[Miss Tamayo, can I be your dog?]
Haruto forced his gaze away from the bizarre comments scrolling across his vision and focused on the beautiful woman before him.
There were no bulging veins on her face, no drool from a craving for human flesh, no hideous, bloodshot eyes.
With black hair and purple eyes, dressed in a dark kimono covered in blooming flowers, Miss Tamayo was unlike any demon he had ever seen.
Her skin was snow-white, her hair gathered into an elegant bun. Her features were dignified and refined, and as she knelt there, she looked like true royalty.
Yushiro-the gloomy, green-haired boy-sat beside Tamayo, glaring at Haruto with undisguised hostility.
Stop looking. Get your filthy eyes off the beautiful Lady Tamayo.
That was what Haruto read in Yushiro's eyes.
Haha. Not a chance.
Haruto put on a polite smile and took the gift he had prepared on the way from Genya's hands. "A small gift. Please accept it as a token of my respect."
Yushiro's gaze sharpened, and he stepped forward to take it.
The wrapping is too trendy. Lady Tamayo definitely won't like it.
"Mr. Ubuyashiki told me about you some time ago, Mr. Haruto. Now that we've met, you certainly do stand out."
Tamayo's voice was gentle and graceful, leaving Yushiro entranced-until he suddenly snapped to attention.
Stand out? From whom?
The people she's comparing him to are...
His gaze swept over the others in the room, and he felt as though lightning had struck him.
Apart from Haruto and Lady Tamayo, there's only me and that brat with the spiky hair!
Haruto was curious instead. "When did you meet that fellow Kagaya?"
Miss Tamayo lowered her head, a glimmer shifting through her purple eyes. "If he hasn't told you, then that's a secret."
Haruto raised an eyebrow. "Hmm... a secret makes a woman beautiful."
Tamayo looked up at him in surprise, a gentle smile appearing on her lips. "A... woman?"
"Grind, grind, grind." Haruto heard Yushiro grinding his teeth. The boy's expression had turned thoroughly dark. He knelt with his back ramrod straight, his clenched fists resting on his knees as though he might swing at Haruto at any moment.
That damned white-haired brat! How dare he sully the beautiful Lady Tamayo with such vulgar, cheap words!
[A secret makes a woman beautiful? Vermouth? Are my two anime crossing over?]
[LOL, if our Star Hashira said that to Doctor Miki, old man Goto wouldn't have to worry about marriage anymore. They could easily have two kids in three years.]
[Nope to the person above! I ship Star/Shinobu, or Star/Flower works too!]
[Star/Shinobu? Isn't Shinobu only twelve right now? That's practically a prison sentence.]
[Shaking with rage! When will us Star/Rabbit and Star/Bravery shippers get our moment?]
As the comments drifted further off topic, Haruto returned his attention to reality and patted Genya's head. "This is the boy who can turn demons into his own power."
Genya awkwardly turned his head away, then secretly smoothed his hair back down once Haruto withdrew his hand.
"Please wait a moment while I change." Tamayo nodded, left her seat, and went into the inner room.
The instant Tamayo left, Yushiro's expression dropped into a scowl. "What did you mean by what you said just now?"
"Hmm?" Haruto played dumb.
"That stuff about secrets and women."
"Ah..." Haruto pushed up a nonexistent pair of glasses on his nose and lowered his voice. "A secret makes a woman woman."
"? What are you saying?" Yushiro's eyes darted wildly.
"Ha, read a book. It's the twentieth century already. You should at least know a couple of phrases in English."
Haruto frowned and sighed. "How old are you, anyway? A hundred or so? How are you so uneducated? Don't tell me you've spent all those years doing nothing but being a creep."
"Shut up."
"You can't compete like this. Miss Tamayo has lived so long, she's met every sort of person..."
"I said shut up!"
The furious Yushiro sprang from his seat and drew his arm back for a swing at Haruto.
Haruto didn't dodge. Instead, he nodded pleasantly toward the doorway to the inner room. "Miss Tamayo."
Whoosh. Yushiro immediately returned to his seat and smiled in that direction, only to find a tightly shut door.
"Just kidding." Haruto gave him a fake smile.
Seething with rage, the green-haired boy jumped up, curled his fingers, and repeatedly hammered his knuckles against Haruto's chest. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
"Cough, Miss Tamayo, cough, Miss Tamayo, cough, Miss Tamayo..."
"Shut up! You're not fooling me again!"
Then Tamayo's faintly displeased voice really did sound from behind him. "Yushiro, will you stop?"
Tamayo had put a white Physician's Coat over her kimono. She donned gloves and gently set an Iron Tray holding several medical instruments on the table.
Yushiro knelt dejectedly to one side, though he still remembered to shoot murderous looks at Haruto out of the corner of his eye.
"Don't worry. Just roll up your sleeve and rest your arm here."
Tamayo took out a syringe as she spoke to Genya.
Genya stared at the sharp needle and swallowed with difficulty. "Y-you're drawing blood?"
This little guy looks so fierce. Don't tell me he's scared of needles?
Haruto glanced at the boy with the mohawk, whose limbs had gone rigid, and pressed his lips together to hold back a smile.
"You too, Mr. Haruto." With amusement in her eyes, Tamayo indicated the extra syringe. "You're next."
"Huh?" Haruto's eyes shifted. "Me? What do you mean?"
"You know that Yushiro and I are both demons, don't you?"
"I can't tell by looking, but Oyakata-sama told me."
Tamayo chuckled softly. "Over the long years since I broke free of Muzan Kibutsuji, I have modified my body. Although I no longer need to eat humans, I still need to consume a certain amount of human blood regularly to sustain my life."
At the words "eat humans," Genya's hands began to tremble. He couldn't help recalling the most unforgettable night of his life, and he clenched his fists beneath the table.
"In the past, we replenished our supply by purchasing blood. But Mr. Ubuyashiki told me that your blood seemed to possess some unusual magic power, and insisted that I try it."
Wait, that sentence contains far too much information.
Haruto frowned. "Kagaya Ubuyashiki? He said my blood was unusual? And told you to taste it?"
Tamayo nodded. "Yes."
He raised his arm. Beneath his pale skin, the bluish-purple veins were clearly visible.
Like a flash of lightning, the words of Lower Rank Three, Byōha, rang through his mind.
"Your blood... your blood..."
The Rare Blood Clergy member who had fallen to the ground and died, his own blood delivered to Byōha through the vines, Byōha's sluggish, stumbling movements after drinking it...
Those images linked together into a clear chain in Haruto's mind.
He slapped his forehead. Oh no!
I've become a substitute!
Before you continue