The Half-Baked Vampire vs. The Strongest Little Sister?!

by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

  “You’ve never talked to him about it?” Aiko asked.

  “Of course not! That would be ridiculous!” Yoriko exclaimed.

  Yuichi ignored the girls’ whispering and began to explain. “Let’s see, how to put it... Well, for example, look around you.”

  At his prodding, Aiko did so.

  The men around them all hastily averted their eyes, indicating that they had been looking at her.

  “It’s always like this around my sisters. You know? The way the men look at them. Horny, leering, pathetic... They basically drool over them, you know?”

  “And?” Aiko asked, squinting in non-comprehension.

  “I’m a little repulsed by the idea of being like them.”

  “I’m not sure one necessarily follows the other...” Aiko murmured. She couldn’t imagine Yuichi with a lecherous expression at all. He probably wouldn’t turn out like that.

  “Well, it’s hard to explain exactly, but that’s just how I feel,” Yuichi said.

  “I see. So if I keep making men act horny and gross around me, you’ll be so disgusted that you won’t try to get a girlfriend?” Yoriko whispered.

  “Yoriko...” Aiko sighed in response. She didn’t like where this was going.

  After a few moments, Aiko met Yuichi’s eyes and gave him a nod as a signal.

  Yuichi picked up on it and nodded in response. He then placed a paper bag on the table. He pulled from it a long, thin box wrapped in paper, and handed it to Yoriko.

  “Here, your present.”

  “Huh?” Yoriko looked to Aiko, then Yuichi. She seemed absolutely baffled as to why Yuichi would be giving her a present. “Can I open it?” she asked.

  Yuichi nodded.

  She opened the thin parcel. Inside was a rather expensive-looking ballpoint pen. “This is...”

  “You mentioned before that your pen had run out of ink, so...” Yuichi said shyly as he scratched the back of his head.

  “That’s too practical. I give it a four out of ten,” Aiko commented snarkily.

  But it seemed good enough for Yoriko, who was so happy that tears were forming at the corners of her eyes.

  “Thank you, Big Brother! I’ll treasure it always!” She took the pen in both hands and clutched it to her chest.

  “Really, it’s not that great...” Yuichi said, slightly abashed.

  Aiko was just relieved that she liked it.

  After the meal, Yuichi joined them for a walk around the shopping mall. Perhaps the two girls had worn down his resistance.

  They played around with little regard for the time, until evening fell. Then they left the station and headed for Aiko’s house.

  Yuichi walked a few steps ahead of Aiko and Yoriko, who were side by side.

  “The present was your idea, right, Noro? My brother would never think to do that on his own,” Yoriko whispered to her.

  Certainly, it would have been a bit odd for Yuichi to buy Yoriko a present for lending Aiko clothes, but Yoriko seemed to have figured out the situation, more or less.

  As there was no point in hiding it anymore, Aiko explained that she had decided receiving a gift from her brother would make Yoriko happiest, so she had given Yuichi some money and told him to pick out a present for her.

  “But it was Noro’s money in the first place, so make sure you thank her,” Yuichi said to Yoriko, overhearing their conversation. It seemed like a very “big brother” thing to do, Aiko thought.

  “But I didn’t give any input on the present selection, so the choice still came fully from Sakaki,” Aiko added.

  “Right! Thanks, Noro!” Yoriko’s smile to Aiko, this time, seemed completely sincere.

  Her personality could be a bit grating, Aiko thought, but that smile was genuine.

  They arrived at Aiko’s house soon enough. The Sakaki residence was closer to the station than hers, but Yuichi had offered to walk Aiko home first.

  “See you later,” Yuichi said, just as they arrived at the gate. Apparently, he thought that was far enough. Aiko felt a little sad that he didn’t even want to linger.

  As Yuichi turned to leave, Aiko assumed Yoriko would follow him. But she drew close to Aiko instead.

  “I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll forgive you for thinking you were going on a date.” She was acting so cheerful, it was hard to believe this was the same girl who had been so crabby that afternoon at the meeting spot.

