The Bite

“Aw, cheer up, Himura. You came close. You just gotta come to terms with the fact there’s no beating the best.”

“There’s no way you could’ve scored higher than me! Do you have any idea how hard I studied?! It’s basically all I did the past few weeks!”

She laughs, shaking her head.

“Himura, Himura, Himura. You really think I didn’t know you were gunning for my spot? You’re not the only one who went through studying hell these past few weeks. Knowing I won out in the end, though? Watching your cute little reaction? Made it all worth it—”

“I’ve had it!” I shout.

The other students are now staring, but at this point, I couldn’t care less.

“Do you really enjoy seeing me miserable that much, Mouri? Does it really make you feel that good?! What the hell did I ever do to make you hate me this badly?!”

She hesitates. “Himura, I—”

“I don’t want to hear it! Whatever happened to the Mouri I used to know? I don’t even know who I’m talking to anymore! Whoever the hell you are, I can’t stand you! I’m done dealing with your bullcrap!”

I reach into my bag and pull out a key chain Mouri gave to me when we were kids, a birthday present—the monster from the first game we ever played together, the one that led to having the relationship we had for so long—a relationship we clearly no longer have.

I toss it on the ground. “We’re through! You can have your stupid keychain back! I don’t want to talk to you ever again!”

I storm off, finally letting go of the excruciating hope that things would ever go back to how they were between us, free from having to deal with her nonsense anymore.

***

…Or at least, so I thought. The library, a cafe, the riverbank—I’ve been walking for hours now, yet she won’t stop following me, no matter where I go. She’s clearly trying to be stealthy about it, but it couldn’t be anymore obvious that she’s tailing me with this gloomy look on her face. Is she really that upset that she can’t keep picking on me anymore?

I keep on walking, but I’ve reached the point where I’m not even sure where I am anymore, and it’s getting dark enough that by the time I reach home, I’m gonna miss dinner and get another earful from my parents.

I don’t even know what I’m trying to accomplish anymore.

I turn around and she quickly tries to hide.

“I know you’ve been following me, Mouri! I thought I made myself clear—we’re done! What do you even want from me?”

She steps out meekly.

“Himura, I… I think there might be a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?! About what?! What could I possibly be misunderstanding?!”

“I think I know the answer.”

We both turn, and my stomach drops.

This…

This is really bad.

Half a dozen harpies stand atop an archway in the park we’ve wandered into. I was so focused on Mouri that I didn’t even realize we had wandered into another clan’s territory.

“Pretty gutsy of you to come strolling in here like the place belongs to you. You must think we’re real pushovers, huh? That sure sounds to me like one hell of a misunderstanding.”

“We didn’t mean to—”

Mouri hops in front of me and beasts out, preparing for a fight.

“You have to go, Himura, you’re too weak. You could seriously get hurt.”

“Really?! Even now you’re making fun of—”

“I’m being serious, Himura, this could get really ugly. I’ll hold them off while you escape.”

“While you do what? Fight them all on your own? I don’t care how much everybody else has inflated that massive ego of yours, you can’t handle this many harpies on your own. They’re a terrible matchup for you.”

“I don’t have a choice, Himura! Just go!”

“I hate to interrupt your little lover’s quarrel,” the ringleader cuts in, “but if you think we’re letting either of you leave without a beatdown first, then we really do have a misunderstanding on our hands.”

She nods at one of the other harpies, and they fire a volley of sharp feathers in my direction.

Mouri hops in front, slashing them before they can reach me.

The harpies dive toward us, throwing out various feather arts as they circle around.

Mouri tries her best to use the surrounding terrain to swing up to the harpies and attack, but with them hanging out that high up in the air, she can’t get to them without moving extremely predictably—which is a guaranteed way to get a face full of sharp feathers. On top of that, while I’m trying my best to dodge, she’s repeatedly forced to come back to my side to cover for me. It’s painfully apparent how much of a distraction I am to her. If it wasn’t for me dragging her down, she could easily escape—

“Himura!”

By the time I realize I’ve gotten distracted, it’s too late. I leave myself open to multiple attacks, and she’s only able to stop one of them, forced to body-block the others as she pushes me out of the way.

“ARGH!” She winces in pain as her legs are riddled with sharp feathers.

The ringleader starts to circulate a whole cyclone of feathers, shaped like a giant spear.

