Chapter 13: Tears of a Lonely Bunny

Chapter 13: Tears of a Lonely Bunny

YAYOI had died.

A gaggle of neighbors clad in black entered the Saito household amid the downpour. Azusa stood outside the house with sorrowful eyes. She stared at the palm of her hand not grasping her little red umbrella. A pile of four-leaf clovers rested on her hand. She squeezed them, her face twisting with grief, but no tears clouded her young eyes. The adults occasionally went into the backyard to check on her, all of whom she greeted with a stouthearted smile.

Kouya could only watch over her from afar as the rain quietly poured down on him.

***

DAYS later—the exact day he had decided to abduct Azusa arrived. But Kouya didn’t have the drive to go through with it. Perhaps it was because he had gotten too involved with the target. He didn’t want to do anything to further harm the young girl whose face already drooped with loneliness and loss.

He hadn’t reported back on his discovery of her yet. As things stood, he could still disappear from her life and return to tell Akashi he couldn’t find her. But what about what came after that? Vampires from the Blue Coven might come to kidnap her. In that case, it would still be safer for her to be with the Red Coven.

“Mister.”

Kouya had been sitting pondering those things on a park bench when a tiny voice roused him from his thoughts. He looked up to see Azusa standing in front of him—she was smiling.

“I’m sorry for breaking my promise with you, Mister. I came here today to tell you that.”

“Are you okay?” the words were out his mouth before he could stop himself.

Azusa thoughtfully considered his words before responding in a voice that had lost some of its usual cheer, “You know everything, don’t you, Mister? …Mommy turned into a star and is watching over me from the skies, so I have to happily live her share too!”

“Is that so?”

Every time the adults tried to cheer her up, she repeated the same statement with gusto. She believed she was staying strong for her mother’s sake, forcing the impossible on her young self as a result.

“I cried when my mother died…I think. I let my feelings take control and took it out on my surroundings. You’re amazing for keeping it in.”

“Yeah.”

Kouya remembered the days surrounding his mother’s death. It happened before he had awakened as a vampire—a long time ago—but he still vividly remembered every detail. He knew the pain of losing a parent who actually loved you.

“But is there really any point in being amazing at a time like this?”

“Mm-hm.”

“You can cry, you know?”

“Mm-hm.”

Azusa’s shoulders trembled, her eyes downcast. She frantically rubbed at her eyes, attempting to keep the tears at bay.

“I can’t. I feel like if I cry, I’ll really never see Mommy again.”

She put both hands over her face as if she were desperately trying to push the tears back inside. But tears trickled from the corner of her eyes. Kouya pat her on the head—that was enough. Azusa dropped her hands from her face and sobbed. Large teardrop after large tear drop spilled down her cheeks. She cried in the grand way only a child cries.

***

KOUYA truly felt relieved no one else was in the park. By all appearances, it looked like a grown man made a little girl cry. He hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but it might have gotten him reported to the police if the wrong person saw them. After crying for about an hour, Azusa’s eyes were swollen and red, but she had a refreshed look about her.

“Your Mommy became a star too, Mister? When do you stop being sad? Can you forget that Mommy died? How was it for you?” Azusa asked, sitting on the bench beside him.

“I haven’t forgotten her, and I’m still sad when I remember, but time will dull most of the pain.”

“It will?”

“It will.”

“I see,” Azusa smiled—not the forced smile she greeted him with earlier, but an exuberant smile. He had successfully convinced her. “You really are nice, Mister…right?”

“Hm?”
Her face stiffened when she peered at his face. “They’re red? Your eyes?”

“…!” Kouya’s hand shot up to block his eyes as he scouted to the other end of the bench to put distance between them. His contact lenses must have fallen out somewhere. He hadn’t noticed.

Azusa, whose expression stiffened in surprise at the red color, scooted right up to him, even closer than they were sitting before. “They’re so pretty! Your eyes are pretty, Mister!”

“…Huh?” Kouya was taken by surprise; he honestly thought she would break down crying in fear.

He was the first vampire since their ancestors to have eyes that stayed red without drinking blood. It was evidence of his great power and strong vampiric blood. But possessing these eyes made him a target of envy and contempt since birth. Even vampires from his same coven loathed and dreaded his eyes. If vampires feared him, humans were even worse—the majority of people were paralyzed with fear.

Naturally, Kouya believed Azusa would react the same way, but the girl in front of him gazed up at him with a sparkle in her eyes as she eagerly tried to get a glimpse of his eyes through the hand covering them.

“Quit it.”

“They’re like jewels! Your eyes are jewels! Like rubies!”

“……”

Kouya became worried about the girl’s sensibilities. His eyes were always mocked for one reason or the other, but she was the first to say they looked like rubies. He hoped she would become more sensible as an adult.

“Did you cry a lot too, Mister? Is that why they’re so red? Did you know that bunnies’ eyes are red because they cried lots and lots from loneliness? Is that what happened to yours?”

“…That’s right,” Kouya went along with her story, unsure of how to explain his eyes if he denied it.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“My eyes have gotten a little red too, so I wonder if they’ll become like yours if I cry more.” Azusa pulled a hand-mirror out of her pocket to check her bloodshot eyes.

Kouya found himself oddly impressed that a four-year-old carried a mirror on her—that part of her made her no different from the other girls.

“I don’t recommend it.”

“You didn’t have a daddy, Mister?”

“…I didn’t.”

To be precise, he had Akashi, but since he was little he had interacted with Akashi as the Patriarch more than he did as a father. Akashi would come to visit Kouya’s mother, one of his many concubines, once a month as a father. Their relationship was far from a normal father-son relationship.

“That’s it then! You must have been lonely! Good boy. Good boy.”

“……” Kouya froze, uncertain of what to do with the four-year-old who suddenly patted him on the head.

“I think my eyes would have been bright-red too if Daddy wasn’t around. Daddy hugged me for hours after Mommy’s death. My eyes will definitely be as red as yours if Daddy goes away too!”

“…You don’t want to be away from your dad?”

“Yeah! I think I’d have a hard time because my eyes would be so red if Daddy went away too!”

“I see. That would be rough.”

Kouya finally decided what he was going to do after hearing her answer—he wasn’t going to abduct Azusa. Not yet at least.

He stood from the bench. If he was going to plan on how to deal with the Blue Coven, who would eventually come for her, he needed to look for someone to secretly watch over her.

“I just remembered I have something to do, so I’m going. Go home before it gets too dark.”

“Okay! See you next time, Mister!”

“…Yeah.”

We may never meet again. I hope we don’t. That hope stopped him from returning her greeting.

Thirteen years later—his hopes were dashed when they reunited.