Chapter 8: Vampire Versus Vampire!

The feeling of having his blood drunk was pleasant. Was it because Aiko was the one doing it, or because the act itself was pleasurable?

Yuichi could barely move, so he certainly couldn’t fight back. He was forced to yield to Aiko entirely.

Aiko laid Yuichi back on the floor and stood up.

“Ha!” her brother laughed. “What do you plan to do, Aiko? You think that drinking a little blood will help you?” His tone was an amalgamation of fear, jealousy, and hatred.

Shining wings began to unfold from Aiko’s back: thin and delicate, like many layers of thin glass on top of each other. At the same time, four blades appeared around her, equally transparent and seemingly without substance. Her eyes had turned red, and Yuichi could see fangs peeking out from the corners of her mouth.

“Vampire Princess.” At some point, the label above Aiko’s head had changed, as well.

The world around Yuichi was spinning. He had never dreamed that Aiko might transform.

“No! Don’t you dare! You always do this... It’s always about you!” Kyoya shouted. He had abandoned all pretense of his earlier haughty calm.

He began a new monstrous transformation, morphing into a wolfman covered in silver fur.

His transformation complete, Kyoya dashed forward. He leaped into the air, brandishing his claws to tear at Aiko.

Aiko thrust her palm towards him, causing the blades hovering around her to lance forward towards Kyoya. They drove him back while still in midair and struck him to the ground.

“Your blood isn’t tasty, Big Brother,” she said calmly. The blades returned to their formation around Aiko. These were Aiko’s fangs, and they were now stained in blood. “Wait for me, Sakaki. I’m going to end this.”

The chill in Aiko’s voice brought Yuichi back to his senses.

“Don’t you dare! I didn’t ask you to do this!” Yuichi fought against his unsteady legs, trying to rise.

He couldn’t let Aiko kill her brother. Mutsuko had told him once that killing someone could scar a person in a way that they would never fully heal from.

Aiko gave another gesture, and her fangs slashed at Kyoya once more.

Kyoya stood up and began sprouting more arms. Two new arms now grew from each shoulder, giving him an Asura-like silhouette. He used four of those bestial arms to seize each of Aiko’s attacking fangs.

“Well? What now?” Kyoya asked as he approached Aiko.

She threw both hands in front of her — perhaps trying to regain control of the fangs — but Kyoya kept tight hold on them.

Kyoya lowered his center of gravity and ran towards her.

Aiko awkwardly flapped her wings to get out of the way, but although they likely existed to let her fly, she wasn’t used to them at all. She ended up losing her balance and, unable to remain properly airborne, hit the wall.

Kyoya dove upon her, thrusting out with his savagely extended claws.

Aiko brought her wings in front of her to defend herself, but the force of the claws sent her flying back.

Aiko hit the wall and fell down beside Yuichi. Nevertheless, she stood up again.

Her eyes glowed, her wings extended. She took a step forward, ready to keep fighting to protect Yuichi.

Stop it... Yuichi didn’t want her to do this for him.

Kyoya laughed. “Serves you right! You think a little sister can beat her big brother?”

They were both superhuman. There was no room for Yuichi to interfere. This was no battle for an ordinary human.

So... so what? Yuichi forced power into his legs. Did I really make you worry that much?

Slowly, he rose.

You really think I’m so weak that you have to do something like this?!

Aiko couldn’t move her wings properly. She must have been at the limit of her strength.

“This is it! The proof that I’ve overtaken you as a vampire! That I’m stronger than you are!” Kyoya brandished his claws again and charged straight for Aiko.

Aiko began to topple over, her strength gone. She couldn’t protect herself anymore.

Kyoya’s claws were aimed right for Aiko’s heart.

Yuichi unleashed a primal scream.

✽✽✽✽✽

“What’s going on with Noro?” Natsuki murmured as she watched Aiko’s transformation.

Shining wings had appeared on Aiko’s back. Her eyes had shone red, and fangs had poked out from behind her lips. There was no sign of the easygoing Aiko that they knew.

The closest frame of reference that Natsuki had was the horn that appeared on an oni’s brow. That was also semi-transparent and insubstantial.

