CHAPTER THREE

ESCAPE FROM THE DEMON SANCTUARY

1

It was noon when Kojou awoke.

Surprisingly, he’d slept rather well. Though he hadn’t even been asleep three hours, his head was mysteriously clear. Perhaps it was that he knew what he had to do, and he had resolved to do it.

Kojou slipped out of bed, took a shower, and changed clothes. He changed into his Saikai Academy winter uniform, something he normally had little opportunity to wear. Rather than his blazer jacket, he wore a somewhat thicker parka in its place.

He didn’t have much to pack. Aside from his house key, his cell phone and the modified smartphone Asagi had given him were the only devices he was bringing along. He didn’t know what might happen, so it was best to travel as lightly as possible.

The problem was a lack of funds to buy necessary supplies in the field. The money Kojou kept on hand wasn’t much to rely on.

Well, I can’t change that, Kojou told himself as he headed to Nagisa’s room.

Of course, the room was unoccupied. Nagisa was a neat freak, so her room was immaculate.

Without any hesitation, Kojou approached his little sister’s desk and reached toward it.

“I was pretty sure she hid it over this way…”

As he thought, even amid her methodical cleaning, she had still taken the time to stash away a considerable amount of magazines and stickers. Among these, Kojou discovered a single brass key. Ever since she was little, Nagisa maintained a two-step system for retrieving anything important from the desk.

The diary hidden among the other things he removed tugged at his mind, but Kojou resisted the temptation and headed for a Western-style clothes closet. Nagisa had put a sturdy lock on her favorite closet. To the best of Kojou’s knowledge, the item he was searching for rested within. But:

“What the heck is this?!”

When Kojou opened it, his eyes were greeted by assorted pairs of bras and panties stored within. Their designs and fabrics were completely different from the ones Nagisa normally wore. Apparently, this was underwear for “special occasions.”

“She keeps this in her locked closet…?!”

Kojou grumbled as he rummaged through the contents. Though it went without saying, Kojou’s objective was not his little sister’s special underwear. He was searching for something else. Finally, after much labor, Kojou found the bank card and bank books he was looking for, hidden under a pair of panties.

“Well, I can get by as long as I have this, I guess.”

Kojou selected one of the bank books from the pile and exhaled as he checked the remaining funds. There was 149,289 yen left over. He didn’t know whether that was a lot for a high school student’s life savings, but if he was thrifty, he’d have enough to get by.

“Sorry, Nagisa. I’m gonna be using this.”

Giving a mental apology to his absent little sister, Kojou stuffed the bank card into his pocket. The next moment:

“…What are you doing, senpai?”

A voice cold enough to give Kojou chills stabbed into his back.

“Nuoa!” exclaimed Kojou, his body leaping into the air as he shifted his gaze toward the speaker. Yukina, her presence imperceptible, was standing behind Kojou with a scornful expression coming over her. She must have gotten out of bed and rushed over in a hurry; she was dressed in light gray pajamas with a hood. The hood had animal ears sewn onto it. From a distance, she looked like some kind of cartoon character.

“H-Himeragi… What are you doing here…?!”

“Nagisa gave me her spare key for times like these.”

As Yukina said this, she dangled a familiar-looking key holder in front of him. Apparently, Yukina had used the key to let herself in through the front door.

“What do you mean, times like these?!”

“I believe you have been caught red-handed. Do you require further explanation? I placed a seal on Nagisa’s drawers that responds when someone opens them.”

As Kojou stood in front of the drawers, Yukina turned her lens toward him and snapped the camera’s shutter. Certainly, based on that visual evidence alone, it looked like Kojou was rummaging through Nagisa’s underwear.

Kojou vigorously shook his head and insisted, “No! You’ve got it all wrong! I wasn’t looking for Nagisa’s underwear and stuff, I was looking for my bank card! She confiscated it and said if I kept hold of it, I’d use it too much!”

Kojou thrust the bank ledger in front of Yukina. The majority of the money in his account was from his part-time job during middle school. The rest was scraps of money he’d received from cleaning Mimori’s lab and running errands for Gajou, compulsory labor that was “helping out” in name only.

Kojou had meant to use it for club outing expenses, but the money had gone unused after he quit the basketball club.

“…What do you intend to do with that money?”

Yukina continued to hold the camera up as she inquired in a suspicious tone.

“Uh,” went Kojou. His words caught for a moment before he said, “Er, you know, right—it’s New Year’s, so I figured I’d get myself a present. Go wild bargain hunting with the first sales of the New Year.”

