“What do you think yer doin’, geez…?!”
Mimori ignored her son’s protests as she sunnily voiced her newfound admiration:
“They’re sooooo cute!”
And then, she whispered into Kojou’s ear, “Who are they? Which one’s your steady? Done her yet? Oh my, are you adding to the family? Am I going to be a grandmother in the near future?”
Feeling completely helpless under the assault, Kojou shouted at his mother, “I have not and I’m not gonna! Listen to people for once, dammit!”
Mimori’s cheeks puffed up in response, a sour note.
How can you act like that in your thirties? thought Kojou, all of this giving him a light headache. Yukina and Sayaka were in complete shock, holding perfectly still as if they were wooden statues.
Hearing the ruckus outside the front door, a small silhouette emerged from inside Mimori’s apartment. Her long hair and big eyes were rather distinctive.
“Huhhh? Kojou?”
“Eh…?!”
The unexpected encounter with his little sister left Kojou staring with his mouth open. She’d left their shared apartment without a word, and there’d been no contact between them in the time since; he had no idea what she was doing here or how long it had been.
“Nagisa? What are you doin’—when’d you get here?”
“Mimori called this morning and asked me to bring a change of clothes.” Nagisa, wearing a black cat outfit, replied like she had no idea why Kojou was surprised.
“So you’ve been here ever since?”
“That’s right. I’ve been cleaning the apartment and picking up clothes from dry cleaning. After that, cooking. If I just leave the apartment to Mimori, it’d get into a really awful state, and her fridge was empty already…”
Kojou breathed a sigh of relief, even with his minor misgivings about Nagisa’s behavior. Nagisa going missing at the same time the prison barrier incident was heating up in earnest had gotten Kojou quite worried. He had no complaints as long as Nagisa was safe. Besides, he didn’t think she was lying to him.
“And what have you been up to, Kojou? You were with Yukina and them the whole time, right?”
Kojou and the others stiffened.
A smile came over Yukina that resembled a nervous tic; she nodded awkwardly. “G-good evening.”
“Wait, Yuu’s hurt?! What happened? Who’s that girl over there? Wait, I think I met her before somewhere…”
Nagisa’s eyes widened in surprise when she spotted Yuuma in Kojou’s arms, then glared at Sayaka. Her change in expression was almost dizzying as she launched a barrage of questions.
“Um… What is your exact relationship with Kojou?”
“Eh?! M-me?!” Sayaka fidgeted and averted her eyes as Nagisa strongly pressed the point.
Nagisa had previously seen Sayaka in the process of making a scene as she attacked Kojou at school. The fact that Asagi had been hurt in the ordeal had made about the worst impression possible on Nagisa.
Sayaka was virtually in tears as she looked back at Kojou, her eyes begging for rescue. In spite of her implicit plea, Kojou drew his face close and whispered into her ear, “Sorry, Sayaka. Hold Nagisa off for a while, would you?”
“Eh? Ehh?!”
Sayaka instantly raised her voice in protest as Kojou gruffly shoved her toward his sister. Nagisa silently grabbed her wrist and glared at her with a look that said, You’re not getting away!
“Wait a…! I—I will remember this, Kojou Akatsuki…!”
Ignoring Sayaka’s cries of protest as Nagisa dragged her away, Kojou turned back toward his mother.
In contrast to Mimori’s sunny disposition, Kojou seemed strangely exhausted. Why does it have to be so hard just to talk to my own mother? he wondered bitterly.
“…Could you do me a favor and take a look at Yuuma?”
“Hmmm? By Yuuma, you mean little Yuu? That brings me back. Oh, that’s right, Yuu was a girl…”
Mimori leaned over and peered at Yuuma’s face as Kojou continued to hold her. With the practiced hand of a clinical pathologist, she touched the skin of the injured girl; her eyes came to a stop over the wound in Yuuma’s chest.
“What happened, Kojou?”
“I don’t have time to talk about the specifics, but…Yuuma’s actually…”
“—A witch?”
“So you really can tell.”
Even as the ease of her correct guess astounded him, Kojou nodded gravely. He was honestly grateful that he didn’t need to chew up time explaining.
“Well, I’ll give her a look. Come on in!”
