Vampire and His Pleasant Companions: Volume 1 - Part 2
The next morning, in a room at the police
station, Al was stuck to the wall of a cardboard box, peeking out to observe
the commotion outside. His right foot was tied with about two yards (roughly
1.8 meters) of packing twine, which was tightly wound around a heavy book
placed at the bottom of the box. He had tried multiple times to untie the
bothersome twine, but it was tied so tightly that he couldn’t remove it.
"You idiots! What do you mean he's
gone?!"
A loud voice, almost like thunder, shook the
air. In the room, which looked like a conference room with nothing but
disorganized desks and chairs, were an elderly man in uniform, who had shouted,
two men of the same age, the two detectives who had interrogated him yesterday,
and six young police officers.
"It's true. When I checked in the morning,
the suspect wasn’t in his cell. The door was securely locked, and there was no
sign on the surveillance camera footage that he had escaped."
"But if he's not there, that means he
escaped!" The rough-faced middle-aged detective leaned in, causing the
young officer to start breathing rapidly, as if he might collapse at any
moment.
"But, it’s impossible for him to have
escaped. The clothes and underwear we lent him were left discarded on the
floor. The suspect should be completely naked."
"That makes it even more suspicious! What
if someone from inside helped him escape, dressed him in a police uniform, and
let him walk out the front door?"
"I-I didn't help anyone escape."
"Then who else could have done it? What’s
your relationship with that pervert?"
The young officer, now on the verge of tears,
was being verbally attacked by the middle-aged detective.
"I didn’t help anyone from the outside,
and this was the first time I ever saw that foreigner. Please believe me. I
watched him all night until my shift ended. The keys are kept in the storage
room, and the surveillance camera footage will prove my innocence. B-but after
the suspect disappeared, this was left in the cell."
The officer grabbed the cardboard box
containing Al and thrust it in front of the men who were berating him. The
elderly man who peeked into the box twisted his face in disgust the moment he
made eye contact with Al, now in bat form.
"A bat?! Are you kidding me?!" He
slapped the box to the ground, and the impact left Al dizzy. The middle-aged
detective joined in, shouting at the officer alongside the elderly man.
"That bat just happened to be in the cell
when the guy disappeared! Don’t make ridiculous connections!"
"But, but maybe the bat was trained to
bring the cell keys to the bars..." the officer stammered.
"Idiot! Stop saying such nonsense and use
your common sense! This is a serious problem—a suspect escaping from a
detention center is a huge deal! If word gets out, we’ll be in big trouble.
It’s a disgrace to the station. Search for him, turn over every stone if you
have to, but find that exhibitionist foreigner!"
...In the end, Al was left inside the cardboard
box and taken to a smoky room. It was about the same size as the previous room,
with steel desks assigned to each person, though only about a third of the
desks were occupied. The men wandering around the room were all in suits, with
tired looks on their faces.
The box was placed in front of the young
detective’s desk, near the drawers. Knowing he would turn back into a human
after sunset, Al desperately tried to escape from the box before then, but the
twine tied to his leg kept him from going any farther. The young detective,
with a sigh, repeatedly put Al back into the box every time he crawled out, and
eventually, perhaps out of frustration, placed something heavy on top of the
box, trapping Al inside.
Stuck in the box and increasingly hungry, Al
grew more and more irritable. As he squawked loudly, "Squeak squeak squeak!" someone banged on the side
of the box. Momentarily silenced by the shock, Al then felt a surge of anger
and screeched even louder and more obnoxiously, "Squeak squeak squeak!"
"Sasama, get that noisy bird under
control!" a voice yelled.
"S-sorry. I apologize. But I was told by
Torii-san to keep it here for now..." the young detective responded,
clearly flustered.
Sensing the detective’s distress, Al screeched
again, as loudly as he could, "Squeak
squeak!"
"Ugh, it’s so noisy! Just kill that bird
already!"
"So lively this early in the
morning," another voice joined in, along with the sound of footsteps.
"Oh, Nukariya-san!"
"What’s all that screeching?"
"...It's a bat."
