Strike the Blood - Volume 9 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE 

LILITH’S AWAKENING 

1 

Kojou awoke to a pain in his back. It was a little before four in the morning. He had a memory of the clock being already an hour past midnight the last time he’d checked, so he’d slept only three hours at most. 

It must have been the new moon, for the sky was dark outside the window. 

The ceiling was unfamiliar, and the scene around him appeared to be a living room in a small cottage— 

Finally, Kojou recalled that he was visiting Blue Elysium. 

“I see… Must’ve fallen asleep…” 

Asagi and Nagisa were sandwiching Yukina on the sofa, sleeping shoulder to shoulder. Playing cards were strewn all over the table. The previous night, once fireworks were over, they’d played punishment-game poker with a bizarre level of fanfare, playing until all participants tired themselves and fell asleep. 

The battle for top dog was between Yukina, oddly strong at card games, and Asagi, armed with precise calculations and memory ability, with Yaze’s show of slipperiness and aloofness making him very competitive. Excepting Yume, who bowed out midway from sleepiness, that left Nagisa, to whom a poker face was a foreign concept, and Kojou, boasting the poorest luck of anyone present, to bear the brunt of the punishment game over and over. 

“…Sheesh, even Himeragi’s there like that? You’ll catch a cold, you know.” 

Kojou made an exasperated sigh as he looked over the girls, sound asleep on the sofa. It might have been the very first time he’d seen Yukina’s unguarded sleeping face like that. 

Without makeup, Asagi seemed just a little younger than usual. In contrast, Nagisa looked much more adult when she was asleep. All three were in fairly revealing outfits, but the way they looked so harmonious as they slept felt heartwarming, somehow. Kojou felt a little like a father as he turned the air conditioner up a notch, putting the blanket someone had brought into the living room over them. 

“Go back to sleep in bed, maybe,” muttered Kojou with a yawn as he headed toward the boys’ room. 

A moment later, he noticed a figure standing in the hallway. 

“…Yaze? You awake?” 

He must’ve turned out the lights in the living room, thought Kojou as he gazed at the sight of his friend in short trunks. However, Yaze made no reply. Instead, his lips awkwardly trembled as he said: 

“…ina…” 

“Huh?” 

Kojou unwittingly furled his brows at the odd murmur Yaze let slip. With Kojou like that, Yaze took a step toward him, opening both arms wide as he said, 

“HIINAAAAAAA!” 

“DWAAAAAH!” 

Kojou froze and broke out into a hard sweat at Yaze suddenly shouting and going in for a hug. 

Yaze’s movements were agile for someone who was clearly sleepwalking. With Kojou unable to move, Yaze circled around him and powerfully embraced him from behind. 

If Kojou’s memory served correctly, Hiina was the name of the older girl Yaze had been sweet-talking since way back. Apparently, Yaze had mistaken Kojou for her. 

Having him pin me down is bad, thought Kojou, desperately looking to run, but… 

“Ha-ha, you’re as cold as a fish, as usual…but I’m not giving up today!” 

“Stop talking in your sleep, idiot! Wake up! And hands off!!” 

Goose bumps broke out all over Kojou’s body as he shook Yaze off with raw strength. Yaze’s body flew off spectacularly, making a dull thud as he crashed into the wall. From there, Yaze slid down to the floor. Apparently, it hurt as much as it looked. 

“A-are you all right, Yaze? Sorry. This was totally your fault, though.” 

Maybe I overdid it, thought Kojou, becoming concerned as he squatted next to Yaze. However, Yaze didn’t seem to even notice Kojou was there. His lips twisted as he muttered to himself: 

“Dammit, nailed me good… Mind control, huh…?” 

“What?” 

Before the surprised Kojou’s eyes, Yaze tilted forward and collapsed, losing consciousness. A look of anguish came over his face as he slept, seemingly drained of all strength. 

“H-hey, Yaze?” 

The hell’s goin’ on? thought Kojou, clutching his head in bewilderment. The dimly lit living room returned to tranquility once more. Kojou had lost all urge to sleep, though. The only sound he heard was his own heart, thumping hard in his ears. 

He began to hear something else mixed with those annoying heartbeats: the sound of someone’s labored breathing. He heard the continued echoes of faint panting coming from the second floor of the cottage. 

“Haah… Haah…” 

“Yume?” 

Since when has she been there? wondered Kojou as he looked up at Yume in surprise. 

The elementary schooler was wearing a summer dress, but she was sitting flat on the stairway’s landing as she continued her ragged breaths. From the look of her sweat-drenched face, she was desperately holding back something strange that was welling up from inside her body. She resembled Kojou when he was restraining the urge to drink blood. 

“No…don’t. Mr. Kojou…stay away!” 

“Er, but…” 

Even if she begged him, he couldn’t just leave Yume alone when she was obviously in distress, so Kojou set one foot on the stairs. Immediately, the girl’s cheeks twisted in irrepressible fear and shame. 

“Nooooo—!” 

“Yume…?!” 

“Don’t look… Please, don’t look…” 

Yume backed away, as if afraid of Kojou’s approach. Lodged between her legs was something like a slender serpent, seeming to twitch around with a mind of its own. 

“…N…no…” 

Yume’s face paled as she realized Kojou had seen it. The next moment, she pivoted around with unbelievable speed, darting off to the second floor of the cottage. 

Left behind, Kojou stood beneath the stairs, dumbfounded. 

From the second floor, he heard a voice, laughing as if mocking the whole world. It sounded simultaneously like Yume’s voice yet also like someone completely unfamiliar. That fact unnerved Kojou. 

He didn’t know what was happening to her. But Yume was clearly not her normal self. The last words Yaze had murmured—mind control—tugged at his thoughts. Then… 

“—Senpai.” 

Just as Kojou moved to run up the stairs, someone suddenly called to him, stopping him in his tracks. When Kojou looked back, he saw that Yukina was standing there, her aura undetectable. 

“Himeragi, you’re awake…?!” 

Kojou exhaled in relief. If Yume was the victim of some bizarre phenomenon, it was more than Kojou could handle by himself. He was dealing with a girl at a difficult age, so having Yukina there was immensely reassuring. 

“You’re just in the nick of time. Come on, Yume’s acting weird…” 

“Yume…you say?” Yukina replied, mystified, as her eyes met Kojou’s. 

“Yeah.” Kojou grimaced and nodded. “There’s something growing from her…from right between her legs…!” 

“Um, senpai…?” 

Yukina sighed with a hint of anger as she shot Kojou a reproachful glare. She had the look of an older girl admonishing an ignorant little boy. 

“She may be an elementary schooler, but it would not be strange for Yume’s body to go through certain changes at her age… Well, ah…probably…” 

“What are you talking about?! Not that, a tail! T-a-i-l!” 

“A tail?” 

“Yeah.” 

Kojou bit his lips as he mulled over the momentary memory burned into his eyes. There was no doubt that the thing poking out from Yume’s skirt had been a tail. It was an animal’s tail, long, black, with a pointy tip— 

“It probably wasn’t normal bestialization. I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s different about this.” 

Perhaps that tail wasn’t completely physical. With that thought in his mind, Kojou headed up the stairs. 

However, before he could finish, he was strongly pulled from behind. It was Yukina, holding tight to Kojou’s clothing. 

“Where do you think you’re going, senpai?” 