Kojou and the others entered the apartment with Mimori leading the way. Even when compared to the other high-class guest rooms, the suite Mimori occupied was in a class all its own.
Underwear, unopened letters, suspicious-looking medical instruments, and the like were randomly strewn all around the room, but Nagisa’s determined efforts had kept the area around the sofa, at least, in comparatively decent shape.
Kojou laid Yuuma on that sofa when Mimori, now changed into a fresh white gown, came back in, putting on antiseptic gloves. She stood beside Yuuma as she slept, leaned over her, and began carefully examining the girl with a practiced hand.
“Considering the blood loss, her external injuries aren’t all that deep. The laceration to the chest didn’t reach the internal organs. Bending space to avert a fatal wound, perhaps…? Mmm…I can’t tell much more like this. Kojou, prop her up, would you?”
“Eh? Ah, sure.”
Kojou did as told and raised Yuuma’s torso to support it while she slept. As he did so, Mimori gently thrust her hands toward Yuuma’s breasts with some kind of thought in mind.
“There we go… Here, take this.”
With one smooth motion, Mimori pulled something off and tossed it in front of Yukina. As Yukina caught the white cloth and spread it out, she let out a flustered “wah!”
Mimori had pulled off Yuuma’s bra with some kind of stage magician’s trick.
“Wh-what are you doin’ out of the blue like that…?!” Kojou objected, swiftly turning his back away from Yukina’s hands.
However, Mimori calmly continued her examination without any outward indication of mischief.
“It was in the way of palpation so I got rid of it… Oh my, Yuu, I take my eyes off you for a little bit and look at how you’ve grown… As a physician, I simply cannot let this pass by…heh-heh.”
Mimori, wiping away the drool that for some reason had trickled from her lip, began fondling Yuuma’s breasts while she slept.
A spasm came over Yukina’s face as she watched this purely perverse behavior.
“Er… Madam, this is, ah…a patient, you know…” Looking up as Yukina tried to rebuke her, Mimori smiled pleasantly, as if her interest had been piqued.
“Oh my. You’re Yukina Himeragi, yes?”
“Ah…yes.”
Yukina immediately rectified her posture as Mimori’s scrutinizing gaze shifted to her. Yukina’s reaction made Mimori beam in an exceptionally good mood.
“Ah, I see. Oh, don’t worry, I’m a medical psychometer, you see. I can examine most things just by making contact with the skin.”
“…You mean…you’re a Hyper-Adapter?”
Yukina sucked in her breath in surprise. “Hyper-Adapter” was a term used for natural psychics who did not rely upon magic. Defying any categorization, their abilities included numerous skills of great rarity, causing phenomena that could not be achieved through scientific technology or magic. No doubt the warm welcome Mimori had received at MAR was due in no small part to her special ability and not just her conventional talents.
Suddenly regaining her composure, Yukina asked a new question, her tone conveying that she just wasn’t getting it.
“Erm…if all you need to do is touch the skin, you don’t actually need to fondle her breasts, do you…?”
“Oh, that won’t do at all!” announced Mimori with an exaggerated shake of her head.
“My ability only functions when I’m fondling the knockers of a pretty girl, so it can’t be helped, you see.”
“I-is that so?”
Yukina was on the verge of falling for it when Kojou angrily interjected.
“Of course, it ain’t! There’s no such thing as pervy psychometry like that! Geez, don’t pull that stuff on people you’ve just met!!”
“Muu,” went Mimori, her cheeks puffing up to pout.
“I want to touch her so what’s the big deal? There’s no point in being a sorcerer’s physician if you can’t touch the knockers of pretty girls! You think so, too, don’t you?!”
A powerful feeling of fatigue assailed Kojou as he replied with a glare, “Keep me out of this! Take this seriously, you lecherous doc!”
Naturally, Yukina was in complete shock as well. Having said that, the fact was, Mimori’s frivolous behavior had greatly eased their tension. Strangely, they all seemed to have confidence that she could save Yuuma, even though she was almost at death’s door.
Beside Yukina’s stock-still form, Kojou quietly apologized.
“…Sorry, this was the only doctor I could think of.”
Yukina replied with an understanding shake of her head. Glancing sidelong at the doctor’s face, she whispered, “I understand completely now. The apple does not fall far from the tree.”