“Bargain hunting in your winter school uniform…?”

Kojou remained frozen, cold sweat coursing while under Yukina’s half-lidded glare. He’d tried his best to be subtle, paying attention to minute details in preparation for his plan so that Yukina, his watcher, would not notice, but being foiled because he snuck into the place Nagisa kept her special underwear was well beyond his expectations.

“You intend to go to the mainland, senpai?”

“Well, yeah.”

Kojou sighed in resignation and nodded. Yukina’s eyebrows twitched upward in visible displeasure.

“Secretly, without one word to me?”

“Well, you’d stop me, Himeragi.”

Kojou acted like he was starting over as he spoke. Yukina stared at him with a dead serious look and said:

“I suppose so. After all, you are a vampire primogenitor, senpai. Even if you are tolerated inside a Demon Sanctuary, I believe you walking around doing as you please on the mainland would be a major issue. I could not possibly overlook it.”

“Er…you can’t, ah, let that slide somehow?”

“I cannot.”

“Figures…” Kojou twisted his lips.

“Good grief.” Yukina sighed as she glared at him.

“In the first place, how do you intend to get there from Itogami Island? I take it you have not forgotten that a Demon Sanctuary is obliged to conduct strict medical checks on anyone entering or departing? The fact that you are the Fourth Primogenitor would be exposed for certain.”

“Ah…well, I suppose you’re right about that.”

Kojou gloomily ran a hand through his hair. The practical means to get off Itogami Island, an isolated isle, were limited to air and sea. On top of that, every airport and harbor was garrisoned by an Island Guard unit protecting the border against unregistered demons. As a resident of a Demon Sanctuary, Kojou knew very well how difficult it would be to slip past their surveillance.

“That’s why I was hoping Natsuki could deal with that somehow.”

“Ms. Minamiya…?”

Yukina blinked in apparent surprise, perhaps finding Kojou’s reply an unexpected one.

“Would it not be difficult for even Ms. Minamiya to waive your medical check, senpai?”

“Ahh, er, that’s not really what I meant.”

As an exceptional federal Attack Mage, Natsuki had a lot of pull with the Gigafloat Management Corporation—but that only mattered within Itogami Island’s borders. Letting Kojou, the Fourth Primogenitor, off the island without prior arrangements was surely beyond even Natsuki’s power. In the first place, he had a hard time imagining the arrogant Natsuki playing politics and pulling strings behind the scenes.

“Clearing the exit inspection is a lot of trouble, but covering for me if I leave the island should work, right? So I was thinking Natsuki could give me a little teleport inside of an airplane or something.”

“…In other words, you intended to stow away?”

Yukina put her hands on her hips in visible exasperation. Kojou gravely nodded.

“Depending on circumstances, I suppose you could read it like that.”

“I do not believe there is any other way to read it…”

“Well, it’s an emergency, so it can’t be helped! I’d use a less suspicious way if I could!”

Finally, Kojou lost his cool as he shouted. However, Yukina’s follow-up did not relent.

“Even if you did manage to reach the mainland, what did you plan to do when it was time to come back?”

Yukina calmly persisted with her questions, almost like she was offering guidance to a young child. Customs inspections when entering Itogami Island were far stricter than those when leaving.

“I figured I’d work that out as I went along.” Kojou puffed his chest out in obvious desperation.

Yukina put a hand to her temple as if she was getting a headache and said, “You didn’t think it through at all, did you?”

“Well, worst case, I thought I could tell them I’m a vampire, and then they’d boot me back to Itogami Island anyway.”

“Are you really all right with that, senpai? That would expose your true nature to Nagisa.”

“Th…that so…?”

Well that’s bad, thought Kojou, clutching his head. Though a resident of a Demon Sanctuary, Nagisa had a severe case of demonophobia. If she knew Kojou was a vampire, it would surely bring her an incredible amount of anguish. That would render Kojou going all the way to the mainland pointless.

“Goodness… You lost sight of such an important thing because you tried to go to the mainland without one word to me.”

“Er, I don’t really think the two are related…”

Kojou weakly rebutted the gnawing irrationality of Yukina’s reasoning. “Ahem,” went Yukina, clearing her throat before she continued.

“At any rate, I will change clothes and be right back, so please wait right here!”

“Wait… Why?”

“You are heading to Ms. Minamiya’s residence to ask her to help you stow away, yes?”

Yukina, apparently mystified, inclined her head slightly as she posed the question. To Kojou, Yukina’s reaction was the far greater surprise. Hadn’t she come to stop him…?

