Right Arm of the Saint

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Speaking without any special change in expression, Yukina pulled the guitar case containing her spear over her back and began cleaning up after dinner.

  8

  One of the four Gigafloats that composed Itogami Island, Island West, was a city that never slept. In this district, where many restaurants and business establishments were gathered, many stores continued operating until daybreak.

  Much of demonkind loved the night. In addition to that, many demonic residents flocked to this city because of the wealth of services geared toward them. In one sense, this dazzling neon nighttime display was emblematic of Itogami City and the peaceful coexistence of humans and demons within.

  However, no matter how much light shone through, it did not completely banish darkness from the city at night.

  “—Would you come play with us?”

  It was night at the park, emptied of signs of human life. As the drunken men passed along the scenic street that overlooked the sea, they suddenly heard a voice calling them to a stop.

  A lone woman stood below a faintly glowing streetlight.

  She was small with long indigo hair.

  Her eyes were a lighter shade of blue. She wore a one-piece cape coat over her body, but she didn’t seem to be wearing anything under it whatsoever. She was barefoot.

  “Hey, whoa? Fishin’ for men in a place like this?”

  “Tch…another kid, ain’t it?”

  As the faces of the two men met, they spoke loosely with lewd expressions. As the girl seemed to beckon them, they staggered closer because of her oddly beautiful appearance.

  She had almost transparent white skin and big eyes. Her face was perfectly symmetrical.

  Somehow, her presence was faint for a living being. The girl seemed fairylike.

  “You sayin’ that knowin’ we’re Freaks, little girl?”

  “You ain’t gettin’ off with a few laughs for gettin’ our attention in a place like this. We’re in a real bad mood today, especially toward little girls.”

  The men spoke as they approached, seemingly hemming the girl in from the left and right. They were both around twenty years of age. They both had brown hair and wore black gigolo-style suits, with an air of roughness floating around them.

  One of the men bared his fangs, revealing his true nature as a demon. He was a D-type vampire. Surely he was being assaulted by vampiric impulses from a series of sexual arousal.

  The other individual violently ripped off an armband from his own right arm.

  Now there was nothing to restrain his demonic powers. As he pulled off and tossed away his upper garments, his musculature swelled up as a brown-colored mane rose over his spine. It was a beast man’s transformation.

  “This might get just a bit scary for ya, but don’t take it personally.”

  “If yer gonna hate, hate the brat who picked a fight with us yesterday!”

  The men glared at the girl with angry, excited looks. However, the girl’s expression did not change. She somehow seemed sad as she looked up at the two men, as if her eyes swayed from pity. Then—

  “—A district without night where demons strut about in plain sight…Truly this island is a cursed, forsaken city.”

  A gentle voice spoke sadly from behind the two demons.

  In surprise, they turned around to face the odd presence that had appeared without any warning.

  Standing in the shade below one of the trees along the roadside was a man dressed in what seemed to be the robes of a priest.

  He was a blond foreigner with a short-cropped military-style haircut.

  He had a metal monocle buried in his left eye socket like an eyepatch.

  He had to be over a hundred and ninety centimeters tall. His age was forty years, give or take, but based on his broad, powerful shoulders, it did not seem he had weakened any with age.

  In addition to his imposing physique, he was wearing some kind of metal armor under his vestment. It was some kind of armored augmentation suit used by heavy infantry in the military. It gave off an overbearing feeling.

  The man’s right hand gripped a metal bardiche, a battle-axe with a giant blade. It had to be rather heavy, but the man easily carried it with one hand.

  “Who the hell are you, an Attack Mage?”

  The vampire man asked with bloodlust in his tone.

  “If you were watchin’, you get it, then. Just now, she invited us. You got no right to butt in on this. So stay out of it and get lost!”

  The beast man also spoke, his voice husky and hard to understand.

  The man in the vestment looked over both demons without emotion.

  “I am well aware. However, did she not ask you to play with us?”

  As he spoke, he turned the blade of his axe toward the two demons.

