David had vanished, leaving Ruka, Ginka, and an unconscious Yoshiyama at the scene. The two girls stared at the sky until some groaning noises brought them back to their senses.
“Umph... Ugh...”
Ruka crouched next to Yoshiyama and shook his shoulders, but he didn’t respond. His breathing sounded rough, and sweat was pouring off him like a waterfall. Clearly, something was wrong.
“G-Ginka, is Yoshiyama-paisen gonna turn into a vampire?” Ruka asked. That’s what Ginka said to that guy, so she has to know what’s going on.
“If we leave him be, yes,” Ginka replied. “Or, if he is incompatible, he will perish.”
“Peri...” Ruka couldn’t even say the rest of that word. Yoshiyama had threatened her, and he’d even tried to attack her. No matter how you sliced it, he was a bad guy who deserved to be punished. But death was way too harsh.
“Calm yourself. At this stage, we can still heal him.” Ginka grabbed Yoshiyama’s arms and started moving him over to the side of the road.
Ruka grabbed his legs to help out. “W-We can?”
“Yes. However, healing is not my specialty. The treatment will be crude, and I’ll require assistance. Your clothing will get very dirty, but could you—”
“Got it. What do you need me to do?”
Ginka’s eyes went wide when Ruka agreed so quickly, but her surprise didn’t last long. She put him down on the ground and placed her hand on Yoshiyama’s side. “I’m going to stream exoforce into him and destroy the vampire cells. His body will attempt to reject the exoforce, and he will spasm and vomit, so I want you to keep him on his side to prevent suffocation.”
“The recovery position, right?”
“I’m impressed you know that.”
“Well, my mom’s a nurse.”
Ginka nodded, then took Yoshiyama’s uniform off. “Before we begin... If a third party shows up, you should run. Also, you may feel the exoforce, but it is not dangerous to you—”
“Okay, okay! Let’s just hurry and do this thing!”
“Yes, you’re right.” Ginka rolled up her sleeves and crouched down, placing one hand on Yoshiyama’s shoulder from behind. Her grip was tight. “Starting now.”
Exoforce welled up all around her as she gently reached out with her free hand and touched Yoshiyama’s side.
“Gaaaah!” His body jerked and seized as he screamed.
His bloodshot eyes were so wide open that even Ruka could see them from where she was, and his intense full-body spasms sent a weird pulsing sensation through her hands. He was muscular from being on the soccer team, and his strong arms and legs started flailing like they were wild and out of control.
“Raaargh!”
“Ruka, hold him down tighter!”
“O-On it!”
“Urgh! Graah! Raaaaargh!”
Ruka figured her arm strength wasn’t gonna cut it, so she leaned in with her whole body. Her chest was pressing up against Yoshiyama now, but this wasn’t the time to get embarrassed. She just kept holding him down and hoped Ginka would be done as soon as possible.
“Gyeeeeh! Grah! Guaaaaaargh!”
Holding Yoshiyama in place made Ruka’s arms and legs hurt, but she couldn’t let go. If she did, his life could slip away right in front of her.
“Uck... C-Croak...” With a cough that sounded like a toad, something black came flying out of Yoshiyama’s mouth.
“The vampire cells are out!” Ginka shouted.
“I-Is it over?” Ruka asked.
“Not yet! I still need to deal with the remaining cell damage!”
“Still a ways to go, I guess! Got it!” Ruka planted her feet wide to steady herself. She didn’t care about anyone seeing under her skirt anymore. All she wanted was to hurry and get Yoshiyama fixed up.
“Okay... Come on...” Ginka’s voice was calm as she treated Yoshiyama, and his spasms and breathing started to even out. Then, with a long sigh, she backed away from her patient. “I’m done. You can let go now...”
Ruka did, and she fell right on her butt because she was so tired. She looked up and saw Ginka covered in black stuff. I wonder if I look like an absolute mess too...
“So... Did you save him?” Ruka asked.
“Yes. He’ll be in poor shape for a while. However, as long as he rests, he should recover before too long. Ah, but stomach acid will erode his teeth if we don’t do anything, so I’ll go buy water to wash out the inside of his mouth. Rest here, Ruka.”
