Tsurugi sat at the table, looking half asleep as he leaned back in his chair. Komatsu, to his left, looked nervous as she fiddled her fingers.
"Tsurugi, don't fall asleep..." Komatsu quietly warned.
Tsurugi shook his head, his spikey orange hair moving as he did.
"I'm trying not toooo... So tired..." Tsurugi whined.
Hyde walked up, looking at the two with an odd expression as he read the sign. Tsurugi stood up.
"Hey, wanna join our club? I mean, you could probably join one of the others and do something everyone else does, or you can do something cooler and join us. So, what'll it be?" Tsurugi asked.
"Is that really your pitch for... Vampire hunting?" Hyde asked.
Tsurugi sighed and sat down.
"Please join... We've been sitting here all day and all we've been told is we're weird..." Tsurugi whined.
Hyde sighed, he had been looking through the various clubs, but nothing really stuck out to him. As Tsurugi said, anyone could and would do the others, weren't clubs supposed to be how a person stood out from the rest?
Hyde didn't know why he made that decision, but he hadn't thought twice about it until he had already written his name on the paper. Tsurugi was sure that vampires were real, and he even thought that there were some in the school, although he had no idea as to who he thought it was. The "club" was very unorganized, so much so even Hyde had a hard time keeping up with everything. Hyde sat in a chair, listening to Tsurugi rant on about why he thought vampires might be at the school. Best thing he had was some students mentioned seeing blood in a variety of places, and apparently there was a student who suddenly started acting weird, and every time anyone saw his arms, they appeared to be covered in bite marks from a vampire. Whether or not he was a vampire himself, trying not to bite anyone else, a vampire hunter who kept getting bites on his arms, or just some poor fool being pushed around by a vampire, Tsurugi didn't know. He also mentioned that there was a student who suddenly got a lot more violent, although he had been fighting with a lot of students beforehand, he seemed to hurt them more all of a sudden. One person even said they saw him licking blood off of his hands after the fight. But, Tsurugi didn't have many names. He knew who told him, but beyond that, he didn't know much.
"But, first things first! We have to prove the vampires exist!" Tsurugi said.
'This feels so dumb...' Hyde thought silently.
"And how would we do that?" Hyde asked.
"Catching one." Komatsu answered.
"You make it sound like that would be easy... But we're talking vampires... First we have to find one, then figure out how we'd even go about catching it, and then we'd have to catch it..." Hyde said.
"Yeah. Which is why we need more people, but more people won't join until we have proof." Tsurugi said.
"Well... What's the plan?" Hyde asked.
"We're going to look around, if we see anyone who may be a vampire, we'll follow them! Otherwise, we can ask questions until we find the kid with the bite marks, he definitely knows something!" Tsurugi said.
Hyde stared at him, did they even know for sure this kid with the bite marks exists? He was pretty much a rumor, hardly anyone ever said they saw him...
"Is he even real?" Hyde asked.
"I'm sure he is! We just need to find him!" Tsurugi said.
A few hours passed by, and they were wandering through the school, asking about the boy. Hyde stretched as he spoke to a young blonde, he didn't even hear the footsteps behind him.
"Have you seen that one guy? In the rumors? With the bite marks on his arms?" Hyde asked.
The girl shook her head, and Hyde sighed and turned to walk away, immediately bumping into the smaller teenager who stood behind him.
Both of them fell back, and the girl stared at the two of them before she just walked off.
"Sorry, should have been watching where I was going..." Hyde said.
He looked at the one he had run into, a smaller boy with black and white hair and gray eyes.
"I don't think we've met before, I'm Hyde Kido."
The boy was silent for a moment, examining Hyde for a few seconds before he finally responded.
"I'm Seto Ortura..."
"Nice to meet you, Ortura-San!"
"Just call me Seto..."
"Okay, nice to meet you, Seto."
Seto was quiet, thinking about what he said before he said it. After a moment, he replied.
"Nice to meet you too, Kido-Kun..."
"If I'm just supposed to call you Seto, you can simply call me Hyde!"
"Alright then, Hyde..."
Hyde smiled at the smaller teen, then hopped back to his feet and offered his hand to help Seto back up. Seto hesitantly grabbed his hand, and Hyde helped him back up.
"What class are you in? I don't think I've seen you in mine." Hyde said.
"1-A."
"You're a first year? You look like you're my age!"
"Mm... I suppose that would throw someone off..." Seto said.
Hyde stared at him, he seemed so casual yet so cold, it was odd.
"Oh hey, have you seen a kid with like... Bite marks on his arms?" Hyde asked.
"Bite marks? What kind?"
"Almost like... Maybe a vampire...?"
Seto stared at him, then pulled his left sleeve back, showing the bite marks all over his arm.
"Like these?"
"You're the one I'm looking for?" Hyde asked.
"I guess so. Why are you looking for me?"
