#heizou

Heizou smiled and turned away from you, who was already searching through the pieces of evidence. In truth, there was no ‘case’ at all. This was a completely random collection of items with no bearing to each other whatsoever. Still, he was interested to see what you’d make of it. In any case it would provide a much-needed source of amusement.

Heizou left you to the false puzzle in favour of sorting through a few actual files. The Tenryou Commission had enlisted his help on a recent string of murders with connections to the occult. He had his eyes on the suspects already. It was only a matter of tracking down the culprit to confirm his suspicions, but that would require some discretion for a group as slippery as this one. Still, nothing he couldn’t handle.

After settling on his course of action, Heizou retired to his bedroom and dropped onto his futon. Apparently it was customary for those of his kind in the north to sleep in coffins. He’d never been able to get behind this idea. Who in their right mind would choose a hard, cold box over soft sheets? It’s not as though the undead lost their ability to appreciate the greater things in life on principle.

As a vampire, sleep wasn’t a requirement, but a well-rested mind was a sharper one. He’d also yet to give up the hope that one of these days he might dream. 

He woke shortly before midnight. Feeling bright and refreshed, he slunk into the main room of the house and stopped short when he saw you sitting in the same place he had left you. 

Truth be told, Heizou had almost forgotten you were here. Company was a scant thing these days. The paper lanterns were still burning low, throwing long shadows over your face. Your head hung low and your eyelids drooped, but your attention was so focused on the ‘evidence’ that you didn’t even notice him approach. Judging by the look of you, you must have been awake this entire time. He’d expected that a human like you would give up an hour or so in. 

Heizou leaned over your shoulder to glance at your progress. You shifted sideways to grant him better access, and he put on his best scrutinising face in return. 

Of course, most of your reasoning was a mess, courtesy of the lack of actual connection between the items. In some places you’d actually managed to draw up some sort of pattern, albeit it a hallucinated one. 

You rubbed your dark-ringed eyes and lowered your head. “I tried my best to solve the case, but I couldn’t figure it out. I’m sorry.”

Heizou levelled you with a stern gaze. You shrank beneath it, your shoulders hunched and hands balled tight in your lap. Your teeth toyed with your bottom lip as if you wanted to speak but were holding yourself back. Evidently, you were torn between the irrefutable results of the test and your desire to stay, but you didn’t dare voice the latter. 

Heizou may not have tested your investigative capacities through this little experiment, but it had revealed something else important. Persistence was an integral trait in this line of work. You may have potential yet. 

In a blink, his severity vanished and in place of an easy laugh. “Oh, don’t worry about it. I wasn’t being serious, anyway.”

Your head snapped up. “You mean I can still work with you?”

“That depends on you,” he admitted. “If you’re willing to put in the effort, then I don’t see why not.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t go thanking me yet. You can do that when you’ve survived your first investigation.” He waved a hand in the direction of one of the darkened corridors branching off to the side.“Follow me.”

You followed close on his heels as he led you through the dimly lit corridors of the house. The old floorboards squealed softly beneath your footsteps while Heizou stole in perfect silence over the dust-covered wood. That’s something you’d need to fix before setting foot on any crime scene.

He stopped in the centre of another room, slightly larger than the previous one. The sliding doors hissed shut behind you as you stepped inside. At the same time the paper lanterns nestled in the corners of the room came alive, casting their dark light over the aged tatami like ink seeping across a page. They provided just enough visibility for human eyes to catch a glimpse of the steel glinting off the walls. 

Your wide eyes reflected the scant light like twin candles as you stared into the shadows around you. “Weapons?” you asked.

Heizou nodded. “Weapons. Now, don’t get me wrong. As a detective, my primary weapon is my brain—as will be yours. Direct engagement with the supernatural tends to get messy, so I avoid it where I can. Besides, if you’ve come to the point where you’re trading blows, you’ve already failed.” 

Your expression revealed your confusion. He explained, “If you’re confronting a criminal, be it human or supernatural, it means you failed to prevent the initial crime from occurring. The only cases I call successful are the ones which are invisible, because they never happen in the first place.”

You blinked. A strange quality had come over your face. “That’s…”

“What?”

“Nothing. That just sounds like a strangely admirable philosophy.”

“Strangely?” He crossed his arms. “Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean my principles died with me.” 

You straightened immediately, as if he had just caught you red-handed in the middle of a crime scene. “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“You have a lot to learn. But,” he added, smiling, “you’re right that you’d be better off not admiring me.” 

Heizou cleared his throat. In all your unassuming wiles, you had led him off-topic. What audacity from a human. 

“All that being said, it’s important to know how to fight these things in case you do end up in a sticky situation.” 

He circled around the edges of the room as he spoke. You stood in the centre of the tatami, practically hanging on his every word. 

“How much do you know about the supernatural? Had any direct encounters?”

“I have a bit of experience,” you replied. “I know that in Inazuma, there’s a mixture of native creatures, like yōkai, as well as introduced ones, like vampires and some others.”

“Do you know how to defend yourself against them?”

“I’ve heard that vampires must be killed with wooden stakes.”

“We have other weaknesses, too.”

“What are those?”

He winked at you and delighted in the wonderful scent of blood rushing to your face. “I’m not quite sure I can trust you with that information yet, I’m afraid.”

