April is the season of dancing cherry blossoms.
But Hikigaya believes this is a lie.
Sobu High School, which has few cherry trees, does not have that kind of romance—cherry blossom rain filling the sky, petals swirling like something out of a shoujo manga.
Such things, like the youth romantic comedies of ordinary boys, are non-existent voids.
Beautiful fantasies that exist only in fiction, designed to make real high school students feel inadequate about their own mundane lives.
So even when sharing a room with a beautiful girl, Hikigaya firmly believes these are just coincidental illusions.
Things like a youth romantic comedy with a beautiful girl definitely have nothing to do with Hachiman Hikigaya.
No matter how you think about it.
No matter how many beautiful girls keep appearing in his vicinity.
It’s a statistical anomaly, he told himself.
Nothing more.
Like Yuzuru in front of him.
Although she was very close—intimately close, by normal social standards—it was impossible for a romantic atmosphere to arise between the two.
This simple child was just simply coming to talk to him.
That’s all.
Just talking.
Perfectly innocent.
Perfectly platonic.
“Hikitani-kun, do all vampires have Familiar Beasts?”
“Theoretically, yes.”
Hikigaya kept his head down, reading.
Or pretending to read.
His sensitive sense of smell allowed him to scent the sweetness of Yuzuru’s blood—like honey, like summer fruit, like something his body desperately wanted.
Don’t think about it, he commanded himself.
Don’t look.
Don’t smell.
Don’t think about the blood.
To be honest, he didn’t dare look up at Yuzuru’s face, nor did he dare look down to observe Yuzuru’s impressive curves.
This child clearly had a development far exceeding normal high school standards—development that would make most girls her age either proud or self-conscious.
Yet she was like an elementary school student, completely unaware of her own high charm value.
No, you should say she wasn’t even as good as an elementary schooler.
Even a mesugaki—one of those bratty anime girls—knew how to use her advantages to tease and manipulate.
Yuzuru Yamai could never do that.
She was too pure.
Too earnest.
Too dangerous in her complete lack of self-awareness.
“Then what is Hikitani-kun’s Familiar Beast like?” Yuzuru leaned closer.
“Can you show me?”
“That is a forbidden matter.” Before Hikigaya could answer, Yukino’s voice cut in like a blade.
“Dangerous things like Familiar Beasts are strictly prohibited from being summoned in crowded places. The massive magical power can easily cause destruction.”
Thank you, Hikigaya thought.
Someone with common sense.
“Don’t worry, Yukinoshita.” He exhaled.
“I can’t summon a Familiar Beast.”
Silence.
“Are there really vampires who can’t summon Familiar Beasts?” Yukino’s eyebrow arched.
“You’re a bit too incompetent for a vampire.”
“Isn’t that normal?” Hikigaya weakly rolled his dead-fish eyes.
Apparently, he didn’t think being unable to summon a Familiar Beast was shameful.
It wasn’t like he had applied for this job.
“Since I became a vampire, I’ve never drunk blood. I have no way to make those guys inside my body listen.”
They’re like cats, he thought.
Stubborn, powerful, ancient cats who don’t take orders from anyone who hasn’t earned their respect.
“I see.” Yukino nodded, her expression softening almost imperceptibly.
“I misjudged you, Mr. Law-Abiding Vampire Virgin.”
From ‘Vampire Infant’ to ‘Vampire Virgin’?
This woman’s tongue was truly sharp.
But her tone of praise was sincere—she actually approved of his restraint.
She was just incapable of expressing approval without a cutting remark attached.
What a poisonous-tongued woman, Hikigaya thought.
I respect that.
“Eh? Hikitani-kun hasn’t drunk blood yet?” Yuzuru’s eyes went wide.
“Won’t you starve to death then?”
“No. Although I haven’t seen what other vampires are like, for me, normal food is perfectly sufficient to fill my stomach.” He gestured vaguely at his unchanged, unremarkable physique.
“See? Still alive. Still not a murderer.”
“But you’ll be malnourished,” the Yukinoshita Encyclopedia stated with clinical certainty.
