Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The Blood Clan—commonly called vampires—are otherworldly residents with power close to immortality.

They have human appearances, but can't be seen in mirrors or optical instruments, and have red wing-like light around them.

They are incredibly tough.

On the other side, protecting humanity from the Blood Clan, are those known as Fang Hunters, who mostly fight using special blood-based powers.

—Though it sounds impressive, in the long history of struggle between Fang Hunters and Blood Clan, the Hunters rarely gain the upper hand.

Except for a few exceptional individuals, ordinary Fang Hunters only have a chance when it's two-on-one or more. Even for Libra's strongest, Boss Klaus, the best way to handle a high-level Blood Clan is to seal them after Leo reads their true name with the God's Eye—actually killing one is nearly impossible.

“So she's on her own—” The young man clenched his fists.

Nighteye pulled Mirio Togata back and shook his head. “The entrance is already closed. Even if we were inside, we wouldn’t be able to help. If we get bitten and turn into ghouls, we'll become a problem instead.”

—“It’ll be over in ten minutes at most. Don’t rush in,” that kid said.

“Trust her,” the hero in his business suit said, suppressing the unease in his heart, forcing his face to look even calmer. “And if she fails…”

He turned, his back trembling but held straight.

“…then it’s up to us.”

Zapp still remembered the first time he met Kirisame.

At the time, Libra had received a contact from his master, the Blood God, saying that an elder-level Blood Clan he was pursuing had fled to Hellsalem's Lot. Back then, when they didn't have Leo yet, they went ready to die. Unexpectedly, by the time they arrived, the police waiting outside stammered and told them that the legendary high-level Blood Clan had been taken down single-handedly by a kid present.

It seemed the Blood Clan, driven mad by the Blood God, had attacked in the middle of a bustling district—maybe because the teleportation coordinates were off. A seven- or eight-year-old girl was unlucky enough to be caught in the attack range.

Then came chaos. Buildings around collapsed, the pedestrian street turned into a river of blood, screams and cries filling the air. Amid gunfire and smoke, a child covered in blood, holding a tachi nearly as tall as herself, leaped high and slashed out a crescent moon shape.

When Zapp and the boss entered, the girl had already fainted. Her body was covered in burns and penetrating wounds, with hardly any intact skin. She looked oddly shriveled, and the gash wounds had stopped bleeding entirely.

—It looked like all the blood in her body had evaporated.

She was out for about a day and a half, getting blood transfusions the whole time. Zapp was dragged by the boss to the hospital room to check if she had woken up.

Their timing was spot on. They stood at the door just as she opened her eyes.

Evening sunlight poured through the window, reflecting in her beautiful golden eyes—empty and hollow. A clear look of confusion and daze spread across her pale, bloodless face.

She raised her bandaged hands, stared at them a moment, and spoke flatly:

“I'm alive again…”

The boss took her in.

That kid was really obedient.

When she woke from her coma, she had lost almost all memory of the battle. But the process of taking her in went unusually smoothly. She nodded almost without resistance, not even asking what kind of place Libra was. It wasn't like she was shutting herself off after some huge trauma, but she didn't seem like a normal child.

—Not just unlike a child; she hardly seemed human.

Zhen once tried to tempt her with a snack kids love. She was clearly interested, but when Zhen tentatively took it away, the little girl didn't even blink.

Like a transparent glass pane, light passed straight through, leaving no trace behind.

Nothing worth hoping for, nothing worth clinging to. Take it or leave it. Her resume showed she had fought desperately to survive, but they couldn’t see any reason she wanted to live.

Zapp had no idea how to deal with such a kid. If you could show a favorability meter, his feelings toward Kirisame back then would definitely be in the negatives.

—But then again, Libra was full of lunatics.

KK had just given birth to her eldest son not long before, and even if he were older, she would never bring him to them to play with. This bunch of lunatics did everything they could to make the kid act more normal and lively.

So the overly lively Zapp was chosen. The dark-skinned hunk was dragged out of his hot girlfriend's bed against his will to drag Kirisame around on wild adventures, eating and drinking at Libra's expense, determined to teach the little girl what life was all about.

After several

rounds of that, surprisingly effective. Through countless forced awkward situations, forced eating, drinking, gambling, and burying face in beautiful big sisters' chests, forced to clean up after the Senior's messes, the kid gradually developed a lot more humanity. Sure, she picked up a bunch of annoying bad habits, but she finally looked like a normal child who was curious and could act spoiled.

The obvious hollow aura she had when she first arrived years ago had faded considerably, but the adults who lived with her every day knew that their years of work had only turned a glass pane into a mirror—reflecting whatever was placed before it. When there was nothing, it stayed blank.

—But at least now it could reflect something.

In a place like Hellsalem's Lot, successfully raising a child to this age, turning her into a relatively upright person, was already a huge achievement. The boss was very satisfied with this educational progress.

After all, Kirisame was still young. There was plenty of time for her to grow.

—That’s what they used to think.

Until six months ago.

