Takagi family's butler, an elderly man with white hair, leads me inside the mansion. He then bows politely as he tells me to come in.
There is no one else in the waiting room now. As I sit in the luxurious guest chair, I feel completely out of place. This is quite a luxurious environment, after all. A poor zombie like me is not used to this kind of luxury.
After waiting for a few minutes, fidgeting with my fingertips due to the discomfort, the door to the room opens.
Saya enters.
She is wearing a knee-length black dress and a pink shirt with flared sleeves that suits her very well. Her pink hair is tied up in two twin ponytails.
She looks like a pretty porcelain doll.
"Welcome, Arata."
I notice that the tone of her voice this time sounds more formal compared to the other times we met.
"Good morning, Saya. You look very pretty today."
I greet Saya with a big smile.
"Hmph! You took a long time. Even Rei got here before you."
Well, I stayed longer than planned talking to Miss Marikawa, so I inevitably took longer to get here.
But is it just me, or is Saya's gaze different too?
I can't identify what emotion is in her orange eyes behind those glasses, but I definitely notice that her gaze wanders when she talks to me. Why can't she hold direct eye contact?
Being naturally paranoid due to my condition, my thoughts immediately form a dark train of thought.
'Does Saya know? Does she know what I really am?'
My body tenses up.
She pulls me back from those troubling thoughts by saying in a soft voice.
"Follow me."
So I walk silently behind her through another hallway, and shortly after, we enter a larger room.
At that moment, I immediately come across Rei, who is sitting on the sofa waiting. When she sees me come in, the two ahoge on top of her head move in surprise. Her large red eyes look directly at me, but then they drift slightly to the side.
As I wonder if she also knows about my true nature, Rei jumps up from the sofa and runs towards me. She opens her arms, and I feel her hug me around the neck before she says in a cheerful voice.
"Happy birthday, Arata!"
As she pulls away from me a little to look at my face, I notice that her smile is forced as it doesn't reach her eyes as it normally does.
Oh, right! I remember that I can now more or less read other people's basic emotions thanks to my ability to detect the subtle frequencies each person emits. I had gained that strange ability after devouring the two parasitic worms.
So I focus my mind on Rei, trying to sense her emotions.
And what I perceive takes my breath away, as I feel it hit me hard in the stomach.
She is looking at me with pity.
For some reason, that hurts me deeply. Honestly, I would much rather be feared or rejected than pitied. Pity makes me feel like a pathetic, pitiful animal.
Sighing internally, I sit down on the sofa while maintaining a neutral expression. Rei sits down next to me while nervously playing with the hem of her own shirt.
Every now and then she glances in my direction before quickly looking away. I get the distinct feeling that she wants to say something important, but doesn't know how to start the conversation.
Saya was more impatient in that regard, as after glancing at me occasionally, she snorted and spoke in a direct voice.
"Arata, yesterday Rei and I went to your house."
It's not cold in the room for me. In fact, as a zombie, I'm not really capable of feeling temperature anyway. But somehow I feel my whole body freeze when I hear those words.
They went to my house? Really?
My senses are sharp, whether it's hearing or smell. It should have been impossible not to notice that I was being followed by my two friends. My constant paranoia keeps me always alert, so why the hell couldn't I sense them following me?
Amidst those chaotic and confusing thoughts, I remember somrthing.
Yesterday, I saw the red silhouettes of two small figures running in that black and white world when I used my ghoul eye. Now it makes sense that I didn't sense them at that specific moment, as I had consciously blocked all my senses that had been amplified due to Ghoul Mode. I didn't want to jump on the first person I smelled.
Rei then fixes her red eyes, which are shining with concern, on me.
I look away as I am unable to sustain that eye contact.
"We were worried about you, Arata. You're so pale and you look so malnourished... we thought maybe your family wasn't taking care of you properly."
Upon saying the word "family," she shows an expression of deep guilt and sadness on her small face.
'Why does she look like that? Does she pity me for being an abandoned monster?'
Ah, wait. More importantly, why aren't you two scared?! There's a zombie standing in front of you! I could sink my teeth into your flesh at any moment, you know?!
Saya clenches her fists as she looks down at her lap.
"Hmph! We're just worried about you, okay? It would be pathetic if a friend of ours died because didn't feed properly. That's all."
Hey, Saya. You don't have to try so hard to act like a tsundere.
Then they both continue talking, explaining that they saw me enter an abandoned building. A place where obviously no one lives because it's in an abandoned construction zone full of rubble.
"Wahhh!"
