Chapter 14 – A Lie That’s Way Too Big.

Cya had her hands slightly raised, fingers half-open, not fully lowering her guard.

Lyon, on the other side, didn't move either.

The two of them were standing less than three steps apart, breathing a little heavily, with the asphalt still warm under their soles, and with the footsteps of the officers approaching from the far end of the highway.

Thirty meters.

Twenty-five.

Cya was the one who broke the silence.

"Watcher," she said, in a low but clear voice. "Listen to me. I have a proposal."

Lyon pressed his lips together under the white hair.

'A proposal?' he thought, with zero intention of answering out loud.

"Oh, look at that, she's negotiating," said the voice inside his head, delighted. "The girl wants to negotiate with you. I really didn't see that one coming."

'Shut up.'

Cya lowered her right hand a little, just enough for the gesture to look not like a threat but a momentary truce. She left her left hand where it was, still ready.

"I know you've been operating on your own for months," Cya continued, in that same voice. "I know because the Hogwarts guild has been tracking you almost since the beginning. Every time a monster appears in an area where the Hunters' Association doesn't get there in time, you show up, you kill them and you save people, but you leave without registering."

Lyon looked at her in silence.

"And that, technically, is a crime," said Cya. "Acting as a hunter without a license. Using powers in civilian zones without authorization. Interfering with containment scenes. At some point, one of those charges is going to come down on you. And when it does, it's going to come down hard."

'Uh-huh.'

"That's why I'm making you this offer," Cya continued, and now, very subtly, a small change came into her voice. A slightly softer tone. A tone that Lyon recognized instantly, because it was the same tone Cya had used that morning in his apartment to ask him whether he found her unpleasant. "If you turn yourself in right now, at this very moment, I will personally handle the whole legal process to make you an official hunter. I'll sign the papers. I'll pay the fees. I'll talk to the judges if I have to."

Cya took half a step forward.

"You'll have a license," she continued. "You'll have credentials to be able to hunt monsters legally and also get paid for every operation. You'll work with whoever you want. Even with my guild, if you wanted to. But I need you to stop acting above the law. I need you to register. That's the only thing I'm asking of you."

Silence.

Lyon stayed staring at her.

And then he laughed.

It wasn't a big laugh.

It was a short laugh, brief, almost under his breath, but it came out naturally enough that you could tell he wasn't faking it.

Ha.

Cya stopped mid-step.

The gold-badge officers running up from behind stopped about twenty meters back when they saw the scene, because they didn't want to interrupt a moment their guild leader was clearly handling.

"...Excuse me?" said Cya, in a voice a hair quieter than the one she'd had before.

And for the first time, on Cya's face, something appeared that Lyon had never seen on her before.

Confusion.

Lyon stopped laughing and let out the most serious voice he could find in this female body's throat, a voice that wasn't exactly his everyday one but that still sounded like it knew what it was saying.

"You don't understand," said Lyon, very slowly.

Cya blinked once.

"...What?"

"You don't understand," Lyon repeated, and this time he said it with more firmness, almost with pity. "Your offer is kind and even generous, but you don't understand."

Cya tilted her head slightly to one side.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." said Lyon, and here he dropped his voice even lower, almost as if he were confessing a secret that he shouldn't be confessing in the middle of a highway with fifteen cameras pointed at them, "that in this world there's something much more dangerous than monsters."

Silence.

Cya didn't say anything.

Inside Lyon's head, the voice exploded.

"BAHAHAHAHAHA—"

'Quiet, quiet, quiet.'

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

'Quiet.'

"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT FROM?!"

'From the first conspiracy movie that popped into my head. Shut up. I need to concentrate.'

"BAHAHAHA! NO, NO, GO AHEAD! KEEP GOING! I WANT TO SEE THIS!"

Cya, on the other side, still wasn't saying anything.

Her red eyes moved once up and down over Lyon, then side to side, as if they were searching the white-haired girl's face for some clue that it was a joke.

But Lyon had put on his most serious face.

His flattest face.

His most "I know things you don't know" face.

And it worked.

Because on Cya's face, the confusion didn't go away. It deepened.

"...Something more dangerous than monsters?" Cya repeated, and her voice now sounded different, slower, measuring every word. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

Lyon looked at her steadily.

"If you haven't noticed..." said Lyon slowly, "it's because you work with the law."

Cya frowned slightly.

"...What?"

"And they..." Lyon continued, dropping his voice even lower, "don't want you to know."

Silence again.

Inside Lyon's head, the voice was crying with laughter.