Yukina dragged Kojou down from the stairs and circled around him, seemingly to forbid him to pass. With the only light at her back, Kojou couldn’t read her face. But Yukina gave off an air a bit different from her normal, calm self. 

“…Himeragi?” 

“Yume this, Yume that… Do you truly like little girls that much?” 

Without warning, Yukina closed the distance with Kojou. Her eyes couldn’t have been looking up into his from more than two centimeters away. Kojou’s voice went shrill as he fell into a panic. 

“Huh?! What are you saying, Himeragi? This ain’t the time to joke around!” 

“Please do not downplay this!” 

“Huh? Whaaa—?!” 

Am I the bad guy here? anguished Kojou for a moment when Yukina scolded him with a dead-serious look. With Kojou like that, Yukina brought her body right against his. 

“I am your watcher, senpai. And yet, you’ve been paying attention only to Yume and Sayaka, and today, you were with Aiba all day, playing around with just her…” 

“…Huh?” 

There was a faint whiff of sweet perfume hovering around the freshly woken Yukina. Kojou unwittingly swallowed his saliva at how the thin T-shirt conveyed her soft bounciness underneath. 

“So I really am no good for you…? You cannot be satisfied with me…?” 

“Er, it’s not really a problem of being satisfied or not satisfied…” 

Kojou desperately clung to his paper-thin self-control as he pried Yukina’s body away from his. That instant, a look of despair welled in Yukina’s big eyes. 

“So you are dissatisfied, senpai… I see. Then there is nothing I can do as your watcher save kill you and die as well…” 

“What…?!” 

Yukina gently reached out with her right hand. She retrieved the black case she had brought with her, set against the wall. It held a body-board, something that would attract no special attention at a seaside resort. 

However, there was no bodyboard inside the case; rather, it contained a familiar silver spear. Schneewaltzer—a secret weapon of the Lion King Agency, said to be able to destroy even a vampire primogenitor. 

“I-idiot! You can’t draw out Snowdrift Wolf in a place like this…!” 

Kojou backed away, recoiling from having the tip of that familiar spear turned upon him. With things having reached that point, even Kojou realized that Yukina was not in her right mind. It was the same as Yaze just earlier. 

He didn’t know the reason why, but their subconscious desires were running rampant. Albeit, it was a bit of a problem if Yukina habitually nursed such destructive thoughts deep down in her heart, but— 

“What are you doing, Kojou?” 

As Kojou backed off, someone suddenly embraced him from behind. When Kojou looked back into the dim lighting, he could see a girl with an extravagant hairstyle and a thin, frail smile. 

“Eh?! A-Asagi?!” 

His temples registered a cold sweat. 

Of course, with such a ruckus in a living room in the dead of night, it wasn’t strange that she might awaken. What surprised Kojou was the look on Asagi’s face, as if she might break out in tears at any moment. 

“So what are you two doing behind my back at an hour like this?” Asagi asked in a faint, trailing voice. Clear droplets fell from her eyes, which were already filled to the brim with tears. 

A nonsensical feeling of guilt struck Kojou as he meekly shook his head and said: 

“Er, this is… How should I…put this…?” 

“Keeping secrets from me and playing hooky with Himeragi again? So you really do like her better…?” 

“…Eh?!” 

“And I’ve tried so hard… I’ve even done…all kinds of embarrassing things…” 

Asagi hugged Kojou from behind with force. Her entire body was trembling as if she was weeping. This routine again, thought Kojou, looking up at the ceiling as he said: 

“So even you’re going weird in the head?!” 

“What do you mean ‘weird,’ stupid Kojou?! I have insecurities, too… That you’ll leave me here and go somewhere far, far away without saying a word. I’ve felt like that since long before this crazy Fourth Primogenitor thing of yours…!” 

“A-Asagi…” 

Asagi was weakly pounding on Kojou’s back. Asagi’s and Yukina’s awkwardness hadn’t changed a bit, but in contrast to Yukina’s destructive stalker tendencies, Asagi felt far younger and more timid with her subconscious running amok. 

This ain’t the real them, Kojou understood in his head, but he was frozen stiff, unable to just brush them off. With Kojou still, Asagi was about to whisper something into his ear when… 

“—That’s enough, Aiba.” 

Make your precious confession when in your right mind, the timing seemed to say as Yukina touched her silver spear to Asagi’s neck. 

It was a most gentle cut, perhaps not even a full layer of skin. But at that instant, Asagi’s entire body was enveloped in pale sparks, and she convulsed. She collapsed on the spot, and Yukina caught her from the side. 

“H-Himeragi…?!” 

“I have released Aiba from the mind control. I believe this will return her to her right mind.” 

Yukina spoke in a dead-serious tone. The calm air she gave off, same as usual, made Kojou feel so relieved that he wanted to cry. Yukina seemed to be brooding over something off on her own, but she’d apparently returned to sanity at some point. 

“So you girls were being controlled by someone. That’s why you were acting strange, Himeragi?” 

“O-of course. Thanks to Snowdrift Wolf, I was somehow able to break free…” 

Yukina’s expression was unnaturally strained as she made the assertion with oddly heavy insistence. She was gripping the spear too hard, causing the triple-bladed spear tip to waver a little. 

“So those things I said earlier were absolutely not my true feelings, okay? They are not, okay?” 

“R-right.” 

Kojou nervously nodded, hard-pressed by her intimidating look. He didn’t know what other response to offer. In the meantime, he gave Yukina a helping hand laying the unconscious Asagi down on the sofa. 

Off in the faint darkness, Kojou felt like he heard someone squirm around and rise up. “Oh, come on,” he moaned, having a vague sense of what was coming next. 

“Ko…jou…” 

As he covered his eyes in exasperation, Nagisa embraced him. 

He felt like the aura she gave off was somehow different than normal, but at the same time, it wasn’t all that unusual, either. “You too, huh?” he said, making a heavy, listless sigh. 

“Hey, Kojou… Actually, I…” 

“Himeragi, please.” 

“…Yes.” 

Kojou interrupted Nagisa’s words and swiftly held her down. Yukina put her right hand directly in front of Nagisa’s nose. Without fanfare, the snap of Yukina’s fingers made all the strength drain from Nagisa’s body; perhaps it was a type of hypnosis. Nagisa, falling limp onto the sofa, began making sleeping sounds once more. 

The fact that she hadn’t used Snowdrift Wolf, like in Asagi’s case, might have been from judging there wasn’t the same urgency, or perhaps consideration for Nagisa’s lack of physical endurance; one of the two—or perhaps both. 

When Nagisa calmed down, Kojou finally managed to recover from the mayhem. He didn’t know what had caused them to run amok, but there seemed no problem in leaving them there for the time being. The higher priority, one that couldn’t wait, was dealing with Yume. 

With that thought, Kojou looked up at the stairs once more. The next moment, an amused, laughing voice poured down from overhead. 

2 

A young girl’s face poked up from the stairwell’s railing. 

She had big eyes and soft, distinctive hair that reached her shoulders, characteristics of Yume that Kojou and Yukina knew well. However, this particular smile on her face gave off a very different impression than the normal Yume did. 

It was an expression filled with malice, as if to mock the surprised pair. 

“Whaaa? Boooring. After I went through the trouble of having them say their real feelings and everything…” 

She spoke in a breathy voice, shrugging her shoulders in visible disappointment. Her lips remained tapered in a pout as she looked between Yukina and Kojou. 

