Chapter Text
Mahiru couldn’t believe it. It had to be another prank. A dream. There was no way this was happening! He’d known Tsubaki for years! They were best friends!
“Mahiru,” said Tsubaki, “do you ever get the feeling that the world was created only five minutes ago?”
“Huh…?”
“‘Impossible!’ you cry. ‘I have memories of our past!’ Buuuut what if those memories were simply planted in your brain a mere five minutes ago? What if our friendship was only one chapter long, and all of your memories of the chapters before it were fake? How can you prove something like that to be false? That’s impossible.”
“What are you even saying?” Mahiru asked. Tsubaki had a tendency to be cryptic, but now he was deliberately messing with Mahiru’s head, he was sure of it.
“What did I say to you after your mother passed away?” Tsubaki asked. “Think back. Back to that chapter of your story. Can you remember?” The wicked smile on the raven-haired boy’s face grew. “Was I even there?”
Mahiru tried. He did remember. He remembered every detail of the day after his mother’s death. He remembered Ryuusei inviting him to play soccer with him and Koyuki. Just the three of them. Tsubaki wasn’t there. He wasn’t in any of Mahiru’s childhood memories.
“So, tell me, Mahiru,” Tsubaki said as he slid a katana out from one of the sleeves of his uniform jacket. “Just how much of our friendship was a fairy tale?!” He lunged for Mahiru, katana at the ready. Sakuya transformed into his human form. The rapid growth of his body snapped the strings holding him captive, and he was able to leap in front of his Eve to take Tsubaki’s sword straight through the chest.
“Sakuya!” Mahiru shouted. Tsubaki withdrew his katana and leaped backward in time for Belkia to launch himself into the air and bring his broadswords down on the Servamp’s spine, running him through and pinning him to the concrete. Mahiru was unable to even react to Sakuya’s blood splattering all over his face and clothing as he kept his eyes on Tsubaki. The raven-haired teen performed a backflip to keep himself clean of the carnage.
Tsubaki just stabbed Sakuya. He was aiming for me. Tsubaki has been killing people?!
This was too much. Everything was happening way too fast. There was no way this was real!
“THIS IS ALL JUST ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR TWISTED STORIES, RIGHT TSUBAKI?!” Mahiru shouted. “YOU’RE NOT ACTUALLY A VAMPIRE!”
Tsubaki landed gracefully on the pavement and grinned at the brunet, baring his fangs and shattering Mahiru’s hopes.
“Everything would be so much easier for you if that were the case, wouldn’t it?” he said, his tone condescending; as if he were talking to a child. “Humans will always cling to the stories that fit best with their world view. We vampires take advantage of that mentality and use it to hypnotize humans.”
Suddenly, Mahiru could recall a slightly earlier memory of Tsubaki. Tsubaki’s image was fuzzy, and his voice sounded like it was coming from a broken speaker within Mahiru’s own head, and he knew this must have been one of the fake memories Tsubaki was referring to.
It was some unspecified day in middle school. Most everyone had cleared out to go home for the afternoon. Mahiru and Tsubaki were loitering in the hallway. Tsubaki had finally opened up to Mahiru about the loss of his parents.
“I’m an orphan, too!” Mahiru said. “Maybe you could come over to my house for dinner sometime! That way, neither of us will have to be alone.”
“You were such an easy target,” said Tsubaki. “Your desire was so strong. You wanted so desperately to connect with someone who understood your pain.” The smile fell from his face. “I know how badly you want to believe this is all an elaborate joke. Unfortunately, this story isn’t a comedy. It never was. This is a pure horror show.”
Mahiru merely blinked in response. He was still processing everything. He didn’t want to believe it, but the fangs, the red eyes. Really, Mahiru should have known from the start. There was always something…off about Tsubaki, but he could never quite put his finger on it. Now it was all clear.
“Mahiru…” Tsubaki cast his eyes downward. He almost looked like he was about to cry. “Why did it have to be you? If you hadn’t picked up that raccoon… If you hadn’t spun your own story about it being an ordinary animal… Our story could have stayed on the path I had set for it. I could still be playing the role of your best friend right now. Tomorrow. For a thousand tomorrows. But one unforeseen plot twist has changed the entire course of the tale.”
“I just didn’t want to get you involved with vampires!” Mahiru shouted. “How was I supposed to know you were one of them?!”
“QUIET!!” Tsubaki screamed. Mahiru flinched. He’d never heard the other raise his voice like that before. “I’ve had enough of your stories! Enough circumventing! If you don’t trust me, then just tell me! Stop trying to spin me around with your fiction!” The black-haired vampire strode over to a discarded, broken mirror. “There’s an art to telling a good story. Lying to the person who was supposed to be your best friend is not how that art should be used.” He placed a hand on the cracked glass. His hair hid his eyes from Mahiru’s sight. “I never took you for a storyteller, Mahiru. But now that you’ve shown me your true character, I can never take another word out of your mouth as anything but pure fable.”
Mahiru winced as Tsubaki dragged his nails across the glass, adding four more scratches to the already heavily damaged surface. “It hurts,” Tsubaki continued. “To know I’ve been spun in a tale of someone else’s making. My heart is in shards. Broken and thrown away, just like this mirror.” For whatever reason, the twisted grin from before spread across his face once again as he stared Mahiru dead in the eye. “Would you like to hear one last funny story?! Nine times out of ten, people can tell when they’re being lied to! Plot twist: I knew from the beginning that little pet of yours wasn’t really a raccoon! But I wanted so badly to keep my own plotline going that I feigned ignorance! But now, you’ve left me no choice! It’s time for a new chapter!”
Still scratching the mirror, Tsubaki burst into a fit of maniacal laughter. Mahiru looked to Sakuya, who still lay before him, impaled and bleeding on the ground. He knew what had to be done. It didn’t matter that Tsubaki was his best friend. If he was taking innocent lives, he had to be stopped.
“Sakuya-“
“Don’t bother…” the green-haired vampire choked out.
“What?!”
“Remember what Misono said…about your resolve… Servamps consume not only the blood of our Eves but the resolve that flows with it…” He paused to cough up more blood. “I can only be as strong as your resolve…and right now, I can’t tell…if you want to kill Tsubaki…or protect him… Drinking your blood now…wouldn’t do anything…”
It’s because I still see him as a friend, Mahiru realized. I wanted to protect my friends, but… Tsubaki is… I don’t have the resolve to fight him. This is it. There’s nothing I can do! Sakuya… I’m sorry!