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Strike the Blood - Volume 5 - Chapter 1




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CHAPTER ONE 

ABSENCE OF THE WITCH 

Collapsing— 

The cathedral was collapsing. 

Stone walls piled as high as the eye could see were falling as if hit by an avalanche; the impact was making the man-made ground shudder fiercely. Scattered fragments of dust and rock were blinding; the interior of the building had been rendered a chaotic darkness. The destructive spectacle could make one think the world was ending. 

Kojou had been unable to respond to the all-too-abrupt collapse. 

At this rate, he’d soon be buried under an enormous mass of stone; there was little doubt he would perish. What saved Kojou came with a strange, floating feeling resembling dizziness. It was a side effect from being teleported. 

Someone had bent space to carry Kojou and the others out of the crumbling cathedral. 

With the dazzling rays of the setting sun suddenly shining on him, Kojou instantly averted his eyes. 

“Ugh…” 

Yukina, silver spear in hand, landed right beside him. They weren’t particularly far from the cathedral. The teleport jump had only been maybe a couple hundred meters. It was far enough that they’d escaped the effects of the cathedral’s collapse, but only barely. 

It was probably the most the caster could do. 

Yukina let out a short shriek. 

“Yuuma?!” 

Behind Kojou, it sounded like something squishy fell to the ground. It was a young woman dressed in a Halloween witch costume. She was too cute to be called boyish, with a perfectly symmetrical face. 

However, her entire body was stained with blood; she was a pale shadow of her normal liveliness. 

She—Yuuma Tokoyogi—seemed in agony as Kojou bit his lip and rushed to her side. 

“Yuuma…! Why’d you do something so reckless…?!” 

Her chest bore a deep sword wound. When Kojou touched her arm, it felt as cold as ice. 

Yuuma was a witch. She was a human who’d been granted tremendous magical power via a pact with a demon. She’d used her power to warp space and save Kojou and the others from the collapsing cathedral. 

However, the reckless teleport had put Yuuma’s body under immense strain. 

In the battle that had ended just moments before, she’d expended magical power beyond her limits, her body incurring deep wounds in the process. A normal person might well have died at any moment in the state she was currently in. 

Even so, Yuuma rose up and forced a smile onto her face. 

“You’re wrong, Kojou… It wasn’t my power alone. The Witch of the Void lent me hers, too…” 

Yuuma’s unexpected words made Kojou stare at both of his arms in shock. 

“Natsuki? Then where…is she…?!” 

Yukina’s expression hardened as well. 

Having been run through by the Guardian’s sword, Natsuki Minamiya had surely been wounded even worse than Yuuma. Could she have really lent her power to Yuuma to save Kojou and the others in that state? 

However, though Kojou had been carrying her in his arms, she was nowhere to be found. If Natsuki had sent Kojou and the rest outside, yet she herself remained in the cathedral even now— 

Dumbfounded, Yukina looked up at the place where the cathedral should have been standing. 

“Senpai…!” 

It was a military fortress with thick steel walls rimmed with barbed wire—no, a prison. 

Kojou looked up at the oppressive fortress in bewilderment. 

“That’s…the real prison barrier…? Then what was the building that was there till now?!” 

Compared to Natsuki’s old-fashioned, solemn cathedral, that fortress was filled with malevolence that far better suited the word prison. However, the entire facility wavered, half-materialized, within the dust; it seemed to still be repelling all intruders. 

What then reached the confused Kojou’s ears were metallic echoes and an eerie female voice. It was the malicious voice of a witch more advanced in her years. 

“It is…the same…thing, Fourth Primogenitor.” 

The speaker stood atop the giant gate of the fortress. 

Her hair was so long that it reached her feet. She wore a noblewoman’s ceremonial robe that looked like it came from the Heian period. The outfit was highly ornamental, but the way it was dyed only in white and black made her look like she was wearing a Grim Reaper costume. Her visage was young and beautiful, but her eyes were the color of flames—of fire. That gaze, part of a gentle smile, boded ill, indicating that she was far beyond the boundaries of humanity. 

“—While dreaming, there is no firm dividing line between man and butterfly. That empty cathedral is the form the prison barrier takes when it is part of Natsuki Minamiya’s dream.” 

The prison barrier was a virtual world that was constructed inside Natsuki’s dream via magic. The viewer of the dream could freely alter its form with a thought. The convicts held within, existing in another being’s dream, had absolutely no means of escape. That was why it was a feared prison used to seal away only sorcerous criminals of the highest class. 

“However,” the fire-eyed witch continued, “the Witch of the Void awoke from her eternal dream, and the prison barrier has emerged into reality. Now that it is in real space, escaping from here is no large feat at…all. For me, at least…” 

This said, she laughed in apparent delight. 

That voice was the same one they’d heard from Yuuma’s Guardian—the voice of the sorcerous criminal Aya Tokoyogi, who’d sacrificed her own daughter to plunge her sword into Natsuki Minamiya. But— 

A despairing voice came from Yuuma’s blood-drenched lips. 

“Mo…ther…?” 

That’s insane, shouted Kojou in his mind. “That’s Yuuma’s mother…?!” 

He didn’t want to accept it, but anyone there would have instantly understood that the fire-eyed witch was connected to Yuuma by blood. After all, the two were the spitting image of each other. 

Except for the length of their hair and the color of their eyes, it was hard to tell them apart. Even their dauntless faces and apparent age were identical… 

“She’s got…the same face as Yuuma…,” said Kojou. 

As if to mock the shaken boy and the others, Aya pointed to the wounded Yuuma and stated, “Of…course. That girl is a copy produced from me through parthenogenesis. She is no more than my shadow, built for the sole purpose of breaching the prison barrier’s seal. She and I are the same being—that is why I can do…this.” 

That moment, blood gushed out of Yuuma’s throat as she screamed. 

“U…a…aaaaaaaaaaa…!” 

Behind her, a human-shaped shadow, materialized via magical power, floated up. It was a faceless knight clad in armor. It was a devil familiar granted as part of a pact—in other words, a witch’s Guardian. 

The blue knight’s entire body seemed to be being eaten alive by ghoulish symbols that looked like black arteries. It was as if Yuuma’s right of command over her Guardian was being stripped from her by force— 

Kojou and Yukina were dumbfounded, their voices shaking. 

“Yuuma?!” 

“…It can’t be…stealing a witch’s Guardian…?” 

Through enormous magical power and a blood bond more powerful than any spell, Aya Tokoyogi was interfering with Yuuma’s Guardian…and neither Kojou nor Yukina had any way to stop it. 

If Kojou attacked Aya Tokoyogi with his Beast Vassal, or Yukina with her spear, the damage would surely rebound upon Yuuma. Yet even with Yuuma moaning in agony before their very eyes, there was simply nothing they could do. 

Yuuma pleaded in a feeble voice, “No…Mother… Stop…!” 

The woman with eyes of fire simply gazed upon her with a cruel smile. 

“I am taking back the power I lent to you…daughter.” 

Aya Tokoyogi raised her left hand. That instant, an ear-splitting sound like that of a tree being snapped echoed around them; as Yuuma bent backward, something was torn right out of her— 

“Noooooooooooooooooooo!” 

The magical energy that flowed from her severed spiritual pathways gushed out like fresh blood. 

The blue armor of Yuuma’s guardian was now completely dyed in black. 

The faceless knight roared like a beast released from its chain. Its form wavered like a mirage as it moved behind Aya Tokoyogi. She had completely stolen Yuuma’s Guardian from her. 

“Yuuma!” Kojou cried. 

Yuuma’s body rolled across the ground, discarded like a broken doll. When Kojou picked up her fallen, limp form, his breath caught in shock. She might have been barely breathing, but Yuuma’s open eyes were completely unfocused. The way she quivered like a frightened, powerless child was completely unlike the Yuuma that Kojou knew. 

Yukina raised her spear in visible anger. 

“How…could you…!” 

Its silver tip was pointed straight at Aya Tokoyogi, who was calmly looking down at them from her position atop the prison gate. 

To a witch like Yuuma, a Guardian was no mere familiar or weapon; it was what a devil granted in exchange for the soul. In exchange for abandoning one’s humanity, it became a part of one’s own flesh and blood. 

And yet, Aya Tokoyogi had stolen even this from Yuuma. She apparently held not even a single shred of affection for her own daughter, whom she regarded as nothing more than a tool for her own escape. 

The fire-eyed woman had what seemed to be serious doubt upon her face. 

“Fourth Primogenitor, Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency…of what do you take offense? That girl is a doll of my own…creation. Am I not free to make use of her as I please?” 

Kojou clenched his teeth and seethed behind them, seized by anger that made it seem like every drop of blood in his body was flowing backward. He seemed to burn with an incredible surge of demonic energy that accompanied the hostility emanating from within him. 

 

“…Don’t toy with me…!” Kojou growled. 

The flame-like magical energy gushing from him shimmered and took the shape of a giant shadow. One of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals was awakening in response to Kojou’s rage. 

“You put my friend through somethin’ like this, and that’s all you have to say…?!” 

“…!” 

Bathed by Kojou’s tempest of magical energy, Aya Tokoyogi’s eyebrows twitched. The might of the Fourth Primogenitor’s demonic power disturbed even her calm composure. 

However, before the Beast Vassal fully materialized, Kojou’s body suddenly swayed—and heavily. Dizziness assailed him as he fell to his knees; he coughed violently, spitting blood. Strength drained from his entire body, undermining the anger that welled within him. 

As Kojou pressed his right hand to his chest, fresh blood turned to mist and streamed out. The bleeding coincided with what seemed like the collapse of his very power as a vampire. 

Yukina’s face went pale as she realized Kojou was moaning in pain. 

“Senpai?!” 

Yukina was the one who’d inflicted that wound upon Kojou. She’d impaled Kojou with Snowdrift Wolf to take it back from Yuuma’s control: the purifying spear that could nullify any magical energy and was said to be capable of destroying even a vampiric primogenitor— 

When she realized why Kojou was in poor shape, Aya casually murmured, without any hint of gloating, “I see. You’ve been wounded by the Schneewaltzer, Fourth Primogenitor.” 

Then her narrowed eyes of flame turned toward Yukina in delight. 

“So the cunning raccoons of the Lion King Agency finally found a wielder for that…spear. I think my treatment of my daughter was quite kind compared to yours.” 

“?!” 

Yukina’s face stiffened as Aya’s words echoed like a curse. 

