Chapter 2 – End of childhood

Rｅaｄ​ ​ｏ​ո​& ;K̂ａtＲėaｄin​ǵＣ​a​ғе

This was what happened a week ago.  

Humans are adaptable creatures.  

In the end, I had somewhat adapted to this situation.  

Well, it was more like I had given up and decided to let things happen as they would.  

But adapting to this insane situation would be strange in itself.  

After all, everything from start to finish was incomprehensible.  

I felt guilty about my body and didn’t even think about examining it properly.  

I just threw on some clothes like a beggar and clicked away on my computer in the corner of my room every day.  

I knew I had to come up with a plan, but…  

The situation was so absurd that I just wasted time going with the flow as usual.  

My sense of reality had completely vanished.  

Flickering in the mirror.  

Even what I saw in the mirror defied common sense.  

Strangely, my physical body looked fine, but my reflection in the mirror was different.  

‘But….’  

I aimlessly browsed the internet and let out a deep sigh.  

After a week of not washing or sleeping, just sitting in front of the computer, I suddenly felt a sense of reality crashing down.  

‘I didn’t even notice.’  

If I didn’t wash, skipped meals, or stayed up all night, my body should have shown signs of strain.  

But my body was as clean and smooth as ever, making it feel even less real.  

However, my brain was slowly starting to accept the situation.  

It was time to seriously think about what was happening.  

“Phew….”  

I pushed my chair back and stared blankly at the ceiling.  

‘…Isn’t this just being a hikikomori?’  

It had already been a week since I last saw sunlight.  

Time kept passing as I kept running away.  

I even refused to go to school.  

It seemed like I was beyond becoming a normal member of society.  

If I wanted to restore my daily life now, I had to go outside.  

I couldn’t stay holed up in my room, escaping reality forever.  

Besides, I was starting to get hungry.  

My stomach growled, sending signals.  

‘It’s not like I wasn’t hungry at all.’  

My sense of reality was slowly returning.  

There’s nothing as effective as the return of familiar sensations.  

‘Then, first, I should prepare to go outside….’  

There wasn’t much in the fridge to take out.  

I usually just ate convenience store food in the past.  

Whoosh!  

I walked over to the window and flung open the curtains.  

The sunlight streaming through the window brightened the room.  

“Ugh….”  

I shielded my eyes with my arm from the intense light I hadn’t seen in a week.  

It felt like I had become a vampire.  

At that moment, something started to appear on my arm.  

‘Smoke?’  

Smoke began to rise from the skin of my arm.  

Sizzle, sizzle…  

The white smoke rising looked like something was burning.  

 

‘Fire?’  

 

The smoke was rising from my skin.  

Then.  

“…!”  

Whoosh!  

The moment I realized, I felt a searing pain.  

“Ahhhhh!”  

I let out a scream I had never made before and fell backwards.  

“Gasp, gasp!”  

Thud, thud.  

I frantically slapped the floor to put out the fire.  

I even hit it with a blanket, causing chaos.  

Overwhelmed by incomprehensible fear, I desperately crawled backward.  

Instinctively, I hid in the shadows.  

Sizzle…  

“Gasp, gasp.”  

The lingering smell of burning.  

As I moved completely away from the sunlight, the flames gradually subsided.  

The sound of the grotesque bubbles on my skin disappearing filled the room.  

“…Ugh, ugh.”  

What remained was the terrible searing pain and transparent skin with red blisters.  

I trembled, gasping for breath.  

The flickering girl in the mirror had now completely disappeared.  

* * *  

I lay in bed and thought about it all day.  

After wasting the day staying up all night, I spent half the day searching the internet and thinking more.  

Creatures that can survive long periods without eating, creatures that burst into flames when exposed to sunlight, creatures that don’t appear in mirrors…  

‘Just a while ago, I could still see her flickering in the mirror, but now she’s completely gone.’  

It was all nonsensical.  

Facts that were closer to superstition than rational understanding.  

These were things I discovered by exploring my body.  

This was reality.  

‘Especially the fangs.’  

The body itself was scientifically impossible, and on top of that, it had developed fangs?  

It wasn’t just my imagination that vampires came to mind.  

It was already in the realm of fantasy.  

It wasn’t something that could be explained scientifically.  

So, it wasn’t unreasonable for such a fictional creation to naturally come to mind.  

Of course, since this was reality, it was no longer a fictional creation.  

I blankly pinched my cheek.  

“A vampire….”  

Yeah.  

It’s not entirely unexpected.  

 

I can accept it.  

That this body is a vampire.  

The fact that I wasn’t hungry could be explained because blood was my nourishment.  

The fact that I was starting to get hungry meant it was time to replenish that nourishment.  

After all, that’s the ‘setting’ for vampires.  

I blankly thought about it, then banged my head against the edge of the bed.  

