“My body is…being devoured… Amatsuka! Do something, Amatsuka!”
The alchemist smiled coldly and gave a single wave of the cane in his left hand. From somewhere came a crunching sound, like teeth biting down.
“Do not be concerned. It will be over soon—”
Senmu’s throat let out a scream before Amatsuka even finished speaking.
The man’s back, barely maintaining its original shape, recoiled as the liquid metal encroached farther. Black gemstones appeared all over his flesh—they were Dummy Cores that Amatsuka had constructed. The alchemist had explained that they were necessary to control the Wiseman’s Blood, and so had embedded them into Senmu’s body. However, Amatsuka’s true objective was nothing as small as control of the metal itself.
“I have been waiting for this moment, Master…for the moment you awakened the Wiseman’s Blood. Without your Hard Core, the Spirit Blood would remain mere scrap metal. However, once merged with the Wiseman’s Blood, you are immutable. Therefore, to steal the Spirit Blood, I must destroy you from within while you are not yet in a completely awakened state…like this.”
Amatsuka made a high-pitched laugh as the Dummy Cores in Senmu’s body split asunder, releasing the rituals engraved within. A deep black ichor flowed into the crimson liquid metal like poison pouring into a pond. The Dummy Cores, running amok, ripped Senmu’s body apart.
“Aaaaargh, Amatsuka! You bastard—?!”
The bodyguards rushed to try to save their boss, but they, too, were consumed by the liquid metal and dissolved.
Only a portion of Senmu’s upper torso remained as he asked weakly, “Why, Amatsuka…? Why did you betray me…? Did you want to monopolize the Spirit Blood for yourself?!”
Amatsuka laughed mockingly. “That’s not it at all, Senmu. Quite the opposite.”
Finally, the corruption of the Dummy Cores absorbed Nina Adelard’s nearly awakened body as well. Every corner of her beautiful body blackened, cracked, and broke into tiny pieces.
“I am truly grateful to you, Senmu, so I shall grant you your desire. Your body shall live on forever as part of the Spirit Blood—!”
Amatsuka laughed like a guiltless adolescent as he turned his back on what was once Senmu.
Behind him, the jet-black Wiseman’s Blood ominously wailed and began to violently thrash around like a wounded beast.
4
The evening sun’s rays shone upon the road, which climbed to the top of the gentle hill. Next to it, Asagi continued walking up the urethane chip–covered footpath as she touched her beloved smartphone to her ear. Through the receiver, she heard Kojou’s voice, unusually tense.
“—Asagi? Oh, great timing. You really bailed me out. Er… So, did something happen?”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry to bug you all of a sudden.”
Asagi was a little thrown off by just how polite Kojou was being. He made it sound like her phone call had given him the excuse he needed to dodge some kind of life-or-death crisis…
Well that’s all fine, thought Asagi as she regained her senses. “I wanted to ask for a favor… Ah, did you get home by any chance?”
For a moment, there was an unnatural pause. It seemed Kojou was wondering whether or not it was a good idea to answer.
“Nah, I’m still out and about. I’m at a shop in West District Six.”
“District Six… That’s the love hotel district?!”
Asagi’s cheek twitched. Of course she knew about the place; everyone living on Itogami Island knew about Island West District Six, even elementary school children. Not that Asagi had set foot in the place herself, of course—
“Don’t tell me you…?!”
“I am not!! I’m at an antique shop! It’s run by some acquaintance of Himeragi’s.”
Asagi tilted her head. “There’s an antique shop in that area…?” she asked, mostly to herself.
It didn’t sound like Kojou was lying. In fact, she thought she heard a cat meowing and someone speaking behind him. “Well, I don’t know what’s up with that, but it sounds like you’re not exactly busy over there?” she finished.
“Not really. So what’s the favor?”
Kojou’s question was a carefree one. Meanwhile, Asagi cleared her throat. Hers wasn’t exactly the kind of thing she wanted to tell him…
“Hey, do you remember the earrings you got me for my birthday?”
