University of Tokyo
Pure white moonlight pours in through the skylights, casting itself over the entirety of the empty gymnasium's interior. Foam pits are everywhere, mats, runways, streaks of chalk, and an array of different apparatus.
Eerie creaking sounds play in the darkness.
It's the Horizontal Bar around which a lone silhouette revolves as though a clock hand, a long section of cylindrical steel flexing under their weight appearing to be in the verge of snapping but rebounding each time.
Their swings become faster, movements more aggressive as momentum builds. Up and over, down, and under in endless repetition. That is until the fateful downswing arrives, loading the bar with an immense amount of energy before a sudden release into two flips with the body in full extension as a straight line. At the same time, two twists as their arms tightly hug their body, explosively extending only at the last second to re-grasp the bar that's only a haze in their opening eyes.
Equally as hazy as their body is during it all.
This is Takumi Karyukai, all-rounder ace of the college's gymnastics team.
When I'm painting pictures with my form I can make myself look beautiful. My life is my art, and all I have. My hands burn, my joints ache sometimes, my muscles are always sore. But not much else gives me a thrill except for my secret I can't tell a soul unless I'm willing to die for that privilege.
My secret's staring me in the face right now... The monster—
"Karyukai. Didn't I tell you to stay out of the gym after hours? I'm back to receive your answer."
That voice echoes.
It's from a young woman standing at the entrance to the gymnasium, Akira Seno, manager of the gymnastics team. She's tall. Plus, demure, dressing in trousers rather than a skirt. The rest of her appearance is by the book: blazer fresh off the press, neck ribbon in a neat knot, shoes spotless. Short hair, black; it's neck length at most but frames the austere features setting her face into a permanent frown well.
Those features being trim, perpendicular eyebrows, shapely pink lips slotting into one another in the way an engineer would make it so. Eyes so deep and compact they're not able to let in much light other than that they 'produce'.
It may be a mistake in the darkness, but in the shadows of her eyes there's a bloodred.
"Well? Just gonna stare at me?" She says, moving further into the gym as she looks around at the equipment as if inspecting it for dust and the like.
Takumi backs away at the sight of her, feeling an intense chill. The temperature is dropping by a degree with each step she takes closer, dropping and dropping. So much so that their breaths become visible mists fogging up the space between them.
They can no longer see one another, briefly leaving him only able to perceive footsteps.
"A-Akira! This isn't funny—"
"Do you hate Ghouls that much? That's not fair, because I quite like you. I find it fascinating to watch you push that feeble human body to its limits..." She blows on his neck. "Gosh, I want to eat you so badly~" Her sharp canines flash briefly between the parts of her lip.
"Please don't," He winces. "What do you want from me? Be serious this time." His voice is low and straining from the fear.
"I want to date you; I'll kill you if you refuse. It's selfish but I'm curious about how you humans do it, I'd like to live like you with what little time I have left. No, I'm not sick. It's just that I have nothing left to live for."
"...Kill me?"
"I can't let you go around telling everybody what I am. Can I? The choice is obvious."
Silence ensues for a few moments as Takumi weighs his options. Well, option. He either dies now, or he dies later.
...My secret is that a monster living among humans has fallen in love with me. The one who I thought to be my team's manager, and a fellow student, is actually a beast scouting its prey. There's no self-reflection in her eyes.
She says things like 'kill','nothing left to live for', as if it's commonplace. Today's not my first time knowing her nature. She's given me time to consider her request, a week.
Now my time is up.
"Okay, I'll date you. If I might ask... Why me?" He sighs in defeat.
Her face lights up as she speaks: "Most human males disgust me. Too much meat, and fat on their flesh. There's a ratio y'know?" She say it as if it's relatable. "I want someone like a Ghoul. Powerful and explosive. You, a human who can somewhat keep up with me."
Akira abruptly turns on her heels, casually walking away from Takumi. "Anyways. See you tomorrow my love~"
I'm not as scared as I should be, I was almost speaking to her casually. I almost forget that she can kill me instantly in some moments.
Ugh, what am I going to do?