Vampire and His Pleasant Companions: Volume 6 - Part 5

Previous TOC Next

Two days after returning to Tokyo, a gentle drizzle fell. At five minutes before five p.m., Al arrived in human form at the Old Memorial Center. He’d walked this path again and again—Akira’s workplace, and once Al’s part-time job. This place had saved him, more than once.

He skipped the funeral hall and went straight to the embalming facility. At the reception desk in the office, he quietly called out, "Excuse me."

"Ah, coming!" came the voice from within.

When Matsumura stepped up to the window and saw him, she gave a small gasp. "Eh?"

"Me, Kane," Al said.

Her surprised expression softened into a delighted smile. "Kane-san!" Her voice jumped with joy.

"It’s been a while! You look so different now—I barely recognized you. Your hair and eyes too."

Al pinched a strand of his now-dark hair. "Image change."

"From an American drama. Filming. That’s why."

"You were in a drama? In America? So the makeover was for the role?"

Al nodded firmly.

"No way! I want to see it. What’s it called? Is it streaming in Japan?"

It was a lie, so of course, he couldn’t give her a title.

"I'm just a minor role," Al said.

"Minor role?" Matsumura echoed, tilting her head. He thought that was how they expressed an insignificant role in Japan, but maybe it wasn’t quite right.

"Uh… like… extra role."

"Extra?" Matsumura tilted her head again, then said, "Oh, do you mean a bit part?" That was it.

"Yeah, that," Al nodded.

Matsumura laughed. "Kane-san, you're just as charming and fun as ever."

"You’re back in Japan?" she asked. He nodded. "Yeah."

"Everyone… I want to talk about Akira."

Her smile faded.

"You know about Takatsuka-san’s case?" she asked softly.

"I know. Akira not bad."

Matsumura’s eyes widened a little.

"Akira… is innocent," Al said, clenching his hands tightly.

"Akira’s friend… he’s police. He proves Akira’s innocence. I know. Akira no do bad thing."

Matsumura pressed her hand over her chest. "So… Takatsuka-san didn’t do it…?"

Her voice trembled.

"Akira not bad. I know. Police… they checking other suspects."

She lowered her eyes.

"After Takatsuka-san was arrested, the police came here, too. They asked me a lot of questions. But I just couldn’t believe Takatsuka-san could ever do something like that. He might not be the friendliest person, but he’s kind. I don’t know the truth. I don’t. But I still want to believe… he didn’t do anything."

Al nodded firmly in agreement.

"Koyanagi here? I want talk about Akira."

"He didn’t pass the front desk, so he should still be in the staff room."

"I talk to him. Okay?"

With Matsumura accompanying him, they walked to the break room. At first, Koyanagi looked puzzled when he saw Al, but recognition quickly lit his face.

"Kane-san!"

He stepped in close and gave Al a big, enthusiastic hug. Behind him, the two trainees—Hatono and Kanezaki—looked on curiously. They were familiar with Al’s bat form, but this was their first time seeing him as a human.

"Just changing hair and eye color really changes the vibe. You look sharp now," Koyanagi said.

Being complimented made Al a little happy. Matsumura added with a smile, "Kane-san seems to be back in Japan."

"Ah, so that’s what happened. Then Takatsuka-san…"

Koyanagi trailed off as soon as Akira’s name came up, and the air in the room grew heavy. Matsumura quietly excused herself, saying customers would be arriving soon, leaving just the four of them.

"Takatsuka-san, well, he’s in a really difficult situation…"

Koyanagi struggled to find the right words.

"Akira… innocent!" Al declared with all his strength. Koyanagi looked him straight in the eye.

"Akira… innocent. Soon… he come back here."

Koyanagi’s tense face relaxed slightly.

"Yeah… yeah. I believe that too."

"Akira innocent."

From behind Koyanagi, Hatono raised her hand tentatively. "Um, may I ask a question? This person, who appears to be of foreign nationality—what’s his relationship to all this?"