Kojou replied with a dissatisfied twitch of his cheek, but when he looked back, Mimori had her cheek pressed to Yuuma’s breasts, blood trickling out of her nose, with a look of pure bliss.
“Don’t worry, this is a side effect of my psychometry. It is absolutely not anything untoward.”
Mimori raised her face up, plainly stating what was a very unconvincing excuse.
Just wipe your nosebleed already, thought Yukina as she handed over a facial tissue. Apparently, Yukina had somehow returned to normal operating condition.
Taking the tissue, Mimori used it to wipe her nose as she spoke, suddenly in complete seriousness.
“Hmm, this spiritual pathway damage… Yuu’s Guardian was ripped right out of her, huh?”
Yukina nodded. Even if Mimori looked like she was just playing around, her diagnosis was dead-on.
The Guardian that Yuuma had acquired through her witch’s pact had been stolen. It was as if a cyborg had its artificial heart ripped out of it: The severed spiritual pathways would continue bleeding magical energy until she died from depletion of said energy.
“Can you save her?” Kojou asked uneasily.
Mimori shrugged, smiling enigmatically.
“I’ll bring Yuu into the lab. Could you give me a hand, Yukina?”
“Ah yes…understood.”
Yukina did as she was told and put a hand on the still-sleeping Yuuma’s shoulder.
“Wait. If you’re movin’ Yuuma, then I should—”
“Oh no, you don’t. My lab is No Men Allowed.” Mimori’s tone was suddenly icy.
Like hell it is, thought Kojou with a scowl. But Mimori only added a smile as she looked at him expectantly.
“Yuu’s not the only one who needs treatment, is she? I have a first aid kit in the closet.”
As Mimori spoke, she gave Kojou a right hook to his chest like she was trying to take a chunk out of him.
“Gwuh!” groaned Kojou, falling to his knees then and there.
“S-senpai?!”
“Let’s go, Yukina. Oh, and you can just call me Mom from now on.”
“Eh…? Er, no, that’s… I’m not really in that, ah…”
Mimori and Yukina left Kojou behind in agony as they hauled Yuuma out of the room. Once Kojou saw for himself that Yukina was out of the room, he groaned and flopped onto the floor.
“Shit,” he cursed, looking down at his chest where his mother had smacked him.
Kojou’s own blood was bleeding through the wound, the fresh flow distinct against the dried blood from before.
Kojou Akatsuki was a vampire. Half a year before, his flesh had taken on the bizarre demonic properties of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire.
Of course, Kojou was sure that his mother, Mimori, noticed the change in his body because she was a sorcerer physician…but it didn’t actually turn out that way. That was because Mimori’s ability was extremely specific.
Mimori was a Hyper-Adapter, but she was not a spiritualist. She was extremely sensitive to abnormalities in the body, but she was even less sensitive to spiritual auras than the average person. To put it in high-tech terms, Mimori was a hardware specialist; software was out of her field. If there were no symptoms of a virus, she had no way of detecting that one was even there. Besides, to her, a patient was a patient: It didn’t matter if she was dealing with a human or a vampire.
There was no doubt she was eccentric in that regard, but it made her even more effective as a medical researcher. Her big-picture personality was also part of how Kojou had skated by.
“Doesn’t mean you have to smack around the wounded, geez…”
Kojou, left alone in the living room, pulled off his shirt and checked on the state of his wound.
He might have been able to fool Yukina, but apparently Mimori had noticed after all.
A heavy-bladed object had gouged open a wound in the left side of his chest a few short centimeters from his heart.
It was the wound Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf had left behind when it had impaled him.
There was no question it was a serious wound, but it wasn’t enough to kill a person. It was a simple stab wound; a regenerative ability on the level of a vampire’s could well have completely closed it up by now.
But this wound hadn’t even begun to regenerate. There wasn’t much bleeding, but his shirt was still wet from the dampness of fresh blood. It was a situation he’d never been in before.
It didn’t stand out that much at present because he’d been carrying around the blood-soaked Yuuma, but in one sense, Kojou ought to have been quite grateful that Mimori had left him behind like that.
The Hollow Eve Festival’s famous Night Parade ought to have been kicking off right about now. Huge throngs of tourists were no doubt having the time of their lives at the extravagant festival in the center of Itogami City.
