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

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Oh well, worrying doesn’t get you anywhere, Nagisa thought as she began to carelessly browse the souvenirs on the gift shop’s shelves. The Demon Sanctuary key holders and phone straps were all things you didn’t get a chance to see much of in daily life, within Itogami City itself. The rare sighting here accentuated the trip’s feeling of liberation—as well as stimulated her consumer impulses.

  “Oh, this is neat. Maybe I should buy this?”

  Without thinking, Nagisa grabbed up a key holder emblazoned with KOJO as soon as she set eyes upon it. It was an unusual brand to see on the shelves, and the name being very similar to Kojou made it super-rare. She couldn’t let something this valuable slip through her fingers.

  “Ah, excuse me?”

  Nagisa looked over her shoulder and raised a hand as she heard the cashier’s door open. She thought it was a shop employee. However, the slim man standing there was dressed up like a stage magician. The moment his eyes met Nagisa’s, he smiled cruelly and raised his right hand.

  Then, with no forewarning, he brought his hand down, as if wiping mud from his jacket.

  “Nagisa! Get down—!” Yukina screamed.

  Nagisa immediately dropped onto her butt, silver light scattering just above her head. The tentacle flying directly in front of Nagisa’s eyes was deflected by a knife.

  “Y-Yukina?!”

  Nagisa, not having any idea what was going on, was further thrown off by seeing Yukina grip an unsophisticated knife. But then she saw the man Yukina was squared off against and gaped, for the man’s contours crumbled away as he transformed into a monster with countless wavering appendages.

  “Wh-what is that guy?!”

  “Run! Quickly!!”

  Yukina advanced to shield her. Nagisa was in the middle of a wide corridor—it would not be difficult to flee from the monster. However, Nagisa’s face was pale as she shook her head. She remained on her knees, rooted to the spot.

  “Is it…a demon?!”

  “Nagisa…!”

  With horror, Yukina realized that her classmate was too panicked to move.

  Nagisa had a phobia of demons. She was scared of them, in spite of residing in a Demon Sanctuary, to the point that she couldn’t even flee.

  “Now, that’s rude. I’m quite human. You wound me…”

  Amatsuka slowly approached the girl on the ground, as if to torment her further.

  “N-no, stay away!” Nagisa’s voice trembled as she desperately tried to back away. But her slender arms had gone rigid, and merely flailed against the floor.

  Yukina jabbed at the chimera-man as she searched for some line of retreat. There was no way she could fight him while shielding Nagisa. Her only option was to get Nagisa out of there—

  But Yukina’s plan was smashed into tiny pieces by the emergence of a new silhouette from a gap in the wall. A new Kou Amatsuka had emerged to seal off their retreat.

  Yukina gazed in despair at the bizarre enemies, one ahead and one behind her.

  “Two of them—?!”

  Even with Snowdrift Wolf, Amatsuka was a powerful opponent she could not be certain of defeating. And fighting two at once, while simultaneously protecting Nagisa, was well beyond Yukina’s ability.

  The two Amatsukas farther closed the distance—slowly, enjoying the girls’ despair.

  “N-no! Kojou, save me! Kojou—!!” Nagisa curled up and screamed.

  In that instant, incredible, barrier-breaking magical energy erupted from her entire body. The very air froze over as a white fog surrounded Nagisa, making snowflakes dance in the air like flower petals.

  “What the—?!”

  The second Amatsuka took a direct hit from the icy cold, his body freezing white as he fell over. He writhed and crawled on the floor, desperately trying to get away from Nagisa.

  The first Amatsuka recoiled in terror and began to run. “What is she…?! What is this magical power…?! Shit!!”

  Yukina stared agape as he fled. There was no opportunity to pursue him—because the change in Nagisa continued still. If the icy winds continued to swirl unabated, Yukina too was doomed.

  “Nagisa—!”

  Yukina, enduring the cold to the limit of her internal ritual power, desperately called out to her friend.

  Nagisa, surrounded by arctic cold, calmly rose to her feet. However, the eyes that looked back at Yukina contained no shred of Nagisa. They didn’t even recognize Yukina’s existence. It was as if Nagisa had completely lost consciousness.

