Saya knows my friend Touka moved in last Tuesday, making her our closest neighbor now.
She probably mentioned this information to Rei this morning when she visited the Takagi mansion like she does every Sunday, and the brown-haired girl who likes spears couldn't sit still for a second and dragged Saya to this house.
Especially knowing I visited this friend behind their backs.
'Shit.'
Sweating internally, I quickly turn to the girl beside me.
"Touka."
"What?"
"We've got company. Let's see... uh. They'll be here in about half a minute."
She knows about my All-Seeing Eye, so she's not surprised I knew something she can't even sense with her enhanced ghoul senses.
In fact, she also knows about those devouring mouths and bleeding eyes that came out of the corpses since she was present at that battle scene. However, she attributed all those abilities to vampire powers, cataloging vampires as horrifying monsters.
"Company? Who's coming here? Nobody knows I live in this place yet— Ah..."
Touka wipes the blood on her lips with the back of her hand. Halfway through her words, she realizes her statement that 'nobody knows I live in this place' isn't necessarily true.
"Umu, it's Saya and Rei."
"Saya and Rei? The two girls you told me about? They're coming now? But I'm not ready to meet them!"
They're both normal humans, and she's a ghoul. She's not used to interacting with other humans apart from her own friend, who according to what she told me before, is named Yoriko Kosaka.
From what I remember of the manga, Touka and that girl would only meet in high school and be very good friends.
However, it seems this time they met much earlier. Considering this world has strange mixtures from different worlds, it's not weird for something like a butterfly effect to occur.
Thanks to this, Touka at least isn't so alone at school.
I laugh seeing a drop of sweat slide down Touka's cheek.
"I was planning to introduce you at some appropriate moment. Who knew those two would come directly here without warning..."
She looks at her sleeve in horror.
"I have blood on my clothes! And I probably smell like blood. Those two will think I'm a murderer or something!"
With that said, she frantically tries to clean herself.
I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty interesting and even adorable seeing this nervous side of Touka.
"Calm down, Touka. It's not that bad—"
"Calm down? There's no way I can calm down, idiot!"
—Ding dong!
Right at that moment, the front door bell rings throughout the house.
"Well, it's too late for you to hide now, Touka. Huh? Wait, where are you going?"
I grab her arm seeing she's about to jump out the window and flee like a criminal.
I see a bit of fear through her aura. Or rather is it self-loathing for being a ghoul? Hah... This girl...
Touka gives me a dark look.
"What do we do?"
"Open the door, of course."
I start walking toward the stairs.
"Wait! At least let me change clothes!"
Touka quickly grabs a fresh set of clothes from the closet and runs into the bathroom.
As soon as I reach the front door, I let out a long sigh, praying nothing dramatic happens.
Opening the door, I see Saya and Rei.
Saya's wearing a white dress mixed with a light cherry color, with her signature twin pigtails. Behind her round glasses, her peach colored eyes look at me with deep suspicion. A disposable bag hangs from her right hand. I wonder what's in there.
Rei, who's wearing a simple but cute white dress, has a somewhat dark smile on her face that worries me.
While Saya nods slightly as a greeting, Rei grabs my arm and clings to me.
"Arata! So you were here after all!"
Saya shakes her head with an accusatory sigh.
"We've been looking for you all over the house. You haven't even had breakfast, have you? Okaa-san mentioned you went out early. Then I knew you must be at Touka's house. This dummy here dragged me when she found out."
Before getting the consoles and video games, I'd bought chips, greasy burgers and coke, which is my favorite combo from my past life.
It's junk food, but with my current race, these things don't worry me even if I eat dozens of kilos a day.
While I rejoiced inside that being this type of monster isn't bad at all in terms of diet, Rei puts her hands on her hips and glares at me intensely.
"Hmph! So you were at your new friend's house, huh? Ignoring us, huh?"
Seeing how this little girl puffs up like an annoyed pufferfish, I laugh nervously.
"Ah, well, you can come in. Go ahead."
Both girls enter with curious eyes looking at the interior of the house.
"It's a very nice house."
While Rei says those things visually exploring, Touka appears coming down the stairs. Now she's wearing a clean shirt and casual pants. She stopped halfway down the stairs seeing the two girls.
—Sniff!
I can smell it from here.
It's a bit ironic that this time she's the one who sprayed perfume on herself so the blood wouldn't be smelled. Though I doubt even without it Saya and Rei would notice since they're humans without supernatural senses.