But on the other hand, the magical criminals that had escaped from the prison barrier were scattered all over the city about to cause new incidents.
Man, today has sucked. Kojou sighed as he looked up at the ceiling.
It was then that the door to the living room quietly opened.
A tall girl with a ponytail dragged her feet on the way back from the bedroom. It was Sayaka, whom Nagisa had absconded with earlier.
Sayaka looked completely worn out as she shot a resentful glare at Kojou.
“Ugh…you really did a number on me, Kojou Akatsuki. I’m more tired than when I was dealing with the princess…”
Apparently, she was still holding a grudge over his having foisted Nagisa onto her.
Kojou looked up at her while concealing his wound.
“Wait, what happened to Nagisa?”
“I used a hypnotic curse on her. I don’t think she’ll wake up until morning.”
Kojou’s reply was a dumbfounded look.
“Incantation…? Geez, you really cut corners…”
He thought it was a bit much for an Attack Mage from the Lion King Agency to actually use a curse on an ordinary middle schooler.
However, Sayaka’s lips tapered like those of a pouting child.
“It couldn’t be helped! How was I supposed to keep secret from her who you and Yukina really are? Or that Yuuma got hurt or that you two had switched bodies?!”
Kojou lowered his head in genuine reflection.
“R-right. You’re right. Sorry…you’ve been a huge help.”
He couldn’t argue with a single thing she’d said.
“N-not that it pleases me to have Kojou Akatsuki thanking me…! I did this for Yukina and Nagisa, you see.”
“Yeah. Thanks anyway, though. Even without that, you helped us more than once today.”
Sayaka’s cheeks reddened as if she was blushing.
“R-right…you’re very welcome.”
For a girl who seemed to be angry full-time, it was rare to see her react well.
“Well, that’s not the only reason I put Nagisa to sleep, either…”
A suspicious look came over Kojou as he glanced up at Sayaka, who was getting very close for some reason.
“Huh?”
“Where’d Yukina and the others go?” Sayaka brought her face directly in front of Kojou’s eyes as she asked this.
“They took Yuuma over to the lab. There’s all sorts of medical gear and drugs over there, y’see.”
“I see…so they won’t be back for a little while, then. Perfect.”
Sayaka seemed to be mumbling to herself as she grabbed Kojou lightly. For some reason, her touch felt oddly uncomfortable. The brooding look Sayaka had on made Kojou concerned.
Sayaka pointed at Kojou’s bloodstained shirt and commanded, “Kojou Akatsuki. Would you strip off your clothes?”
“Ah?
“The heck?!” exclaimed Kojou, instantly putting a hand over his own chest.
“…What are you sayin’?! You some kind of molester?!”
Sayaka’s face went red to the tips of her ears as she shook her head.
“I—I’m not! What are you imagining, you creep?! I’m telling you to show me the open wound you’re hiding! Yukina stabbed you with Snowdrift Wolf, didn’t she?!”
“You…noticed that, huh?”
“…I-it’s not that I was looking at you. I’ll have you know that the observation abilities of a Lion King Agency Shamanic War Dancer are world-class. That’s all it is. Got it?”
“I—I see.”
Not that I really understand but guess that’s how it is, Kojou rationalized to himself as he stripped off his shirt.
Sayaka let out a shriek at the sudden sight of Kojou’s bare upper body. “Wh-why did you do that out of the blue?!”
“You’re the one who told me to strip, geez!” Kojou protested.
Sayaka apparently wasn’t immune to the effect of a male body; her extreme reaction struck Kojou as a bit funny.
“W-well, that might be so, but…ugh, you truly are an inconsiderate man, Kojou Akatsuki!”
“What’s consideration got to do with it? Hey, your face is all red. You okay over there?”
“Sh-shut up. Just die already, sheesh!”
Sayaka loudly cleared her throat a few times before apparently recovering her composure. There was still a bit of rose to her cheeks as she touched Kojou’s side with intense interest.
The young woman’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she looked at Kojou’s obviously untreated wound.
“Why…isn’t this wound healing?”
Kojou gave her a careless shake of his head.
“I don’t know, either, but maybe it’s because it’s Himeragi’s spear that did it?”
