Ex7. Lovers Who Cannibalize Each Other

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/66/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

A few days after the Shirogane sisters had fallen, Ellis and Miyako occupied a room in a certain hotel.

Ellis sat cross-legged on the bed, peering with frank curiosity at the device Chigusa had given her—a thing called a “smartphone.”
Miyako sat in a chair, watching the news on television with an air of boredom.
The story, of course, was the continuing murders.
The scale had grown too large to call them murders any longer, and every station, day after day, ran little else.
Talk had even begun that the police could no longer cope, and that the Self-Defense Forces might be called out.
Not that it would matter who came. The two of them had no intention of stopping.

“Hey, Miyako. There’s something I wanna ask about Sister.”
“Did something happen with Chii-chan?”

Miyako set her mug of green tea on the table and twisted in her chair toward Ellis.
Ellis, apparently tired of fiddling with the phone, tossed it onto the bed.

“She’s off seeing her parents right now, yeah? I grew up in the Discard District, so I barely remember mine and never really brought it up. But I was wondering if Sister had some kind of problem with hers.”

The reason only Ellis and Miyako were there was that Chigusa had gone to reunite with her parents.
At first both of them had said they would come along; she had turned them down, gently.
This was a tangle she had to erase herself, she had said.
Her expression had clouded in a way that was rare for her.
Miyako answered Ellis’s question by leaning back in her chair and letting out a long sigh.

“I didn’t see it firsthand, so I don’t know the details. Chii-chan was abandoned by her mother at eight and raised by her father after that. But that father was mentally unstable, and apparently he used to hit her a lot.”
“Trash. We should kill him.”
“Same opinion. But Chii-chan says she wants to settle it herself, so I think that choice ought to be respected.”

Respecting Chigusa’s will.
Ellis understood that well enough. Even so, she could not forgive the existence of a man who had hurt her beloved Sister.

She spoke with a sulky look.

“Father or not, he’s still a guy, right? The Sister we know now would probably just think, ‘Who cares.’”
“Well, Chii-chan became a vampire by a different path than we did. The way she changed is probably different too.”
“So Sister can kill men without mercy because that’s the kind of person she was to begin with?”
“I don’t think all of it was what Chii-chan wanted. But I do think she was treated badly enough that swearing to wipe them out is more than justified.”

Miyako had witnessed a certain portion of that with her own eyes.
Whenever she remembered it, she remembered as well that she had failed to stop it—that she had, if anything, been complicit—and her chest grew tight.
Seeing her frown, Ellis hurriedly changed the subject.

“S-so, um. How are your parents doing, Miyako?”
“Haven’t seen them in a long time. We kept in touch, at least. I wonder how they are. They must have heard I went missing. I hope they haven’t gotten so depressed they made themselves sick.”
“Then shouldn’t you go see them soon?”
“Mm, but I’d have to kill my dad, and then I’d have to make my mom fall, right? That sounds like more of a hassle than you’d think… Ah, but once I start remembering, I do want to make Mom fall. She’s getting on a bit, but she looks like she’d feel good to hold.”

Imagining herself holding her own mother, Miyako’s cheeks colored faintly.
Guiding the woman who had given birth to her toward the heights of pleasure had, by now, become a proper way of returning the favor.

“I don’t really remember falling anyone that much older than me…”
“It’s pretty good. Their desire’s strong, so they go along with it eagerly. Once you teach the body once, they’ll open up on their own even if the charm hasn’t finished.”
“Huh. Better than someone who’s weirdly hung up on being untouched and fights you the whole time, maybe. I’ll nibble a little next time.”

The Demi-Vamps were steadily expanding their influence even now.
Ellis and Miyako took part in that quiet invasion as a matter of course; making a woman fall simply because they had spotted her on the street was an everyday affair.
Ellis had said “next time,” but the thing would likely be done by tomorrow.
Women’s wariness had increased, though, and it was no longer as easy as it had once been to lure someone into an alley.
Lately they more often used their shadows to unlock a door, forced their way into a house, and poured in magical power by force.
Ellis rather liked the forcefulness, for what it was worth.

