I May Be A Vampire 05 (Patreon)

"So do you know who that evil lady was, Hajime?" Soujuurou asked calmly, as if he was asking about the weather.
 
Hajime meanwhile, was Soujuurou's very opposite. His face might as well have been made out of the word panic, and he was panting from having ran away. His stamina was utterly spent.
 
He was also wondering why he didn't feel thirsty, considering the damage that was inflicted upon him. The answer was that his Mystic Eyes had fed him using Arcueid of course, but Hajime was unaware of this.
 
He tried his best to regain his composure. "I-I don't know... but she's definitely not good news." His body still remembered the fear of simply feeling her existence.
 
Soujuurou tilted his head. "You really don't know her? I guess I shouldn't assume that all vampires know each other..." Nevermind the fact that he was assuming she was a vampire.
 
Hajime clicked his tongue in frustration. "Forget her for a second." He didn't even want to think about the woman who almost killed him.
 
The world was clearly more dangerous than he ever knew when human. Flying pigs flew through the woods, vampires showed up everywhere and of course, the most important part was...
 
"By the way Soujuurou, what the hell was that?" How did his friend suddenly start kicking vampire ass!?
 
Soujuurou looked down. "Sorry, but I don't know that vampire either. I can't explain what she was." Normally a person would get angry at the mountain boy in this situation.
 
But Hajime only blamed himself for not having explained what he meant adequately enough. "Nah, no need to apologize. I was talking about your martial arts." Maybe Soujuurou had super powers too?
 
"Oh. Well, I'm nothing special, I just... I fought bears on the mountains and stuff. So I just sort of learned a few tricks."
 
What?
 
At first Hajime wanted to shout at the mountain boy that a bear was very much different from a super vampire! But then he started thinking more about it.
 
Were they really all that different? Sure a super vampire was obviously way stronger than a normal bear, but both things could absolutely slaughter a human.
 
The real question here was how Soujuurou survived long enough against multiple bears to learn his tricks.
 
In the end Hajime could only smile. "It was a pretty impressive display, thanks for saving my life... By the way, you should definitely pursue a martial arts career of some sort." He had too much talent to waste it.
 
Soujuurou looked down. "I don't really enjoy fighting."
 
For the mountain boy his skills were utterly useless for most of the time, they could only be used for destruction. And he couldn't really use them in sports either, for Soujuurou only knew how to kill, how to aim at vital spots.
 
Right now however, there was something much more important he needed to worry about. "Anyways, I gotta go. I still have to make my delivery."
 
He had dropped the package all the way back in the park, so he would need to go grab it first too. Oh, and he would also need to apologize to his boss and the client a thousand times. Basically, Soujuurou was screwed.
 
He didn't regret saving his friend of course, specially since his friend had even invited him to his house, a first for Soujuurou. But in the end a job was a job, and Soujuurou needed to take them seriously if he wanted to keep living in the city.
 
Hajime couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Dude... that doesn't sound like a good idea. At this point just call your job and say you got hurt. You can use our phone."
 
Soujuurou shaked his head. "I can't lie, it would be wrong." He was perfectly capable of lying of course, but only when the situation called for it. Lying to his boss would only make him feel awful.
 
Hajime would have none of this attitude. "What lie? Your fists are literally bleeding, man." He could see the blood leaving through the mascot. And the fact the mascot had gotten bloody should be enough evidence for his job.
 
Soujuurou raised his fists. "Ah, so they are." They didn't hurt much however, Soujuurou had experienced way worse.
 
Nonetheless, it was true that this was an injury, even if he felt bad passing it as something he incurred naturally. He couldn't tell the people at his job that he had fought a vampire though.
 
A smile appeared on Hajime's face. "Yep, so before anything let me patch you. I actually know how to deal with minor wounds." Assuming it was one.
 
"And you can sleep here for today. My dad won't mind." His dad hadn't even made it home yet.
 
Hajime was actually contemplating the possibility of going back to the streets and resuming his hunt for the vampire, but that would probably be too dangerous. If Hajime learned one thing these past few days, is that the world was out to get him.
 
Soujuurou smiled. "That sounds nice." He did not know protecting friends from vampires was such an easy way of tightening bonds.
 
That said, his bleeding fists told him it was a risky maneuver, so he wouldn't be doing again.


 
/////////////////////////////////////////////////
 


The walk to school was calm and silent, as one would expect.
 