Rei makes that crying noise as she hugs me again more tightly, burying her face in my chest.
"You've been living alone without any family! Surviving in that horrible place!"
I notice something crucial in this whole conversation.
They don't mention anything about seeing my transformed ghoul eyes. Nor do they openly suspect that I'm a ghoul or a parasite in disguise.
It seems that the only thing Saya and Rei really saw was that I live in extreme poverty and complete abandonment. Possibly, after discovering where I lived and in what deplorable conditions, they fled in shock and returned home disturbed by what they witnessed.
I feel relief pouring through my tense body as I think about that conclusion.
Although if I were a normal human, at this very moment my cheeks would be burning with embarrassment. Because honestly, I am ashamed that they saw me living in such a pathetic state. However, compared to the alternative of being discovered as a non-human monster, I definitely prefer this a thousand times over.
I remain silent for a long moment.
Then I speak
"So... now you know."
I have never told my two friends about my real personal circumstances. After all, they are both still very young, only ten years old. And in reality, I didn't really know what I should tell them either.
"Um... I got kicked out of my house because I'm actually a zombie, and since then I've been living on the streets."
No. Just as I thought. That dialogue won't work.
"Uhhh... I'm so sorry, Arata."
Rei apologizes.
"I always knew something was wrong with you, Arata, but I never dared to press you too much because I thought it would make you uncomfortable to talk about your situation. I'm so sorry."
She's still hugging me, so I can feel her small body trembling against mine. I raise my hand and place it on her head, stroking her orange brown hair.
"Don't cry, Rei. I'm fine. I'm used to living like this, you know? You don't have to blame yourself either, since it's true that I'm uncomfortable talking about my situation."
Saya, who has been squinting at my hands stroking Rei's head, suddenly lifts her chin and fixes her orange eyes on mine.
"How long have you been living like this alone?"
"Since I was five."
I decide to lie about that detail.
After all, if I told them the truth that I was abandoned just a week after I was born, it would be suspicious. A baby at that age can't walk on its own, let alone fend for itself on the streets. Thanks to my strong zombie physique, it wasn't impossible for me to start walking relatively easily after only a week of being born. But of course, they can't know that.
As I tell that lie about the five years, I feel Rei tremble even more in my arms before pressing herself closer to me.
Saya's serious expression breaks for a moment, and her eyes open a little wider behind her glasses.
But unlike Rei, she doesn't look at me with pity. That gleam, is it determination? I don't know for sure, but I wonder what this clever little tsundere has decided to do this time.
Rei speaks.
"That was a year before I met you, right? You've been abandoned and alone for so long... no wonder you look so malnourished."
My lips twitch slightly at that comment.
As a zombie, I shouldn't even be able to grow at all. Zombies are dead, so no organs should function properly. But some of my organs do function, albeit at only half the power that a human's should have.
That being the peculiar case, I can grow physically. But at a slower rate than a normally developing human.
It's quite possible that this is due to the lack of proper nutrients that come from living supernatural beings, such as ghouls or parasites. Ah, also fresh human hearts, which I remember were quite delicious when I tried them last night. Because just eating normal raw animal meat doesn't feed me very well.
Ah... thinking about it carefully, I realize something important.
I no longer feel any hunger when Rei hugs me so closely. Normally, her scent would make me salivate. It seems that the human heart I devoured last night satisfied me enough that I am no longer constantly hungry when I look at my friend.
That's very good. That's really, really good.
Rei pulls away from me and puts her hands on her hips as her cheeks puff out.
"You should have asked us for help much earlier, Arata! I would definitely have helped you at that time if I had known."
Huh? Why are you suddenly standing up?
"No! I'll find a solution to your situation today! You can't go on living like this!"
It seems like she wants to rush out and do something about it.
"I'll go right now and talk to my father! He'll know what to do!"
She says as she heads for the door, but Saya stops her by grabbing her arm.
After letting go, Saya crosses her arms and, snorting, begins to speak.
"Enough with the sad faces and crying. I don't like drama. It's this big idiot's birthday, and we should enjoy it properly. We can fix his situation after the party. There's plenty of time."
She displays a mysterious smile that makes Rei look at her suspiciously.
I look at them both silently as I feel the atmosphere in the room gradually change to something much more pleasant.
Saya and Rei have seen my 'human' secret, so to speak. My poverty, my abandonment, my loneliness, and they didn't run away scared or disgusted.
Instead, they decided to help me.
That makes me smile genuinely as I think warmly in my chest.
'They're really good girls.'
×××
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