Strike the Blood - Volume 7 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE 

THE JESTER REMINISCES 

1 

Motoki Yaze was twelve the first time he visited Keystone Gate. It was a springtime day just before he enrolled in middle school. 

The Demon Sanctuary of Itogami City was formally a part of the Tokyo Metropolis, but the Gigafloat Management Corporation ran the special administrative district. The Yaze family currently headed it, and Akishige Yaze, who happened to be his father, was the corporation’s chairman. He had been called in personally in his father’s name. 

He passed through multi-layered security checks before arriving at the corporate offices, only to be greeted by an unexpected individual—Kazuma Yaze, his half brother who was more than ten years his senior. Kazuma was an elite with a master’s degree from a North American Union university, and presently was employed as something resembling Akishige’s personal secretary, working in research conducted in total secrecy at a university inside Itogami City. Both his ability and his exploits marked him as Akishige’s likely successor. 

Sitting in the middle of a ridiculously large room, Yaze carelessly echoed back to Kazuma, “—Kojou Akatsuki? Who’s that?” 

To be blunt, Yaze was much happier to be speaking to Kazuma than his own father. Unlike the rest of his family, Yaze got along with his sly, ambitious half brother rather well. Even to that day, the family held a strong bias against Kazuma, an illegitimate son, regardless of his status as a more than capable successor to the family name. Perhaps Yaze, scorned throughout his childhood as a lackluster Hyper Adapter, related to him on some level. 

Kazuma motioned to the image of a young-looking boy on a screen as he spoke. 

“A boy the same age as you. He’s going to enroll in Saikai Academy’s middle school.” 

Judging from the hospital backdrop, the picture had been taken while he was in recovery. His athletic ability seemed decent, but aside from that, there was nothing especially noteworthy about him. Staring at the soft features of his face, Yaze cursed under his breath. He’s still a little kid. 

“Motoki. This is an order from the family. You are to monitor him.” 

Kazuma’s words brought a highly dubious look over Yaze’s face. 

“Monitor?” 

It wasn’t that his brother’s order was unexpected. After all, it had been determined from Yaze’s birth that his Hyper Adapter ability was good for observation and nothing else. The Yaze family, scion of many generations of Hyper Adapters, was quite accustomed with dealing with children like him. 

However, to date, Yaze’s surveillance targets had been limited to criminals—politicians suspected of dirty dealings and corporations involved in illegal black market schemes. As a result, being ordered to conduct surveillance on an ordinary, law-abiding citizen—and someone his own age at that—was a first for him. 

Kazuma ignored Yaze’s bewilderment and continued his explanation in businesslike fashion. 

“I’m not asking you to do anything specific. Just get close to him and make regular reports about his actions. We’re making arrangements on the school side of things. You’ll be in the same class.” 

Yaze browsed the file that had been handed to him. Huh. He pouted a little in apparent surprise. Kojou Akatsuki’s physical data seemed unexpectedly…normal. 

“So he’s not actually a demon, is he?” Yaze remarked. 

Kazuma looked vaguely disgusted. “Well, no, not really… If he was a normal demon, this would be a lot simpler.” 

Yaze glared at Kazuma in even greater confusion. It always pissed him off how hard it was to drag the important stuff out of his ever-logical brother. 

“What do you mean by that?” 

“Look at this.” 

Kazuma pulled an envelope out of his desk and placed it in front of Yaze, who furrowed his brow as he took it. The envelope contained what was apparently a photo of the boy’s rib cage. 

“This is…?” 

“An x-ray of Kojou Akatsuki. Can you see how the fourth and fifth ribs on his right side are colored differently?” 

“Well, yeah…” 

Yaze immediately saw the discrepancy without even needing to hold it up to the light. It was plain as day that those two ribs were not those of a normal human being. Even with a black-and-white x-ray, it was evident that they glowed like translucent crystal. 

Yaze absentmindedly gazed at the picture. The fourth and fifth ribs on the right side—wasn’t that where a so-called Son of God was stabbed with a spear? 

“Those are not his original ribs. They are transplanted—or more accurately, exchanged,” Kazuma said. 

“Exchanged? From whom?” 

“The girl who might become the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

“Huh…?” Yaze answered Kazuma’s blunt, emotionless words with a silent Come on. 

However, there was no indication Kazuma was joking. He continued, “You’re familiar with vampire Blood Vassals, right?” 

“Yeah. A pseudo-vampire created when a vampire grants a part of his or her body, right?” 

As Yaze finished explaining what was common knowledge for any Demon Sanctuary resident, he audibly gasped. 

“Wait, you don’t mean that—” 

“Vampires have ridiculous regenerative capability, but the parts they grant to their vassals don’t regenerate. That’s why they normally create their vassals with blood, but they can use more important organs for more powerful vassals, or so it’s said.” 

Deep-rooted terror welled up in Yaze, making goose bumps rise all over his body. 

“So he has a Primogenitor’s ribs in him…!” 

