Embarrassment 25: Anju's Problem

Night seemed to take forever for Keitaro. He couldn't even remember falling asleep during the day and when he awoke early the next night, he was still extremely tired. He was used to sleeping when the opportunity arose. But every time he slept during the day and was up during the night, he felt like a vampire.

What Keitaro didn't expect was for Anju to show up on his balcony literally right as soon as it was dark enough to call safe for her. Of course she tried to sneak up on him again. He happened to be still trying to get some sleep when she showed up. She was lucky that he no longer had his weapon on him. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was her standing over his bed. He almost attacked her. But she seemed pleased with herself for scaring him.

"Anju, don't do that again," Keitaro said, sitting up in his bed and catching his breath. "What are you doing here anyways? It's only seven."

"Just checking in on you, Hunter," Anju said slyly.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he replied sarcastically. "No normal vampire is ever up this early in the night. I don't care if it's winter or not."

"I'm sure you know everything about vampires," she said darkly. "I've got somewhere I've got to be tonight."

"Yeah? And where's that? Don't tell me you are trying to hide from another vampire suitor." Keitaro just shook his head. "I already told you I can't help you with them, Anju."

"I'm not trying to hide," Anju said angrily. Keitaro suddenly got the feeling that she had had this argument with somebody else and was getting tired of people telling her what to do. He was right. Anju walked over to the balcony window and stared silently out at the moon for a moment, regaining her composure before continuing. "Mama told me last night that I have one month to find a male before they will force me to get married."

"That's a little harsh, isn't it?" Keitaro said, slightly surprised.

"I got in an argument with them and I made Mama and Papa mad," she replied, thinking back on it. "Even Big Sister is mad at me. They found out that I've been avoiding every last suitor for the past week."

"That can't really be that many. Can it?" Keitaro wondered. "How many suitors have you shot down already?"

Even though Keitaro was wondering why Anju had decided to tell him all of this, he was starting to understand the situation she was in. It was one thing for Anju to tell the vampire males, "no". But it was very disrespectful to not show up at all. Some of the vampires travel across countries just to ask for her hand in marriage. It was very dangerous for them to travel long distances, seeing as they could die in sunlight. After such long and hard travel, it would only be natural to get pissed off if the girl didn't even show up.

The problem was that he didn't know what to say to her to help her in this situation. He still wasn't on the best terms with her, which made it quite awkward to speak on such levels. But it was obvious that she was looking for somebody to give her hope. Or at the very least, give her some advice on what she should do.

"Listen… Anju," Keitaro said, choosing his words carefully. "I'm sure your family isn't going to just hand you over to another vampire clan. They're just a little upset that you haven't been trying to find someone..."

"I am trying," Anju said, cutting him off.

This really confused him. "You just said that you've been avoiding…"

"I've been dating humans," she said, cutting him off again.

"Wait… What?" He definitely was not expecting this. Anju really didn't seem like the kind of person to date humans. At first, Keitaro didn't know whether to laugh or believe her. The idea sounded crazy. But when Anju turned around to face him, he knew that she wasn't lying. It just made him curious. "Why humans? Don't you hate them?"

"Humans are interesting, Hunter," Anju replied in her stoic tone.

"You can't just date humans because you think they're interesting," Keitaro said. "You are a vampire."

"So is Big Sister."

"That's different! What are you going to do when they find out you aren't human?"

"I'll erase their memories," she replied. "Why can't I be with a human?"

"Because YOU aren't human. Does anybody in your family know?"

"Only Boogie."

"So that's a no." He shook his head in disbelief. "Listen, I know you don't want anything to do with the other vampire clans. But if something was to happen and the humans were to find out about vampires... well you might piss off some people."

Anju was smart enough to know that he was talking about Cross Organization. Technically it was against the vampire code of honor for vampires to openly reveal themselves to humans simply because it hardly ever ended well. If they were to tell the wrong human, and word spread, some wouldn't take it so lightly. Then, Cross Organization would have their hands full trying to cover it up while making sure it doesn't happen again.

"I'm not going to make a mistake," Anju said. "Mama and Papa want me to find a suitor. That is what I'm doing."

"I'm sure they didn't mean a human suitor," Keitaro replied. "Why are you telling me all this anyways? What makes you think that I won't tell your family why you're sneaking out so early in the evenings?"

"You won't say anything, Hunter," Anju said calmly. "Because I didn't tell anyone about your problem."

