“You’re Ryu Kazeyama?” she asked. Her voice was light, teasing, but her eyes – those unnatural, waterless eyes – were watg me closely. Measuring. Calg. Soaking up every detail, and I could feel her sensing that something was off about me.

  She took a step closer, leaning in just enough that it made me unfortable. Cold seemed to roll off her skin, like standing in a drafty room. I suppressed a shudder, and she just smirked.

  “Are you sure? With your hair? Your blue eyes? And…” she had to take another breath. I realized that she’d run out of air.

  “Of course… but, my point is, at least I look like my name could be Shion Kurozawa.”

  There was an accusatory tone behind her words. The air between us hung still. No movement in the woods. No wind. That’s when I noticed it again – the silence of her breath.

  It was unnatural to walk beside someone who doesn’t breathe, didn’t o breathe, a here she was. Watg me. Expeg an answer. I had no idea what I was supposed to tell her.

  Then, she took a deliberate breath.

  “Oh, I get it,” she said, her tone shifted. “You’re new here.”

  I sighed in relief. There was my lifeline because that was the truth.

  “I’ve never been here before,” I said.

  She stopped walking. The slightest hesitation in my words, but she noticed. She rolled her bike to the side, kicked the stand down, and turned, fag me fully. And I could feel her eyes again, those ft, green eyes, raking over me, reading every detail. Sizing me up.

  After what felt like ay, she spoke.

  “We’re early,” she said.

  “Huh?” I blinked. “Early for what?”

  Then her head tilted slightly – that eerie, doll-like movement that was too perfect, fluid, to be human. I saw her inhale so she could speak.

  “Oh? You don’t know, Ryu? First-year orientation,” she said as if it were obvious. “It’s required, after all. sidering the circumstances.”

  Something cold coiled in my chest. Circumstances? I was already drowning in my own circumstances. I couldn't even process what the hell had happeo me yet – being in a different body, in a different world – and now there was some undefined horror lurking at the school.

  I tried f a casual shrug. “Oh yeah.”

  Shion’s lips curled slightly.

  “Oh yeah what?” she asked. Her voice was light, pyful. But her eyes.

  She was waiting, like a panther, waiting for me to slip up. Like she knew I don’t belong. My mouth was dry, I could hear my heartbeat. Shion didn’t breathe. She didn’t shift, or make any movement at all. She just froze, a thing in the shape of a girl, waiting for my answer.

  “I mean, of course,” I said quickly. “I just meant… I didn’t realize that we were this early.”

  A pause. And then. A slow, eerie smirk.

  “Ryu…” she gestured downwards with her eyes.

  I looked down and saw. My pid pants had grass and dirt stains all over them from where she’d wrecked her bike into me. She breathed in once more.

  “Do you have a pearby?” she asked. Was she ed? “You should ge before orientation.”

  She was letting me off the hook! Not because she believed me, but because she chose to. And somehow, I khat was worse. Instead of walking toward Crest Moon Academy, I told her about my reside Shin’yume-sou. Shion’s expression barely ged—but I caught it. The flicker in her gaze. Her fiwitched by her sides, and for the first time since I’d met her, she took a step back. Barely an inch. But it was enough to make my stomach drop.

  "The local onsen?" she repeated, her voice too careful. Measured. Like she was testing the weight of each word. "Why’re you staying there?"

  It wasn’t curiosity. It wasn’t teasing. It was an accusation. I shrugged, pying it off like I wasn’t just realizing I had no damn idea why I was staying there. But something in my gut twisted.

  "I’ve got a room there," I said.

  For a split sed, I swore her pupils shrank to slits. Then—a smile. A forced smile. She tilted her head slightly, like she was amused, but her fiwitched at her sides. And when she spoke, her voice was still pyful, but her fangs were showing now—just barely peeking past her lips.

  "Don’t want to stay in the dorms on campus, huh?" she asked. "Afraid someone’s going to e after your human blood, ‘Ryu’?"

  Her voice was light. Her eyes weren’t. Something cold slithered down my spine. Was it on knowledge that humans were in danger here? Did she already know what I was? Or was she just trying to bait me into admitting something?

  And then—it hit me.

  Like a thousand puzzle pieces suddenly snapping together, f a picture I really, really didn’t want to see. Crest Moon Academy wasn’t just a school. It was a school for monsters. Not just monsters. Yokai. And I’d read about it. I’d read manga, watched anime… and there was more.

