My eyes opened up in the morning but I did not move. I was feeling completely drained of any and all energy from my body and I was really lazy. Looking down, I saw Ai’s face next to my chest sleeping peacefully but something different happened today.
She woke up, not long after me.
Her eyes fluttered and opened and a small smile formed on her face. She buried her face in my chest and was nuzzling it against it giggling softly. Her arms wrapped around my body were holding me even tighter and she turned me over, lying on top of me. Then I heard her groan.
"Ugh…my head hurts for some reason. It feels like I was hit in the head by something," she whined.
"And that is why I told you not to drink alcohol but who even listens to me? I am just saying that to cut all the fun," I said and a smirk formed on my face. "I am sure Ai doesn’t even remember what we did last night."
Her ears perked up and she looked up to see me. Her eyes were wide and her face had a deep color of red on it.
"L-last night? W-what did we do?" she asked me being completely embarrassed.
She is so adorable!
"You don’t remember Ai? After all, that happened last night. I had to dress up the both of us after we did that," I said in a sad tone and looked towards the side and though I could not see it, I knew steam would be coming out of Ai’s face.
"Eh? What? I don’t remember," she whined and started flapping her legs while burying her face in my chest. "Ahh, the only time I wanted to remember something happening, I don’t remember. Stupid brain!!"
I chuckled lightly and let her do what she was doing for a while. It had been some time since I teased her like this. After hearing the fact about Ai, I just kept having this uneasy feeling. I just felt helpless at that moment because I don’t know what would happen if Ai turns twenty-five and we won’t be able to do anything.
Having that thought run through my mind, I tightly hugged her and started stroking her white hair lightly. The act of doing this was not new to me but the feelings and emotions behind it were new.
"Ai," I called her out in a sad and serious tone. "I know it won’t be something you want to know this early in the morning but I think you have to know this."
"What is Kazu-kun?" she asked me cutely tilting her head.
"I had a talk with Natsumi-san when you were drunk and well, I asked how long you have," I said and looked at her. Ai looked a bit confused. I gulped a large amount of spit and continued. "She said that half-vampires have a life of only twenty-five years."
As soon as those words left my mouth and blended in the air, there was nothing said for some time. Ai kept staring at me and looked as if she was trying to process what I meant. I just had a sad look on my face and I could not say anything to her right now.
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"I…see," she said and then smiled at me. "But no need to worry, first we will take care of Kazu-kun’s problem and then mine. I have more time than you."
I was a bit taken back by her response and my mouth opened in amazement. "You are taking it rather easily."
"I am not," she said and placed her cheek on my chest. "Getting to know that I only have…ten years left to my life is not something I can take easily. But I don’t want to worry Kazu-kun, not when his life is already in danger of being taken."
"You know if you are frustrated, you can let it out. I will listen to you ranting as much as you want," I said pulling her up making her face me.
"Bu-"
I cupped her face in my hands and pressed my lips against her. Ai was surprised by this but then deepened the kiss, she was being more passionate and desperate in this one. I pushed her and got on top of her still not letting go of her lips.
"You buts, Ai is doing so much for me then let me at least do this much," I whispered in her ear. "I love you Ai."
"I love you too Kazu-kun."
We stayed there for some time after which stood up and went to the bathroom to freshen up and Ai felt a little lazy so she was staying in the bed. Probably smelling my pillow and hugging it like a body pillow. Yare, yare.
After freshening up and taking a bath, I wore my clothes and dried my head before setting them. Walking out, I saw Ai still in the bed doing, guess what? Hugging and smelling my pillow.
"Ahh~ Kazu-kun’s smell is still there. I love it so much," she said rolling around on the bed with the pillow.
"And you still like smelling the pillow when you have me. Somethings never change now do they Ai?" I said gaining her attention.
Seeing me, her face turned red and she buried her face in the pillow yet again flapping her legs while screaming in the pillow. Feels like it has been so long since I have seen her like this.
"The bathroom is free so take a bath. I am making breakfast which won’t take much time today," I said.
"It’s Kazu-kun’s fault," Ai said flapping her legs.
"Yes, it is my fault for loving my little half-vampire so much. Now get a bath already."
I walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge since I already knew what I was making for breakfast. Taking out eggs and rice and some other ingredients to make the rice, I rolled up my sleeves and put on my apron. I decided to make rice omelet for breakfast today since it has been a while since I had it. I really enjoyed eating it as a kid and I still do.
I cut the vegetables, started making the omelet and rice side by side. It did not take that much time for the rice to be prepared since they were already cooked as they were left last night. Getting it ready, I covered rice in the omelet and put some ketchup on it and for some reason, I decided to draw a cat on Ai’s dish. I seriously don’t know why that was.
I made coffee for the both of us and all that was left to do was wait for Ai who was walking towards me while holding her stomach. She is really hungry, wasn’t she?
"Kazu-kun…I am so hungry," she whined like a kid.
"Oh my, and looks like I have just the solution to this problem, here I present to you something we call breakfast," I said pointing at the food and Ai jumped into her seat and started eating.
"Cat?" she said looking at the dish.
"Felt like making it. Don’t ask why."
"Okay, nya~"
As she said that, I felt my heart skip a beat by just how adorable she looked as she said that. I had the urge to pat her head so bad that it was really hard for me not to.
Cuteness is justice. It is the law.
We had our breakfast which was really good and while I was washing the dishes and Ai was lying down on the couch, the doorbell rang and I already knew who it was. Ai stood up and went to open the door while I washed the last spoon and placed it to dry. I dried my hands on the apron and took it off walking towards the door.