  “I didn’t think... it was a date...” Aiko trailed off, lacking the force of her convictions. If it had just been the two of them, it definitely would have been a date.

  “You’re a nicer person than I thought you were, Noro,” Yoriko said. “But I’m not going to let you beat me!” With that, Yoriko ran off after Yuichi.

  “Why is she acting like it’s a competition? She’s his little sister...” Aiko murmured in confusion, then put her security card into the terminal beside the gate.

  As she entered the house, she was greeted by a surprising sight. Her father was there, pacing about restlessly, like a bear at the zoo.

  “O-Oh! Is that you, Aiko? I see you’re home!” he said with practiced casualness.

  “Dad, you’re home early today...” Normally, he would be busy with work at this time of day. He even worked on Saturdays, and was rarely back by this hour.

  “Y-Yes. But I do come home early sometimes. By the way, where were you today? I know it stays light longer nowadays, but I can’t approve of you coming home too late...” Kazuya said with concern. He didn’t seem angry with her, but Aiko still felt a bit ashamed.

  “I’m sorry. I went out with a friend, and we weren’t paying attention to the time.”

  “I-I see. A friend, eh? It’s good to have friends... Of course, this was a female friend, right?” It was clear he wanted her to deny it. That was the kind of person he was.

  “It was a boy, actually,” Aiko answered honestly.

  Kazuya’s eyes widened, causing Aiko to take a step back. He could be a little bit scary.

  “I knew it! Wh-What are you thinking? No, it’s not that I’m mad at you, I... I just can’t believe it. You’re really dating...”

  Dating... When he put it that way, Aiko suddenly felt embarrassed. “W-We’re not! We just went shopping. His little sister was there.”

  “Are you seeing each other?” Kazuya asked timidly.

  “Of course not!”

  “W-Well, it would be all right if you were. You’re free to pursue romance as you see fit. I’m your father. I won’t stand in your way. B-But still, I can’t rest easy until I see for myself what kind of man he is. I know! Why don’t you bring him here sometime?”

  “I told you, it’s not like that!” Aiko yelled back in annoyance. Why did he have to get ahead of himself that way?

  “Th-That’s right. Ah! It’s almost summer vacation. Why don’t we go somewhere for once?” Apparently detecting the anger behind Aiko’s glare, Kazuya conspicuously changed the subject. He had always been soft on Aiko, and he was afraid of upsetting her in the slightest.

  “Our club’s going to go somewhere for a summer training camp, but we don’t have any plans yet,” Aiko said, turning him down. Then she suddenly remembered. “That’s right, Dad. Don’t we have a summer house? Could we use it for our trip?”

  “Summer house? You’re right, it has been a while since we went there...” Kazuya looked up at the ceiling, as if trying to remember.

  “We went there a lot when I was little,” Aiko said. She remembered a house in the mountains somewhere. A lonely, Western-style house surrounded by nature.

  A memory sprang up unbidden in the back of Aiko’s mind. She and Kyoya were together in a room in that house. The room was in shambles. There were scores cut into the walls, the furniture was in pieces. Someone who looked like a servant girl lay on the floor, bleeding...

  Kyoya, still a child, was injured, and staring at Aiko in fear...

  Aiko’s own small hands were covered in blood. And then...

  “Aiko!” Kazuya
barked, snapping Aiko back to reality.

  His voice turned gentle again as he continued. “That house was falling apart. We had it torn down. We have other summer houses, so please pick one of those.”

  “Oh, really? Do we have one near the beach?”

  “Yes, I know just the place. We can talk about it over dinner.”

  Kazuya checked his watch — it was just about dinnertime — then led Aiko into the dining room.

  Aiko’s brief flash of memory vanished immediately back into the fog.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  Yuichi and Yoriko were on the way home after dropping Aiko off. The sun was sinking below the horizon. In Japanese tradition, this was considered the time of day when disaster was most likely to strike.

  “Eeeeeek!”

  Yoriko’s slightly theatrical shriek sounded out in the middle of a quiet neighborhood.

  She grabbed on to Yuichi, who lifted her up and stepped to the side. As a man dashed through the place he had been just a moment ago, Yuichi stuck out a leg, sending the man toppling to the ground.

