Strike the Blood - Volume 22 - Chapter 2.6

6

Waiting for Kojou upon his return from Keystone Gate were Asagi and Yaze, and the primary schooler duo of Lydianne and Yume.

“So you ended up crawling back with dishonor?”

Looking at Kojou coming back with Shizuri and Sayaka, Asagi seemed weary to her very soul.

They were in a room at a luxury hotel in Keystone Gate. It was the living room of the suite Kojou had stayed in the night before. The room was broad and the ceiling was high, but thanks to Lydianne’s robot tank being present, the interior felt oddly cramped. Kojou felt like a criminal summoned to a court-martial.

“Whaddaya mean, crawl back? Well, I guess I understand your reaction over forcin’ an injured person back on duty.”

Kojou rebutted with a look of dissatisfaction. Wha—?, thought Shizuri, taking offense and glaring at Kojou.

“By an injured person forced back on duty, are you possibly referring to me?!”

How rude, the childlike puffing of Shizuri’s cheeks seemed to say. Kojou let out a sigh like it was a heap of trouble.

“Who else here fits the bill? And what, it’s a bad thing comin’ back here? It ain’t like I can stay overnight at my place with Cas and Kirasaka, right…?”

Even if they were both acquaintances, he figured even Nagisa would blow her lid if her big brother came back home with a pair of girls in tow. It’d be better if they could use Yukina’s apartment right beside the Akatsuki residence, but Sayaka had completely forgotten to borrow her key.

Normally, Sayaka would be overjoyed to take the key and have a legal, aboveboard way of entering Yukina’s living space, so it was a slipup quite unlike her.

“Well, it’s fine, I suppose. This hotel doesn’t have any guests besides us, and there’s some stuff I wanted to ask Kirasaka anyway.”

“You want to ask Kirasaka stuff?”

Kojou found that a little surprising as he looked at Asagi, dressed in her own plain-looking clothes.

Asagi and the others nodded all at once in response. The charged atmosphere pricked at Kojou’s skin, causing him and Shizuri to trade glances. Sayaka’s expression hardened even further.

“Something smells fishy. Doesn’t it, Miss Kirasaka?”

Asagi rested her cheek against her palm, smiling with only the corners of her lips. Sayaka nervously shook her head.

“E-excuse me?! I properly bathed today, I’ll have you know?! Twice at that!”

“That’s not what she means. What are you planning, Miss Sayaka?”

Yume looked straight up at Sayaka as she inquired.

Trying to escape from their sharp gazes, Sayaka subconsciously averted her eyes.

“I am not p-planning anything…”

“Come to think of it, the Island Guard’s been sending up some odd complaints. They’re having a hard time getting in touch with Kiriha Kisaki of the Bureau of Astrology. They’re fussing over what to do about the divine armaments she used and left behind at the container yard…”

“I-is that so… The Bureau of Astrology really likes causing trouble…!”

Yaze’s casual comment made Sayaka’s voice go shrill. Sayaka was extremely capable as an Attack Mage, but she was surprisingly fragile on the mental front, especially in the face of unexpected circumstances. Now that her poker face had been stripped away, she barely had a leg to stand on.

“That’s the face of someone who knows something, isn’t it?”

Yume slowly posed that question like a cruel serpent cornering its prey.

Sayaka looked very nervous as she fiercely shook her head.

“Y-you’re wrong. It’s not me; Glenda, she…”

“Glenda?”

The look in Kojou’s eyes sharpened when an unexpected name was brought up.

With everyone present glaring at her, Sayaka nodded with a forlorn look of resignation.

“Yeah. That girl suddenly appeared and took Hikawa, Haba, and Kiriha Kisaki away somewhere.”

“Whaddaya mean, somewhere?”

“I don’t even know…!”

Kojou pressed the point, causing Sayaka to shout loudly, her nerves frayed.

Asagi touched a hand to her lips. Hmm, she thought, briefly exhaling.

“Now I see…”

“Ring any bells, Asagi??”

Yaze grimaced in mild surprise, but Asagi bluntly shook her head.

“Only a little bit, but it’s probably fine to let the girls be. Glenda’s not our enemy.”

“Ain’t really worried about that.”

Kojou made a pained smile as he breathed out. It was unthinkable for Glenda to do harm to Kojou and others with malice aforethought. At the very least, everyone who knew her thought so.

“The Lion King Agency knows that, too, so they’re not nervous about that part. Well, probably not.”

Asagi shrugged her shoulders as she agreed with him.

Yaze stared intently at Sayaka with a dubious look.

