Chapter 2
Children from the age of 10 to 14 always gave blood on the 5th of every second month, or the way Tatsumi came to call it "day of the fresh blood".
Kazumi Yano insisted that the 4th graders who were first giving blood would not be admitted to the clinic but instead welcomed them to the restaurant where she would always set up tons of food and treats and some form of entertainment.
Tatsumi didn't bother showing up till it was nearly over. If there was one thing he hated more than children, it was whimpering children. When he slid open the door to the restaurant to his surprise there were no cries at all. Most children were already done with giving their blood, as evident by the gauzes on their arms that were held in place by hand-decorated band aids. He had a pretty good guess who bothered to decorate them.
The target of his suspicion was sitting at the head of eight tables that were pushed together to form a large seating area. She had a big smile on her face as she patiently demonstrated to three children, two on each side of her, one on her lap, how to draw a cat on what Tatsumi realized was an empty blood-bag.
"What are you doing?" he crossed his arms and raised one bushy blue eyebrow.
She lift her gaze up and smiled wider at him which he didn't think was even possible.
"Oh Hi Tatsumi! Nana – you wanna show Tatsumi the gift we made for our Nighttime family?" she asked the girl on her lap whom Tatsumi gathered was Nana. The girl stared nervously at Tatsumi, he in turn met her gaze with cold gold stare before she averted her eyes.
Kazumi felt the shift in the girl's mood and got up, holding the girl in her arms.
"Come on, we can show him together" she got closer to him, holding the bag she was drawing on earlier in her hand "Look, the kids decorated their blood bags so that when the others wake up and use them they could see our drawings. Some even wrote funny jokes on theirs" she said cheerfully handing him the bag to examine.
If the term Nighttime family was not enough to drive him over the edge, this definitely was. The sharpie doodles on the bag seemed to mock him and the glitter scattered here and there added insult to injury.
"Kazumi, these are blood bags, not fucking Capri Suns" Tatsumi grunted under his breath, squashing the colorful bag as if trying to choke the cat figure that adorned it.
Kazumi's eyes widened as she hurried to put Nana down and usher her back to the table "Watch your language! There are kids here!" she whispered, pulling him aside.
"Oh are there? I haven't noticed" he replied in a bored tone, rolling his eyes as she lead him behind the counter and into the kitchen, as far from the kids as possible.
"Why do you have to make it so difficult?" she demanded, hands on her hips in a manner that echoed Kanami, her late mother.
"Nighttime family? Seriously" he inquired in turn.
"Well forgive my rebranding efforts" she exclaimed.
"Last I check there're people standing in line to become part of our family. So I'd say our brand is doing just fine" he fended off her sarcasm with some of his own.
"Some of them are. Others, kids mostly, are terrified. People made up stories about Shiki coming at night to drain the blood out of children who don't donate blood on time or stay up at night or don't eat their greens" she informed him.
"Yep. Sounds about right" Tatsumi said, preferring this version of things rather than the one that had him and his kind drink blood out of plastic bags, fed to them courtesy of the humans like domesticated animals.
She caught him looking at the decorated blood bag that was still in his hand.
"Is it really so bad?" she asked and he teared his gaze from the bag to look at her. Her crystal blue eyes fiercely held his gaze to the point that he forgot to answer her so she repeated herself:
"Is it really that bad not getting to hunt people down and bite them?" she demanded "If so – please, go ahead" she combed her hair to the side revealing her neck and leaning closer to him.
He could sense the blood rushing under her skin and against his greatest urges he stumbled back a step. "Stop it! You know I wouldn't!" he exclaimed, bringing his arm in front of his face in hopes that the fabric of his shirt would muffle her scent.
"I know you wouldn't" she confirmed. She stepped closer, closing the gaps between them then retrieved the bag from his hand, their fingers touching ever so slightly before turning and leaving the kitchen.
Later, after all the children had left the restaurant, Tatsumi and Kazumi helped Ozaki and Ritsuko with the inventory count and with loading the coolers that stored the bags to the van that waited outside.
"Good job today" Ritsuko told Kazumi with a faint smile.
The kind nurse felt in constant conflict, as her Hippocratic Oath to do no harm collided with the reality that had her take blood from children as young as 10 years old and in frequency that was far higher than recommended. So she appreciated Kazumi's effort at taking the sting off this ordeal by making it a somewhat-fun experience for the kids. Heck, there were even kids who asked when they could come again as they were leaving.
"You too. Thank you for your hard work!" Kazumi replied and opted to hug the woman instead of bowing as expected.
Ozaki joined them, his expression an enigma as always. He picked a cigarette that sat patiently behind his ear for the past 12 hours when he was surrounded with children, unable to use it.
"These things will kill you doc" Tatsumi said, hand on his hip in bored agitation.
