Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Darkness covered the city.

The darkness in Demon City Shinjuku wasn’t the same as in the outside world. The residents of Shinjuku knew that as well as they knew their own names, and they’d noticed in the past few days that it’d taken on additional meaning and depth.

It was tinged with crimson.

The two figures walking along Shinjuku Avenue in the Yotsuya third block neighborhood suddenly stopped. In the pale blue light, they could easily be discerned as a fierce and gallant man, and a woman of spellbinding beauty.

They were both wearing Chinese dress. The man was missing his right arm below the elbow. In this city, even that was not enough to draw undue attention. The ancient koto he was carrying, though, was rare enough to be an exception to the rule.

“What are we going to do?” the girl asked in an anxious voice.

The man watched the people flowing past him with a disinterested expression. He said in a stone-like voice, “I shall be going on alone.”

“What are you saying?” The girl’s face colored with a degree of anguish resembling death. “You are so awfully tired, Sir Ryuuki.”

“I’ve been tired for two thousand years now.” The warrior smiled wanly. “You should return, Shuuran. I will disappear.”

“W-Where to?”

“I don’t know. But in this city, there must be places that would grant me asylum. I suppose I could live out my life slumming among the vagrants.”

“Live out your life—you are talking like a person whose life can end.” Resignation tainted the words of her ravishing beauty. “Sir Kikiou doesn’t understand. Even in this city, there is no place we may call home.”

As if in proof of her words, the currents of humanity flowed silently around them. Those who had a home to return to and those who did not right now had only the road before them. A man never stopped walking until he rested in the grave.

Though as Shuuran said, the two of them did not belong here. Their faces, let alone their bodies, bore no scars or evidence of how they had broken through the impregnable walls of Mephisto Hospital.

“I understand.”

Joy shone in Shuuran’s eyes. “Then stay here and fight Setsura Aki to the bitter end, as Princess ordered. If you do, then I will do likewise. Ask me anything and I shall be at your service.”

“That is not possible now.” Ryuuki stared off into the distance, as if listening to the darkness itself. “Princess will not forgive another blunder. I do not fear being punished. Nor am I frightened by whatever Setsura Aki has to offer. At some point we must fight until the last man standing. All I want is the time before that occurs. Except that I do not know when that will be.”

“Then fight with me by your side.” She wrapped her white fingers around his right sleeve. The strength flowing from her fingers soothed the infinite extremes of Ryuuki’s melancholy countenance.

“No.” He shook his head. “Losing you would leave Princess at loose ends. I can be replaced. You cannot.”

“There is no one for me but you. Besides—” She couldn’t finish the thought.

“It is all right. As far as Princess is concerned, I am only one man. But Princess has undoubtedly changed since returning from Mephisto Hospital.”

“That’s why—!”

More than the surprise at not having realized this until Ryuuki pointed it out, Shuuran’s reaction was more a response to the development of a situation she thought impossible. She hadn’t understood the cause.

“Are you saying things have come to the point that she could lose you and not bat an eye? What happened in Mephisto Hospital?” Her voice quieted to a low moan. “I can’t believe it. That—that doctor—Sir Ryuuki, have you abandoned so much hope? To even abandon Princess?”

“I do not know myself.”

As if pushed apart by the moonlight shining down on them, the two shadows separated. One did not move. The other silently retreated the way it had come.

An infinite distance stretched out between them. The remaining silhouette said to herself heavily, “Setsura Aki. If you died, Sir Ryuuki would return. No. Even if he never returned, I cannot pardon what was done to Princess. You will learn to fear the night. Make even the slightest mistake, and I will be there to take advantage.”

Instead of hightailing it out of Totsuka Station right after emerging from the death match in the holding cells, Setsura made his way to the captain’s office. The cops chasing him froze in fear—until the order came from the Chief himself to investigate all outgoing communications and Internet connections.

Shortly after sunset, Yakou visited Mephisto Hospital in the company of several of his subordinates. He’d originally planned on making this visit two days earlier. The Elder’s funeral accounted for the delay.

His purpose was to determine where the enemy was hiding.

In light of the showdown at the hospital the night his grandfather was attacked, they’d transported Takako to a different location. It wasn’t that he doubted their defensive capabilities, but he feared other patients coming to harm.

Of course, no matter where she was, the vampires would come after her. The victim would try to run back to her accursed master. Yakou knew how to guard against that eventuality as well.

The problem was the new location of Princess’s safe house.

But even in this case, the young leader of the Toyama clans did not lack for confidence. Which was why, when the secretary told him that the hospital director was “unavailable,” he could hardly believe his ears.

“I let him know you were here. As far as Miss Kanan is concerned, he said to leave it up to you, but that he cannot meet with you at this time.”

“Was he suddenly called away on business?”

“I do not know.”

“Please tell him that this concerns master expropriation.”

“But—”

“Did he say you were not to contact him?”

“No.”

The secretary spoke into her tiny lapel mike. The answer came at once. “I didn’t think an opportunity to perform another master expropriation would present itself so soon.” Doctor Mephisto’s voice sounded on the intercom. “That police officer is useless. And there are no other vampires available.”

“No, there is one. The man we found in the ruins next to Shinanomachi Station.”

“Except his throat had been torn out. He was breathing his last.”

“Has he died?”

“He seems to be doing well enough. But there is no mark of the vampire.”

“I suspect it would be found on the flesh missing from his neck.”

“If he is a vampire, then the wound would have healed already.”

“There is only one exception. The master intended to kill the victim.”

“Do as you see fit,” Mephisto said, in exactly the same tone of voice as before. “And how do you plan to proceed? If there is anything you need, let the hospital personnel know.”

“I’ll take you up on that. I would ask that nobody else be allowed to enter his room.”

“Understood. He is in D-wing. Nurse Sayaki, please show them the way.”

At some point, a small figure of the nurse had appeared next to them. She bowed politely.

Several minutes later, Yakou entered a room in the intensive care unit alone.

Setsura Aki. Doctor Mephisto. Four demonic beings. And Yakou. The ends each of them had in mind, and the wills they possessed to achieve them, would turn things in a new and frightening direction.

The night had only just begun.