Right Arm of the Saint (5 page)

Against the hellish backdrop of the pouring midday rays of the sun, an incessant hot wind blowing in through the window, Kojou was translating the suspicious English text “Researching the Shape of Mythology in Post-Primitive Man” under the supervision of a teacher who looked younger than he was. This was no longer an exam; a better term for it might be
discipline
, or perhaps
torture
.

“I’ve told you before. Don’t address your teacher by her first name.”

He heard Natsuki’s haughty voice from the center of the platform as she sat atop the luxurious, velvet-covered chair she’d brought in from somewhere on her own, drinking hot black tea.

She wore a lace-heavy, black, one-piece dress. Except for the frills from the cuffs and the front of the neck, her hip proportions were being flaunted by a laced-up corset. For so-called goth loli, it was rather high-end, but that didn’t make it seem any less stifling in this heat. However, as Natsuki elegantly fanned herself with a black lace folding fan…

“This level of heat is nothing compared to the start of summer.”

“Er… It looks hot from where I’m sitting, though.”

I just don’t get it
, thought Kojou, resting his chin on his palms.

It was this charismatic teacher, Natsuki Minamiya’s, greatest shortcoming. Her fashion sense had an absolute lack of consideration of time and place. Natsuki’s wearing of a stifling dress in
this
heat, on an artificial island in the tropics, was violence to his eyes in and of itself. Not that it didn’t look good on her…

“And what are you drinking there, all by yourself?”

“Ah yes. I tried adding some light flavor based on candy from Ceylon using herbs; also, just the right amount of brandy to bring out the taste of black tea.”

“Not sure you should be waving the smell of alcohol in front of a student taking supplemental lessons, but… May I go now?”

“As if I could supervise tests during summer break without a drink. I’m grading, so wait a minute.”

As the smell of Western liquor hung in the air, Natsuki picked up the supplemental test’s answer sheet, which Kojou had somehow managed to finish writing, with her fingers. She crossed out several errors with a red pen.

“Hmph. Well, fine. Make sure you pass the rest of the make-up exams.”

“Sure thing.”

As Kojou said so with an unenthused voice, he began putting his things on top of the table in order. Natsuki silently watched that for a while, tilting her teacup, but…

“Ah, Akatsuki. Apparently some idiot vampire let a Beast Vassal loose at a shopping mall in Island West yesterday. Do you know anything about that?”

“Huh?”

His homeroom teacher’s abrupt question brought Kojou’s motions to a spontaneous halt.

The shopping mall in West. Beast Vassal. Vampire. Of course he knew, but there was no way he could talk to Natsuki about that. After all, Yukina Himeragi was intertwined with the incident the day before.

If by some chance she
was
questioned as a witness to the incident, it would be very awkward for Kojou. After all, no vampire such as the Fourth Primogenitor existed here in Itogami City. In other words, Kojou was an unregistered demon. It would be exceptionally troublesome if his true nature was exposed to the Island Guard.

Kojou shook his head as if his neck were a rusted gear. Natsuki made a
hmm
, exhaling.

“I see. Fine, then. I was worried some Attack Mage who knows your true nature had encountered and come into conflict with a stray vampire while following you around.”

She said it like she’d seen the whole thing. At Natsuki’s all-too-accurate inference, a twitchy smile came over Kojou.

“Ha-ha-ha… There’s no way…”

“Surely not. That’s fine. Let me know if you do notice anything.”

So saying, Natsuki pulled back surprisingly easily. Kojou made a sigh
of relief. Though her arrogant tone made her difficult to understand, her saying she was worried about Kojou was probably the truth.

Natsuki Minamiya, English teacher, also bore the title of Counter-Demon Attack Mage.

The Demon Sanctuary’s educational institutions were obligated by treaty to employ a certain percentage of teachers bearing National Counter-Demon Agent licenses; Natsuki was one among these. Furthermore, she was a combat veteran. She was very much an active professional Attack Mage, also serving as an instructor with the Island Guard.

And she was one of the extremely few people who knew Kojou was the Fourth Primogenitor. Kojou’s being able to go to school like an ordinary person, in spite of having the physical makeup of the so-called world’s mightiest vampire, was due to Natsuki’s machinations.

That was why Kojou couldn’t look Natsuki in the eye. From time to time, Natsuki had Kojou assist her in her private work, but he could only accept that as fate and move on.

“Ah, come to think of it, there is something I wanted to ask you.”

Suddenly remembering, Kojou raised his head. Natsuki gloomily looked back at him.

“What is it?”

“The Lion King Agency… Know of it?”

Natsuki was silent at Kojou’s question, a clear expression of displeasure coming over her.

“How do you know that name?”

“Er, it’s not that I
know
it, it just slipped past my ears a little.”