At the appearance of the short blue hired girl, there's a moment of silence as Touka stares at the twin-pigtailed girl and the brown-haired girl, just as Saya and Rei return the look.
Saya, who crosses her arms under her chest, is the first to speak with a firm voice.
"You're Touka?"
Touka descends the rest of the stairs and I can see she has a neutral expression. Though from her emotional frequencies I can sense, she seems a bit nervous. Not just her, but Saya and Rei too.
"Yes, I'm Touka. Kirishima Touka."
Rei smiles broadly.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Touka-chan! I'm Miyamoto Rei."
Saya nods and takes a few steps toward her.
"I'm Takagi Saya."
Then she raises her arm and passes the disposable bag to Touka.
"Since we came without permission, and we're meeting for the first time, this is a gift I thought to give you. Welcome to the neighborhood."
Huh?
"Ah..."
Even Touka's perplexed.
She seemed to expect Saya to be more abrupt or even hostile. And in fact, I expected that too. Saya's a tsundere, pretty jealous, and also hides a yandere side I've seen in her aura.
Pink hair and yandere... wait...
This isn't some elaborate act, is it? To lower Touka's guard, and when she least expects it, she'll stab a knife in her back, right?
Fortunately from her emotional frequency, she doesn't seem to have malicious intentions.
"Hey! And you're still Saya-chan? Damn it, how cunning you are...!"
Rei makes "Mumumu~" sounds while complaining.
"Why didn't I think of something like that before?"
Could it be Saya wants Touka to have a good first impression of her? It's a bit strange coming from her. But well, considering how intelligent she can be, she surely has her own purpose for doing this.
Touka grabs the bag from Saya's hand and thanks her.
"Thank you. Arata has told me a lot about you two."
"Oh! And what did he say? What did he say?"
Rei approaches her, stars shining in her red eyes.
Touka's lips curve slightly upward with what seems to be amusement.
Areh? Why do I feel like she'll get me in trouble on purpose?
"Arata says Saya's pretty smart."
Hearing that, Saya puffs out her chest a bit with pride.
"And about me? What did he say about me?!"
Touka looks her up and down for an instant.
"He said Rei has an empty head and tends to never shut up."
"What—!"
Rei opens her mouth speechless. After a second or two, she finally reacts.
"Liar! I'm sure he said I'm the prettiest and strongest!"
Accompanied by an indignant shout, Rei turns to me to confirm this.
Saya sighs shaking her head.
"Don't worry, Bakamoto. We know this idiot well enough to know he'll always joke around with you."
Heh. Bakamoto.
"Arata, is what Touka-chan said true?"
"Umu, isn't that true, though?"
I don't know what's wrong with what I said if it's true.
I see Rei suddenly looks like she wants to cry. I laugh nervously and rub her head.
"Don't worry about it since I also like the Rei who talks a lot and is lively."
"Really?"
At her hopeful expression, I nod.
"But calling me empty-headed... Fueh! I feel like I heard something earlier. Saya-chan, did you just nickname me Bakamoto?"
"Mm? No, of course not. You must've heard wrong."
In good spirits again, Rei extends her hand to Touka.
"Any friend of Arata's is welcome. I hope we can get to know each other better."
Her heart is big, even if her head is empty.
Touka looks at the extended hand for a second before shaking it.
"I'd like that."
I see through my Vampire Vision that the girls' auras that were chaotic and tense before, are considerably decreasing in intensity.
Rei looks over Touka's shoulder toward the stairs.
"So, what were you doing before we arrived?"
Touka looks away to one side.
"Why don't you come up to my room to talk and get comfortable? Since I just moved in recently, I don't have proper accommodations on the first floor yet."
We all move to the second floor entering Touka's room.
Rei's eyes land on the video game consoles and game boxes organized on the desk.
"Woah! You have so many video games!"
Saya also looks at the consoles with interest and turns to me with a raised eyebrow.
"You came here to play video games?"
"Yeah."
"Oh?"
Looking at Touka and then back at me, Rei puffs out her cheeks while pointing at the blue-haired girl.
"Are you just friends or not?"
"Umu. We're just friends."
At that moment, I feel a chill run down my spine. That bad premonition comes from Touka's direction, who shows a sad expression.
She says with a hurt voice.
"Is that so... then what about what you said before?"
"Huh, what did he say?"
