“HE’S here. You ready?” Subaru asked looking to his left and right in the middle of the schoolyard. Ichi and Kouya silently nodded. Azusa, who posed a high chance of working negatively in their favor during the battle, watched them from where she hid in a corner of the schoolyard.
“Let’s go over this one last time. We’re forbidden from killing him unless it’s unavoidable. We’re to try our best to keep his limbs attached. Cut the Achilles tendon in both legs and secure him with silver wire once his movement slows. I borrowed the wire we’ll be using from the school.”
The school was a place of learning, but it doubled as a shelter. As such, the school was equipped with various items in preparation for whatever disasters a vampire town may face. One of those items was a silver-wire woven rope created with the purpose of tying up suspicious people. For a vampire town, the most common suspicious person was other vampires. A normal rope couldn’t hold a vampire, bringing about the creation of the silver-wire rope.
The students gathered at the rooftop fence to watch what was taking place below. Their chatter instantly grew louder. Even screams could be heard. Their attention focused on the aberrant young man at the school gate. Everyone sucked in their breath—including Kouya.
“…Youta,” Azusa whispered, a lump in her throat.
His uncharacteristically long hair rendered his face indistinguishable to Azusa from where she stood in the schoolyard. The students watching from the rooftop had no idea it was Youta—a blessing, in a sense.
Youta’s head lifted with a jerk. It turned left to right as if in search of something and stopped upon spotting Kouya and the others. They took that as a sign to spread out. Ichi swiftly moved to sever the right Achilles tendon with her katana, and Kouya nimbly severed the left tendon with his bare hand. It happened faster than Azusa could blink.
Subaru wrapped the silver-wire around Youta once he fell to his knees. He firmly secured the rope around his legs and arms until it was confirmed he couldn’t move then proceeded to tie him up. Youta groaned painfully from beginning to end, but was helplessly subdued by them. Everything finished in less than thirty seconds.
“Phew, good, no casualties,” Subaru sighed with relief. Azusa stepped out of the brush at the sound of his voice. She looked to Subaru, silently asking if it was okay for her to come out, to which he nodded with a strained smile. With his permission, she approached Youta. The four of them surrounded him.
“Youta,” Azusa said with heartbreak as she watched him painfully struggle against the rope, drool dribbling down his chin. Kouya looked at him the same way before averting his eyes as if he couldn’t bear to watch anymore.
“It’s great and all that capturing him went smoother than we expected, but what do we do now? Should I take him back home with me? I’m sure you don’t want to see your little brother like this more than you have to, Kou.”
“…Please take care of it,” Kouya answered.
“Mmkay. Well, we can think of what to do with him from here and if we can’t do anything to help him, I’ll take him out.” Everyone looked at Subaru after his ridiculous announcement. He gave a nonchalant nod. “It’s not like Kou has to be the one to kill them. It’s just that power and strength-wise, Kou would have the easiest time of it. As long as the F is taken care of, the person who deals the killing blow doesn’t matter. Meaning, I can be the one to do it.”
“I understand what you want to say and that you’re thinking of me, but I—”
“I get you want to be the one to finish things with your younger brother, Kou. But, you know, it’s hard for me to watch you mope around about this. So this only applies to the worst-case scenario, okay?” Subaru pat Kouya on the shoulder to get his consent, but he only scowled in return.
“Okay, let’s decide on this after we get home then. I’ll return home with him first. I doubt he’ll be able to escape after I put him tied up in a silver cage, but I don’t want you getting close to him, Azusa.”
“Do we have a cage at the mansion?”
“We do.”
Azusa had lived in the mansion for months and never saw anything like that, but she had no reason to doubt them. She didn’t ask why they had one. Why? Because the mansion was prepared to keep her from escaping. She knew the answer without asking.
“Okay,” Subaru said taking a breath and reaching out his hands to pick up Youta. And then he froze. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. What the hell?”
The other three turned their attention to Youta just in time to jump out of the way. Kouya picked up Azusa and put distance between them and Youta.
Youta growled wildly as he tore at the silver-wire rope wrapped around his body. Such resistance would normally end as a futile effort, but he was on the brink of ripping it completely off.
Just as everyone jumped back, a violent torrent of power erupted from Youta and the rope ripped off him. His power erupted with a wild roaring growl.