The Eve of the Strange One (3)

The strangely awkward air lingered for a long while even after they left the arcade.

They walked side by side, stealing glances at each other now and then, and more than once their timing overlapped so that their eyes met. At last Han Seoyeon, unable to bear the silence, carefully opened ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her mouth.

"I—I'm sorry about what just happened. I wasn't trying for anything like that."

"Ah, no! Sorry? Don't—... It wasn't anything you need to apologize for."

But at Han Seoyeon's apology, Ninomae waved her hands in a flurry.

"Mmm. A peck on the cheek—just a little one—is something I think friends can perfectly well do. Actually, between very close people of the same sex, I hear there are even some who kiss on the lips..."

"R-right. I suppose so. Between friends, um... that's entirely..."

Each of them, in her own way, was deliberately carrying the talk along as if it were nothing, hoping to ease the awkwardness. All it did was become a fresh occasion to remember what had just happened. Their words tangled, and their eyes slid away again.

"Uuugh...! I'm telling you, it really was nothing!"

"I haven't said anything yet."

"That's... that may be, but...!"

And yet her face was saying plenty. For someone like Han Seoyeon, this was about as high-grade a display of shyness as existed, and Ninomae—who did not seem to care for it—puffed her lips out in a pout.

"It's something friends can do! Between me and Shion-san, it isn't strange at all! That's the conclusion!"

Everything about her said she would not accept their rare, pleasant outing ending in an atmosphere like this. Nor, strictly speaking, could the two of them fall back on a simple well, the date's over, shall we part? They lived together. Even after this outing was finished, they would still have to look each other in the face at home.

If the awkwardness went on in this fashion, it would be utterly unbearable. Some kind of conclusion had to be reached, in one form or another. Han Seoyeon was not of any very different mind.

"If it truly isn't strange at all, then I only have to show you, right here!"

"...Yes?"

The trouble, if there was any, was that in Ninomae's case the thought had seized her so completely that she simply launched. Han Seoyeon's bewildered voice rang out a beat too late.

Wh-wh-what did I just say...

Even she realized almost at once that she had gone much too far... though one could hardly call the realization prompt.

The two of them stood side by side and looked at each other.

Wait... is this the sort of flow ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠where I'm supposed to be the one who kisses her on the cheek this time...?

Silence fell between them once again.

How on earth had it come to this? It had only been a trivial little mishap; she had fully meant to let it pass as nothing worth fretting over. Ninomae could lament all she liked, but pulling out now was no longer possible. Back down at this point while claiming she was embarrassed, and the air would only grow more delicate than it had been a moment ago. That much was obvious. Not that mustering the courage for a kiss on the cheek would set the situation perfectly to rights, either.

In short, she had landed herself in a dilemma.

"......"

Ninomae soon gathered herself. In truth she was not calm in the slightest, but she had at least decided how she would act. If going forward and going back both meant shuddering with shame, then she would go the way her heart was pulling her—

"Shion-san."

"...Yes, Ninomae-san."

Ninomae took one step closer to Han Seoyeon and looked up into her face.

Sanpaku eyes, the sort that readily earned the verdict of unsettling, and dark circles deep enough to make an already severe impression genuinely chilling. Even Ninomae, close as they were, could not pretend she failed to understand why everyone around them said the woman looked frightening.

And yet, look carefully past that severity, and Han Seoyeon's face was threaded through with no small measure of feminine grace. People only frightened themselves ahead of time and looked away. In truth, Ninomae thought privately, it was a face not far from beautiful.

She stared straight at that face. Han Seoyeon's pupils were trembling, faint as the tremor was, with tension. Ninomae knew better than anyone that she was in no position to remark on it. Her own heart was pounding hard enough to thud inside her skull; she could hardly open her mouth and brazenly announce that someone else was nervous.

So instead she swallowed, worked lips that somehow seemed to be drying out, and spoke.

"Shion-san. If you could lower your face just a li—"

"Oh? Ninomae-chan?"

"—Hyaaaah?!"