“Wait, Himeragi, don’t tell me you plan on coming with me…?”

“The mission assigned to me by the Lion King Agency is to be your watcher. Naturally, if you go to the mainland, I must go with you, senpai. That is what a watcher is for.”

“Er, but you said earlier you couldn’t overlook this…”

“That was in the sense of ‘I cannot allow you to go out of my sight’…”

Yukina pushed her chest out in pride as she spoke. Now that Kojou calmly thought it over, Yukina hadn’t told him not to go—not once. She’d simply been exasperated at the sloppiness of Kojou’s plan.

“Himeragi…”

Kojou subconsciously averted his eyes from Yukina, who had strongly declared Let’s go together. Then he put a hand over his face. He seemed like he was overcome with emotion, desperately holding back tears.

“P-please do not get so sentimental about it, senpai. This is for Nagisa’s sake, so I am tolerating your illegal conduct because there is no other choice—nothing more! And it was wrong for you to try to leave the island without telling me in the first place!”

For her part, Yukina was getting nervous from Kojou’s unexpectedly dramatic reaction. Naturally, even she hadn’t expected Kojou would be so overjoyed.

However, Kojou did not seem quite ready to burst into tears, shaking his head with a conflicted look as he said:

“Ah, no…it’s not that…”

“Huh?”

“No, it’s— Now that I’m thinking clearly, your outfit’s just… Pfft…”

Kojou, finally reaching the limits of his endurance, burst into laughter that made his shoulders tremble.

Yukina was wearing hooded pajamas with animal ears. There was a little tail coming out of the back of her pants, too. That they’d been having a serious conversation while she was dressed like that was too much for Kojou to take.

Then Yukina’s cheeks went crimson with a blush as she realized why Kojou was laughing.

“…?! No, ah, th-these are pajamas from when Nagisa bought some together for the sleepover we had recently… Th-they’re cute, aren’t they…?!”

“Yeah, those mouse ears suit you really well, Himeragi.”

“Wolf ears!!”

“Pffft…!”

The design of Yukina’s hood, which looked like a field mouse’s ears no matter how hard he looked, cracked Kojou up once more. Yukina’s cheeks puffed up as she glared at Kojou for laughing at her favorite pair of pajamas.

“What are you laughing at, stupid senpai?!”

Such was the lack of tension on the eve of their departure.

2

“This will sting a little.”

At a ticket window smelling of antiseptic, a nurse stuck a needle into Asagi’s arm to draw blood. The nurse immediately put the blood she gathered into an analyzer, and the screen displayed that Asagi’s cells were human.

“Yes, no problem at all. Now then, please enter your name and Itogami City Citizen ID Number and advance to the blue ticket window.”

Asagi sighed slightly as she took a form from the nurse.

She was in the domestic airline departure lobby of Itogami Central Airport. With the paperwork for boarding her flight and her luggage safety check already complete, she was currently undergoing her exit inspection. For a resident of Itogami Island, a Demon Sanctuary, getting off the island required more annoying formalities than what other people typically faced when visiting foreign countries.

“It’s a big fuss like this every time. I get that we’re a Demon Sanctuary, so that’s just how it is, but…”

Asagi complained to no one in particular as she headed for the next ticket window.

A man with a face reminiscent of Buddha sat in the booth on the other side of thick, acrylic glass. The clerk’s eyes perused Asagi’s document, staring at her with an unenthused look as he said, “Asagi Aiba. Boarding alone?”

“Yes.”

She managed to swallow the words Isn’t that obvious? and kept them from leaving her throat as she smiled amiably toward him. The clerk didn’t even grin.

“Destination?”

“Tokyo. To visit my older sister attending university in the city.”

“Any symptoms such as fever, nausea, diarrhea?”

“None whatsoever.”

Asagi continued her plain replies to the clerk’s businesslike questions. Either way, these questions were standard formalities straight out of the rule book. But…

“Any cases of a vampire drinking your blood within the last three months?”

“Huh?!”

Asagi unwittingly let out an odd voice when the clerk’s words took her by surprise.

The clerk shifted a cool gaze toward Asagi and said:

“If something comes to mind, please proceed to ticket window number four for reexamination.”

“Ah, er, no. None whatsoever!”

“……”

Asagi’s oddly nervous denial made the clerk stare at her with a suspicious look. However, he did not particularly pursue the matter, and Asagi made it out with a stamp on her exit permit.

This meant the annoying formalities were now complete.

“Ugh… That one really made me sweat.”

Asagi pulled her carry-on bag along as she headed toward the airport terminal. During that time, she heard an oddly human-sounding synthetic voice from inside her bag. It was Mogwai talking, helping himself to her smartphone’s speaker.

“Keh-keh. To be blunt, that’s very fortunate, ain’t it? The Fourth Primogenitor’s French-kissed you, but he hasn’t been drinking your blood…yet.”

“It was not a French kiss!! Wait, how do you know about our kiss?!”

Asagi’s lips twisted painfully as she groaned aloud. Asagi had kissed Kojou right after being involved in a weird terror incident. At the time, Asagi had no idea Kojou was a vampire; that might be why she felt the true meaning of her kissing Kojou had become muddled.

“Keh-keh,” Mogwai cackled, seemingly teasing her about that very part. “But it sure is big of you, li’l miss, goin’ all the way to the mainland for that Kojou guy’s sake.”

“Hey, it’s not like I’m doing this for Kojou. I really haven’t seen my big sister in a while, too.”

Asagi said it like she was bluffing. Asagi’s older sister used going to university as an opportunity to leave Itogami Island, and she was currently living in the capital. Asagi hadn’t had a chance to meet up with her in almost half a year.

“Besides, I hate being the only one out of the loop like I’ve been all this time. That idiot Kojou is no doubt agonizing over how to cross over to the mainland right this minute.”

“Really, now?” Mogwai praised Asagi’s prophetic words. “I see.”

Given his protectiveness toward his little sister, Kojou would soon be saying I’m going to the mainland to look for Nagisa. When he did, Yukina, his watcher, would of course accompany him. In the name of sensible reasons like not wanting to cause her any trouble, it was guaranteed that they’d leave Asagi behind. To hell with that, thought Asagi.

She was worried about Nagisa, too, so she also deserved to know the truth. Besides, unlike Kojou, a vampire, Asagi could leave Itogami Island by legitimate means. All things considered, in Asagi’s mind, searching for Nagisa was her responsibility.

She was well aware that there was significant risk in what she was doing, but since she knew that going in, she could take countermeasures against them.

“Er…huh? I was boarding on terminal number four, right…?”

Asagi suddenly stopped when she realized that the airport interior was strangely empty.

She understood that few people used the airport on New Year’s Day, but this was like a ghost town. That even airport staff were few in number made the sight downright bizarre.

When she looked up at the electronic board, there was no particular sign of anything amiss, only a number of flight schedules and boarding gates being changed—a sight you would see at any airport.

In spite of that, Asagi instinctively felt that something was off in a way that only she could discern. Her intuition told her that some kind of hidden process lurked behind the giant system known as “the airport.”

“Not good, li’l miss. It’s the Island Guard.”

Mogwai’s laid-back warning came a moment after Asagi noticed the shift.

“What?!”

“Sixteen armed guardsmen split into three squads, moving through staff corridors. They’ll surround you in one minute and forty seconds. You’re definitely their target, li’l miss.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me! Escape route! Now!”

“Run to the stairway sixty meters straight ahead. Go down, and I’ll lead you out. The rest is up to chance, but it should be better than stickin’ around inside the building.”

“Ughh! Why does this have to happen on New Year’s morning?!”

Asagi picked up her carry-on bag and made a dash for the stairs.

Apparently, her current reality was filled with far more danger than she had imagined.

3

Natsuki Minamiya’s residence was an eight-story building in Island West. By all appearances, it was a top-tier apartment building, with no expense spared on its construction. As rumor would have it, the entire building was Natsuki’s private property, and she apparently used the entire topmost floor like her own private penthouse.

After heading up by elevator to the eighth floor, Kojou and Yukina were finally at the entrance to Natsuki’s personal home.

“Asagi’s place is pretty huge, but this is pretty up there, too…”

No longer bothering to be envious, Kojou felt pure admiration as he rang the doorbell. After a while, Astarte appeared in the corridor, apparently all dressed up for New Year’s Day.

“Happy New Year.”

The indigo-haired homunculus girl delivered a New Year’s greeting in a voice low on inflection, reminding Kojou and Yukina that it was in fact January 1; they had practically forgotten.

“H-Happy New Year.”

“Sorry to drop in on you, Astarte. We came to talk to Natsuki… Can we see her?”

They hastily bowed their heads, somehow feeling bashful as they replied that way.

When Kojou took the time to look up, he saw that the place was adorned with pine boughs, kagami mochi: a traditional New Year decoration featuring two mochi stacked atop one another with a bitter orange at the very top, and other decorations. That was something to be praised, but it wrecked his mental image of the residence of one of the world’s few “witches.”

