From the Warlord's Empire (5 page)

Standing close by Uchida’s side was Yuuho Tanahara. She was a tall, willful girl, but in front of Uchida, she seemed like a different person, showing a much cuter side. She was the archetypal young maiden in love.

Both of them were in the middle of standing poles up on the gym floor for the badminton nets. Even though that was all they should be doing, for some reason, other people stood aside with a friendly disposition, as if not wanting to butt in. At any rate, the atmosphere said not to approach the little world they had all to each other.

They weren’t the only ones that gave off that thick couple scent; other pairs inside the gym were exactly the same. Pressing shoulder to shoulder as they practiced their serves, gazing into each other’s eyes as the moment struck them—they probably didn’t even realize what they were doing, but for the very single Kojou, it made watching them unusually uncomfortable.

This made Kojou decide on his own that it was natural Asagi would be angry.

“Asagi’s apparently gonna take her time changing her clothes. Better start practice without us. I’ll just take it easy.”

“Guess we’ll do just that. Sorry, pal.”

Waving to the cheerfully replying Uchida, Kojou went outside the gym.

It was already past four in the afternoon. The sky had already begun its gradual shift toward sunset, but the afternoon sun was strong, and the humidity was murderous.

Kojou, walking along the connecting corridor searching for a place even slightly cool, sat down on the landing on top of the emergency stairs. He closed his eyes and laid down faceup.

Then…

“—Senpai?”

He heard a shocked-sounding voice coming from above his head.

The voice sounded familiar, so Kojou opened his eyelids a crack.

What filled his field of vision were slender legs clad in deep blue socks.

Kojou rose up with a start, meeting Yukina’s eyes as she glared, her expression frigid. She’d apparently just come down the emergency stairs.

“What are you doing in a place like this?” Yukina asked while holding down the skirt of her school uniform. From the air she gave off, there was clearly some misunderstanding afoot.

Kojou quickly shook his head and pointed at his own gym uniform. “As you can see, I’m…gettin’ ready for badminton practice. Waiting for my partner to come over.”

“Badminton…? Not basketball?” Yukina’s eyes fluttered curiously as she asked. Then, her voice suddenly hardened. “By partner, do you mean a girl?”

“Yeah, but it’s not like I asked to take part in a mixed doubles event.”

Kojou, having the sense he was being scolded for some reason, made pains to defend himself.

“I do not particularly mind, but…”

As Yukina looked squarely at him, Kojou wanted to retort,
Did I do something I should feel guilty for?

Feeling distinctly uncomfortable, Kojou forced a change of subject.

“So, what are you doing over here, Himeragi? This is the high school campus.”

“…Is that so? I’m sorry, senpai, do you know where the cheerleading clubroom is?”

“The high school cheerleading club’s room?”

“Yes. Nagisa asked me to come over, but I got lost along the way.”

Kojou thought the words coming out of Yukina’s mouth were suspicious. Saikai Academy’s cheerleading club was divided into the middle school club and the high school club; each had their own activities, so surely they didn’t share the same clubroom.

“I know where it is, but what’s she doing at the high school cheerleading club, anyway?”

“Fitting clothes. Apparently she wants to borrow tennis skirts, so…”

Yukina made a frail exhale as she spoke, her expression growing clouded. No doubt she just wasn’t cut out for the whole cheerleading thing. Even so, it was just like the overly serious Yukina to go to be fitted as she was told.

“Guess I’ll help her out a little,” Kojou murmured to himself with a
strained smile. “I’ll lead the way. It’s a bit complicated over there, so I’m not sure I could explain it well enough.”

“Thank you very much. But, senpai, don’t you have practice?”

Kojou made a lighthearted nod in response to the look of concern that came over Yukina.

“It’s all right. Asagi’s not here yet, and I’ll be back in under five minutes I’m sure.”

“Aiba…is it? She’s your partner for doubles, senpai…?” Yukina, suddenly halting in place, asked in a grave voice.

For no apparent reason, Kojou felt nervous.

“Er, she is, but it’s not what you think. It’s not like I asked to be paired up with Asagi.”

He quickly voiced his excuse. Yukina’s unmoved eyes looked at Kojou as she made a sigh.

“It isn’t that I particularly mind.”