"'THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW'! OH MY GOD, LYON! OH MY GOD! 'THEY'! YOU DIDN'T EVEN SAY WHO 'THEY' ARE! IT'S A GENERIC 'THEY'! IT'S THE MOST PARANOID 'THEY' IN HISTORY! AND IT'S WORKING, ON TOP OF EVERYTHING! IT'S WORKING! LOOK AT HER FACE! LOOK AT HER FACE!"

'Concentrate.'

"DON'T ASK ME TO CONCENTRATE, I NEED TO ETCH THIS MOMENT INTO MY VAMPIRIC SOUL!"

And it was true. Cya's face had changed.

Cya had her gaze a little lower than she'd had it a minute ago. Not fully on the ground, but not fixed on Lyon either. Her red eyes had moved to that intermediate point, that point where people's eyes go when they're thinking very fast and very seriously.

And Lyon knew, with absolute clarity, exactly what was happening inside Cya's head at that moment.

Cya was doing the math.

If just any random girl, someone out of nowhere, had said the same sentence to her, Cya would have concluded within a full second that it was a person with mental health issues. She would ignore her, cuff her, get on with her day.

But this wasn't just any girl.

This was the Night Watcher.

The unregistered hunter who had spent months killing monsters all over the city.

The same hunter who had saved people in incidents where the Association hadn't gotten there in time.

The same hunter who, three months ago, had pulled a twelve-year-old boy out of the middle of a fire in a burning building.

That boy was Cya's little brother.

Lyon didn't know it. Lyon had thought, at the time, that he was just one more kid on the list.

He had left the second he confirmed the kid was breathing, without even asking his name. But Cya did know. Cya had etched it into the bottom of her chest the day her brother came home with his clothes burned, talking about a white-haired girl who had gone through the fire to pull him out.

And now that girl was standing in front of her telling her that there was something more dangerous than monsters.

Cya wasn't dumb. She didn't fall for just anything. But right now, she also couldn't completely rule out the possibility that this girl knew something she didn't.

Cya lowered her left hand a little more.

And the moment she lowered it, Lyon acted.

He made no sound.

He didn't say a word.

He simply took a small step back, just one, very softly, while Cya kept processing.

Then another.

Then he turned his body slightly to the side, toward the gap between two TV vans parked against the cordon.

Cya didn't notice.

Cya was looking at that intermediate point in the air, with her head slightly tilted, with her fingers barely moving against her palm as if she were counting something mentally.

Lyon took two more steps.

Then three.

And then, once he had the first van between himself and Cya, he clenched his teeth against his tongue, bit the inside of his cheek again, felt the blood go down to his legs, and ran.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Lyon ran hugging the van, taking advantage of the shadow it cast between it and the one next to it, and when he came out the other side he was already in the middle of the crowd. Onlookers pressed against the cordon.

Nobody saw him go by.

Lyon took advantage of exactly that.

He went behind a van with satellite antennas. He slipped between two reporters arguing with an officer. He hopped the cordon at a section where the tape had fallen to the ground from someone else's struggle. And he ducked, almost without slowing down, into the first side street that opened up under the highway to run three whole blocks at that speed.

And when he no longer heard sirens close by, when the noise of the highway was finally behind him like a distant hum, he ducked into the darkest alley he could find, leaned against the wall, breathed three times, and let the red light wrap around him.

Fwoop.

And out of the alley, a small black bat shot up into the night sky.

◇◆◇

Up above, on the highway, the officers came running up to where Cya was.

"Ms. Cya! Where's the Night Watcher?!"

Cya blinked. She came slowly back from the intermediate point in the air where her gaze had been, and turned her head toward the spot where three seconds ago Lyon had been standing.

Nothing.

"...She got away," said Cya, in a low voice, almost to herself.

"What do you mean she got away?! She was right here!"

"She got away," Cya repeated.

And she said no more.

The reporter with the tight ponytail came running up with the mic still in her hand and the cameraman on her heels.

"Ms. Cya! Ms. Cya, please, a statement! Why do you think the Night Watcher was here? Was she investigating the portal on her own? Does she have any connection to the anomaly?"

Cya looked at her, still with her head somewhere else.

"Ma'am, step back," said one of the gold-badge officers, putting himself between Cya and the reporter with his arm extended. "We're asking you to withdraw to the perimeter. We're going to keep investigating the area. When we have something, official statements will be made."

"But I was in the middle of an interview before all of this happened!" the reporter protested, shaking the microphone. "Ms. Cya was giving me exclusive information about the operation!"

