“Gh—aaaahhh!!!”
The vampire clutched at his arm, howling.
Black, oil-thick blood smeared itself across the mirrored world.
He turned, incredulous, and stared at the girl — the girl who was swaying on her feet, breathing in violent, ragged gulps, who looked as though she could barely stand.
How—
How could prey grow fangs?
“Ehe.”
The black-haired girl smiled, sweet and silly, tilting her head up at him.
Those eyes — veiled in a starlit blue glow — were hollow.
Unfocused.
Looking at nothing.
“Looks like… I’m the stronger one?”
That mocking lilt in her voice — it reminded the vampire of every one of his own kind who had ever looked down on him with contempt.
Rage rose in his chest.
His ability — Mirror World — was an awkward thing, the sort one couldn’t quite throw away but couldn’t quite use either.
Against an enemy stronger than him, it was practically laying himself on the chopping block.
Against the weak, it was overkill not worth the preparation.
But—
But he refused to be looked down on by a human brat.
She was just a little girl.
Her knife was quick, sure, but that was all.
There wasn’t a trace of magical energy on her — how could a thing like her possibly defeat a Dead Apostle?
The vampire’s left hand snapped up.
The viscous pool of blood on the floor leapt like quicksilver, congealing into arrows that shot toward Sakura.
At the same time, the severed arm on the ground melted into thick, black ‘oil,’ coiling back up his stump.
Sakura looked dazed.
Vacantly, she watched the black blood spear toward her.
The girl swayed sideways, turning her body, and tilted the knife-point toward the vampire.
The mortal sees only what is before him; he does not know his own heart.
Reliant on the six roots, in contact with the six dusts, the six consciousnesses arise.
From the six consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, the consciousness of “I” arises — what is known as the manas.
Cast away all things, and what remains is only true emptiness, free and at ease.
—「No-Self Consciousness: Mind-Emptiness, Wondrous Existence」.
It was a secret technique unique to Ryōgi Shiki.
In all of the Ryōgi house, no one else had ever stepped even partway into it.
But Sakura had learned it.
To call it a technique was almost wrong.
It was more a state than a technique.
Through that terrifying intuition, she saw — the arc of the blood-arrows piercing toward her.
Sakura swayed and dodged the first.
She turned her body and dodged the second.
Her body all but pitched forward as she dodged the third.
And the fourth — the fourth she split open with the knife in her hand.
She saw — saw the blood-arrows, after striking past her, being pulled back through the air by the vampire and sent piercing in again.
A sharp whistling cut the air behind her.
The vampire’s left hand was aimed at Sakura’s heart — and that was where the arrows would converge.
He could already see the ending.
The fragile girl in front of him, blasted into pieces by the blood-arrows, blood running everywhere across the mirrored floor.
Capture her?
A creature who had mocked him — she would pay.
He’d cut off her head and the hand that had touched the Princess, and send them back to her.
Only…
He no longer had the chance.
Her body moved faster than her thought.
Intuition steered Sakura’s right hand into a sweeping cut at the vampire before her.
The vampire’s lunging trajectory.
His speed.
His strength.
The instant he would call the black blood back—
All of it.
Sakura saw it, clear as glass.
“All things are a dream.
This is… the Flower of Lingering Resonance.”
Sakura murmured the words, and her right hand swept the small knife in a horizontal arc.
「Twin Bell Towers: Linked Pearls Cast the Moon」.
In the instant she passed the vampire by, the blade in Sakura’s hand seemed to drag a pale-blue glow with it.
Tap-tap—
The girl’s small frame slipped lightly between the gaps of his claws.
Her toes touched the floor with a crisp sound, and Sakura settled into a slight crouch.
The accelerating blood-arrows lost their power, scattering and falling to the floor, repainting the room in viscous pools.
Behind her, two sounds — like ragged sacks dropping onto the floor.
Sakura didn’t turn around.
Her body trembling, she walked toward the escalator.
She wasn’t built like Big Sis Shiki.
After forcing out the swordwork, her legs wobbled under her, and a deep ache spread through every muscle in her body.
“—ha.”
A wheezing breath squeezed out of her throat.
Sakura slowly drew her awareness back from the void-still state.
That… was her own voice?
That breathless, unsteady, ragged sound.
Her whole body ached.
Her chest hurt too — her sister’s undergarment, a little too large for her, had chafed her tender skin open.
Her heart was racing, and the thundering of it slowly filled her ears until that was all she could hear.
The world in front of her began to sway.
Vertigo.
Clang—
Sakura’s right hand fell open.
The knife dropped to the floor.
The last thing — her vision washed black. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Sakura stumbled, pitched forward, and tumbled into a soft embrace.
“Honestly.
You little fool.”
A cool voice resonated through the dark.
Sakura wiggled her fingers, displeased.
Hmph… I’m not a fool.
“You went too far.”
But… I can sleep a little now, can’t I?
Sakura’s awareness sank fully into the dark.
The girl held Sakura close, gently stroking her hot forehead.
She looked at the pool of blood spread across the floor, and a chill of anger crossed that exquisite, frost-touched face.
“You lot.
I’m truly angry now.”
“Fou~~”
A small white bundle picked up the fallen knife in its mouth and hopped up onto the girl’s shoulder.
…
A world dyed in vermilion.
If you looked closely, you could still make out the shape of the Ryōgi family dōjō.
Yumizuka Satsuki braced herself on her shinai, panting hard, staring at Ryōgi Shiki standing in front of her.
How… how could anyone be this strong?
Every muscle in her body screamed as though it were tearing itself apart.
But this time, Ryōgi Shiki gave her no chance to rest.
She advanced step by step, her fukuro-shinai in hand.
Those ink-black eyes were veiled in that same starlit blue — not a spiral.
Ryōgi Shiki didn’t yet have the inclination to cut the fledgling Dead Apostle before her clean in two.
Yumizuka Satsuki forced herself upright through the pain.
She pointed her shinai at Ryōgi Shiki — and then, as if she’d thrown her life away, she charged in at full speed.
Her body creaked, groaning under her.
If she had been human, her body would already have been a write-off.
But she was a Dead Apostle, and a peculiar one even among Dead Apostles.
Her recovery and stamina were horrifying.
The shinai cut the air with a sharp whistle.
And yet — Yumizuka Satsuki was afraid.
The reaper with eyes of cobalt was looking at her.
Ryōgi Shiki tapped lightly off the ground.
Her movement was light as the beating of a butterfly’s wings.
No — the way she fixed her gaze on Satsuki, the better word was cat.
「Tiger Drop—」
She swung the fukuro-shinai idly.
The flat of it tapped the weakest spot in Yumizuka Satsuki’s grip, and the shinai spun out of her hand.
Through the gasping of her breath, Ryōgi Shiki crossed past her, reversed her grip, and brought the blade down on the back of her neck.
「—Twin Bell Towers: Yin-Yang Raden」.
Half a city away, Yumizuka Satsuki and the vampire both collapsed to their knees in almost the same instant.
Only — one had lived.
The other was dead.
(Shiki, Shiki, Shiki, Shiki)