The Despair King set off the prelude to the Second Great Collapse. The boss fought alone atop a church, Leo stood at the center of the world shouting, the golden light of the barrier spreading like a relay of torches across the whole city. And the twisted, unfathomable Fallen King, Femto, silently took Kirisame.

For two whole months.

Zapp nearly turned Hellsalem's Lot upside down.

No one knows what happened during those two months. Kirisame came back to Libra without a scratch. According to her, the strange man did nothing—just forced her to be his lab assistant for two months.

Though Kirisame seemed fine, it was enough to make the boss realize one thing.

—What they always thought were subtle, barely noticeable differences about Kirisame, to certain madmen, were as obvious as a flame in the dark.

All these years, the mirror inside Kirisame had reflected the boss's image—of integrity, tolerance, and resilience.

But what if one day, the mirror reflected a demon?

Her ability to fight Blood Clan seemed to have fallen dormant deep within her, never resurfacing. But simply being one of the very few in Hellsalem's Lot who could contact another world through the Eternal Void made her the same kind of target as Leo.

Before the kid learned to see the world her own way, her guardian wanted her to experience the beautiful emotions normal children get to enjoy in a relatively safe environment, with good guides to teach her to see the world with her own eyes, so she wouldn't get easily influenced by others—

So he entrusted her to Shota Aizawa's care.

At the time, they didn’t realize that “relatively safe” was a word full of possibilities. (laughs)

Libra.

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa, Mr. Klaus! Kirisame! It's terrible!!!” Leo stared blankly at the darkened screen, then scrambled up, wiping his still-bleeding eye and trying to rush out.

Zapp kicked him back at the doorway.

“You idiot,” the young man said, stubbing out his cigarette.

“Ow ow ow! Mr. Zapp, that's too much! Kirisame helped you win all those lottery tickets!”

The black-haired werewolf lady caught him deftly, preventing him from being kicked out the window. She sighed, "So where are you going? Can you cross the Eternal Void?"

"Even so, I can't—"

"Leonardo-kun, why do you think Kirisame is in Libra?" the boss asked him.

"...Eh?" Leo was a bit stunned.

"Isn't it because Mr. Klaus is Kirisame's guardian..."

*Bang.*

The silver-haired, gray-eyed young man retracted his hand from hitting him, holding his forehead, unwilling to look at him. "You're such an idiot, kid."

...Right. If it were just a guardian relationship, she could have been raised somewhere else like K.K.'s child. Why did she have to be in Libra?

"Hey, that kid Kirisame is way more useful than you. You've been out with her so many times, and you still haven't opened those squinty eyes?"

"How could that be the same?! That's a Blood Clan! Can you treat it like fighting punks?!" Leo spoke up. "Besides, that one is always... like that... how can anyone be at ease?!"

Leo remembered his first meeting with Kirisame.

A several-story-tall octopus-headed monster swung its palm down at the little girl. Without even turning her head, she stood in the shadow of that hand, which was as massive as a hill.

The boy equipped with the God's Eye bet his sonic monkey that he saw the expression on this child's face.

It was a look of daze mixed with a hint of relief.

Just as the hand was about to touch her, the girl suddenly snapped awake, clicked her tongue, and prepared to struggle.

The boy lunged without a word, rolling them both more than ten meters away.

Kirisame was caught off guard by the tackle. Looking up, she met the open God's Eye.

The girl paused for a moment and let out a whistle.

"Ah, I found him. I'll bring him back right away." The black-haired, golden-eyed girl pressed something on her collar and said into it.

Then she picked up the bewildered Leo. With a flash of blades, the giant monster split apart and collapsed, crashing into two buildings.

That scene left such a deep impression on the boy, new to HL, that even though her problem had long since improved, Leo always felt that if he didn't keep an eye on her, Kirisame might quietly die somewhere.

"Don't worry, Mr. Leo," said Gilbert, the butler in charge of Kirisame's daily life, revealing a smile from beneath his bandages. "I don't know what it is, but Miss Kirisame has a very important bond that will be enough to help her win."

Stephen looked up at Gilbert. The silver-haired butler nodded with a smile.

"Since that time, I haven't seen that in a long while."

"Mm."

"??? Which one?!" Leo was frantic.

"Just—that—one—the—one—she—uses—the—one—that—comes—from—comfort—and—ease—makes—garbage—far—worse—than—rotten—rags—a—glutton—should—just—mind—their—own—business—that—would—be—a—huge—help—"

Hearing that familiar monotone and reminiscent caustic phrasing, Leo looked up in surprise.

—Sure enough.

Zapp was holding the phone, two streams of lifeless tears flowing down his face, mixing with the relief he had just felt upon hearing that Kirisame would likely survive, creating a truly bizarre expression.

Ah, it's the Blood God himself... Trusting in the master's skill, Leo also breathed a sigh of relief.

Wait, you bastard, you were so worried you secretly called your master, so what right do you have to laugh at me!!!