  And then he tossed the baggage he had been carrying in his left hand at the two demons. The weapons piled within easily thrust through the long narrow sports bag. There was a sword, a katana, a javelin, and an axe. The bare katana blade thrust straight through the bag, piercing the ground. These weren’t replicas; these were real weapons.

  “If you would claim you cannot fight unarmed, please pick your fancy. What’s wrong? Do not tell me you are afraid, pitiable demons.”

  “Don’t look down on us, gramps… So the brat’s in on this with you, huh?”

  As the beast man exclaimed, he picked up the sword, which was nearest to him. He was a belligerent demon by nature. He growled as he bared his fangs, unable to contain his murderous impulses.

  “I’ll kill ya just like ya want—!”

  The beast man kicked from the ground, his body accelerating with explosive force. He charged the defenselessly standing man from the front, moving to beat him down with the sword by brute force. However, mid-way through the sword’s attack, the vestment-wearing man’s axe easily knocked it aside. The beast man’s expression twisted in shock, and he redoubled his attack. However, the outcome was the same.

  “A lycanthrope, is it? As fast as I’d expect. Yet all too simple.”

  “What?!”

  “Indeed, no comparison to the beast men who serve in Dominion regular forces. Pathetic…”

  The augmented suit beneath the vestment emitted a revving sound like the roar of a beast. With his strength increased to its absolute limit, his lunging step split the asphalt covering the street and cracked the air. His battle-axe flashed, leaving a blur trailing behind it. It was a blow too swift for even a beast man to react.

  “Gaha…!”

  Slashed from its armpit down to its hip, the beast man’s huge body was blown away. Fresh lukewarm blood splattered, filling the surrounding area with the scent of blood. The sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing came after the fact. A human being would have no doubt died instantly. Even for a beast man, with such a resilient life force, it was a grave, potentially fatal wound.

  “Wh-why you—!”

  Gazing dumbfounded at his wounded comrade, the vampire man howled. He picked up the javelin that had rolled onto the ground and hurled it at the man in the vestment.

  The vampire’s brute strength was even greater than that of the beast man’s. The spear he’d thrown flew at bullet-like speed would have pierced the man’s chest—had the latter not easily knocked it down a moment prior.

  “Shit… What the hell are you?!”

  The man in the vestment replied to the vampire’s question with majesty.

  “My name is Rudolf Eustach. An Armed Apostle of Lotharingia.”

  “Armed Apostle? What’s a priest from the Western Church doin’ out here—?!”

  “I have no obligation to answer.”

  Tch. The vampire man clicked his tongue. Pitch-black flames welled up from his left leg.

  “Kill ’im, Shakti!”

  The flames took the shape of a distorted horse and assaulted the man in the vestment. The Beast Vassal burned at a thousand degrees Celsius. The air shimmered from the heat; the melting surface of the ground left a burning smell behind.<
br />
  “Hmph. I had heard there was a fool using a Beast Vassal in urban areas; it appears that is true. So our search has borne fruit.”

  A smile came over the man’s lips as if this is what he had been waiting for.

  And then the man halted the charge of the flaming Beast Vassal with his own left hand.

  “What…?!”

  The vampire man’s eyes bulged at the completely unexpected display. Something like an invisible wall had emerged in front of the man in the vestment, stopping the incandescent spirit horse’s attack cold. The girl, standing beside the Armed Apostle, had extended a strange barrier to protect him.

  The flaming Beast Vassal could not reach the man with the barrier holding it at bay.

  However, it seemed that even the girl’s defensive barrier did not possess the power to completely repel the Beast Vassal.

  As the intense flames slammed against the wall, the very air creaked from the strain. Finally, as if unable to bear the strain of the clash, a frail sigh escaped from the girl’s lips.

  “Evidently even this degree of Beast Vassal cannot be completely neutralized. It seems there is indeed room left for improvement.”

  “Huh…?!”

