A young man walked through the residential area with vacant eyes. All who laid eyes upon him shivered in fear and quickly rushed inside their homes. They patiently waited for him to move to the next area, hoping it wouldn’t be their house he chose to stop at. His long hair rendered his face indistinguishable, but the way he dragged his legs and the abnormal hunch to his back gave away his aberrant state.
“He isn’t there just yet,” observed a silver-haired man watching from a nearby rooftop. His lips curled into a sick smirk; he seemed to be greatly enjoying himself. Another young man soundlessly approached him from behind.
“Shiro, were you the one who made Youta fall to F rank?” asked a voice deep enough to have come from the depths of Sheol and with enough heat to burn its listener’s ears. Shiro turned with a smile to face his guest. He courteously bowed his head.
“Master Tsukiharu, it has been a while since you last graced me with your presence. How many weeks has it been since we last met? You have my utmost apologies for not showing myself until now.”
“I didn’t ask you about that. Answer me. Was it you?”
“What has angered you so?” Shiro asked with indifference. Tsukiharu grabbed his shirt collar and slammed him into the concrete rooftop. He moved swiftly, leaving Shiro no opening to escape from being pinned to the ground.
“You cause people to fall! Did you think I’ve forgotten?!”
The F rank vampire who attacked Azusa crossed Tsukiharu’s mind. The course of events leading up to Azusa’s abduction was enacted by Shiro alone. He remembered watching everything get taken care of without really understanding what was going on.
“You made Youta drink the same drug you forced on that man. And now you are using your special bugs to control him. Am I wrong?”
“There is nothing left for me to explain when you already know so much. Perhaps his recent fall to F is what has kept some portion of his reasoning intact enough to keep him from indiscriminately attacking people. You need not concern yourself with him, as I will control him before he does attack.” Shiro turned his eerie eyes on Tsukiharu.
Rage and the creepiness of his eyes had Tsukiharu increase the strength he held him against the ground with. The concrete beneath Shiro cracked loudly. His face twisted with pain, but his lack of resistance furthered Tsukiharu’s ire.
“Return Youta to normal! I know you can do it!”
“Unfortunately, Master Tsukiharu, I cannot. You can dissolve milk into coffee, but you cannot remove only the milk from the coffee once it has blended in, yes? The same concept applies here.”
“Don’t lie to me!” Tsukiharu’s fist swung down. A loud crack you wouldn’t expect to hear from punching someone rang across the rooftops as Shiro’s shoulder sunk into the concrete. His face warped with the agonizing pain as he bit his lower lip to endure from shouting out.
“Then tell me what you made him drink!”
“Nothing will come from possessing that knowledge.”
“You don’t get to decide that for me! I make my own decisions! I’ll kill you here and now if you don’t tell me.” Tsukiharu intensified his grip on Shiro’s neck, squeezing the saliva out of his mouth. He lessened the pressure, seeing Shiro struggling to breathe. “You can’t beat me. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes…I guess I do.”
“Tell me.”
“…Blood.”
“Blood?”
“Miss Azusa Saito’s blood. I had him drink her blood.”
“…!” Tsukiharu gasped, his eyes wide in shock. Shiro gazed up at his face with amusement. “Where did you get her blood?”
“…That is a secret.”
“Do you want me to kill you?!”
“You underestimate me too much, Master Tsukiharu.” Shiro smacked the concrete floor with a composed smile.
Tsukiharu quickly dodged the flash of light rising from the ground. A wave of light spread out around where Shiro stood. The ring of light reached as far as fifteen feet in diameter. A faint smile crossed Shiro’s lips in the center of the ring of light and he stomped on the ring one more time. A legion of butterflies spilled out of the ring of light. The butterflies flocked Tsukiharu, shedding their sleep-inducing scales all over him as if their lives counted on it.
“The most difficult aspect to this skill is that I must buy time until the spell is ready. Due to that, I had to inform you of things better left unsaid, but I am glad to see everything worked as planned… Sweet dreams, Master Tsukiharu.”
“Damn it!”
Tsukiharu could have easily dodged the attack if he hadn’t let down his guard, but on top of being distracted by Youta, he failed to keep an eye on his surroundings. He burned and liquefied thousands of butterflies, but for every hundred he killed, another thousand seemed to attack him in their place. Eventually, the legion of butterflies forced him on his knees. His body stumbled forward and he collapsed on the rooftop with all his limbs spread out.
“I was ordered not to kill you, you see? So I shall not kill you yet. However, you inflicted some pain on me earlier, so please allow me to repay you for that much.” Shiro smiled icily and kicked Tsukiharu in the abdomen.