Chapter 5: Those Who Gave Up and Those Who Never Will

“She’s approaching at an incredible speed. She seems to be going right over the mountains and ocean... Is she moving through the sky? Her current speed is practically impossible. She’s right on top of us now,” Silver Slayer reported mechanically.

“...What’s going on?” Chelsea asked, looking up at the ceiling of the cave.

Directly above us, according to Silver Slayer, were Rosalind and the other girls.

“I think she’s using Iris’s spaceship,” I said.

“Spaceship?!” Chelsea yelled.

“I didn’t have time to tell you, but one of the girls Rosalind was controlling at her mansion is an alien.”

“...I really underestimated you guys.” Chelsea shook her head. She’d gone beyond surprise and entered a state of mild shock. But her expression quickly changed. “So what now? We can put my wish aside for the moment.”

“Chelsea...”

“If all of you get taken out, I’m doomed too.” She winked at me and put on a brave face, but her hands were at her sides, gripped into tight, trembling fists.

It had already been two hours since she’d gotten the call saying that her brother’s condition was getting worse. It wasn’t like we could get any cell phone reception down here, either. But even so... she was willing to put her own story on hold so that we could make the right choice here. No, she was acting strong in order to keep us from hesitating and ruining everything.

“The vampire is rapidly progressing through the cave’s traps. Estimated time of arrival is a few minutes,” Silver Slayer said, updating us on Rosalind’s position.

“Don’t worry. My brother’s sick, but he’s a tough kid. He’s fighting his illness even as we speak. He wouldn’t drop out of the fight while the rest of us are still at it,” said Chelsea.

She was only three years older than me, but she was such a strong woman.

“...All right. First, we’ll do something about Rosalind.”

I switched gears and readied myself to face this new opponent. I couldn’t let Chelsea’s resolve be for nothing. I needed to bring all the stories to a happy ending.

“Now this is getting entertaining.” Ulaula was laughing, but I didn’t have time to waste on her.

“Silver Slayer, can you make me another knife?” Hibiki asked.

“Affirmative,” Silver Slayer said as she formed new knives for Hibiki and Chelsea.

“Hey, can I have one too?” I asked.

“According to my memory bank, you said you couldn’t use a knife, Sir Namidare.”

“Just a small one’s fine.”

This deep in the cave, there was nowhere to run. There was no avoiding a throw down with Rosalind, so if I wanted to stop her, I needed to be ready to fight.

“Satsuki,” I said.

“What?”

“I want you to hide in one of those paths up ahead and support us with magic if you can,” I told her, pointing to one of the small paths continuing deeper into the cave.

“I can only use magic to protect myself or run away. And besides, my defensive spells don’t work as well if I’m too far away, so let me stay by your side and protect you.”

“...All right. Thanks.” I nodded.

“Less than one minute,” Silver Slayer said calmly.

We readied ourselves, but...

“What’s that sound?” Hibiki whispered.

I listened carefully and could hear what sounded like a low roar. An instant later, a blast of water came surging out of the passage we’d come from.

“What the hell?!”

The water swept me away before I could even react, slamming me against the cavern wall. My head made a nasty sound when it hit the rock wall, but I managed to grab on to an outcropping and keep the water from washing me further down one of the tunnels. Fortunately there wasn’t too much of it, so it quickly drained down the pathways on the opposite side of the room.

“Is everyone okay?” I heard one of the girls ask.

It looked like everyone had managed to grab on to something too, but we’d all been cut or bruised somewhere. That had caught us totally off guard.

And then a voice came echoing through the corridor...

“I’ve finally caught up to you.”

Before any of us had a chance to prepare ourselves, Rosalind, Iris, Lea, and Harissa all came into the room. That blast of water must’ve been Lea’s magic. The water that had gotten into my mouth had a salty taste to it, so she’d probably brought some seawater with her all the way down here.

“...I don’t recognize one of you,” Rosalind said.

“I’m neutral.” Ulaula held up her hands. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Hmph... Lea, Iris. Grab everyone but Namidare.”

“Yes, my lady,” the two of them answered even more lifelessly than before. One of them jumped at Silver Slayer, and the other at Hibiki and Chelsea.

“Satsuki, over here.” I moved Satsuki behind me to protect her.

The surprise attack had split us into two groups. Hibiki and Silver Slayer had their hands full with Lea and Iris. I couldn’t count on them coming to help me now.

“It’s been a while, Namidare.” Rosalind wasn’t smiling when she spoke.

