Strike the Blood - Volume 3 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE 

THE ISLAND OF EXILE 

1 

The next day: Saturday… 

Kojou, having passed the night without a single wink of sleep, came out of the Island North monorail station together with Yukina. 

The Demon Sanctuary of Itogami City was a research and development city. The island was cramped with big corporations manufacturing pharmaceuticals, precision machinery, and high-tech materials, etc., and several well-known academic research agencies. 

This place, Island North Section Two’s Magia Valley, was known for having a particularly high concentration of large-scale research facilities. It was a futuristic-looking area with strong traces of being part of a man-made island. 

“…Magus Craft?” Kojou asked Yukina while looking up at the YOU ARE HERE map in front of the station. 

Yukina unfolded a handwritten memo and double-checked. 

“Yes. The address Nagisa gave me for Kanase is the address for Magus Craft Incorporated.” 

“…That’s a company that makes cleaning robots, isn’t it?” Kojou mumbled as he located a memory in the back of his mind. He’d definitely seen the name on trash compactors for buildings, rug-polishing machines, and household-cleaning robots. 

“That’s right. It’s a corporation known mainly for manufacturing Automata for commercial purposes. It has a research facility here in Itogami City, and Kanase’s current father works there.” 

“…Current father…? Oh right, Kanase lived at an abbey?” 

“Yes. I heard that he took Kanase in after the abbey was shut down.” As Yukina spoke the words, she lowered her eyes with a somewhat conflicted look. No doubt Yukina, an orphan raised by the Lion King Agency, had empathy rather than pity for Kanon’s circumstances. 

Kojou scratched his head with a sober look. 

“Normally you’d think that was a good thing, but…after seeing that yesterday, I dunno…” 

“Agreed. There seems a bit more to the story.” 

Yukina nodded in her overly serious demeanor. Then, she suddenly lifted her face up with apparent concern. 

“Have you spoken to…Ms. Minamiya about Kanase?” 

“Not yet. More like, I can’t yet. She might not know that the Masked girl’s really Kanase. We need a bit more info one way or another…” 

Kojou’s face twisted in anguish as he exhaled. 

Of course, he didn’t think his own judgment was absolutely correct, either. It might have been best to leave preventing further damage in Natsuki’s hands. However, Kojou wasn’t a member of the Island Guard; he was just a student. He wasn’t inclined to hand an acquaintance over to the Gigafloat Management Corporation without any idea of the circumstances involved. He at least wanted to talk to Kanon once beforehand. 

Unusually, Yukina didn’t try to scold Kojou at all; she simply murmured, “It can’t be helped, then.” 

“This is…where she lives?” 

“This building is listed as her address…” 

Having finally arrived at their destination, Kojou and Yukina spent a while silently standing there in place. 

It was an aggressively standing structure entirely encased in reflective glass. It looked like a cold, lifeless office building, not somewhere anyone would actually live. If this was really where Kanon lived, it would mean she lived not in a house, but inside a corporate laboratory. 

While that was far from the worst of all things, that fact just didn’t fit with their image of Kanon. At the very least, hardly lent itself to raising a kitten. 

As Kojou and Yukina made their way into the lobby, a young girl at the reception desk spoke up to them. “…Welcome.” 

“Ah… Excuse me, we’d like to meet Kanon Kanase who lives at this address?” 

Kojou made an awkward, polite smile as he stated his business. 

The receptionist looked up at Kojou with a detached look in her eyes. Kojou realized that she wasn’t human. She was a robot… An Automata built to mimic a human being. 

“Kanon Kanase of room 204 is currently absent.” 

The receptionist spoke informatively, her fingers typing on a keyboard all the while. 

“Do you know when she’ll be back?” 

“I do not know.” 

The receptionist’s calm, polite reaction gave Kojou a creepy feeling he couldn’t put into words. 

Even though she, too, was a man-made construct, her nature was completely different from Astarte. 

Astarte was a human being made through artificial means, but this receptionist was a machine only pretending to be human. She did not possess free will. How she behaved just like a human being in spite of that really creeped Kojou out. The cold malaise he felt was a good match for that which he felt hanging about the whole Magus Craft Incorporated building. 

“Is Mr. Kensei Kanase at home?” Yukina opened her mouth in place of the now-silent Kojou. This Kensei Kanase was no doubt Kanon’s guardian. 

“Please pardon me, but you are?” 

“Himeragi of the Lion King Agency,” Yukina replied to the receptionist’s question with the name of her organization. That surprised Kojou a little. 

Bringing up the name of the Lion King Agency in a situation having nothing to do with her formal mission wasn’t something he expected out of the highly diligent Yukina. And the corresponding reply from the receptionist was somewhat outside their expectations, too. 

“…Understood. Please wait over there briefly.” 

As the receptionist spoke, she pointed to a sofa for guests in the central lobby. 

“What does she mean by ‘understood’?” 

“I’m not certain, but it seems good for us.” 

Although a little bewildered, Kojou and Yukina sat on the sofa and waited as they’d been told. 

The expensive sofa felt very comfortable to sit on, but it was impossible to relax in the middle of a huge lobby like this. Kojou felt like they were on display. 

After waiting for about fifteen minutes, with Kojou beginning to feel bored, he saw someone getting off the elevator in the back of the lobby. It was a foreign woman dressed in a wine-red suit. 

The woman had ornate blond hair. With high heels on, she was probably taller than Kojou. From one glance at her, she was a stylish, sensual, beautiful woman. The legs emerging from under her tight skirt had bewitching body lines. 

“That’s not…Kanase’s dad, is it?” 

Kojou narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he muttered. 

“A registered demon, it would seem.” 

Yukina let Kojou’s airheaded remark slide and pointed out that fact. 

The woman was wearing a metallic bracelet about five centimeters wide on her right arm over her suit. It was a demon registration bracelet from the Gigafloat Management Corporation. 

Those bracelets monitored a demon’s body and prevented the activation of special abilities; in exchange, Itogami City granted demons full citizenship. So long as they bore their demon registration bracelets, they had the right to receive an education or employment, the same as any normal human being. 

But to Kojou and the other residents of this Demon Sanctuary, a registration bracelet was by no means a rare sight. What drew in Kojou’s eyes was rather the sensuality of the woman’s presence. 

“She’s…pretty gorgeous, huh?” Kojou unintentionally voiced his thoughts out loud while staring at how the woman’s breasts thrust out from the top of her suit. As Kojou did so, Yukina glared at him from the side, making a sigh of displeasure. 

“That’s rude, senpai… Or rather, those indecent eyes of yours are already looking rather criminal.” 

As Kojou underwent a bit of shock at her words going so far, the woman in the red suit halted in front of Kojou and Yukina. An alluring smile came over her, as if trying to bewitch those gazing at her. 

“I’m sorry. Did I make you wait for very long?” 

“No… We are quite sorry for the sudden visit,” Yukina replied, refusing to be overawed. Perhaps she’d judged, now that she had declared herself part of the Lion King Agency, she could show no weakness. Nor was there any sign of her being cowed by the difference in height between her and the woman opposite her, nearly two hundred centimeters tall. 

Looking back at Yukina, the woman in the red suit displayed a bit of surprise in her eyes. 

“You’re the ones from last n…” 

“Ah?” 

“No, pardon me. I simply didn’t think an Attack Mage from the Lion King Agency would be so young,” The woman continued in a businesslike tone, shaking her head as if nothing had happened. 

“I am Beatrice Basler from the Research Department. I…suppose you might say I am Kensei Kanase’s secretary. What business did you have with Kanase today?” 

“I’m very sorry, but I cannot say at present. I would like to speak to him in person.” 

Yukina stated it with a hard-sounding voice. The woman calling herself Beatrice nodded, showing no sign of taking offense. 

“I understand. However, unfortunately, Kanase is not in today.” 

“Not in?” 

“That’s right. Kanase is currently off the island. Our firm operates an independent research facility under the jurisdiction of the Demon Sanctuary; that is where he is.” 

“Outside of Itogami Island? And would Kan…his daughter be with him?” 

“Yes. I heard something to that effect.” 

Beatrice made a courteous smile as she nodded. 

Itogami Island, which floated atop dragon lines that flowed through the Pacific Ocean, was a site particularly suitable for sorcery. However, as a man-made island, it did have its limits. The effects of waves and currents could not be completely negated, and any magic requiring an unbroken connection to the earth could not be performed whatsoever. 

To deal with these shortcomings, corporations based out of the Demon Sanctuary had been authorized to make use of several uninhabited islands that were part of the Izu Islands chain. Perhaps the facility Kensei Kanase was said to be at was on just such an uninhabited island. 

“Do you know when the two of them will return here?” Kojou asked with tension mixed in with his voice. Beatrice shook her head with a look of dismay. 

“That is unclear. I am not familiar with the details of the project Kanase is currently involved in, so I cannot say…” 

“Is…that so…?” 

Seeing Kojou so dejected, the woman made a pleasant smile as she spoke. 

“However, if it is an urgent matter, I believe it would be faster if you visited the research facility in person.” 

“…We can do that?” Kojou’s eyes snapped wide as he asked her back. 

“Yes, of course. A light airplane makes two round-trips to the island daily, so you could go along for the ride. I believe you can still make it for the AM flight.” 

“Could you…make the arrangements for that?” 

“Understood. This way, please.” 

Beatrice walked off, beckoning Kojou and Yukina to join her. As Kojou quickly rose to his feet to follow her, for some reason, Yukina was murmuring to herself as she kept her eyes lowered. 

“Airplane…” 

“Himeragi?” 

Kojou looked back with a questioning look. 

“No, it’s nothing at all.” 

Yukina squeezed her fists as she shook her head. Her lips were slightly pale as they quivered. 

2 

To the residents of Itogami Island, floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, planes were a familiar means of transportation. For this reason, Itogami Island was host to six airports of various sizes. 

