Chapter 64: Awakening

Chapter 64: Awakening

THE fireballs zipped around the lumbering twisters trying to stop them on their path for Youta. Once the flames made contact with his body, they wrapped around him from head to toe, burning only his downy hairs. The flames didn’t burn his skin, but the close proximity of the flames gave off an irregular heat. Youta rolled on the ground to get the flames off.

Youta’s concentration switched to getting rid of the flames, forcing him to lose control of the whirlwinds. Ichi and Subaru took out the set of twisters heading straight for the students, while Kouya circled around to Youta’s blind spot with Azusa.

A shriek of rage ripped from Youta’s throat, dispersing the flames enshrouding him. In that moment, the flow of power erupting from him stopped, and silence fell. He staggered to his feet and turned vacant eyes on his surroundings. He let out a low, beastly growl when his unfocused eyes stopped on Tsukiharu.

“Sorry, Youta,” someone said as both of Youta’s arms were chopped off and a large hole opened in his stomach. He collapsed to the ground with a sound similar to dropping a water balloon from a rooftop. Kouya stood behind him with Azusa in his arms.

“Akaoni! You’d better hope you didn’t kill him! You’ve got to be out of your mind to chop off his arms without hesitation!” Tsukiharu shouted, being the first to run over to them, followed by Subaru and Ichi.

“We can reattach his arms. Things will get messy if he goes on another rampage here.”

“You can chop off your little brother’s arms because they might make things ‘messy’?! This is why you are rumored to be cruel, relentless, and coldhearted!”

“Shut up.”

“Now, now, you two, don’t fight,” Subaru interjected once he got there. Youta had lost consciousness on the ground beside the arguing Tsukiharu and Kouya. Regardless of the methods used, the strategy seemed to have succeeded. Relieved, Azusa stepped out of Kouya’s embrace and took a deep breath.

“Your attack was not within the bounds of ‘not killing him’! You totally took it to the brink of nearly killing him! You went too far!”

“I doubt he’d die with this. I’m not you. The hole you opened in my stomach before was a hundred times bigger than what I did to him.”

“What I did was fine, because I did it with the hopes of killing you! Don’t make yourself the standard! Youta is way more delicate than you are! What were you going to do if he died?!”

“Hey, you guys, we don’t have the time to be arguing. Let’s get out of here,” Subaru urged.

“Shut your trap, weakling! I’m talking to the Akaoni right now!”

“W-Weakling? Now you’ve gone and said it…”

“A weakling is a weakling—gah!” Tsukiharu went flying sideways. The momentum sent him a good thirty-five feet until his body banged against the ground.

Everyone frantically looked in his direction to see one of Youta’s severed arms choking Tsukiharu. He struggled to pry the hand squeezing his windpipe off, but Youta’s arm was powerful enough to render any resistance futile.

They looked over at Youta to see if he was up, but he was still unconscious. Apparently, his body was acting in self-defense of its unconscious host. The other severed arm squirmed to life too.

“You…ta…” Tsukiharu painfully choked out.

He grabbed the arm and tried to rip it off his neck with force, but seemed to be hesitating because of all blood coming from the area his fingers dug into. Were he to use his true strength, he could have easily ripped the arm from his neck. He kept from doing so out of fear of harming Youta’s arm.

The other severed arm slowly rose into the air. Kouya darkly eyed the arm surrounded by wind, protectively floating in front of Youta’s body.

Aah, we were too late, Kouya sighed heavily.

A vampire in a normal state was incapable of moving an arm once it was severed. Normally, their brain and blood controlled every part of their tenacious body. With his body moving of its own accord, his brain and blood had lost control to sheer instinct.

In other words, the act of his arms moving separately from the main body signified his brain and blood had either died or had grown too weak to win control over his vampiric instincts.

“Youta,” Kouya quietly called his younger brother’s name. Of course, he didn’t answer him, which was unbearably painful.

Kouya lifted his arm to deal the death blow. Subaru seemed to be shouting behind him, but he wasn’t listening. He moved only on the impulse that said he must kill him.

My gentle little brother never wanted to transform into this monster. He doesn’t want to hurt others, Kouya convinced himself.

“Kou…ya…”

Kouya’s head jerked in the direction of the quiet voice to find Youta lifting his head to look at him. He lowered his arm upon seeing him looking up at him with tear-filled eyes. Youta weakly shook his head.

“…Kill…me…” Once he got those words out, he howled like a beast again. It lasted but a few seconds. He regained enough control for those few seconds. But it was more than enough to solidify Kouya’s resolve. He pulled his fist back without hesitation and released it to crush in Youta’s head.

“Kouya! Don’t!”

Kouya gasped at the figure that had slipped in between his fist and Youta. Azusa jumped in front of Youta with her arms spread out to protect him. Kouya stopped his fist an inch from impacting her face.

