VOLUME 4

Epilogue: Part 2

Mondays were always the laziest school days.

And on this Monday, the Monday after our school’s big annual event, a sense of exhaustion was floating around our cla.s.sroom.

The cla.s.sroom was quiet. This… this was exactly what autumn felt like.

“And then, Aikawa! Then Kanami-“

But there was one person who was as energetic as always.

I turned my gaze outside the window, wondering whether Saras was safe or not. I just let Tomonori’s voice wash over me.

“Hey, Aikawa. Are you listening?”

“Yeah…”

Now that I thought about it, what were they going to do about our homeroom teacher? Don’t tell me Chris was going to show up again looking like an old man? Haha, if she did that I’d punch her right in the face.

The homeroom chime rang and Tomonori gave me a disappointed look.

“Ahh, it’s already time. I’ll be back for lunch!”

“Okay…”

I couldn’t do anything but give back a blank response.

I kept that blank expression on my face as I thought about how to look for Chris, when…

Clatter clatter.

“Alright, everyone take your seats~.”

A poorly shaven guy in a white lab coat came into the cla.s.sroom. My eyes widened.

Why… why was that guy… And I thought that I was probably the only person surprised at this man’s appearance.

However, there was one person who was even more shocked.

That person lost her previously energetic smile, and just stood there in a stupor. And then, she mumbled.

“Why… our old chief was supposed to be dead…”

Chief? Dead?

… You’re kidding, right? That guy… that screwed-up guy… he was the vampire ninja chief?

“If you don’t belong in this cla.s.s, go back to your own~~.”

“Tomonori, Tomonori…”

I shook Tomonori as she just blankly stared at the poorly shaven man.

“Ah! Aikawa…”

“Just go back to your cla.s.sroom for now.”

“O-Okay… yeah, I should… haha, I was just thinking about how he looked like someone I knew…”

Tomonori let out a single dry laugh and then walked out of the room with long strides.

I could tell that she was trying to cover up her shock, but I didn’t try to dig any deeper.

When everyone had sat back down, the man in the white lab coat stood up at the teacher’s podium and swept his gaze across the students, checking them one by one.

The minute his gaze met mine, he gave me a smile and picked up the chalk.

“Umm, Kurisu-sensei had to visit his parents suddenly because of a family emergency, so I’ll be temporarily filling in.”

He turned around and rolled up his white sleeves.

“My name is…”

He drew a horizontal line on the board with the chalk, and then started to draw a vertical line… and then spat up blood.

“Ugh! My doctor ordered me to not use chalk…”

You! Quit being a teacher right now!

“Sensei? Sensei!”

A stir rose through the cla.s.sroom. n.o.body really knew how to handle a situation like this.

“Ah, I’m going to go to the nurse’s office for a bit. Not feeling too well.”

I stood up and walked over to the man in the lab coat.

“It’s that hentai Aikawa.” “Don’t tell me he wants to go to the nurse’s office to do hentai things.” “Ah, but he’s a pretty considerate hentai, isn’t he?”

I heard whispers all around me. It seemed like after that wedding dress and that mannequin, people had started thinking of me as a hentai.

But even if weird rumors were getting spread about me, I had no intention of apologizing.

After all, there were a ridiculous number of things I had to ask this person.

I lent him my shoulder and left the room with calls of “hentai, hentai” hitting me from behind. And then, I asked him in a somewhat firm voice.

“You… who the h.e.l.l are you exactly?”

The white-coated man leant heavily on me, and I used my zombie power to somehow support him as we walked down the hall. The nurse’s office was on the first floor, and the man answered me when we were headed down the stairs.

“Your ally.”

“And I should believe that?”

We slowly went down the stairs, step by step. I don’t know if he was making any effort to keep himself standing, but he was extremely heavy.

“So, what did you come here for? You don’t look like the kind of person who’d want to be a teacher.”

“Aikawa Ayumu-kun, when I appeared to you at the school festival, it was to see how well you could handle the masou weapon.”

