In other words, a vampire killed her.
“Then... Then you came back to school because of what she said?” Ruka asked.
Ginka stared straight ahead and nodded. “Now I’m glad I listened to her.”
Ruka heard the gentleness in Ginka’s voice and saw her smile. So she’s having fun at school? I’m so glad.
“My dream for the future was to go to school. Now that it has come true, I don’t have any other dreams.” Ginka turned to Ruka. “Are you satisfied, Ruka Moriki?”
“Yup, a hundred and ten percent!”
Ginka and Ruka smiled at each other. Then, all of a sudden, Ginka’s face went blank. She got back into her sleeping bag and said, “Well, it’s time for bed. Talking made me tired.”
“What?! I wanna talk more.”
“If you’re not going to sleep, I can make you.”
“Huh?”
“Hunters are permitted to knock civilians out as an emergency measure.” Ginka’s body glowed silver, and a misty shimmer flicked at Ruka like a snake’s tongue.
“O-Okay, I’ll sleep! I’ll sleep!” Ruka plopped down on the sofa in a hurry. Nope, not gonna be put to sleep with exoforce like Yoshiyama. That looked like it hurt.
With her heart still pounding, Ruka did her best to fall asleep. Her mind started getting hazy after an hour or so.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell Ginka I don’t have a dream... That thought faded as Ruka drifted off.
For now, the plan was to go to school and work and all that like usual while waiting for the hunter alliance to get back to Ginka. Since their uniforms had been wrecked by all of Yoshiyama’s gunk, Ruka and Ginka dropped those off at a cleaner first thing in the morning before heading to Hie High in their school-issued tracksuits.
As the school gates came into view, Ruka and Ginka froze in perfect sync. A man in a dark suit stood beside the gate. His sunken cheeks and pale skin were the same as they had looked yesterday. For some reason, he was greeting all the students and teachers.
“That’s...” Ruka trailed off. I think it’s obvious he’s not anyone’s dad or whatever. Someone’s gonna report him for being sus, right?
“David...” Ginka looked surprised. She stood and glared at David.
“I knew it! I thought I was just seeing things or something! Phew.” Ruka grabbed Ginka’s shoulder, leaned in close, and whispered, “Should we say hi?”
“No, I don’t know what he’s after. We should sneak into school without him noticing and attack him from—”
“Good morning, Ginka and friend. Wonderful weather we’re having, isn’t it?”
It only took David a few steps to reach the two of them. His smile was so bright and sunny, it looked downright creepy. Then he squinted down at Ginka like he was looking at something way too bright.
“What are you doing here?” Ginka asked.
“That much should be obvious. I’m here to see the two of you.” David shrugged a little, then turned his attention to Ruka.
But Ginka didn’t let him. “Are you targeting Ruka?”
“You really think I would do something so awful?”
“I do.”
“Why, you’ll hurt my feelings.”
“Fine by me.”
Ruka looked around and saw that people were starting to watch this intense showdown between a beauty with silver hair and a tall guy in a dark suit. We’ll have a whole crowd here pretty soon. It’s like we’re filming a drama... Ack, hold on! He’s a vampire hunter too, so he can use exoforce. What’ll happen to all these people if he goes wild?
“Hey, hey, guys,” she said.
“Hmm?”
“Oh?”
Good. I was kinda worried they were already too fired up to hear me. “Lots of folks are staring, y’know. So why don’t we, like, go to a restaurant or something?”
Ginka seemed to finally notice the people all around them. She gave a stern nod.
“You good with that too, Davy-san?”
“Davy-san...? Are you referring to me, perhaps?”
“Well, yeah.”
David looked like he didn’t know what to say at first, but he recovered right away. “Very well. As a matter of fact, I have yet to eat breakfast today.”
A chat in broad daylight and the breakfast special at a restaurant? That’s about as far from vampire stuff as you can get, so I guess he really is human. He’s still dangerous, though...
