Chapter 28: How to Rest a Creaking Body

—The place I was in was cold enough to chill me to the bone, wrapped in a dim, shadowy darkness.

I had no idea where I was.

The darkness was so thick, no matter how hard I strained my eyes, I couldn’t see a thing. It was like a deep ocean that stretched on forever.

…If I stayed in this dark world for too long, I felt like my entire existence might be swallowed up and crushed to nothing.

The longer I remained still, the more that vague, gnawing fear began to creep into my heart.

For some reason, that fear felt disturbingly real.

So I desperately flailed my arms and legs, trying to escape from it.

Fortunately, my efforts seemed to pay off. My body began to float upward—slowly, ever so slowly.

And when I reached a certain point, something warm brushed against my fingertips—

My consciousness rapidly resurfaced.


The moment I opened my eyes, I flinched.

Because right in front of me was the face of my silver-haired childhood friend.

And she was so close that if I moved my head just a little, we might bump into each other.

Apparently, Mikoto Hikari had fallen asleep.

She was leaning against the bed I was lying in, letting out soft, steady breaths as she slept peacefully.

Uh… okay.

What exactly happened again?

I looked around quickly and saw a comforter in a dark blue color scheme, a bookshelf stuffed with manga, and a study desk that rarely got used—mostly because I usually studied with Hikari in the living room.

In other words, this was unmistakably my own familiar room.

But still, why was I lying in bed?

I was supposed to have gone on a mountain hike.

I couldn’t figure it out, and with my groggy, barely-working brain, I tried to piece together what had happened.

Just then, the door opened quietly, without a sound.

In walked my mom, wearing an apron.

“…! Yousuke, you’re awake…! I was so worried when I heard you collapsed during the field trip…”

…Right.

I remembered now.

I had entrusted Hikari to Goenji, and then, like a thread being cut, my consciousness had simply slipped away.

What had happened after that?

I tried to sit up and ask Mom—

“Cough, cough…!”

But a dull pain shot through my throat, and I ended up in a fit of coughing.

“Don’t push yourself. You were asleep for an entire day, you know.”

“A whole… day…?”

As she gently rubbed my back, Mom nodded and explained everything.

Apparently, after I passed out, the teachers took me straight to the hospital.

But even after running tests, the only injury they found was the bite mark on my arm. No signs of illness or anything strange.

The only diagnosis was an intense level of fatigue—severe, but not enough to require hospitalization.

So after getting an IV drip, they sent me home early as a precaution.

…That made sense.

Now I understood why I was here.

Though, contrary to the doctor’s expectations, I didn’t wake up right away, and it seemed I’d caused Mom quite a bit of worry in the meantime…

“Sorry, Mom…”

“There’s nothing to apologize for. It’s not your fault. Still, you might want to say something to Hikari-chan. She was so worried—she said, ‘I won’t leave Yousuke’s side until he wakes up!’ and stayed right there.”

“She did…?”

Hearing that, I looked down at her peaceful sleeping face. But now, it wasn’t just my throat—my head was throbbing too.

When I mentioned it, Mom said,

“Maybe your immune system dropped from all the fatigue, and you caught a cold. You haven’t had one since you were a little boy, so it’s no wonder you didn’t realize it.”

Now that she mentioned it, I really had been walking around soaking wet for quite a long time.

It was still only early autumn, but catching a chill and falling ill under those conditions wasn’t surprising at all.

“Even so, I wonder why you were so overworked… It’s not like you’ve been going out late every night like you did before.”

“Well, that’s…”

A reasonable question slipped out of her mouth.

There was no way I could say it was because I’d been giving blood to the vampire currently sleeping beside me, so I found myself at a loss for words.

“…Sorry. I’m talking too much when you’ve just woken up. Besides, you won’t recover unless you eat something. Now, be good and lie back down, alright?”

But Mom seemed to misread my silence, thinking I’d gone quiet because I wasn’t feeling well.

She gave Hikari’s head a gentle stroke, said just that, and quietly left my room.


