Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Volume 3 Omnibus Edition

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  Having just emerged from the mollusk’s dream, his attractive face was deeply shadowed with fatigue. Though that also cloaked the otherwise affable senbei shop owner with an indescribable sense of dread.

  “A surprise attack.” The general looked at Setsura with glowing eyes and grinned.

  Setsura shrugged. He walked up to the general, stopping when about ten feet separated them. “My bad. I just made the return trip from the most unusual world of dreams. And on top of that, the effects of the tranquilizer gun did not entirely disappear along with the dream. Did you wake the clam up with that flute?”

  “Indeed. And you followed its silent sound to this place?”

  “I did,” Setsura said with a clever smile that shook the general’s murderous mood. “The normal me wouldn’t have heard it, but the dreamworld me did. Say, this park is awfully quiet for the middle of the day. At least the bothersome bunch I ran into before still remembers me. We all seem to have arrived here in one piece. And here’s the person I was looking for all along.”

  The general followed Setsura’s gaze. He said in an icy voice, “Is she your paramour? She tumbled into my bed last night. She was cast out of the sky by that fearsome Princess. From the condition of her wounds, she must have been lucky enough to land in soft and muddy earth. She wandered for the next day in a senseless daze. But she has a strong hold on life, and the stars are in her favor.”

  “Yeah, she is a tough one,” Setsura said with a wry grin. He stared fixedly at General Bey. From his perspective, it was as if Takako had fled from the jaws of a ravenous wolf only to fall into the den of an equally ravenous lion.

  “Ah, no need to fear. I am yet to quench my thirst. I shall indulge myself starting tonight. Would you like to join in?”

  “Once my demands have been met,” Setsura said with indifferent nonchalance, “I’ll think it over.”

  General Bey unexpectedly smiled and laughed heartily, in a manner appropriate to his reputation. When Ryuuki laughed along with his soldiers, it was the commander’s smile of pain and sorrow. But General Bey fought for the sheer joy of fighting, and did not give any soldier’s death a second thought. He mourned for no one but only drank to victory while planning the next new glorious campaign that would send thousands, tens of thousands, to a dusty death.

  Ryuuki’s soldiers loved him and fought for him, marched to the front and lost their lives for him, celebrating that victory and peace from the bottom of their hearts.

  The soldiers who served General Bey hated him with a passion, and marched to war begrudging their fate, and prayed for his death while celebrating the victories he brought them.

  That was the kind of man a general like Ryuuki was, and the kind of man a general like Kazikli Bey was.

  “And what would those demands be?”

  “To start off with, safely return Kanan-san.” Setsura held up a finger. “Second, tell me where Princess and her crew are holding out.” A second finger. “Third, bury yourself back beneath the earth where you came from, and never show your face again.” A third finger. “Yeah, that should suffice.”

  “Easy demands to make.” Red light again flashed from his eyes. “Because you shan’t accomplish a one of them. If you really want her, then become one of us.”

  Before the last word left his mouth, General Bey waved his right hand. The devil wire strung across the doorway sprung silently at Setsura’s head with a force and trajectory that would cleave it in two. In that same instant, it was intercepted by one of the same, and reflected in midair.

  “A stalemate,” Setsura said in a bored voice. “You really have to come up with some new ideas.”

  “How about this?”

  The general’s eyes locked on Setsura’s. The black-clad figure stiffened. Call it instant hypnotism or the dark magic of his evil eyes, but in that moment Setsura lost the ability to move.

  His lips being the lone exception, and only barely at that. “Why—?”

  “You mean, why didn’t I use this power on the roof of the hotel? I appear to have underestimated you. I imagined I could easily dispatch you before resorting to such measures. And when the moment came, you had already fallen from the building.”

  “Well—thanks—and with Ryuuki—?”

  “Give me some credit. Only a fool shows his cards before playing the last hand. You and Doctor Mephisto were there too. Just passing either one of you on the street puts a strain on my soul. Oh, do not waste the effort. Your body cannot move. I am impressed that you can even speak. I cannot claim four thousand years of heritage like Princess. But you shall receive a baptism in the blood of a man who has lived half a millennium.”