“Nn…”

Sitting on the bed, Ellis let a small sound escape her throat, then twisted, her mouth turning down at the corners.
Heat had risen in her body.
Imagining Miyako’s mother, and the woman she would make fall tomorrow, had apparently stirred her desire.
She climbed down from the bed and, from behind, put her arms around Miyako, who was gazing listlessly into empty air.
Miyako’s hand settled over the arms that had circled her.
Ellis had not hidden her footsteps; Miyako had noticed her approaching well before she arrived.
And having noticed, she did not refuse. She accepted.
Spoken permission was unnecessary. The moment touch was allowed, the matter was already settled.
Ellis’s hands moved over Miyako’s clothes.
At the ticklish, impatient sensation, Miyako smiled and made a small sound.
The wandering hands found the buttons of her jacket and began to undo them one by one.

“Hey, Ellis. Here? Wouldn’t the bed be better?”
“This isn’t bad either, but yeah, a chair’s cramped. Let’s go to the bed.”

Ellis came around in front of the chair and offered her hand as if escorting her.
Miyako, her jacket already open, took it and stood, and the two of them went to the bed, teasing each other as they went.
They touched as if this were the prelude to a prelude, exchanging light kisses on cheeks, ears, and lips.
The fact that Ellis had started it already decided how the afternoon would be divided.

Miyako sat on the edge of the bed with a spoiled little sound.
In that position, Ellis’s lips found the Mark on her throat.

Miyako’s voice broke. Her body jolted.
Taking advantage of it, Ellis pushed her down and looked down at her flushed face from a kneel.
When she was with Chigusa, Ellis generally took the more yielding part; with Miyako the balance shifted about half and half.
When the other party was someone to be made to fall, however, Ellis more often took the lead—if only because of the blood-drinking.

“Hey, Ellis… didn’t I always say no suddenly going after the Mark?”
“I figured that was just the flip side of ‘do it more.’”

Ellis smiled, mischievous.
Miyako quietly extended a shadow and slipped it under Ellis’s jacket.

Ellis arched with a startled cry as the Mark below her navel was stimulated.
Miyako covered her mouth with her hand, a wicked smile on her face—revenge successful—and Ellis glared at her.

“Miyako. You asked for that.”
“For the record, you started it.”
“Shut up. People who talk that fresh get their Mark worked until they can’t breathe.”

Miyako tipped her chin up as if to say, be my guest, and bared her throat.
Ellis reached out and traced the heart from above with a fingertip.

Miyako’s voice softened into something slow and helpless, different from the pull of a mouth.
When her expression had gone unguarded with pleasure, Ellis’s mouth curved, and she scraped the Mark with a nail.

Miyako’s reaction was everything Ellis had hoped for.
Ellis pressed harder with the pad of her finger rather than the nail, and Miyako stayed arched, her voice breaking in pieces.

“One way or another, Miyako, you’re a masochist. You look happier when it hurts a little.”

Miyako would have liked to retort that Ellis looked just as happy when the positions were reversed—but Ellis’s fingers gave her no room to form the words.

Having enjoyed Miyako’s face enough, Ellis brought her mouth close next.
She left deliberate marks, drawing on the Mark again and again, then licked it with an unhurried, wet insistence until Miyako’s body went taut and trembled.
When Miyako sank limp into the bed, her chest rising and falling hard, Ellis looked satisfied.

“Haah… haah…”
“That face just now was the worst and the best, Miyako. Obscene.”
“Was that… a compliment?”
“Highest praise, by my standards.”

Miyako did not look convinced by words alone, so Ellis kissed her.
Miyako’s mouth opened of its own accord; their tongues and their crimson gazes tangled.
The kiss was short for them—only a few dozen seconds.
They parted with a wet sound, close enough that their noses touched, and looked at each other.

“Hey, Miyako. I’ve got a little proposal.”
“Your bright ideas at times like this are never any good. Last time the whole room was covered in blood and cleaning up was a nightmare.”
“Cleaning’s one second with shadows. You don’t have to puff your cheeks out. Besides, this time I won’t make a mess, so it’s fine.”