“So what Kirasaka-baby’s people are up to is separate from this whole Glenda thing?”

“Y-yeah…”

Overwhelmed, Sayaka nodded reflexively. Then she gasped and came back to her senses.

“Y-you’re wrong! I didn’t mean that Master and the others are planning something right now… You’re wrong!”

“Hmmm…”

Asagi gazed coolly at the flustered Sayaka, and then…

“Tanker.”

“Understood.”

Lydianne took out a cell phone marketed to children, operating it with a practiced hand. The robot tank seated at the center of the room suddenly went into motion, its telescopic manipulator firmly pinning Sayaka’s arms to her body from behind.

“Ah, wait a—?! What the—?! What are you pulling?!”

Sayaka thrashed, trying to shake off the manipulator holding her in its grip, but however much her clothing became disheveled, the robot tank didn’t even twitch.

Asagi’s gaze became frostier still as she watched Sayaka defenselessly held aloft.

“Yume, please.”

“Yes. I am sorry, Miss Sayaka.”

Yume moved in front of Sayaka and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyelids once more, Yume’s eyes emitted a dazzling glow like those of a cat seeing in the darkness. Black wings woven of demonic energy floated up from her back.

When Sayaka realized this, an air of undiluted terror came over her face.

“D-don’t tell me you plan on using succubus powers to make me spill my secrets?! I-it’s no use; even if you do that, I’ll never tell a soul that I’m actually in love with Yukina!”

“………”

We know that already, said the odd expressions coming over pretty much everyone in the room. Shizuri was the only one bulging her eyes, speechless.

For her part, now that saying the first part had lit a fire under her, Sayaka began rambling on her own without anyone having bothered to ask.

“I love her, so what gives?! Yukina seems to have more fun when she’s with Kojou Akatsuki than when she’s with me…! The two are always flirty-flirt, lovey-dovey, uuu…hate, I hate Kojou Akatsuki! I want to lick my Yukina’s neck, I want to breathe in the scent of my Yukina’s hair…!”

“Wh-what the heck is this…?”

Stricken by dizziness, Kojou clutched his head. Yume Eguchi, the Witch of the Night reborn, had mind control abilities. It wasn’t impossible for her overwhelming power of domination to control others by force, but its main use was to unveil the darkness in another’s heart and make them act in accordance with their secret desires.

That said, even Yume was red-faced and a bit thrown off, having never thought Sayaka’s true feelings would be embarrassing to this absurd extent.

“I feel like hiding under a rock just from hearing all this.”

“Um, I am quite sorry. My ability only makes the target reveal her hidden feelings, so…”

Asagi put a hand on her forelocks with a constrained look. Yume hung her head, crestfallen. Yume’s succubus ability apparently wasn’t so convenient; you only got the answers to the specific questions you wanted.

Sayaka paid no heed to the dejected looks all around her, voice fraying as she became even more agitated.

“Uuu…and what’s with Kojou Akatsuki, his face is plain, but once in a while, the side of his face looks really cool, he’s sweaty but it smells kinda nice, hearing his voice calms me down, and he even carried me bridal style, I mean if he can make Yukina his servant, take me, too, damnit…!”

“…Huh?”

When Sayaka began to ramble on like she was completely drunk, her words threw Kojou for a loop.

Beside him, Shizuri stared at Kojou with a sullen gaze for some reason.

“How wonderful. You are so popular.”

“Nah, if I seriously did that, it’d be a big mess…”

Kojou replied, just barely maintaining his mental calm. Sayaka was not in control of herself at the moment, so it’d be a disaster later if he acted based on thinking they were Sayaka’s real feelings.

Unaware of Kojou’s melancholy, Sayaka shook her head in anguish, off in her own little world.

“Ahhh…but it’s not meant to be… If we destroy Itogami Island, I can’t be with Kojou Akatsuki anymore…!”

“…Hah?!”

Asagi, barely listening to Sayaka’s confession from lack of interest, paled as she stood up.

“Destroy Itogami Island? What’s this all about, Kirasaka?!”

Kojou’s face was tense, too, as he closed the distance with Sayaka. Sayaka shook her head like a child being scolded.

“I don’t know, either…! The Three Saints and the Attack Mage Section decided it! They said if they break the keystone and Itogami Island sinks, the gate to Nod will close, too…!”

“Break the…keystone, you say…?”

Kojou was beside himself as he weakly murmured the words.

Two hundred and twenty meters under the surface of the sea, in an eternal prison beyond the reach of light, was Keystone Gate’s lowest stratum. Kojou gritted his teeth when he recalled the stone pillar sealed within…