Labyrinth of the Blue Witch

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Yuuma clicked her tongue and bent space. She was trying to use a teleport to get at Yukina’s blind spot. But.

  “It’s no use!”

  Yukina turned around like she knew from the start she’d do that, slashing toward Yuuma’s destination point. It was her Sword Shaman ability to see the future. Simple surprise attacks wouldn’t work on her when she was using her Spirit Sight ability in the middle of combat.

  The blue knight’s giant body staggered as fragments of its wrecked armor scattered about.

  “So long as you control that body, your Guardian must employ most of its power to maintain the spatial link. It has very little combat capability remaining.”

  “You have a point… Beating a Lion King Agency Sword Shaman’s kinda tough under these circumstances.”

  Yuuma readily acknowledged the tide was against her. A Sword Shaman could fight on even terms with a vampire primogenitor. They were anti-demon combat pros, not people a mere witch could take on without a plan.

  “You’ve forgotten, though? I don’t have to fight you fair, you know—!”

  Yuuma teleported just after she spoke. She’d leaped into the air where Yukina couldn’t follow, high above the floor of the cathedral.

  “Oh n—?!”

  Yukina’s face froze as she realized what Yuuma intended. The blue knight had activated an offensive spell. It was a beginner-level fireball spell, but when unleashed with a witch’s magical power, it had force on the level of a bomb. And Yuuma had selected as her target neither Yukina nor Natsuki, but rather, the stonework roof of the cathedral above the still-sleeping Natsuki’s head.

  Even Snowdrift Wolf, able to nullify any magical energy, was powerless against falling rock. She had no way of protecting Natsuki against several tons of mass obeying the call of gravity.

  But by the instant Yukina felt despair, Kojou was already sprinting over.

  “Daaaa—!”

  Kojou picked up Natsuki’s tiny body and rolled onto the floor. A moment later, falling stone crushed and pulverized the chair Natsuki had been sitting on.

  Yukina’s eyes blinked in shock.

  “Senpai—?!”

  Kojou had anticipated Yuuma’s attack faster than she, a Sword Shaman, could peer into the future. That fact took her by surprise.

  The answer to the question tugging at her came from Kojou’s own lips.

  “Sorry, Yuuma. I haven’t forgotten the face you make when you’re going for a three-pointer.”

  Kojou made a daring smile as he lifted up his dusty face. Kojou had never forgotten his close childhood friend’s specialty. He’d been watching out for Yuuma to make a long-range shot from the beginning.

  Yuuma’s face twisted in great anguish as she landed. “Kojou…! How can you still smile like that?! I deceived you! I’m a witch made to be a criminal from birth! I’ve been destroying the city you live in and hurting your friends—!”

  Kojou stared back in amazement at the painful shout coming from his old friend.

  “Yuuma…”

  Suddenly, his field of vision was dyed scarlet. Fresh blood was flowing from his own forehead into his eyes.

  “What the…heck is this…?!”

  Kojou was in shock as he realized he was bleeding.

  It wasn’t a wound sustained during the roll. There was no pain. But Yuuma’s beautiful skin was ripped in various places and was fiercely bleeding.

  There was only one possibility he could think of. It was Yuuma’s body crying out.

  The forced link to take over Kojou’s body, drawing out the magical power of the Fourth Primogenitor, calling a Beast Vassal, even for but a single moment, the wounds to her Guardian sustained in the fight with Yukina, one teleport after another—it was well beyond even a witch’s limits. Yuuma’s body had begun to fall apart, unable to endure the sheer output of magical energy.

  “Yuuma!” Yukina’s voice shook. “Please stop this. If you release any more magical energy, your body will—”

  “It doesn’t matter…!” The pain of the backlash was making her lips twist, but even so, Yuuma made a lurid smile. “Just a little more and my duty will be at an end. I’ll finally…be free…”

  Yukina silently bit her lip. Then, she let out a very deep sigh. Without a sound, the silver spear whirled around as her glossy hair flowed downward. Only a single way remained to save Yuuma—

  That was to settle the bout as quickly as possible.

  “—I, Maiden of the Lion, Sword Shaman of the High God, beseech thee.”

