EP.47 Beating For You
"...Let me tell you beforehand, if you're planning to do anything shameless, that's after reviving the heart. If you rashly lay a hand on my body..."
"What are you talking about? I need to give an electric massage to the heart, so I told you to cut your chest open, meaning the flesh. It's much easier for Trainee Tirkanjaka to undress herself than for me to cleave your chest open with a skewer. You're a vampire, after all."
When I stared and retorted, the vampire belatedly grasped my meaning and sheepishly clutched her chest area.
"Chest... Ah. I suppose... that makes sense."
Lately, people have been making unnecessary assumptions, which is troublesome. I'd gladly take a peek if shown, but then they'd kill me.
Sorry, but my life is twice as precious as anything else.
"...Y-yes. He bared his heart, so I should do the same. Yes..."
Nodding, the vampire traced her cleavage with her index finger. A line of blood appeared down the center of her pitch-black dress, and as her white bosom spread open to both sides, the flesh within was revealed.
The pristine white wrapping encasing her body is so clean and smooth that it's hard to look away. However, just one layer beneath that lies a sight that would make even the strongest-stomached person furrow their brows. The inside of her body, where blood foam froths, membranes squirm, and stark white bones assert their heavy presence.
"...There. Can you see well?"
While a bare undressed body brings shame to the one showing it, going deeper inside shifts the unpleasantness to the viewer. The saying that taking things to extremes reverses the relationship was no empty claim. The vampire who had been squeamish about touching her own chest now made me want to turn my head away when she exposed the inside of her skin.
She's embarrassed to show her bare chest, but feels no aversion to exposing what's inside? What irony...
Or is it normal? Even if I were given the choice 'Skin peeled and heart shown, or clothes off and bare body shown?', I'd choose showing the bare body. It's because she's an undying vampire that she can lie on an operating table with her chest split open.
"There. I'm done."
The vampire said, lifting her chest to show me. Through the gap of cut flesh, I could see bright red muscle and surging blood.
I suppose we've both lost something human before any sense of shame. I was freshly reminded of just how inhuman the girl before me was.
"I clearly told you not to reveal your heart today."
"Yes, you were the one who ordered it. I didn't want to be in this state either."
"I emphasize again, you must never show this to anyone except me. Honestly, I'd rather you didn't show me either. Ugh. Creepy."
"Enough with the chatter! So? Can you do it?"
"Let me take a look first. Here."
It's dark and hard to see. I inserted my index finger into the narrow crack and used magic.
"Lux."
A more intense light flashed from my finger. I thrust my glowing finger inside the vampire's chest. Pushing through the dark reddish-black, my shining finger illuminated deeper inside the vampire's body.
The vampire watched my handiwork intently, lost in thought.
'Strangely enough, even in this state, I don't feel particularly embarrassed...'
If you're embarrassed by this, there's something wrong with your mind. But don't worry. Your embarrassment has been replaced by my nausea. Ugh.
"Um, could you clear away the blood inside? I can't see well."
"Ah, of course."
At her words, within the range of the light, the red blood scattered in all directions like a swarm of insects. A patient who splits her own chest open and even moves the blood aside for better visibility—should I call her model or terrifying?
Urk. With the blood gone, the shape is even more visible... Endure it.
Anyway, thanks to the patient's active and conscious assistance, I quickly found the vampire's heart. Behind the deflated lungs, I saw a motionless heart. I reached toward it. Tap, my finger touched the heart.
"Urk!"
She had experienced all sorts of things, but even so, the vampire had never had her heart touched. The vampire reacted strongly to the unfamiliar and indescribable sensation.
Let her react however she wants. Honestly, as the one touching the heart directly, I don't want to feel anything either. I continued to trickle magical power into the heart, gauging the possibility.
Hmm. This.
Tapping and prodding the heart for a while, I furrowed my brows deeply.
Finally, I shook my head.
"It won't work."
At my matter-of-fact declaration, the vampire's red pupils dilated dramatically.
"It won't...? It won't work?"
"Yes."
"Are you truly saying there's no possibility?"
"Yes. It won't work."
The vampire despaired.
Of course, even so, the heart didn't move. Not even such enormous despair could make the heart beat. Therefore, even at this point where her wish had fallen through, the vampire could coldly accept my words.
With my finger still on the heart, I spoke.
"In the first place, Trainee Rash and Trainee Tirkanjaka are in different circumstances. Trainee Rash's heart stopped because he was in a suspended animation state. He's immortal and the elements composing his body are different from a human's, but the principle that makes the body move is the same. Whereas—"
Tap. I lightly pinched the vampire's heart with two fingers. The vampire recoiled with a startle, but the heart that touched my fingers didn't move at all.
It should have moved even without being touched, but the heart that had lost its function remained only as a symbol.
"Trainee Tirkanjaka, you're moving blood with blood manipulation, aren't you? Even in this very moment with your chest exposed."