“You can’t do this, Kouya! You can’t kill You—” Before Azusa could finish talking, Youta attacked her from behind. She coughed up blood. Kouya’s eyes slowly trailed down to her chest where Youta’s hand stuck out.

“AZUSA!”

Azusa lost consciousness as she fell into Kouya’s arms.

“Azusa! Azusa!” Kouya screamed and shook her body. The arm ripped itself from her heart, returning to protect Youta and threaten Kouya not to come any closer. It wriggled in the air.

“Kou! Don’t shake her! We need to stop the bleeding first!”

Kouya smacked away Subaru’s hand and pinched Azusa’s cheek.

“Azusa! Wake up!”

“Kou! Let’s withdraw for now! At this rate, we won’t even be able to save anyone. Ichi just left to get the headmaster. That old bat’s only merit is his healing magic. Azusa will be fine. You need to calm down first.”

“Subaru…”

“What a scary face you’re making.”

Pressed to do something by Subaru’s insistence, Kouya stood up with Azusa in his arms. The blood drained from her face and her gushing blood spilled everywhere with nothing to stop it.

Youta was still growling, but remained unmoving as the two arms hovered protectively around his body. Released from the other arm’s stranglehold, Tsukiharu gasped at what he saw. He whispered Azusa’s name and bit down on his lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

Just then, a conspicuously loud sound came from Azusa’s heart.

Everyone present heard the sound of her heartbeat and turned their attention to her. Even the students on the rooftop heard and pressed close to the fence to stare down at her.

“Azusa?” The sound got Kouya to look down at Azusa in his arms, but her pallid complexion looked no better than before. However, something undeniably changed. A section of her hair had turned completely white. Such a pure white, you would think someone soaked her hair in white paint.

The loud heartbeat reverberated across the land again.

The sound wasn’t heard with the ears; rather it seemed to echo directly inside everyone’s head. The blood gushing from the hole in her chest stopped and the hole resealed itself at an unbelievable speed.

“Azusa,” Kouya called out to her. Her eyes slowly opened and locked onto Kouya’s face. However, her eyes were not the color he knew them to be.

“White…” Kouya muttered.

“Haha!” Azusa laughed in his arms like she just spotted an entertaining new toy. She wrapped her arms around his neck and easily pulled herself upright until she stood on her own legs. The rest of her hair instantly turned white.

“Good work,” Azusa spoke in her own voice, but the way she spoke lacked her usual personality.

“Who are you?” Subaru asked on the spur of the moment from where he stood beside Kouya. She flashed a relaxed smile at him.

“I’m Azusa, aren’t I? Azusa Saito. I’m nothing less nor anything more than her.”

“You’re a different person from the Azusa I know. Who are you? You’re not going to say the Ancient has come back to life, are you?”

Azusa smiled without affirming or denying his question. She walked over to Youta on unsteady feet.

“Don’t go near him!”

“Silence.”

Kouya tried to stop her, but her one word rendered him incapable of moving. He struggled as much as he could, but it was as if his feet had been bound to the ground.

“You’re as strong as I suspected.”

“Azusa!”

“Protect the vessel so I never have to come out again,” Azusa said and nimbly turned away from Kouya to stand in front of Youta. Youta couldn’t move either. He gazed up at her and growled. “Mingling with humans has brought great pain upon you.”

Azusa plucked the two arms from the air and reattached them to Youta’s body. With the pale light she emitted, tendons jutted out of the arms and they returned to normal.

Even after regaining his former body, Youta continued growling at Azusa without attempting to attack her. She scooped up some of the blood still wetting her chest and dripped it into his mouth as he howled at her. She watched him purr as he drank it and closed her eyes as she put her hand to her chest.

“Desire to remain in the form you wish to be…” Her words took control of Youta like a spell.

He suddenly started clawing at his throat. Everyone was shaken by his reaction—he acted as if he had been forced to drink poison. No one felt the urge to stop her though. She gave off the presence of an absolute ruler to everyone present.

Youta clawed at his throat, shrieked in agony, writhed with the utmost pain, and finally flopped onto the ground where he lay motionless with all four limbs spread out.

All present thought he had died. They believed he died from the poison she made him drink.

“Hurry and give him medical treatment. It appears he chose to remain a person.”

With that command from Azusa, Subaru quickly ran over to check on Youta—he was breathing. His eyes were firmly shut, but he appeared to be sleeping rather than unconscious, shocking Subaru.

Azusa sauntered over to Kouya and wrapped her arms around his neck. She smiled at him as he looked at her with a conflicted, worried, and mixed emotion expression.

“I’m a bit tired. I’ll sleep now.”

“Azusa?”

“I’ll definitely wake up, so don’t give me that face. I ask for your continued protection of the vessel.”

Her hair returned to its original flaxen color just as her eyes slowly closed. Kouya held up her suddenly heavy body and heard her deep breaths.