Chapter 44: The First Promise
Chapter 44: The First Promise
“AZUSA Saito! You’re ready to take us on this time, no?”
“You girls never get sick of this, do you? School’s out already! Let me go home!”
“You hurt our pride! Make up for it with your death!”
“Have you ever considered how I feel about having to bring a bamboo sword with me to school every single day even though I’m not even affiliated with the school club? It’s tiresome, bulky, and sucks! I’m the one who wants someone to make this up to me!”
Three days passed after the first time Azusa took out Youta’s fan group, and they still hadn’t given up. Every day since, they called her out during lunch and after school to one-sidedly try to lynch her.
However, she wasn’t the type to meekly let others attack her—she used her inherent reflexes and favorite bamboo sword to earn consecutive wins against them. But doing so was like adding oil to fire, the girls’ only got more into it.
Today they summoned her to the back of the gym—a complete cliché in Azusa’s books. Can’t they come up with anything more original?
“There are five of you today? Isn’t that a bit much? Now that it’s come down to facing five pre-vampires—”
“You’re finally ready to recoil in fear of us, aren’t you?! You’re in for it now!”
“I won’t be able to go easy on you anymore, so try your best not to get hurt, all right?” Azusa swung her bamboo sword down on the head of one of the girls before she finished speaking.
BANG! A dull thud reverberated from the girl’s skull as she sank to the ground. Azusa spun around and slammed the sword into another girl’s abdomen. The impact wasn’t enough to knock her out, so Azusa quickly followed it up with a punch to the chin. The force shook the girl’s head hard enough to drop her to ground. Three more to go.
“Savage! You are the worst ever!”
“I don’t want to hear that from someone who came at me in a group of five!”
“I was holding back a little because I heard you were a normal human! I won’t forgive you anymore!” shouted the girl who acted as the group’s leader.
The air around them instantly changed. The wind changed direction toward the leader, gathering around her. The leaves on the surrounding trees rustled, and the wind’s mounting strength broke the more delicate branches.
This seems bad. No need to guess this isn’t going to go well. This inhuman aura and ability...could this girl be one of the—
“Exceptions?” Azusa said the last part of her thoughts aloud.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
A deliberate clapping echoed behind the gym just as Azusa’s face stiffened for whatever was about to hit her.
And then came a familiar voice as an unexpected person appeared from the gym wall, “All right, girls, let’s stop there. I just tattled on you, so the teachers should be coming soon. Plus, I don’t want to have to break my promise.”
“Tsukiharu?”
Tsukiharu pushed up his black hair and flashed a deliberate smile—his expression was an exact replica of the expression he had the day he abducted her. It was his characteristic smile that seemed to make a fool of you, all while luring you in with a false sense of friendliness. A smile touched his lips, but dark, simmering rage tinged his eyes.
Why is he here? Azusa thought as goose bumps popped up across her body.
“To be perfectly honest, fights between girls is unsightly and I don’t want to see such a farce, but Azusa was totally wiping the floor with you girls, so I was more than happy to quietly watch from the sidelines. But you had to go and ruin that, didn’t you? You lose by default for breaking the rules. I’ll be the one to play with you if you take it any further. What do you want to do?”
Azusa immediately put herself between Tsukiharu and the girls who were just trying to attack her. Cold sweat trickled down her back.
Amused by Azusa’s actions, a deep chuckle came from Tsukiharu as he summoned blue flames to his right hand. The girls muffled their shrieks behind Azusa.
“You promised me, didn’t you? Keep your word!” Azusa shouted on the spur of the moment. But his creepy smile didn’t falter.
“You’re kind, Azusa,” he crooned.
“Tsukiharu!”
“...I know. I’m just kidding, Azusa. I would never break my promise with you. Relax.” Tsukiharu closed his hand into a fist; the flames pulled back inside his palm and vanished with a puff. Azusa could hear teeth chattering behind her. The color drained from their faces the instant they realized the difference in strength and instinctually sensed death.
“You…” the leader tried to say something, but Tsukiharu interrupted her.
“Why don’t we forget what just happened? The teachers will be coming any moment now, so get your friends and run away. Won’t it be bad for some of you if your families caught word of what you are doing? It would be a big help if you could make it known not to mess with Azusa ever again,” Tsuikharu said returning to his usual grin and friendly demeanor—he was practically another person.
“Oh yeah, you girls probably don’t know this, so I’ll do you a favor and let you in on it—the vampire Azusa contracted with is the Akaoni. I bet he’s using his familiars to keep an eye on her and witnessed everything that’s been happening. You tried to hurt his precious contractor—I wonder if you will live to see morning? Won’t it be fun to see who he’ll off first?”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Their screams echoed across campus.