"Ma'am, please."

"This is censorship!"

"Ma'am."

"This is live censorship! We are on national television, folks! We are on national television and this officer is pulling us out of here to hide information!"

"Ma'am, step back."

"The public has a right to know! The public has a right to know why the Night Watcher comes out of portals! The public has a right to know whether the leader of the Hogwarts guild knew ahead of time that she was going to show up! The public has a right to—!"

The officer, with a great deal of patience, gently took her by the elbow and started walking her backward.

"I AM BEING REMOVED BY FORCE!" the reporter shouted at the camera, while the cameraman followed her trying to keep her in frame. "I AM BEING REMOVED BY FORCE FOR EXERCISING MY RIGHT TO INFORMATION! FELLOW VIEWERS, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IN OUR COUNTRY! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO PRACTICE JOURNALISM!"

"Ma'am, nobody is removing you by force. I am escorting you."

"SAME THING!"

Cya, in the middle of all of that, still wasn't moving, with her head slightly tilted and her gaze lost on a point that was neither the asphalt nor the air.

◇◆◇

The small black bat with the crooked wings dropped between two thick branches of a tree, flapped a few times against the air to cushion the descent, and touched the damp grass of the park almost without a sound.

It was dark.

The park was empty. A big park, one of those with stone paths, with iron benches every so many meters, with tall trees, and with a lake in the middle whose surface reflected the full moon with an almost absurd clarity.

Lyon had flown for what felt like thirty minutes.

He had crossed over rooftops. He had passed over avenues. He had dodged twice the lights of a helicopter that was probably looking for him.

And in the end, when he felt tired of flying as a bat, he ducked into the first quiet place he could find.

Fwoop.

The red light wrapped around him again and where before there had been a bat, now there was a white-haired girl on her knees on the grass, with her clothes in tatters, with one shoulder bare, with the raincoat hanging like a wet rag from the arm that was still covered, and with the singed shorts riding up a little too much because of the position.

Lyon breathed.

He breathed deeply.

And for the first time since the moment he had come out of the portal, he realized his heart had been hammering in his chest for like an hour.

'...Phew.'

"Phew," agreed the voice inside his head.

Silence.

Lyon stayed on his knees on the grass, hands resting on his thighs, breathing slowly.

And then he let out, out loud, addressed at no one in particular but also at himself and also at the voice:

"Why did I do something so stupid today?"

Silence.

"And so unnecessary."

More silence.

"I was walking around this morning. I was going to buy my console. I was going to play my game. I was going to have the best day of the year."

Lyon lifted his hands and brought them to his face.

"How did I end up like this?"

And there, the voice spoke.

"Oh, my human," she said, and her tone wasn't fully teasing, though it wasn't fully sincere either. "Do you want me to explain it to you seriously?"

'...Yes.'

"You sure? Because you're not going to like it."

'...Explain it to me.'

"Okay. I'm going to give you a list. Yeah? A short list. Get ready."

'I'm ready.'

"One," said the voice. "You never drink blood."

'...'

"Two. You eat very little meat. Meat, even though it's not blood, still helps a little, but you eat spaghetti with tomato sauce four times a week like that's a reasonable diet."

'It's just that I don't like cooking.'

"Three. You don't train. You have a vampire body with enormous potential and you spend all your time sitting in the desk chair or on the living room couch. You don't even walk to the grocery store. You order everything for delivery."

'It's more efficient.'

"Four. You avoid using your powers until the last possible second. And when you finally use them, you use them scared, without practice, without control. Like you used them today."

'Damn it...'

"And because of all of that, your vampire body has to respond on instinct, and your limited intelligence goes out the window."

'...'

"Lyon, your vampire instincts are going to lead you into situations like these a thousand times more if you don't change your lifestyle. A thousand times more. It's math."

Lyon clenched his teeth.

He clicked his tongue.

Tsk.

"Aren't you going to argue with me?" asked the voice.

'No.'

"Huh."

'You're right.'

"Huh."

'I know you're right. I admit it. Just shut up.'

"Okay, okay. I'll shut up."

Lyon lowered his hands from his face and put them back on the grass to stand up.

But before standing all the way up, he turned his body a bit and looked toward the lake.

The water was still. Very still. As if nobody had thrown a stone in there in hours.

Lyon crouched down again, this time slowly, until he was on all fours at the edge of the lake, with his face peeking over the surface.

And he saw himself.

He saw himself in the reflection of the water, barely lit by the full moon.

A girl.

