To travel from Itogami Island in Japan to the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, they had to take a plane and transfer at an airport on the Italian Peninsula, in the Roman Autonomous Region.
Ciel was not especially fond of flying. Being up in the air made her feel deeply unsafe. If anything went wrong, she might end up doing a skydiving act without a parachute, or a bungee jump with no rope.
Besides, flying made her ears hurt.
"Remember, once we arrive, think before you act. Absolutely do not be impulsive. When you encounter demons, don't always jump straight to killing them..."
"Natsuki-oneechan, you've said the same thing at least ten times in the past few hours on the plane. My ears are getting calluses."
They were at the airport in Rome. It was already mid-March, the season of spring, and compared to Itogami Island, this place was much cooler. The sun was not nearly as fierce either.
Ciel was currently receiving another lecture from Natsuki Minamiya, which put her in a rather complicated mood. Was she some kind of bloodthirsty murderer?
And the one admonishing her over and over was none other than the "Witch of the Void," whose name struck fear into countless demons...
Natsuki-oneechan, haven't you killed plenty of demons yourself?
"What good are calluses on your ears? You need to take my words to heart. People say a good memory can't beat a bad pen, but if you don't actually internalize what your teacher tells you in class, then even copying until your notebook falls apart won't help. Anyone can put on a show of effort. You need to genuinely pay attention."
Natsuki shook her head. As both a teacher and an instructor, she had clearly seen far too many students like Ciel, who agreed on the surface but disobeyed behind her back.
"Since you think you don't need to listen anymore, I'll test you. Suppose you see a demon committing a crime. What action should you take?"
"Call the police, report it to local law enforcement, leave it to the local Attack Mages and military to handle, and notify Natsuki-oneechan."
It was a textbook answer, and Natsuki nodded in satisfaction.
"Then, what if you discover there are vampires among the demons committing the crime?"
"Annihilate them! Leave no survivors—ow!"
The lace folding fan struck Ciel hard on the forehead. Natsuki looked at Ciel as she cried out and clutched her head, her expression dark.
"So everything I said before went in one ear and out the other, did it? Why does your answer completely change the moment vampires appear?!"
"But... vampires are pests. If you see one and don't execute it on the spot, what are you supposed to do, keep it around for the New Year?"
"And now you're talking back! Your onee-chan's words mean nothing anymore, do they?"
Italy was only their transfer point, so unfortunately, Ciel and Natsuki had no chance to taste authentic Italian cuisine. Supposedly, Italian cuisine was a major representative school of Western food, originating in the era of the ancient Roman Empire, and was praised as the "progenitor of European cooking."
The dishes that left the deepest impression on Ciel were pizza, macaroni, pasta, risotto al forno, and lasagna. Aside from macaroni, which she had yet to try, she thought all the Italian dishes just mentioned tasted quite good.
Speaking of which, if she went to an Italian restaurant and ordered pineapple pizza, would they think she was picking a fight?
Ciel remembered a joke she had seen before.
Pizza spread from Italy to America, and Americans added a bit of pineapple to it. Then it spread to China, and Chinese people said, "Holy crap, you can put pineapple on this? Then durian must work too!" The Italians all lost their minds and asked whether they could even tell the difference between a pizza and a fruit platter.
Actually, when she put herself in their shoes, she could understand the Italians' breakdown. Back when she saw that foreigners' favorite dumplings were strawberry-filled dumplings dipped in sour cream, she had broken down too.
Strawberries, sour cream, and dumplings. To this day, she still could not understand how those words had ended up together. That thing could be called daifuku, but it absolutely should not be called a dumpling!
"Uwaah! A thief! There's a thief!"
In the crowded airport, a childish cry suddenly rang out.
The other person was speaking Japanese. Hearing Japanese here in Italy was fairly rare.
Was it a child? In that case, this thief really had no standards. Stealing from a child?
"Huff, huff..."
A suspicious-looking pickpocket came running for his life. Judging by the direction he was fleeing, he would happen to pass right beside Ciel and Natsuki.
The reason he was running so desperately was that someone was chasing him from behind—a boy with short silver-white hair.
He was probably middle-school age, yet the boy's running speed was in no way inferior to an adult's. Through his efforts, the distance between him and the pickpocket gradually shortened.
