"Ah! Look Yuta, it's a ghoul!" Please don't say things like that so enthusiastically! Where is your common sense Arcueid!?

I look at the thing the vampire is pointing at and swallow my own saliva. A walking corpse is walking towards me.

It's creepy as hell, so I can't help, but shiver a little. I knew ghouls were going to look unsettling, but I didn't expect this.

And the worst part is the smell of burning rotted flesh... Why is the ghoul on fucking fire!? Does this happen to all ghouls!?

I take a step back. "Hey Arcueid... Is this normal?" I thought they were just normal zombies, I didn't think they were hell demons or whatever.

Sensei sounds serious, she's the one that answers my question. "No, this isn't normal at all." She points at it.

First a blue ball appears on the tip of her finger, it shines a bright blue, and the air arouns itself is distorted.

Then she fires at the flaming zombie, it's head is taken off with one shot. But that isn't all, some blue energy envelops it.

Suddenly it falls dead to the ground, I can't tell whether the energy did anything at all... Was it just so Sensei could look cool? Maybe it was the thing that put out the fire...?

Arcueid nods. "Yeah, this isn't his work, so some other vampire is also in town." There's another, what the hell!?

I glare at Arcueid. "Explain, before I start feeling like abridged Vegeta, and start developing a sudden hatred for androids."

Arcueid seems confused. "I don't get that reference at all!" She then smiles. "But I'm excited to learn it eventually!"

Oh boy, just going through normal Dragon Ball will already take years... But I'm a Brazilian at heart, so if given the chance I will always introduce someone to it.

I sigh. "You didn't explain anything..." I look at the red haired woman I begrudgingly respect. "So Sensei, do you feel like living up to your nickname?"

Sensei nods. "Sure, basically ghouls can sometimes inherit a few traits from their parents."

She continues. "That was clearly an example... But the vampire we are hunting would never pass down an ability related to fire, in fact I'm not sure he has a trait to pass down."

Sensei then looks at Arcueid. "But I could be wrong of course, it's not like I know too much about him... So do you have anything to say princess?"

Arcueid nods. "You're pretty much right, he could probably do something like this, but he would have to go out of his way to do it and..."

She sighs. "He would also need to have a greater control over his vessel than he probably has right now."

Arcueid continues. "He's probably fighting for control right now, because if he wasn't the city would be destroyed already." That's alarming!

I raise a hand to the air. "Hey! You guys keep saying 'he' and stuff, stop being so mysterious and explain his identity or whatever."

I normally wouldn't care, but he's not even the only dead apostle in Souya apparently. Honestly this city just attracts trouble.

I also want to know because Shiki isn't here, which means I get to act all mysterious when he's around! There's nothing better than keeping secrets after all.

Sensei crosses her arms. "It's a... complicated topic Yuta. Trust me, I wasn't holding back information to be mean."

Arcueid nods. "It's fine, I had to tell Yuta eventually, friends don't keep secrets from each other afterl all..." She blushes. "And Yuta is my friend!"

Suddenly Rika jumps out of my shadows. "And he is staying your friend as far as I'm concerned! There will be nothing romantic happening on my watch!"

Sensei immediately spins on the air and lands a kick on Rika. "Hold back for now, Princess over here is about to drop some exposition."

Rika glares at Sensei. "I know, I just wanted to make things clear! Also why did you spin!? Style points!?" We both know the answer to that is yes, so why are you even asking?

Arcueid smiles. "It's fine, I want Rika to hear this too... Well, she can hear everything even when she's with Yuta, but it's nicer to talk with her face to face."

Rika slowly nods. "Okay then, I'll pay attention... But just this time!" Oh? Tsundere Rika? A rare occasion.

Arcueid seems happy with the rare Rika in front of her. "Okay! Thanks Rika! And please reconsider your stance towards my relationship with Yuta!" Rika immediately shakes her head of course.

Aoko chuckles. "Geez, why is my pupil such a lady killer? Did he learn from me that fast?" Last time I heard you're a loser without a boyfriend.

I give her a serious look. "Sensei, if you want to see my abilities first hand, then please go out with me."

I want to make Aoko my girlfriend as fast as possible, before some guy finally realizes the opportunity standing before him!

That said, going out with Sensei might be dangerous, if someone recognizes her from TV things will escalate quickly... But I love a dangerous woman who is being pursued by police, so it's okay!

Sensei looks away with an annoyed face. "Don't toy with my heart just because I'm old Yuta, or I might have to kill you." I'm not toying with you at all!

Seriously, what are you a oblivious shounen protagonist!? What I am saying? Of course Sensei is an oblivious shounen protagonist...

Does that means that if we have kids they're going to spike up the power scalling and replace Sensei!? I don't want Sensei to job so the new antagonists can show the audience how strong they are!

Arcueid giggles. "Wow, you two are so funny together! Please let me talk though." Sorry! I got lost in the dream of mating pressing Sensei!