Mouri quickly tries to pluck the feathers from her legs, but it’s clear to everyone present that she won’t be able to get them all out in time.

“Night-night, little doggy.”

Mouri throws her arms up in front of her and closes her eyes as she braces herself.

“Mouri!” I leap toward her, and right as the attack bears down on us…

Nothing.

She opens her eyes to find me holding onto her… then looks up. Astonishment spreads across her face.

“Himura, you…”

Before grabbing onto her, I sliced open my finger with a fang, sacrificing some blood to conjure a barrier, one far larger than anything I’ve ever conjured, so tough that it was somehow able to withstand the harpy gang’s fiercest attack.

“How—”

“Mouri.”

She looks into my eyes as I get the both of us back on our feet.

“I’m warning you now, this is gonna get a little awkward, but—I need you to trust me… do you think you can do that?”

She nods with a smile. “I trust you, Himura.”

I smile back. “Glad to hear.” My smile, however, quickly grows nervous. “Uh, well, anyway—apologies in advance!”

“What do you mean—eek!”

I run behind Mouri and hop onto her back, wrapping my legs and arms around her stomach—holy crap she’s shredded! No wonder I weigh nothing to her!

“H-Himura?! What are you—”

Before she can finish, I’ve used my blood art to cover her head to toe in semi-transparent crimson armor and thrown a dome over myself as well, so she no longer has to worry about protecting me. I’ve also adorned her armor with massive sharp claws on her hands and feet—the kind that can do some serious damage. And I’m not the only one who’s noticed.

The harpies are taken aback by the battle armor she now dons.

I’m glad it left an impression, because it took me sacrificing a hell of a lot of blood, so much so that I’m starting to get lightheaded—but as long as I can stay conscious, it should do the trick.

“This is all I can manage right now, Mouri. Do you think it’s enough?”

“It’s plenty, Himura.” She crouches low to the ground, ready to pounce. “Time to rip and tear.”

Throwing out her ropes, she starts bouncing around the area at breakneck speed before sending herself flying toward one of the harpies and grappling onto her.

The harpy tries firing feathers at her, but they all bounce off, and Mouri smashes her elbow into the harpy’s face, sending her plummeting out of the sky. She then sends out more ropes to keep up the momentum as she goes after another harpy.

Mouri continues to swing around the area, taking each harpy down one by one, leaving each of them lying on the, knocked out cold, until all that’s left is their ringleader.

The harpy starts conjuring another spear, but Mouri stares down the attack, completely unafraid. As Mouri slings herself toward the harpy, she throws her newly enhanced claws out in front of her and twists her body, turning herself into a living drill. Her charge and the harpy’s attack clash, but the spear doesn’t stand a chance, and she breaks clean through.

Before Mouri can pierce through the harpy, she throws her claws out to the side and instead crashes into her with a brutal headbut, sending the final harpy plummeting to the ground—off to sleep with the rest of her pals.

I guess everyone wasn’t exaggerating… Mouri really is a prodigy, huh?

As she touches down, I get off her, and the armor dissipates.

Without turning around, she asks, “Himura, about your blood art, I… I’ve heard how it works. The fact you could use it on me, and that it was so much more powerful than I’ve ever seen it before… Does that really mean what I think it means?”

Mortified, I let out a long breath. “Yeah… it does.”

She stands in silence.

“Listen, Morui, the truth is—”

Suddenly, she spins around and shoves me into the bushes.

“H-hey! Does it really make you that upset that I—mphf!”

Mouri leaps down into the bushes with me, pulls me in, and kisses me.

Our fangs awkwardly knock together for a moment, but neither of us cares. I feel like I’ve waited for this kiss for an eternity, and somehow it seems to last even longer than that. Yet, by the time it’s over, I still want more—

“M-Mouri?”

Tears stream down her cheeks as she pulls away.

“I could never hate you, Himura. You’re… you’re my hero—we promised we’d always be together. I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I only said all those mean things so we could talk to each other without people catching wind that we were still on good terms. I just—I thought you knew. The competing with each other, the banter—to me, it was like when we were still back in the park playing games together.”

She sniffles.

“I told you before… and I’ll tell you again. I’ll always love you, Himura. Always.”

“W-when did you tell me that?!”

“Wha—the day we were separated! How could you possibly forget?!”