  Yukina’s lips wove a solemn chant. She danced along with her silver spear like a warrior praying to the gods for victory—or a priestess granted an oracle that heralded the victory to come.

  “O purifying light, O divine wolf of the snowdrift, by your steel divine will, strike down the devils before me!”

  The silver spear emitted a flash of light, the explosive spiritual energy flowing into it twice as much as before. That flash surrounded Yukina as she sprinted. Yuuma hadn’t seen what Yukina was doing. The blow from Snowdrift Wolf was aimed straight at Yuuma—and thrust through the heart of Kojou’s body.

  Or it would have, had Yukina not stopped her attack. The tip of the silver spear did not reach Kojou’s chest. Yukina had hesitated in her attack in a span less than the blink of an eye.

  Yuuma moved, not letting that tiny opening go to waste.

  The blue knight’s giant fist swung toward Yukina’s flank. Yukina barely managed to receive the blow with her spear. But she could not stop inertia. Her small body was sent flying, sending her crashing down onto the floor several meters away.

  “Himeragi!”

  As Kojou rushed over, Yukina dismissed him and wobbled as she rose.

  “…I’m all right… This is nothing…”

  She reached out to the silver spear, picking it up, only for it to roll onto the floor once more. Her arms were numb from having squarely received the blue knight’s attack.

  Yuuma spoke as she watched Yukina sit on her knees.

  “You’re a kind girl.”

  There was no mockery in her tone. Indeed, her tone was drenched in open envy.

  “The Lion King Agency’s secret weapon, able to nullify any magical power… there’s no way to really tell if even an immortal vampire would come back from being impaled with a Schneewaltzer. That’s why you stopped. You didn’t want to kill Kojou’s body—”

  Yukina somehow got back to her feet by using her spear in place of a cane.

  “…I do not know what you are referring to. That was just a little carelessness.”

  She was no longer in any condition to fight; at the very least, she couldn’t hope for anything like her usual combat ability. She couldn’t properly grip her weapon in any event. Yuuma spoke as if pitying the wounded Yukina.

  “It’ll end the same no matter how much you try it. You understand that yourself, don’t you?”

  If Yukina couldn’t harm Kojou’s body, she had no hope of victory no matter how many times she rose back up.

  “Senpai…”

  Kojou supported Yukina from behind when it seemed like she might fall over.

  He put his hands on the silver spear so that both were gripping it together.

  “Kojou…why…?” Yuuma asked, with her expression seeming to say, Do you understand whose body you’re aiming that spear at…? The Schneewaltzer was a purifying spear able to slay even a rimogenitor. Kojou impaling himself with that spear was reckless, virtual suicide.

  Kojou declared with an impetuous laugh…

  “Sorry, Yuuma. I’m gonna send you packing and take my own body back. I mean, with this body, I can’t go drinking Yukina’s blood like usual.”

  Yukina’s lips made a sour curl.

  Wresting the spear from Yukina’s hands, Kojou charged straight toward Yuuma.

  “Let’s go, Yuuma—from here on, this is my fight.”

  Snowdrift Wolf was heavier than he’d expected. However, it wasn’t too heavy for him to wield. “Kojou—!
” Yuuma shouted in anguish.

  Then, she vanished. A teleport—!

  But Kojou had anticipated that from the start.

  Yuuma could not attack Kojou—or rather, her very own body.

  If she caused harm to her own body, the spatial control spell would be broken and Kojou’s consciousness would return to his own flesh and blood. For her part, Yuuma would return to her own wounded body, unable to do any more. If Kojou came at her with the intention of killing his own body, Yuuma really had no choice but to run.

  And Kojou knew where she’d go.

  Yuuma’s objective was to take out Natsuki. With Kojou away from Natsuki’s side, that was naturally where Yuuma would jump to—to the place she could kill Natsuki in her continued sleep.

  So Kojou didn’t wait.

  Before Yuuma had even reappeared from her teleport, he threw the spear with everything he had.

  When Yuuma returned from teleporting, she saw the silver spear flying through the air, aimed at her heart.

