I Fell In Love With A Girl Who Died Before I Was Even Born

Asuki adjusted her glasses at the end of her nose.

Her entire form seemed to flicker and fade as she did. Then she looked up at me and Shion with a cheerful grin.

"Wow, you two!" she said. "I'm glad I followed along! Ryu-sama, THAT was magnificent! I can see why you are a true dragon! You didn't need to sully yourself fighting outside. There's no honor in that!"

I heard Shion inhale sharply.

A second later she scoffed.

"I need to get back to Crescent Moon Academy…" Azuki continued. Then she looked up at the darkening sky. "Oh, I hope the moon comes out tonight! I'd LOVE to go dancing under the moon. Maybe some other tanuki already have a place where we dance! Hey, I'll see you two tomorrow. Goodbye, Ryu-sama. Shion, I'll see you back at the dorms!"

She bounded back towards the school, and I was in the woods again with Shion.

I had spent most of the day with her, but I still felt uncomfortable.

She seemed to be waiting for something, and that was worse.

I frowned. "You're acting weird."

Her head lowered, slightly. She looked up at me, her pale face framed by her black locks.

"I need to ask you something, but I don't want you to be awkward, or weird, or anything about it, okay?"

My eyes went left and right. "How can I make a promise like that? I have no idea what you're about to ask."

She stared at me with her unblinking eyes.

"Okay… I'll do my best," I said.

"I need to feed from you again," she said matter-of-factly.

I felt my heart hammer against my chest as a primal force to run, to flee, to survive welled inside of me.

The first time she fed on me had been traumatizing. I remembered the way she instinctively grabbed my head, bit my neck, while holding her hand over my mouth.

That was something she'd learned through practice, I realized.

And she could easily do that to me again if she wanted to, but she didn't.

This was her asking.

I crossed my arms, looking away. "Can't you, um, just drink some animal blood or something?"

I saw her nostrils flair and eyes sharpen.

"Animal blood, Blondie? You want me to drink animal blood?" she took a step closer.

She was angry; I saw she was also trying to explain.

"I already told you that I'm NOT an animal! And… don't you think I've already tried?" she spat.

"You know, something, Ryu? I don't remember what food tastes like anymore. But I know that chicken crap is, like, 80% still corn. It's edible! You want to eat that?"

She stared at me, completely serious.

"Yeah… It's technically food, but it's disgusting," I said. "And you can't drink Azuki's blood, because she's a yokai. It's part of the rules you were telling me about earlier," I said.

I shifted, uncomfortably, from one foot to the other. "It has to be human blood for whatever reason. Why even knows why?"

Some of the tension left her body.

"You get it," she said.

"Yeah, but… damn, Shion. That, earlier was…"

Suddenly, she put her hand on mine.

It was different than Yuki's whispered, icy caress.

Yuki's touch was like a suggestion of a touch: a faded memory.

Shion's touch felt like cold iron: the certainty of the grave.

"Earlier, that was a hungry vampire getting her first meal in days. I'd just left the post office, remember?"

"Oh my god," I said.

She nodded. "And now my body expects you."

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I stepped back, stammering. "Wait, what?"

She took a breath so she could sigh. "I already drank from you. It's… do you think I want to do that with someone else, Ryu? Think I want to have to explain everything over again with some stranger? Please… don't do that to me," she said.

I looked down and saw her hand wrapped around mine.

She looked up at me for a second before pulling away.

"And one of those boys there… they might be stupid enough to invite me into their room wherever they're staying. But you," her eyes met mine.

"You know better, right?"

Yeah. I knew better.

I remembered being in her arms, her grip like a vice.

And I knew what to do. "Not from my neck again," I said.

Now she perked up. "Oh?" she frowned. "But it's so intimate that way."

I crossed my arms.

She rolled her eyes, a slight grin on her mouth.

She knew she won and now we were bargaining. "…fine. Wrist then?"

I hesitated. Then, I slowly held out my arm, and I forced myself not to pull away as her icy fingers wrapped around my wrist.

But, this time, when she bit, it was different.

No rush, No frenzied dash for blood.

Cold.

Then –

Sharp!

I felt her fangs, quick, like needles.

It felt weird.

Wrong.

She was taking something from me, and I tried to force the panic down into my chest.

It did no good: I could feel the ground shifting below my feet.

Vibrations, hundreds of them, running through the ground and up my spine until my vision dimmed.

And then I felt her stiffen as she pulled herself away.

I could see strings of my blood hanging from her teeth and lips.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and took a breath.

"See?" she asked heavily. "That wasn't so bad."

I felt sick to my stomach.

"Ryu?"

The voice was soft, musical.

I blinked.

Shion's mouth wasn't moving.

"Ryu, you can hear me better now?"

My breath hitched. I knew that voice.

"Yuki?" I asked. "It's Yuki, Shion. I can hear her, like, perfectly now," I said.

"It's her bite, Ryu. She's not just draining your blood. It's…. bringing you closer to death, to the spirit world. It's changing you," said Yuki.

Her voice, no longer a distant, breathy whisper, but a full voice as clearly as if she were standing beside me. Melodic, soft, friendly, but sad.

I heard Shion take a breath.

"Are you okay?" she asked me.

I looked down at my wrist, where her fangs had been only a minute before, but not a scratch remained.

"You're changing, Ryu," Yuki said.

I sighed to myself. "Yeah… I'm fine," I told Shion.

"Ryu… please, be careful," I heard Yuki say. "I'm worried about you."

I felt normal.

But I could tell something was a little off.

My ears rang with Yuki's warning, clear as day.

"You wanna walk a pretty girl home?" Shion teased.

It was my turn to scoff, giving her a half grin.

"Yeah, if I see one, I'll do that."

Shion playfully shoved my arm, and like that the tension broke.

We started walking back towards the dorms, but I could feel it.

Something had shifted.

I cast a quick glance towards Shion and wondered where Yuki was between the two of us.

I felt myself becoming friends with these people? Creatures?

…who even was I because calling myself Andy was beginning to feel strange.

I couldn't image Shion turning to me and saying "How're ya doin', Andy?"

To her I was Ryu Kazeyama: the dragon of the windy mountain.

I wasn't sure who I was anymore.

Our room felt cozy.

Quiet, save for the occasional creek of the old wooden floor.

I sat at the desk beside the window, staring down at the lanterns as they cast an eerie glow through the onsen's steam below like pale ghosts dancing in a surreal, dreamlike haze through the night's cold air.

My head felt heavy from blood loss and exhaustion.

"Ryu?" Yuki's voice drifted though the room, soft as falling snow.

I didn't jump or tense.

I knew exactly who was speaking now.

I could hear Yuki's tone, the quiet melody of her voice, the way each word carried a musical trait.

She sounded happy.

"You like my voice, don't you?" she asked.

I grinned.

Tired, but a grin.

"Yeah. It's nice."

Understatement?

Nice wasn't even close.

Her voice was enchanting, mesmerizing.

It had a soft, breathy, teasing quality to it that made me nostalgic for a time that existed only in a dream.

And Yuki was thrilled.

"I knew it!" she said.

She laughed like windchimes.

"Gracious! It's so nice that someone can hear me properly!"

I could picture her—arms outstretched, spinning around the room like a child.

Or maybe she was sitting across from my desk, on the futon, legs tucked under her, hands folded in her lap.

Maybe she was leaning against the wall. No: that was Shion—too cool for the room.

Yuki was somehow more alive than Shion and less.

I sighed.

Then I felt the cold presence beside me again.

The faintest suggestion of a touch raised the hairs on my arm.

"Ryu… I'm worried about you," Yuki said.

I grew tense.

"Worried? About what?"

I heard her exhale. "Shion…"

My throat tightened and I looked away, outside.

Ripples of steam curled and twisted in the night air outside my window.

"I don't know what her feeding is doing to you." Yuki's voice had lost its usual, airy lilt. "And I don't know if it's safe."

She hesitated.

"I want you to be okay, Ryu." Her voice dropped to a breathy whisper. "Even if it means I'll be alone again."

Yuki wasn't just afraid something was happening to me.

She was afraid of losing me.

The closest thing she had to a real connection in this world.

Before I could say anything –

Knock. Knock.

A loud, pounding sound jolted me from my thoughts and out of my seat.

"Baka! Open the door, already! Some of us have to get up early! I don't have all night to wait on you, you know!"

I crossed the room and quickly opened the door.

And standing there, arms crossed, tapping her foot like she was ready to set me on fire, was the most impatient girl I'd ever met.