This moment marked the day I officially threw away my humanity. There was no loud fanfare or fireworks. Only Kissshot, lying on top of me.

"Welcome to the night," she said. "Now how long will thou lyest down here?"

Hey, you were the one holding me down. As if reading my mind, she got up; actually, that might've been one of her abilities. I followed soon after. Now that we were both full vampires again, the question on what to do with our resurrected "un-lives" became the main concern.

At least, that was until I heard a voice I very much did not want anything to do with anymore.

"『I'm honestly impressed, Zen-chan.』"

Our first mistake was turning to the position of the voice. Immediately, a screw had pierced Kissshot from behind. The moment her hair turned white and she slumped down in the same fetal position she held as Shinobu, I knew what had happened.

Bookmaker.

"『I've spent years trying to break Medaka like that, yet you managed to do it in one night. I suppose the dagger of betrayal from a close friend is more painful than a million daggers from an enemy. I concede victory to you. It's your win and my loss.』"

I would say, "Show yourself," but even I knew how useless that was. No one, not even a vampire, could make Kumagawa reveal himself if he wanted to stay hidden. Even without All-Fiction, this was an unfortunate truth.

Still, I remained hopeful. The moment I caught the appearance of a silhouette behind a tree, I leapt into action. I delivered a swift axe kick and chopped the tree down. Unfortunately, that was the only thing I chopped down. Kumagawa's mocking voice echoed from another location.

"『Geez, I didn't know turning into a vampire turned you into such an ardent anti-environmentalist. You're going to make Emukae-Chan cry at this rate…again.』"

In truth, Kumagawa was the last person I wanted to fight. He was the worst possible opponent for me. Like Anshin'in , he possessed powers that warped reality. Unlike her, however, he didn't share her condescension and deeply held belief of superiority. He was the epitome of a self-defeating attitude. No matter what feats he performed or what wins he incurred, he would always consider himself weaker than his opponent, and therefore, he would fight me using the kind of dirty tactics that were perfect for killing an overpowered vampire. The tactics that only a weak and powerless human could employ.

"Any reason for this sudden assault," I asked. If anyone could destroy me as I am now, it was Kumagawa. However, it wouldn't be that simple. It never was with him. "I'll make sure not to eat any of your friends, so there's no reason to fight."

"『…You really ate Anshin'in. I'm honestly annoyed I didn't think of that. Ripping her face off wasn't enough to stop her, so I lost all hope.』"

"What of it? She was your enemy too. You should be thanking me. I took care of an annoyance."

Of course, I knew that to be a lie. Kumagawa wasn't the kind of person who would be satisfied with that kind of outcome. In fact, I understood deep down that he did not want Anshin'in to die. After all, to him, she was still Ajimu Najimi. The quirky Vice President who he proclaimed his love for so much that he wanted to test if by defacing her (literally). Beyond all the lies he espoused, one thing was true. Out of all the people angered by what I did, Kumagawa was the most. I knew that, and I exploited it. Goading him the same way he did me, I spoke her name.

"Honestly, she didn't even taste that good. You'd think somewhere in those trillion skills, she'd have one to make herself taste better."

The screws came more aggressively: two from the side. Another set erupted from the ground. As a newly minted vampire, my reflexes were fast enough to dodge them.

For now, at least…

I had about an hour before I would be reduced to a normal human again. Kissshot was my conduit, after all. I was only about as powerful as her. And with that Bookmaker screw stuck in her, my power was waning by the second.

Kicking the tree up, I used it as a makeshift bat to repel the screws as they came.

"Is that all you got?"

"『Care to repeat that…』" It was too late for me to dodge the fist that bashed into my face and caused me to lose my footing. "You son of a bitch!?"

Being punched by Kumagawa was a foreign feeling. It was one of those moments that reminded me that despite his small and weak-looking frame, he was actually quite strong. Not as superhuman as Medaka, but strong enough for me to feel a crack in my jaw. Or maybe the crack came from one of his bones… Maybe both. Either way, it hurt like hell.

I stared up. It wasn't the first time I'd seen Kumagawa genuinely angry. After our battle, when I was revived by Anshin'in, she gave me her eyes. The fact that I had her eyes was enough to set him off. Then I heard from mom that she trolled him so hard, he cried bloody tears, not unlike the way me and Kissshot cried. And then, during the final battle between him and Medaka, Kumagawa had shed his cheery demeanor entirely and adopted an eerily stoic expression for a while before reverting back.

However, this Kumagawa was unlike all the others I'd ever seen before. There wasn't even the slightest hint of him still playing around like all the other times. This time, I could feel it: his hatred, his scorn. The genuine desire he held to destroy me and Kissshot. Pointed directly at me like a torpedo inching closer to its target.

"Your first mistake was assuming that you were the only one whose genre was horror" he spoke, the boldness of his lines not being lost on me. "Have you forgotten the one who taught you true fear all those years ago?"