“Big Sis over there got back to normal with the power of that weird spear, but who exactly could you be to resist my mind control, Big Bro? You’re no ordinary demon, huh. I mean, Kiriha said I could control Levia and everything.” 

“…Levia?” Yukina murmured, brows furrowed. 

Kojou was beside himself as he examined the girl. 

The girl standing in the stairway didn’t just have a different expression; her voice and diction seemed like a completely different person. She appeared to have even forgotten Kojou’s and Yukina’s names. 

“You’re…not Yume. Who are you?” 

“Hey, I’m Yume, too. Yume seems to call me Riru, though.” 

“…Riru?!” 

Kojou took in a sharp breath. He remembered hearing that name—the name of Yume’s “older sister,” the other girl supposedly held captive by Kusuki-Elysée, along with Yume. 

But that very Riru was using Yume’s body to laugh right before Kojou’s and Yukina’s eyes. 

“Could this be…dissociative identity disorder…?” Yukina murmured, watching the girl calling herself Riru. She apparently had some idea why Yume had undergone the sudden change. 

But Riru’s eyes narrowed in amusement. “Tee-hee, you mean multiple personalities? So Yume created another personality to protect her mind from all of her nasty experiences? I suppose that’s not exactly true, but not exactly far off, either.” 

Riru laughed derisively while speaking like it didn’t concern her. Kojou felt himself getting annoyed by Riru’s words. 

“Nasty experiences… You mean the kidnapping?” 

“Kidnapping? Oh no, not like that,” Riru said. “How’d you get that idea?” She clutched her belly as she laughed. “Yume’s been bullied since way back—by the students at her school and by her own parents. Yume was all alone when Kusuki-Elysée took her in, so it’s, like, her benefactor?” 

“Bullied…why?” 

“Ehh… Well, isn’t it obvious…? Because Yume’s a succubus.” 

Riru readily answered Kojou’s question. In spite of her unenthusiastic confession, Kojou couldn’t understand the meaning of her words. 

“Succubus…you say?” 

“Yes. Succubus. A rare species of demon, but y’know what they are, right? They use mind-control techniques to get in other people’s heads and manipulate them as they please, stimulating their lusts and stuff. It’s embarrassing to be an ecchi kid like that. So everyone hates them and stuff… Well, I’m talking like it’s not my problem, tee-hee.” 

Riru curled up the corners of her lips, seemingly at her own expense. Somehow, the expression seemed equally like a tearful one. 

“Yume didn’t wanna accept that part of her, so she made me, cutting herself off from a succubus’s lusts and abilities. Totally not fair. She pushes all the bad stuff onto someone else, so she can stay all pure by herself. Sheesh, Yume, you are such a downer! And you’ve got this awesome thing growing from you and stuff.” 

From under the hem of the summer dress she wore, a slender black tail was swaying to and fro. It was a bestial tail of solidified demonic energy. It provided eloquent proof of Yume’s true nature. 

“So Yume’s an unregistered demon, too…,” Kojou murmured in a low, subdued voice. 

He didn’t know just how scarce succubi were. But Kusuki-Elysée confining the girl made no sense if Yume was just an ordinary little girl. 

“That’s riiight. Tee-hee, so now you hate Yume, too, don’t you, Big Bro?” 

Riru spoke with a tone that conveyed an odd display of sex appeal one wouldn’t expect from an elementary schooler. Kojou glared up at her, cursing under his breath, unamused. 

“No way in hell.” 

“…Ahh?” 

“Yume’s a succubus? Well, I’m a vampire. If you’re gonna talk about pretty indecent stuff, I’ve even drank the blood of Himeragi and other girls. And having a tail on you like that is kinda cute, ain’t it?” 

Hearing Kojou’s words, Riru’s smile vanished. 

Her young lips twisted in dismay. 

“Hmm, you’re a good egg, Big Bro. You’re just, you know, one of those—a hypocrite, or into mutual pity…or maybe, a lolicon?” 

“Who is?!!” 

“Well, if you’re gonna be like that, maybe I’d better do what Kiriha asked me to.” 

Riru’s eyebrows rose malevolently as she leaped over the stairway’s railing. The back of her summer dress ripped apart as wings sprouted from her back. The wings were half-solid, formed of demonic energy. 

With a flap of those wings, Riru landed behind Kojou and Yukina without a sound. Then, she opened a glass window and flew right out of the cottage, all in the span of an instant without any time to stop her. 

“Yume, wait…!” 

Kojou headed outside after her. Riru was standing barefoot on the grass in the yard. 

But the instant Kojou tried to sprint toward her, a silver beam came rushing toward him out of the corner of his vision. It was an owl with metal wings. Kojou stopped dead in his tracks just as it darted by, barely grazing him and gouging a deep tear in his T-shirt at chest height. 

“Senpai! Get down!” 

The owl was whirling around in midair to attack Kojou again when Yukina intercepted it with her spear. With a ferocious outpouring of sparks, the owl lost one of its wings and proceeded to crash to earth. It transformed into a thin sheet of metal, moving no more. 

“What’s with that thing…?!” 

“A shikigami. But this ritual is…” 

A grave look came over Yukina as she gazed down at the metal sheet at her feet. 

Kojou guardedly looked around the area. 

The shikigami had gone for Kojou when he’d tried to stop Riru. The timing of the attack was oddly precise. Considering the situation, it had to be someone from Kusuki-Elysée there to take Yume back. 

As if to buttress Kojou’s deduction, Riru, standing in the darkness, let out a cry of delight. 

“So you came for me, Kiriha. I’m baaack!” 

A black-haired girl in a high school uniform had arrived. She waited at a parked car on the street right in front of the cottage as Riru rushed over to her. 

She had a symmetrical face and a physique that was at once elegant, yet also felt supple and tenacious. She was carrying a black case for a tripod over her back. 

Somehow, she seems a lot like Yukina, thought Kojou. 

“Welcome back, Riru. Your mood seems to have brightened somewhat?” 

“Guess so.” 

Riru pranced around the black-haired girl, laughing boisterously. 

Kojou and Yukina stopped in their steps, bewildered as they faced off against the black-haired girl. They hadn’t expected the person dispatched by Kusuki-Elysée to be a high school girl. 

“…You’re this ‘Kiriha’?” 

“Yes, Kiriha Kisaki. It is a pleasure to meet you, Fourth Primogenitor. The girl behind you should understand the meaning of the words Priestess of the Six Blades of the Bureau of Astrology.” 

The girl calling herself Kiriha calmly looked back at Kojou as she spoke. 

Kojou was a bit thrown off that she knew all about him. However, Yukina was more surprised than he. Yukina’s eyes widened, almost as if she could not believe what she saw, making no movement, seemingly frozen in place. 

“…Why is the Bureau of Astrology interfering with Sayaka’s mission…?!” 

“There was a minor difference in political policy, nothing more. I seek no conflict with you…personally, at least.” 

“—?!” 

Before Kiriha had even finished, Kojou sustained a blow from the side that sent him tumbling to the ground. 

It was Yukina who had thrust Kojou away as he stood rooted in a daze. 

An arrow from a Western-style bow grazed the place where Kojou had stood until the very moment before. If he’d remained there, the arrow would doubtlessly have completely shot through his torso. 

