Chapter 2: The Vampire is Dying Somewhere Around There

The little girl, Mutsuko, gazed intently at Yuichi.

They were sitting on the porch of a classical Japanese house out in the country. It was the house they had lived in when Yuichi was still a small child.

It was nighttime, but the porch was brightly lit by the gentle glow of a full moon above.

It was late summer. The hum of the insects was noisy around them.

“Mom and Dad won’t make it.”

Yuichi didn’t understand what she meant, but being a child, he assumed it must be something lethal.

If his awesome big sister, who knew everything and could do everything, said so, it must be true.

But that was no reason to just accept it.

“Why not?” Yuichi asked.

“Some day, there’s going to be an explosive change... a catastrophe. Mom and Dad won’t be able to handle it. Adults never can. They aren’t equipped to deal with drastic changes in their lives.”

Yuichi screwed up his face, tears streaming down his cheeks. It was too much. The thought of never seeing his beloved parents again was like a clamp pressing down on his heart.

She continued in somber tones. “I know it hurts to hear it, but I can only tell a certain number of people. So I chose you.” She clearly wasn’t joking.

“Yori... What about Yori?” He looked back through the gap in the sliding door at their little sister, Yoriko, sleeping wrapped in a terrycloth blanket.

“Yori... she might not make it, either.” Mutsuko choked the words out.

“No way! How can you say that? She’s still so little! That’s not fair!”

“...I just don’t think she’ll be able to take it...”

“Don’t worry! I’ll beat up that stupid cat... that stupid cats-trophy thing! I’ll protect you and Yori and Dad and Mom and everyone!” Yuichi took a bold leap off the porch, throwing a fist into the air as he swore his oath.

Mutsuko’s eyes filled with tears, moved by his brave promise.

“Yes... That’s right. It’s not like me... I’m not the type to freeze in the face of despair. Okay! Leave it to your big sister! I’ll make you...”

And that was when he woke up.

“That was... a dream, right?” He thought he’d been remembering something, but it vanished into a mist the moment he woke up. The memory was now fuzzy, a million miles away...

He sat up and looked out the window. It was still dark outside.

He’d been tossing and turning in bed for hours, but he must have finally gotten to sleep. Now that he was awake, it was no good. He couldn’t get back to sleep. He instead headed out into the hallway, walked up to Mutsuko’s door, and knocked. She was the only person he could talk to about the cause of his insomnia: his “sight.”

Part of him expected her to be asleep already, but she answered the door right away.

She was in a Chinese outfit known as a pao — commonly referred to as “kung-fu clothes” — which she was apparently wearing as pajamas. “Is it time to talk about big sister fetish games?!”

“No! And why do you even want that?”

“Well, I’d be worried if they were little sister fetish games.”

“It’s neither!”

“Oh, well. Come on in!”

She beckoned him in, and he took a seat at the kotatsu once more. The room was as cluttered as ever.

“Hey... remind me what ‘catastrophe’ means?”

“It’s a mathematical theory. It’s used to describe orderly systems disrupted by abrupt chaotic phenomena. It can also refer to a disastrous change in an otherwise everyday life... Is that what you came here to ask me?”

“Oh, no, that’s not important. I came to ask about... what did you call it, my Soul Reader? I’m starting to see even weirder things...”

Yuichi described his first day at school.

Of course he left out his encounter with the “Serial Killer,” Natsuki Takeuchi. Her claim that she would slaughter everyone at school if he talked about it weighed heavily on him. And given what had happened at breakfast that morning, he had his doubts that Mutsuko could keep a secret. There was no way he could tell her.

“Very interesting!” Mutsuko’s eyes shone.

“Er, could you please not call it interesting?”

“So the labels changed?”

“Yeah. At first they all just said ‘Classmate,’ but then they started changing to stuff like ‘Ace Striker.’”

“And then your eyes started to hurt, and you started picking up scary stuff like ‘Zombie’ and ‘Vampire’? Any aliens, time travelers, or psychics?”

“Nothing that strange just yet...” Though he couldn’t pretend an alien was that much stranger than zombie.

“Well, you might see them soon enough!”

“I really hope not... So, does that tell you anything?”

“Good question. From what you told me before, the words seemed to represent something about a person’s relationship to you, but...”

“I can’t see what ‘Witch’ and ‘Vampire’ would have to do with me.”

Sure, “Big Sister” and “Friend” described relationships to Yuichi, but most of the labels didn’t fit that scheme at all.