“Just as cats can eat non-meat foods, they will definitely become malnourished if they don’t supplement protein for a long time.” She tilted her head.
“That’s why you can’t summon a Familiar Beast.”
“How pitiful,” Yuzuru said, her lower lip jutting out.
“Uuu.”
“No. I don’t see anything pitiful about it at all.”
“It’s decided!” Yuzuru suddenly stood up, striking a dramatic pose.
“I shall help thee summon the Familiar Beast of the Night!”
The chuunibyou.
“This child has a bit of a chuunibyou attribute,” he observed dryly.
“Come, General Hikitani!”
Before he could protest, Yuzuru pulled up the sleeve of her school uniform, revealing her smooth, pale arm.
She placed it directly in front of Hikigaya’s face—and waved it twice, like someone holding a sausage to tease a hungry dog.
This is…
Hikigaya felt his mouth go dry.
People who hadn’t been vampires couldn’t understand.
Vampires indeed had a deep-seated craving for human blood—not out of malice, not out of cruelty, but the same way humans naturally craved delicious food.
It was biology.
Instinct.
A hunger that lived in the bones.
The only difference was that what stopped humans from pursuing gourmet food was perhaps their wallet or their waistline.
What hindered Hachiman Hikigaya was his conscience and morality.
And right now, both of those are under significant pressure.
“Though it’s tempting…” Hikigaya forced the words out.
“I refuse.”
“Why?” Yuzuru looked genuinely hurt.
“I still want to see the Familiar Beast, desu.”
“Yuzuru, don’t cause trouble for Hikitani-kun.”
Yamakusa Yamai—Kaguya, the flatter-chested twin—spoke up from the corner.
Though they were twins with similar appearances, aside from the difference in their figures, there were also quite large differences in their personalities.
Yuzuru’s personality was lively and a bit chuunibyou, while Kaguya seemed much more steady and dull—the more rational type.
The brains of the operation, Hikigaya guessed.
“I actually think it’s not a bad thing.” Yukino’s expression was subtle—unreadable.
“Honestly, trying out this possibility seems quite good.”
Excuse me?
“Yukinoshita.” Hikigaya stared at her.
“Do you know what you’re saying? Telling me to bite the arm of a girl in the same grade…” He searched for words adequate to express his horror.
“That’s—”
“I think the problem lies with Hikitani-kun and his filthy thoughts.”
Yukino closed her book with a soft thump and analyzed the situation with the cold logic of someone who had never experienced a moment of social awkwardness in her life.
“Considering the dietary characteristics of vampires, this is merely a simple act of eating. There’s nothing worth being shy about.” She met his eyes.
“Furthermore, losing a small amount of blood at once won’t cause any problems for the human body. It can even stimulate blood production to a certain extent. Besides…” She gestured at Yuzuru.
“Yuzuru is a Spirit. Even if she is currently in a sealed state, her physique is still far superior to ordinary people. I don’t think there will be any issues.”
Even Yukino Yukinoshita said so.
Was it really okay?
To be honest, Hachiman Hikigaya’s impression of Yukino Yukinoshita was quite good.
Although she was a bit poisonous-tongued—okay, very poisonous-tongued—it was undeniable that this person had very correct values.
She was principled.
Steadfast.
She didn’t say things lightly.
If she thought this was acceptable…
“Yuzuru,” Hikigaya said slowly, “are you sure about this?”
“Yes!” Yuzuru’s smile was radiant.
“I want to help Hikitani-kun!”
She’s going to be the death of me, Hikigaya thought.
And not in the vampire way.
He looked at the arm extended toward him.
The pale skin.
The faint blue veins beneath the surface.
The pulse of blood that called to something ancient and hungry inside him.
This is a terrible idea, he told himself.
Absolutely terrible.
…But maybe I should do it anyway.
“Come, General Hikitani!” Yuzuru Yamai patted her broad chest—which moved in ways that Hikigaya very deliberately did not notice—while waving her arm twice.
“Don’t worry, Yuzuru’s body is very strong. Just helping you control the Familiar Beast. Friends should help each other, desu!”