“...Hey. How’d you find me here?”

“It was easy. Harissa?”

When Rosalind addressed her, Harissa chanted a short spell. A single bat appeared out of thin air. It flew towards Rosalind with a high-pitched screeching and fused with her body.

“You sent an invisible bat to follow us, huh?”

“I can tell where my familiars are at any time, if you must know.”

It was a possibility we’d overlooked. We’d only been worried about Rosalind herself, not her familiars. I ground my teeth in frustration, but it didn’t do me any good now.

“Namidare... I’ll give you one last chance. If you agree to give in to my charm spell instead of resisting, I’ll let all the girls go.”

“I refuse.”

“...Do you really hate me that much?”

“No, that’s not it.” I shook my head. “If I admit defeat here, maybe Hibiki can still save Chelsea’s story, but Silver Slayer’s will be doomed. And...”

“...And?”

“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think helping you with your revenge is the right way to save your story.”

Her real goal was something more than revenge. It had to be. That was a stab in the dark on my part, or really just a gut feeling, but more importantly...

“Rosalind, if you do get your revenge on me, will that make you happy?”

That was what really mattered. Would exacting her revenge on me in lieu of my ancestor truly make her happy? Looking at her now, it was hard to believe that was really the case. She wasn’t smiling at all. Her expression was almost the exact opposite of when she was eating her red bean jam bun the other day.

“What this Namidare wants to do... is make you happy, Rosalind. And I don’t think what you’re asking me to do is the right way to go about making that happen. So I’m going to fight you with everything I have. Not because I hate you, but because I want to find a way to make everyone, including you, happy.”

“All of you are like that, aren’t you? Mere humans who refuse to back down in the face of a vampire. Who refuse to give up. And... who refuse to be mine...”

“...All of us?”

Was she talking about me and my ancestor? And what did she mean by “become mine”? But before I even had time to think about it...

“So I’m done wishing for more than I’m going to get.”

The air around Rosalind changed.

“I wanted you as you really were, but I’m done with that. All I need is for you to be by my side. That’s all that matters. And so...”

She took another step forward.

“I’m going to make you into a vampire, Namidare.”

“What?!”

She came closer and closer, each step more determined than the last. She wasn’t even going to use her charm magic this time. She was just going to turn me into a vampire.

What was I supposed to do? If I had any chance, it was to break the spell on Iris, Lea, and Harissa. But unlike my childhood friend Satsuki, I had no idea what I could say to make them mad or embarrass them.

I was starting to panic.

At this point, I had to make a choice. I just had to steel myself to fight a vampire. Silver Slayer said that the power of her charm weakened when Rosalind became flustered or was caught off guard, so I didn’t actually need to defeat her. If I could just do a little bit of damage with the silver knife and then distract her for a moment...

“Rekka! I’ve got an idea!”

“Ow!”

Satsuki suddenly grabbed me by the ear and started whispering to me.

“You want me to do WHAT?!” I yelled when she told me her “plan.”

“Just say it!”

“R-Right!”

I didn’t know why on earth she would suggest something like that. I figured if Satsuki thought it would work, then it was worth a try, but I really had no idea what she was thinking! I took a deep breath, turned to Harissa, and screamed...

“I-I love you!”

But...

“......”

Harissa didn’t even twitch.

“It didn’t work, Satsuki!”

“I-I thought that any girl would be embarrassed if a boy said that to her!”

Rather than Harissa, Satsuki was the one who started blushing.

That doesn’t work unless it’s a boy you like, right? And wait, if anyone should be embarrassed here, it’s me! Ugh... But now wasn’t the time for this! Rosalind was...

“Wh-Wh-What?!”

For some reason, she was totally freaking out. I was trying to figure out how to handle this unexpected development when I heard a thud. I looked and saw that Silver Slayer had bound Iris and Lea up with a silver rope. Rosalind’s charm had weakened for a moment, and Silver Slayer hadn’t missed that chance. I really wasn’t sure how it had happened, but it worked out in our favor. Now it was five against two.

“Rosalind, surrender and undo your charm spells.”

“Hmph. You’re asking me to give up?”

“I’m just asking you to give up on revenge so we can think things through together. We can figure out a way for everyone to be happy.”

While Rosalind and I were talking, my other three companions closed in. Hibiki and Silver Slayer stood on either side of Rosalind with knives to her throat, and Chelsea was standing next to me to protect Satsuki.

“It’s over, vampire,” Silver Slayer said.

