Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi

with apparent regret that they were either sold out or on back order. And yet, behind the counter and in the corner Doris saw he had stacks of them. When asked, however, he fumbled to say that the merchandise was already spoken for.
    Doris caught on quickly enough. There was only one person low enough to cause her such grief.
    Still, she didn’t have time to waste arguing with Whatley, so she choked back her rage, swung by the home of an acquaintance, and somehow managed to get what she needed for the time being. At present, every minute from sunrise to sunset was as precious as a jewel to Doris. At night, her ghastly life-or-death battle with the demon awaited. No matter what happened, she had to get home before nightfall—that was the message D had drilled into her before he set out. Well, she knew that, but ... Once she’d loaded the last package of dried beef into the wagon bed, Doris gnawed her lip. The uncharacteristically forlorn expression Dan wore back there in the wagon became a smile the second his face turned toward her. The boy was doing all he could to keep her from worrying on his account. Because she understood that, Doris’ heart was filled with a concern, a sorrow, and an anger that would not be checked. One of her hands reached over and unconsciously tightened around the handle of the whip she had tucked in her belt. There was only one place to direct her rage.
    “Darn it, I forgot to swing by Doc Ferringo’s place,” she said with feigned agitation. “You wait here. It wouldn’t do to have our goods get swiped, so don’t you leave the wagon.”
    “Sis …”
    Her brother’s word seemed to cling to her, as if he sensed something, but Doris replied, “Hey, a big boy like you should be ashamed to make a face like that. D would laugh if he could see how down in the mouth you look. Stop your worrying. As long as I’m around, everything’ll be fine. Ain’t that the way it’s always been?” Speaking gently but firmly, and giving him no chance to disagree, she quickly set off down the street, thinking,
At this hour, I figure those scumbags’ll be in the Black Lagoon or Pandora’s Hotel. I’ll learn them a thing or two!
    Her supposition proved correct. The second she opened the batwing doors of the saloon, Greco and his gang smirked and stood up from their table in the back. Quickly counting their number at seven, Doris narrowed her eyes suddenly when she saw what Greco was wearing.
    His whole body was sparkling. From the top of his head to the tips of his feet Greco was covered by metallic clothing—actually, a kind of weapon called a combat suit. Doris had never seen one before, but her amazement soon faded, and with a scornful expression that said,
looks like that frivolous fool has jumped a new fashion bandwagon
, she laid into him. “You were all hot under the collar about what happened this morning, so you went and leaned on Old Man Whatley so he wouldn’t sell us nothing, didn’t you? And you call yourself a man? You’re the lowest of the low!”
    “What the hell are you yammering about?” Greco smiled mockingly. “I don’t have to take that off no one who’s about to be some vampire’s fun toy. You should thank your lucky stars we didn’t let that little tidbit out. You’d better get it into your head that it’s gonna be the same thing next month and the month after. Looks like you probably managed to scrape something together today, but how long’ll that pitiful amount keep your orchards going and your cows fed? Maybe two weeks, if you’re lucky. Of course, that’s supposing you’re still walking around and throwing a shadow that long. Well, you’ll be okay because pretty soon you won’t have to eat anything to survive, but what’d you have planned for your poor little brother?”
    Before his snide comments had ended, the whip streaked from Doris’ hand. It wrapped around the helmet portion of his combat suit and she channeled her power into toppling him. But her