Labyrinth of the Blue Witch (10 page)

“Spatial distortions…? Do you think this might have something to do with Natsuki disappearing?”

“I do not know. However, I feel like the timing is too similar to be a mere coincidence.”

“Seems like it.” Kojou nodded with a twist of his lips. “It’d be nice if we could get in touch with Natsuki, but where should we look for her?”

Yukina spoke with a tone tinged with faint unease. “In this situation, carelessly walking around is dangerous. In any event, let’s wait and see for the moment. Please return to your own residence, senpai. There’s a chance Nagisa and Yuuma might become wrapped up in this. Also, there is no guarantee you will get back safely next time.”

“I see. You have a point.”

This time, Kojou had happened to go as far as the bathroom of Yukina’s next-door apartment, but next time might not be on such a small scale. If the next warp sent him to the stratosphere or the bottom of the sea, he might perish instantly, unable to return.

Viewed from that perspective, Kojou’s experience earlier was an incredible stroke of good fortune.

After all, he hadn’t been tossed out into a busy shopping district buck naked; the people at his destination were Kanon and Astarte, both acquaintances.

Subconsciously recalling how they looked in the bath, Kojou blessed his good fortune with renewed fervor.

As Kojou did so, Yukina shot him an emotionless glare even scarier than before.

“Senpai…”

Obeying his animal instincts, Kojou prostrated himself once again.

“I’m really, really sorry…”

When Kojou returned to his own residence, it was Nagisa and Yuuma who awaited him, in the bath.

That was not to say that Kojou was forcibly warped into their bathroom the instant he entered the doorway. It was simply that Nagisa’s and Yuuma’s voices from the bathroom were so loud that Kojou could hear them all the way from the living room. It was all kinds of girl talk about if they had boyfriends or not, what sort of guys they liked, ways to make your breasts bigger, and lurid rumors not meant for the ears of boys—all forbidden topics for discussion that Kojou knew nothing about.

Yes, he was curious, but these really weren’t subjects he wanted to hear about from his own little sister’s mouth. In spite of that, he didn’t have it in him to announce,
I can hear you
, and so, with something of a heavy heart, Kojou grabbed a drink in a PET bottle and went out onto the veranda.

Even Nagisa and Yuuma’s careless banter was not audible from outside the apartment.

Leaning limply against the railing, Kojou poured the lukewarm sports drink down his throat. Then, he suddenly saw something that made his blood run cold.

“…Eh?!”

The hand holding the PET bottle shuddered. Kojou was looking at a park on a plateau on the other side of the street. The distance had to be almost a full kilometer away.

If Kojou had not had vampiric vision kick in after sunset as it was then, and if the clothed man standing there did not stand out, he would surely never have noticed.

“No…way. What’s
he
doing here…?!”

Kojou put some shoes on and flew out of the apartment in great haste, running down the apartment complex’s stairs. He leaped over the exterior fence and plunged down the road, taking the shortest possible route toward the plateau. It was times like this that made Kojou curse his body for not being able to fly through the air in true vampiric fashion.

Then Kojou, gasping for breath, arrived in the park that was his destination.

The man was standing on the plateau just as before. He was coldly lording over the nighttime skyline as a faint surge of bloodlust rose all around him.

“—Rudolf Eustach!”

Kojou called out to the man by his name. He was a blond foreigner, a soldier with his hair cut very short. His left eye was covered up by a metallic, eyepatch-like monocle.

He was over 190 centimeters tall, covered with a priest’s habit, and wore a metal suit of armor under that. It was an armored augmentation suit employed by heavy army infantry.

You didn’t exactly confuse a guy like that with someone else.

Two months prior, the Lotharingian Armed Apostle, Rudolf Eustach, Astarte’s master, had engaged Kojou and Yukina in a deadly duel, bringing Itogami Island to the very edge of destruction.

“Why are you here?! Didn’t you go back to Lotharingia—?!”

His tone was gentle, even as Kojou glared at him with a look of raw, shaking emotion.

“To meet someone who knows my common name… Who might you be?”

Kojou yelled indignantly.

“Don’t play dumb with me! Itogami Island decided to return the holy relic already. You shouldn’t have any business here. Or did you come here to take Astarte back?”

“If you have discerned my objective, this, I cannot ignore.”