They did have to go through Soujuurou's apartment of course, the mountain boy needed to get his school uniform and other such supplies, but this didn't take too long. All Hajime did was leave a little earlier than usual.
 
He did have a constant feeling of fear following him however.
 
The fear that at any point, a new weird and freakish creature could attack him. And he knew that if this creature was as strong as the woman from the night before, his life would be forfeit.
 
But it never happened, which he assumed was due to being daytime.
 
It was ironic, for a vampire to consider daytime safer than nighttime.
 
Eventually they made their way to the school gates, and a familiar scene played itself. "Good morning Aozaki." Much like yesterday, she was smiling.
 
This time it was a bit more genuine however. "Oh, good morning Wada." She turned around. "Good morning Shizuki." She wasn't even afraid of facing these two, that's how good her mood was.
 
Yesterday, she feared she would have to face an Alice who just discovered her first crush, but thankfully the witch quickly put Hajime out of her mind and started teaching Aoko how to vampire hunt.
 
Aoko could only hope Alice's crush had naturally died.
 
They used Alice's powerful surveillance system, and while they didn't find the progenitor, Aoko did get the chance to blow up plenty of low ranking blood suckers. She enjoyed blowing up stuff.
 
Even if the knowledge that those were people once left her uncomfortable.
 
Soujuurou waved at her. "Morning." And now that all these three said their greetings, silence returned.
 
Hajime was happy with this.
 
Soujuurou was happy with this.
 
Aoko was weirded out by this.
 
That's not to say she couldn't appreciate silence, her roommate had the tendency to stop talking out of nowhere sometimes. In those situations however, Aoko would simply keep talking to her without waiting for a response however.
 
Except she didn't feel comfortable enough with these two to do such a thing. Furthermore, she also wasn't pissed off enough to leave without saying another word, which was actually rather unusual for her.
 
She tried her best to think of something, anything that would take her away from the world of fantasy these two were living in.
 
"So I noticed you guys came to school together?" She actually didn't know where either of them lived, so maybe they just met on the way. Nonetheless, Aoko was just desperate to say something.
 
Soujuurou smiled in response. "That's because I spent the night at his house."
 
Just thinking about it made Soujuurou feel warm inside. Had he made of one those legendary friendships which supposedly last forever? He sure hoped so.
 
For some reason she couldn't quite explain, Aoko found herself getting a bit angry. "Oh? You two are already this chummy with each other?"
 
Hajime nodded. "Yeah, Soujuurou helped me out of a tough spot, so there would be no way that wouldn't be the case. Oh, and he's also a pretty likeable guy in general, right?"
 
Soujuurou had to hold back a victory cheer. He was seen as likeable!
 
Aoko however, clicked her tongue. "I see. Well, I can't deny he comes off as reliable at least." She knew he had way too many part time jobs at least. So he was a hard worker.
 
Soujuurou held back another victory cheer. Likeable, reliable... Today was just his day!
 
Aoko huffed. "I'm surprised that Shizuki even had the time to rest at a friend's house though. Was he slacking off or something?" Yeah, she was definitely getting mad.
 
And even if Aoko would never admit it, the reason was envy. Not because she still romantically liked Hajime of course, that flame had died long ago, and she would never let it come back, but because her pride was way too strong.
 
During her month of "dating" Hajime Wada she never once got invited to his house, so why the hell did some country bumpkin get that opportunity!? Did Soujuurou just come off as more agreeable than her!?
 
The answer was yes, yes he did.
 
Hajime looked away, for some reason he had a feeling Aoko was starting to get mad. "W-well, he got hurt in an accident. So he couldn't work yesterday."
 
Aoko raised an eyebrow. "Is that so..." She analyzed Soujuurou's body. "Actually, now that you say it, what the hell happened to Shizuki's arms?" They were completely bandaged.
 
The mountain boy raised them. "Ah, don't worry. It looks worse than it actually is."
 
"Who said I was worrying about you? Thieving c-." Thankfully she had enough strength to hold herself back.
 
Soujuurou was a bit hurt by her comments, but nonetheless he continued. "Yesterday at night I ended up hurting myself during a delivery, but Hajime patched me up, and let me stay in his house since it was late."
 
Aoko was a bit surprised. From what she knew of Hajime, she didn't think he was the type to help a random stranger. Though she supposed these two could have become friends on another time.
 
