CHAPTER 23

The nights in Tokyo were sleepless, but so were the vampires. The buildings were tall, but it made no difference as they flew more than they ran—the sleepless nights just meant that there would be more victims than they could afford to lose when the nightwalkers attacked, and that’s the one thing they had to absolutely prevent.

Once they hit the Tokyo National Art Center, they made a beeline straight East. The shrine wasn’t exactly straight from there, but that’s the closest direction the siblings could think of. They could readjust the specifics later to get to Atago. The important thing was that they got to the proximity first.

Kou sighed. Thank goodness he didn’t have to rely on cars.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been running with Chi for, but when he felt a familiar heat of discomfort radiating in the air, he knew he was close.

“Himiko,” he whispered.

He couldn’t see the light directly this time—she was probably hidden deep in the concrete jungle and metal fences standing between them. He could, however, feel the exact same kind of heat he felt when she performed exorcism right in front of him. The same holy aura that suppressed Chi and disintegrated Kurotarou.

Huh. No wonder nightwalkers generally avoided their school.

Coming from the west also meant that Kou wouldn’t have to climb the renowned Stairs of Success, the steep stairs where the young brash samurai Magaki Heikurou dared his horse to fetch a branch of plum from up the hill to answer the whimsical challenge of the Shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu. It meant they had to come from the direction of the Hibiya line, so they were closer to the pedestrian access to the shrine.

The climb would take a little longer, but at least it won’t be a forty-degrees incline. Kou took a deep breath.

The night darkened, the lights blurred; the heat was growing so intense he could feel it on his face, as if he was staring straight into the campfire. And, finally, he was there.

The main shrine of Atago Shrine.

Himiko was already there, barely even out of breath. She was enveloped in the same golden flame, the sun, the fire, the holy. She didn’t even react to Kou’s arrival—she was in her exorcist state.

And there, sitting in the open path in seiza position, was a face too familiar.

Her short black hair complemented her white miko outfit and red hakama, but there’s no mistaking that hair clip anywhere.

Kou’s jaw dropped. “S-Sakura-senpai?”

His senior raised her face, and Kou only then realized he had never seen such darkness in her expression. “Kokonoe … kun?”

There was his missing senior. There sat the girl who made his Library Committee days all fun and bearable. He had never seen her wear a miko outfit before, but he was more concerned about what she had in her right hand.

It was a small metal stick the length of a palm, sharpened on one end and wrapped in lacquer on the other.

A shuriken.

She held it cautiously on the ground.

“Metal,” Himiko said—there was a sternness to her voice that Kou had only ever heard during her exorcism. Sakura nodded.

“Correct. In gogyo, Metal collects Water. Earth obstructs Water. If I add a Metal complement to an Earth ritual….”

“You could coalesce and obstruct all the Water-attribute chi, keeping them all here and cutting off the leylines entirely,” Kou deduced. Sakura nodded.

“I didn’t know you were into the occult, Kokonoe-kun, Yamato-san.”

“I—”

“Don’t be fooled, Nii-chan,” Chi warned. Her fangs and her claws were stretched out. “She can See.”

Seeing was one of the few ways spiritual sensitivity could manifest. People who could sense things on the spiritual end of things were usually called psychics or espers—and one of the best-known forms was seeing ghosts.

However, with spiritual sensitivity, being able to See usually didn’t just come with seeing ghosts. It was seeing swirls of power, feeling the flow of chi.

It was knowing the kind of aura that enveloped Himiko or the vampiric features on Chi.

Kou’s heart sank. He gulped.

For now, he had to make sure nobody broke into a fight. “I didn’t know you were also into the occult, Senpai.”

Sakura smiled sadly. “I’m usually not.”

“So why are you doing this?”

Sakura’s eyes widened, along with her smile. It was probably because of the darkness, but Kou only now realized how gaunt her eyes were, as if her eye sockets could almost show. She was a lot thinner than he remembered, although the slightly oversized miko outfit hid that fairly well. Did she go on for days without eating? Kou shivered a little.

Kou could almost see a hint of tear forming in the corner of Sakura’s eyes.

“They come at night, Kokonoe-kun,” she muttered. Her voice was small and raspy, but Kou could hear her well. “They come every night. They come in my dreams. They come when I’m awake. I’m so tired.”

“Who do you—”

Kou stopped.

Don’t be fooled, Nii-chan.

She can See.

He took a deep breath. “The nightwalkers.”

Sakura nodded. “They devour people and devour each other. I hate it so much. I’ve been seeing them since as far as I could remember. My friends thought I was weird. But they were scary. They were always so scary.”

Kou took a step forward. Chi twitched, as if trying to stop him, but refrained for some reason—she probably knew that he had to do this. “So you waited all those years for this?”

“No,” she whispered. “No, I became a miko because I thought I could help people. It’s just … it’s just not enough. They still come. They still look at me everywhere I go. This new school year especially … it’s unbearable.”