A girl with long white hair, long down to the middle of her back, a little disheveled from the whole night of running. The eyes, a dark red, glimmering faintly from under the bangs, and a face with cheeks flushed from the effort.

And lower down, at the bare shoulder of the tattered t-shirt, at the side of the torso where the whole sleeve had been lost, at the lower edge of what remained of the clothes...

The breasts.

The breasts almost entirely in view, with only the line of the gray bra covering the bare minimum, with the pale skin reflected in the water in a way that made Lyon look away out of reflex while blushing pretty hard at the same time.

"Oh, look at that," said the voice inside his head, delighted. "You blushed."

'Shut up.'

"You blushed looking at my body. Oh, my human. Oh, my shy human. This is a beautiful moment to imprint on my memory."

'Shut up.'

"You know you can look at that body any time you want, right? It's yours too. It's literally yours now. You don't have to be embarrassed. You could even, I don't know, enjoy it a little. Take advantage. There are a whole bunch of possibilities you're wasting."

'No.'

"No?"

'No.'

"Why not? If you're looking at yourself, technically you're not disrespecting anyone. It's like—"

'I don't want to.'

"But—"

'No, no, and no. I just want to go home with my body, with my face, with my normal clothes. Period.'

Lyon looked away from the reflection. He sat down on the damp grass, with his knees pulled up against his chest to cover himself up a little, and looked up, at the full moon hanging between the branches of the trees.

"You know?" said Lyon in a low voice, more to himself than to the voice. "Maybe, tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow what?"

"Maybe tomorrow I'll try to buy the console and the game again. With any luck there's still a unit left in some store in the city."

Silence.

And then, the voice spoke, in a tone that was no longer teasing but flat-out evaluative.

"Mmm."

'What?'

"Nothing."

'What?'

"It's just that... uh... how do I put this delicately?"

'Not delicately. Straight up.'

"Okay. Straight up. You don't have any money."

Lyon stayed very still.

'...What?'

"You don't have any money. It all went into the lake this morning with the phone. Your entire wallet was on the phone. All your digital money was on the phone. All the cards, all the savings you had put away for the console, all of it, all of it went to the bottom of the river along with that gadget that doesn't turn on anymore."

Silence.

'...'

"You remembered that, right?"

'...Yes, I remembered.'

"You sure?"

'I remembered. It's just that... I had... set it aside. I had put it in a place in my head where I didn't see it as much.'

"Ah."

Silence.

Lyon dropped his head against his knees.

He felt the damp grass against the soles of his feet, felt the cool night air against his bare shoulder, felt the weight of a quantity of bad luck that was starting to feel personal.

"This day..." Lyon murmured against his knees. "This day is a joke."

"This day is a long joke, yes."

"A really long joke."

"A joke that doesn't end."

"I hope..."

Lyon took a deep breath.

"I hope I never have to go through anything like this again in my life."

The voice stayed quiet for a full second.

And then, in a tone so soft that Lyon almost didn't recognize it as teasing, she answered.

"Yes, sweetheart. I hope so too."

Silence.

"Although, honestly..."

'Don't say it.'

"...with the kind of life you lead..."

'Don't say it.'

"...I wouldn't bet on you."

'SHUT UP.'

And in the distance, over the lake, the full moon kept reflecting on the water, without saying anything, without weighing in on anything, without caring in the slightest about the half-naked girl sitting on the grass with her head pressed to her knees, waiting for the night, finally, to end.

I’M BACK, AND WE HAVE A CHAPTER MARATHON! 

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Hello, everyone! 

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The reason for my short break these past few days is that I have conjunctivitis, so I needed to rest my eyes for a while and give myself some time to recover. Fortunately, I’m feeling much better now, and I’m finally back! 

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But now, here comes the good news for this novel...

Someone subscribed to the $100 Patreon tier specifically to support this story!

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That means a 9-chapter marathon has officially been unlocked! 

The marathon will be published like this:

Three chapters will be released every two days until all 9 marathon chapters have been published. On top of that, I’ll also be releasing one free chapter every day throughout this week!

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Once this marathon is finished, I’ll decide on the dates for the free 6-chapter marathon, which will be divided across two separate days:

3 chapters on the first day and 3 chapters on the second day.

Other than that... thank you all so much for your support! 

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Honestly, I never expected this novel to receive so much support as quickly as my other story did. It makes me incredibly happy to see that you’re enjoying it and that you want to keep reading more. :´c

Thank you for your patience during these past few days, and I hope you enjoy all the upcoming chapters! 

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