If Miyako refused, Ellis would turn sullen and go to sleep as she was.
Then Miyako’s heightened body would be left hanging. That, at least, she wanted to avoid.
In any case, she had never been given a real choice.

“Haa… So what do you want to do?”

Miyako asked it with an air of giving up.
Ellis smiled happily—what Miyako would have called a devil’s smile—and said, with perfect innocence:

“I wanna drink your blood.”

A brief silence.
Miyako blinked several times and looked, expressionless, at the aroused Demi-Vamp in front of her.
Receiving that inscrutable reaction, Ellis spoke again.

“I mean, the only one who’s ever drunk from you is Sister, right? That feels kind of special, doesn’t it? So I wanted to try it too.”
“Ah. That. Well… I don’t mind, as long as you don’t make it hurt.”

Having finally understood the intent, Miyako looked at Ellis with some unease.
When her body had still been human, being drunk from had not hurt.
In that case, drinking between Demi-Vamps probably would not hurt either… but there was no certainty.

“And don’t take too much. I might get anemic.”
“Do vampires even get anemia?”
“We’re still half human, so I think we’d feel awful. Your magical power would be going in instead, so I’d probably be fine, but I’m warning you anyway.”
“Okay, okay. I won’t overdo it, so relax. I don’t even want the blood that badly. I just wanna be more connected to you.”

Always saying whatever was convenient.
Miyako knew it was cajolery, and still she resented her own racing pulse.
They brushed lips as a signal, and Ellis’s face moved toward her throat.
Hot breath struck the sensitive side of her neck, ticklish beyond the usual.
Ellis touched the skin with her mouth again and again, as if choosing the place.

Miyako put a hand to her closed lips, as if to hold back a sound she had not meant to make.
Meanwhile Ellis found a spot that would do, opened her mouth, and fastened on Miyako’s throat, sinking her fangs in with care.

Miyako’s breath caught.
Someone else’s part of someone else, sinking into the inside of her body.
She was being invaded.
She was being eroded by Ellis, whom she loved.
That awareness gave Miyako a rapture beyond the pleasure being given.

Miyako Mikage’s blood welled, thick; in its place Ellis’s soul was given in a pulse.
It was an act that ate the spirit—enough that Miyako regretted how lightly she had agreed.

(Ah… this is bad. Later I’ll have to have Chii-chan drink from me too. This might be a problem.)

What the two of them shared was that they were in love with Chigusa.
That sympathy had given them a connection beyond mere likeness.
But as she was drunk from, as something was poured into her, the relationship itself seemed to be changing.
Independent of Chigusa, her body was beginning to want Ellis.
Affection overflowed; before she knew it, Miyako’s arms were holding Ellis’s head.
She pressed her closer, as if begging her to drink more.
But because she had been warned beforehand not to take too much, Ellis took her mouth away at a moderate point.

“Ah…”

Miyako could not help the sound of regret.
At the same time her arms loosened. Ellis, her red tongue laced with crimson blood, looked at her again.

“You tasted good, Miyako. How was it for you… Yeah, I don’t even need to ask. You squeezed me hard enough it hurt.”
“Nn… It was amazing.”
“Whoa. Miyako being honest. So it really was that much. Nice. I want you to do me too.”

At Ellis’s teasing, Miyako reached out.
She took Ellis by both shoulders, shoved her down onto the bed, and this time straddled her.
At the sudden reversal, Ellis could only manage a blank, “Huh?”

“I was going to anyway, even if you hadn’t said so.”

So saying, Miyako licked her lips.
Ellis shivered under a gaze like that of someone looking at prey.

“Uh… Please be gentle.”
“If I can hold back.”

Needless to say, what followed was drinking fierce enough to make “be gentle” a joke through the nose.
Having deepened their connection, the two of them did not part even after the drinking was done, and they stayed together until a Demi-Vamp’s bottomless stamina was spent.
When it was over, exhausted and damp with sweat, they lay on the bed holding hands, thinking exactly the same thing.

(When Chii-chan / Sister gets back, we’ll have to drink from her plenty—as punishment for not attending to us.)

Chigusa does not yet know that a hell—or a heaven—from some other time is about to return.