Yuuma had been born to be a tool for her mother’s escape from the prison, while Yukina was raised to be a Sword Shaman from a young age regardless of her will—certainly there were similarities between the two. In the sense that neither of them were given a choice in the matter, Aya Tokoyogi and the agency were not so far apart. 

However, she felt something even more malignant nestled in the words Aya had used. That Snowdrift Wolf had not been granted to Yukina; rather, Yukina had been acquired for Snowdrift Wolf— 

That was what it sounded like—as if the witch were mocking her. 

Kojou, his instincts telling him he couldn’t let Yukina listen to the witch’s deceitful words, forced himself to his feet. 

“…Shut…up already!” 

Pale lightning was arcing from his blood-drenched right hand. It was an electrical attack from Regulus Aurum, one of the three Beast Vassals that Kojou had barely managed to tame. 

The wound in his chest was still open. Even if he could summon a Beast Vassal in this state, there was no guarantee he could control it. However, Kojou had no other way to stop Aya Tokoyogi as he was now. 

Aya was a powerful witch with enough raw power to rip Yuuma’s Guardian right out of her. He doubted half measures stood any chance of defeating her. 

But as if to mock the ferocious hardening of his resolve, Aya pointed to that upon which she stood as she crafted a taunting smile. 

“Are you certain, Fourth Primogenitor? Certainly, it would be easy for your power to dispatch me, but the prison barrier would not escape unscathed. No doubt the caster who controls the barrier would pay a commensurate price?” 

“…You mean Natsuki?!” 

Kojou lurched to his knees once more as he gazed up at the steel fortress behind Aya. 

He still didn’t know where Natsuki was. However, the fact that the prison barrier, a creation of her own spell, continued to exist, was proof that Natsuki was alive somewhere. 

With the prison barrier used as a shield against him, Kojou was out of cards to play. Kojou’s Beast Vassals were simply too strong to attack Aya without inflicting damage upon the prison. 

An amused smirk came over Aya Tokoyogi as she looked behind her. “—Though, there are those who would be pleased by such an outcome.” 

That was the first time Kojou noticed that Aya Tokoyogi was not the only one looking down at him from above. 

There were a number of unfamiliar faces on top of the prison barrier building. 

The unmoved way they looked down at Kojou and the rest made it feel like they were gazing at worms. 

Without thinking, Kojou’s body stiffened and a deep chill zipped through him. 

“Who the hell are those guys?!” 

There were six figures atop the black fortress. One was an old man; one was a woman; one, a man in armor; one, a gentlemanly type wearing a silk hat. One was a teenager small in stature; the last was a slender-looking young man. Their ages and outfits held nothing in common, nor was there anything particularly repulsive about their outward appearances. But somehow, that was even more frightening. 

Yukina regripped her spear, as if to defy the ghastly atmosphere. “They couldn’t be…” 

Kojou immediately understood what Yukina hadn’t said. 

There was no way Aya Tokoyogi had been the only one imprisoned in this giant barrier. If Aya Tokoyogi could break out, there was no reason others couldn’t do so as well. 

These were the most fiendish of sorcerous criminals, whom all normal means had failed to quell… 

As he shielded the wounded Yuuma, Kojou grimaced. “This is…the worst case, ain’t it…?” 

The pain of his chest wound intensified. The blood flowing out drenched his shirt. 

The first one to speak was the gentleman wearing the silk hat. 

“Aya Tokoyogi…the Witch of the Notaria, yes? First, let me thank you for prying open that abominable barrier.” 

He seemed around forty years old, give or take, and rather solidly built, too. But he gave off a gentle, intellectual air—perhaps it was the clothes making the man. He wouldn’t have seemed out of place among the customers in a high-class salon or the guests at an opera house. 

However— 

Vivid, manifest hostility emanated from his entire body. His eyes burned with hatred for Kojou and the others concerned over Natsuki Minamiya’s well-being. 

To the inmates in the prison barrier, they were comrades of the Witch of the Void, the one who had captured them and sealed them in another world; the prisoners’ wrath was surely great enough that ripping these interlopers limb from limb didn’t seem quite sufficient. 

Bathed in the jailbreakers’ bloodlust, Aya looked back at them and asked quite calmly, “Only six of you… What happened to the others?” 

The small young man atop the wall replied to Aya’s question crudely: 

“Nothin’ happened! Just look at this bastard!” 

His hair was short dreadlocks, and he wore one lavishly covered shirt over another, paired with baggy jeans. It was behind-the-times street fashion, but by his outward appearance, he seemed no older than Kojou or the others. 

But he, too, was indeed one of the fiendish criminals held in the prison barrier. The proof of this was that, even at that moment, a gray metallic manacle covered his left forearm. 

The young man with dreadlocks shouted fiercely as his right arm lashed out. 

“Look!” 

Kojou couldn’t comprehend what happened at the very next moment. What he did comprehend was the explosive blood spatter that flew from the body of the gentleman who stood in front of the youth. 

“Schtola D, why you—!” 

The gentleman coughed up blood as he turned to the offender, pelting him with a look filled with ire. 

Based on his outfit and the air about him, Kojou guessed the older man was a sorcerer; furthermore, a sorcerous criminal who’d committed crimes so grave that he’d been stuffed into the prison barrier. No half-baked attack could have penetrated the powerful magical wall that protected his physical flesh. That was precisely why such arch criminals were sealed in another world to begin with. 

But the younger man’s attack had sliced through his defenses like they were paper; the gentleman’s defenseless body had suffered grave, near-fatal injuries. His front had been split open from his shoulder all the way down to his belly. He fell to his knees on the spot, unable to fight back. 

“Ha-ha—! Don’t hate me, sorcerer, hate that fragile body of yours!” shouted his adversary excitedly. “…And here it comes!” 

The manacle encasing the young sorcerer’s left forearm began to glow. Countless chains gushed out of the gray manacle like a waterfall, relentlessly wrapping around the critically injured body and dragging it into the air. Its destination was no doubt the prison barrier’s interior. 

The wounded man desperately tried to resist. 

“Guoooooooh—!” 

However, he no longer had the power to weave a spell that could slice through the chains. He was swallowed by the air itself, as if he were sinking into a bottomless swamp. And then, he vanished. 

“…Ah. The prison barrier system is still…functioning,” Aya remarked. 

Neither she nor the other jailbreakers registered a single shred of emotion toward the sorcerer’s disappearance. Naturally, they felt no anger about the dreadlocked youth’s attack, either. They’d just happened to be held in the same prison; they shared not the smallest particle of camaraderie. 

The one called Schtola D merely replied with a dark grin. 

“Looks like we won’t be fully free until we kill the Witch of the Void and the prison barrier’s completely gone,” a young, violet-haired woman said to Aya, picking up where the dreadlocked youth left off. “Tee-hee…if you know, would you tell us where she is? A fellow witch like you should have a clue or two, yes?” 

She was a beautiful woman with a decadent air about her, giving off a sense of corrupt sexuality. She wore very exposing lingerie under a long coat; somehow, she had the air of an old-fashioned harlot. 

But the eyes with which she looked at Aya Tokoyogi were dyed with lurid bloodlust. Aya calmly brushed the hostility aside and slowly shook her head. 

“Unfortunately, I know not. If you wish to kill that woman, by all means, search for her yourselves.” 

Schtola D curled up his lips in a militant smile. “That so. Sounds interestin’, Miss LCO Leader. In that case, no use for you now, either.” 

He glared at Aya and raised his right hand in the same way he had when attacking the gentleman in the silk hat. Clearly, if Aya wouldn’t cooperate, he’d kill her, too. He probably regarded any human being who wasn’t of use to him as his enemy. 

But the little witch had a listless look as she, too, raised her left arm before Schtola D, her long sleeve wrapped around it. She was holding an old tome. 

“Do not be hasty, brash one… I know not Natsuki Minamiya’s location, but I did not refuse to assist you.” 

Schtola D stopped moving, leaving his arm up. “Ahh?” 

He seemed thrown off, unable to grasp the meaning of Aya’s words. 

In Schtola D’s place, a slender-looking young man nodded, eyes narrowed in scrutiny. “Grimoire No. 014…Personal History, yes? I see…very interesting.” 

“Whaddaya mean, Meiga?” 

The young man called Meiga retouched his glasses in apparent displeasure as he glanced over at Schtola D. 

“I would rather you did not address me so casually…but ah well. Bottom line: It’s a curse. Aya Tokoyogi used the power of the grimoire to put a curse on the Witch of the Void. Natsuki Minamiya probably has amnesia this very moment…is that not so, Aya Tokoyogi?” 

“That is…correct. Put more precisely, I have not stolen her memories alone, but the time she experienced.” 

“Robbing another’s flesh and blood of accumulated time…so that is the ability of the grimoire permitted to LCO’s leader alone,” replied the young man thoughtfully. “I see…most fascinating…” 

Schtola D snorted as he butted in. 

“Stealin’ her memory and her time…so, what the hell does that actually mean?” 

A cruel smile came over Meiga’s lips. “It means Natsuki Minamiya cannot currently use magic. She probably cannot employ her Guardian’s power, either.” 

Natsuki Minamiya was a witch who could freely manipulate space. The terrible price of that pact was being the warden of the prison barrier, yet precisely because of that cost, she had been granted enormous magical power far surpassing the norm. And her ten-plus years of combat experience against demons had honed her into a cunning Attack Mage. No doubt all the prison barrier inmates were well aware of how frightening she could be. 

But Aya Tokoyogi’s grimoire had robbed the source of Natsuki’s power from her. 

Finally grasping the situation, Schtola D twisted his lips in obvious delight. 

“That so? The grimoire took her power… No, it took the time and experience she needed to get that power, then…” 

Aya Tokoyogi stroked the pages of her beloved grimoire as she spoke to herself. “It took a plan ten years in the making, using my own daughter’s body as a decoy, to finally get the Witch of the Void to lower her guard for a single moment for one…blow. But that was sufficient to activate my…grimoire.” 

Aya was well aware that there could be no escape from the prison barrier unless Natsuki Minamiya was defeated. 

That was why she’d waited for Natsuki to reveal a single moment of weakness, giving her the time to play her trump card: the effect of her grimoire. 

“It seems Natsuki Minamiya fled just before completely losing her magical energy,” the young man in glasses agreed in a cool, collected tone, “but she will be unable to use magic again for as long as the grimoire remains active. Meaning all one of us has to do is find her while she’s on the run and deliver the final blow. And you, Aya Tokoyogi?” 

Aya said nothing. Her posture said, Do as you wish. 

