by Nisioisin
“I remember only that which I enjoyed and forget that which was unpleasant.
“And so I cannot deny this unpleasant feeling─for I’ve suddenly been reminded of something forgotten from my past that I hardly wanted to remember.
“That said, I’ve no intention at all of blaming thee, so thou may rest easy in that sense─how should I put this. This time around, thou art, in a rare turn for thee, an entirely innocent bystander.
“’Twas not a case of ye sticking thine own head into a situation.
“Though I’m sure thou will make off for the jaws of death as always once ye hear my story─and I suppose I will be there with thee.
“This story will be a bit of a long one.
“It will require spending the great majority of the pages I’d planned to use advertising my theatrical film, at the very least─what’s that, it doesn’t bother thee in the slightest? What cold words. Just as my moment in the spotlight had come after all this time.
“But I suppose I do have memories of most of what happened that spring break. Of course, that memory came to a proper conclusion, thanks to that wretched Hawaiian-shirted boy, a bad ending though it may have been.
“Keheheh─but in those days I never would have been defeated by such a child, anyways.
“I was at my zenith in those times, after all.
“Not a child as I am now.
“Not looking like the kind of lolita preferred by thee.
“Not flat and smooth but big and buxom─Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade.
“The iron-blooded, hot-blooded, yet cold-blooded vampire.
“A legendary vampire, the king of aberrations.
“Bound by none, bound by no shadow, one who lived as she pleased.
“Suicidal?
“Oh, no, I became a suicidal vampire after that─I’m impressed that ye managed to remember such an early character trait of mine. This is why talking about the past always embarrasses me so.
“Still, strictly speaking, this will not be the first time I’ve spoken to thee about those days. I should have once told thee about the time I created my first thrall.
“Brief as the discussion was.
“Aye, during spring break, on the roof of this building.
“Though I never spoke of the circumstances around it─in other words, this was the same time I acquired the enchanted blade Kokorowatari, the one I’ve let thee borrow so many times.
“I will have to give a bit of a preface, or perhaps a few warnings before I begin… I’m about to tell thee the story of my first thrall, the story of when I created this first thrall…so take care not to grow jealous.
“No, ’twas not a joke.
“And ’tis no laughing matter─not to me.
“I suppose ’tis rare to find a vampire as chaste as I─but to create a thrall is, basically, to have one’s breed flourish. One could say it is like creating family.
“While it may not have been a complicated, convoluted relationship such as ours, someone all but unrelated to thee having a master-and-servant relationship with myself, even temporarily, cannot but be an unpleasant story for thee.
“Or perhaps I merely wish ye would feel that way.
“’Tis something a bit different in nature from the way ye ‘cheated’ on me by kissing that little tsukumogami girl earlier─for I was, for what ’tis worth, serious about it… Aye, I felt about as serious then as I did when I made thee my thrall.
“Perhaps we could say I was more serious, as I made thee my thrall with the intention of turning thee back into a human.
“At the very least, ’twas not a frivolous act.
“So listen.
“Do feel properly jealous.
“To word it in plain terms, from thy perspective now, this thrall would be an ex-boyfriend of mine─sorry as I must be to disavow my virginity to thee.
“Well, no, that one was a joke.
“I know that the trust between us will not be shaken by my retelling, my rehashing of my past, not after all this time.
“So my true warning to thee is to listen closely─for this is no mere story of times past. ’Tis indeed a tale that still applies, that connects to this moment.
“Four hundred years.
“So the better part of my life, then… It all went by so fast.
“Like the blink of an eye.
“My memories are hazy. I’d forgotten them completely until just a moment ago, after all.
“Now, what should I start with.
“Rather, where should I begin.
“Aye, perhaps I’ll begin with the circumstances─the circumstances that led to my visiting this land, Japan. Of course, it may not have been called by that name in those days.
“Oh, ye must know. The official name ‘Japan’ only came into existence a few dozen years ago, no? Prior to that, ’twas the Empire of Japan… What was it before that? Ye must know, thou art studying for thine exams.
“Ah, so Japan as a simple name existed prior to that? Hmm… I don’t quite understand. ‘The land of the rising sun’? Its derivation…
“But in any case, I didn’t know any better at the time, even less than now. I didn’t know, for better or for worse. I didn’t know a thing about human culture or the like.
“Why, forget any name, I did not even know that these islands existed here. I dove expecting to take a dip in the ocean, only to find land there. What a surprise it was.
