"Onii-chan. Wake up."
I hear that voice as if it were coming from very far away. Huh? When did I get submerged in a sea of blood?
—Slurp!
Doesn't matter. This blood is really good.
"Onii-chan."
Though it's like someone's calling me from the surface, somehow the voice that repeats sounds closer.
"Saya... it's six in the morning..."
"Nine twenty! Okaa-san already went down for breakfast!"
"Mmm."
I cover my face with the pillow while continuing to enjoy my sea of blood where I swim and drink.
"Onii-chan, if you don't get up I'm going to jump on you."
"You're not going to do that."
"I am going to do it!"
"You're not goi—"
And then she jumps.
"Ouf! My sea of blood!"
She lands on my stomach with all her weight, which isn't much, but since she lands knees first, it does hurt. I let out a grunt and the pillow falls to the floor.
I open my eyes abruptly. The room's curtain is open, and the Sunday sun hits my face directly.
The culprit is standing next to the bed with her arms under her chest and a frown.
Her pajamas are pink, her pigtails are pink and her face is also pink, though I think that last part is because she's angry and not because it matches the rest.
"Your sea of blood? Wow, sometimes I forget you're a perverted vampire..."
I see a disgusted expression on her face.
"Saya, you're a violent brat..."
"And you're a lazy onii-chan! Get up already!"
Her hands grab my arm and start pulling. Of course, she doesn't move me even an inch, because she's a human girl and I'm a vampire hybrid or whatever I am, but she pulls with all the strength she has, showing a small fang over her lips.
I laugh a bit.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing."
"Get up!"
I wonder if I already have a vampire's disease. I want to sleep for a whole year without waking up.
"Fine, fine..."
I sit on the bed at the same time Saya releases my arm and crosses her arms, looking at me with a satisfied expression. She's still sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Okaa-san made breakfast today."
"Huh? Mom cooked?"
"Mmm."
Saya nods.
"She said since it's Sunday and for once she's home, she wanted to have breakfast with us. So hurry up, onii-chan."
Mm. Mrs. Yuriko cooking is a rare event. Usually she has coffee for breakfast and runs off to some important meeting where she moves money and power from one side to another. That she's home on a Sunday and cooked means she wants to talk about something, or simply wants to spend time with her children.
That woman is very busy, and sometimes I feel sorry for her.
"Onii-chan, why are you making that face?"
"What face? That I think you're cute?"
"Bah! Disgusting."
In the next instant her face turns so red that a tomato with pigtails appears in my mind.
"Heh."
I ruffle her hair. She lets out a squeal and tries to push my hand away, but I keep it there a bit longer, because it amuses me. Her cheeks turn even pinker.
"S-stop treating me like a child!"
"You are a child."
"Ugh..."
She pushes my hand away with a swat and gets off the bed. Before leaving the room, she turns her head toward me. Her orange eyes look at me with a smug expression.
"After breakfast you're taking me to buy books."
"I have things to do."
"Are those things more important than me?"
"..."
I wonder how many times I've heard those words from her?
Her eyes lose a bit of their shine at the same time her lips press together.
"Well... after my stuff, okay?"
"Mm. You better."
And she leaves the room closing the door behind her.
I keep looking at the door for a few seconds.
This girl...
Her obsession with me really comes to the surface more and more. Most of the time she maintains her tsundere mode, but lately, especially when Rei or Touka comes to the mansion looking for me, she goes into yandere mode for the following days.
I know exactly where that's going. Someone might be worried if one day they wake up in a basement with their hands tied.
But I'm not worried.
That's the part I should probably worry about more.
Long live Yanderes!
I go down for breakfast.
Mrs. Yuriko is sitting at the table in a white shirt and black pants. This woman probably doesn't know what it means to be relaxed. Saya's already sitting too, eating rice with a bit of fish.
"Good morning, Arata."
"Good morning, mom."
She smiles slightly hearing that word.