“Oh ho. That really makes me want to prod you for details. Slipped past
these
ears?”

As Natsuki spoke, she pulled on Kojou’s ears without restraint. As Kojou yelled out, “Ow, ow…”

“…Are you, uh, angry about something?”

“I’m just a tad annoyed at hearing an unpleasant name. They’re the competition, after all.”

Kojou exhaled roughly as Natsuki let him go. As Kojou pressed on his stretched earlobes…

“Competition…to National CDAs, you mean?”

Natsuki gave Kojou a frosty warning as she looked him over.

“They’ll come to kill in earnest, even against a Primogenitor. That’s what they were made for, after all. Do take care not to approach anyone related to the Lion King Agency.”

“…Made for?”

Kojou asked with a dubious look, but Natsuki clicked her tongue as if she’d said too much and did not say another word about it.

It seemed that in the end, Natsuki’s answer was:
Don’t go near the Lion King Agency.

“Ah, right. Natsuki, there’s a staff meeting for the middle school today, isn’t there?”

As Natsuki moved to leave the classroom, Kojou stopped her with another question. Natsuki dubiously raised an eyebrow.

“And what business do you have with the middle school, Akatsuki?”

“Ah, er. Just had something to ask Ms. Sasasaki, my little sister’s homeroom teacher.”

“Misaki?”

Natsuki’s face grimaced unpleasantly. Now that he thought about it, she and the junior high school teacher Misaki Sasasaki shared the same alma mater, and for some reason, got along famously poorly. Sure enough, Natsuki made a blunt, sharp expression.

“As if I’d know anything about the people in junior high. Go see for yourself.”

“…I’ll do that.”

Kojou meekly went along with Natsuki’s words. He instinctively determined that this wasn’t a subject he wanted to get dragged into.

However, that was hardly enough to restore Natsuki’s humor after being bent out of shape.

“Incidentally, Kojou…”

“Yes?”

Natsuki’s black lace fan lashed out. He didn’t know she’d done it, but Kojou’s forehead was struck with enough force to cave a normal person’s skull. Kojou fell right on his back.

“Why do you call her
Ms.
Sasasaki and me
Natsuki
?! I told you, don’t you
Natsuki
me!”

Her skirt in a flutter, Natsuki left those words behind as she violently took her leave.

“Shit… Corporal punishment’s…not cool,” Kojou murmured weakly, looking up at the ceiling as he held his forehead.

Saikai Academy was a coed institution with middle and high school integrated. Itogami City had a large, youthful population, and the large-scale, mundane school was a reflection of it.

But, fated to share the critical lack of land as all construction on Itogami Island, the school site was difficult to call
spacious
. The gym, pool, cafeteria, and many other facilities were shared between the middle and high school sections; for that reason, there was an unusually large number of chances for high school students to see junior high school students on school grounds.

On the other hand, it was rare for a student of the high school section to visit the junior high school section; it just wasn’t necessary.

As Kojou thus felt a mix of vague familiarity and vague unease, he found himself standing absentmindedly before the junior high school section’s staff room, somewhere he hadn’t visited in quite some time.

Kojou held in his hand the white wallet he’d picked up at the shopping mall the day before.

The one dropped by Yukina Himeragi.

If the story he’d heard from Nagisa was true, that spear-wielding girl had apparently transferred into the Saikai Academy junior high school section. The student ID in the wallet also backed up Nagisa’s testimony.

That being the case, it’d be faster to get it back to Yukina Himeragi by handing it to her homeroom teacher than to the police. That thought was why he’d come out of his way here to the junior high school section.

“Sorry, Akatsuki. Ms. Sasasaki doesn’t seem to have come in today.”

So said an elderly teacher who Kojou didn’t recognize, suddenly bringing his plan to a halt.

“Ah, that so…”

“Something to give her? How about you leave it with me?”

“Er, well… I do, but I’ll just try again tomorrow. Bit of a troublesome thing.”

Kojou thanked the elderly teacher, making his way out of the staff room. With only two days until summer break ended, Misaki Sasasaki seemed to be making the most of what was left of her vacation.

This is becoming a real bother
, Kojou thought.

If he could, he wanted to put the wallet into the owner’s hands ASAP. If not, he’d have a misunderstanding with that short-tempered junior high schooler, and
that
might get him suddenly impaled to death from her spear.

Natsuki’s words,
Don’t get close to the Lion King Agency
, tugged at him, but trusting a nonhomeroom teacher to return a wallet with actual money in it seemed rather irresponsible, and Kojou wasn’t of a mind to request it.

Leaning on a pillar of an adjoining corridor, Kojou absentmindedly gazed at the campus.

Here in broad daylight in the middle of summer, there weren’t all that many students doing club activities. Even so, he could see athletics club members doing solo training here and there on the grounds.

