Untouchable (Part 1)

A Chapter by AlexTheCrow

Part 1 of the first part of Crimson, Untouchable.

Untouchable (Part 1)

Perhaps I didn't see her because of my hair covering my entire left eye, or maybe I was just in so much of a hurry that I didn't notice her in the middle of the walkway. Either way, I guess how it happened doesn't really matter.

I was on the way to school, in a hurry, since I was already about to be late. After parking my bicycle at one of the lots in the compound I dashed straight toward the block that my classroom was in. As I rounded a corner, that's when it happened. I sprinted straight into her. Or I should probably say, I sprinted straight through her.

My name is Hayashi Shimura. I'm an anomaly hunter, anomalist in short. Or rather, that's what I used to be. Killing monsters and dealing with anomaly-related problems was my job. Since I was around 7 years old, over and above my basic education, I've been rigorously trained to fight against monsters. The world I live in is odd, to say the least. Monsters coexist with us humans. They come in many forms. Spirits, demons, beasts, idols, you name it. Hell, I even accepted a job to deal with a possessed toilet before. Fighting these things is what I was trained for. They cause problems for humans, and people pay anomalists like me to fix them.

The small number of people who know me well probably think it's terribly ironic that I used to fight monsters, though. When I was 10, a curse was laid on me by a vampire queen. Being cursed and infected by a vampire are two different things, although they do have their similarities. For infected humans, a ritual just needs to be performed within a certain amount of time to cleanse their body and return them to normal. That doesn't really work for curses. They're way more powerful, and can only be lifted by finding the one who cast them.

As for my case, I was unlucky enough to be cursed by a queen, which is one of the strongest types of vampires. The curse stripped me of my emotion, turning my skin pale and overly sensitive to sunlight. My eyes also changed, my pupils and irises becoming red. I was still a human no doubt, since I only had the features of a vampire but didn't have much of their actual powers apart from their regenerative abilities and enhanced strength. I didn't have the things that really made them vampires, like the ability to turn into bats, or grow wings, or drain life. Be that as it may, for me to go around killing monsters while looking like a vampire myself still probably seems quite silly in theory.

But all that is in the past now. After 6 years of journeying around the world and taking on jobs with my mentor, Toshi, I dealt with the curse and settled down in a small city. I'm a student in high school now, living a more-or-less regular life. It's sad to say, but I'm still not completely normal. Even after settling things with the curse, some symptoms still remain, but thankfully they're helpful and not very visible. My body is still capable of regenerating rapidly, just like a vampire's, so injuries aren't a very big deal to me, and I don't feel as tired as a regular human would at night. I'm also willing to bet I sparkle in the sunlight sometimes.

Really, the only outstanding thing is my left eye. I lost my original one during a fight with the vampire queen, and replaced it with her left eye afterwards. It's very clearly different from a human's eye in terms of appearances. Its iris and pupil are red, and the sclera is completely black. The bright side of having it is that my left eye is much sharper and more keen than that of a human, but just so people at least think I'm kind of normal, it's usually covered by my fringe, out of sight.

So there's more or less my story, although I'd like to put it all behind me and just continue living as a regular, non-vampiric, not-monster hunting human being who's just going to school like every other person who's my age.

...

Tsubaki Nagano. At the time, she'd been my classmate for about a year. A rather quiet and mysterious girl. I didn't really see her talk to anyone outside of school, and she was the type that stayed dead silent in class. I guess I'm not one to talk, though, since I'm a very introverted person myself.

I had definitely collided with her, but strangely the only opposing force I felt on my body was just her clothes just brushing against my jacket.

She didn't react much either, I noticed. Her body hardly moved at all despite the impact, probably because she didn't feel it either. It was as if I had just passed right through her. With all these thoughts running through my head, I nearly forgot my manners. I turned back to face her.

"Sorry," I managed to say, still trying to deduce some kind of logical reasoning as to what just happened.

She didn't say anything in response. She just narrowed her eyes at me, almost menacingly in fact. It didn't really matter to me if she didn't want to accept my apology. In the time I spent being a pseudo-vampire I'd gotten used to being treated like dirt by humans.

I shrugged and flipped the hood of my jacket on, and went on my way. I made sure to take another staircase so that we wouldn't have to walk near each other.

I arrived to class just on time.

