“A haunted house… I’ve heard those words like twenty times already. Are they building something?” In the break after third period, Ryouta came to Shiren Fuyukura to ask a question. “Ah, that’s the haunted house that’ll be open soon.” Her pigtails swished around as she turned to look at him. “The newspaper today said that they’ll be opening next Saturday.” “Oh, so the Empire has one of those now. But why just a haunted house?” “They were apparently going to make a copy of D*sn*yl*nd at first, but Big Sis said it failed because of all the pressure.” “That sure was close! The whole country would’ve been done for!” This was the Sacred Blood Empire, a country that was basically just Japan, but slightly to the left. This country had occupied a rural city that was once a part of Japan called Akinomiya and declared independence. It was inhabited by a race of people called the Sacred Blooded—vampires who strongly resembled Japanese people. When a Sacred Blooded bit into a human, they could force the human to follow simple commands, such as buy me a jam roll. These servile humans were called minions. Ryouta, who had a bad habit of not keeping up with current events, had wandered into this country, gotten stuck there, become the servant to a girl named Shiren Fuyukura, and started actively serving her. Well, “actively” was debatable, but he was serving her in some capacity. His original family name was Asagiri, but he was currently going by Fuyukura. Minions typically took on the name of their masters. “Honestly, I really hated it! We don’t have any diplomatic relations, yet they sabotaged us at every step of the way! I suppose that just means D*sn*yl*nd is dangerous territory… Anyone who tries to copy them without proper precautions will die…” “Or maybe don’t copy them to begin with.” The source of this worrying spiel was this country’s emperor (and Ryouta’s classmate), Ouka Sarano. Back when they were in elementary school, before there had been even a whisper of the Empire, she had been Ryouta’s classmate. One could say they were childhood friends. She was also Shiren’s older sister, even though they had different last names. According to Shiren herself, the kanji for Sarano took too long to write, so she was fine sticking with Fuyukura. “Sigh, and we could have made a boatload of foreign currency off a theme park… What am I supposed to do with a haunted house…? How are we supposed to make money from that…?”’ “I get that you need a national budget, but you sound money crazy when you put it like that!” “Money crazy? Oh, please, no compliments today.” “If you think that’s a compliment, then you like money way more than I thought,” Ryouta complained. Shiren pulled at Ryouta’s sleeve, a gesture that meant she was trying to be thoughtful. When she wasn’t being thoughtful, she’d pull on the chain attached to his collar. The collar wasn’t a fetish thing—just an indicator that he was Shiren’s (prospective) minion. “Hey, Ryouta…um, do you want to go to the haunted house together on Saturday?” “Oh, okay. Are you sure you don’t want to see the tomato-eating contest?” The Sacred Blooded liked red foods, so tomatoes were especially popular. “We can cancel that one… Let’s go to the haunted house.” “Okay, works for me.” “It’s settled, then! Time to get spooked on Saturday! What kind of things will jump out at us? Will they be regular ghosts? Or zombies? Or serial killers?” “You don’t sound all that scared talking about this haunted house.” In fact, Shiren was rather excited. Ouka watched on in frustration, growling under her breath. “What is it, Lady Ouka? Are foreign countries asking too much of you? Oh, seeing you so vexed is another wonderful sight. I feel a nosebleed coming on.” It was Sasara Tatsunami, one of the Imperial Guard, who came up beside Ouka. She had been infatuated with the emperor for some time. When she was on duty as an Imperial guard, she wore armor much like that of a European knight, but she wore her school uniform in class, albeit with a sword at her hip. “Oh, no. This is about the haunted house.” “Ah, the haunted house that we were told would most certainly put us in the red.” “Exactly. It feels like my political blunder is being