  He was dressed in a parka with the hood covering his face — a strange thing to wear in this hot weather, even if it was just to conceal his identity.

  Yuichi had noticed someone following them ever since they had arrived at Aiko’s house. But he still wasn’t expecting them to attack him in the city, even if there was no one else around. A surprisingly bold move.

  “Hold me tight...” Yoriko whispered, blissfully.

  “You could have really easily dodged that, you know,” Yuichi said, baffled as to why she’d chosen to cling to him. She really hadn’t needed his help.

  “Good job, Mr. Pervert. You have my compliments,” Yoriko said to the man as he picked himself up off the ground.

  Yuichi peeled Yoriko off of him.

  “Who are you?” he asked. He couldn’t begin to imagine who could be attacking them now. He had taken out almost every organization that was hostile to the Sakaki household. No one else would be stupid enough to raise a hand against them.

  The man in the parka didn’t answer.

  Above his head were the words “Vampire II.”

  That offered a hint. He had beaten the Vampire?s in the abandoned clinic before, so maybe it was someone connected to them. Now that he thought about it, the Vampire?s had been wearing parkas to hide their faces, too.

  Could they have something to do with Noro? Yuichi thought. As he did, Yoriko stepped out ahead of him, a socket wrench in her hand.

  “Hey, Yori...” Yuichi began.

  Yoriko had a laid-back personality in general, but she lost her temper very easily. There was no helping Mutsuko, of course, but he wished his little sister could be a bit more ladylike.

  Yoriko carried a number of handyman tools around for self-defense. It seemed out of all of them, she treasured the socket wrench most of all, for its ease of use.

  “He looks like a pervert. Maybe we should beat him up and take him to the police,” she said.

  “Didn’t I tell you it’s better to run away than fight?” Yuichi protested. No matter how confident you were in your ability, the best thing to do in a fight was to avoid it. That was the first rule of self-defense.

  “But if we let this scumlord go, he’ll just get cocky... We need to teach him that the world doesn’t take kindly to his type. Society abhors a pervert.”

  “Fine. Leave this to me, then,” Yuichi said. If it were just some ruffian, he’d have no problem letting Yoriko handle it. But this was a vampire they were dealing with. They had to be careful.

  “Oh! That’s right. It’s way better if I get you to protect me.” Yoriko clapped her hands together. She seemed to be getting some strange enjoyment out of this.

  “Okay, look. It would save us all a lot of trouble right now if you’d just get lost,” Yuichi said as he turned back to the man in the parka. But the man didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving. “The main thing I hate is not knowing why stuff like this is happening. So just tell me why you’re doing it, okay? Then we can fight all you want.”

  “It’s a stroke of bad luck that you had a girl with you,” the man intoned, his voice low and eerie. “Now, restrain that man!”

  His eyes glittered in a manner not of this world. Yuichi fell into a defensive stance, getting ready for anything.

  The two of them glared at each other, locked into their positions. Moments passed.

  Yuichi waited. Nothing happened.

  “What’s he talking about?” Yoriko asked, cutting through the silence as if she was watching the stupidest thing ever. “And look at what he’s wearing, at this time of year. You think he’s crazy or something?”

  Yuichi was at a loss. The man wasn’t coming after him, and he didn’t seem threatening enough to justify Yuichi charging him.

  “Why isn’t my charm working?!” the man yelled, glaring at Yoriko.

  “I’ll forget the way you tried to sucker punch me, so why don’t we call this off?” Yuichi asked.

  This man was a slightly off-kilter vampire, perhaps. Maybe he’d be better off just avoiding him. But before Yuichi could finish that thought, the man thrust his hands forward and charged again.

  It was an incomprehensible course of action to Yuichi. He was probably intending to grab onto him with both hands, but that kind of posture limited your options after the grab. He must have been a total novice.

  Maybe he wants to bite me? Yuichi thought, grasping for meaning in the vampire’s random attack.

  Maybe he thought that as long as he bit him, he could work something out.