Really, she should be glad. Aoko was very worried that the mountain boy would not be able to adapt to city life. So seeing him have a friend should be a relief.
 
And yet...! "Ah, so you're basically a stray dog Hajime picked up, huh?"
 
Aoko Aozaki was a simple woman, even if certain people insisted otherwise. If one day Hajime got married, she would probably crash the wedding and beat up the bride.
 
Again, not because she was jealous of the romantic side of things, but because it would be unfair for her otherwise.
 
Soujuurou wasn't perturbed at all by her however. "Does it come across that way? I don't think Hajime would help a stray dog." They could be dangerous after all... And now Soujuurou was wondering if Hajime drinked dogs.
 
Aoko grit her teeth. "The hell is that supposed to mean?" As usual Soujuurou was getting on her nerves by completely avoiding her insults. "Look, just don't go to his house again, okay?"
 
Hajime interjected. "I mean, he can come. He wasn't a bother or anything." The two boys mostly just watched TV, so it wasn't like Soujuurou made a mess or anything.
 
Also, Soujuurou's cat costume was still back at his house, and the mountain boy would need to take it back.
 
Aoko had to hold herself back from kicking the accidental playboy. "Who asked for your opinion!?"
 
"I-it's my house though..."
 
He went ignored... Somewhat. Aoko started poking his chest after all. "I don't care whose house it is! You're not supposed to take strangers you barely know there! Wait more than a month before inviting anyone!"
 
It was only fair. She didn't get invited to his house in her whole month of "dating" him after all!
 
She quickly went back to glaring at poor Soujuurou. "And you... where do I even start with you?"
 
Soujuurou trembled in fear. "From the start please? I really don't get what I did wrong..." He had Hajime's permission. That was enough right? He didn't break a hidden law or something, right?
 
Aoko smiled. As one should know, this was not a good sign. "Trust me Shizuki. By the end you will understand completely."
 
And so Private Misaki High School's most legendary catfight went on... Though it was less of a catfight and more of Aoko Aozaki screaming at a poor innocent boy while Hajime Wada tried interfering sometimes and failed miserably.
 
By the end of it, Hajime felt safe once again.



/////////////////////////////////////////////////
 


"Ah, she's there again."
 
The girl who Hajime had met yesterday, Alice, was waiting outside of the school gates yet again. And much like the first time, there was a crow gathering around her.
 
Hajime took a deep breath and started to make his way towards her. Much like the day before, he would help her. It's not like it cost him much anyways, and much like Soujuurou she seemed very polite.
 
Once he was close enough, he waved at her. "Hello Kuonji!"
 
"Yo, Alice!" And so did Aoko Aozaki.
 
Oh, it seemed both Aoko and Hajime had cut through the crowd without noticing each other.
 
The stared at one another in silence, both unsure of what to say. Hajime was a little relieved however, since he assumed talking with Aoko was Alice's objective yet again.
 
Aoko was mildly annoyed however. She was supposed to have a quick talk with Alice and head over to their hunt, but this crowd of dumbasses was stopping her progress. They saw her yesterday, so why were they making such a big fuss yet again!?
 
She took a deep breath and looked to the skies. "Hah, I wonder how many members of the go home club I could make into volunteers for a few projects."
 
As expected, the students around her all scurried away. Aoko Aozaki was the feared demon queen of Private Misaki High School after all, one of the school's greatest threats, feared by everyone.
 
Even so, the students did stay close enough to watch the spectacle. And...
 
Well, there was one student who stayed. "If you made them into volunteers, then they aren't volunteers, right?" Hajime had stayed purely out of confusion.
 
He hadn't perceived what Aoko had said as a threat, so he didn't bother running away from it.
 
Aoko took a deep breath. "You're so anno-." She stopped herself however.
 
Her mind had been stolen by Alice's expression, so there was no way she could say anything right now.
 
The Meinster Witch had an adorable blush on her face, but her eyes refused to meet Hajime's. Instead she was clumsy looking away while shyly waving her hand... at him specifically. It was like she hadn't even noticed Aoko.
 
Aoko saw two choices in front of her.
 
The first was simple. She would send Hajime off running so she could get on with her business.
 
The second was also simple. She would let Alice converse with Hajime, so she could see her roommate's heart break into two.