“Ah…yeah, the blue ones you made me buy for you.”
“They’re not blue, they’re turquoise!!” Asagi replied sullenly. There was meaning behind the color.
“So what about them?”
Asagi strained to keep her voice cheerful as she confessed, “Sorry. Looks like I dropped one, ah-ha-ha-ha… It was probably when you wrestled me down in the park during lunch break—”
“Eh?!”
She felt like Kojou had frozen on the other end of the call. She added, “I’m looking for it right now, but I’m not sure I can find it on my own. I thought maybe you could lend me a hand looking for it before it gets dark?”
“Y-you idiot—!”
“Hah?!”
This time, Kojou’s shout over the phone made Asagi stiffen. She hadn’t expected Kojou to get angry about that part.
“What’s the big deal?!” she snapped back. I mean, it’s my fault for losing it, but you don’t have to put it like that—”
“Not that!! Never mind the damned earring!”
“Ah…?”
Snap! Kojou’s rude remark was the last straw for Asagi. “Don’t tell me never mind! That’s the one I had you buy for me—I mean, anyway, it’s special!!”
“I’m saying, the Island Guard guys are guarding the place! It’s dangerous around that convent! Get away from there before you get in trouble, now!”
“Eh?”
Asagi was thrown by how seriously bent out of shape Kojou sounded. Apparently, the earring wasn’t what had him so nervous. He wasn’t angry at her—he was worried about her. But wasn’t that overreacting just a bit?
“…You don’t need to be so serious about it,” she replied. “It’s all right, it’s not like I’m skipping class this time. Besides, the Island Guard being there makes it safer, right?”
“Just get away from there! I’ll buy you jewelry later! As much as you want!!”
Kojou pleaded with her.
The words were clearly spoken in haste, but Asagi was not one to let such an opportunity slip by her. “…Really?”
“Yeah!”
“Not just earrings, but, like, a r-ring, too? It doesn’t have to be expensive…”
“I’ll get anything you want, so just—”
Asagi, sensing what was coming, pulled the smartphone away from her ear as Kojou yelled, “—Go home ASAP!”
“Yes, yes. I understand. I’ll just do one last pass and head home.”
“Go back now!!” Kojou bellowed from the bottom of his gut.
Yes, yes, Asagi soothed, letting the words go in one ear and out the other. She didn’t know what had him so worked up, but having him worry about her was far from unpleasant. He’d even promised to buy her a ring; that made her inclined to cut her search for the earring short like she’d promised.
It was the very next moment that a roar accompanied the ground shaking.
For a second, Asagi’s body floated in the air, making her roll onto the footpath like she’d been tossed aside. The bag over her shoulder went flying, with the contents scattering around her.
“Asagi?! What was that sound—?!”
Apparently Kojou had heard it, too. His question sounded like he’d just gone pale.
But Asagi could not answer.
It wasn’t that she didn’t understand what had happened. It was that she lacked the words to explain it.
The abbey was collapsing, and in its place emerged an amorphous, wriggling, jet-black fluid resembling a single-celled organism. It was neither metal nor flesh, nor did it even possess a shape—how did one describe such a creature?
“I don’t…know… What…is that thing…?! It’s like…blood…? A quicksilver…woman?!”
Asagi bit back the pain in her body and staggered to her feet. As she did, the pitch-black liquid-body continued making bizarre sounds as it changed into a variety of shapes.
It took a shape evoking pathetic life-forms that had tried to evolve but failed. It was a fish out of water, a bird fallen to the ground, a grotesque beast, and a human being, all at once. If there existed such a thing as a chimera with a mix of multiple life-forms’ DNA, perhaps it would resemble that.
Furthermore, the monster continued to grow in size. It fused indiscriminately with matter all around it to increase its own mass. If it had been the size of a compact car at first, it had already swelled to the size of a small truck.
As Asagi stood there, she heard a voice. You must run, it announced with pep.
“—Huh?”
A young man stood on the hill, looking down at Asagi. He wore gaudy red-and-white clothes like those of a stage magician. His laugh sounded innocent, but his eyes were so cold they made her shudder.