Ciel quietly shifted a few steps, just enough to stand directly in front of the pickpocket.
"—Per Dio!"
If he dodged, he would be caught. So the pickpocket charged straight at Ciel without slowing down at all, intending to use an adult's build to knock aside the girl blocking his path.
The instant he collided with her, the pickpocket felt as though he had not hit a person, but a stone wall—or perhaps a stone pillar.
Ciel stood perfectly steady in place. The pickpocket, on the other hand, bounced back, fell on his rear, and sucked in sharp breaths from the pain at the point of impact.
Seeing the silver-haired boy whose belongings had been stolen run over, the pickpocket's face turned ugly. He cursed crudely in Italian, then reached into his pocket.
A gleaming dagger appeared in his hand, but before his threat could even leave his mouth, Ciel kicked the dagger out of his grip.
"With both your hands and feet perfectly intact, you clearly had so many choices. Why choose the path of crime? By hurting others to obtain wealth and happiness, do you not feel any guilt at all?"
Ciel planted one foot on the pickpocket's chest and helped him empty all the air from his lungs.
At that moment, the silver-haired boy whose things had been stolen finally caught up, panting. Perhaps he was surprised by Ciel's presence and her righteous intervention, because he came to a stop and stood there in a daze.
"Ko... Kojou!"
Another girl with long black hair ran over, gasping for breath. The instant she caught up to the silver-haired boy, she threw herself onto him and began firing off complaints like a machine gun.
"Are you all right, Kojou?! Are you hurt? Does anything feel wrong? Why would you go chasing a pickpocket? That's so dangerous! If the luggage was gone, then it was gone. As long as you're okay, isn't that enough? If anything happened to you, Kojou, how would I explain it to Father Gajou and Mother Mimori? Honestly, why are you always so reckless? I'm going to get mad, you know!"
"I'm fine! Look, I'm perfectly okay, aren't I? Besides, someone already subdued the pickpocket."
Unable to withstand the other party's barrage, the silver-haired boy hurriedly spoke, afraid that if he did not, he would lose his chance entirely.
The silver-haired boy raised a hand and pointed, and the black-haired girl finally noticed the subdued pickpocket.
"You're right! And our luggage is here too... But where's the person who helped?"
"Huh? She's right here..."
The boy looked around, puzzled by the girl's blank question. Before he knew it, the kind person who had just been beside them had vanished.
"That's weird. She was right here a second ago. A big sister with short blue hair and glasses... And there was a Japanese girl in strange clothes beside her, around your age, I think..."
"...Well, as long as you're okay... Honestly."
The black-haired girl looked up at her foolish older brother as he tried to explain, then let out a sigh.
...
Drawing one's blade to help someone in need was only a small episode along the way, nothing worth paying much attention to.
However, Ciel had recognized that pair of siblings.
The silver-haired boy was Kojou Akatsuki, the protagonist of the anime Strike the Blood. The black-haired girl was his younger sister, Nagisa Akatsuki.
Nagisa was a hybrid ability user, having inherited both her grandmother's spirit medium ability and her mother's constitution as an over-adapted ability user.
As her older brother, Kojou was currently only an ordinary middle-school student without any abilities at all. He was not yet the Fourth Primogenitor from the original plot, who commanded twelve Beast Vassals of the stars.
Another thing Ciel cared about was Nagisa's voice...
Truly, it sounded extremely similar to Saiki Mio's—the mysterious twintailed girl who rode the train together with Ciel and Shiki Tohno in the Tsukihime remake.
Oh, right. There was also Aihara Enju. Aihara Enju and Nagisa's voices sounded very similar too.
"Do you know those siblings?"
There was still some time before the plane. Natsuki's question sounded beside Ciel's ear.
Had her expression or gaze given something away? Or was it simply intuition? Ciel was not quite sure herself.
"No. I just thought those two children were interesting... especially the little sister. She seems to have the constitution of a spirit medium."
Ciel answered calmly and unhurriedly. It sounded flawless, and inwardly, she really did think those two children were interesting.
"The woman who came to pick those children up was wearing a Demon Registration Bracelet on her wrist. Her true identity should be that of a demon, right? Natsuki-oneechan, aren't you going to investigate her?"