Kou kept walking towards Sakura. His senpai didn’t even react to that—she didn’t try to stop him, nor did she welcome him. She just stayed there, keeping her shuriken on the ground. Kou could feel a weak pulse coming from there, as if something powerful was restrained and was trying to be let go.

“This way, they all have to go. I won’t have to see them anymore. It’s good.” She then raised her face to look Kou in the eye. “Why did you have to be one of them, Kokonoe-kun?”

Kou paused. “Senpai … what scared you?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You asked why I had to be a nightwalker,” Kou said, still unmoving. “I was born this way. This was always me. But for you to even ask me that … I can only think that you’re scared. But I just don’t get it. You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Then what scared you?” Kou took another careful step. Still no response. “What got you so scared of nightwalkers? Of me?”

“You don’t get it.”

“Then please make me get it.”

“You don’t—you don’t understand. I could see you, all of you, and for just that, the people I thought were friends would laugh at me. My mom would say that I was saying disturbing things. She was angry. She wasn’t happy.”

Kou took another step closer.

“My dad, he didn’t care, but he’d tell me to behave. I was just telling them what I saw. How was I to understand that it’s something weird? All my friends could tell their parents that they saw a big bug and their parents would protect them. I couldn’t even tell my parents that I saw even bigger bugs, even stranger creatures. My mom would get mad. My friends would laugh. I still don’t understand.”

And another step. Kou had entered the gates to the main shrine—he actually expected some form of protection there, but he didn’t feel any. Could Sakura actually not understand anti-nightwalker measures?

“Then they always appear at night. Everywhere. Out on the streets. Sometimes in my room. They’re scary. I couldn’t run to Mom. I couldn’t run to Dad. Only my blanket was on my side because at least it could hide me from the scary things.”

This time, Kou just walked up to her. Slowly, Sakura started sobbing.

“I just want them gone. I don’t like them. I don’t like them at all. I started my miko training a while ago but then I learned that I could just do this. So I did. And it worked! They’re all gone!”

“But then, Senpai,” Kou crouched, keeping himself level with his senpai, “why do you look so emaciated?”

“I need to come here every night to make sure the bending doesn’t give. I also need to do other rituals to keep this up….”

“How long do you have to do it for?”

“Around five … maybe six hours.”

“And the rituals?”

“Can be done during the day, but….”

“Did you have to fast?”

Sakura gulped. “Something like that.”

Kou sighed. “Then, Senpai … if you stop, wouldn’t they reappear?”

Sakura finally broke into tears and began to weep. “Yes … that’s why—hic—I must keep going….”

“And if you keep going, what do you gain?” Kou asked as he sat down, cross-legged, in front of his senpai. “They’re gone, and you don’t even get to enjoy the moments you get without them. Not to mention….”

He reached out, slowly. Sakura flinched a little when he moved, but then realized that he meant no harm and let him.

He touched the hand she used to hold the shuriken down. “Senpai, there are things I want to show you. Will that be alright?”

Sakura was still weeping, but from in between her sobs and from the veil of her tears, she looked straight at Kou. “W-what is it? J-just so you know—hic—even if I leave here, it’s not like the—hic—leylines would come back.”

Kou raised both hands. “Oh, no, if I just wanted to get you to move, my sister would’ve probably tried something more extreme.”

Color drained from Sakura’s face almost instantly.

“But she won’t,” Kou hurriedly added. “I guarantee it.”

He threw a glance at Chi with that last sentence, and she clicked her tongue—but she retracted her claws and fangs nonetheless. Sakura’s breathing was still a bit fast.

“Senpai,” Kou offered his hand. “Please?”

Sakura was still clearly shaken, and her entire face was a mess. She trembled as she took Kou’s hand. “Promise me you won’t hurt me.”

“I promise you I won’t hurt you.”

“You’re not going to …,” she peeked at Chi, “… turn me into a vampire or something?”

“I won’t.”

“You won’t trap me or anything?”

“Senpai, why would I even do that?”

She suddenly gripped Kou’s hand so hard it hurt. Kou nearly yelped, but he kept it in. Sakura only seemed to be on the verge of tears once again. “Because … I hurt you….”

His hand hurt alright, but Kou took a deep breath. He knew she didn’t mean him personally—she was talking about the nightwalkers. She knew that he was a nightwalker as well. He touched Sakura’s hand, relaxing her slowly. “I won’t hurt you. I won’t let any hurt come to you. I promise. But I really need to show you this—would you let me have the honor?”

Sakura finally nodded.

Slowly, Kou helped her to her feet. She still didn’t let go of her shuriken, but Kou tightened her hand to a grip, making sure she didn’t let go.

“Then come. Let me show you how life is as a nightwalker. Since we’re pretty close to Tokyo Tower, wanna try looking from up there?”

*