Azumanga Daioh Fan Fiction ❯ Kyuuketsuki Yomi ❯ Questions and Regrets ( Chapter 2 )

KYUUKETSU YOMI

An Azumanga Daioh DarkFic

by Michael Hopcroft

 

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Azumanga Daioh. It is owned by Kiyohiko Azuma and his representatives. I am using (and possibly abusing) the characters in the Great Doujin Spirit.

 

WARNING: This is Not a comic AzuFic. It is dark, violent, sensual and deals with difficult moral issues. It is obviously not part of standard continuity.

 

Part 2: Questions and Regrets

 

Tomo woke up and realized she was in the wrong bed.

 

Dismissing what had happened the night before as a dream would have been the easy way out. But she couldn't do that for two reasons - the fact that she was in Yomi's bed and not her own, and the fact that the side of her neck was decidedly sore.

 

Yomi was sitting upright in the chair in front of her desk. “Good morning,” she said, “are you over it now?”

 

“Over what?”

 

“Over your desire to commit suicide by having me drink the rest of your blood. Do you have any idea how much that bothered me?”

 

“I don't know about that, but you must be getting thirsty by now. I'm still here, Yomi.”

 

“Knock it off already! And go check on my mother, will you? I don't know if she'll be OK.”

 

“You drank from your own mother? Wicked!” Tomo got up and went over to the room Yomi had specified. “She's still asleep,” she said when she came back. “My, what sharp teeth you have, Yomi! They left quite a mark....”

 

“Shut up! Your saying things like that is only making things worse. It's bad enough that I've become some kind of undead bloodsucking fiend, without knowing that in one night I almost killed my mother and my best friend. And to make matters worse, it doesn't work.”

 

Tomo seemed confused. “What doesn't work?”

 

“Sunlight. When the sun came up I went over and opened the window to see what would happen to me when the sunlight touched me, and you know what happened? Not a goddamn thing! I can walk around in daylight as easily as I always could.”

 

Tomo clapped excitedly. “But that's a good thing! It means you can continue your life, Yomi! You can come back to school now! You can take the entrance exams and go to college and.....”

 

“And what? I'm dead, Tomo. I died in the park three nights ago in the arms of a stranger. The only reason I'm walking around and talking to you is that I gulped down a lot of human blood - your blood, Tomo.”

 

“For which I expect you to show proper gratitude, Yomi. We are going back to school today.”

 

“Are you insane, Tomo? Are you completely and utterly mad? I'm a vampire! I shouldn't be anywhere near a school! Do you have any idea how dangerous I've become?”

 

Tomo smiled and slapped Yomi on the shoulder. “You'll be fine. Besides, you'll be bringing a lunch anyway. It'll be perfectly safe. You'll be in no danger.”

 

“I'm not the one I'm worried about!”

 

“Don't you think it'll look ever weirder if you don't go to school?”

 

 

And so, an hour and a half later, Yomi walked into Class 3-3. To her surprise, the girls all gathered around her eagerly.

 

“Yomi!” Kagura said. “Thank the Gods you're back! We were so worried!”

 

“Thanks,” Yomi said, “It was rough going but I made it.”

 

“Thanks to Tomo!” blurted out Tomo standing behind her.

 

Yomi turned on her angrily. “And why are you taking the credit?”

 

Sakaki nodded her head. “You were able to get help for her after all?” she asked.

 

Chiyo added “Yeah, I couldn't get anyone to go over to Yomi's house, and with my family's connections that's saying something. What did you do?”

 

Tomo laughed. “Well, you could say I stuck my neck out a little.” And then she laughed harder, only to have Yomi grab her by the shoulder.

 

“Tomo, Hall. Now. On Pain of Death.”

 

The girls watched as Yomi dragged a startled-looking Tomo out into the hall.

 

“It is weird that you couldn't get help, Chiyo.” Kagura remarked.

 

“Weird is not the word.” Chiyo frowned. “From what I was able to find out about how the police handled Yomi's case, a lot of the stuff that happened wasn't just severe violations of medical ethics - it was illegal. They could have gone to prison for it. Withholding care, writing a premature death certificate - all against the law.” Even coming from someone as small and innocuous as Chiyo, the words had a bite to them.

 

“Why would they do something like that?” Kagura blurted out. “It's inconceivable!”

 

Sakaki shook her head. “The only reason that makes sense is fear. They were afraid that if they didn't, something worse would happen. Something much, much worse.”

 

“Yomi nearly died! What the hell could be worse than that?”