‘There’s no way I can accept this, damn it!!’  

“Crazy, crazy…! If this is a dream, just wake up…!”  

 

It felt like my life had taken a ridiculous turn.  

To be honest, until just a moment ago, I wasn’t entirely dissatisfied.  

Sure, my social status was erased, and my future was uncertain, but it wasn’t all bad.  

I got to experience, even briefly, what it felt like to be one of those popular people who take endless selfies.  

I understood the joy of looking in the mirror.  

Thinking about it, it was a kind of escapist satisfaction.  

It was so unrealistic that I just emptied my mind and let things happen as they would.  

Yes, it was definitely unrealistic.  

But.  

‘I never dreamed I would become a vampire!’  

No, it’s not that I didn’t dream of it, but I just never considered it.  

Of course, I know about vampires.  

It’s one of the most famous themes in movies, comics, and novels.  

But that’s just in fiction; reality is different.  

 

‘Why the hell do vampires actually exist?’  

It doesn’t make sense.  

It’s just in the realm of fantasy.  

A story infinitely distant from reality.  

A story no more than superstition or legend.  

But no matter how much I denied it, the reality before my eyes didn’t change.  

The sharp fangs were clearly not decorations but instead my own teeth.  

‘And….’  

Instinctively, I knew what I needed to do to satisfy my hunger.  

Whether I wanted to or not, my body was sending signals.  

That sealed the speculation that I was a vampire.  

* * *  

I spent another day thinking about it.  

As the initial shock faded and I could think more rationally, fear began to creep in.  

A kind of reality-check phase.  

‘Should I go to the police or the hospital…?’  

I fiddled with my phone.  

But my consciousness was still floating.  

I couldn’t even tell if this was reality or a dream.  

But it was reality.  

I lay there blankly staring at the dial, then finally turned off the screen.  

I couldn’t predict how things would unfold if I told others about this.  

It was hard to imagine receiving support or help so easily.  

No, to be honest…  

I was just scared.  

The thought that my daily life could irreversibly change at any moment was terrifying, and I couldn’t cope without denying reality.  

‘This… this is reality.’  

Where did it all…  

Where did it all go wrong?  

While I was pondering this, another two days passed.  

‘I’m hungry….’  

I spent the whole day holed up under the covers, not sleeping, starving, and thinking.  

With hunger added to my misery, tears welled up in my eyes.  

Why did this happen to me?  

If it’s fantasy, there are plenty of good things besides vampires.  

Why did it have to be a vampire?  

‘There’s no way I can drink blood.’  

Even though I tried to convince myself otherwise, what I wanted was clear.  

My hungry stomach kept craving blood.  

‘It’s impossible. There’s no way a creature can survive on just blood.’  

I even tried to deny the fantasy scientifically.  

How could a person sustain themselves with just blood, given how little nutrition it contains?  

I’d surely die of malnutrition.  

Bursting into flames from sunlight didn’t make sense either.  

It’s not like I secrete special chemicals, and it’s not like the temperature rises, so why would I suddenly combust from a little direct sunlight?  

‘It’s all… nonsense.’  

But the problem before me now was a fantasy that defied all common sense.  

Everything I had learned was torn to shreds in an instant.  

I had to admit it now.  

This was reality.  

I sighed and fiddled with my stomach.  

‘…What’s going to happen now?’  

If I stay like this, I’ll die.  

‘Should I just die?’  

If I don’t drink blood, will I die?  

Since I’m a vampire.  

‘…No, I don’t want to die.’  

What if I contact the police or a hospital and ask for a blood supply?  

‘That’s ridiculous.’  

It was absurd.  

It would be a miracle if they didn’t think I was crazy.  

‘To others, I’d just be a cosplaying delusional person….’  

I wanted to live.  

I didn’t want to die so ridiculously.  

Becoming a vampire and then starving to death alone in my room, afraid of the outside world.  

‘No.’  

My mind was crumbling.  

I wanted to live.  

If I wanted to live, I had to do something.  

If I stayed like this, I would die.  

‘Right.’  

A while later, I got up with a strange resolve, smiling faintly.  

I had thought so much that my rationality was slightly numb.  

‘Let’s just try it.’  

That’s what I thought.  

I’m hungry.  

I’m hungry, right?  

And I can’t just sit here and die.  

‘Let’s get some blood.’  

First, because I’m hungry.  

I blankly got out of bed and rummaged through the closet for clothes.  

Most of them were, of course, clothes from my original, larger body that didn’t fit.  

But I had no time to worry about that.  

I grabbed a large hoodie and short shorts and threw them on.  

It was still spring, so it might be chilly, so I grabbed a jacket too.  

I clumsily put on oversized sneakers with my small hands.  

Looking back, the streetlights outside signaled the start of night.  

‘Let’s get some blood.’  

I broke my week-long seclusion and stepped outside.