Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 2

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  “Who did this to you?” D asked, not sounding at all concerned.

  “Professor Krolock . . . whispered something . . . to this weird paper . . . and got me to do whatever he wanted . . . Watch out . . . The bead . . .” The expression slipped from Toto’s face. “He’s gonna . . .” All the strength then drained from the thief’s body.

  Taking the man’s pulse, D then pulled out some emergency sheets with his right hand. Made of a highly porous cellophane, they were eight inches square. Even when the bandages came in bundles of a hundred, they weren’t bulky at all. The medicated layer could serve as a styptic and an antiseptic, provide nutrients, and act as a heating pad or a cold compress. Out on the road, they were indispensable for dealing with everything from minor colds to major lacerations.

  Applying one of the bandages to the left side of Toto’s chest, the Hunter then lay the thief over his shoulder using just his right hand. Seeing how the Hunter easily rose again with this new burden, the girl’s eyes went wide. It was almost as if he were carrying a hollow doll.

  “Come here,” D called to the girl as he stood by Toto’s horse.

  As she tottered toward him like a marionette, the expression that came to her face was so rapt it was almost obscene. After all, she’d been right by D’s side ever since he left the lagoon.

  “Is he, you know . . . dead?” she asked.

  “He has a pulse. I’m going to bring him to the hospital, but you can get off wherever you like. And I’ll thank you not to mention what happened today to anyone.”

  The girl nodded. The beauty and mysterious charm of the young man extended to the very words he spoke. There was no way she’d be able to refuse him.

  With Toto over one shoulder and the girl sitting behind him, D gave a stern kick to the horse’s flank.

  .

  Before a desolate expanse of rubble, Professor Krolock dismounted from his cyborg horse. He also unloaded some baggage from his mount—a blanket and a leather bag.

  Looking up at the sky, which had begun to take a vague bluish tint, he said, “The sun will be going down soon. What a fitting time for my wish to be granted.”

  As twilight descended, the professor began cautiously picking a path through the rubble. Six hundred feet ahead of him loomed the remains of what looked like a castle wall. He knew that beyond it lay a gaping chasm of incredible proportions. His sole concern now was whether or not the coil of wire he’d brought in his bag would be long enough to reach the bottom.

  .

  “This is not good,” a voice that sounded both relaxed and tense said from the wooden floor of the room.

  “What is it?” Su-In asked disagreeably.

  There was good reason for her mood—that cryptic remark was all the hand had to say when it broke two hours of silence, and because the light that filled the room had begun to dwindle perceptibly in the last few minutes. The outline of the hand impaled by the metal wedge had also begun to dissolve into deepening blue.

  “I told you before, didn’t I? There’s something in this temple. Or rather, someone.”

  “Well,” Su-In said, “that guy did spray some odorless monster repellent around the place.”

  “Hasn’t that drug worn off yet?”

  “It’s still no use. I’ve got a little feeling back . . . but I can’t move at all.”

  “By the feel of it, how long do you think it’ll take?” asked the hand.

  “Another hour. I wonder if we’ll be okay for that long.”

  The hand was silent. After pausing for a beat, it then asked, “Would you mind if I deviated from the subject for a moment?” Its tone was so lascivious, it made Su-In’s eyes go wide.

  “What is it?” she asked sharply.

  “You said you’d got a little feeling back, right?”

  “Yes,” Su-In replied, her tone cautious. There was a look of suspicion in her eyes.

  “Hmm.”

  “What do you mean, ‘Hmm’?”

  “Well, the truth is, I’m starving. At least, that’s how you’d put it in your terms. Basically, I need nourishment.”

  “What kind of nourishment?” Su-In asked, her curiosity piqued.

  “Well . . .”

  “Don’t be such a tease!” Su-In scolded him, and then her ears suddenly perked up.

  Off in the distance—if memory served, it was in the direction of the entrance—she’d heard a sound. Had someone come? Just at that moment, the light coming in through the window began to rapidly fade. It couldn’t be that Noble . . . After all, there was no way he could know she was out here of all places. No, it wasn’t him. It would be someone from the village. But even thinking that, Su-In couldn’t bring herself to cry out for help.