"A bat? Why?"
"They found it in the detention center, so
they caught it for now."
"Why keep it here? Just release it
outside."
"I’d like to, but I thought it might be
evidence..."
No matter how much he screeched, it only made
his hunger worse. Sulking, Al curled up at the bottom of the box. After a
while, there was a rustling sound, and a faint light filtered into the
darkness. Sensing that the box was being opened, Al seized the opportunity and
tried to fly out, only to be grabbed by an unfamiliar man. He was held firmly,
his wings spread wide, while the man snapped photos of him from every
angle—front, back, top, and bottom. When Al had been a model, the sound of the
camera shutter had given him a certain thrill, but this felt more like a
violation. Finally, the man ran his hands over Al’s entire body, which made Al
squirm and protest with a loud "Squeak
squeak!"
"You can’t keep a bat as evidence. Once
you’ve taken photos and checked for any devices on it, just release it,"
the man said.
"Thank you, Nukariya-san. I know you must
be tired after your night shift," the young detective replied gratefully.
"It’s fine, I was heading home
anyway."
The unfamiliar man—was he a detective
too?—spread Al’s wings and peered into his face. He looked to be in his
mid-twenties, about 5'10" (around 177 cm) tall. His features weren’t very
deep, but he had nicely shaped eyes and a small face. Unlike the middle-aged
detective, this man had a gentle expression that didn’t come across as
intimidating.
"Hey, Sasama. If you're going to release
this bat, could you give it to me instead?" the man asked, tilting his
head as he looked at the young detective.
"Do you like bats, Nukariya-san?" the
young detective asked, looking puzzled.
The unfamiliar man gave a wry smile. "Not
really, but I have a friend who does. He's a bit lonely—doesn't have much
contact with people and no girlfriend—so I thought having a pet like this might
cheer him up."
"That sounds nice, but do you really think
a noisy bat could be a comfort?"
"He said he liked bats, so I think it
might work."
Al, still tied to the twine, was placed in a
semi-transparent plastic bag with a hole poked in it, and then taken out of the
room. He had no idea why he was suddenly put into a plastic bag or where he was
being taken. He looked for an opportunity to escape, but the bag was securely
closed, and the air holes were small. All he could do was thrash around inside
the bag as a form of resistance.
He heard the sound of a car engine, indicating
that they had left the police station and were now in a vehicle. After a drive
of about twenty minutes, he sensed that he was being taken outside again. It
seemed like they had entered a building, as he heard the distinctive sound of
an elevator going up and the "ding" of its doors opening.
Then, a doorbell rang. Al wondered if he had
been brought to the man’s house. But wait—why would the man ring the doorbell
at his own home? Maybe he had a wife, and he was ringing to let her know he was
back...
"Who is it?" came a muffled male
voice from behind the door.
"It’s me. You’re off today, right? I sent
you a message earlier, but did you see it?"
"A message?"
There were footsteps moving away, then coming
back, followed by the sound of the door unlocking.
"You said you’d stop by after work... Oh,
so this is it," the man said, holding a smartphone and reading something
from it.
"I thought it was odd that you didn’t
reply. What’s the point of giving a heads-up if you don’t check it?"
"I was asleep. So, what’s up?"
"I brought you a gift."
The bag swayed as the man handed it over.
"What’s this?"
"Just open it after you get inside and
make sure the windows are closed."
Al was carried into the room, and the bag was
finally opened. He flew out as quickly as he could... but soon found himself
unable to move forward. The twine tied to his leg was holding him back. The man
pulled him closer and grabbed him firmly.
"Squeak
squeak squeak!" Al screeched loudly as the man’s face came so close
that it looked like he was about to bite him. The scent of blood wafted from
the man's body—not cow or pig blood, but human blood. Regular humans didn’t
usually carry such a strong scent of blood. Was this man a murderer? Or perhaps
he was a fellow vampire... The possibilities raced through Al's mind. He
couldn’t be sure. He could distinguish the scent of blood but not recognize
another vampire.