  The might of his unparalleled self-confidence glowing in his eyes, the general sauntered up to Setsura and tore open the front of his shirt. The gleaming crimson demon glow was suffused with craving as well.

  He paid no attention to the throat of the prey, but focused instead on the snowy, handsome face. Ah, the light in his eyes—was it not the same as when Setsura had battled Mephisto before daybreak?

  “That doctor interfered with you and Ryuuki covered for him. Now I begin to grasp the reasons why. You will all come to serve me, the girl too.”

  A white throat that could hardly belong to a man, but that could only belong to him—the general’s fangs sprang out from his lips towards that throat.

  A bright, silver light shot out like a jet of scalding steam. It came from a crucifix. The powerful vampire retreated, covering his eyes with his hand.

  “You bastard—”

  “Since learning of the name Kazikli Bey, I figured I should come prepared. Just a trifle of a thing that was lying around the house where I got my wounds treated.” He plucked at the cross hanging against the hollow of his throat at the end of the silver chain and held it up with his left hand. “You’re no Christian. Why do you fear a crucifix? Because it is such a foundational spiritual symbol?”

  “Enough of your lip.”

  “No, I’ve got more.” Setsura stepped forward. The general retreated into the courtyard in front of the library, and then silently advanced again. He pressed his right hand against the back of his left. Something like gray ash spilled from between his fingers.

  “The clouds are breaking up,” Setsura observed. A column of sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the lawn. “Looks like it’s going to be a bright, sunshiny day. Pretty soon the world will be bathed in light. Answer me if you want to get back to the shade. Where are your friends?”

  As if dodging the crucifix held out in front of him, General Bey ducked beneath the eaves of the building. It was hard to imagine such a vampire lord being cornered by a mere cross.

  “Get back,” he ordered, in a voice laced with unimaginable hatred.

  “Where are they? Or would you rather turn into ash first?”

  Holding the crucifix with his left hand, Setsura got ready a strand of devil wire with his right.

  A bubble rose from his body into the sky. Before the surprise could register, General Bey was running for the door.

  Tentacles covered with suckers sprang from Setsura’s chest and reached toward the general. As soon as they touched his back, they changed into clumps of flesh and fell to the earth.

  “Still—a dream,” said Setsura, his voice sounding like he was underwater, and layered over by the echo of a wooden lid striking a wooden jamb.

  Chapter Three

  Luckily for Setsura, this time he had a firm grasp of his own mind. While transforming to something at the bottom of the sea, he surveyed his surroundings. A golden gleam played hide and seek on the wildly overgrown lawn. Lying in the grass was the flute General Bey had dropped from his scalded hand.

  This alone had the power to awake the mad mollusk from its sleep.

  However, by changing back into a dream, Setsura had also lost physical contact with the real world.

  At that moment, a cheerful voice called out, “Leave that to me.”

  Together with the vigorous flap
ping of wings, a vision of glittering golden hair alit on the ground before Setsura’s eyes—the small, cherubic face, the deep blue eyes, the purple satin dress.

  “I’ll take things from here,” said the big raven. Thanks to Galeen Nuvenberg’s first aid, it had miraculously been restored to a whole bird. One half had watched over the witch outside the fence while the other half tailed the walking dream that was Setsura. Several minutes before, when he’d come back to life, the bird had merged together into its original form outside the fence.

  Even when it’d been split in two, half of it had gone looking for Galeen Nuvenberg for help, captured the clairvoyant, kept Setsura’s devil wire dream from invading the city, and then restored Setsura’s consciousness. By anybody’s calculation, that was no mean feat.

  Arriving at exactly the right time could be credited in part to his other half knowing that Setsura was on his way to the library. But the real reason was that Nuvenberg had witnessed the full particulars from outside the fence. Because by then she had the Clairvoyant at her beck and call.