“I wouldn’t—”

“Wouldn’t you?” Heizou challenged. “What if I’m planning to sneak up on you while you sleep and drink of you? I’d hardly want to give you an advantage.”

“I don’t believe you’re planning that.”

“There’s your first thing to unlearn. Don’t trust me, or anyone else for that matter. I may have taken you under my wing, but that doesn’t mean you can let your guard down. I have a good track record, but the dead love to lie. Fall for their tricks, and—poof!” He snapped his fingers, flashing a fang at you from his grin. “No more human. Maybe something that used to be human, if you’re lucky. Or unlucky, depending on your perspective.”

He resumed his pacing. You looked increasingly uncomfortable, but stood firm. 

“What else do you know?”

“About vampires?”

“Anything.”

“Vampires can’t go out in sunlight, and—well, obviously they drink blood.” You frowned. “Why do you do that?”

“Why do vampires drink blood?”

“Yes. You’re already dead, so it’s not like you need sustenance to survive.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s an urge akin to hunger. As for why it exists, nobody seems to have figured that out yet.”

He came to a stop a few paces ahead of you and spread out his arms. 

“Try to attack me.”

“What, now?” 

“I have to see what I’m working with.” When you still hesitated, he smiled. “Don’t worry. I won’t bite.”

Your eyes narrowed, shifting between him and the half-obscured walls. “You told me not to trust you.”

His smile curled wider. “I did,” he said. “So, give it your all. After all, it might be the last thing you do.”

You were nervous, now. He could hear it in the heightened quickness of your breath and, if he focused, the increased pace of your heartbeat. 

Even so, you didn’t back away. You shot an arm out towards the wall, fingertips brushing the hilt of a rusty naginata. You didn’t have time to grip it before quick as a flash he lunged at you, pinning you against the wall by the shoulders. His bared fangs hovered above your carotid artery. At this proximity he could practically taste you already, sense the blood circulating beneath that thin layer of skin. Your heart rate spiked with delayed shock. Though he didn’t need to breathe, he chose to anyway, exhaling a sigh over your neck. Your pulse, already accelerated, beat visibly in the dip of your throat.

Heizou drew away, clicking his tongue. “We’ll have to work on your reaction time. Currently, you’re as good as a walking hunk of meat. A nice little snack for all those looking for a bite.” His tongue passed over his pointed canine teeth, slipping out from behind his lips. You tried and failed to prevent your eyes from following the movement. 

With an inward laugh, Heizou turned away from you. You were a funny thing, as most humans were. It was obvious you were attracted to him and yet you attempted—very unsuccessfully—to act as though you weren’t. What was the point in it? He couldn’t help but wonder. He had no qualms with satisfying your impulses, if that was what you wanted. You were cute, and more than that, you were company. 

He spun back to face you. You flinched at the sudden movement. He asked, “What is your biggest advantage, as a human in the realm of the supernatural?”

You fell silent in consideration. “My soul?”

“Nothing,” he proclaimed cheerfully. “You have no advantages whatsoever. You can die, you can be turned, your body is fragile. Almost everything out there is faster or stronger than you, if not both, and many of them are smarter.”

“So what do I do?”

He crossed a few steps towards you and jabbed a finger at your chest. Your heart thrummed lightly beneath his finger pad. “You make your own advantage. I don’t know what that’ll be. If you live long enough, you’ll figure something out.”

You squared your shoulders. “I’ll find it,” you vowed. Your voice did not waver. Heizou smothered an inkling of pity. The more hope you had going into this line of work, the emptier of a husk you’d be coming out of it. Part of him, perhaps the part of him which still possessed the human capacity for empathy, was tempted to push you out of the house and slam the door shut behind you. There were better, safer lines of work out there, ones where he wouldn’t have to watch the inevitable withering of light from the eyes of people like you.

But he was not human, and you were company. So he did not push you out. 

“If you insist.” He set his gaze on the wall, his back facing you, and sighed. “Alright. I’m tired of this. I don’t use these weapons, anyway. Physical training is boring and it’s not like I’m going to take you around crime scenes before you know the basics of investigation.”

“Really?”

You sounded disappointed. This time he did laugh aloud. “Believe it or not, I’m not actually trying to get you killed. I’ve got a few lower-stakes cases which I haven’t bothered to deal with yet. You can start with those. Any information about supernatural creatures, practices, whatever, you can find in the library.”

Your eyes widened, not with the instinct of fear but curiosity. “You have a library?”

Heizou scoffed. “Of course I do. How do you think I occupy my time here, all on my lonesome?”

“I thought you did detective work.”

“I’d love it if that were always the case. Unfortunately, the Tenryou Commission only throws cases my way when absolutely necessary, and I tend to solve my own investigations too quickly to build up a backlog. So yes, I read. Otherwise, I would die of boredom—for a second time.”

“You died of boredom?”

He tapped his forehead, glancing away. “Something like that.”

Your eyes lingered on him for a few seconds. Whatever your thoughts were, you didn’t voice them—though it didn’t take a genius to work out that you were intrigued by his little disclosure.

“The lower-ranking cases you mentioned,” you said. “Will they be real this time?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

As much as he tried to deter you, to slow you, you were determined to persist in a dedication which could only end in misery. You bowed, curt but deep. “Thank you for instructing me, Shikanoin.”

He grimaced. “Call me Heizou. And like I said, you can thank me after you survive your first investigation.”

“I will.”