Al stared at the man in front of him. Compared
to the Japanese people he had seen in the past day, this man had much sharper
features and a well-defined face. His eyes were long and narrow, his nose
high-bridged. He had a kind of rugged, stoic charm that Westerners typically
didn’t possess. The man looked older than Al’s apparent age, likely in his
mid-to-late twenties. Since Al’s vision was in black and white, he couldn’t
discern the man’s eye or hair color, but the shadows suggested they were dark.
His hair was shoulder-length, slightly wavy—or rather, messy. If the man’s hair
and eyes were indeed black, it would give him an exotic look. He really might
be a vampire. Al thought he had seen a face like this before, but where?
The man’s eyelids fluttered slightly as he
stared at Al with his exotic eyes, then smiled softly.
"This little guy is cute," he said.
It was the first time Al had been looked at so
kindly while in bat form; usually, he was swatted away or chased off.
"Cute?" the detective who had brought
Al muttered.
"Yeah, he’s got a good face shape. Quite a
beauty... or should I say a handsome guy, since he’s a male bat," the man
said, holding Al up for the detective to inspect.
"I don’t know how to judge a bat’s
looks..." the detective replied, clearly unsure.
"Bats have different nose and ear shapes
depending on the species. Some look like squashed pigs and are ugly, but this
one is cute, like a little mouse."
"I’ve never thought mice were
cute..."
An awkward silence fell between the two men,
though they didn’t seem to be arguing.
"That bat was found in our detention
center, so I remembered that you liked bats and brought it to you. It’s a bit
unusual, but I thought it might make an interesting pet."
"You can’t keep a bat as a pet."
"What?"
"Wild bats are off-limits. I don’t
remember the details, but that’s the rule."
"Oh, I didn’t know that."
"You’re not supposed to keep it, but since
it ended up here, maybe I’ll take care of it for a night," the man said,
glancing at Al before giving a cryptic smile.
As soon as the detective left, the man began to
reveal his true nature. While it was nice that he untied the twine from Al’s
leg, he then started touching him all over. He spread Al’s wings, folded them
back, and stroked his back and belly. Since Al suspected that this man might be
a fellow vampire and seemed to have good intentions, he tolerated it at first.
But when the man’s hands ventured too far south and he commented, "You’re
pretty big, huh?" Al’s patience snapped.
Slipping out of the man’s grasp, Al flapped his
wings and flew up. Finding nowhere else to land, he hooked his back legs onto a
curtain pole and hung upside down. The man just stared at him.
"You don’t like it when your delicate
parts are touched, huh?" the man said, though Al didn’t understand a word
of the Japanese.
"If you don’t like it, I won’t touch you
there again. Come on down," the man continued, trying to coax Al down by
clicking his tongue. When Al didn’t move, the man approached the curtain and
reached out. Realizing he was about to be caught again, Al took off and flew
around the room. As he dodged the man’s attempts to catch him, he got a sense
of the room’s layout. It had everything necessary for living—kitchen, bath,
toilet—but it was as compact as a student dormitory.
Eventually, the man seemed to give up on
catching him and stopped chasing. Al lay flat on his stomach atop the
bookshelf, watching and waiting for the man to open the door or a window. If
the man were a fellow vampire, they could communicate in bat form, but there
was no sign of that. Since Al had no use for an ordinary human, he wanted to
get outside as soon as possible so he could search for some blood. His stomach
tightened with hunger, made worse by all the flying around he had done.
Even if this man were a fellow vampire, Al
couldn’t expect him to share his food or take care of him. Another vampire he
had met once told him that vampires don’t live in groups. If they did, they’d
end up fighting each other over human prey. Not that Al had ever preyed on a
human—he had only consumed animal blood. It wasn’t because he came from a
devout Catholic family and was avoiding it; he wanted to drink human blood but
simply couldn’t bring himself to do it.
How long had it been since he last drank blood,
not counting the time he was frozen? It was back in America... the last time
was during his final hunt before Gaddis died. He remembered lapping up the
blood that pooled on the ground after it was drained, and his tongue
reflexively licked at the memory.
Turning his back on the bat that had been
flying around the room, the man sat down at a desk and powered on his computer.