"Time to go Kazuki," Natsumi-san said and I nodded.
Ai looked a little confused by this conversation of ours and I held her hand making her face me.
"Natsumi-san wants to take us somewhere today. Probably to the people she works for I believe," I said looking at Natsumi-san.
"If you already know that then move your legs than your mouth. Though it does not really matter," she said. "The car is waiting for us downstairs so get ready if you have to."
"No, we are ready to go," I answered on our behalf.
"Very well then, follow me."
We started following Natsumi-san and I locked the door by the key I was given by Ai. I finally have the key!!
We got in the elevator and it slowly descended down to the ground floor. As it opened, I could see a black car standing right in front of the gate of the building and it was not caring about the other cars honking at it. Seeing this, Natsumi-san sighed and rubbed her forehead.
"Iwaguchi, I said to wait outside but not right in front of the gate. You are creating a problem for others," Natsumi-san said in an exasperated tone.
"You should have said that first! Now I look like an idiot in front of your brother and her girlfriend," the man said throwing his hands in the air.
"The honking cars should have given that away."
"I am stupid, I know. Now, are you planning on getting in?"
I and Ai looked at each other and then looked at the man weirdly but got in the car soon after Natsumi-san. She sat at the passenger seat and we sat down at the back.
"Honozaya Iwaguchi, special class hunter. Nice to meet you," Honozaya-san said.
"Nice to meet you Honozaya-san, I am Shiba Kazuki," I said bowing down.
"Tsubaki Ai."
"Oh just call me by my first name. Natsumi and I have been partners for long so you don’t need to be so formal with me," he said giving us a grin.
"Very well then Iwaguchi-san."
Iwaguchi-san placed his foot on the accelerator and the car started moving. Ai held my hand tightly while sitting and I saw her smiling at me.
We were going to the heart of the Tokyo prefecture, it felt odd going to a super-secret organization’s office which was in the middle of the city. Or maybe since it was in the middle of the city, which is why it can be hidden properly.
"You got to be kidding me," I said looking at the giant tower of a building. "This is how you hide things?"
We were right in front of the building owned by the Yotsuba Company which was the biggest company for electronics in all of Japan. Its office building was the biggest building in the entire city and could be spotted from anywhere around the area. This building stood out a lot from the most.
"I know it looks and sounds stupid but this is the place, let’s get in," Natsumi-san said and Iwaguchi-san gave the car keys to a person who took the car away.
Ai was walking right next to me and her eyes were moving around like crazy. I spotted fifteen security cameras hidden in the reception itself. The both of us were about to be stopped but Natsumi-san showed her card to the person and he stiffened up seeing it. He was shivering in fear.
We entered the elevator which had a scanner on it and Natsumi-san put her card on the scanner and a robotic sound was heard.
"Going down," the voice said but we were already on the ground floor of the building, right?
"Making floors under the building this tall? Are you sure it won’t fall down any time soon?" I asked out of worry.
"Don’t worry about it Kazuki, it won’t fall down. I have been working for these people for quite some time now. It had not fallen down in my time," Natsumi-san said.
"The building has been reinforced multiple times on both the upper and lower sections. Even if a tank were to try and make its way through the building it won’t be able to. This is made to protect us from any possible vampire attacks and the systems here are very high tech and can easily differentiate between humans, vampires, and even half-vampires," Iwaguchi-san explained. "Though I never understood how it worked."
"They check the heart rate of a person. The human heart and the vampire’s heart beat at very different pace and pitch," Natsumi-san said.
"Well, I understood all that but…" I looked at Ai and I saw her head go on overdrive. "…let’s not talk about such high-tech stuff in front of Ai."
Ai held her head and leaned it on my shoulder and I chuckled. We kept going down until the elevator finally stopped. Right as it opened, there was a big wall right in front of us. Natsumi-san took her card and scanned it and the wall moved away making way to a completely blue-lighted hallway.
"UV light?" I blurted out.
"Yes, but if it is a vampire who has to enter, we turn it off but for that, they would need a card like mine. Each hunter’s information is stored in this," Natsumi-san said showing her card.
"So without this, you won’t be able to enter?"
"Well Natsumi-san is an exception since she can just breakthrough if she wants to," Iwaguchi-san said laughing a little in the end but is saw a sweat drop falling from his head.
"You are not joking, are you?" I whispered in his ear.
"I am not. I have seen her do that multiple times when she forgot her card," he whispered back.
"What are you two whispering about?" Natsumi-san asked looking at the two of us and we stiffened up.
"Nothing!" we said in unison.
We kept walking for some time and as some people walked past us, I saw something peculiar. Whenever they made eye contact with Natsumi-san, they would either avert their face or greet her with the utmost respect. I am pretty sure I heard a woman call her "Kawazuki-sama" which sounded so cringe.
Other than that, all eyes were on me and Ai who was walking beside me latching onto my arm.
"We’re here," Natsumi-san said and scanned her card one last time. "You will meet the founding member of the organization and don’t be scared at all. You have me on your side."
"Okay."
We entered the big office room and a man with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail with green eyes was sitting at the chair with his hands on the table. He had an intimidating aura around him and every step I took closer to him felt as if I was walking closer to a predator.
"Shiba Kazuki," he said in a hoarse and deep voice. "I will cut the chase and get straight to the point. You have two choices in your hand."
"Either turn into a vampire and work under us or be killed."
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