Ah! I want to mate press her! I want to breed a woman who is in her thirties and can't hold a boyfriend! I want to impregnate a woman who was my mentor when I was a child!

Aoko gives me a weirded out look. "Why did Arcueid's comment make you do your legendary perverted face level three!?" I have legendary perverted faces!?

Rika grins. "Yuta was probably thinking of me." I wasn't! And I'm sorry for that! It's just that Sensei is way too hot.

I fake cough. "Enough of this, let's pay attention to what Arcueid has to say." I shall ignore that I was being the issue in the first place.

Arcueid gives me a thankful smile, it warms my heart a bit, enough that I can even forget the fact that she has kept secrets about a powerful vampire who's living in my city.

She begins her explanation. "The dead apostle who we are hunting is called Micheal Roa Valdamjong." Her smile from before has disappeared, leaving a frown on her beautiful face.

Still, what a weird vampire sounding name! Was he born a vampire and that's why he has that name!? If I found a guy called that in school I would have bullied him!

Arcueid seems to hate this topic, but she presses on. "He... he was an old friend... he was an old acquaintance of mine, one who tricked me."

She clenches her fists. "And ever since then I have hated him with all I have." I see you're not gonna mention what he did in detail, but that's fine, I understand.

Arcueid shakes her head. "He's a dangerous and skilled magus, but what makes him specially annoying is his particular brand of immortality."

She sighs. "Everytime Roa dies, he comes back a few years later... He reincarnates, essentially."

I raise an eyebrow. "So we could be hunting for a baby? That sounds kind of fucked up... So does he retains his memories?" My next actions will depend on her answer.

Arcueid laughs, it sounds more frustrated than anything. "His reincarnation doesn't work like you think, he isn't a new life, he's piggybacking on one."

She spats. "A disgusting little parasite, he slowly drives his host, his victim, insane. Then he takes over their body."

Arcueid sighs. "I have a method of finding him, and that method also confirms that he has emerged... At least a little bit, but it's true that his host could be showing some resistance."

I still don't like this. "I'm assuming you don't have a method of permanently putting him down?" She would have done so if she could, right?

Arcueid nods. "Sadly yes, Roa can also be a sneaky bastard... So everytime I found something that could do the job he quickly found a counter."

I nod as well. "I see, then wouldn't be better to restrain him? Lock him up until he naturally dies or whatever, that should buy sometime."

Arcueid sighs again. "People have tried, and it would be wonderful, specially since he doesn't die of old age, but... Like I said, he's too tricky for that."

What an annoying guy. How am I supposed to stop a super old vampire mage who is already hard to kill normally, but who even when killed just comes back...?

I smile. "Well, we have Shiki, surely his eyes could take down Roa?" That's the first thing that comes to my mind.

And Arcueid does not even know about my copy ability yet... We essentially have two Shiki's. Even if I am no where near my bro when it comes to fighting... I could still maybe land a sneak attack.

Arcueid smiles back. "That could work, I hope that works... But like I said, having a method doesn't guarantee anything."

Right, Roa has probably dealt with similar situations before, this is nothing new to him. I guess a comparison would be this, just because you have Kryptonite, doesn't mean killing Super Man will be easy.

Aoko interjects. "I think I can also kill him." Oh!? The useless teacher is not so useless!? "That said I will have to take a look at him first."

Arcueid nods. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's you after all." Right, Sensei has lots of street cred among supernatural people.

Aoko grins. "Yep! And I did take this job, so obviously I had to have some way of putting him down permanently."

She continues. "Though nothing in the contract said I should do it permanently, in fact they were mostly interested in their research."

What would a church dude want with the research of a magus? What are you planning Nintendo!? Well, I don't care, this Mario guy got Sensei on our side after all.

I smile. "That's well and good, but it brings us back to our old problem... The new vampire in town." Who apparently can make fire zombies.

Rika raises her fists. "Don't worry Yuta! I can easily beat him up!" Well, it's true that you're invincible, but...

I smile. "I'm grateful for the support Rika. That said this conversation about reincarnation just taught me something."

I continue. "The reason vampires are so annoying is not because of their destructive capabilities, it's because of something else entirely..."

I sigh. "It's because of immortality and experience. They are all tricky to take down permanently, and that means they lived a lot, and therefore they know how to deal with all manner of bullshit." I look at the blonde vampire. "Isn't that right, Arcueid?"

The vampire nods. "That's about right, but pretty much any vampire would take one look at Rika and run."

Rika excitedly grins. "See!? See!? I'm the best! The strongest girl in the entire world!" I don't know if that's true, but you're definitely close to the top.

I grin right back. "Sorry Rika, I shouldn't have doubted you. Please make sure to crush any vampire we come across."

She gives me a thumbs up. "I will! In the end they're going to be beat up so badly that they will wish they could die!"

As expected of a yandere girl who definitely didn't go around torturing small animals during her childhood!

Rika is way scarier than any stupid old vampire. I bet those guys are just like Arcueid anyways, not even knowing Pokémon and stuff, and that puts them straight into the funny category.