Yukina’s Snowdrift Wolf was the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon. It was a purifying spear that nullified magical energy and was considered capable of destroying even a vampire primogenitor. Kojou had impaled his own body with that dangerous spear to nullify Yuuma’s spatial control spell. If something was stopping his vampiric body’s regenerative ability, he imagined it had to be some curse from Snowdrift Wolf.
“But Schneewaltzers aren’t supposed to come equipped with regeneration-hindering effects. Besides, I feel like this is…less than a wound than the flesh itself being unstable. It’s like it’s out of phase, like the molecules holding the solid matter together are fragile…”
“Eh?”
Kojou looked back at Sayaka, surprised by her unexpected declaration. At that exact moment, Sayaka raised her own face, unexpectedly resulting in them gazing into each other’s eyes from very close.
Both of them became oddly embarrassed and averted their eyes from each other. Now that Kojou thought about it, it’d been a fair while since he’d spoken to Sayaka all alone like this. It was probably the first time since he’d drank Sayaka’s blood during the Nalakuvera incident.
“S-so I don’t really want to, Kojou Akatsuki, but I will grant you my cooperation.”
Kojou had a bad feeling about the sound of that as he looked for clarification.
“…Cooperation?”
Sayaka sat on the sofa opposite Kojou and began pulling off one of the socks that she was wearing. In short order, she thrust the nails of her bare foot right before the bewildered Kojou’s eyes.
Kojou was even more bewildered as he beheld the top of Sayaka’s shapely foot. What…is this?
“Y…you may proceed.”
“Huh?”
Sayaka’s voice was tight, and she blushed until she was beet red.
“I’m saying I’m granting special permission to drink my blood. If you do your vampire thing, your regenerative ability will be strengthened, right?!”
“So you’re sayin’ I’ve gotta lick your foot like you’re some kind of princess here…?!”
“B-but arousal is the trigger for vampiric urges, isn’t it? I thought boys went for this kind of thing…! I-if you want, I’ll stomp on you as a reward!”
Sayaka spoke in her best impression of a domineering voice, as if reciting the line from a script. Apparently, someone else had given her the idea. Kojou was assaulted by a fierce headache as he exhaled in annoyance.
“It’s only a tiny subset of guys that like that sort of thing! That’s way too fetishy for me!”
Sayaka’s voice flipped right over as she shouted.
“Eh? Ehh?!”
She clutched her head with both hands in anguish, probably from remembering the embarrassment of her own actions just now.
“Th-then what do you go for, Kojou Akatsuki? More like…petting stuff…and stuff?”
“Yeah…well, more into that than gettin’ stomped on, anyway…”
As a high school boy in good health, Kojou could only give the answer that came naturally to him.
“Mm…mmm…w-well, all right! You really are a picky one, Kojou Akatsuki…!”
There was a twinge of desperation in Sayaka’s voice as she roughly stripped off her knitted vest and tossed it aside. Next, she undid the buttons of her shirt from the top down. The earlier declaration that she’d stomp on him had apparently driven her halfway to despair.
“Why’d it turn into that?! You know, I didn’t actually ask you to let me drink your blood!”
“Th-that may be so…but Yukina will notice if your wound isn’t healing. I don’t want to make her worry about that. If I don’t do this, Yukina’s going to have to tell you to drink her own blood. I don’t want to have you drinking Yukina’s blood, so drink mine first…!”
Sayaka drew close to Kojou’s body as she finally voiced her true feelings. Kojou couldn’t help but make a strained smile now that he understood the reason underlying her odd behavior.
“…You really like Himeragi, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. Something wrong with that…?”
“Nah, I think it’s a good thing. I don’t wanna make Himeragi worry more than she has to, either.”
“Oh…r-right.”
Sayaka made a forthright nod. Seeing Kojou making light of himself seemed to clear the air.
She suddenly lost her newfound composure when she remembered she was nestled right up against Kojou, a boy.
In contrast to her tall, slender figure, Sayaka was secretly proud of her large, shapely bust.
She awkwardly pressed her bulging breasts against both of Kojou’s hands.
Her eyes, lined with long lashes, were a little hot and damp at the edges. Seeing the ever-determined Sayaka make such a valiant effort was more than devastating enough to provoke Kojou’s vampiric urges.
