Strike the Blood, Vol. 6 (light novel): Return of the Alchemist

by Gakuto Mikumo

  “I was right to double back. To think it would hide itself like this…”

  However, his words were directed not to either of them, but to himself. Amatsuka completely ignored Kojou, who was facing him with open hostility. Instead, he had eyes only for the blood-drenched Asagi. He seemed intent on taking her corpse.

  “Stop right there, alchemist—!” Kojou moved in front of his fallen friend, blocking off the alchemist’s path. It was then that Amatsuka finally seemed to notice Kojou and Yukina’s existence. He silently shifted his gaze over them, exhaling in obvious tedium.

  Kojou, barely suppressing the bloodlust in his tone, offered, “I’ll ask this once. Are you the one who killed Asagi?”

  But Amatsuka only narrowed his eyes inquisitively. “And who is ‘Asagi’? Which one of the corpses lying around here is she?”

  “Why, you…”

  A high-frequency buzz enveloped Kojou’s right fist. The magical power leaking out was the same as a Beast Vassal’s, but it wasn’t out of control—Kojou was using his vampiric power of his own free will.

  He could control this. He’d show everyone, so that Asagi’s death would not be in vain…so that he wouldn’t let anyone else die on his watch.

  The alchemist sighed. “Get out of my way, Fourth Primogenitor—”

  He raised his right arm without so much as a warning. His fingertips flowed into the shape of a whip, which he quickly used to attack. That much, Kojou had expected. But Amatsuka had not unleashed a single attack: His arm split off at the elbow into dozens of streams, each one attacking from a different angle, like autonomous snakes.

  Even a vampire’s reaction speed was insufficient to evade them all. And what’s more, Amatsuka wielded the power of transmutation—the secret alchemical technique that could render an immortal vampire powerless in a single moment.

  Kojou froze in the face of the unavoidable attack.

  But Amatsuka was the one who was blown back: Yukina leaped in from a blind spot on his side and pounded him with a ferocious high kick.

  “Roaring Thunder—!”

  The young man’s thin frame was launched into the air by the Sword Shaman’s power-infused blow, enough to bring a stout beast man to his knees. The moment Kojou saw that, he, too, leaped off the ground.

  “It’s over, Amatsuka!!”

  Kojou’s right fist, surrounded by wild wind, thrust right through Amatsuka’s body.

  He hadn’t held back at all. A mere human body couldn’t withstand a punch from full vampiric strength, let alone one augmented by the power of a Beast Vassal. The likely result was that he would be blown apart without a trace. Despite that, Kojou didn’t hold back. He couldn’t.

  It wasn’t because Amatsuka had killed Asagi. It was that Kojou somehow understood from his demonic instincts that if he didn’t defeat Amatsuka with one blow, Yukina would be the next to die.

  The alchemist’s body, bent into an unnatural shape, slammed into the footpath, gouging out the paved surface.

  Even few demons could withstand that level of damage.

  And yet, Amatsuka endured.

  Kojou and Yukina watched as the alchemist slowly picked himself up. His chin had been shattered by Yukina’s kick; his torso had been caved in by Kojou’s punch. His spine appeared to be broken. No human should have been able to stand in that condition.

  But Amatsuka wasn’t human.

  He looked at his own skin, from the collar of his ripped coat on down.

  “You two are such horrible people… I can’t maintain my proper form like this, can I…”

  His skin was metal, covered in what looked like black rust. The onyx stone embedded in place of his heart had broken apart, crumbling down to his feet. Perhaps that had triggered the sudden warping of his contours.

  His human shape collapsed, replaced by pitch-black ooze. He was now an amorphous mass of liquid metal.

  Kojou stared at the creature that had been Amatsuka until a moment before. “What the heck is this guy…?”

  “Don’t tell me…it’s Wiseman’s Blood…?” Yukina asked, horrified.

  Kojou did a double take. Wiseman’s Blood was an immutable body with inexhaustible magical energy, the flesh of the perfect “God” that alchemists sought.

  “—Senpai!”