Aoko knew exactly what choice was the best one. And as a wicked grin appeared on her face, one might think she was the wicked witch here. "Oh, Alice~!" She ran to her friend.
 
And as expected, Hajime followed along like a dumb puppy. A dumb puppy who if Aoko had any say on things, would show Alice that fairy tale princes are not real. Then Aoko could mock her for being so naive.
 
Alice shifted her gaze from Hajime to Aoko. "You left early today. Let's go." It was like seeing magic, at one moment she was blushing like a princess, in the next she was completely serious.
 
Aoko's grin was slowly becoming more and more demonic. "Right... Today I didn't have anything to do in the Student Council." That wasn't exactly true.
 
The Aozaki heiress had asked Tobimaru to collect info, more specifically she asked him to collect any rumors. She had also asked him to check if any students had gone missing, and if so when and where.
 
Tobimaru may not be aware of it, but he would be helping her find that annoying vampire.
 
Though that didn't matter right now. "Anyways, don't you have anything to say to Wada over here?" She wouldn't even try to be subtle, she wanted to thoroughly  crush Alice.
 
She still remembered the days she was mocked by the Witch for having a boyfriend, and Aoko could very much hold a grudge.
 
Alice glared at Aoko. "Why would I have anything to say to him?" Her expression immediately made the heiress regret her actions. Alice could be quite scary after all.
 
Hajime looked away. "Um... Sorry did I do anything wrong?" Now that he thought about it, she did always refuse to look at his face.
 
Alice's face immediately returned to its blushing. "Y-you... you... you.. didn't. I'm sorry I implied as such." The witch lightly bowed. "I didn't mean to offend."
 
Hajime waved her off. "It's alright. And no need to bow or anything..." Ah, he was actually getting a little embarrassed. But hey, at least she seemingly didn't hate him.
 
Now he was left to wonder what Aoko was trying to imply however.
 
Aoko herself was extremely confused. What the hell was up with Alice constantly changing her mood!?
 
The answer was simple of course. Everytime the witch looked at the vampire, she went to fantasy land, but when her mind was not focused on him, she could relax. One could say Alice fell into Wonderland when guided by the vampire.
 
Alice raised her head. "Still... um..." She still didn't understand what was happening to her.
 
Yesterday she had chalked up her behavior to the Sun, specially since she had more or less returned back to normal, and had no trouble focusing on her vampire hunt. And yet her symptoms were now returning...
 
Perhaps it was time to make a official complaint to her school, it was clear that this uniform was dangerous. All black was too much.
 
"Still even if..." Alice took a deep breath to recompose herself. "Even if bowing is too much, I would like to give you my most sincere of thanks." A light smile appeared on her face.
 
Which Hajime naturally reciprocated. "Don't worry, it wasn't a big deal." He didn't get punished or anything of the sort for bringing her into the school. "You're welcome though." He figured denying her thanks would be seen negatively.
 
Alice joined her hands together, and the legendary silence that only Hajime and Soujuurou could truly appreciate settled in... Well, clearly Alice had now joined them in this opinion.
 
Sadly there was one demon who did not appreciate peace.
 
Aoko was slowly getting mad. What the hell was this shit!? Why were these two actually getting along!? She was supposed to watch Hajime embarrass himself, and Alice cry, not this!
 
She couldn't give up just yet however. It took one whole month for her and Hajime to "break up", so clearly he could fake his way into success with luck alone.
 
It goes without saying, but Aoko refused to blame herself for that incident.
 
After thinking for a moment, Aoko broke the sacred silence. "So Wada, do you need something with Alice? I mean, you came here to talk with her, right?"
 
The devil had made a realization. Hajime would definitely break Alice's heart eventually, but it would take sometime for that to happen. So Aoko would give him the rope to hang himself with and accelerate the process.
 
One might say that just assuming your "ex" will naturally ruin any relationship he touches, and so there's nothing wrong with making that happen faster, is a bit psychotic and probably means you have several issues, but...
 
Nah, Aoko felt just fine. There was nothing wrong with her at all!
 
Hajime scratched his cheek. "Well, I was just checking if Kuonji needed anything." He looked at the witch. "I'm guessing you're just here to meet Aozaki again though. Isn't that right?"
 
Alice nodded. "Yes, we have something to do in the town." It seems she was finally acclimating to the heat, for she wasn't stuttering anymore.
 
Even so, her heart was beating super fast. Strange.
 
Hajime nodded back. "Got it. Well, I should probably get off your hair then. Have fun!" Alice had gotten what he wanted, so there was nothing more for him to do here.
 
Aoko sighed. Her plan sort of worked, but Hajime was retreating...
 
Except Hajime didn't leave at all. Instead he blushed and looked away. "Actually... If you wouldn't mind I'd like to spend some extra time with you." He didn't even know what he was saying.
 
It's just that after his encounter with certain death, he had decided that today he would relax. That, coupled with his newfound vampiric confidence meant that he had essentially asked to hang out with Alice.
 
The witch did not know what to say.
 
On one hand, spending more time with the boy sounded strangely nice. On the other hand, she had a vampire to hunt, it was her duty at this point, since it had invaded her territory.
 
And Alice did not shy away from duty, she was not like Aoko who constantly kept trying to balance two lives. For example, she would not hesitate to kill a witness who had accidentally found out about magecraft.
 
And yet, she did not know what to do. "I-I guess you can come with us." And then she felt a sharp pain in her foot. "O-ouch...?"
 
Alice was actually fairly resistant to pain, but this had come so out of nowhere that she couldn't help, but grimace. And the source of that pain was...
 
Aoko, who had stepped on her foot. "Oops, sorry, my foot slipped." She truly believed that. Even if it made no sense.
 
It bears repeating that Aoko had no leftover feelings for Hajime Wada, for her he was just some annoying teen she liked for a bit. It someone forced her into dating a boy from her class, he would be her last pick even.
 
But in the end she was an Aozaki. And Aozakis did not lose to stupid, out of touch witches.
 
Aoko had failed with her relationship with Hajime. Alice would fail with her relationship with Hajime. That's just how things worked, that's just how fairness worked.
 
It was at these moments that one could truly see she was Touko Aozaki's little sister.
 
Before she could rage and destroy the universe however, a cheerful voice rang out. "Found ya!"
 
It came from a cheerful looking blonde girl who was waving at Hajime. Her smile reminded Aoko of a woman truly and utterly in love... and it was all aimed at Hajime.
 
Hajime who was shaking and pale. "W-what...?" He was supposed to be safe during daytime, bad things only occurred at night.
 
So what was that monster doing here, in front of his school!?
 
The answer was that Arcueid was looking for him of course. She had more or less calmed down with her murderous urges. The True Ancestor decided that the boy's fate would depend on his attitude.
 
Finding him was a pain however. Unsurprisingly, going around town and asking about a beautiful black haired boy hadn't given her much in the way of results.
 
In the end she had found him, so that didn't matter. What mattered is that Arcueid didn't want to let him leave her sight. She wanted to talk with him. She needed to talk with him.
 
The newly born vampire didn't know about her decisions, all he knew is that he didn't want to die. "I... I... Shit!" So he turned around and ran with impressive speed.
 
Naturally Arcueid gave chase. "Hey, take responsibility for what you did to me!" What a jerk! And she wasted the whole day looking for him!
 
Upon seeing such a scene, Aoko snorted. "Weirdos attract weirdos, huh?" It's probably why Alice was so into Hajime. Aoko was naturally the exception, seeing as she was just a normal high school girl.
 
"Aoko, that girl had red eyes." Alice's words were like ice.
 
"Ah, so she did."
 
Yes, red eyes, the mark of a thirsty Dead Apostle. Dead Apostles didn't move during the day though, seeing as they become greatly weakened, or straight up die in some cases.
 
Though... if a Dead Apostle was hungry during the day, a easy solution would be to scare off some normal boy into an alleyway and then suck him dry.
 
Aoko activated her Magic Circuits and dashed into their direction. "Oh, that bitch isn't touching my property!" Misaki Town was hers, she wouldn't allow any filthy vampire to fuck around here.
 
Alice gave chase. "W-wait Aoko..." She wasn't quite built as her friend however, and she couldn't fly in front of normal people. So she naturally ended up falling behind.
 
Both Alice and Aoko knew of Arcueid Brunestud of course, but they had never seen her in person. And so they naturally assumed this was just some random Dead Apostle, perhaps the progenitor who was bothering the town.
 
Witch and True Magician chased True Ancestor, True Ancestor chased Dead Apostle.
 
In the eyes of the students there however, three girls chased Hajime Wada. On that day, his reputation took another critical hit.