  Gold gleamed in the doll girl’s mouth and the soundless sound cried out. Ten seconds later—Setsura sank to the grass on one knee.

  “Are you all right?” the big raven asked, though in Nuvenberg’s voice. “We have been watching you all along. So don’t worry.”

  “How was the hospital?” Setsura said half in jest. “They sure bitch about checking yourself out of that place. That director in particular.”

  “Oh, he should behave himself until sundown.” The raven switched back to his mistress’s curt female diction. “Until then, we have some straightening up to do. Starting with burning that man’s casket—Kazikli Bey.”

  “We can’t do that,” said Setsura, starting toward the library door.

  “Why is that?” the doll girl asked.

  There she was with her deep ocean blue eyes and graceful lips brushed with red. This was the girl who’d perched astride the Clairvoyant’s shoulders like the Colossus and snapped his neck, just like that. The citizens of Demon City were hardly strangers to these precincts either.

  “The bastard took Kanan-san with him into his casket.” His eyes reflected only the severed body of Chan sprawled on the floor.

  “How do you intend to proceed?” queried the raven as they passed through the entranceway.

  “Don’t know,” Setsura said shortly. “But would you happen to know who this Chinese chap is?”

  “Yeah, our friend here fessed up. He’s attached to SDF Special Forces Operational Detachment F. The foreign legion contingent. Their objective—”

  A ray of sunlight slashed through the skylight. Three shadows—one human, one not so human, one bird—crawled faintly across the floor.

  Setsura said as calmly as ever, “You know things are getting messed up when outsiders start interfering in our business.”

  “If we don’t settle our business with those four, we can probably expect the nuclear option to be exercised eventually. Thankfully, we got us here a seer. He should be able to tell us whether they’re still in the park. As for you—”

  “I know.” Setsura nodded. “But as you have just seen, I’m still locked in this dream. And the mollusk is as mad as ever.”

  “There is that.”

  “The guy on the floor was in the dream with me. And yet he’s not coming back. Only I turned into the ocean. What do you think that means?”

  “Probably that yours is the stronger will. No question after seeing your devil wire dream. For the same kind of reasons a man will visit his lover over and over in his dreams.”

  The sound of muffled laughter made Setsura look down. The doll girl had her hand pressed against her mouth. Feeling Setsura’s eyes upon her, she put on a serious expression.

  “Excuse me,” she said with a nod of her head.

  “No problem,” Setsura said awkwardly. His right hand flashed. He was aware of the vampire’s defensive measures. The devil wire sensed nothing afoot.

  The motley crew surrounded the resplendent box of death. The lustrous black surface did not contain a single carving or inscription, but was inlaid with jewels the size of a man’s thumb. Ruby red. Sapphire blue. Emerald green. Transparent diamond. A child with zero artistic appreciation would be transfixed by the play of color and light.

  The lid and sides of the casket were edged with gold. The doll girl pointed at a place on the lid. There alone an emblem was engraved into the wood—a dragon undulating through the heavens.

  “Just what I’d expect from him,” said the doll girl.

  Setsura nodded. “And all the more reason to keep our distance.”

  He took five paces backwards and then wrapped the casket with devil wire. The casket was made out of oak. Of particular concern was the apparent lack of any other security measures. Plucking at the devil wire like the strings of a harp told him that the wood was six inches at its thickest and an inch at its thinnest. Cutting it would be easy.

  There was no need to hesitate. The summer days were long but would not last forever. And when the night came, the creatures of the night would come out to play.

  Setsura yanked on the wires. Without touching the occupants inside, the casket should have broken into a half-dozen pieces. But only the devil wires moved. Upon closer inspection, they hadn’t left a mark on the surface.

  “Of course. It must be the resin in the wood.”

  “What exactly? Strip it off and it should become clearer.”

  “Using fire?”

  “I don’t see any other way.”

  A gold lighter glittered in the doll girl’s hand. It spat out a blue plasma flame the color of a welder’s torch.