Still on the ground, Kojou looked up, shifting his gaze in the direction from which the arrow had been sent flying. Then, he gawked with a low groan. 

There was a tall, slender girl wielding a silver recurve bow in apparent defense of Riru and Kiriha. She had long hair drawn up into a ponytail that danced in the pre-dawn darkness. 

“Kirasaka…why the hell are you…?” 

Kojou moaned in utter shock, still staring at Sayaka Kirasaka as she nocked a new arrow onto her recurve bow. 

Sayaka had sent bloodlust Kojou’s way a fair number of times. But this was the first time she, with her deep love of Yukina, had attacked Kojou when that same Yukina might be put in the crossfire. 

That was enough for him to judge that Sayaka wasn’t in her right mind, either. 

“Sayaka?!” Yukina exclaimed, letting her spear drop. 

However, there was no change in expression from the girl holding the bow. All that came from her was a cold, mechanical gaze as she emotionlessly surveyed Kojou and Yukina. 

3 

“—Let us be off, Riru. Chairman Kusuki is waiting.” 

Turning her back to Kojou and Yukina, who were unable to move, Kiriha Kisaki walked forward. The car waiting for her and Riru belonged to the Kusuki-Elysée company. 

Kojou and Yukina simply stared, dumbfounded. 

If Kiriha was dragging Riru off by force, they probably could have gotten in the way. However, Kiriha had done nothing. Riru was going off with Kiriha of her own will, and Sayaka, Shamanic War Dancer of the Lion King Agency, obstructed their path. 

If Riru—no, Yume Eguchi—was taken away just like that, Kojou and Yukina would have no just cause under which to get her back. Everything was going according to how Kiriha and her people wished. 

“Himeragi, can I leave Yume to you? I’ll manage with Kirasaka somehow.” 

“Senpai?” 

With Kojou addressing her in a quiet voice, Yukina looked at him, her eyes wavering with visible unease. 

“But, senpai. Right now, Sayaka is not—” 

“I know. That mind-control stuff, right? Looks like a worse case than you had earlier. Geez, how’d this happen? She was supposed to be off dealing with Riru.” 

“Yes. But here, I really should be the one to—” 

“No way, Himeragi.” Kojou checked Yukina with a strong tone. 

Certainly, if the objective was defeating Sayaka, relying on Yukina’s power was the safer bet. Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf could cancel out the vile ability of Sayaka’s Lustrous Scale—its pseudo-spatial severing. She also knew what was in Sayaka’s Shamanic War Dancer arsenal. But… 

“Look, just go! Kirasaka’ll feel terrible when she’s sane again if she finds out she tried to kill you!” 

“—Understood. Senpai, please be careful. If she was fighting seriously, even I might only manage to defeat Sayaka one out of five times.” 

“Eh…?!” 

With Yukina having left behind that incredible statement, Kojou’s face twitched as he watched her run off. Maybe he’d have been better off not hearing that nugget of information, especially with that timing. 

Now that he thought of it, Yukina was really still an apprentice, whereas Sayaka was a full Shamanic War Dancer. Sayaka had to have far more actual combat experience, too. On top of that, unlike Yukina, a poor spell caster, Sayaka was a skilled user of a wealth of spells. The saving grace was that she had no Snowdrift Wolf with which to nullify Kojou’s demonic energy… 

“But that bow was pretty nasty stuff, wasn’t it…?” 

As if reading Kojou’s mind, Sayaka fired a cursed arrow. 

The arrow sailed toward the heavens as it whistled, the great reverberation creating a high-density spell. A giant magic circle unfolded, with the thunderbolts it created pouring down on Kojou with pinpoint accuracy. 

“Aww, crap! C’mon over, Regulus Aurum!” 

Kojou summoned his Beast Vassal without hesitation. The lightning lion, enveloped by vast demonic power, collided with the pouring thunderbolts, canceling out Sayaka’s tremendous attack. 

The clash of enormous magical energies sent a disquieting tremor throughout the entire subfloat. Kojou and the others felt static electricity in the air pricking their flesh as lampposts burned out in dazzling flashes of light. 

“Not holding back, are you?!” 

Kojou was petrified, overwhelmed by the absurd might of Sayaka’s attack. Because it was Regulus Aurum, he was somehow able to fend off the blow, but an ordinary vampire’s Beast Vassal would doubtlessly have been blown away in that single strike. It was a spell on an extraordinary scale for a mere human being to wield single-handedly. 

Now that he thought of it, Sayaka had been assigned as Dimitrie Vattler’s observer. In other words, even that combat-maniac vampire recognized the strength of her abilities. Perhaps Sayaka, fighting seriously, would prove a far more difficult foe than Kojou had imagined. 

Sayaka, realizing that her curse arrow had been blocked, rushed to her next move. 

“Kojou Akatsuki!!” 

“—Whoa?!” 

The downward swing of the long sword grazed past the tip of Kojou’s nose as he evaded it by a paper’s breadth. Even with Kojou’s vampirism-enhanced reaction speed, it seemed practically a miracle that he’d escaped such a terrifying slicing blow. 

“Are you an ogre?! Take it a little easy on the amateur, sheesh!” 

Kojou released his Beast Vassal from its summons and ran for the hills with all his might. Either way, Kojou’s Beast Vassals were too powerful to use with Sayaka as the opponent. After all, clumsily unleashing one with Sayaka at such close range would catch Kojou in the lethal strike, to say nothing of blowing Sayaka away without a trace. 

That said, vampires unable to use their Beast Vassals were comparatively frail as demons went. Against an ultra–high end Attack Mage like Sayaka, running for it was all Kojou could think of. 

Apparently, he couldn’t hope for anything convenient like the mind control leaving Sayaka a smidgeon of sanity, prompting her to take it easy on him. 

“Shit… Was I too hasty?” 

He couldn’t help but regret having sent Yukina on ahead. Even if he’d known from the start, Kojou stopping Sayaka on his own was far too much to ask. 

First of all, he didn’t think even Yukina would be able to easily take her out of action. It wasn’t like when she’d put Asagi and Nagisa out cold. What was spurring Sayaka into action was not incomplete mind control making her hidden desires run wild. She was completely controlled, and seriously trying to kill Kojou. 

He didn’t know how such powerful mind control was possible without leaning on Riru’s power. However, that didn’t mean he was out of options, either. Even if he didn’t understand the root cause, even Kojou could come up with at least one way to break the mind control over Sayaka. A method only possible for a vampire like Kojou— 

“So the gist is, override what’s controlling her with even stronger demonic energy!” 

The problem being whether I can actually do it or not, thought Kojou, biting his lip. 

There were a number of hurdles Kojou had to vault over in order to bring that plan to fruition. Breaking through the first checkpoint was a tall order in a situation where he was constantly under attack. 

With terrifying speed, Sayaka thrust her sword forward, grazing Kojou’s cheek. 

Even if he used something to block her attacks, it was impossible to fend off the blade while the spatial-severing effect enveloped it. He needed a way to deal with that and to release Sayaka from mind control at the same time— 

“This is gonna be a little rough, but I guess I’ll give it a shot…” 

Kojou’s murmur seemed to put him back on his feet with a bold smile. In the back of his mind, he thought back to the trivial conversation he’d had with Yukina back at the pool; namely, how Sayaka and water didn’t mix— 

“C’mon over, Natra Cinereus!” 