“Maybe it’s the power of love! Hey, does that mean you can transform too, Takeuchi?” Mutsuko asked excitedly.

“No, I...” Natsuki did have something inside of her, the source of both her superhuman strength and her urge to kill. But it had never caused her to transform.

“This is kind of a ‘wow, really?’ moment, huh?” Mutsuko babbled. “When you think of female vampires, you’d expect something more like Carmilla, right? The real sexy type! But Carmilla was a lesbian, so I guess this is sexy in a different way!”

Mutsuko showed not the least bit of surprise by Aiko’s transformation, and just kept blabbing on about whatever came to mind.

“Should we have stopped Noro?” Natsuki asked. Now that she was gone, there was nothing they could do. Perhaps, Natsuki thought, they should have stopped her from going.

“Good question,” Mutsuko said. “It’ll probably be scary for her... but she’ll be okay. Yu won’t let anything bad happen to her.”

Natsuki looked at her dubiously. Yuichi couldn’t win; Mutsuko must surely realize that.

Natsuki had been surprised when Aiko had run in and abruptly transformed, but she didn’t think it would change anything. Aiko didn’t have enough practical combat experience. No matter how much power you had, it meant nothing if you couldn’t use it.

“Sakaki can’t move anymore,” Natsuki said.

“Yeah,” Mutsuko nodded. “He used a full-body furukami and he’s reached his limit.”

“That vampire is stronger than him,” Natsuki added.

“Looks like!”

“So how is he going to win?”

“He’s reached his limit and he’s been rendered immobile against an overwhelming enemy, so he’s lost... Is that what you think? Give him a little credit! Yu’s not that weak! You think he’s the protagonist of the kind of story where the heroes fail, to make a statement about the cruelty of the real world and how bad endings are more realistic? No!” Mutsuko proclaimed. “This is the turning point! Got it? When you’re the best of the best, you always find a way!”

✽✽✽✽✽

The bestial arm spun end over end through the air.

Kyoya watched it fly, but he could not understand what he was looking at.

It traced an arc towards the ceiling, blood trailing behind it.

His claws were about to pierce Aiko’s heart... but now it was Yuichi who stood in front of him.

Yuichi’s arms were crossed and stretched in front of him, and he was falling backward.

He should have been finished already... What was he doing there? But just as the thought entered Kyoya’s mind, Yuichi disappeared.

Kyoya’s vision tilted.

The next instant, he realized that he was the one falling over.

Everything was moving in slow-motion.

The pain in his arm and leg registered simultaneously.

Kyoya suddenly realized that he was missing a hand, and that his left leg was twisted at a bizarre angle from the knee down.

His memory of how things had come to this were blurry. What had happened? Who had it done this to him? He couldn’t even begin to piece it together. All he could do was feel time passing.

He reached out instinctively, attempting to stop his fall. But he was not allowed.

He felt fingers stab into his eyeballs, then felt the impact of his head striking the wall.

Everything went black. But it only lasted for a moment. The next thing he knew, Yuichi’s face was in front of him.

“You son of a—” Kyoya attempted, but a dislodged jaw kept him from finishing his curse.

Yuichi had used the heel of his hand to strike Kyoya’s jaw at extremely close range. The whole mandible had gone flying. The pain caused Kyoya’s vision to cloud over.

He flailed desperately with his six arms. If only one of them could hit...! But he only made the situation worse, as Yuichi dealt with each arm systematically, one at a time.

Yuichi began to pummel Kyoya indiscriminately, with fists, with chops, with jabs from his fingers. He twisted his joints and broke his bones.

Another transformation... But the time it would take would create a fatal opening.

Healing... But he’d been regenerating this whole time; it simply couldn’t keep up.

He’s a monster.

It was impossible to believe this man was human. Kyoya didn’t even know what it was he was fighting. He had absolutely no idea what was going on.

At last, Kyoya’s feelings caught up with the circumstances around him.

Terror...

He was experiencing the primordial fear of death. He couldn’t even get a good look at Yuichi. It was impossible to even stay on his feet. His body was in a constant state of being destroyed.

Kyoya spread his wings. Those, at least, he could still use. Maybe if he got away from the school...

