I stared at the terminal's flickering green cursor blinking back at me, wondering when I became the universe's cosmic punchline.

Cursing under my breath, I hoped Natsumi was playing a joke on me.

Hello. I'm Lah Lah.

Are you H.P.?

I didn't answer. Just hovered my fingers over the keyboard for a second before pushing the screen away like it had sneezed on me.

"Yeah, no," I muttered. "I'm not doing this right now."

Instead, I opened the browser, found a barely functioning antivirus site, and started downloading something that looked safe-ish. The fan kicked on like it was being asked to lift a tank uphill.

"C'mon, old girl," I whispered to the computer, "just give me fifteen more minutes of pretending this is normal."

It beeped. The screen glitched slightly.

I half expected Clippy to pop up. "Hi! It looks like Yog-Sothoth is installing a Trojan Horse on your C Drive. Need assistance?"

But, miraculously, it started installing.

"I'll never understand that thing. Why Rinko thinks she's too good for a simple cash register is beyond me," said Yuki.

I turned towards her and grinned. "I get that. Stepping out of the analog world and into the digital comes with a lot of missteps."

Yuki shook her head. "It seems to me like everyone's trying to fix something that isn't broken. Surely, you understand. I think the living would have more time to enjoy themselves if they weren't correcting imaginary problems."

That made me blink. "Yuki, that's… casually profound. Yeah, I'd never thought of it that way before, but you're onto something."

She floated a little closer, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. "Thank you, Ryu. Even though I've passed on, it's nice to have someone to pass on my wisdom too."

The antivirus finally finished installing and began to search through the PC's files.

I watched the tiny globe spin for half a second as the machine worked.

That was enough for me.

I stood up, grabbed my bag, and ignored the itch behind my eyes that wanted to read that weird message again, and didn't look back.

If the computer wanted a pen pal, it could email a toaster.

I scraped extra deodorant on since I didn't have time for a shower, not unless I wanted to run into Hibana again, and this time she'd probably shove me into the water heater and call it "encouragement."

I bolted out the back entrance of the onsen, still slightly damp and trailing steam like some ghost of a gym class dropout and made my way toward the school.

And that's when I saw Shion standing by the gate.

She leaned casually, backlit by the early morning haze, back against the fence with one foot propped up like a delinquent in an after-school special. Her hair was tied back messily, and she had her usual "I'm pretending I didn't wait for you" face on.

But her eyebrows rose slightly when she saw me, like she had a secret and was dying to decide whether or not to share it.

"You're late," she said. "Which is impressive, considering I gave you a head start."

I caught my breath. "Yeah, well, haunted computers and succubi do tend to slow a guy down."

She smirked. "Speaking of which…"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

She tilted her head in the direction of the hill behind me. "I just saw Murasaki leave. You know what was weird?"

I raised an eyebrow, already bracing myself because nothing stung like Shion's dramatic stings.

"She didn't say a thing. Like, not a word. Just walked past me like I didn't exist. And her mascara?" Shion made a swirling motion around her cheek. "Looked like it'd been crying for backup."

I cringed, knowing exactly what caused that. "Seriously?"

Shion nodded, eyes sharp. "Yeah. She looked sad. Like, actually sad. Like—real sad."

There was a pause, and then she grinned.

"Almost sad enough that I didn't say anything to her."

I stared at her. "You almost didn't say anything?"

She gave me a look like I'd just asked if the sun had taken a day off.

"Almost. I might be dead, but I'm only human." She grinned wider, teeth flashing just enough fang.

I sighed. "Oh my gosh. What did you tell her?"

Without missing a single beat, "Maybelline."

My mouth dropped open. "What? What the hell does that even mean?"

Shion rolled her eyes at me as she grabbed her bike. "Wow. You're such a man. You wouldn't know, would you? It's waterproof mascara."

She pushed her bike and motioned for me to follow.

"Come on, Blondie. Let's go pretend we're normal for a few hours before someone else starts crying in public and makes it weird."

