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

"Hey, Rinko," I said, setting my phone down. "I should probably head out. I'm feeling this sake, and one of my friends—"

Rinko stuck her lips out, pouting dramatically.

"What?" she asked, shocked. "I show you the twins and you're just going to bail on me?"

She lowered her glasses and looked at me over the rim.

"Can't you take a hint?"

Oh no.

Murasaki's going to be here any second, but I had no idea how to get away from Rinko, the oni.

But then Rinko's door blasted open, and Murasaki stood there, demonic horns and wings on full display.

Rinko stood up immediately, enraged.

"What the hell?" she roared loud enough to nearly knock me off my feet.

Murasaki stepped into the room and pointed at me.

"You step away from my dragon!"

Rinko's fist came down on the cheap table, crushing it in an instant.

When I turned towards her, she'd changed. A long, golden horn jutted out of the round scar in the middle of her forehead. Fangs, like a tiger's, framed the corners of her once luscious lips.

"Why don't you come and get him?" she asked.

Great. Two apex predators, one tired janitor, and half a bottle of sake still in my bloodstream.

This is fine.

I bent down, picked up my cellphone from the floor, and then tried to scramble out of the way.

Murasaki wasted no time trying to put herself between Rinko and me, but Rinko was quick.

As soon as Murasaki took a step forward, Rinko grabbed the stool she'd been sitting on with hand and launched it across the room, straight at Murasaki.

I saw Murasaki flinch as she saw the oncoming stool, and she brought her bat-like wing in the way half a second before it smacked her. I heard it hit her wing with a loud crack, and she gasped.

"Ouch! Oh, you lush!" Murasaki said between clenched teeth. "You'll regret that!"

I had no idea what I was doing, but I could feel Murasaki's anger, her confusion, and even a hint of her pain in the back of my mind.

And I didn't want anything else to happen to her.

I felt my scales wriggling out of my skin. Gah, it felt gross.

Rinko put her head forward and charged, horn in front of her as she screamed in frustration.

"Get outta my room!"

Sounds better than testing myself against a pissed off oni.

"Okay," I said, throwing my hands up.

Then I felt something strange. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something land on the onsen's stone floor in front of me and scatter across Rinko's room.

Metal. It reminded me of…

A ninja star.

"Rinko! Ryu! Murasaki!" Hibana's voice cut through the chaos like a katana. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Hibana stood there at Rinko's door. Her arm still extended where she'd just thrown a hira-shuriken.

She had several more ready, I saw, across the obi of her yukata.

Rinko brought her foot down, hard, and pointed at Murasaki.

"I want her gone!" she yelled. "She knocked my door down for no damn reason. She's banned from this place!"

Murasaki scowled.

"Like hell I am!" she said. "That's NOT for you to decide, and you know it!"

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Hibana stepped in Rinko's room and stood between the two of them. Then she looked straight at me.

"Ugh! Should've known you'd be involved, you baka!"

I felt my scales retract, but I was no less angry.

"No way. Don't accuse me of anything. I just said I'd help out."

Hibana turned towards Rinko, whose horn had suddenly vanished.

"Is that true?" Hibana asked.

Rinko rolled her eyes.

"If he wants to help out, he can fix my door. It's kind of his fault… I guess."

Murasaki snorted.

"Ha. Don't even go there. Ryu, darling, I'll pay for the damage."

Murasaki's demonic wings and horns had vanished as well.

Hibana rolled her eyes.

"Great. Are we done acting like spoiled children?" she asked.

Rinko pointed at Murasaki.

"I want assurances that she'll also pay to replace the stool and the bottle of sake."

Murasaki's mouth dropped open.

"Hey! I saw that bottle. It was only half full!"

Hibana stayed in Rinko's room while I walked out towards the lobby with Murasaki.

"You're kidding," I asked, but she shook her head.

"Not whatsoever, darling," she said, leaning on my arm as we walked.

I shook my head.

"I think you over-reacted," I said. "You didn't have to knock her door down."

But she just looked up at me from behind her lashes.

"Oh you," she said, too casually. "Don't spend another moment on that… that, things room. From the looks of this place, my family can afford a dozen doors."

The two of us stepped out of the first floor hallway and into Shin'yume's lobby. The moisture, incense, and dream-like mist evaporated into the scent of stale tobacco and lowered expectations.

"Rinko said she banned you from this place," I said.

She shook her head.

"Oh please, Ryu-kun. As if she'll even remember tomorrow."

I raised my eyebrow skeptically.

"She seemed pretty angry," I said.

Murasaki pressed herself against me. She ran her left hand across the right side of my face, gently, and in an instant, I'd forgotten Rinko.

"You know…" she said, her voice dropping an octave lower. "It's not too terribly late."

She bit her lip.

"I bet your guitar's upstairs in your room, isn't it?"

Then I felt Hibana's vibrations coming through the onsen's floor. Her quick, authoritative gait was unmistakable.

"Murasaki-chan," I said quickly. "I'd love that, but Hibana's on her way right now."

It was her turn to look skeptical.

But a second later, Hibana pushed open the doors that led to the first floor hallway and stepped into the lobby, joining the two of us.

"Baka," she said, pointing at me. "I send you down to talk to Rinko, the easiest of all managers to ever exist, and you mess it up this badly."

Murasaki stepped forward.

"You can't talk to Ryu that way," she said.

Hibana just rolled her eyes.

"Murasaki, haven't you done enough?"

Murasaki stuck her stubborn chin forward, and I could absolutely feel the anger radiating off her without whatever strange connection bound the two of us together.

I put my arm around her and squeezed her.

She stiffened at first, then I felt her relax.

I ignored Hibana's withering gaze as Murasaki pressed her forehead against my chest.

"I suppose I'll go," she said stiffly.

Hibana looked away from the two of us.

"Yeah, that'd probably be the best," Hibana said.

Murasaki's violet eyes met my own.

"I'll walk you to the gate," I said.

She grinned.

"Good, darling," she whispered. "You'd better."

As soon as we stepped outside, she put her head on my shoulder and sighed.

I felt her fingers, soft, warm, lace around my own, and I let her.

It was evening, and the sun had set in the Pacific. One by one the stars appeared above us as I we walked together towards the onsen's front gate.

"I get it," she said, softly, almost as much to me as to herself. "They don't trust me, and they never will."

I sighed.

"That's just Hibana," I said.

She shook her head.

"No, darling. Don't lie to me, please. Not you."

She gave my hand a squeeze.

"You know what I mean," she continued. "Your friends, Shion, Inego, Azuki… they'll never accept me the way that you do. They look at me and they see a- a- demonic temptress. A succubus. A… slut."

She spat the last word out.

"Murasaki," I said, stopping.

There was so much I wanted to say to her, but with Rinko, Hibana, and now her soft confession… it was a lot.

I needed a second. Maybe more. Everything that had just happened, all of it, was still spinning behind my eyes.

I looked over at her, and she let out a small gasp. Her hand tightened around mine.

"Ohhhh, Ryu-kun," she moaned, and I swear, I felt her body quiver.

Then she turned red, blushing, embarrassed.

"Darling… I'm so sorry!" she said, breathlessly.

I blinked, shaking my head.

"What… What was that?" I asked.

Her shoulders tensed, and she suddenly giggled.

"I'm so sorry," she said between giggles. "I know, I'm a handful. I'm… well… exhausting. Draining, you could say. I can't help what I am."

My eyes grew wide.

Did she just feed on me?

She bit her lower lip. Her dimples popped out, on full display, and she looked absolutely adorable and mischievous, like an imp.

Then, quick as a snake, she leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

"Please, don't tell anyone," she asked.

"No… what was that?" I repeated.

She rolled her eyes.

"Fine… okay, I suppose you do deserve an answer," she said. "I'm high maintenance, and I'm probably a bit much. Still, you put up with me. But… it is taxing on you, Ryu-kun. So… when you burn off some of that delicious energy…"

She looked at me, expecting me to put two and two together.

"You did feed on me," I said.

She shrugged.

"I mean, that's one way of putting it," she said.

Then she closed her eyes as though she were thinking.

"Another way to put it is to say I drew in your expelled emotions, your exhausted experience, and everything that was too much. I didn't want it lost. So, I took it in me. That's what I want to be for you, Ryu."

She put her head against me, softly.

"I don't think that's asking a lot, is it?"

I didn't answer right away.

I just stood there, her warmth pressed against me, the sky full of stars, and my thoughts too tangled to speak.

I didn't know if I believed her.

But in that moment, I wanted to.

"Hey," I finally managed. My voice was barely a whisper. "Thank you. In a way, you already are."

She smiled at me.

"Then let's keep that between the two of us."

She turned toward the gate without another word.

The stars above us flickered quietly.

And for the first time all night, I didn't feel cold.