Chapter 4

**A Mysterious Candy Shop** is the 4th chapter of the Our Blood Oath manga series.

## Summary

The chapter begins with Ko returning to home from school and he is greeted by his pet kitten Saburo. He notices that Shin isn't home yet and he finds Shins gloves on his bed. Ko decides to mess around with them and they end up ripping entirely. It's just then that Shin returns home and sees his gloves ripped by Ko, in which Ko begins to tear up from his unfortunate mistake. We then quickly transition to Shin and Ko walking outside in which Shin enlightens Ko that the gloves were already worn out and he was thinking of getting another pair anyway in the first place, then they are standing on the outside of a candy shop. Shin says it's a shop that sells tools for fighting Vampiric Beasts while Ko wonders that it looks just like a normal human candy shop. They walk into the candy shop to see an emo boy at the counter on his phone greeting the brothers. Shin asks for large candy drops and then the shop worker asks the color, the flavor, and the amount, in which Shin replies, "Vermillion, iron rust, three." The worker gives him a look and stays silent and yells, "Boss? You got a visitor!" Then, a young looking Vampire girl walks out from the backroom of the candy shop and greets the Hizuki brothers. She sees Ko and he asks why she acts so mature when she's younger than him. The Vampire girl, Alice, walks up to Ko and says not to judge a Vampire based off of their appearance because she's a grown up, much older than him. She explains how Vampires' bodies stop growing much earlier than humans do and she guides the Brothers to the back room. Once they enter the back room, they find themselves walking down a staircase leading into a mysterious underground cavern directly beneath the candy shop. Ko wonder why they're down in this cavern when they're only here to buy new gloves and Alice says that the shop is out of materials so we're here to get more. Ko is confused at first until he sees the cave full of various kinds of Vampiric Beasts jump out from the darkness. Alice explains that most anti-vampiric tools are crafted from the crystals of Vampiric Beasts. Alice hands over a weapon to Shin saying that it's his job as usual to collect the materials from the beasts, but jumps in the way, snatching the weapon out of Alice's hands and he says that he'll do it instead. Alice says that it's fine by her and Ko turns around to slash a Vampiric Beast in half with the weapon, only for it's slashed body parts to reconnect and regenerate itself. Alice asks if Ko knows the weak points of specific beasts, and she slashes at the beast with her bare hands, killing it. She says that the horns on a horned beast must be be slashed at the same time and they'll just immediately crystallize. For aquatic types, a cross slash. For winged beasts, slash both wings at once. She then insists Ko to continue with his beast slaying. We transition not too long into the future where Ko is still fighting Vampiric Beasts. He's on one knee looking tired Alice asks if she should take over but Ko insists that he continue fighting. He then comes face-to-face with a giant Orochi, a snake-like Vampiric Beast that only grows another head for every one you cut off. Alice explains to Ko that he must either split it from head to tail or to inflict so much damage that the flesh doesn't have time to repair itself. Ko then wakes up from his weakened state and claims that he will fix those gloves. He then chants his tongues used to summon his Blood Scythe and he crystallizes the Orochi with just one slash. Alice is amazed to see Ko's power and comes to the conclusion that it is a mixture of his royal blood and his latent talent and ability in physical combat. Alice then turns to Shin and tells him that the recent rise in the numbers of Vampiric beast appearances have been due to the fact that they are attracted by Ko's power. The Hizuki brothers then exit the shop and start walking back home with Alice telling them that the gloves will be done in a couple of days from now. Just then, Shin and Ko run into Izuki Nishiyama and a mature-looking girl that they've never seen before. Izuki and the girl approach the two brothers and Shin asks who the girl is. Izuki says that she's his girlfriend but she ends up comedically finger stabbing him in the gut, telling him to knock it off. She then introduces herself as Kyoka, Izuki's cousin. She greets Shin and bends down to meet eye-to-eye with Ko, saying that she was shown a picture of him by Izuki but he looks much cuter in person. The chapter ends with Kyoka saying that it's nice to meet Ko, and with a looming sense of dread lingering in the air.