I shook my head. "We going to sneak behind the konbini's dumpster so you can drain some of my blood for your breakfast because we're just a couple of normal high school students on their way to class, eh?"

She turned back to me and grinned "Don't you just know it?"

I held out my wrist for Shion as the three of us stood behind the konbini's dumpster, her usual breakfast haunt. Yuki turned away, quiet, preferring not to watch.

Shion smirked and looked at me as she stepped forward. "Oh, now really? I think we're past that, don't you?"

Before I could say anything she put her arms around my neck and pulled me forward.

Until I put my arms between the two of us.

"Hold on a second, Shion."

Her eyes flashed. Her mouth hung just inches from my neck.

I felt her take a breath. "…I can see your pulse, Blondie. It looks delicious."

And for some reason, I couldn't help myself. I laughed. I lowered my hands, put them on her hips, and slowly pulled her closer to me.

But I looked at her flat, waterless green eyes before I let her bite me. And I saw her, not as the vampire or the threat, but as the girl who sat under the desk and asked me to hold her.

"Good morning, Shion. This might sound weird, but I missed you for some reason."

She tilted her head and looked at me as though I'd suddenly grown a third eye. "You missed me? It's only been a few hours. I thought for a second you were going to kiss me."

I laughed again. Then, I looked to the side as she stepped forward and bit my neck.

I tensed as I felt Shion's cold, dry lips as they latched onto the skin around my throat and pulled my blood from my body.

Squeezing my eyes as tightly as possible helped a little, but nothing covered the sound of her swallowing.

She finished a moment later and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

I was about to step away when I felt her hand on my sleeve.

"Hey," she said. "The next time you look at me like that, you'd better."

My breath hitched in my throat. "What?"

She turned her head slightly, just enough to let me catch her winking at me as she walked by.

I heard Yuki sniff as I stepped out from behind the dumpster behind Shion.

"You didn't have to let her drink from your neck," she said, and I felt all the guilt behind it immediately.

Then I felt Yuki's hand on my neck for a second.

"Oh," she said as we touched briefly. "It's already healed."

Shion took a breath, stopped pushing her bike, and turned around "Yeah. What do you know? It heals. Instantly. Almost like magic."

I touched the spot where she'd bitten me. It still felt cold.

"I'm guessing it's more of the unknowable vampiric lore," I said, catching up with her.

She just shrugged. "I don't know. I guess. It's not like the boy who did this to me stuck around to explain himself."

I heard Yuki make a small, surprised gasp. "A boy did this to you?"

And I saw Shion jump, just a little, before she returned to her usual, sarcastic self.

"Yeah? So what?" Shion spat. "It was pretty much a fifty-fifty chance. It's not like a spider monkey turned me into a vampire. What happened to you?"

Yuki put her chin against her chest as she floated beside us. "I'm really sorry that happened to you, Shion. I'm not quite sure what it was, but whatever happened… you didn't deserve it."

Shion didn't say anything. She just kept walking up the hill towards Crescent Moon Academy.

"I slipped and fell off the balcony. Over the railing. I-I was a very clumsy girl. I remember trying to catch the rail as I fell over the side, but I missed it. I hoped mother wouldn't be too sad when she found out."

I stopped walking.

Shion did too.

Yuki stopped and looked confused. "Are you both alright?"

I tried to find words, but what do you say to someone who's just told you how they died? Hallmark hasn't cornered the market for ghost cards.

"Yuki, I didn't know what happened. I'm sorry," I stammered.

"You fell off the balcony onto the stone patio around the onsen?" Shion asked.

Yuki nodded. "Yes. I don't know how long I was there. I can't imagine it was terribly long though. I'm glad it wasn't messy, well, not too messy anyway, but still embarrassing."

She sighed. "I saw my body, head pointed skyward as I laid there. My eyes were half open, staring at nothing. It looked like I was watching the fireworks I never got to see."

I winced after she said that, and everything seemed to pause. Even the wind stopped.

Somehow, the way she said it, like she'd long since stopped feeling sad about it, stung like snow falling down the back of my neck.

"And the world kept on spinning," said Shion.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.