  “Hey,” she called out to the hand. “Hurry up and say what you’re gonna say. What should I do?”

  “When did you eat last?” the hand asked her, oddly enough.

  “Sometime before noon yesterday.”

  “Did you have some water then, too?”

  “Of course.”

  There was a pregnant pause from the left hand.

  “Oh,” Su-In cried. As she flushed all the way to her ears, she glared at the talking hand.

  “Well . . .”

  “What do you mean, ‘Well’?! That’s disgusting!”

  “It’s just a minor inconvenience.”

  “I don’t see what’s so minor about it! You’re talking to a lady!”

  “I think it’d have to be less objectionable than becoming a servant of the Nobility.”

  The color drained right out of Su-In’s face at that moment partly because of the left hand’s words, but also because she’d just heard a number of footsteps behind her. The feeble footsteps she could hear somewhere out there were slowly drawing closer.

  The world had passed through the blue and was surrendering itself now to an inky black.

  “That can’t be—”

  “Oh, yes it can. It feels just like them,” the hand said, its tone hard. “Getting back to what I said—can you do it?”

  “Well, this is all pretty sudden.”

  “Your life—no, your very soul—depends on it. You’ve gotta do it somehow.”

  “I don’t want to. How disgusting!”

  Su-In held her breath. The footsteps stopped. Stopped right at the door. They were looking for her. Su-In could tell. But why didn’t they come in? Why didn’t they call out to see if there was anyone there? And why weren’t they even talking among themselves, for that matter? Cold sweat rolled down her cheek.

  “Haven’t you gone yet?” the hand asked her.

  “Wait—just a second now.”

  “Hey, we don’t have any time here.”

  The door creaked.

  Don’t open it, Su-In thought.

  The sound continued for a long time, flowing into the room. It was probably for the best that Su-In couldn’t turn to look. The figures that stepped from the shallow murkiness like ghosts numbered three in all—two women and a man with blood staining the base of their necks.

  “Here?” a girl with a round face asked. Her complexion was like paraffin.

  “Yes, here,” a girl with red hair replied. She sounded so happy she could weep.

  “It’s cold. And I’m hungry,” the third figure—a young man—said sorrowfully. “I want to warm up. But it’s supposed to be summer.”

  The trio exchanged glances. And as their gazes intertwined, they fell on Su-In, too.

  “Here!”

  “She’s here!”

  “Let’s go!”

  The three of them started walking again. Their eyes were vacant, and they seemed glazed with the colors of hell. There was no circulation in their lips. And yet they looked red. But that was only due to the color of their skin. Their hearts beat out the rhythm of the night, and the blood in their veins was the hue of darkness. Their breath held the odor of dirt from a grave.

  “Don’t look behind you, okay?” the hand told the woman.

  “I couldn’
t look if I wanted to!” Su-In said, but she could barely work her tongue now.

  “Have you gone yet?”

  Groaning with exasperation, Su-In said, “Hold on. I just need a little longer.”

  “We can’t wait any more. I hate to tell you this, but the leader of the pack is only about ten feet from you!”

  Su-In was speechless.

  “Oh, I see you stretched yourself out some. Keep at it. You’ve almost got it!”

  Three shadowy figures clustered around Su-In’s body. Su-In could sense them bending over her. Icicles were pressed against the nape of her neck. They were fingers. Fingers pale and cold as ice itself.

  “She’s warm,” the young man said. “So warm! Hot blood runs through her veins!”

  “Do you think she looks tasty?” asked the girl with red hair.

  “I’m sure she’s delicious,” the young man replied. “Unlike us.”

  “I need to drink. A lot,” said the girl with the round face, almost singing the words.

  “It won’t be easy drinking from her like that.”

  “We can flip her over.”

  “Yes, let’s do that.”

  Six hands reached out and rolled Su-In over onto her back. For the first time, she could see their faces.

