He didn’t know what Nina, having been granted an immortal body she had not sought, was thinking when she arrived at the Demon Sanctuary and founded an abbey, but she’d no doubt gained a surrogate family in the process, letting her live her days in tranquility. At least, until the abbey was destroyed five years ago—
“Nina?”
After drifting into such thoughts for a bit, Kojou realized Nina was standing still a short distance away. It was a place where there’d no doubt been heavy combat. As she crouched forward, she was surrounded by fragments of destroyed vehicles and countless empty bullet casings. There were also faint traces of the Spirit Blood scattered about. The fragments, once frozen by the Island Guard’s freezing attack, had thawed, and had begun to move once more.
However, it was not the Spirit Blood that Nina reached her hand out to, but to the human bones scattered everywhere.
Kojou went rigid with shock when he realized just how many there were.
“Those bones… They’re not from Island Guard guardsmen, are they…? How could this happen…”
The bones weren’t just from a few people. At a minimum, there were dozens of skeletons. In particular, there were a large number of small bones, like those of children. There was only one body that looked fresh, a large-framed adult male. Everything else looked like it’d been eaten away long ago.
“They are the children and nuns consumed by Amatsuka,” Nina explained. “I know little about the man. He was likely a decoy for the purpose of planting the Dummy Core into my body.”
Nina’s eyes remained lowered in sadness as she rose back to her feet. Kojou did a double take at her words.
“Nuns…? You mean the people who lived at the abbey who died in the incident five years ago?”
Indeed, Nina muttered with a bitter smile.
“Five years ago, Amatsuka appeared before me and asked me to make him my apprentice. He had the Dummy Core with him. He said he wanted to study it, but my body was his sole objective from the beginning. He intended to steal the Wiseman’s Blood from me.”
Kojou nodded without a word. He had no intention of criticizing Nina for being deceived.
If the Dummy Core truly was able to control the Wiseman’s Blood, Nina could have freed herself from an eternity as a sacrificial lamb. To her, it must have been an irresistible temptation—
But even that fickle hope became just another part of Amatsuka’s plan to bring Wiseman back to life.
“But Amatsuka failed, huh?”
A pained smile flickered across the woman’s face.
“The Wiseman’s Blood went on a rampage when it escaped my control, slaughtering everyone at the abbey. Even Amatsuka had half his body consumed by it; he should have perished then and there. The rampage was stopped by Kanon Kanase, the girl with such rare spiritual power, and her father, Kensei Kanase, watching over Kanon from the shadows.”
“So the reason Amatsuka tried to take out Kanase and her old man is—”
“No doubt he sought to ensure father and daughter did not interfere with him a second time.”
A look of glacial anger came over Nina as she continued, “I always wondered how a man of Amatsuka’s level could have constructed the Dummy Core… But if the Wiseman had been controlling him from the very beginning, it all makes sense.”
“So Wiseman’s been using Amatsuka for his own resurrection…huh?”
Kojou remembered all the strange elements of Amatsuka’s behavior up to that point. Of course his actions had seemed inconsistent and illogical—Amatsuka hadn’t been doing them for his own benefit, but rather, to revive the sealed-away Wiseman. That was the only thing dictating his actions, even at the cost of pieces of his own body—
And just as he thought that: “H-hey, Nina?!”
Kojou was completely thrown off at the sight of Nina undoing the tie on her school uniform’s collar.
In the first place, Nina was using Asagi’s body for this. From Kojou’s point of view, it was no different than seeing Asagi suddenly start stripping right before his eyes.
However, Nina murmured in a sober tone as she reached up to Asagi’s breasts.
“These fragments of Spirit Blood are beyond the Wiseman’s control… They are not sufficient to remake my own body, but…”
Then, she plucked out the scarlet jewel embedded in her chest.
“Nina?!”
In front of Kojou’s shocked eyes, Asagi’s body began to fall.
The gemstone that fell from her fingertips made a clear, crystalline sound as it rolled onto the ground.