  “Ugh…! Le Bleu—!”

  Realizing she’d never evade it, she commanded her own Guardian to defend her. The heavily armored blue knight crossed its arms to block the spear. Without spiritual energy of his own, Kojou’s throw did not imbue Snowdrift Wolf with its proper, magic-nullifying properties. It couldn’t breach the Guardian’s defense—!

  “It didn’t work?!”

  Kojou slid into despair.

  The next moment, a small girl wearing a blue dress cut into his peripheral vision.

  Making an elegant smile, she spun around in midair and unleashed a ferocious spinning back kick into the butt of the spear, stuck in the blue knight’s arms…

  “—No, senpai. This victory is ours.”

  Before Yukina finished speaking, Snowdrift Wolf released a dazzling glow. She had employed a kicking foot to infuse the spear with spiritual energy rather than her numb hands.

  Imbued with a Divine Oscillation Wave, the Lion King Agency’s secret weapon ran through the blue knight’s crossed arms, impaled it through its armored torso, and sank deep into the chest of Kojou Akatsuki.

  Yuuma seemed beside herself.

  “This is insane… Why, Kojou…?”

  Her murmur vanished in a high-pitched shock wave that sounded like the shattering of glass.

  The spatial control spell had been nullified; the recoil made the air itself shudder.

  The blue knight’s body seemed to melt into the air itself as it vanished.

  All that remained was Kojou’s body, slowly falling with his face up, almost like a marionette with its strings cut.

  But what Kojou’s back felt was not the hard sensation of the floor, but something soft and supple wrapping around him. Yukina had caught Kojou’s body from behind just as he was about to hit the floor.

  The scars of the deep spear wound remained in Kojou’s chest. However, the blow had just missed the heart. It was not a fatal blow to a vampire possessing a high level of regenerative ability.

  It was a grave wound nonetheless. Kojou Akatsuki made a frail moan as he pressed down on his bloody chest.

  “Ow…”

  Yukina let out a sigh of relief as she peered down at the look on the Fourth Primogenitor’s face.

  It was not a gallant face, nor a tragic one. It seemed a bit listless somehow, but it was the look of a common high schooler—it was the face he always wore, and one she knew very well.

  Yukina put her hands over both his ears, as if to keep him from hearing, as she murmured gently to herself alone.

  “Welcome back, senpai—”

  OUTRO

  It was Itogami Island—the coastal wall on the Gigafloat’s northern tip. A man stood there, the dazzling rays of the sun pouring down on him.

  He was a handsome, youthful, blond, blue-eyed aristocrat—Dimitrie Vattler.

  At the end of his gaze was an old, crumbling cathedral. It was the last redoubt of the true guardian of the prison barrier.

  All was laid bare to his vampiric super-sight. Namely, that Yuuma Tokoyogi, who had stolen the body of the Fourth Primogenitor, had been defeated by the combined efforts of Kojou Akatsuki and the Sword Shaman from the Lion King Agency.

  And that the prison barrier itself remained in ordinary space, completely vulnerable and defenseless—

  The corners of his lips turned up in a smile, Vattler murmured without a single shred of chagrin evident in his tone.

  “So the daughter of Aya Tokoyogi goes no further. A pity.”

  He extended his index finger in a rhythm that seemed childish somehow.

  “Nonetheless, now that the prison barrier has emerged, I could simply decide to destroy the final key with my very own hands—”

  His narrowed blue eyes became dyed with a blood-like crimson. Bloody mist swirled up around his entire body, finally taking the form of a gigantic serpent.

  This was one of the nine Beast Vassals that dwelled within the “blood” of Dimitrie Vattler. It was a sea serpent Beast Vassal with command over water pressure. It could instantaneously raise the pressure inside the cathedral to several thousand atmospheres, or alternatively, put it in a perfect vacuum state.

  If he killed Natsuki Minamiya while she slept, the sorcerous criminals held prisoner within her dream would be freed. Finally, Vattler would be able to test how his Beast Vassals would fare against those of the Fourth Primogenitor. It would be no bad thing to test if the Lion King Agency’s Sword Shaman could overcome this crisis, either.