Hearing quite a bit of displeasure in her words, Kojou looked up at the sky and sighed.

It was on the way back after seeing Yukina to the cheerleading clubroom. Kojou Akatsuki was standing at a vending machine corner, holding a soda can he’d miraculously found in the pocket of his gym outfit.

“Shit…I feel totally wiped out…”

He poured the flavorless shaved ice into the paper cup he’d taken from the vending machine, drowning it in the colored cola. “Don’t give me that look,” Kojou scolded the unresisting vending machine, then sat on a bench, gazing lazily at the setting sun.

He figured Asagi should finally be done changing clothes and arriving at the gym right about then.

Though he wasn’t really thrilled at returning to that couple-filled lovey-dovey atmosphere, Kojou knew that leaving Asagi there by herself would only create more trouble later. As he crunched down his ice, Kojou sluggishly rose to his feet, heading from the back of the gym to the entrance.

A moment later…

The bench that Kojou had sat on until just then suddenly swelled up and burst apart like a balloon.

“…Eh?”

Fragments of shattered wood grazed Kojou’s cheek as they flew. Even so, Kojou did not comprehend what had occurred.

The remnants of the blasted-apart bench fell to the ground in slow motion. Instinctively sensing danger, his vampire nerve cells kicked in. Though it was but a single moment, he felt like it was drawn out dozens of times over. In exchange, his eyes and skin were suddenly in pain, as if they were on fire. His now-acute senses were screaming from the sunrays pouring directly onto him.

But on the other hand, his painfully acute super senses alerted Kojou to new danger.

A silver beam flew toward Kojou’s feet as he remained frozen in place.

His body moved faster than he could think. He hit the ground hard, as if plunging headfirst, dodging the beam just in the nick of time. The beam was actually a metal arrow. Bearing the sharp tip and wings of a Western-style bow’s arrow, it plunged into the ground at Kojou’s feet.

“Th-the hell?!”

Unable to grasp that someone was targeting him, Kojou stared blankly at the arrow shaft buried into the ground.

The connecting corridor, the emergency stairs, the gym, the roof, the shadow of the commemorative tree: No matter how much he looked all around, he couldn’t narrow down where the shooter might be hiding. In this circumstance, not knowing who was targeting him or from where, Kojou began to fall into light panic. Then…

The arrow that had thrust into the ground suddenly lost its shape. Like a curtain that had lost its clasp, the metal became a thin sheet and spread out, finally taking a new shape.

The metal sheet expanded, bent into acute angles, and changed into a complex, bestial form.

“D-dog?! No…a lion?!”

With false life breathed into it, the metal sheet roared like a beast as it trod upon the earth.

It moved with the bestiality of a real predator. Without doubt, this was a monster created by dark forces.

The moment Kojou moaned, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” the metal beast pounced.

Kojou hit the ground and rolled once more, evading the downward swipe of the beast’s front legs.

The steel-constructed beast’s legs made up for their lack of thickness by being as sharp and polished as knives. If he let those things touch him, he’d be sliced clean through the bone.

“Is it after me?! Why…?!” Kojou asked, his breathing ragged. Of course, the beast did not answer. The only sound its steel throat made was a low, menacing growl.

Then another beast appeared behind the agitated Kojou. It was indeed another metal beast that had appeared, a wolf kicking about the remnants of the bench. It had probably been the arrow that had first attacked him, altered into a new form.

“This is…bad…”

Kojou ground his teeth and groaned as the steel lion and wolf pinned him from the front and rear.

Even though these things were produced via ritual, the monsters’ agility was no different from that of real beasts. As their entire bodies were like blades, they might well have been more dangerous than the real thing.

Of course, if Kojou released his own Beast Vassal, he could vaporize monsters of this degree in an instant.

But if he did that, the Saikai Academy building wouldn’t get off easy, either. If he wasn’t careful, he might envelop all of the students, wiping the entire school out without a trace. Kojou’s abilities as the World’s Mightiest Vampire were too powerful to unleash against this grade of opponent.

That said, he had no chance of victory in physical combat. Under the burning sun, Kojou’s physical abilities were at their nadir; next time, if both beasts attacked simultaneously, there would be no escape. If Kojou were to suffer mortal injury, the odds of Kojou’s Beast Vassal going berserk were quite high indeed.