“Affirmative.”

Astarte remained emotionless as she turned her back on the pair. Come this way was likely the meaning of the gesture. Kojou and Yukina nodded to each other and stepped into Natsuki’s residence.

Contrary to their expectations, the interior had simple furnishings. The walls and ceiling made heavy use of glass, which made the place look futuristic. The furniture placed within was small with low backs, perhaps to match the size of Natsuki’s body. Because of this, it all felt like a dollhouse that had been meticulously decorated by a little girl.

Astarte led Kojou and Yukina to a broad, spacious dining room.

Atop a long table appropriate for a banquet hall was a line of deep chafing dishes filled with extravagant cooking. A foreign-looking woman in a long-skirted garment was carrying plates over to the table.

She was a female knight with a gallant face and short silver hair.

“Huh? Justina?”

“…Sir Kojou?! And Lady Sword Shaman?!”

Noticing Kojou and the others entering the room, she pressed her hands together in front of her chest, making a stereotypical ninja pose.

“Allow me, Interceptor Knight Kataya Justina of the Aldegian Knights of the Second Coming, to humbly state with delight to all of you congratulations upon greeting the New Year.”

“Y-you, too.”

Kojou and the others were a bit overwhelmed by Justina’s grandiose greeting. It was typical of her to be oddly well versed in her knowledge about Japan, her favorite subject.

“Or rather, what are you doing at Natsuki’s place, Justina?”

“Well you see, Attack Mage Minamiya conveyed a command from my liege, Her Highness the Royal Sister, to report in for New Year’s greetings and to aid in the preparation of Japanese New Year’s cooking.”

“O-oh.”

In other words, Natsuki was apparently making her work for free.

“Royal Sister must mean Kanase. Oh yeah, she’s living at Natsuki’s place, too, isn’t she…?”

“That is correct.”

Justina affirmed Kojou’s murmur.

Kanon, a victim of the Faux-Angel incident, was placed under Natsuki’s guardianship in the aftermath. Appearances aside, Natsuki was quite attentive to the needs of others, perhaps as one might expect of a teacher.

Additionally, together with Kanon, there was one more resident living at the apartment.

“Oh, Kojou and Yukina are here?”

Climbing onto the tablecloth and addressing Kojou and Yukina extremely casually was a beautiful oriental doll not quite thirty centimeters tall. This was what was left of Nina Adelard, the Great Alchemist of Yore, who was more than two hundred and seventy years old. Due to particular circumstances, she had lost the majority of her body, reforming her flesh with what little liquid-metal remained; Kanon was looking after her.

“What brings you here? Perhaps you come bearing New Year’s gifts for me, your elder?”

Nina posed the question with a pompous tone, even though her social position was closest to that of pet.

Kojou flippantly waved a hand to her and said, “No need for a show of vanity. It’s not like I look to you or Natsuki for dignity from my elders.”

“Wha—?! Why you… You will regret insulting me, the Great Alchemist of Yore. I’ll have you know, with the proper materials, I can create any amount of coinage that I please…!”

“Ain’t that fool’s gold?! And I can’t trust your alchemy. Don’t make me say it again,” Kojou said, annoyed while Nina had tried to salvage her pride.

Nina was certainly an excellent alchemist, but because she had lived so long, her grasp on common sense was gradually weakening. The substances she could create via alchemy came at a high cost in materials, and in the first place, there was little need for alchemy in the modern era, making it a fairly useless skill set.

As Nina sulked from having this pointed out to her, they heard a new, gentle voice from behind Nina.

“Happy New Year, Yukina. And Akatsuki, too.”

Entering from the kitchen and carrying a tray of rice cakes cooked with vegetables was a small-statured, silver-haired, blue-eyed girl. It was Kanon Kanase wearing a long-sleeved kimono. The fabric was blue and embroidered with silver flower patterns, matching her hair and eye colors extremely well.

Yukina rushed over to Kanon, taking the tray that Kanon had been awkwardly carrying.

“Happy New Year, Kanon… Are you all right?”

“S-sorry about that. I am not accustomed to these clothes, so it is difficult to move in them.”

“Yes, but they’re really cute.”

“Astarte has one of her own. Miss Justina asked us… She said she wanted to see us in them.”

Kojou gazed at Yukina and Kanon continuing their harmonious conversation when he felt a faint ache in his chest. Nagisa got along well with both of them. He thought that if Nagisa was there, she’d be joining in, making the conversation far more boisterous.