Al used to use one himself, but he had grown distant from such modern
conveniences. In fact, it wasn’t just computers—he had distanced himself from
"human" life altogether.
A bat by day, a man by night. Even though his
body had turned out this way, he had been optimistic at first. He thought that
even though he could no longer hang out with his old friends after his death,
he could make new ones. But without any form of identification, it was
difficult to find a place to live or a job. The part-time job he finally
managed to get paid very little for the amount of work it required, barely
enough to buy raw meat for food. There was hardly any money left over.
Eventually, he couldn’t even afford the rent for a low-income apartment and
naturally slipped into a homeless lifestyle.
He realized, through his increasingly bleak
days, that you don’t get used to poverty; you become accustomed to it. At
first, he could only sleep in a bed, but he gradually became fine with sleeping
in the grass. He used to shower every day, but soon he didn’t mind going a week
or two without one. He used to feel depressed about wearing last year’s
out-of-style T-shirts, but eventually, he didn’t care how dirty the collar and
cuffs got. Living in a trash heap, he began to feel like real garbage.
Curiosity got the better of him, and he moved
from the top of the bookshelf to a lower TV cabinet where he could get a better
view of the computer monitor. In bat form, Al’s vision was devoid of color, so
the world around him appeared in shades of black and white. Naturally, the
monitor screen was also monochrome.
The man was browsing a website filled with
pictures of bats, but the text was all in Japanese. The only thing Al could
read was the scientific names written in English. As he watched, the man
switched to another page, and the screen suddenly filled with English. It
seemed the man could read English.
The title of the site was "A BAT’S
LIFE." It was all about bats and their care. Was the man thinking of
keeping him as a pet? Al tilted his head in confusion. If the man thought he
was just an ordinary bat, it made sense that he’d be looking at a general care
page. That confirmed the man wasn’t a fellow vampire, but the strong scent of
human blood still clung to him. In Al’s experience, a person didn’t typically
smell so strongly of blood unless they had suffered a major injury.
The man turned around, their eyes meeting. Al
considered flying away but hesitated. If the man planned to keep him as a pet,
he probably wouldn’t treat him roughly. If he had taken a liking to Al, maybe
he’d even offer him some blood to eat.
Slowly, the man approached. Al’s body tensed
with caution, his nerves making him rigid. The man’s hand extended toward him,
gently stroking his head before moving down his back. The soft touch was
surprisingly pleasant.
When the man picked him up, it wasn’t harsh. He
was cradled in the man’s hand, and his nose was gently stroked. Al found
himself closing his eyes in contentment. After a while, the man prodded Al’s
mouth with his fingers, and Al reflexively opened his mouth.
The man peered inside. "Huh? This guy
doesn’t have any fangs," he muttered and then set Al down on the table. He
brought a small dish of water and placed it in front of him.
Al stared at the clear water. He was terribly
thirsty, but only red blood, like wine, could quench his thirst and hunger.
When he didn’t touch the water, the man tilted his head.
"You’re not drinking? Guess that means
you’re not thirsty."
To Al, the man’s words sounded like clattering
noise. If he could speak English, they could have a simple yes-or-no
conversation, but there was no way for Al to tell him to speak in English.
The man continued to gaze at the bat on the
table. "You look like a little pipistrelle. Maybe you’re just hungry?"
Though the man seemed to be talking to him, Al
couldn’t understand and couldn’t respond. He let out a forlorn "Squeak."
"I see, you must be hungry," the man
said with a smile, placing Al on his hand and opening the closet door. He
placed Al on a shelf inside. "Hang in there for a while," he said
before closing the closet door.
Al loved dark places, but...
"Squeak,
squeak, squeak!" He screeched, but the closet door didn’t open. He was
locked in. Then he heard the front door open and close, followed by the sound
of a key turning. The man had left.
Al realized he had missed his chance to escape,
all because he had hesitated, hoping for some food. Overcome with
self-loathing, he flew around the cramped closet in frustration until hunger
drove him to stop. He curled up on a soft sweater, defeated. Normally, he would
hang upside down to rest, but the softness of the wool was too tempting.