A vampire’s Blood Vassal possessed abilities heavily influenced by the master vampire. It was said that a vassal with a high-spec body, combined with strong compatibility with his master, could make him even more agile than a real vampire. If this Kojou Akatsuki really was a primogenitor’s Blood Vassal, didn’t it mean he was just as much a monster as a primogenitor…? 

“Hmph.” Kazuma murmured a rare stab at humor. “A boy with ribs granted by a woman—someone got their mythology backward.” He was likely quoting an obscure Biblical reference, of how God created Eve from Adam’s rib. He continued in a cold voice, “Either way, it’s a top-class part to grant to a vassal. After all, human ribs are part of the body’s blood production system.” 

Yaze had little medical knowledge of his own, but merely listening to his brother helped him understand the bizarre situation Kojou Akatsuki had been placed in. A vampire’s blood, synonymous with the source of vampiric power, literally flowed through his veins. 

Gazing at the picture of Kojou Akatsuki once more, Yaze murmured, “You’re saying this is a primogenitor’s Blood Vassal…?” 

Kazuma quietly corrected him. “He’s a boy who could become a primogenitor’s Blood Vassal. Right now, he’s still just a human…albeit one who has ribs from the twelfth Kaleid Blood.” 

“Twelfth…? What’s all that about?” 

Kazuma stroked back his hair as if it was a nervous habit as he said, “That’s on a need-to-know basis.” 

Then he tossed a large paper bag Yaze’s way. The bag contained boxes of capsules. Neither the bag nor the boxes listed the drug or the manufacturer. 

“What’s this?” 

“Boosters… Chemical drugs synthesized to match your body type. The effect is temporary, but your Hyper Adapter abilities will be amplified by a factor of roughly four hundred. Think of it as insurance for worst cases. There are no direct side effects, but don’t overuse them. It’ll shave years off your life span.” 

Yaze smiled with wry amazement. “Wait, you’re worried about me?” 

Given he’d just handed such a dangerous thing to a younger brother who’d only graduated primary school, Kazuma’s concern sounded like pure sarcasm. However, Yaze’s pragmatic half brother remained serious as he replied, “You are useful to me, so I’m using you. That is all.” 

“That so?” 

Yaze stuck out his tongue and glared at Kazuma, like a sulking child completely acting his age. 

As the younger brother was about to leave the office, Kazuma sighed. 

“Motoki?” 

“Mm?” 

When Yaze looked back, Kazuma averted his eyes and spoke as if it was more for himself than for Yaze. 

“Your role here is an observer. I don’t mind if you’re friendly with him, but don’t get emotionally involved. It’ll only make things harder.” 

“Speaking from experience here?” 

Yaze casually lifted up the paper bag he’d received with an apparently pained laugh. 

“I’ll remember that, Big Bro. Say hi to Dad for me.” 

2 

To be blunt, the surveillance assignment was boring. 

Kojou Akatsuki, enrolling in late April, did nothing to counter Yaze’s first impression of him. Nothing deviated from the pattern of a completely ordinary boy living a completely ordinary middle school life, day in and day out. 

Even so, Yaze faithfully continued his surveillance as commanded by the family. 

One reason Yaze did this was for the mother he revered, who was part of that family. She didn’t have any powerful relatives backing her up. Furthermore, she was sickly and had little standing in the clan. Yaze had to demonstrate his own capabilities to protect her livelihood. 

The other reason was the simple fact that he’d come to like Kojou. 

Kojou Akatsuki always looked lazy and unreliable, but when he got serious, which wasn’t often, his destructive instincts took ferocious hold. Seeing him up close, Yaze took a deep interest in the self-control and decision-making prowess the boy demonstrated from time to time. 

Perhaps the source of that interest was the fact that Kojou’s underlying nature impressed Yaze with a sense of danger, telling him not to take his eyes off him. 

At some point in the two years since meeting Kojou, Yaze forgot his duty as an observer and came to see Kojou as his best friend, even if somewhere, deep inside, he knew he was violating his half brother’s warning— 

“—Hey, Kojou!” 

It was a bright autumn day. Yaze was on his way home from school when he saw Kojou and called out to him. 

Kojou was in a vacant lot near the train station closest to Saikai Academy, facing a beat-up street basketball hoop, silently practicing free throws on his own. 

“The hell are you doin’ on a stupidly hot day like this? Do that stuff in the gym. The freshmen’ll love you for it.” 

Noticing that Yaze was approaching, Kojou lazily shook his head. “I don’t wanna. Why do I have to coach all those guys for free?” 

Kojou and Yaze were basketball teammates. As third-years, they’d technically retired after the summer tournament. But Kojou and Yaze were headed straight from Saikai Academy middle school to high school. Students not expecting to take external exams weren’t supposed to complain about showing up for club practices. 

However, Kojou resumed his solo practice. 

Itogami Island’s eternal summer meant that daytime temperatures exceeded thirty degrees Celsius even in “autumn.” Kojou’s school uniform was drenched with sweat. 

