"Nyu!" She protested with her only real word as Kouta tried to put her to bed.
"Nyu, stop kicking. You were just ill and you need rest." Kouta fought with her to get her to stay still. She was like a child fighting their bed time. He finally managed to hold her down long enough for her to calm down. He took the bed sheets and covered her up. "There, now go to sleep. You need to rest."
"Kouta!" She called out. "I like Kouta!" She cried out smiling at him. He smiled back down at her.
"I like you too Nyu." He pet her on the head between her horns. "Now get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." He said his goodnight before turning off the lights in her room and shutting the door behind him. Nyu began to drift off to sleep on after. In her dreams, she was once again Lucy. She was lying down in the middle of a cold icy blackness, thoughts of Kouta running through her head.
He would never love you if he knew what you really were. Her inner voice taunted her. She knew it was right too. Kouta couldn't possibly forgive her for what she did, if he knew what she really was he would never love her. She was hopeless, it was better if she wasn't herself. Maybe then she could finally be happy.
Back in the real world, Kouta made his way to his room right after saying goodnight to Nyu. He could hear Yuka down the hall showing Nana her room. He was still a little miffed at her for attacking Nyu out of the blue like that, but if Nyu could forgive her so could he. Nana was a tenant at this house now, he couldn't just kick her out to the curb like that. So he would allow her to stay at the Maple Inn with everyone else. When he got to his room, he immediately shut the door behind him. He sat down right at the door and buried his face in his hands. "She would never love you if she knew what you really were." He thought to himself, hot tears starting to stream down his face. "You monster." His thoughts got to him. He couldn't let her know the truth, he couldn't let her know what he really was. He raised up his head from his hands, tears still covered his cheeks. His left eye was now a kakugan. He had to calm down, he riled himself up. He took a deep breath and exhaled. He reverted his left eye back to its normal state. No one in that house could know the truth. He buried his face in his knees and reminisced. He would never forget that day.
That day over a year ago...
Kouta was sitting alone at a coffee shop in Tokyo. He was supposed to be meeting with an adviser there for college. He had just taken his entrance exams, but had scored fairly low. He was currently living in Tokyo taking any work he could find. He was put in a state sponsored self-living program. He had spent year after year moving between foster homes after the death of his father and sister. Now he was finally learning how to live on his own in a small apartment. He was starting to really stress about college after taking the exams. But through word down the grapevine he heard about a woman who acted as a college adviser for students unsure of what to do with their future. He decided to look her up and hire her. They exchanged a few emails and decided to meet at this coffee shop, Anteiku. It was a small modest place with the scent of coffee filling the air. He waited at a small table for two people, the seat across from him empty. He looked down at his phone and sighed. She was late. He put his phone back in his pocket. A waitress came over to the table he was at. She was a girl around his age with short dark black hair with a bluish tint. She had it styled so that it partially covered the right side of her face.
"Hello sir, can I get you anything?" She asked him.
"Ah, just some water please. Thanks." He responded with a smile. She nodded and went to get him a glass of water. He began to wonder how long he would wait for her. He stopped wondering that when he saw someone took a seat at the table. She had finally arrived, his college adviser Rize. She too was around his age, but with long flowing deep purple hair and red rimmed glasses.
"Hi there, sorry for being late." She apologized with a smile. "It's good to finally meet you in person Kouta."
"Nice to meet you too Rize." He responded with a smile. The waitress brought Kouta's glass to the table, then noticed Rize had joined him. Rize shot her a quick glance and a smile.
"Ah, hello Touka. I'd like a cup of coffee please." She greeted the waitress who she clearly knew.
"Sure, coming right up." Touka responded to her, going to get one cup of coffee for her.
"You know our waitress?" Kouta asked her.
"Yep, I come here all the time. Best place to grab a cup of coffee in the area. You should try some."
"Ah, no thanks." He responded, holding up his hand. "I'm not really a coffee person."
"Oh, I see." She responded in a rather playful manner. "Anyway, down to business." She pulled a tablet out of her messenger bag and handed it to Kouta. "Here's a list of different universities and schools that you are at least 80% guaranteed to get into based on my calculations. Take a look through and tell me what catches your attention." Kouta scrolled down through the list of schools. They were nothing special of course, he couldn't get into anything like that. There were very few even basic level schools on that last. He did find one that stood out though.
"Oh, this one." He tapped on the tab for it and gave the tablet back to Rize. She looked at it with confusion.
"Huh, but this is just a safety school. There are better schools in the country on this list so why choose this one?"
"The location." He replied with a smile. "It's in Kamakura, I have family in Kamakura."
"Oh I see, close to home huh?" She asked with a smile of her own while doing some more things on her tablet. Touka came over with Rize's coffee and handed it to her. "Thanks." She told her with a smile before taking a sip.
"Well, I guess. I'm actually from Hokkaido but I have an aunt and cousin in Kamakura."
"So a family reunion is it?"
"Yeah, I haven't seen them in 8 years."
"8 years? Why so long?" She asked.
"Oh..." She noticed he suddenly seemed to get a lot more serious and somber. "I don't remember much about it, but we visited for awhile in summer. But not long after that my father died in a car crash. Then my little sister got very sick and passed away. Things really turned into hell for me around then."
"Oh... i'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She sounded apologetic.
"No, it's fine." He smiled but his tone changed little. "I'm pretty over it now. So, do you think I could get into that school?"
"Well according to my calculations there's about a 96% chance you'll get accepted so i'd think so." She tried to brighten the mood.
"Really? That's great!" He replied, now starting to sound like himself again.