But Yuichi kicked off the ceiling to assail him from above. He struck down with a heel and smacked Kyoya back to the floor. Then, without a moment’s pause, Yuichi threw the stakes in his hand.

The slender stakes of white magnolia stuck into Kyoya’s back. Blood — the source of his power — flowed out of him. The fluid from which his immortality sprung was draining away.

There was only so much his regeneration could do, and now it was reaching its limits.

Kyoya felt suddenly, acutely aware that he was standing on the verge of death.

✽✽✽✽✽

“He won,” Mutsuko said quietly.

“Huh?” Natsuki asked, jaw slack.

“Get in the spirit, Takeuchi! Give me a good, proper ‘yeah!’”

Natsuki couldn’t understand what Mutsuko was talking about, nor could she process what was happening in the video that was being projected on the wall.

“The hero in a manga can’t bring out his all until he’s really up against the wall! ...Though he may have overdone it a little.” Mutsuko knitted her brow in concern.

“What even was that?” Natsuki burst out.

“What? Oh, the thing at the start? That’s the Type 0 Extreme Defense Technique, ‘Fukuro’! It’s a move when you focus your opponent’s power and your own body weight into torque, all against a single joint... and wow, I know joint locks can be powerful, but I wasn’t expecting him to tear it right off!”

“I thought he couldn’t move...” Natsuki stated in disbelief.

“That kind of thing is all about the mood, though. Even a robot that’s out of fuel can move if you shout at it enough!”

“He didn’t do any of this when he fought me... What does it mean? Wasn’t he fighting me seriously?” Natsuki’s face screwed up in frustration.

“Well, he’s removed another of his limiters,” Mutsuko explained. “The furukami removes the limiters on his body. But there’s also a limiter on the mind. I mentioned it before, remember? Humans generally can’t kill other humans, and any attacks against another human will have an inherent resistance built in. If you remove that resistance, things can get pretty scary! In other words, Yu is currently attacking with intent to kill. That’s the difference between this and his battle with you!”

“Something so simple can make that much of a difference?” Natsuki asked.

Don’t think of him as human. Natsuki had given Yuichi that exact same advice. Yet there was something unbelievable about the scene unfolding in front of her eyes.

“It’s because Yu’s such a nice guy. Though that can cause its own problems... I bet he almost didn’t even use it!” Mutsuko exclaimed.

Yuichi was showing no mercy. Kyoya was left completely on the defensive, but he couldn’t actually defend himself properly. He simply couldn’t keep up.

That’s strange, Natsuki thought. Yuichi was moving fast, but not so fast she couldn’t follow him.

Mutsuko must have read her mind, because these were the next words out of her mouth:

“The thing is that whether you’re fighting a vampire or an anthromorph, they still don’t think or react any faster than a human. That’s why he can’t deal with Yu’s disappearing moves. In martial arts, disappearing moves are moves that run contrary to what your opponent assumes you’ll do. See, what we perceive as ‘vision’ is an amalgamation of what the brain assumes will happen, and what’s really happening. The brain runs various simulations based on stimuli about what’s going to happen next, and presents the results as if you really saw it... Well, that explanation might not make sense to you, but I’ll explain more about how the brain works later.”

“What did you do to Sakaki?” What could turn a human into something like that? Natsuki couldn’t even imagine.

“I didn’t do anything to him! He’s the one who pushed himself that hard,” Mutsuko responded.

“Why did you do this to Sakaki?” Natsuki stared at the video of Yuichi playing out on the wall. The degree of violence he was inflicting on a fellow human could easily be called “excessive.” For what reason had Mutsuko worked to train Yuichi to this level? That was what she didn’t understand.

“Does a boy need a reason to want to become strong?” The innocence in Mutsuko’s smile sent a chill down Natsuki’s spine.

Was it possible, she wondered, that maybe she really didn’t have any reason? That he’d just wanted to become the strongest man in the world?

Natsuki stared off into space as the thought drifted through her mind. Meanwhile, after checking something on her tablet, Mutsuko stood up.

“Takeuchi, I need to take care of something. Could you wait here?”

“Okay... but are you sure we shouldn’t do something about Sakaki?”

“I think Noro’s the one who’ll do something!” With that carefree line, Mutsuko left the restaurant behind.

