The World's Strongest Little Brother

by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

  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 kil
ler 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.

  Chapter 3: Let’s Visit Sakaki’s House

  Yuichi picked the least populated route to walk home.

  He cast a glance at Aiko, who was walking next to him. Yuichi’s blazer was managing to conceal most of the blood staining her uniform. It couldn’t hide it all, but at least it was better than nothing.

  Aiko, noticing him looking her way, spoke up. “Hey...”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Huh? Um, I was wondering... Are you really strong? Do you do sports or something?” Her cheeks took on a faint pink tinge. She was probably referring to the fact that he’d managed to carry her with one arm.

  “Nah, I don’t play sports.”

  She hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then spoke again. “Hey. Do you just carry stuff like holy water and tourniquets around with you?” Her incredulity was only natural. Not many high school students walked around with those sorts of things.

  “It’s kind of my big sister’s hobby. She makes me carry that stuff around. She’s all, ‘What if you get caught in an earthquake? What if demons attack you?’ That kinda stuff.”

  “Huh?”

  Again, he couldn’t blame her for her response. It definitely sounded absurd when he said it aloud. He suddenly wished he hadn’t.

  “Okay, yeah, I understand how you feel. I felt the same way... but after seeing something like that in real life... maybe my sister had a point.”

  He thought back on the skeletons in their tattered clothing. It was harder to make fun of his sister’s hobbies after what I’d just seen.

  The skeletons hadn’t disappeared on their own, so they’d hidden them in the bushes. Yuichi had wanted to avoid any kind of panic that might result from their discovery.

  “But it didn’t work, did it?”

  “Well, the ‘holy water’ was probably just regular water. If we sprinkled it on you—” Before Yuichi could complete his thought, he was met by a glare from Aiko. Yuichi closed his mouth, realizing how thoughtless he was being.

  “Sorry. We can talk about that back at my house.”

  They arrived there not long afterwards.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  Yuichi’s house was two stories tall, with a lawn. It was covered in stylish white trim, and had probably been built during the imported housing trend. It wasn’t big enough to be called a mansion, but it suggested a certain degree of class among its residents.

  “I’m home!” Yuichi called.

  “I’m visiting...” Aiko added.

  Yuichi passed through the door, and Aiko followed him.

  A woman with a carefree air about her poked her head into the front hall.

  Does Sakaki take after his mother? Aiko wondered. That was her first impression. She was beautiful, the kind of woman who never seemed to age. Aiko hadn’t met Yuichi’s father, but it was easy to imagine that he had inherited a lot of his mother’s beauty.

  “Welcome home. Oh? Did you bring a friend?” She seemed surprised by the sudden visitor.

  “Yeah. This is Noro.”

  “Aiko Noro. A pleasure to meet you.”

  “Yu doesn’t bring girls home very often. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Be a good friend to him, now.”

  “Y-Yes ma’am,” Aiko said. Whether they could be friends was a dicey question at the moment, though. They had only talked for the first time today.

  “Mind if Noro washes up? She got a bucket of paint spilled on her. It’s kind of a mess.”

  “Oh, dear. Just wait, I’ll get things set up right away.” Yuichi’s mother hurried down the hallway.

  “You mean she just believed that?” Aiko was dumbfounded. She would have had a million questions about a story like that.

  “Mom’s not the type to sweat the details. I’ll get you a change of clothes. Just come with me.” Yuichi climbed to the second floor and showed Aiko to his sister’s room.

  The sight stopped Aiko dead in her tracks. It was full of piles of things... Things she didn’t even have names for. She got a vague sense that there was a method to the madness, but it still seemed like a random scattering of junk.

  Yuichi tromped into the room and began fishing through the closet.

  “Um, they should be around here... There they are!” He came out with a random set of panties, bra, skirt, and shirt.

  “Huh? Wait a minute. What are you doing?!” The sight before her was incomprehensible. A boy was rooting through his sister’s clothing, pulling out underwear like it was nothing.

  “What do you think? I’m looking for something you can wear.”

  “Hey... Do you even realize what you’ve got in your hand?”

  Yuichi gazed over at the item he was holding: his big sister’s bra. “Oh! Sorry. She is pretty flat. I guess it wouldn’t fit you, huh?”

  Yuichi eyed Aiko’s chest as he said it. She crossed her arms reflexively and glared at him.

  “Okay, you can borrow my little sister’s clothes,” he said. “They’ll probably fit you better.”

  Yuichi shrugged off Aiko’s glare, and left his big sister’s room to head for his little sister’s.

  Aiko followed him hesitantly. She could feel her own expression becoming strained.

  Yuichi was waiting before the door. There was a plate on the door that read “YUICHI.”

  So he was kidding about lending me his little sister’s clothing, then? But I’m not sure I want to borrow Sakaki’s c
lothes...

  Yuichi stepped inside his room and beckoned Aiko to follow him.

  There was a girl inside. She was taking off her school uniform.

  “Huh?! Huh? What’s going on? Huh? Why? Isn’t this your room...?!” Aiko checked the plate on the door again. It did, indeed, say YUICHI. But written in right beneath it, in smaller letters, was the word YORIKO.

  “Hey, Yori. I see you’re back. Oh, this is my little sister, Yoriko.” Yuichi pointed to the undressing girl.

  “Thanks, big brother. Huh? ...A girl?” Yoriko’s eyes opened wide at the sight of Aiko.

  “Yeah, I brought a friend. Her name’s Noro. Her clothes got dirty. Could you lend her your uniform?”

  “Sure. Hang on a minute.” Yoriko stripped completely down to her underwear, then changed into her street clothes.

  “Why is your little sister changing in here?!”

  “Because... this is her room, too.”

  “Huh? That makes no sense! What? Your big sister’s room is next door, right? Shouldn’t the sisters share a room?!”

  His little sister’s body was clearly well-developed, in the feminine sense. Most people would consider it unacceptable for a brother and sister to share a room at their age.

  “Some families would do that. But there are only two kids’ bedrooms, and Mutsuko’s the oldest, so she gets a room to herself.”

  “Huh? What? And you’re okay with that? Are you, Yori?” Aiko’s head spun with questions.

  Yoriko’s response was to march straight up to Aiko and lead her out into the hall.

  Once it was just the two of them, she shut the door behind her. Whatever she had to say, she didn’t want Yuichi hearing it.

  “Your name is Noro, I believe. Would it be correct to assume that you are dating my brother?” Yoriko leaned in close, her expression dead serious. Her voice had also softened to give her words extra weight. Her face was very pretty, like their mother’s.

  “Huh? Oh, um, no, we’re not dating. Actually, today was the first time we ever talked,” Aiko stammered, feeling strangely pressured.

  This girl seemed curiously mature for a middle school student.

  “I see... I’m very glad to hear that. It is clear, then, that my brother is merely attempting to aid a person in need. Now then, Noro. Because you are his friend, allow me to offer a polite word of warning: You must not meddle in the affairs of this house.”