At Touka's words, Rei looks confused and perplexed.
"Touka, wait..."
Though I try to stop her, Touka shows me a soft smile.
"'Touka is mine. No one is allowed to touch her.' Isn't that exactly what you said, Arata? So was it a lie?"
Huh? You transformed it a bit, didn't you? That phrase. But she's not wrong.
"..."
I sweat profusely under the intense gaze of Rei and Saya, who look at me with disbelief.
"Arata, what does this mean?"
That look is terrifying, Rei. Please, calm down a bit.
"Em, it's true I said that! But it's out of context!"
I look at Touka only to see her satisfied with the chaos she caused.
On the other hand, she seems happy somehow pronouncing what I told her the moment I arrived at that scene.
Still... did it have to be right now?
I resign myself to my fate.
Damn it, god, if you're listening, send me with a hundred hungry vampires. Dealing with them is easier than dealing with women.
I had to make many elaborate excuses to calm the two girls down.
Rei was the most explosive in her jealousy, and though it's surprising, Saya was the one who showed the least jealousy, but I saw in her aura there are massive amounts of jealousy.
While I promise myself I'll get revenge on Touka eventually, the four of us decide to play video games to relieve the tension.
Rei chooses Zelda as her character, declaring that "a princess needs proper representation."
Saya chose Kirby because it's pink.
Touka chose Fox because according to her it looks fast and agile.
I choose Mario because I'm a simple man with simple tastes.
—Start!
Immediately, Rei and Touka launch at each other ignoring Saya and me.
"Take this!"
Rei fumes while Zelda launches a magic attack.
"Too slow!"
Touka responds to Rei's attack leaning on the blanket while Fox dodges agilely.
Saya and I look at each other.
"We should stay away from those two, right?"
Saya nods.
"They seem to have a pretty passionate fight going."
I look at Saya confused. She, noticing my look, tilt her head.
"What?"
"I'm surprised you're not the one exploding more."
Isn't she a jealous tsundere? Why is she so calm?
Well, she knows how to control her emotions better than Rei. So it's not strange?
"Urusai!"
Blushing intensely, her twin pigtails shake as her Kirby ferociously hits my Mario.
After several minutes of intense combat between Rei and Touka...
"This ends now."
Rei pronounces those determined words launching her special attack.
"That's what you think."
On the other hand, Touka snorts preparing her own counterattack.
Both attack simultaneously. Their characters violently clash in the center of the screen.
—Crash!
Both fly off the screen at the same time.
"Oh? The winner is..."
We all look surprised at Saya who's sitting calmly on the upper platform with her Kirby dancing victoriously.
"Huh? I won?"
While sighing in defeat, Rei and Touka stare at each other.
"That was fun, I'll admit."
"Mm. I won't deny it."
Touka agrees with Rei. Then both start laughing together.
"Another round!"
"Okay!"
Both Saya and Touka show competitive spirit at Rei's enthusiastic shout, who wants to play more.
From her previous victory, even Saya seems to start considering that video games can also be fun.
I lean back with a smile while watching the three girls prepare for another round.
'Well, this meeting turned out pretty well.'
Saya suddenly looks at me with bright eyes.
"By the way, Arata. You won't escape so easily this time. I'm going to destroy you too."
"Me too."
"And me!"
'I spoke too soon.'
—Start!
The game begins again, and this time all three girls' characters launch directly at my poor Mario.
"Wait! This isn't fair! Why are you all ganging up on me?!"
"Because!"
All three respond in unison.
Their laughter fills the room as my Mario is mercilessly launched off screen repeatedly.
Despite being destroyed in the game, my expression softens.
I, who have been building my 'little world' piece by piece, now see it materializing before my eyes.
While the three girls play video games and laugh together.
This is something I want to maintain and protect.
And for that, I need to do many things still.
I not only need to start intensively training my abilities, but also start searching for the place I saw in the vision of the future when I absorbed the vampire's blood in the 24th Ward.
There's also what the vampire said. About the plan they have. I'd heard more or less those words when I came back to life.
After thinking a lot about that vision during this past week, if I'm not mistaken, that scene would probably be the 'Beginning of the End.'
That is, where the initial outbreak of the apocalypse might occur.
×××
This chapter turned out to be quite long.
The next chapter is already the time skip
If you liked this, throw me your Power Stones!
At 550 Power Stones, I'll drop a bonus chapter.