Angling the blade to the right, Norizuki swung down. It was a technique called onhyakushu, which allowed the swordsman to adapt quickly to the enemy’s moves. However, the blade missed his shoulder and sliced the air. The enemy had seen the attack coming and had easily evaded the blade.
“Bastard…”
Burning with hatred, Norizuki looked …
Right into the crimson eyes of the enemy.
Bam! A clean hit had jarred the brain inside his skull, and Norizuki fell unconscious.
What had happened? Before the remaining three could react, the man had turned around once. Not his whole body but only from the neck up.
The window opened and Akane leaned out.
Excited by the impending reunion, she had broken free of the rope that had bound her hands and legs. Blood oozed from her wrists.
“You came for me, my love,” she said, just as longingly as if she were truly talking to her lover.
And from the window, Akane thrust out her arms.
The man grabbed her arms, pressing his lips against them.
“Ohhh,” she moaned in ecstasy.
He swept her up from the window, and the two disappeared deeper into the yard.
Thirty minutes passed before the Shitennô recovered consciousness. The maid and butler had noticed a cold wind blowing inside the house, found them outside, and had shaken them awake.
Out of Nobi’s and Daidôji’s sleeves fell the secret weapons they hadn’t even bothered to wear and which had therefore gone unused. They were small rosaries.
Around the same time, there was another strange phenomenon at the house at Kôjimachi.
It happened after Daigo, then Chizuru and Shirô, and finally even Jigorô had dozed off.
The sound of rain makes people sleepy. The monotonous sound lulls them into a kind of calm. The effect was even more pronounced if they were already as tired as Daigo and Chizuru were, but it was strange that Shirô and even Jigorô had fallen asleep. It was as if something sinister inside the house had put them under a spell.
Daigo was nodding off, sitting next to his mother’s body. There was a crack, and his eyes fluttered open. Like a true swordsman, he had sensed a deathly presence.
The noise had come from the body’s chest area, where a dagger had been placed to ward off evil spirits.
Although there was nothing unusual about the knife, Daigo noticed that the white cloth, which had been covering the corpse’s face, had moved down to just above where the knife lay.
Evidently, the others had not heard the noise. After making sure they were breathing properly, Daigo put the cloth back over his mother’s face and lit another incense stick to replace the one that had almost gone out.
Having finished the ritual, he was lulled once again into a deep sleep.
His instincts told him something was wrong, and it was instinct again that moved his hand.
Darkness swamped his consciousness. Suddenly he felt a burning pain on the back of his left hand. His eyes fluttered open. Letting go of the incense pressed against the back of his hand, he looked at the body.
A terrible shiver ran down his spine.
His mother was sitting upright.
A feeling of joy came over him, but only for a fleeting moment.
Is this really my strong and gentle mother?
She was gazing at him with blood-red eyes, and she smiled an evil smile. Two fiendish fangs stuck out from her mouth, which was split open from ear to ear.
Daigo came to his senses, hearing a voice in his mind.
Your mother died because a vampire sucked her blood. She will come back to life as a vampire.
A knife!
He reached for the sword rack in the corner, but he froze.
I can’t move. Her eyes!
He had lost the ability to move the moment he had seen her eyes.
“Daigo.”
It was his mother’s lips that moved. It was his mother’s voice. And yet it was not: the voice had nothing of his mother’s warmth. It was cold enough to make him tremble.
“I can’t move my body because the knife is on me. Come here.”
A blue hand beckoned him closer.
Daigo slid closer to his mother, knowing that he should not.
A cold hand held his neck. He felt at peace, as though he were floating on water.
“I hadn’t noticed when I was your mother—”
He heard Sayo’s voice in his ear. Her cold breath on his neck caused the nape of his neck to tense.
“When I see you now, I see a strong young man. And how delicious that beautiful neck looks. And those blue veins. The hot blood that must flow through those veins. Daigo, your mother desires your blood.”
Sayo’s red lips drew closer to his neck.
But in the next instant—
“Hee!” she cried out, pushing Daigo away. With both hands on the futon, she shrank back in fear.
Daigo regained his senses. At the same time, he felt the presence of the other three behind them. Jigorô let out a shout as Chizuru screamed. The spell had been broken.
Daigo saw hate and terror twisting his mother’s face. Sayo looked at the knife lying on her lap. No one had touched it, but the knife had slipped halfway out of its sheath, and Sayo’s face was reflected in the blade.
A protective knife was placed on a dead body to ward off evil spirits, and, in an instant, Daigo realized what had happened. His mother had tried to get up earlier, but the knife had prevented it. The evil spirit was powerless against the holy object.
Sayo had tried to slip out of the futon, but her lower half would not move. It was because of the knife resting on her lap.
Daigo had been freed from the spell of the evil eye.
He leaped for the sword rack and grabbed a sword. He looked for an opportunity to strike.