I May Be A Vampire 06 (Patreon)

Arcueid felt strange.
 
She had been feeling strange ever since she left that... place really, but meeting the black haired boy again had made her feel even stranger. Her body was burning, but in a pleasant way, her heart was beating way too fast for it to be normal, and everything just looked so bright!
 
To be honest, she wanted to pounce on him. She was faster than he could dream off, in a second she could appear besides him!
 
But slowly chasing him was fun too. Everytime he ran out of her view, she would speed up, but until then she would only slowly walk towards him.
 
He was slow, as one would expect of a Dead Apostle during the day.
 
He was weak, as one would expect of a recently born Dead Apostle.
 
He was terrified, as one would expect of her prey.
 
She could hear his heartbeat, how fast it was... It sounded wonderful.
 
They entered an alleyway, Arcueid though that perhaps this is where the chase should end. Hunting him down was fun, and he deserved for what he did, but she didn't want to be too mean, not at least until she figured out what type of person he was.
 
With that said, she could play with him if she wanted to. As someone who "descended" from her, he naturally belonged to her to a certain extent.
 
And if he wanted to blame someone for that, he could blame Roa for being a disgusting little thief.
 
However, as Arcueid made her way towards her object of interest... she suddenly stopped. "A bounded field?" She could feel it covering the alleyway, and most annoying of it all, letting her prey escape.
 
The princess of the True Ancestors slowly turned around, a big pout on her face. "What's the big idea, huh!?" And at the end of the alleyway, she could see a brown haired girl.
 
Aoko took a deep breath. "I should be the one asking that, vampire." She pointed an arm at the Dead Apostle.
 
And then her circuits began to burn.
 
Aoko activated the Magic Crest on her arm, and start spinning her circuits as usual. She would make use of one of the few "spells" she could be called good at. Firing pure, concentrated magical energy at people.
 
Magecraft could not create miracles... at least not normally. All it did was skip the process of something mundane, allowing you to replicate the results. And the mundane thing Aoko was trying to replicate, was the fire of a modern machine gun.
 
If a modern machine gun could tear through a tank that is.
 
A magical circle appeared on Aoko's hand. She was now ready to fire.
 
Meanwhile, up above, flying in the air, Alice was making her own preparations.
 
She was the one who raised the bounded field too, seeing as Aoko couldn't even do that right. Frustratingly enough however, the witch had to admit her pupil had surpassed her when it came to destructive capacity.
 
Specially in a place like this, where there was no source of water for her to call upon the Thames Troll. And nothing too "funny" looking for Flat Snark to reach his full potential. Right now Alice only had the power of one of her Great Ploys.
 
She would release him if necessary, but otherwise she was fine with playing support.
 
And to start her support, she dropped Diddle Diddle onto the ground. As always, it sunk onto it.
 
Everything was now in place.
 
Aoko fired her bullets, for now she had chosen speed and quantity over power, even if this alleyway was perfect for the latter. Mostly because she was trying to gauge what her opponent was capable of.
 
Interestingly enough, she did not aim at where the vampire was, but a little bit above her.
 
Arcueid wondered why for a bit, but as she felt the ground beneath her tremble, the answer was revealed quickly enough.
 
From the concrete sprouted innumerous, gigantic forks and knives, specifically under the vampire's feet. In such a tight space as an alleyway, Arcueid had no choice, but to jump up.
 
Which naturally meant she would now get hit by the magic bullets.
 
Arcueid put her arms over her face. "Wow, a witch!?" She immediately recognized the forks.
 
The truth is that Arcueid Brunestud wasn't stupid, one could even argue she was a genius when it came to mystery. So she knew everything there was to know about witches and what they could do.
 
She also knew that a witch couldn't really challenge her... under normal circumstances. Arcueid still hadn't made any tests to figure out how much her power had decreased from being killed so many times after all.
 
Still, at least a witch's mystery was weak compared to hers.
 
And so obviously the mystery of a few bullets was nothing. Even thouch each of Aoko's bullets could tear through a truck, Arcueid felt nothing from them, they were less than the bites of an insect.
 
She didn't want to land on the utensils however, since the witch could have another trick up her sleeve. And Arcueid had never fought a witch in the past...
 
You see, the Princess of the True Ancestors had an interesting ability... she could adapt to previously seen phenomena. Currently the only things she truly feared were super rare abilities like those of a witch.
 
So she called upon her connection to the planet.
 
From the ground sprouted vines, growing far faster than Alice's utensils. They grabbed Arcueid by the arm, and with moderate strength threw her to the walls of the alleyway.
 
The vampire grew out her claws and stabbed those walls, sticking her body to it.
 
Alice clicked her tongue. "So it really is her." The witch thought she must have some Principal related to nature and the manipulation of it.
 
