“There are a lot of them, yeah.”
Yuichi and Aiko exchanged a glance. There were ten of the men inside already, and more were coming in every second.
Many of their labels read “Delinquent” but about one in ten read “Vampire?” The delinquents wore a mismatched array of clothing, but the Vampire?s wore parkas despite the summer heat, with hoods hiding their faces.
They were probably comrades of the men currently sprawled on the floor. If so, then the minute they saw what was going on, they would react with hostility.
Yuichi looked around. He didn’t know the layout of the hospital, but the entrance seemed to be the only way out in their immediate surroundings. All the windows in sight were boarded up, and the same was probably true all around the hospital. Running around searching for a way out would just be a waste of time.
Break through them and make a run for the entrance, then?
Yuichi immediately gave up on the idea. He couldn’t do it while dragging both Aiko and the girl behind.
Yuichi saw the men beginning to murmur among themselves, pointing to the three of them.
“We’ll run further in! Follow me!” Yuichi shouted as he began to dash deeper into the hospital.
The sight he was waiting to see — the back entrance — soon came into view. He cast a glance over his shoulder.
The delinquents were pursuing, but there was still some space between them. They could make it out, Yuichi thought. But as he grabbed the doorknob, he immediately felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.
It wouldn’t open.
If it was just locked, he could pick it easily enough... But as he looked up at the door, his jaw dropped:
It was welded shut. There was no way he could open it quickly enough to get away.
“Not good. We’re cornered.” Yuichi turned back to face their pursuers.
The mob had almost reached them.
There was a definite air of malice around them as they fanned out across the hall to cut off any means of escape.
“Bzzt! Wrong answer. Too bad.”
“There’s no way out, dumbass.”
“What’s with those masks? You think you’re superheroes or something?”
“Is that a girl? That’s good, I thought one wouldn’t be enough.”
“I’m okay with the boy too, personally.”
The men had stopped, and began jeering crude remarks at them from a slight distance. Their leering grins were getting under Yuichi’s skin.
“You two hide in the bathroom over there,” he said. “Push up against the door, and if anyone tries to open it, stun gun the doorknob.” The girls’ bathroom near the back entrance had a door, which might help them buy some time.
Aiko and the girl ran obediently into the bathroom as Yuichi stepped forward.
He knew that if he waited for them to make the first move, he’d have to deal with a battle of attrition. Instead, he began dashing towards them swiftly, throwing the lead stones in his hand as he did.
When it came to the question of how best to engage with a large group of people, there were a variety of theories. Some believed that you should focus on the weakest-looking first, to deplete their numbers. Others thought you should defeat the strongest first, to break morale and get them to run away.
Yuichi’s strategy was something else.
Yuichi stopped in front of the closest man and spun around as he jumped, sending him flying with a whirlwind kick. The man bounced off the nearby wall and hit the floor in a heap.
Yuichi then landed and watched to see what effect the move had had on the others.
The crowd control tactic Mutsuko had taught him was to take out one opponent with the flashiest move possible, which was usually enough to cow the rest of the group.
The whirlwind kick was the perfect flashy move. Most people would be stunned into immobility after seeing someone deliver a leaping kick like that.
Indeed, it did seem to stun the delinquents for a moment, but then they fell on Yuichi, screaming.
If there had just been a few of them, the rest might indeed have run in fear. But their large numbers seemed to act as a shock absorber, the mutual peer pressure pushing back against any signs of timidity.
Oh, come on! Yuichi swore. As one of them rushed at him swinging a wooden sword, he pressed in closer and grabbed the man’s elbow, yanking it upwards to knock him off balance and throw him backwards. The fall sent him crashing into a few of the comrades coming up behind him, slowing their advance at the same time.
A bat with a nail in it swept through the air towards him. Yuichi ducked as far as he could go and slipped underneath it, grabbed his opponent’s leg and struck his knee. Then he dodged another blow from a hammer, and swept that attacker’s leg.
