The Vampire

Gone is the sweet little girl I once knew. Instead, a goliath now stands before me. With an explosive body that all the guys slobber over and an outgoing hyper-confident personality that all the girls adore, she’s blossomed into an entirely different girl.

She wears our academy’s summer uniform flawlessly, a blazer-style ensemble meant to give off an air of prestige. The jackets feature a premium black weave accented with gold trim and buttons. On the left-chest pocket is our school logo—a golden crescent moon. Beneath all that are a crisp white dress shirt and dark red tie. To complete the look, tailored slacks for the guys and pleated skirts for the girls—framed by polished black shoes and long black socks.

Me, on the other hand? I’m not even sure I’ve grown since the start of middle school. Short and scrawny, I have pasty skin, red eyes, fangs, and neat silver hair adorned with our family insignia—a blood bag with a white heart on the front—worn as a hairclip.

Just my luck that I wind up a vampire with boyish looks, and the universe can’t even throw me a bone and make me the sparkly kind that girls dig.

“Earth to Himura, I’m talking to you.”

I jolt back to reality.

“Oh, were you? Sorry, I didn’t notice.”

“Ouch. Again with that sharp tongue of yours. You do realize guys as short as you don’t get the luxury of having a trashy personality, right? That’s where you’re supposed to be compensating.”

I slam my desk. “There’s nothing I need to compensate for!”

Her eyes drift downward, then snap back up as she dons a taunting grin.

“Given your… stature, I’m not sure I believe that.”

A few of the surrounding students giggle, and heat rushes to my face. “You—”

I throw my stuff in my bag and storm out of the classroom. “I don’t need this! I’m out of here.”

***

Unfortunately, as troublesome as Mouri’s been these past couple months at school—things have been even worse outside of school.

“Hey, dumbass! Keep up!” my cousin shouts.

While the whole thing about vampires bursting into flame under the sun is just a myth, it’s true that it does weaken our powers. At night, however, our physical capabilities are heightened to superhuman levels…

…well, most of us, anyway.

“I’m trying!” I wheeze, completely out of breath from trying to stick close to my cousin.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been the most… athletic. As a little kid standing up to bullies, that’s not much of a problem. As long as you grit your teeth and persevere, there’s nothing they can truly do to keep you down.

However, when dealing with grown-ass monsters, all sporting powerful supernatural abilities, it suddenly becomes a much bigger issue.

And why exactly am I being thrown into such danger? Well, as the next head of the clan, now that I’m sixteen, I’m required to attend the turf wars of Tsukigakure in order to gain combat experience.

As far as the rest of Japan knows, Tsukigakure is a large but mostly ordinary city, distinguished only by its abundance of temples and parks, its many tech and entertainment companies, and the bizarre fashion scene people enjoy making fun of on social media—with some residents “dressing up” like monsters.

But the truth is that it was here in Tsukigakure where Mononoke—the first monster—was born of strife during the Warring States period, bringing the monsters of Japan’s folk parables into existence in the hope of scaring humanity into finally following their messages of peace and righteousness. However…

It didn’t work.

And while humanity’s methods had been macabre, a victor eventually emerged. Japan had unified and found peace, its people now stronger and more technologically advanced than ever before.

Seeking to give her kin a new purpose, she called the monsters back to their birthplace, Tsukikagure, hoping to help them unify and evolve the way the humans had—minus the bloodshed.

Dividing the prefecture into countless smaller territories and distributing them among her kin, she challenged them to take control of as much of Tsukigakure as they could in a great 500-year contest known as the Yokaisoha, where territory would be conquered through honorable, even-numbered, deathless duels. A charm cast over the region would keep the contest hidden from humanity.

As the Yokaisoha nears its end, our clan stands as one of the strongest in Tsukigakure, and it’ll soon be my duty to lead us through the last stretch of the contest. The only problem is…

They couldn’t have picked a worse future leader.

All vampires are born with a unique blood art. By sacrificing our own blood, we’re able to wield powerful abilities in combat… or at least, we’re supposed to be able to.

Unfortunately, I was born with about as crappy an ability as it gets. All my blood art can do is create small barriers or light armor, and it only works on loved ones. Plus, I have to be making physical contact with them to even use my ability.