Yaze sat on a nearby set of stairs and watched him shoot basketballs toward the hoop. 

“Hey, are you really done with basketb—” 

“There’s not enough people in the senior club, so it’s on hiatus, right? Igarashi and Yanagi quit, too. Well, I’ll just take it easy for a while.” 

Kojou’s reply cited the names of two seniors who’d helped him a while back like they were excuses. 

Yaze sighed in exasperation and put his chin in his hands. 

“You really cool with this? If you quit basketball, you’ll kiss your one redeeming feature goodbye.” 

A completely off-course ball bounced off the wall as Kojou shot Yaze a resentful look. 

“Oh, shut up! And don’t dump on all my possibilities in life all of a sudden!” 

Ever since final middle school exams, Kojou had abruptly stopped going anywhere near the gym. He still joked around with his club mates if he bumped into them, but he deliberately avoided the subject of basketball. Yet there he was, unable to let go of his attachment, continuing to practice shooting in secret. 

It hurt to see him like that, but Yaze couldn’t laugh. He knew what Kojou was really afraid of. 

It had happened at the tournament final they’d lost— 

Kojou always concentrated a lot more than usual during a match, enough that it was hard to say a word to him, but everything he did that day was bizarre. His leaping ability and reaction time were inhuman. He made tons of freakish shots. Many of his passes went astray, but that was because his teammates couldn’t keep up with the speed of his throws. 

From the middle of the match on, it became Kojou’s show, and that’s when it happened. 

Kojou was running to the basket when he made contact with a player on the opposing team trying to stop him with a foul. The opposing player was seriously injured as a result, bad enough that the game was put on hold while an ambulance was called. 

It wasn’t a mistake on Kojou’s part, but the incident had heavily shaken him. What shocked him further was the attention of his classmates. They all looked at him with fear in their eyes. When Kojou sat on the bench to recover, his teammates had no drive left to continue the match. All Kojou could do was sit on the bench and watch his team slide toward defeat—and he never walked onto the court again. 

In a joking tone, trying not to make him feel any worse, Yaze said, “Man, and you were such a great source of info for making nice with chicks from other schools, too—” 

“Was that what you were doing?!” Kojou bared his teeth. “Gimme a break.” 

Yaze whistled with an innocent look on his face. Basketball had brought him good food and even girlfriends. Regardless, Yaze had to write detailed reports containing all sorts of data related to Kojou. Even if he had used the information for his own ends here and there, it still sat poorly with his conscience to a painful degree. 

So with all that had happened, why was Kojou still practicing free throws anyway…? As soon as that simple question crossed Yaze’s mind, he heard a voice from behind belonging to a flashy middle school girl running down the stairs. She was wearing a decked-out middle school uniform and carried a can of juice in each hand. 

“Sorry, Kojou. Did I make you wait? I had to talk to the teacher. Shiromori’s talk dragged on and on—I got this to make up for it.” 

Yaze blinked in surprise and looked up at his childhood friend. 

“Oh? Asagi?” 

At that moment, she noticed Yaze, which for some reason made her voice go shrill. 

“Wh-what the heck are you doing here, Motoki?” 

“Err…well, ah… Wait, were you meeting up here? Huh… My, my, my.” 

Yaze didn’t reply to Asagi’s question and acted with exaggerated surprise. His reaction made Asagi’s cheeks flush deep red. 

“Y…y…you’ve got it all wrong, stupid Motoki!” 

“Bwoah?!” 

Yaze let out a loud groan as his stomach took a square hit from the can of juice she had thrown. 

“Hey! Do normal people throw juice cans around?! You could kill somebody?!” 

Yaze cried out in anguish as Asagi pounded his back and made excuses. 

“It’s because you said something weird! Kojou told me he was gonna visit Nagisa at the hospital, so I figured I’d tag along, that’s all!” 

Yaze desperately endured the assault as he looked up at Kojou. “Visiting? Nagisa got sick again?” 

“A bit, yeah… Happened around the weekend,” Kojou muttered. 

Yaze knew just how seriously Kojou worried about his little sister. Her medical treatment was the reason Kojou had come to Itogami Island, yet he never said one cross word about that fact. Even playing basketball was apparently something he did with the thought of cheering up his little sister. 

However, Kojou’s devotion for his little sister was underlined by a deep sense of guilt. No doubt he still blamed himself for not protecting her during the incident that had put her in the hospital. 

But his memories had been taken from him, so he no longer knew just how great the peril he himself had been in during that incident— 

Kojou invited Yaze along for the ride, and it didn’t sound like he was joking. “Yaze, if you’ve got the time, how ’bout you come with us? Nagisa’ll probably talk up a storm with anyone. It’ll help to have one more sacrificial lamb.” 

Yaze instinctively gave a strained laugh. One of the few flaws of the girl Nagisa Akatsuki was how much she talked, far greater than the norm. With her bored out of her mind in a hospital room, “lambs to the slaughter” was truly an apt metaphor for the people speaking with her. 

