The Roses of Tartarus

by Gakuto Mikumo

  Copyright

  STRIKE THE BLOOD, Volume 13

  GAKUTO MIKUMO

  Translation by Jeremiah Bourque

  Cover art by Manyako

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  SUTORAIKU ZA BURADDO Vol.13

  ©GAKUTO MIKUMO 2015

  First published in Japan in 2015 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2019 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Mikumo, Gakuto, author. | Manyako, illustrator. | Bourque, Jeremiah, translator.

  Title: Strike the blood / Gakuto Mikumo, Manyako ; translation by Jeremiah Bourque.

  Other titles: Sutoraiku za buraddo. English

  Description: New York, NY : Yen On, 2016–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015041522 | ISBN 9780316345477 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316345491 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316345514 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316345538 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316345569 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316345583 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316562652 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442084 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442107 (v. 9 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442121 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442145 (v. 11 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316442183 (v. 12 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975384838 (v. 13 : pbk.)

  Subjects: CYAC: Vampires—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.M555 Su 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041522

  ISBNs: 978-1-9753-8483-8 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-3257-0 (ebook)

  E3-20190819-JV-NF-ORI

  INTRO

  The faint light preceding daybreak dyed the border between sky and sea white.

  Gazing out the tinted window at the water’s horizon beyond, Sayaka Kirasaka stretched her legs in the spacious bathtub. It was a little past five thirty AM, and she’d just woken up. The fairly hot bathwater was relaxing first thing in the morning.

  “Mm, baths are so nice.”

  Murmuring to herself in satisfaction, Sayaka lazily leaned against the edge of the bathtub.

  Slight vibrations from the diesel engine tickled her cheeks. She was aboard a large freight and passenger ship, which had departed from Tokyo and was headed to Itogami Island. As a passenger, Sayaka had been enjoying her fill of the ship’s pride and joy, its panoramic-view bath.

  “Sailing once in a while is nice. I had the best sleep I’ve had in a while, and the scenery’s pretty good, too.”

  Sayaka absentmindedly mumbled to herself as she toyed with the clear bathwater in the palm of her hand.

  It was roughly an eleven-hour trip from Tokyo to Itogami Island—a man-made isle floating atop the ocean about 300 kilometers south.

  Unable to secure an aircraft reservation, she had been forced to travel by ship, but the trip had been more pleasant than she had anticipated. Gazing at the sunrise while immersed in a wide tub was an experience one would never be able to enjoy from the cramped confines of a business hotel’s bath. Still…

  “This would be heaven if I wasn’t on my way to work…”

  As she let that grumble slip, Sayaka lowered herself into the bathtub. They sure wear people to the bone, she thought. Released from house arrest only to be pulled off active duty again, she hadn’t even had time to return to the Lion King Agency’s headquarters before receiving a new assignment.

  The saving grace was that her destination was the Demon Sanctuary of Itogami Island, where Sayaka’s most dear friend, Yukina Himeragi, lived. If the ship arrived on schedule, Sayaka might well secure just enough time to talk to her before beginning the mission.

  I wonder if she’ll be surprised to see me out of the blue like this. Sayaka pictured the scene in her mind, reuniting with her former classmate, the girl she’d grown up with and who was practically a sister to her.

  However, what promptly floated into the forefront of Sayaka’s mind was the sight of a certain teenage boy with a perpetual lackadaisical expression. This was Yukina’s observation target, the World’s Mightiest Vampire, the Fourth Primogenitor, Kojou Akatsuki.

  “Wha…?! I-I’m not…! Th-that man can go to hell for all I care…!”

  Sayaka groaned, her face ferociously reddening as she clutched her head and writhed within the bathtub. Viewed objectively, she would have looked like a very dangerous human being. Luckily, there were few guests in the large tub so early in the morning.

  That was fortunate for another soul as well; Sayaka was not the only one making strange noises in the bath.

  “Uuu! Nooo—!!”

  The voice came from right behind Sayaka. She heard a high-pitched yelp from the direction of the washing area. The owner of the voice was a little girl supposedly around twelve or thirteen years old. Her long hair, which had a mysterious, silver luster, was covered in lathered shampoo. Somehow, she’d gotten shampoo in her eyes while washing her hair and had fallen into a panic.

  “Ah, Glenda…?! Wait! If you don’t properly wash out the shampoo…!”

  Clutching the showerhead as she tried to call the young girl to a halt was another young woman with the vibe of an honors student. They didn’t seem to be sisters, but she was far too young to be the little girl’s mother. She was probably the same age as Sayaka. She felt familiar somehow…

  However, before Sayaka could recall just who the girl was, her eyes widened as she froze, gawking. Eyes closed, still covered in bubbles, the steel-haired girl was blindly charging Sayaka’s way.

  “Yaaa—!!”

  “G-Glenda, don’t! Stooop…!”

  “Huh…?! What…?! Ah?!”

  The girl with the vaguely familiar face desperately tried to stop the girl covered in soap suds.

  The sudden emergency circumstance brought Sayaka to her feet in confusion. There would inevitably be a rough collision in the bath; worst case, someone could be seriously hurt. I have to do something, thought the flustered Sayaka, but her relaxed body did not respond as she imagined.

