TIP
Translated by Mirror Moon and Ryuusoul
Compiled and Edited by Karthikeya
Prolouge
The beginning of August.
Traffic density: Five cars per hour.
Daily estimate of approximately 100 people using electric railways.
Temperature: 38 Degrees Centigrade.
───This summer.
The humid weather makes it painful to breathe.
Someone said we looked like fish in a tank, gasping for breath.
MELTY BLOOD
I heard that as I passed by on the street.
I had to laugh to myself.
A fish in a tank gasping for breath?
It's true a fish out of water will suffocate, but not fish in a tank, like us surrounded by moisture.
...... Then I thought about it a little more.
A fish left all alone.
It drifts, motionless, to the top, belly-up.
The water stagnates.
It grows dark with algae.
The dead fish opens and closes its mouth.
───Ah,
that's what they meant.
Yes, those words describe this summer perfectly.
The roasting air feels like you could hold it in your hand.
It's impossible to see more than ten meters ahead.
Even though it's the middle of the day, no one is around.
The silence of abandoned ruins hangs over the town.
In the streets, there aren't even the shadows of cars.
You could sleep in the middle of the road without any worries.
It's like I'm walking through the ruins of an ancient city, lost beneath the sea.
So what they said about the fish was dead on.
I, Tohno Shiki, aimlessly drift through this bright darkness.
TSUKIHIME
A strange summer.
It's not that no one is here, it's just that no one is on the streets.
The platforms by the trains are empty.All that passes by are the trains full of people.
On the other hand, you can see where the people are if you look carefully.
Inside the department stores, things are as busy as ever. The cafes are as full as any other day.
It's only outside that looks empty and abandoned. It's a normal summer day inside the buildings.
Right, everyone is inside.
It isn't because it's so hot outside. Rather, that rumor is the cause.
"───Did you hear?
There was another murder in the park yesterday───"
"───You mean that rumored vampire serial killer? I guess it hasn't ended yet───"
I hear voices discussing the same story yet again.
The sound of the voices behind me, a group of girls eagerly sharing the latest gossip as they walk.
"───Um, hey."
I turn around to talk to them about it.
There is no one there.
The city is abandoned.
As if the voices were just the wind and those girls passing by were just a mirage.
Maybe to those girls, I was also just a mirage as I passed by.
I realize my legs brought me to the park.
There is no one here either: only the silence of deep night.
Perhaps this is what they mean by "midnight sun".
"───that? You know, like before? All those murders?
The killer who murdered all those women for no reason───"
"───I know, I know. He's back! I heard they found bodies ripped apart in an alley───"
The voices catch me and I turn around.
Schoolboys hazy in the light of the midnight sun fade away.
That is the reason why Tohno Shiki walks through the town alone.
When did all these rumors start to spread throughout town?
They say the murderer is back.
They say the victims die from blood loss.
They say the killer is a vampire, Death itself.
The incidents from one year ago had almost been forgotten.
But I know it isn't possible for that vampire to have returned.
That killer died. And no other vampires have appeared.
But that hasn't stopped the rumors from spreading.
All across the city they whisper the stories, the body count rising with each telling.
Yesterday it was the park. Today it's the alley. Will it be the school tomorrow?
The body count is still rising.
More and more people believe in the rumors, until no one will go out at night.
...... This is exactly what happened one year ago.
The suffocating heat.
The town where traffic has ceased.
But, the strangest thing is...
────There are no strange murders this time. Just the rumors.
if Crazy Dream
I feel dizzy.
Not surprising, since I've been walking all over town since morning.
My parched throat wants a drink from the machine, but it seems I don't have my wallet.
"Ah, man───just don't have any luck these days."
I complain softly, but it's true.
That phrase seems to be popular this summer.
Actually, everyone I pass seems to be saying that.
Bad luck.
I feel so uneasy.
Only bad things happen.
I'm heading in a bad direction; accidents just keep happening.
Like the time my foot slipped on the stairs.
Or when I accidentally saw Hisui changing and Akiha and Kohaku kept teasing me.
Or that misunderstanding with Arcueid where she got so upset.
Or when I broke that dish Senpai liked so much.
So much unhappiness at each little thing.
The heat makes it hard to think, but...... maybe there's nothing strange about it all.
Other people are having bad luck too.
But then again, it seems to skip over the faultless Arcueid, the calm and composed Ciel-senpai, the perfectionist Akiha, and Cleaning Master Hisui...
Then in other words, is it just all these coincidences that give me such a bad feeling?
"────Is it not coincidence, but inevitability?"