"She didn't do anything suspicious. Besides, the fact that she's wearing a Demon Registration Bracelet means she entered the country legally and in accordance with regulations. She's obviously not part of the same group as the lawless terrorists we're looking for. Running into a demon in a place like this is rare, but not worth making a fuss over."
Natsuki gave a convincing explanation in a cool tone.
But unfortunately, according to Ciel's memory, if they followed those people, they should be able to find the remnants of the Black Death Emperor Front faster.
They were indeed not on the same side. It was simply that their target seemed to be the same.
"What you did just now drew too much attention."
"To draw one's blade and help when one sees injustice—I used to envy that whenever I read novels. The knights-errant inside could settle grudges freely and roam the world with swords in hand. Besides, turning a blind eye to someone in need would only leave me ashamed before the Lord's teachings."
"The Lord's teachings? That sounds very distant from me. According to the Lord's will, would a witch like me also count as a target that ought to be eliminated?"
"Natsuki-oneechan, you're thinking of the Lord's teachings too narrowly. Naturally, He is the most merciful and greatest existence in this world. He loves all life on this land equally... except vampires. They are the most unnecessary things in this world. Compared to them, even cockroaches and rats become somewhat cute. The only good vampire is a dead vampire."
From Ciel's mouth, the species known as vampires was not even worth as much as cockroaches or rats. That made it clear just how much she despised them.
"The vampires of our world and the vampires of yours should have many differences, shouldn't they?"
"Indeed, Natsuki-oneechan, you're right. At the very least, the vampires where I'm from can't summon Beast Vassals... But through my experiments, I discovered that methods for killing vampires are effective on vampires from both worlds, so it doesn't prevent me from exterminating them all!"
Natsuki had long known perfectly well that Ciel was not a native resident of their world, but a visitor from outside it. Perhaps she was the only person in the entire world who knew this truth.
In fact, for the people of this world, other worlds, other dimensions, and other realms were not concepts beyond reach. The spirits summoned by spirit summoners were energy bodies existing in higher-dimensional space. The demons who formed contracts with witches were located in other worlds. Even Beast Vassals were summoned by vampires from another realm.
The plane's departure was delayed, and for the moment, it was unclear how long they would have to wait.
The wait reminded Ciel of the first time she had taken a plane by herself. Back then, she had missed the train at eight in the morning, so she booked herself a flight at ten that night. To avoid missing the plane again, she had eaten lunch at noon and gone straight from the high-speed rail station to the airport.
As a result, the flight was delayed. She sat in the airport from three in the afternoon until three in the morning before finally boarding. The moment she sat down, she fell asleep, and she stayed sound asleep until the plane landed.
"This airport's service is truly inadequate. They have no understanding whatsoever of passengers' feelings. A delayed departure is such a major failure, so why do I see not the slightest hint of apology? Why can they not even provide a decent cup of black tea?"
"Natsuki-oneechan, please don't make things too difficult for the airport staff, all right?"
This was bad.
Ciel wore a troubled expression.
When she could not drink black tea, Natsuki's mood became extremely foul. And she was exceedingly picky about the flavor of her black tea. Bad-tasting black tea would likewise make her mood worse.
On the stainless-steel seats in the departure lounge, Natsuki's lovely face showed visible irritation. Ciel, sitting quietly beside her, felt quite tormented.
"..."
Natsuki closed her eyes. Immediately after, her body slowly tilted toward Ciel, and she lay down with her head on Ciel's firm, lively thighs.
They were legs with lines that could be called perfect, symbols of vitality—one might even call them the crystallization of life force. Even at rest, they carried a sense of motion like rushing water.
They possessed just the right softness, beauty and toughness existing together.
And Natsuki was now resting her head on those thighs.
It was a comfort no high-class pillow could compare to. The instant she lay down, drowsiness surged over her like the tide, making her wish time would freeze at this very moment.
This was a privilege that belonged only to her as Ciel's older sister...
As long as she thought of that, the irritation quietly growing in Natsuki's heart from being unable to drink delicious black tea gradually faded away.
"Lend me your lap for a while. Wake me when it's time to board."
"Natsuki-oneechan... Sigh. Fine. I'll keep watch, so rest properly."
It was a warm scene, a pair of sisters close enough to make others envious.
Because her body was so sturdy, Ciel did not need to worry about her legs getting sore.
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T/N: IT SHOULDVE BEEEEEEEEEN ME