  Kojou was standing there, half-lost in disbelief, when Yukina sent him flying with a blow to his side. The next moment, a black beam rushed to the place Kojou had just been standing. The asphalt of the footpath was blown apart without a sound, deeply gouging the ground as if an earthquake had cracked it open.

  It must have been an attack from Amatsuka, but it had materialized so fast he couldn’t understand what had happened. If not for Yukina’s Spirit Sight, gazing just an instant into the future, both would have been annihilated without a trace. Apparently, Amatsuka could no longer use transmutation now that he’d lost his human form, but instead, he’d gained a monstrous level of offensive power.

  If the fight stretched on, Kojou and Yukina had little chance of winning.

  Yukina looked back. “Senpai! He’s already—”

  “Got it!”

  Kojou nodded without hesitation. Amatsuka was now no longer an alchemist nor demon, nor even a person; he was a misshapen monster incapable of sentient thought. Kojou couldn’t even imagine how many people would die should he be allowed to live.

  Kojou figured, as someone granted the stupidly huge power of the World’s Mightiest Vampire, he had a duty to wipe out a creature like this…

  He raised his arms high as blood gushed out of them.

  “C’mon over, Al-Meissa Mercury!!”

  The blood shimmered like a mirage and changed into the form of a giant Beast Vassal. This was the third of the twelve summoned beasts that served the Fourth Primogenitor, dwelling in his own blood—a two-headed serpentine dragon covered in quicksilver scales.

  The pitch-black ooze that had once been Amatsuka roared.

  “Oo…oo… Oooooo…”

  Giant tentacles stretched out, trying to impale the twin-headed dragon’s body. But the silver beast let it do no such thing; its snake-like body flowed like a river, opening its cavernous maw to swallow the attack whole. It was determined not to leave a single trace of the attack behind.

  The third Beast Vassal of the Fourth Primogenitor was a Dimension Eater, able to consume any space and the dimension itself with it, erasing it from the world.

  “Oooooooooooooo…!”

  Even an amalgamated, self-propagating, immutable, regenerating body was powerless before the two-headed dragon’s attack. The black ooze, now certain of its own defeat, tried to split itself apart and flee. However,

  “—Devour it, Al-Meissa Mercury!!”

  The two giant heads descended, swallowing up all the pieces of the liquid body and annihilating them.

  All that remained was the wrecked public park and the shattered pieces of a black jewel.

  It took Kojou some effort to dispel the summoning, since the two-headed serpent seemed dismayed at not having gotten to rampage enough. Letting out a long sigh, Kojou looked down at the shattered gemstone that had been part of Amatsuka.

  “Is it…over now…?”

  Kojou stood still in the twilight as Yukina gazed without a word.

  The misshapen alchemist was no more. But that was not the result Kojou had sought. In the end, they still had no idea what Amatsuka had been after.

  However, she didn’t think Kojou even wanted to know. Knowing would not bring Asagi’s life back. Asagi had been killed, and was now gone forev—

  That was when they heard a familiar voice.

  “Ko…jou…?”

  Kojou and Yukina, standing in silence, whipped their heads around. Atop the footpath, with debris scattered everywhere, a schoolgirl with gorgeous looks awkwardly rose to her feet.

  “Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow… Whoa?! What the heck happened?!”

  Asagi looked down at the sight of her ripped uniform and two bloodstained arms and let out a pathetic s
hriek. Meanwhile, Kojou and Yukina were in complete shock at this display of frivolity.

  She shouldn’t have even been alive. He hadn’t needed to check for a pulse or breathing. He’d found her in a pool of blood, her body deeply sliced up. There was no way an ordinary person, a non-vampire, could come back from that condition…

  “Asagi… It’s you…?” Kojou nervously asked.

  Asagi, looking up to see the doubt on Kojou’s face, seemed somewhat amused as she smiled. She had that completely unsexy smirk on her face.

  “Who else do I look like? Er, wait, what the heck?!”

  As she stood up, Asagi finally noticed the horrid sight around her.

  Kojou could understand where she was coming from. The convent’s collapsed edifice, the wrecked park, the gouged-out footpath… She’d probably never believe that she had been part of that harrowing spectacle just moments before.