"Eh......?"
Again, the words of someone passing by.
"───────"
I sense someone turn around behind me.
"──────Excuse me."
A girl I've never seen before bows curtly and walks away.
"...... That's rare, a foreigner."
Well, not exactly rare. After all, Arcueid and Ciel-senpai are both foreigners.
"────────"
The hair on the back of my neck starts to stand on end.
I stop walking and try to think why. After a few minutes, it hits me.
"Oh, is that it?"
Simple, really. I started wandering the town like this two days ago.
That girl is the first person I've seen clearly────
Dizzy again.
Probably because I've been standing in the heat too long.
...... You know, it's true.
This summer is like a bad dream────
Hologram Summer,
Night ON THE BLOOD LIAR
Program No6 Error
Severing contact with Tohno Shiki.
Successfully withdrew Etherlite from his brain while passing by, have moved to a sufficient distance.
...... Strange.
Did I fail? Tohno Shiki had a strange expression on his face when he saw me.
I do not think anyone can detect a filament only a micron thick.
Shiki: "────Oh, is that it?"
Tohno Shiki spoke those ambiguous words and sat down beside a flowerbed.
He was probably dizzy.
His data indicates that he is not in favorable health.
...... This is the alley.
No sign of anyone being here for at least a week.
Sion: "This is where Tohno Shiki entered into his contract with the 'True Ancestor' Arcueid and thus fought with Chaos."
Tohno Shiki's "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception" allow him to see the life span, the end of existence for any object.
Here he first met the 'True Ancestor' Arcueid Brunestud.
No, it really was their second meeting.
The first time, Tohno Shiki was a dangerous killer ruled by his taste for death who barged into her plans.
...... Yes. According to memory files I can read, Tohno Shiki is normally a kind-hearted individual.
However, homicidal impulses may emerge. He cannot be classified as harmless.
Sion: "Able to perceive an existence's 'death', Tohno Shiki can dismantle anything using his knife. He is the only one who can kill the immortal True Ancestors."
True Ancestors.
A legend which has been handed down through the ages and never fades.
Vampires, destroyed by the light of the sun, the living dead which drink the blood of others in exchange for immortality.
And the beginning of the vampire race, the True Ancestors.
Humans whose blood was sucked by the True Ancestors become blood-drinking monsters themselves.
Those who became vampires because of True Ancestors are called Dead Apostles.
Most vampires today fall in this subspecies of Dead Apostles. The oldest and most powerful of these are called the 27 Ancestors.
Sion: "Nrvnqsr, one of the 27 Ancestors was annihilated here.
Shortly thereafter, The Serpent of Akasha, who had his blood sucked by an Ancestor, had his cycle of reincarnation ended here."
#10 of the 27 Ancestors, Nrvnqsr Chaos.
Unnumbered, The Serpent of Akasha: Michael Roa Valdamjong.
Even the Knights of The Church were unable to defeat the two of them. Did no one predict they would meet their end in this Far East country?
Sion: "...... No, there was one person who predicted it."
Predicted. There was one who saw the possibility of the outcome.
It wasn't a very detailed prediction. His equations formulated that "the ancestor will fall to ruin in this land."
Sion: "The ancestor has fallen, but the True Ancestor still remains. Of course, the agent of The Church is still watching and other factors continue to interfere with further calculations."
The power structure of the country Japan is different than ours. There are peculiar rules followed in the island country.
One of those rules is to let demons take care of demons.
The ones unifying the demons in this area is the Tohno family. The current head's mixed blood resulted in abilities closely resembling the vampiric race.
Sion: "...... Tohno Akiha? I am interested in her as well, but he and the True Ancestor are my primary concern."
There is no time left. I have spent too much time observing this place.
If it escapes this time, there may not be a second chance.
Three years ago that vampire escaped the hands of The Church.
I will destroy it this time with my own hands.
Sion: "There are several days until the full moon. As much as I do not wish to admit it, I am going to fight with calculations that do not guarantee victory."
A sad thing for an alchemist of the Atlas Academy to say.
However, it is not too late.
Three years ago.
After that failed vampire hunt,
I left the Atlas Academy.
The Mage's Association has cast its feelers far and wide to search for me, a deserter, and bring me back.
Fleeing them has taken a toll on my mind and body, which have already begun to fail. All the same────
Sion: "────I made it. There is still the possibility I will accomplish my goal."
I must hurry.
I have only one purpose, to exterminate that vampire.
The affliction of a vampire's desecration of a human body and the vampire whose roots spread here in this town.
Because I must remove both of them, I───