Vampire Hunter D Volume 13: Twin-Shadowed Knight Parts 1 and 2 (11 page)

“Did you kill Origa?”

“That's my job. Anyone who gains any knowledge of these experiments, regardless of how little that may be, is to be exterminated—that's the order I was given.”

“By whom?”

“That goes without saying. If you don't know that, you'll never amount to anything more than a simple Hunter.”

The figure in blue rustled as if he'd been caught in a breeze. Or rather, he stirred like a snake. Each of them was primed for battle.

The assassin's left hand reached for his hair. Taking hold of a fistful, he brought it to his lips. Fwooo! Mia's ears caught the sound of him blowing. Hundreds of needles flew at D without a sound. D's sword slashed through them, but the hairs weren't cut.

Look. D's blade was growing bluer and bluer by the instant. The hairs from the blue assassin were wrapping themselves around it.

“Your sword is useless now,” the assassin said, laughter tingeing his words. “Think you'll be able to stop my hair next time?”

As he spoke, his blue arsenal rustled up like vipers rising to strike. D had been denied the use of the weapon that might ward off any fresh attacks.

“What?” rang a cry of surprise. The assassin twisted around in the saddle. From behind him, Mia had wrapped both hands around his neck.

“Hurry up, D! Make a run for it!”

Her sad cry became an agonized shriek a heartbeat later. A brightly gleaming needle pierced her through the chest and out the back.

However, the assassin in blue donned a puzzled expression. Mia had suddenly disappeared. Once again she'd called upon the same decoy spell she'd used on the brink of the great subsidence. Her true form was crouched next to the pole, where she had a hand pressed to her chest.

Would D flee, or was the assassin in blue going to make his move?

The result was unexpected. The assassin in blue suddenly wheeled his mount around and galloped toward Mia.

D bounded. In the intermittent light, his blade glittered. It no longer wore its sheath of hair. The sword he swung came down hard on the assassin's shoulder, shaking the rider badly in the saddle, but Yuma narrowly managed to stay up.

Listing heavily to the right, the assassin galloped off into the depths of the darkness.

Sensing someone approaching, Mia raised her head. The pain of being skewered by a needle was rapidly ebbing.

Her duplicate was formed by her will, particulates in the air, and proteins expelled through her own pores, and the more detailed it became, the more its reactions mirrored her own. And that was why, to a certain degree, Mia experienced the pain that her duplicate endured.

“Are you okay?” D asked. His sword still rested in his right hand.

“Do I look okay? I'm beat to hell!”

“We'll see to your wounds later.”

Mia was caught off balance. That was all D had to say after she'd disobeyed his orders and entered the dark abode? She'd been braced for a vicious tongue-lashing.

“Are you sure you're feeling all right?” Mia asked him jokingly, but then she noticed that his stare was focused not on herself but on the darkness to her rear. It couldn't be a new foe, could it? Was that the reason for the unexpected retreat by the assassin in blue?

As expected, the figure that approached from the depths of the darkness was also D. Needless to say, it was the impostor. The assassin had noticed him and fled. No matter how powerful Yuma might be, it would clearly be too dangerous to take on two Ds.

“No matter where you go, it's just one endless battle with you, isn't it?” the fake D said in a sarcastic tone.

While the voice was D's, Mia got the feeling she was seeing another side of him, and it put her in a foul mood.

Perhaps sensing something, the fake D raised one hand and said, “Hold on. There's no point in fighting any longer while we're so evenly matched. Let's take a rest. We've got this lovely spectator, too.”

Turning to D, Mia said, “Let's do that.” But she didn't even know why she did so.

The sword D lowered had blue hair wrapped around its blade. That was probably the reason he'd allowed the assassin to escape.

When it had appeared he'd be unable to defend himself from his opponent's attacks, Mia had used her decoy spell. However, D now gave a twist to his wrist, and the strands promptly snapped, fluttering down to the ground.

“Well, I'll be,” Mia said, but her words quickly streaked away from her as she fell toward the ground.

Just before she hit, D's hands caught her and swiftly turned her over. And although she wasn't sure exactly how he did it, she felt like her back had just been laid bare.

“What are you—”

“Just some treatment,” D said, and the pleasant coolness spreading across her back vouched for his words.

“She sure pushed her luck,” a hoarse voice grumbled, and at that, Mia found tears welling in her eyes.

The pain flowed out like a tide.

Once she was completely lucid, a hoarse voice declared, “Good enough.”

D stood up again. How it had happened was once again a mystery, but the girl's clothes were back in place.

“Even I can't do that,” the fake D remarked with admiration after standing there speechless for so long. “That old dog gave you an edge. I guess it can't be helped. Apparently you were the first in your class.”

