While Chizuru looked at him sorrowfully, Daigo felt grateful for Jigorô’s directness.
There was no way to avoid talking about what had happened to his mother. If it must be done, he would have felt better if people talked about it, as Jigorô just had.
“If I had let my mother go, then what do you think would have happened to her?”
“She would have wandered the night in search of fresh human blood. She would have sucked the blood of any man or woman, young or old. I read in one German book that vampires are even willing to drink the blood of a cow or dog.”
“And does the cow turn into a vampire?”
“No, but the people who consume its meat do.”
Chizuru tried to calm herself. Anyone who had ever tasted beef nabe[1] would have been frozen stiff by this revelation.
“But there is another problem. Vampires do not age as long as they have fresh blood to feed on. The same goes for the victims who turn into vampires. And that is the most horrifying part; they are able to live forever and increase their numbers so long as they are able to drink human blood. For the terminally ill, who may not live to see tomorrow, or the madman, who covets eternal life, the prospect of becoming a vampire might actually be a dream come true. The coach driver might be one such man. Think about it. The prospect of death is what frightens men most. That someone would sell his soul to the devil to escape that fate doesn’t surprise me in the least.”
Jigorô paused to drink from his coffee cup.
“Plus, vampires have supernatural powers that humans do not. For example, the evil eye, which the count used to freeze Sensei Kashiwabara’s movements, and the ability to turn into a bat, which he used to escape from Shirô. According to legend, they are also known to turn into fog or a wolf. Think about how Minazuki-kun’s mother moved more like an animal than any human. I must admit, the vampire is a most intriguing creature.”
“Sensei, don’t say that!” Shirô shouted, a little too loudly.
Jigorô looked at the nape of his apprentice’s neck. “By the way, when you tried to help Minazuki-kun’s mother escape and when I threw you, you landed like a spider on the wall. Do you remember what you felt then?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Tell me honestly.”
“I felt as though I was freed from all of life’s constraints. But—” Shirô hesitated.
“But?” Jigorô urged.
“I was overwhelmed by a feeling of contempt and hatred for anyone other than myself. I hungered for— I was going to kill you, Sensei.”
“Do you think you could have?”
Shirô remained silent.
“Shirô. Answer me.”
“Yes.”
Jigorô nodded. “In my eyes, this world has never seen and will never see again a genius quite like you. Yamashita, Tomita, Yokoyama… they would all yield to you in a one-on-one match.”
This was a fact that even the aforementioned Yamashita Yoshiaki, Tomita Tsunejiro, and Yokoyama Sakujiro, three of Kôdôkan’s Shitennô, would have to acknowledge. Several years ago at a police-sponsored tournament, when the little warrior had used his indefensible yama arashi to defeat jujitsu masters twice his size, there had even been a song written about him.
“Shirô, I must ask. Did you think about wanting to become a vampire, if it meant you could defeat me?”
Daigo and Chizuru noticed Shirô’s face break into a cold sweat.
“Sensei!”
Beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks, as Jigorô fixed a hawklike stare on him. Shirô closed his eyes, squeezing his knees tightly with both hands.
He opened his eyes, and said, “Sensei… I—still want to be a vampire!”
Chizuru swallowed hard, but Daigo had not moved.
“Fine.” Jigorô nodded gravely. “It’s just as you heard, Minazuki-kun. You know that Shirô was chosen as one of the Shitennô, in spite of his size, and you know his tolerance and self-control. And even he is vulnerable to the temptation of the powers he might have as a vampire. If I hadn’t held out my crucifix, Shirô might have gladly turned against me.”
“But that’s because he was obsessed with being a vampire!” Chizuru blurted out in Shirô’s defense. “It wasn’t his conscious intention. Isn’t that right, Daigo-sama?”
She had said it, expecting Daigo to agree with her. However, he did not answer and stared into his friend’s face as Jigorô did, as if to look inside Shirô’s heart.
“Shirô-kun, I have to ask. Could you beat Sensei Kanô if you were a vampire?”
“Daigo-sama!” Chizuru looked toward Jigorô, upset.
The judo founder didn’t even furrow his brow; it was as if he had wanted to ask the question himself. Chizuru closed her eyes. These men lived in a different world than she did, and according to a different code.
“No need to worry.” Jigorô had moved behind her and put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “The desire to be stronger is another feeling entirely from the desire to destroy this evil. Shirô has been possessed by the vampire, and he ties himself down at night inside a locked room. But as long as a cure is possible, he will not hesitate to drive a stake into Dracula’s heart. And the same goes for Minazuki-kun.”
“That’s right. Please do not worry,” said Shirô, smiling. Daigo also nodded.
“To be honest, I didn’t want to involve you young people in this mess. I’m still troubled about it. The enemy’s power surpasses my own, at least at night. He’s already killed Minazuki-kun’s mother, poisoned Shirô, and kidnapped Akane-san. We cannot allow him to have his way with us, and we can’t allow others to know what is happening. If people were to find out, no one would sleep, and they might start driving a stake into just about every corpse. This is a fight for our lives and our souls. And we can rely only on the people who know the truth about what is happening. Of course, we’ll enlist the help of the law without their knowing it. However, we three must be the ones to hunt down Dracula and the coach driver and destroy them. Can we agree to that?”
“Gladly.” Daigo nodded. Jigorô stood up and grabbed his hand. Shirô put his hand above theirs. Their pact had been made.
And then something unexpected happened.