"So, what we need to do now is prepare the follow-up cleanup," the black-haired werewolf patted Zapp on the head. "Rather than that, you'd better think about how many days you'll be in the hospital when Kirisame gets back."

Hiding behind a large potted plant in the corner, the boss also let out a tiny sigh.

Why is life so difficult?

The tentacles, which had been casually teased just a moment ago, instantly turned into something completely different the moment the barrier broke. Gasping for breath, Kirisame hung herself upside down on the railing at the stairwell corner, dodging another sharp blood spike hurled her way. Deep in her heart, she wanted to give up resistance.

A high-class blood-clan member, berserk, one-on-one, away from home, no backup—this was the worst situation Kirisame had ever encountered.

Under normal circumstances, surviving even two minutes was already a very hard-fought result.

And she had been flipping and twisting in this ever-shrinking space for five or six whole minutes.

By all accounts, she had reached her limit.

The blade in her hand changed frequencies—about every two or three seconds—trying every possible combination. The shrinking space, due to the prisoner's manipulation, was covered in her blood. The moment the blood spurted from her wounds, she consciously shaped it into blades and slashed back. With so many cuts everywhere, she now looked like a monster covered in spikes.

Not much different from that crazed blood-clan member, the girl thought belatedly.

A person's body can only hold so much blood. Between what she had burned and what she had lost, Kirisame didn't have much left.

The weakness and dizziness from blood loss surged in waves. Gripping her greatsword, she put her full body weight into a vertical slash from above, cleaving through a fresh, dense thicket of spikes to carve out some space. In the next second, Aizen appeared in her hand as she accelerated to dodge a three-direction attack. She jumped and switched to Imagin, sticking herself like a gecko to the vertical inner wall to put distance between herself and the monster, catching her breath.

The barrier had been invaded and controlled by this "prisoner" the moment Kirisame sent Nighteye and the others away. Now it perfectly matched the worst-case scenario: can't win, can't escape.

...Anyway, I've bought enough time. Might as well give up and suffer less.

Kirisame loosened her grip on Imagin, wavering.

The next moment, blood spikes suddenly shot out from the inner wall, piercing through her limbs and pinning her to it.

...Has it turned the entire cell into part of itself?

The exhaustion from the prolonged high-frequency battle and the dizziness from blood loss kept her from dodging in time.

...Damn, that hurts. At least my wrist bones aren't broken.

Shaking her head forcefully to clear her mind a bit, Kirisame congealed the blood around the wounds and pulled her hands and feet free.

"No, no, I have to keep trying," the girl said in a steady voice, as if to reassure someone, while inhaling sharply from the pain. "It's okay. I can still go on."

The blade in her hand was the katana Yamabukikiri Kunihiro. The golden-haired, blue-eyed Tsukumogami watched the girl stumble midair, panic-stricken, trying to shield her.

Then blood spikes pierced through his phantom, leaving new wounds on her body. The Tsukumogami froze, unaware that tears were streaming down his face.

The next second, Kirisame switched blades, and the katana's Tsukumogami vanished.

"It hurts. It's hard, isn't it?"

In the silence, a soft feminine voice spoke haltingly, then grew smooth within a few words: "Why not just give up?"

...So it's "her," Kirisame thought dazedly.

"Although I agree with the first half of your statement," the girl gritted her teeth, revealing a helpless smile. Blood stained her teeth red, making her look ferocious, almost inhuman. "But I'm terribly sorry—"

I still have a reason to keep fighting!

Then she accelerated abruptly, drilling herself like a drill bit into the depths of the central well, completely abandoning defense and evasion to strike directly at the core. The newly sprouted tentacles were sliced off by her fast-sweeping blade and shattered all over the ground.

The Blood Clan didn't speak again.

Kirisame's last-ditch strike naturally did not succeed.

The fatal wound occurred in an instant.

Pierced through the chest, the girl was pinned midair, unable even to cry out in pain.

The place where she was skewered couldn't tell if it was pain or cold; the sweet, cloying aura choked Kirisame, leaving her gasping.

[...I'm done for, gonna be turned into a sieve.]

Yet even at this point, the girl showed no intention of giving up. Ignoring the parts stuck in her body, she switched to Iwatoshi and directly cut off those spikes from further away, planning to use them for an area-of-effect attack.

—A heavy blow hit her back once more.

Blood spikes pierced in from behind diagonally downward and burst inside her abdomen. Before she could even let out a groan, Kirisame was choked on the rising blood aura.

The blood swords that she had been struggling to maintain at the wounds instantly shattered and liquefied, flowing to the ground like rain.

"I'm, sorry," she said. Her hand bones, just shattered, couldn't exert any strength; she painfully raised her arm to touch the blade in her hand.

[I have tried my best already]

The black flame used to sustain the blade burned up the last drop of usable blood, and the naginata in her hand turned into light and disappeared inch by inch.

The "heh-heh" sound of a ghoul was approaching, and from afar came a woman's light and regretful laugh.

Yet at this last moment, the little girl's expression was like a student who'd answered everything they could, calmly waiting for the bell.

She let out a calm sigh.