That said, large passenger planes could only land normally at the central airport. The other five airports were civilian airports with the bare minimum for facilities. The runways weren’t even a hundred meters long. In other words, they were truly simple, minimal facilities without any instrument landing systems or even lights for nighttime landings. 

The Northern District commercial airport that Kojou and Yukina were brought to was one such small airport. 

The only building standing inside the airport’s perimeter was a small control tower. There were four slightly dirty light passenger airplanes standing atop the runway, but they seemed to have been left behind as an afterthought. 

They were most likely old-school propeller planes. They seemed to be private aircraft owned by Magus Craft. 

“Sheesh, that bitch. She calls me all the way back here, and it turns out she wants me to play tour guide for a field trip.” 

Standing beside the propeller planes, waiting for Kojou and Yukina, was a long-haired man in a leather jacket. He was fairly tall, and thanks to being overly thin, he had a bit of the look of a model, but his apparently slothful personality was what immediately stood out. An air of thorough disappointment seemed to hang all around the man. 

As Yukina and Kojou walked over to the runway, the man gave them a light wave. 

“Oh, well… Welcome, guests! I am Lowe Kirishima. I’m something of an errand boy for Beatrice. Well, nice to meet you.” 

As Kojou shook the hand Kirishima offered and Yukina traded glances with him, Kirishima made a leering smile as he stared at the guitar case on her back. 

“Hmph, I see. Seems you’re not just a couple of students… Well, you get all kinds here in the Demon Sanctuary, huh?” 

“Ha-ha…” 

As Kojou glossed things over with a vague smile, Kojou’s eyes stopped when they passed over the bracelet Kirishima wore on his wrist. He, like Beatrice, was a demon. He was probably an L-type…a beast man.” 

Kojou and Yukina had boarded the plane and were waiting inside when Kirishima called out from the pilot seat. “Well, time to get this girl ready for takeoff.” 

After they sat down in the seats behind him, he handed a vinyl sheet bag to Kojou. 

“Here you go. Barf bag.” 

“Eh?” 

For a moment, Kojou was bewildered at why he’d be handed this before even taking off, but he immediately got it as soon as he glanced at the adjacent Yukina’s face. The exceedingly brooding look on Yukina’s face, the way she gripped her hands together as if in prayer—she was in a near-panic, as if her usual calm, composed air was an illusion. No doubt not even facing the Lotharingian Armed Apostle or the aristocrat from the Warlord’s Empire had thrown her off to this degree. 

“H-Himeragi? Are you all right?” Now uneasy himself, Kojou asked without thinking. 

But Yukina raised a reassuring face as she replied. “Of course. There is no problem whatsoever.” 

“Er, well, your face turned as white as a sheet…” 

“You’re just imagining it.” 

Her reply was crisp, but her voice was frail. As Kojou kept thinking, She can fight in midair like she’s walking a tightrope without a net, so there’s no way, right? he asked… 

“…You wouldn’t be afraid of airplanes, would you?” 

“Absolutely not! I-I am a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, after all.” 

As Yukina’s childish excuse made Kojou think, I made better lies in kindergarten, he stifled the strained smile that threatened to leak out. It was cute that Yukina had an unexpected weakness like this, but he didn’t feel like making fun of her when she was so desperately hiding it. 

Yukina, who had been coerced into and given no option but living as a Sword Shaman for the Lion King Agency, was not permitted to display weakness before others. After all, such behavior would lose her the only place she had in the world. No doubt that was why Yukina had always pushed herself and behaved decisively since she’d been a little girl. 

She couldn’t sound weak even in front of trusted friends and allies. Kojou had known a similar type of isolation once before. He’d probably been wrapped in the same emotions when he was on the basketball court. 

Finally, Kojou got tired of the isolation and quit basketball. Someone like him had no right to laugh at Yukina. 

“Actually, Nagisa’s bad with airplanes, too. …Actually, she’s bad with any kind of vehicle. She gets sick right away.” 

“I told you, it’s not as if I have a hard time with airplanes…” 

Yukina objected to Kojou’s blunt utterance with pouty lips. 

Right about then, the airplane they were on began to accelerate down the runway for takeoff. Yukina’s entire body froze at the increasingly forceful engine sounds and the shaking of the fuselage. 

Seeing how Yukina had already lost her senses, Kojou silently grasped her shaking hands. 

“…S-senpai?” 

“Ahh, sorry. I thought you might relax more if I was holding your hands. You didn’t want me to?” 

“I have said no such thing…!” 

Yukina spoke in a hasty-seeming tone as her quivering hands grasped Kojou’s hand back. Kojou sighed an exasperated sigh as he gazed out the window. 

The plane immediately left Itogami Island; it was blue ocean as far as the eye could see. He could very roughly tell their direction by the angle of the sun, but he no longer had any way to know where they actually were whatsoever. The aircraft itself seemed to be running smoothly enough, but the fuselage of the old-style propeller plane was more rickety than he’d expected; Kojou became concerned whether they’d ever make it back. Perhaps Yukina’s unease was contagious. 

“…I wonder if the research project Kanase’s dad is working on is really related to the Masked…” Kojou murmured to himself as if trying to distract his own mind. He wasn’t all that worried about Kirishima overhearing them from the front seat inside such a noisy aircraft. 

“Yes…I think it is highly likely,” Yukina replied with a grave look. 

It was a natural conclusion. With those runes of light rising from all over Kanon’s monstrous form, it was extremely likely Kanon had undergone some kind of ritual to transform her flesh and blood. 

High-level ritual sorcery like that required an organization, plus someone who could actually perform the ritual on Kanon herself. Kensei Kanase, a sorcerous engineer for a major corporation, as well as Kanon’s adoptive father, definitely fit the profile. 

“So he altered his own daughter into a monster like that and made her kill her own kind…?” 

Kojou made a rude click of his tongue as he muttered. However, Yukina made an even more austere face as she shook her head. 

“You probably have the order backward.” 

“Ah?” 

“Kensei Kanase didn’t alter his own daughter, but rather…” 

“…You mean…he adopted Kanase so he could do this to her…!” The altogether horrible hypothesis colored Kojou’s field of vision with rage. 

If that orphaned girl, having finally found a family of her own, knew that her father saw her only as raw material for an experiment… 

Kojou could no longer even imagine the despair Kanon would face in that moment. 

Then, Yukina made what seemed like a frail, self-deprecating smile as she lowered her eyes. 

“I might well have a lot in common with Kanase. That’s why…” The few words that Yukina spoke finally made Kojou realize the truth of how she felt. 

Certainly, there was a lot of overlap between Kanon now and when he’d first met Yukina, raised as a Sword Shaman. As far as Yukina was concerned, one wrong step and it could have been her being used as a guinea pig in Kanon’s place. That was why Yukina had invoked the name of the Lion King Agency at Magus Craft Incorporated so they could meet Kensei Kanase: She was desperate in her own way to save Kanon. 

“Last night…Kanase saved us, didn’t she…?” 

Recalling the taste of deadly combat he’d tasted on top of the cell tower, Kojou sought affirmation in a subdued voice. Yukina made a small gasp, lifted her face, and squeezed Kojou’s hand more strongly. 

“Yes.” 

As she nodded firmly, Yukina’s eyes said: And that’s why this time, I want to save her. Kojou felt the same way about that. In the end, that was reason enough for Kojou to save Kanon. 

But as if mocking their mutual resolve, the airplane suddenly shook hard and began heading down. 

“Hey, newlyweds. Sorry to interrupt your lovey-dovey chitchat, but we’re landing.” 

As he spoke, Kirishima pointed to a small island floating in the middle of the sea. 

It was an island shaped like a half-moon with green forest all over its middle. It couldn’t have been even two kilometers’ radius. It looked like you could complete a stroll around the whole island in half a day. There were no signs of houses from the air. It was a completely uninhabited island. 

“That island’s a Magus Craft research facility?” 

As the doubtful Kojou asked him, Kirishima made a tedious nod. 

“It’s just a nameless, deserted island, but we call it the Goldfish Bowl.” 

“Goldfish Bowl?” 

When Kojou crooked his neck, thinking, What’s that supposed to mean? the airplane began a large turn. They were entering a landing pattern. The engine became even noisier; the fuselage shook even more fiercely. 

“Hold on tight, the runway’s a little bare bones. No margin for error.” 

“…By runway, you don’t mean that field over there?” 

“Don’t talk. You’ll bite your tongue!” 

“Wah… Seriously?!” 

The old propeller plane charged toward the field, with nothing but grass spread out over otherwise barren ground. It was about the same width as an elementary schoolyard; there weren’t even markers, let alone pavement. It wasn’t something you could call a runway in good conscience. 

Without hesitation, Yukina pressed herself into Kojou, but he had no leeway to blush over it. 

The aircraft violently touched down with roughly the same force as a crash landing. They bounced off the rough surface several times, slowly decelerated, and barely came to a stop before going over a cliff. 

With a practiced hand, Kirishima undid his seat belt and opened the ill-fitting door. 

“We’re here. Now get off, lovebirds. I’ve got a schedule to keep.” 

“We’re not a couple, you know.” 

Kojou objected, but there was no strength in his voice. Pulling the tottering Yukina by her hands, Kojou slowly made his way off the aircraft. It had been a long time since he’d set foot on solid ground, and it’d never felt so good. 

“Are the Kanases really in a place like this?” Kojou asked while gazing at the sight of the empty, uninhabited island. Kirishima made a thin smile rich with implication. 

“Who knows. I’m sure you’ll meet them soon enough… If you live that long, anyway.” 

“…Kirishima?” 

After confirming that Kojou and Yukina had moved away from the aircraft, Kirishima slammed the plane’s door shut. The airplane’s engine revved up with great force once more, sending the small plane gently running forward. 

“Sorry, honeymooners. Well, blame Beatrice for this, not me, ’kay?” 

With a wave through the window, those were Kirishima’s parting words. As he grasped the meaning of those words, Kojou’s facial expression froze in terror. In haste, Kojou ran after the accelerating airplane. 