Kojou summoned a new Beast Vassal—a faithful beast serving from within a vampire’s own blood. The fourth Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor, Avrora Florestina, was a giant, hard-shelled beast surrounded by mist. 

“—?!” 

Sayaka’s face froze stiff when she realized she’d lost her sense of solid ground. 

Natra Cinereus was a Beast Vassal epitomizing the vampiric ability of mist. However, its effective range was not limited to Kojou, its host; it was able to weaken the binding forces of solid matter, turning any and every kind of object into mist. It was destruction and calamity incarnate, worthy of its title as a Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor. 

Of course, he could not use such a dangerous power on Sayaka herself. Kojou’s target was not Sayaka, but rather, the ground at her feet. 

Sayaka was standing on a subfloat built out of resin and metal. If that artificial soil were to vanish, there was nothing beneath it—except the sea. 

“Aaaaaaaaaah!” 

Enveloped by silver mist, Sayaka fell from the pull of gravity. 

It was probably six or seven meters before she hit the water. With an unexpectedly cute cry, Sayaka plunged in, kicking up a spectacular splash. 

“Er, this ain’t good?!” 

The attack by the overly powerful Beast Vassal had “worked,” but, of course, things had not ended there. The incredibly powerful mist spread farther, gouging a giant hole in the artificial ground tens of meters in radius. The foundation supporting the subfloat, the decorative soil packed atop it, and the trees and lampposts on top of that, were completely annihilated. 

Having lost its support, the roadway collapsed, with pieces falling into the sea one after another. 

“Shit… I overdid it… Koff!” 

Kojou, crouched down on the tilting ground surface, coughed as seawater showered down on him from above. The Beast Vassal had blithely involved its host, Kojou, in the overpowering destruction it had wrought. 

The place that was once the cottage’s lawn had been nicely gouged out, creating a bowl-shaped inlet in its place. Perhaps he ought to have blessed his good fortune that the surrounding buildings had not sunk into the sea as well. 

“—Where’s Kirasaka?!” 

Kojou released the Beast Vassal from its summons and looked around the area. 

The next moment, he looked back, sensing bloodlust behind him. Sayaka, having just crawled out of the sea, was launching a downward swing at Kojou that very moment. 

However, Sayaka’s attack did not have the same speed as before. The soaking-wet clothing she wore was robbing her of her sharpness of motion. Kojou had tentatively succeeded in his aim. Beyond that… 

“Whoa… That’s…!” 

Kojou unwittingly drew his breath in as he looked up at Sayaka, sword poised high. 

Sayaka had stripped off the waterlogged vest of her uniform, perhaps judging that it was in the way of her movements. The white school shirt she’d worn beneath it was completely drenched, too. With the fabric transparent and clinging to her flesh, her pale skin and cutely designed bra were exposed to his nocturnal eyes. 

The spectacle was all the more devastating because Sayaka was so amazingly stylish to begin with. As she swung her sword around, the contrast between her see-through shirt and bouncing breasts stole Kojou’s vision. 

He maintained his distance with Sayaka as he shifted deeper and deeper into the water. Pursuing him, she was in the sea once more. 

The surface of the water was already up to their hips. In that condition, Sayaka could no longer swing her sword, for if the space-ripping effect Lustrous Scale gave off hit the water, its wielder, Sayaka, would not escape unscathed. Accordingly, thrusting became her only option for attack. 

Knowing this, Kojou had his own card to play. 

“Kirasaka…don’t blame me for this!” 

Kojou kicked off from the bottom of the water, making full use of his vampiric strength. In an instant, he closed a distance of some four or five meters, rushing Sayaka straight from the front. 

“Kojou Akatsuki…!” 

Sayaka’s reaction was quick. Easily tracking Kojou’s movement, she raised her long sword and thrust forward. 

Kojou did not evade. Adding a footstep to accelerate farther, he impaled himself on the tip of her sword. 

Kojou’s unanticipated action threw Sayaka’s aim off just a little. The sword that should have run him through the heart instead impaled Kojou through the gut and out his back. 

“Guoaaaa!” 

Kojou let out a cry from his mouth. The pain alone could kill him. But he’d resigned himself to that from the beginning. 

With Sayaka running Kojou through to the hilt, she could not draw her sword out of him. And Kojou could still move. 

Before his eyes, Sayaka was frozen in shock. Kojou’s hand extended and touched her collar. 

Her pale neck was drenched with sweat and seawater. Her slender collarbone was poking up from under the drenched shirt. She had such a refined face that it could draw you in before you knew it, and deep cleavage between her breasts that did not suit such a slender physique— 

Even while fighting for his life, it was more than enough to stimulate his lust. Furthermore, it was sexual desire that was the root of a vampire’s urge to drink blood— 

“Wha—?!” 

Kojou yanked Sayaka close by her shirt collar. Kojou’s fangs thrust into her now-exposed flesh. 

“—?!” 

Sayaka’s face twisted in pain. Kojou paid no heed as he sipped on her blood. 

Legend had it that a vampire could control a human being just from drinking a person’s blood. Unfortunately, Kojou could not do anything that artful, but at the very least, he could inject the powerful demonic energy of the Fourth Primogenitor. Surely it would be enough to cause the mind control cast upon Sayaka to wither away. 

But before the mind control lifted completely, Sayaka retrieved a silver dart from under her skirt. She twisted it around in her hand, aiming the sharp tip at the back of Kojou’s head. 

Even a vampire would go down in one shot if you impaled the cerebellum with such a thing. However, Sayaka was swinging that vile implement down when her hand stopped midway. A split-second prior, as if defying the mind control with her own will, the dart slipped from her hand as she settled against Kojou. 

“Ah…” 

A sweet sigh escaped Sayaka’s lips. 

Kojou felt her softness and warmth as he held up her relaxed body. 

At some point, the sky had begun to brighten. 

The light of the quietly burning morning sky silently shone upon their bloodstained embrace. 

4 

The pre-twilight atmosphere was charged with lingering magical energy. 

They were the remnants of the lightning attack unleashed by Sayaka, and of Kojou summoning his Beast Vassal to block it. 

The Kusuki-Elysée company car was parked on a coastal road a small distance from the cottage. The automated driving system it was equipped with had made an emergency stop when it detected lightning strikes. Kiriha Kisaki was getting Riru out of the getaway car. No doubt, they were giving up on moving by car and planned to return to Kusuki-Elysée on foot. 

But before she could lead Riru away by hand, Kiriha stood still and raised her head up. Her gaze shifted until it met Yukina, standing with her silver spear poised. 

With a glare, Yukina stated, “I want you to give Yume back.” 

“Wow.” Riru looked up at Kiriha in amusement. 

Kiriha shook her head with a sigh and drew her spear from the case over her back. It was a silver, forked spear, with its tip split into two tines. 

“Do you not understand, Yukina Himeragi? You have no reason to bring Riru back with you,” Kiriha said quietly. 

It was Yukina’s duty as Sword Shaman to watch the Fourth Primogenitor—Kojou Akatsuki. No matter who Yume Eguchi was, that gave Yukina no right to take her back. But… 

“I believe that brainwashing Sayaka to attack Akatsuki-senpai is reason enough to view you as my enemy?” Yukina calmly rebutted her. 