The man had smelled of blood, and the closet
was filled with the same scent—lots of human blood. Though the smell was
tantalizing, it unnerved him to think of why it was so concentrated.
When in bat form, Al's sense of smell became
extremely sharp, especially when it came to blood—he could detect it from far
away if it was fresh. The scent of blood that filled this closet had a slightly
chemical odor as well. He had encountered a man before who carried a similar
lingering scent of blood, one that a human wouldn’t notice but that Al’s
sensitive vampire senses picked up. Out of curiosity, Al had approached the
man, thinking he might be a murderer, only to find out after talking with him that
he was actually a surgeon. Shocking events like that aren’t something you come
across every day... Maybe this man was a doctor too.
The smell of blood and the soft knit bed made
Al feel like he could be happy, at least in a dream. He was dozing off when the
sound of the front door opening woke him up. He screeched, "Squeak squeak!" in protest, and the closet door popped open. He flew
out in a rush, heading straight for the front door, but it was already closed.
Having no choice, he flew up to the bookshelf,
out of the man’s reach. The man placed another small dish beside the water on
the table. There was something in it. Although there was no scent of blood, it
smelled somewhat like meat. Excited, Al descended to the table, only to grimace
at the sight. The dish contained frogs and worms, things that made him feel
sick just by looking at them. Angry about being locked in the closet, Al lashed
out, kicking the dish with his hind legs and scattering the frogs and worms all
over the table before retreating back to the bookshelf.
Muttering, "So you won't eat this,"
the man cleaned up the mess. Then he placed something else on the dish. Once
again, there was no scent of blood. Al checked it out without any expectations,
and sure enough, it was fruit—grapes, apples, and such.
Al slumped in disappointment. The man clearly
wanted to feed him, and if he could just communicate his desire for blood, the
man might even prepare some raw meat for him. But as long as he remained in bat
form, he had no way to express what he wanted. He had never regretted being a
bat as much as he did now.
Suddenly, the man’s smartphone rang.
"Yes, this is Takatsuka. Yes... Yes...
Huh, right now?" As he spoke, deep wrinkles formed on the man's forehead,
indicating it wasn’t good news.
"Yes, I understand, but..."
In the end, the man sighed deeply and muttered,
"Got it," before ending the call. He sighed again, even deeper this
time, then threw on a black jacket and spoke to Al, who was still on top of the
bookshelf.
"I’ve got to head to work. I’ll be back by
the evening," he said, heading quickly toward the front door. As Al
watched the man’s retreating figure, it suddenly struck him that this might be
his chance. He hurriedly tried to follow, but he was too late. The door slammed
shut right in front of him. He had missed a second chance. Shocked, he hung
from the ceiling near the entrance and let out low, disappointed screeches of
"Squeak, squeak," but it only made his own noise unbearable. Resigned,
he returned to the top of the bookshelf.
It was frustrating to have missed the
opportunity to escape, but he reminded himself that he would turn back into a
human once night fell. He could easily open the door then, and maybe even
borrow some clothes to avoid being mistaken for a pervert while walking
outside.
But what if the man came back before sunset? He
would see Al transform from a bat into a human. Al worried and worried about it
until he finally started to think, "So what if he sees?" It wouldn’t
hurt him to be seen. Even if the man thought he was a monster or was disgusted
by him, it wouldn’t matter, because Al would be leaving this room soon anyway.
His acquaintance with the man would end today.
For now, he decided to wait until sunset.
Moving around unnecessarily would only make him hungrier. Lying on his stomach,
Al closed his eyes, feeling the pangs of hunger in his growling stomach.
◇:-:◆:-:◇
At precisely 5:15 PM, at sunset, Al transformed
from a bat back into a human. The man still hadn’t returned. As soon as he
regained human form, Al headed straight for the refrigerator, even before
putting on any clothes, and checked inside. Then, finally... he found what he
had been searching for in the freezer.
"Premium Wagyu Ribeye, 1800 yen."
