“A. ZU. SA! I forgot my textbook for the next class. Won’t you show me yours?”
“Hiragi, why is it you seem to forget your textbooks each and every day, hm?”
“I won’t answer unless you call me Tsukiharu.”
“...Tsukiharu, why do you forget your textbook every single day?”
“Hm, because it’s a necessity?”
“You’re doing it on purpose. I know.”
A week had passed since Azusa started attending school and she was already stumped over how to handle Tsukiharu. Every day he forgot a textbook and took advantage of their seats being next to each other to push their desks together. He talked to her whether she liked it or not for more than half of their break time, and continually invited her to lunch with him no matter how many times she turned him down. At any rate, they were together ALL THE TIME. Azusa was starting to feel like her fear of Tsukiharu was losing out to her annoyance.
“What do you plan on doing for lunch, Azusa?” Tsukiharu asked his standard question before lunch break.
“I will be dining somewhere you won’t be,” Azusa retorted with her usual line.
“I guess I’ll just follow you everywhere you go then. Neither of us will get lunch that way, huh?”
“…You’re a real pest, you know?” she couldn’t help complaining under her breath. She frantically looked up thinking he heard her, but Tsukiharu stood there smiling like nothing happened, giving her temporary relief. She didn’t want to anger him.
Tsukiharu genuinely kept the promise he made her on the first day. He didn’t hurt or kill anyone. He got along great with their classmates, and the way he smiled happily in class made him seem like a completely different person from the boy who abducted her. As long as he was at school, he was in the perfect mood and always smiling.
“You shouldn’t do that, Tsukiharu. You’re putting Azusa on the spot, so why don’t you eat with me instead?”
“I’m getting sick of eating with just you every day, Youta.”
“C’mon, let’s go, Tsukiharu. Lunch break is going to end soon! See you later, Azusa!”
“I’ll be seeing you later then, Azusa.”
This was the usual conversation following her rejection of Tsukiharu’s lunch invitation. Youta and Tsukiharu—it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they appeared like best friends to anyone who saw them. Tsukiharu likely had ulterior motives since he knew Youta was Kouya’s younger brother, but Azusa couldn’t find a good reason to disrupt their fun, so she simply kept an eye on them for the time being.
✦ ✦ ✦
UNSURPRISINGLY, Youta Kisaragi was popular.
Youta’s tawny hair took on a faint amber color in the sunlight. His large, round eyes brought out his youthfulness and were set against refined facial features. His voice was a little deep compared to how his delicate looks got him mistaken for a woman. It goes without saying his kind personality went over well with his classmates; not to mention the way he looked angelic every time he smiled.
Furthermore, his mother’s side of the family, the Kisaragis, were a pureblood noble vampire line with a history of birthing extraordinarily powerful vampire children. And his father was the current Red Coven’s Patriarch—although only a select number of people were privy to that information.
With his physical prowess guaranteed by his lineage to be multiples higher than the average vampire, and his intelligence not far behind it, it was only natural for him to be popular. Hopelessly popular whether he liked it or not. Popular to the point a large fan group had formed at school.
What it all came down to was that the hopelessly popular Youta Kisaragi suddenly got real friendly with an average human who came from nowhere interesting, leading to mayhem among his fangirls.
“Your name is Azusa Saito, right? We have some things to say to you!”
“Don’t you think you’re flirting a little too much with our Youta?”
“Whoa, talk about clichéd,” were the first words out of Azusa’s mouth. A group of four girls had called her to the back of the school building, out of sight. All four girls glared at Azusa with deep wrinkles in their foreheads.
“You must be on your high horse all because you have a contract partner!”
“I am not.”
What does it mean to have a contract partner? Is it like some kind of status to them?
“What’s your relationship with Youta?! Answer me!”
“I know his older brother is all.”
“I’ve never heard anything about Youta having an older brother! Quit spouting BS!”
“......”
I’m not lying though. You guys simply don’t know, which doesn’t make it a lie.
Azusa sighed loudly. She wanted to cry over how her sole oasis at school, lunch break, was being wasted. The four girls surrounding Azusa were spurred by her attitude into talking even more rabidly.
“Wow, what a poser! You make me sick!”
“He’s not spending time with the likes of someone gross like you by choice! Get that through your ugly little head!”
“Slutty bitch!”
“This is what someone like you deserves!” The last girl shouted, drawing a knife from her pocket.
Even Azusa flinched and took a step back from the glinting knife, but careful assessment of the situation gave her the impression the girl just brought it out as a threat. The girl held it limply in her hand. She didn’t hold it in a way used to cut someone, nor did she point the tip at Azusa—she only used the glimmer of the blade as an empty threat. Apparently, these girls thought they would win if they threatened the poor little human girl with a knife.
Azusa carefully looked around her. She grabbed a mop leaning against a nearby wall and spun it around in her hand.
“Nice,” Azusa said to herself.
“What’s so nice, huh?!”
“I was simply testing its weight.”
“I have no idea what you are going to try with that thing, but—”
It felt like a gust of wind hit them.
“Knives are dangerous, so why don’t you put it away?” Azusa said just as she sent the knife flying. It clattered on the ground behind the girls.
“...! Why you little!” the girl bellowed.
“The reality is that the majority of vampires don’t have much difference in physical ability from humans before they awaken, right? I heard that from a friend,” Azusa said. Of course, the friend she heard it from was Ichi. Azusa recalled the words Ichi told her in passing when she decided to attend school.
“You do not have to be pointlessly afraid at school just because you are surrounded by future vampires. Of course, there are exceptions like the scum known as Kouya and Tsukiharu, but the students at your school are at a level before their awakening that puts them on par with humans in physical ability. In all actuality, you might be stronger than them because your physical abilities are superior to most humans.”
“I’m a high-ranked kendo martial artist, so I’ll go easy on you! Whoever wants to come at me is welcome to try!” Azusa said with manly gusto, holding the mop in front of her in her signature kendo pose.