A normal person cannot open their own chest. They cannot peel back flesh to show the inside while controlling not a single drop of blood to flow. What meaning would a beating heart have when all the blood moves according to her own will?
She doesn't even need to breathe. Being able to draw blood out of her body, scatter it in the air, and return it—that is the Progenitor Tirkanjaka.
"You asked me to light the brazier earlier, right? That's not it. To use a metaphor, Trainee Tirkanjaka isn't a hearth but a waterwheel. Placing firewood and lighting it to live a burning life is the way of humans. But vampires draw a river with blood manipulation and move their bodies by turning a waterwheel."
I extinguished the light on my finger. The light illuminating the heart disappeared, and darkness returned inside the vampire's body. The vampire murmured with a complexion as dark as the inside of her chest.
"So it's impossible."
"Yes. This lightning is merely a spark. Touch a flame to a pile of firewood and it catches fire, but apply it to flowing water and it'll only sting briefly."
The clever vampire understood my words and despaired. Having found hope for the first time in centuries and soared with it, the fall must be tremendous.
However, even that emotion vanishes like a fleeting glimmer. Such is the nature of a vampire's emotions. Accepting failure calmly, the vampire shook off her last remaining attachment.
"Then, could you do it just once? Just o-once? Even if it's useless, I want to confirm it."
"Well, they say they grant the wishes of the dead, so why not the wishes of someone who moves even after death."
"Hehe. That's exactly the right saying for this occasion."
The vampire smiled faintly.
I smiled back and drew magical power from my elbow. The military state formula magic that unleashes lightning.
"Bolt."
The sharply released lightning stimulated the heart in succession. I could feel the heart convulsing at my fingertips. Twitching, jerking, the pressure caused blood to briefly gush forth.
This was, well, closer to a mechanical reaction than heart revival. Human muscles convulse when struck by lightning, and in the vampire's case, that just happened to be the heart.
I was about to withdraw my fingers without much emotion.
It was then. The vampire urgently grabbed my hand and pulled it toward her. Before I could even react, my hand slipped deep inside the vampire's chest. I felt the squishy texture of living flesh.
Just as I was about to recoil.
"It beat."
"What?"
The vampire cried out with a look of horror, yet with an incredibly bright expression.
"There was a sensation. Definitely, for just a moment, the chest beat."
"That's because the electricity jolted it..."
"Yes. For just a moment, but it jumped on its own! This is... My heart..."
As if my hand were hope itself, she hugged it tightly and wouldn't let go. She seemed intent on pulling it inside her body entirely, afraid it might escape.
"Is it truly, truly impossible? My heart, my heart..."
But reality is cruel, even if the other party is a vampire.
As the remnants of magical power faded and the excited heart slowly settled back down, the vampire's hope tumbled down below as well. Between the flowing blood, the heart slowly stills.
Accordingly, the grip on my arm weakened. When I gently slipped my arm out, her feeble fingers caught lightly on my wrist. I held that hand slightly and said.
"It can't be helped."
"...So it seems."
The vampire closed her chest and rose. Hiding regret, sorrow, and chronic resignation just one skin layer beneath, she pushed the cut flesh aside with her fingers. The wound healed instantly, and her pale skin became flawless as if nothing had happened.
'I thought it might work this time. Yet hope still slips through the cracks of my grasp. Have my hands grown unreasonably large, or is hope that small and delicate? Is it... still impossible even now.'
But even her heart doesn't linger. Even the glimmer that was held and lost is swept away by the coldly flowing blood.
The vampire neatly organized her feelings and instead spoke as if to comfort me.
"Do not concern yourself. I am familiar with failure. What cannot be helped cannot be helped."
"Excuse me? Me? I just tried to help out of goodwill, realized it was impossible, and gave up—what regret would I have? I'm not a fool who considers volunteer work a duty. Trainee Tirkanjaka is the one who should be disappointed, I have no thoughts about it whatsoever."
"Still... You certainly have a way with words. Annoyingly so."
With a wistful smile, the vampire got off the bed. Having pulled up her undone clothes and made herself presentable, the vampire slowly headed for the door.
"My apologies for intruding in the middle of the night. Unlike us, night must be time for sleep for you."
"It's the Abyss anyway. I said it's fine. Please feel free to tell me if you need anything."
The Progenitor of vampires who reigned for a thousand years. If I could have made her heart beat again, I might have gained an enormous reward.
But that was beyond my capabilities.
Even if I had mind-reading skills, even if I were the greatest gambler in the back alleys. You can't force a winning hand when you have no cards to play. It's only natural and there's no need for regret.
What's important is, what will I gain from this point onward. Only that.
"Occasionally, I'll give you a heart massage."
I held up my finger slightly. To remind her of what this finger touched, and the hope she felt then.
"Only occasionally, though."
"I see..."
A somewhat disappointing outcome, but if I can gain even this much of a connection.
Watching the vampire leave my room, I smiled a smile of profound satisfaction.