  Not knowing the meaning of the man’s utterance, the vampire raised a cry of triumph. No doubt he’d judged that continuing to press on meant victory.

  However, as an anguished expression came over the girl, the man in the vestment seemed to have lost interest as he called out.

  “Tonight’s experiment is over, Astarte.”

  “Yes, Armed Apostle.”

  The girl with the indigo-colored hair he’d called Astarte gently closed her eyes. As she stretched out her cape coat, she reported in an artificial, robotic voice.

  “Accept. Execute ‘Rhododactylos.’”

  At the same time as the voice finished, something gushed out from the seams of her coat.

  It was a transparent arm with a dim white glow to it. It was a giant arm larger than the girl’s slender body. That arm, stretching from her abdomen as if thrusting right through it, lashed out like a living snake and impaled the vampire’s Beast Vassal.

  “—Shakti?! The hell?!” The vampire exclaimed at the unbelievable display.

  The flaming Beast Vassal, its torso pierced, howled as if in anguish. Yet the transparent arm’s attack did not relent. It mowed down the flaming Beast Vassal over and over, as if consuming it.

  “What the hell have you done…?!”

  Unable to maintain its physical form, the flaming Beast Vassal dissipated; the vampire man collapsed on the spot. Unable to move from the vast loss of magical energy, the man’s lips quivered from terror.

  The man in the vestment casually explained.

  “A Beast Vassal can be defeated by striking it with a stronger Beast Vassal. ’Tis a simple thing.”

  “No way… That’s a Beast Vassal…?!”

  The vampire exclaimed as he gazed at the giant arm that stretched from the girl’s body.

  The man in the vestment coldly looked down at both fallen demons.

  “Though you are not worth killing, you would perish along with this island soon enough. You can at least fill Rhododactylos’s belly. Astarte, grant them mercy,” he told the expressionless indigo-haired girl.

  Realizing the meaning of those words, the vampire shrieked.

  “S-stop…! Don’t…!”

  The girl looked at the man with her pale blue eyes. A great melancholy dwelled in her eyes; her lips trembled.

  “—Accept.”

  The giant arm, glowing faintly white, wriggled like a malicious beast.

  The man’s screams reverberated.

  CHAPTER TWO

  HERE COMES THE WATCHDOG

  1

  Island South, Itogami Island’s southern district, contained Kojou Akatsuki’s residence among many others. He lived on the seventh story of a nine-story apartment complex. On this Gigafloat, where building height was severely restricted, it was a comparatively tall building with a commanding view.

  Though it was the last day of summer, the sun was already high when Kojou slipped out of bed. At this hour, he might barely make it in time for that day’s make-up exam.

  Kojou had been nocturnal to begin with, but his turning into a vampire had only ratcheted that up another notch. Rather than being stronger at night, it was simply that his head didn’t really kick in before noon. Thanks to that, he’d been late time and time again this last semester; that was why he was buried in supplemental lessons and make-up exams, trampling flat his precious summer vacation.

  “Ugh… So sleepy.”

  Kojou made a languid murmur, his expression gloomy. He had make-up tests for four subjects to go. He still had homework and a half marathon left, too. If he could, he’d just drop everything and flee the island altogether, but that’d mean the last semester would start without him, and he’d have to repeat the year for sure. More than that, he was terrified of the scolding Nagisa would give him.

  Even so, it was somewhat better than the desperate situation it had been up until the day before.

  That was because Yukina had helped him study until nightfall.

  Somehow, at that Lion King Agency thing, she’d already gained a high school graduate–level education, and was better than Kojou at pretty much every subject he was taking. As she said things like studying is something you need to do for yourself, she answered questions for him one after another. He was grateful for how she taught from the basics on up, unlike Asagi, who was the genius type.

  Kojou did feel rather pathetic to have to be taught all this by a junior high schooler younger than him, but with his back against the wall, he had no leeway for worrying about petty pride.

  “Nagisa…is at club, huh?”