“On it.” Ruka took Ginka up on that and flopped on the ground. Exhaustion was really getting to her. Do nurses deal with craziness like this all the time? Respect. Seriously. “Ryoko-san sure is amazing...”
Ginka came back with a bottle of water in one hand and her phone in the other. “I contacted emergency services. An ambulance should be here to transport him soon. The rescue workers will contact his guardians.” She wrenched Yoshiyama’s mouth open and poured water in.
Ruka was too tired to do anything except stare at the water spilling out from Yoshiyama’s mouth. Ginka really healed him, no sweat. Literally... Not a single drop on her face. Nurses are amazing, and vampire hunters aren’t bad either.
“David, why would you do such a thing...?” Ginka whispered.
Ruka heard the pain in her voice and remembered the man from earlier. David’s that tall white guy in the dark suit with kinda bad posture, yeah? The super dangerous guy who forced Yoshiyama to drink that stuff to turn him into a vampire...
“You know him, right?”
“Yes. He is also a former vampire hunter.”
“Makes sense.” I mean, he can use exoforce and Ginka knows him, so I can’t imagine him being anything else.
“But I have no idea why he’s doing such a thing, or how...” Ginka sighed and crushed the now-empty water bottle.
So Ginka gets irritated too, huh... Ruka ran her fingers through her messy hair, and sticky black gunk came off on her fingers. She groaned and tried to shake the stuff off. I’ve been doing my best to ignore it, but way more of this gross stuff from Yoshiyama got on me than I thought.
“Once he’s in an ambulance,” said Ginka, “we can get cleaned up at my place. David is also a matter of concern, so I’d prefer to be cautious and have you stay the night.”
Ruka wasn’t expecting a sleepover all of a sudden, but she nodded a bunch of times.
We can deal with the tricky stuff later! Right now, I just wanna be clean!
After making it to Ginka’s apartment, Ruka let Ryoko know she was staying at a friend’s place. Then she practically flew into the bathroom, threw off her clothes, and rinsed off in the shower. Everything from what Yoshiyama had puked on her to her exhaustion went down the drain.
“So goooood!” The water felt just right and relaxed her muscles. Even her voice seemed to melt like chocolate. Then Ruka took off her makeup and got ready to wash her hair and body. She reached for a shampoo bottle from the cabinet...
“U-Uwaaaah!”
“Ruka! What’s the matter?!” Ginka rushed into the bathroom with a knife made of exoforce in her hand.
Ruka trembled and grabbed the shampoo bottle. “This is Occitania!”
“Huh...?”
“It’s the high-end stuff too! I’m jealous! How’d you end up with something this nice?”
“My grandmother sent me that...” Ginka’s exoforce knife disappeared. She pressed her hand against her forehead, mumbled something about feeling foolish for worrying, and left the bathroom.
Well, I couldn’t help it. I was shocked!
After enjoying a soak in the bath, Ruka got out and found plain sweats and underwear waiting for her. She hadn’t worn sweats in a long time, since she normally wore soft and fluffy loungewear at home, but she put them on before drying her hair and dealing with skincare.
After she finished, Ruka put on some slippers and went into the living room. “Phew, thanks for letting me go first,” she said, but Ginka was nowhere to be seen.
“Over here, Ruka.”
Ginka’s voice came from another room, through a half-open door. There was an electronic keypad on the wall beside it, and a light scratching noise was coming from inside. Ruka wasn’t sure what to make of it, but she went in.
“Whoa, what the heck is all this?”
Western swords and katanas, pistols and rifles... Helmets and bulletproof vests... Tents, sleeping bags, and other camping supplies... Some kinda cane with crystals in it and a ton of stakes... So many bottles filled with silver powder... I don’t even know what a lot of these are for.
There was a workstation with a vice past all the weapons and tools packed in this room, and Ginka was sitting there in comfy clothes and a tablet in one hand.
“Ah, this room is...” Ginka trailed off and frowned at Ruka.
“What’s up?”
“You’re Ruka...aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah.”
“You seem different. Why is that, I wonder...?”