  An involuntary smile came over Kojou’s face as he murmured flatly, “What the heck’s going on around here…?”

  When Yukina noticed the look on his face, relief came over hers, too.

  As Kojou raised his voice in laughter, a blood-drenched Asagi stared at him, mystified.

  CHAPTER THREE

  RETURN OF THE ALCHEMIST

  1

  It was a short time later when a large Island Guard unit swarmed the ruined abbey. Kojou and the others hid in the shadow of a vending machine as they waited for the convoy to pass by.

  It wasn’t out of any aversion to the Island Guard. The fight with Amatsuka had been legitimate self-defense, and Asagi was a mere victim of the incident.

  That said, there was no doubt whatsoever that being found there would cause a great deal of trouble for both Kojou, an unregistered vampire, and Yukina, his watcher. Plus, Asagi had just come back to life; her whole body was still covered in blood. Had they been captured in that situation, Kojou didn’t think they’d be released anytime soon. The only likely way out of it would be to bow his head to Natsuki and beg for her to clear things up.

  Fortunately, their presence wasn’t noticed; the three even managed to make it back onto school grounds. By then the city was enveloped in evening darkness, so Asagi’s tattered clothing didn’t stand out too much.

  “So about that red-and-white checkered alchemist?” Kojou asked.

  As they walked, Asagi was fussing over how dried blood was knotting up her hair. She replied, “Ah… That was an alchemist? I thought he was a washed-up actor or something. After that there was some kind of oozing monster that looked like quicksilver… I wonder where that ran off to?”

  “Er, ah, maybe a vampire and his watcher passing through kicked its ass…”

  “Huh?”

  Asagi’s skeptical reply completely threw Kojou off.

  A faint sliver of doubt had crept into his head even as he furiously tried to think of a proper excuse. If he could take Asagi’s words at face value, she believed that the ooze monster she’d seen and Amatsuka, defeated by Kojou, were completely separate—?

  Seeing Kojou at a loss for words, Yukina tossed him a life preserver: “Things were like this when we arrived, so we don’t know anything about the details.”

  “…That so. You’d think the Island Guard would be mopping things up right around now…”

  As might well have been expected, Asagi readily accepted her explanation, because she had no idea Kojou had become a vampire. It wasn’t that she was dense; Kojou’s state of being was just so far-fetched. After all, a normal human being suddenly becoming a vampire primogenitor should have been completely impossible; Asagi’s long friendship with Kojou probably gave her a blind spot where that change was concerned.

  Kojou looked sidelong at Asagi’s face as he asked, “More importantly, there’s really nothing wrong with you?”

  She had no large external injuries he could see. Even the cut on the tip of her finger had apparently healed over. That threw off Kojou and Yukina all the more, for they had been certain the fresh blood spatter all around Asagi was her own.

  There ought to have been no way a vampire like Kojou could get the scent of her blood wrong. And yet—

  “Of course there’s something wrong with me!! Look, see here, it’s not just my clothes, my bra’s been cut right in t… I take that back, don’t look!!”

  Asagi, who had been showing off the damage to her own clothing, reached critical mass with great fanfare.

  She sure looked like the usual Asagi. It wasn’t how you’d think someone who’d died a little earlier would behave.

  Feeling like an idiot for having worried, Kojou listlessly mumbled to himself, “She actually seems all right.”

  Yukina nodded in agreement. “It would seem so. But just to be safe, I think it would be best if she was examined at a hospital.”

  “I think so, too, but how the heck would we explain this to a doctor?”

  Asagi tapered her lips in clear dissatisfaction. “Hold on now. I can only imagine what a load of trouble that’d be. Maybe you two just saw wrong and I was never in any real danger to begin with?”

  She had no concept of having just come back to life, so her desire to avoid annoyances was taking precedence. But Kojou was especially resolute.

  “Well, you definitely blacked out, so it’s probably best to have a doc look at you. Post-concussion stuff can get nasty. I mean, how about I ask my mother to take a look?”

  “…Oh yeah, that’s right, your mom’s over at the MAR lab…”

  Asagi’s attitude softened just a little. She folded her arms, mulling it over.