"Not if your kind beats them to it" Ozaki replied, letting his words sink in before fidgeting with his lighter, lighting his cigarette and inhaling deeply, letting out the smoke at Tatsumi's general direction. The latter didn't seem very impressed with the subtle act of mockery.
It's been 20 years since he and the doctor were forced into this marriage of convenience.
"Who knows? Perhaps this will blossom into a beautiful friendship" Sunako cheerfully said back when the arrangement between the Shiki and the humans first formed.
Well, all hopes of a friendship between Ozaki and any of the Shiki went up in smoke, pun intended, as it was made clear the doctor will forever consider the Shiki population as a cancerous tumor on his hometown, one he was unable to remove and had to resort to treating its symptoms.
He went along with growing and maintaining the village's blood supply, participated in the human's council and every year – when the council was presented with requests of humans to be turned to Shiki – he prioritized the requests based on the applicant's health. He would also carry out the Phycological evaluation of the applicants to determine their likelihood of rising if turned, all that despite his disgust with actively taking a part in growing the Shiki's population.
But not all was bleak. While Ozaki was a remnant of a generation that despised and feared the Shiki, the younger generation, born to a world where the co-existing was a pre-set reality, viewed the Shiki as different-but-not-so-different people. The younger humans were fascinated by the ageless beings, resting at daytime and frolicking along at night. Many applied to become a Shiki as soon as they turned 17, hoping to join the immortal community. Mixed families were becoming more and more common and people like Ozaki could do nothing but try to warn of the dangers and costs of this lifeform.
Kazumi's outlook on the matter was somewhere in the middle.
As the daughter of Kanami Yano, the first human to help a Shiki by voluntarily giving her blood, she was raised to believe there could be peace among the two species and was part of the human council since her mother's passing when Kazumi was 16. That was when her doubts first took roots.
Being part of the council meant having access to the blood-bank's inventory logs. It didn't take a genius bookkeeper to notice the concerning trend. Higher Shiki-to-humans ratio meant less blood available for the Shiki to feed on.
Clearly the council noticed this trend too as they were the ones to establish the yearly-Shiki-turning quota five years prior, but by that time the damage was already done: The town was consisted of over 35% Shiki. Mixed families where one or both parents were Shiki meant no prospect of babies. And young individuals who either didn't wish to turn to Shiki or didn't like their odds opted for leaving the town as soon as they could.
Kazumi didn't consider herself a math-prodigy in any sense. But there were two types of calculations she never got wrong – one was halving or doubling any recipe she was cooking. The other was estimating how many Shiki can be fed from a given blood-taking event and for how long.
"47 bags, that's about 25 liters. That could feed about 5 Shiki for a week.…" She muttered the calculation silently as she and Tatsumi watched Ozaki and Ritsuko take off in the van "That's.. not bad.." she said, her tone giving away that it was in fact, very bad. She turned and hurried into the restaurant before Tatsumi could see how defeated she felt.
"You can't be serious!" Tatsumi called after her. He wasn't as quick as her to do the math but he got pretty good at it himself. He hurried up after her "According to your calculation that about three-quarters of a litter a day! They'd fucking starve! Are you listening to me?" he raged as he caught up to her.
"What do you want me to say?" Kazumi turned to face him, and he was taken aback by her tear-stricken face. "What do you want Tatsumi? I'm doing everything I can to max the donations! We just spent all day draining blood from ten-year-olds. Ten!" she repeated, her hand went up to wipe her tears and she attempted to disguise the motion by brushing back a magenta-colored curl that was covering her eyes.
"You know what happens when Shiki go hungry?" Tatsumi inquired, his sharp voice could cut diamonds "Their natural-instincts kick in. The same instincts you and your kind had me taming for the last twenty years" while his statement was meant as a threat, an underlying resentment was hung heavy in the air.
"I'm trying Tatsumi! I'm really…" before she could finish the sentence Tatsumi realized her silver eyes gone blank as her knees gave in. She collapsed and he reached out quickly to grab her before she hit the floor. He grabbed her arm, making sure to not squeeze too tight and swiftly turned her so that his broad chest supported her narrow frame.
"Kazumi! Are you o.k.? Kazumi!" he asked, voice stern with worry.
Just then he could feel a small bump in her arm, where his hand was holding hers. He raised her shirtsleeve slightly to reveal a gauze held in place by a yellow band-aid with a cat drawing on it.
"Did you… donate today as well?" he asked quietly, his voice a soft blow that sent ripples through her hair as she was still leaning again him.
Fuck, he should have known. He could now recall the sickening-lime scent of the electrolyte drink she used to have post-blood-donation. But he knew the last time she gave blood was two weeks ago. Just how stupid could she be?