Tossing his jaw at the two of them, the fake D said, “Come with me. I'll show you what this place is really all about.”

And then he turned around and walked back into the darkness from which he'd come.

-

The trio was in a space reminiscent of a laboratory. Though the ceiling, walls, and floor were all melted as if they'd been assailed by the same high heat as everything else, the arrangement of what appeared to be deformed equipment and the atmosphere that still hung in the deathly gloom made the room's former purpose known. Some thirty feet away, a machine that retained a cylindrical shape gave off periodic flashes of pale blue light.

“This is the core of the facility. Though it was thoroughly devastated, it comes as little surprise that it survived.”

Mia pressed her hands against her chest. It wasn't the cold. An atmosphere close to a chill had stolen into her. Experiments had been conducted here that no human should've ever known about.

“Do you remember this, D? It's the place where we were born.”

There was no reply. What's more, it appeared the fake hadn't expected one from him.

Gazing at the melted lump of material just before him, the fake made a haphazard slice at it. Melted or not, it was still apparently metal, but the material offered no more resistance than water as he bisected it with a diagonal slash.

“This is where the birthing device was. Do you understand, D? We were born not in our mother's home or a delivery room, but in a room for experimentation.”

D stood there like a black shadow.

It was quiet. The stillness was such that it seemed to have been ordained in ancient times and respected by all of creation.

And then it was broken by an insolent voice, echoing in a hair-raising manner, “‘We were born.' D, that means the two of you . . .”

“That's right,” the fake said, nodding. “Here, we were plucked from our mother's womb and cut apart. Apparently our backs were joined in a special fashion. It would seem that's why we're so similar, both in appearance and in ability. Which of us is the older brother and which the younger, D?”

Nothing from the Hunter.

“I'm not surprised. You can't answer that, can you? But I know. I, who was sealed away in the cold and weighty darkness for so, so long. Unlike you, who were given life right away. I know, you see.”

Here, he caught his breath.

“It would seem he wanted to have everything exactly the same. But for what purpose? We grew in the same woman's womb under the exact same conditions and were delivered without even a millisecond's difference. From anyone's perspective, there would be no older brother or younger brother. In other words, you are me, and I am you.”

Vertigo assailed Mia. Her body was terribly cold. These two couldn't possibly be brothers. Or, as the impostor put it, one and the same person.

“You called me a fake, didn't you?” the fake D said, and the girl now noticed that he was wearing a grin. “In a sense, you're not mistaken. After all, I was sealed away here while D was given the world. I suppose that after being delayed for so long, it's only natural I'd be considered a fake.”

“Why come back now?”

“As if you didn't know! To keep control of the world in the hands of the Nobility. That's what I'm programmed to do.”

“Then you're the one who caused that huge depression?”

“That's right. It was part of the preparations for putting this facility back in operation.”

“Back in operation?” Mia said, her eyes wide as she looked all around them. “It's completely destroyed—and you're saying it'll operate?”

“Don't forget that it was built by the Sacred Ancestor.”

“But still,” Mia started to protest, but at that point the lighting began to flicker.

“What is it?”

“Ask your sweetheart.”

Smartass, Mia thought, but she did want to get D's opinion. “D—what's going on?”

Despite its content, his soft reply set Mia at ease.

“It's trying to come back to life. The facility, that is.”

 

-

I

-

"
C
ould it actually do that?” Mia asked D, but he didn't reply.

In his place, the fake said, “These are preparations undertaken by the Sacred Ancestor. No doubt he furnished each and every molecule in the ceiling and walls with regenerative abilities. By my calculations, it should be fifty percent complete within three days.”

“And what do you intend to do then?”

“Woman, you are sorely lacking in the imagination department,” the fake said, his grinning countenance making Mia shudder. “This facility isn't merely for genetic research. It's equipped with an impressive level of defensive and offensive capabilities. Systems developed by the Sacred Ancestor, at that. If my memory serves, it has the power to reduce half a continent to dust with the single touch of a button. But no, it should prove quite interesting to expose the lowly humans to the strange shapes that the results of the original genetic research took.”

“So, what do you hope to accomplish with that? What's your aim?”

“I myself don't know—at least, not fully.”

Mia was left speechless.

The fake D's evil smirk grew even broader. “If there must be a reason for everything, I think it's due to my anger at being left alone for so long. That may not be it exactly, but it can't be far from the mark.”

“I'm begging you, don't do this,” Mia entreated. But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to really hate this horrible mass murderer. “There has to be something else you could do. A great man like you would be able to do anything.”

Even she knew what she was saying sounded absurd. Pointing at D, she said, “He's an outstanding Hunter, for example. If you're just like him, you should be able to do the same.”

