“Count Dracula!?” A deathly look came over Renta.
“You are the fool who brought this upon us all. The punishment is yours to bear.”
The count’s chilling words signaled Renta’s doom. Before he could finish, Shirô ran forward.
Renta jumped to the left. Several objects came falling down out of the ceiling. Out of midair, he grabbed a sword—not a Japanese sword but something thinner and straighter—a fencing sword.
The man who had defeated the Shitennô of Renbei-jyuku—-
“Shirô-kun, let me—”
Already poised to attack, Shirô shook his head. “No, I will.”
“But he has a sword.”
There was a saying, “Three times the degree of kendo.” It meant that for an unarmed martial artist to fight on equal ground against a fighter with a sword, he would need three times the skill. And this enemy was—
Shirô replied, “I… had feelings for Akane-san.”
Then Daigo was not the one who should avenge Akane’s death.
“Come and get me!” Renta yelled.
The end of the sword jabbed at Shirô, who tried to advance. He jumped back, but another thrust came quickly at him. He could not find an opportunity to lunge inside his reach. Caught in a defensive battle, Shirô could only retreat.
However, watching his apprentice struggle, Jigorô only let out a satisfied grunt. “Hm!”
“Good going.” Daigo smiled, as even the count had to nod his approval.
They had detected what was happening. Shirô was moving in the shape of an arc. Without his knowing, Renta was slowly being drawn into Shirô’s circular movements, and the straightforward thrust of the sword began to miss its target by a greater and greater margin. Perhaps this was the difference between a natural-born prodigy and one who had only recently acquired his dark powers.
Shirô suddenly changed direction from right to left. It was a calculated move. For a second, the end of Renta’s sword quivered with doubt.
“Kyehhh!” Renta moved with godlike speed.
Barely eluding the sword, which nicked him on the cheek, Shirô lunged inside.
Without a sound, he let out a sharp breath, as he unleashed the impenetrable yama arashi.
Hurtling in the air, Renta was unable to demonstrate a vampire’s agility and crashed headfirst on the floor.
“Hrgghh…” He groaned as if all the air had been squeezed out of his lungs.
The blade of the fencing sword had penetrated the left side of his chest and broken off from the impact of the fall, even as Renta still held the other half in his hand.
Even a seasoned judo master would fall unconscious if he took the full force of yama arashi. But Renta got up.
His eyes burned red with a hellish hatred, and his canine teeth bit his trembling lips; his face no longer looked human.
Blood spurted out of his mouth.
“So this is the end. Stabbed in the heart… but I won’t go alone… The girl… will come with me.”
Chizuru was lying by his feet.
Renta raised the broken sword in his left hand above his head. None of the three men was close enough to stop him.
He swung down, letting out a murderous scream.
The sword stopped.
An enormous man had grabbed Renta by the hair from behind, and fingers dug into the elbow of the hand that held the sword, stopping its motion.
“Count… Dracula… I—”
“You are nothing but a commoner,” murmured Count Dracula. It was a declaration of contempt. “Such a cowardly man deserves to be pitched into a darkness deeper than the darkness of night.”
The three men watched as he twisted Renta’s neck completely around. The bones made a deep cracking sound. Then came a dull snap.
“You will have to forgive his offenses.” He lifted Renta’s severed head in their direction. Then the count cast it away into the yard. “So this is the endgame at last.”
The tension ripped through the three men like an electrical current.
They had been struck by the presence of an overwhelming force more powerful than Renta’s. The enemy now was the devil himself, who had lived more than four hundred years.
“I will take you on,” challenged Jigorô, taking off his coat and jacket. He lowered his body into a defensive stance.
Seeing this, the count growled, “Well… you have a murderous air no less than that of this young man’s father. Hm. I will be no match for you unarmed. So…”
The count’s eyes shot out a fiery look, which pierced one of the three men.
The tension lifted from Shirô’s body.
“Shirô!”
Shocked, Jigorô and Daigo stared at the two crimson orbs, which began to glow.
They were Shirô’s eyes.
It was Renta who had attacked Akane. However, the vampire who drank Shirô’s blood had been the count.
“First you will fight my apprentice.” The count smiled viciously. “Go, Shirô.”
“Shirô, wait.” Jigorô tried to stop him.
A vampire count and the esteemed judo master… Whose apprentice was Shirô?
“Shirô!” The count’s voice rumbled, as he urged >Shirô on.
“Shirô,” Jigorô called out to him calmly.
Shirô closed his eyes. Two masters… as he was commanded by these two strong minds, the young judo prodigy was deeply confused.
“Ohhhh!” Holding his head, he leaned forward.
He stopped howling.
Slowly, he raised his face. His eyes glowed red.
“Shirô-kun.”
Whether he had heard Daigo’s voice was unknown. He turned in Jigorô’s direction instead.
“Sensei Kanô… I would like a match… with you.”
“Shirô-kun.”
Unexpectedly, a hand stopped Daigo, who had started to intervene.
“Sensei Kanô!?”
“If this is what Shirô wants, I will test him. Shirô, come.”
Jigorô took up a fighting stance.
“I am glad.”
The two stood motionless.
Daigo realized that this was not a fair match. Shirô intended to throw his master and kill him. He could tell from the murderous air about him. And Jigorô as well.
Under normal circumstances, Shirô was still not Jigorô’s equal. However, he had acquired a vampire’s powers…