082. No, I think I'll be fine.

"Okay, well take care then," Yuki said a little disappointed as if she was expecting something more from me. I tried to think of what to say, but she just walked out of my house and was gone. Damn, how come I couldn’t even say the right thing to a girl?

"Oh, Kenji?" Yuki said surprising me from behind as she peeked her head back inside.

"Uh, yeah?" I said confused.

"If you are feeling better maybe you could maybe meet me by the fountain at sunset?" she suggested. "We could go for a walk and talk about… stuff."

"Uh, yeah… sure," I said stupidly. "See ya then."

"See ya," she said smiling and then closed the door behind her. I pumped my fist into the air. Fuck yeah! Maybe I do have some game after all! I paced around my house, now just anxious for the sun to set, but that was still going to be several hours away. Suddenly I felt great and just wanted time to go faster so I could go see what Yuki wanted, but I was going stir-crazy.

With nothing else t do I decided to head out and see if Azami was alright. I found her in her kitchen trying to wrap it, but needing another hand to do a proper job. "Can I help you?" I asked before she noticed me.

"Oh!" she jerked about, startled by my words and dropping the roll of thin cloth she had been trying to wind about her hand. "Oh, Kenji, I didn’t hear you come in," she said as she picked up the cloth and began resuming her attempt to take care of herself. "I’ll be fine," she said gruffly.

I didn’t let her and instead walked up and took the bandage from her hands and held her injured hand in mine. She sounded like she was about to argue, but before she could something in me made me bring her injured hand to my lips and I lapped my tongue gently across the small bloody piercings in her flesh. She gasped, at first in surprise, but something stopped her from vocalizing anything. Then, after I applied a layer of saliva all across her wound I began bandaging up her hand as she couldn’t. She just let me in grateful silence for once.

When I was done I looked up at her and she has a strange expression on her face that I’d call blissful on anyone else, but since I’d never seen it on her before I wasn’t sure. "Are you okay, Azami?" I asked, and that seemed to snap her out of it.

She pulled her hand away and said, "That’s Misses Takahashi to you." Then almost as an afterthought before she walked away she said, "Thank you," and then she walked out of the kitchen. Well, that was the closest thing to real gratitude I’d ever had from her, so I just shrugged and was just about to walk out when Natsumi suddenly walked almost into me.

"Ah, Matsumoto," she said like a viper about to spring. "Come with me." I wasn’t going to argue and followed along as she led me back into the basement. "I hope you are feeling better."

"I’m fine," I grumbled feeling a bit embarrassed at my weakness from last night.

"Good," Natsumi said almost dismissively as she used a candle to like the torch in the wall sconce to brightly illuminate the dark underground area more than the tiny grimy window could. Then she walked about the room again, looking at everything except the scorched area where Chizu’s ashes and skull still lay in a small pile under the blackened chains. For some reason, that was all I could look at. It was like my eyes were glued to that the holes that had once been Chizu’s and within that skull two little red eyes of fire still looked back at me out of them.

"Matsumoto!" Natsumi said sternly and I snapped out of my vision. The sockets of the skull were dark and I looked at her.

"Yeah?" I asked shaking off the creepy attraction to the skull.

"I asked if there is a girl you are with," she said as if this was an everyday question.

"What?" I said confused. Taking about girls was the last thing I’d ever do with this woman who was more often a bully to me than even Azami. While the elder Takahashi was mean and demanding, Natsumi never gave me anything but insults and shit. I didn’t want to talk with her so I just snapped, "That’s none of your business."

"So I’ll take that as a no," she grinned seeing right through me.

"No!" I shot back insulted and thought. Yuki, yeah, I was seeing her tonight and maybe it was a date. "Yeah, I’m seeing someone later tonight in fact," I declared boldly.

"Yuki?" Natsumi asked. Was she a freaking mind-reader?

"Maybe," I said trying to play coy, but she continued to see right through me.

"I thought so," she said happily with her deduction. "Do me a favor and just be honest with her. She’s a nice girl and deserves that much." I don’t know what to say to that at all, but then she looks at the reddening sky through the window. "It’s getting late, so you better get going if you are going to meet her at sunset."

I look and see she is right and start running out. How did she know all that? And when did it get so late? It was felt like just a few minutes had passed and not half the day. My head felt like it was in a fog and something was squiring inside my brain. Why couldn’t I think straight? The sun was just reaching the horizon as I ran down the hill into town and saw Yuki happily standing by the fountain, just as she’d promised.

"Hi Kenji!" she cheered seeing me run up. "Don’t worry I haven’t been waiting long."

"Oh, good," I said and then saw she had changed out of her usual clothes and now wore a pretty pink dress that almost matched the color of her hair. In fact, with the sun setting and everything getting redder it did matchmaking her look even more beautiful than she had before. Laughing she saw me gawking at her and did a twirl to show off the dress for me.

"You look amazing," I complimented her.

"Thanks," she happily replied. "So, where would you like to take me?"

<I’ll take you here and now!> a lecherous voice inside me growled, hungry to feast on her soft sweet flesh.

"What?" she asked confused.

‘Damn, did I say that out loud?' I internally screamed at myself. Quickly I had to think of something else to say!