Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“We’ve got ourselves a bit of a problem.”

Setsura’s voice popped up like a pretty bubble from a corner of Mephisto’s laboratory.

“Does it look like I care?” Doctor Mephisto curtly replied. “If my treating Princess concerns you, then take care of things yourself. The greatest vampire will die if her head is removed from her neck.”

“Removed being the operative word.” Setsura sighed and plopped himself down in the chair. His was the disconsolate kind of beauty that would bring out the nurturing side of the haughtiest supermodel, who would rush to his side cooing like a mother comforting a lost child.

“No good?”

“Cut it off and it pops right back on. Like one of those Rock ’Em Sock ’Em robots.”

“If you wish to restore Kanan-san to her normal self, that is the fastest way. And it would spare me a good deal of time and effort.”

“When did you get so lazy?” Setsura quipped, though not in his normally spirited manner.

“I am only speaking the truth. When doctors start to equivocate, society itself starts to crumble.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. So treat him, then.”

Setsura looked at the ceiling. He was hanging from the ceiling by his feet, his wings folded across his back. Not a hair was out of place, like the good and proper Englishman he strove to be.

“You talking to me?”

Setsura gazed back at Yakou. “You know, you were a lot more square when we first met. Since when did you turn into a James Dean wannabe?”

“I adapt to my environment.”

“I assume you have been listening.” Mephisto leaned against the table. “Setsura would like to return you to your previous state, and went to a great deal of trouble to secure the necessary compounds. I have undertaken the preparations. All that is needed now is your consent.”

“And if push comes to shove?” Yakou asked defiantly.

“I force no treatment on anybody. The patient always retains the right to refuse.”

“In that case, I refuse.”

Setsura said, “Don’t you think the way you are right now is kind of embarrassing?”

“What’s this? You watch your words. You’re not Princess’s guest here. You are our prisoner.”

“Yes, dear,” said Setsura, holding up his hands in mock surrender. Then he lowered one hand and gave a dismissive wave with the other. “Better than being a sniveling little kiss-up.”

Yakou released his feet from the ceiling. He did a neat one-eighty in midair and landed in front of Setsura. Face to face. “What was that again?”

“Yes. Let’s see if I can think of a better way to put it.” Setsura stared off into space for a moment. “Ah. Better a dumpster-diving bum than a brown-nosing toady. How’s that?”

“I think you might want to take that back,” Yakou said menacingly.

“And if I say no?”

Mephisto finally intervened. “Stop it, you two.”

They all glared at each other. Though leaning back in his chair, Setsura’s glare was closer to that of airy indifference.

Mephisto eyed the two of them in turn. He said to Yakou, “Here is another way to think about it. You don’t want to return to your old self because you believe that would constitute a betrayal of your devotion to Princess. However, if your devotion is something so easily lost, once you actually lose it, it’d be like you never had it in the first place. No?”

“Doctor, your becoming an accomplice in this complicates matters.” Yakou made a sour face. “You have already determined to make me the subject of your procedure. I am sorry to inform you that I will not consent to it.”

Setsura goaded him in his typical relaxed manner. “The you you are right now is the odd man out. You remember the Elder? And who killed him?”

“My grandfather was an old fool,” Yakou answered coldly. “He raised a hand against Princess. A grave miscalculation. Older but apparently not wiser. He could not discern the capabilities of someone so much greater than himself and so beyond his own. His destruction was the predictable result.”

Setsura got up from his chair. “To think I’d ever hear the scion of the Toyama vampires say such a thing.” The tension flowing between the two young men was enough to set the hair on end.

“I do not think this is the venue to settle that discussion,” said Mephisto, stating what had been obvious from the start. “This is a dead end. We must explore the alternatives.”

“No matter what alternatives you explore, I will never betray Princess.” Yakou spoke in a manner approaching his aristocratic old self. A surprising break from his previous calm, cool and collected demeanor. But no matter. He did not appear willing to compromise in the slightest.

Mephisto made the next move. “Well then, Setsura. Let’s go kill Princess.”

Setsura did a double take. “What did you say?” Yakou stiffened in equal surprise.

“Logic here has run its course, and leads us to only one conclusion. It is time for action elsewhere.”