“Don’t try anything,” Hibiki added.

“...It seems I’ve embarrassed myself,” Rosalind said. Her panic from a moment ago was gone and her air of superiority returned. “Lea... Do it.”

“!”

With no warning, Silver Slayer’s body rose into the air. She tried to struggle, but her body froze as if she’d been dipped in liquid nitrogen.

“What did you do?!” Hibiki shouted.

She tried to use her silver knife to stop Rosalind, but an outstretched hand grabbed her by the wrist.

“Harissa?!” Hibiki yelled in surprise as she tried to shake off Harissa’s hand, but it was no use. Harissa’s grip was like a vise.

“Harissa? How?”

Even with the charm spell, Harissa shouldn’t be that strong. There was no way she could overpower Hibiki! As I watched on, Harissa started to open her mouth.

“!”

That was when I caught a glimpse of her teeth. No, not teeth... Those were fangs! The next thing I knew, Harissa was sinking those fangs of hers into Hibiki’s neck.

“Aaaaah!” Hibiki screamed.

“Hibiki!” I shouted.

“No, Rekka!” Satsuki yelled.

I was about to run forward when she grabbed me from behind. She was thinking clearly while I wasn’t, but... but...! I couldn’t help it. My heart was filled with rage and panic.

“Rosalind! You turned Harissa... You turned them all into vampires, didn’t you?!”

“Of course,” Rosalind answered with a glare. “I knew what your answer was going to be from the very beginning, so I made sure that I had insurance.”

She looked up at Silver Slayer, who was floating immobile in the air.

“This doll can’t be harmed because her body is made of liquid... But if you surround her with a bubble of water and increase the pressure inside of it, you can shut her down.”

“...!”

That first blast of water... Most of it had flowed down the paths leading deeper into the cave, but some of it was left in the holes along the walls and floor. Or so I thought. When I looked around for it now, I didn’t see so much as a single drop left! Was Harissa using her invisibility spell to make Lea’s water magic invisible?!

What appeared to be a simple surprise attack turned out to be a carefully planned trick. I’d been completely outwitted.

“The despair in your eyes! I love it!” Ulaula clapped her hands happily, but a look from Rosalind shut her up.

“Now, I have no intention of asking you nicely or giving you another chance. Give up,” Rosalind commanded.

“I don’t like giving up.”

But what was I supposed to do? I was trapped.

“...Rekka...”

I heard Hibiki call my name even as Harissa was draining her blood.

“Run...” she gasped.

She had her hands behind her back, holding what looked like a tube of some kind. When Harissa let go, Hibiki’s twitching body fell forward towards the floor. But as she fell, she pulled the pin from the top of the tube she was holding with her right hand.

“Close your eyes!” Chelsea yelled as she turned and threw her arms up to cover my face and Satsuki’s.

There was a tiny clinking sound, and then a blast of light filled my field of vision. It was only thanks to Chelsea that it didn’t blind me entirely. But even with my eyes closed, they still stung. Was that what they called a flash grenade?

“We’re getting out here!”

Chelsea grabbed my arm—and probably Satsuki’s as well—and tried to pull us back.

“But Chelsea...!”

“We have to get out of here! If we don’t regroup, we’ll be wiped out!”

“...”

I hated to admit it, but she was right. I let her drag me along for a while, but I ran on my own power once I could see again.

▽

We ran as fast as we could along the paths going deeper into the cave, trying to get as far away from Rosalind as possible. We ran until we couldn’t anymore, collapsing on the ground to catch our breaths.

“Hahh... Hahh... Now what do we do?”

I didn’t have a lot of cards left in my hand. One silver knife. Satsuki’s magic. And...

“This contract, huh?”

I took out the parchment that I’d folded up and put into my pocket.

Chelsea was silent, but her gaze was wavering as if she wanted to say something.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to abandon your brother. But I think that unless we can use this thing properly, we don’t stand a chance of winning.”

It was probably our last hope.

“Let’s go over what we know. Our job is...”

To cure Chelsea’s sick brother. To save everyone who’d been turned into a vampire—that is, to make them human again. To save Rosalind’s story. Silver Slayer’s too.

“...It’s not enough,” Chelsea said.

She was right. The only person who could use the contract now was me. I had one wish and four problems to solve. That wasn’t enough to pull it off.

“Let’s not give up. We can just keep thinking. Dig deep and examine every possibility. And if you think of anything, let’s talk about it...”