taken advantage of, and now it feels awful…” Ouka sat in thought for a moment. Eighty-nine percent of the time, this meant a vicious scheme was incoming. “I got it.” Three minutes later, a villainous smile crossed Ouka’s face. “Watch. This haunted house will be one to remember.” And so Saturday came—the day Shiren and Ryouta were meant to go to the haunted house. There was a small crowd of people waiting, and Ouka was one of them. “Everyone’s here.” There was Tamaki Shijou, Sasara Tatsunami, Kiyomizu Jouryuuji, Alfoncina XIII, and Rei Asagiri (and Ouka). “As I’ve told you before, the Fuyukura household will be coming to this haunted house very soon. And if possible, we should interfere with them…and show them a real scary time. Then we’ll make sure they’re never alone together… We’ll give them the best memories those two could ask for.” Ouka’s honest feelings and the front she put up were mixing together into a very strange plan. “Brilliant, Lady Ouka. We will make sure to provide them wonderful memories of their time alone together with us.” (Sasara) “I can’t imagine if something happened to my precious little brother in the dark, so I’ll watch…over him!” (Rei) “If you have any orders for my lowly self, then I will follow them… I have no intentions of interfering with them, but if you command it…” (Tamaki) “Can the ghosts cuddle up to the guests? Hee-hee, I’m so excited~.” (Alfoncina) “I’m so jealous of you, Shiren! I will do everything in my power to get in their way and make sure the mood never gets just right! I will not allow them to get any closer in this haunted house!” (Kiyomizu) “Kiyomizu, read the room, please.” Kiyomizu was the only one who was speaking honestly. “I’m completely ready (to take advantage of the chaos and steal Ryouta dearest into the darkness), so there’s no need for concern.” “I’m a bit worried, but I’m counting on you all,” said Ouka. “These are orders from your emperor, okay?” Meanwhile, Shiren and Ryouta arrived at the haunted house. Given the undeveloped area it was in, the house also looked totally abandoned. “It’s already scary in a way. This just screams bankruptcy to me…” It was so desolate that Ryouta could feel his excitement slipping away. “Mm-hmm, this is good. There’s no one around, which means we can take our time. Isn’t that the best?!” Shiren, on the other hand, was raring to go. She marched forward, tugging his chain as she went. “Ow, ow! That’s my collar! Can’t you slow down when you’re holding the chain?” Ryouta was her minion (candidate), so he had to wear the collar. Furthermore, regular minions obeyed their masters, so they didn’t need a collar. Ryouta’s status wasn’t official, so the collar was insurance against other Sacred Blooded who might target him to make him their minion. It was tedious, but it wasn’t a fetish. “Then we have no choice but to hold hands, I suppose.” Shiren grasped Ryouta’s hand. Her face seemed a bit flushed. “Is a haunted house really something to be that scared of?” “Huh…? What are you talking about?” “Well, your face is kind of red.” “…Oh, uhhh, yes! I hate ghosts and haunted houses! They scare me more than three square meals a day!” “That doesn’t tell me anything!” There was something suspicious about Shiren’s behavior, but, well, people just got weird sometimes, so he decided to think of it as one of those occasions. This was Ryouta’s first time at a haunted house, too. He imagined people dressed as ghosts would come jumping out at them from behind corners, people dressed as corpses would suddenly start moving, and whatnot. There was a window next to the entrance that read TICKETS. “I wonder how much it costs for a high schooler. Five hundred yen?” “Not five hundred yen. Five hundred sacred yen.” “The rate is basically one-to-one anyway, so it doesn’t matter…” The currency here was called “sacred yen,” not to be confused with the Japanese yen. “You can’t set prices by someone’s success in life! That’s way too subjective!” Ryouta complained. Usually, his complaints were much briefer. A lot of decisions felt random and haphazard in this country, and this was one example of that. “………Two high school students, so one thousand sacred yen.” “Nope! You are