“I—”

Suddenly it dawns on me, and I begin to laugh. “All this time, I—Mouri, when we were yelling to each other, when our parents were pulling us apart… your dad threw you in the car before I could hear the last of what you were saying. I had no idea you felt this way.”

“But I thought—”

…

Her expression falters. “So you don’t… feel the same as I—woah!”

I roll on top of her and caress the face of the most beautiful person I’ve ever known, both inside and out.

“Let me show you how I really feel.”

We share a long, passionate kiss, and just like that, I feel a warm, familiar joy—one I hadn’t felt in a long time. For a little while, all my worries melt away.

I pull back and smile at Mouri, whose face is now bright red.

She throws her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, Himura, I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.”

“I feel the same way…”

However, a harsh realization dawns on me.

“But… Mouri—what are we supposed to do? Our parents… there’s no way they’d ever allow us to be together.”

“Well… my original plan was for us to wait until we both became the heads of our clans. At that point, who could object to us being together? We’d have all the authority. We could maybe even… unite the clans. Put an end to the feud between them. I mean, think about how powerful the two of them would be if they worked together. We could maybe even finish the Yokaisoha early, finally uniting every clan once and for all… but…”

“Yeah?”

“I… don’t think I can wait that long anymore.”

“Truth be told, me neither…”

“But, we really should wait. It’d be a huge risk not to. Not waiting would be downright stupid.”

“Yeah, absolutely moronic.”

We both look at each other and laugh.

“Mouri, what if… what If I told you I wanted to do something… even dumber.”

“What could possibly be dumber than—”

She throws her hands over her mouth as she gasps. Tears start to gently stream down her face again, and soon they’re running down mine as well.

“Would… would that be alright with you?” I ask.

She nods. “Nothing would make me happier.”

As we sit up, she loosens the collar around her neck, moving it out of the way, and I bite down.

Afterward, she pulls the collar back down, hiding the bite mark.

After loosening my shirt, I expose the base of my neck to her, and she bites down, leaving a mark of her own.

Despite being two entirely different breeds of monster, we happen to share a similar custom—a way of letting the world know that you and your partner belong to each other and each other alone, forevermore.

Maybe… maybe this really is dumb. It was just earlier today that I thought I never wanted to see Mouri again. But I know now that I was wrong. That this is the very same girl I grew up with, the very same one I fell in love with at first sight—and now, all over again, at first bite.

I lean in and kiss her again, then pull back.

She smiles. “Guess we better make sure nobody sees these.”

“I think I might need to start learning how to apply makeup, just in case I get caught with my shirt collar down.”

She giggles. “Me too.”

“Wait a minute, are you telling me that—really?! Not even the slightest bit of makeup?!”

“What? Why?”

“Wow. It’s just that… I didn’t know you could get any more beautiful.”

“Himuraaa!” She slaps my chest as she blushes. “You big flirt!”

“Ugh.” She reaches into her pocket. “Here.” She opens her hand to reveal the keychain I had tossed away. “Guess I can give you this back now.”

“I, uh… I’m really sorry about all those hurtful things I said to you, Mouri—”

She kisses me once more, then pulls back and shakes her head.

“You don't have to feel sorry one bit, Himura.” She grabs my hands. “We’re finally together now, and that’s all that matters.”

“So… what next?” I ask.

“Well, we could trade numbers—that way we can communicate with each other without anybody knowing.”

After we finish swapping numbers, she continues.

“And maybe… we could go out on a date?”

“How are we supposed to do that without getting caught?”

“I don’t know, maybe we could… wear disguises?”

“Hm…” I stroke my chin. “I do think you’d look good with a mustache. Maybe we could get you a big old beard too. And a top hat and monocle while we’re at it.”

She giggles. “Oh yeah? Well, I think you’d look good in a nice, long frilly dress! We’ll get you a big padded bra too!”

Neither of us can help but laugh again.

As our laughter subsides, Mouri flashes an awkward smile. “Um… Himura?”

“Yeah?”

“Since we’re dating now… would it be alright if we start using each other’s first names?”

I nod. “Listen, I… I know that we’re going to have to be really careful from now on, and that it might not be easy, but deep down, I just know things’ll work out somehow. And even if… even if we were to get caught… I’m never letting go of you again. Even if it means us running away together. I promise—it’s me and you. Romero and Julie against the world.”

She smiles. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

— THE END —