“H…hold up, pops!” 

“Who the hell you calling pops?! I’m still twenty-eight…!” 

As the airplane gradually lifted off the ground, Kirishima’s shouts grew quieter. 

Kojou was beside himself as he stared at the small plane as it grew distant, seemingly vanishing into the pale sky. 

“…Gimme a break here.” 

The powerful tropical sunrays made the blue sea glitter. 

3 

It was some fifteen minutes later that Kojou roused himself from his daze. 

Though the situation seemed hopeless, it might have been too soon to say that. 

Though he’d held on to paper-thin hope, the airplane that had vanished over the horizon did not return; all that remained were the cruel, mocking voices of the birds around them. They’d been abandoned on a completely uninhabited island. Beatrice Basler had deceived them. 

As Yukina stood still in shock near the cliff, Kojou timidly called out to her. “Er… Himeragi, are you all right?” 

Yukina looked back with a pensive expression before lowering her face in dejection. She no doubt felt responsible that she hadn’t seen through Beatrice and Kirishima’s scheme in spite of the powerful Spirit Sight ability she rightly took pride in as a shrine maiden. 

“I’m sorry, senpai. This is my mistake.” 

“It’s nothing you need to apologize for, Himeragi. I got fooled, too, same as you.” 

“No, I was most careless, in spite of fully expecting that Magus Craft might be involved in the Masked incident.” 

“Well, not sure it’s carelessness so much as…being rattled by the whole airplane thing…” 

“It is not that at all! I was merely careless!” 

Yukina continued to bluff her way forward even now, somehow unable to make that concession. Well, that’s fine and all, thought Kojou as he used his parka’s hood to block some of the strong sunrays. 

“So this means that Beatrice is in on this with Kanase’s dad, huh…? Shit. Going to meet them without telling Natsuki completely backfired…” 

Realizing his own error in judgment, Kojou could only regret it now. 

Natsuki and her peers were as yet unaware of the connection between the Masked and Magus Craft Incorporated. Further delays in the investigation would only make Kanon’s position worse and worse. 

He didn’t know what Kensei Kanase wanted to use his daughter’s body for, but now he’d have even more precious time to conduct his experiment. 

“I suppose so. They really got us. I never imagined the Fourth Primogenitor could be eliminated from Itogami Island by such means.” 

Yukina spoke in a tone that somehow oozed regret. She was likely in shock that Kojou, the individual she’d been assigned to watch, could be rendered completely powerless with such ease. Kojou felt a bit conflicted at her fierce competitiveness rearing its head in an odd direction as he took out his cell phone. 

“…Out of range…figures. Even if I use the GPS, this island’s not gonna be on any map, is it? Useless,” Kojou grumbled, cutting the power. “I suppose we could get lucky and have a ship pass by… Probably not, huh?” 

“In the first place, the passage of passenger airplanes and ships in the waters around a Demon Sanctuary is restricted by law.” Yukina calmly informed him of the unpalatable fact. 

It wasn’t as if Kojou thought that Beatrice and Kirishima would have dumped them in a place where rescue was easy or likely. It was better not to expect aid to come for some time. 

“We’ll have to think of how to get off this island later. First, let’s examine the island. We need to secure water first.” 

“Water?” 

“Yes. Food and shelter after that, preferably while we still have light.” 

Yukina took her silver spear out from the guitar case on her back. It seemed she intended to use it to slice away tree branches to create a path through the forest. 

“…Feels like we’re shipwrecked sailors on a deserted island, huh?” 

Kojou spoke with no tension in his voice at all. Yukina sighed and looked back at Kojo. “We don’t feel like it, we really are on a deserted island.” 

“R-right… Man, if no one rescues us, worst case we might be living here together for the rest of our lives. This is like some bad joke…” 

Kojou clutched his head as he looked over the tiny island, completely cut off from civilization. To a pampered modern person like Kojou, just the thought of living without convenience stores, supermarkets, the Internet, television, electricity, and running water was enough to terrify him. He was all the more frightened that while he and Yukina were left in such primitive surroundings, Kanon would be placed in even greater danger. He couldn’t even form the words to describe the worst-case scenario. 

However, for some reason, Yukina had a hurt look in her eyes as she glared at Kojou. 

“‘Worst case,’ you say… Being all alone with me is a bad joke…is it?” 

“Huh?” 

“No, it’s nothing at all.” 

Turning her back to him as she spoke, Yukina headed into the forest. Her spear gouged out a tree trunk before Kojou’s eyes with what felt like indiscriminate swinging. 

“Er… Himeragi? You don’t happen to be, um, upset?” 

“No. I am not upset whatsoever. I am simply marking the path so that we do not become lost.” 

“I-I see. Makes sense.” 

As he said those words, feeling nonetheless like he couldn’t agree all that much, Kojou walked after Yukina, advancing into the forest. 

It was easier to walk in the forest than he’d imagined, probably because the dense foliage of the trees obstructed sunlight, preventing grass from growing below. Bare volcanic rock became a gently descending slope that continued down to a small inlet. 

To begin with, the region around Itogami Island was a tropical zone with a large amount of rainfall. A clear stream flowed between gaps in the exposed rock, carrying water that flowed up from springs on the island. At the very least, it seemed they wouldn’t have any problems getting fresh water. 

“…Himeragi?” 

Yukina, having continued walking without even a glance back, suddenly came to a stop just as she cleared the forest. It felt like she was conflicted as she gazed at the slope of a nearby cliff. Kojou followed her gaze, squinted his eyes, and… 

“Hey, is that…a building?” 

“Ah no… That’s…” 

Roused by Kojou’s voice, Yukina looked at him, seeming a bit unsure about how to put things. 

Halfway up the slope was a blackened concrete wall. The surface was cracked, with moss growing on it, but there was no doubt it was man-made. 

“So what, there really is a Magus Craft research facility? Didn’t expect that.” 

“No, there should not be… But…” 

“Can’t tell anything staring from here, so let’s go. Who knows, maybe someone’s been living on this island and Kirishima and her just don’t know it.” 

“Senpai?! Wait, please, that’s…” 

As Kojou ran forward, ignoring Yukina’s efforts to stop him, he drew near the building with a straight frontal approach. The back of his mind did entertain the possibility of traps set by Kirishima and them, but that was as far as the thought led. 

But as he arrived close to the actual wall, he realized the reason Yukina had tried to stop him. 

It was a very odd building. It was about as tall as a two-story apartment building. Though encased in thick concrete, the holes in the wall didn’t even have glass windows. Peering inside, the structure didn’t have furniture, or even lightbulbs. It didn’t look anything like what someone would actually live in. 

“It’s…a pillbox.” Yukina, having caught up with Kojou, murmured as she looked up at the building. 

“Pillbox?” 

“A defensive structure built to obstruct the approach of enemy forces in wartime. It’s like a fort.” 

“People fought a war even on an island like this?” 

“I do not know. It doesn’t seem to be an especially old structure, though.” 

Having said those words, Yukina stepped into the gloomy pillbox without hesitation. As Kojou followed after her, his face scowled at the feeling transferred to him through the soles of his shoes. Dimly glittering metal cylinders were scattered beneath their feet like branches fallen from a tree. They were machine-gun bullet casings. 

“Signs of a firefight…it would seem.” 

Yukina spoke with an apparent sigh in her voice. 

Looking all around, there were countless cavities and cracks apparently left by gunfire all over the pillbox’s walls. So far as they could judge from the surface grime, the bullet marks weren’t old. At most, they’d been made here within the last few years. However, they had no idea who had attacked this island or for what purpose. After all, they hadn’t heard of any pirates operating in the seas around Itogami Island; even if there were pirates, they had no reason to bother to land on a deserted island like this and play at war. 

“I do not see any corpses, either.” 

Looking around the interior of the desolate pillbox, Yukina murmured quietly. 

Certainly, in contrast to the large number of bullet casings, there was no sign of any casualties at all. Even Kojou’s enhanced vampire senses could not locate any trace of shed blood. 

“Yeah, now that you mention it. Well, honestly, better for us.” 

“We’re lucky the roof is intact. It reduces the labor required to set up camp.” 

“Wait, you don’t intend to sleep here?” 

As Kojou made an appalled expression, Yukina gave him a look that seemed to ask, Is there a problem? 

“I’m…a little scared a ghost might come out or…something…” 

“…Senpai, why are you afraid of something like a ghost? You are a vampire, aren’t you?” Yukina sounded like she was about to crack up. 

Kojou twisted his lips in a sulky look. “Well, even you’re scared of airplanes, Himeragi.” 

“I am not! I’m not scared of them at all!” 

Yukina’s face was beet red as she made her retort. Kojou sighed a bit and looked up at the roof of the pillbox. 

“They sure didn’t leave us anything to work with, though. Wish they’d have at least left a radio behind.” 

“…It may not be very…funny… But now that we cannot leave by our own power, we have no choice but to wait for rescue together… Even if it is…worst case.” 

For some reason, Yukina returned to her sulky tone of voice as she spoke, leaning forward where she stood. 

“Rescue… Rescue, huh…?” 

Kojou made a soft sigh as he gazed through the machine-gun port at the horizon. 

Kojou’s sigh could not reach Itogami Island, which was now far, far away. 

4 

“He’s L-A-T-E!” 

Watching with annoyance as her smartphone failed to connect, Asagi Aiba groaned in displeasure. 

She was in the living room of a certain seventh-floor apartment in Island South. 

Asagi’s outfit for that day was far plainer than her normal ones. However, she’d actually stretched to ensure she was dressed in brand-new street clothes from head to toe. Thanks to her hair being worn down, Asagi personally prided herself on how she looked like a young lady. 

“How long is that idiot gonna keep me waiting for…!” 