Sayaka drew her face close to Kojou’s ear and whispered…
“I think you already know this, but keep this secret from Yukina, okay?”
Seeing her pale neck right before his eyes, Kojou drew his face near as if being reeled in when suddenly he stopped moving, as if he’d turned to ice.
“Well…I thought that was a good idea, too…but…”
Sayaka gazed at Kojou with a look of suspicion.
“…Why are you using past tense?”
That was when she felt a casual voice tossed into her from behind like an icy dagger.
“…Keep what secret?”
A girl was standing at the entrance to the living room, her face almost pretty beyond belief.
She was looking at the position Kojou and Sayaka were in. The expressionless gaze, resembling a slight pout, was emblematic of when she was really pissed.
Knowing exactly what that look meant, Sayaka’s voice quivered in fright.
“Y-Yukina?! Wh-why are you…?!”
“I came back thinking I would inform senpai of Yuuma’s condition, but…” Yukina’s black-eyed gaze at Kojou and Sayaka was frosty. “…So, what is it you intend to do that you wish to keep secret from me?”
Sayaka timidly shook her head, unable to find any credible excuse.
“Th-that’s not…that’s not it, Yukina. This is, I mean it’s…”
She couldn’t simply explain the circumstances to Yukina; after all, the whole point of Sayaka offering her own blood was in the hope that Yukina wouldn’t notice the state of Kojou’s wound.
Unable to simply allow Sayaka to flounder, Kojou rose up.
“…Geez.”
But the moment Kojou opened his mouth to make a better excuse to Yukina, he suddenly found himself getting very dizzy.
His vision was turning darker; everything around him seemed to be tilting. He felt weak, like all his strength was draining out of his body. Unable to remain on his feet, he fell to his knees.
Yukina noticed something was wrong with Kojou and rushed right over.
“Senpai?!”
Yukina supported Kojou, who was on the verge of falling over, when Sayaka wailed in distress, “K-Kojou Akatsuki…! Don’t you dare play possum at a time like this…K-Kojou Akatsuki?!”
“Senpai…! Senpai, hang in there!”
Yukina seemed like she was about to cry as she looked down at Kojou.
“Hey, don’t make faces like that,” replied Kojou, sending both girls a pleasant smile as the darkness swallowed his consciousness whole.
Island South was a culture-heavy district rich in residential housing and educational facilities. In short, it was a quiet place untouched by the extravagant festival. Saikai Academy, a hybrid middle and high school, had been built on a gentle hill in that southern district. The artificial greenery of the hemmed-in schoolyard was immersed in the peaceful silence of the night.
A voice with an odd ring to it breached that silence.
“This place has a deep connection to both of us. Does it not…Natsuki?”
There was a young woman on the roof of the empty school building.
Her hair went down almost to her feet. She wore a ceremonial ladies’ dress colored white and black. She had a graceful visage and scarlet eyes. It was Aya Tokoyogi, the witch with eyes of fire.
Natsuki was not there, but Aya’s calm voice spoke as if she were.
“Saikai Academy…a precious place to thee, ’tis it not? Then there is no more fitting place for my world to begin.”
That was when the air at her back began to quiver. The darkness seemed to melt away to reveal young men wearing nondescript gray suits. It was a pair of men with ages difficult to discern, but she did not sense any special violence from their auras. Their faces were forthright; there was nothing suspicious about the clothes they wore. Had they claimed to be teachers of Saikai Academy, most people would have accepted their word without question.
However, the men were each holding one book in their hands. These were grimoires emitting malevolent magical energy.
“Ma’am…”
The man on the left knelt respectfully and looked up at his witch. Meanwhile, the one on the right bowed his head in a similar show of respect.
“Congratulations on your return from the prison barrier.”
Aya slowly turned her head and looked back at the two consorts.
“…Men from LCO?”
She did not know the pair but knew immediately what they were: operatives from the Library of Criminal Organizations—the “Library” for short, an international criminal syndicate.
“We are Librarians from the Third Branch, the Socials.”
Once the first man spoke, both quietly raised their heads. Aya gave them an ill-humored stare. “I had thought the escape plan had been entrusted to Philosophy…?”
The man on the left tossed a smile into his reply.