“Aye, a dip in the ocean.
“Vampires can’t cross the sea? They can’t pass over running water? Well, I wouldn’t know what to say to such common sense.
“Having ‘held’ my power and ‘fought’ me, thou ought to know better than anyone that I am a special, rare species of vampire to which such rules do not apply.
“Not to mention that I was at my zenith then, in high bloom.
“In high bloom and in new bloom.
“Of course, vampires are still vampires─I do have those things ye would call vulnerabilities, such as being weak to the sun, or to garlic or crosses or what have ye, my properly ‘established’ rules and characteristics, but in those days I had regenerative abilities that far outstripped these weaknesses.
“From the moment the sun began turning my body to ash, nay, before it even could, my body regenerated─if my self of yore were to be biologically anatomized, I suppose I was an abnormally regenerative vampire.
“Even poison, which has troubled thee a number of times, would have done nothing to me in those days. My functions would have regenerated from the moment, or even before, the poison took effect.
“Prior to my visit, I was at the South Pole.
“Aye, the South Pole.
“I wanted to see the aurora… Like I said already, I was not suicidal then, merely a traveler.
“I was visiting the sights of the world.
“Even as vampire hunters around the globe sought to take my life─no, no, the hunters of those days were no mere Dramaturgys or Episodes or Guillotine Cutters.
“They would absolutely disgust you… Human rights and such weren’t given consideration in those days.
“How the human world has changed in a mere four hundred years… Thy life would be hunted in those days simply for being immortal, even if thou were not a vampire.
“Not that I gave any mind to it─I enjoyed it, in fact. ’Twould not be until a little later that I began to tire of such battles, that I developed a distaste for them.
“That I became suicidal.
“I’m being serious when I say that I was simply, innocently, and purely enjoying my travels in those days─ah, the aurora was gorgeous.
“’Tis amazing, that aurora.
“Ye ought to see it once while thou art alive─well, I understand humanity is busy these days with global warming or whatever ’tis called, but I’m sure another ice age will come about eventually. It should be visible in Japan then, so don’t ye forget to watch.
“If ye can live that long, that is. Ye seem to be
bound for an early death despite thy immortality.
“But, to jump to the conclusion, ’twas a mistake.
“However much of an untrammeled traveler I wished to be, however much I wanted to see the aurora, the South Pole was the one place I should have never gone─indeed, the North Pole too.
“No, ’tis not as if I particularly dislike the cold. You could even say cold climes are my forte as a vampire.
“And being immortal also means having no body temperature… ’Twould get a bit complicated if I began down that path, as I’d need to explain the relation to zombies and ghosts and the like.
“Nay, the problem is that there are no humans at the South Pole. ’Tis what ye might call an uninhabited island. I have heard that technically speaking the North Pole is not land but floating ice…but thou must understand this well.
“Aberrations stand in conflict with humans.
“But they cannot come into existence without humans.
“Tales of aberrations cannot come to be without eyewitness testimony or first-hand experience─’tis not as if penguins and polar bears would speak of my immortality or my monstrosity, no matter how I exhibited them.
“Urban legends.
“The word on the street.
“Secondhand gossip.
“Without humans, none would exist.
“While I may not have frozen to death, I suppose I felt my existence weakening─ah, ’tis no good, what a crisis I’ve found myself in. ’Twas no time to be looking at the aurora, for I may soon become aurora myself.
“Nay, I meant nothing by that.
“There are no romantic legends that say a vampire turns to aurora when she dies─there do seem to be some that state the aurora consists of the souls of the dead, but even that legend had no speaker for it at the South Pole.
“There are now? Humans, at the South Pole? Antarctic Research Expeditions, ye say… Ah. So I was their herald. Not that I discovered, or researched, a thing. Regardless.
“I thought that unless I did something, the great being known as myself would vanish into thin air, what a loss for the world, I must not die until I have vanquished the sun, and so I escaped the South Pole in a tizzy.
“I escaped with a super jump instant air dash.
“Aye, even I had to bend my knees and crouch prior to taking off. Hm? The tsukumogami girl’s jump? Ah, I suppose ye did speak of such things.
“The Disengagement Edition of her Unlimited Rulebook.
“Hmph, ’twouldn’t even merit comparison. To be clear with thee here, the recoil from my jump threatened to destroy the Antarctic landmass.
“I took care not to, of course.
“While I may not have wanted to stay there, ’twas a pleasant land. My plan was to make it a vacation home, a place where I could sequester myself at times when I wished to avoid humans. Meanwhile, I had not given any thought at all to where I might land.