  She was being possessed.

  If the cold continued at that rate, no doubt the ship itself would be destroyed by it sooner or later. However, it was clear that this other person was not attacking anyone on purpose. She had merely appeared, probably emerging to save Nagisa from the crisis befalling her—

  Yet that alone was spreading incredible destructiveness in all directions.

  Yukina knew this phenomenon all too well: This was one of the twelve Beast Vassals that served the Fourth Primogenitor. Nagisa was displaying the same symptoms as when Kojou’s Beast Vassals had slipped out of his control.

  But the flow of destructive magical energy was interrupted by a woman speaking with an oddly bubbly voice.

  “All right, that’s enough—!”

  The young woman who appeared, slicing the vortex of pure cold apart in the process, had red hair worn in a braided double bun and wore a Chinese-style dress. She vigorously darted her way toward Nagisa’s flank and bopped the out-of-control girl on the head.

  “Ms. Sasasaki?!”

  Yukina stared aghast at the brute-force method her homeroom teacher had employed.

  The red-headed woman, Misaki Sasasaki, was Yukina and Nagisa’s homeroom teacher, and also the head instructor for the field trip. She was a federally certified Attack Mage and Natsuki Minamiya’s junior at the academy as well. However, that even Natsuki had difficulty dealing with her spoke volumes about how not-normal Misaki was.

  The being possessing Nagisa used the earthly girl’s voice to ask Misaki, “You would interfere with me, monk—?”

  It wasn’t that “Nagisa’s” rampage had ended. However, the “something” possessing her apparently recognized Misaki as someone worthy of dialogue.

  Even as the cold wildly flapped about her, Misaki smiled as she replied. “Not at aaall. I mean, if you were serious, this whole ship would be a goner. But that wouldn’t do you any good either, would it?”

  The being did not necessarily agree with the assessment, but the surge of magical energy scattering all about suddenly stopped.

  “I see… Very well. I shall grant you a small measure of time…”

  These words spoken, Nagisa closed her eyes. She fell to the ground like a marionette with her strings cut. It seemed the state of possession had lessened.

  Yukina was still pale and breathing heavily. “Ms. Sasasaki… What was that just now…?”

  Yukina’s protective ward, created with ritual magic, was at its limits. Had Nagisa’s rampage continued another thirty seconds or so, Yukina’s entire body would have been frozen solid.

  Misaki smiled wryly. “It’d violate student-teacher privacy to answer that.”

  The look on her face silently added, We all have our circumstances here.

  Yukina silently sighed. Not knowing bothered her, but their attacker was the more pressing concern. “Concerning the alchemist named Kou Amatsuka—”

  “I know. I ran into him before getting here, and Natsuki told me about him, too. The plan backfired… We didn’t think he’d actually come after this ship.”

  Misaki’s lips twisted as she spoke. As head teacher, she was responsible for all students’ safety. No doubt the situation was affecting her even more than it was Yukina.

  “The other students?”

  “Shiromori is leading them to safer ground, but it’s still aboard the ship. This isn’t exactly someone a ward is going to stop, so it’s not a good situation.”

  “Not at all…”

  An anguished lo
ok came over Yukina. Unfortunately, Misaki was correct: Even if they got into the life rafts, escape was likely impossible. Amatsuka, able to alter the composition of his own body at will, could probably move just fine underwater. After all, even a comparatively heavy liquid-metal body would be plenty buoyant if he added a few internal air pockets.

  Misaki audibly gritted her teeth. “To be honest, now that he’s split into more bodies and we don’t know where he might strike from, there’s not much I can do. Natsuki could probably manage if we at least knew what he was after…”

  That was when she heard a girl’s gentle voice behind her—Kanon’s voice.

  “I am most likely his target.”

  “…Kanase?! Didn’t you take refuge with the others?”

  Misaki lifted her face in shock. Kanon shook her head apologetically.

  “I remember now, he’s the man who attacked everyone at the abbey. He said he needed powerful spirit mediums as fuel. That abbey had many in its care, you see.”

