CHAPTER 25

Chi was almost sure that she was the only thing keeping the Kokonoe household functional, which was kind of sad since she was their youngest child and only daughter. Often the case, though.

On the bright side, the entire crisis was pretty much over. Onihime and Tenka apparently took to the streets after Tenka had caught her breath, and Onihime couldn’t stop giggling when she described how Tenka said she was ‘feeling the call of duty’ when she decided to take off again. Tenka was beet-red throughout the whole conversation, but she didn’t say a word. Chi thought that Onihime definitely treated Tenka as a special existence, so she wouldn’t have minded if Tenka protested or raised a point against her or something, but apparently Tenka was just letting it all happen. Did she have a thing for being insulted? Chi couldn’t tell.

Chi only knew that Tenka walked away from that talk embarrassed, but that’s it. Onihime gave her a lot of headpats afterwards to make her feel better. Seeing the pure bliss on Tenka’s face, it seemed to work.

The reason they took to the streets was to target the places where the nightwalker gathered and convince them to stop and give it a moment. While Kou was off to handle Sakura, apparently Onihime and Tenka did everything they could to delay the attack. Nobody even told them to, they just kind of realized that it’s the one thing they could do.

Chi thanked their good luck that Onihime was a great talker—she’s probably used to it, owing to her station among the oni—because they did it, somehow. At least half of the attack spots failed to form because Onihime convinced them to wait just one more night, that they would witness a miracle. She apparently swore under her name.

It was how Chi understood that her first assessment was right: Onihime wasn’t her real name. She gave it up when she took the mantle. That said, ‘Onihime’ also became her name at the same time—anyone with enough power or skill could treat it as a proxy to her True Name.

As a spellcaster herself, Onihime was staking her entire existence on that promise.

That’s how much faith she had that Kou would succeed.

Chi still had no idea where anyone could find so much confidence in her brother, but to his credit, he did save Tokyo.

Sakura cancelled the ritual rather quickly, considering the effect it had. It did take a bit of extra effort as she apparently also had a number of swords pointed towards Atago Shrine: those swords were acting similar to the sharp edges of the building in Hong Kong. Sakura didn’t only mean to collect and redirect all chi to the Shrine, but also cut everything off from there. The swords cut off chi, so everything that was already redirected there wouldn’t have anywhere else to go. She just had to add the usual anti-nightwalker protection around the Shrine, and most nightwalkers wouldn’t have been able to make it through.

She didn’t, though, but apparently the nightwalkers avoided entering the Shrine entirely because of other reasons to begin with, so that’s why those who could move chose to migrate instead of attacking the Shrine. Sakura was simply lucky.

She was lucky enough that the nightwalkers avoided attacking the Shrine. She was lucky enough that Kou was the one who found her. She was lucky that Kou was a pacifist to a fault. She was lucky that Kou knew her personally. She was lucky that Kou could tell Chi to stand down. She was lucky that Onihime and Tenka found a way to stall for time for Kou’s impromptu plan to work.

So many things could’ve gone wrong in her plan, but she was lucky.

After Kou and Chi split up and helped her remove all her swords, the ritual cancellation took effect immediately. Even Chi herself could feel it—the air suddenly became light again, and she felt like she just drank a whole cup of fresh human blood. Her body felt like it could float. Something surged from deep within her core that made her want to scream out and laugh. It was probably pretty close to what humans described as a sugar rush … Chi had never felt one so strongly, so she couldn’t say.

This happened everywhere. As they made their way back to home (and Kou was being enough of a gentleman to offer to take Sakura home, to the visible irritation of Himiko once she dispelled her exorcist state), Chi realized that the nightwalkers no longer looked deranged. The heavy mood in the air was gone among the humans’ as well: their faces looked fresher, and there was an uncharacteristic amount of smiles all around, which was frankly kind of creepy given the hour of the night they were in.

Himiko’s mother arrived not long after the ritual was dispelled, and in addition to her daughter with Kou and Chi, she also offered to take Sakura home. It was a much more realistic option than to have Kou carry Sakura again, so Himiko insisted. Sakura didn’t put up much of a fight.

“Senpai,” Himiko said as soon as the car started moving.

“Y-yes, Yamato-san?”

“Do you want to refine your powers?”

Sakura’s jaws hung. “I’m sorry?”

“You weren’t even taught the basics of proper onmyodo and you could already pull off all of this just based on a working theory,” Sakura said. “Did someone teach you?”

Sakura shook her head. “I just … kind of got the idea in my dreams.”

“Then you’ve got the talent. Just being able to See is usually very rudimentary, but to be able to pull off this kind of ritual, you definitely need skills on top of talent. You’re a diamond in the rough, Senpai. I can help you.”

Chi could almost feel that Sakura was very carefully choosing her words. “But … I hurt all of you.”

“If I help you, would you use that ability to hurt me or Kou-kun?”

Chi turned to her with eyebrows raised. Himiko sheepishly nodded.

“Or Chi-chan?”

Sakura furiously shook her head. Himiko shrugged.

