'Erm? She doesn't recognize me?'
Makes sense.
My appearance changed after evolving into a vampire.
After seeing her stop abruptly a few meters away...
She slowly turns toward me. Her brown eyes narrow with suspicion as she looks at me.
"Wait a moment... Arata-chan?"
She asks that while tilting her head to one side, making her bangs slide over the smooth skin of her face.
Ah, so she's still capable of recognizing me despite the change. I wonder how she did it.
Still, I smile and nod before greeting.
"Hello Miss Marikawa. It's been a while."
She walks quickly toward me with hurried steps. Normally she has a sleepy and relaxed expression, but this time her lazy eyes are wide open to express her shock. Arriving in front of me, she crouches down a bit to be at my height.
She opens her lips painted with natural lipstick with astonishment.
"I can't believe it! Is it really Arata-chan? You look completely different now!"
She examines me from my head to my feet.
"What happened for your hair, your skin and your eyes to change so much? What happened to you?!"
Then she narrows her gaze with suspicion.
"Or are you someone else pretending to be Arata-chan?"
I scratch my cheek while feeling uncomfortable under her intense inquisitive gaze.
"Don't worry, Miss Marikawa. The Arata before you is the Arata you know. It's just that some things have happened. For example, I had a special medical treatment that finally cured my illness. So now I don't look like a sick child anymore!"
Well, devouring a vampire could be considered a very effective medical treatment.
She blinks several times, before showing an embarrassed smile.
"I couldn't help you back then. I'm currently studying at university to be a nurse, but I still didn't know what kind of illness you had exactly. Forgive this onee-chan for her inability."
I shake my head with a smile while using all my superhuman mental control so my eyes aren't magnetically attracted to the two huge boobs that are practically in front of my face due to her leaning toward me.
"I don't blame you at all. Instead, I thank you for having helped me all this time and for having worried about me."
I remember she wanted to take me to a hospital to help me with her money. However, I feared that if I went to the hospital, they'd discover I wasn't human, so I refused categorically.
Showing this type of goodwill toward me made me have deep gratitude toward her. It's hard to find a person with such a gentle heart as hers in this world.
"It seems there's still a long way to go to be a good nurse."
She clenches her fists and looks with determination at the sky.
"Alright, I'll study hard to reach the necessary level to cure everyone!"
By the way, Miss Marikawa seems to be only about twenty years old. She's still in her university study phase. I think when the apocalypse began in the anime, she seemed to be about twenty-seven years old.
Still, even being several years younger than in the anime, she still looks very mature due to her voluptuous body.
While I think that trying not to look where I shouldn't, Miss Marikawa smiles widely.
"It's wonderful that Arata-chan is already cured! I'm very happy for you! I always worried about your situation."
Saying those words while I see through her frequencies that she's very happy, she stands up and brings a finger to her lips thoughtfully.
"You were already cute before, but now you look really handsome. When you grow up you're guaranteed to break many hearts."
I laugh out loud at her words.
"Haha, thank you. And Miss Marikawa is also as beautiful as always."
She brings a hand to her blushing cheek.
"Ara~ How sweet you are! I must be careful it's not my heart that breaks."
While she jokes that way, I express my curiosity.
"I'm surprised you recognized me when I changed so much."
Saya knew me well, so she could tell it was me despite being changed. The same can be said of Rei, although that girl was quite surprised by my physical change when she visited Saya's house.
Remembering she immediately accepted my change without questioning it much, I don't know if she's a bit dumb or very naive. Still, that helped not having to reveal to her yet that I'm a vampire.
Miss Marikawa emits a sound of embarrassment.
"It's embarrassing to admit. But it's because of Arata-chan's scent."
"Huh? Because of my scent?"
Shizuka says with her cheeks painted pink.
"Um~ Others don't have particular scents, but Arata-chan does. Despite not using perfumes, you smell very good. It's impossible to confuse that unique scent. That's why, when I passed by you, I knew Arata-chan was near. And you were the only one there at that moment, so I knew it was you."