There was no doubt about it—the scent of beef
blood was unmistakable. With trembling hands, he tore open the plastic
packaging and licked the frozen meat.
[“Mmm? Mmm! Mmm!!!”]
The ice-cold beef stuck to his tongue like a
magnet, and when he tried to pull it off, it tore a thin layer of skin from the
tip of his tongue, causing sharp, tear-inducing pain. His stomach was painfully
empty, but he couldn’t lick the meat because it was frozen.
Looking around, he noticed the microwave. He
could defrost it using that. He placed the meat on a plate he found in the
cupboard, put it in the microwave, and pressed the button. The microwave, with
its worldwide compatibility, had the word [“Defrost”] clearly labeled in English.
While waiting for the meat to defrost, he
opened the closet and searched for some clothes. Although he initially thought
any clothes would do, the abundance of choices made him indecisive. He could
only wear one outfit, so naturally, he wanted to pick something that suited
him. That was only human nature.
The man’s closet was filled with monochrome
clothes—black, gray, white. Al didn’t like dark colors, and he knew they didn’t
suit him. But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find anything in
brighter colors. The entire closet felt like the middle of the night... As he
became absorbed in choosing an outfit, he failed to notice the footsteps
approaching the room, something he would normally detect. The sound of keys
rattling in the lock snapped him back to reality, and he realized too late that
he had once again "missed his chance."
He should have grabbed any clothes he could
find, eaten whatever food was available, and left quickly... but it was too
late for that now. The door opened. Al grabbed a shirt and pants from the
closet and dashed toward the window.
"Who are you? What are you doing in my
home?!" the man’s angry voice stabbed into his back. Al opened the window
and leaped onto the balcony. As he tried to climb over the concrete railing, he
hesitated. A sharp, whistling wind blew up from below. He looked down and saw
that the people on the sidewalk below were tiny. He had known he was high up
when he took the elevator, but he had completely forgotten just how high.
If he were still in bat form, he could fly away
without worrying about the height, but as a human, jumping would only lead to a
fall. He’d shatter his bones—though he wouldn’t die, the pain would be
excruciating. And he hated pain.
"Who are you? Why are you naked? How did
you get into this room?" The man’s voice was filled with rage. Al slowly
turned around. The man who had once looked at him with such gentle eyes was now
glaring at him with open hostility. It was only natural. Al was no longer a
bat. He was now a foreigner the man had never met before, standing in the man’s
own room. The excuse that he had been dragged here and stripped, like when he
was found in the food factory, wouldn’t work this time.
The man’s eyes fell on the shirt and pants in
Al’s hands.
"Those clothes are mine! Are you a
thief?!"
There was no room for negotiation; the man was
shouting angrily. If the window wasn’t an option, Al would have to make a break
for it through the front door. They were about the same height... No, the man
was slightly taller. Their weight seemed evenly matched. Al decided to charge
at the man, imagining himself as a bullet.
He had planned to knock the man over with the
force of his charge and make his escape, but the man grabbed him by the arm. In
that instant, Al found himself lifted off the ground, and then he crashed down
onto his back on the floor. It was as if magic had been used on him; he hadn’t
felt the man’s strength at all. Lying on his back, Al was quickly flipped over
onto his stomach. The shirt he had tried to steal was used to tightly bind his
arms, and the man straddled his waist.
Ding...
The microwave beeped, finally finishing its
cycle. The man tied Al’s legs with the pants, then walked over to the microwave
and opened the door.
"What the hell?!"
The man’s shout echoed through the room.
"You thawed out my premium ribeye, didn’t
you?!"
The rich aroma of meat mixed with blood wafted
into Al’s nostrils. Combined with his intense hunger, it made his mouth water
uncontrollably. He couldn’t hold back any longer.
[“I’m not a suspicious person. I was just so hungry. Please, let me lick
that meat!”] he pleaded.
After a brief pause, the man shouted back in
fluent English.
[“Not suspicious? You’re stark naked in someone else’s house! That’s the
very definition of suspicious!”]
Still lying on his stomach, Al craned his neck
to look up at the man.
[“I was hungry...”]