“Then it’s fine, no? It’s better to have all those abilities under control than let them run amok, don’t you think?”

“Under control…,” Sakura thought for a moment. “Wait, so I can choose to not See?”

“If you’ve gotten to a good enough level of control, yeah. I think it’s more like selective attention, though. So you still See, you just don’t register them anymore.”

“That … would be pleasant.”

All things considered, even after whatever Kou told her, Sakura was understandably still afraid of nightwalkers. Chi could almost hear her brother say that’s fine, understanding is a work in progress. Chi cursed to herself for letting her brother influence her that much.

It was how Sakura ended up under the apprenticeship of Himiko’s mom, and that marked the real end to all things.

In other words, Onihime and Tenka’s tenure as the King of the Night’s assistants was over. The next morning, they immediately packed up and prepared to leave.

“Don’t forget your human disguises,” Kou said before they left. “It’s daylight. Wouldn’t want to trigger the Enforcers.”

Tenka had a bitter look for a second, but she complied and somehow hid her horns and sharp ears. So did Onihime. Now that she was paying a much closer attention to her, Chi only now realized that Onihime really was a beaut. Himiko had never met Onihime, right? Chi couldn’t help but wonder how Himiko would react if she knew that her boyfriend had been living under the same roof as this ethereal beauty these past few days.

“Thank you so much for everything, Milord,” Onihime said. Kou smiled.

“You too, Onihime. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Milord. Well, then.”

Onihime bowed one last time, followed by Tenka, and they left.

With that, their house returned to just being an abode for two. It was then that Kou sighed a single, long sigh of relief.

“It’s finally over,” he murmured. Chi nodded.

“Yup.”

“Finally….”

Kou barely finished the word as he suddenly collapsed.

Chi didn’t remember how she reacted. She remembered screaming something, she remembered moving to catch her brother, but she didn’t remember what exactly she screamed or whether she managed to catch her brother. She only remembered that his skin was reddish, and when she pressed her forehead to his, he was unmistakably burning.

Chi didn’t remember whether she used her vampire powers—what she did remember was that she brought Kou directly to his bed, wrapped him up in his blanket, and created a cold compress. She also remembered thinking whether human meds would work. She had no idea. She’d never been sick before, and to her knowledge, neither did Kou.

She paced the living room, then her room, then Kou’s room. She went to the kitchen, checked all the cabinets, and finally stopped right there in the middle of the living room right back where she began.

She just realized that she had no idea what she was supposed to do.

She was on the verge of tears when she finally reached out to her phone and punched in the number she remembered off the top of her head—a number that usually didn’t pick up when dialed anyway, so she wasn’t really staking her bets on it, but she had no other choice but to cross her fingers and pray.

The line connected.

“Hello?”

Chi felt a lump in her throat as tears welled up in her eyes. “Mom? Onii-chan just collapsed. He’s very feverish right now. Please come home….”

Never did Chi ever feel so lonely, but she really needed all the help she could get right now.

Kou didn’t wake up throughout the rest of the day. He talked in his sleep sometimes, and Chi did fall asleep for a bit—which was itself a miracle as she knew she didn’t need sleep, but maybe she was just that tired—but she otherwise stayed there right by her brother’s bedside. He didn’t move much at all. When Chi woke up, Kou seemed to be looking at his phone, but his eyes were barely half-awake.

“Onii-chan,” she meekly said. “Are you hungry? I’ve still got a few packets of blood if you want.”

Kou weakly shook his head. “I’m fine.”

“You sound like a frog croaking, how are you ‘fine’?”

Kou didn’t answer. He just shut his eyes again.

In the long history of vampirekind, never did Chi ever hear of a pure-blooded vampire falling sick. Humans could fall sick, half-humans could fall sick, converted vampires could fall sick, but pure vampires, who were vampires from birth? No way they could get sick. Especially not with human sickness.

But not only did Kou get sick, Chi even fell asleep.

Onii-chan….

Chi didn’t even know where her worry began. She couldn’t find the words. She was only aware that she felt worried, but so many things ran through her head at the same time and it was making her temples hurt. All of this on top of Kou’s collapse. Their mother was on her way home, but there’s no telling when she’d arrive—she kept saying that she had to be very cautious about using teleportation as she didn’t want to attract unwanted danger. Chi couldn’t even begin to imagine what danger she was talking about. This was her son.

Chi was Kou’s sister and she would’ve risked everything just to be by Kou’s side if she knew that he had fallen ill. How could their mom not just jump straight home? Chi didn’t get it.

All it did was feed her worry.

Then, knocks on the door.

It was late.

Their mom wouldn’t have knocked.

Chi’s ears perked up. Cautiously, she left Kou’s room, crossed the corridor, walked past the living room, and peeked through the small peeping hole outside.

It was Himiko.

Chi’s vision turned white as she opened the door. “What do you want?”

Himiko’s face lit up when she saw Chi, but her expression quickly changed when she met Chi’s eyes. “I—Kou-kun contacted me, and—”

“He needs to rest.”

“I know, I just—”

“Go away.” Chi could almost feel her breath growing heavier. “He needs to rest.”