***
“‘TSUKIHARU, I had the wrong idea about you all this time. Thank you. I’ll listen to anything you say as thanks. To start with, won’t you do me the honor of drinking my blood?’ How does that sound for a thank you?”
“......” Azusa gave Tsukiharu the evil eye for his mimicry of her as they headed to the school gate together. Or rather, Azusa was heading to the school gate and Tsukiharu was following her.
“Hey, Azusa? Are you listening to me? I, at least, thought I was protecting you from the trio of weasels trying to cut you up.”
“Trio of weasels?”
Is he talking about the Japanese folklore monster thought to be a trio of weasels who appear in a whirlwind to cut their enemies to pieces? Azusa shivered, finally realizing the danger she had been in. Would that attack have been capable of cutting off my head in one blow? Would it have left wounds I could never recover from?
“Well, I’m pretty sure it was an attack of measly strength that would have only cut your cheek, but still…” Tsukiharu muttered quietly to himself. Azusa didn’t hear him. From what she knew of him, he was probably saying something bad, but she felt she should at least be polite, and turned to face him.
“I’ll say my thanks at least. Thank you, Tsukiharu. You saved me.”
“You’re welcome. So? What are you going to do to pay me back?”
“Excuse me?”
“I saved you because I wanted to be compensated for it.”
“You’re sick!” Azusa shouted.
“First, I would be overjoyed if you would let me drink your blood. Regularly.”
“I won’t!”
“Okay. I want to get to know you better, so let’s go on a date! Just the two of us! Without the Akaoni’s watchful eye!”
“That sounds like a flag for getting myself abducted and caged!”
“Don’t you want to test how far you have to be taken away for him to no longer be able to locate you?”
“I do not want to test that!”
“What will you agree to then?”
“I won’t do anything for you. I thanked you!”
“A simple thanks isn’t enough payment for saving your life.”
“……”
“…All right, let’s eat together then. Let’s have lunch alone together tomorrow!”
“Seriously?” Azusa’s determination wavered with him lowering the bar for what he wanted and how that measured up to him saving her life. Then he gave the final push needed.
“Then let’s do lunch with you, me, and Youta! I can’t do anything to you with Youta there, right? How about it?”
“Yeah. Well, if that’s all you want…” Azusa reluctantly nodded.
“Woohoo! It’s a promise!” Tsukiharu exclaimed with a twinkle in his eyes.
He really does seem like a normal boy when he acts like this. Azusa thought. As she watched him walk a little ahead of her with a hop in his step, she found herself unable to resent him as much as she had before.
“Hey, Tsukiharu? I was just thinking, earlier you mentioned Kouya is using his familiars to watch us. Is that true? Or were you bluffing?” Azusa asked once Tsukiharu mellowed.
“Hm? It’s true. See that cat?”
Azusa looked in the direction he pointed. A single black cat sat on a branch of a tree at the side of the campus. The cat closely watched them without moving.
Is that the same cat Kouya handed me the time I went into town?
“It’s been there since the day I brought up the deal with you, meaning it’s been around for a while now. You haven’t noticed?”
“No, not at all.”
“I believe he can see and hear everything the cat sees and hears. I’m pretty sure he would have come out to save you if I hadn’t. Well, pandemonium would have broken out if the Akaoni showed up.”
“You brought about your own form of pandemonium.”
“You think so?”
“I do.”
Crud, I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Azusa thought, a frightening realization dawning on her.
“Does that mean he overheard the promise...I just made with you?”
“Promise? You mean to have lunch together? Yup. In all likelihood, he heard.”
The blood drained from her face. Lately, Kouya spent every day drilling things into her like, “Don’t get involved with Tsukiharu. Don’t talk to him. Don’t touch him.” He more than once went into full-lecture mode whenever she greeted Tsukiharu, saying things like, “You lack caution!”
Every time she wondered how he knew about her interactions with Tsukiharu, but now she learned it was the cat. Convinced the cat ousted her, she shook her head.
That’s not the problem here! There’s a more important issue at hand! The critical thing is that I’ll have a full-course lecture waiting for me at home today! And I have a hunch today’s fit of anger is going to be leaps and bounds beyond what I’ve faced until now!
Azusa’s eyes spun and sweat formed on her hands and feet. Meanwhile, her legs gradually brought her closer to the school gate.
“You guys look awfully friendly.”
Azusa saw a monster at her destination.