The woman with violet hair looked at the manacle on her left forearm and made a coquettish laugh. “If that’s how it is, you should lend us a hand, Aya Tokoyogi. All of us here want to kill her—Or perhaps, the first one to get to her wins?” 

Schtola D, meanwhile, sulked as he ran a hand up his dreadlocks. “Keh, what a pain in the ass, but fine. My body’s gone soft from all that prison life. I bet this’ll be some real good rehab.” 

The other jailbreakers nodded silently, apparently in agreement. 

They’d search for the fleeing Natsuki and eliminate her. It seemed that the consensus among the jailbreakers was that they were on the same side, if only until then. 

Natsuki’s magic was still sealed by Aya Tokoyogi. Even if she’d fled before losing her power, she surely hadn’t gone far. Natsuki was most likely somewhere on Itogami Island. If the escapees all went looking her, finding her was most likely a matter of time. 

In her present amnesiac state, Natsuki had already been pushed nearly to the brink. She couldn’t have been in any state to fight off the convicts. 

You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me, thought Kojou, his lips pursed as he stepped forward. He left the blood-drenched Yuuma to Yukina and glared up at the magical beings. 

“Hold on. You think we’re gonna just let you go after hearin’ all that?” 

Schtola D, as if finally remembering that Kojou even existed, shot him a look of annoyance. “Ah? Did the brat just say somethin’…?” 

Even as he covered his chest wound, Kojou never took his eyes from them. 

The prison barrier hadn’t been completely broken. It was still possible to seal them away once more. But if they were to do so, they had to protect Natsuki, now on the run. They couldn’t let the escapees catch up with her. 

The young man in glasses nodded calmly. “Ah yes, you were here, too, Fourth Primogenitor. Perhaps we should dispose of you first…” 

The woman in the coat narrowed her beautiful eyes as she glared at Kojou. 

The man in armor moved his hand to the sword at his back without a word. The old man, too, spread his seemingly shriveled arms wide as he smiled. 

Not a single one of them feared Kojou. They believed, as a matter of course, that they would win, even against the World’s Mightiest Vampire. 

Even so, Kojou had his own reason why he had to stop them. After all, it was the demonic power of the Fourth Primogenitor that had been used to break the prison barrier to begin with. Kojou couldn’t help but feel responsible for that, all the more so now that he knew just what price Natsuki had paid to protect the prison barrier’s seal. 

Schtola D spoke with scorn as he leaped down off the tower. 

“Geez…d’ya really think a mere primogenitor is gonna stop me?” 

It was over ten meters between him and Kojou. A bare-handed attack wouldn’t possibly reach. 

Regardless, Schtola D swung his right arm down from well above. 

Kojou felt the release of ferocious bloodlust but very little magical energy from Schtola D’s right arm. Judging that it was a mere bluff, Kojou made no move to evade. But— 

“—No, senpai!” cried out Yukina, her expression frantic as she threw herself in front of Kojou as a shield. 

A moment later, a gust of wind so powerful that the earth roared and quivered slammed down onto Yukina. The silver spear she carried took the gale Schtola D had unleashed straight on. 

A metallic roar echoed off the weapon, as if a maul had swung down upon it. Yukina dropped to her knees from an incredible, unseen weight. 

“Himeragi?!” Kojou yelled, as the aftereffects of the shock wave thrust past her and hit him, too. 

It was an invisible slicing attack that could attack opponents over ten meters away. This seemed to be the ability of the young man called Schtola D. The gentleman sorcerer from earlier had probably been gravely wounded by the same technique. 

However, what surprised Kojou was the fact Yukina had been unable to fully block his attack. Her spear should have been able to nullify any magical power in existence. So, Schtola D’s attack was able to breach even Snowdrift Wolf’s defense… 

But the sorcerer above was just as shaken as they were. 

“…What is that spear? It stopped my Thunder Ax?!” 

His face seemed to scream, How dare a powerless little girl like that stop my one-hit-one-kill attack! 

Schtola D howled as he raised his arm once more. “Now you’ve done it. You’ve hurt my pride, dammit! How ’bout I get a li’l serious, then?!” 

The incredible bloodlust, far beyond that of before, told them what he was whipping up. 

Yukina leaned on her spear as she rose. She looked to be at the end of her rope. “Senpai…leave this to me. Please take Yuuma and run.” 

For an instant, Kojou was in shock. Schtola D represented such a menace by himself, but he was only one of the jailbreakers present. 

They didn’t know what the others could do, Aya Tokoyogi included. No matter how excellent of an Attack Mage Yukina was, Kojou didn’t think she could defeat them all unscathed. On top of that, Yukina was worn down from fighting the LCO witches and Yuuma. He wasn’t the only one still injured. 

“No, Yukina! If someone’s stayin’ behind, it’s gonna be—” 

“No, senpai. You mustn’t use your Beast Vassals in a place like this.” 

Kojou had nothing he could say in reply to that calm, composed rebuttal. 

His Beast Vassals were too strong; they’d destroy the prison barrier entirely, even if all they were going after was one sorcerer. Furthermore, his unstable condition made merely controlling the Beast Vassals a chancy thing. 

Yukina turned her back to Kojou. “I will buy you time until you can escape. Please take Yuuma and go!” 

“Himeragi!” 

“Please hurry. Or do you intend to let Yuuma and Ms. Minamiya die?!” 

“That doesn’t mean I can just leave you!” Kojou yelled back without thinking. 

The way Yukina had calmly decided that it was only natural that she should sacrifice herself really pissed him off. 

Yukina’s eyes widened and she froze, as if Kojou’s reaction had truly surprised her. 

It looked at first like Kojou was just being stubborn, but his cheeks were red, like he was blushing a bit. For a single instant, the two silently traded stares— 

But it was at the very next moment that Schtola D laid eyes on Kojou and Yukina and slammed another invisible slice down toward them. 

“Ha-ha! I’ll squish ya’ like a bug, Fourth Primogenitor—!” 

Kojou and Yukina reacted too slowly to dodge Schtola D’s attack. Then— 

As the two held their breath, a dazzling crimson beam filled their fields of vision. 

The explosion that poured down near Kojou left his eardrums numb. He wavered unsteadily as the earth rippled. 

The resulting crater in the ground largely caved in, kicking up enough dust to completely obstruct his vision. Debris blown into the air poured down to the surface like hail. 

However, Schtola D’s attack was not the cause of this. As proof, he too gaped with a dumbfounded expression as debris rained down around him. 

“What the hell was that?!” 

Schtola D lamented as he gazed up at the red evening sky. A giant mass of flame had flown out of thin air to disrupt his attack. It was an attack spell from long range. 

He must have thought it the work of another prisoner, but it was not so. In fact, the audience merely laughed coldly. 

Of course, it had not been Kojou’s doing, either. However, Kojou had some idea who’d unleashed the attack, for he had seen very similar magic before—magic with overwhelming destructive power that rivaled that of a vampire’s Beast Vassal. 

It was a black magic barrage created via a curse with an intensity far beyond that which human vocal cords and lungs could tolerate. It was a magic bullet fired by the Lion King Agency’s area suppression weapon Der Freischötz. 

“…I, Dancer of the Lion, Archer of the High God, beseech thee.” 

Kojou and Yukina heard a young woman’s solemn chant from behind them. As the mountain of rubble blew apart, Sayaka Kirasaka emerged, a metal Western-style bow in hand. 

Her hair, worn in a ponytail, fluttered as she stood within an unexpected choice of vehicle. It was a chariot reminiscent of those of the ancient steppe peoples, drawn by a giant warhorse. The display was so overwhelmingly nonsensical that even Schtola D ended up doing nothing but stare blankly. 

“Most Brilliant Flaming Horse, Illustrious Kirin, He Who Governs Heavenly Thunder, pierce these evil spirits with thy wrath…!” 

Seizing the opportunity, Sayaka completed her chant and unleashed her arrow toward the heavens. 

The specially constructed whistling arrow sailed, releasing a monstrous sound that shrieked like a curse unleashed. The sound echoed until the arrow finally transformed into incandescent lightning, pouring over and over onto the escaped prisoners from above. 

Giant explosions erupted across the prison barrier. 

Sayaka had little hope of felling such opponents with an attack of that scale, but she trusted it would at least hide Kojou and the others from their sight. Schtola D raged at the intrusion into his battle, but only bits and pieces of his rant could be heard. 

During that time, the chariot Sayaka rode violently rent the surface of the ground in front of Kojou and the others as it screeched to a halt. 

“Yukina, get on! Oh, you too, Kojou Akatsuki!” the archer shouted with a tone that left no room for quibbling as she released more cursed arrows. 

With a certain time lag, countless explosions descended upon the escaped prisoners, obstructing their pursuit. 

Sayaka continued to breathe raggedly as Kojou looked up at her, hesitating on raw instinct. 

“K-Kirasaka…?! Uh, are you sure about this…?” 

Up close, the chariot was truly overwhelming. The warhorse’s head was covered in a steel helm, its hooves continuing to echo violently; the color of the carriage closely resembled that of a bloodstain. Metal spikes jutted out from the wheels, further adding to its ominous appearance. It clearly wasn’t something sane people should ride on. 

However, it also represented their only means of escape. 

“Senpai, we have to save Yuuma!” Yukina shouted, as she supported the wounded girl over her shoulder. 

To hell with it, Kojou decided, half in despair, as he helped the girls aboard the bizarre chariot. Kojou himself followed, vaulting up the step to the compartment. Sayaka violently snapped the reins the instant she saw him do so. 

“Nuaaaaa!! I’m gonna fall, I’m gonna fall!” 

Kojou let out a pathetic shriek at the unbelievably rough ride. One of the wheels rolled over a large piece of debris and jumped so violently that it threatened to shake Kojou right off the edge of the tilting chariot. 

As he grabbed onto Sayaka from behind, she, too, let out a shriek as her body shuddered and froze. 

“Hya…?! Wh-where are you touching me?!” 

Even then, the chariot continued to accelerate; the cab shook with greater and greater vehemence. 

Kojou excused himself shrilly: 

“Well, there’s nothin’ else to grab on to!” 

If he let go now, it was a virtual certainty he’d be thrown right off their ride. 

Sayaka, who had both hands occupied with holding onto her bow, could do nothing to push Kojou away; all she could do was squirm. 

“That doesn’t mean you can do this while Yukina’s watchi— Anyway, lower! If you’re gonna grab on, do it lo— NOT THAT LOW—!! D-don’t push your face into me—!” 

“I’m not doin’ it on purpose! It’s the chariot’s fault for rockin’ too much! And why a chariot anyway?!” 