After all, she was growing vines now, and the other night she had created those annoying corals. Assuming she was the same Dead Apostle who had wandered across the mountains after all.
 
Still, such an ability should have been weakened in the heart of civilization. That's just how such things worked, and even Alice felt it to a certain degree.
 
So the witch wasn't too scared. This Dead Apostle was powerful and versatile, but it walked amongst the jungle of modernity during the day.
 
In essence, she and Aoko had the territory advantage.
 
The fact that she shrugged off Aoko's magical bullets must have meants that the novice heiress had messed up somehow, probably out of anxiety. Annoying, but understandable. She was a modern girl, and this was a Dead Apostle they were facing after all.
 
Aoko however, had no idea why her bullets had failed.
 
She hadn't held back at all, and she had done it perfectly. Sure, they weren't her strongest method of attack, but they should have at least done some amount of damage to the vampire.
 
Aoko sighed. This could be more troublesome than she previously thought, but next time Alice opened an opportunity of attack, she would blast the vampire with all she has.
 
Though none of what Alice and Aoko planned mattered, not really.
 
Because Arcueid Brunestud was angry.
 
Normally the True Ancestor would carefully analyze both of her enemies and defeat them with the minimum amount of energy necessary. Furthermore, she would avoid dealing any lethal damage.
 
Killing what were clearly important mages of the area would be more annoying than anything after all, it would bring more enemies on her head. And as one could guess, Arcueid used to hate wasting time and effort with useless things.
 
Now however? Now all she could think about was that boy, and how he was being kept away from her.
 
Arcueid took a deep breath. "Running wild for just a bit isn't too bad, right?"
 
And then, as far as Alice and Aoko could tell, she disappeared.
 
When she reappeared, she was holding onto Alice's leg. "One down!" The vampire's hold on the witch was strong enough to break bone, and when she pulled her down and threw her against the ground...
 
Alice's leg came off.
 
Not that the witch had any time to worry about that. She didn't even have time to scream in fact. With the strength Arcueid threw her, Alice fell to the ground like thunder...
 
And became a bloody mess. More like red paste than anything human... The force exercised against her body was enough to make even a Dead Apostle Ancestor flinch, so there could be no other result for someone so physically weak.
 
Aoko gasped. "Ali-!" But she was given no time to do anything. She was Arcueid's next target after all.
 
To Aoko's credit, her body did try to move to save herself. The heiress had amazing reflexes, and she would undoubtedly grow up to be one of the most amazing human fighters in the entire world.
 
But this was Arcueid Brunestud. And not just Arcueid Brunestud, this was a Arcueid Brunestud who was angry.
 
So the vampire ran to her side, picked her up, and threw her against the wall. Not with as much strength as she used against Alice, but with more than enough strength to kill a human being.
 
A crack was audibly heard. It was the wall cracking, but it was also probably Aoko's skull.
 
After everything was over, the alleyway looked like a scene of a horror movie. The smell of death filled the area, and blood coated it. Though the worst part was the two dead bodies of high schoolers of course.
 
Arcueid blushed and giggled to herself. "Geez, I may have gone overboard..." This was unlike her, that's for sure.
 
She scratched her cheek, embarrassed. It was like she had slipped and fallen, instead of goring two innocent women. "Well, the witch should be fine at least..." Their species could be tough.
 
If the girl was a close enough descendant of the original witch, she could be even tougher than Arcueid in some ways. Her regeneration definitely wouldn't be as fast though, so she would undoubtedly agonize for hours.
 
And as for the mage... If she had a good enough Magic Crest to force herself into staying alive she could survive. Arcueid hadn't made that much of a mess with her.
 
The vampire shaked her head. "Ugh! Who cares about these two!? I have to go!" She could only hope her prey hadn't run too far.
 
Arcueid felt like she would destroy something important if he did.
 


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Hajime didn't know for how long he had been running.
 
He just ran without looking back, mostly because in the few times he did try looking back she was there watching him. His legs hurt even though he was a vampire, and he could feel his regeneration kicking in.
 
But none of that mattered anymore, because he had made his way back home. And since he couldn't feel her terrifying presence anymore, he assumed he was safe.
 
Hajime entered, locked the door, and then basically collapsed on the sofa.
 
His heart felt like it would explode at any minute now. "I need a safe haven of some sort..." Clearly supernatural creatures didn't care whether it was daytime or not. They would attack whenever they could.
 
They probably wouldn't hesitate to attack his house either, if they found him. He was not safe. He might never be safe again.
 
"Actually, now that I think about it, if she found me in school, what's to say she doesn't know where I live too?" Just the thought of it send shivers down Hajime's spine.
 
But Hajime quickly tossed that idea into the trash. Not because he had come up with some reason why it wouldn't be possible, but simply because thinking about it was far too scary. He was a man willingly ignoring his likely impending death.
 