  “Well, it’d be better having her examine me than someone else. Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Mimori.”

  “Okay, let’s do that. I’ll take you as far as the lab.”

  Having succeeded in persuading Asagi, Kojou exhaled in exhausted relief. Now they were almost at an intersection leading to the station.

  As Kojou and Asagi waited for the lights to change, Yukina bowed her head in perfect politeness. “Well then, if you will excuse me, I must be on my way.”

  “Going back to the antique shop?”

  Yukina lowered her voice to a murmur so that Asagi couldn’t hear. “Yes. I must report to Master Shike and ask her to get in touch with the Island Guard. Also, there’s the small fact that the shikigami she lent us was wrecked.”

  Sorry, offered Kojou as he waved to her. After all, the cause of the Sayaka look-alike shikigami being destroyed was that Kojou had lost control of himself, letting his demonic power run amok. Odds were pretty good that Yukina’s teacher would be miffed at having had her intricate shikigami ruined.

  “Sorry, and thanks. I, um, hope she doesn’t pull any of that humiliation crap on you.”

  Yukina’s face twitched, and then she hastily shook her head. “I-I have no idea. She is rather, ah, taken to whims.”

  Though Kojou had been the one to directly wreck the shikigami, Yukina might well have indirect responsibility put upon her. No doubt she was picturing herself wearing an embarrassing outfit at that very moment.

  “Senpai… Um, are you all right?”

  “Eh?”

  “Senpai, if you hadn’t annihilated Kou Amatsuka…no, that monster, I would probably have been killed, so…”

  Kojou looked at Yukina’s worried expression and quietly smiled back at her.

  Even if it was legitimate self-defense, the fact remained that Kojou had killed Amatsuka. It was a bitter pill to swallow; Kojou’s heart felt as heavy as molten lead. No doubt Yukina had picked up on Kojou’s internal turmoil.

  But if anything, Kojou was surprised at how calm he was about the whole thing.

  “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry about it.” Kojou lightly set his hand on top of Yukina’s head.

  For a moment, an image of a girl rose up from the back of his mind. I see, thought Kojou, suddenly understanding. She was a girl with rainbow-colored hair like a surging flame, and eyes like blazing fire. She was the girl Kojou had once consumed, taking the power of the Fou
rth Primogenitor from her.

  This wasn’t the first time Kojou had killed someone. Maybe that explained his soberness.

  As they watched Yukina go into the distance, Asagi seemed beside herself as she said, “…You know, it’s fine to go see Mimori, but don’t tell me you want to get on the monorail dressed like this? I’d better head home first.”

  As Asagi stood still, Kojou looked at her and quietly murmured, “Ah, yeah. Got a point there.”

  Kojou could hide her tattered uniform by giving her his jacket, but there was nothing he could do to hide her blood-drenched hair and skirt. Someone would absolutely call the police if she went on the monorail dressed like that.

  Kojou looked up at the nearby road map. “It’s a bit far, but how about walking to my place? Can at least get a change of clothes there.”

  Kojou’s residence, located in Island South just like their school, would probably take about forty minutes by foot. Although annoying, it wasn’t a great distance.

  “Suppose that’s the best option. Geez, why’d it have to go like this?” Asagi grumbled, messing with her right ear. Even though she’d almost died earlier, she was apparently preoccupied with her earring.

  Watching her like that, Kojou sighed heavily.

  “…What?”

  “Well, um, I was just thinking I’m glad that you’re alive.”

  As Kojou muttered and looked away, Asagi blinked rapidly, mystified. But then, an impetuous leer came over her face.

  “Did you cry?”

  “I did not.”

  “Sorry. I’ll give you a hankie.”

  “I said I didn’t cry.”

  Kojou’s familiar reply made Asagi laugh aloud.

  And so the two began walking to Kojou’s house, the distance between them just the same as ever.

  2

  When Kojou arrived, Nagisa was waiting to greet him in an apron. She didn’t even give Kojou time to say I’m back before rushing over and burying him in words.

  “Welcome back, Kojou. You’re so late! Did you get the milk?”

  “Whaddaya mean, milk? That’s news to me.”