Behind her, Kanezaki gave a subtle nod of agreement.

"This is Kane Roberts-san. He used to work here part-time doing cleaning. While he was in Japan, he was living at Takatsuka-san’s house and being looked after by him."

"So he's an acquaintance of Takatsuka-san?" Hatono asked.

"Yes. Me… Akira’s roommate," Al answered.

"I just didn’t think Takatsuka-san was the type to live with someone else," Hatono muttered.

Kanezaki nodded again.

"Me… broke… fall into Akira’s house," Al said.

"Ah, so that kind of situation," Hatono said, then blinked. "Wait, 'broke'—you know a word like that?"

Al nodded, a bit proud of himself.

The phrase muichimon carried a negative connotation, meaning someone without a penny to their name—but Al thought the kanji for "無一文" looked really cool, so he used it from time to time.

Behind Hatono, who looked satisfied with the explanation, Kanezaki suddenly asked, "Um… did the police ever come to your place?"

"If you were former housemates, they probably asked you a lot of questions, right?"

"Me and Akira… live together… little before," Al said, trying to explain.

Kanezaki tilted his head in confusion, so Koyanagi helped clarify. "About half a year ago, Kane-san returned to America, and their cohabitation ended."

"Me… come back Japan… because want be partner with Akira," Al added.

After a brief silence, Hatono shot straight to the point. "So, Kane-san, were you dating Takatsuka-san?"

"Me want be Akira's lover. Want marry," Al said earnestly.

Koyanagi let out a surprised "O-oh…" that sounded somewhere between awe and alarm.

"So you're saying you came back to Japan to be with the man you love, only to find out he’d been arrested by the police? That’s… quite the surreal twist," Hatono remarked bluntly.

"Akira… innocent! Everyone believe!" Al shouted with conviction. The three exchanged glances. This was the very reason Al had come—to tell them Akira was not guilty.

"I'm just a trainee, and I’ve only known Takatsuka-san for about two months," Hatono said, calm and measured. "He was a bit difficult to approach, but he had a good sense of propriety. So even when I heard he committed murder, it didn’t sit right with me. If someone tells me he’s innocent, I can believe it… but that’s just my impression. I don’t have any solid proof, and honestly, I don’t really know."

"There’s… real culprit!" Al blurted out. Hatono tilted her head.

"Real culprit? Who?"

"Yonekura Kaito."

Koyanagi, standing beside Hatono, turned to Al. "Yonekura—wait, isn’t he the guy who worked at the child welfare facility?"

"Do you know him, Koyanagi-san?" Hatono asked.

Koyanagi nodded. "Yeah, a little while back the facility’s director passed away, and they asked us to do the embalming. Yonekura, a staff member, made the request. I was in charge at first, but due to a family emergency, I asked Takatsuka-san to take over. That connection led to him giving a lecture at the facility…"

Because of the murder that took place there, Koyanagi had remembered Yonekura’s name clearly.

"Yonekura… made Akira suspect. On purpose… invited him to lecture."

"That… really sounds like something’s off," Kanezaki murmured for the first time, having stayed mostly quiet until now. Though to say "smells like trouble" might be an understatement when it was already a full-blown murder case.

"If you say this Yonekura is the real culprit, how do you know that, Kane-san?" Hatono pressed.

Al couldn’t exactly tell them he was a vampire who’d witnessed everything from the ceiling as a bat.

"Akira… not live there. Situation… unnatural. Police… also think Yonekura… suspicious."

That much, at least, wasn’t a lie.

"So the police arrested Takatsuka-san, but they might suspect someone else is the true culprit?" Koyanagi asked, leaning in.

"Yes. Yonekura… quit work after case. Suspicious. Now… running away by car."

"So you're saying the police might’ve let the real killer slip through their fingers?" Kanezaki said, sharp as ever.

"Police… maybe think… Akira half-guilty… Yonekura…" Al paused, trying to remember the exact word. There was a Japanese expression he’d heard—something with mawasu in it… spin… twist… turn…

"Yonekura… sarumawashi!" he declared.