“Yeah, I can imagine. Well, if it’s like that—” 

Yaze was about to carelessly accept the invitation when he swallowed his words, suddenly feeling a dagger-like gaze. When he turned his head, he saw Asagi quickly averting her eyes like a pouting child. Asagi awkwardly tried to gloss things over. 

“Wh-what?” 

The sullen look on her face said, It might be easier with Yaze there, but then I won’t be alone with him. 

It wasn’t out of consideration for Asagi, but Yaze rose to his feet and said, “Ahh, sorry, I’ll have to pass for today. I’ve got a few errands to run.” 

Later, he added with a wave, watching Kojou and Asagi head off into the sunset toward the train station. 

Then Yaze silently looked up at the basketball hoop. 

“…” 

The blood test after the match hadn’t revealed anything unusual. Kojou Akatsuki was, without doubt, a normal human being. Perhaps Kojou had subconsciously realized for himself the source of the incredible performance he’d put on at the middle school basketball finals… 

He’d already made his report, but the family had issued no new orders. 

Yaze held his side, still sore from the juice can bombardment, as he trudged forward. All he could do was continue monitoring his best friend…and pray Kojou would not endure any more suffering. 

He was fully aware that was one prayer that would not be answered. 

3 

When twilight shrouded Itogami City, Yaze was standing in front of the Island North monorail ticket booth, getting his ticket out. About five hundred meters ahead of him, Asagi was walking side by side with Kojou. 

From a distance, it looked like the two had their arms entwined, but in reality, Asagi had just delivered an elbow jab to Kojou’s side. Yaze couldn’t overhear their conversation, but it seemed that Kojou’s obtuse nature had become the butt of Asagi’s jokes. They didn’t get along perfectly, but they were far from an awkward couple. Somehow, they gave off the air of a comedy act, a pair of “bad friends” knowing the other through and through. 

“What does she think she’s doing…?” Yaze subconsciously covered his eyes at Asagi’s typically poor romantic skills. 

One other reason Yaze liked Kojou was the presence of Asagi Aiba. 

Asagi and Yaze had been acquaintances even before primary school. They were always the last kids at the same day care center waiting for their guardians to pick them up. Both had a number of issues with their family environment, too; really, they knew each other better than most siblings would. 

But unlike Yaze, who’d had the support of others since the day he was born as a Hyper Adapter, Asagi hadn’t had any close acquaintances. In particular, she spent a lot of time during primary school isolated from others. 

In truth, it was less a result of being hated than being feared. Asagi was blessed with great grades and looks that were almost too graceful, but other girls stayed far away from her. With the exception of a sister removed in age, Asagi had few people of her own gender to play with. She spent far more time doing stuff with Yaze. 

It was none other than Kojou Akatsuki who’d turned that situation around. 

For some reason, spurred by a brief conversation during a chance encounter in a hospital waiting room, Asagi had taken a great liking to Kojou. From then on, she had a new mission in life. Despite her awkwardness at getting along with people, she invented excuses to speak with Kojou, and poured her body and soul into makeup and fashion—perhaps a bit too much. She even mastered the rules of basketball, to the point that she could argue NBA game strategy with Kojou. 

Asagi’s demeanor changed the attitudes of the other girls in class, the way girls always rallied around the many tragic heroines in the world. Her clumsiness unexpectedly became common knowledge in school. Her previous reputation as beautiful and unapproachable changed into that of an adorable classmate who was hopeless in all matters of romance. 

Once that wall came crashing down, Asagi’s good looks were enough to make her well regarded by her classmates. The once-hidden Asagi became the Asagi known to everyone around her. 

However indirect the process, the end result was that Kojou had saved Asagi. Of course, Yaze never said a word about it, but he was secretly grateful toward Kojou. 

In spite of all that, Yaze had not declined going to visit Nagisa in the hospital out of consideration for those two. He had other reasons for being unable to accompany them. 

“…” 

There was an unfamiliar individual behind Kojou and Asagi, keeping a more or less constant range of two hundred meters. The bondage-style, black leather one-piece coat was rather suspicious on a young woman. She was carrying a metal attaché case that was just the right size to hold a submachine gun. 

Island North, where Kojou and Asagi were walking, was a research and development district lined with corporate and university facilities. The pursuer, dressed in the attire of an old-fashioned assassin, couldn’t help but conspicuously stand out from the modern atmosphere of the district—all the more so because of the gleaming, brand-new metal bracelet on her wrist. 

Yaze carefully kept his own distance as he observed her conduct. 

“A demon registration bracelet… Why is a registered demon…?” 

Yaze had detected her presence when Kojou had quietly continued his free throws in the park. There was no doubt she was tailing him, but Yaze couldn’t put his finger on why. Not even a single demon had gotten close to Kojou in the two years since Yaze began monitoring him. 

Kojou and Asagi crossed a pedestrian bridge as they neared the hospital. 