That courage burst into nothing in an instant. Just as she rose onto her toes to move, someone's voice cut in from beside them. Ninomae startled and screamed, then buried a tangle of feelings—I-I finally worked up the nerve!I-I must be out of my mind! This is the street...!Thank goodness I stopped......What is this, cutting in at exactly this moment...!—and lifted her head.

"It really is you, Ninomae-chan. It's been a while."

"Tsunashi-san...? And Akane-senpai, too?"

What came into Ninomae's view was a pair walking toward them side ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by side: Tsunashi Tenka and Akaba Akane, colleagues from the same company, playing the werewolf Charlotte and the bakeneko Tama respectively.

Tenka was a werewolf not only as a streaming persona but in reality. Akane, who seemed to feel the cold rather keenly, had armed herself in winter clothes and every sort of cold-weather gear. She was a fierce-looking woman in her own right, if not on Han Seoyeon's level, but bundled from a fluffy fur hat down through earmuffs and a muffler, she managed to look rather cute.

"What brings the two of you out?"

"Mmm... a date with Akane-chan, maybe?"

"What are you doing all of a sudden, you idiot."

"Ow."

At Tenka's answer, Akane fixed her with a frigid look and thwacked the back of her head.

"It's just an outing. This one nagged so hard about going out."

"It's a white Christmas for once, isn't it? If we don't go out on a day like this, when would we?"

"What are you, some puppy that has to go racing around the moment it snows?"

No matter how she turned it over, Akane could not find the connection between it's snowing and we have to go outside, and she let out a sigh. Ninomae only laughed—ahaha—and quietly tipped her head up.

Sure enough, thick cloud lay over the sky. The dimness around them was not solely the fault of winter's short sun.

"And you, Ninomae-chan?"

"Shion-san and I were out enjoying ourselves. We were just about to buy some chicken and head home."

"Oh, yeah?"

Tenka nodded—mm—and caught Akane by the arm.

"Anyway, we'll get going. It's cold, and I'd feel bad keeping you standing here."

"Is this the time to worry about other people, Tenka? You feel nothing, looking at me, dragged out half against my will into this cold?"

"Huh? But Akane-chan's tough."

"You damned wolf, I swear..."

"See you, Ninomae-chan! You too, Sister—"

With that, the two of them vanished. More precisely, an excited Tenka dragged Akane off.

"...Shion-san, do werewolves also lose their heads on snowy days?"

"I would call it a matter of personal preference."

A stillness settled over them, as if a storm had passed. Han Seoyeon answered the absentminded murmur with a thin little laugh. If nothing else, the awkwardness of a moment ago had vanished without a trace. One supposed that counted as a mercy.

"Shall we get moving as well?"

"Yes. Let's."

And so Ninomae and Han Seoyeon set in motion once more the steps they had held still all that while.

She looked up into the clouded sky and breathed out, and a plume of pure white bloomed on the air. Ninomae Hitomi watched it for a little while—the way it came apart again into the empty cold, almost before it had finished forming. Then she heard footsteps, and turned her head.

"Wouldn't you have been better off waiting inside after all? The day is cold."

A white plastic bag hung from Han Seoyeon's hand as she came out of the shop. The savory smell of hot oil drifted faintly from it.

"I only have to step in, pick up what we ordered, and come right back out."

It wasn't a large shop. No sense crowding the inside when she didn't need to go in. And she had already warmed her body with a spell, so a heated room might actually leave her too hot.

"Shall I cast one on you too, Shion-san?"

"I'm all right. I'm not particularly cold."

"Even so, it feels surprisingly nice, you know? The temperature's different inside and out. Specifically, it's like having the air conditioner blasting while you're buried under a thick blanket."

"That... may be a little tempting. Even so, I'll decline for today."

Han Seoyeon answered with a faint smile.

"In any case, let's hurry home..."

She started to go on, then closed her mouth. As she slowly lifted her head, a snowflake settled, light as a breath, on the bridge of her nose.

"It's started to snow."

"Come to think of it, this is Tokyo's first snow of the year, isn't it?"

"As I recall, yes."

"First snow on Christmas Eve... it feels rather romantic."

Ninomae smiled, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠soft and bashful.

Romantic. Han Seoyeon turned the word over and looked around.

