Tsunagari

Chapter XLIII.

'Sugoi!' Katsura-san exclaimed, excitedly. 'Hime, look at this! Isn't this superb?!'

I cringed away and paled as she picked the plastic skull up from the table to put it in front of my face.

It's- It's too lugubrious!

'It would serve as a beautiful decoration in my living room!' she said to Gōjun and I in the same beaming tone. 'And I already know exactly where I am going put it! It shall have its place on the low table in the living room, next to my laptop, so that I can admire it as much as I want!'

I cringed further away.

She has doubtful tastes!

'Mister, I'm going to take this!' she declared at the vendor, cheerily, and hurried up to pay him for the skull, before she took in the other gimcracks that the man was selling, her eyes filled with stars. 'Ah, I see that there are many other pretty things!'

She had been about to pick up something else from the goods on display when, a female voice called out her name abruptly.

We all turned to look at the old woman, who was standing behind the stall opposite of this one and waving into our direction. The woman was selling books.

'Ah, Otonashi-san!' Katsura-san exclaimed, and Gōjun and I tagged along with her as she ran up to the said-woman to greet her properly.

'Katsura-chan! It's been a few weeks since I haven't seen you at the library! I think I've got something that would interest you!' the old woman declared, and picking a book up from her stall, she showed it to the brown-haired woman, telling her, 'I'm sure that you're going to like this manga! The lead male character of the story is a vampire!'

I flinched, breaking into cold sweat. A- A vampire?!

'The story tells about a human girl who meets with an accident with his car and his abducting her from the place of the accident to take her to his house and hold her captive there, in order to drink her blood every day. Of course, he ends up falling in love with the human girl, and there are a few other characters who appear to coarse the story! It is short, but quite entertaining!'

Eh?! Isn't that story a little too blood-filled? Who could have written such a perturbing story?

'Wah! With just the information you've given to me, I'm already dying to read it!' Katsura-san cried, enthusiastically, and taking the book from the old woman, she went through its pages rapidly.

I almost fell flat to the ground.

Katsura-san...!

She really has doubtful tastes!

She was a bit of the Queen of the Underworld!

Shunsui caught up with us by that moment, to inform us that he was leaving.

'Where are the girls who were with you earlier?' Gōjun inquired, and the reddish-brown-haired young man replied, with a cocky smile, 'They're already waiting for me in the car!'

I flushed up, having no doubt about the place they were going to spend the rest of the night.

'Well, well, see you tomorrow!' he declared, and giving us a small sign of the hand, he turned around and walked off.

'I think I'm going to leave too, now!' Gōjun announced, and turning to me, he said, 'Come, Princess! I'm going to drop you to your home on my way!'

'Alright, thank you!' I replied, in a murmur, blushing with shyness.

'Katsura-san,' he said to the woman, then, 'Can I drop you to your home equally?!'

'Ah, no!' the old woman- Otonashi-san- exclaimed, grabbing hold of the Katsura-san's forearm, 'She's not going anywhere! I want her to tell me about the latest novel she has been writing and that, in every single detail!'