“Oh no,” he mocked. “I’ve been spotted. Oh well… You’ll be gone in but a moment.”
The pitch-black monster roared. Its amorphous body seemed to unravel in thin, ribbon-like bands. By the time Asagi realized that these were not ribbons, but tentacles resembling giant, razor-sharp blades, it was too late.
“Ah?”
Asagi’s body floated into the air, freed from the shackles of gravity. Rather belatedly, she heard the sound of the air cracking.
The tentacle that the black monster unleashed had mowed down Asagi’s body like the sickle of the Grim Reaper.
No doubt the real target of the monster’s attack was the young man in the white coat. Asagi had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the youth had mowed down the monster’s tentacle with his own right hand, resulting in the massive severed limb striking Asagi, an innocent bystander, in the chest. And so, she fell.
Rolling faceup onto the ground, Asagi murmured in a daze, “No…way…”
She didn’t feel any pain. Instead, she gazed in wonder at the sight of the evening sky—and how her own fresh blood matched its color. It was like watching beautiful rubies rain down around her.
“So it escaped,” the young man in the white coat murmured. “That could have gone better… Oh well.”
The pitch-black monster had already vanished from sight. Perhaps it had been frightened off by his counterattack? The young man departed as well, showing not the slightest interest in the girl on the hill, fallen and drenched in blood.
Asagi laughed sickly as, with the last of her strength, she wrung out the words:
“Sorry, Kojou… Looks like…I messed up…”
The smartphone was no longer in Asagi’s hands, and so her words never reached him. She desperately reached out, but all that her fingertips touched was a fragment of a coldly glittering red stone…
5
The sun had nearly reached the western horizon by the time Kojou entered the deserted park.
He remembered getting on the monorail, but after that it was all a blur. He’d simply kept running and running until he arrived. He’d tried calling Asagi over and over during that time, but she hadn’t picked up.
Kojou would soon become painfully aware of the reason why.
“What…is this…?”
The first thing he noticed was the change in the abbey.
The entrance to the chapel had been completely wrecked, with debris strewn all over the place. It looked like some giant monster had emerged from the inside, destroying everything on its way out of the building.
Also, there was no sign of the Island Guard members policing the property. Instead, there were only metal sculptures strewn about, lying sideways on the floor.
Kojou implicitly understood this to be the work of the alchemist. But he had no business with Amatsuka that moment. There was only one person he was looking for.
“Where’s Asagi…?”
Kojou was assailed by unease and despair as he desperately searched for any sign of his friend. Having known her for years, he was confident he could instantly pick her out of a large crowd, yet now he could sense no sign of her in an empty greenspace.
“Asagi! Asagi, where are you…?!”
Maybe Amatsuka took her with him? Kojou wondered. That was the worst scenario he could think of, and if that was the case, he’d do whatever it took to find the alchemist and get Asagi back.
Yes. He’d be able to get her back. After all, there wasn’t even a single reason why he’d kill Asagi, so—
“Asa…gi…”
But Kojou had known the truth from the start. His abominable vampiric powers had told him as much.
There was a faint scent mixed into the air. It was a scent he had been so close to that he hadn’t noticed it before: the scent of sweet, lovely blood.
The scent of Asagi’s blood.
“You’re…kidding me… Hey… Why is this…?”
A girl in a school uniform as scarlet as dusk was lying in a pool of blood to match.
The uniform had been dolled up right to the edge of what was allowed by school regulations and her hair was styled in a cheery, elegant way. With her eyes closed, when seen from the side like this, her real, serious personality shone through on her face.
She was truly beautiful, though she always carried a smarmy smirk. Even so, he wouldn’t see that smile again.
For Asagi Aiba…was dead.
“Hey… Don’t mess with me here… You wouldn’t end up like this, right?”
One of her things strewn on the ground was a cookbook she’d borrowed from the library. Several of her fingertips were atypically covered in Band-Aids. Even Kojou wasn’t dense enough to miss what she was doing with such uncharacteristic injuries.
