“YOUTA has fallen to F rank.”
Those were the first words Azusa heard when she regained consciousness. Unable to understand what it meant, she turned her head in the direction of the voice to see two familiar backs arguing about something. Chills ran down her spine at the shadowy figure reflected in the mirror the others were facing. She only needed a second to realize it was an F. Being attacked by an F in the forest left enough of an impression she could tell one just from the aura it gave off. The creature reflected in the mirror undoubtedly resembled the F in the forest.
The words she heard as she regained consciousness crossed her more awake brain. Who she was looking at finally set in.
“Youta?”
Kouya looked over his shoulder at the sound of her voice.
“Sorry!” Tsukiharu muttered and dashed out of the room.
Azusa slowly sat up and pointed to the image in the mirror. “Kouya…is that Youta?”
“Yeah. Youta just fell to F rank,” Kouya explained with a heartrending expression. Azusa could only gasp. She couldn’t find the words to say to him when his expression told her what he had to do now.
Azusa understood what role Kouya played in this vampire town. His job was to eradicate former kin who had fallen to F rank. It wasn’t hard to imagine the Fallen’s families despising and screaming at him for the job he had to do.
Regardless of how anyone felt, it was a job someone had to do. He had been disposing of Fs for decades. As such, even his younger brother wouldn’t be an exception to him.
“I’m going. Stay here.” His hand gently stroked her hair and yet his expression was stiff. She grabbed his arm.
Sensing his hand tremble ever so slightly in hers, she shouted at him on the verge of tears, “You can’t go! If you go, Kouya, you will have to—”
“That is my job. I can’t give special treatment to my relatives when I have cruelly slaughtered every single kin who has fallen to F rank.”
“But Youta is your younger brother!”
“…And that is why I must. How could I let someone else do it? Besides, Youta would have never wanted us to let him wander loose until he attacked someone.” His steadfast voice seemed as if he were trying to convince himself.
Azusa sensed his resolution was built on top of a thin layer of ice that could crack at any moment. One more push could get him to reconsider. She opened her mouth to say more, but was interrupted.
“So this is where you were, Kouya.”
“…Patriarch.”
A man with the same ebony-black hair as Kouya stood in the doorway to the Nurse’s Office. Azusa had met him once before—he was Kouya’s father, the man you would hear rumors about just by being in the Red Coven’s town. The Red Coven Patriarch, Akashi Doumeki, walked up to Kouya.
“I received word of Youta’s sudden change from the Kisaragi House just as I arrived at my younger brother’s place. Have you picked up on the situation?”
His younger brother was the school headmaster. Apparently, he received word when he happened to drop by the school.
Kouya averted his eyes from Akashi and growled, “…Youta has fallen to F rank.”
“Is that so? …In that case, you know what you must do, don’t you? Kouya.”
“Yeah.”
“Kouya!” Azusa shouted, but Kouya would no longer listen to her.
He calmly broke down the situation for Akashi like it was an ordinary job. “The target is currently on course for the school. It will be too dangerous to take him on in town. I wish to borrow the school campus. Do I have your permission?”
“Very well. I grant you permission with my authority. Should we send the students home immediately?”
“No. Things will go south if they come across the target on the way home. Put out an official warning for no student to leave the school building. I will handle the rest.”
“I’ll take care of it. I also sent for the Shiranui siblings to come just in case. They should be here soon.”
“…Okay.”
Changing the way he referred to Youta in his conversation with Akashi was a sign of Kouya’s resolve and his inevitable heartache. It would be easier to view Youta as a target than as his little brother.
There was no room for Azusa to interrupt their conversation. She couldn’t even get a word in as Kouya left the Nurse’s Office.
“Azusa, go along with the rest of the students to hide in the school building. Kouya is on the case. Things should be handled immediately, but you mustn’t come close to the battle because it will still be dangerous,” Akashi said with a gentle expression after Kouya left.
“Do you think nothing of what is going on, Mr. Akashi? Isn’t it your own sons who will kill and be killed?!” Azusa criticized him for looking like he didn’t care.
“…Do you honestly believe I think nothing of this? Even I am sad. But someone must do it. What other choice do we have? It is far better for Youta to be killed by the older brother he adored than to wander the land as a monster hurting others.”
“You might have a point, but still! Kouya doesn’t want to kill the younger brother who adored him so much! Not to mention, having Kouya kill another brother in front of a bunch of people again is only going to lead to him being treated worse than before! Can’t you do anything about this?!”
“If I could do something about it, I would have long ago,” Akashi said, his voice tinged with anger. Azusa shuddered. He continued with a composed expression, “Besides, even if I asked another person to do it, Kouya would never agree to it. He wants to be the one to put an end to the brother he got along with so well. I can tell. After all, I bore the responsibility of that role until the day he took it off my shoulders…”
“You did, Mr. Akashi?”
“I did. And I killed my wife who had fallen to F rank with these very hands.”
“…!” Azusa sucked in her breath at the absurd confession she got out of him.
Akashi smiled kindly. “It’s a thing of the past now. But you get the point, yes? This is not a matter an outsider such as you has any right to comment on. Obediently hide in the school building with the rest. I released a familiar earlier. There should be an announcement soon telling everyone to gather on the rooftop because of the coming danger. We can’t have students on the first and second stories get dragged into the possible destruction should a body crash into the building.”
As soon as Akashi finished speaking, an announcement on what he said came over the loud speaker. The announcement said nothing about why they had to evacuate to the rooftop.
“You can’t do anything. If you want something to resent, resent your own powerlessness,” a faint smile crossed Akashi’s lips at those final words.