  In the end, all Sayaka could do was extend one leg out of the bath as she tried to put a stop to the charging girl…before suffering a head-on collision.

  “Goffhn!”

  The ferocious impact knocked the wind out of Sayaka as the two tumbled into the bathtub.

  She tried to catch her breath, but the majestic splash left water spray pouring down onto her face. She coughed and wheezed.

  For her
part, the girl named Glenda went “Puhaa!” as she poked her head out from the water, a look of relief coming over her. Tumbling into the bath had rinsed off all her shampoo.

  “I-I’m very sorry! Are you all right…?! Are you hurt?!”

  The girl acting as Glenda’s guardian sounded hard-pressed as she called to Sayaka. Sayaka pushed up her thoroughly drenched bangs as she glared with half-lidded eyes at the new girl.

  “Hey, there’s no way anyone would be all right after… Huh? You’re…”

  “Miss…Sayaka?”

  Gazing at Sayaka with a frightened look was Yuiri Haba—from the same year and a fellow Attack Mage of the Lion King Agency. Naked except for the bath towel wrapped around her, she halted, dumbfounded.

  “Yuiri! What happened?! Is Glenda all…?!”

  Yuiri’s expression was frozen stiff as a girl with a spirited look and a bob chased after her.

  Noticing Glenda beginning to swim in the bath, a questioning look came over her face; next, she shifted her gaze to Yuiri, who hadn’t moved.

  “Sh-Shio? Th-this is, ah…”

  For some reason, Yuiri was flustered, her arms waving up and down as she turned her back toward them. Yuiri’s blatantly suspicious gestures made the girl named Shio narrow her eyes in suspicion until—

  “Geh?!”

  “Ah—?!”

  Heedless of annoying others, she and Sayaka simultaneously pointed at each other as they yelped.

  Yuiri clutched her head as Shio and Sayaka behaved just as she had anticipated.

  The short-haired girl—Shio Hikawa—was also once Sayaka’s classmate. They were both Attack Mages of the Lion King Agency. However, that did not mean they got along well; indeed, it would be more accurate to consider them mortal enemies. As mutual Shamanic War Dancer candidates, the pair had competed fiercely in every category, butting heads over anything and everything.

  “What is Kirasaka doing here?!”

  “I could ask the same thing about you!”

  Still nude, Sayaka and Shio butted heads—both literally and figuratively—as they glared at each other. Though it was a long-overdue reunion, there was not a single shred of tranquility. Raising her eyebrows in exasperation, Yuiri desperately tried to get a handle on the pair.

  “…Dah?” Glenda, mystified, tilted her head as she watched the others.

  Sayaka and Shio sat next to each other on a wooden bench.

  The thermometer’s needle indicated it was nearly ninety degrees. The pair was in the sauna room at a corner of the large bath chamber.

  Just as Sayaka had been getting comfortable, she’d run across Shio, who happened to be inside. The atmosphere seemed such that the first one to leave lost the unspoken challenge.

  Both were already drenched with sweat. The impetuous smiles they were trying to make somehow rang hollow.

  “Just how long do you intend to stay in here, Shio Hikawa?”

  “Shouldn’t you be the one leaving in a hurry? I’m not looking after you if you keel over, you know?”

  “Who’s keeling over…?! Don’t lump me together with you!”

  “I’m sticking around for another hour.”

  “W-well, I can do two hours, no problem…!”

  “In that case, I’ll stay for two hours and five minutes!”

  “Then I’ll stay for two hours and six minutes!”

  “Liar!”

  “Well, you started it!”

  Sayaka and Shio bared their teeth at each other, arguing like kids in elementary school. It was a scene that had played out time and time again back when they were at High God Forest.

  “Come to think of it, hasn’t this ship reached the island yet?”

  When even Sayaka grew tired of the fruitless quarrel, she abruptly changed the subject. If the ship was soon to arrive, she thought it would serve as an excuse to leave the sauna.

  “Earlier, they announced that the arrival would be delayed due to fog,” Shio answered bluntly.

  Sayaka let out a short groan and then said, with a twitch of her lips, “I—I see… That’s…great…”

  “I suppose so. Now we can stay in the sauna for as long as we like…”

  Shio’s cheeks stiffened as she bluffed. She, too, was clearly at her limit.

  An oppressive silence descended over the sauna room. The heated atmosphere hurt one’s throat, making it too rough to even let out a sigh by accident.

  “You’re quite fond of her, aren’t you?” Sayaka murmured. Of course, she was asking about the girl named Glenda.

  “I guess I am.” Shio nodded with a serious look.

  Naturally, Sayaka knew that Glenda was no mere civilian. The fact that two Attack Mages were accompanying her, rookies as they might be, was proof enough of that.

  “Who is she?”

  “We’re in the middle of escorting her to Itogami Island to have that looked into. I mean, if you want the best organizations to research something related to sorcery or demon beasts, you can’t beat a Demon Sanctuary, right?”