This, combined with my weak body and the fact I’ve long been resistant to even becoming leader of the clan, has led to me being seen as a colossal disappointment—someone who may end up undoing centuries of progress.

Meanwhile, in complete contrast—

“Look alive, Himura!” Mouri laughs as she hurtles toward me.

I dodge just in the nick of time, but she takes out my cousin, launching him into two other vampires—taking them all out in one fell swoop.

Mouri stands over them, having gone full beast mode—in more ways than one.

The idea that werewolves turn into grotesque creatures completely covered in hair is yet another myth perpetuated about monsters. However, they do indeed change. Senses heighten, muscles expand, nails turn into small claws, and their arms and legs do grow some amount of fur—however, it serves a clear purpose. Whereas we vampires have our blood arts, werewolves have their fur arts.

In Mouri’s case, she fires off long ropes of fur that she uses to grapple around the battlefield, reminiscent of a certain comic book web-slinger. With incredible strength, speed, and talent, she’s already used this ability to such success that after just a couple months she’s being heralded as the greatest prodigy in the history of her clan…

And now the battle’s down to just me and her.

Predictably, things immediately go poorly. Before I can so much as move, she spins around and throws out a rope, latching onto me. She then tugs, sending me flying straight toward her. Before I crash, she catches me mid-air, grabbing me by the waist and holding me tight against her.

She leans in with a smirk, her face just a few inches away from mine, so close I can feel her breath on my lips. She whispers, “You know, if you’d like, Himura, I could take you home as a trophy. Or maybe make you my new toy—play with you a little. It’ll be just like the good old days. What do you say?”

Feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment, I quickly turn away. “Yeah, yeah, I surrender, alright? You’ve clearly won, so just let me go already and be on your wa—”

She drops me, then walks away, waving me off. “Oh well, if that’s how you truly feel, I suppose there’s nothing I can do. See you tomorrow at school, Himura.”

The match ends, and her clan ends up winning the block.

My dad storms up alongside my mom, pissed, and scolds us. “Absolutely pathetic.”

He turns to me. “Especially you. Blood arts are supposed to grow stronger over time. How is it that you’re the one vampire whose blood art grows weaker?”

“You know exactly why. Maybe if I didn’t have such cruel parents I—”

SLAP!

My mom reprimands me. “We have given you everything. You’ve grown up with more privilege than most kids could ever dream—and you still wound up this weak. That’s not on us. That’s on you.”

My dad shakes his head. “If you continue to insist on remaining a failure in combat, then you better pray you wind up the best damn executive our company’s ever seen, because if you can’t provide your clan with the proper support it needs as its future leader, our chances of victory in the Yokaisoha will go up in smoke. Your exam results at school tomorrow better not look like whatever the hell it is we just saw tonight. You think we’re nasty now? I dare you to let your grades slip, then we’ll show you the true meaning of the word cruel.”

The two of them walk off, as does everybody else.

…

They know full well why my powers are getting weaker—that the strength of my blood corresponds to how strongly I feel toward the person I’m protecting. My family treats me like garbage, my powers get weaker, and then they treat me even worse in response, continuing the cycle. How is that my fault?

What a load of crap.

I didn’t ask to be born into any of this. If it were up to me, I’d go run off and live a peaceful life somewhere, far away, making games—the kind Mouri and I used to play together. The kind of games that brighten the lives of all the kids who have to go through the same crap I’ve had to.

Everybody acts like I’m so lucky—I can’t stand it. Nobody else understands, or even cares to.

The only person who ever got me was Mouri.

If I still had her… at least then I’d have someone to talk to about all this.

But now she treats me like garbage too, just like everyone else.

…

Argh! What the hell even happened to her?! Why’d she change so dramatically?! Get so wrapped up in all this clan war nonsense?! Did her family really brainwash her that badly?!

Ugh, whatever. It doesn’t matter. At least tomorrow I should be able to finally stave off my parents for a while once I snatch the top spot in our grade back from Mouri.

I studied endlessly for those midterms, and I can’t wait to shove the results right in her stupid face! I’m gonna pay her back tenfold and give her the same taste of defeat she’s been forcing me to swallow for weeks. I hope she’s ready, because tomorrow, I’m gonna give her a real piece of my mind!