“I see... that means we’re in Act 2! You’ve leveled up and reached a new stage of your abilities! But as for what the labels mean now... Hmm, I wish we could get a broader sample... It’s almost like the content of their soul... Their personality or something...” Mutsuko was drifting off into her own little world again.

“Hey, stay with me.”

“Oh, sorry. So, what does my label say? Same as before?”

“It still says ‘Big Sister.’”

“What the heck? Could you at least give me a more interesting label?”

“It’s not my decision!”

“I’ll think over what Soul Reader means... but be careful, okay? You might start seeing things some people would rather keep unseen. And if they know you can see them, they might come after you.”

Yuichi gulped. He couldn’t help but think of “Serial Killer,” Natsuki Takeuchi.

“Come on, like that would happen. It’s not like they’re really zombies or witches, so why would they attack me?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Huh? Well, society couldn’t function with all those weird creatures around...” He tried to say it to convince himself, but the words felt hollow to him.

“Really? I figure they could make it work, so long as they all lived incognito.”

Natsuki had said something like that, too. Without sight like Yuichi’s, who would ever know?

“Well, it’s probably nothing to worry about. As long as you don’t tell anyone what you’re seeing, the people hiding their identities won’t have any reason to come after you!”

Yuichi was stunned into silence. Natsuki had already come after him, and she knew about Soul Reader...

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. Got it. I won’t tell anyone.”

Yuichi headed back to his room.

It was a long time before he got back to sleep.

A few days had passed since that first day at school.

Yuichi had come to class, as usual.

He looked around the desks. The labels were still the same.

“Dating Sim Protagonist” and “Dating Sim Childhood Friend” were joined at the hip, as usual. “Serial Killer,” “Vampire,” and “Fake” were giggling about something. “Anthromorph,” the rich girl, was being fawned on by the groupies that had already clustered to her. The unsettling “Witch” was gazing at “Witch’s Beloved.”

Yuichi’s initial panic at the thought of being dragged into something incredible had eased as his days settled into routine. In other words, nothing had happened. No suspicious incidents at all.

“Serial Killer” Natsuki Takeuchi hadn’t come after him, and they hadn’t interacted beyond the superficial pleasantries expected of classmates. Their relationship was nothing more than that.

“Vampire,” “Zombie,” and “Anthromorph” seemed to just be ordinary students, too.

Their strange natures were obvious to Yuichi’s sight, but apparently not to each other. Even if they were, the policy seemed to be “live and let live.”

So I get to be the only one living in fear of a serial killer, huh?

It was absurd. Everything was at peace around him, but because he couldn’t stop seeing the labels, he couldn’t not think about it.

Shota came up to him while he was lost in thought. “Hey, your big sister’s super cute!” His voice strained with excitement. He must have seen Mutsuko when she and Yuichi were walking to school together.

“Yeah, people do say that about her.” But before Yuichi could add that he couldn’t really be objective on the subject, he felt someone watching him.

He glanced over at the seat to the left and in front of him. The gaze belonged to “Witch,” An Katagiri. It pierced eerily between the gaps in her long bangs. She hadn’t tried anything on him, but having her stare at him like that from time to time still sent a shiver up his spine.

Give me a break already! I’m having enough trouble with the serial killer!

Fortunately (well, for him), her attention was usually focused on Takuro in the seat next to hers. Yuichi broke from her gaze and looked ahead again.

He wanted to help Takuro, but he was worried that interfering might just cause more trouble. And anyway, she wasn’t doing anything all that awful to him that Yuichi could see. All she did was stare at him, occasionally talk to him, and bring him boxed lunches.

Yuichi had occasionally glanced into the lunches to see if there was anything suspicions in them, but no. No roast newt or roots carved to look like people. Just your standard handmade lunches. So for now, he would just watch and wait.

Of course, if Takuro were ever in real danger, he would try to intervene... but for now, this was between the two “lovebirds.” There was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Hey... What’s with that chick?” Shota whispered to Yuichi, apparently noticing An’s creepy gaze as well.

“How should I know?” He felt the same way, but that didn’t make it any easier to answer.

After class, Yuichi visited the roof, and gazed down at the courtyard between the four school buildings, deep in thought. The sight of it calmed him for some reason. Maybe it was all the greenery.

People didn’t go to the roof very often, so it was a perfect place to have a nice, quiet think. And as always, the object of his thoughts was Natsuki Takeuchi.