"Mhmm, i'll get in contact with the administration and get you in. I suppose that means you'll also have to move."
"Yeah, but it'll be nice to go back to Kamakura again." He replied.
"Well then you have a lot to look forward too." They spent the next hour or so chatting away and discussing Kouta's new school. Until eventually...
"Oh my, would you look at the time." Rize noted. "It's dark already."
"Oh yeah, it is." Kouta noted, turning to look out a window. "Well it was great meeting you."
"You too Kouta, but..." She trailed off. "If you don't mind me asking where do you live exactly?"
"Oh, an apartment complex deeper in the city." He replied, a bit surprised by her question. "Why do you ask?"
"Haven't you heard? There's a killer around this area." She told him, her look becoming most serious.
"A... a killer?" Kouta stammered.
"Yeah, whoever it is they leave little of their victims behind." Kouta was starting to turn pale. "I'll tell you what, it's safer if we go together. I'll walk you back to your apartment." She got up from her chair.
"Oh, well thanks. I really appreciate it." He thanked her as he stood up too.
"Bye everybody!" Rize waved to the staff. Kouta looked back one last time, and something caught his eye. Their waitress was giving him a rather strange look. It wasn't exactly pity but... it was as if she knew something terrible was going to happen to them. Kouta was a bit confused by her glance at first but thought nothing more of it and left the store with Rize. It was about a half hour walk back to his apartment, and the air was a bit chilly for that time of the year. Kouta kept looking around nervously, scared by the news of a vicious killer her heard from Rize. But if they did get attacked their chances of survival were better as a group. On the way back, they passed a construction site where a commercial office building was being built. Rize suddenly got closer to him.
"It sure is a lovely night." She told him with a smile.
"Yeah I guess. Though you can't exactly see the stars well." He commented and she laughed. She suddenly grabbed his arm above the elbow making him stop in his tracks.
"You know... I had a really great time back there." She told him a flirtatious tone.
"Uhh, me too." He replied. He started to blush when she leaned in closer to him.
"You smell nice." She told him, leaning in closer. He started to really turn red when she brought her head next to him and her mouth close to his neck. Then he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his shoulder. He pulled back and found out he was bleeding. He was bleeding a lot actually, blood started to gush out from his wound. He was wearing a jacket too, so something ripped through his jacket and into his arm. Rize started to laugh. He looked at her, still confused and stunned. What just happened? Why was he bleeding? His questions were answered she he saw her face. There was blood on her mouth, his blood. There was also a bit of his black jacket in her mouth that she spit out on the ground. But what really surprised him were her eyes. They were now red and black. "Good enough to eat." She told him in a sinister tone.
"Wh-what's going on? What are you?" He asked in a state of panic.
"Oh you don't need to worry about that Kouta. You need to worry about what's going to happen to you." She was giving him a huge grin. He panicked, he didn't know what was going on and he was in pain. He clutched his wound and ran into the skeleton structure of the building. His plan was to try and run away, to try and shake her off. He just ran, no clue where he was going but he took off. He saw light on the other side of the structure, maybe if he got to that she would go away. But he never made it. Something ripped through the air and cut him in his lower abdomen on the right side. He fell down from the pain and started bleeding even worse. He turned around to Rize was about a meter and a half from him. But now there was something else about her. Four bright red tentacle like appendages coming from her back. They almost seemed to glow, and one of them had blood on it.
"Wh-what the hell is going on?" He asked panicked.
"Do you like them? They're my claws used to kill my prey. That would be you Kouta." He was in a state of full panic. She wasn't human, she was a monster. She was a monster and she was going to kill him. He managed to crawl back from her and hit a wall. He climbed up it and managed to get to his feet. She was closing in on him. She was now close enough to grab him. "Now be a good boy, and just die!" She wound her arm back to punch straight through him. Although he was weak from blood loss his adrenaline gave him enough reaction time to get out of the way. He jumped sideways and landed on the ground. He managed to dodge her attack, but what next? She could probably still use her 'claws' and kill him from there. He closed his eyes and waited for his fate. Pictures of his family flashing through his mind. His father, Kanae... his cousin Yuka who he had hoped to see. Instead, he heard Rize scream. He turned on his back to see what was happening. Rize had missed him but punched right into a 200 amp service box. High voltage and amperage ran through her body, the pain of being electrocuted made her scream. The temporary lights around the sight began to dim as the power was directed into her body. Her kagune spasmed behind her in air thrashing about everywhere. After several seconds all the lights powered by the box exploded and Rize was pushed back from an explosion in the box itself. But it was too late for her, she was fried. She fell back and drew her last breath on the ground, he skin blackened in large patches all over her body. Kouta watched all this in horror. He just saw someone die in front of him. He sat there motionless in a mix of fear and shock before falling down himself due to his wounds. He lie there bleed profusely, thinking that it was the end for him. He slowly closed his eyes as everything went black.
Not long after though, two security guards came into the structure. The explosion had caused a stir among the people living nearby and there were many reports of it. The two guards were armed with flashlights to see in the darkness after the lights exploded. "Hey, over here!" One called to the other, he found the body of Rize and Kouta who was still alive but bleeding profusely. His life was in danger if he didn't get some immediate attention. "Call an ambulance." He ordered. Within minutes an ambulance was at the scene and rushed Kouta and Rize to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival, and Kouta was in need of immediate surgery. He needed a kidney transplant stat. Rize's did't seemed to burned up, so the doctor decided to just use that since it's what he had. Kouta would spend the next couple of weeks in the hospital, and on that day everything changed for him.
