Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi Page B

dumbass, don’t do anything funny and just stay the hell out of this!” With that last remark—roared at the middle-aged bartender who had left the counter to try and break things up—the bartender returned to his post. After all, he was up against the mayor’s son. Eyes bloodshot with lust, Greco’s filthy lips drew close to the immobilized young beauty. Doris turned her face away.
    “Let me go! I’ll call the sheriff!”
    “That ain’t gonna do much good,” he laughed. “Hell, if it came right down to it, he likes his neck a little too much to stick it out. Hey, the bar is closed now! Someone stand guard so no one comes in.”
    “You got it.” One of Greco’s lackeys headed for the door, but then halted abruptly. Suddenly, there was a wall of black in front of him, blocking his path. “What the hell do you—”
    His shout was truncated almost immediately, and a split second later, the lackey flew through tables and chairs, crashed into two of his cohorts, and smacked headfirst into the wall. Not that he was thrown at it. The black wall had merely given the man a light push backwards. But his strength must have been inhuman: both the lackey that had gone flying and also the two others he’d hit were all laid out cold on the floor, and some of the plaster had been knocked out of the wall.
    “You bastard! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” As the thugs grew pale and reached for the weapons at their waists, the black wall looked at them and shrugged casually.
    Easily over six-and-a-half-feet tall, he was a bald giant. Arms, knotted like the roots of a tree, protruded from his leather vest. He must have weighed three hundred and fifty pounds if he weighed an ounce. Judging from the well-worn, massive machete hanging from his belt, the thugs realized their foe had more than just size on his side, and their expressions grew more prudent.
    “Please forgive us. My friend here is wholly unfamiliar with the concept of restraint.”
    Wriggling in Greco’s embrace, Doris forgot her struggles for a moment and turned toward the newcomers only to have her eyes open wide with surprise. The voice had been beautiful, but the man himself positively sparkled.
    His age must have been around twenty. He had gorgeous black hair that spilled down to his shoulders, and deep brown eyes that seemed ready to swallow the world, leaving all who beheld them feeling gloriously drunk. The youth was an Asian Apollo. He, along with the giant and two other companions, seated himself at a table.
    The only other people in the Black Lagoon aside from Greco and his gang, the newcomers began to amuse themselves with a game of cards. If the keen glint in their eyes was any indication, they had to be traveling Hunters of some confidence.
    “What the hell are you fools supposed to be,” Greco asked, still holding Doris.
    “I am Rei-Ginsei, the Serene Silver Star. My friend here is Golem the Tortureless. We’re Behemoth Hunters.”
    “The hell you are,” Greco bellowed, as he looked the four of them over. “You’re telling me you hunt those big ol’ behemoths with so few people? A baby behemoth can’t even be killed without ten or twenty guys.” He laughed scornfully. “Granted, you’ve got that big bastard, but that still leaves you with a sissy boy, a pinhead, and a fucking hunchback. So please help me out here—how exactly does a bunch of rejects like you hunt anyway?”
    “We shall show you—here and now,” Rei-Ginsei said with his sun-god smile. “But before we do, kindly release the young lady. If she were ugly, it might be another matter, but to treat a beautiful woman in such a manner is a grave breach of etiquette.”
    “Then why don’t you make me stop, you big, bad Hunters?”
    The vermilion lips that framed his pearly white teeth bowed with sorrow. “So that’s how it’s to be then? Very well ...”
    “Okay, come on then!”
    Greco was used to getting into fights, but the reason he forgot the power of