If you ever wanted to know what health potions taste like, the answer is like a bitter yet fruity herbal tea. At least, that’s what Cera’s tasted like. I can also say that they work exactly like a video game. The angry red strangle marks on my throat faded right away, and the cuts and bruises Sachi had sustained from her fight with Grace were gone with no trace left behind. Thankfully, Yuki wasn’t hurt in our little scuffle, and I got her to agree to stay hidden underneath the sink until things calmed down. With Mark hanging back to watch Desiree and her former friends, the five of us gathered around one of the few remaining tables for a quick strategy meeting. Or, that’s what I thought we were doing, but the first questions we got were more along the lines of-

“Has Kannya been okay? Is she eating properly? Were you able to communicate with her okay?” Professor Strife asked. I tried to formulate an answer, but I found myself getting distracted by his really pretty eyes… and his lanky figure that somehow still looked strong enough to carry me in his arms and-

Strife coughed, straightening his posture in the seat and pulling back on whatever magic had just taken over my mind. Ugh… I’m gay for the catgirl that’s literally sitting next to me, dammit! Have some respect, incubus magic!

“Strife, calm down,” Cera admonished. “Save those questions for after we rescue Kannya and their friend? Evan, right?”

Strife straightened up, coughing slightly. “Er, sorry. You’re right, Cera.”

“She’s been fine.” I consoled, now that my mind was clearer. “I’m sorry, this wouldn’t have happened if I were keeping a closer eye on her.”

“Or if we- if I didn’t leave such an obvious gap in the wards,” Sachi added, hanging her head. 

“Please don’t start the pity party again,” Cera groaned. “Strife has been kicking himself all week. Look- It doesn’t matter what we failed to do or whose fault it is. What we should focus on is how to get Kannya and Evan out of there safely.”

The professor’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Yes, let us focus on the task at hand. What do we know about this Electric Spaghetti?”

“It’s a vampire stronghold disguised as a gaming cafe,” I summarized. “It’s pretty close by, and apparently the closest base they have to our cafe.”

Ada made a discontented sound. “It’s close enough to keep an eye on us, but far enough away that they wouldn’t be on our radar. And it’s in a narrow alleyway that’s easy to defend, especially when your troops can fly. Whoever picked this place must be a decent tactician.”

Sachi tilted her head. “If that’s true, then we’re probably walking straight into a trap, right? Any way to avoid it?”

“What if we enter from the roof?” Cera suggested. “There’s bound to be stairway access- plus, it gives us a lot more room to move around and fight.”

“Good idea,” Strife said. “Cera and I will defend the exit and keep anyone from coming after you. That just leaves you three to rescue Kannya and Evan.”

I glanced at Ada and Sachi, who each returned a small nod. “Works for us,” I said. “Let’s go get our friends back!”

“Right!” Everyone chimed in unison. Strife and Ada spread their wings and took off, followed shortly after by Cera, who drank a potion that sprouted fairy wings on her back. That left Sachi and me freerunning on the ground, jumping and diving around obstacles as we kept pace. 

It didn’t take us long to come across the gaming cafe in question, a slightly rundown building hidden behind various neon signs, the largest of which proudly labeled the locale as Electric Spaghetti. Sachi and I scrambled up the fire escape of one of the nearby buildings, then hopped onto the gaming cafe roof. Our three flying companions dove down, landing in a panic. A quick glance at the skyline revealed why: A whole flock of vampires were flying straight in our direction!

“We’ve been spotted!” Ada cried as she began pulling us towards the stairwell. “We’ve gotta go!”

“Now, that’s not very polite.” A deep masculine voice said. A larger, muscular vampire dropped down in front of the three of us, cutting off our escape and smirking as he faced us down. “At least let us treat you to tea.”

The professor stepped in front of the three of us, his arm outstretched protectively. “We appreciate it, but we aren’t thirsty right now.”

The vampire’s smirk grew even wider. “Is that so? Quite the shame… because we’re quite parched.”

“And who might you all be?” The professor asked.

The vampire straightened and unfurled his wings. “I am Evander DeSanguine. Remember my name when I send you to Hell.”

“Duck.” The professor said quietly. In the split second it took me to process the command, Sachi had already dragged me to the floor. A flash of crimson sailed over our heads as Strife pivoted and delivered a swift roundhouse kick to the broodfather, knocking him towards the left edge of the roof. 

