Chapter 3 – End of Childhood

Ｒｅ​ａｄ​ ​ｏｎ Ｋａ​ｔＲｅａ​ｄｉｎ​ｇＣａｆ​ｅ

There’s always been a construction site visible across the river on the way home from school. The area across the river is all industrial complexes or factories still under construction, so whenever I turned my gaze, I saw black silhouettes melting into the sunset.  

Black smoke rising from factories, or tall cranes with blinking red lights.  

At first glance, they might seem unsightly, but when combined with the serene atmosphere of the sunset, there’s no better scenery. It’s a consistent memory of the way home from school, you could say.  

Back then, there were no people by the riverside, so it was always a good place to have some alone time.  

And now, around 8 PM, I was walking that path again.  

Frantically scrolling through random search bars on my phone.  

The search bar was filled with traces of anguish like “how to buy blood,” “how to get blood,” “how to buy blood packs”, “blood pack purchase”. “how to hunt animals” and so on.  

Even now, I’m aimlessly tapping away on the internet, but all I’m getting are Halloween decorations. It seems impossible to get it through legal means.  

Who would have thought blood trading would be treated like organ trafficking? If there were a legal way to get blood, even a vampire wouldn’t resort to illegal means.  

I let out a deep sigh.  

‘I came out to get blood, but….’  

I shuffled my feet and glanced around.  

It’s about two blocks away from the main road, so if I just change my route a bit, I can head straight into the city center.  

Maybe it’s because of this city, but it’s hard to find wild animals. Even if I do find one, they run away the moment they see me.  

And animal blood doesn’t seem like it would taste that good.  

I know it’s a privileged concern to be worrying about taste when I’m trying to get blood, but I’m not that hungry yet, so what can I do?  

The important thing is the desire to get blood right now. If I’m going to do it, I might as well get something tasty.  

I thought about sucking human blood, but that’s still too much.  

Just a week ago, I was a normal person. How can I suddenly sink my teeth into raw flesh? Am I insane?  

Someone who could do that without hesitation probably had mental issues even before becoming a vampire.  

So the best option right now is to figure out how to get blood packs…  

‘The places I can think of are too limited’  

The only places that handle blood packs are places like hospitals.  

But why would a vampire suck blood from a living creature? It’s a matter of nutrition, not preference.  

No matter how much it’s blood, blood that’s been sitting in a fridge for a long time is undrinkable.  

I know this instinctively. A vampire’s instinct, you could say. I’m sure if I drank that, I’d be stuck in the bathroom all night vomiting into the toilet.  

So let’s get warm blood. Freshly drawn, sweet-smelling blood.  

Of course, I still refuse to sink my teeth into a human’s neck. Let’s call it a matter of learned ethics.  

If you suddenly handed a knife to an ordinary person and told them to kill someone, they wouldn’t be able to do it properly.  

Unless they have some special feelings toward the other person, someone who could do such a crazy thing without hesitation should be in a mental hospital, not society.  

So, I’m normal.  

It hasn’t been long since I became a vampire, and today is the first time I’ve tried to suck blood, so anyway.  

So let’s think. Where can I get warm blood without sinking my fangs into a human?  

I thought of the largest general hospital in the city, but I shook my head.  

That’s too big of a deal. The security personnel wouldn’t be easy to handle, and the lobby is too open to control people.  

Then, maybe a blood donation center.  

At a blood donation center, I can get a large amount of freshly drawn blood, and the scale isn’t as big as a general hospital. At most, it’s the size of one floor in a commercial building.  

The entrance is also limited, so I can control people in a small space.  

I wasn’t aware of what kind of insane plan I was making, but I was sure I was planning something huge.  

After much deliberation, the conclusion was to rob the blood donation center! Am I even sane right now?  

 

I don’t know. Right now, I just want to quench my thirst. I want a glass of sweet blood. Of course, within ethical limits.  

I know that committing robbery is way beyond ethical boundaries, but I have to survive first, right?  

Even as a vampire, I want to live. I want to survive in this cruel human society as a vampire.  

I’m confident I can be a good vampire who doesn’t kill humans. After all, a vampire is just a human who uses blood as their staple food.  

‘That sounds weird.’  

I stopped thinking. If I keep going down this path, I’ll fall into an endless ethical dilemma.  

Alright, the plan is simple. Just go to the blood donation center late at night when there are few people, threaten them a bit, and take enough blood packs to stock up.  

No need to kill anyone. No need to see unnecessary blood! Let’s show that I’m different from the sexy vampires in classic movies.  

For now, I’m a pacifist. Let’s see how it turns out.  

With surprising decisiveness, I turned from the riverside and headed toward the city center.  

* * *  

The city at night was quieter than I expected. When I looked at the skyscrapers stretching to the sky, I couldn’t help but feel dizzy and lower my head.  

I waited for the right time, and finally, when the last train had stopped running, there were fewer people on the streets.  

Occasionally, a few office workers with haggard faces shuffled past.  

Even though I had my hood pulled down, the white-haired girl didn’t seem to care at all as her hair fluttered in the wind.  