Kiriha had indirectly attempted to harm Kojou, her observation target. It was sophistry, but it surely amounted to casus belli for Yukina to do battle with Kiriha. 

“I did not wish for Riru to come into contact with the Fourth Primogenitor. He is a wild card and simply too dangerous, you see.” 

Kiriha shook her head with dismay as she replied. 

The next moment, they heard a giant explosive sound behind her. A silver mist resembling gunsmoke rose into the pre-dawn sky. Kojou had used one of the Fourth Primogenitor’s Beast Vassals. 

“You do not need to go see how he is faring?” 

Kiriha seemed to be teasing her with that question. However, Yukina shook her head, her expression unmoved. 

“Sayaka will be all right. Senpai, too, probably.” 

“…You trust the Fourth Primogenitor, then? Somewhat unexpected.” 

Kiriha suspiciously raised an eyebrow. Then, she shook her head, as if to say I misspoke. 

“Ah, please do not misunderstand… I have no interest in the Fourth Primogenitor. I am aware that you are watching him, and have no intention of interfering. It is not I who involved the Fourth Primogenitor in this, but Sayaka Kirasaka.” 

“What do you intend to do with Yume once you bring her back to Kusuki-Elysée? Why is the Bureau of Astrology assisting them?” 

Yukina asked, disregarding Kiriha’s excuses. 

Like the Lion King Agency, the Bureau of Astrology was a special department under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its involvement in the present incident would explain why the Lion King Agency could not act overtly to keep Yume safe. The Bureau of Astrology was probably exerting pressure on the government to keep the Lion King Agency at bay. 

“Tee-hee,” laughed Kiriha, looking sure of victory as she smiled. “Kusuki-Elysée is Yume Eguchi’s legal guardian. Furthermore, she is returning of her own will. Even the Lion King Agency has no right to stop me.” 

With Kiriha like that, Yukina made a small nod, seemingly yielding to her words as she said, “I suppose so, if Yume truly does desire that. However—!” 

“Uu?!” 

Without warning, Yukina kicked off from the ground, slamming her spear toward Kiriha. Instantly, the forked spear parried the blow as Kiriha cursed under her breath; for she realized that Yukina’s target had not been Kiriha, but rather, the spear she wielded. 

Yukina’s spear gave off a pale glow as it collided with Kiriha’s forked weapon. This was the purifying light of the Divine Oscillation Effect—able to nullify all magical energy and rend any barrier. Ting went the violent, ear-piercing sound scattered about as the magical energy around the forked spear vanished. 

“The Lion King Agency’s Schneewaltzer. A troublesome armament indeed…” Kiriha smiled ferociously as she forced the overbearing Yukina backward. “…When did you notice this spear’s true nature?” 

“From the beginning. After all, for you to appear just after the Riru personality awakened was too timely to be a coincidence.” 

Having landed, Yukina looked at Kiriha and poised her spear once more. 

The Riru personality sleeping inside Yume had suddenly awoken in the dead of night. A different personality had been triggered, yet there had been no stimulus or experience to cause it to do so. Consequently, there was but one possibility she could think of— 

Someone had controlled Yume’s mind from the outside and forced Riru to awaken. 

“The Ricercare of the Bureau of Astrology… That spear’s ability is what awakened the Riru personality and planted suggestions into Sayaka, yes?” 

Yukina glared coldly at Kiriha’s spear as she spoke the words. 

Ricercare: an exorcism weapon constructed via a different method than what the Lion King Agency used. Its ability was to amplify accumulated demonic energy and release it according to the wielder’s will. 

Through the use of the forked spear, the wielder was able to employ special abilities supposedly beyond human means and manipulate vast demonic energies. Ricercare could be described as a weapon that copied magical and demonic energy. 

“So you drew Riru’s—no, Yume’s succubus demonic energy into the spear. You employed that ability in reverse to make Yume awaken as Riru.” 

“Correct. Though I never imagined I would see all the demonic energy I drew wiped away quite like this…,” Kiriha said, although in a thoroughly unapologetic tone. 

To Ricercare (able to manipulate demonic energy), Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf (able to nullify demonic energy) was its mortal foe. The loss of accumulated demonic energy had already torn Kiriha’s spell apart. 

“Yukina—?!” 

Yume, having returned to her proper personality, called out to Yukina with a plaintive cry. That she wasn’t all that surprised to see Yukina wielding the spear might have meant she had some memory of what had transpired during her time as Riru. 

Either way, the situation had changed. This Yume did not wish to return to Kusuki-Elysée. If, in spite of that, Kiriha dragged Yume off by force, she was a mere kidnapper. Yukina could save Yume regardless of her Lion King Agency assignment. 

“Now I have a reason to stop you. Or shall you simply withdraw, Six Blades?” 

Yukina duly warned Kiriha. Surely, even Kiriha understood they had traded places. If Kiriha remained any longer, the prestige of the Bureau of Astrology would be on the line. 

Even so, Kiriha twirled her spear with nothing more than a swish and said, “It was my honest hope that we would get along, but you leave me no choice… This violates our understanding with the Lion King Agency, but I’m sure they’ll overlook it as exigent circumstances—!” 

“—!” 

The forked spear became a typhoon that stopped Yukina’s silver spear cold. 

Kiriha’s spear was no longer charged with demonic energy, but it had not lost any of its functionality as a weapon in the process. Furthermore, Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf could not employ its special effect against attacks that lacked demonic energy. The two were on equal terms. 

“If you thought sealing Ricercare’s ability was enough to win, you’re naive!” 

“…Urk!” 

Kiriha’s incredible flurry of attacks forced Yukina on the defensive. Sword Shamans of the Lion King Agency and Six Blades of the Bureau of Astrology came from shared roots. The techniques used by both were very similar. 

Thus, it was the difference in the wielders’ skills that determined who had the upper hand. 

Even if she was talented, Yukina was critically short on combat experience. Nor could she deny that she was at a physical disadvantage. Each and every attack from a Priestess of the Six Blades, experts in anti–demon beast combat, was a swift, heavy blow. Yukina’s small physique could be easily knocked around even while guarding. 

However, it was not Yukina who appeared nervous but Kiriha, the attacker. 

Kiriha’s lethal attacks weren’t hitting Yukina. 

Sword Shamans of the Lion King Agency were able to peer a brief moment into the future. The same went for Six Blades of the Bureau of Astrology. However, Yukina was the one reading Kiriha’s moves first. 

Yukina’s spirit sight was well beyond Kiriha’s. 

“I should have expected this from the individual the Lion King Agency chose to watch the Fourth Primogenitor… I had thought you a little milk-drinking child with good looks as a redeeming feature, but this… Tee-hee, this makes it worthwhile—!” 

Kiriha laughed ferociously. Her refined facade fell away, fully exposing the real her: sadistic and belligerent. 

“Raw Lightning—!” 

Kiriha knocked Yukina off balance with a single brute-force attack, following up with a stern knee strike. It was a blunt attack technique infused with ritual energy for anti–demon beast combat. Being struck by such a blow would invariably destroy the internal organs of any normal human. 

But Yukina evaded that merciless attack and slipped into Kiriha’s flank in turn. 

“Distort!” 

Yukina unleashed an eviscerating attack from point-blank range. Kiriha instantly sailed backward, parrying the shock of the blow. 

“Mist Lynx—Twin Moons!” 