Another arm thrust at him, holding a knife. He grabbed the arm, twisted it, and broke it at the elbow.
“No knives!” Yuichi shouted. “I’m trying to show restraint, here!”
Bringing out a knife in a crowded battle like this was the height of foolishness. It wouldn’t hit Yuichi, but the man could have ended up stabbing one of his own.
Yuichi had no problem dealing with the unorganized horde, but the men soon seemed to realize they were making no progress as they were, and decided instead to form a wide circle around him and approach slowly. They must have realized that their best chance was to time it right and fall on him all at once.
Four of the men exchanged a look and then flew at Yuichi in a group.
If they came at him from all sides, he couldn’t get away, and even if he took down one or two, the others could subjugate him. Then once they had him held in one place, they could probably figure something out.
Such was likely their thought process. If so, they hadn’t realized that Yuichi still had one simple direction of escape: Up.
Yuichi kicked lightly off the floor and flew into the air, grabbing onto a lighting fixture in the ceiling to delay his fall.
As the men panicked at losing sight of their opponent, Yuichi plunged back down onto them with an axe kick.
In situations like these, the most important thing to do was to keep moving and not get caught.
Yuichi continued shifting his balance to avoid their attacks, distract them, and continue taking them down one by one.
It is said that it’s impossible to maintain a regimented fighting force once it’s suffered 30% losses. This gang hadn’t exactly been regimented to begin with, and the more they saw their numbers one-sidedly taken down, the more they seemed to awaken from their frenzy. They must have realized that if they kept going like this, they would end up on the floor like the others. Once half of them were down, their numbers gradually began to peel away.
“You... Don’t you realize who’s in our pack?” one man spat out at him, upon realizing he couldn’t win.
Yuichi just smacked him into the ground, head first.
Fortunately, his fall was broken by another man who was already on the floor.
All that remained was a lone “Vampire?” who stood there, seemingly unperturbed by the mayhem Yuichi had inflicted. It occurred to Yuichi that this was probably the gang’s boss.
“If you hadn’t been so strong, I might’ve shown you a real good time... but now you’re dead, okay?” the man said.
It just sounded like bluffing to Yuichi, though. This man wasn’t that different from the ones already on the ground. Once he beat him, this would all be over. But just as Yuichi was about to take a step, the man suddenly changed.
His face began to transform.
Yuichi stood there in surprise as the man’s nose and mouth began to elongate and jut forward. His face grew fur, and his ears wriggled as they crawled up to the top of his head. Just like that, his face was now that of a dog’s.
The “Vampire?” label turned into “Anthromorph (Wolf).”
The sight of a man’s face transforming into a dog’s face before his eyes was so unreal that it gave Yuichi pause.
But “pause” wa
s all it was. Despite his surprise, Yuichi proceeded with his original plan, rushing towards the man and striking him on both sides of the face with his fists in a move similar to Tai Chi’s “Strike the Ears” technique.
The anthromorph hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Yuichi was relieved to see it; the changing position of the man’s ears had left him a little uncertain of where to strike, but it seemed that it hadn’t mattered.
“Who is this guy?” Yuichi muttered to himself, looking down at the fallen man. The man’s face looked normal now, but he was sure he hadn’t just imagined it. He remembered the feeling of the fur on his fists.
It was certainly strange, but Yuichi didn’t have time to think about that right now. He looked around. None of the men around him were moving, and the ones who had run away showed no sign of returning.
“Jeez... what a mess,” Aiko said in exhaustion as she came out of the bathroom.
Yuichi hadn’t even broken a sweat; Mutsuko’s training had prioritized efficient use of stamina. He had taken down half of the group, about twelve of them, before the rest had run off. But even if he’d taken on them all on, it probably wouldn’t have worn him out too much.
The girl came out after Aiko and stood there, stock still, gazing in shock at the men who littered the hallway.