"What do you want Tatsumi? I'm doing everything I can!" her voice echoed in his head. "You really are huh?" he sighed then carefully lift her up in his arms, her head lolling to the side to rest on his chest.
He carried her outside and opted to take her car as she was in no condition to hold herself up on his motorcycle. He carefully laid her on the backseat and ran inside, grabbing the keys from where she always kept them next to the register, then hurried back and drove to the clinic as fast as he could.
He sat beside her, studying her. Had he been told years ago that he would find himself sitting next to a sleeping human, and instead of feeding on her, would worry if she's alright he would've probably laughed. But there he was.
It got him to think about Kazumi's mother. Kanami was the first human to not cower in fear when he was close by. In fact, she once saw him wondering about, doing nothing in particular but throwing death glare to whomever he came across, and offered him to work at the restaurant.
He turned it down, of course, but she was relentless.
"You guys drink our blood every day, I think helping around would be a lovely way to show your gratitude" she told him.
"I think letting you live is a lovely way to show my gratitude" he told her, trying to scare her off, but again to no success.
In truth, the days always dragged on for him. The Shiki would safely hide and rest, safe from the sunlight while he had nothing to do but made sure they were not attacked, which hadn't been an issue since the pact was made.
Eventually she wore him down and he found himself stopping by the restaurant every morning, mostly helping with carrying around boxes of groceries, tending to the vegetable patch in the backyard and even doing the dishes.
He was still working there when Kanami found out she was pregnant. Oddly enough, he knew it before she did as her scent changed ever so slightly but did not disclose anything till she told him herself. He thought she would kick him out as soon as the baby was born, fearing he might harm her, but she never said a thing and he was around through every stage of Kazumi's life.
Getting to experience a human's life from the joyful beginning and not only towards the gruesome end was… refreshing. His prejudice still did not allow him to view humans as equals but for once in his immortal life he started to consider them as more than livestock.
He watched Kazumi grow from a chubby baby who weighed next to nothing, to a carefree toddler who'd pull at his hair when he carried her on his shoulders to a teenager who just lost her mom and was left to carry on her legacy. She took Kanami's place in the council, devoting herself to maintaining the balance in the village. While the other members of the council, namely Ozaki and Yuuki, were evidently biased against the Shiki, Kazumi stayed true to her mom's vision of true-equality and advocated for the Shiki whenever was possible. In return Tatsumi did his best to be of aid and remained by her side, his loyalty to her only second to his loyalty to Sunako. And though his view of the humans still hasn't changed much, he was willing to admit that Kazumi was different. Better.
And so, while there were many things that day that made him feel he was being domesticated; Nighttime family. Capri-Sun blood bags. Rationed meals.. Tending to her at that moment was certainly not one of them.
He was torn from his thoughts as Kazumi suddenly moved in her bed, slowly regaining consciousness. He stood up and rushed to her side. He could tell how she went from not being aware of her surroundings, to becoming highly alert once she realized she wasn't in her home to relaxing as she saw him and remembered how she came to be here. He could tell all of that both because he knew her so well and because it echoed his old life when he would dig up newly risen Shiki who went through a somewhat similar process.
Kazumi attempted to sit up and he put his arm behind her back, readjusting the pillow and supporting her.
Just then she noticed the IV attached to her hand and followed its tube all the way up to the red, now mostly empty, blood bag it led to.
Tatsumi followed her gaze to that same bag before saying "Did you know that in 1900, Coca-Cola still contained cocaine before it was removed in 1929?"
She looked at him questioningly and in reply he twisted the bag so that the other side, covered in Sharpie drawings and a frame with a headline that read "fun fact", was visible.
They then shared one of those moments where they communicated affectively using only meaningful expressions.
Tatsumi raised an eyebrow in a manner that said "How do you like the Capri-Sun idea now?".
She maintained a neutral face, looking sideways then back at him, her mouth a straight line as if saying, "Perhaps I went a little overboard".
"Well, I did NOT know that fact. Did you?" she finally shrugged.
"I remember their advertisement about the recipe change so yeah" he replied.
Kazumi thought of the spreadsheet she and her mother used to run that aimed to pinpoint just when Tatsumi was born. They relied on past events he would mention absentmindedly when he was feeling nostalgic and some clues in the form of long forgotten terms and slang he would use. The furthest they've ever gotten was World-War II. She could imagine her mother adding the new finding to the spreadsheet in a victorious smile as Tatsumi, once realizing what they were trying to do, was doing everything he can not to give them any new information to use.
Before either of them could say anything else the door to the room swung open by a frantic Yuuki who rushed into the room and approached Kazumi.
"Are you alright? I came as fast as I could!" he said, hugging her tightly to the point where Tatsumi wondered if he should take wrestling tips from the old man.