Keitaro immediately fell silent.

"I didn't expect you to do anything about it, Hunter," she continued. She turned back around and opened up sliding door to the balcony. "I just wanted you to know."

After that, Anju walked out onto the balcony, shut the door, and disappeared into the night. Keitaro really didn't know how to respond. Did she really think that he would approve of her dating humans? The only reason she was doing it was so that her family would stop telling her to find a suitor. He didn't really think she understood what she was doing.

Poor Anju, he thought, taking a seat on the edge of his bed. You may be older than me, but you still have the mind of a child. Sometimes, I really wonder?

What was worse was there was nothing he could say that would make her change her mind. She would continue to date whoever she wanted even if he tried to stop her. He might as well stay out of her way. But he was curious as to what had happened last night to make her family so angry with her. There was only one way to find out.

Even though it was extremely early in the night, Keitaro decided to get ready for later. Besides, he would be able to catch Kanon at work just before her shift ended and walk her home. That was all the motivation he needed.

It took him almost an hour to get ready to meet Elda. But he got a little carried away with himself and decided to go all out on the effects. He had an old suit that he had gotten from vampire hunting as well as a few other ancient trinkets. He also had a small spray bottle of diluted vampire's blood, which he sprayed underneath his coat. The problem was that being only half-vampire, his blood smelled different to vampires. With the vampire blood on him, he would hopefully be able to mask his own scent. But there was no way to tell by himself if it worked. To him, everyone had the same scent.

By the time he was finished getting ready and made it to Hina's Bakery, Kanon had already finished her shift and was closing up the shop for the night. When she saw him standing outside, dressed up in such elegant clothing, she immediately laughed at him.

"Surprised?" Keitaro wondered, smiling with her.

"I'm sorry," Kanon said, still laughing. "It's just that you look so funny. You look just like a vampire."

"I got a surprise for you." Just then, he made a whistling sound and held out his arm. Kanon didn't know what to expect when she small a large bat fly in from a nearby branch and land on his arm. Kanon was immediately impressed and smiled largely. "This is my Dad's pet bat. He is letting me borrow it for tonight."

"It's so cute," Kanon said, reaching up to pet it. She practically melted when the bat actually sat there and enjoyed the attention. "I didn't know your papa had pets."

Keitaro just smiled. "When I was little, I thought that maybe it was a gift from another vampire. Thinking back though, I think that the reason this little fellow was so obedient was because my father was a vampire."

After a few moments of allowing Kanon to pet the bat, he let it fly off. It was a very obedient pet and would stay near Keitaro. Only a vampire can control bats, so maybe he would be able to use it to trick Elda. After that, both Keitaro and Kanon, walking closely together, started towards the Maaka mansion. It seemed to take forever to get there. The entire time, Keitaro felt like he was on death row, and was heading for the electric chair. He didn't know why he felt so nervous. He had tricked many different vampires in the past. What made Elda any different?

"Hey, Kanon," Keitaro said, trying to break the awkward silence, "I've been meaning to ask you. Do you know what happened last night with Anju and your grandparents?"

"How did you know about that?"

"She came over this evening to help me get ready," he lied. "I was just wondering what happened."

"I don't really know," she said, truthfully. "I heard that Anju avoided a couple of the male vampires and now one of the vampire clans is mad at our family. Grandma and Grandpa tried to talk with Aunt Anju about it, but she walked out of the room on them. She's been running off a lot recently and nobody knows where she's going all the time."

I wonder, he thought sarcastically to himself.

"Grandpa is talking about giving Anju away to the next vampire suitor if Anju doesn't find a boyfriend soon," Kanon continued.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that your family is being troubled again."

"It's okay. I really like Aunt Anju. I don't want to see her given away like that."

"I'll talk to her if you'd like," Keitaro said thoughtfully.

Kanon seemed pleased with that. "Could you? Thank you, Keitaro."

After that, things started to get quieter as they got closer to the Maaka barrier. What Kanon and Keitaro didn't know was that Elda was sitting on top of the roof waiting for the two of them to show up. She seemed extremely eager to meet this mysterious boyfriend of Kanon. Already, she knew that there was something that she wouldn't like about him. But the moment her bats saw the two of them, her eyes narrowed. It took only a moment for her to recognize the boy's face. A wicked grin formed on her mouth as she watched the half-vampires come closer. Tonight would be a fun night for her.