✽✽✽✽✽

The heart was his weak spot.

Remembering that, Yuichi struck Kyoya in the back just behind his heart.

Sufficient concussion to the heart would cause ventricular fibrillation. Most people wouldn’t know just when you needed to strike to cause it, but Mutsuko’s teachings had made it possible for him.

Kyoya’s heart stopped. Then, it started again.

Stubborn.

It was clear, then, that a stake through the heart was the only reliable way. He pulled another white magnolia stake from his pocket. It was only the size of a pencil. Possibly not sturdy enough to pierce through to the heart.

But if he tried it and it didn’t work, he could dig in through his side and crush the heart in his hand. And if that didn’t work, he’d just rip him apart until he couldn’t regenerate anymore.

Yuichi wrapped his fingers around the stake. He was about to strike it into Kyoya’s heart with his fist, when...

“Sakaki!” The voice interrupted him.

“Sakaki, that’s enough! You’ve done enough!” Aiko’s voice was calling out to him, desperately.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the girl staggering to her feet.

Her uniform was in shreds. Her red eyes had returned to their normal color, and the wings on her back were gone.

She slowly walked up to him. “This is my problem! If anyone’s going to finish him, let it be me! So... enough! Please, stop it, Sakaki!” Aiko threw her arms around him, weeping.

“Noro...” Aiko’s touch brought Yuichi back to his senses. She was looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

“Love Interest.” The sight of her label going back to normal filled Yuichi’s heart with joy.

He laughed. “Wow. You are acting pretty much like a love interest right now...”

Aiko drew away, perhaps embarrassed over how she’d thrown her arms around Yuichi.

“Noro... Thank you. You saved me.”

In front of Yuichi lay Kyoya, his body covered in blood. He lacked the power to maintain his bestial form, so he was back in his human one. But even then, he was barely recognizable as human.

His arms and legs were bent at unusual angles. His bones were sticking out; there were gouges taken out of his flesh. His regeneration had slowed. It seemed the power couldn’t run forever.

“I-I’ll do it!” Aiko snatched the stake from Yuichi and brandished it over Kyoya.

“Don’t!” Yuichi shouted.

“But...” Aiko began.

“It’s okay now... I think.” Yuichi drew closer to Kyoya. “Right?”

“Eek!” Kyoya curled up, making a pathetic sound.

“Stop making trouble for your family, and give the world conquest stuff a rest,” Yuichi said. “Okay?”

Kyoya mustered up the last of his strength to nod hastily.

His spirit was completely broken. In Yuichi’s experience, once a person had been reduced to this, they never crossed him again.

“See? It’s okay,” Yuichi began to say. Then he realized the world was going dark around him.

As his knees buckled beneath him, he put a hand on the wall. Then from there, he slowly slid to the floor.

“Sakaki!” Aiko’s scream was the last thing Yuichi heard before he lost consciousness.

✽✽✽✽✽

Eriko watched the end of it from the roof of the old school building.

Vampires had the ability to share sensations with the people whose blood they drank. It was through this power that Eriko had perceived everything that happened to Kyoya.

“What on earth...” She put a filter over the sensation, so that while she could perceive the presence of pain, she didn’t have to feel it firsthand. But that alone was enough to make her quiver in fear.

Eriko had never been in a real fight, but it was easy for her to tell that Kyoya was up against some kind of monster. There was beauty in the precise, efficient way he dismantled his enemy.

This was not someone she wanted to have against her, she realized.

Eriko decided that it was time.

The result of her experiment was clear: Drinking too much blood had made it impossible for Kyoya to walk in the sun, and had begun making him more beast-like.

The beast forms... They were terribly ugly. Unpalatable to Eriko’s sense of aesthetics.

Kyoya’s body had continued to transform. Most recently, his fangs had remained extended, and he had grown hairier. In other words, if she drank too much blood, she would eventually turn out the same way.

What Eriko had been seeking was eternal beauty; the balance that would keep her from aging without turning her into a beast. But after seeing Aiko, she began to wonder if there was another way.

Aiko...

She had been so beautiful.