“It was a random, haphazard jump, and so I thought I would land in the ocean, anyway. My idea was to then take a little swim and refresh myself.
“Three quarters of the world is ocean, so probability would state that I was most likely to land in it, no? And while I said the jump was a haphazard one, I did have some kind of a target, I aimed for somewhere around the Pacific─but.
“But, much to my surprise, there was this country.
“Hm? What’s that look on thy face?
“No, there’s no need for worry. ’Tis not as if I crushed this nation underfoot. Perhaps I would have in the case of a solid landing, but that is where my good luck stepped in.
“I fell in a lake.
“Though it vanished when I did.
“The scale is needlessly grand, ye say? Again, this is a story of me at my zenith─but true, ye’ve barely seen me at the height of my powers. And that first impression was particularly bad. Ye see, the scale I fundamentally operate on is grand.
“But, the lake.
“When I landed in its waters─no, since I ended up with both feet on its bed, I suppose I ought to say that I landed on land after all─I made the lake disappear, and that is where the tale begins.
“This worthless tale of a demon.”
008
“Well, I can’t help the lack of excitement in my voice because I already know the ending to this tale, which is to say, ’tis already evident to me that it will come to an awful conclusion, but while I call it a worthless tale, ’tis by no means an entirely unpleasant memory, a flashback I wish to recall none of.
“As ye can see, I’ve a careless personality.
“Careless, or perhaps perfunctory, or perhaps improvisatory, but in any case, I’ve lived my life from moment to moment not thinking about matters too deeply.
“That must be why I’ve lived notably long for a vampire─because I’ve lived it as hedonistically as I could, never giving too much thought to anything.
“Which is why I do have my reasonably pleasant memories as well─of what happened in that village.
“I’ve forgotten its name, though.
“Nay, this isn’t something I’ve forgotten, I never made the effort to remember it to begin with─as thou art well aware, I once had close to no interest in human society as a vampire─all of it looked identical to me, and I made no effort to distinguish any of it from the rest.
“I could barely distinguish one race from another.
“What are the humans in this country, they’re all so tiny in size─that was about the only thought I had. A well-grown boy is no uncommon sight now, but four hundred years ago, every one of thee was about thy height.
“Hmph.
“But well, I am the tiny one now. One never knows what the world may bring─in any case, I apologize for making the story complicated, but the names of villages and humans and all those other kinds of proper nouns won’t be accurate going forward.
“In fact, I shan’t even try.
“As my senses direct me.
“They won’t even be guesses─’twould not necessarily be incorrect to call them nonsense. For about the only distinctions I was making were ‘village,’ ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ and ‘child.’
“I may have even mixed those.
“All in a messy tangle.
“I presume the lake whose disappearance I caused had some sort of name as well, but ’tis not one I remember…though ’twas a rather large pond.
“Now that I think of it, I recall that annoying Hawaiian-shirted boy speaking of legends stating that your Lake Biwa was made by the footprint of an inhuman existence, but the opposite would hold true in my case─for my footprints caused the lake to vanish.
“That said, ’tis not as though I did it without any tricks.
“Or perhaps not tricks, but there are always what thou might call advantageous conditions on my side whenever I perform any such large-scale acts─it seems the lake lacked much of its water in those days.
“Aye, from a drought.
“’Twas an age with no dams or the like, so the damage dealt by global warming…or rather, long droughts was quite serious.
“To the point where it truly was a matter of life and death.
“It may be hard for one such as thee who lives in a blessed age to understand…but this was a time when the very concept of infrastructure did not exist─but while it may nearly sound as though I feel sorry for the humans back then, I of course had no such conception at the time.
“While I say that aberrations cannot exist without humans, that aberrations only come into being as such when they are first witnessed by humans, all of that is but theory speaking─to go further, ’tis naught more than an empty idea.
“Why would I ever give my thanks or show my gratitude─in fact, I cackled and joked that if the sun’s rays were causing them to grow weak and die, then why, ’twas nearly as though they were vampires.
“’Twas dark comedy, of course.
“But─by chance I had saved those helpless humans. How, ye ask? I thought I’d explained that alread
y…
“I said I’d made the lake disappear, did I not?
“But ’tis not as if I’m an explosive.
“And I spoke of how I have no body temperature─I would not say I have none whatsoever, due to my remarkable regenerative abilities, but let us put that aside.