Sensei chuckles. "I'm glad you two are so confident! Leave worrying to the adults!" I'm an adult though, and I still feel like I'm the one that never gets worried about anything.

I give Sensei a smile. "I'm surprised you're saying that, you seem to not worry about anything Sensei." Just like me!

Aoko nods. "Yeah, normally I would leave worrying to my witch best friend, but now I shall leave it to this blonde vampire."

Right, sometimes I forget Arcueid is some super old vampire, one who's definitely older than me. It's hard not to, since she acts so youthful all the time.

I chuckle. "Sensei, witches aren't real." If I ever get red hair I will start wearing white and begin perving on my cousins!

Sensei sighs. "That's clearly a reference I don't get, but alrighty! It's probably some obscure piece of media no one cares about anyways." Why did you have to aim for the throat!?

Sensei shakes her head. "Anyways, this very obviously bad. Weak vampires don't leave traits in their children, there is no doubt this vampire is strong and experienced."

Arcueid nods. "Yeah, but fire is not some unique thing... Maybe someone here could analyze the body more? Figure out why exactly it was on fire?"

Aoko sighs. "Sorry, but I'm not good enough to do that." Are you a big shot or not!? "That said, that fire thing was weird... It feels like the ghoul's last remaining pieces of conscience were being used to keep it up."

Arcueid makes a thinking pose. "So it's not a passive effect at least..." And then she shrugs with a happy smile. "Well, there's still too many possibilities for me to think of someone!"

She continues. "And if we don't know who, we can't know why... That's annoying, for all we know this vampire could go crazy at any moment."

That's definitely nerve wrecking. "Arcueid, is there a chance he's here just to cause chaos or something?" That would be bad, Souya could become a zombie apocalypse.

Arcueid shakes her head. "I doubt it! When vampires want to commit genocide they stick to more obscure locations."

Arcueid looks around. "Turning a big city like this into rubber? Not too hard, but way too risky. The church would send way too many agents after them, even in a faraway country like this..."

Arcueid continues. "No, in a city like this it wouldn't even be just the church, at that point even mages would get involved."

I sigh out of relief. "That's good, so even vampires can't just go around destroying everything huh?"

Arcueid nods. "Pretty much... Except if they're too powerful for the church or whatever faction of mages is after them of course."

There's a dark smirk on her face. "I'm one of these vampires, I just want you to know that Yuta."

I raise an eyebrow. "Why though? It's not like it matters right? Though I guess I do feel safer with you here."

Arcueid now gives me a bright smile. "Yep! You pass! Ten out of ten!" What did I pass though!? I'm beginning to feel like Shiki here!

Aoko smugly nods. "I've raised you well... maybe a little too well." Don't be so proud, I was a bastard way before I ever met you.

Rika points at Sensei. "Don't be so proud! Yuta was amazing way before he met you!" Oh! You're repeating what I thought!

Though it makes sense, Rika met me pre-Sensei after all. Those were the days! Just the two of us, and no little murder goblin trying to kill Rika... My friendship with Shiki is weird.

I chuckle. "Yeah. Anyways let's go home, it's getting way too late." We searched for way more hours than we did yesterday.

Arcueid nods. "I guess we made decent progress... No, we made zero progress, but we unveiled a new threat, and a cocky one at that."

She smirks. "But that's good, I'm sure this new vampire will be found soon. If not by us, then by the people of the church."

I forgot Noel and Ciel existed for a moment, and my senpai is apparently a big shot in the church, so she should be fine no matter what a vampire throws at her.

Still, Noel did act super weird today... Tomorrow I'm confronting her. I'm not scared of her after all, I have Rika.

But I would like to establish whether we are allies or not. It would suck to have in fighting while were trying to kill a vampire.

Before I can say anything back to Arcueid my phone starts ringing. "Sorry guys, give me a moment." I take my cellphone out of my pocket.

It's not my parents or Shiki... It's a number I don't recognize at all, still I accept the call. "Yuta! Thank goodness! Are you okay!?" It's a familiar voice, but I can't quite put a name to it.

This is strange, they seem to be worried, so I quickly respond. "Yeah, I'm fine, just hanging out with some friends..." There a sigh of relief from the other side. "Sorry, who is this? I can't quite recognize you from your voice alone."

The mysterious person quickly responds. "It's me! Ciel!" Wow, I was just... Wait, how did she get my number...? Am I being stalked by a hot girl!?

Before I can question that she quickly speaks again. "Yuta, whatever you're doing please rush to a police station!" Huh? "Your apartment is on fire, no, your entire neighborhood is on fire! I'm watching on TV!"

Huh!? "Huh!?" How else am I supposed to react!? Wait... Fucking vampire! Now this is personal!

Also, Ciel knows where I live as well!? A yandere of the stalker type has been revealed! Church girls are hot! Just like my house! And all the people that are burning alive right now!

I'm killing that vampire.

AN: Shirou Emiya moment, except this time there were no complicated rituals involved!