It’s a good time. The air smells good, and my body feels lively under the moonlight. Somehow, I feel full of energy.  

In this state, I feel like I can do anything.  

‘Let’s go, let’s go.’  

I can do it. I can do it. I tapped my cheeks under the hood.  

While giving myself this pep talk, I eyed the blood donation center on the second floor of a building tucked in a corner of the block.  

‘I can do it.’  

I thought about it.  

And then I shook my head.  

‘I can’t do it. I won’t do it. This is insane.’  

The world must be going crazy.  

No, my life must be going crazy. There’s no way I can do this in my right mind!  

Like, holding a gun, threatening people, and if something unexpected happens, screams erupting everywhere.  

If I hear a high-pitched scream, the tense situation will collapse in an instant. This is an easily predictable scenario.  

In movies, that’s how it always goes. In tense situations, the original plan easily falls apart.  

I need something, something more thorough…! A perfect plan that won’t lose to anyone, that I’ll never get caught!  

‘…….’  

I blankly looked at the blood donation center on the quiet street.  

I looked up, thought about it, then thought about running away, then thought, no, I have to survive, and then made up my mind again.  

“Ah, damn it!”  

What does it matter! Let’s just act crazy and rob it once.  

In the end, the most important thing is life, right! What’s the point of the law!  

In fact, if people knew they could save a poor vampire with just one or two blood packs, they’d gladly hand them over.  

Right, life is the most important thing! A vampire’s life is also a life!  

I decided to act crazy and just go for it.  

I grabbed a decorative gas lamp from the corner of the street.  

The pavement made a thudding sound as it came loose with the lamp.  

But isn’t this too big?  

It’s too bulky to carry into the building.  

So I used my knee to snap the middle of the pole in half.  

It became a slightly unbalanced weapon, but it still looked menacing.  

A vampire holding a street lamp is a comedy in itself.  

‘Let’s go!’  

With my weapon ready, I ran up the stairs, scraping the lamp against the wall, and stood right in front of the blood donation center’s entrance.  

The lights were still on, and there were about five or six ordinary people inside.  

And boldly, pretending to be completely out of my mind, I swung the lamp and kicked open the door, making a grand entrance.  

“St-st-stop right there! Don’t move! Do as I say, and I’ll spare your lives!”  

What am I doing right now? What kind of nonsense is this?  

Am I crazy? Yeah, I’m crazy! I’m insane!  

This can’t be reality in my right mind.  

But I have to survive!  

Right, I have to survive. I have to survive first!  

It’s just one or two blood packs.  

That can’t be more important than a single person’s life.  

With my eyes darting around, I shouted as loudly as I could.  

My vision blurred as if I had astigmatism, and my face turned red.  

“….”  

As I kicked open the door, a suffocating silence fell over the blood donation center.  

The five or six customers sitting in the lobby turned to look at me.  

It was chilling. It felt like I’d suffocate from the silence.  

And then, breaking the cold silence, an unpleasant laughter started to echo.  

“Heh, hehe. Hehehe. Wow, what a sight. There really are idiots like this, huh?”  

One of the customers sitting in the lobby stood up, laughing. She was a foreigner with striking blonde hair and an impressive figure.  

She probably had a fancy French name, something like “Vivre.”  

Anyway, she stood up and pulled something out from her thigh.  

It was long and heavy, with two distinctive features, something that looked incredibly dangerous.  

“Ah, another lamb has come. How naive. We’ll have to save you quickly.”  

Another customer stood up besides her. A middle-aged man in a trench coat, who pulled something out from inside his coat.  

It looked like a massive holy book that could turn into a deadly weapon. What the hell is that?  

“Wow, that’s so cute!! If I decorate my house with it as a stuffed doll, the lighting will be even brighter.”  

A high school girl who stood up next started saying something that didn’t sound sane.  

“Hehe, what a catch! That smooth skin will tear so nicely!”  

A bald man who should be in a mental hospital was licking a sharp blade with great skill, cackling.  

Aside from the four who had just stood up, the other three customers in the lobby were staring at us with blank expressions.  

Like they were watching a well-staged hidden camera show.  

Honestly, it’s weird that they’re not surprised when a kid walks in holding a street lamp three times their size.  

Anyway, the four who had just stood up were staring at me, laughing among themselves like they knew each other well.  

Somehow, I managed to open my mouth with a burning voice.  

“Wh-who are you people?”  

“You’ve got guts, kid. To think of robbing a blood donation center on a bloody night like this.”  

What’s that? That’s weird. It’s not broad daylight, but a bloody night?  

No, more than that. Somehow, anxiety was growing in my heart. It’s strange not to feel anxious in this abnormal situation.  

I wanted to scream, throw the lamp, and run away from this place right now.  

The woman who had first stood up, probably with a French-sounding name, smirked at me and said,  

“To put it simply, kid, you’re no different from a foolish robber trying to rob a donut shop at peak hour. And a donut chain full of cops at that.”  

Hearing that, I stared blankly at the four of them and barely managed to open my mouth.  

‘Screw this!’  

“…Will you forgive me if I apologize now?”  

“How adorable.”