The suspicious woman walked up the stairs to follow them. And a moment after she left Yaze’s line of sight, all sense of her presence vanished. 

Yaze was immediately shaken. 

“What the—?!” 

He pulled his headphones off his ears and focused on his sense of hearing. 

Yaze was a Hyper Adapter specializing in sound. If he felt like it, he could detect the footsteps, breathing, and even the heartbeats of everyone in a radius of several hundred meters around him. However, even Yaze’s ability couldn’t find any trace of the girl who’d been following Kojou and Asagi— 

The only thing left behind on the pedestrian bridge was the metal attaché case she had been carrying. 

Yaze murmured in bewilderment, “I…lost track of her?! That’s crazy!” 

His voice echoed across the empty pedestrian bridge and vanished. 

With his ability deployed, Yaze heard a very faint discrepancy in the echo, a slight delay in the speed of the sound. The cause was an abnormality in the moisture of the air. 

Yaze looked over his shoulder as he realized what she was. 

“She turned to mist?! I see, a D-type—!” 

If Yaze had been a trained Attack Mage rather than a natural psychic, he would have no doubt noticed the high density of magical energy hovering in the area much sooner. 

She was a vampire, and more specifically, an Old Guard vampire of the Lost Warlord’s bloodline. Such vampires could turn to mist to conceal their presence with little difficulty. 

So she must have realized Yaze was tailing her, turning to mist to conceal herself. He had completely fallen for the ruse. 

The woman materialized atop one of the bridge’s railings with a flutter of her black coat. 

“An Itogami Island resident…a student? It would seem you are no mere human.” 

She looked a lot younger than she had from behind. She was perhaps seventeen or eighteen years old, certainly no more than twenty. Her glossy, silk-like brunette hair fluttered in the twilight as she glared at Yaze with crimson eyes. 

She removed her demon registration bracelet before asking, “Do you intend to honestly answer why you were tailing me?” 

She might well have intended to summon a Beast Vassal, even at the risk of informing the Island Guard. Naturally, Yaze lacked the power to do battle against a vampire’s powerful servant. His back was drenched in cold sweat. 

“…Well, what are you doing quietly following a middle schooler around? Trying to rob the cradle?” 

He shoved his nervousness down and boldly smiled. 

It was said that in spite of vampires’ long lives, their mental ages often corresponded with their external appearance. If she was mentally immature, that’d give him an opening. 

And just as Yaze had planned, the vampiress swallowed the bait whole. 

“Wh-who—?!” 

She forgot she was standing on a slippery railing and stepped forward, losing her balance in the process. The girl fell right onto the bridge, and the hard hits to her hip and back made a painful sound. 

The vampiress held the back of her head with tears in her eyes. 

“Owwwww…!” 

The look on her face was adorable somehow. Yaze stared at her, having completely lost his fear. This was no vampire who fought for a living; she was too full of openings to be anything but an amateur. Perhaps he should have expected that from how inappropriate her clothing was for tailing other people. 

“Um… Hey, are you all right…?” he asked. 

The vampiress desperately pressed down on the hem of her short skirt as she rose to her feet. 

“O-of course I am all right! I, a daughter of Caruana, can withstand this much…” 

Yaze felt faint consternation at the word she had inadvertently uttered. 

“Caruana…? A survivor of the house of Duke Caruana of the Warlord’s Empire…?” 

A look of abject shock came over the vampiress. 

“Wha—?! How do you know that…?!” 

Yaze stared at her with a vague sense of exasperation. 

“Uh, you just said it yourself, didn’t you…?” 

“Er…gh?!” 

The girl, upset by what Yaze had pointed out, furiously shook her head. 

“N-no… I mean, a resident this far east shouldn’t know something like that. Er, meaning—You shouldn’t know the name of Duke Caruana, or the slaughter of the family—” 

“Nice comeback there…” 

“Shut up!!” 

The girl’s temper finally snapped. She grabbed Yaze by his neck and violently lifted him off the ground. Though she may have been an amateur, she still had a vampire’s physical strength. Yaze could put up minimal resistance, but he didn’t have any hope of escape. Seeing that he wasn’t so tough, she finally smiled. Her beautiful, pure white fangs poked out from her lips. 

“That uniform is the same as Kojou Akatsuki’s!” she said. “So you were purposefully placed at his school to monitor him? What faction assigned you?” 

Yaze found it hard to breathe. “…Faction?” he groaned. 

Based on the vampiress’s statement, there existed multiple forces besides her that were after Kojou. Yaze could not ignore that situation, neither as Kojou’s watcher nor as his friend. 

“I don’t think either of us wants to make a scene here…,” he noted. 

The girl apparently judged that Yaze’s lack of an answer meant he was noncompliant. Her fingers slowly increased the pressure on his neck. 

“Why…is a vampire after Kojou…?!” His voice was breaking. 

That instant, her eyes betrayed hesitation. Apparently, she had finally realized Yaze might be completely unrelated to her objectives. 