significant others, so that’ll be three thousand sacred yen!” the ticket vendor interjected. Rudely. It was Ouka. “Why are you here?!” “It’s opening day, so I did the ribbon cutting! And the girl who usually sells the tickets suddenly canceled on me, so I just took over.” “We sure see the emperor doing a lot of mundane jobs. Make one of your underlings do it or whatever.” “Big Sis, you’re not scheming something this time, are you…?” Shiren stepped closer to Ryouta out of wariness. “ I l o v e m y s u b j e c t s . ” Ouka’s smile suddenly turned eerily saintly. “Wow, she put on that smile real quick. She’s definitely lying…” “ I l o v e m y s u b j e c t s w h o p a y t h e i r t a x e s . ” “That’s so specific!” “Go! Get scared! Piss yourselves!” “No!” “Be ready. I’ve got a plan that will scare the socks off the both of you.” Ouka grinned smugly. What was she plotting? “Okay, we’re going in.” When they stepped inside, it was unsurprisingly dark. The set showed them that they were in a run-down graveyard. “Ooh…it looks much better than I thought it would…” Shiren clung to Ryouta in genuine fear. “It’ll be fine. We’ll just have a zombie or two jumping out at us.” Then Ryouta’s phone rang. “It’ll ruin the mood, but I guess I have to take it.” He checked the name, but the number was private. “Haaah, haaah, you’re in the haunted house right now.” “Uh, what is this…?” The line cut. “Who was that?” “I’m not really sure… I think they used something to change their voice.” The sound had been creepy and definitely artificial. “This is a haunted house, so maybe that’s just part of the act here?” “No, I can’t imagine they’d have my phone number…” His phone rang again. “Haaah, haaah, you’re near me now…” The line cut again. “Hey, come on, why are we going with the call is coming from inside the house nonsense…?” His phone rang yet again right afterward. He didn’t know what to do. The caller was probably getting really close to them now. But he had to pick up. Letting it ring was much scarier. “Haaah, haaah, I ate the pudding you didn’t finish…” “Stop! Who the heck are you?! You ate my pudding from yesterday!” He’d made sure to leave half for today, but it had vanished from the fridge. “I-it’s not me…and I wouldn’t call you here anyway!” “Then who is it? The clown upstairs?” And his phone rang again. “I think I prefer something more flan-like for next time.” “I don’t buy my food for you!” Ryouta wished the caller would make up their mind on whether they wanted to scare him or start a stand-up routine with him. Once again, his phone rang, and he picked it right up. “Haaah, haaah, look behind you…” He felt his blood run cold. “Th-this is a bad joke, right…?” Slowly, he turned around. Standing there was Kiyomizu. “So it was you! And you ate my pudding!” “Her Majesty told me that if I contacted you like normal but with a voice changer, it’d be much scarier.” “Right. So Ouka started this.” It all made sense now. Kiyomizu Jouryuuji was a Japanese girl who liked Ryouta so much, she came to the Empire on her own. Most would mistake her for an elementary schooler, but she was indeed a high school student. “I like flan.” “Buy it yourself.” “No, there’s no point if you haven’t started eating it first—” “Just go home. Seriously. Leave.” “Well, my job here is done anyway, so I am going home. To your house, Ryouta dearest.” “Anywhere but there!” Kiyomizu left, stomping over the gravestone set along the way. “I thought her family ran a temple. She’s damning herself,” Shiren said, astonished. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter, does it?” “I have a terrible feeling about this, Ryouta…about what my sister’s been planning…” She already looked tired. “Yeah, I feel it, too… Wait, do you hear something?” He suddenly heard a voice coming from beyond the graves. “We’re in the red… The store is in the red again this month…and almost every other day, someone shoplifts… We try to hire part-time workers, but the pay is so cheap, no one wants to work. Now that I think about it, we’ve been getting a lot of calls from collectors lately. But my fifth father pretends not to be home and never answers. When I say he’s out, the caller suddenly gets angry and