Could that have been the legendary form written about in Eriko’s notebook? She had thought it didn’t really exist, but after what she had seen, she had no choice but to believe.

“Perhaps that rumor was true...” she murmured.

Eriko had heard a rumor — which now seemed extremely plausible — that Aiko was not truly linked to the Noro household by blood. In other words, both Kyoya and Aiko were vampires, but of different species.

Could she, Eriko, undergo a similar transformation? If it were a question of bloodline, did she have any of that blood within her? She would have to experiment with Aiko next. What did it take to achieve that form? Aiko was a simple girl, she thought. It would be easy to string her along. And then...

“Good evening. Can we talk?”

Torn out of her thoughts by the new voice, Eriko turned.

There was a girl standing alone in the moonlight on the roof of the old school building.

Mutsuko Sakaki. The monster’s older sister.

“What are you doing here?” Eriko asked in her most elegant tone.

“I set up security cameras all over the school, ’cause you never know where an enemy might come from!” Mutsuko declared. “Of course, I never expected to see one fly down onto the roof...”

Eriko quietly looked around her. She couldn’t see anything that looked like a security camera.

“Well, they’re not so easy to spot. I can’t have people finding them, after all!”

“I see. So, what did you want to talk about?” Eriko asked.

“How much do you know? How much did you have to do with what happened?” Mutsuko demanded.

“You really think I’ll tell you?”

“Aw, you won’t? I was hoping you’d be the chatty type... I mean, the mastermind always comes around in the last act to spill the whole scheme and tell the heroes everything! Even stuff they didn’t ask for!”

“Oh? You think I’m a mastermind? Yet you willingly stepped into my presence, thinking you’d be safe?” Eriko asked.

“Nah, I’m not too worried about that!”

Eriko narrowed her eyes cautiously. This was that monster’s sister she was dealing with, after all... There might indeed be more to her.

“Well, I guess it’s okay if you won’t tell me,” Mutsuko said. “But the real problem is the people you drank blood from. I don’t think we have to worry about Noro’s brother doing it anymore, but... How about it? Can we get you to lay off, too?”

“And why exactly should I do what you tell me?” Eriko asked.

“I figured you’d say something like that. I’ve got a pretty short fuse, so once negotiations break down, I go right to force.”

She was close. The distance between Eriko and Mutsuko had closed without her realizing it.

Eriko had never even seen her move. It wasn’t as if she had come rushing up to her. It just seemed as though the next thing she knew, Mutsuko was there in front of her.

“There!” With a grunt, Mutsuko swung both arms, as though to hug herself.

Shing! There was the sound of metal unsheathing as blades sprung forth from both of Mutsuko’s arms. They tore a cut across Eriko’s chest.

“Is this what they call an ‘a-ha experience’?” Mutsuko asked casually.

Eriko didn’t realize that the reason she hadn’t noticed Mutsuko’s approach was that she had only slid her feet along without letting her upper body sway at all.

Eriko jumped back.

The wound was extremely shallow, but very slow to regenerate.

The blades had ripped through Mutsuko’s sleeves at the elbow and extended all the way to her shoulders with a dull glint.

“I see. The silver coating was super effective, huh?” Mutsuko crossed her blade-coated arms, nodding as if in understanding.

Eriko decided she had to get out of there. This woman was too unpredictable to remain in the presence of.

She unfurled her bat wings — she usually tried not to use them in front of others, but she didn’t have many options now. “This is nonsense. I don’t have to hang around with you people.” She spread her wings and gave them a flap, which lifted her lightly into the air.

Mutsuko had no way of reaching her there, Eriko realized, and looked down at the girl in triumph.

“Saber off!” Mutsuko uncrossed her arms forcefully, launching the blades outward.

The blades spun through the air and caught a corner of Eriko’s wings.

Eriko didn’t lose balance and fall, but she also couldn’t make any more progress. She only barely managed to hold her position and remain in place.

“Aww! Well, prototypes usually have issues with precision...” Mutsuko pouted.

But Eriko felt sure that it wasn’t over yet. She couldn’t let her guard down; she had to get out of there as soon as possible.

Eriko flapped her wings again and resumed her ascent. She felt relieved as she seemed, this time, to be safe. But before she could leave the school behind, Mutsuko turned back around.

