First Extermination

"First Extermination" (殲滅のハジマリ) is the ninth chapter of the Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign manga series, written by Takaya Kagami and illustrated by Yamato Yamamoto.

Summary
The chapter begins in the showers with a livid Mitsuba grumbling about how much she hates irresponsible hotshots like Yu. Shinoa peeks her head in, wondering what kind of face Mitsuba made when she was angry. She then catches on pretty quick that Mitsuba is so worked up about Yu because he acted just the same as Mitsuba did when she first started out. She ends up recalling a horrible night where her entire squad was wiped out by a single Horseman, and that she was the only one to make it out alive. Trying to send Shinoa away, the impish squad leader smirks and bursts in the shower, jumping Mitsuba and making her shriek.

Kimizuki offers a soft drink to the girl they rescued in the previous chapter. He decides to ask her about the vampires whom used the girl as bait in that ambush earlier that day. The next day, Shinoa briefs the team on what awaits them, and what they are to do. The vampires are hiding out in the ruins of a subway, about a kilometer from Harajuku. This is also where they keep their humans livestock. Mitsuba explicitly goes on record to mention that they are not there to rescue the humans, at least, not in a primary capacity. The vampires outnumber them 7 to 5, so she knows they can't afford to worry about the lives of anyone outside of the team. Shinoa also adds that if all 7 are awake and armed, they should retreat immediately. With that, they set off to cull a nest of vampires.

Beneath the subway at the Omotesando Station Entrance in Tokyo, they meet with the timid stares of humans just huddled in front of the subway cars. As they head down to the third basement level, they finally find the captives the vampires are holding, and run into a sentry. As the group draws their weapons, Yu sprints in and gores the vampire on his blade. As Mitsuba starts yelling at him for being impulsive, he grabs her hand, pulling her behind him as he parries an overhead attack from a second vampire. His face etched with glee, he slices the second one cleanly in two. Mitsuba can't help but notice how abnormally strong Yu is, with Kimizuki being in the same league as him.

Right as they start to regroup, two more vampires break through the glass windows behind Mitsuba, one of whom grabs her by the throat. They instantly find themselves surrounded by seven vampires, which meant the girl they saved before gave them false information; instead of there only being 7 vampires total, there were really 9. Mitsuba orders them to cut their losses and leave her there, but Yu breaks ranks and fights his way through several vampires with the rest of the team backing him up in the confusion. Leaping forward, Yu grabs Mitsuba in his arms after cutting the vampire that was restraining her down. With the odds now down to six against five, the Shinoa Squad stand their ground, ready to exterminate every last vampire.

Some time later, the team all emerges in one piece from the subway tunnels, and the girl they rescued is surprisingly there to meet them. She asks for them to forgive her for lying to them, and Yu said there was nothing to forgive since she was just trying to protect her family. Her father tears into the group though, obviously less than pleased with the grim reality that they had nowhere to go beyond these slums, and that they will have to deal with the monsters on their own. Yu tries to reason with him though, telling him about how, when he was little, he had to deal with vampire persecution in their very own capital, and that the day he decided to run away from it all but it cost him his entire family. He abandoned them to die so that he could live, and even though the guilt of that tears at him sometimes, he refuses to allow himself to regret it. Shinoa also chimes in that Shibuya is expanding more each day, and that they should certainly have enough room to accommodate everyone there.

The chapter ends with Mitsuba attempting to somewhat reconcile things with Yu after hearing his story, but instead just tells him she hates him again.

Characters
List of characters in order of appearance:

Gallery
Manga panels provide a visual overview of the events of Chapter 9 with depictions of the characters, Seraph of the End world and scenarios.