Eustach drew his weapon from the back of his habit. Kojou recognized the metal bardiche. It was a battle axe with a giant blade.

His monocle flared red over and over as it scrutinized Kojou. Eustach’s vision was filled with a heads-up display from the analysis.

“A vampire of unknown bloodline…? Mmm… If you are an abominable demon, you are here to interfere with my crusade. As an Armed Apostle, I have no reason to hesitate to execute thee!”

“Don’t you remember who I am…?!”

He and Eustach were talking past each other. That fact enveloped Kojou in despair. Kojou knew why he hated Itogami Island and had attempted to destroy it. That battle was over. Many had paid the price, but Itogami Island had escaped destruction by the skin of its teeth, and Eustach had returned to his own nation.

“Stop it, old man. You and I don’t have any more reason to fight—”

“Silence, demon!” Eustach roared.

He unleashed his bardiche down at Kojou, his body accelerated by the augmentation suit. It was too fast to be dodged, but Kojou somehow managed to evade the attack anyway. He’d fought Eustach more than once before; he was well aware of the man’s might.

“Stop, old man…!”

Eustach easily pulverized the concrete bench Kojou had used as a shield. His destructive power was as nutty as usual. This was no opponent Kojou could defeat with his bare hands.

At this rate, Kojou would be slain with ease before he could get through to the guy—

“Shit, you damn hard-ass! C’mon over, Regulus…!”

Out of other options, Kojou began to summon his Beast Vassal.

These were beasts summoned from another world that dwelled in his own vampiric “blood.” When materialized, they were giant masses of demonic energy; they were the reason vampires were known and feared as the mightiest of demonkind.

Only the unlimited negative life energy of a vampire could endure the extreme consumption of the host’s life force required to use a Beast Vassal. In turn, the destructive might of a Beast Vassal was overwhelming.

That went even more for the Beast Vassals of the Fourth Primogenitor, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, with each said to unleash destruction equal to a natural disaster. Even a Lotharingian Armed Apostle had no way to oppose such might.

But Eustach’s attacks did not cease even so—

“—Too slow!”

Eustach’s battle-axe was faster than Kojou’s Beast Vassal summons. Gazing dumbfounded at the giant blade lunging at him, Kojou resigned himself to death.

Even with the power of the World’s Mightiest Vampire, Kojou himself was a combat amateur. The Lotharingian Armed Apostle simply was not an opponent he could defeat without Yukina’s aid.

Yet the impact of the battle-axe did not assail the despairing Kojou.

“…Old man…?”

Kojou looked around the park in a daze, seeing nothing but the surface of the ground.

There was no sign of the large Armed Apostle. He and the bardiche he had swung down had both vanished.

There was no sign of anyone else in the park here at night, only Kojou and the unreliable light of a few lampposts.

He thought he was hearing things, but it was actually the sound of firecrackers for the night before the Hollow Eve Festival’s opening far off in the distance.

Save for the remains of the wrecked bench, all signs of Eustach had vanished.

Kojou dragged his tired body back to the apartment building.

He still had no idea what had happened; he felt like he’d just had a bad dream.

Properly speaking, encountering Eustach was something he should have reported to Yukina. But having tossed the thought around, Kojou decided to keep it quiet for a little while. After all, Astarte was right there in Yukina’s apartment. He didn’t want to make her worry without cause; after all, he still had no proof the Armed Apostle had really been there.

Yuuma was the only one in the apartment to greet Kojou.

“Welcome back, Kojou.”

It’d been a while since she’d gotten out of the bath, with her hair now completely dry. When he glanced at the clock, it was close to midnight. He was late getting back because he’d blundered around the park looking for clues after Eustach vanished.

“Sorry I’m so late… Huh?”

As Kojou kicked off his shoes and returned to the living room, he looked around the apartment for any sign of his little sister.

“Nagisa’s asleep already. Seems like she really wore herself out.”

“…She’s such a grade schooler.”

Kojou made an exasperated sigh as he checked and saw that the lights in Nagisa’s room were out.

Unfamiliar clothes were scattered all around the living room. There was a Victorian dress; a pirate outfit; bunny girl and cat ears outfits; angel, vampire, and even jack-o’-lantern outfits—

“What’s all this?”