4
The jumbo ferry Phaeton steadily continued its voyage.
Stops at the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Harbor carried numerous annoyances compared to other routes. They’d dropped off a large amount of freight, which had involved complex customs inspections and paperwork. Now that the lengthy formalities were complete, they were on their way home, and the crewmen on duty in the pilothouse were going about their tasks with a relaxed atmosphere.
The skies were clear and sported excellent visibility. The waves were comparatively gentle. The passengers aboard, being mostly high school students on a field trip, were somewhat boisterous, but nothing beyond what they’d expected. Barring some sudden change in the weather, they’d arrive back at the mainland with few difficulties—or so they had all begun to think when they heard a guard cry out:
“Who the hell are you?!”
The other crewmen looked back.
Ferries with routes to Itogami Island were required to carry a minimum of four guards aboard. Many came from police SWAT teams or the Island Guard. They didn’t carry firearms, but they were permitted to carry stun batons and bladed weapons. They were pros at rough methods with ample combat experience against demonic opponents. And it was precisely such men that were clearly terrified at that moment.
A slim man wearing a white coat had just walked into the pilothouse. However, the entry door to the pilothouse remained closed and firmly locked. The man had not opened the door to enter. Rather, he had oozed in from an air conditioning duct on the ceiling.
“Don’t move. Stop right there—!”
The guards drew their weapons. The slender man coolly turned toward them and smiled.
“That’s fine. Though it won’t be me who stops—it will be you.”
“Wh—”
A guard wielding a stun baton tried to say something when he suddenly stopped moving—as did everything else. His entire body froze in place, changing to a color similar to rusting steel.
The alchemist, Kou Amatsuka, had reached out with his right, tentacle-like arm and transformed the guard into metal. He then transformed the two other guards into metal, and then the man at the pilot wheel, leaving only a single navigator left in the pilothouse.
The navigator’s face went pale as he cried out, “Wait. Stop, this is—”
He didn’t know the identity of the invader. But the sailor instinctively understood that the alchemist before his eyes was doing something more than a simple boat hijacking. There was something far more frightening, more evil, about the man—
Kou Amatsuka smiled as he replied, “I know. This room’s full of the ship’s navigational instruments.”
That was when he turned the navigator into metal as well.
“That’s why I came to destroy it!”
Amatsuka swung his blade-like right arm around, laughing wildly. He sent the autopilot system flying off with a great hail of sparks. Next, he took out the radio and the radar, followed by the propulsion control system, turning them into pieces of junk that anyone could see were irreparable.
The previously running propulsion system shut down, perhaps due to some safety mechanism. As a result, Phaeton lost steam and turned into a drifting ship lost at sea.
Amatsuka grinned as he beheld that fact. But when he brought his outstretched right arm back to him, his expression darkened. His fingers, transformed into a blade, did not return to human form. The blade itself was cracked
, with pieces falling off.
The liquid metal cells fused with his flesh and blood had already reached their limit.
“The degradation’s already progressed this far… Crap. The Sage works his people hard.”
Amatsuka breathed heavily as he pressed a hand to the Dummy Core embedded in his chest. He was unable to hide the look of impatience on his face.
“Well, fine. Just a little longer. Then you’ll return the other half of my body to me as promised, Wiseman!”
Amatsuka laughed like some kind of haunting spirit. He stared at the sea from the window of the pilothouse.
Here, already far from the shores of Itogami Island, there was no Fourth Primogenitor, nor any witch to oppose him. All he needed to do was provide the “fuel.”
Yet to Amatsuka’s ears came a bizarre voice, with a bizarre laugh:
Ka-ka…
5
“—Yukina, where are you going?”
Seeing her quietly head back to their cabin, Nagisa called to her with a mystified expression.
The students on the Saikai Academy field trip were assembling in the ferry’s hall. They were scheduled to watch an educational video until dinnertime. It was a boring event as far as the students were concerned, but given that it was mandatory, it took a measure of courage to dare skip it. However, Yukina quickly said, “I forgot something. Go ahead, okay?”