  But before that— Vattler looked behind him.

  “Shakala!”

  Then, he mercilessly unleashed his own Beast Vassal.

  The container yard of Island North was an industrial harbor and storage area for raw materials and other supplies brought in by freighter for corporate interests in the Demon Sanctuary. The harbor’s operations were suspended for the opening of the Hollow Eve Festival, so no longshoremen remained. The only things in the yard were innumerable containers and empty space.

  An unfamiliar silhouette stood on top of one pile of containers.

  She was a small girl probably not halfway through her teens. However, Vattler was sensitive to the surge of demonic energy surrounding her. That was why he unleashed his Beast Vassal.

  Vattler’s Beast Vassal homed in on the object of his master’s ire, changing its flesh to a super high pressure rush of water as it attacked her.

  The attack from Vattler’s Beast Vassal had an atmospheric pressure of one hundred thousand—enough to change carbon into diamond. However, the girl swept out a single hand; with her hand alone, she stopped an Old Guard vampire’s Beast Vassal in its tracks.

  The impact sent a waterspout-like squall raging all around, causing several containers to tumble down. Even so, the girl continued to look down at Vattler, her expression unchanged.

  The girl spoke in a cold, crisp voice.

  “That is far enough, Master of Serpents… It is not yet time to disturb their slumber…”

  It was an awkward tone, as if one person was using another’s mouth and tongue to speak.

  The girl was wearing a black one-piece dress. It tightly squeezed her waist, distinctly showing off the lines of her young body. She wore a band on her head with animal ears poking up. She was wearing cat’s paw boots over knee-high, black socks. Apparently it was a black cat costume of some sort. When he looked closely, he could see a tail, too.

  However, behind the cute outfit, the girl’s wide-open eyes conveyed no emotion at all. Only her lips smiled.

  The corners of Vattler’s lips curled up in amusement as he asked…

  “Who are you?”

  The girl made no reply. Her hair was fairly long, but perhaps because she wore it short most of the time, it was oddly disheveled. Vattler did not know that the girl was called by the name of Nagisa Akatsuki, nor did the girl herself announce such a name now.

  “—So you have no intention of replying, I take it?”

  New Beast Vassals appeared to Vattler’s left and rig
ht. The Beast Vassals, now totaling three, spiraled together, transforming into a single Beast Vassal. It was a three-headed dragon with black scales. The dragon breathed in the surrounding air seemingly without limit, further increasing its mass. It loomed as large as a monster from myth and legend. Its appearance made one think it was a natural disaster, such as an atmospheric disturbance turned typhoon, made into physical flesh.

  “Then I shall play with you in his place—!”

  Vattler unleashed the monster upon the cat-eared girl.

  It was far too massive a Beast Vassal to target a single person with. The aftershocks of the attack alone would be enough to inflict grievous damage upon Itogami Island’s man-made surface plating. It went without saying that the girl at ground zero would be annihilated without any trace of her remaining. Vattler narrowed his eyes as he expected to see just that, when…

  The next instant, his entire body endured an unforeseen shock that sent him flying.

  “Guh…gaha…!”

  Flying about ninety meters from his starting location until being smashed against a breakwater, Vattler coughed blood all about. Vattler’s attack, released very much toward the girl, had backlashed against him.

  Every drop of blood in his body suddenly chafed and seethed under the pressure. The right side of his torso had been liquefied; not a single bone in his body had escaped damage. A normal human, demon, or a sane level of vampire would have surely died instantly. The fact he did not even lose consciousness was because he was a vampire aristocrat with the blood of a primogenitor flowing through his veins.

  Its supply of demonic energy cut off, Vattler’s Beast Vassal had already dematerialized and vanished.

  In its place appeared a new Beast Vassal, transparent like the ice of a glacier. It was a beautiful Beast Vassal not even ten meters long. The upper half of its body resembled a human woman; the lower half was in the form of a fish. Wings grew out of her back; sharp, wicked claws extended from her fingertips.

  A mermaid or perhaps a siren—

  With a frigid aura surrounding it, the Beast Vassal glared down at Vattler as if it was protecting the cat-eared girl.