The Werewolf

“Give it back! Please!”

The little girl lies there in the mud, scraped up, tears pouring down her face.

“Tell ya what, doggy. Why don’t you do a few tricks for us?”

The other two boys snicker as he waves her game console in the air.

“Then maybe, maybe we’ll give it back. Let’s have you start by getting on your hands and knees like a proper dog.”

“I can’t!” she sobs. “Papa said a true wolf always has to keep their head held high—”

“You’re right. It’s not like you really care about any of these games, right? After all, you can always just start again.”

As he goes to smash the console on the ground—

“Wait!”

He smirks as she forces herself to obey his order, shame written all over her face. “Good. Nice and obedient, like every dog should be. Now, what first… I know! Why don’t you bark for us?”

She hesitates… then swallows her pride and opens her mouth to—

“Oof!”

I drop-kick the boy square in the head, sending him tumbling.

As her console flies into the air, I dive for it, just barely catching it in time.

Phew!

I take off my jacket and wrap it around the console before gently placing it on the ground.

“Hey! Why’d you do that?! Who even are you?!”

“Why? A real hero doesn’t need a reason to protect the innocent. As for who I am? I’m your worst nightmare.”

I cringe. Of all the comebacks I could’ve come up with, that’s what I choose? This girl probably thinks I’m some kind of lunatic. I don’t know if I’ll be able to face her after this.

“Ugh! You’re gonna pay for messing with us!”

They both charge at me, and I throw my fists up, ready to fight back.

I wail on them as hard as I can… but two-on-one is a tough fight, and when the other kid joins in, it quickly becomes clear how unwinnable it is… but I refuse to run—not while that girl is counting on me.

Every time they knock me down, I get back up, my fangs clenched, and while my injuries grow in number, so do theirs. Eventually, tears start to well up in their eyes.

The ringleader cries, “Argh, this is so stupid! We—we don’t need this! We obviously already won! That’ll teach you not to mess with us! Come on, guys, let’s go.”

They scurry off whimpering.

I turn around and find the girl still lying in the mud, crying, but her tears have slowed.

I throw my jacket under my arm, then grab her hand. “Come on, let’s go get you cleaned up.”

She quietly follows as I guide her over to a water hose. I place my jacket on a bench, then proceed to spray her down until all the mud’s been washed away.

After I’m done, she starts shaking herself dry.

Maybe she really is like a dog.

I place the console on the bench and use the jacket to finish drying her off, working my way from bottom to top. As I finish drying her hair, I’m finally able to see her eyes—

My heart skips a beat.

This might just be the prettiest girl I’ve seen in my whole life.

Her blue eyes sparkle like diamonds as she looks up at me in admiration. Her lips are soft, and her gentle smile reveals two small fangs—not quite like mine, but cute all the same. Her caramel skin is smooth, and her nose delicate. She has long, voluminous brown hair, flowing wildly down her back like that of a princess. Finally, a black dog collar hangs around her neck with a gold bone stitched onto the front, two adorable wolf ears poke out the top of her head, and a large fluffy tail sticks out from under her skirt—excitedly wagging.

“You weren’t lying… you really are a hero. Thank you for saving me.”

“I—uh.” I feel heat start rushing to my face. “No problem. Let’s, uh, go sit down.”

We both take a seat on the bench. As we do, she sticks tight to me like glue.

She’s so beautiful it fills my stomach with butterflies just looking at her, but not wanting to come off as weird and shatter whatever idealized perception she’s developed of me, I force myself to look her in the eyes anyway.

“Do… Do those guys always bully you like that?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “No… that was my first time meeting them. I… I don’t come here often. But Mama and Papa keep making me feel bad for playing videogames, so I just wanted somewhere I could play in peace.”

“Oh, that reminds me.” I hand her the console. “You better check to make sure this still works fine.”

She nods.

“Yup, everything’s—”

“Woah! I’ve never seen that monster before! How’d you catch it?!”

“I… I could show you sometime if you’d like.”

I reach into my pocket and pull out my own console.

“Way ahead of you!” I smile.

Her face lights up as if she’s finally found a kindred soul…

…then morphs into a cocky smirk.

“Heh heh, maybe we should battle first, see if you have what it takes to catch it.”

“You’re on!”

We spend the next few hours playing games, having a blast together. As the time flies by, I’m left more and more impressed by her. She’s so skilled, smart, funny, kind, and amazing in so many different ways! I wish we could keep playing together forever. However, as the sun starts to go down—

“I… I have to get going soon,” she says, looking saddened.

“Yeah, me too.”

“...Could we, maybe… play again sometime? I… don’t have a lot of friends. My family’s pretty strict. They only let me come here because I told them I thought studying outside would help me concentrate better.”

I can’t help but laugh.

Her ears droop—tears start to well up in her eyes. “Oh… I’m sorry. I guess that was a dumb—”

“Wait, no! I’m sorry!” I interrupt. “I wasn’t laughing at you. It’s just—I use the same excuse with my parents. They’re really strict too. I would love to play with you again!”

“...Really?”

“Do you think… we could play again tomorrow?”

She hugs me, her tail shaking excitedly. “Nothing would make me happier!”

Uh oh.

If this goes on for much longer, I think I might really fall in—

“Wait!” She pulls back. “What about… those bullies? What if they come back?”

“Ah, you don’t have to worry about them anymore.” I reassure her. “Bullies don’t like picking on people who fight back. Even if you can’t win, they’d rather just go pick on someone else. Besides, worst case—”

I puff out my chest. “I’ll just protect you again.” I wink.

She giggles.

“Thanks—uh… we never told each other our names, did we?”

I chuckle. “I guess not, huh? Well, I’m Himura. It’s nice to meetcha!” I grin.

“Well, I’m Mouri. And it’s nice to meet you too.” She beams.

***

For the next several years, Mouri and I went on to play together all the time. And the days we spent together? They were without a doubt the best days of my life. We were nearly inseparable…

Nearly.

“Mouri!”

“Himura!”

We shouted as our parents ripped us away from each other, having finally found out what we were up to.

Here in Tsukigakure City, countless clans war against one another for control of the city. By day, they battle in the corporate world for political dominance. By night, they battle in the streets for territorial dominance. And there are no two clans with a fiercer rivalry than the Himura vampires and the Mouri werewolves. The former wields a massive healthcare conglomerate, and the later wields an equally large conglomerate in the private security industry.

With both of us next in line to take over our respective clans, the notion of us being on such friendly terms with one another was completely unacceptable—and was put to an immediate end.

“We’ll be together again one day, Mouri! I promise! And next time, I’m never letting go!”

“I promise too, Himura! I’ll always—”

Before she could finish, her dad threw her into his car and drove off.

***

Throughout the rest of elementary school, and all of middle school, I never saw her again. However, just as I was beginning to lose hope, we wound up in the same high school together—and the same class, no less! Words couldn’t describe how excited I was to finally be reunited with her! So why—

“Looks like you lose again, shorty.” Mouri towers over me with a smirk while I sit at my desk, flaunting her perfect quiz score in my face. “Sure sucks to suck, huh?”

—did things turn out like this?