A winter day already dimming from evening, and overcast besides, so the lights strung up for Christmas were burning already. Against that backdrop, pure white flakes came down thick and fast. It was a scene with nothing lacking, if one wished to call it beautiful. Mind you, if this could not be called romantic, there would be very little left that deserved the name.

Han Seoyeon gazed at a great tree standing far off, let herself grow sentimental for no particular reason, and drew the cold air deep into her lungs.

"...?"

And in the very next instant, her expression twisted—first into bewilderment, then into displeasure, and at last into shock.

"Shion-san...?"

"A moment. Just a moment. Only a very little time to think..."

Something in that reaction must have struck Ninomae as wrong, for she carefully called her name. But Han Seoyeon, as if her mind were caught elsewhere, answered only absently, drawing breath again and again.

From far away drifted the smell of fresh corpses.

Fresh and corpse—a contradictory pair. If something that made no sense was happening, it was surely the work of an anomaly.

This smell is a vampire... Gamma. No. Upsilon?

And not only one. All at once, from place after place, the smell began to rise.

Vampire Syndrome...!

With clues laid out this plainly, to fail to recognize them would be to forfeit one's place as an Apostle.

The serial vampire outbreaks in Japan. Their mastermind had plainly made some new move.

Why? They've kept relatively quiet until now.

Hadn't they been lying low, afraid Han Seoyeon would catch their trail? Had that damned criminal, unable in the end to choke down some vile appetite, simply gone and done it?

No. The reason did not matter now. Whatever the trigger, the incident was already underway. The streets would fall into chaos before long.

Thinking that, Han Seoyeon turned her gaze to Ninomae at her side.

"......"

Han Seoyeon confessed it honestly to her own heart. It was hardly something a cleric ought to admit, but to her, Ninomae was more precious than hundreds, even thousands, of people she barely knew. If she could leave them to die and thereby be certain of protecting Ninomae, that too was one possible course...

"—Shion-san."

But that thought vanished without a trace at a single word from Ninomae, whose eyes had met hers.

If it were possible to kill the innocent in order to save Ninomae, Han Seoyeon would do it. She had ability enough, and will to spare. But Ninomae herself would never rejoice at such a thing.

"I don't really understand, but something serious has happened, hasn't it? Serious enough that you have to handle it yourself."

If she failed to save the many people she was able to save, offering as her reason nothing more than a wish to protect her a little more certainly, then Ninomae would surely be disappointed in Han Seoyeon. And from the start, had she not been that sort of gentle person, Han Seoyeon would never have come to like her.

"...Please take care. Find somewhere safe, and stay there."

Han Seoyeon was silent for a moment, then nodded, resolve set on her face. At those words, Ninomae smiled.

"If anything, I'm the one who's worried. You're the one walking into danger, Shion-san. And without any proper equipment..."

"Mm. That is true. I only came out for a light bit of fun, so a pistol, a knife, a hammer, and a few talismans are the whole of it..."

"...No, hold on. That's actually quite well prepared?!"

"Personally, I find it quite insufficient."

After that exchange, the two of them faced each other and smiled, small and quiet.

"I'll be back."

"Come back without getting hurt. You absolutely have to!"

Leaving those words behind, Han Seoyeon spun on her heel and began to stride forward, cutting through the crowd. The trouble had not yet spread this far; among the people there was still no stir of alarm.

As she made her way down the street, Han Seoyeon drew a palm-sized terminal from her pocket, set her thumb to its center, and recited a cipher aloud.

She worked the little screen several times, then brought it back to her lips.

With every step the murmuring commotion swelled. From a certain point on, more than a few people were outright fleeing. Advancing against them, Han Seoyeon expressionlessly shoved the terminal inside her coat. And, as if in exchange, that same hand drew a pistol.

Next, a pitch-black magazine came from her pants pocket. What she glimpsed of its contents glittered silver.

A metallic click. With the sound of it seating home, a faint golden halo rose above the Holy Knight's head.

Han Seoyeon drew a deep breath, flung her eyes wide, and fixed them dead ahead.

Her footsteps did not stop.