Vampire Hunter D: Raiser of Gales

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  “Is there something we can do for you?” the teacher, the substitute for Mr. Meyer, inquired.

  “You haven’t seen Lina, have you?” D asked, moving his eyes from the teacher to the students. The fields of ice, the woman, and her question were already far behind him. He was a Hunter, after all.

  There was no answer. Unable to turn away, the girls trained their gazes on D’s countenance, and even the cheeks of the boys stained with bashfulness. They had to wonder if such beauty could actually exist.

  “The girl’s in serious danger. Not just her life, but her soul is in peril. If anyone knows anything, please tell me.”

  A scrawny figure—the boy Marco—stood up over by the windows and told him where to go. D raced from the room.

  By the time D reached Callis’s processing plant, however, only the boy’s body was there, lying on the floor with its throat torn out. Yet, not a drop of blood remained anywhere, and Lina was gone without a trace.

  -

  The dozen riders climbing the hill on horseback turned at the sound of hoofbeats coming up behind them. The riders were the mayor and the sheriff, accompanied by the members of the Vigilance Committee.

  “Where are you headed?” D asked, leaving about fifteen feet between himself and them.

  The sheriff came forward. He pointed to the silver cylinder strapped to the back of his horse. A proton bomb. “We’re gonna take care of those ruins. That way, the sight of them won’t upset the folks from the exam board. We found out from some kids who were picking flowers out here that anyone can climb it normally now.”

  “Perfect timing,” the mayor shrieked, his mouth spreading across the better part of his face. “When we were done with this, we’d planned on coming around to arrest you. On suspicion of murdering Corma. Then we were going to grill you about where Lina is.”

  When D’s gaze fell upon them, several of those who’d been there when Corma was cut in two grew pale.

  “I hate to tell you this, but that doesn’t constitute a crime,” the sheriff said, turning to the mayor. “According to the others’ testimony, Corma attacked him from behind. That being the case, no matter how he got killed, he brought it on himself. We’ve got nothing to ask this Hunter except for information about Lina.”

  The mayor bit his lip. Looking at D with a cheerful expression, the sheriff continued, “They told me the truth even after they saw one of their own killed right before their very eyes. It looks to me like they’re really, truly scared of you. Honestly, the thought of it leaves me speechless. Fact of the matter is, I’d love it if you could show me the technique you used.”

  Noticing how strange the atmosphere had become, the mayor shrieked, “What are you doing shooting the shit with him? At the very least, he must know where Lina is. Take him in before he gets away.”

  “If he was gonna run, I reckon he’d have left town when you fired him,” the sheriff said in a forceful tone. “But he stayed. I don’t know why. And he risked his life to protect Lina when she jumped into that mess half-cocked. Tell me, mister Mayor—you think any of us would feel like fighting for a girl who was a complete stranger with a couple of them guard beasts coming at him? A man like that won’t run or hide, even in the face of certain death. There’s no need to take him in.”

  The mayor fell silent, his face flushed vermilion.

  “I know it might sound overly cautious, but it’d be wise not to meddle with the ruins,” D said softly. “Since the way up the hill has returned to normal, it’s only proper to assume there’s some other kind of defenses now. That castle did belong to the Nobility.”

  “We’re not leaving anything to chance.” Shading his eyes with his right hand, the sheriff turned his gaze to the rear of the hill.

  D had already perceived the low rumbling sound.

  He saw a black gun barrel spearing the sky.

  Sunbeams scattered off its gigantic metallic body, displaying an overwhelming mass. The flat body of the vehicle was treated with a special coating resistant to lasers and other light-beam weaponry. Only the radar dish and caterpillar treads were vestiges of ancient times.

  “It’s a M-8026 CT—a computerized tank,” the sheriff said in a hearty tone. “We dug it out a couple of years back after someone found it buried in the ground on the edge of town. Called a mechanic in all the way from the Capital to give it a tune-up. Thanks to this baby, our losses to bandits and colossal beasts in the three years since have been nil, but the village is still as poor as ever. This model is over two thousand years old, but it still had the manual, and it gets the job done. Seems to have been abandoned for some reason or other. Anyway, you can see we got backup in spades.”