  Yuichi just grabbed the man’s hand, twisted it to the side, then wrapped it around behind him, putting pressure on the joint. He thought for a moment, then swept his leg to throw him back to the ground, where he used a pressure against his wrist to hold him in place.

  Yoriko immediately stomped her foot on the back of the man’s head.

  “Hey!” Yuichi shouted.

  “Sorry, but I’m feeling really humiliated right now,” Yoriko said.

  “Be careful! He’s pretty strong!”

  The man reached out for her, but Yoriko dodged his hand easily and kicked him in the face.

  “Yori, I was hoping to de-escalate the situation...”

  “Nuh-uh. I’m gonna make this guy pay,” Yoriko said, kicking him in the face again and again.

  “I beg your pardon, but would you mind leaving it at that?”

  The sound of the unfamiliar voice caused Yuichi to turn.

  “Vampire III.” Another vampire was standing behind him.

  She was a beautiful woman with a slightly foreign air about her, wearing a red dress that revealed a shocking amount of cleavage. Her hair was a cascade of gentle curls.

  The woman looked at them with a haughty air, as if she were fully aware of her own beauty.

  Yuichi found her appearance strangely out of place. This wasn’t a woman who should be breaking up a fight in the middle of a residential district.

  “As you can see, he’s a bit of a silly boy,” the woman said. “I’ll give him a good talking to. Is that all right?”

  Yuichi could feel no hostility from the woman.

  “Yori, lay off, okay?” He took Yoriko’s hand and pulled her off the fallen man.

  As the woman passed him, he picked up the faint aroma of perfume. She offered the man in the parka a hand to help him back up.

  “Goodbye,” she said, and led the man off.

  “Hey, who was that woman?” Yoriko asked, sounding rather miffed for some reason.

  “I don’t know,” Yuichi said. The appearance of vampires other than Aiko was a deeply unsettling thought.

  Chapter 5: Let’s Visit the Noro Residence

  Kyoya was enraged.

  He brought an arm down hard enough to split his bed down the middle.

  The bookshelf was in bad shape, too. Kyoya’s rampage had left it in pieces.

  He was strong enough to do that, and fast, too. That man shouldn’t h
ave been able to beat him. He had dominated that entire group of delinquents, yet they had been completely helpless before that man. That friend of Aiko’s...

  He had been just about to grab the man when he had suddenly tumbled to the ground. He couldn’t even remember what the man had done to him.

  Somehow, that man had taken out all of his slaves.

  The sharing of sensation was a vampiric ability that Kyoya had only recently mastered. He could suck someone’s blood and experience what they experienced. He had seen firsthand, through the eyes of his slaves, that man taking out all of them in the abandoned hospital.

  Those slaves were now useless to him. The injuries weren’t that bad, but they weren’t going to be able to fight that man after he had demonstrated such overwhelming power.

  “Damn you!” Kyoya shouted. The one-sided defeat burned in his mind.

  Eriko had taken Kyoya back to the house following his failure, then left him to take out his anger on his room. Before long, midnight had fallen.

  “How long are you going to stay at that?” Eriko asked as she returned. She was carrying a coffin over her shoulders.

  “I heard that sleeping in a coffin can increase your powers even more,” she added. With a grunt of effort, she deposited the coffin on the floor.

  “What happened? Why didn’t my charm work?” Kyoya snapped at Eriko.

  “Charm” was another vampiric power that Kyoya had awakened. It let him hypnotize a member of the other sex into becoming his slave. It wasn’t a lasting domination like sucking blood might be, but it should have been enough for him to take the upper hand in that fight.

  Kyoya had tried to charm the girl with that man. He was sure it had activated, but the effect had never manifested.

  “It clearly isn’t foolproof.” Eriko sat down on the broken bed and took a notebook out of her bag. She hadn’t told Kyoya where she’d gotten it, but it seemed to contain secrets about vampires not known by the wider world.

  At least, that was what she had said. Kyoya had never seen what was in it himself.

  “Ah,” she said. “It says it doesn’t work on religious fanatics, so you shouldn’t rely on it too much.”