“So you can fight after all, demon.” Evander spat.

The professor pulled a silvered pistol from his coat, taking aim at Evander. “You and your brood kidnapped my daughter. If I’m going to hell, I’m taking you with me!” 

With a flick of his wrist, Strife fired three shots on the vampire’s right, forcing Evander to roll the other direction to dodge. Unfortunately for him, Cera was there and waiting for him with a flying fairy kick straight to his nethers. I flinched, knowing all too well how much that must have hurt. To his credit, though, Evander recovered quickly, moving back behind cover before Strife’s silver bullets connected. 

“Go!” Cera shouted at us, uncorking a chugging a second potion. Her muscles bulged, and her wings began to turn leathery as she adopted a more draconic aspect. With a massive roar, she took off towards the cloud of approaching vampires and began whipping up twisters, which she sent in their general direction.

“Miyu, come on!” Sachi said, snapping me out of it. 

“This is crazy!” I yelled back, following my two friends into the stairwell.

Ada shut the door behind Sachi and me, barricading the door by sticking a nearby broom through the handles. “Would you believe me if I told you this is one of the more realistic battles we’ve had?” She asked taking a breath.

“There’s a dragon catgirl throwing tornadoes at vampires outside,” I countered.

“Yeah, but Strife brought a gun. Most of the time we’re using swords and fangs and claws and stuff,” Sachi explained. “Now come on!”

With that lackluster explanation, the three of us made our way down the stairwell and into the gaming cafe. The space was fairly well-lit, if not a little tacky, kind of like an early 2000s time capsule. Tables and game consoles were scattered haphazardly on the floor, strewn about in chaos. As we walked through the wreckage, we found a woman propped up against a wall, unconscious. A now-stained red towel had been hastily tied around her neck.

“I-Is she okay?” I asked, kneeling down to her to check. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the rise and fall of her chest. She was alive, at least.

“The bleeding’s stopped,” Ada confirmed. “She’ll be fine if we leave her here.”

“My moms will heal her after the battle is over,” Sachi reassured me. “With everything that’s happened, I’m pretty sure the whole family is probably on their way by now.”

Ada nodded. “That doesn’t mean we can sit around and wait for them, though. Especially if they’ve got Evan and Kannya hostage.”

I gulped and stood. “Right. Let’s find them and get out of here before we get caught.”

Ada took point and us down the stairway of the employees' only door. At first glance, it was pretty typical. A few offices, a few break rooms, a bathroom… typical workplace stuff. But as we moved further in, we began to see rooms lined with bunk beds and lockers. A few empty weapon racks, a crudely assembled practice dummy with a picture of Ada’s mom taped to the face. A barracks.

An angry scream echoed down the hall to our left. “NYAAAA!”

My ears flicked in the direction of the sound. “Kannya!” I shouted, taking off in that direction. It wasn’t long before we’d located the room she was crying from. It was a medium-sized storage room piled with boxes. At the far end of the room was Kannya, strapped to a gurney, and Evan, sitting on the floor on his knees…?

“Kannya, Evan!” I repeated, running towards them to help them up.

“Miyu!” Kannya chirped.

“You guys, run!” Evan said, fear in his eyes.

The exit door slammed shut, and this femme fatale of a vampire stepped out of the shadows. “I don’t think so~” she cooed.

Oh, shi-

Chaos erupted as Ada leapt into the fray, delivering a flurry of punches faster than I could even comprehend. The vampire, whom I assumed must be Scarlet, the other coven leader, dodged and weaved just as impossibly fast. From behind Scarlet, Sachi jumped in, aiming a slash at her back with her holy claws. Scarlet weaved away, coating her arm in a cloak of pure darkness to parry Sachi’s incoming onslaught. The two attacks collided, ringing out with the sound of steel, just like it does in the movies. I considered trying to give some commands to help, but the fight was moving so fast that I couldn’t even form a full sentence before the moment was gone.

There were more important things to do, anyway. Like getting Kannya out of this gurney. I began pulling at the straps, but they held fast, as if bound by some magical force.

“Evan, get up! I could use your help here!” I urged him. He didn’t respond, and he just kept sitting on the floor. Now’s not the time to be spacing out, dude!

