Setsura knew he had reached the realm of the Demon Princess.
However the entrance might change, the accessway remained fairly fixed. Passing through the familiar surface, walking through the stands of trees, thirty minutes later he came to the shores of the lake.
Against the dark green backdrop, the soaring and majestic manor house was only a few hundred yards off. He would be better off assuming that Princess had already returned and had Takako in her grasp.
When Tonbeau engaged the Akashic Records and he was drawn out of there, Takako had been in the back of the Crystal Pavilion. But as a rule, the sire always knew where the servants were and what they were up to.
He was struck by the realization that there was one way to retrieve Takako safely. Setsura was equally confident that Princess would have paid no heed to his return. Such was the indifference of the lord of this world, an existence immune to rot and decay.
“That is my only way in.”
He returned temporarily to the forest, emerging again at the back of the manor house. Since arriving in this world, a strange vibe had wrapped its tendrils around him. Nothing was alive. The fluttering leaves on the sun-drenched trees, the summer breeze skittering across the lake—it all felt like—nothing.
There was light and there was wind. Light and wind literally painted on a canvas.
Setsura was beginning to see through the mirage to the reality of this place. This was a new development.
“Where the hell are they?”
Setsura approached the manor house. There were several dozen servants inside. All it’d take was getting nabbed by one.
The manor house was still as death, not only devoid of servants, but of any signs of life at all. Come to think about it, he hadn’t heard any birds in the forest either. Something strange had happened when he’d been thrown into the connecting link. Whether for good or ill at this juncture all depended on luck and fate.
“What to do, what to do?”
In the midst of the dappled sunlight playing across the leaves and the trees, Setsura closed his eyes and folded his arms.
“You could always do nothing.”
The voice—definitely that of Princess—descended on him from out of the empty air.
“Where are you?” asked the unflustered Setsura.
“Anywhere you like. You’ve done well coming this far. That girl is so important to you?”
“Her mother asked me to find her. I will bring her back.”
“What if I slit her throat as we speak? No, no, you know I could never do anything like that.”
“No, you couldn’t.” Hard to say at this point whether that complacent smile was for real or was an act.
“What an awful man. The lengths you go to, to toy with me. Come to the manor house.”
“Where in the manor house?”
“The front door will suffice. Wait there.”
“I’d prefer to see proof of life first.”
A moment passed. “Fine. Here.”
Something like a red mist fell out of the sky without a sound and spread out at Setsura’s feet.
“The proof is in the pudding. Or the blood. Hers. There will be but a drop left before I drain her dry. A smidgen. You’d better hurry, Setsura. The rule of blood awaits.”
The haunting echoes of the voice reverberated around him and rose up toward the heavens and was drawn into the blue sky. Setsura looked down at the blood staining the green grass and earth red.
“She ain’t kidding.” A note of tension crept into his languid voice. “Well, I’m sure that put all our minds at ease. I’d better go.”
As he set off, he didn’t appear any different from before.
When he arrived at the foyer of the manor house, the door opened on its own accord and welcomed the young man in. Without scanning the great hallway inside, his eyes alit on the woman standing in the center like a blossoming white flower.
“Where is Takako-san?”
“Relax.”
“Not hardly likely,” Setsura sulked.
Hardly surprising, Princess smiled all the more broadly. “So what were you thinking on your way here?”
Setsura grew more sullen. “This and that.”
“About that girl?”
“I suppose.”
“Oh, stop lying. You weren’t thinking about anything. Your face will freeze like that.”
“Can we get down to business here?” Setsura said with unusual force. “I’m here to get Takako. Where is she?”
“You think I’ll tell you?”
“I have my ways, if that’s what it takes.”
Not the kind of thing he was ever wont to say, but he was clearly at the end of his rope.
“Isn’t it all so much water off a duck’s back to you?” Princess countered with an equally strange severity.
“What is?”
“Everything.” Princess fastened her eyes on the young man in black. “Your burden, perhaps, your ball and chain. Everything that binds you to this world. Money, power, fame, women—you couldn’t give a damn about all of that.”
“You’re not my shrink or my guidance counselor. I’m a businessman. Every day I have to balance the books and keep my eye on the markets.”
“You definitely are a senbei shop owner.”
The look in Setsura’s eyes said this woman had a habit of remembering useless facts at inconvenient times.
“But you’re the sort of man who could toss it all away at a moment’s notice and scamper off to greener fields. Dealing in such prosaic goods hardly suits you. You should spend your days lying on the grass watching the clouds go by.”
“You’re not the person I would turn to for life planning.” Though there wasn’t that sharp an edge to the criticism, suggested she was not that far off the mark. “Whether I watch the clouds go by or bake senbei, it’s got nothing to do with you. Relieved of these burdens, then what?”
“Look at the world. Go when and where you wish without a by-your-leave to anybody.”
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
The unaffected answer prompted a wry smile from Princess. “You like this wretched city so much?”
“What are you asking a question like that for?” Setsura said. An understandable response.
Princess laughed airily. “No reason. Let’s go see Takako.”
Feigning an utter lack of interest in him, she proceeded toward the inner door and then down a gaudily baroque hallway.
Setsura said, “Hey, don’t you think there’s something strange about this world?”
“You noticed?”
“Yeah.”
“Kikiou worked his fingers to the bone making it, but the facade is wearing thin. If you were wondering what would happen if you threw this world down the connecting link without breaking it, well, now you know. You end up with this.”
“They all went to meet their maker, huh? What are you going to do about it.”
“Kikiou is a very busy man,” Princess said, obviously delighted. “It won’t be much longer until that man puts his greatest plans into motion. How long do you think it will take until Shinjuku becomes fit for only insects?
“You don’t know?”
“I couldn’t care less. Any city inundated by the likes of them I don’t care to catch a whiff of.”
Setsura didn’t concern himself with how Princess felt about her own victims, but this surprised him.