I stood up. For the first time in a long time, I felt myself shaking. This was the same feeling I held during our first confrontation in the lab hallway. Before, I was just a normal human. It was natural for me to be scared. However, now I knew the fear didn't stem from the threat of pain or death that Kumagawa posed.

"How could I forget?" You engrained it in me while we were still in junior high. "However, this time is different." I adopted my Savate battle stance.

"『Tsk, tsk, tsk, you say that, but you're still sticking to the same habits you displayed during our last battle. Do you want me to erase your eyesight agai-』"

As my leg penetrated his stomach, Kumagawa coughed up blood and fell limp. It was only 2 seconds later that he completely undid the damage and came at me with his screws. I kicked his head off and he fell to the ground. Then his head came back and he contorted himself into a position where he rose up from his back. He swiftly threw a screw at me, only for me to catch it and throw it right back into his face. 5 seconds later, the damage had been undone, and he calmly walked back to the position he had been thrown away from, ready to continue our skirmish.

Even without All-Fiction, Kumagawa's fighting style mirrored that of vampires. There was no point in him dodging my attacks, because somehow, he would always come back for more. Except, now I was fighting lethally. If this was just Kumagawa with Bookmaker, he'd be long dead (I think).

It was I who had to be careful. One hit from Bookmaker, and I'd be done for. That is if Kumagawa didn't just decide to erase me. Which, despite his rage, I still didn't see happening.

But there was a more pressing issue. Time was ticking, and each second made me weaker. My opponent, no doubt, knew this, so he was biding his time, waiting for the effects of Bookmaker to take their toll. Running away wasn't an option. In the moment I would even try to grab Kissshot, that would give him an opening. And if I tried to leave her behind, she would be entirely at his mercy. He could stick more Bookmaker screws in her and make me go limp before I even had a chance to get to another city.

Not like that would be an option even if I didn't have to worry about Kissshot's weakness affecting me. Abandoning her was simply not an option.

There was only one other option to end this battle. One option… But no matter how much I tried to entertain it, the thought of drinking even a molecule of Kuamgawa's blood repulsed me to no end. And it wasn't just me feeling it. I could feel the sensation of disgust emanating from Kissshot—maybe from all vampire kind. Kumagawa was just a being not get involved with in any capacity—even as food. It would be more pleasant to drink liquid cyanide. Literal feces would taste better.

So, with that being said, we were stuck in a stalemate, and it wasn't boding well for me. Inevitably, I found how naive I was to pit my vampiric regeneration against his inhuman tenacity. By the end of the hour, I was lying limp. Meanwhile, Kumagawa was in tatters, but otherwise, no worse for wear. He stood over me.

Breathing raggedly, I said, "Satisfied?"

"『…』"

"Haha, you're the last person who should be judging me. But maybe that's what I deserve. Being killed by you is more than fitting."

"『You have it all wrong Zen-chan. I never intended to kill you—not even once.』"

"News to me—just kidding. I know your tastes, Kumagawa. A simple victory would never satisfy you."

"Don't get me wrong, Zenkichi. I've long since given up on this world. This is just me venting my frustrations, is all."

"What are you…"

Kumagawa sighed. "『Don't worry about it. In fact, do whatever you want. I don't care anymore. This is clearly a dead end. Even an idiot like me can see there's no saving this half-assed plot.』"

Turning around, Kumagawa lifted his hand and said, "『Goodbye for real, this world's Zenkichi. Enjoy the rest your 'un-life' or whatever.』"

"W-wait…"

No matter how hard I tried to move my body, I couldn't bring myself to budge an inch. The effects of Bookmaker were compounded with my own inability to handle such weakness. Ten minutes after his silhouette disappeared, the Bookmaker screw disappeared from Kissshot's torso. By then, she was already unconscious.

But that didn't matter to me at the moment… Finding the screw bastard was the primary goal on my mind, and I made no waste in pursuing it.

As a vampire, I had a keen sense of scent. Though his scent was faint, I could pick it up if I focused hard enough. I followed Kumagawa's trail to a strange location: a dingy alley. Upon walking in, however, instead of finding Kumagawa, all I found was a trail of broken cellphones.

And it all lead to a dead end.

Later, I took some time out of my busy life as a vampire to research what had happened to Kumagawa. Turns out, he had completely disappeared. There were no records of him every having attended Hakoniwa Academy. Birth certificates were also erased. If I hadn't destroyed all bridges with my old life, I would've asked Akane or Kikaijima if they still even remembered him.

Not likely, though…

Throughout 50 years, the clear memory of Kumagawa had developed into more of a fever dream than something that had actually occurred in reality. Then, it developed into a collection of highlights in one chapter of my incredibly long life. By year 50, it became no more than a mere afterthought.

And, as the years go by, it will eventually disappear from my mind completely, turning into nothing—like the man himself. A fitting end, I suppose.