[“If you were hungry, why did you go for the ribeye?! There’s bread and
instant noodles, for God’s sake! Just because you’re a foreigner doesn’t mean
you can get away with this. How did you even get into this locked room, huh?!”]
The man’s fury was overwhelming. It seemed he
had a special attachment to that piece of meat.
[“I was dragged into this room against my will. It wasn’t my choice”]
That wasn’t wrong. He had been put into a
plastic bag and forcibly brought into the room.
[“Who dragged you in here? Don’t mess with me!”]
[“A detective you know!”]
The man suddenly froze.
[“Are you talking about Nukariya?”]
[“I don’t know the name. Japanese names are difficult”]
[“I didn’t give Nukariya the key to my room. He couldn’t have let you in!”]
[“It’s true that I was brought here. I didn’t want to come to a place like
this either!”]
The man moved off Al's waist, allowing him to
finally turn over onto his back. Wriggling like a caterpillar, he managed to
sit up with his back against the bed. As their eyes met, the man pointed at Al
and declared firmly.
[“Nukariya isn’t the kind of man who would toss a foreigner into someone’s
house without permission. I don’t know where you met him, but stop making
things up”]
[“But…”]
Ignoring Al’s plea, the man made a phone call.
He spoke in Japanese, so Al couldn’t understand what he was saying. After
finishing the call, the man started looking around, checking high places like
the top of the bookshelf and the shelves. He even peeked into the closet.
[“Are you looking for the bat?”]
The man, who had stopped listening to Al,
suddenly reacted.
[“You saw it?”]
When it was about the bat, the man had touched
him gently, but as soon as he turned into a human, this is how he was treated.
Even though he was starving, the man wouldn’t even give him any of the
defrosted raw meat. Well, from the man’s perspective, maybe it was suspicious
to find a naked man in his room when he came back. But it wasn’t his fault. He
didn’t choose to be in this body!
[“It’s probably dead”]
As soon as Al spat this out spitefully, the
man’s expression grew even harsher. His gaze was as if he wanted to ask,
"You didn’t kill it, did you?"
[“I-it was just a joke. Don’t look at me like that”]
The man turned away abruptly. When Al thought
about how, when he was a bat, the man had eagerly brought him worms, frogs, and
fruit to keep him happy, it made him feel irrationally resentful.
[“Do you want me to tell you where the bat is?”]
[“So it was you after all?”]
The man whipped around, clenching his teeth.
[“If you want to know where the bat is, untie my hands and feet”]
[“I’m not falling for your cheap provocation. If the bat has escaped
outside, then so be it. I won’t untie your hands and feet until the police
arrive”]
Al felt the blood drain from his entire body.
Was he going to end up back in jail again? If he was put in a place like that
again, he wouldn’t be able to drink blood for another night. Even if he turned
into a bat, escaping from there was quite difficult.
[“P-please, not the police”]
The man didn’t respond.
[“I’m sorry. I promise I’ll never do anything like this again. So please,
just this once, let me off the hook”]
Ignoring Al’s desperate plea, the man sat down
in a chair and turned on his computer. His attitude made it clear he didn’t see
any value in listening to him, which made Al feel a deep sense of emptiness.
At the same time, he started to get angrier.
[“I am that bat!”]
He hadn’t told anyone. Because he didn’t think
anyone would believe him. He didn’t expect anyone to understand his situation,
and he didn’t want them to.
That’s what he thought, but the words slipped
out of his mouth.
[“I am that bat! During the day, I’m a bat, and at night, I turn into a human”]
Hmmmm.. at first I didn’t know what to think of this novel, but I’m starting to get interested. I feel like the bat will catch feelings first, but the other man won’t be able to love his human form? It reminds me of utsukushii koto, where the ML is kind to his crossdressing form but cold and cruel to the male form. I’m very intrigued! I hope it’s as angsty as I’m hoping lol. Thanks for the translations ♥️
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way when I read the synopsis, but somehow I ended up liking the novel. Akira is so stoic, yet he has some really sweet moments, and there's plenty of angst and unrequited love 😉
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