Block A 「Nishimura Riki」

12

"Wake up."

Ni-ki observed as Eiko slowly woke from her nap. She looked around before finding that Ni-ki was instead before her as opposed to sitting a few feet beside her. She raised her head.

"I don't know if it'll be safe out here much longer."

"What time is it?" Eiko asked him.

Ni-ki tilted his head up. Eiko followed his gaze to where the moon was pointed just amongst the trees. She glanced back at him when he answered. "Around 2 am. A few hours have passed."

"You could tell from that?" Eiko inquired. She gazed at the moon again, familiarizing herself with the fact that the moon looks like this at 2 am to maybe store it for later.

"It gets easier over time," he commented. "But now, it's nothing," he somewhat boasted to her. He crossed his arms and looked back at the moon. "Rarely sleeping is the way you study."

Eiko let out a silent snort. She surveyed the area  again, this time it looked significantly different than the first time.

Everything was touched beautifully by the moonlight. Caressed faintly with a blue-grey hue, almost magical. A quick dart of her eyes towards Ni-ki showed the same thing. Maybe if they were on better terms, Eiko would allow herself not to feel weirded out with the compliment ringing in her head by how he looks.

The night makes everything enchanting, truly.

"We should head back," he said with a stern voice as always.

Eiko hummed in agreement and removed herself from the ground. "What will happen now? Do you think they just stopped looking for me?"

"Not forever." He turned his back to her, taking a step forward to get Eiko to walk too. "Word of you probably got out. If so, there's not much that hiding here will do."

Eiko felt a bit upset at that. "What can I do? I need to defend myself as much as I can. I need to survive."

Ni-ki sighed and shook his head side to side in small and slow intervals, as if sorrowful. Nonetheless his voice didn't hold anything to make that true. "Nothing."

"What do you mean nothing?" It was like her heart spiked with thrill. Not the good kind.

"Exactly what it is. You're a human, against a vampire. They have everything you lack. You're better off not getting in an altercation with them if you see them again. If you try to fight you'll be dead before you actually are."

Eiko went silent, just going over the possibilities in her head as they maneuvered around trees. It was only the sound of nature. Full of wind, (disgusting) insects chirping, the shuffle of leaves, and the crunch of fallen leaves and branches.

"What about you?" Eiko questioned.

Ni-ki restated her question, his cadence almost just as curious. "What about me?"

Eiko didn't want to get her hopes up, but it was in her question just how hopeful she was. "Can't you help me? You've been doing it all this time- so."

"I-" He trailed off with a frustrated sigh, as if thinking of a way to say what he wants to nicely. "Don't you think that's asking for a bit much?" That's how nice it could get then.

"How is it any different than what you're doing currently?" She asked him, both confused and irritated. "You've been doing so for the past couple of days. Two weeks at least, and on your own accord. This is all going to be over in two or three more weeks, only this time, I'm asking you and you aren't doing it because you want to."

Ni-ki remarked a little rudely, "And only this time you're being chased down by a group instead of one or two. Only this time I also have to worry about making it out alive, right? Those are the only differences aren't they?"