“Evan, please! I can’t get these straps off!” I yelled. Behind me, I heard wall after wall collapse, the sounds of fighting only growing louder as the battle intensified.

Again, no response. Had Scarlet done something to him? Could he even move? How do I snap him out of it?

“Achoo!” I sneezed, stumbling. I felt the weight of the gurney shift under me as it fell forward, which connected with the back of Evan’s head with a dull thud. Unable to stop himself, Evan wobbled forward and banged his head on the floor, then tilted over and sprawled out as he tumbled. Hey, he could move again!

“Thank god for Yuki’s luck!” I said. “Come on, Evan, help me get Kannya!” With renewed vigor, I returned to trying to pull the little catgirl out of the straps. As I leaned down to work on her left leg, A chunk of wall flew through the air where my head had been not a second before.

“Get away from her, you brat!” Scarlet hissed at me.

“Don’t throw shit at my girlfriend!” Sachi screamed from a few rooms down. Wait a second. So we are dating?

Evan stood, helping me pull at the strap. He grunted with effort and stepped back, trying to think of another solution. I watched in shock as he reached into some pocket of darkness and pulled out a pitch black sword, one that looked pretty similar to whatever Scarlet was fighting with. Could he always do this? Was Scarlet controlling him?

“H-Holy shit, Evan…” I blurted. I took a step back and placed a protective hand on Kannya. She had tensed up, too, waiting to see what Evan was about to do. If he turned on us, that would be it. Don’t be mind-controlled, don’t be mind-controlled!

Evan pulled up on one of Kannya’s bindings, using his very-evil-looking sword to cut through the binding on her arms with ease. Kannya began thrashing, grabbing another binding in her mouth and trying to break it with her teeth alone. Evan cut through the bindings on her legs, and just like that, Kannya was free. She jumped into my arms, crying.

“I’ve got you,” I said to her, gently patting her back. After I’d gotten her situated, I turned to Evan. “We need to get out of here, Evan! Now!”

Evan paused, seeming torn between helping his girlfriend and getting Kannya to safety. Perhaps realizing he was out of his depth with Scarlet, he nodded to me, and we took off back up the employees-only stairs. As we began weaving through the wreckage of the gaming cafe, a vampire suddenly crashed through the ceiling. Her wings were tattered, and she had a crazed look in her eyes. I took a step back, shielding Kannya as best I could.

Evan grimaced, taking a step forward. “Stay away from my sister,” he said sternly.

The girl seemed well past the realm of reason and lunged at Evan with her claws. Why do they all have claws? You’d think they’d have like, proper weapons or something else to fight with. I guess it didn’t matter- Evan was corralling her handily, swinging his sword around him, forcing the vampire back into a corner. I looked away, knowing what was coming next.

My fears were confirmed a moment later as I heard a scream, followed by a squelching sound, then the faint smell of ash. Like, I know that girl just tried to kill us, but I wished we could’ve just restrained her and made her see reason, or something. But I also knew the world didn’t just work like that.

“We need to go, Miyu,” Evan said calmly. I’m not sure how he was so nonchalant about this. Maybe having a big sword makes you feel more confident. 

I shook myself out of it. “Wait, there’s stairs up to the roof. The others…” God, I hoped everyone else was okay. I pressed onwards, leading Evan back to the stairwell. We exited out to the rooftop to the grisly sight of a battle won. I didn’t even want to describe the sight in front of me. I dry heaved, trying desperately to keep my food down. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Strife, holding his silver gun to Evander’s temple.

“This is for taking my daughter,” He said, looking down at the vampire with pure hatred.

“W-Wait!” I half-shouted, half-heaved.

BANG!

Evander slumped backwards, knocked unconscious by a fist made of plants that emerged from the gun instead of bullets. Strife tilted his gun, looking at it in confusion. Vines sprouted from the cracks in the roof, curling around the vampire and binding Evander in place.

Sachi’s mom- the one whose office we’d been in a few days ago - surfed down on a road made of flowers and vines. “We’ll take it from here,” she said.

Strife looked a little annoyed, but relented, holstering his firearm. “he deserves a fate worse than death for what he’s done. Make sure he pays for his crimes.”

Sachi’s mom laughed. “Believe me, Lilith has got it covered. Go be with your daughter.”

“DADDY!” Kannya shrieked, using my chest as a springboard and bounding towards her dad. Girl, that hurt!

