Yashakiden: The Demon Princess, Volume 2 (13 page)

A short silence followed. “Can they enter a room without opening the door?”

“No. They must follow the same physical laws as us. They cannot pass through solid matter. Though it does appear that they can unlock doors without touching the mechanism.”

“Any weak points, or way of keeping them out?”

“No. We experimented with crucifixes but they had zero effect.”

“That stands to reason. Somewhere in the depths of a human soul that has fused with evil must reside an acknowledgment of those things that are imbued with spiritual powers. Vampires who fear the cross must have recognized its spiritual essence before they became vampires.”

“I'm impressed,” Setsura said with unfeigned admiration. “In which case, it follows that vampires who loathe crosses must be Christian. But what would happen if a person possessed of a particular religious taboo converted to Christianity and then became a vampire?”

“That person would react just as strongly to a crucifix as to that taboo.” Tomoko spoke in the crisp tones reminiscent of a professor putting an upstart student in his place. “The logical conclusion is that if you can then ascertain the home environment of the creature in question, several methods of subduing it should present themselves.”

“I agree. However, when it comes to the perceived powers of heaven and hell, the numerous facets of our individual customs make it difficult if not impossible to arrive at a standardized approach.”

“May I presume that the
Tao
does not exist that can handle the vampire who attacked my daughter?”

“So it seems. What sort of creature is this, Doctor?” Setsura asked, turning to Mephisto behind him and figuratively tossing him the ball.

The conversation ground to a halt as Mephisto came up with an answer. He said breezily, “I have nothing to add.”

Anyone who didn't know him might have thought this the dodge of a pretender.

“If she was attacked
inside
Shinjuku and then was taken
outside
Shinjuku, shouldn't she be safe then?”

“Please consider what would happen if they did come after her.”

Tomoko started to reply but reconsidered. She turned her attention to the bed where her daughter lay. The severe intellectual air vanished, replaced by that of a middle-aged mother anguished over her daughter's welfare.

“Excuse me,” Setsura said. “It'd be rare to stumble across a vampire outside Shinjuku, but you seem to accept their reality quite readily. You wouldn't perhaps share with your daughter a similar interest in history?”

“I teach history at Tokyo University.”

Hearing the name of the most respected educational institution in Japan, Setsura nodded to himself.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“There are other matters to which we must attend,” Mephisto announced. “I will speak with the attending physicians and nurses and arrange for separate accommodations. Starting tomorrow you may see her whenever you please. All your needs will be attended to. For now, however, your daughter must remain in our care. I hope you understand the reasons why.”

“Yes, but—” Tomoko didn't finish the sentence. She stood next to the bed. A strangely cool object jutted out of the blankets and clasped her hand. Looking down, she realized it was her daughter's hand. “Takako—”

The delight died in her throat. The fingers closed around her wrist felt like writhing snakes. Takako turned and looked at her mother. The empty, demented eyes could not possibly be hers. These weren't the eyes of a hungry carnivorous beast encountering its prey. No, they were the eyes of a mad serial killer who after doing unspeakably vile things to the victim in his thrall would strangle her during coitus and carve up the body afterwards.

“Let go. Takako! Let go of me!” She jerked her arm with all her might, but her daughter wouldn't let go.

“Mom? What are you doing here?” Her slack expression betrayed not the slightest sign of inquisitiveness. “Thank you for coming to see me. I am fine. The Doctor and Setsura are doing a good job looking after me. And yet you came all the way to see me.”

The blankets slowly fell away from her chest as Takako sat up in the bed. She didn't need her free hand to support herself. Her attitude didn't change. Like a robot.

“I will give you a kiss to thank you.”

Her fang-like canines—that her daughter should not possess—were visible behind her lips. Tomoko realized at that moment that everything Doctor Mephisto and Setsura had told her was true.

“Let go, Takako. I'm your mother. Let go.” She could only entreat her daughter with the same words over and over.