“Um... This is...”
“It’s a secret, okay?” Aiko offered of her own initiative.
“Anyway, we should get going,” Yuichi said. “The guys who ran away might come back.”
They stepped over the fallen men to return to the entrance.
It didn’t seem like anyone was waiting to ambush them outside, so they managed to escape the hospital without any trouble.
They headed for the Chinese restaurant, Nihao the China, under the assumption that they wouldn’t get too many questions about the injured girl there.
“So many customers!”
Tomomi Hamasaki was there in her cheongsam, sounding wholeheartedly shocked.
“There are only three of us,” Yuichi protested.
“No, no, no, Sakaki. To have three people come here at this time of night is impressive, you know? Yes, yes.”
“Hey, that was a pretty random ‘yes, yes.’ Shouldn’t it just be ‘impressive, yes, yes’?” Yuichi sighed, feeling a bit fed up with Tomomi’s inconsistent speech tic usage.
“I didn’t see a lot of customers here during the day, either...” Aiko murmured. She seemed worried about Nihao the China’s business.
She and the waitress seemed pretty close, Yuichi noted, as they headed for the round table.
They sat the girl down in a chair where Yuichi could examine her wound.
Fortunately, it wasn’t terribly bad; just a small cut in her mouth. At Yuichi’s prompting, Tomomi prepared a plastic bag filled with ice, which he put to the girl’s cheek.
“It should be okay after you cool it down for a while, but if you’re still worried, you should go to the hospital,” he said.
Once the girl seemed to have calmed down, Yuichi and Aiko both sat down, as well.
“Hey, Sakaki. Do you do this a lot?” Aiko asked, curiously.
“Well... if someone’s in trouble, and you’re there, you have to help them, right? Though I don’t usually see things on that scale in this area...” Yuichi racked his brain, trying to think of who might be behind something like this.
He was pretty sure he had cleared up most of the likely bad guys who lived in the area, though. If they had just been goons, that wouldn’t have bothered him. But seeing the “Vampire?” label, and the way it had suddenly changed to “Anthromorph (Wolf),” bothered him.
Yuichi asked the girl what had happened, but all she remembered was being suddenly attacked while she was downtown.
“So you didn’t know them, huh? They probably won’t bother you anymore, but if anything happens, contact me. I’ll give you my number.” Yuichi exchanged cell phone numbers with the girl.
“Hey, Sakaki. Do you do this a lot?” Aiko asked, exasperatedly.
“Huh?” He had a feeling she’d just asked him that, with a slightly different nuance this time.
Chapter 4: A Heart-Pounding First Date! (With Little Sister Along)
Giant stuffed animals towered over everything. They were the defining trait of Aiko’s room.
They were a type of teddy bear called a “Cheeky,” made by a company called Merrythought, and known for their large heads and broad foreheads which made them look like babies. The biggest of them would require two arms to carry, but there were other stuffed animals around it, too many to count.
Apparently, at some point when she was very small, Aiko had expressed a fondness for them, and her father had proceeded to buy them for her from then onward.
Aiko wasn’t happy about always getting teddy bears as presents. It didn’t seem appropriate for a girl in high school, but she had long since given up hope in her father developing better taste in gifts.
Anyway, teddy bears might be an easy stopgap gift, but they were still an expression of love. And it wasn’t as if she hated them, so she decided to continue accepting them, graciously.
The next most notable feature in Aiko’s room was the pink and white coloring.
White was the base color for the furniture and interior decorations. Fabric-based furnishings like the curtains, the sofa, and the bed cover were all a pale pink. Aiko herself had handled the coordination, but she was nagged by the thought that she had gone too far with it.
It was a bit too girlish, and she was a little embarrassed to show it to others. Whenever her friends came to visit, they always called it “kind of amazing,” and she was never sure if they were being sincere or sarcastic.
Aiko was lying on her bed in that room in pink pajamas, hugging a stuffed animal to her chest. She was thinking about what had happened that afternoon.