“Someone left it on the side of the road, so I borrowed it! It’s not like I had any other way to get around!” 

“The heck?! No one just leaves somethin’ like this lyin’ on the side of the road!” 

“Well, someone did, so there!!” 

With no sense of the gravity of the situation, Kojou and Sayaka continued yelling at each other atop the cramped, rocking chariot. Yukina looked up at both of them mildly, sighing. 

Even with four people aboard, the warhorse drawing the chariot was galloping full speed ahead. It was a speed that seemed aberrant for a single animal. 

The helmet covering the horse’s head had the words COISTE BODHAR engraved upon its surface. Apparently, that was the warhorse’s name. It was the name of the favorite coach of the Headless Horseman—the Dullahan—from a European myth hailing from the Middle Ages. 

Just as Kojou recalled that fact, he heard a loud crack. 

The steel helm covering the warhorse’s head split apart and fell onto the road, snapping the reins in Sayaka’s grasp in the process. 

Kojou, staring dumbfounded as the warhorse continued to gallop, gasped in terror. 

“Th…the head’s…?!” 

That was just it: There wasn’t a head under the warhorse’s helmet. It was as if a great ax had lopped off everything from the neck up. A headless horse was drawing Sayaka’s chariot. 

“What’s with this horse…?! Where the hell did you get this thing, anyway?!” 

Yukina redirected his attention calmly, even as she continued to clutch the unconscious Yuuma. “Please calm down, senpai! This horse is probably a machine.” 

Face turning pale, Sayaka herself looked back mechanically. “M-machine…?! It’s a robot?!” 

“Wait, you didn’t notice, either?!” Kojou shouted at Sayaka, glaring. 

“Well, you’d never expect a robot horse to be sitting on the side of the road,” fumed Sayaka, excusing herself with puffed-up cheeks. 

Yukina sighed, resigned. “It is most likely for the Hollow Eve Festival parade…” 

Kojou patted himself down with relief, finally recovering his state of mind. “Parade… R-right… For the parade…” 

The Hollow Eve Festival, in progress and much beloved, was a Demon Sanctuary event modeled after Halloween. The city was decked out in ghost and monster designs with large numbers of costumed tourists taking part. 

There were nighttime parades with big floats and lots of ornate lighting. This headless horse chariot must’ve been one of the floats. 

Given that you couldn’t tell it wasn’t a real horse except for the lack of a head, it might’ve been some kind of publicity thing by a Demon Sanctuary corporation wanting to show off its technology. Apparently, Sayaka had absconded with it without any idea about that. 

Man she really stirs things up. Kojou couldn’t help but think; facts were facts: The chariot had saved their lives. A normal car or motorcycle would never have been able to get them off that rubble-covered, man-made island. 

Sayaka twisted her lips into a pout and knitted her brows like she’d only just remembered something. “Incidentally, Kojou Akatsuki… You’re back in your own body now?” 

Now that Kojou thought about it, he had been body swapped with Yuuma the last time he’d met Sayaka. 

Kojou bit his lip, mortified, as he checked back on Yuuma, who was lying on her side at the bottom of the carriage. “Yeah, somehow. But thanks to that, she’s…” 

The blood-drenched Yuuma’s eyes remained open, but she showed no signs of moving. Her breathing seemed irregular and uncertain; her body temperature had dropped considerably. The exhaustion of her body ran deeper than the visible wounds. This was the state getting her Guardian ripped right out of her had left her in. 

“…Wasn’t she an LCO criminal or something?” Sayaka asked hesitantly, as she, too, glanced at Yuuma. 

Kojou shook his head. “She was just bein’ used… By her own mom, even.” 

“Mom? What do you mean?” 

“This Aya Tokoyogi chick. She was locked up in the prison barrier. She’s a witch, and she stabbed Natsuki through Yuuma. Aw, crap, if we don’t find Natsuki, we are so screwed…” 

“Eh? Eh? Natsuki, you mean Natsuki Minamiya…? Someone stabbed the Witch of the Void?” 

Kojou’s awkward explanation had only thrown Sayaka into greater confusion. Yukina looked conflicted as she was forced to intervene: 

“Aya Tokoyogi is a criminal imprisoned in the prison ward. She is considered the leader of LCO.” 

“LCO’s Great Librarian…? And that’s her mom…?!” 

“Yes. She used Yuuma’s witch pact to break herself out of prison.” 

“And she did this to her own daughter once her usefulness was over?! What a—!” 

Sayaka’s lips pursed as she finally understood. She glared angrily at the steel-colored fortress far behind them. 

Yukina lowered her eyes and quietly explained, “Escaped prisoners are after Ms. Minamiya to put an end to the prison barrier. We have to secure her before that happens, but…we cannot abandon Yuuma, either…” 

Sayaka sighed gravely. “Well, that’s not good… She might not last long at this rate.” 

“Can’t you do somethin’, Kirasaka?” Kojou pleaded to Sayaka. “You know, like you did before…?” 

Once before, Sayaka had performed first aid on the gravely wounded Astarte and saved her life. 

However, a pained expression came over their driver as she shook her head slightly. 

“Don’t be absurd. That time I stopped the blood loss, but repairing yanked-out spiritual pathways is way beyond what I can do. Without a powerful witch or a sorcerous physician…” 

Kojou lifted his head as he repeated Sayaka’s words to himself. 

“A sorcerous physician…huh…?” 

The chariot Kojou and the others were riding in had already left the harbor district and entered the city proper. It was Island South—the research and development district covered with corporate and academic facilities. The lack of pedestrians was no doubt due mostly to employees being off on holiday for the duration of the Hollow Eve Festival. 

They could no longer see the prison barrier floating atop the inlet. It seemed that Schtola D and the others had no intention of pursuing them farther. 

Having confirmed this for himself, Kojou spoke with determination. “Kirasaka. Stop at the next set of lights, would you?” 

“Er…why?” Sayaka replied dubiously. 

“I think I know someone who can treat Yuuma… Should be at that white building up ahead there.” 

“Th-that so?” Sayaka replied as cold sweat trickled down her brow. “But, um…stopping this thing… How, exactly?” 

She timidly presented her hands with what little remained of the torn-off reins in them. 

A properly trained horse could be stopped with only a light pull of the reins. However, Coiste Bodhar, the warhorse drawing the chariot, had no head, so of course there was no bridle to attach any reins to. 

Kojou went pale when he grasped the implications. 

“Wh-wh-what are you gonna do?! How are you gonna stop this horse?!” 

“D-don’t ask me, I have no idea…!” 

“This ain’t the time to argue—!” 

Apparently, the horse had been running amok since the moment the helmet had come off. Now beyond Sayaka’s control, the chariot ferociously hurtled toward the research and development district. 

Shocked expressions came over the pedestrians and drivers of oncoming vehicles as they noticed the chariot led by a headless horse, but Kojou and the others had no room to spare them any concern. 

Their ride plunged toward an intersection with a red light, wherein it swerved at the last minute of its own accord to narrowly avoid a head-on collision. The sudden turn pulled the chariot well off the road, and sparks violently scattered from its wheels. The carriage grazed the raised pedestrian walkway, pieces of it scattering while taking a bite out of the asphalt. 

Kojou was clinging to Sayaka’s hips once more. 

“Whoa! That was close! Ain’t there an emergency brake on this thing?!” 

Yukina was desperately holding down the unconscious Yuuma so that she wouldn’t get thrown off. 

“This might be…bad…,” muttered Sayaka. 

“Wha…?!” 

Kojou’s eyes bulged as he noticed the concrete wall standing right in their path. It was a solid enclosure surrounding a corporate laboratory, completely blocking the chariot’s path. 

Without a way to bring the chariot back under control, they had no means to avoid crashing into it. 

“Sayaka, Lustrous Scale! Cut the horse loose—!” 

“Wh-why am I taking orders from you…?!” 

Sayaka’s mouth complained, but she swung down her beloved sword—Der Freischötz in sword mode—just as Kojou told her to. 

The silver blade descended and easily severed the shaft connecting the headless horse to the carriage. The warhorse, released from the heavy carriage, accelerated with great force and agilely leaped over the looming perimeter wall. 

On the other hand, the chariot Kojou and the others were riding pitched forward and made contact with the ground. It slid sideways while losing speed, stopping at about a ninety-degree angle. The distinct wheel tracks left on the ground spewed white, putrid smoke. 

Kojou gave a shaky sigh of relief as he gazed at the perimeter wall they’d barely avoided crashing into. One false move and they’d have been in a major accident. He wasn’t sure if Sayaka had saved them, or nearly gotten them all killed, or both. 

That said, when he looked at Sayaka and saw how utterly exhausted she was, he was in no mood to criticize her. She’d been engaged in combat with LCO witches right before having come to save them, firing Der Freischötz in rapid succession to save them from grave danger. He ought to have been thanking her, not whining. 

Kojou extricated himself from the toppled carriage and looked up at the building towering before them. “…Well, at least we got here in one piece.” 

It was a giant laboratory complex composed of several buildings. All the walls were white, somehow invoking the feel of a hospital. 

Yukina suddenly lifted her head and asked, “This wouldn’t be…the MAR lab, would it…?” 

MAR—Magna Ataraxia Research Incorporated—was a giant conglomerate with branches all over the Far East. It was a corporate group formed of a number of sorcerous product manufacturers with global reach. 

“Yeah. There’s a guesthouse for visitors in the central building. C’mon.” 

Kojou picked up the sleeping Yuuma and walked through the laboratory’s front gate. Yukina followed behind him without a word. Sayaka, now left all alone, hurried to catch up. 

“Kojou Akatsuki. How do you know something like that?” she demanded. 

Kojou grimaced. 

“If she hasn’t been back home, she’s probably still here…” 

Sayaka blinked curiously and inclined her head slightly. “Who?” 

For some reason, Kojou looked a bit conflicted as he scratched his cheek, looking back at Sayaka. 

“Mimori Akatsuki. My mother.” 

With night fallen, tourists packed the streets. Floats adorned with countless tiny lights and a myriad of dancers paraded by as well. It was the first night of the Hollow Eve Festival, and the famous Night Parade had begun. 

Asagi Aiba heaved a deep sigh as she gazed at the glittering spectacle via a large window. 

She was sitting in a booth at a family restaurant. Across from her was a little girl in a lovely one-piece dress, with a big ribbon on her head. She sat in a chair that seemed to be just the right height for her. 

It was about this time that the waitress delivered their meals. “Thank you for waiting. Here is your limited-time-only Brilliant Hollow Eve Hamburger Plate with large rice and a kids’ pancake combo.” 