Takako started to get off the bed. A comely hand covered the hand wrapped around her mother's wrist—Doctor Mephisto's.

A primal growl rose in Takako's throat. She seized Mephisto's wrist with her free hand. A moment later, quite out of the blue, she stopped struggling and her fingers opened. She lay back down on the bed as quickly as she had arisen. Her eyes burned with pain and anger, suggesting that her own will had been overruled by an outside force.

The professor as well seemed on the verge of collapse. Mephisto supported her to the nearby sofa. Her wrist where Takako had grasped it was stained with purple bruises. Tomoko silently massaged the skin, hard enough to scour it away, as if that sensation would remain with her for the rest of her life.

Mephisto placed his hand on hers. Tomoko stopped rubbing her skin. She relaxed and settled back against the cushions.

“Are you finished?” Mephisto asked.

Tomoko nodded. “That is—the victim—of a vampire—?”

“Yes.”

“Can she be cured?”

“I will cure her,” Mephisto softly guaranteed her. “Your daughter has not yet become a true vampire. If the one who sired her is vanquished, she will recover.”

“But—when—?”

“You'd have to ask
him
. He is Shinjuku's best vampire hunter.”

He'd just said that a cure would take a month. Mephisto was a genius when it came to passing the buck. Feeling the weight of the lady professor's earnest eyes on him, Setsura scratched the back of his head.

“Give us a month. Doctor Mephisto said as much.”

“I understand. I shall hold you to it.”

“We'll give it our best shot.”

“No effort will be spared,” Mephisto added. “So let us be on our way. She is in the care of our highly-qualified attending physicians. The nurses will prepare her meals. This time of day is when the vampires come out. We have to make sure they don't get in here.”

After escorting the cowed Tomoko to another room, the two turned toward Mephisto's private hallway.

“Nice racket you doctors have got here,” Setsura observed with a completely straight face as they strolled along. At times like this, Mephisto was the only person in the world who could tell when Setsura was cracking wise. “Mrs. Kanan clasped your hand and asked you to look after her daughter. But
I
was the one who made Takako let go of her hand and behave herself.”

“And I thank you for that. If you like, I'll squeeze your hand as hard as she did mine.”

“Do you think that woman will be back tonight?” asked Setsura, changing the subject.

“I am sure she will,” said Mephisto with conviction. He was not a man who ever lacked for conviction. “I hazard she bit Takako in order to make you suffer. She came to drink your blood and the opportunity presented itself. So Takako wastes away day by day, drawing ever closer to those creatures of the night. But coming all this way and being prevented from achieving her goals must have been vexing. You never did tell me how you defended yourself.”

“I don't know.” Setsura shrugged.

“Maybe you whispered sweet nothings in her ear.”

“Like,
Oh no, not tonight dear
, you mean?”

“Something like that. When it comes to the female of the species that is the nature of the beast.”

“Your female employees will all kill themselves in despair.”

Mephisto didn't answer.

“So, do you plan to transfer Takako somewhere?” Setsura suggested.

“Yes. When we get back, I shall take measures.”

The two of them left the building. It was night. A limousine was waiting at the front gates. The city of Shinjuku glittered in the background.

“Everything is being spelled out in darkness,” Doctor Mephisto said. “Actors unequaled at their craft have appeared on this most perfect of stages. But are we directing the play? Or them?”

Setsura said, “Or is Demon City?”

With that, the two stepped onto the night-lit battlefield.

The silhouettes emerged from the building manager's office and proceeded silently in the moonlight. They bore the casket on their shoulders. The buildings to their right and left towered over them like great walls. Behind the casket-bearers followed a larger throng.

The shadows were cast and created by the moonlight. The streetlights were dark. Here and there, the gas lamps preferred by the residents of this block had been extinguished too.

In keeping with the departed's wishes, no one chanted the sutras. There was no music, no tears, no talking as they walked along the thin strip of asphalt.