 

“Maybe Yomi not dying.”

 

Chiyo was visibly shaking at those words. “Miss Sakaki, you're scaring me.”

 

Sakaki's normally gentle eyes began to harden. “Perhaps we should all be scared....”

 

In the hall, Tomo looked at Yomi with surprise. “Come on, it isn't that big a deal....”

 

“Isn't it? Do you think having your blood drunk is funny? Something to joke about?”

 

“Everything is something to joke about, Yomi. You know that.”

 

“Then what do you think it is? Fun? Do you get some sort of sick homoerotic thrill from staring death in the face?”

 

“Hey, Yomi, I don't even know what that means.... All I'm saying is that we have to take things as they come from here on in. We're back, things are returning to normal, we're in Yukari's homeroom again and all is right with the world. You should set aside your problems and enjoy yourself!”

 

“I should see the Headmaster, tell him I'm dropping out.”

 

“No way, Tomo! You are so close to graduating and getting into college, you will see this through! Don't you have any faith in yourself? You're still Yomi!”

 

“Am I? Am I really?”

 

Suddenly they heard a familiar voice behind them “Hey, hey hey! Do you have to fight in the hall? My head hurts bad enough as it is....”

 

Yomi sighed. “You didn't have to get drunk last night, Yukari-sensei.”

 

“Sure I did! Yomi, you're -- “ Yukari paused for a second. “You're back!”

 

Yomi turned around. “Yes, that is my back. And this is my front. Any questions?”

 

“Yeah, you're not dead! The Headmaster told me you were dead!”

 

“Well, you'd better go tell him I'm not then. Or do we want to embarrass the school by having a big assembly for the funeral of someone who's still alive?”

 

“You're right! That would have been so embarrassing. I'll take care of it. Can we have the wake anyway, though?”

 

“Wake?”

 

“I was gonna toss back a six-pack of Sapporos in your memory tonight.”

 

“Knock yourself out, sensei.”

 

The classes went fairly normally. Yomi began to regain her interest in classwork, as a distraction if nothing else. She noticed that the other girls were reserved, except for Tomo, who was trying to be manic enough for all the Bonkuras put together.

 

How could Tomo be so energetic after losing so much blood last night?

 

After Kimura left after Classics, Tomo cried out “Yay! Lunchtime! Lunchtime!”

 

“You forgot to bring a lunch, didn't you?” Yomi remarked.

 

“No sweat. I'm off to the school store for bread!” And Tomo ran off at Warp Ten, as usual.

 

“Tomo getting your lunch?' Kagura asked.

 

Yomi was flustered. This would be tough. How could she explain not eating? “It's a.... it's a....”

 

“Not a diet! You've been sick, Yomi, you need to get your strength back, not worry about losing weight.”

 

“Not that kind of diet! It's a special diet my doctor put me on. I can't eat solid foods for a while. That's it. No solid foods. Sorry.” Yomi was sputtering, and Kagura could tell she was clearly reaching.

 

“Liquid diet?” Chiyo chirped. “Then maybe I can help.” Yomi was amazed that Chiyo had even heard the conversation. “Here!” Yomi looked down and saw Chiyo holding out a bottle.

 

“What is it?”

 

“An energy drink, Yomi. It'll perk you right up.”

 

Yomi was about to politely refuse when she noticed something about Chiyo standing there. She could tell that Chiyo was relieved and pleased to see her. So much so that her little heart was beating faster, and the blood in her exposed veins was coursing through at a more rapid rate. Yomi could plainly see it, and nobody else could.

 

Yomi stretched out her hand, as if to grab the drink. She could see the vein in Chiyo's neck throb, inviting, pleading. Yomi's thirst grew deeper, as she reached forward past the hand offering the drink, towards the little girl's shoulder....

 

Suddenly Yomi shrieked. “No!” She stood bolt upright and ran, knocking over her desk as she ran past a startled Kagura, past a bewildered Chiyo, past the retuning Tomo knocking down her armful of rolls, and into the hall.

 

“Hey, what just happened?” Tomo asked.

 

“I don't know. Yomi looked scary.” Chiyo said.

 

“Scary? How?”

 

“Something frightened her.” Kagura said. “Something frightened her and she ran away.”

 

Chiyo shook her head. “It's only an energy drink. Why would Yomi be scared of an energy drink?”