“I just want to help—”

“And what can you do?!”

It was late. It was dark. Their neighbors probably all heard Chi’s yelling—but she didn’t care. Her vampire eyes didn’t register the darkness to begin with, but all she was seeing was white. Chi bit her lip before letting her dam burst.

“You’re a human, and an exorcist at that, what the hell can you do?!”

“I—I have medicines, and—”

“You honestly think your meds will work on us?”

Chi’s eyes were growing hot again. Himiko was clearly confused by the turn of events, but Chi barely recognized what was going on.

“We’re not even one of you—stop thinking that my brother is like you!”

“Chi-chan, what are you—”

“Don’t call me ‘chan’!”

Chi tried to slam the door on Himiko, but Himiko reacted faster and held the door before it hit the frame. Chi was using her full strength, it’s actually impressive Himiko could stop that.

“What do you want?!”

“I want to help your brother—I want to help you!”

“And WHAT DO YOU CARE?!”

“You’re—you’re my friend too, for crying out loud!”

Himiko actually raised her voice. Chi blinked for a bit. It was only then that she realized that Himiko’s face was red, almost as reddish as her brother. She was also out of breath, as if she was running to get here.

Her face was contorted not in anger, but in pure, unadulterated anxiety.

Chi didn’t respond, but Himiko took the chance to enter the house and calmly closed the door behind her.

“Chi-chan, I love your brother. I know you don’t trust me, I know you hate that I’m an exorcist, but if nothing else, I’m begging you. I’ll get to my knees, I’ll hurt myself, you can hurt me, I don’t care. I love your brother. I swear on my blood.”

Himiko winced for a second—she just swore on her blood to a vampire. Chi winced along, to her own surprise. Not out of pain. Just simple surprise.

“And,” Himiko tried to control her breathing, “on top of that, I love you, too. Kou-kun held you very, very dearly, and I can understand why, too. I know I don’t know you that well, but as much as I’m worried about Kou-kun, I’m worried about you.”

She took a step forward. Chi took a step back.

“I want to take care of Kou-kun. I want to check on you. I know your parents aren’t home right now. I know vampires don’t usually get sick. I … I don’t want Kou-kun hurt. And I don’t want you to worry alone. I just want to help you, okay?”

To her final surprise, Himiko started shedding tears. One teardrop slid down her cheeks, then two, and the next thing Chi knew, Himiko just started sobbing.

“Kou-kun wasn’t supposed to get sick,” she managed between her sobs. “He—is this my fault? Did he get weaker because he was close to me? Did I hurt him? Was he just under a lot of stress? Why did he feel like he had to take on the burdens of all nightwalkers and all humans around him? Why is he even….”

Himiko sobbed, and sobbed, and she finally fell to her knees weeping. She was shaking so badly that the plastic bag in her hand kept making subtle noises as her shoulders rose and fell.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Chi-chan, if I hurt you, I’m sorry. I really am. Kou-kun … I just want Kou-kun to be okay. I just want you to be okay. I’m sorry. I’m sorry….”

Chi didn’t even understand why Himiko was apologizing, but slowly, she was no longer seeing white. In front of her wasn’t the holy exorcist who could pin her down and erase a mujina without blinking. In front of her wasn’t the woman who stole her brother from her side.

In front of her was just a high school girl who was clearly in love.

In front of her was just a kind girl who hated hurting others.

Himiko kept crying, but slowly, she got to her feet. She gave Chi one last smile.

“I’m sorry if I got in the way,” she murmured. “You’re right. I don’t know if the meds would work. I … I’ll try and figure something out. Can I come back later? I’ll find something that works, I promise, just….”

“My mom is coming home.”

Chi had no idea why she said that. Himiko perked up a little.

“She’s coming home, and she’ll have something that works,” Chi said. “You don’t need to come back later.”

There was no mistaking the crestfallen look on Himiko’s face as she struggled to force a small smile. “You’re right. I’ll just….”

“So you stay here.”

Chi hated how Himiko made her feel. Chi hated how Himiko seemed to always bring the worst out of her. Chi hated that Himiko was an exorcist, that Himiko was her natural enemy. Chi hated that Himiko was nice. Chi hated that Himiko was pretty.

Chi hated how Himiko made her hate herself, but more than that, Chi hated how she couldn’t even be better in Himiko’s face.

Himiko just wanted the best. Why couldn’t Chi respond with the same?

“Do you want to see Onii-chan? I can’t guarantee the sickness isn’t contagious, though.”

With that, relief visibly washed over Himiko’s expression—which disappeared a moment later, as Himiko had jumped to hug Chi with all her might. She just broke out crying. “Thank you, Chi-chan!”

“….”

Chi almost dished her usual don’t call me ‘chan’ schtick, but she kept it in for now. Himiko earned it.

She earned it.

She still couldn’t bring herself to like Himiko, but at least Chi also couldn’t deny that Himiko loved her brother as much as he loved her. Maybe that’s fine.

For now, Chi just decided that the least she could do was make herself hate herself a little less.

*