“My bestest buds!”
Ruka ignored the groans, yells, and complaints and hugged everyone tighter. She finally let go after a few minutes, and the three girls wobbled and reeled.
“I’m good now! Thanks! You’re the best!” Ruka yelled with a grin on her face. Then she tossed her bag over her shoulder. “Gotta run! Later!”
“M-Moriki-san, the next class is about to start...”
“I’m leaving early! Make up an excuse for me, ’kay, Chinami?”
“H-Huh?!”
Her friends were shocked, but Ruka ran out of the room and didn’t look back.
Why’d I even worry about causing trouble or getting in the way? If I wanna see her, then that’s what I’m gonna do! ’Cause we’re friends!
When Ruka got to Ginka’s building, she pulled a card out of her wallet and grinned. “Hee hee... So naive, my dear Ginka.”
Ginka had given Ruka her spare card key and never took it back, so Ruka walked right in, got on the elevator, and went to the seventh floor.
“Huh? Her door’s open...”
The busted door handle made Ruka nervous, so she carefully peeked past the door. The hallway inside was so torn up, it looked like a hurricane had come through.
Ginka and David’s fight had already started.
Ruka tried to shake off her fear. “Nope, come on, I can’t get scared after coming all this way.”
I’m here to help Ginka! How am I supposed to do that if I start freaking out? My nails are still covered in sacred silver dust, so a retainer popping up should be fine, right? Probably?
“G-Ginka, you here?” Ruka asked, but no one answered.
She didn’t bother taking her shoes off before going inside. The living room was in way worse shape than the hallway. The table had been sliced in half, the cupboard was toppled over on the floor, and there was a big hole in the window. Black sand all over the place made the apartment look like a freaky desert, so Ginka must’ve taken down a ton of retainers here.
Ruka noticed the door to the armory was open. The panel had been ripped out of the wall, and wires were sticking out. Someone had forced their way in. The mess inside was just as bad as the one in the living room. Black sand covered everything, and the shelves were broken into pieces. Pretty much all the swords and guns were gone, and the tablet was in two pieces on the floor next to the workstation.
She checked the kitchen and bathrooms next, but Ginka, David, and the retainers were nowhere to be seen.
“Oh, wait...” Ruka pulled out her phone and tapped the vampire search app. Hunters using exoforce were supposed to show up on the map as blue dots, and that would tell her where Ginka and David were. But when the app started, a bunch of orange dots popped up on the screen.
“Whoa, so many?!” She counted at least ten retainers until she found a blue dot on the map—Ginka.
The orange dots closed in on the blue one before they all vanished. More popped up and moved toward the blue dot, then disappeared right away. The same thing kept happening over and over...
Ginka’s fighting a ton of retainers. I think she’s winning, but she might hit her limit with this much coming at her.
“I gotta help her.”
But if I go like this, I’ll just get in the way. Lemme find a weapon or something.
Ruka went into Ginka’s almost-empty armory. She frowned when she heard a clattering noise and took a closer look. A bunch of little bottles filled with powder had tumbled over on some shelves, and their color made Ruka think of the person she wanted to see more than anyone else in the world.