(Sarumawashi = monkey handler, but in this case, a completely incorrect but phonetically similar mistake.)

Kanezaki choked on laughter with a loud snort, while Hatono, still deadpan, corrected him gently, “I believe you meant ‘put on the back burner’.” Her cool tone sliced through the moment, and Kanezaki’s amusement deflated like a pricked balloon.

“To put the situation simply,” Hatono continued, “this man Yonekura invited Takatsuka-san to speak at a lecture, then used the opportunity to frame him for murder. However, Takatsuka-san denies committing the crime. The real culprit—Yonekura—is under suspicion, but with no definitive evidence, he’s evading the police. Is that correct?”

Al nodded so hard it looked like his head might fly off.

“Akira... not guilty.”

Koyanagi exhaled with a hand over his chest. “...That’s a relief.”

“I always felt it wasn’t possible that Takatsuka-san could be a murderer. Even my wife said, ‘There’s no way someone that kind could do such a thing.’ I told the police too, during questioning—‘This has to be some mistake’—but when they said it was a crime caught in the act, I didn’t know what else to say. Hearing your story, Kane-san, really puts me at ease.”

He smiled, visibly reassured.

“He’s the kind of guy who obsesses over the spacing between sutures when sewing up the dead. I just couldn’t picture that same person stabbing someone over and over while they’re still alive.”

“That level of precision borders on the inhuman,” Hatono added under her breath.

“I always thought Takatsuka-san was kind and earnest. He patiently taught someone like me, who faints at the sight of blood... though yeah, sometimes he’s scary,” Kanezaki chimed in.

Al felt his chest tighten with emotion. He was about to cry. They believed in Akira. And that faith wasn’t based on words—it was built on everything Akira had done up until now.

“I’ll catch Yonekura. I want Akira to be free soon.”

He said it clearly, right in front of all three of them.

Hatono looked at him. “Kane-san, what kind of work do you do?”

He hadn’t done enough acting to call himself an actor. Whether in America or here, most of his life had been lived through part-time jobs.

“Right now... no job. But... I’ll work hard. I want to.”

He said it honestly, without trying to bluff. Hatono, ever blunt, remarked, “So your financial resources are... not promising.” Koyanagi stepped in, “Everyone lives their own way. That’s not a bad thing.”

Hatono pressed on, undeterred. “And how exactly do you plan to capture Yonekura, this true killer? You’re not a detective or police officer, and you don’t have money.”

“I’ll... figure out something.”

“I asked for a plan. Specifics.”

“I’ll think... think a lot. From now.”

Al clenched both fists and put on his most determined face. Hatono tilted her head and let out a long sigh.

“And this Yonekura—do you have any clue where he might be? Even a rough guess would do.”

“He has... house in countryside. But maybe... not there now.”

“Friends?”

“...I don’t know.”

“Koyanagi-san,” Hatono turned. “Let’s be rational. Kane-san claims he’s going to catch the killer, but he hasn’t said a single concrete thing.”

“That’s fair,” Kanezaki nodded.

It was fair. Al knew it. All he knew right now was that Yonekura was driving around somewhere in Japan in his personal vehicle.

“Finding someone who ran away... is hard.”

“Can you tell me that man’s name again?”

“Yonekura Kaito.”

Hatono tapped her phone and held it up. “Are these the correct kanji?” she asked, showing the screen to Al. It displayed: “米蔵海斗”. The characters looked similar to the ones Nukariya had shown him when he said, “This is that guy’s full name.”

“Maybe... that one,” Al said.

“‘Maybe’ isn’t very helpful,” Hatono replied sharply. At that, Koyanagi said, “Since he made the embalming request with us, his name should be in the client registry,” and started working on the office computer.

“Ah, here it is. Kaito Yonekura. Too bad, the second kanji for ‘Kura’ was off.”

“Thank you,” Hatono nodded, then turned back to Al.

