Nana looked up at the moon, humming a tune to herself. She remembered when she was a child, and there was a girl she would always play with. Yes, a human girl. And the two of them were the best of friends. Until the human girl’s parents moved away and she never saw her again.

 

She remembered how the two of them would go into the woods and always play hide-and-seek, Nana’s favorite game.

 

“Are you ready~?”

 

“Not yet~.”

 

“Are you ready~?”

 

“Not yet~.”

 

She was always happy to be with the girl, to hear her laugh and see her smile. She was the only person who brought light into Nana’s gloomy, dull life. But when she was gone, her colorful world became grey again, until she met…

 

“Hey,” Nana snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see Yuka standing behind her. “You come up here to think about life, too?”

 

“Eh..?”

 

She sat down beside the older vampire, setting down two cans of tomato juice.

 

“Have one.”

 

Nana was curious, but she took the can and opened it, drinking the red liquid. The texture and taste of it seemed similar to blood, which made it easy for her to digest.

 

“So, what do you mean by you come up here to think about life?” she asked the younger vampire.

 

“This is my spot. I just sit up here, look at the stars, thinking about my life...”

 

“Oh, I see. How long have you been around?”

 

She frowned. “17 years.”

 

“17?”

 

“I… used to be human. Until Tomu turned me into a vampire.”

 

Nana’s eyes widened. “You were bitten by her?”

 

“Yup. I’m a bitten.” She then looked and saw her confused face. “You probably don’t know all the common terms nowadays. A ‘bitten’ is the term we use now for humans who were… well, bitten, and turned into vampires.”

 

“I thought vampire bites killed humans.”

 

“They do, if it’s strong enough. If you put too much venom in them, or their blood dry, they will die. And, there are some who only bite humans and turn them if they’re on the verge of death...” She saw another confused expression. “‘Turn’ means they transform into vampires.”

 

“No, I understand that… but, you can save humans.”

 

“Yeah… but there are some cases where they still die. Mostly, it’s because their bodies don’t adapt to the vampire genes in the venom on time.”

 

“But, isn’t vampire and human interaction forbidden?”

 

“Duh, why do you think we’re here?” Yuka said before gulping down more tomato juice.

 

“Ah… I see.”

“Well, I understand that you may not have fully adjusted to modern culture. You’ve been asleep for 1,000 years. What was the world like in your day?”

“In my day?”

 

“This place used to be a school, right? Did you attend this school?”

“Oh, yes. For a while. There were many people here. It’s been here for such a long time. I’ve probably been in this school since it first opened.”

Yuka stared at the girl in amazement. “Woah~...”

 

“And what was your school like?” Nana then asked, taking another sip of the red liquid.

 

“Ugh! It was SO boring. I did like gym and being with my friends during after school, but… other than that, I didn’t like it at all…”

“What did you do with your friends?”

“Hmm… usually after school, we’d just walk around Shibuya or Akihabara. If we had time, we’d go shopping for clothes or go into a purikura booth.”

Nana’s eyebrows furrowed. “Purikura?”

“Oh yeah, you don’t know what that is, do you? Basically, it’s this big booth you go into, like a giant box. And inside is a camera where you take pictures. Then you can decorate those pictures with little drawings or stickers, and put them in notebooks to keep.”

“Humans have accomplished such things?”

“Yeah. What did you do back when you were in school?”

Nana looked down shyly. “I would play with my friend.”

“Just one?”

“I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. Only one. She would stay by my side until she drew her last breath.”

Yuka nodded. “She must’ve been a good friend.”

“We always played hide-and-seek.”

The younger vampire snickered a bit. “Isn’t that for kids?”

“She really did love it. It was my favorite, too. I would always hide in places it’d be hard for her to find me, give her a challenge every once in a while. She’d spend hours looking for me.”

“Didn’t she ever give up?”

Nana shook her head. “Not once.”

Yuka looked and saw a sad expression in Nana’s eyes. Those two must’ve been really close if they had such a relationship.

“What was her name?” Yuka asked before taking another drink of tomato juice.

“Mako.”

With the older vampire’s answer, the red liquid came spewing out of Yuka’s mouth. The girl gave Nana a look of shock.

“W-what? Does it taste bad?” Nana asked.

Yuka only shook her head.

She then stood up. “I-I think.. I’m done thinking about life for tonight.”

She said her goodbyes to Nana and walked away. She then happened to run into Tomu, who was heading her direction.

“Tomu…” she spoke, making the girl stop in her tracks. “Do you.. do you vampires believe in reincarnation?”

“Haa? Why are you asking?”

“Just.. curious.”

“Well, I personally don’t believe it, but how can we be sure?”

Yuka nodded. “Right…”

------------------------------

 

Karen was going through her regular training routine. She punched and kicked the heavy punching bag, her grunts and screams of anger echoing the near empty room.

Not too far, Juri and Ryoka happened to be watching the girl.

“How long is she going to stay like this?” Juri asked.

“It can’t be helped. Ever since what happened to Yuka…” Ryoka paused a bit when she heard another violent scream. “It really hurt her.”

“Yeah, but…”

“You’ve seen for yourself how ruthless she can get. She hates vampires.”

“She more than anyone. Yes, I know that.”

“There’s nothing we can do. Just leave her be.”

“But… what if she gets out of control? If her anger consumes her and…”

They heard more screams and decided just to leave the girl alone.

As Karen was trying to catch her breath, her eyes darted a picture on the other side on the room, one that had her and Yuka together.

It was a year ago that incident occurred… when Yuka was captured and became a vampire. Ever since that day, Karen felt like a piece of her had been ripped out, leaving nothing but anger and loneliness.

“Those vampires…” she gripped her fist in anger. “I’ll never forgive them!”