She had said she wouldn’t kill people she knew, but she had also said she killed people on a daily basis. What if she had killed someone recently?

He wasn’t the most righteous guy, but it didn’t seem right to let that stand.

She had said that if her identity ever got out, she’d kill everybody and run off. So what if it got out in some other way? He’d need a countermeasure in mind in case that came up.

But the real question is... how do you stop a serial killer?

If she were just a normal high school girl, he could probably beat her in a fight. But there was clearly more to her than that.

The day after she had jumped out the window, he had inspected the wall outside the bathroom. There had been a long gouge in it, leading from the window to the ground. She must have stuck something into the wall to slow her descent. No normal high school girl could do that.

He couldn’t see the whole picture. She’d stuck him in the back with a blade of some kind, so he assumed her preferred weapon was a knife, but it could be something else.

Maybe I should have told Mutsuko about this...

One of his classmates was a serial killer. What would Mutsuko say if he told her that?

Well, she would grin and ask a million questions, of course. And it was obvious what would follow: She’d want him to fight the serial killer.

He didn’t want to do that. Still, keeping it all to himself was hard. He wanted a confidant.

He pondered over who the ideal confidant would be. Someone tight-lipped, with the power to fight the serial killer if it came to it.

As if someone like that is just going to drop into my lap...

Yuichi sighed.

Who would even believe that there was a serial killer in their class? No one except his big sister.

Yuichi’s thoughts kept going around in circles.

Just then, he noticed a label hovering in the courtyard.

It read “Vampire.” It was moving. He’d never seen a label move around on its own.

He strained his eyes until he could make out a blurry form beneath the label, which he eventually realized was a person. More specifically, a girl.

It must be Aiko Noro, he realized. The girl from his class.

It was hard to tell what she was doing at this distance, but there was something strange about it. She seemed to be running circles around the courtyard. At first he assumed she was training, but realized that would be an odd thing for her to do in her school uniform. There was also a strangely desperate air about her.

What’s going on here?

Yuichi pulled a pair of binoculars out of his bag. They were military binoculars with a night-vision setting, and he wasn’t carrying them around by choice. They were another thing Mutsuko had pressed on him.

He used the binoculars to get a closer look.

Aiko’s face was twisted with fear. She kept glancing behind herself as if she were being chased, although Yuichi couldn’t see anything behind her.

Suddenly, something caught her leg, and she fell. A pool of blood began to spread around her.

“Huh?!” Yuichi seized his bag and broke out into a run.

✽✽✽✽✽

Aiko lay on the ground, screaming in pain.

Blood was pouring from her inner thigh and pooling on the ground.

A skeleton dressed in tattered clothing was pulling itself up from the earth below. Its hand was stained with blood. It must have been what had cut her.

School was over. She was out in the courtyard, being attacked by a skeleton monster. It was only late afternoon, yet the sky was pitch black. The powerful unreality of the situation only added to her feeling of helplessness.

I’ve got to get away.

She couldn’t even stand, yet she tried with all her might to get her distance.

Another strike like that would kill her. But for some reason, the attack didn’t come.

Maybe she was safe? She looked up again, hopefully.

The skeletons were there. There were four of them: the one that had just come out of the ground, and the three that had been chasing her around. They did nothing but stand there, gazing at Aiko with their empty eye sockets.

A boy a year or two older than her was standing behind them.

He was as white as a sheet, and for some reason, he seemed afraid. Perhaps it had been the sight of the blood pouring out of her.

“Wh-What’s going on here? This wasn’t the deal! Explain this!” the boy shouted angrily to the black kitten on his shoulder. The kitten meowed in response, the sound seeming completely out of place in the situation.

“Is it possible she’s just human? But that means...”

Their eyes met for a moment, in which she implored him silently to stop.

But that gesture only restored his bravado. He had noticed that her eyes had turned red.

“Ah-ha! I see. So you really aren’t human! Well? Are you about to give me all you’ve got?”

But she wasn’t about to give anything. She hadn’t turned her eyes red intentionally. It didn’t signify some sudden rush of power. It was just her vampiric regeneration activating to stop the loss of blood.

Aiko was terrified. Someone was about to kill her for reasons she didn’t understand. It was like a nightmare, and all she wanted to do was wake up.

The boy’s hesitation had fallen away, and the sheer malice in his eyes caused her to freeze up. There was no way out. She didn’t know how to use her vampire powers. It was too much to hope that they would just awaken miraculously.