 

Tomo's mind raced. A drink? I was offering her a drink when.... That's it! Offering Yomi a drink reminds her that she's thirsty, and when she's thirsty she wants to.... “Don't worry, Chiyo. I'll find Yomi.” Tomo then went back into the hall. Yomi's really going to need a drink now. If I don't find her and give her one....

 

Yomi was all the way outside when she finally began to ease up on her pace. That was too damn close, she thought. If it'd been Tomo she might have stood a chance, but not Chiyo. There's no way someone that small could survive being bitten by me! Yomi began to think. Come on, you're the smart one, Yomi. There must be some way! Maybe I can find a couple of cats - cats have blood, don't they? That'll tide me over until I can get out of school....

 

She noticed that she was out in the courtyard, by the vending machines. It seemed odd to her that so few people were around during lunchtime. Probably a good thing, too.

 

Then she heard a voice. “You all right, Mizuhara-senpai?” She turned around and there was a boy. A boy she didn't quite recognize.

 

“Yeah, I'm fine. I'm Okay. Thanks, ....”

 

“It's all right that you don't know who I am. I'm Wataku-san, from Class 1-2. Seniors don't usually notice freshmen readily.”

 

“I see. Thank you for being concerned about me, but I'm all right.”

 

“Okay.” Wataku walked up to one of the machine and put some coins in. A satisfying rattle followed, and then another, and Wataku rushed back to her. “Lucky! Something happened with the machine and I got an extra juice! You can have it, senpai!” Wataku held out a can of orange juice.

 

Suddenly it was too much. Yomi grabbed the freshman by the arm and pulled him towards her. He gave a startled cry, but before he could say anything she had pulled him down and buried her fangs in his throat, right on on the vein. As she drank, his breathing was heavy. He stood as long as he could manage, and as his legs began to fail him Yomi found herself unconsciously holding him on his feet, as the hot, wonderful blood poured into her mouth. Yomi began to wonder if it could be like this forever....

 

“YOMI! What are you doing?” Yomi was startled out of her trance by the sound of Tomo's voice. She let the boy fall, again subconsciously licking the wound before she did. She turned to Tomo, who could the blood on Yomi's lips dripping down her chin, see the fangs sharp and gleaming.

 

Tomo ran over to the boy and checked his pulse. She looked at Yomi with concern. “He's still alive, Yomi. You didn't kill him.” Yomi was turning away with revulsion. “Hey, I said you didn't kill him! That's good, isn't it?”

 

“And if you hadn't stopped me, Tomo, I would have killed him! My God, I didn't want to stop! I wanted to keep on drinking until there was nothing left! The thirst! The damnable thirst!”

 

“It's okay, Yomi. It's over now.”

 

Yomi turned on Tomo furiously. “Hell no, Tomo, this isn't over! It's only begun! This is what it's going to be like, every goddamn stinking day for as long as I live! Every day there's going to be someone else, someone minding their own business, who'll cross my path at the wrong time! And I won't be able to do anything about it. I didn't want to attack this guy! I don't know him at all. He was offering me a can of juice, a simple kindness, and suddenly I had my teeth in his neck and I was draining away his life! You wanted me to come back, Tomo! You wanted me to come to school, and now look! Look at what I've done!”

 

Tomo whapped Yomi on the top of the head. “Snap out of it already, Yomi! We can handle this!”

 

“Handle this? How can we possibly handle this?”

 

“First, we clean you up. Then we clean him up and take him to the nurse's office. Tell her he collapsed in the courtyard, she'll have no cause not to believe us. Then we go back to class as if nothing happened.”

 

“And how does that help? Tomorrow it'll be the same thing!”

 

“Tomorrow we are going to have lunch on the roof. And I'm going to be your lunch. If you have a willing donor...”

 

“You mean victim.”

 

“I mean what I said, Yomi. If you have a willing donor, nobody else gets hurt.”

 

“But even if I can control how much I drink, I can;t drink from you every day. Nobody has that much blood.”

 

“When this guy comes to, I bet he'll be more than happy to join your supply list if his experience was anything like mine. All you need is two or three more like us and you'll be set for the whole school year, Yomi!”

 

“But I can't....”

 

“And if you don't go to school with me, you'll still have the same problem, but it'll be worse. You'll be going out hunting down strangers, and if you do that people will die. This way is a lot better for everybody.”

 

Yomi sighed heavily. “You'd better be right about this, Tomo.”

 

“Hey, if I'm wrong, you'll kill me, all right?”

 

Yomi could not hear to correct Tomo's joke. If Tomo was wrong, she would die - and it wouldn't be a joke, it would be reality....

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED