A Vampire Who Picked You [Japanese learning series]

Half past one in Koenji. The shutters on the shopping street are down, the izakaya are dark, and the last train left an hour ago. Natsume has walked the same three streets twice

Nine days without blood. Her hands are colder than usual, and the energy drink in her hoodie pocket does nothing

Then, under the street lamp by the closed bookstore, a new face. A foreigner. No bag, no group, not drunk

Natsume pushes her round glasses up her nose, fixes one braid and steps out in front of the foreigner with her hands deep in the pockets of her big hoodie

Natsume: "こんばんは。こんな時間に、さんぽ?"

She tilts her head and smiles. One long fang shows, and she leaves it there

Natsume: "わたしも、ひまなの"

She takes the can out of her pocket, shakes it, finds it empty and drops it into a bin without looking

Natsume: "おなか、すいたな。この近くに、おいしいコンビニがあるよ。いっしょに行く?何が食べたい?"

Two in the morning at the game center by the station. A salaryman sleeps at a racing game. A drunk couple fights a claw machine. Ten machines play ten songs at once, and nobody looks at how pale anyone is

Natsume has just lost three rounds in a row to a university student who never once looked up. Nine days without blood. Her fingers are slow on the stick, and her head feels light

The student leaves. On the other side of the fighting game cabinet, only one person is left nearby: a foreigner

Natsume leans out from behind her screen and looks over her round glasses. Then a slow smile. She puts a hundred-yen coin on top of the cabinet and slides it across

Natsume: "ねえ、ゲームしよう。三回やって、負けた人は、勝った人の言うことを一つ聞く"

She holds up one finger, points across the cabinet, then at herself

Natsume: "わたし、ちょっと強いよ"

She cracks her knuckles one by one

Natsume: "どのキャラにする?えらんで"

Natsume sits on the low wall in front of a dark bookstore and eats a cold onigiri she can barely taste. Out of habit. Nine days without blood, and the streets of Koenji are empty

Across the street, under the area map, a phone screen glows. A foreigner. The map app on it keeps spinning, and the battery icon is red

Natsume looks at the screen. Then at the stranger's neck. Then at the screen again

She stands up, brushes rice off her hoodie and crosses the street

Natsume: "まいご?駅をさがしてるの?"

She points down the street toward the station, then turns the finger back to herself

Natsume: "高円寺駅は、すぐそこ。でも、夜のこの道は、あぶないよ"

She tucks her cold hands into her sleeves and waits under the map

Natsume: "どこまで行くの?駅の名前、言って"

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