“Monsters are monsters. They should all return to dust. Don’t you agree?”

At his word, the skeletons surrounded Aiko. Their hands formed into blades. There really was no way out this time.

Aiko shut her eyes tightly. She couldn’t face death bravely. She didn’t want to die.

But what came next was not the shock of being run through. Someone wrapped an arm around her waist, lifted her up, and was carrying her.

Aiko slowly opened her eyes, tilted her head, and looked up.

It was a boy. He was holding a bag on one arm, and her on the other.

✽✽✽✽✽

Yuichi leaped to Aiko’s side, hefted her up with one arm, and started running.

“What’s going on here?”

The blackened sky. The bizarre creatures attacking Aiko. None of it made any sense. But his main focus for now was getting away. Aiko was injured. He had to get her to safety before he could process the rest.

He thought that running straight would take him right into the school building, but the next thing he knew, he was heading back for the center of the courtyard.

So that’s what it was.

That explained why Aiko had seemed to be running circles around the courtyard. She had been trying to escape, but couldn’t.

Yuichi stopped.

In the darkness of the courtyard stood four skeletons dressed in tattered rags. They were frozen, and their hands, like blades, stuck into the ground.

They sure didn’t look like cosplayers. They were fully capable of standing, despite having no muscles or tendons holding their bones together. The joints weren’t even connected. There was clearly something supernatural at work here.

Behind the skeletons stood a boy in a school uniform. He had long bangs that hid his face, fingerless black gloves on both hands, and a black kitten on his shoulder.

Who is that guy? he wondered. But he didn’t have to wonder long.

“Apprentice Monster Hunter.”

That was the label above the boy’s head, a label that Yuichi had never seen before. The “Apprentice Monster Hunter” was pursuing Aiko, the “Vampire.” There was a certain natural logic to that.

What do I do? I can’t leave Noro like this, but if they try something else...

“Impossible... How did you get here? I erected a barrier... humans shouldn’t be able to get in...”

As Yuichi was lost in his thoughts, the boy began speaking to the kitten on his shoulder.

“Withdraw?! Why? ...Dammit! Fine!” The boy cursed in frustration, then fled into the school building as fast as his legs could carry him.

Yuichi watched him leave in bafflement, but eventually decided to lay Aiko down on the ground to check on her.

Aiko slowly looked up at him with unfocused red eyes.

Huh? He shook off his shock. This was no time to be distracted by the color of her eyes. Aiko’s face was pale and covered in cold sweat. Her breathing was irregular. The words “hypovolemic shock” came to mind.

She was bleeding from her inner thigh. The rate of loss suggested damage to the femoral artery.

Luckily, Yuichi had a tourniquet in his bag, and some rudimentary first-aid knowledge.

He lifted Aiko’s skirt.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Aiko broke out of her daze with a squeal of panic.

“Stopping the bleeding. I need to focus, so please be quiet for a minute.”

He checked the injury. The wound struck him as too large to apply pressure directly, yet for some reason, the bleeding seemed to be slowing. That was strange, but Yuichi continued his work nevertheless, tying the tourniquet to where her leg met her hip.

The next thing he knew, the dark sky had turned bright again.

“Well, that should do it. Are you okay, Noro?”

The sudden darkening and brightening of the sky was definitely strange, but at least the danger seemed to have passed.

“It’s Sakaki... right?” she asked, as if to confirm. He suddenly remembered that they had never had a proper conversation before.

“Yeah, that’s me. You’re Noro, right? What happened here?”

“Um... Sorry. I’m not sure, either.” Aiko suddenly started trembling as the terrifying experience began replaying in her mind.

Yuichi wanted to give Aiko time to calm down, but he knew they couldn’t wait too long. He had to get a doctor for Aiko’s injuries. Once she seemed stable enough, he spoke.

“Ready to move? We need to get to the hospital. That injury looks really bad... does it hurt?”

Yuichi suddenly realized something else was odd — Aiko was acting more or less normally. A wound like that should have hurt a lot, right? But Aiko seemed completely at ease.

“Huh? Y-Yeah, of course it hurts. Y-Yeah, a hospital! Yeah! Let’s go to a hospital!” Aiko picked herself up, then turned her face away to keep him from meeting her eyes.

Yuichi flipped her skirt up again to see if he should loosen the tourniquet. It wasn’t good to leave it tightened for too long.