Next to the indignant Asagi was a blank sketchbook and a full set of painting materials. She’d taken Kojou’s promise to help her with her art homework at face value, taking time out of the middle of her day off, coming all the way to greet him at the Akatsuki residence. Yet, after all that, Kojou wasn’t there. Apparently he’d arrived late the night before and set off again in the early morning, all without a single word to Asagi, of course. 

“…Sorry Kojou’s causing trouble for you, Asagi.” 

Nagisa Akatsuki hung her head apologetically as she sat next to Asagi. Apparently Kojou’s diligent little sister felt responsible for her absent older brother’s conduct. 

Asagi made her usual sarcastic expression, making a good-humored smile at Nagisa. They had, after all, gotten to know each other very well over the last four years. 

“You don’t need to apologize, Nagisa. It’s all the fault of the idiot who promised to be here and then left. I was pretty dumb to believe him, too, though. I swear, he’s just…” 

“Yeah…but I really wonder where Kojou went? We can’t get him on his cell phone at all, and it looks like Yukina’s been gone since morning, too.” 

“That transfer student again…?” 

Tch. Asagi clicked her tongue at Nagisa’s casual murmurs. After so many similar “coincidences,” even Asagi had noticed it was rather odd. 

Kojou’s absences had skyrocketed over the last half year or so, but it’d become especially bad after that transfer student had arrived. And without fail, whenever he disappeared without any warning, she was involved. There was definitely some kind of secret between them. 

Of course, had Asagi been minded to, she could have looked up Yukina Himeragi’s true colors with ease. She was confident that she could dive into various public databases and instantly get ahold of everything from her date of birth to her bank statements. But Asagi was not minded to do any such thing. 

It wasn’t Asagi’s style to pick a fight she knew in advance she was going to win. Secrets were something that should be exposed in broad daylight only after smashing through a suitable obstacle. That was why Asagi was so revered as the “Cyber Empress,” the living embodiment of hacker pride. 

As Nagisa poured new coffee into their cups, she spoke as if suddenly remembering something. “Ah, but if they’re together, maybe they’re helping out Kanon…” 

“Kanon…? You mean Kanon Kanase? The platinum blonde?” Asagi was mystified as she asked back. The Saint of Middle School was quite famous. Even Asagi knew her name and what she looked like. 

“A few things happened, and I told Kojou to help Kanon find a new home for a stray cat. 

“The circumstances make for a bit of a long story, though…tee-hee…” 

Nagisa made her usual happy smile. As the story went, Kojou had mistakenly believed a boy had confessed to his little sister, to the point of barging onto the rooftop of the middle school building. 

Usually, Asagi would laugh at an older brother unable to bear to be apart from his little sister, but all she did was make a light chuckle and give Nagisa a gentle look. Even now, Asagi had never forgotten the sight of the young boy visiting his gravely injured little sister four years before. 

“Taking care of a stray… Come to think of it, Kojou was asking everyone in the class if they could raise a kitten,” Asagi murmured as she recalled his odd behavior from the previous day. Nagisa nodded with approval. 

“Right, right. So, let’s see… Ah, that means they could be at the abbey.” 

“Abbey?” 

“Yeah. There’s ruins of an abbey behind school where Kanon used to live way back. She’d been taking care of the cat there in secret. I could take you there. How about right now? I have to go to school for club, anyway.” 

Nagisa spoke while looking up at the clock on the wall. It was an hour past noon. The weather, even viewed from the inside of an apartment, was bright and sunny to a truly ridiculous degree. 

“Hmm… Waiting here doesn’t suit me very much, anyway. Okay, let’s do it.” 

Asagi rose to her feet, still clutching her beloved smartphone. 

5 

A building remained within the park that rested atop the gently sloping hill. The building was an abbey in ruins. 

“Caduceus… Just like the intel file said.” 

The girl let out an unimpressed murmur after confirming that the relief carved into the roof was as expected. 

She was a tall, slender girl. Her skin complexion was light; her hair had a faint chestnut color to it. The elegant, refined beauty of her face was reminiscent of a flower proudly in bloom. She was Sayaka Kirasaka—Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency. 

“This is the abbey Kanon Kanase lived in? Pretty place considering it’s been abandoned for years.” 

Sayaka’s shapely eyebrows rose as she looked around the interior of the ruined building. 

There was no sign of human presence within. The cracked walls and broken furniture were likely vestiges of the incident from five years earlier. 

That incident was what triggered the shutdown of the abbey, scattering all who dwelled within to the four winds. Surely no one had lived here since that time. 

But mysteriously, there was not even a whiff of dust. Apparently someone had been regularly coming through and cleaning the place. Surely this was a crucial lead relevant to Sayaka’s current mission. But… 

“—Achoo!” 

A sudden itchy sensation made Sayaka let out a small sneeze. The cause laid in minute particles floating in the air inside the abbey in spite of the regular cleaning. 

“Cat hair?” 

The sound of her own sneeze echoed throughout the abbey. Feeling a faint disturbance of the air along with the reverberation, Sayaka reflexively looked behind her back. 

“…Who’s there?!” 

Retaining her guarded posture, she stretched her hand to the instrument case on her back. Poking out of the gap in the case was the glittering silver hilt of a long sword. 

“It’s useless to hide from me…so would you just come out already?” 

As Sayaka made her frosty warning, a faint laughing voice came out from behind a pillar. “You got me,” said the voice with an echo that evoked a strained smile. 

“…Hiya.” 

The word, spoken without a single shred of tension, came as the student wearing a school uniform poked his face out. He was a high school student with short-cut hair, spiky and combed backward, with a pair of headphones hanging from his neck. 

“The same uniform as Kojou Akatsuki? You’re…you were with Dimitrie Vattler during that incident…” 

“Ahh, was I now? Thanks back there.” 

Motoki Yaze smiled tensely with a look of embarrassment. 

This was not Sayaka’s first encounter with him. For some reason, this student had been at the scene of the recent terrorist incident that had rocked Itogami City; he’d watched the incident to its conclusion. 

“If you ask…who I am, ‘Kojou Akatsuki’s classmate’ is the only answer I can give you.” 

Yaze scratched his face with a somewhat conflicted look. Sayaka continued to glare at him. 

“Meaning you have no intention of revealing who you really are?” 

“Er, well, ah, please don’t pry about that. We’re both in a bind if we start asking questions. Like, who is a War Dancer for the Lion King Agency looking for in a place like this?” 

A perplexed expression came over Sayaka as her own identity was so easily spoken of out loud. She could not hide her irritation with Yaze’s know-it-all tone of voice. 

“What is…your purpose here?” 

“I want to make a deal with you. I’m in a bit of a bind myself, y’see.” Yaze spoke with a rather meek voice. 

Sayaka didn’t think his behavior was an act. “A deal?” 

“Yeah. And my condition for the deal is that you don’t talk about me to anyone else; not to Kojou, not to Yukina Himeragi.” 

As Yaze made his oddly roundabout explanation, Sayaka understood. 

The boy before her eyes knew that Yukina Himeragi was Kojou Akatsuki’s watcher. But his position would be made quite difficult if either Yukina or Kojou became aware of that fact. In other words, his mission was to monitor what direction things were going in with Kojou and Yukina… Suddenly, it all made sense. 

“If you can accept that condition, I’ll provide you with information. I think it’s highly valuable information from your perspective.” 

“…‘Information’?” Sayaka coldly repeated the word back. She had no reason to make any concessions. 

At her jab, Yaze slumped his shoulders and replied curtly. “The whereabouts of Kojou Akatsuki.” 

“…Hah?! I-it’s not as if I have any interest whatsoever in knowing that you know…!” 

Sayaka’s voice sounded shrill as she made her objection. She had no idea why he would come to her with that sort of offer. After all, what value did such information have to Sayaka…? 

Seeing Sayaka so plainly agitated, Yaze made a face that said, Whoa, land mine. 

“Apparently, right now Kojou’s off the island.” 

“…The Fourth Primogenitor is outside the Demon Sanctuary?” 

Sayaka’s expression hardened. It wasn’t that she completely trusted what Yaze was saying; but even if not expressly related to her mission at hand, if his story was true, it certainly was a matter of grave concern. 

“Of course, Yukina Himeragi is together with him…” 

“Uh…gh…” 

“Y’see, right now it’s kinda bad if they get wrapped up in this whole business with Kanon Kan—” 

Speaking in a listless tone of voice, Yaze suddenly cut off his words. 

Sayaka’s look grew sharp when the name of Kanon Kanase passed through his lips. However, for some reason, Yaze seemed to be in a vortex of distress as he clutched his head. 

“What’s wrong?” 

Sayaka glared at Yaze with a guarded expression. Yaze was sweating bullets. 

“This is bad… Correction, it’s worst case. Why did they come here?!” 

“They?” 

When Sayaka tilted her head, the warped door creaked; she sensed that someone was entering the building. The tension-filled atmosphere was shattered when a sunny, slightly lisping voice reverberated. 

“Hellooo! Kanon, are you there? Did my Kojou come visit?” 

The one who hopped out from behind the cracked wall was a schoolgirl small in stature. 

It was Kojou Akatsuki’s little sister. Her round eyes were especially large as she looked at Yaze as he crouched down. 

“Ah, Yaze?” 

“Motoki? What are you doing in a place like th…?” 

Following up was another girl, but her feet came to a halt when she noticed Sayaka. She was a high school student wearing refined street clothes. She was a beautiful girl with an urban air, with her whimsical, aristocratic air reminiscent of a cat. 

“Aaa!!” 

“Aaa!!” 

Both raised their voices and pointed at the other almost simultaneously. 

“You’re the serial killer who attacked Kojou not long ago?!” 

“K-Kojou Akatsuki’s bimbo?!” 

Both were in shock at the other’s declaration. Both raised their voices once more. 

“Wh-who are you calling a bimbo?!” 

“I’m not a serial killer, you know?!” 

As if about to begin a cage match then and there, the two drew near each other and forcefully glared, as if willing the other to die. 

Nagisa’s eyes popped wide, having no idea what was going on whatsoever. 