The three of them went into a family restaurant near the school, and a waitress led them to a table for four. Ginka and Ruka were next to each other on one side, while David was on the other.
As soon as Ginka sat down, she glared at David. “What are you plotting? If you don’t tell me, I’ll smash in your teeth.”
David was calm, even after that violent line from Ginka. “Can we order first? I am rather hungry.”
Ginka ignored him. “I’ll start with the front, then the incisors...”
“Whoa, hold on!” Ruka grabbed Ginka’s raised fist. “He said he’ll talk, so let’s just chill for now, ’kay?” She’s usually so calm, but now she looks like she’s ready to bite him! And what the heck are insizers? Insiders?
Ginka leaned back against her seat in frustration, but her piercing gaze stayed on David.
Ruka hit the call button on the table. When the waitress came over, Ruka said, “I’ll take your specialty fries and a mixed vegetable salad.”
“I would like to order a choco-banana sundae,” David added.
“Water is plenty for me,” said Ginka.
The waitress seemed to be intimidated by how Ginka and David looked, but she still remembered to leave some glasses of water on the table before she walked away.
After making sure the waitress was gone, Ginka drank a whole glass, slammed it down on the table, and started confronting David again. “Let’s get down to business. How are you turning people into vampires and why?”
“That look... It’s how you used to stare down vampires. I’m getting chills.”
“The next time you say something ridiculous, I’ll send your jaw flying.”
Whoa, Ginka has a death grip on the table. It’s creaking and everything... She might actually break it!
David reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a little bottle of dark brown liquid, and placed it on the table. He had shoved something just like that in Yoshiyama’s mouth. “Vampires have an incredibly simple method for increasing their numbers. They inject their own blood into another organism to stimulate change. That is enough to turn small animals into retainers and humans into vampires. This ampoule contains vampire cells extracted from that blood, adjusted to make the resulting being obey orders.”
“Why do you have something like that?”
“What would you do if I told you I stole it from the hunter alliance?”
Ginka smashed her hand down and shattered the bottle. Dark brown liquid seeped and oozed on the table.
“Ugh...” Ruka groaned.
Ginka glared at David, and he looked down at her with amusement in his eyes.
“I have plenty of spares, so one broken bottle is no skin off my nose.”
“If I defeat you, it won’t matter how many spares you have.”
“Oh? You think I’m the only one who has these?”
“You have supporters? To think there are other hunters as insane as you...”
The two hunters stared at each other until the waitress’s voice broke the silence.
“Thanks for waiting! Here are your orders...”
“Th-Thanks!” Ruka moved Ginka’s hand off the table and wiped it down with some napkins to make room for the food. I think working at the café helped me deal with that pretty quick, but wiping up vampire cells like it’s spilled coffee feels kinda wrong.
The waitress looked confused, but she set the dishes down on their table and left.
“L-Let’s eat,” Ruka suggested.
“I shall begin as well.” David brought his gloved hands together before grabbing his sundae.
It’s definitely weird to see a big guy in a dark suit eating a girly dessert...
“Your next question was about my motive, correct? Mmm... To begin at the end... Ah, this is delicious... I wish to bring vampires back into this world.”
“It seems you’re not that attached to your jaw after all.”
“I’m quite serious... Mmm... You returned to Japan right away, so you don’t know... Ah... The current state of the hunter alliance is... Oh, this was a good choice!”
“Speak or eat! Pick one!” Ginka shouted.
David reluctantly put down his spoon. He intertwined his fingers and stared at Ginka. “After you defeated the Secluded Demon—Albert von Dittersdorf, the last of his kind—vampires were eradicated from this world. However, what happens after a war is of the utmost importance. It appears you are unaware of that.”
“What do you mean?”
“The hunter alliance is in a truly awful state. Absconding leaders, battles over rights and interests, requests from allied governments, hunter insubordination, insufficient funds for equipment maintenance, and so on—none of the branches are capable of action at present. Why, this nation’s branch has yet to grasp what I’m up to.”