  D didn’t say a word as he turned his horse toward the foot of the hill. Not mentioning that the shadowy gray figure might be lurking deep within the ruins, or that there was a definite possibility it had made off with Lina, he went down the hill silently.

  “Once we’ve taken care of business here, we’ll be paying a visit to your little hut out by the waterwheel,” the sheriff yelled after him. He and the other inhabitants of the village continued to believe that the Noble was dead. “I’d appreciate it if you could manage to find out where Lina’s at by then.”

  What the sheriff must have meant was that if the Hunter handed her over instead of hiding her, things could be settled peacefully.

  D didn’t turn around again.

  “All right, move out,” the mayor commanded. “Okay, Sheriff, let’s give it a blast, just to set the mood!”

  The sheriff smiled wryly and gave the command to fire.

  Raising the 150-millimeter-caliber barrel of the laser cannon, the tank took aim at the outline of the ruins without a single wasted motion. There wasn’t even the sound of gears grinding together.

  The thick beam of light caused a white-hot globe of light to erupt on the castle wall. That scorching sphere of some ten million degrees made the stone wall evaporate nearly instantaneously, and it glittered like a rainbow as the sunlight rained down on it.

  The men gave a cheer.

  “Now, move in!” the mayor cried.

  The hill responded.

  Abruptly, the tank turned. Taking a blast from a weapon mounted on the howling ceramic turret, some of the men and mounts had their heads pulverized like ripe persimmons.

  “Fall back! Retreat to the base of the hill!” The sheriff’s voice was blotted out by shock.

  Meanwhile, the enormous form of the tank was being sucked into the ground. It was like the sinking of a gigantic ship bound in a whirlpool of earth and green, a vision beyond imagining.

  The creak of grinding metal rose from the earth, and when the barrel alone was left poking skyward, a terrific shock rocked the hill. The energy of the ultracompact atomic reactor became lotus-red as flames spouted into the sky, staining the world crimson.

  “The hill swallowed it then?” D muttered softly, watching from a distance as the group of men and horses scurried down the hill, rolling and stumbling. Now that way into the ruins had been cut off, too.

  D returned to the shack by the waterwheel.

  Watering his horse at the brook, he retrieved a silver cup and a bottle full of tiny capsules from his bags. He scooped up some crystal-clear water and dropped in a capsule.

  In a matter of seconds, the water became the color of blood. Downing it in one gulp, he drew an easy breath.

  The capsules, filled with dried blood, plasma, and nutrients, were food for dhampirs. Ordinary dhampirs took them three times a day. However, this was the first D had taken since coming to the village. His stamina far exceeded the bounds of the average dhampir.

  The sky started to turn a darker blue.

  Would dawn come again for a certain girl?

  D set his cup down by the window and headed over to his horse. Even if his efforts were in vain, he still couldn’t give up.

  Why did he go through it time and again, all the deaths and wasted effort? Straddling his horse, he started once more retracing
the path to the ruins. He galloped for a few minutes, then, suddenly, he stopped.

  A lone youth stood by the side of the road. It was Cuore.

  In an instant, he’d vanished.

  Dismounting and moving closer, D spied the small hole concealed in the thicket. It was the same hole where Lina had her encounter with the ash-gray shadow.

  It was probably a trap. Without the slightest pause, D threw himself in.

  A strange sensation prickled his body. That could only mean one thing—a spatial distortion. Two points were connected, warping the space and distance between them. Those two points were probably the hole . . . and the ruins.

  There was dirt beneath his feet. Less than a foot away was someplace with an expansive floor paved in stone. This was probably one of the ruin’s emergency exits. Either all the circuits blown when D broke free from the sealed dimension had been repaired, or power had been restored to this area alone.