“Er…ah, what? What’s going on?! Hey, Yaze, tell me!” 

Looking over the sides of Sayaka’s and Asagi’s faces, Nagisa furiously slapped Yaze’s back as he remained bent over. 

With a tired look, Yaze put his cheeks into his hands and muttered weakly, “Leave me out of this…” 

6 

“Kojou Akatsuki, heir to the Kaleid Blood lineage, releases thee from thy bonds…!” 

Standing on a rocky area on the coast buffeted by violent waves, Kojou raised his right hand. 

Where he pointed, a crimson haze of fresh blood spurt forth. 

Finally, the bloody haze was replaced by a thunderbolt, emitting a golden glow along with a magical surge of incredible force. The volatile, massive electrical energy became a pillar of light that rose into the sky. 

“…C’mon over, Beast Vassal Number Five, Regulus Aurum!” 

A giant lion enveloped in lightning emerged above Kojou’s head. This was Regulus Aurum—one of the twelve Beast Vassals Kojou had inherited from the previous Fourth Primogenitor. 

Thanks to Kojou having drunk Yukina’s compatible blood, it had recognized Kojou as its new master, enabling him to summon it in this fashion, but that didn’t mean it was easy to control. It was truly a difficult Beast Vassal to use; one small slip and it would go berserk, indiscriminately destroying everything around it. 

As he paid diligent attention to detail, Kojou sent the lion toward the sea. 

If Kojou failed in controlling the Beast Vassal here, it would no doubt fry a tiny island like this to a crisp in the blink of an eye and sink it into the sea. Well aware of this, he was being extremely cautious. 

The lightning lion’s thick, swordlike claws calmly approached the surface of the sea. Restraining its might as much as he could manage, Kojou unleashed the Beast Vassal’s power— 

That instant, the air yielded completely as massive electrical force flowed into the sea all at once. 

The overwhelming energy boiled the seawater in a single moment, causing the water to evaporate and turn into an explosion of steam. With a tremendous roar and a heavy shudder of the air, shock waves scattered about and made the ground shake. 

“…No good, huh? Bwah!” Kojou exhaled in dismay, wiping off his seawater-drenched face. Then— 

“What do you think you are doing, senpai?” 

Behind his back, Koujo heard Yukina’s low, muffled voice. 

The Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, dripping from head to toe, glared sharply at Kojou. 

Transparent water droplets rolled down her face; her bare flesh could easily be seen through her damp uniform. Apparently the explosion from just then had sent a large amount of sea spray scattering about, including right on top of her head. 

Kojou had been much closer to the center of the explosion, but the fact she’d suffered considerably more “damage” than he had made him feel a bit like a heel. 

“Er, ah… I heard that there’s a way to fish with electrical shock, so it got me thinking…” 

“Therefore, you used a Beast Vassal in an attempt to collect fish?” Yukina asked while combing her drenched forelocks upward. Kojou timidly nodded. 

“But it… It’s not gonna work, is it?” 

“Apparently not.” Yukina sighed in resignation. 

Kojou’s Beast Vassal attack had caused substantial environmental destruction in the local area. A large amount of sand had been thrown up from the gouged-out sea bottom, muddying the boiling surface of the water. Most likely the fish that had been swimming in the area had been pulverized into smithereens. The force had been far too much. 

Somehow, Kojou could understand why the Japanese government had banned fishing by electrical shock. 

“So, um…what are you doing here, Himeragi?” 

“Supper is ready, so I came to invite you.” 

“R-right…thanks.” 

As he gave Yukina his thanks, Kojou climbed up the cliff. 

Yukina, who had received survival training from the Lion King Agency, had actually done a very skillful job piling stones up to build a hearth, easily lighting a fire from the dried branches she’d gathered. 

She’d used dried branches in place of a table upon which to serve the meal she had prepared. 

An expression of doubt came over Kojou as he looked over the cooking placed there. 

“Er…what’s that?” 

Kojou pointed to the relatively orthodox dishes. There were fruits encased in hard fibrous husks. 

“Coconuts,” Yukina replied with a hint of triumph. I see, Kojou thought with a nod. 

“…And that white stuff?” 

“Coconut slices.” 

“So that means that over there is…” 

“Chopped coconut and coconut strips. And this is coconut soup with seawater.” 

“That’s some…pretty creative cooking there.” 

Kojou conveyed his thoughts with carefully chosen words. Since coconuts were the only ingredients she had to work with, there wasn’t any other cooking to be had; he wasn’t exactly in a position to complain. If anything, he should have been praising Yukina’s spear skills for being able to use that stupidly long Snowdrift Wolf to slice coconuts up like this. 

“How does it taste?” Yukina asked hopefully as Kojou tentatively took a sip of the coconut soup. 

“Mm… Suppose I have to say, it tastes like regular coconut.” 

Yukina sighed. 

“Come to think of it, sometimes Nagisa really wrecked my stomach when we were little kids and I went along with her playing house…” 

“Why something like that comes to mind right now bothers me somewhat, but since you do not seem to be in a good mood, I will refrain from pushing the issue.” Yukina’s cheeks were puffed up as she glared at Kojou. 

Kojou didn’t notice at all as he gazed at the sea, illuminated by the setting sun. 

“If we’re stuck here for days on end, Nagisa’s gonna get worried. We left without saying a word, after all. Well, since it’s Sunday tomorrow, she probably won’t be all that worried y…” 

Just as he was saying that, Kojou’s eyes popped wide. He’d suddenly remembered something very important. 

“…Senpai?” 

Yukina looked at Kojou in apparent concern. Kojou flopped onto his back then and there. 

“Uh-oh. I promised to help Asagi with her art homework today. She’s gonna be pissed, I just know it.” 

“A promise with Aiba…?” Yukina muttered in a voice that seemed stale. Then, she suddenly turned serious. 

“That might be a small reason for hope.” 

“…That would be nice.” 

Kojou nodded as he realized what Yukina was getting at. 

In the first place, Asagi would surely notice that Kojou wasn’t on Itogami Island. And knowing her personality, she wasn’t the type of person who’d just let that go. She’d chase Kojou down to the ends of the earth just to give him a piece of her mind for breaking his promise. 

With her supreme hacking skills and the mainframe computer of the Gigafloat Management Corporation at her disposal, it was entirely possible she’d realize the connection between Kojou, Yukina, and Magus Craft. 

“But if she isn’t careful getting too close to Magus Craft, she might put herself in danger, too… So there’s that problem. More importantly, we can’t just leave Kanase with ’em like this.” 

The dilemma was how to try to save someone without putting someone else in danger as a result. It was a source of great anguish for Kojou, especially now that he was helpless to do anything about any of it. 

A faint smile came over Yukina as she watched Kojou be so earnest. 

“…You really worry about other people, senpai… Even though you’re on a deserted island with no way back.” 

“I know. This isn’t really the time or place for worrying about other folks.” 

Kojou’s lips twisted with the shame of it all. But Yukina gently shook her head, murmuring in a voice he could barely pick up. “No… I think that’s one of your…somewhat good points, senpai.” 

“…Hmm?” Kojou asked back in bewilderment. She looked back at him with a teasing smile. 

“It’s a lovely view, isn’t it?” 

Yukina spoke as the coastal breeze toyed with her wet hair. 

The rays of the setting sun beautifully highlighted the side of her still rather young face. 

It seemed like a mirage. For a while, Kojou’s eyes were captivated by the scene. 

“Yeah… I suppose it is.” 

He nodded with a sigh mixed in. Soon, night would fall— 

7 

It was an Internet café on Island West. Three people were crammed into a booth meant for one, their faces pressed close, sucking in their breath as they looked at the image scrolling onto the monitor before them. 

“Got it… Here. Ryogami Heavy Industries, Inc. Aerostellar RA II.” 

Asagi stopped the fast-forwarding video and enlarged the frame. The image data was crude, filled with garbage. The image displayed an aircraft just prior to takeoff. It was an old propeller-type aircraft with a capacity of four. 

“Corporate plane owned by Magus Craft, huh?” 

Yaze boldly smiled as he looked at the corporate logo on the fuselage. 

Asagi silently typed on the keyboard. The two people sitting side by side in the back of the aircraft were expanded further. One was a boy wearing a parka with a listless-looking face; the other was a girl of small stature with a guitar case. 

“This is from an airport surveillance cam so the quality’s only so-so, but that’s definitely Kojou and the transfer student.” 

“…Looks like it. Know where they’re going?” 

“From the flight plan, they were expected to fly to a proprietary research facility, but that’s probably fake, huh…? But judging from the flight time, I don’t think it flew all that far.” 

Even while engaging in conversation, Asagi continued executing programs she’d cooked up herself on the spot. Viruses granted short, transient lives now acted like familiars for a cyber-witch and began invading Magus Craft–related facilities one after another. 

Asagi followed up using her Gigafloat Management Corporation server administrator rights. The support AI that was her “partner” booted up. This was Mogwai—the avatar of the five supercomputers that managed all of Itogami Island’s urban functions. 

“How’s your end, Mogwai?” 

“It’s coming. As expected of a major corporation, its public finances are all dolled up…” 

Mogwai, in the process of invading Magus Craft Incorporated’s American headquarters, spoke with a very humanlike tone at times. 

He was investigating Magus Craft’s accounting department. He’d blasted through several firewall layers and was reconstructing data that seemed to concern hidden accounts and past business dealings. 

“Heh-heh… Fishy. This part really smells suspicious.” 

“…Private land bought through subsidiaries?” 

Asagi inclined her head as she looked over the map displayed on the screen. 

“Why would they buy up entire uninhabited islands like this? And this is outside Demon Sanctuary jurisdiction, isn’t it?” 

“The cover story is that it’s for tourists…” 

“It’s less than thirty minutes one way from Itogami Island… Convenient times for round-trips by an old prop plane.” 

Looking over the specs of Magus Craft’s private airplane, Asagi made a snort through her nose. 

