Read From the Warlord's Empire for Free Online Page B

I got lost along the way.”
    Kojou thought the words coming out of Yukina’s mouth were suspicious. Saikai Academy’s cheerleading club was divided into the middle school club and the high school club; each had their own activities, so surely they didn’t share the same clubroom.
    “I know where it is, but what’s she doing at the high school cheerleading club, anyway?”
    “Fitting clothes. Apparently she wants to borrow tennis skirts, so…”
    Yukina made a frail exhale as she spoke, her expression growing clouded. No doubt she just wasn’t cut out for the whole cheerleading thing. Even so, it was just like the overly serious Yukina to go to be fitted as she was told.
    “Guess I’ll help her out a little,” Kojou murmured to himself with astrained smile. “I’ll lead the way. It’s a bit complicated over there, so I’m not sure I could explain it well enough.”
    “Thank you very much. But, senpai, don’t you have practice?”
    Kojou made a lighthearted nod in response to the look of concern that came over Yukina.
    “It’s all right. Asagi’s not here yet, and I’ll be back in under five minutes I’m sure.”
    “Aiba…is it? She’s your partner for doubles, senpai…?” Yukina, suddenly halting in place, asked in a grave voice.
    For no apparent reason, Kojou felt nervous.
    “Er, she is, but it’s not what you think. It’s not like I asked to be paired up with Asagi.”
    He quickly voiced his excuse. Yukina’s unmoved eyes looked at Kojou as she made a sigh.
    “It isn’t that I particularly mind.”
    Hearing quite a bit of displeasure in her words, Kojou looked up at the sky and sighed.
6
    It was on the way back after seeing Yukina to the cheerleading clubroom. Kojou Akatsuki was standing at a vending machine corner, holding a soda can he’d miraculously found in the pocket of his gym outfit.
    “Shit…I feel totally wiped out…”
    He poured the flavorless shaved ice into the paper cup he’d taken from the vending machine, drowning it in the colored cola. “Don’t give me that look,” Kojou scolded the unresisting vending machine, then sat on a bench, gazing lazily at the setting sun.
    He figured Asagi should finally be done changing clothes and arriving at the gym right about then.
    Though he wasn’t really thrilled at returning to that couple-filled lovey-dovey atmosphere, Kojou knew that leaving Asagi there by herself would only create more trouble later. As he crunched down his ice, Kojou sluggishly rose to his feet, heading from the back of the gym to the entrance.
    A moment later…
    The bench that Kojou had sat on until just then suddenly swelled up and burst apart like a balloon.
    “…Eh?”
    Fragments of shattered wood grazed Kojou’s cheek as they flew. Even so, Kojou did not comprehend what had occurred.
    The remnants of the blasted-apart bench fell to the ground in slow motion. Instinctively sensing danger, his vampire nerve cells kicked in. Though it was but a single moment, he felt like it was drawn out dozens of times over. In exchange, his eyes and skin were suddenly in pain, as if they were on fire. His now-acute senses were screaming from the sunrays pouring directly onto him.
    But on the other hand, his painfully acute super senses alerted Kojou to new danger.
    A silver beam flew toward Kojou’s feet as he remained frozen in place.
    His body moved faster than he could think. He hit the ground hard, as if plunging headfirst, dodging the beam just in the nick of time. The beam was actually a metal arrow. Bearing the sharp tip and wings of a Western-style bow’s arrow, it plunged into the ground at Kojou’s feet.
    “Th-the hell?!”
    Unable to grasp that someone was targeting him, Kojou stared blankly at the arrow shaft buried into the ground.
    The connecting corridor, the emergency stairs, the gym, the roof, the shadow of the commemorative tree: No matter how much he looked all around, he couldn’t narrow down where the shooter might be hiding. In this