The fake's next words froze Mia to the core.

“That's parricide.”

Silence descended. And it was far more daunting than any aura.

Mia was about to turn to D, but she paused.

“That may be,” D said, and his words were a great help. However, was D admitting to what the other had said—that they were the legitimate offspring of the Sacred Ancestor?

“D!”

“Don't bother,” D said, and those words from him brought an explosion of murderous intent from every inch of the fake D.

“Wait, D!”

“Step aside.”

The figure in black strode forward. Mia had intended to block his way, but she ended up stepping to the side without putting up any resistance. A sword gleamed in D's right hand. At the same time, the fake D had drawn his blade.

“It's the same old song and dance, D,” the fake said.

The instant Mia's heart rankled a bit at the hopelessness in those words, D kicked off the ground with tremendous force. Mia's eyes caught nothing more than a momentary explosion of light. Blue sparks spread over the fake D's head. Two streaks of light intertwined like serpents all the way down to the floor, shot back up again, and then there was a second scattering of sparks in front of D's chest. But that wasn't what made Mia cover her eyes. Every time the blades came together, a strange sensation filled the room. Two tremendous energies with wills of their own were slamming together, flying apart, growing even denser as they tried to shatter the field that contained them from the inside. Destruction for destruction's sake, expansion for expansion's sake—all three brains were seared, and their bodies were left semitransparent and weighing only half as much as normal. It seemed as if neither of the pair's blades could injure the other. Steel clashed, and every time that mellifluous tone rang out, the atmosphere became chaotic, abusing Mia's body, spinning her and driving her up against the walls. She sank halfway into them.

This was the domain of the two Ds.

At that point, a greenish hue arose in the dim light. Blinking repeatedly, it went black, then blinked once more.

“That's a warning light,” the fake D said. Or at least that's who Mia guessed it was, but she wasn't completely sure. The two of them had been switching positions so rapidly that each looked at times like the shadow of the other. “Do you know what's happening, D? I do. Intruders.”

“Intruders?” Mia said, her eyes riveted to him.

The fake D stood there motionless, his eyes half closed. But he soon remarked, “Hmm, it would seem even that little hick village has someone with some backbone. They're coming down into the subsidence.”

“What?”

“The fools. They'll see what a terrific stronghold this research center is when I strip the life and soul from them.”

About three feet above the trio's heads, an image had formed of a number of figures descending a rope into the great subsidence. Men from the village. Mia counted four of them, of which three looked familiar. All wore backpacks and were armed with longswords or axes, bolt guns or tasers. Mia's eyes were drawn to the youngest and seemingly most intrepid of the bunch.

-

His name was Kuentz. The son of a village huntsman, he was a mere nineteen years of age, but there wasn't a man around who was any better in a bare-handed fight or in the use of arms. The reason he hadn't been involved in any of the major incidents up until now was simply because business had sent him off to a neighboring village. This morning, he'd heard about the trouble before leaving said village, and as soon as he got home, he called the men together, gathered volunteers to explore the bottom of the great subsidence, and rode out there after making sufficient preparations. He was hardly a rash young man, which became evident when he ruled out any of the village volunteers who had a wife and children to look after, regardless of what special skills they had. The other men were also cool headed and composed, all brave men who weren't above sacrificing their lives for the safety of their families and their village.

Coming down the rope in almost a straight line, they'd gone about halfway when the rock face grew violent. The mere touch of their feet against it sent the four of them flying, rope and all, and once they'd twisted back around on the line, they found unsettling mummies leering back at them. This may have been an area where the ancients had performed mummification rites and burials, but the fact that the rocky walls had easily given way at that point to reveal exactly four of them seemed to be no mere coincidence. As the men stared dazedly at them, their desiccated flesh swiftly began a transformation. Blue blood vessels shot through their muscles, which ballooned and reclaimed their reddish hue before pink skin flowed up to cover them like a returning tide. And from the way their bountiful chests filled in, bare of even a stitch of clothing, they could tell the mummies were women. Then the women, with gold, red, black, and green tresses hanging down to their waists, got the most coquettishly alluring smiles as they reached out for the men with both arms. Ordinarily, anyone could've seen there was something strange about this. However, the situation was so incredibly abnormal it left the men dumbfounded, and they allowed the pale arms to wrap around their necks.

It was Kuentz who realized the danger. When he was hired to go to the eastern Frontier region and help out, he'd encountered a tree that took on human form in the Forest of Cain. Thanks to her lovely countenance and tempting flesh, he had been just about to throw himself on her in spite of himself when a more experienced local saved him with a homemade flamethrower. Later he heard how the pistils of its blossoms secreted a powerfully hypnotic liquid, the scent of which halted human thought processes. After the victim had been enveloped by its hand-shaped petals, he would be digested and absorbed.