Mogwai made a cackle and a sarcastic chuckle. 

“I finally found something interesting. This is their list of major customers.” 

“…The Confederate States of America military? What is this, a giant order for cleaning robots?” 

As she pieced together the disparate information, Asagi questioned the incongruous data before her eyes. However, she thought Mogwai was the last AI that would make such basic mistakes. 

“I see. I finally get what game they’re playing…” 

Yaze made a displeased-sounding murmur in place of the perplexed Asagi. He seemed to have some idea of what business Magus Craft was engaged in under the table. 

“Asagi Aiba… Who are you?” 

Even Sayaka, not much inclined toward information technology herself, could grasp that Asagi’s skill in handling digital information far exceeded the norm. Though she should not have been so surprised that any resident of the Demon Sanctuary was not a normal human being, but Asagi’s ability was clearly exceptional even so. She could accept that this was the girl who’d destroyed the Nalakuvera. 

“You’re not just with the Gigafloat Management Corporation, you’re able to break into Magus Craft’s head office so easily, too… 

“I already thought you couldn’t be an average Joe for the Black Death Emperor Front to set eyes on you, but…” 

As a look of wonder came over Sayaka’s face, Asagi looked up in mild annoyance. She waved the issue off like it was a bother. 

“Sorry, but I’m just a regular high school student. I just work for the Management Corporation part-time here and there.” 

“Hah? Part-time?” 

This time Sayaka was in complete shock. Where information warfare was concerned, Asagi Aiba was every bit a monster as the Fourth Primogenitor. But even so, she had not yet come to realize the fact herself… 

Shuddering at the danger that could pose, Sayaka spoke. “Kirasaka…is it? Well, who are you? Can you really get Kojou and Yukina rescued?” 

“Leave that to me. I can use my connections to get a coast guard ship dispatched.” 

Sayaka nodded crisply. 

Even if it was not her assigned mission, the monitoring of the Fourth Primogenitor, Kojou Akatsuki, was the Lion King Agency’s top priority issue. And it was Sayaka’s natural and expected duty to save his watcher, Yukina, who had been whisked away with him in the process. 

Besides, it seemed that Kojou and Yukina’s disappearance was not unrelated to Sayaka’s own mission after all. 

Using the Lion King Agency’s name, Sayaka had booked an appointment with Kensei Kanase. There were things she wanted to ask him as Kanon Kanase’s guardian. If Sayaka had gone to Magus Craft ahead of Yukina and Kojou, it might well have been her who’d have found herself whisked off the island instead. 

“…Connections, huh?” 

As could only be expected, Asagi murmured in a tone of complete distrust. 

However, Sayaka could not invoke her own title here. If she revealed she was with the Lion King Agency, she’d be exposing Yukina’s identity, and Kojou Akatsuki’s secret would be revealed along with it. That would probably be unpleasant for Asagi. 

But fortunately, Asagi seemed to have no intention of ferreting out Sayaka’s identity. Instead, she gazed right into Sayaka’s eyes from the front. 

“So…” 

“So…” 

“What’s your relationship with Kojou?” 

“What’s your relationship with Kojou Akatsuki?” 

Asagi and Sayaka glared at each other, both pairs of lips pressed tight in annoyance. 

Both were putting a lot of force into it, as if the first one to look away would drop dead on the spot; the tension inside the cramped booth spiked higher. Perhaps he simply couldn’t take the dense atmosphere when… 

“Now, now, now…,” Yaze interjected with a witty tone of voice. “We can all have a nice, peaceful talk about that when Kojou and Yukina are back safe and sound… Right now, though, that bastard and Yukina are off together on a deserted island… It might create a, well, you know, an Adam and Eve type of situation.” 

Yaze’s irresponsible declaration gave both Asagi and Sayaka a start, their eyebrows twitching. 

“…Yes. That’s bad, isn’t it?” 

“Certainly, it is as you say, Motoki Yaze.” 

The two exhaled simultaneously; seeing this, Yaze sighed quietly in relief. 

Sayaka stepped out of the booth with a sway of her long ponytail. Without warning, she picked up the instrument case standing against the wall. 

“You’ve been a big help. You have my thanks, Asagi Aiba.” 

“You’re quite welcome. More importantly, could you tell me just one last thing?” 

“…Yes, if it’s something I can reply to.” 

Sayaka reacted to Asagi’s provocative gaze with a nod. Beholding Sayaka’s forthright attitude, a satisfied smile came over Asagi’s face. 

“Why are you looking into Kanon Kanase, Kirasaka?” 

With a bit of hesitation, Sayaka told her the truth after all. “That’s… There’s someone who wants to meet her. Escorting that person is my proper assignment.” 

There was virtually no doubt that Kojou and Yukina had visited Magus Craft for the purpose of meeting Kanon Kanase. 

If that was the case, Asagi Aiba was not a complete bystander. She had a right to know the truth. 

“…Escort?” 

“Yes. But the person went missing while en route to Itogami Island.” 

Sayaka gripped her instrument case, sounding mortified as she murmured. 

She had disappeared before ever setting foot on Itogami Island. It wasn’t Sayaka’s fault whatsoever. However, she still cursed the fact that she hadn’t been able to protect the person she was assigned to protect. 

“So the reason you came here is…” 

“Because I thought looking into Kanon Kanase might give me a lead into the disappearance of my assignment. Thanks to that, now I know Magus Craft is my leading suspect.” 

“I see.” 

Asagi nodded, though her expression showed a lack of comprehension. Then, she immediately formed the question on her lips. 

“So who is the person you’re assigned to protect, anyway?” 

“That’s…” 

After a moment’s hesitation, Sayaka told her. 

It was a name that brought expressions of shock not only to the plugged-in Yaze, but to the ordinary civilian Asagi as well. 

8 

“…Can’t sleep.” 

Spread atop the hard palm branch bed, Kojou absentmindedly looked up at the dark sky. 

He didn’t know the exact time, but it probably wasn’t quite eight PM yet. This wasn’t a time for any modern high school student to be asleep; that went double for a nocturnal vampire. 

There was no sign of Yukina in the pillbox-turned-lair. She was outside on watch duty. 

Yukina had insisted that they needed to take turns keeping watch, even at night, so as not to miss any ships that might pass nearby; Kojou had not made any objection. He also imagined that both sleeping together under one roof like this might make things a bit uncomfortable. But thinking about it rationally in hindsight, he could only peg it as wasted effort. 

“…Yeah, we watched all day and didn’t see one ship go by, so what, one’s gonna pass now?” 

Kojou slowly got up as he made a languid exhale. 

He realized that his throat was getting dry and thought, I’ll check up on Yukina and go drink some water. 

“Hey…Himeragi…are you awake?” 

Kojou fumbled his way down the stairs and went out of the pillbox as he called Yukina’s name. 

However, Yukina did not answer. There was only the hollow echo of Kojou’s voice in the darkness. 

He couldn’t see any sign of her toward the cliff, either. 

Snowdrift Wolf, which she always walked around with, was missing, too. 

“Himeragi…?” 

Yukina’s unexpected absence struck Kojou with an instinctive loneliness. 

But as he looked around, he of course knew it was possible she’d simply gone to the little girls’ room. 

But Yukina’s strangely obstinate insistence that he go to sleep first while she took watch at night bothered him as he thought about it now. He felt that she was plainly up to something. 

“…” 

The vague unease inside Kojou’s chest grew wider still. 

Yukina had said that she knew a variety of spells but that they weren’t exactly her specialty. 

But that didn’t mean she was completely unable to use them. If that was the case, it might have meant she had some method of long-distance contact, like spiritual resonance or astral projection. 

And if danger accompanied the employment of such spells… 

Well, she’d keep quiet and do it herself so that Kojou couldn’t stop her. Given her personality, that’s exactly what she would do. If it ended up that Kojou was just overthinking it, he was cool with that. But Kojou couldn’t think of any other reason for her to be absent. 

“That Himeragi…! If you’re my watcher, watch over me till the bitter end, dammit!” 

As he voiced his unfocused dissatisfaction, Kojou left the pillbox behind and headed toward the forest. 

The light of the young moon was unreliable; the forest interior was thick with darkness. But if anything, Kojou’s eyes brought the landscape into sharper relief than under the light of day. To think vampire powers that are normally just a bother would be useful at a time like this, Kojou thought ruefully. 

“Where to?” 

Relying on intuition alone, Kojou headed to the center of the island. Tripping over the gnarled roots of the various trees several times, he made his way up the gentle slope when his field of vision suddenly opened wide. 

There lay a spring enveloped by the trees of the forest and mist. 

The water seemed to be welling up from a cavity in the rock created by a caldera. Countless stone pillars jutted out of the surface of the extremely clear water, creating a beautiful, otherworldly scene. 

Suddenly, he heard a watery sound in the distance. 

Kojou, shifting his gaze on reflex, sucked in his breath as he stood. 

Illuminated by the moonlight, there was a woman in the spring. 

For a moment, her slender, fairylike body made him mistake her for Yukina. But it was not her. 

Her hair was silver; her eyes pale. Her silhouette was well removed from a Japanese person’s. A beautiful girl, she looked like a goddess of the moon. 

The saintly bathing woman, her body immersed in the cold water, silently stood up. 

Clear droplets of water ran down, drawing supple lines over her pale flesh. 

“Kanase…” Kojou murmured the word out from his lips without thinking. 

The girl in the middle of the spring resembled Kanon Kanase a very great deal. But no. 

This girl’s aura was decidedly different than that Kanon’s. She was a little taller than Kanon and her facial features more adult. 

She possessed a majesty reinforced with absolute confidence, enveloping her in an overpowering aura, even while playing in the water without a stitch of clothing. 

Indeed, without a stitch of clothing whatsoever… 

“Wa… At a time like this! Shit… Gimme a break!” 

Kojou suddenly made a low groan as he covered his own mouth. 