Strife turned, kneeling down to catch his daughter. “Kannya! Oh, thank the gods you’re okay!” The two hugged tightly, both of them on the verge of tears.

…Okay. Kannya gets a pass for jumping off me. It felt good to see these two reunited after the crazy couple of days I’d spent with her. I found myself wiping a few tears from my eyes.

What I wasn’t expecting was Evan on the ground next to me, bawling his eyes out. He wasn’t watching Strife and Kannya, though. He was tearfully watching as Sachi’s mom took the vine-bound Evander down from the roof and handed him over to Ada’s mom.

“Evan? What’s wrong?” I asked, kneeling down beside him. Evan didn’t respond. Instead, he stood slowly, emanating this aura of… unease? Hostility?

“E-Evan…?” I asked again.

 Whatever it was, Evan snapped out of it a moment later and quickly retracted the darkness.

I gulped, trying to recover and find the words. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. 

I hope this silent protagonist thing didn’t continue. It was kinda unnerving.

There was a clatter of footsteps coming up the stairwell, and Sachi and Ada joined us up on the rooftop. Their clothes looked dirty, and their hair was a bit messy, but it looked like they’d made it out of the battle with Scarlet relatively unscathed.

“Scarlet’s dealt with,” Ada reported.

“As in… dead?” I asked, looking at the two of them.

Sachi let out a sigh. “As in, adopted. Grandma got to her.”

Translation: Ada’s mom got to her and delivered on the whole ‘fate worse than death' thing Strife was hoping for. Okay. Reminder to self to never piss off Ada or Sachi. Although I might have already messed up with the latter if she thought we were dating this whole time, and I was oblivious to it all.

Strife joined us, still clutching Kannya tightly. Cera touched down around the same time, taking a swig of a clear liquid that returned her to her catgirl form.

“It sounds like we could all use a little sit-down and chat,” Strife suggested.

“Mm… but not here,” Ada replied.

My ears flicked towards the distant sounds of police sirens. A little late at this point, guys.

“We should move,” Sachi said. “Our parents will handle the police. They’re pretty used to the stuff our family gets up to by now.”

Getting taken to the station for questioning did not sound like a fun way to spend my evening, and I was exhausted with the adrenaline starting to fade. “Yeah… but where can we go?” I asked. “The cafe is destroyed… and I wouldn’t want to lead any stragglers home.”

“Leave it to me. Repairing a few broken windows won’t take longer than a few minutes,” Strife offered.

I was not going to argue with the man who currently had a gun holstered to his hip, and it seemed nobody else had any better ideas. So our little group made their way down the fire escape and through a couple of alleyways as we worked our way back to Cafe Pride. Man, that guy who grabbed Kannya really did a number on this place. It looked just as bad from the outside as it did from the inside.

“What a mess,” Evan complained as he surveyed the interior wreckage.

Strife took a few careful steps into the cafe, raising his hands. “Give me a moment…”

The professor’s hands began to glow, and piece by piece, the shattered window reassembled itself with one brilliant flash of light. Even some of the scratches from the day-to-day wear and tear had been completely repaired.

“Holy shit,” Evan gasped.

Ada smirked. “After everything today, magical window repair is your holy shit moment, babe?”

Evan flushed slightly. “I- hey, this is still really new to me!”

Ada, Sachi, and I giggled as we continued to watch Strife work. He slowly worked his way through the building, repairing the broken tables, chairs, and everything else that had been broken in the fight against Desiree and her former friends. It wasn’t long before my second home looked like home again. Seeing that the cafe had been repaired, Mark and Desriee made their way out of their hiding spots behind the counter, joining us at one of the newly repaired tables. 

“There,” Strife said, observing his handiwork. “Good as new. It’s the least I can do in return for you taking care of Kannya.”

Sachi gave a polite bow. “Thank you so much! My moms were not going to be happy if they’d seen the state their cafe was in.”

Ada chuckled. “They’re probably more upset that they didn’t have the chance to lecture the ones responsible.”

“...Yeah, probably. But I’m still glad it’s fixed! Thank you again, Mr. No.”

“Just Strife is fine,” The professor returned.

As our group settled down, I raised my hand slightly. “So, um… could we maybe talk now? I… think there’s a lot we need to cover.”