Mako was packing in her room, when she heard a knock at the door. She saw Nana standing there, and noticed one of her fingers was bleeding. Her eyes widened seeing the bloody finger, making her worry.

“What happened?!” she asked, walking up to Nana.

 

“Mako…”

“Your finger…” Mako lifted her hand, looking to see two puncture wounds on her finger. “Did someone bite you?”

“I did it.”

“What?!”

“I did it to help Manatsu.”

“Manatsu?” Mako furrowed her brows. “What’s wrong with her?”

She tried to leave, but Nana stopped her, looking at her with serious eyes.

“Kiss…”

“Eh?!”

“Kiss me…” Nana suddenly said, holding the girl. “Mako…”

“S-stop!” Mako pushed the girl away, running out of her room. As she left in shock, Nana gave a sad frown, looking at her finger.

“I’ll need to find a bandage…”

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

“Is everyone packed up?” Natsuki asked as everyone gathered outside the entrance of the old school building. Everyone had backpacks filled with their personal belongings, as well as food supply and medicine.

Nana looked up at the building, a solemn glow in her eyes.

“I’m going to miss this place…”

 

Tomu seemed to notice her behavior, nudging Yuka.

“Hey, what is she doing..?”

Yuka saw the girl and tilted her head. “I dunno.”

“Do you think she has some history with this place? I mean, I did hear it used to be a school until…”

“Until what?”

“Apparently there was a revolt. Sort of a mini-war between the vampires and the hunters. From what I heard, the lives of the students who went here were also taken, and ever since, the two sides were at odds.”

“So that’s what happened…”

“It’s strange, though.”

Yuka raised a brow. “How so?”

“Well--”

“Alright, let’s go,” Natsuki announced as she saw the sun set over the horizon. “We start moving now, the hunters won’t be able to catch up to us.”

“Hai~”

As they continued walking, Tomu whispered to Yuka, “My grandfather told me vampires tried to make peace with the humans, but during that revolt, some vampires went crazy.”

“Eh?”

“It was all out of nowhere. They started killing the students and drinking their blood, even some of the hunters were caught off guard.”

“That’s scary…” Yuka shuddered. “What made them act like that?”

“I have no clue. Whenever I ask him, he just mumbles something about the moon.”

“The moon?”

“Yeah… It makes no sense.”

Yuka furrowed her brows, looking up at the sky.

“The moon, huh…”

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

 

“We’ll stake out here,” Takayanagi said as she and the hunters set up a space where they could look out for any vampires. “We’ll take turns patrolling around this area. I’ll take the first shift, then Iwata, then Takahashi, Sasaki, and then Oshima.”

“Eh? Why am I last?” Ryoka asked.

“Because you’ll probably fall asleep anyways,” Juri said, making Yukari chuckle.

 

Takayanagi started her watch, meanwhile, the girls were setting up their sleeping bags and watched the girl at her post.

She saw the girl throw out some sunflower seeds, feeding a bird in front of her.

“Say, Takayanagi-san?” Ryoka then spoke up.

“Yes?”

 

“I was wondering, for how long were you a hunter?”

“How long have you been a trainee?”

“Um… half a year, I think?”

The woman chuckled. “Much longer than that.”

“Hee~ that’s amazing.”

“How long, exactly?” Juri asked.

 

“A few years.”

 

“Ooh, you’ve been at this for a while, huh?”

“That’s right. I know my way around this forest. I’ve slayed countless beasts that dwelled in the darkness.”

“Beasts?! You mean the vampires, or…?”

“You know of the other monsters, right? The fallen beings who lurk in the darkness…”

 

“Fallen beings?”

 

It was then that they heard a rustling noise in the distance. As the hunters reached for their guns, setting their guard up, while Akane just stared out as if looking for the source of the noise.

 

After the rustling stopped, the woman stood up.

 

“I’ll go look for it.”

 

“Be careful,” Yukari said as she walked off.

 

“She’s a hunter, Yukarun, and way more experienced than us,” Juri said. “And moreover, she’s a Magnolia alumni. She knows what she’s doing.”

 

“Yeah… guess I’m just worried.”

 

“And that’s why you’re such a nice person.”

 

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

 

“Yoooosh~ Time to set up camp!” Marika cheered as she and Madoka laid their things down.

 

The two began setting up their tents and unpacking the other camping supplies. Madoka turned her lantern on, lighting up the area as it was starting to get dark.

 

“Mou, why’d we have to wait until now to get started?”

 

“We had to sneak out once after school was over! It couldn’t be helped!”

 

“Still…”

 

Once tents were up, Marika started to gather wood to start a fire. Madoka gathered leaves and tidling to help, pulling out a box of matches and sparking a flame.

 

Meanwhile, Marika was noisily humming as she rustled through the bushes, trying to find some twigs and sticks of wood for their fire. As she gathered them up, her humming died down as she noticed a figure in the distance.

 

“What is that?” she blinked, looking at the shadowy figure. “Someone else out camping?”

 

The figure then turned, and Marika could clearly see a red eye glaring at her.

 

“Oooooh crap crap crap crap crap…” she hissed in a whisper as she ran back to where Madoka was. She cried out, “MADOKAAAAAAAA!!!”

 

“Ehh?!” Madoka jumped up, almost dropping the lit match. She quickly put it out and looked at her panicked friend. “What’s wrong?”

 

“E-e-eye! R-red! V-v-vampire! I, I, I, I think it saw me!”

 

“A vampire?!”

 

Marika’s head nodded furiously.

 

“No way…”

 

“W-what do we do?! What if it comes for me?!”

 

They then heard rustling as something came toward them. Marika shuddered in fear and clung to Madoka as they saw the person’s figure draw closer to them.

 

“Madoka~” Marika whimpered as the older girl held onto her.

She then saw one of the sticks and broke it in half, giving it a pointed end. She gripped the wooden stick and was about to stab the figure, only for the person to dodge swiftly, revealing themselves.

 

“Woah! It’s okay, it’s okay!” the person said, raising their hands in the air. “I’m unarmed.”

Marika let out a sigh as Madoka dropped the stake.

 

“Mou, Marika, it was just a regular girl!”

 

“But th-their eye was red! I swear it was!”

 

“Marika,” Madoka glared at her, making the girl pout.

 

“Sorry…”

 

“What are you two cute girls doing out here so late? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”

 

“Well, yeah. But, this one,” Madoka placed a hand on Marika’s shoulder, “Really wanted to go camping.”

 

“Guilty as charged.”

“Oh. Well, you two might wanna be more careful. There’s lots of things that go bump in the night.”

“Don’t worry. We know.”

 

The girl smirked before waving goodbye and heading back the way she came.

“See? Nothing to worry about.”

Marika raised a brow. “I dunno… I know what I saw.”

“Maybe it was just your mind playing tricks on you.”

 

“I hope so…”

Madoka then picked up the sticks again, throwing them in with the pile of tiddling before starting another match.

 

“Come on. Fire’s not gonna start itself.”

“I’ll get the marshmallows!”

Madoka just chuckled as her friend rushed to get snacks while she started the fire.