“That is pointless.” Yakou finally found his voice. “Setsura’s threads cannot kill her. There is no logic to fighting her.”

“But that will,” Mephisto said calmly. “Do you have that vial I gave you?”

“Yeah.”

“Coat your threads with what’s in it and they will most assuredly cut Princess.”

“I cannot believe my ears. Doctor, didn’t you—”

“Didn’t I become one of you, you mean to say?”

“Yes.”

“I possess no sense of loyalty, as you define it. My only loyalty is to my curiosity, namely this world and its technology.”

“It looks like I will have to dispose of both of you once and for all.”

“Setsura alone will prove a hard nut to crack.”

Yakou knew that well enough already. When Setsura came to this world, their first fight hadn’t come to any definite conclusion. Neither one lost, but neither did one of them triumph.

“From what I have been able to surmise, you two could fight all day and night long and still come to naught. We need to change the point spread. Each of you swallow one of these.”

Mephisto reached beneath his cape and held out his right hand. In the palm were two red pills.

“One is a placebo. The other contains a paralyzing agent. It was originally a fast-acting compound. But that wouldn’t be very interesting. The effects of this formula won’t manifest themselves for at least five minutes. In short, last five minutes and whoever swallowed the placebo is sure to win. If Setsura wins, then Yakou will submit to my treatment. In case of an opposite outcome, you can dispose of him in whatever manner you believe will foil his assignation with Princess. Well, pick your poison. First, Yakou.”

Yakou hesitated for a moment, then reached out his right hand and took one of the capsules and popped it into his mouth.

“Next.”

Setsura went to pluck the pill out of his palm as Yakou had, then stopped at the last second.

“Hurry up and swallow it. It’s Yakou’s contest to lose.”

“Whatever,” said Setsura, and gulped it down.

“Well, then. Take your squabble outside, if you don’t mind. I wouldn’t want any of the equipment in here to get damaged.”

As soon as they left, Mephisto closed the door and leaned back against the desk and waited for five minutes. Then opened the door. Having confirmed they were no longer present, he said to himself, “Let’s be careful out there.”

Setsura and Yakou faced off in the field behind the manor house. The grass reached above their ankles. Here and there were splashes of bright color. White flowers of an unknown species.

“Time is of the essence,” Yakou stated. “Let’s get it on.”

Setsura started running. Toward the sun. With the flapping of wings, Yakou dropped down in front of him. “Sorry, but I will be the one with the sun at his back.”

“That’s not nice,” said Setsura.

He cast out his devil wire. It slashed diagonally at Yakou’s right shoulder. Yakou blocked it with the palm of his right hand. The wire disintegrated without touching it. Yakou’s demon qi. Setsura dodged the second bolt and aimed a roundhouse right kick at Yakou’s thigh.

The unexpected switch in attacks dropped him to his knees. Setsura followed it up with a right hook to the jaw. The dull thud that followed had the sound and feel of a win. Yakou’s body punched a stickman-shaped hole in the undergrowth. He didn’t get up. The sight of a solid KO.

Setsura hoisted him up on his shoulder. In front of the manor house he stopped in his tracks.

“So it’s a come-from-behind,” he said in a meaningful way. He pitched forward onto the ground. Mephisto’s drug must have been in the pill he’d swallowed.

The sound of him hitting the ground roused Yakou from unconsciousness. Shaking his head, he got to his feet. He looked down at the incapacitated Setsura. “I’m sorry, but you are absolutely not the man for Princess.”

He pulled back his right hand. In his condition, there was no way Setsura could escape.

The Defense Agency Director and another person were waiting for a phone call. Before them, in arm’s reach, the red telephone sat on the big table in the conference room. They had been waiting for twenty minutes, but the meeting elsewhere was still in progress.

The phone rang.

The two looked at each other. The other man picked up the receiver. “This is Kongodai. Yes, I understand. We thank the United States for its understanding and cooperation in this matter.”

The Japanese Prime Minister turned to the Defense Agency Director and said, “We’ve the okay from the U.S. If matters aren’t settled in Demon City Shinjuku by noon of the day after tomorrow, a U.S. military satellite will accidentally target the city with a tactical nuclear missile.”