His limbs no longer responded. Quickly biting through his bottom lip to bring himself back to his senses, Kuentz fired away with the flamethrower an old huntsman had given him. Although three of the beauteous mummies were engulfed by flames in the blink of an eye, the fourth survived, for one of the villagers had already leapt into the arms of the lovely woman.

As he was being dragged into her body, their colleague exclaimed, “Save me!” When he turned to make that entreaty, half the flesh was gone from his face, leaving only a skull with eyeballs.

“Sorry, Garo.”

As Kuentz prayed for his friend's swift passage into the afterlife, he let a golden jet of fire fly from his flamethrower. The beautiful woman instantly turned back into a shriveled mummy, and it was probably thanks to this that she burned so well.

“Now there's three of us—and I don't intend to lose anyone else. Be real careful now.”

When Kuentz spoke, the rest of the group—actually, just the other two—seemed to get their bearings back as if they'd been dunked in an icy stream of winter meltwater, and they nodded in response.

-

“One of them's already been killed. Make it stop, D!” Mia cried, but neither of the two young men who wore D's face said a word.

“Oh, they've reached the bottom! Couldn't you switch off the fortress's defenses? Make it stop.”

The girl showed no signs of relenting, but the fake merely shrugged his shoulders at her cries, saying, “At present, the facility has diverted nearly all of its energy to reconstructing itself. It's not in a position yet to hand complete control over to me.”

“D, do something. I'm begging you.”

“This isn't our problem,” the gorgeous Hunter said coolly.

“Well, I still can't let this happen. If you don't want to do anything, then I'll go all by myself. You can—”

Grinning wryly, the fake D said something unexpected. “Slay me? Girlie, I suppose I can help you.”

“What?”

“It would seem my blood runs a little redder than that other me. How does that sound?”

“Okay. You've got a deal.”

“In that case, order that me not to touch this me. You're his employer, right?”

“D, you heard what he said. Keep your hands off him.”

“Have it your way,” D said, having nothing else to say on the matter for some reason. “However, we'll accompany him.”

“Of course.”

“Yes, of course,” the fake said with a deep nod.

Whether or not he realized that strange developments were taking matters out of his hands, D stood there as silent as always.

“You must know where they are. Show us the way.”

“Fine, but on one condition,” said the fake D.

“What now?”

“If even one out of the three is saved, the two of you are to leave here today. And not return for three days.”

Unable to decide immediately, Mia turned to D, but the gorgeous Hunter didn't say a word. Mia thought her last decision might've angered him and felt a little depressed. Also, the words of the fake telling them it would take three more days for the facility to function normally still rang in her ears. However, seeing the trio who'd reached the bottom of the great subsidence and stood stock still in the eddying white steam without even knowing where they were, she knew she couldn't sit back and do nothing.

“Understood. We'll keep our end of the bargain. Now, lead the way.”

“Good enough,” the fake said, looking at D and Mia with smug satisfaction before he turned around.

-

II

-

After hearing from the sheriff in the hospital what'd happened out at the great subsidence two days earlier, Kuentz and the other members of his group had borrowed heat-resistant suits and gas masks from the fire department's storeroom. They'd already donned the suits, and as for the masks—well, they were pretty old, so the men were going to use them only if the gas was more than they could take, slipping them on just shortly before they reached the bottom. They certainly were swelteringly hot, and apparently a scant amount of air passed through the filters, forcing them to take shallow breaths. If they didn't finish their investigations as quickly as possible, the masks might suffocate them.

Kuentz was certain there was something, or someone, at the bottom of the subsidence. Therefore, he'd intended to take the time to do a thorough search—but his determination was rapidly waning in the heat. Still, what kept him from losing heart was his youth and sense of duty, plus the confidence that came from having experienced more grueling situations than most adults. His body bore over a hundred scars in various places, half of which had nearly been the death of him. While putting down a stone bear that weighed nearly fifty tons, he'd been gouged open down to the lungs, but he'd still managed to make it out of a germ-infested jungle in the midst of a downpour due to the knowledge of medicinal herbs he'd gained in the western Frontier. On a plateau called Ren, he'd been attacked by a weird tribe of pygmies and hit by five poison arrows, but he still managed to destroy the earth-quaker they called their god thanks to a protective spell he'd learned in a certain library in the Capital. He would manage something this time. If not, he'd fight to the bitter end.

With all the drive and determination of youth, Kuentz had come more than prepared, even bringing along three compatriots—although one of them had already met his end. The youthful leader's heavy responsibilities were subtly affecting his mind and his judgment. He wasn't sure where, but there had to be a door someplace so the murderer known as D could come and go.