The serving woman was dressed in a Halloween-style outfit as she carried full plates in both hands. 

The little girl with the ribbon fidgeted to the slightest degree as she looked up at the food being brought over. 

“Please enjoy!” 

As the ribbon-wearing girl watched the waitress make her pleasant remark and leave, she looked at Asagi with upturned eyes, apparently gauging by Asagi’s reaction whether it was okay to dig in. 

Asagi made a slightly pained smile as she handed the girl a knife and fork. 

The girl with the ribbon accepted these and began slicing up her pancakes with little regard for safety. Her small mouth opened as wide as it could to accommodate the pancakes drenched in syrup and butter. 

“Delicious?” Asagi couldn’t keep a smile off her face as she asked. 

The young girl nodded, her cheeks puffed up like she was some kind of squirrel. 

Asagi sighed deeply before she spoke. “Ah. That’s good.” 

It made her wonder all over again: How did things end up like this? 

She’d been minding her own business the day before the Hollow Eve Festival when she’d been abruptly called by the Gigafloat Management Corporation, spending all night dealing with trouble that culminated in the roof of their own office building getting taken over by criminals and herself getting pinned down inside. Then, just as she thought the incident had finally been dealt with, a mysterious little girl appeared and glommed on to her—which was where things still stood. 

She thought it was too much misfortune even for her. 

Asagi figured that while she was suffering like this, Kojou, that transfer student, and his beautiful childhood friend were having the time of their lives at the festival. Just picturing it made her sick to her stomach. 

The ribbon-wearing girl spoke in monotone as she looked up at Asagi with concern. 

“Mama…are you upset?” 

Asagi gasped and regained her senses. 

“Eh? Ahh no, not at all. It’s not like that at all… I’m just thinking about something.” 

She smiled more than she was accustomed to and shook her head. She realized she had to take the little girl’s feelings into account. After all, the girl was going through a much harder time than Asagi was. Seeing Asagi lost in thought had no doubt unsettled the girl. 

The young woman lowered her eyes to the same level as the little girl’s as she gently asked, “Hey, do you remember anything now? Like, maybe your name?” 

But her dinner partner only shook her head in silence. 

Asagi had asked the same question several times over by this point, but the girl had been unable to state her own name or where she lived. She looked plenty intelligent enough, so surely it wasn’t that she didn’t understand the question. Perhaps she’d lost her memory. 


Asagi pressed forward with her next question. 

“Do you remember your mom’s name?” 

This time, the reply was immediate. 

“Asagi Aiba!” 

“How did it end up like this…?” 

Asagi deflated like a balloon and began munching on her food. 

For a single moment, she thought about the possibility that the young girl really was her own daughter, perhaps a girl Asagi had given birth to in the future who’d somehow traveled back in time. 

Er, no, definitely not. She couldn’t grasp what the point would be to send a young girl like this into the past by herself, and in the first place, she couldn’t be Asagi’s daughter; she didn’t look anything like Asagi or Kojou. Wait, this has nothing to do with Kojou! 

Asagi’s thoughts descended into a hazy loop. 

“Oh, okay. That’s why I got that déjà vu feeling…” 

As Asagi watched the little girl stuff her cheeks with pancakes, she finally realized who the girl resembled. The girl with the ribbon in her hair looked just like her homeroom teacher, Natsuki Minamiya. Frilly dress, check; long hair, check; doll-like face, check—she’d seen it all before. 

Without realizing, Asagi lowered her voice to a whisper. “Hey, does the name Natsuki Minamiya ring a bell? Maybe that’s the name of your real mother…” 

Upon meeting Natsuki Minamiya for the first time, virtually everyone pegged her for a grade schooler, but she claimed to be twenty-six years old even so. At that age, she could well have given birth to a daughter some four or five years old. 

If the little girl with the ribbon really was Natsuki’s daughter, it was certainly possible she knew Asagi’s face from class photos or other bits of data. That would be one explanation for how the girl had latched on to Asagi. 

But the girl with the ribbon stopped eating as she murmured with some difficulty, “Natsuki…Minamiya…” 

She stared at Asagi with big eyes, her emotions unreadable. Suddenly, her eyes wavered greatly as clear teardrops poured from them. The large flow of tears made an audible sound as they fell upon the table. The sight made Asagi lose her nerve in a hurry. 

“W-wait a… What’s wrong…?” 

The girl with the ribbon gently shook her head. “I don’t know…” 

Asagi could not sense any echo of sadness in the girl’s voice. The girl herself didn’t seem to have any idea why she was crying. 

But with this, Asagi could firmly state the possibility was exceptionally high that the ribbon-wearing girl was related to Natsuki Minamiya. That meant Asagi was no disinterested observer. Apparently, it was her unavoidable fate to look after the girl. 

“Aww, man.” 

Guess I’ve gotta do it, Asagi thought, sighing out of pure stubbornness as she grabbed several napkins. She reached out to the ribbon-wearing girl’s cheeks and wiped her tears away. 

“Okay, got it. This is what we’ll do. From this moment on, your name is Sana.” 

“Sana?” 

“Right. It’s your nickname until you can remember your real name. It gets rough if I don’t have anything to call you, see.” 

The girl blinked, confused, while she listened to Asagi’s plan. But then, finally, her cheeks glowed brightly as a charming little smile came over her lips. 

“Sana…that’s my name…” 

A broad grin came over Asagi as she saw for herself that “Sana” was happy with the moniker. 

“Yeah.” 

She looked just like a smaller version of Natsuki, so Asagi had based the nickname off “Small Natsuki”; luckily, the girl apparently liked it. 

That being said, it did nothing to resolve the underlying problems facing them. 

With Sana unable to remember her own name, there was no way Asagi could just bring the girl to her place. The police’s Missing Children’s Center was already in a state of panic, so she couldn’t rely on them for a quick resolution, either. 

She could try to use Mogwai, but even Asagi hesitated to use Itogami Island’s main computer system just to find the mother of a missing child. 

What to do? Asagi wondered in anguish as she stuffed a hamburger combo down her throat. But that was when she realized Sana was looking out the window every so often. 

“…Sana?” 

The girl was looking at a section of the parade on the side of the road; she seemed especially taken in by the people dancing in animal mascot costumes on top of a particular float. 

“Interested in the parade?” 

Asagi’s question made Sana’s shoulders quiver. She looked like a frightened kitten as she shifted her gaze to Asagi and made a small nod. Sana’s behavior brought a strained smile to Asagi’s face. 

“Wanna go?” 

The instant she asked, Sana’s expression glittered brightly. She quickly began finishing off her pancakes so that they could leave as soon as possible. 

Asagi’s shoulders slumped as she watched the innocent, beaming smile that matched the girl’s age. 

“Well…she certainly is cute…” 

Asagi’s very long day seemed set to continue for a while longer. 

Due to the sheer size of the MAR lab site, the countless buildings connected to one another formed a giant three-dimensional complex. Kojou headed straight in without the slightest hesitation while carrying Yuuma, who was fast asleep. 

Finally, they arrived at a cylinder-shaped building in one corner of the complex. The building was a series of extravagant, resort-style apartments. 

Properly speaking, these were meant for hosting guests and researchers from off the island, but Kojou and Nagisa’s mother, Mimori Akatsuki, had snagged one of them for her own personal use, sleeping there the vast majority of every week. Kojou thought that it posed a bit of a problem for a guardian to be doing this, but he couldn’t complain very much, given the situation he was in now. 

Pressing his hand to a palm-reader touch panel, Kojou opened the door to the guesthouse’s living room. He entered to the familiar sight of its elegant lobby decorated with marble floors. 

Sayaka’s expression was rather stiff as she followed behind the others. “S-so, Kojou Akatsuki, your mother is here, then?” 

Kojou affirmed this with a melancholic sigh. 

“Our mother’s the chief of research for MAR’s Department of Medicine. She’s a certified clinical pathologist of sorcery, and she’s kind of an acquaintance of Yuuma’s, too…” 

Kojou scowled as he added, “I didn’t wanna involve the woman in this if I could avoid it, though.” 

Kojou had not spoken to Mimori about the fact he’d become a vampire. He didn’t want his mother to know his current circumstances, though the reason was completely separate from Nagisa’s fear of demons. 

There was no doubt whatsoever in Kojou’s mind that, should he carelessly reveal to her he was a vampire, his mother would happily lock him away and examine his body down to the finest detail. Knowing her, she’d chop him up to see what made him tick. You’ll come back to life anyway so what’s the big deal, she’d say. 

Kojou figured this wasn’t the first of Sayaka’s encounters with eccentricity, so there wasn’t any point in telling her this. 

But as Kojou ran such things through his mind, Sayaka was right behind him, squirming all around like she’d been backed into a corner. 

“Wait a minute… I’m not emotionally prepared for this…!” 

Kojou gave her a dubious look as they got into an elevator. “…What the heck are you all nervous for?” 

Sayaka’s cheeks blazed crimson as she returned in a shrill voice, “I ain’t the least bit nervous at all here!!” 

Kojou sighed a bit in exasperation. “Even your speech is getting all messed up.” 

The elevator Kojou and the others were on reached its destination. Yukina chose that moment to hesitantly ask, “Excuse me… But I wonder if we will be in the way?” 

Yukina looked at a loss for words as she glanced down at her blue apron dress. Thanks to having engaged in ferocious combat, her clothes were a mess, dusty and scratched all over. Her silver-colored spear had been stained by blood spatter, too; it was a little much for a claim that it was just part of the Hollow Eve Festival costume. Any way you looked at it, these weren’t clothes for being introduced to someone’s mother. Yukina wouldn’t have blamed the woman for calling the police on the spot. 

However, for some reason, all Kojou did was give a faint, strained smile and remark, “Oh, is that all? 

“I don’t think you need to worry,” he added. “You’ll understand as soon as you meet her, I think.” 

“R-right…” 

Yukina and Sayaka remained somewhat bewildered, but Kojou paid them no heed as he rang the doorbell to the apartment that was now Mimori-occupied territory. With a small delay, a yawning voice drifted out of the intercom: 

“Yes, yes, who might it be?” 

“It’s me, Mom. Sorry, I’ve got a favor to ask y—” 

Kojou strove to keep his behavior as blunt as possible to avoid being dragged into his mother’s overly easygoing pace. However, Mimori interrupted her son’s lack of pleasantries with a buoyant tone. 

“Ah, Kojou? Right, right, hold on, I’m opening the door now.” 

They sensed a hectic rush of footsteps approaching the other side of the door before she unlocked it. Seeing she had done so, Kojou opened the door. 

