had vaguely caught on to this, but when she invoked the paladin’s blessing, it was bravado more often than not.

Still, Shizuri insisted she was all right and tried to snatch one of the rings, but she grimaced painfully when Yuiri and the others intercepted her. With a glance toward Shizuri, the silver-haired girl standing beside her gently reached toward the rings.

“Abbess, may I take one of the rings?”

“Huh? Kanon Kanase?”

Sayaka was shocked at how the normally docile Kanon made her decision without the slightest bit of hesitation. Neither raised a word per se, but Kiriha’s and Yuiri’s expressions registered surprise as well. They were no doubt thrown off by the gap between the Kanon they knew from the reference materials and what she’d just done.

Nina, however, wasn’t thrown off at all. She’d been with Kanon more than long enough to be familiar with her surprisingly decisive disposition.

“Indeed. I’ll do this for you.”

Nina adjusted the size of a ring to fit Kanon’s finger and handed it to her. Kanon placed it on her right ring finger. She looked at Yukina and lifted her palm.

“Now I have one just like you, Yukina.”

Seeing Kanon smile happily filled Yukina with a strange emotion. It was tough to peg down as just “joy.” This was a grin fit for the Saint of Middle School. Its incredible potency threatened to make Yukina melt despite being the same gender. Even a berserk Kojou wouldn’t stand a chance against it.

This also meant exposing Kanon to the menace of uncontrollable Beast Vassals.

“Kano, are you really okay with this?”

Yukina inquired about this, half with the intention of scaring Kanon out of it. Her circumstances might have been complicated, but Kanon was different from Attack Mages like Yukina and the others. She was a civilian who just happened to have great spiritual strength. Emergency or not, this wasn’t the kind of dangerous operation she ought to be exposed to.

“If Akatsuki says even I am welcome, I will be delighted to be his servant.”

Kanon, however, fondly embraced the ring on her finger with her left hand.

“Akatsuki has saved me many times over. He rescued Tomekichi and Hassan and Bakuro, too.”

“Eh? Who are they…?”

Yukina’s eyes widened when she suddenly heard those unfamiliar names. As Kojou’s observer, Yukina was worried that he’d gotten into even more trouble.

Kanon, though, happily brought a digital camera out of her pocket and showed off a photo.

“They’re kitties. Akatsuki helped me find homes for them. I was very happy. I have pictures of that time.”

“Wow, so cute…”

“Ha…snrk…!”

Peering at the photo, Yuiri raised a voice of admiration, whereas Sayaka burst out in little giggles while looking at the same photo. It was a photo of Kojou playing with the cats while wearing a goofy expression.

“That was why you decided to be a vampire’s Blood Servant? Isn’t that kinda…?”

“I feel that the deeper issue is with the choice of names…”

Kiriha muttered this to herself as Shio began to seriously mull over the issue.

“U-um!”

Suddenly, Yume vigorously raised a hand.

“Me too! I want to be Mister Kojou’s servant, too!”

Speaking those words, Yume didn’t bother waiting for Yukina and company to reply before reaching toward the rings on the table. At the very moment she was about to grab one, Yume’s body melted into thin air and vanished.

The next instant, they heard her muffled wail from inside a clump of decorative trees planted on the terrace. Natsuki had teleported her right in the middle of the thicket.

“I forgot to mention this, but the two squirts over there aren’t up for consideration.”

Natsuki, still in a finger-snapping pose, spoke with a lively expression.

“Wh-why not?”

Parting the crackling tree branches, Yume crawled out with her hair and uniform disheveled.

Yukina looked at her and sighed.

“I would think not. It would be a real problem if senpai drank the blood of a primary schooler.”

“You have that right. Forget vampire—he’d be a straight-up perv if he went that far.”

Shio concurred with a completely serious look.

Upon hearing this, Lydianne pouted as though disappointed.

“Then why didst thou bring us along?”

“I thought I made it clear you were just along for the ride?”

Natsuki’s cold stare shut her right up.

It was certainly dangerous to leave a couple of primary schoolers with too much power and mobility to their own devices while they knew only half the story. Above all else, they had the precedent of Asagi participating in a war against the Holy Ground Treaty Organization. Yukina could easily understand Natsuki’s desire as an educator not to leave them anywhere out of her sight.