Yukina ran off without waiting for Nagisa’s reply.
Upon returning to the empty cabin, Yukina pulled a long, slender bundle of fabric from the bottom of her traveling bag.
A pair of wrapped knives was inside. They were plain, practical weapons, with blades around twenty-five centimeters long and parachute cord wrapped around the handle. The silver glint of metal was their sole, faint resemblance to Snowdrift Wolf.
Yukina nestled the knives into the back of her uniform and put on her coat to hide them as best she could. She then left the cabin and headed straight for the bridge.
It wasn’t that she clearly felt something was wrong. But for some reason, she experienced deep unease. Her Sword Shaman intuition told her there was danger. It was as if the very ship itself was surrounded by some malevolent force.
As Yukina rushed up the stairs, she realized with shock that there was someone walking ahead of her.
“—Eh?!”
Heading toward the EMPLOYEES ONLY section of the ship was a schoolgirl in uniform with translucent, silver hair, looking worried as she surveyed the area. Yukina called out to her.
“Kanase?”
“Ah…” Kanon seemed frightened as she looked back.
It was not the reaction of someone spotted somewhere she ought not to be; rather, she seemed afraid of wrapping Yukina up in something. That behavior led Yukina to understand Kanon’s objective.
“…You too?”
Yukina’s question was vague, but Kanon correctly read the meaning of her words. She nodded weakly and looked straight back at Yukina with her pale blue eyes.
“It seems like something bad is surrounding the ship, so…”
I have to do something, Kanon was about to add, when Yukina stopped her with a smile.
“It’s all right. I’ll handle things from here, so could you tell Ms. Sasasaki about this?”
Kanon blinked with surprise when she saw Yukina draw a knife from her back. Finally, her eyes widened in understanding.
In the latter half of October, Kanon had seen Yukina fight as a Sword Shaman during the Faux-Angel incident. Even though she still didn’t know the finer details, she seemed to understand it was right to let Yukina handle it.
“Also, take this… It’s a protective charm.” Yukina showed her open hand to Kanon. Atop her palm was a silver-colored piece of origami shaped like a wolf. Kanon seemed doubtful as she took the origami from Yukina.
“Ah, wait!” Kanon called as Yukina began to rush up the stairs.
When Yukina stopped, Kanon looked up at her with an anxious expression as she continued to speak. She held her trembling hands together in front of her chest. “I think I know this feeling. I’ve probably come across it before.”
“…Kanase, don’t tell me you know about the alchemist?” Yukina asked, puzzled.
Kanon was right there when the incident happened at Adelard Abbey five years prior. It wouldn’t be shocking if she’d met Amatsuka then. If so, she might know what Amatsuka had been after.
“Alchemist…?”
However, Kanon slowly shook her head.
“No, that is something far more frightening. I lost many dear friends to it. I do not want to see anything like that again… Yukina, please be careful…”
Yukina felt warmth swirling inside her chest as she listened to Kanon’s clumsy words. Kanon was worried about her. She was saying, I don’t want to lose you, and she was saying it because Yukina was her precious friend. Yukina, who’d only gone to the Demon Sanctuary because of her mission—
“Thank you, Kanon, sweetie. You be careful, too.”
Both nodded to each other before running separate ways.
Yukina leaped over the rope cordoning off the EMPLOYEES ONLY area and entered the bridge.
The hallway to the pilothouse was devoid of the crewmen or guards who ought to have been present. The creepy feeling prickling at her skin strengthened further.
When she reached the pilothouse, the door was still locked. But Yukina took a short breath and then spun around with a flutter of her skirt. With her high kick’s brute force, she broke down the door.
As the barricade flew open, the scene beyond it made Yukina’s expression frost over.
“This is…”
There was nothing left in the pilothouse but silence and despair.
Crewmen turned into metal sculptures lay fallen on the floor. Sparks spewed from navigational devices. Even Yukina, not noted for her skill with machines, could plainly tell that the damage was fatal.