  “Hannah? Clem? Ricardo?!” she cried out in astonishment. “But you’re—Why?!”

  “Su-In,” said the young man—Ricardo. Only the slightest surprise could be felt in his hollow voice. However, his youthful face was quickly covered by the lewd smile of a sinful centenarian as he said, “So it was you in here, was it? Your blood is bound to be so very—”

  “Delicious!” the girl with the round face—Hannah—moaned.

  “When did this happen? When was it? When were you bitten?” Su-In inquired in desperation as she watched Ricardo’s hand drawing closer to her throat.

  “Last night . . . The three of us . . . were out picking moonlight grass together, you see,” said Clementine. In the darkness, her red hair looked like a filthy vermilion rag. As her thin lips moved, a number of strands of hair stuck to them, pulled to and fro by their movements. “And then the two of them came . . . They stared at us with those red eyes . . . and we couldn’t move . . . But I see now, Su-In, and you will, too . . . You’ll see just how wonderful this can be. And then all of us went to sleep under the temple’s porch.”

  Su-In’s breath had been taken away. Ricardo’s hand grabbed the neck of her shirt and tore it open. Though the rich swells that her white brassiere could barely contain were exposed to the eyes of all three of them, this was no time for embarrassment.

  “You smell good, Su-In. Warm. Now there’s a nice human chest! Surely it’s pumping with the freshest of blood. That’s the only regard in which your kind surpasses ours.” Saliva dripped from Ricardo’s lips, splattering between Su-In’s breasts. “I’ll go first. No one has any complaints, I take it?”

  “That’s fine,” said one of the others. “Just hurry.”

  Ricardo opened his mouth. Fangs peeked from his gums.

  Seeing that they were coming down toward her throat, Su-In shut her eyes.

  “Just a second,” said a hoarse voice that made the three vampires turn around.

  As his glittering eyes bored through the darkness, Ricardo said, “What a strange creature. A hand that can talk! But from the look of things, you can’t move. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained—so once we’re done drinking Su-In’s blood, it’ll be your turn.”

  “Hell, take me first!” the hand shouted.

  No longer looking at the hand, Ricardo turned back toward Su-In. White fangs bared all the way to the gums, he pressed his teeth to her trembling flesh for a split second before unleashing a cry of surprise and jumping back up. As his crazed eyes fell to the woman’s feet, they found a steaming puddle of liquid coursing in the hand’s direction.

  SOARING CLIFFS

  CHAPTER 7

  .

  I

  .

  What the hell?!” Ricardo cried as he jumped aside, but he grinned just as quickly. “Are you scared?” he asked Su-In. “I’m not surprised. But you won’t be for long. Just between you and me, I’ve always sort of had a thing for you. Once you’re one of us, I’ll give you a nice long poke,” the boy said in the tone of a veritable fiend.

  However, Ricardo’s last remark brought Su-In back to her senses. His crude suggestion stirred an explosion of womanly ire.

  “Who the hell would ever wanna be with you?!” Su-In shouted as her right hand whined through the air. The drug that’d kept her paralyzed had worn off—her fury had swept away the last of its effects.

  As a well-practiced punch made his cheekbone creak, Ricardo reeled backward. But that was all it did. In the blink of an eye, his face was right back in the same position, and wearing a smirk. While the servants might not be as powerful as the true Nobility, their musculature still had five times the strength of an ordinary person. Now Ricardo—or Hannah and Clementine, for that matter—could weather a blow from a professional boxer without any problem.

  “You bitch!” Ricardo snarled, fangs bared in his evil countenance. But just as he was lunging for Su-In’s throat, he staggered back-ward once again. A gleaming wedge had burst through his chest from behind.

  “Oh, my, that was a close one. But now you clowns have to deal with me.”

  Ricardo’s blood-spattered eyes reflected the hand crouching on the floor like a pale spider. Beside it ran the dark stain that flowed from Su-In’s lower half. With a low groan, Ricardo fell flat on his face. A knife had gone right through his heart.