As I spoke, I recalled what Rosalind had said earlier that had gotten my attention. “All of you...” It was like she thought of me and my ancestor as the same person. And then there was the strange way she’d said “refuse to be mine.”

The short of it was that most of my problems now had something to do with Rosalind. I shared with Satsuki and Chelsea what she had said, hoping it would lead to some kind of hint. When I did, Chelsea looked a little exasperated.

“Rekka, I think she sees you as a substitute.”

“A substitute?”

“In other words, she wants you at her side because she couldn’t have your ancestor.”

“......What?”

I understood the words that were coming out of her mouth, but I had no idea what she was saying.

“I mean, it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“That’s impossible...”

Despite what I said, I was slowly starting to put the pieces together in my head. Like why Rosalind came all the way to my high school, for instance. Or why she hadn’t just jumped me in an alleyway one night if she really wanted revenge. Or why she used her charm magic to control everyone but me. Or why, even when she tried to do it, she’d left me with most of my will. Or why she’d used the charm magic instead of just turning me into a vampire in the first place.

“She wanted the ‘real’ me, huh?” She’d said something to that effect just a few minutes ago.

When she’d turned the others into vampires, they were like dolls. It was probably the power she had over them after sucking their blood. A charm spell might hold sway over someone, but it was still mind control.

If she wanted me to still be me, the first thing she would try would be to charm the people around me in order to get to me. Then if that didn’t work, she’d have to try charming me anyway. And if that still didn’t work, she’d finally have no choice but to turn me into a vampire...

I bit down hard on my back teeth.

“I can’t possibly be a replacement for my ancestor.”

This vampire’s lived five hundred years and she still doesn’t understand that?

The light bulb finally came on. If I wanted to save Rosalind’s story, I needed to stop her revenge—no, I needed to stop her from using me as a substitute. And to do that, I first needed to get out of this grim situation.

“You said some elixir could cure your brother, right?” I asked, my voice filled with new resolve and a little bit of anger.

“That’s true, but...” Chelsea’s voice trailed off. She paused and then said, “The philosopher’s stone that I would need to make it is part of Silver Slayer’s core. If I ripped it out of her, her body would fall apart.”

Satsuki explained to me in detail how the magic and alchemy involved actually worked.

“Then what if I used the contract to have Ulaula make Silver Slayer human? What would happen to the philosopher’s stone? Would it disappear?” I asked.

Both Satsuki and Chelsea looked shocked.

Turning Silver Slayer into a human was an idea I’d had when we were looking at the white flower together. I thought that might be what her story needed.

“Um... I don’t think so. The philosopher’s stone is perfected matter. No physical force or magic—not even a miracle—could destroy it from the outside.”

“I see.”

Then that would solve two stories at once.

“That just leaves turning everyone back, and then Rosalind herself...”

“Wait, Rekka! That contract had a price, remember?” Satsuki said.

She was right. The person who signed the contract needed to give their life. That was the price. But I couldn’t just give up because of that. There might be a loophole I hadn’t found yet.

“The price is the life of the person who makes the contract, right? But how exactly do they die? Does their soul just leave their body the instant they sign it?”

“The demonic contract is an agreement between two souls, so the moment you sign it, your soul belongs to the demon. But a soul is bound to the body, and it can’t just leave on its own. So you won’t straight up die, but if she touches your soul, it’s all over.”

“Where is the soul, exactly?”

“You can think of your soul as inhabiting the exact same space as your physical body.”

In other words, if she touched me somewhere, my soul would be ripped from my body? It was like a lethal game of tag, never mind the fact that I was playing with a demon.

But at the very least, I wouldn’t die immediately just for making the contract.

“So if we can do something before she touches me, we can turn Silver Slayer from a homunculus into a human. And that gives us a philosopher’s stone, too... But then how do we turn everyone back?”

Wait. Turn a homunculus into a human? Turn everyone back? Hang on...

“Satsuki, I have one more question,” I said.

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s about the rules for the demonic contract...”

Satsuki seemed a little confused by the simple question I proceeded to ask her, but she nodded affirmatively in response. That meant we could do this after all!

“Satsuki. Chelsea. I need your help with something.”

I told them my plan, including what I needed them to do.

“That’s risky as hell... Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Chelsea asked warily.

“Life’s about taking risks,” I said, steeling myself for what was to come.

That’s right. My life wasn’t some toy to hand over to Rosalind, and it certainly wasn’t something I would sacrifice to entertain a demon. It was my last chip, but I was going all in to bring these stories to a happy ending.