  “Thirty thousand degrees.”

  But after applying the fierce flame to the surface, the brilliant finish showed not the slightest blemish or scorch mark.

  “It can’t be cut or burned. I don’t expect a sledgehammer would do any better. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could survive a small nuclear blast.”

  “Then—what?”

  “I don’t know what our next step should be. But their strategy is simple. They can stay put. They’re immortal, after all.”

  “No doubt.”

  Silence fell. The summer sunlight possessed a certain serenity as well.

  The big raven said in Galeen Nuvenberg’s voice, “Leave the hall directly. Proceed twenty yards to the southwest. There you will find a cave. But that is only how it appears. Try as he might, the Clairvoyant cannot see inside it.”

  Part Seven: In the Face of Beauty

  Chapter One

  The raven completed its report. Setsura looked down. Eyes the color of the deep blue sea looked up.

  “So we have found it,” the adorable doll girl said. “Let’s be on our way.”

  Setsura said, indicating the casket, “You wait here.”

  “Wait here?” The doll girl stared back at him. No need to add that the instruction made no sense to her.

  Setsura continued, “I have an important favor to ask of you and the raven. The contents of this casket cannot be allowed to melt into the night. Nor can we allow him to sleep forever in this state. The casket is wrapped with my devil wire. Not even General Bey should be able to easily free himself. But somebody must keep watch until I return.”

  Setsura leaned over and reached out with his right hand. Golden light gleamed across the doll girl’s face. “This is a crucifix your mistress gave me. You take it.”

  “I cannot. You need it more than I do.”

  “It will have no effect on the people I will encounter after this.” Setsura took the doll girl’s left hand, placed the crucifix in it and closed her fingers around it. Small, hard fingers.

  “Small, hard fingers,” the girl whispered to herself.

  “I’m alive because of those hands,” Setsura answered soberly. He straightened and turned his handsome face toward the place Nuvenberg had indicated.

  “I’m going too,” said the big raven, with a flap of its wings.


  “No,” said Setsura. “You are the connecting link between us and our guardian angels out there. Miss Nuvenberg may yet devise a way of opening the casket. You wait also.”

  “No!” Now it was the doll girl who protested. “If I am to stay behind, then this bird should accompany you. Where you are going now is more dangerous than anywhere else in this park.”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake.” Setsura rolled his eyes toward the heavens.

  Fortunately, everyone there understood the seriousness underlying his droll evaluation of the situation.

  The raven said, “It’s like she says. I’ll keep out of it. Eyes and ears only.”

  “If we cross paths, Princess won’t be traveling outside the park this night. The same can’t be said for Kazikli Bey. I saw his human butterfly collection. We can’t allow that to continue. Besides—”

  “Besides?”

  Setsura smiled wryly. “This is my job. I was commissioned to find her by the man who so terribly wounded her pride. If I start taking on volunteers, I’ll have to split the fee.”

  “And who was it who has made such unreasonable demands of you?”

  Setsura’s smile only grew more grave. Perhaps the only personage more frightening than the vampire princess—the Doctor—was now one of them. Galeen Nuvenberg was all but paralyzed. Yakou’s whereabouts was presently unknown.

  Dusk was falling and the sky was growing dark.

  “You best be on your way.” The raven spoke in Nuvenberg’s voice. “I have faith in Shinjuku’s best manhunter.”

  “You too, Miss Nuvenberg. You should relocate. I have no doubt that Special Forces soldiers will come looking for their colleagues.”

  “Understood. You take care. I will pray for your safe return.”

  “Thank you.” Setsura said to the girl and the raven, as if he was stepping out to grab a beer, “Later.”

  “Just a moment, please,” the doll girl said. “There is one thing that concerns me.”

  “What would that be?”

  “You are now an ordinary human. And yet a human still caught up in the mollusk’s dream. Were you to change from the one to the other at the right—or wrong—moment, your enemies could not lay a hand on you. But neither could you they. Take this flute with you. In exchange for the crucifix.”