As Kiriha thrust her Ricercare, its twin blades resonated, scattering destructive sonic waves all about. The magic energy–amplifying staff boosted Kiriha’s ritual energy, enabling her to let loose with a powerful offensive ritual spell. 

“—?!” 

“Yukina—?!” 

Yume yelled at the top of her lungs as she saw Yukina engulfed by the destructive sonic wave. However, Yukina did not falter. The glow emitted by the silver spear she wielded created ritual energy that sliced the destructive sonic wave asunder. Then: 

“Snowdrift Wolf!” 

Yukina thrust her spear, tracing an upward spiral as it knocked Kiriha’s forked spear away. 

Kiriha retreated in annoyance after having her ritual energy sheared away. She coughed violently, sending blood trickling from her lips. She had been unable to fully neuter the might of Yukina’s close-range blow. 

“Blood… My blood…” 

Kiriha violently wiped her wet lips with her palm, heaving in visible excitement. Her eyes bore a look bordering on intoxication as they gazed at her scarlet-dyed palm. 

“As I might have expected, I am at a disadvantage in anti-personal combat. I did not think dueling with a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency would prove so…stimulating. Such a waste that our time is up. Do you not think so?” 

“Time is up…?” 

Yukina felt somewhat thrown off by Kiriha’s words. But her face was illuminated by a dazzling glow. Beyond the road, the water’s horizon was dyed white by the reflection of the morning sun. Dawn had broken. 

Kiriha lowered her spear, apparently having lost the will to fight. 

The next moment, Subfloat Blue Elysium was assailed by an explosive demonic energy wave, enough to make the very ground shake. 

“—?!” 

Yukina fell to her knees, unable to withstand the excessive shock wave. It was the same as Yukina had sensed in Demon Beast Park the day before. But compared to that, the density of the demonic energy had risen. 

“This wave… What in the world is…?!” 

Yukina gazed at the sea in surprise. The source of the demonic energy wave was at the bottom of the sea. A vast amount of it was being indiscriminately emitted somewhere beneath the waves, far from Blue Elysium. 

If Yukina had been better versed in military affairs, she might have realized that the demonic energy pulse resembled the active sonar of a military submarine, and that something lurking in the deep sea was emitting a demonic energy wave like a sensor to discern its enemy’s location— 

“Shadow of mine, mist yet not mist, blade but not blade—! As the slicing dream, let play the instrument of destruction!” 

With Yukina distracted by the demonic energy pulse, Kiriha seized the momentary opening and chanted an incantation. Her Ricercare amplified the vast magical energy flowing out of her to form a blade of sonic waves. 

Yukina immediately moved to raise Snowdrift Wolf, but it was too late. Before Yukina could ready herself, Kiriha’s attack came, mowing her down. The blade’s shock wave carved through the air. 

Yukina had not defended in time. Yet, it was not Yukina who made a low groan of surprise, but Kiriha, who had launched the attack. 

“Yu…me…?” 

“Riru?” 

The pair simultaneously addressed the girl by two different names. 

Kiriha’s attack had been blocked by a pair of black wings, seemingly deployed to shield Yukina. They were shadowy wings woven from demonic energy, and it had been Yume who had spread them. It had been she, not Riru, drawing out her own succubus power, protecting Yukina out of her own free will. 

“Please, stop this. Kiriha, Yukina, both of you—” 

Yume made a lonely smile as she pressed down on the collar of her torn summer dress. Then she turned her back on both Yukina and Kiriha, shifting her eyes toward Blue Elysium. 

Under the dawn sky, on the other side of the inlet, she could make out Demon Beast Park—site of the Kusuki-Elysée laboratory. 

“It doesn’t matter anymore… I’m…going to end it all, so…” 

Yume then flapped her wings. Without a sound, her diminutive body soared into the sky, seeming to glide as she flew away. 

“…Yume… Why?!” 

Yukina, instantly left behind, did not understand what had just happened. Why would Yume, purportedly running from Kusuki-Elysée, suddenly have a change of heart? And what was that demonic energy pulse emitted from the bottom of the sea—? 

For some reason, a small, impetuous smile came over Kiriha, surely aware of those answers as she looked up at the sky and watched Yume fly off. 

Both Yukina and Kiriha kept up their guard, but both had already lost all reason to fight. 

Yume, after all, was gone. 

“Asagi…Aiba…” 

Lowering her forked spear, Kiriha murmured while shifting her gaze to the area behind Yukina. Yukina, hearing footsteps approaching, looked over her shoulder as well. Asagi was running toward them, wearing sandals and breathing heavily. Asagi, having regained consciousness back at the cottage, realized that Kojou and Yukina were absent and had come looking for them. 

“—Himeragi, what happened? Where’s Yume?” 

“Aiba, don’t! Do not come near!” 

Yukina shouted, wary of how Kiriha might act. Asagi stopped, surprised by her voice. 

However, all Kiriha did was glance unamused in Asagi’s direction. The only emotions her eyes held toward Asagi were pity and disdain. 

“I see…you are…the Priestess of Cain…” 

“Who the hell are you…?” 

With Kiriha sending her a gaze resembling outright hatred, Asagi glared right back in visible displeasure. Kiriha was strongly gripping her spear, seemingly with bloodlust coursing through her, but she immediately thought wiser of it and shook her head as she said: 

“It was…illogical of me to reproach you. But I am sorry. Do not think less of me for it—” 

As an afterthought, she added, “Farewell,” and turned her back to Yukina and Asagi. 

Without another word, Kiriha departed. 

There was nothing Yukina could do but watch. 

5 

The place that had once been the cottage’s yard had been transformed into a tragic sight. 

The ground had caved in, almost as if a giant scoop had gouged a hole in it. The now-exposed structural supports of the artificial isle were submerged in seawater. Rubber chips spread over the road and even the guardrails had been blown away without a trace. Waves washed against the green grass, tilted at an angle. 

Yukina instinctively knew who was responsible. Kojou had used a Beast Vassal. Why did he need to unleash such incredible destruction just to release Sayaka from mind control? wondered Yukina, feeling dizzy somehow. 

“Senpai?!” 

The very tip of the lawn was sinking into the sea. There, seemingly at the very edge of the waves, a boy and a girl had fallen in a tangle. The girl wore her hair in a ponytail while the boy wore a simple T-shirt and no shoes. Both seemed almost dead as they lay unconscious, their entire bodies covered in blood. 

Asagi, not knowing the circumstances, ran toward the pair, her face pale. “Wait a… What is this…?! Attempted lovers’ suicide?!” 

Now that she mentioned it, Sayaka’s right hand was gripping a blood-drenched long sword, and Kojou’s belly had scars from being impaled. It really did look like the aftermath of a lover’s quarrel that ended with the girl stabbing the boy before joining him in death. 

“Hey, Kojou, hang in there! You too, Kirasaka… What the hell’s going on here?!” 

With Sayaka’s body slumped over Kojou’s, Asagi dragged them away. She proceeded to pull both of them, in danger of sinking into the sea, back onto dry land when Kojou, somehow having regained consciousness, objected in a raspy voice: 

“That hurts… Shit. Don’t shake me too much. I’ve got a hole in my gut and almost died and all.” 

Without thinking, Asagi peered over Kojou’s crimson-smeared T-shirt. “…What?! A hole in your gut… Huh?!” 