I have to let someone know about this, thought Yukina, but the moment she spun on her heels, a jolt of malice assaulted her from behind.
A whip-like liquid metal blade lashed out, but Yukina’s knife swatted it down.
“Hiya.” The upper body of the alchemist in the white coat revealed itself as it oozed down from the air conditioner duct. “Ah, it’s you, Sword Shaman. What happened to your precious spear?”
A thin smile remained on his face as he flowed down onto the floor.
Yukina looked at him in shock. “Kou Amatsuka…?! How are… You should be dead…!”
Amatsuka laughed heartily. “That’s right. The two of you killed me.”
But Yukina immediately recovered from her shock when she realized that Amatsuka was unable to completely maintain his human form.
“Kou Amatsuka… You’re…”
The edge of the young man’s leer faltered.
“You really are a sharp one. Yes, what you see here is a clone. This body’s much easier for moving around a ship, you see—!”
A new tentacle ripped its way out of his torso and wrapped around Yukina’s knife. No doubt it meant to fuse with the knife to rob her of her weapon.
But it was Amatsuka’s expression that twisted. His tentacle was unable to assimilate the knife, and was batted down by Yukina instead.
“That knife… It’s made of enchanted meteoric iron? What a nuisance!”
Amatsuka ruefully spat out the statement as he collapsed backward. Amatsuka’s entire body changed into viscous liquid-metal and proceeded to look like it was being sucked into the slit on the drainage pipe behind him.
“Sorry, but I’ll deal with you later. There’s a limit to how many clones I want destroyed!”
“Kou Amatsuka—!”
Dumbfounded, Yukina watched as Amatsuka vanished. She had no way to stop the alchemist with her current gear. She needed Snowdrift Wolf, able to nullify any kind of magical energy, but the demon-purging spear was not in Yukina’s possession.
Surely Amatsuka was well aware of this, yet he hadn’t even tried to finish
her off. That was throwing her for a loop. Why would he just let her go like that—?
“It can’t be…!” Yukina rushed out of the pilothouse, knife in hand.
In spite of being a Sword Shaman, there was a spirit medium stronger than Yukina aboard the ship. Yes—Amatsuka had been after Kanon Kanase from the beginning.
Yukina felt a chill up her spine. She might not be able to protect those precious to her. It was the first time in her life she had truly felt such a fear.
And this time, the boy who had always saved her was nowhere to be found.
Kojou Akatsuki wasn’t there.
6
“They said the meeting place got changed.”
At the entrance to the ship’s hallway, Cindy and the class rep were waiting for Nagisa. Other student groups were there, too, starting to mill about restlessly.
“Oh? Why’s that?” Nagisa asked.
Cindy shrugged her shoulders as she replied. “Dunno, but they’re arguing about it a bit. All the crew are worked up for some reason.”
Hmm, thought Nagisa, tilting her head. “Wonder what it is. A fire or something?”
“Geez, of course not. The siren’s not on.”
“Maybe we hit an iceberg?”
“No way. Since when do we get icebergs here? I mean, I’d love to see one!”
Cindy had meant to give Nagisa a serious answer, but she found the thought so funny that her slender shoulders shook as she broke into laughter. Hmm, went Nagisa again, as she put a finger to her lips.
“This is a pain, though. If I don’t get word to Yukina somehow…”
“Yes. It’s so rare for that girl to forget something like this,” the class rep added in her usual clearheaded tone.
Yeah, nodded Nagisa in contemplation. “You two go ahead and take attendance, ’kay? I’ll wait here for her.”
“Understood. We’ll see you later.”
The class rep and Cindy waved as they walked off. Nagisa waved back before looking around the suddenly empty corridor. Normally, there’d be passengers about, on their way to the gift shop and the information counter, but those too were deserted. It seemed, just as Cindy had said, there was some kind of trouble happening on the ship.
Strike the Blood, Vol. 6 (light novel): Return of the Alchemist Page 15