yells at me not to lie. They say that they know my father is there, and that I’m making myself complicit. But my father tells me not to deal with them, and he doesn’t listen to me. I don’t know what else to do, so I just apologize over and over. But it’s never enough. They said they’ll come to the store directly next time, and then they hung up. I’m certain my father will be angry if I tell him this. But I know I can’t ignore it… I have no idea what I should do… No matter how I struggle, nothing ever goes well… Oh, look, I found a rope.” ““Don’t do it!”” Ryouta and Shiren rushed into an employee hallway in the corner of the graveyard, where they found Tamaki sitting on a metal folding chair. Tamaki Shijou was one of Ryouta’s classmates, and she was a girl with an overwhelmingly pessimistic personality. Her family ran a failing convenience store. “Oh, it’s you two… Her Majesty told me to say out loud the things I’ve been thinking about lately, and just to be myself.” “Well, it sure is scary!” “Yes. I have such long hair, I thought I might do a good job as a ghost.” Tamaki’s hair was indeed pitch-black and pin straight, so she would indeed make for a great ghost. But— “No, I don’t think you would.” “Huh? Why do you say that, Ryouta?” “You’re too cute, Shijou. You’re not really fit for scary roles.” “Oh, Ryouta…I…” It was dim in the haunted house, but Tamaki could feel her cheeks grow red. Then there came a tug on his collar. “Bft! You’re choking me, you’re choking me! Stop it, Shiren!” “I wonder what kind of ghosts we’ll run into next. Come on, let’s get going. I’m so scared without you around, Ryouta. Ah, oh no, I’m scared.” Shiren marched forward, pulling on the chain as she went. She seemed upset. Past the graveyard was a set made to resemble a school classroom. The desks were in neat rows, and there was a blackboard in front of all of them. “I bet a ghost is going to jump out of the broom closet here.” “That’s likely. The broom closet’s in the back.” They found the closet tipped over…with a woman lying underneath it. “This isn’t scary; this is tragic!” Ryouta exclaimed. “I feel like I’m going to laugh, but I’m not sure if I should!” said Shiren. “Is she okay?!” The lady underneath the closet started to wave her hands around in an attempt to get up. “Ryou! I was waiting for you in front of the closet when it suddenly fell on top of me! Help! Ehem, ehem!” “Oh, Rei’s a part of this, too…” Rei Asagiri was Ryouta’s older sister. She’d followed him to the Empire and now made a living as an Imperial ninja. She was sickly and had terrible luck. “That’s not very scary, Rei, so you can stop now,” Shiren said. “No, the closet fell on me, and it’s…very heavy! Help me. Ehem, ehem, ehem, ehem, ehem, ehem, ehem.” Her cry for help was drowned out by her coughs. “Can you not move, Rei?” “Ehem, ehem. (Translation: No, I can’t; please help…)” “Sorry, I can’t understand you.” “Ehem, ehem. (Translation: Please just help me, Ryou!)” “Uh, are you okay?” “Ehem, ehem. (Translation: No, listen to me! We’re supposed to be brother and sister; why can’t we communicate?!)” “Are you really, really okay?” “Ehem, ehem. (Translation: I’m really, really not okay!)” “Okay, then if you’re fine, say, ehem, ehem, and if you’re in trouble, say, eh-HEM, eh-HEM.” “Ehem, ehem… (Translation: I’m too tired to cough that forcefully…)” “She sounds okay, so let’s move on.” They left Rei behind. But that was how her luck usually went. “What if we keep running into all the usual suspects…? Five hundred sacred yen is still a rip-off!” After their third interruption, Shiren was getting irritated. “This is the same as being at school… We aren’t getting any alone time…” “Hmm? What was that?” “O-oh, nothing!” Shiren quickly waved the question away. Either way, her bad feeling was right on the mark. “Hiya~. Are you having fun~?” They came across a shrine set and found Alfoncina standing there. Afoncina XIII was the archbishop of the Holy Church of the Sacred Blood, the Empire’s national religion, which meant she was the most important person in the organization. But she was also actively attending their high school at the year above Shiren and Ryouta. “Oh, I thought you might be