“Hey... you really don’t mind flipping up my skirt, do you?” she demanded.

Yuichi acted with no time for hesitation or embarrassment. “That’s where you’re injured. What else am I supposed to do?” He was just thinking he should be writing down the time he first applied the tourniquet, when he was jolted out of his thoughts by the renewed sight of her injury. The wound was almost completely closed.

“Noro... what’s going on?”

It was clearly unnatural. Not even a minor scratch would heal this fast.

“Um...” Aiko averted her eyes from his. Her complexion had returned to normal, and her breathing had stabilized. She had completely recovered.

After a moment’s reflection, Yuichi remembered his earlier glimpse of her eyes. They were the color of blood. They were back to their usual sepia now, but he was sure he had seen them. It would have been hard to forget something that shocking.

So she really is...

“I guess you don’t need to go to that hospital, after all.”

“Yeah, looks like it, huh? Guess it’s already healed... Oh! But those weird things are still around!” Aiko quickly changed the subject, pointing behind Yuichi.

“Huh? ...Yeah, what are those things?”

The four skeletons were still standing there. There was no more air of malice about them. With their master gone, they appeared to have gone on standby.

“Are they ghosts or something?”

“You think we can just leave them here?”

“I don’t know. They might not go away...”

It would probably be bad if someone found them. Yuichi rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small bottle. He carried it up to a skeleton and sprinkled its contents onto it.

“...No real effect.”

“What is that?”

“Holy water... apparently. Well, maybe it only works if you’re a Christian.”

He thought about knocking one over, but they were so filthy, his mind rebelled at the thought of touching them.

“Hmm, what else could I try...? A... va... lo... ki... te... sva... ra... Bo... dhi... satt... va... when... prac... tic... ing... deep... ly...” Yuichi began reciting the Heart Sutra. Maybe they were lost spirits that needed to move on or something like that.

“Eek!”

He turned to face the scream behind him and noticed Aiko cringing.

“Huh?”

“Hey! What are you doing?” Aiko marched over to Yuichi, suddenly enraged.

“What am I... oh. Do vampires hate sutras or something? Sorry.”

Aiko suddenly froze.

“Ah.” Yuichi suddenly realized he’d thrown the word “vampire” out there completely casually. What am I, stupid?! First I have a serial killer on my case, and now there’ll be a vampire!

“Wh-Wh-Wh-What did you say?!” Aiko was clearly in a panic.

“Huh? G-Good question! What did I say?”

Unlike Natsuki Takeuchi, she didn’t seem like the type to threaten him for learning her identity, so he tried to see how far he could get by playing dumb.

“R-Really? Maybe I just misheard! Ahahaha! W-Well, I’m gonna get going!” She turned, as if getting ready to leave.

“Wait a minute!”

“Wh-What?”

“You’re just gonna walk home like that?”

Aiko was in a gruesome way. She was covered in blood from head to toe.

“Oh... no...” Aiko sagged pitifully as she realized the state she was in.

“Here, put this over it.” Yuichi took off his blazer and offered it to Aiko. Having something to cover it helped, at least.

“U-Um, thanks.”

“Could I at least take you to the nurse’s office? They might have a change of clothes there.”

“I don’t know... if the nurse sees me...” Aiko didn’t seem happy about the idea.

“Then... how about stopping by my place? It’s close by, and you can borrow something from my sister.”

“N-No, that’s okay. My house isn’t that far away. Thanks for lending me the jacket. I’ll wash it and give it back to you!”

Aiko started to walk away again, but just before she got inside, she stopped, did an about-face, and approached Yuichi.

“Hey.”

“What is it?”

“You really did say vampire, didn’t you?”

“...Did I? Are you sure that’s what I said?” Yuichi tried his excuse again. He had assumed they would both prefer to pretend like nothing happened, but it seemed Aiko disagreed.

“Yeah, I heard it. Now that I think about it, I can’t just let that slide! Why did you say that? What made you think ‘vampire’?”

Yuichi realized it was futile, so he just decided to admit to it. “Well, your wound healed so quickly...”

“Erk!”

“Your eyes were red...”

“...B-But is that really a reason to call someone a vampire?”

“I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you a vampire just because of that. I regret saying it, and I won’t tell anyone what happened here today. Is that good enough?”

“No, it’s not. ...Could I come by your house, after all? I think we need to talk.”

Clearer reflection must have made Aiko realize the holes in Yuichi’s story.

And so, they headed for his house together.