That was the moment.
The light in the room has been casting Big Brother Koyomi's shadow onto the carpet, and a young blond girl comes flying out of it.
"Vampire Punch!"
The girl runs her fist straight into Koyomi's chin as she yells the words.
A perfect uppercut.
"Gaah!"
Koyomi bends backwards, then keeps tipping over to fall on the floor face-up.
So weak!
He let himself get defeated like some kind of punching-bag character you'd see at the very beginning of a battle manga. He was so weak you could compare him to a flimsy piece of paper.
"Hmph!" the young girl grunts, twisting in the air to land on the ceiling without a sound.
She's wearing a fluttering dress but does a good job holding its fabric between her thighs so that the hem doesn't flip up.
Her hair looks like it's standing on end, though.
…i believe the girl was wearing a helmet the last time i saw her—but it seems the helmet played out as a fad.
Yes.
It was a vampire who leapt out of Koyomi's shadow, no, the former vampire, Miss Shinobu Oshino.
Even i feel a little strange about calling someone who looks like an eight-year-old girl "Miss," but according to Miss Shinobu, she's actually five hundred years old. Normally, i might need to call her "Mistress" and not just "Miss."
...Right.
She must be the same as Mister Serpent in that sense—and now Nadeko realizes why he's been so quiet all this time.
Not because Koyomi was there, but because Miss Shinobu was close by—that's why he's been staying still.
If you just go by age, Mister Serpent must be the older of the two, and even if no one believes in him now, he's still a god, while Miss Shinobu is a vampire. So you might not see the need—but then, Miss Shinobu is "King of the Aberrations" after all.
The ruler of unlife.
In other words, every aberration is food to her.
The title of "top of the food chain" fits Miss Shinobu better than anyone—she might easily gobble down Mister Serpent (especially at his current size).
Swallowing a snake alive would be a bad joke.
Not something you could laugh about.
"Phew... 'Twas a close call," Miss Shinobu says still stuck to the ceiling and wiping the sweat from her brow.
Like someone who just finished a big job.
"We nearly ran afoul of some Tokyo publishing ordinances...good grief. My master's lack of restraint is enough to drain the blood from even a vampire's cheeks. I thought I might suffer a bout of anemia.
It's such a contemporary subject for her to touch on.
Not something you'd expect from a vampire, but Miss Shinobu seems to be influenced pretty heavily by Koyomi, so maybe it's wrong to seek a level of refinement from her that matches her appearance.
"Now, then."
Miss Shinobu drops from the ceiling.
Agilely, like some rhythmic gymnast, she avoids Koyomi and lands on the floor.
She follows that by rubbing her chin.
Around the same spot where she punched Big Brother.
"As our senses are linked, my master's pain becomes mine as well, yet... Heh, so 'tis not a problem if I knock him unconscious before he has any chance to feel distress."
“…”
What a frightening thing to say.
Koyomi is still on the floor and not moving a finger. Is this "rattling the brain with a punch to the jaw," like in boxing?
Your brain getting rattled sounds pretty serious, though.
i mean, it's your brain.
"Are ye all right, forelocked girl?" Miss Shinobu looks at Nadeko and asks.
Her gaze makes it seem like she's not particularly interested in Nadeko—no.
Not being interested isn't quite it—but in that case, i wouldn't know how to describe her expression.
i can't even read humans.
How would i ever read a vampire?
"What a pinch, 'tis good I made it in time. Ye nearly had to give birth to a child, at thy age."
"W-Was it that kind of situation?"
"Well." Miss Shinobu takes a step toward Nadeko—and i involuntarily flinch. "Looking at thee thus, I suppose I could understand—why my master is so infatuated with thee. Ye've quite the neat form."
It's scary when she stares at Nadeko up close.
i'm dealing with a vampire, after all.
While she might be lacking her bloodsucking ability at the moment.. .she can't hide the fangs peeking from her mouth, and can't seem to be bothered to.
Fangs.
Different from a snake's—fangs.
"I-Im." Taking her eyes off of Nadeko, who's frozen in place, Miss Shinobu then says, "Second cutest after myself!"
Is that praise? She's evaluated Nadeko in a way that i don't understand.
Still, Miss Shinobu coming close to Nadeko meant the opposite, too, and i got a good look at the "moddeling" of Miss Shinobu's face...and she's alluringly cute.
A lot cuter than Nadeko.
"Ah, um...M-M-Miss...Shinobu?"
"Utter not my name with such familiarity.
Having nothing specific to say in mind, i address Miss Shinobu for no reason, with no mind, and she swats Nadeko down.
How do i explain it.
It feels like there's no room for compromise.
"For the more thy kind speaks my name, the tighter I am bound by it—not that I intend on reclaiming my old appellation at this point," Miss Shinobu says as she pulls Koyomi off the floor. He's dead weight, still passed out with no signs of waking up. "Be that as it may, a waif who has not been alive for so much as a decade shan't act familiar with me."
“…”
i have been alive for a decade, though, being in the second year of middle school.
But after how Miss Shinobu shut Nadeko out a moment ago'
i don't have the courage to assert Nadeko's age, naturally. Not an ounce anywhere.
Pointing out a mistake also takes a certain license.
Privately, though, i think that she's become very talkative—when we first met in June (though i'm not sure it's right to say that we "met"), Miss Shinobu didn't speak a word and was even more taciturn of a person than Nadeko. Well, of a demon, not a person.
No, wait. Was she more than half human now?
It's not like i've heard the details.. .and even if i did, i don't think i'd get it.
Regardless, i do feel a tinge of sadness that Miss Shinobu, someone i thought i knew to be a friend in silence, is now on the side of the talkers.
Well, i say that, but it's not like i really believed that we were buddies. .. Even in June, i got plenty of scary stares from her.
There's nothing in common anyway, not a thing, between Miss Shinobu back then, who was quiet because she was mad, and Nadeko now, who's quiet because she's scared and doesn't know what to do...
"Well, forelocked girl. As my master said too, 'twould be best for thee to sleep in that bed this night. Him, I shall take down to the first floor, to lay atop the sofa, so be at ease."
“Th…”