  I kly why I was suddenly fifteen years old. Why I was dressed like I belonged here. Why I was talking to a vampire who was looking at me like she was deg whether I was a threat or a meal.

  Lana. Her name slithered through my mind, ice-cold. No. Not Lana.

  Me.

  Andy Davis did this to himself. Because I wished for it. A sick feeling twisted in my stomach. My own words, my own damn desire, came rushing bae like a punch to the gut. "I always wonder what it’d actually be like to live in those worlds. Not just the fun, goofy parts, but the real sequences." Real. sequences.

  I had said that.

  And now? I was stuside the world I had dreamed about. A world I thought I uood, and I felt like throwing up. Just then— Shion touched my shoulder. Her fingers felt cold, even though my uniform’s fabric, but I knew she was trying to reassure me.

  "Are you okay?" she asked softly. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

  The air around us felt too still. Too heavy. I swallowed hard. My throat was dry. Because I knew what was waiting for me at the onsen.

  How? Oh, that was easy. Just like everything else that was happening, I had read about a ghost girl. And now, she was waiting for me. I turoward Shion and nodded. She let go of my shoulder and grabbed her bike as we tinued walking. We were almost there.

  "Yeah. I mean… Shion, is Crest Moon Academy dangerous?"

  She took a long, slow breath. Measured. Iional. Her nostrils fred—just a little. Like a wolf catg a st. For a moment, she didn’t ahen—she smiled. Not the teasing kind. Not even the fake, amused one. Something sharper. A warning?

  "What do you mean?" she asked, voice light. "Of course it’s dangerous. It’s a high school."

  I frowned. "But… it’s more than that, isn’t it?"

  Her smile widened, just enough to show her fangs. Not acg. Not taunting. Pyful. Like a cat batting around a trapped mouse, just for the fun of it.

  "Look at you," she murmured, voice dripping with amusement. "Getting smarter, Ryu."

  "You’re right," she said softly. "It’s not ‘just’ a high school… the same way I’m not ‘just’ a normal girl with needs."

  We reached the gates of the Shin’yume-sou.

  She leaned in, just enough for me to catch the fai st of something sweet—not perfume. Something richer. Thicker. My blood. My throat went dry. Her eyes flicked downward—just for a sed—then back up. Her tongue flicked against one of her fangs. She ying with me. Testing me.

  And then—Shion took a step closer. The way she moved—it was wrong. Like she was gliding instead of walking. And the smile was gone now.

  "So…you’re staying at this onsen?" she asked, voice smooth. Too smooth. The sileretched, heavy as stone. I could hear the wind. The faint rustling of the trees.

  I nodded slowly. "…yeah. Why’s that a problem? You keep bringing it up."

  Her lips parted slightly. Not in shock. In realization. And theook a deep breath and she ughed. Not the flirty, teasing kind from before. No, this one was low. Amused. Disbelieving. She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “God, that’s so… funny.”

  She wasn’t ughing at me, though. She ughed at something unspoken, and I saw her shoulders tense, ready t. When she looked up, her fangs were showing fully now.

  Shion’s eyes narrowed.

  "You’re either an idiot," she said lightly, "or a liar."

  My stomach twisted and my mind raced. Why? Why was she reag like this? She was being mostly friendly, or the closest thing to a friend that I had. Then I noticed — the stiffness in her posture. The way her fingers curled just slightly, like cws. She wasn’t just suspicious of me. She was afraid… because I was at an onsen?. And then, the realization smmed into me so hard I almost staggered.

  Running water.

  She’s a vampire.

  And I just told her I was staying in the one pce that could kill her.

  “Oh my god, Shion, it’s the ohe running water! I didn’t even realize! I’m so sorry about that! You’re right… I was an idiot, and… this pce is dangerous. I ’t afford to be an idiot. Sorry.”

  I wasn’t just suspicious to her anymore. I wasn’t just some weird "traudent" with a bad cover story. I was staying at a pce she coulder. A pce she would never go near. And that meant ohing. She didn’t trust me before. Now? She might just kill me. Shion inhaled sharply, her gaze locked on me like she was looking through me.

  And I saw her fangs retract. She tilted her head.

  “You really fot, didn’t you?” she asked.

  This was more than a question to her, but I wasn’t sure why.

  “You fot I was… a vampire?”

  Her voice had just the fai hint of… vulnerability?

  “Yeah. I guess I did,” I said.

  She looked up at me from beh her sleek, bck locks. Our eyes met, and she looked away quickly.

  “…thank you.”