She looked Eriko straight in the eye, and stretched out her right arm. Her fingers took the shape of a gun.

“Bang!” Mutsuko said.

Eriko just assumed she was just being a sore loser... and an instant later, there was a hole in her stomach.

✽✽✽✽✽

“That one was pretty imprecise, too... Or was that your fault, Ibaraki?” Mutsuko asked.

“Hey, look... don’t blame this on me, okay? You told me the aiming was automatic.” Ibaraki’s voice could be heard over Mutsuko’s tablet.

Mutsuko had told Ibaraki that the body detection software would lock on to her heart automatically. All he had to do was pull the trigger when she told him to.

Mutsuko looked up at the sky. Eriko was falling.

“Okay, fire two! This time, aim for the heart!” Mutsuko cried.

“Can’t,” Ibaraki answered.

“Why not? Theoretically it should have three shots to a charge!”

“It shot out some of these big things... Condensers, I think? Like, really far.”

“Huh? Oh, come on!”

“Hey, don’t blame me... You’re the one who built it,” Ibaraki said.

Mutsuko had prepared an anti-vampire trump card: her very own hand-made railgun.

The only problem was, it was so big that it had to be hauled around like artillery. That was where Ibaraki’s brute strength came in handy.

First, they had broken down the railgun and had Natsuki’s servant Sakiyama drive it to a building near the school. Then Ibaraki had used his oni strength to carry the parts up to the roof. Since oni weren’t good with modern technology, Sakiyama had been the one to assemble it.

Either of them could handle the aiming, but since it could involve killing, they decided that Ibaraki should do it.

“By the way, couldn’t we have just used a sniper rifle instead of something like this?” Ibaraki asked.

“Huh? I thought you said you weren’t good with guns!” Mutsuko said. Everything on Mutsuko’s railgun, including the targeting, was automatic, so even Ibaraki could use it.

“So you knew from the start that I’d be the one firing it, huh?” Ibaraki asked.

“Well, it’s also illegal to carry rifles in Japan!” Mutsuko proclaimed. “Railguns aren’t covered by the Swords and Firearms Control Law!”

“Huh? No, hang on, back up... am I the only one who sees a fundamental problem with this?”

“Oh, never mind! If it can’t be used, it can’t be used, so just take it down, okay?” Mutsuko commanded.

“...What a slave driver... Now I know how Yuichi feels...” Ibaraki grumbled, but he cut off contact to do — she assumed — as he was told.

Eriko fell back to the roof. Vampire that she was, though, she could survive even a bullet to the gut and a fall like that.

“Well, what now? I’m not sure what I have on hand will be enough to finish you off...” Mutsuko was genuinely at a loss for what to do next. Fortunately, it was just then that the door to the roof opened.

“Why don’t you let me handle the rest?” A large man in a white coat stepped onto the roof.

“And who might you be?” Mutsuko asked.

“I’m Aiko Noro’s father, Kazuya Noro. I’m sorry for the trouble my relatives have been causing you...”

“Oh, gosh! You’ve done such a great job raising Noro, though! Okay, well, if you want to take care of the situation, I have no issue with leaving it to you.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” Kazuya turned back and gave a signal. A number of men appeared and carried Eriko off.

“We’ll deal with Kyoya in the same way,” Kazuya said.

“Did Noro call you by chance, sir?” Mutsuko asked.

“Yes. Aiko called and told me about it.”

“I’m not sure if I should be asking this, but... if we had just let you handle it from the start... would it still have gotten resolved?” Mutsuko asked.

“No... embarrassing as it is to admit, our hands were tied by a certain agreement. We can’t do anything to stop a vampire that has unleashed its true nature. So what you’ve done has been a great help.”

“Oh, I’m glad to hear that. Oh, also! You guys run a hospital, right? Could you take Yu there? I think he’s in pretty bad shape right now.”

Not only had he transcended his limitations with the furukami, he’d further transcended those limitations to force himself to move again. The aftereffects he suffered would be worse than even the standard furukami’s.

“I’ll handle everything. They don’t call me a super doctor for nothing!” Kazuya declared.

And so, he took Yuichi into his care for treatment.