Chapter 66: Epilogue
Chapter 66: Epilogue
“KOUYA, I want to go visit him!” Azusa exclaimed. She sat up in bed, frowning to show her discontent.
Three days had passed since she woke up. During those three days, she was rarely allowed out of her room. Ichi or Kouya were always present in the room with her, and Ichi consistently followed her into the bathroom when she showered or used the toilet.
Naturally, as long as she was in her room, she could freely walk around, but Azusa still felt a tremendous sense of being shut in against her will.
Their overly protective behavior made her suspicious; especially when all they told her was that she had passed out from a case of anemia. She continued to ask what the real reason was, but she typically got the same answer back.
“We want you to wait a little longer,” was what everyone told her.
Her missing memories of the time she passed out created her current predicament. She had a vague idea something bad had happened, and being the energetic girl she was, being confined without anyone telling her why was unbearable.
On the third day of her confinement, she finally decided to take drastic measures.
Kouya sighed at her explosion of dissatisfaction, closed the book he was reading, and directed an exasperated look her way.
“Visit who? No one took a more serious injury than you.”
“Youta, obviously! I am as lively as can be! You, Ichi, Subaru, and everyone else are just over worrying about me!” Azusa posed with both fists in front of her to show off her healthiness, only to be met with an icy gaze.
“I told you before that Youta is fine. We’re safeguarding him here just in case. You don’t have to visit him. If you want to that badly, it doesn’t have to be today, but can wait for another day, right?”
“And when will that another day come, huh? I totally understand you guys are doing this out of worry for me! But this situation is insanely bothersome to bear when I don’t even know the reason for it! Either tell me why or allow me to move freely within the mansion! I am going to die from boredom!” Azusa fell prostrate on her comforter, covering her face as if she were trying to persuade him with a sob story this time. Kouya winced.
“Isn’t this the same as when you guys had me confined as a prisoner? It’s not like I want to go outside the mansion, and I will immediately return to my room once I see Youta, so...can’t I?” she pleaded, lifting her face slightly from the comforter to peak at Kouya. His brow was furrowed, his expression a mix of conflicted emotions rather than annoyance.
After a small pause, he hoarsely squeezed out, “…You can’t.”
“Kouya.”
“Deal with it.”
“……” She glared at him with pouting lips. He turned his face away to escape her gaze. He refused to budge. She sighed as her shoulders dropped dejectedly.
“…Fine then. In that case, will you chat with me to deter my boredom?”
“I can do that much for you. What’s up?”
“My memories are all jumbled up, so can you start by telling me what happened on the day Youta fell to F rank? After I had lunch with Tsukiharu—”
The chair Kouya sat on scraped the floor as he jumped to his feet. He swiftly headed to the door to leave.
“Kouya, where are you going?”
“…I’m going to change shifts with Ichi. I just remembered urgent business.”
“What? Out of the blue?”
“Why, indeed? Perhaps there’s something he doesn’t want you to remember, Azusa.”
Azusa looked up at the sudden voice that belonged to neither her nor Kouya. She turned her head in search of the visitor to find a familiar face sitting on the windowsill.
“Tsukiharu!”
“You’re here?” Kouya snarled, countering the joy in Azusa’s voice. Tsukiharu jumped into Azusa’s room with his usual aloof smirk.
“What a warm welcome, Akaoni. It’s been a while, huh, Azusa. You doing okay?”
“Yup. How about you, Tsukiharu?”
“I’ve been well, of course. I only just moved into this mansion. Shiro’s betrayal became as evident as can be, so I couldn’t stick around my old hiding place. But knowing I can see you every day now is the greatest happiness for me,” Tsukiharu smiled sweetly. Azusa grinned broadly back at him. Kouya’s face soured beside them.
“How did you get into this room, Tsukiharu? We have a barrier around the entire room—”
“I smashed through it, obviously! You had a fairly tough one up, so it was a pain to break! I had to circle around to the window to find the weakest spot…” Tsukiharu answered like it was only natural he should break the barrier. Kouya put a hand to his head.
“Why are you always so—”
“No worries. I’ll properly put up an even stronger barrier! I want to protect Azusa too…” Tsukiharu said, all smiles from beginning to end. Perplexed, Azusa cocked her head at him.
“Protect me? And what’s this about a barrier—”
“Oh, about that—”
“Tsukiharu,” Kouya raised his voice, warning him not to say more.
“Fine, fine,” Tsukiharu reluctantly assented. “Well, I’ll tell you once we gather more information. Anyway, I came here to see you today! I thought you might be bored sick about now.”
“You’re amazing, Tsukiharu! Right on the mark!”
Kouya’s brow seemed to cave in with bitterness over Azusa’s apparent happiness. Tsukiharu triumphantly puffed out his chest and smirked at the unhappy Kouya.
“Although I say that, I can’t let you out of this room, and my opinion holds the same as that blockhead there for wanting you to stay inside, so I probably can’t grant your wish… Instead, I brought you a great present,” Tsukiharu said and opened the door. Azusa was startled by who stood on the other side.
“Kii! Yuu! And Youta too!”