Cheerleaders were practicing a dance in the shadow of the school building. On the tennis court, club members seemed to be having practice matches against each other. As he watched the flutter and sway of the female members’ skirts, they made him remember Yukina Himeragi the day before.

She had such a bizarre level of combat power she’d faced down a demon-race male and utterly crushed him, and her silver spear had annihilated a vampire’s Beast Vassal in a single instant. And the flushed look of her face when she held down her skirt over her pastel-colored panties. It was such an impactful scene, even if he thought of forgetting, it wasn’t something easy to forget at all. There may have been suspicious parts about her, but she really
was
a pretty girl.

Those legs were pretty, too… Kojou clicked his tongue a little as he casually thought about that.

At the same time a light dizziness assaulted him, his throat felt extremely parched. It was an unusually bad sign.

“If she’d at least put a contact number or something in here…”

To break his train of thought, Kojou hurriedly averted his eyes from the campus and opened up the wallet he’d picked up. It didn’t seem to be a luxury brand, but it was a nice wallet that he could tell had been well cared for.

It had a faint, pleasant smell to it.

The wallet itself was made of common, readily available textiles; in other words, this smell was no doubt the lingering scent of its owner. It was not the strong scent of perfume, but a gentle, comfortable, pleasant scent. Well, the point being, this must be what a girl smelled like—

The instant he subconsciously thought about that, this time Kojou’s whole body was assaulted with a strange thirst.

“Ugh…”

Not good
, thought Kojou as he covered his own mouth.

With a pale face, he locked his knees together as his shoulders shuddered a little.
Not now!
he thought as his lips twisted. Sharp, tapered canine teeth poked through the gap between his lips.

However, it wasn’t that Kojou was in bad physical shape. What was causing him distress was a simple physiological reaction. However, this was an abominable, troublesome condition specific to vampires: the urge to drink blood.

—
Not good not good not good not good…

Kojou desperately wanted to fight the desire to drink human blood that gripped his entire body. He knew all too well the crimson-dyed hallucination filling his field of vision.

There were still many things misunderstood by the world at large, but the species known as vampires did not drink the blood of others to satisfy hunger. Food and drink were sufficient to address simple hunger and thirst.

Certainly vampires could replenish their magical energy through the act of drinking blood. Magic also existed that used blood as a catalyst.

However, these were nothing more than by-products.

A vampire’s urge to drink blood was triggered mainly by sexual arousal. In other words, by
lust
.

A fierce impatience. Oppression that felt like it was tearing your body
apart. Thinking of someone, you felt like you couldn’t just stand still any longer. Then, suddenly, you attacked without warning.

To escape from that suffering, many vampires in the past, unable to control themselves, attacked whoever was nearest them, sometimes even their own loved ones.

But conversely, one could still say that it was merely sexual arousal.

“Shit… Gimme a break.”

Kojou groaned as he felt a dull pain inside his nose. The taste of metallic blood spread within his mouth. The urge to drink would not continue for long. A little surprise or fear could be enough to make it vanish; once it did, even he wouldn’t understand why he’d suffered so much.

In Kojou’s case, the solution was bleeding from the nose.

In other words, as he’d simply come to love the taste of blood, there was no problem if it was his own blood he tasted. When he was aroused, his nose bled—perhaps because happened to have that predisposition, it always returned Kojou to his senses when assailed by the urge to drink blood.

As Kojou wiped away the trickling blood flowing out of his nose, he made a tedious sigh.

It was good it’d passed without causing trouble for anyone else, but the problem with this predisposition was that it looked
very
uncool. A human being unaware of his circumstances watching Kojou just now would have simply seen a boy who sniffed the scent of a girl from her wallet and suddenly had blood spurt out of his nose. Most would think him a simple pervert.

The form of a female student wearing a uniform entered the corner of his warped field of vision. Kojou became intensely nervous.

Here in the junior high school section corridor, there was no place to hide, and his nosebleed had not yet stopped.

The approaching female student came, stopped, and stood behind Kojou, who still had his knees locked. The girl exhaled calmly.

“To think, aroused by sniffing the scent of a girl from her wallet. You are a dangerous individual indeed.”

So said the familiar-sounding voice.

“…Wha?!”

The girl standing behind Kojou bore a guitar case on her back over her schoolgirl uniform. She was a female junior high schooler with somewhat adult looks, but she looked over Kojou with scornful eyes.

“Yukina… Himeragi?”

In shock, Kojou called her by name. He wondered for a moment if this was a hallucination caused by the urge to drink blood. However, Yukina asked back in a cold tone, her expression never changing:

“Yes, what is it?”

Kojou made an even more relieved expression.