  The blood drained from Yukina’s body. Amatsuka was an alchemist. There was only one thing that fuel could mean when coming from an alchemist’s lips.

  “Fuel?! You don’t mean he intends to use you as an alchemical ingredient—?!”

  “Yes. That is why the others will most likely be all right if they are not near me.”

  Kanon’s words were gentle, but her face was one worn only by the determined. She turned her back on Yukina and Misaki and began running in the opposite direction of the students taking shelter.

  Misaki, realizing Kanon’s intensions, yelled, “Kanase?! You’re using yourself as a decoy—?!” As she was carrying the unconscious Nagisa in her arms, she had no immediate means to stop her.

  Yukina moved forward “Ms. Sasasaki, you care for Akatsuki. I’ll go after Kanase!”

  “Ah…?! Wait, don’t you run off, too—!”

  Yukina disregarded her teacher’s voice and headed toward the bow of the ship.

  Kanon’s decision was likely correct. If Amatsuka was after a powerful spiritualist, he’d never overlook two top-class ones—one a part of the Aldegian royal family, and the other a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency. At the very least, the other students ought to be safe during the time Yukina and Kanon served as decoys.

  But they could not continue to flee inside a cramped ship forever. Sooner or later, Amatsuka would catch up with them. They had to find a way to defeat him before that happened.

  But what to do—?

  7

  Scarlet droplets gathered on the gemstone that had fallen to the ground. Defying gravity, they slowly rose and gradually took the shape of a human being. She had glossy black hair, brown skin, and ornate facial features that seemed very familiar—

  The girl with the same face as Asagi made a satisfied murmur—but with Nina’s voice.

  “Indeed, well. This is how it is?”

  Kojou stood in shock as he compared one Asagi to the other. For whatever reason, Nina had gathered together the Wiseman’s Blood to restore herself but still looked like Asagi. Her clothes were even the same Saikai Academy uniform as before.

  Looking between the twin faces, he felt like he was looking at a color-palette-swapped character in a fighting game. I’m so glad the original Asagi’s still out cold, thought Kojou with a heavy sigh.

  “So you’re back up and at ’em, Nina? Ah… Why do you look like Asagi, though?” he asked.

  Nina rotated both arms around, testing her range of motion as she spoke. “Suddenly altering the length of my arms and legs would throw my balance all off. Furthermore, there was not enough ‘blood’ to restore the full bounty of my proper body. It was all I could manage in her meager physique.”

  Kojou scowled and rebutted her for the sake of his fainted friend’s honor. “Hey, don’t say meager. Man, you’re rude… And, I mean, Asagi has better style anyway. I don’t know how glamorous you were before, but…”

  As he spoke, Nina seemed to take that as a challenge. She hmphed, proudly tossing her chin out to the side. “Indeed, I am incredible. How about I restore myself just a little, like…this?”

  As Nina spoke, her breasts suddenly grew, nearly doubling in size. The shirt of her uniform bulged right up to the breaking point, sending one button popping out and flying.

  Kojou, staring with surprise as Nina purposefully made her bust sway, asked, “…What was someone like you doing in a convent?”

  Nina smiled warmly for once. “It was not that I had any use for a convent, per se. However, it was a convenient means of caring for spiritualists with nowhere else to go. I knew all too well that selfish alchemists and the like would view their kind as ideal fuel.”

  “Nina…” Kojou stared at the dark-skinned girl in surprise.

  She herself had been unhappily sacrificed because of her spiritual strength two hundred and seventy years earlier. That was why she was using the convent to protect those children under her own name—so that no one should have to suffer the same fate.

  But the Wiseman and Amatsuka had conspired to crush her hopes under their feet.

  Kojou silently clenched his fists. He was coming to realize that he felt a powerful anger toward the Wiseman, a remorseless, man-made god crushing all other living beings underfoot to protect its own existence. He was certain in his own mind that such a being could not be allowed to exist.

  Kojou’s fists were still clenched when he heard a lisping voice from behind Nina.

  “Oh, so you are Nina Adelard?”

  It was Natsuki Minamiya, emerging from a ripple in thin air, wearing an elaborate dress that was very out of place. As was the rest of her; it was just like her to show up at the oddest moments.