He felt his canine teeth throb and a dry sensation in his throat. His field of vision contracted and became tinged with red as he became filled with wild, violent desire. These were vampiric urges, the worst drawback of Kojou’s physical transformation into a vampire. 

The silver-haired girl lifted her face, perhaps from hearing Kojou’s anguished voice. 

Her pale, resolute eyes looked straight ahead at Kojou. 

—Their eyes met. 

A moment after Kojou had that feeling, the taste of blood swirling in his mouth brought an odd sense of relief to him. 

Vampiric urges did not continue for long. The gist was, since it was love of blood and nothing more, the taste of blood made the urge vanish like it had never been there—even if the blood was his. 

“…” 

Kojou shook his head with annoyance as he wiped away the still-trickling blood. 

His nose bled when he got aroused. It was a convenient quirk for suppressing vampiric urges, but it certainly wasn’t elegant. People who didn’t know the circumstances viewing Kojou at that moment would conclude he was just a clumsy pervert who had a nosebleed while peeking at a woman while she was bathing. 

The silver-haired girl had already vanished. He regretted the fact he could not apologize to her. 

Then, as Kojou raised his head, he suddenly felt something cool and metallic touch the nape of his neck. 

“…Please do not move.” 

It was Yukina’s voice that he heard behind him. Her voice was without inflection, reminiscent of a blade. Kojou realized that it was the tip of her silver spear that was pressed to his own carotid artery. 

“H…Himeragi?!” 

“I told you, please do not move. If you look back, I’ll thrust. After all, you’ll come back to life even if I kill you…,” Yukina informed him in a tone too serious to be a bluff. Kojou knew neither when she’d gotten behind him, nor why she was this angry. 

“Hime…ragi? Er, what are you doing here?” 

“That’s my line. I thought I asked you to sleep ahead of me, senpai.” 

Yukina sighed as she reflected the question back at him. He sensed that the slightest sway of her hair sent water droplets tumbling down. Why is she dripping wet? Kojou thought, wrapped in suspicion. 

“Er, I tried to sleep, but…when I came to, you weren’t there, so I got worried…” 

“So you came to peek, then?” 

“N…no!” 

“I-I really will be angry if you turn around right now!” 

Kojou felt the pressure of the blade increase against his neck as Yukina spoke with a flustered tone. He pondered as to the reason her hair might be wet and why she’d be so unsettled. Come to think of it, getting that seawater in her hair seemed to really bother her, he recalled. 

“Wa… Um, Himeragi, does that mean you were taking a bath, too…?” 

As Kojou timidly asked the question, Yukina’s hands, gripping her spear, twitched and trembled. 

The nighttime mist around the spring had been heavy, and the stone pillars and boulders jutting out of the water created numerous blind spots. It would have been very easy for Kojou to have missed the sight of Yukina bathing. 

“If that’s what it was, you could’ve told me in the first pl—” 

“Since it’s you, I thought if I told you that, you would come to peek. Just like you actually did.” 

Yukina spoke in a tone full of confidence. “The heck,” went Kojou, quite naturally offended. There’s no way I’d come to peek on someone like you!” 

“…Someone like me…is it? Is that so?” 

Yukina spoke in a very frigid voice. Kojou no longer had the slightest idea what the girl was angry about. Yukina sighed a silent goodness, and then, as if suddenly getting a bad feeling… “…So who was it that you peeked on, senpai?” 

“I was saying, there was a girl who looked like Kanase right there… Wait, it’s not like I peeked on her! We just happened to meet eyes, that’s it!” 

Yukina sighed as she gently let Kojou’s rebuttal slide. 

“Kanase, you say?” 

“Well, she was bigger than Kanase, though… Ah, er, by bigger, I mean…development-wise… I don’t mean like that, I mean, you know, age…” 

Kojou felt Yukina’s cold gaze on him as he struggled to begin some kind of excuse. 

“A grown-up Kanase, is it? Bigger…?” 

“Er, I’m just telling it like it is, you don’t need to get all upset…” 

“I’m not particularly upset.” 

Yukina pressed and ground the spear against him as she spoke in a voice very much full of anger. 

“R-right.” 

“So, where is this lady right now?” 

“Ah, er, she was here until right before you got here, but…” 

As Kojou spoke, he shifted his gaze to the opposite wall of the spring. But all that stood there was the calm, mirrorlike surface of the pool. 

“…seems she’s gone.” 

“So it would seem.” 

Yukina spoke in a calm voice. 

Kojou groaned as he stared at the mist-enveloped spring. There was no trace whatsoever of anyone having ever been there. Kojou felt like even he should start wondering if it had only been an illusion. 

“Senpai… Can I borrow that parka from you?” 

“Ahh, I don’t really mind, but…” 

Thus speaking, Kojou handed the parka he wore behind him to Yukina. He sensed the faint sounds of clothes rustling and fasteners snapping. 

“You can turn this way now.” 

The weight of the spear upon the back of Kojou’s neck finally vanished. 

The sudden sense of relief drained Kojou’s strength as he looked back. With the dark nighttime forest as her backdrop, Yukina gripped her spear as she stood in the moonlight. Her supple, bare legs stretched down from the hem of the white, baggy parka. It seemed that she really wasn’t wearing anything at all under the parka. 

Kojou was unintentionally staring when Yukina thrust the spear toward him once more. 

“P-please do not stare. My uniform is not dry yet, so it cannot be helped. It’s all because you drenched me with seawater, senpai…” 

“Y-yeah. I’m really sorry about that.” 

Seeing Kojou earnestly apologize, Yukina replied, “It’s fine now,” and made a sigh. 

Then, still barefoot, she began to walk along the edge of the spring. 

“Himeragi?” 

“There is a trail suggesting someone passed here. Let’s follow.” 

“You believe what I said earlier?” Kojou asked in a bit of surprise. Yukina looked back at him, seeming surprised Kojou would think otherwise. 

“Even if it cannot be helped that you’d peek because it is your nature, senpai, I do trust you are not someone who’d make up such a meaningless lie…” 

“I-I see…” 

An expression of displeasure came over Kojou, not having any idea whether that meant Yukina trusted him or not. 

The complexity of the terrain made it feel farther, but it hadn’t been a large spring to begin with. Kojou and Yukina arrived right away at the place he’d seen the silver-haired girl. 

Just as Yukina had said, there was a path leading from under the shade of some boulders all the way to the back side of the island. At the other end of the long downward slope spread forth the dark nighttime ocean. 

Just as Kojou and Yukina moved to walk down the hill path, they suddenly stopped. They noticed a powerful-sounding rumble from the coast. 

“That sound…” 

As Kojou climbed up the nearest boulder, his eyes froze. His view was poor, obstructed by the branches of dense, overgrown trees. But he could see something on the surface of the water, immersed in the dark of night, kicking up white spray as it advanced. 

“A boat?! Someone came to rescue us…?!” 

“Please wait, senpai. That’s…!” 

Yukina moved to check Kojou as he seemed ready to rush off, anticipating the arrival of a rescue party. 

As the craft drew nearer, Kojou realized why Yukina had stopped him. 

It was clear from the approaching craft’s silhouette that something wasn’t right. 

There was the strange sound and heavy water spray and how the black hull seemed to melt into the darkness. A skirtlike air cushion made the craft float on the surface of the water; a large fan mounted on the rear made it move with unbelievable speed. As it came toward the island, paying the reef no concern whatsoever, Kojou realized he’d seen a craft of this type in a war movie. 

It was an amphibious hovercraft used to land marines on enemy shores. 

“Magus Craft…!” Yukina murmured as she noticed the corporate logo emblazoned on the containers it carried. 

Multiple searchlights mounted upon the deck converged on a single spot. 

The beam of light, bright enough to blind the eyes, slowly swept across the deserted island, driving away the night. It moved with the persistence of a hunter searching for big game. 

Finally, the light, bright enough to dazzle night-adjusted eyes, illuminated the forest Kojou and Yukina were hiding in. 

“Senpai!” 

In response to Yukina’s scolding voice, Kojou hastily got down into the grass. 

“Did they…spot us?” 

The searchlight, having passed over them already, returned once more. 

New searchlights came on one after another, enveloping the forest in light as bright as the midday sun. 

As it came ashore, the landing party gate opened. 

Soldiers wearing suits of black armor over their entire bodies disembarked. Realizing in shock that their hands were gripping large-caliber military rifles, Kojou and Yukina’s eyes met. 

9 

“What’s a Magus Craft unit doing here now?! They weren’t happy with just leaving us to rot?!” 

Kojou cursed his ill fortune as they fled deeper into the woods. 

Since inheriting the power of the Fourth Primogenitor, Kojou had gotten wrapped up into different kinds of trouble, but being attacked by an armed platoon was a first for him. It was the type of experience he’d had rather gone through life without. 

“Get down!” 

Yukina thrust Kojou forward and leaped on top of him. 

As Kojou and Yukina became entangled and fell forward, a hail of machine-gun bullets sailed over their heads. The air cried out as the bullets ripped through it, making slivers of the trees they passed through fall like rain. 

The thin parka conveyed the feel of Yukina’s softness, but Kojou had no time to take notice. Both of them rolled among the large tree roots side by side. 

“Not even a warning?! They just shot out of the blue…!” 

“Live rounds, too…meaning, they have no intention of leaving either of us alive.” 

The expression on Yukina’s face changed as she regripped her spear. 

Even though they were clad in thick, full-plate armor, the Magus Craft soldiers moved swiftly. 

They were quickly catching up with Yukina and Kojou despite the uncertain footing in the forest. 

Judging that they would not be able to shake their pursuers off, Yukina turned decisively. 

“Senpai, please hold on for fifteen seconds.” 

Leaving those words behind for Kojou, she suddenly ran upon the ground, leaping into the dimly lit forest. 

“Himeragi?! Whoa?!” 