In that instant, a giant jack-o’-lantern wearing a white robe leaped right out of the room. The pumpkin itself was over a meter in diameter; both of its eyes glowed as it thrust itself before the group’s eyes. 

“Boo!” 

“Hyaaaaa?!” 

Yukina and Sayaka, already tense for reasons unknown, shrieked on the spot from the shock. They clung to Kojou, one on each side of him, clutching their weapons all the while. 

The jack-o’-lantern in the white robe gave off a satisfied laugh while watching the reaction. Soon, though, it pulled its pumpkin head off with a plop. A woman with a lovely face emerged from within. 

Age-wise, she really appeared rather young, but that might have well been from her grinning expression completely lacking in tension. Or perhaps her looks were simply in line with her mental age— 

Mimori Akatsuki proudly thrust her chest out as she asked, “Hmmm… Did I scare you?” 

Kojou glared at his mother’s display of pride with annoyance. 

“Damn right you scared us! What are you tryin’ to pull here, geez!” 

“Well, it’s the Hollow Eve Festival today! And I really wanted to go, too. Trick or die!” 

Kojou’s breathing was ragged as he yelled back at her: 

“I think you got a few things wrong. That’d be one really scary festival!” 

And this was why he didn’t want to get the woman involved in all this. He just knew that this was going to happen. 

For her part, Mimori noted that Yukina and Sayaka were now snuggled up against her son. 

“Oh my, and you two would be…?” 

An extremely pleased-looking leer came over her. She looked like a child who’d just gotten two brand-new toys to play with. As Mimori looked all over Yukina and Sayaka, rooted to the spot, and Yuuma, still in Kojou’s arms, some thought must have come to mind as she rammed an elbow into Kojou’s side, hard. 

 

Kojou grunted in response. 

“What do you think yer doin’, geez…?!” 

Mimori ignored her son’s protests as she sunnily voiced her newfound admiration: 

“They’re sooooo cute!” 

And then, she whispered into Kojou’s ear, “Who are they? Which one’s your steady? Done her yet? Oh my, are you adding to the family? Am I going to be a grandmother in the near future?” 

Feeling completely helpless under the assault, Kojou shouted at his mother, “I have not and I’m not gonna! Listen to people for once, dammit!” 

Mimori’s cheeks puffed up in response, a sour note. 

How can you act like that in your thirties? thought Kojou, all of this giving him a light headache. Yukina and Sayaka were in complete shock, holding perfectly still as if they were wooden statues. 

Hearing the ruckus outside the front door, a small silhouette emerged from inside Mimori’s apartment. Her long hair and big eyes were rather distinctive. 

“Huhhh? Kojou?” 

“Eh…?!” 

The unexpected encounter with his little sister left Kojou staring with his mouth open. She’d left their shared apartment without a word, and there’d been no contact between them in the time since; he had no idea what she was doing here or how long it had been. 

“Nagisa? What are you doin’—when’d you get here?” 

“Mimori called this morning and asked me to bring a change of clothes.” Nagisa, wearing a black cat outfit, replied like she had no idea why Kojou was surprised. 

“So you’ve been here ever since?” 

“That’s right. I’ve been cleaning the apartment and picking up clothes from dry cleaning. After that, cooking. If I just leave the apartment to Mimori, it’d get into a really awful state, and her fridge was empty already…” 

Kojou breathed a sigh of relief, even with his minor misgivings about Nagisa’s behavior. Nagisa going missing at the same time the prison barrier incident was heating up in earnest had gotten Kojou quite worried. He had no complaints as long as Nagisa was safe. Besides, he didn’t think she was lying to him. 

“And what have you been up to, Kojou? You were with Yukina and them the whole time, right?” 

Kojou and the others stiffened. 

A smile came over Yukina that resembled a nervous tic; she nodded awkwardly. “G-good evening.” 

“Wait, Yuu’s hurt?! What happened? Who’s that girl over there? Wait, I think I met her before somewhere…” 

Nagisa’s eyes widened in surprise when she spotted Yuuma in Kojou’s arms, then glared at Sayaka. Her change in expression was almost dizzying as she launched a barrage of questions. 

“Um… What is your exact relationship with Kojou?” 

“Eh?! M-me?!” Sayaka fidgeted and averted her eyes as Nagisa strongly pressed the point. 

Nagisa had previously seen Sayaka in the process of making a scene as she attacked Kojou at school. The fact that Asagi had been hurt in the ordeal had made about the worst impression possible on Nagisa. 

Sayaka was virtually in tears as she looked back at Kojou, her eyes begging for rescue. In spite of her implicit plea, Kojou drew his face close and whispered into her ear, “Sorry, Sayaka. Hold Nagisa off for a while, would you?” 

“Eh? Ehh?!” 

Sayaka instantly raised her voice in protest as Kojou gruffly shoved her toward his sister. Nagisa silently grabbed her wrist and glared at her with a look that said, You’re not getting away! 

“Wait a…! I—I will remember this, Kojou Akatsuki…!” 

Ignoring Sayaka’s cries of protest as Nagisa dragged her away, Kojou turned back toward his mother. 

In contrast to Mimori’s sunny disposition, Kojou seemed strangely exhausted. Why does it have to be so hard just to talk to my own mother? he wondered bitterly. 

“…Could you do me a favor and take a look at Yuuma?” 

“Hmmm? By Yuuma, you mean little Yuu? That brings me back. Oh, that’s right, Yuu was a girl…” 

Mimori leaned over and peered at Yuuma’s face as Kojou continued to hold her. With the practiced hand of a clinical pathologist, she touched the skin of the injured girl; her eyes came to a stop over the wound in Yuuma’s chest. 

“What happened, Kojou?” 

“I don’t have time to talk about the specifics, but…Yuuma’s actually…” 

“—A witch?” 

“So you really can tell.” 

Even as the ease of her correct guess astounded him, Kojou nodded gravely. He was honestly grateful that he didn’t need to chew up time explaining. 

“Well, I’ll give her a look. Come on in!” 

Kojou and the others entered the apartment with Mimori leading the way. Even when compared to the other high-class guest rooms, the suite Mimori occupied was in a class all its own. 

Underwear, unopened letters, suspicious-looking medical instruments, and the like were randomly strewn all around the room, but Nagisa’s determined efforts had kept the area around the sofa, at least, in comparatively decent shape. 

Kojou laid Yuuma on that sofa when Mimori, now changed into a fresh white gown, came back in, putting on antiseptic gloves. She stood beside Yuuma as she slept, leaned over her, and began carefully examining the girl with a practiced hand. 

“Considering the blood loss, her external injuries aren’t all that deep. The laceration to the chest didn’t reach the internal organs. Bending space to avert a fatal wound, perhaps…? Mmm…I can’t tell much more like this. Kojou, prop her up, would you?” 

“Eh? Ah, sure.” 

Kojou did as told and raised Yuuma’s torso to support it while she slept. As he did so, Mimori gently thrust her hands toward Yuuma’s breasts with some kind of thought in mind. 

“There we go… Here, take this.” 

With one smooth motion, Mimori pulled something off and tossed it in front of Yukina. As Yukina caught the white cloth and spread it out, she let out a flustered “wah!” 

Mimori had pulled off Yuuma’s bra with some kind of stage magician’s trick. 

“Wh-what are you doin’ out of the blue like that…?!” Kojou objected, swiftly turning his back away from Yukina’s hands. 

However, Mimori calmly continued her examination without any outward indication of mischief. 

“It was in the way of palpation so I got rid of it… Oh my, Yuu, I take my eyes off you for a little bit and look at how you’ve grown… As a physician, I simply cannot let this pass by…heh-heh.” 

Mimori, wiping away the drool that for some reason had trickled from her lip, began fondling Yuuma’s breasts while she slept. 

A spasm came over Yukina’s face as she watched this purely perverse behavior. 

“Er… Madam, this is, ah…a patient, you know…” Looking up as Yukina tried to rebuke her, Mimori smiled pleasantly, as if her interest had been piqued. 

“Oh my. You’re Yukina Himeragi, yes?” 

“Ah…yes.” 

Yukina immediately rectified her posture as Mimori’s scrutinizing gaze shifted to her. Yukina’s reaction made Mimori beam in an exceptionally good mood. 

“Ah, I see. Oh, don’t worry, I’m a medical psychometer, you see. I can examine most things just by making contact with the skin.” 

“…You mean…you’re a Hyper-Adapter?” 

Yukina sucked in her breath in surprise. “Hyper-Adapter” was a term used for natural psychics who did not rely upon magic. Defying any categorization, their abilities included numerous skills of great rarity, causing phenomena that could not be achieved through scientific technology or magic. No doubt the warm welcome Mimori had received at MAR was due in no small part to her special ability and not just her conventional talents. 

Suddenly regaining her composure, Yukina asked a new question, her tone conveying that she just wasn’t getting it. 

“Erm…if all you need to do is touch the skin, you don’t actually need to fondle her breasts, do you…?” 

“Oh, that won’t do at all!” announced Mimori with an exaggerated shake of her head. 

“My ability only functions when I’m fondling the knockers of a pretty girl, so it can’t be helped, you see.” 

“I-is that so?” 

Yukina was on the verge of falling for it when Kojou angrily interjected. 

“Of course, it ain’t! There’s no such thing as pervy psychometry like that! Geez, don’t pull that stuff on people you’ve just met!!” 

“Muu,” went Mimori, her cheeks puffing up to pout. 

“I want to touch her so what’s the big deal? There’s no point in being a sorcerer’s physician if you can’t touch the knockers of pretty girls! You think so, too, don’t you?!” 

A powerful feeling of fatigue assailed Kojou as he replied with a glare, “Keep me out of this! Take this seriously, you lecherous doc!” 

Naturally, Yukina was in complete shock as well. Having said that, the fact was, Mimori’s frivolous behavior had greatly eased their tension. Strangely, they all seemed to have confidence that she could save Yuuma, even though she was almost at death’s door. 

Beside Yukina’s stock-still form, Kojou quietly apologized. 

“…Sorry, this was the only doctor I could think of.” 

Yukina replied with an understanding shake of her head. Glancing sidelong at the doctor’s face, she whispered, “I understand completely now. The apple does not fall far from the tree.” 

Kojou replied with a dissatisfied twitch of his cheek, but when he looked back, Mimori had her cheek pressed to Yuuma’s breasts, blood trickling out of her nose, with a look of pure bliss. 

“Don’t worry, this is a side effect of my psychometry. It is absolutely not anything untoward.” 