“Me, after Kojou…? What are you talking about? Are you not searching for the Key?” she asked. 

“…What…key…?” 

After biting on her lip in apparent thought for a time, the vampiress’s fingers relented and let Yaze go. 

He frailly coughed as he silently glared at his attacker. 

Apparently, the brunette vampiress wasn’t after Kojou. Even so, she’d been following him. The jury was still out as to whether she was friend or foe. 

Yaze might not have had the strength to fight a vampire directly, but it was a different story if she was a registered demon afraid of causing a ruckus. Furthermore, the girl was careless by nature and easily goaded. Yaze was sure he could drag useful information out of her if he deftly made use of those traits— 

“—?!” 

But before he tried to bargain with her, his entire body was wracked with incredible pain, driving him down to his knees. A tremendous impact seemed to rip through the very air, rending asunder the Soundscape he was using to track Kojou’s and Asagi’s movements. The evening sky was dyed pale blue, reflecting the thunderbolt that had abruptly appeared. 

She gasped, her eyes narrowing at the dazzling electric crackles. 

“It can’t be!” 

She contorted her face in fright as she gazed upward at the roof of a building lit by the sky behind it—where a single girl stood, enveloped by pale lightning. 

4 

Yaze’s gaze shifted to the girl he’d never seen before. 

“Who’s that…?!” 

A moment later, the calamity began. 

His vision was whited out by a dazzling beam that made his skin burn like it was on fire and blew him and the brunette off the top of the pedestrian bridge. The stench of ozone pricked at his nose, and the charged atmosphere made his hair stand up. 

Yaze saw the headphone around his neck give off sparks. He clicked his tongue and tossed it aside. 

“Ugh…a lightning strike?!” 

It happened so fast that he didn’t know what was going on. The impact had blasted Yaze and his previous attacker the instant his eyes met the girl on the rooftop. 

The vampiress, having collided with the pedestrian bridge railing hard, held the back of her head as she rose back up. 

“No! That’s—” 

“You know her?” he asked as he shifted his gaze to the brunette. He unwittingly let slip an “Ah!” 

Without warning, Yaze had a clear view of what was under the skirt on her upraised butt. The black lace garter belt was a little too much for a middle school boy. 

“Y-you saw?!” 

“Is this really the time?!” 

“What a humiliation for a daughter of Caruana such as I—!” 

The vampiress’s cheeks went red as her entire body shuddered. She’s not listening, Yaze thought, giving up on her as he looked to the top of the building again. 

The girl enveloped by lightning was petite, fourteen or fifteen years of age. Her blond hair was cropped boyishly short, and her flame-like eyes gave off a pale blue glow. She was wearing a silvery suit of armor embroidered with gold—clearly some kind of combat outfit. 

“Shit. What the hell’s with her—?!” Yaze said. 

The vampiress looked up at the armored girl and muttered in shock, “That lightning… Pemptos! Directly from the King?! Why…?!” 

No doubt the shudder through her whole body wasn’t from the thunderbolt alone. She was afraid of the armored girl. 

“Is she a vampire, too?” he asked. “That attack… It didn’t seem like a Beast Vassal, but…” 

The vampiress shouted in reply, “Vampire?! That isn’t funny. She’s a simple monster, a god-killing weapon!” 

The term surprised Yaze. The beautiful girl dressed in silvery armor looked nothing like any weapon he could imagine. 

Then the armored girl commanded in a dignified tone: 

“—Veldiana Caruana, hand over the Key.” 

Based on where the blazing eyes were directed, Veldiana was apparently the name of the vampiress at Yaze’s side. 

“Key…?” he murmured. 

Thanks to her words, Yaze understood what was happening. The earlier beam was purely for intimidation. She’d kept the power under wraps and deliberately avoided a direct strike, apparently to obtain some sort of key Veldiana possessed. 

The armored girl spoke again. “Hand over the Key. Or do you wish to die?” 

“Urk.” Veldiana bit her lip as she glanced at Yaze. “You, what is your name—?” 

Yaze replied honestly, “…Yaze. Motoki Yaze.” 

He thought, If that’s what it takes to buy her trust, it’s a bargain. 

Veldiana nodded in visible satisfaction. She stood in front of Yaze, apparently shielding him. 

“Listen to me, Motoki. I will buy you time. So please get this case to Mimori Akatsuki at MAR!” 

“Hey, uh…?!” 

Yaze’s face froze over when he realized just what Veldiana was asking him to do. 

Bloody mist shot out from the vampiress’s entire body, changing into a giant, ferocious dog, a three-headed Beast Vassal. Apparently, she intended to duke it out with Beast Vassals right there in an urban area. 

Even a Demon Sanctuary native like Yaze had rarely seen a vampire’s Beast Vassal so close. The explosive demonic energy from the monstrous canine was overwhelming. 

“Ganglot, please—!” 

Veldiana commanded her own Beast Vassal to attack the girl in armor. 