“Hiya! How’re you doing?”
“Um, is this…eek!”
“Hi there, Azusa, brother. Long time no see.”
They each entered her room with different reactions. Kii and Youta casually came inside, but Yuu cautiously looked from Kouya to Azusa from the doorway.
“Not coming in?”
“Hahaha! I will come in!” Yuu practically leapt into the room at Kouya’s question. She clung to Kii’s arm that was the farthest from Kouya.
“Hey, Yuu, didn’t I tell you it would be fine? He’s not as scary as he looks. Also, Youta, you just called Kouya your brother…is he your brother? I never heard about that before…”
“It’s true. I wasn’t trying to hide it. It’s pointless to be scared of my brother, Miss Yamamoto,” Youta smiled, referring to Yuu by her last name. His cheery demeanor relieved Azusa. The reality of his safety finally settled in.
“Coming for a visit is fine, but why did you pick them?” Kouya asked Tsukiharu out of curiosity with one eyebrow raised. It was hard to say any of the people present got along well, but they were on better terms than before.
“I only invited Youta to come. I simply captured these two when I spotted them wandering in front of the mansion. They said they came to see Azusa.”
“We were worried sick because Azusa has been absent from school for days now. Things ended with no one telling us anything about what went down in the schoolyard. Aren’t you asking a lot by telling us not to worry?” Kii questioned. Yuu nodded several times behind her.
“You didn’t see what happened?”
“Your enemy shot out a ton of whirlwinds, right? The dust and dirt they kicked up made watching what went down the least of our concerns. Not to mention, the twisters that came right for us… Anyway, I’m just glad to see you’re okay, Azusa! If anything had happened to you, I’d probably find myself dead at Kouya’s hands for pushing you to get involved,” Kii dryly laughed. Youta glanced down awkwardly, guilt written across his face.
Seeing Youta’s reaction, Tsukiharu spoke up in a cheerier voice than usual, “Setting that aside, what is it you’re holding, Kii? A get well gift?”
“Oh, this? More than a gift, I thought it would be fun to talk if I was allowed inside for a visit, so we dropped by the convenience store to buy snacks and—”
“And juice,” Yuu finished Kii’s sentence and held up the plastic bag in her hand. Juice and snacks filled the bags. One bag even had paper cups and plates.
Azusa’s eyes sparkled at the contents, “These are the new limited edition foods I wanted to eat!”
“Right? I thought you’d love them! If it’s all right with you, let’s have a girl’s party right here and now!”
“By girl’s party, does that mean I can’t join in?” Tsukiharu flashed a smile at the girls. Yuu’s cheeks flushed red.
“Okay, let’s rename our girl’s party to a snack party then!” Kii suggested and everyone, except Kouya, cheerfully agreed. Kouya opened the door with a troubled smile.
“Where are you going, Kouya?” Youta asked.
“I’ll leave the room. I’ll be right outside the door, so call me if anything comes up.”
Dissatisfied by his response, Youta and Kii both puffed out their cheeks.
“Aw, you should just stay with us.”
“You really should. I will feel oh-so-bad if you leave now because it will seem like we made you leave,” Kii pouted.
“Don’t worry about me. Besides, I don’t know what would be considered appropriate topics for discussion.”
“Why don’t we invite Ichi and Subaru then? You won’t have to feel out of place that way, Kouya!” Azusa suggested. Youta jumped at her suggestion. Tsukiharu sharply picked up on his reaction and elbowed him in the side.
“What’s this? You don’t want her here, Youta? You would have jumped for joy at that suggestion before.”
“It’s not that I don’t want her here, but I’m torn because I’ve shown her nothing but my pathetic side lately… How do I put it? I don’t know how to face her—”
The door suddenly opened just as Youta smiled bitterly. Ichi burst into the room.
“Kouya! Do you know where Youta is? His room was empty when I went to check on him. All I found was Tsukiharu’s note—wait, Youta?!”
“Kou, you here? The blood test results just came out—uh, what’s with all the people?” Subaru blurted seeing what was unfolding inside Azusa’s room. Everyone was in the middle of laying out the snacks around Kii and Yuu in the middle of the room. “Um? Is something about to start here? Who are these girls?”
“We’re Azusa’s classmates! We’re about to hold a snack party. Would you two like to join us?” Kii happily invited Ichi and Subaru who blinked at the same time.
In the end, they held the snack party with all eight of them. The conversation was mostly held between the students and Ichi, who were all giggling over some trivial topics. Kouya and Subaru watched over them from a corner of the room.
“What can I say? Things are peaceful, huh?”
“I agree,” Kouya assented with a soft expression. Subaru saw his expression and sadly lowered his gaze.
“I wish things could go on this way forever…”
“That wouldn’t be reality then, would it?”
Kouya held his hand out to Subaru. Subaru handed him the envelope he was holding. Kouya sighed at what was documented inside.
“Almost all of it is what we suspected. Azusa’s blood possesses the capability to change the makeup of a vampire’s body. Just like how Youta turned into a normal human from it and how it turned a healthy vampire into an F…”
Kouya sighed a second time, this time bearing the weight and severity of what was to come.