here, Matsuko Kimura.” “Don’t call me by my real name, Shiren! My real name is not an option!” Alfoncina’s real name didn’t sound nearly as fancy, so she hated hearing it. “So what? Why are you all here in the haunted house? Having you people around isn’t going to scare me at all.” “Sure, it can be scary. Let me tell you a spooky story. Come listen.” Alfoncina leaned over to whisper into Shiren’s ear. Ryouta saw Shiren’s expression change drastically. “Wh-wh-wh-what an indecent story! That would never happen!” “Aw~. It wouldn’t? I thought that was exactly what you were hoping for here~. I mean, it’s so dark inside the haunted house.” Shiren’s face was already bright red. “Aw~. You came all the way out here, so I thought that’s what you wanted, at the least~.” “Huh? What are you two talking about?” Ryouta took a step forward. “Well, you see—” “Stay back!” Shiren jammed her fingers into his eyes. “Gaaaaaaaaaah! Cut it out with the eye jabs! Owwww…” Ryouta writhed in pain. The haunted house wasn’t particularly terrifying, but he was finding his own kind of fear here. “Well, I was just guessing why Shiren came here to the haunted house—” “Stop, Alfoncina! Ryouta will die if you say any more!” “Hold on, hold on! Why would I die from something like that?! Stop acting like you’re the one who needs to save me!” “Then I’ll tell you a scary story this time, Ryouta~. Come listen.” When Ryouta stood up, Alfoncina approached him. “Storytime~.” “I’m listening.” “………Hooo~.” She blew into his ear. “What are you doing?! Please don’t do that!” Alfoncina was beautiful enough to also be actively working as a model, and he knew he would be in danger if she did things like that to him. And Shiren was already in an inexplicably bad mood. “Then I’m going to tell you a serious story, okay?” And she jumped right into erotica. I thought this might happen, but I was right… “And so then ××××× gets …” I can’t believe I’m paying attention to this, but this isn’t scary at all… “So , entwined with ××, touches a couple of times, which makes all hard—” This is just a dirty story…but I want to know what happens next… “Anyone who hears this story dies in three days.” “What the hell?! Why did it get scary all of a sudden?!” “Sigh, well, you listened to the end, so that’s what happens…” “That’s not fair!” “Oh, if you purchase a pendant from the Holy Church of the Sacred Blood, it’ll save you from the curse, or maybe it won’t.” “This is a ghost-story scam!” “It costs nine thousand eight hundred yen.” “I’m not buying it!” “It comes in seven colors: red, blue, green, yellow, white, black, and skeleton.” “Why are there so many?!” “All right, see you later~.” And so Alfoncina sauntered away, carefree as ever. “I guess the next ones to show up will probably be Sasara and Ouka, then.” “Yeah, you’re probably right.” The both of them were getting tired now. “I think we’ve wasted our money. This is just gonna be a big mess…” The next set piece they came to was an old-fashioned Japanese house. And it was a whole house, built perfectly according to the style. A short table sat on top of the tatami, and an ancient clock hung on one of the pillars. There were even more rooms they could see from where they were standing. “This really is a haunted house. I don’t see any ghosts coming at us, though.” “Just show yourselves already; otherwise, we’re going to the tomato-eating com— What?!” Shiren’s face tensed. A puddle of liquid slowly oozed toward them. It wasn’t water—it was too sticky for that. “This smells like blood. The Sacred Blooded know that smell anywhere.” “You sure you’re not smelling dried blood from somewhere else…?” It was hard to imagine that a genuine accident had happened in such a lighthearted place. “Why would I ever mistake the smell of blood? And there’s so much of it.” They then heard a scream in the distance. “Lady Ouka, Lady Oukaaa!” They knew that voice—it was Sasara, Ouka’s guard. “Did something happen to—?” “Big Sis!” There was clearly something wrong going on. Nothing suggested that this was part of the show. “Ryouta, I need to fight—give me your blood.” Shiren signaled to him with her eyes. That was all he needed to understand. He lowered his head. “Just don’t take