“Do you know the name of the place where the suspect was born and raised?”

“The village name... Yontate.”

Al didn’t know the kanji for “Yontate,” but when he explained it was in northern Saga Prefecture, Hatono searched it and said, “Found it,” tapping on her phone again at breakneck speed.

“Do you know anything about what Yonekura likes?”

Al had never actually spoken with Yonekura. He’d been near him, sure, but only by hiding in his car. He didn’t know his favorite food, or what celebrities he disliked. Still, he dug through his memory for something—anything.

“He drive... car a lot.”

“I see,” Hatono said with a nod and continued tapping, then turned her screen to him. “I made something like this.”

Al blinked in confusion at the phone. It displayed a social media account under the name “Kaito Yonekura.”

“Younekura... has social media?” Al asked, stunned.

Hatono let out a sigh that whistled through her nose. “I just made this fake account for him.”

Al was speechless. The profile listed “Born in Yontate Village” and “Hobbies: Driving,” among other details.

“If we could just find out his age, this would be perfect. If someone who knows him sees this—his real name and hometown—they might react. Then we can pretend to be Yonekura and collect info that could help us pinpoint his location.”

Al didn’t use public-facing social media himself and didn’t fully understand how it worked, but he was genuinely impressed. So this was how people tracked others down.

“What if Yonekura has his own account already?” Koyanagi asked.

“Even if he does, it’s fine. Let him complain. This account’s just for gathering info.”

“That’s... actually a pretty clever idea,” Koyanagi said, peeking at her phone.

“I had a friend whose host boyfriend ran off with her money. We used the same method to find him,” Hatono explained calmly.

“Wait—wait a sec, everyone!”

Kanezaki jumped in, waving both hands.

“I know you’re trying to find someone, but fake accounts totally violate platform policies. Stalkers have used the same trick and gotten into big trouble. Not to mention the police might mistake this for something shady—it’d just make their job harder!”

“It’s just temporary,” Hatono said, frowning.

But Koyanagi added in a more measured tone, “I didn’t realize it was against the rules. If it might interfere with the investigation, we should probably stop.”

Clicking her tongue in frustration, Hatono stared at her phone and silently deleted the fake Yonekura account. It may have broken the rules, but the way she’d come up with such a smart plan so quickly left Al thinking she might be seriously brilliant.

“To prove Takatsuka-san’s innocence, we need to locate Yonekura. Ideally, we’d track his social media account or find someone who knows him and get information that way. I do think the fake account was efficient, though it’s unfortunate it was so poorly received by everyone.”

Wearing a look of quiet dissatisfaction, Hatono formed a group chat with Kanezaki and Koyanagi, for the purpose of sharing any information about Yonekura. Since Al’s smartphone hadn’t been returned from the inn in Kyushu yet, they decided to add him to the group later

Al had come to Akira’s workplace not just to clear his name, but because he hated the thought of the people Akira worked with misunderstanding him. He wanted them to believe in Akira—and they did. Not only that, they were now working to help him. There were people with more knowledge than him when it came to tracking someone down, and they were willing to cooperate. That, more than anything, made Al feel so happy it brought him to the verge of tears.

After spending about an hour in the embalming center’s staff room, he headed home. The chatter and warmth of the room had followed him into the rain, keeping it from feeling gloomy. But the moment he stepped back into his apartment, into that quiet, solitary space, a creeping loneliness began to fill it.

Akira had worked in a place like that—surrounded by people, doing the work he loved, facing it with sincerity, earning trust, and building human connections. Al wanted nothing more than to return him to that world, as soon as possible.

In the silence of the apartment, with no one to talk to, Al found himself thinking. Akira was alone too, in the holding cell. What was he thinking about right now? Was he lonely, with no one to talk to? Was he scared? Al wanted to tell him that everyone believed in him. He wanted to be by his side. Even just as a bat, that would be enough—to be nearby…

But he knew all too well that wish couldn’t come true.

Previous TOC Next