In some respects, Yuzuru was indeed very ‘strong.’ But Hikigaya didn’t have a single lewd thought in his mind right now.
He was completely stunned—not by her physique, but by something far more disarming.
Friends.
“Are we… friends?”
Hikigaya was in disbelief.
Just like that?
He made a friend just like that?
No elaborate scheme?
No ulterior motive?
No hidden knife waiting to be plunged into his back?
“Eh?” Yuzuru tilted her head, genuinely confused.
“Are we not?”
Are we not.
She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Like breathing.
Like the sun rising in the east.
“No, no, no.” Hikigaya raised his hands, retreating into his natural habitat: overanalysis.
“First, we have to start with the definition of a friend, and then—”
“Hikigaya-kun.”
Yukino Yukinoshita’s voice interrupted Hachiman Hikigaya’s spellcasting.
Her tone sounded…
a bit scary.
Correction: very scary.
“Although I only treat you as an ordinary club member—nothing more, nothing less—this child, Yuzuru, sincerely considers you a friend.” Yukino’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t let her kindness go to waste.”
Anyone who refused would surely go to hell.
Although Yukino Yukinoshita’s tone seemed gentle—deceptively so—it gave off an irresistible feeling, like being gently but firmly pushed off a cliff.
What was that?
A word spirit of a snow woman?
Something like Absolute Justice or Justice Superman Judgment?
But putting Yukino Yukinoshita aside, Hikigaya could truly feel a palpitation from the heart.
Friend.
This vocabulary was once a hell-level difficulty dungeon—one he had attempted many times and failed spectacularly.
But it seemed, at this moment, it had become a possibility within reach.
It was by no means a lie of adolescence.
It was not following the crowd.
It was certainly not an emotion born of pity or social obligation.
The pure goodwill before his eyes was a genuine article that stood out like a beacon in the gray fog of his existence.
Real, he thought.
This is real.
“Um…” Hikigaya swallowed.
“Ya—Yamai…-san is my friend.”
“Hachiman!” Yuzuru’s eyes sparkled.
“You have to call me Yuzuru! Otherwise, how will you distinguish between me and Kaguya?”
Hachiman, she said.
Not Hikitani-kun.
Not Hikigaya-senpai.
Just…
Hachiman.
“This child,” Hikigaya muttered, “is already at the level of a social terrorist.”
“Quickly, drink!” Yuzuru thrust her arm toward him again.
“Quickly, drink!”
She’s not going to let this go, he realized.
She’s going to stand there with her arm out until I either bite it or the heat death of the universe.
Knowing Yuzuru, probably both.
“I’m digging in.”
Hesitating for a moment—a single, fleeting moment of doubt—Hikigaya followed the desire within his heart.
No, he corrected himself.
Not desire.
Sustenance.
Biology.
Friendship.
He would not tarnish the pure friendship between himself and Yuzuru.
Hachiman Hikigaya emptied his mind, excluding all lewd distracting thoughts, leaving only one simple concept: eating.
Like a meal.
Like a vitamin supplement.
Like something completely normal and not at all fraught with supernatural tension.
His red eyes slowly emerged, bleeding into his irises like dawn over a dark horizon.
His fangs grew alongside them—sharp, white, unmistakably inhuman.
Hachiman Hikigaya’s head slowly lowered.
Just a small bite, he told himself.
A tiny one.
For friendship.
For friendship.
…Why does that sound like the beginning of a bad horror movie?
“BANG, BANG, BANG!”
Hikigaya’s head snapped up.
His fangs retracted instinctively.
His eyes flickered back to their usual dead-fish gray.
“Excuse me!” A voice called from the door—sharp, professional, and completely oblivious to the scene they had just interrupted.
“Is anyone here?”
Saved by the bell, Hikigaya thought—and immediately felt guilty for thinking it, because Yuzuru’s disappointed expression was somehow worse than any punishment Yukino could have devised.
Sorry, Yuzuru, he apologized silently.
Maybe next time.
…Did I just voluntarily think ‘maybe next time’ about biting someone?
What has my life become?