While she explains that with her cheeks painted a light pink which makes her cute, I think that's bad.
'Is Miss Marikawa a ghoul or a vampire?'
While I'm sweating inside, I discreetly activate an ability to check.
The world changes color to black and white instantly.
Previously it was called Ghoul Vision, but now I call it Vampire Vision. Because the ability has evolved significantly.
It's almost always active, except when I deactivate it because it consumes mental energy. Although keeping it active is a good training method, almost depleting my mental energy and then recharging it. That way, my mental strength increases little by little.
In this state, I can see people's emotions in the form of colored auras. Last time when I saw Saya's overflowing feelings toward me, it was also because of this ability.
Ghoul Vision that has mutated, merging with the mental frequencies that allowed me to feel emotions granted to me by the parasite, and with a vampire's mental strength.
Best of all is that the training from when I used my Ghoul Vision to not activate my kakugan and enter Ghoul Mode, had paid off. Because thanks to that training, it's much easier for me to keep this ability active without entering my Vampire Mode, an evolution of my Ghoul Mode.
While I'm a bit anxious to know if Miss Marikawa is a supernatural being, in that black and white world I see two layers of aura surrounding her.
The upper layer represents the current emotion and the lower layer is the affection one feels toward me.
Miss Shizuka's upper layer is light pink, which represents shyness and embarrassment. If the upper layer were bright yellow, then it would be happiness, if it were dark blue it would be sadness, and so on.
Miss Marikawa's lower layer is warm yellow. That means she feels fondness for me.
Rei's lower layer color is warm red, which represents deep love. But that doesn't compare to Saya's crimson.
'What the hell does that mean? Is Saya actually a Yandere inside and tsundere on the outside?'
Getting those thoughts out of my head, I focus my vision on Miss Marikawa's body, going through her skin, and I see her heart, her veins, and her blood flowing.
She's a completely normal human.
'Phew! That's a relief.'
I was afraid this beautiful miss was secretly after my flesh or blood.
Still, it seems not only supernatural beings are sensitive to my scent. Or is it because Miss Marikawa's nose is very sensitive that she can smell my scent? That might explain it.
She asks with curiosity.
"Where are you going so early on a Sunday?"
"I'm going to visit my friend's house that's near here."
"Oh, how cute. I'm going to the café for breakfast."
I stop looking inside Miss Marikawa because it's disturbing, and I stay with her normal appearance where only the two aura layers are seen. The auras aren't so visually intense, so they don't bother or obstruct seeing the person they surround.
Then the upper aura that had already returned to being white, which means calm, is instantly tinged with pink.
She says embarrassed.
"Don't think this onee-chan doesn't know how to cook, okay? I know how to cook very well! It's just that the café here serves coffee that's too delicious, plus I'm tired from studying."
I smile bitterly.
"There's no need to explain so much. I understand perfectly."
"Mou~! You don't understand at all!"
She puffs her cheeks while gently hitting my nose with her finger.
She changes the subject and asks me.
"How's school going?"
"It's going quite well, although it's boring."
Miss Marikawa crosses her arms under her huge tits, while shaking her head.
"No, no, no~ Arata-chan shouldn't think that way. Studying is important and you must pay attention in classes, okay? Can you promise that to onee-chan?"
"Ugh, okay."
"Good boy."
She strokes my hair affectionately.
"I'm glad it's going well for you. Then I must go. But it was very nice to see you again, Arata-chan. Take care of yourself, okay? Ah! And don't forget to visit your onee-chan often."
"Mm, I will. Take care too, Miss Marikawa."
She gives me a refreshing smile while waving her hand and walking away.
It's an unexpected but quite pleasant encounter.
I turn around and continue walking through the streets while thinking about what I'll tell Touka when I see her.
She'll probably be angry with me for not visiting her in so long, right?
"Hah..."
At that moment I still don't know.
That while I walk with a furrowed brow, preparing my lies for the fury that undoubtedly awaits me, Touka's house isn't safe. It's not safe at all.
My small world that I so long to protect is already beginning to crumble.
×××
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