Yuichi had been so reckless. He had run into that abandoned building and saved the girl being attacked, just because of Aiko’s comment about how she’d smelled blood.
He hadn’t even hesitated. He’d treated it as if it went without saying that he’d do it.
Yuichi called his sister strange, but he was plenty strange on his own.
Well, I guess I’m just as bad for going along with it... Aiko thought.
He’d incapacitated a dozen people in a flurry of punches and kicks. Most people would find violence like that shocking, but Aiko hadn’t done much more than wrinkle her nose. She seemed to be getting used to this kind of thing.
Would this keep happening if she kept hanging out with Yuichi and the others?
That’s right, Yoriko mentioned something like that...
When they’d first met, she had said, “My brother is merely attempting to aid a person in need.” In other words, this was something Yuichi did regularly.
Ah, that reminds me...
She had never properly thanked Yoriko for lending her that underwear. She wanted to do something nice for her, but she couldn’t figure out what, and so had ended up putting it off. It felt a little vulgar to just pay her for them, and boorish to buy her the same set of underwear.
It should be something that will really make her happy... she thought. But it was hard to figure out what that would be. She had only talked to Yoriko that one time at Yuichi’s house, and had no idea what she liked.
Aiko rolled over, her eyes falling on the cell phone next to the bed. Maybe I could ask Sakaki about it...
She didn’t know if Yuichi would know Yoriko’s tastes or not, but it seemed like a good reason to try calling him for the first time.
She would feel a little self-conscious calling him for no reason, but there should be no problem with calling to ask for help with a thank-you gift.
She thought back to how casually Yuichi had exchanged phone numbers with the girl he had just met that afternoon. Maybe Yuichi exchanged numbers and talked that casually with every girl. If so, then there was no need to be shy about it.
Aiko reached for her phone, and
with a little trepidation, dialed Yuichi’s number.
It was Saturday, the next day, and a little before noon.
Aiko was walking the station concourse where they said they would meet up.
There was an objet d’art there that resembled a carillon with a clock and bell that was often used as a meet-up spot. Mist sprayed down from the ceiling, cooling off the whole area. At exactly noon, the clock began to play a song made popular by a local band.
Yuichi was already there, right on time.
He was dressed in a light jacket, navy blue jeans, and gray sneakers. Aiko had never seen Yuichi in street clothes before, but she found them very flattering on him.
Aiko was about to call out when she noticed there was a girl with him. The girl was hanging close to Yuichi, inside his personal space, suggesting either a girlfriend or family.
As Aiko stood there for a moment in surprise, the beautiful girl suddenly came running up to her.
The girl took Aiko’s hand and pulled her some ways away from Yuichi.
“Huh?” Aiko stood there, bewildered, as the girl pressed closer to her and hissed:
“What, exactly, is the meaning of this, Noro? My brother and I are here today to go clothes shopping. It was supposed to be me and him. Just me and him!”
It was Yoriko, Yuichi’s little sister. She was wearing a sleeveless blouse and a miniskirt, a brazen display of naked arm and leg that drew the attention of everyone around them. She looked so unlike a middle school student in her street clothes that Aiko hadn’t recognize her immediately.
Aiko wondered how to proceed. She had come to buy a present for Yoriko, but she couldn’t exactly do that while she was around.
“Um, remember how I borrowed your clothes before? I wanted to buy something you would like as a thank-you, and I asked Sakaki what that might be, and he said he was going out today and I should come along... I didn’t know he’d made plans with you, and he didn’t tell me, either...” Aiko said, her words containing no small amount of reproach for Yuichi’s thoughtlessness.
“I see,” Yoriko spat venomously. “I do you a favor, and this is how you repay me? Using a present for me as a pretense to come here, all giddy and dressed to the nines?”
The Half-Baked Vampire vs. The Strongest Little Sister?! Page 5