Then Yukina addressed the collapsed Sayaka. “Sayaka, how do you feel? Are you injured?” 

She didn’t have any major injuries visible. The collar of her school shirt was unnaturally loose, but that was about all. 

Yukina sullenly knitted her brows when she noticed vestiges of bleeding from something like a hickey on Sayaka’s slender neck. 

“Yukina…?” 

Sayaka opened her eyes with a vacant expression. Looking up with Yukina in her field of vision, she tilted her head, almost like she suspected she was still dreaming. 

“You’ve come to?” 

“Where…am I? I met that creepy Six Blades chick at Kusuki-Elysée, and then—” 

Sayaka murmured in a fickle voice when she suddenly gasped, snapping back to lucidity. “Kojou Akatsuki?! Are you all right?! I kinda ran Lustrous Scale through your chest at full force, though…!” 

Naturally, even Yukina was aghast at Sayaka’s stunning confession. “Ran through his chest…?!” 

Apparently Kojou hadn’t engaged in exaggeration or hyperbole when he said he had a hole in his gut and had almost died. 

Yukina could understand the logic: Kojou, an amateur at combat, required a sacrifice on that level to stop Sayaka from moving. But why did he have to do something reckless like this behind my back? thought Yukina, feeling rather indignant. 

Not knowing what Yukina shouted in her heart, Kojou sat up and addressed Sayaka in a laid-back voice. “…What, so you do remember what you did when you were controlled.” 

Even though he grimaced from pain as he spoke, he didn’t appear to be all that hard-pressed by his wounds. No doubt, the super-healing power vampire primogenitors possessed was at work. 

Sayaka had tears in her eyes as she looked between her bloodstained right hand and Kojou’s face and said: 

“K-Kojou Akatsuki. I…er…” 

“Oh…that’s okay, don’t worry about it. I brought it on myself, and the wound’s mostly closed up already. I got the blood I lost back from you and all.” 

“R-right…” 

Sayaka hung her head in dejection as she pressed a hand to her own neck. Surely the blush-like redness on her cheeks was not solely from being bathed in the rays of the morning sun. 

Maybe she felt guilty for hurting Kojou, but Sayaka’s oddly meek demeanor made Kojou avert his eyes, as if he was blushing a little, too. 

“Incidentally, Sayaka, can you…do something about those clothes? It’s kinda hard to look at you like this…” 

“…Eh?!” 

When Kojou pointed it out to her, Sayaka realized for the first time that her collar was open. Exposed down to her bra, she let out a constrained shriek, covering her cleavage. 

For a time, Asagi gazed at the mushy scene between Kojou and Sayaka in silence, then she finally said, “I see… I have a pretty good idea how you ended up in this state.” 

Similarly, Yukina trained a frosty gaze toward Kojou. “I might have expected, senpai. To think you would drink Sayaka’s blood the instant you are out of our sight. Did you have this in mind when you sent me after Yume?” 

Meanwhile, Sayaka hugged her knees as she sat where she was. 

“Being seen like this…and by Yukina of all people… I just wanna die. Kill me now…” 

She gave off a very gloomy aura as she kept murmuring to herself over and over. 

Sensing that everyone was blaming him, Kojou lost his wits and looked all around him. 

“Eh? Erm? Why are you talking like I did something bad? I saved Kirasaka, right?” 

“More importantly, senpai…about Yume…” 

Yukina, feeling dispirited over Kojou’s laid-back demeanor, changed the subject. 

“…I could not bring her back. I apologize.” 

“That so… We really do have to do somethin’ about that Riru personality, then…” 

Kojou scratched his head in dismay. Riru had returned to Kusuki-Elysée of her own will. He couldn’t possibly blame Yukina for being unable to bring her back. 

But Yukina bit her lip hard and shook her head. 

“I was able to return Yume to consciousness. However, afterward, there was powerful demonic energy interference from the bottom of the sea, and Yume suddenly said that she would end it all, so—” 

“…Demonic energy interference?” Kojou inquired, perplexed. 

He could understand that Kusuki-Elysée wanted Yume because she was a rare type of demon, but he didn’t know what she had to do with demonic energy transmitted from the bottom of the sea. Besides, what on Earth did end it all even mean? 

With Kojou and Yukina falling silent before her eyes, Sayaka hastily murmured, “How can this be…? They’ve come to that stage already…?!” 

Kojou and Yukina looked back at her in surprise. 

“Sayaka?” 

“Sayaka, do you know what that Kiriha chick wants? If you do, tell us. We don’t know anything about what’s going on here. What does Kusuki-Elysée plan to do with Yume?” 

“Er…ah, that’s…” 

With Yukina and Kojou strongly pressing the issue, Sayaka instantly looked conflicted. She was no doubt hesitant to share the details of her mission as a Shamanic War Dancer. But perhaps she thought it was unavoidable after already dragging them in that far, because Sayaka then exhaled in apparent resignation. 

“Yume Eguchi’s role is that of a…human sacrifice.” 

“…Human sacrifice?” 

“Kusuki-Elysée’s Chairman Kusuki intends to use succubus mind-control powers to control a living weapon submerged at the bottom of the sea. Yume Eguchi is the human sacrifice chosen for that purpose. She’s the successor to Lilith, the Witch of the Night—in other words, the World’s Mightiest Succubus.” 

“World’s Mightiest…Succubus?” 

Kojou echoed Sayaka’s seemingly unreal words like an idiot. Yukina and Kojou were both in shock. But none present ventured to deny Sayaka’s statement. However absurd they might think it, an example defying all common sense, known as the World’s Mightiest Vampire, stood right before their eyes. Consequently, there being a World’s Mightiest Succubus wasn’t all that strange. 

Asagi suddenly remembered something and asked, “By ‘living weapon submerged at the bottom of the sea,’ what, like those Nalakuvera a while back?” 

She was a witness to the Nalakuvera landing on Itogami Island during a terrorist incident several months prior. Though they’d managed to restrain the damage to a minimum, the Nalakuvera’s combat capabilities were shocking. They’d been on the verge of Itogami Island entirely being reduced to ash. 

If a living weapon sleeping at the bottom of the sea rivaled the Nalakuvera, it wasn’t strange that there were those wanting to put their hands on it. That was even more true for a corporation at the cutting edge of demon beast ecological research. 

But Sayaka shook her head with a look of unconcealed fear in her eyes. 

“No. The Nalakuvera were built by the Devas, in other words, an ancient race of super-humans. They might have had a civilization rivaling modern science, but in the end, they were only human.” 

Then, Sayaka glared straight at the sea, under the fresh twilight, as her voice shook. 

“But this living weapon is different. It’s a monster from the Age of the Gods. It’s not something humankind can control.” 

Yukina murmured, seeming to pose the question to herself, “So that’s why they’re sacrificing Yume…?” 

Asagi shrugged her shoulders and sighed deeply as she stated with irony, “Since way back, it’s been customary to sacrifice virgins to quell the anger of monsters.” 

“What in the world is this monster, then—?” Kojou asked Sayaka, shooting a glare her way. 

Sayaka seemed timid as she looked back at him. Her strained smile was casual, somehow. 

“Even you must know the name, at least.” 

“Eh?” 

“It’s a sea monster they wrote about in the Bible, the Serpent of Jealousy, the mightiest creature fashioned by the gods— 

“—Leviathan.”