The best time to know if someone will betray you is when you're at your worst. Therefore, that also becomes the best time to conduct a trust test.
Rize looks at my bleeding wrist with raised eyebrows. Of course, apart from that, I see the hunger in her purple eyes. She looks like a starving beast about to pounce on its prey.
I should applaud her self-control here. Because despite her hunger, she still has enough willpower to control it and keep talking.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you offering me your blood?"
She drags her eyes from my wrist with great difficulty and fixes them on mine.
—Shiiierrrk!
I use all my willpower to banish the illusion before me. In an instant, the Rize who had the horrible form of a monster returns to her original appearance.
'Phew...'
It was a bit difficult to talk normally with her before without intending to slap her away from me.
"We just met. You know nothing about me. And yet you're offering me something so intimate?"
Ghouls feed on human flesh, or in less common cases, practice cannibalism. They don't usually voluntarily drink blood from other ghouls, much less receive it from someone who's aware of what they're doing.
That's why offering your blood isn't normal. Maybe it could even be considered something intimate, like Rize said?
In this case...
"You've been with Yuki-chan for two years. You're not exactly a stranger. Besides..."
I show her a huge smile.
"I want to trust you."
"Trust..."
Rize's eyes open wide. Not expecting such words from me, she's shocked for a second or two.
She then lets out a snort.
"And does that matter? Trust... isn't that something fragile?"
Honestly, in the past I used to think like Rize. That trust is something fragile, that can be broken with a simple betrayal.
But I was wrong.
People around me have shown me otherwise. They trust me, and I trust them.
That's why I know trust is also something strong, that can withstand the most violent storms.
I shrug.
"Well, if you're going to stick with the thinking that 'nobody gives anything for free' then think of this as an investment."
Through Yuki-chan, I saw that Rize is a complex girl who's been isolated for a long time. It's likely she wants someone to truly trust her, and for her to find someone she can truly trust.
Though is that so?
For Rize, the word trust alone doesn't produce a feeling of security. Especially having spent so many years in a place like Sunlit Garden, whose name is beautiful, but whose purpose for existing is so vile.
So I give her a more valid reason.
"An investment, huh..."
Rize murmurs, however, her gaze on my wrist becomes more intense.
"Umu. In the future, I might need your help with something. And if I let you starve to death now, you won't be able to help me later."
Just as wanting to trust her, and her trusting me is true, what I just said is also true.
"But what if the result isn't what you expect? What if I betray you?"
"Then it means you weren't worth it. However, I won't know until I try."
With a smile, I offer my wrist closer to her.
"The decision is yours, Rize."
"It could be poisoned. Didn't you take that thing's blood?"
Definitely, this girl doesn't have an ounce of trust.
"Could be. Are you going to risk it or not?"
"Hmph. What a stupid way to do things."
With those words, she leans in and brings her lips close to the wound.
Then she stops.
"If I die, I'll haunt you as a ghost."
"Noted."
She closes her eyes at the same time her tongue slides over the wound. Her purple hair brushes my hand and I feel her warm tongue licking the blood gushing from the wound.
When the first drop of my blood comes in contact with her tongue, Rize's body tenses.
Her eyes snap open fixed on my wrist. Her pupils dilate.
Then she licks again. And again. And again.
Each time her tongue passes over my skin, her body trembles slightly.
While she acts like she's drinking the best beverage she's ever tasted, something unexpected happens the next second.
Rize pulls away abruptly, stumbling backward while bringing her hands to her head.
"What...? What is this?"
There's panic in her voice. That surprises me. Rize is afraid?
"Rize?"
"The sky..."
She looks up with a horrified expression.
"The sky is... it's raining blood. Why is it raining blood? And there's something watching me from that blood."
I look up. From the sky it's indeed raining blood and the dead.
'Shit.'
I understand what's happening. My soul is weak right now, damaged by excessive use of Vampire Mode. And when someone drinks my blood while I'm in this state, it seems part of the illusion is temporarily transmitted.
What Rize is seeing are fragments of my own visions.
And if what she's seeing is a sky raining blood, then it's not as advanced an illusion as mine, where every tree is a monster watching me.
Though I'm curious what she means by something watching her from the bleeding sky.
"I don't know. Maybe it's because my blood is too delicious?"
"Too... delicious...? Heh, maybe you're right."
Even though her body trembles, her gaze returns to my wrist, which is still bleeding.
The hunger in her eyes is more intense than before. Her hand slowly reaches out, at the same time her five fingers close around my wrist.
"I want more."
That's all she says before leaning in again and starting to drink more avidly than before. Her eyes close and a satisfied smile appears on her face. Whatever she saw before seems to have passed.
After a few minutes, Rize releases my wrist.
She keeps staring at the wound, which has already stopped bleeding and is starting to close.
A feeling of confusion surrounds her.
"My hunger..."
She brings her hand to her stomach.
"...has calmed down."
She shakes her head.
"How is that possible? No matter how much meat they gave me to eat, it was never enough. I was always hungry."
Rize looks up to meet my eyes.
This isn't the first time I've fed someone my blood. Touka was the first. She had the same expression Rize has now.
I put a hand behind my head and lean back against the tree trunk while ignoring the illusory appearance of that tree.
"As you already know, ghouls feed on human flesh. It's the only way they can obtain the RC Cells they need to maintain their strength and be able to use their kagunes. If a ghoul tries to eat normal human food, their body rejects it and weakens. Not eating meat also weakens them."
Of course, there are also ghouls who eat other ghouls to obtain the necessary nutrients, and in many cases, better than eating a human. But that's not the point I want to make.
I look at Rize, who seems to understand what I'm getting at.
"But there's an exception. My blood."
I show her my wrist, where the wound has already completely disappeared.
"I have a much higher concentration of RC Cells than a human. It's even higher than a ghoul's. In fact, it's so high that drinking a small amount of my blood is more effective for a ghoul than eating an entire ghoul."
That's why her hunger calmed down.
"So, with my blood, you don't need to eat flesh."
Just like Touka, who only feeds on my blood.
"I'm enough to feed you."
Rize falls silent. After staring at me, she approaches me. She traps me against the tree, with her hands on both sides of my head.
"You know? Sometimes they bring me the highest quality meat."
Her face passes close to mine and her warm breath hits my ear.
"But even that, looking back seems like rotten fish."
She once again pulls her head back, and I see her eyes shine. Beyond hunger, that seems to be the gaze of someone who's found something perfect.
"Your blood is very delicious, in fact, much delicious than any meat they've given me."
Without taking her eyes off mine, her fingers press slightly against the tree bark.
"So... Offering me your blood, to drink whenever I want..."
Accompanied by a dark smile and dull purple eyes, she says.
"You know what this means? Arata? It means you belong to me. You're mine."
Wow...
The situation is getting out of hand.
However...
In Rize's eye is reflected my face distorting into a smile.
If she's capable of reaching a conclusion that transmits her madness, then I must respond with the same madness.
"Heh. But you're also mine."
×××
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