With only the two of us left in the room, it wasn’t long before Hikari stirred slightly.

Then, as soon as she opened her eyes, the first thing out of her mouth was—

“Yousuke, you’re awake!?”

“Yeah, thanks to you.”

Hearing my hoarse reply, Hikari let out a long, relieved sigh.

I couldn’t help but feel the same way.

Simply put, she looked remarkably healthy.

In fact, her skin had a glow to it, like she was radiating vitality. The deathly pale face she’d had before was now completely gone—as if it had never been real in the first place.

Well, I’d already figured that much when I saw her sleeping face, but seeing her fully awake made the relief hit that much harder.

“I wasn’t sure how things were going to turn out for a while there, but… now I can finally relax.”

That kind of comment just slipped out of my mouth without thinking—but as soon as I said it, Hikari pouted with a sharp frown.

“You can’t relax at all! Yousuke, you were in real danger, you know!? Giving that much blood to a vampire is basically suicide! If anything had gone wrong, you might’ve died for real!”

“...Was it really that serious?”

“It was. I told you before, right? Vampires don’t just drink blood—they absorb the magical energy in it. Even if the amount isn’t enough to make you anemic, you could still die from it. You could’ve ended up as a soulless husk—a vegetable! So please, don’t ever do anything like that again!”

She suddenly launched into a full-blown scolding, and I was left completely stunned. But her expression was deadly serious.

I understood—she was only saying all this because she genuinely cared.

“S-sorry… But what exactly happened by the riverbank?”

Still, even as I apologized, I pressed her for an answer.

—Was Hikari going to die?

That terrible feeling had driven me to act without thinking.

And if I were ever faced with the same situation again, I was sure I’d do the exact same thing.

To stop that from happening, I needed to know what had really happened to Hikari.

“…I was pushed from behind. I got distracted by the apples scattering everywhere, and someone took advantage of that moment. I think the apples were just a decoy. What they really wanted was to ruin my fun. But when I happened to show up, they panicked and acted on impulse.”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Hikari averted her gaze.

Her expression was strained—uncomfortable. Which only made it more obvious that she was telling the truth.

And in fact, that explanation made everything make sense.

Even when she was setting up the apples, she’d been careful never to get close to the water’s edge, aware of the dangers of coming into contact with running water.

Despite being the one who suggested the outing, she had left the entire setup to me.

Given how cautious she’d been, the fact that she still ended up in the river made it far more likely that someone had acted with malicious intent than that it was a simple accident.

“…Do you know who it was? Have you done anything that might have made someone hold a grudge against you?”

It might’ve been a harsh question, but I had to ask.

If Hikari’s guess was correct, the culprit probably didn’t think much of it. They couldn’t have known that just touching water could be fatal for her.

Still, it was a malicious act, plain and simple. We needed to stay on guard and make sure nothing like this ever happened again.

“No… It was a surprise attack. I didn’t see who it was. But from the voice I heard as they ran off, I think it was a girl. And, well… once I think of it that way, I have a pretty good guess about why someone might’ve held a grudge.”

“Then tell me. Even if we can’t identify the culprit, knowing the motive might help us prevent a second time. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

“...You mean it!?”

“Y-yeah.”

To me, that was just the obvious thing to say—but Hikari’s face instantly lit up with pure joy.

“Do you remember when I told you that some of the people who confessed to me already had girlfriends? In other words, they were cheating. And for some strange reason, the girls always end up directing their resentment toward me, not the guy. So I’m pretty sure that’s what caused this whole mess.”

“Uh, meaning…?”

“To stop that kind of twisted jealousy from happening again, you need to show everyone we’re a couple more clearly! You promised, remember? So you better step up!”

Before I could say anything, Hikari forced her reasoning on me and walked out of the room looking totally satisfied.

Almost like she’d been waiting for the perfect excuse.

Then, right on cue, Mom walked in with a bowl of rice porridge.

…But even with all that said, what exactly was I supposed to do?

The pounding in my head probably wasn’t just from the cold.

Comments (1)

Please login or sign up to post a comment.

Share Chapter