Yet there was nothing more that Kojou could do for her. Not anymore.
Kojou was still standing there, dumbfounded, when Yukina called out to him.
“Senpai!”
She’d no doubt been chasing after him since the station.
She sounded out of breath. But when she noticed Asagi lying lifeless, Yukina’s face went pale.
“Asagi…?! Oh my God…”
Her firm voice was shaking. Even though she was a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency, she was just an apprentice. She probably had little to no experience seeing people close to her pass away.
Kojou belatedly muttered, “It’s…my fault…”
Yukina looked up at him in surprise. “What?”
“It’s just like you told me… I got an innocent person involved because I brought her here without thinking…!”
“That’s…not…”
Yukina tried to refute him on the spot but swallowed her words when she saw Kojou’s eyes. His face was twisted in rage, his eyes glowing a crimson hue. The incredible surge of magical energy dispersing around him was making the man-made ground tremble beneath them.
His Beast Vassals were awakening—the beasts summoned from another world that dwelled in the blood of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, and served him. They were responding to Kojou’s anger, attempting to rampage beyond his control.
Yukina desperately rushed over to her classmate. “Please, hold on, senpai! Senpai—!”
But the explosive release of magical energy blocked her path. She couldn’t even stay standing, let alone go to his side.
Only Snowdrift Wolf could have opposed that outflow of magical energy. However, it no longer rested in her hands, having been sealed away.
The berserk magical energy further intensified, producing thunderbolts and shock waves in its wake. Yukina, assailed by the surge, ended up being saved by the Sayaka look-alike.
She appeared out of thin air, deployed a powerful defensive ward, and became Yukina’s shield, protecting her from what would have been fatal blows.
She was a creature of super-high-level magic wrought by Yukari Endou,
her master and sorcerous genius of the Lion King Agency—yet protecting Yukina took up all her strength. Yukari herself, far away in High God Forest, had no way of stopping Kojou’s rampage.
The foundation of the man-made island trembled and cried out ominously as the cracks beneath Kojou’s feet continued to spread, no doubt from the power of his Beast Vassals, as yet unseen. If Kojou’s demonic power continued to rage unabated like this, Itogami Island’s destruction would only be a matter of time.
“Senpai, please, calm down! Get ahold of yourself! Do you want to let Nagisa die, too?!”
Her voice shouldn’t have reached him, but Kojou, lost to anger, suddenly responded to her. Light returned to his eyes; the thunder and lightning broke off a moment later, the wind calming in its wake.
Kojou wobbled as he murmured brokenly, “Nagi…sa…”
He fell to the ground as Yukina rushed over to him. With a shock, Kojou realized Yukina was bleeding from her forehead—he’d hurt her.
“Himeragi…you’re…”
“It’s okay. Master’s shikigami shielded me, so I’m all right…”
As Yukina spoke she looked over her shoulder, where the look-alike shikigami turned into countless white sheets of paper before their eyes. The ritual scrolls had run out of the energy with which they’d been imbued.
Tears flowed ceaselessly from Yukina’s eyes as she whispered, “I’m all right… I’ll always be at your side, senpai… So please, get ahold of yourself. Do it for Aiba! Don’t let her tragedy be why you lose control and cause the end of everything…”
Her tears calmed Kojou a little.
Yet again, she had saved him. And she spoke the truth: He couldn’t lose himself here. There were still things he had to do for Asagi’s sake.
There had to be things left for him to do. Since he’d let Asagi die—
“Huh. I thought there was a little missing. So it fell down somewhere over here…?”
A cold, airy voice floated over to him, as if mocking Kojou’s resolve. It came from a young male alchemist wearing a white coat. He wasn’t wearing his characteristic checkered hat or carrying his cane, but Kojou wouldn’t mistake the face anywhere. It was Kou Amatsuka.
Amatsuka, appearing from the shade of a few decorative trees along the road, leisurely walked toward Kojou and Yukina.
Strike the Blood, Vol. 6 (light novel): Return of the Alchemist Page 8