“We were trying them out.” Yuuma spoke, looking up at the bewildered Kojou in apparent amusement. “Apparently, it’s
tradition
for people attending the Hollow Eve Festival to wear a disguise.”

“Cosplay outfits, huh…? That Nagisa, when did she get all these together?”

Kojou was half beside himself as he murmured.

His little sister loved events to begin with, but she wasn’t anywhere near this worked up the year before. No doubt she’d outdone herself this year because Yuuma was coming over to play.

Looking more closely, half of the outfits were sized for boys.
I’m soooo glad I was out
, Kojou thought with a sigh of relief. If he’d still been in the apartment building, he’d have been getting fitted for outfits all that time.

Kojou asked the question that was nagging at him a bit.

“Are you gonna be wearing something, Yuuma?”

At the moment, Yuuma was wearing a totally-not-sexy sweatshirt/sweatpants combo in place of pajamas. It was very Yuuma-ish on one level, but he did have a simple interest in what kind of outfit she’d picked.

Yuuma stood up as she spoke.

“Want a peek? I’ll have to change into it.”

“Sure,” Kojou causally replied. “Sorry to make you work.”

Yuuma moved a hand to her sweatpants as she spoke.

“It’s fine. It’s not gonna take long anyway.”

Then right before Kojou’s eyes, she suddenly strippped them off. The generous display of her white thighs drew in Kojou’s gaze.

“Y-Yuuma…?! When you say change… Wait, here?!”

Yuuma smiled teasingly as she shifted her hands to the chest of her sweatshirt.

“What’s the big deal? We used to do this all the time.”

She slowly tugged it down like she was trying to get a reaction out of Kojou.

“That’s when we were kids!! Now you’re—”

Yuuma burst into a small giggle as she stripped off her sweatshirt.

“Now I’m what…?”

The moment before Kojou was going to avert his eyes as quickly as he could, he noticed she was wearing something else in place of underwear.

“Yuuma…that’s…”

Yuuma smiled proudly as she gazed up at the still thoroughly rocked Kojou.

“Yeah, it’s witch cosplay. I put it on underneath to surprise you. It was kind of a tight fit, though.”

The outfit she was now dressed in was a black dress with a very short skirt and one big ribbon tied over her breasts. Together with the triangular hat and the fishnets she was wearing, she sure did look like a witch.

Mindful of Kojou’s silence, Yuuma had a rare look of unease on her face as she asked, “Weird to see me wearing something like this, huh?”

Kojou replied as his gaze wandered about.

“No, I think it’s a good fit, but…”

The skirt was
extremely
short and the shoulders were wide open. Plus, it really showed off all of her body lines. Certainly, you had to call it a good fit for Yuuma’s stylishness. But in addition, it was far too exposing. He felt like it wasn’t a getup he should be seeing her in late at night with just the two of them.

For some reason, watching Kojou slip into suspect behavior apparently made Yuuma happy as she murmured, “That so. I’m so glad.”

Then, she suddenly drew her face close, right before Kojou’s eyes.

“Kojou.”

“Huh?”

Yuuma touched her own cheek.

“You’re bleeding. On your cheek.”

Kojou stroked his own face, mimicking her.

“Whoa, you’re right… A piece of that bench must’ve cut me.”

Feeling the unexpected slipperiness of blood, Kojou stared dumbfounded at his fingertips. Perhaps his current arousal had opened up a wound sustained during the battle with Eustach.

“Hold on a sec. I’ll get a Band-Aid.”

As Yuuma spoke, she fetched a portable first aid kit out of a pocket of the gym clothes she’d stripped off. At her invitation, Kojou sat down on the spot. Yuuma leaned over him from the front, resulting in them looking at each other at a very close, intimate distance.

Kojou flapped his lips casually to break the tension.

“This kinda brings me back.”

Yuuma mixed a strained smile into her nod.

“That’s because you got hurt a lot, Kojou. That got me into the habit of walking around with a first aid kit.”

“Wasn’t that ’cause I was following you around doing reckless things with you?”

Yuuma played dumb about that part as she reached out to touch Kojou’s cheek.

“That so?”

This isn’t good
, thought Kojou with internal apprehension. The extremely exposing outfit together with Yuuma leaning forward like that made him unable to ignore her cleavage. She laughed at Kojou’s obvious nervousness.