“This is correct; however, you are the leader of all of LCO. We did not believe we could rely on merely the Meyer Sisters to facilitate your escape.”
Next, the man on the right cleared his throat.
“Indeed, it would seem they have lost their Guardian and have been captured by Demon Sanctuary law enforcement. We are to escort you to a safe place from this point forward.”
Aya interrupted the pair, unmoved. “I see. Good work. However, I have no need of your assistance. There is still something I must do in this Demon Sanctuary.”
Surprise was written upon the Librarians’ faces.
“…You cannot mean you intend to resume from ten years ago?”
They kept civil, pleasant smiles still plastered onto their faces, but that could not conceal the faint bloodlust they gave off. Aya curled up the corners of her lips, taunting.
“And if I do?”
“We regret to inform you…we have received orders that, in the event you do not cooperate, we are to destroy you and recover the Black Bible.”
The men stood without a sound and opened their grimoires.
Aya continued to stand defenselessly, murmuring as she watched the men.
“I see…so that is what the old men of the Socials…believe. Peasants.”
The Black Bible was one of the grimoires that Aya had removed from LCO’s secret vault some ten years prior. She had unleashed the grimoire on the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Island, inflicting grievous damage upon it. However, her experiment had been stopped by Natsuki Minamiya, still in high school at the time, and Aya had been locked away behind the prison barrier.
Knowing that Aya was returning from the prison barrier, LCO obviously wanted the Black Bible back. The men now sent Aya’s way wore what were clearly expressions of mockery.
“Ma’am, to us, the chosen few, ten years has been far too long. There is no longer any place for you in today’s LCO.”
To both men already brandishing their grimoires, Aya shot a frigid declaration:
“I care not. I no longer have any use for LCO. You may have the Black Bible from me…provided, of course, that you can take it—”
“So negotiations have failed, then… Restrain her, No. 343!”
Their faces twisting in naked hostility, the men released the magic of their tomes. The books of power, activated through the absorption of their readers’ magical energy, released a miasma dire enough to warp the very air that then attacked Aya.
Aya smiled charmingly as she looked down at her own feet.
“Your grimoires…speed chanting, yes? Well done…”
She could not move her lower body. Bathed in the pages’ magical energy, her flesh had been petrified and fused with the campus building’s exterior.
Slender, closely packed symbols appeared on the surface of Aya’s petrified flesh. This was a criminal code written in an ancient language. These characters, infused with ritual energy, nullified Aya’s teleportation magic, cutting off her means of escape.
These particular grimoires arrested and petrified only those who had committed grave crimes. Such was the ability of No. 343, known as the Grimoire of the Law. Soon, Aya’s entire body would be petrified, turning her into a living statue.
However, in full knowledge of this, Aya smiled nonetheless.
“And yet…futile. You have already been overrun by the Black Bible.”
“What…?!”
The men recoiled a step as Aya’s fiery eyes glared at them.
In their hands, the pages of the grimoires simply fell apart.
The miasma released by the grimoires suddenly dissipated. The stones covering Aya’s body broke apart; her freedom of movement was restored.
“…Page unto page, darkness unto darkness… Go back, for all is according to my pact.”
Her assailants’ voices quivered as they clutched their now-powerless grimoires.
“Aya Tokoyogi…surely, you have not already…!”
Their fearful gazes were directed not at Aya, but at the symbols drawn at her feet. It was a magic circle written with but a single character. The ancient runes engraved onto the roof of the campus building gently emitted a golden light. This was the twinkling radiance that would lead the world into the darkness of the night.
Unimpressed, Aya stated, “Have you forgotten, Librarians, who halted my experiment ten years ago? My Black Bible was taken from me by Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void, the only friend my old self allowed into my heart. However, I have stolen the infernal traitor’s time, and now the Black Bible is once more within my grasp!”
“Ugh…!”
The gray suits drew pistols from their flanks. Having lost their books, they had no options remaining save physical attacks.
Their hands were shaking. Aya coldly gazed at the pistols as she gave her Guardian a command.
“Librarians, this is… farewell. L’Ombre—!”
The illusion of a knight clad in dark armor emerged at Aya’s back and lashed out with its giant sword.
Death screams echoed out; then, silence embraced the rooftop once more.
Only the witch remained, smiling as she stood amid the golden light.