I sit down. Mrs. Yuriko has made a breakfast containing rice, fish, miso soup and egg.
"How did you sleep?"
"Fine. Until a certain someone came to jump on me."
"Onii-chan!"
I look at her and show her a dark smile full of teeth.
"Mom, she enters my room whenever she wants. Aren't you going to say anything to her?"
Mrs. Yuriko looks at both of us with a small smile. She takes her tea, takes a sip, and then says:
"Saya, don't enter Arata's room without permission."
"But..."
"Especially since you'll soon be a young lady."
Saya almost spits out her rice.
"Wh-what?! Okaa-san! I-it's not that! I only go in because onii-chan is lazy and won't get up!"
"Mm. Real or fake?"
Saya turns red from her neck to her forehead. I try not to laugh and put food in my mouth to distract myself. Though she doesn't look it with her serious face, this woman enjoys bothering her daughter and me too.
"Anyway, Arata."
Mrs. Yuriko turns her head toward me.
"Mm."
"I heard from Kiriko. I heard you're doing well. Be careful, okay?"
Her eyes look at me intently.
"Umu. Don't worry."
Saya looks at both of us without understanding, frowns a bit, but doesn't ask anything. That girl is smart, and knows when it's not a good time to butt in.
Sometimes she feels inferior and asks me if I can turn her into a vampire. In that case, I can only apologize.
Once I found a bandit and tried to turn him into a vampire as an experiment, but his body decomposed and transformed into a black mass that maintained its consciousness.
It's because I can only transform the body, and can't transform the soul.
I finish breakfast quickly. I thank Mrs. Yuriko, ignore Saya's look that says "don't forget about me," and go up to get dressed.
Ten minutes later I'm on my room's balcony, and my body dissolves.
—Fuum.
Dark red blood mist. The mass of mist floats in the air for a second, and then shoots toward the sky.
Flying as mist is one of the things I like most about being what I am. I can cover long distances in very little time, I don't need to worry about traffic, and no one can see me if I stay high enough. I'm just a red stain in the sky, and most people don't look up.
Of course, sometimes I see videos on the internet talking about red mist flying, but most remain skeptical. Because for them, who know there are ghouls and parasites, they don't know about this type of power.
I cross Tokyo in a few minutes.
The rooftop where I agreed to meet Kiriko is on an office building in 21th Ward. I recompose in a corner, where no one sees me, and walk toward the center of the rooftop.
"I got here first, huh."
I walk to the edge and look at the city. I widen my vision and my sight reaches across Tokyo, and I see the buildings, streets and people moving. It's Sunday so there are fewer people than usual, but there are still many. I lean on the railing and put my hands in my pockets.
I think about what happened yesterday with Johannes.
That camera surely already revealed me to the Vatican. I wonder what they'll decide.
This morning I sent an All-Seeing Eye toward Rome. I hope when it arrives, they don't discover it.
I want to know what they're planning to be prepared for their moves and not be caught off guard, also affecting the girls around me.
"...Thinking too much, huh?"
A voice behind me.
I turn my head. Kiriko is standing a few meters away. I didn't sense her arrive, which is normal because she can slip into shadows and move as she wants without being detected. Unless I use my Vampire Vision, it's impossible to see her.
She's wearing a black jacket over a gray blouse and dark jeans. She looks very beautiful today too.
"You're late."
"Five minutes."
"Late is late."
She walks toward where I am, and upon arriving, raises her fist and hits me on the head.
"Did you forget I'm your master, brat?"
While I rub my head, she leans on the railing next to me, looking at the city.
"How's your Sunday?"
"A brat with pigtails woke me up by jumping on my stomach."
"Sounds fun."
"Indeed."
Kiriko knows why I called her. I know she knows. And she knows I know she knows.
We're in that kind of silence where both are waiting to see who speaks first.
End up being me.
"Kiriko."
"Yes?"
"What's a Progenitor?"
×××
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