  “You bastard!”

  “You won’t get away with that!” the women cried as they got up.

  They leapt toward the hand. Su-In had been entirely forgotten.

  Suddenly Clem, who was at the fore, began to glow. Her form was enveloped by pale blue chemical flames. Every bit of color on her was rendered a luminous white, and before the girl could even scream, she fell across the floor as a pile of stark white ash.

  Hannah stopped dead in her tracks, and the pale hand raced right between the vampire’s feet.

  “We’re getting out of here, Su-In,” said the hand.

  “But there’s still one more to deal with.”

  “Sorry, I just went through the last of my juice.”

  “Oh, you really are completely useless,” said the woman.

  The two of them made excellent time as they headed for the door in the far wall. There was another room beyond it.

  Her hesitation lasting only seconds, Hannah pursued them at a furious pace.

  Turning around just in front of the door, Su-In hurled the knife she’d pulled out of Ricardo’s corpse. The weapon flew fast and hard enough to penetrate the skull of a giant killer whale, but Hannah simply clapped the palms of her hands together to stop it right in front of her face.

  “This is not good!” the hand cried at the same moment the door opened.

  The two of them made a mad dash into the next room, bolting through it without a backward glance.

  “This way!” shouted the woman.

  They took a right in the corridor—and it brought them straight to the main entrance. Hearing Hannah’s footsteps behind them, Su-In began to tremble. The front door was falling off its hinges.

  They burst outside. Gasping, Su-In halted sharply. Thanks to her incredible momentum, she barely managed to keep herself from falling over.

  A pale moon floated in the heavens. It was a crystal-clear summer night.

  In a moonlit garden where even the weeds that had grown to their hearts’ content looked gorgeous, there stood two figures. Samon and Glen. Even before it could dawn on her that they were both foes of D and herself, Su-In simply recognized them as fellow humans.

  “Help me—the girl behind me is a vampire!” she shouted as she pulled up alongside Glen.

  Hannah stood in front of the entrance to the temple. Her pearly fangs gnashed together, thirsting for Su-In’s lifeblood in a way
that was more detestable than words could convey. “Out of my way,” she growled. “Let me drink the girl’s blood!”

  Looking first at Su-In and then at Hannah, Samon asked, “What should we do?” Naturally, her query was directed at Glen.

  Not replying to the question, the seeker of knowledge took a step forward. Free of even the smallest injury, his handsome face was immaculate in the moonlight.

  Hannah charged at him.

  The flash of white light that shot up from the young man’s waist mowed right through the girl’s neck. It was just like being in town and watching Old Man Krakow expertly take the head off a salmon with one swipe. After the flash had passed through her effortlessly, Hannah ran about ten feet more with black blood spraying from her body—from the headless torso her legs carried.

  When the girl’s body fell at length, Su-In finally noticed Glen and Samon’s complexions. “You . . . both of you, too . . . ,” the woman mumbled.

  “Stupid children,” Samon said as she coldly surveyed the decapitated remains. “They should’ve restrained themselves until we arrived . . . I suppose you killed the other two, did you? After we went to the trouble of showing them a whole new world.”

  Su-In felt like all of the blood had drained from her body.

  Sword still lowered, Glen spoke at last, saying, “When you came out . . . you had something odd with you, didn’t you?”

  His voice was as hollow as the abyss. It was the voice of the night.

  “It’s hidden itself in the grass—what is it, some pet of yours?”

  With the two of them staring at her, Su-In couldn’t move a muscle.

  “In a manner of speaking,” a hoarse voice replied from somewhere in the bushes. It sounded like it had its cheeks filled with something or other. Though Samon looked all around them, she couldn’t determine where the voice had originated.

  Su-In felt an incongruity. While it was the same voice, it was as different in tone from the one she’d heard in the temple as day and night. The words were filled with immeasurable confidence.

  “My, my. It seems I vastly underestimated you,” Glen said as he brought his blade up to his lips. “I sense a frightful power in you. If we were to fight now, even the woman might be in jeopardy.”