He’d suddenly realized the urge to drink blood had completely vanished. Perhaps it was due to his heavy surprise. His nosebleed had stopped, too. Confirming that his extended canine teeth had subsided to their normal length, Kojou lowered the hand he’d covered his mouth with.

“What are you doing here?”

“I think I should be asking that, Akatsuki-senpai. This is the middle school section of campus, isn’t it?”

“Er…”

When the younger girl calmly pointed it out, Kojou had no rebuttal.

Yukina made an exasperated sigh and pointed to what Kojou held in his hand.

“That’s
my
wallet, isn’t it?”

“Y-yeah. Right, I came to get this back to you. They said Ms. Sasasaki was off for the day, though.”

When Yukina held a pocket tissue out to him, Kojou wiped his nosebleed with it, nodding in grateful acceptance. Yukina fell silent as if determining the truth or falsehood of Kojou’s explanation.

“Did sniffing that scent arouse you enough to make your nose bleed?”

“It’s not like I was turned on by the scent of the wallet. Just, I remembered about you from yesterday—”

Kojou’s words made Yukina’s voice slip in a bewildered-sounding “Huh?” For a moment, she stiffened as if she were a doll.

“…?!”

Far too late, she subconsciously held down the skirt of her uniform. She bit her lower lip with a flushed face.

No doubt she was recalling the incident that had taken place when she’d encountered Kojou the day before. And realizing that she herself was the cause of the sexual arousal Kojou had felt.

“P-please forget about yesterday.” Yukina spoke with a tone containing all the calm she could muster.

“Er, even if you tell me to forget it…”

“Please forget it.”

“…”

As Yukina glared at him, Kojou silently slumped his shoulders. He realized that if he got her overly upset here, she might break that lance out and go on a rampage just as she had the day before.

“Also, please return my wallet. That’s what you came here for, isn’t it?”

Yukina made her legitimate request in a gentle tone. However, Kojou did not fulfill that request. He raised the wallet up high, beyond where Yukina’s hands could reach.

“I want to ask you a few things first. Who the heck are you? And why are you looking into me?”

“…Understood. So I may take you to mean that I will have to take my wallet back by force.”

Yukina gave Kojou a long stare as she made her declaration. As if drawing a katana from its sheath, her hand reached toward the guitar case on her back.

So this is how it’s gonna be
, Kojou thought, halfheartedly giving up as he lowered his center of gravity. As though playing defense in basketball, he adopted a posture from which he could deal with any attack. Yukina’s eyes grew guarded.

Grrrrrrr.
…The next moment, a low sound reverberated across the corridor.

Kojou’s eyebrows rose without a word.

When Kojou realized what that low growl was, a somewhat awkward expression came over him. It was a grumble from Yukina’s stomach.

“Err… Himeragi, are you hungry, by any chance?” Kojou asked Yukina as she remained frozen stiff.

Yukina was silent. That
was
her answer.

“Haven’t you eaten since yesterday? Ah, because you didn’t have your wallet? Himeragi, you actually live alone, don’t you?”

“Wh-what of it?!”

Yukina tried to keep her voice calm, but of course it came out a bit flustered.

Somehow he’d felt like that was the case, but apparently Yukina had come to live here on Itogami Island apart from her family. Since she’d just transferred, she didn’t have any friends yet, and having dropped her wallet, she had no money. That had to be why she hadn’t had a bite to eat since the day before.

With a somewhat flustered look, Kojou tilted his head and gently presented the wallet in front of Yukina.

Even as Yukina became agitated, as if wondering,
Wh-what are you doing?
her guarded expression never faltered.

“So, uh, treat me to lunch. The guy who picked up your wallet has a right to ask that much, right?”

Kojou spoke with a voice drained of tension.

Yukina blinked over and over, looking at Kojou as if trying to weigh his true intentions.

Like a plaintive, hungry puppy, her stomach made a low growl once more.

Yukina Himeragi ordered a retro-version Classic Teriyaki Burger, onion rings, and grapefruit juice combo. They were a five-minute walk from Saikai Academy at a big burger chain franchise on Island South.

With refined etiquette, Yukina, sitting up straight in her seat, gripped her teriyaki burger with both hands, a happy look on her face. Kojou watched her absentmindedly.

“What are you looking at?” Yukina asked dubiously, noticing Kojou’s gaze.

“Ahh, er… I was thinking, so you eat hamburgers like normal people, too, Himeragi.”

“What do you mean?”

Yukina’s eyebrows flattened in a scowl.

Kojou sipped on an iced coffee that was heavy on the ice and thin on the coffee.

“Err, somehow I had the impression you hadn’t been to this kind of place, like you’d be asking where the knives and forks were, and stuff…”

“I am not entirely sure, but might you be making fun of me?” Yukina made a sigh, as if a little wounded. “Certainly, the town High God Forest is in is no city, but it does sell hamburgers at least.”