The incident kept playing itself over and over again in my head. For whatever reason, I couldn't really get over it. I thought I'd just imagined myself not feeling any impact, but I was very sure she didn't feel it either. Normally I shouldn't be so surprised over such a thing, since I've dealt with much more bizarre things in my time as an anomalist, but after not taking jobs for about a year, having something strange like that happen again just felt weird.

...

The class was dismissed for recess. I trudged slowly down the stairs to the canteen, my hands in the pockets of the same hoodie I used to wear when I was cursed to block out sunlight. I was still thinking about what had happened.

"Hayashi?"

I blinked twice as I was jolted out of my thoughts. I spun around to see Aria, another one of my female classmates.

Aria Shio. Contrary to Tsubaki, she's always been very popular, and I'd wager it's because of her looks. Her cute face always has a charming look on it, she has nice, long brown hair which often rested on her shoulders, and her petite appearance just adds on to her features. On top of that, she's headstrong, smart and caring at the same time. Pretty much everything any guy would look for in a girl, huh?

But all that aside, I've never thought of her that way, although I would agree that any guy wouldn't mind dating her. Aria is probably one of the closest people to me in school. Well, I only personally know about 2 or 3 people, so it'd be more accurate to just say she's one of the only people I actually know in school. She's done a lot to help me not just in terms of my academics, but she also helped me with my curse and played a part in me getting my left eye. She's played an important role in my life, and I'm hugely indebted to her.

Apart from all that, she's also mostly the only one who keeps me company at school. Although she has many other friends as well, she seems to like being around me more than other guys, probably because I don't just hang out with her out of infatuation.

"Are you alright?" Her voice was as gentle as ever.

"Yeah, I just..." my voice trailed off. How was I supposed to explain such a weird situation to her?

"I was just thinking about something." I completed my sentence. My eyes darted around, still pondering over what had happened.

"Do you... want to talk about it?" She smiled warmly.

"Yeah, sure. Let's get something to eat, too."

...

We sat at the usual table we used every recess.

"Is something like... bothering you?" She asked.

"It's not bothering me, but it's difficult to explain it to someone else." I answered, stirring my drink. "Do you... talk to Tsubaki much?"

"Tsubaki?" She tilted her head slightly. "Not really..."

"I see." Tsubaki didn't talk to anyone in class. I guess Aria was no exception.

"Why'd you ask? It's not like you to care about other people."

She was right. Truth be told, I've never really liked people in general. Partly because most guys my age seem like complete airheads to me, but mostly because I'd seen the nastier side of humans during the time I'd spent under the influence of the curse. I'd still offered help to humans as an anomalist, but I never helped them because I actually cared about them, it was more just for myself. A form of self-fulfillment, you could say.

"That's true," I replied. "I just want to find out a bit more about who she is."

"Hmm.." She tilted her head even more. "Well, I did hear some rumors..."

"Is it ok with you to share them?"

She leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Some people have been saying she's got a problem with her body, like... no matter how hard you try you can never touch her, but it's hard to say for sure since it's very obvious that she's able to touch inanimate objects."

I narrowed my eyes. What she said had a strange connection to my experience. I could try to explain what happened earlier today, but perhaps it would be best not to worsen the rumors and say something that might not even be true.

"That's interesting," I said, trying to feign ignorance. "Well, I can't tell you what happened because I'm not even sure if it happened or not, but thanks for talking to me anyway. I appreciate it, as always."

"Glad I could help!" She said cheerfully, beaming happily at me. "And cheer up, you always act like it's a burden for me to talk to you, but it's not."

I smiled and let out a sigh. Aria was always so upbeat, sometimes I wished I could be as happy as her all the time.

We cleared our plates and headed back up to class.

...

I opened my eyes. My head was resting on my arms, which were sprawled out on my table. I shifted my head slightly and looked around the classroom. Empty.

Huh. I must have slept through class again. I rest my head on my table very often during class, and it usually results in me dozing off, not really because I'm tired, but because I just can't bring myself to be interested in anything being taught in class. So I guess in that regard I'm pretty ordinary. I shifted my vision to the clock hanging at the front of the room. Class ended a while ago. I had nothing to do in school anymore, so I decided to just head home. I yawned as I lifted my head slowly, preparing to stretch my arms.

The back of my neck touched something sharp. I immediately stopped moving.

To be continued.

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