As she did, Yaze picked up the metallic case that had tumbled to a corner of the pedestrian bridge. The contents were likely the Key that the girl in the armor was after. By taking the case, Yaze was making the girl in armor his enemy. Even so, he did not hesitate. After all, Veldiana had spoken the name of Mimori Akatsuki, Kojou’s mother. If Veldiana was working with her, he had to be correct in seeing her as Kojou’s ally. That gave him reason enough to cooperate with her. 

And Yaze had a chance for victory—the boosters he’d received from his half brother. 

He’d already tested the effect of those vile-tasting capsules on his own flesh and blood. Amplified by the chemical drug, Yaze could freely manipulate the flow of the air with his Hyper Adapter ability, creating a tornado. With that, he could sprint at the incredible speed of ninety kilometers per hour—enough to cover a hundred meters in four seconds flat. It wouldn’t take even forty seconds to arrive at the MAR lab and Mimori. All Veldiana had to do was hold on for under a minute and Yaze could fulfill his objective. 

But before Yaze could put the capsule into his mouth, Veldiana screamed and buckled. 

“Aaaaaah—!” 

A giant lion enveloped by lightning had appeared in the evening sky. 

Veldiana’s Beast Vassal was approximately four meters long. That made the Beast Vassal a shocking monster suitable for an Old Guard, but the giant lightning lion was far larger than this. It generously cleared ten meters long, and its presence felt like it filled the entirety of the sky. 

Yaze stood rooted in place, dumbfounded as he gazed up at the scene overhead. 

“What the hell is that…?!” 

The lightning lion was likely also a Beast Vassal, a mass of dense, sentient magical energy that could take material form. But that thing was simply too huge. It was a summoned beast impossible for a single vampire to employ. If it released its demonic energy indiscriminately, worst case, half of Itogami Island would be wiped out, burned to cinders. 

Veldiana, having lost her Beast Vassal, collapsed in a half-dazed heap. The armored girl glared down at her. 

Obeying her command, the lightning lion raised a front paw once more. 

Stop, Yaze mouthed, extending a hand, but his action was meaningless. The beast’s attack enveloped Yaze as well as Veldiana—an attack that would instantly annihilate the huge walkway all the way to the next crossing. 

However, Yaze was not assaulted by the impact he dreaded. He could no longer hear the sounds of the explosion, the scream, or even the wind. Yaze and Veldiana were enveloped only in perfect silence. 

That silence was broken by the gentle, slightly removed voice of the girl that had appeared out of nowhere. 

“Stop, Pemptos—fifth Kaleid Blood.” 

The moment she spoke, sound returned to the world. 

The hot shock wave from the vaporized walkway became a gale that slapped Yaze in the face. 

He lay on top of Veldiana at a street curb only thirty meters or so from the walkway. They had been instantly relocated without even noticing. Yaze violently shook his head with the sick feeling that he had a hole in his memory. 

“What…the heck…?” 

He wasn’t feeling the seasickness peculiar to spatial control spells. It was more like the disorientation from watching a movie with dropped frames. 

As Yaze embraced Veldiana and sat her up, she lifted her face and murmured in a daze, “Paper Noise…!” 

What she saw was a girl wearing a school uniform and standing in the center of the deserted roadway. She wore glasses and held a book under one arm, appearing rather plain. 

The armored girl called Pemptos raised her eyebrows in anger. 

“Why you…!” 

She pointed at the book-carrying girl with her right hand and commanded the lightning lion to attack. 

In that instant, once again the world was ruled by silence. Without a sound, the armored girl’s right arm was cleanly severed at the elbow. 

“—!” 

Her body was blown back as if struck by an invisible iron maul. She crashed right before Yaze’s and Veldiana’s eyes, forming an impact crater in the asphalt. 

A moment later, sound returned to the world. 

“Gwah!” She coughed up clotted blood. The huge lightning lion, perhaps cut off from its supply of demonic energy, wavered like a mirage and faded away. 

Neither Yaze nor Veldiana knew what was going on. The uniformed girl known as Paper Noise slowly turned around and looked down upon Pemptos. 

“Your conduct violates the rules of the Banquet. Should you continue to engage in combat activities, I would be forced to immediately disqualify you by my authority as Bookmaker—” 

Paper Noise was holding the severed right forearm. She tossed it back to the other girl with ease. 

Pemptos rose up, armor creaking all over her body. Glaring at Paper Noise with hatred, lightning enveloped her entire body once more. Then, at the speed of light, she flew off to somewhere unknown. 

Paper Noise watched her go with a sigh. Next, she looked at Yaze and Veldiana. Or, more accurately, her frigid gaze focused on Veldiana, propped up in Yaze’s arms. She asked in a gentle tone, “Now then, Veldiana Caruana—would you explain to me why you are here? The house of Duke Caruana has already lost its qualifications to participate in the Banquet, has it not?” 

Veldiana audibly clenched her fangs, desperately wringing her voice out from her throat. 