“… Ah. That’s what I thought. So those wash basins…”

“As you might have guessed, that was my trap, Aikawa Ayumu-kun.”

So this guy was the one who called Tomonori out. He wanted to test how effective that ring was at controlling Vinaigrette, and also whether I could truly stop the masou weapon… that’s what I guessed, at least.

When we got to the nurse’s office, I saw that n.o.body was inside. Well, there weren’t many people who got sick so early in the morning, so the nurse would’ve probably be surprised we had shown up. But that’s great. We could talk in peace now.

“So, who exactly are you? Tomonori said you were the vampire ninja chief.”

“Correct. That’s exactly right.”

He said that with a smile, and then plopped himself down onto a bed while still spitting out blood. I continued my questions as I listened to the bed creak.

“… Are you, by any chance, a zombie just like me?”

“No. Eucliwood would not make me into a zombie.”

“Well, that’s good then.”

“A hundred years ago, I led a few hundred vampire ninjas into Virie. In order to ensure that Ariel’s coup d’état was successful.”

Ariel… he was talking about Dai-sensei? I knew that Dai-sensei was trying for a coup d’état, but what did she have to do with the chief of the vampire ninjas?

“… Why?”

“We were childhood friends. Me and Ariel…”

Childhood friends? Now that I thought about it, the person who made the masou weapon wasn’t Dai-sensei, but was a man who was her childhood friend. And… that man was…

“In Virie, I was called the Demon Baron.”

His hands were folded and his elbows resting on his slightly open legs. And certainly right now, he had called himself a demon baron.

The chief of the vampire ninjas was the demon baron?

This was the person Sera and Tomonori were looking for? Who Haruna looked up to?

And… the person who had directly drunk Yuu’s blood.

I see. This is why he could’ve hidden the masou weapon in another vampire ninja like Tomonori.

“So, why exactly did someone as important as that decide to show his face now of all times?”

“Because Chris has revived. We have to kill her before she regains her full strength.”

I see. Chris had mentioned that she also had partic.i.p.ated in the coup d’état and lost to the queen.

“Wait just a second. So you and Dai-sensei have the same goal? Well, that’s a good thing for me, I do believe.”

“Everyone who was defeated by the queen was cursed. My curse puts me on the verge of death at all times.”

So that’s why he was always spitting up blood?

“Ah yes, Aikawa Ayumu-kun. I have a message for you. ‘Are you worried about me? If you aren’t I’ll kill you.’ End of message.”

“That unreasonable tone of voice… don’t tell me… Saras?”

“Yes, Sarasvati. I saved her a second before she was about to be killed by Chris.”

“I see. It was you, wasn’t it? The person who saved me.”

“Correct. Exactly. Seeing you trying to hold onto that chainsaw so desperately, I just couldn’t help but save you. I had wanted to save you earlier… if Chris doesn’t think you’re dead, then she’ll chase you to the ends of the Earth. So that’s why I waited for that timing.”

I see. Certainly, Chris had been acting as if she had killed Saras.

“I see. That pitch black s.p.a.ce is part of your ability, isn’t it? Now that I remember it, you can move from shadow to shadow, right? Did you save Saras the same way? I… have to thank you.”

“Getting thanked by another guy doesn’t make that happy though.”

He scratched his head and smiled.

“Hm? But it doesn’t seem to me that Dai-sensei was cursed at all.”

“Yes, let’s get back on topic. That’s the biggest problem.”

The Demon Baron let out a deep sigh and shook his head.

“I can’t see where this is going.”

“The curse that was supposed to be placed on her… was placed on Chris instead. The queen thought Chris was the ringleader.”

“Well, if people said she was the strongest masou shoujo, then I guess that makes sense. So what…?”

“Do you not understand? Chris’s revenge… is not directed at the queen.”

Wait… don’t tell me…

“She’s going after… Dai-sensei?”

The Demon Baron smiled smugly. “Correct,” he said, before coughing up a huge amount of blood.

I had completely forgotten that this guy’s doctor had ordered him to not give spoilers.

END CHAPTER 4.

END VOLUME 4.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES