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

"You're Ryu Kazeyama?" she asked. Her voice was light, teasing, but her eyes, pale and waterless, locked onto me, watching.

She stepped closer, just enough to make the air colder. Like a draft snuck in with her.

I shivered.

She smirked.

"Are you sure? With that hair? Those blue eyes? And…"

She paused: ran out of air and had to inhale again.

"…well, at least I look like someone named Shion Kurozawa."

Her tone was sweet. The words weren't.

The air between us hung dead.

That's when it hit me: Shion wasn't breathing.

Not until she deliberately took in another breath, slow and theatrical. Like she was trying to make me notice.

"Ohhh, I get it," she said, voice shifting. "You're new here."

There was my lifeline because that was true.

"I've never been here before," I said.

There was the smallest stumble in my voice, but she caught it.

She rolled her bike aside, kicked down the stand, and turned to face me. Her flat green eyes scanned me again, sharp, clinical, like she was reading a dossier.

A silence stretched so long I felt it in my chest.

Then, finally, she said, "We're early."

"Huh?" I blinked. "Early for what?"

Her head tilted, just slightly.

But the way she moved was too smooth. Too precise to be human. She reminded me of a marionette whose inhuman movements wandered deeply into the uncanny valley.

I saw her inhale so she could speak.

"Oh? You don't know, Ryu?"

She raised her eyebrow. "First-year orientation," she said as if it were obvious.

"It's required, after all. Considering the circumstances. Our circumstances, you know," she smiled, like she was testing me.

Something coiled in my chest. Circumstances?

I was in a different body, in a different world, and now there was some undefined horror lurking at the school.

I decided to make it my mission to find Lana and get out.

I tried forcing a casual shrug. "Oh yeah."

Shion's lips curled slightly. "Oh yeah what?"

She was waiting, like a panther, waiting for me to slip up.

My mouth was dry, I could hear my heartbeat.

"I mean, of course," I said quickly. "I just meant… I didn't realize that we were this early."

She paused, considering.

Then she turned to me with a predatory gaze and smiled.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Ryu…" she gestured downwards with her eyes.

I looked down and saw that my plaid pants had grass and dirt stains all over them from where she'd wrecked her bike into me.

She breathed in once more.

"Do you have a place nearby?" she asked.

"You should change before orientation," she said.

I told her about my residence at Shin'yume-sou.

Shion's expression barely changed—but I caught it.

Her fingers twitched by her sides, and for the first time since I'd met her, she took a step back. Barely an inch.

But it was enough to make my stomach drop.

"The school's sponsored onsen, huh?" she asked, her voice too careful. Measured. Like she was testing the weight of each word.

"That's… convenient. Why're you staying there?"

It wasn't curiosity.

It was an accusation. I shrugged, playing it off like I wasn't just realizing I had no damn idea why I was staying there.

"I've got a room there," I said.

I watched her force a smile to her lips, just enough so the bottoms of her fangs poked out, reminding me.

"Don't want to stay in the dorms on campus, huh?" she asked. "Afraid someone's going to come after your human blood, Blondie?"

Her voice was light. Her eyes weren't. Something cold slithered down my spine.

Was it common knowledge that humans were in danger here? Did she already know what I was? Or was she just trying to bait me into admitting something?

And then—it hit me.

I had seen this before.

Here was a pretty vampire. On a bicycle.

And as soon as she hid me, she drank my blood. But it was nothing like in the anime I'd watched.

Like a thousand puzzle pieces suddenly snapping together, forming a picture I really, really didn't want to see.

I knew exactly why I was suddenly fifteen years old and enrolled in a school that I'd never heard of.

Lana sent me here because I'd told her about the ecchi I'd read.

My own words, my own damn desire, came rushing back to me like a punch to the gut. "I always wonder what it'd actually be like to live in those worlds. Not just the fun, goofy parts, but the real consequences." Real. Consequences.

I had said that.

I suddenly felt a cold, dead head on my shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Shion asked softly. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

The air around us felt too still. Too heavy. I swallowed hard. My throat was dry. Because I thought I wanted to see what a supernatural world with a monster high school would really be like.

I turned toward Shion and nodded.

She let go of my shoulder and grabbed her bike as we continued walking. We were almost there.

"Yeah. I mean… Shion, is Crescent Moon Academy dangerous?"

She took a long, slow breath.

Her nostrils flared—just a little. Like a wolf catching a scent. Then she smiled.

"What do you mean?" she asked, more than a hint of snark. "Of course it's dangerous. It's a high school."

I frowned. "But… it's more than that, isn't it?"

Her smile widened, just enough to show her fangs. Playful. Like a cat batting around a trapped mouse, just for the fun of it.

"Look at you," she murmured, voice dripping with amusement. "Getting smarter, Blondie."

Her smile darkened. "You're right. It's not 'just' a high school… the same way I'm not 'just' a normal girl with needs."

We reached the gates of the Shin'yume-sou.

She leaned in, just enough for me to catch the faintest scent of something sweet—not perfume. Something richer. Thicker.

My blood.

My throat went dry. Her eyes flicked downward—just for a second—then back up. Her tongue flicked against one of her fangs. She was playing with me. Testing me.

And then—Shion took a step closer. The way she moved—it was wrong. Like she was gliding instead of walking. And the smile was gone now.

"So…you're staying at this onsen?" she asked, voice smooth. Too smooth.

I nodded slowly. "…yeah. Why's that a problem? You keep bringing it up."

Her lips parted slightly.

Not in shock.

In realization. And then she took a deep breath and she laughed. Amused. Disbelieving. She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.

"God, that's so… funny."

She wasn't laughing at me, though. She laughed at something unspoken, and I saw her shoulders tense. When she looked up, her fangs were showing fully now.

"You're an idiot," she said. "Or a liar."

My knees felt weak.

This girl was a riddle wrapped in razorblade wire.

Why was she reacting like this? She was on the one hand deadly, but in the other she was the closest thing to a friend that I had.

Then I noticed — the stiffness in her posture. The way her fingers curled just slightly, like claws. She wasn't just suspicious of me. She was afraid… because I was at an onsen?

Running water.

She's a vampire.

I was staying in the one place that could kill her.

"Oh my god, Shion, it's the onsen! The running water! I didn't even realize! I'm so sorry about that! You're right… I was an idiot. This place is dangerous. I can't afford to be an idiot. Sorry."

I wasn't just suspicious anymore. I wasn't just some weird "transfer student" with a bad cover story.

I was staying at a place she couldn't enter. A place she would never go near. And that meant one thing. She didn't trust me before.

Now?

She might just kill me.

Shion inhaled sharply, her gaze locked on me like she was looking through me.

And I saw her fangs retract.

She tilted her head. "You really forgot, didn't you?"

This was more than a question to her, but I wasn't sure why.

"You forgot I was… a vampire?"

Her voice had just the faintest hint of… vulnerability?

"Yeah. I guess I did," I said.

She looked up at me from beneath her sleek, black locks. Our eyes met, and she looked away quickly.

"…thank you."