  D picked up a pebble by his foot and pitched it forward. At the boundary line between the dirt floor and the paving stones, the pebble gave off a pale flash of light and fell on the other side. The shape was exactly the same, but the pebble’s substance was different.

  “So it’s dead? Looks like I’ll have to pass a compatibility test.”

  There was a powerful guard on duty here. Anyone or anything failing to match the predefined physical criteria of the spatial rift would meet a silent material death.

  Perhaps D would be transformed into diamond?

  Without taking time to think, he stepped silently forward.

  Every one of his cells emitted the sparkle of jewels, and dreamy flames colored his countenance.

  As soon as he set foot on the stone floor, the glow flickered and faded away.

  With just a light toss of his head, D ventured into the depths of the darkness.

  A foul stench and presences condensed around him. D’s eyes could clearly discern the vastness of this area, and the form of those who dwelled here—twisted, transfigured, former human beings.

  The wind whistled, and two of them that’d leapt at him fell to the ground decapitated. An evil, malicious intent poured unbridled from the bloodshot eyes at D, making the darkness seethe. These creature delighted in slaughter and hatred. What could they possibly have been granted in return?

  A few more lost their lives, too, and then the strange things receded into the depths of the darkness. The iron door set in the far wall started to shut, swallowing their footfalls.

  D became a black wind, slipping through the thin opening.

  He came into a shining corridor. Some sort of luminescent material must have been mixed into the silicon steel of the walls and ceiling. The floor, which hadn’t deteriorated over the millennia, hazily reflected his form.

  Following the sounds of the twisted creatures, D proceeded down a long corridor. In the distance, the groan of machinery was audible.

  These were the remnants of a dream. But whose, and what had they dreamt of?

  The scenery changed, and D’s way was obstructed by a wall of cyclopean rocks. Crumbling stone steps stretched into the darkness above. Once he’d climbed them all, a steel door came into view.

  The blue pendant on D’s chest grew more brilliant, and the door opened without a sound.

  The vast chamber was filled by an almost twilight illumination. It was a laboratory reminiscent of the one he’d explored with Lina. But this one looked several times larger. The memory of any number of castles he’d seen before came and went in D’s mind. Indeed, they’d been filled with blue light, too. Perhaps that was the color of extinction?

  On the stone floor, two naked bodies were intertwined.

  With every movement of the gray shadow lying on the pale female body, a low pant escaped. Her white hands raked fingernails down the ash-gray cloth, and her thighs tightened around his waist.

  The face of that beautiful woman, who looked like she was being violated by a mummy of antiquity, was the face of Lina.

  Unexpectedly opening the eyelids that rapture had nailed shut, her eyes met D’s. Her expression faded.

  The gray shadow leapt up without even stirring the air. The blade of his sword drank in the blue light.

  Simultaneously, there rose the whine of sword leaving sheath from D’s back.

  “I see . . . Cuore’s to blame, isn’t he?” Making a voice of his anger, the shadow squeezed out the words. “It was unwise of me to leave him unattended like that, even if all his psychic energy was spent and he was more dead than alive. But you’re too late, Hunter. My wish has been fulfilled. Do you have it in you to cut down Lina?”

  Narrowing his gaze to take in just the ash-gray shadow, who was brimming with murderous intent. and Lina, who had lethargically raised her sweaty torso, D analyzed the situation. “So this is the birth of a new Nobility? What would you do if I could cut her down?”

  The shadowy figure slowly lowered his blade until it scraped along the floor. “Could you do it? Could you really cut down a friend?”

  Flashes of white light crossed.

  The shadow closed on him with unbelievable speed, slashing his demonic blade from ground to sky, but D’s longsword deflected the blow and split the suddenly unbalanced figure’s shoulder.

  The deep red wound yawned wide, and vivid blood flew—but the gash closed quickly.

  A look of admiration raced through D’s pupils. No matter how powerful their vaunted recuperative abilities may be, none among the Nobility had taken a hit from D and been unaffected.

  As the shadow backed away, he brushed the lab table beside him. Made of oak, the table looked to be about ten feet long. Moving his left hand slightly, the shadow sent the table flying at D. It roared with the force behind it.