“What am I gonna do?!” Kojou asked himself. But before finding an answer, the two beasts leaped at once.

Knowing deep down he couldn’t dodge them, Kojou sucked in his breath.

“—Senpai! Duck!” With truly last-second timing, a familiar girl’s voice echoed.

Kojou bent down at once as a roaring wind seemed to pass overhead.

It was the silver spear—a long, all-metal polearm, its construction resembling a fighter plane with swept-back wings.

The spear seemed to fly like a gale-force wind as it pierced the steel-made lion attacking Kojou, shattering it.

“Himeragi?!”

The one who’d thrown the spear and saved Kojou from danger was a small-built middle school girl. It was Yukina, who he’d parted ways with just earlier at the clubroom. Resembling a beautiful beast as she sprinted over, she danced in the air with equal force, kicking away the steel-made wolf aiming at Kojou’s back.

The wolf, its own flesh like a sharp blade, looked like a mere thin metal plate from the side. It was knocked away by Yukina’s powerful spinning kick, crashing against the wall with a roar.

“‘Snowdrift Wolf’—!”

Yukina withdrew the spear that was impaling the ground. With one fluid motion, the silver spear tip thrust into the steel wolf. This alone easily broke the wolf into pieces. One could no longer call this combat. The scene looked like simple pest control.

Her combat ability was far in excess of the monsters that had backed Kojou into a corner. This was Yukina’s true form, that of a so-called Sword Shaman of the Lion King Agency.

“Are you all right, senpai?” Yukina asked while poising her spear, looking around the area without letting her guard slip.

She was not wearing her usual school uniform, but rather, a cute cheerleading outfit with blue lines on a white background.

Kojou breathed out in exhaustion, his sense of tension thoroughly wrecked by the cute outfit.

The attacks by the unseen enemy seemed to have broken off. He hadn’t intended to involve Yukina, or perhaps he’d judged she couldn’t win. Either way, there was no mistaking that she’d saved him.

“Sorry, you really saved me there. But what are you doing here, Himeragi?”

Kojou brushed the dust from his body as he got up.

Yukina continued to grip the staff as her back stiffened.

“I’m sorry, senpai. The
shikigami
I had observing you came to inform me it detected offensive ritual energy, so I was concerned and came over…”

“Hah? Observe? What the heck’s a
shikigami
?”

As Kojou asked sharply, Yukina averted her eyes as her shoulders quivered.

Watching from the side as Yukina hung her face, Kojou continued watching without a word when Yukina took pains to clear her throat and raise her face. She thrust her chest out in defiance as if saying,
It’s nothing I should feel guilty about
.

“…It’s my mission!”

“Wait a sec!! You mean you’ve been watching me the whole time?! Not just today?!”

“Please calm yourself. I do respect your privacy, senpai.”

“How can I be calm about it?!”

Kojou scratched his head as he yelled. He’d let his guard down, thinking that lately she’d been more open, but she was indeed a nationally accredited stalker with an insanely overly serious personality.

Simply not knowing how that
shikigami
stuff worked and moved around made Kojou really wonder about just how much of his privacy she allowed him. He didn’t think she was watching him in the bath or using the toilet, though. Either way, no matter how pretty a girl she might be, Kojou was not inclined to be pleased at her peeking into his private life.

“More importantly, senpai, do you have any idea who is after you?” Yukina asked while clearing her throat once more.

Kojou grimaced and shook his head.

As Yukina was clearly asking that the observation incident be set aside until later, the question at hand was the existence of an enemy that had attacked Kojou.

“So I
was
the one they were after?”

“So it would seem…but rather than a spell targeting you, senpai, this is…”

Murmuring as if talking to herself, Yukina picked up one of the fragments of the steel beast she’d destroyed. It was a thin piece of cheap-looking metal. Kojou groaned in shock as he watched.

“…Tin cans? That’s what the monsters that attacked me really were?”

“These too are
shikigami
. Originally, they were meant to deliver messages to others across long distances rather than being used offensively like this, but…”

As Yukina muttered suspiciously to herself, she bent the metal fragment she’d picked up. She changed its shape to two triangles meeting together; it gently floated up into the air. She’d apparently meant it to act like a butterfly.