“It was my older sister who protected the twelfth Kaleid Blood. The Caruana family has a right to wager upon her, upon Dodekatos—!” 

With Veldiana’s crimson eyes glaring at her, Paper Noise stared back without emotion. A faint sound like clothing rubbing together pricked Yaze’s ears. 

“Very well. I shall postpone my decision concerning your qualifications. However, until such time—” 

With that statement, Paper Noise displayed the metallic attaché case that had come to rest in her hand—Veldiana’s case that Yaze thought he’d been holding. 

“I shall take custody of this Key,” Paper Noise casually declared. 

Veldiana glared at her in obvious anger, wildly slamming her blood-soaked fist against the surface of the street. She quivered in humiliation as she spat, “Lion King Agency…!” 

Paper Noise turned away from Veldiana, leaving her back unguarded, and departed. When she was no longer visible, only Yaze and Veldiana remained. 

Taking notice of the wrecked pedestrian bridge, a crowd of onlookers had gathered. It would no doubt be mere minutes before the police and Island Guard came running. Yaze, a Gigafloat Management Corporation spy, was practically part of the Island Guard himself, but this time, being arrested would be troublesome even for him. It was surely best to go while the going was good. 

But there was something that Yaze had to find out first. 

“Could you explain what this whole thing’s about, Vel?” 

Veldiana, who’d been hanging her head, lifted her sour face to look at Yaze. “Why are you cozying up to me with such a nickn—” 

Suddenly, her eyes opened wide in shock. 

“Yaze, is that—?!” 

“I thought something like that might happen, so just in case…” 

As he spoke, Yaze lifted up the thing he’d been hiding behind his back: a metallic rod covered by cloth. Somehow, the meticulously engraved magical symbols on its silver-glowing surface gave it a futuristic feel. 

It was about three or four centimeters in diameter, and about fifteen centimeters long, give or take. One of its ends had been tapered to a sharp, polished point. It was too short to be a spear, and too heavy to be an arrow; the closest thing to it was a stake. 

This stake had been inside the attaché case Veldiana had entrusted to Yaze. He’d used a momentary opening during Paper Noise’s battle with the armored girl to take it out, hiding it from the girls’ sight in the back of his school uniform. 

Veldiana made a heavy sigh of relief. 

“To pull that off in such a situation… You are quite the knave.” 

“So this is what you called the Key—” 

“Yes…the Key to open the lid of the coffin.” 

With that said, Veldiana moved to retrieve the stake from Yaze’s hand, but he deftly pulled it away. 

“Before I hand this back to you, could you tell me what this twelfth Kaleid Blood thing means?” 

For a while, Veldiana shot Yaze a resentful look but finally thought better of it and composed herself. Perhaps she saw Yaze as someone who’d cooperated with her, and was therefore due an appropriate gesture of thanks. 

Her calm expression had the grace worthy of a self-described noblewoman. He felt it prick at him like subtle perfume. 

Veldiana quietly asked him, “—Do you know of the Fourth Primogenitor?” 

Yaze scowled as he nodded. 

“The Fourth Primogenitor that shouldn’t exist, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, or something?” 

“Correct. Have you not wondered…if there are only three primogenitors publicly acknowledged to exist, why are there records throughout history of the emergence of a fourth primogenitor that shouldn’t exist, bringing chaos to the world? Why do even the other primogenitors acknowledge the Kaleid Blood as the World’s Mightiest Vampire?” 

Yaze made a low “hmm.” It was an urban legend he’d heard as a child. He hadn’t given it any deep thought, but that last question nagged at him in an odd fashion. 

Veldiana saw Yaze go silent and smiled, seeming a little proud of herself. She continued. 

“The truth is simple once you have heard it. The Fourth Primogenitor was produced artificially. The World’s Mightiest Vampire, designed by none other than the first three primogenitors themselves—and Kaleid Blood is the name of the project that gave birth to the Fourth Primogenitor.” 

Every hair on Yaze’s body stood up. The girl’s words didn’t sound like the kind of crazy talk he could just laugh off. After all, he’d seen the lightning lion at the armored girl’s command. It was a summoned beast with ridiculous might on par with a natural disaster. Wasn’t that exactly how the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals were described…? 

Yaze finally remembered. A kaleidoscope’s pattern was created by an object with three mirrors on the inside… Therefore, wasn’t the name Kaleid Blood symbolic of the Fourth Primogenitor’s role? The role of the World’s Mightiest Vampire, artificially born by the hands of the three primogenitors— 

“You said the Fourth Primogenitor is a weapon…?” Yaze asked in a low voice. 

If it was a weapon, mass production was far from out of the question. You could produce twelve of them, or even more. That wasn’t the problem. 

“Weapons exist to fight something,” he continued. “What the hell would make the primogenitors go out of their way to create the World’s Mightiest Vampire?” 

“That is obvious, is it not?” 

Then Veldiana Caruana fell into silence. 

The golden sun sank into the horizon, its rays silently illuminating the side of her determined face. 

“—The Cleansing.”