They arrived at a plaza behind one of the buildings. Nothing grew on this desolate plot of land. In the center of the plaza was a rectangular hole. The shadows approached it. They lowered the casket into it with ropes, then took up shovels and covered it with earth.

No one spoke as the shovels scattered dust and shards of moonlight into the night wind. The hole was filled, the ground leveled, the grave left unmarked. A day later, a visitor would notice nothing different about this lonely patch of land.

The people gathered around where the hole used to be. A long shadow stepped forward. Low voices recited a sutra-like incantation. When they were done, the man bowed deeply, and just as when they had arrived, the voices ceased and dispersed.

The funeral service was over.

Only the one who'd stepped forward and two other lovely silhouettes remained beside the grave. The moonlight poured down, as if purposely framing them in a spotlight.

Setsura and Mephisto wordlessly greeted Yakou. “I'm glad you were able to take the time to attend.” The tall young man politely bowed.

“You are the leader now,” Mephisto said. “There is much you will have to attend to.”

Yakou nodded in response. There was deep and solemn meaning in the small, stiff gesture of assent.

“I understand. First, we must locate those four and exterminate them from this world. I have already solicited the cooperation of my colleagues. We creatures of the night understand our kind better than anyone. No matter what sacrifice is required, those four must be destroyed.”

“I have a request of my own to make,” Mephisto said abruptly. Setsura turned to him. “The woman we passed on our way to Shinano drank the blood of one of Setsura's acquaintances.”

“Oh, yes. That.”

“A girl of barely twenty. Thankfully, she has not yet fully become one of them. But her sire will surely make a repeat appearance. We can discuss the particulars later, but I am interested in securing the services of several of your stronger men as security guards.”

“Gladly.”

“I would like to have them dispatched to the hospital as soon as possible. I'll have my people waiting in the lobby.”

“Agreed.”

“Wait just a second,” said Setsura. Both men looked at him. Setsura's otherwise nonchalant expression focused critically on Mephisto. “You're supposed to be a doctor. First do no harm and all that. This isn't one of those patch-it-together-afterward things. You fine with causing needless deaths?”

Mephisto looked at him. His cape fluttered. It shone as if woven from moonlight. “You raise an interesting objection. Are you questioning the power of the Toyama residents?”

“You and I both know how strong she is.”

“This is the best way to protect Miss Kanan. You can't be by her side twenty-four seven.”

“You leave this much up to me. As we all now know, this is somebody strong enough to kill the Elder. If that's at least enough to make us all take a step back, then it'd be better not to send them out in the first place.”

“I don't know, Aki-kun. Do you wish to dash water on their chivalrous spirits?”

“Chivalry and life itself are not interchangeable. I'd prefer that they reconsidered.”

“Please have faith in us,” Yakou stated firmly.

“Then I won't dissuade you.” Setsura's eyes softened. He said to Yakou, “But I will say this. Everybody is free in this accursed city. Freedom is not at the mercy of moral or common sense. The same goes for a clan where the head decides the fates of others. Though I am grateful to those willing to sacrifice their lives for me, as a result, that girl has been consigned to a life of torment. Only we three and the security guards are responsible for
her
life.”

“I'm sorry, Aki-san—” Yakou almost sang. “Not only that woman. As far as this matter is concerned, the problem cannot be decided according to the fate of any one person's life. It is not the body that deserves our defense, but the soul. Those who become the servants of those four gain the immortal life of a vampire, but lose their human soul. Then night after night they prowl the precincts of this city, shameless monsters consuming their families, making even babies their prey. We should gladly sacrifice our lives in order to save such damned souls. If you will allow me to let the end justify the means, were some of our colleagues to lose their lives protecting that young woman, the news would surely make its way about the city. We could reasonably hope that in time, we would no longer be only residents of the Toyama housing project, but also citizens of Demon City.”

“This is Demon City, and you and I are already citizens of it.”