  When Kojou finished changing and went out into the living room, he saw a single five-hundred-yen coin resting on a plate on top of the table. It seemed to mean, Since I didn’t make you breakfast, go buy something. Kojou gratefully picked it up, pulled his parka on, and headed out.

  Incidentally, Nagisa was in the Cheerleading Club. They were really busy every year, cheering on all the other clubs and practicing for their own tournament. Nice to have a full plate, Kojou thought wistfully.

  “…Hot.”

  Kojou took the elevator, which received no benefit from air-conditioning, down to the ground level and headed toward the apartment complex’s front entrance.

  Floating on top of the Pacific Ocean as it was, Itogami was prone to have rainfall at all times of the year and had been struck by a number of typhoons, but it’d been unreasonably clear and sunny for the last several days. The relentless downpour of the sun’s heat onto the artificial surface made the temperature considerable. Mirages rose up from the asphalt that covered the streets.

  As Kojou noticed a familiar rear profile floating up among the mirages, he narrowed his eyes with a hn sound.

  It was a girl wearing a Saikai Academy uniform with a guitar case on her back.

  “Ah… Senpai.”

  Standing in front of the automatic door, Yukina noticed Kojou and slowly turned around. She said, “Good day,” speaking her greeting in her usual, overly serious tone. Based on her refreshed expression, not a single drop of sweat on her face, she must had some sort of barrier deployed around her, but it scared him a bit to see someone further removed from humanity than Kojou, a demon.

  “Himeragi, were you standing here the whole time? To keep a lookout for me…?” Kojou asked anxiously, sensing a stalker-like level of tenacity. Yukina looked back at Kojou with no expression.

  “Yes, it’s my duty to watch you, after all.”

  “Uh, seriously?!”

  “I am joking.”

  As Yukina spoke, she made a small giggle. Kojou twisted his lips in silence. Due to the oddly calm tone she used, his inability to tell how serious she was made his heart skip a few beats.

  “I was waiting for my things. I was told they’d arrive at this time.”

&nb
sp; “…Your things?”

  Kojou was a bit perplexed at Yukina’s unexpected words. Yukina nodded lightly.

  “Yes. This was an urgent mission, so I didn’t have time to prepare. Until yesterday I’d been loaned a hotel room, but as that is quite inconvenient—”

  Before she could finish that sentence, a single small truck rolled over the sidewalk and entered the apartment grounds. It parked right in front of the entrance Kojou and Yukina were near.

  Two deliverymen in shipping company uniforms got out of the truck. As they picked up freight and carried it over, she called out to the younger deliveryman in a strong voice.

  “Excuse me, this way, please.”

  Yukina was pointing to the elevator Kojou had ridden on just earlier.

  “Wait a minute. You can’t seriously mean you’re moving here…”

  “Yes, to this apartment complex. And?”

  “Why?!”

  “I do believe that this is where you live, Senpai…?”

  Yukina asked with a doubtful expression. Her attitude seemed to say, Why are you asking me something that obvious? It seemed she was hell-bent on observing even his private life. Kojou made a morose scowl.

  “Did the Lion King Agency order this, too?”

  “Yes.”

  Yukina got into the elevator along with the freight carried in from the truck. Kojou, somehow rather anxious, followed her right in. As if to validate Kojou’s anxieties, Yukina pressed the elevator button for the seventh floor without hesitation, turning to the two deliverymen.

  “Room seven-oh-five, please.”

  “Now hold on!” Kojou spontaneously yelled out, making the surprised deliverymen stare at him.

  “What’s wrong, Senpai? Why would you raise your voice in a narrow space like this?”

  Yukina spoke with a tone of rebuke. Kojou hugged his head in irritation.

  “Seven-oh-five is right next door to my place, isn’t it? I was kinda starting to think so, but geez, you’re really taking it that far?! Wait, did you make Yamada, who was in room seven-oh-five here, move out last week so that you could get in here today?!”

  “It’s not as if I intimidated him into leaving. I simply convinced him in a peaceful manner, and he left.”