“I don’t think now’s the time to be saying that when the fate of this island is up in the air!”

Undaunted, Yume mounted an objection. Disturbingly, she really did have a point.

After overhearing Yume and the others’ conversation, Shizuri rose up as if to say, Hear, hear!

“If you have sufficient Blood Vassals, you need not rely upon primary schoolers, do you?”

“Shizuri, you can’t.”

When Shizuri proudly puffed out her chest, Kanon softly pushed her back onto her chair.

“Why not?!”

Shizuri desperately objected, and the fact that she’d nearly been brought to tears from just that shove ensured that no one would support bringing her on a particularly dangerous mission.

“Er… Cas really does have a point, though. At a time when the lives of Itogami Island’s entire population are in jeopardy, it is no time for a Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency to bring personal feelings into the matter.”

“Shio Hikawa…?!”

Sayaka was aghast, eyes peeled as she watched Shio grab a ring just like that. Based on Sayaka’s shock at Shio’s decision to volunteer, she had to have assumed her rival wasn’t all that close to Kojou.

For some reason, Shio’s partner, Yuiri, wore a look of acceptance, as if she’d seen it coming all along.

“Is that how things are…? Shio, do you have a thing for Kojou, too…?”

“Y-you’re wrong! As an Attack Mage, this is what I have to do to protect the citizens’ lives and fortunes… Wait, Yuiri, what do you mean by ‘Shio, you too’?!”

“Yukii, may I have a ring as well?”

Yuiri completely ignored Shio’s cross-examination as she reached a hand toward Yukina.

“…Miss Yuiri… Are you sure about this?”

Yukina double-checked as she handed over a ring. Well, umm, Yuiri’s blushing smile seemed to say.

“Kojou drank my blood before, you see. I—I didn’t mind, I guess?”

“Whaaat?! Wait, Yuiri! You mean he really did do that with you back then?!”

“Wha…wha…?”

Shio and Sayaka widened their eyes at Yuiri’s shocking confession.

Yuiri was flushed, and now Yukina’s cheeks were reddening right beside her. Kojou had drank Yuiri’s blood expressly because she’d peeked in on him engaging in vampiric acts with Yukina.

As a strange tension developed between Lion King Agency Attack Mages, Kiriha turned toward Nina, her face dead serious for some reason.

“—Given the occasion, couldn’t you make the designs a little more elaborate? They should rise to this level of luxury at bare minimum.”

“Quite a demanding one, aren’t you, Kiriha…?”

Kiriha showed Nina the results of a smartphone search as a reference as she began giving detailed instructions. It seemed that she was demanding Nina make the design of her ring more extravagant.

“Wait a…?! Even you’re getting one, Kiriha Kisaki?!”

Glancing at the ring in Kiriha’s hand, Sayaka growled. “When did she…?”

“I cannot let the Lion King Agency monopolize a power as difficult to obtain as being the Blood Servant of the Fourth Primogenitor, can I now?”

Donning her completed ring, Kiriha spoke like it was perfectly obvious. She then smiled in her typically malicious fashion.

“Besides, I have already spent time with Kojou Akatsuki naked. I must make him take proper responsibility.”

“Hrk!”

For some reason, Sayaka projected an aura of defeat as her words caught in her throat.

“Miss Kisaki was wearing a swimsuit the entire time, though she was the only one to do so.”

Kiriha’s expression was completely unchanged when Yukina interjected for the sake of Kojou’s honor.

“Kojou said it turned him on more that way.”

“Is that true?! He said that?! You are not making that up?!”

Yukina turned unintentionally serious as she questioned Kiriha.

That must have triggered something in Sayaka, for her voice went ragged as she tried to compete with Kiriha.

“Wait, Yukina! Me too! Kojou Akatsuki drank my blood before, too!”

“My, what a pity. It seems there are no rings left for you, Sayaka Kirasaka!”

Kiriha quickly concealed the jewelry on the table through sleight of hand. She seemed quite proud of herself as Sayaka grabbed hold of her, breathing raggedly through her nose.