  “Natsuki?!” Kojou blurted, earning him a silent pounding. Kojou, smacked hard in the face with her parasol, recoiled as he pressed his hands to his face. Then, Natsuki gave Nina—and her breasts—a sullen glare.

  “Although I am wondering why the Great Alchemist of Yore has Aiba’s face and fake tits on her. Kojou Akatsuki. Is this a fetish of yours?”

  “No. Way. And it’s not like this is the place to say that—”

  Natsuki ignored Kojou and addressed Nina. “I have heard most of the story concerning Kou Amatsuka’s true nature from Kensei Kanase, and yours as well, Nina Adelard.”

  Nina hummed and flippantly replied, “Let us leave troublesome talk for later, Natsuki. Please search for Amatsuka’s whereabouts first. The Wiseman he is attempting to resurrect is rather…bad. If we do not find him as soon as possible…”

  Kojou picked up the still-unconscious Asagi. Natsuki gave a small snort.

  “I agree we have no time for pleasantries. I know with virtual certainty where Amatsuka is. The ferry’s communications equipment has been destroyed, so I am thin on the details, but—”

  Natsuki’s casually spoken words made Kojou’s face twitch. “Ferry…? Wait, what are you talking ab—you can’t mean?!”

  Natsuki’s reply was blunt. “The ferry departing for Tokyo at seven this morning, with the Saikai Academy students aboard as scheduled.”

  Kojou weakly shook his head. “No…way. Then Nagisa, Yukina, and the others…”

  Nina interrupted sullenly, “They might…be the very reason why.”

  “Wh…what?!”

  “The production of the Wiseman required a vast amount of precious metals, and spiritualists as the fuel. Do you think it strange that the Wiseman has not arranged to regain his strength just after his resurrection?”

  Kojou subconsciously shuddered. “I see. Kanase’s on that ferry, too…!”

  At the very least, Amatsuka was well aware that Kanon was a top-class spiritualist, even by Itogami Island standards. On the one hand, she was an obstacle to the Wiseman’s resurrection, but on the other, the necessary fuel to bring the complete resurrection about.

  And Nina gravely nodded as she added, “Amatsuka’s target may not be her alone. That Yukina girl is a superior spirit medium as well, yes?”

  Kojou’s face
twisted in impatience. “This is bad… Himeragi doesn’t have Snowdrift Wolf with her!”

  Blows would do nothing against Amatsuka. Ritual magic probably wouldn’t work either. No matter how skilled a Sword Shaman she might be, Yukina had no way to defeat Amatsuka at present. It wasn’t even certain that she could defend herself—

  Kojou rushed toward Natsuki, as if ready to grab her. “Natsuki, can you jump us as far as the ship?”

  With an annoyed look, Natsuki used her parasol to brush him aside. “You would go to save her?”

  “Damn right. Himeragi’s on that ship! And Nagisa, and a whole lot of other people I know!”

  “I cannot. It is too far for me. Spatial control magic does not reduce the distance itself to zero; it reduces the transit time to zero. For each second of travel time saved, my body feels a burden equal to having traveled that distance on foot. I can leap a few kilometers at most.”

  Kojou made a low, agonized groan. “Magic can’t do everything, I guess. Then get me a plane or a helicopter. That can fly me in close, right?”

  “I cannot do that either.”

  Natsuki’s indifferent tone sent Kojou into a frustrated growl as blood rushed to his head. “Well, why not?!”

  “By treaty, the Island Guard does not possess an air force. It was established to maintain law and order within the Demon Sanctuary… More to the point, it is to prevent coups. If the Island Guard were to join forces with the demons in Itogami City, it would present a grave threat to the government.”

  “The hell is that all about?!”

  The reasoning, adult to a fault, sent Kojou into a rage without a target. At any rate, given there was no aircraft available with a far enough flight range, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do.

  “Well, what about borrowing a civilian plane…?! Don’t tell me we can’t do that either?!”

  “No, I came to you with that intention from the start. I’ve already arranged an aircraft. Or rather, a good samaritan kindly made a craft available.”