Hyde started to explain everything, the club and that they suspected it was something to do with vampires, and Seto agreed to come and talk with them.
"A bat?"
Tsurugi stared at Seto as he explained where the bite marks came from.
"Yeah... I have, what is called a vampire bat, I don't like hurting other creatures to get it the blood it needs, so I just let it bite me." Seto said.
Tsurugi started typing something on his phone, then sighed.
"Alright... I guess you're not tied in with vampires... You should really find a better way to do that, that can't be good for you." Tsurugi said.
"I'm working on it, but for now, it's fine with me." Seto said.
Seto stood up.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of much help, I will keep an eye out for vampires though. I'm sure if there are any in this school, like you think there are, I would get their attention." Seto said.
Seto waved and started to leave, and Tsurugi waved back.
"Be careful!" He called.
"I will be, don't worry!" Seto replied.
Seto eventually disappeared around the corner, and after a few moments, Tsurugi spoke.
"Well, there went one of our leads..."
"We still have the guy who was seen licking blood off of his hands, he seems way more suspicious." Hyde said.
"True... Alright, tomorrow, we will try to track him down! For now though, we go on patrols." Tsurugi said.
The sun had begun to set, now would be the time to prepare.
Hyde stretched as he tried to get used to this "uniform" Tsurugi had come up with.
"Well? What do you think?"
"Its like, very hot..."
"That's the spirit!"
"No, I mean I feel like I am going to melt in this... What is this collar made of? Metal? And the arms? I'm burning up!"
"Well, the metal protects your neck and arms from being bit. It's pretty genius if I do say so myself."
"Its not really that good of an idea... I can hardly walk and they can still access our wrists, which is where a major blood vein is." Komatsu said.
Tsurugi sighed.
"I guess I need to add gloves?"
"I think you should just wash the clothing with garlic..." Hyde said.
Tsurugi stared at Hyde.
"That is actually a good idea! Vampires can't deal with garlic, so by washing our uniforms with garlic, they can't bite us!" Tsurugi stated, "you're already an amazing help!"
'Why do I regret saying that? Well... At least garlic doesn't smell that bad and I won't melt...'
Hyde sighed, this was a mistake...
Or maybe it wasn't...
So, they sat around a little longer while Tsurugi got new uniforms and then put them through the wash with garlic, then dried them. After a bit, he returned with the outfits and handed them to everyone, and they all went off into separate areas to change. After they came out, they began grabbing the gear Tsurugi had put together. A bunch of stakes, a notepad with a pencil, night vision binoculars, a small shield? Hyde didn't understand how a shield would be useful, and finally, a walkie talkie. Hyde got geared up and they all left, Tsurugi explained that they would stick together for a bit, then they'd split up. If they didn't find any leads by ten, they were going to regroup at the square. The hours went by quickly, and soon, Hyde found himself walking alone in the darkness. He was overwhelmed by a bad feeling as he kept an eye out for anyone who appeared suspicious...
He didn't see her, either.
"Ah!"
He stumbled backwards as he tried to regain his cool, then he looked down at the younger person he had run into.
"Oh my God I am so sorry-"
He offered his hand to the small girl, and she took it and he helped her up.
"Its alright." She said.
She was small, with short, brown hair and red eyes, she looked up at Hyde with an odd expression.
"Your eyes... They're red..."
"As are yours, is that odd?"
"No, I suppose not."
Hyde stared at her, waiting for her to say something else, when he heard something and turned to look. By the time he looked back, the girl had taken off. Hyde looked around, trying to see if she was still nearby, but she was nowhere in sight. Hyde shrugged it off, probably nothing...
He started to continue his search, wandering away from the bright lights and towards the darker alleys, when a scream rang in his ears. Without a second thought, Hyde started running to track down the source of the scream, but when he finally got there it was too late.
He was sure his heart stopped for a minute at the sight of the girl he had spoken to just hours ago, lying there with very little blood around her...
And two holes in her neck.
Hyde's face went pale and his eyes wide. He started to turn and run to maybe find help, but he felt something grip his arm. He tried to cry out, but he couldn't manage a scream. He tried to think of any way he could maybe get out of this situation, so he dropped down, hoping him suddenly falling would get the attacker to let go of him. It worked and he quickly got back up and started running for his life. But it was hopeless...
Before he knew it, he felt teeth sink into his throat. He whimpered, trying to get free but it only made the holes in his throat bigger and the blood drip faster. His mind was racing, trying to think of anything he could do to get free, when he recalled the stakes. He wrestled one out of the little pouch and drove his elbow into the attacker's gut. The attacker let go long enough for him to spin and attack with the stake, which he drove through the vampire's heart.
He was shaking like a leaf as he let go, then started to stumble away. He lost quite a bit of blood and was losing more.
"D-damn it..."
He collapsed to the ground, his eyes slowly shutting. He was quite certain the end for him had come...
Again, he didn't hear the coming footsteps.