“How can that be true?! Only four people have taken them so far!!”

“Please wait. Before that, give me a ring! I said hand me a ring already!!”

Shizuri dove in and added to the commotion. Yukina and the others watched in bewilderment as a tug-of-war began between them in earnest. Shizuri didn’t back off even an inch against Kiriha and Sayaka, who both employed physical enchantment. Injured or not, that was an ogress for you.

“Goodness. That makes six… And seven if we include the patient in critical condition?”

Natsuki calmly took a head count, completely ignoring Kiriha and the others as their roughhousing continued.

“Somehow, we’ve cleared the halfway mark. If this was a democratic vote, the matter would be settled, but I doubt that would be sufficient to sway The Blood’s Beast Vassals.”

The black cat replied in an equally subdued tone. Natsuki replied with a nod before turning soberly to Yukina.

“Has anyone else had Akatsuki drink their blood?”

“…Of those whom I am aware, Miss Astarte and Miss Glenda—”

“Glenda?! He laid a hand on a girl as young as her?!”

Shizuri, who for some reason was pulling Sayaka’s hair, seemed aghast as she lifted her face.

Yuiri and Yukina swiftly shook their heads.

“Y-you’re wrong. Er, well, you’re not incorrect but…”

“At the time, it was as if Glenda was a ghost haunting us. Akatsuki-senpai ended up drinking her blood despite himself.”

“And you believed a stupid excuse like that?!”

“So gullible…”

Shizuri and Kiriha shot Yukina pitying glances. Yukina, too, thought that it was a stupid excuse, so she could say nothing further in response.

At that moment, Yuiri gasped, realizing something as she looked all around the area.

“Speaking of Glenda, where is she? Wasn’t she with you, Cas?”

“Ah…”

Yuiri’s question also clued Yukina into Glenda’s absence. Last she’d heard, Glenda had taken Shizuri and the other wounded ogress on her back to the Gigafloat Management Corporation’s Sorcery Lab Number Six. That was why she had naturally assumed the dragon girl would move in concert with Shizuri.

Kanon, however, gently shook her head with a somewhat dejected look.

“She left during the time Shizuri was being treated.”

“…Left?”

“She went outside without a single word to anyone.”

Shizuri, who at some point had wrested a ring from Kiriha, grimaced from her painful wounds as she explained.

“Given the current state of Island North, we deemed it relatively safe for someone to be walking out alone, so we left the search for her to the guardsmen.”

“I—I see. I don’t think you’re wrong about that but…”

“Glenda… Why…?”

Shio and Yuiri murmured haltingly as they sympathized with Shizuri and Kanon.

“Pointless to brood over who we don’t have,” conveyed Natsuki’s businesslike tone as she continued the conversation. “Astarte cannot become Akatsuki’s Blood Servant because she already has a Beast Vassal implanted in her. I do not know much about this Glenda, though. Just who is that dragon girl?”

“To be honest, we don’t know a thing about her, either…”

Shio spoke limply and hesitantly. Detailed research on the odd dragon girl named Glenda continued even at that very moment at Blue Elysium’s research facility. Presently, however, the more they investigated, the more questions were raised. They still didn’t have any solid information on the girl.

“She has a soft spot for Kojou, so I think she’d help if she came back…”

Yuiri hung her head in unease as she spoke, but the gaze Natsuki turned toward her was stern.

“Isn’t the girl’s soft spot for the Fourth Primogenitor, not Akatsuki specifically?”

“I don’t…think so…but…”

Though Yuiri had intended to refute her instantly, her response wasn’t very confident.

“It would seem best not to get our hopes up.”

Kiriha, who’d barely met Glenda at all, coldly shot down the notion. She must have been on the mark because no one tried to refute her. Sayaka, still grappling with Kiriha, merely pinched her cheek without a word. Kiriha responded in kind.

“The other people who’ve had vampiric experiences are Miss Yuuma, and—”

Yukina counted on her fingers as she rummaged through her memories of Kojou’s targets.