Perhaps detecting his location because of Yukina’s running off, bullet strikes grouped closer to where Kojou was hiding. A cloud of dust floated into the air, with sparks thrown off where bullets struck nearby boulders. Kojou couldn’t give Yukina any support; he couldn’t even lift his head up. 

But the silver-colored light that twinkled from her made the gunfire, which he was starting to think would last forever, disappear. 

“…Thunderclap!” 

Yukina, swooping down from the treetops like a bird of prey, sent one of the armor-clad soldiers flying with a barefoot kick to the back of the head. Even the protection of thick armor did not alter in any way what the cervical vertebrae could bear, especially against a spell-enhanced blunt attack from Yukina that was capable of destroying the interior of a human body even through armor. 

Her kick, which could fell even a stout beast man with one blow, easily sent the soldier flying. Furthermore, Yukina flashed her spear out before touching the ground. She severed the soldiers’ rifles in two, using the butt of her spear to beat them down. It had all happened in an instant; Kojou hadn’t even had time to blink. 

“You okay, Himeragi?!” Finally freed from the concentrated gunfire, Kojou ran over to Yukina and the four fallen soldiers. 

But Yukina leaped back with a look of shock on her face. “Senpai, it’s not over yet!” 

“…Eh?!” 

A soldier clad in black full-plate armor rose up before Kojou’s eyes. Its neck, broken by Yukina’s kick, remained at an impossibly bent angle. Even so, it showed no sign of registering pain. 

“Grounded Lightning!” Yukina slammed an elbow strike into the flank of another soldier rising in the same fashion. 

It was a blunt attack directly at a gap in the armor. The soldier’s flank collapsed, with its body bending sharply. 

The blow should certainly have broken a number of ribs and inflicted damage to the internal organs. In spite of that, the soldier did not collapse. It grabbed Yukina’s legs and proceeded to hoist her upside down. 

“Eeek?!” 

Holding down the parka as best she could, Yukina whirled her spear and smashed the soldier in the chest with it. Like a cat, she spun around and landed without a sound. Then… 

“Daaaa—!” 

Kojou sent both of them flying with his fist. It was a brute force blow making use of all his vampiric strength. The soldiers easily went flying, crashing into the boulders behind them. But… 

“…You’re kidding?! I wasn’t holding back!!” 

Even with their full-plate armor warped and twisted, the soldiers calmly rose back up. This time it was Kojou’s face that turned pale. 

He didn’t sense any magical energy from them. They didn’t seem to be beast men, vampires, or some kind of sorcery-created zombies. But this inhuman damage resistance and combat power… 

Given that Magus Craft had sent them, he’d been on his guard, but these were even more difficult enemies than he’d expected. 

Furthermore… 

“Guo—?!” 

“Senpai?!” 

Kojou sustained gunfire from behind and fell down on the spot. The bullet had merely grazed the tip of his shoulder. To a vampire with high-regenerative capabilities, it was no more than a scratch, but pain was still pain, immortal or not. 

“I’m sorry, senpai… We’re surrounded.” 

Returning seemingly to cover the wounded Kojou, a grave expression came over Yukina as she murmured. 

Kojou felt desperation as he sensed the echoes of footsteps from all sides. Other soldiers had apparently surrounded Yukina and Kojou while they’d been struggling with the first ones they’d encountered. 

Of course, if Kojou released his Beast Vassals, even thousands of gun-wielding troops were no threat. Kojou’s Beast Vassals could wipe them from the face of the earth in an instant. 

But Kojou’s Beast Vassals didn’t know the meaning of restraint. Holding back its strength a little bit was meaningless. The overpowered Beast Vassals were identical to bombs; they would destroy the area they were summoned to without discriminating between friend and foe. The destructiveness of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals was not something to be directed at human opponents. 

Even if his enemies were gun-toting troops, Kojou couldn’t do that unless he was prepared to massacre all of them— 

“What should I do?” went Kojou as he hesitated. 

The next moment. 

“…?!” 

With a thunderous roar, a ray of light came flying, impaling the black-armored troops right before Kojou’s and Yukina’s eyes. 

A second ray of light came flying, likewise cutting down the soldiers surrounding them all at once. 

The beams were actually gunshots. Two bullets fired, and the tenacious soldiers surrounding them had been destroyed, saving Kojou and Yukina from their predicament. 

“Are both of you safe?” 

From atop a nearby boulder, they heard a voice completely devoid of any sense of tension. 

Calmly standing there was a beautiful silver-haired woman. It was the girl who Kojou had seen at the spring, the one whose face resembled that of Kanon Kanase. 

She did not look like a soldier, but she wore a blazer that resembled a military dress uniform and laced boots. Her arms held within them an oversized, beautifully decorated pistol resembling a brass musical instrument. 

She fired a gold cartridge from the single-shot pistol at the soldiers pursuing her without any hint of indecision. The barrel let loose an incredible beam of light, blowing the black-armored troops away. 

“A spell gun…?!” Yukina cried out in shock as she realized the true nature of the pistol. 

“Come here while you have the chance. Quickly.” 

The silver-haired girl made an elegant smile as she beckoned both of them with her hand. 

Kojou and Yukina nodded to each other and approached the silver-haired girl. Her shooting the soldiers without hesitation made Kojou disinclined to trust her, but they had no other option. 

“Who are…?” 

“I am La Folia Rihavein. So we meet again, Kojou Akatsuki.” The silver-haired girl made an elegant smile as she replied to Kojou’s half-posed question. 

“How do you know my name?” 

“You are Kojou Akatsuki, are you not? The Fourth Primogenitor who appeared in Japan?” 

Looking at the surprised Kojou, the girl calling herself La Folia blinked curiously as she reflected his question back at him. 

“Yeah… I am, but…” 

“That was my last round.” 

La Folia ignored the bewildered Kojou as she forced the conversation forward. 

It felt less like she was disinclined to hear Kojou out so much as that she appeared to feel that dominating the conversation was simply the natural order of things. Thanks to that, she came off as higher-handed than her tone suggested on its own. 

Given her elegant, aristocratic clothing and gleaming, golden pistol, she’d probably been raised as a lady. She’s acting like a princess, Kojou thought in mild amazement. 

“And they are?” 

“Magus Craft Automata, likely here to pursue me.” 

“Automata? I see, that means…” 

Kojou remembered how the soldiers shot by the spell gun had burst in a shower of metallic components. He could understand how machine soldiers could keep moving even after having their ribs smashed and their necks broken. 

“That craft is unmanned. Surely your Beast Vassals can sink it, Kojou Akatsuki?” La Folia asked him as she pointed to the landing craft that remained on standby atop the coast. 

“If I sink that boat, that means we can’t leave the island, either, doesn’t it?” 

La Folia calmly answered Kojou’s doubts. “Even if we took the boat over, it cannot be operated except by remote control from its mothership. The greater danger is from the Automata still aboard the craft.” 

He didn’t think she was lying, for the look on her face was full of aristocratic pride that left no room whatsoever for fraud or deceit. 

“Senpai, they’re coming.” 

Yukina gave her warning close to Kojou’s ear. He could see a new mass of troops in the direction she was pointing her spear in. 

Geez, thought Kojou, tilting his head as he exposed himself right in front of the soldiers. 

Kojou walked forward completely unguarded as the soldiers opened fire. 

However, the bullets never reached him, for his magic power trickled out, turning into pale lightning that enveloped Kojou’s entire body; the bullets simply bounced off. 

“Sorry, but this is how it’s gonna be.” 

That said, Kojou thrust out his right arm. 

Even knowing his opponents were mere machines, he didn’t feel good about destroying anything with a human shape. But now that they’d fired first, he largely set that aside. 

“…C’mon over, Regulus Aurum!” 

A surge of enormous magical energy gushed out of Kojou’s arm. This turned into raging lightning, which then took the form of an enormous lion. Easily the size of a tank, it roared and mowed down the black-armored troops. 

Before the Beast Vassal of a Primogenitor said to rival natural disasters, the stoutness of the full-plate protected Automata was meaningless. 

Each blow from Regulus Aurum, itself a mass of explosive electrical energy, created a giant, super-high temperature shock wave, or alternatively, assailed them with lethal electromagnetic waves. 

Unsatisfied with merely laying waste to the soldiers pursuing them, the lightning lion became a purple flash and moved to the coastline. It destroyed the moored craft, not leaving a single trace, and roared to the heavens. 

Beholding his own Beast Vassal, Kojou clutched his own head in dismay. 

It wasn’t just the Automata that had been destroyed. Along a line several hundred meters long, the beautiful forest had been burned to a crisp, the earth gouged, the very face of the terrain altered. Such were the vestiges left by Kojou’s Beast Vassal run rampant. It was like this even with Kojou having tried to restrain the damage as much as he could. 

Beholding the might of the Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor, even Yukina was frozen in place, eyes wide. 

The only one wearing a satisfied smile was La Folia. 

“Splendid, Kojou Akatsuki. That was Regulus Aurum… Avrora Florestina’s fifth Beast Vassal, was it not?” 

“Who are you…?” 

Making a long sigh, Kojou stared straight at La Folia. 

Yes. He should have made certain sooner. 

For her to know not only Kojou’s true nature, but also the name of the previous Fourth Primogenitor, she was no ordinary little rich girl. On top of that, Magus Craft was after her. 

La Folia calmly looked back at Kojou. 

Her eyes were blue, like a glacier. The same color as Kanon Kanase’s eyes. 

“As I said, I am La Folia Rihavein.” 

She spoke with an expression full of majesty. 

Yukina gasped as she looked La Folia over. It seemed she had some idea what the silver-haired girl really was. 

Giving a mischievous look back at Yukina, La Folia smiled. It was a smiling face that suited her age. 

“I am La Folia, oldest daughter of Lucas Rihavein, of the kingdom of Aldegia of Northern Europe. I thus bear the title of princess of Aldegia.” 

Gently taking hold of the hem of her short skirt, La Folia elegantly curtsied. 

Kojou could only gape at the girl who had declared herself princess.