Mimori raised her face up, plainly stating what was a very unconvincing excuse. 

Just wipe your nosebleed already, thought Yukina as she handed over a facial tissue. Apparently, Yukina had somehow returned to normal operating condition. 

Taking the tissue, Mimori used it to wipe her nose as she spoke, suddenly in complete seriousness. 

“Hmm, this spiritual pathway damage… Yuu’s Guardian was ripped right out of her, huh?” 

Yukina nodded. Even if Mimori looked like she was just playing around, her diagnosis was dead-on. 

The Guardian that Yuuma had acquired through her witch’s pact had been stolen. It was as if a cyborg had its artificial heart ripped out of it: The severed spiritual pathways would continue bleeding magical energy until she died from depletion of said energy. 

“Can you save her?” Kojou asked uneasily. 

Mimori shrugged, smiling enigmatically. 

“I’ll bring Yuu into the lab. Could you give me a hand, Yukina?” 

“Ah yes…understood.” 

Yukina did as she was told and put a hand on the still-sleeping Yuuma’s shoulder. 

“Wait. If you’re movin’ Yuuma, then I should—” 

“Oh no, you don’t. My lab is No Men Allowed.” Mimori’s tone was suddenly icy. 

Like hell it is, thought Kojou with a scowl. But Mimori only added a smile as she looked at him expectantly. 

“Yuu’s not the only one who needs treatment, is she? I have a first aid kit in the closet.” 

As Mimori spoke, she gave Kojou a right hook to his chest like she was trying to take a chunk out of him. 

“Gwuh!” groaned Kojou, falling to his knees then and there. 

“S-senpai?!” 

“Let’s go, Yukina. Oh, and you can just call me Mom from now on.” 

“Eh…? Er, no, that’s… I’m not really in that, ah…” 

Mimori and Yukina left Kojou behind in agony as they hauled Yuuma out of the room. Once Kojou saw for himself that Yukina was out of the room, he groaned and flopped onto the floor. 

“Shit,” he cursed, looking down at his chest where his mother had smacked him. 

Kojou’s own blood was bleeding through the wound, the fresh flow distinct against the dried blood from before. 

Kojou Akatsuki was a vampire. Half a year before, his flesh had taken on the bizarre demonic properties of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire. 

Of course, Kojou was sure that his mother, Mimori, noticed the change in his body because she was a sorcerer physician…but it didn’t actually turn out that way. That was because Mimori’s ability was extremely specific. 

Mimori was a Hyper-Adapter, but she was not a spiritualist. She was extremely sensitive to abnormalities in the body, but she was even less sensitive to spiritual auras than the average person. To put it in high-tech terms, Mimori was a hardware specialist; software was out of her field. If there were no symptoms of a virus, she had no way of detecting that one was even there. Besides, to her, a patient was a patient: It didn’t matter if she was dealing with a human or a vampire. 

There was no doubt she was eccentric in that regard, but it made her even more effective as a medical researcher. Her big-picture personality was also part of how Kojou had skated by. 

“Doesn’t mean you have to smack around the wounded, geez…” 

Kojou, left alone in the living room, pulled off his shirt and checked on the state of his wound. 

He might have been able to fool Yukina, but apparently Mimori had noticed after all. 

A heavy-bladed object had gouged open a wound in the left side of his chest a few short centimeters from his heart. 

It was the wound Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf had left behind when it had impaled him. 

There was no question it was a serious wound, but it wasn’t enough to kill a person. It was a simple stab wound; a regenerative ability on the level of a vampire’s could well have completely closed it up by now. 

But this wound hadn’t even begun to regenerate. There wasn’t much bleeding, but his shirt was still wet from the dampness of fresh blood. It was a situation he’d never been in before. 

It didn’t stand out that much at present because he’d been carrying around the blood-soaked Yuuma, but in one sense, Kojou ought to have been quite grateful that Mimori had left him behind like that. 

It was already past seven PM. 

The Hollow Eve Festival’s famous Night Parade ought to have been kicking off right about now. Huge throngs of tourists were no doubt having the time of their lives at the extravagant festival in the center of Itogami City. 

But on the other hand, the magical criminals that had escaped from the prison barrier were scattered all over the city about to cause new incidents. 

Man, today has sucked. Kojou sighed as he looked up at the ceiling. 

It was then that the door to the living room quietly opened. 

A tall girl with a ponytail dragged her feet on the way back from the bedroom. It was Sayaka, whom Nagisa had absconded with earlier. 

Sayaka looked completely worn out as she shot a resentful glare at Kojou. 

“Ugh…you really did a number on me, Kojou Akatsuki. I’m more tired than when I was dealing with the princess…” 

Apparently, she was still holding a grudge over his having foisted Nagisa onto her. 

Kojou looked up at her while concealing his wound. 

“Wait, what happened to Nagisa?” 

“I used a hypnotic curse on her. I don’t think she’ll wake up until morning.” 

Kojou’s reply was a dumbfounded look. 

“Incantation…? Geez, you really cut corners…” 

He thought it was a bit much for an Attack Mage from the Lion King Agency to actually use a curse on an ordinary middle schooler. 

However, Sayaka’s lips tapered like those of a pouting child. 

“It couldn’t be helped! How was I supposed to keep secret from her who you and Yukina really are? Or that Yuuma got hurt or that you two had switched bodies?!” 

Kojou lowered his head in genuine reflection. 

“R-right. You’re right. Sorry…you’ve been a huge help.” 

He couldn’t argue with a single thing she’d said. 

“N-not that it pleases me to have Kojou Akatsuki thanking me…! I did this for Yukina and Nagisa, you see.” 

“Yeah. Thanks anyway, though. Even without that, you helped us more than once today.” 

Sayaka’s cheeks reddened as if she was blushing. 

“R-right…you’re very welcome.” 

For a girl who seemed to be angry full-time, it was rare to see her react well. 

“Well, that’s not the only reason I put Nagisa to sleep, either…” 

A suspicious look came over Kojou as he glanced up at Sayaka, who was getting very close for some reason. 

“Huh?” 

“Where’d Yukina and the others go?” Sayaka brought her face directly in front of Kojou’s eyes as she asked this. 

“They took Yuuma over to the lab. There’s all sorts of medical gear and drugs over there, y’see.” 

“I see…so they won’t be back for a little while, then. Perfect.” 

Sayaka seemed to be mumbling to herself as she grabbed Kojou lightly. For some reason, her touch felt oddly uncomfortable. The brooding look Sayaka had on made Kojou concerned. 

Sayaka pointed at Kojou’s bloodstained shirt and commanded, “Kojou Akatsuki. Would you strip off your clothes?” 

“Ah? 

“The heck?!” exclaimed Kojou, instantly putting a hand over his own chest. 

“…What are you sayin’?! You some kind of molester?!” 

Sayaka’s face went red to the tips of her ears as she shook her head. 

“I—I’m not! What are you imagining, you creep?! I’m telling you to show me the open wound you’re hiding! Yukina stabbed you with Snowdrift Wolf, didn’t she?!” 

“You…noticed that, huh?” 

“…I-it’s not that I was looking at you. I’ll have you know that the observation abilities of a Lion King Agency Shamanic War Dancer are world-class. That’s all it is. Got it?” 

“I—I see.” 

Not that I really understand but guess that’s how it is, Kojou rationalized to himself as he stripped off his shirt. 

Sayaka let out a shriek at the sudden sight of Kojou’s bare upper body. “Wh-why did you do that out of the blue?!” 

“You’re the one who told me to strip, geez!” Kojou protested. 

Sayaka apparently wasn’t immune to the effect of a male body; her extreme reaction struck Kojou as a bit funny. 

“W-well, that might be so, but…ugh, you truly are an inconsiderate man, Kojou Akatsuki!” 

“What’s consideration got to do with it? Hey, your face is all red. You okay over there?” 

“Sh-shut up. Just die already, sheesh!” 

Sayaka loudly cleared her throat a few times before apparently recovering her composure. There was still a bit of rose to her cheeks as she touched Kojou’s side with intense interest. 

The young woman’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she looked at Kojou’s obviously untreated wound. 

“Why…isn’t this wound healing?” 

Kojou gave her a careless shake of his head. 

“I don’t know, either, but maybe it’s because it’s Himeragi’s spear that did it?” 

Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf was the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon. It was a purifying spear that nullified magical energy and was considered capable of destroying even a vampire primogenitor. Kojou had impaled his own body with that dangerous spear to nullify Yuuma’s spatial control spell. If something was stopping his vampiric body’s regenerative ability, he imagined it had to be some curse from Snowdrift Wolf. 

“But Schneewaltzers aren’t supposed to come equipped with regeneration-hindering effects. Besides, I feel like this is…less than a wound than the flesh itself being unstable. It’s like it’s out of phase, like the molecules holding the solid matter together are fragile…” 

“Eh?” 

Kojou looked back at Sayaka, surprised by her unexpected declaration. At that exact moment, Sayaka raised her own face, unexpectedly resulting in them gazing into each other’s eyes from very close. 

Both of them became oddly embarrassed and averted their eyes from each other. Now that Kojou thought about it, it’d been a fair while since he’d spoken to Sayaka all alone like this. It was probably the first time since he’d drank Sayaka’s blood during the Nalakuvera incident. 

“S-so I don’t really want to, Kojou Akatsuki, but I will grant you my cooperation.” 

Kojou had a bad feeling about the sound of that as he looked for clarification. 

“…Cooperation?” 

Sayaka sat on the sofa opposite Kojou and began pulling off one of the socks that she was wearing. In short order, she thrust the nails of her bare foot right before the bewildered Kojou’s eyes. 

Kojou was even more bewildered as he beheld the top of Sayaka’s shapely foot. What…is this? 

“Y…you may proceed.” 

“Huh?” 

Sayaka’s voice was tight, and she blushed until she was beet red. 

“I’m saying I’m granting special permission to drink my blood. If you do your vampire thing, your regenerative ability will be strengthened, right?!” 

“So you’re sayin’ I’ve gotta lick your foot like you’re some kind of princess here…?!” 

“B-but arousal is the trigger for vampiric urges, isn’t it? I thought boys went for this kind of thing…! I-if you want, I’ll stomp on you as a reward!” 

Sayaka spoke in her best impression of a domineering voice, as if reciting the line from a script. Apparently, someone else had given her the idea. Kojou was assaulted by a fierce headache as he exhaled in annoyance. 

“It’s only a tiny subset of guys that like that sort of thing! That’s way too fetishy for me!” 