Somehow, the fact that he’d drunk the blood of people besides her left a stirring in her chest that wasn’t far removed from the sense that she hadn’t been a good enough watcher. As she recalled these anxiety-provoking memories, Yukina shifted her gaze toward Asagi, who was sitting the farthest away from her on the patio.

“Asagi Aiba? You too?”

Realizing what Yukina’s demeanor implied, Shizuri stared daggers at Asagi. The girl merely brushed the hair from her cheek in reply.

“So that makes nine, then?”

Natsuki’s expression remained unchanged. Yuuma, Kojou’s childhood friend, probably wouldn’t hate the idea of being Kojou’s Blood Servant. Natsuki no doubt reasoned there was no point even bothering to ask. That went double for Asagi, who was always overflowing with fondness for Kojou. However—

“Sorry, I’m not going along with this.”

The words coming out of Asagi’s mouth were decidedly not what Yukina and the others expected.

“A-Asagi Aiba?”

Yukina looked at Asagi, her expression not so much one of surprise as complete bewilderment. Shizuri was also consternated for some reason.

“Why won’t you? All this time, I thought you held no hatred of Kojou Akatsuki in your heart…”

“What of it? And what, sit quietly with everyone waiting for him to drink our blood? Don’t be ridiculous!”

Asagi was utterly indignant.

Shio put herself between Asagi and Yukina, gently trying to mediate.

“Um, Asagi Aiba, I understand how you feel, but the lives of Itogami Island’s entire population is at st—”

“Well, they can go eat shit. Why do I have to become a Blood Servant? Though I might consider it if that idiot Kojou bows to me with a bouquet in hand!”

Yukina and the others were at a loss for words as they watched Asagi make that overbearing pronouncement. Where does all her confidence come from? they wondered. At the same time, however, they couldn’t help but think this was just like her. After all, Asagi had picked a fight with no less than the Holy Ground Treaty Organization.

“First of all, it’s fishy that getting twelve Blood Servants together is all you need to get the Beast Vassals to obey you. I bet that’s just the First Primogenitor making stuff up as he goes.”

Asagi looked squarely at Yukina as she calmly asserted this. It was like a bolt from the blue to Yukina. She’d taken the First Primogenitor at his word even though he’d implanted the Beast Vassals into Kojou, but she had no hard evidence that was the whole story.

“Do you think he’d be satisfied with something as boring as that?”

“Ngh…”

Everyone’s expressions changed, Natsuki and Yukari included. Vampire primogenitors lived for an eternity. They had an incredible amount of time to kill and constantly craved entertainment. Would they really be satisfied watching Yukina and the others move exactly in accordance with the script they had written?

The answer was a resounding no.

Even if they assembled twelve Blood Servants, that alone could not save Kojou. They needed to discover what was motivating the First Primogenitor’s scheme and move beyond his expectations.

“It seems that you have something in mind.”

Yukina gazed powerfully at Asagi. Seeing this, the other girl finally broke into a smile.

“There’s no guarantee it’s gonna work out like I want, so I won’t twist your arm into helping. I just think there’s a better way to do this than having everyone try to seduce Kojou.”

Asagi’s blatantly provocative statement caused Sayaka to make a low “ughhh.” Yuiri and Shio sank into a bewildered silence.

The two primary schoolers, however, stood up with sparkles in their eyes.

“It would seem Lady Yume and I might partake of this method.”

“What do you plan on doing, Miss Asagi?”

Yukina, Lydianne, and Yume jumping aboard changed the tide. There wasn’t any guarantee whatsoever that assembling Blood Servants would save Kojou in and of itself. With that in mind, betting on a riskier method for a much greater return didn’t seem like a bad gamble at all.

“I really do dislike you, Asagi Aiba.”

Kiriha brusquely swept her hair back as she slowly rose to her feet. She glared at Asagi, but an amused smile came to her lips.

“I should have blown you away along with Blue Elysium.”

“Thank you. I take that as a compliment.”

Receiving Kiriha’s gaze head-on, Asagi raised a palm toward the other girl.

The two then exchanged a vigorous high five like they’d been besties for ages.

Yukina and the others could only stand there, staring dumbstruck at the moment when their bizarre friendship was born.