The sound wasn’t heard with the ears; rather it seemed to echo directly inside everyone’s head. The blood gushing from the hole in her chest stopped and the hole resealed itself at an unbelievable speed.
“Azusa,” Kouya called out to her. Her eyes slowly opened and locked onto Kouya’s face. However, her eyes were not the color he knew them to be.
“White…” Kouya muttered.
“Haha!” Azusa laughed in his arms like she just spotted an entertaining new toy. She wrapped her arms around his neck and easily pulled herself upright until she stood on her own legs. The rest of her hair instantly turned white.
“Good work,” Azusa spoke in her own voice, but the way she spoke lacked her usual personality.
“Who are you?” Subaru asked on the spur of the moment from where he stood beside Kouya. She flashed a relaxed smile at him.
“I’m Azusa, aren’t I? Azusa Saito. I’m nothing less nor anything more than her.”
“You’re a different person from the Azusa I know. Who are you? You’re not going to say the Ancient has come back to life, are you?”
Azusa smiled without affirming or denying his question. She walked over to Youta on unsteady feet.
“Don’t go near him!”
“Silence.”
Kouya tried to stop her, but her one word rendered him incapable of moving. He struggled as much as he could, but it was as if his feet had been bound to the ground.
“You’re as strong as I suspected.”
“Azusa!”
“Protect the vessel so I never have to come out again,” Azusa said and nimbly turned away from Kouya to stand in front of Youta. Youta couldn’t move either. He gazed up at her and growled. “Mingling with humans has brought great pain upon you.”
Azusa plucked the two arms from the air and reattached them to Youta’s body. With the pale light she emitted, tendons jutted out of the arms and they returned to normal.
Even after regaining his former body, Youta continued growling at Azusa without attempting to attack her. She scooped up some of the blood still wetting her chest and dripped it into his mouth as he howled at her. She watched him purr as he drank it and closed her eyes as she put her hand to her chest.
“Desire to remain in the form you wish to be…” Her words took control of Youta like a spell.
He suddenly started clawing at his throat. Everyone was shaken by his reaction—he acted as if he had been forced to drink poison. No one felt the urge to stop her though. She gave off the presence of an absolute ruler to everyone present.
Youta clawed at his throat, shrieked in agony, writhed with the utmost pain, and finally flopped onto the ground where he lay motionless with all four limbs spread out.
All present thought he had died. They believed he died from the poison she made him drink.
“Hurry and give him medical treatment. It appears he chose to remain a person.”
With that command from Azusa, Subaru quickly ran over to check on Youta—he was breathing. His eyes were firmly shut, but he appeared to be sleeping rather than unconscious, shocking Subaru.
Azusa sauntered over to Kouya and wrapped her arms around his neck. She smiled at him as he looked at her with a conflicted, worried, and mixed emotion expression.
“I’m a bit tired. I’ll sleep now.”
“Azusa?”
“I’ll definitely wake up, so don’t give me that face. I ask for your continued protection of the vessel.”
Her hair returned to its original flaxen color just as her eyes slowly closed. Kouya held up her suddenly heavy body and heard her deep breaths.