"Vampire?"
The next morning, in the hotel restaurant where they were staying, while listening to Shiki's story about the incident in the alley, Naoki licked the remnants of bread from the corner of his lips.
"I was wondering why Shiki only returned past midnight last night; turns out you went to investigate vampires. So, did you find anything?"
"Nothing at all."
As if slightly annoyed, Shiki stabbed the bread in front of her roughly.
"Although I got some clues, there were very few, like rats running into the sewer, not knowing where they went at all."
"It seems that vampire is very cautious. But... vampires, it's been a long time since I last encountered them."
The last time he met a vampire was in Paris, when he first met Riddel.
'If it's a vampire... is it Tohno Shiki, or is Roa starting to move? No, it's not clear yet if this is the Tsukihime world line I know; I should investigate first.'
'Tonight, after Gray falls asleep, I'll go out with Shiki to see the situation.'
While Naoki was thinking about this, Aoko, carrying a plate of breakfast, directly sat down opposite Naoki: "Excuse me, may I sit here? Kouhai-kun."
"Um... Kouhai-kun?"
"Aren't you very similar to me? Last night you also called me Senpai, so I'll call you Kouhai-kun." Aoko smiled, "How did you sleep last night? Sleeping so late, are you still refreshed now?"
"Gray and Master are still asleep; I'm fine now. Oh yeah, I forgot to say last night, thank you for also taking us to find a hotel to stay in, Miss Aoko."
The hotel where Naoki and the others were staying now was recommended by Aoko. Originally, Touko planned to look for a hotel after meeting Naoki and Gray, but due to the coincidental meeting with Aoko and the commotion that occurred, when they searched again, they found almost nothing and were forced to sleep on the streets.
Fortunately, Aoko was still there and brought them to stay here. The reason Touko was still asleep was also because of this. Having to ask her younger sister to find accommodation seemed to annoy her; she drank while grumbling until dawn before finally falling into a deep sleep.
Naoki didn't even dare to imagine how much money they would have to pay later when checking out.
Hearing his thanks, Aoko just waved her hand indifferently: "No need to thank me; it was just a small favor. I'm fine, but wouldn't it be pitiful if Gray and you ended up sleeping on the streets? By the way, this person here—"
"Allow me to introduce her; this is Ryougi Shiki, like me, an employee of Garan no Dou, but not Master's disciple." Naoki introduced, "Shiki, this is Miss Aozaki Aoko, Master's younger sister."
"Touko's younger sister?"
Hearing that, Shiki unconsciously frowned. Her sharp gaze observed Aoko from head to toe several times before retracting it: "Indeed, very similar to Touko."
"Your comment really makes me uncomfortable..."
Smiling wryly and sipping her coffee, Aoko asked: "By the way, have you guys seen the news? Misaki Town seems unsafe lately; apparently, there are vampires."
"Shiki and I were just discussing this issue. Last night, Shiki happened to find some corpses of people attacked by vampires. After this, I plan to investigate it a bit," Naoki said.
"Investigate? Why, are you interested in vampires?"
"Not interested, but eighty percent of the reason I came to Misaki Town is because of vampires—or rather, Dead Apostles and True Ancestors."
Over the past few years, Naoki had confirmed that the world he was in was not the world line he knew, but a new world with slight differences in various small details, such as Kayneth's survival, Morgan's appearance, Kokutō Mikiya's disappearance, Araya Souren's earlier death... and so on. Tsukihime in this world might also be slightly different from what he knew.
And Naoki was very interested in these differences.
Seeing his slightly expectant gaze and expression, Aoko unconsciously laughed: "What's with you? Aren't you becoming more and more like my real kouhai?"
"Really?"
"Really. In that case... although I've always left it to Alice, this time I'll do my duty as the administrator of Misaki Town's spiritual veins—Kouhai-kun, let's work together to resolve the vampires threatening Misaki Town's safety!"
Aoko immediately made such a suggestion.
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Several tens of minutes later.
The location of the incident mentioned in the morning news, outside the police line that had been set up.
"The bodies have already been taken away; judging from this area, it seems they were attacked on their way home from work."
Aoko observed the surrounding situation.
The location of the incident was on an uphill road. According to the news report, the time of the incident was around three in the morning, and the victim was a company employee.
Maybe they were attacked by a vampire on their way home after working overtime. Truly an unlucky person; if they had just stayed overnight at the office, this might not have happened.
"By the way, Kouhai-kun, what are you looking at?"
"Towards the place where Shiki and I mentioned she found the bodies." Naoki leaned against the side of the uphill road while looking into the distance, "This place and the place Shiki found them, the straight-line distance is almost ten kilometers."
Ten kilometers.
That was even the straight-line distance without considering obstacles and differences in altitude; the actual distance was definitely further.
"Are there multiple vampires?"
"I think so."
On the way here, Naoki had seen the news report about the vampire and it had been confirmed that only one victim was found here last night. However, in the alley ten kilometers away, Shiki found several people.
Did the vampire commit murder here and then move to the alley ten kilometers away to continue killing?
That was too troublesome. If it was just to kill and suck blood, it should be more practical to take the nearest principle. The conclusion that could be thought of was that there was more than one vampire, and the incidents in both places were committed by different vampires.
"Multiple vampires... when did Misaki Town become this dangerous? What is Alice doing?" Aoko frowned slightly, "If there are multiple vampires, it means there might be a Dead Apostle creating vampires in Misaki Town... this is a bit troublesome."
'Dead Apostle... is it Tohno Shiki?'
After pondering for a moment, Naoki said: "Miss Aoko, next I want to investigate some things on my own; please excuse me."
"Eh? Where are you going?"
"The church."
Looking for Ciel.