Hajime sat up. "I should probably start wearing a mask when I go out to hunt from now on."
 
He couldn't erase the mistakes he had made, but he could learn from them. If he started wearing a mask, he would definitely be harder to trace. It would be like having a super hero secret identity.
 
And elaborating more on that idea, maybe he should start wearing gloves as well. Hajime hadn't thought much about it until now, but he was leaving fingerprints everywhere, wasn't he? Those animals he killed could be evidence.
 
Hajime got up from the sofa and started prancing around. He now had something to focus on, something to think about, and that calmed him down like nothing else could.
 
And the moment he felt calm, the monster knocked upon his door. "Hey! You didn't think escaping would be so easy, did ya!?"
 
Hajime slowly turned towards the door.
 
He felt ill, even though he was a vampire. The world was spinning, Hajime was spinning, everything was spinning. He was forced to put most of his focus into not throwing up.
 
That thing had followed him back home, the thing he feared the most. And he knew he wouldn't be able to fight against her, because even here where the Sun wouldn't touch him, the difference between the abilities of the two was far too large.
 
So he could only stare at the door and tremble in fear.
 
The door started shaking. "Seriously, let me in! Or I'll be even more mad at you!" Shaking. Shaking. Shaking. His demise was coming soon.
 
Hajime took a step backwards... and did the only thing he could, he started begging. "P-please leave me alone! I-I don't want to fight you!" He thought it was a bit funny.
 
He was speaking like this would be a fight.
 
She giggled. "Learned your lesson huh? Well, then let me in and we will talk instead!" Her tone sounded happy, cheerful. Like she was excited to chat with an old friend.
 
Which just naturally made Hajime even more scared.
 
The boy couldn't help, but think she was toying with him, and that she would kill him the moment he opened the door. She was like a monster goading him into jumping into the abyss.
 
He wouldn't take the bait, so instead he continued to beg. "I...I... I haven't hurt anyone! I only eat animals! So please just leave already!" He didn't even know why he said such a stupid thing.
 
The flying pigs either didn't care, or didn't believe him, so why would it be any different with these woman? She was also a vampire, so she had probably fed upon hundreds of humans in the past.
 
If you're being attacked by someone, yelling out that you're a vegetarian won't save you. Hajime might as well have done the vampire version that just now.
 
Except the monster did not laugh or ignore it.
 
"Liar." Her tone was cold, completely different from before.
 
Arcueid knew how Dead Apostles worked, and she had fought Hajime. She knew there was no way he was surviving of the genetic material from animals. He had definitely hunted and killed humans.
 
And... and much like any vampire, much like Arcueid herself, he had definitely felt that hellish thirst. And there was no way he had resisted, because no one could resist forever. Not even beings like her who technically didn't need blood to survive.
 
So the fact that he lied about this, about something which even she struggled with, made Arcueid just a little bit mad.
 
Though for Hajime this wasn't just a little bit, this was the end of the world. "A-ah...!" He had just pissed off the super monster that was after him.
 
He couldn't fight her, he couldn't use diplomacy to stop her. At this point Hajime was quickly throwing away all hope of surving this situation. He was at least glad that his father wasn't here, he wouldn't die by the hands of this thing.
 
The thought of his father however, actually brought back a bit of a fight to Hajime.
 
He couldn't die here, partly because dying was obviously awful, but also because his father would be devasted. What would he think upon finding the heartless body of his own son in his own house?
 
Hajime didn't know the answer, and he would make sure his father wouldn't as well.
 
He ran to his room. "H-hey, where are you going!? Are seriously not gonna open the stupid door!?" And as expected, the vampire didn't like that. Hajime ignored her however.
 
He knew he couldn't hide from her. With her vampire senses she would easily be able to find him.
 
He could maybe try running away from her again though. If he jumped from the window, he would have a headstart! And as for the place he would run towards...
 
It was crazy, but he decided the mountains were his best bet. Sure, they had flying pigs, and they probably had a troll as well, but... but it's not like those guys would be her allies, right?
 
A crazy battle royale was better than this.
 
However, as he put his hand on his room's window, a curious thought was born in his head.
 
Can she even enter my house?
 
A popular myth was that vampires could only enter homes if they were invited inside. And so far she hadn't entered, she had just stayed outside while basically begging him to open the door.
 
Had Hajime stumbled on such a big weakness...? It could be possible. He knew vampires didn't have reflection, and that made no sense, so why would this be any different?
 
He smiled to himself. Perhaps he had a safe haven after all.
 
And then he heard a scream. "That's it! At this point you're the one who's being mean!" Afterwards there was a loud sound, a sound of something being broken. Like a vampire had just broken down his house's door.
 
Hajime stared at his own door, fear on his heart.
 
But there was no way right? Hadn't he just figured out another weakness of a vampire!? He had, so there was no way...!
 
She opened the door to his room and entered. "You are such a scaredy cat!" As she put her hands on her hips and pouted, Hajime almost thought she looked cute. "I can see what you got from Roa! Or Roa's child..."
 
Hajime didn't understand what she was saying. He did understand he was terrified. "Ah...!" He fell backwards, and started crawling away from her. "H-how did you even enter my house!?"
 
The vampire snorted. "I ripped the door off it's hinges. Sorry, I was trying to be polite and all, but that clearly didn't work out." She was... she was just trying to be polite?
 
"B-but vampires can't enter houses unless they are invited..." He managed to stutter those words through the fear.
 
The girl giggled. "What do you mean? Of course they can silly!" Well, wasn't that annoying. "Though even if they couldn't, most vampire weaknesses don't apply to me." So she really was a super vampire...
 
She crouched, and start muttering to herself. "Honestly... why aren't you living with your parent? And they didn't even teach you the weaknesses of a Dead Apostle? What kind of sire did you have?"
 
Before Hajime could answer, she shook her head. "Welp, it doesn't matter... right now." And then she looked straight at him. "So, do you feel sorry for what you did?"
 
"W-what did I do!?" She had never explained why she attacked him, she just did.
 
A little bit of the light in her eyes left. "Isn't it obvious? Apologize for killing me, of course." That pout from before made its return. "It really hurt, you know? I'll never forget it." Never forget him.
 
Drip. Drip. Drip.
 
That familiar image came to his mind.
 
For once he felt something that wasn't fear in this conversation. He felt anger. "Feel sorry...?" It was like a dam bursting. "Why the hell would I feel sorry for you! You're the one who attacked me first!"
 
"And it wasn't only you... ever since that day its like everything under the Moon is trying to kill me!" He clenched his fists just thinking about it. "That woman who killed me just for wandering into an alleyway..."
 
"Those damn pigs who tore me to shreds just for going into those woods... And you! Who ripped my head off just because I was in a park!" Hajime was a normal person until that night.
 
Drip. Drip. Drip.
 
He had never experienced true terror, he had never been a victim of the flow of calamity. And then suddenly it felt like he had to fight against something every single night, or he would lose his life.
 
The city boy had felt fangs upon his neck, teeth upon his limbs, and claws across his body.
 
And that wasn't all. "And I haven't even done anything wrong either! I haven't hurt anyone! I have only eaten animals... and yet... and yet...!" That's right, Hajime had never hurt anyone with his vampire powers.
 
He felt this punishment was unneeded, unfair. He understood it was hypocritical to a certain extent, considering his dreams... but people out there dreamed far worse, and they didn't get to feel the feeling of a hand grasping their heart.
 
"I was... I was really excited about this. I wanted to learn what I could and couldn't do, but no one has let me do that." And perhaps that was the worst part.
 
Hajime was curious about this world, and yet his curiosity was spurned. In a way he felt rejected by the Moon itself.
 
To that, Arcueid could only look away. "I did attack first, didn't I?" She hadn't spent much time thinking about that, but it was indeed true.
 
Back in those days when she was a robot, she just did what she felt she needed to do without explanation. And so maybe this boy understood what she felt in the abyss to a certain extent, the fear of the unknown.
 
The vampire got up. "Okay then, you don't need to apologize, but since you killed me in such a cruel way, I won't apologize either." As far as she was concerned, they were even.
 
Hajime looked up to her face. "S-so... are you going to kill me or not?"
 
Arcueid hummed a little, deciding on her plan of action.
 
The answer she arrived at was an obvious no. She still felt curious about the little scaredy cat, specially since he was apparently honest about not hurting any humans. Perhaps he lucked into a strong ability?
 
Most important of all however, Arcueid felt really awful for hurting him so deeply. Even if she didn't realize that.
 
She smiled and nodded to herself. "I won't kill you." Immediately Hajime breathed a sigh of relief. "For now." And then the tension upon his body returned.
 
"You're a blood sucker, a Dead Apostle after all... we are natural enemies." Did that mean she wasn't a vampire? Hajime wondered. "But for now we will cooperate. I guess you could say you're in probation."
 
Probation for what!? "B-but... What do you even mean by that?"
 
Arcueid didn't know herself. She just wanted an excuse to spend more time with him. "Don't think about it too hard. For now just introduce yourself... what's your name?" She was desperate to know.
 
He looked down, hesitating. At this point there was nothing he could do however, so he looked back at her. "Hajime Wada." Being in probation was better than being dead. Even if he didn't know what crime he commited.
 
Arcueid felt her heart explode. No, she felt her heart receive a name. Its name was Hajime Wada.
 
"Got it! Well, my name is Arcueid Brunestud, your grandma! Or great grandma, I'm still not sure! I own you by the way."
 
"Huh?"