"I'm fine dad, really, I am" Kazumi said, gently releasing herself from the man's grip.
"Good. I'm glad to hear" Yuuki said, unsure how to proceed.
After losing his wife, Yuuki and Kanami had a very short affair that resulted in Kazumi. Yuuki was stocked at the idea of becoming a father again. His son, Natsuno, changed completely after becoming a Jinrou and eventually left the town after the pact between the humans and the Shiki was formed, leaving his father to his regrets.
Yuuki however did not wish to marry Kanami, who shared the sentiment. Instead they settled for co-parenting. While they raised her in harmony and each trusted the other to do what he thinks is best for her, they weren't always in agreement when it came to the subject of the Shiki.
Yuuki was understandably still suspicious of the creatures that took his wife and son. Kanami on the other hand insisted that trust has to start somewhere and kept on reminding him that both Kazumi's brother and grandmother were also Shiki and so these 'creatures' were part of Kazumi's life whether Yuuki trusted them or not.
It seemed that eventually Kanami gained the upper hand as upon joining the human's council – Kazumi advocated for the Shiki even stronger than her mother ever did.
Still, when Yuuki got the call from Ozaki, explaining what just happened, Yuuki was at loss as of how to react to his daughter endangering herself to help the Shiki. But after years of countless argument with her on the matter – he knew better than to try and reprimand her.
And so he was grateful, although extremely surprised, when he heard Tatsumi say "I'll save you the lecture of how fucking stupid it was to try and give blood again after two weeks. I think it's fairly obvious how futile it was" the Jinrou said, gesturing as the blood bag that was currently flowing back into Kazumi's body.
Turns out Kazumi was very sneaky and calculated about the whole thing. The logs showed Ozaki was the one to take her blood two weeks prior and so Ritsuko was not aware when she took Kazumi's blood earlier that day. And looking even further back at the logs indicated that she used this maneuver to donate every 6 weeks instead of the minimal 8 weeks waiting period.
They usually had to worry about people avoiding their blood-giving dates so getting away with giving too often was not that hard to pull off but Tatsumi was still pissed off that he haven't caught up to it sooner.
"You of all people should know that two or three more blood bags a year make no difference to the bottom line and the last thing this town needs is a member of the council passed out due to blood loss" Tatsumi continued.
"I for one, agree with Tatsumi" Ozaki's voice came from the room's entrance where he stood, arms crossed.
"We don't get as much contributions as we used to. At this rate we'll have to resort to using our emergency supply in three months' time" the doctor continued.
"And the annual Shiki-selection is coming up. Just what we needed.." Yuuki said "Perhaps we should call it off this year" he suggested.
Tatsumi was about to object but Kazumi beat him to it "If you do that then the people who only stay in the village in hopes of becoming a Shiki will leave and then ten new Shiki to feed would be the least of our concerns" she reasoned.
"Not to mention the people who'd be driven to try and become a Shiki without the council's approval" Tatsumi added, ignoring the looks he'd gotten from everyone in the room.
Of course they all feared the possibility of humans reaching out to the Shiki to turn them. Both sides could benefit from such transaction as the human will get his wish of becoming an immortal and the Shiki could indulge himself on a meal of a lifetime quite literally.
The last time something like that happened was four years ago and the council decided, much to Sunako's dismay, that both the Shiki and the newly-risen-Shiki would be burned at the stake, a punishment that up until then was reserved only for Shiki that fed on humans.
The punishment, while severe, created the much-needed deterrence and no one, human or Shiki, attempted that again. It still remained a painful memory, one that almost destroyed the alliance between the two species. Tatsumi seemed to know that when he brought it up and Kazumi thought of earlier that day when he reminded her of what happens when Shiki go hungry.
"We could throw a festival!" Kazumi suddenly exclaimed.
"A… festival?" Yuuki asked.
"Doc, did she finally lose it? Is it a symptom of blood loss?" Tatsumi wondered, mildly amused.
"No really it could work! We could arrange a big fair and invite people from the city. We'll say it's for an organization that promotes blood donation. Anyone who would donate blood will get a free pass to all the activities. We could also invite people who left the village. I bet they'd be happy to join in on the fun!" Kazumi got more and more excited as she shared her idea.
Ozaki noticed her heart-rate was up as he glanced at the monitor.
"Alright, That's not a terrible idea but we can talk it through in the morning. You should get some rest in the meantime".
Author's Note:
Oh what a time to be alive. I literally went to ChatGPT to ask him if Tatsumi felt too out of character. (ChatGPT assured me he didn't). But in all seriousness – I took quite a leap, developing him into a more nuanced character rather than the nihilist he was in the show. I tried to present the history behind the shift, let me know if I've done a decent job at it.