  Sayaka greeted Shio’s flatly intoned words with a low-energy “hmmm.” In other words, even Shio and Yuiri didn’t yet know who or what Glenda really was.

  “So you two are her bodyguards?”

  “It’s possible that remnants of the Cleansers are after her, so yeah, I guess we must be,” Shio replied, annoyed that Sayaka was possibly making fun of her. “Besides, the only ones Glenda’s fond of are Yuiri and the Fourth Primogenitor…”

  “What…?!”

  Shio’s nonchalant comment clearly unnerved Sayaka.

  “The Fourth Primogenitor… Why is Kojou Akatsuki’s name popping up here?!”

  “Because it was the Fourth Primogenitor who saved Glenda in the Kannawa Lake incident. Er… Or was it actually Glenda who saved the Fourth Primogenitor…?”

  “B-behind my back like that… What does that man think he’s doing…?!”

  Without realizing it, Sayaka was tugging at her long, towel-wrapped hair. Shio looked back at her with suspicion.

  “Isn’t Yukina Himeragi the Fourth Primogenitor’s observer…? Why would you be concerned about what he’s up to?” she asked.

  “Th-that’s… In other words, it means he’s been exposing my Yukina to danger!”

  “Ah… I see.”

  Shio readily trusted Sayaka’s words, despite Sayaka saying them partially for her own benefit. Shio was well aware that Sayaka doted on her younger ex-roommate.

  “Come to think of it, what are you going to Itogami Island for, Kirasaka?”

  “Work and more work. Espionage on MAR.”

  Sayaka’s shoulders sank as she replied immediately. Even if she got along poorly with the girl, they were fellow Shamanic War Dancers of the Lion King Agency, so she judged there was no problem with divulging the details of her mission.

  “MAR? That international sorcerous industrial conglomerate?”

  “Yes. Magna Ataraxia Research Incorporated. There are signs they shipped some kind of weird cargo to the MAR lab on Itogami Island, so I’m checking out what’s inside.”

  “Espionage… Is that something you can pull off, Kirasaka?”

  “What do you mean by that?!”

  When Shio replied with a frank look, Sayaka glared at her, voice going ragged.

  Shamanic War Dancers of the Lion King Agency were experts in curses and assassinations. In the modern era, assassinations were rarely carried out, but the Shamanic War Dancers’ skills were employed in crucial missions such as protecting important people and operating as spies.

  However, Shio shifted an earnestly concerned gaze at Sayaka as she said, “I mean, you’re pretty…eye-catching, right?”

  “Well, excuse me for being big!”

  Sayaka snarled with a spasm of her temple. Sayaka secretly had a complex about her tall, fashion-model physique. However, it was the swell of the breasts Sayaka hid beneath her bath towel that Shio was staring at.

  “I’m not putting you down. I’m a little jealous myself.”
<
br />   “It’s not like you’re small,” a sour Sayaka murmured, still unaware of the target of Shio’s gaze. Shio was around 160 centimeters tall. Sayaka didn’t think she was small enough to warrant jealousy.

  “Are you trying to get under my skin?” Shio’s voice was as piercing as a barb. Her gaze fell to her own cleavage. Her body type was at an overwhelming disadvantage compared to the glamorous curvature of Sayaka’s.

  “Excuse me? What the…? Are you trying to pick a fight with me…?”

  Sayaka welcomed Shio’s antagonistic gaze head-on. Still covered in sweat, the two glared at each other once more.

  The next moment, the door to the sauna room opened, and Yuiri leaped through. She’d apparently been eavesdropping outside the door, worried about leaving Sayaka and Shio alone by themselves.

  “Stop, Shio! Sayaka, too… You mustn’t!”

  “Dah! No fight!”

  Glenda, clutching onto Yuiri as she entered the room, stared at Sayaka and Shio with sparkling eyes. With that look trained upon them, even Sayaka and Shio could not manage to continue quarreling like little children.

  “And by espionage, I don’t mean sneaking into the lab, so I’ll be fine. I have the cooperation of the Gigafloat Management Corporation, and I have a connection at MAR’s Itogami Island lab, too.”

  Sayaka grudgingly returned to her explanation.

  Shio looked curious. “Connection?”

  “Kojou Akatsuki’s mother is MAR’s chief researcher at the Itogami Island lab.”

  “Huh…?!” For once, Shio looked shocked. “Kojou Akatsuki’s mother… You mean Mr. Gajou’s wife? You know her, Kirasaka?!”

  “Huh? Mr.…Gajou?” This time, it was Sayaka’s turn to incline her head.

  Judging from Shio’s way of speaking, this Gajou had to be Kojou Akatsuki’s father. However, she had no idea why Shio would have such an individual on her mind.

  For her part, Yuiri seemed to remember something as she said, “Shio…you really are…”

  “I-I’m not! I’m really not! It’s not like that at all…!”

  Shio desperately shook her head, her usual composure completely absent. Perhaps it didn’t stand out because they were in a sauna, but if anyone looked closely, Shio’s face was bright red to the tips of her ears.

  I’ve gotta make them spill the details, thought Sayaka, eagerly licking her lips, when suddenly—