too much.” “Serve me for my sister, okay?” Shiren carefully sank her teeth into the base of Ryouta’s neck and slowly sucked out some blood. The Sacred Blooded could improve their physical strength by drinking the blood of a loved one—at least, the average ones could. Those from the Imperial bloodline transformed in an incredible way—and that overwhelming power was the very reason their family had such high status. Something sprouted from Shiren’s back. They were wings—symbols of power and freedom, and a sign of her station. “I’m ready.” In the dark, Shiren’s eyes glowed a faint red. “But I still can’t control my powers one hundred percent, so I might end up destroying the set.” The emperor’s little sister set off. “Get out of my way!” She smacked away the shoji screens and wardrobes, then knocked down the pillars. The living-room set became a pile of rubble in the blink of an eye. She had to reach the truth, even if that meant destroying everything that had been rented for the set. The stream of blood was still flowing. She had to reach its source. Beyond the wall was an employee corridor. The blood was coming from in there. Yes, this was the right place. “Stay there, Big Sis!” She punched down the door and rushed inside. “Big Sis, are you okay?!” “Oh, Shiren. Why are you here?” There was Ouka, sitting in a metal folding chair as though nothing had happened. “Oh, you’re okay?” “Yeah, I’m fine. Why are you transformed, though?” “What about the blood, then…?” “Oh, the blood? There.” Ouka pointed to the floor. There was Sasara, collapsed and bleeding more than any person should be able to survive. “Lady Ouka, Lady Ouka…,” she murmured in delirium. “Whoa, hold on, you can’t do this! You can’t just be sitting there like nothing happened!” Shiren said. Her wings vanished, now that she knew there was no enemy present. “Well, this is what happened a few minutes ago.” “What do you think? Do you think I can pull this kimono off?” “Yes, you are unbelievably beautiful. Huff, huff…” Ouka was wearing a kimono, and Sasara was worked up about it—the usual sight. “Listen. Give me the signal when they come. I’ll yell boo! at them from behind.” It was an extremely mundane strategy. “Yes, I, Sasara, shall take care of this! By the way, would you mind if I took a picture of you in your kimono, Lady Ouka? Ka-shak!” “Don’t take my photo before you get my okay. Wait, I think the obi is a little loose, don’t you think? Oh—” Plop. The obi, the one thing that was holding it all together, fell to the floor. Her kimono fell open. In front of Sasara. Bshaaaaaa. (That’s the sound of blood gushing from Sasara’s nose.) “So this is a nosebleed…” It seemed like she had lost an impossible amount of blood, but if she was okay, then Ryouta wasn’t going to question it. “At first, I was really scared, because she kept calling my name while she was collapsed on the floor. But this happens constantly, so she’ll probably wake up in a little bit.” “Well, all’s well, then… I honestly thought something had happened to you.” “Shiren…” “It’s fine, Big Sis. I just did what any little sister would do.” “You destroyed the door, so you’ll have to pay for it.” Ouka spoke casually. “Huh?” “Well, you came here and smashed it, so you need to pay for damages. Today was our opening day, you know. Oh, you’re acting very guilty right now; don’t tell me—” After checking the extent of the damage to the set, they decided to postpone the opening for a whole week. One hour later. “Haunted houses are scary, Ryouta,” Shiren said, gazing up at the building. “Yeah. True horror,” Ryouta agreed. They looked like they’d just run a marathon: We have no words for this; we used up everything we had. “Ryouta.” Shiren leaned on Ryouta’s chest. “What is it, Shiren?” “I want to run away with you,” Shiren said thoughtfully. “I just want to go far, far away. And forget about the Empire.” Ryouta was painfully aware of how she felt. “Yeah, I feel exactly the same way—how much were the damages?” “Five million sacred yen.” “I want to run away.” “I want to defect to Japan.” The repair van came and parked in front of the haunted house. Both of them silently prayed for the repairs to be cheap.
Chapter 83
23 min read