  The instant it appeared to impact on D’s body, the table changed direction, went over his head, and fell to the floor behind him.

  Realizing that D had flipped it with the tip of his longsword, the shadow was rooted to the spot.

  This was a showdown between things that had the shape of men, but weren’t men.

  D leapt into the air.

  The shadow seemed to have forgotten to move, and his heart was pierced by a naked blade that poked clear through his back.

  Lina gasped with astonishment.

  The moment the two figures had overlapped, one of them had leapt backwards—with a sword still stuck through his body. Behind his mask, a sneering grin rose in his bloodshot eyes.

  A vampire invincible to even D’s sword through the heart! Yes, surely this must be proof that the demon who could walk in the light of day didn’t have to resign himself to the destiny of the night.

  There was a silvery flash of light right in front of the now empty-handed D, and the Hunter soared through the air like the shadow had. As he closed in after him, the ash-gray shadow swung his left hand.

  A metal cylinder struck the floor, sending pillars of flame up toward D.

  Fending off the flames born of the ultracompact atomic grenade with the hem of his coat, D came to a halt. Behind him was a stone wall.

  He could see the shadowy figure smiling through his mask.

  What froze his grin was that the arm that had shielded D’s chest seconds before had halted his deadly sword thrust with its palm.

  As the terror-struck shadow watched, the face that arose in D’s palm laughed heartily. The tip of his sword was held in that wicked little mouth. Clearly someone had bitten off more than they could chew.

  Perhaps the ashen figure’s shock was too great, or perhaps he couldn’t match the strength of that uncanny mouth, but, for whatever reason, the shadow let go of his longsword and jumped out of the way. He was trying to extract the sword that was still stuck through his chest when the crunch of severed vertebrae came from around his neck.

  This time, blood spouted out like a fountain, and, without even watching the decapitated torso drop, D approached the ash-gray head rolling around on the floor.

  The impact after its flight through the air
had knocked the mask off, and the face of what was still a young man glared at the heavens. The right half of the face looked like it had been caught in a press, with both the eye and the ear shrunken to half their normal size. Ugly and grotesque, the face was completely covered with wrinkles.

  “Such is the price of receiving powers none of the Nobility have ever known!” Lina said from beside D. It was unclear where she’d got it from, but she now wore a white death shroud—raiment that until a day earlier would have been the furthest thing from appropriate attire for her. “In return for the amplification of his psychic energy, Cuore’s cognitive powers degenerated. I see it all now. That was Tajeel Schmika.”

  “Is Mr. Meyer okay?” D asked, attentive to his surroundings but without taking up his sword. Perhaps he was getting ready for the other one, the unrecognized vampire rendered on the computer screen.

  Lina happened to smile then. “You’ll see him soon enough. Do you want to know the whole truth? I think you already know most of it anyway.”

  D gazed at Lina, at the girl of seventeen whose whole body brimmed with energy, who perhaps wanted to stun the Hunter with a sight of her supple thighs peeking through the slit of her death shroud.

  “Then all this is the result of experiments a decade ago? And now all of it’s coming to light.”

  Lina nodded at his serene tone. Casting a sympathetic glance at the creatures in the corner of the room, their eyes glittering, she said, “They were children taken from other villages about the same time we were. In their present form, they’ve gone a decade without food or drink—yes, they could live that way forever. I wonder if we could say they benefited in some way? What do you think? I guess you could say that compared to them, we were lucky. The experiments left us with no external abnormalities, so at least we got to live the last ten years as normal human beings. Without even realizing we’d died a decade earlier . . . ”

  With a brief glance at Tajeel’s head and body, which gave off a purplish smoke as they dissolved, D moved his eyes to the enormous electronic apparatus hemming the laboratory.

  Remnants of the abominable experiments that had once been performed here, gene-altering equipment, automated surgical units, clusters of ultralarge-scale integrated circuits—all these listened without a word as the tragic truth reached them.