Sayaka’s voice flipped right over as she shouted. 

“Eh? Ehh?!” 

She clutched her head with both hands in anguish, probably from remembering the embarrassment of her own actions just now. 

“Th-then what do you go for, Kojou Akatsuki? More like…petting stuff…and stuff?” 

“Yeah…well, more into that than gettin’ stomped on, anyway…” 

As a high school boy in good health, Kojou could only give the answer that came naturally to him. 

“Mm…mmm…w-well, all right! You really are a picky one, Kojou Akatsuki…!” 

There was a twinge of desperation in Sayaka’s voice as she roughly stripped off her knitted vest and tossed it aside. Next, she undid the buttons of her shirt from the top down. The earlier declaration that she’d stomp on him had apparently driven her halfway to despair. 

“Why’d it turn into that?! You know, I didn’t actually ask you to let me drink your blood!” 

“Th-that may be so…but Yukina will notice if your wound isn’t healing. I don’t want to make her worry about that. If I don’t do this, Yukina’s going to have to tell you to drink her own blood. I don’t want to have you drinking Yukina’s blood, so drink mine first…!” 

Sayaka drew close to Kojou’s body as she finally voiced her true feelings. Kojou couldn’t help but make a strained smile now that he understood the reason underlying her odd behavior. 

“…You really like Himeragi, don’t you?” 

“Of course I do. Something wrong with that…?” 

“Nah, I think it’s a good thing. I don’t wanna make Himeragi worry more than she has to, either.” 

“Oh…r-right.” 

Sayaka made a forthright nod. Seeing Kojou making light of himself seemed to clear the air. 

She suddenly lost her newfound composure when she remembered she was nestled right up against Kojou, a boy. 

In contrast to her tall, slender figure, Sayaka was secretly proud of her large, shapely bust. 

She awkwardly pressed her bulging breasts against both of Kojou’s hands. 

Her eyes, lined with long lashes, were a little hot and damp at the edges. Seeing the ever-determined Sayaka make such a valiant effort was more than devastating enough to provoke Kojou’s vampiric urges. 

Sayaka drew her face close to Kojou’s ear and whispered… 

“I think you already know this, but keep this secret from Yukina, okay?” 

Seeing her pale neck right before his eyes, Kojou drew his face near as if being reeled in when suddenly he stopped moving, as if he’d turned to ice. 

“Well…I thought that was a good idea, too…but…” 

Sayaka gazed at Kojou with a look of suspicion. 

“…Why are you using past tense?” 

That was when she felt a casual voice tossed into her from behind like an icy dagger. 

“…Keep what secret?” 

A girl was standing at the entrance to the living room, her face almost pretty beyond belief. 

She was looking at the position Kojou and Sayaka were in. The expressionless gaze, resembling a slight pout, was emblematic of when she was really pissed. 

Knowing exactly what that look meant, Sayaka’s voice quivered in fright. 

“Y-Yukina?! Wh-why are you…?!” 

“I came back thinking I would inform senpai of Yuuma’s condition, but…” Yukina’s black-eyed gaze at Kojou and Sayaka was frosty. “…So, what is it you intend to do that you wish to keep secret from me?” 

Sayaka timidly shook her head, unable to find any credible excuse. 

“Th-that’s not…that’s not it, Yukina. This is, I mean it’s…” 

She couldn’t simply explain the circumstances to Yukina; after all, the whole point of Sayaka offering her own blood was in the hope that Yukina wouldn’t notice the state of Kojou’s wound. 

Unable to simply allow Sayaka to flounder, Kojou rose up. 

“…Geez.” 

But the moment Kojou opened his mouth to make a better excuse to Yukina, he suddenly found himself getting very dizzy. 

His vision was turning darker; everything around him seemed to be tilting. He felt weak, like all his strength was draining out of his body. Unable to remain on his feet, he fell to his knees. 

Yukina noticed something was wrong with Kojou and rushed right over. 

“Senpai?!” 

Yukina supported Kojou, who was on the verge of falling over, when Sayaka wailed in distress, “K-Kojou Akatsuki…! Don’t you dare play possum at a time like this…K-Kojou Akatsuki?!” 

“Senpai…! Senpai, hang in there!” 

Yukina seemed like she was about to cry as she looked down at Kojou. 

“Hey, don’t make faces like that,” replied Kojou, sending both girls a pleasant smile as the darkness swallowed his consciousness whole. 

Island South was a culture-heavy district rich in residential housing and educational facilities. In short, it was a quiet place untouched by the extravagant festival. Saikai Academy, a hybrid middle and high school, had been built on a gentle hill in that southern district. The artificial greenery of the hemmed-in schoolyard was immersed in the peaceful silence of the night. 

A voice with an odd ring to it breached that silence. 

“This place has a deep connection to both of us. Does it not…Natsuki?” 

There was a young woman on the roof of the empty school building. 

Her hair went down almost to her feet. She wore a ceremonial ladies’ dress colored white and black. She had a graceful visage and scarlet eyes. It was Aya Tokoyogi, the witch with eyes of fire. 

Natsuki was not there, but Aya’s calm voice spoke as if she were. 

“Saikai Academy…a precious place to thee, ’tis it not? Then there is no more fitting place for my world to begin.” 

That was when the air at her back began to quiver. The darkness seemed to melt away to reveal young men wearing nondescript gray suits. It was a pair of men with ages difficult to discern, but she did not sense any special violence from their auras. Their faces were forthright; there was nothing suspicious about the clothes they wore. Had they claimed to be teachers of Saikai Academy, most people would have accepted their word without question. 

However, the men were each holding one book in their hands. These were grimoires emitting malevolent magical energy. 

“Ma’am…” 

The man on the left knelt respectfully and looked up at his witch. Meanwhile, the one on the right bowed his head in a similar show of respect. 

“Congratulations on your return from the prison barrier.” 

Aya slowly turned her head and looked back at the two consorts. 

“…Men from LCO?” 

She did not know the pair but knew immediately what they were: operatives from the Library of Criminal Organizations—the “Library” for short, an international criminal syndicate. 

“We are Librarians from the Third Branch, the Socials.” 

Once the first man spoke, both quietly raised their heads. Aya gave them an ill-humored stare. “I had thought the escape plan had been entrusted to Philosophy…?” 

The man on the left tossed a smile into his reply. 

“This is correct; however, you are the leader of all of LCO. We did not believe we could rely on merely the Meyer Sisters to facilitate your escape.” 

Next, the man on the right cleared his throat. 

“Indeed, it would seem they have lost their Guardian and have been captured by Demon Sanctuary law enforcement. We are to escort you to a safe place from this point forward.” 

Aya interrupted the pair, unmoved. “I see. Good work. However, I have no need of your assistance. There is still something I must do in this Demon Sanctuary.” 

Surprise was written upon the Librarians’ faces. 

“…You cannot mean you intend to resume from ten years ago?” 

They kept civil, pleasant smiles still plastered onto their faces, but that could not conceal the faint bloodlust they gave off. Aya curled up the corners of her lips, taunting. 

“And if I do?” 

“We regret to inform you…we have received orders that, in the event you do not cooperate, we are to destroy you and recover the Black Bible.” 

The men stood without a sound and opened their grimoires. 

Aya continued to stand defenselessly, murmuring as she watched the men. 

“I see…so that is what the old men of the Socials…believe. Peasants.” 

The Black Bible was one of the grimoires that Aya had removed from LCO’s secret vault some ten years prior. She had unleashed the grimoire on the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Island, inflicting grievous damage upon it. However, her experiment had been stopped by Natsuki Minamiya, still in high school at the time, and Aya had been locked away behind the prison barrier. 

Knowing that Aya was returning from the prison barrier, LCO obviously wanted the Black Bible back. The men now sent Aya’s way wore what were clearly expressions of mockery. 

“Ma’am, to us, the chosen few, ten years has been far too long. There is no longer any place for you in today’s LCO.” 

To both men already brandishing their grimoires, Aya shot a frigid declaration: 

“I care not. I no longer have any use for LCO. You may have the Black Bible from me…provided, of course, that you can take it—” 

“So negotiations have failed, then… Restrain her, No. 343!” 

Their faces twisting in naked hostility, the men released the magic of their tomes. The books of power, activated through the absorption of their readers’ magical energy, released a miasma dire enough to warp the very air that then attacked Aya. 

Aya smiled charmingly as she looked down at her own feet. 

“Your grimoires…speed chanting, yes? Well done…” 

She could not move her lower body. Bathed in the pages’ magical energy, her flesh had been petrified and fused with the campus building’s exterior. 

Slender, closely packed symbols appeared on the surface of Aya’s petrified flesh. This was a criminal code written in an ancient language. These characters, infused with ritual energy, nullified Aya’s teleportation magic, cutting off her means of escape. 

These particular grimoires arrested and petrified only those who had committed grave crimes. Such was the ability of No. 343, known as the Grimoire of the Law. Soon, Aya’s entire body would be petrified, turning her into a living statue. 

However, in full knowledge of this, Aya smiled nonetheless. 

“And yet…futile. You have already been overrun by the Black Bible.” 

“What…?!” 

The men recoiled a step as Aya’s fiery eyes glared at them. 

In their hands, the pages of the grimoires simply fell apart. 

The miasma released by the grimoires suddenly dissipated. The stones covering Aya’s body broke apart; her freedom of movement was restored. 

“…Page unto page, darkness unto darkness… Go back, for all is according to my pact.” 

Her assailants’ voices quivered as they clutched their now-powerless grimoires. 

“Aya Tokoyogi…surely, you have not already…!” 

Their fearful gazes were directed not at Aya, but at the symbols drawn at her feet. It was a magic circle written with but a single character. The ancient runes engraved onto the roof of the campus building gently emitted a golden light. This was the twinkling radiance that would lead the world into the darkness of the night. 

Unimpressed, Aya stated, “Have you forgotten, Librarians, who halted my experiment ten years ago? My Black Bible was taken from me by Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void, the only friend my old self allowed into my heart. However, I have stolen the infernal traitor’s time, and now the Black Bible is once more within my grasp!” 

“Ugh…!” 

The gray suits drew pistols from their flanks. Having lost their books, they had no options remaining save physical attacks. 

Their hands were shaking. Aya coldly gazed at the pistols as she gave her Guardian a command. 

“Librarians, this is… farewell. L’Ombre—!” 

The illusion of a knight clad in dark armor emerged at Aya’s back and lashed out with its giant sword. 

Death screams echoed out; then, silence embraced the rooftop once more. 

Only the witch remained, smiling as she stood amid the golden light. 



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