From her wardrobe, Erika left her sports clothes where they were and
removed a sweater and dress.
Before school started, the bad tidings reached Tatsuya just as he was
about to leave the house.
Not by the home phone, but by text to the personal terminal.
Normally, these time intensive notifications were reserved for major
disasters, which definitely lent an ominous anxiety to this message. Of
course, this anxiety could be swiftly replaced with something else by
reading the message within.
The sender for this message was Erika.
“Onii-sama, is it bad news?”
Perceptively picking up on her brother’s mood fluctuation, Miyuki
watched Tatsuya with worried eyes.
Removing his sister from the seed of unease, this particular sort of
thinking did not cross Tatsuya’s mind at this moment.
“I received a communique from Erika saying that Leo was attacked by
a vampire and is currently hospitalized.”
“……You must be joking, right?”
The media had a dramatizing effect. For example, in regards to events
that happened in neighboring cities, so long as the media had
extensive – or even exaggerated – coverage, this may lead to the
misconception that this was an event that did not relate to oneself or
even came from a fictitious world. To compound matters further, an
irregular existence such as a “vampire” committing crimes only served
to deepen the lack of realism. Nonetheless –
“It’s the truth.”
No matter how sudden, there was no advantage in ignoring what
happened in front of them. Only by directly confronting these events
could any countermeasure be created.
“Looks like he’s receiving treatment in a police hospital in Nagano.
Luckily, his life is not in danger, so we can pay him a visit after
school.”
“—Yes.”
To Miyuki, Saijou Leonhardt was only one of her brother’s friends.
Since Tatsuya said visiting him after school would be fine, Miyuki had
no reason to refuse. – Disregarding, of course, what she was thinking
on the inside.