I sat on a metal shipping container, watching the skeleton of the ship. It was practically in its final shape by now. Several months had passed since our arrival, and thanks to military efficiency paired with the superhuman strength I brought to the table, the refugees had made incredible progress. Despite that, the humans' strange stares never stopped; I guess seeing a teenage girl haul steel beams without breaking a sweat wasn't an easy thing to process. Personally, I couldn't care less.
As I tore into a pork leg to satisfy my hunger, a shift in the air made me freeze mid-bite. I sensed an odd presence at the very edge of my perception. It felt like cursed energy—dense and dark—but at the same time, strangely relaxed, almost melancholic. It was a contradictory mix. After a few seconds of analysis, I decided not to overthink it and went back to eating.
"Anything new, Kaori?" Fred asked, cutting into my thoughts as he sat down beside me.
"Nothing," I replied curtly.
I took the opportunity to glance at my system panel out of the corner of my eye. The template was still malfunctioning. Apparently, the drastic binding vow I had made months ago hadn't just blocked Geto; it had destabilized the entire interface. It was an acceptable price to pay for the information I gained, but obviously, I wasn't going to say that out loud. I simply turned to Fred.
"I need to stretch my legs and unwind a bit," I said, standing up.
"Want to go for a run?" Fred suggested, copying my movement with a smile that tried too hard to look casual.
"Fine," I said.
I started jogging at a moderate pace along the beach, and he followed immediately. During my time living in this camp, one detail had become glaringly obvious: Fred was into me. His flirting attempts were constant, even though I had already made it clear—in the subtlest way my cold personality allowed—that I had zero interest. First, because I was a man in my past life and I'm not gay; and second, because I still like women. This situation had triggered a couple of existential crises and deep philosophical reflections about identity and the soul, but for now, my priority was survival, not romance.
After leaving Fred in the dust—clearly frustrated by yet another failed attempt to get close—I used my anti-gravity technique to boost myself, leaping up to the highest point of the ship.
I stood up there, watching the dark horizon where the sea merged with the gray sky. Tomorrow was unpredictable in this chaotic world, but that strange presence I felt earlier kept vibrating in the distance, like a beacon in the dark. I adjusted the flow of my cursed energy and kept my guard up, knowing the peace of this settlement wouldn't last forever.
The ocean wind battered the ship's iron framework, bringing with it the scent of salt, rust, and the constant premonition of war. Nearly five months had passed since I first stepped foot in this settlement. Time—a resource I used to manage with surgical precision in my past life—now blurred between manual labor and the monotony of survival.
Tom Two-Loaves' ship no longer looked like a stranded heap of scrap metal. The humans had managed to seal the hull, reinforce the decks, and retrofit old boilers for what would be a final voyage into the deep ocean, far from the clutches of vampire royalty. My contribution to the project was no small feat. Thanks to the cursed energy reinforcement in Kaori Itadori's body, I had carried metal plates that would have otherwise required cranes or the effort of ten men. To them, I was a miracle with stitches on my forehead; to me, it was just a way to keep my muscles active while my true arsenal remained locked away.
I turned my head slightly to the left, watching the shadows stretching beyond the camp's campfires. That presence was still there. It wasn't a curse born from human suffering, nor was it the rotten, stagnant energy signature of ordinary vampires. It was something in between. A blend of demonic heritage and mortal vitality, moving with the fluidity of a predator in no rush. I knew exactly who it was: Marceline. The future Vampire Queen was lingering nearby, watching the last remnant of her own kind from a distance, like a specter that didn't dare touch the world of the living. I didn't go after her. If history ran its course, she would come on her own when real danger knocked on the door.
I hopped off the container in a clean leap, landing on the wet sand without making a sound. I left Fred behind, who remained sitting near the embers trying to catch his breath after our run. His romantic intentions were almost comical to me—an unnecessary byproduct of the hormones in this female body interacting with the desperation of a post-apocalyptic world. My millennia-old mind operated on a completely different frequency. There was no room for romance when the operating system controlling my abilities was still flashing red.
I mentally summoned the interface, hoping to see some change.
[ERROR IN THE EXCHANGE MATRIX]
[Template: Suguru Geto — STATUS: CORRUPTED / RECONSTRUCTION HALTED]
[Binding Vow Restriction: Energy polarity conflict detected. Estimated resolution time: Indefinite.]
I clicked my tongue in annoyance. The binding vow I had used to force the speed and endurance of the giant tortoise during the trip here had short-circuited the system's software. Since I didn't originally belong to this universe, the rules of cursed energy clashed with the limitations of the interface that transported me. I was entirely on my own in Kaori's body. No curses to summon, none of Geto's arsenal, and Kaori's gravity manipulation was operating at a bare minimum due to the system-wide lock.
"If I can't rely on quantity, I'll have to perfect the quality," I muttered to myself, dismissing the invisible screen with a wave of my hand.
I headed toward the eastern side of the camp, where a makeshift infirmary had been set up under a tarpaulin tarp. The winter of this broken world was unforgiving, and malnutrition combined with the hard labor on the ship was taking its toll on the thirty-odd survivors. Tom Two-Loaves was there, examining two young men shivering under tattered blankets. Noticing my presence, the human leader straightened up, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a dirty rag.
"Kaori," Tom greeted, his voice heavy with the chronic exhaustion carried by those who bear the weight of a species. "Thank goodness you're here. These boys' fever won't break. Residual radiation from the northern lands, or some water infection... I don't know. We ran out of medicine last month."
I looked down at the patients. Their faces were pale, with dark blotches near their lymph nodes, and their wheezing breaths betrayed cellular damage. This wasn't a simple flu; it was mild necrosis triggered by environmental toxins and a failing immune system.
"Let me look," I said, stepping closer to the first cot.
"Can you do something with your... magic?" Valeria asked, having just entered the tent with a bucket of cold water. Her eyes, once full of suspicion, now held a mix of pleading and reverence.
"It's not magic," I replied flatly, placing my hands on the boy's chest. "It's the manipulation of molecular structure through emission."
During my last month on night watch, while hunting vampires with a bow, I hadn't just learned how to shoot energy spears. I had been experimenting with the concept of Ryo—the advanced emission technique I recalled from my memories—fusing it with the principles of the Reverse Cursed Technique, albeit adapted to the limitations of my current body. Since I couldn't generate pure positive energy due to the system lock, I had to design an alternative method: using micro-bursts of ordinary cursed energy, but at a frequency so fine and controlled that instead of destroying, it acted as a pressure scalpel. It eliminated pathogens and stimulated the host's natural cellular regeneration. I called it the medical application of STE (Subtle Transmission Enforcement).
I closed my eyes and concentrated the flow of energy into my fingertips. A faint shroud of purple light, barely visible to the naked eye but incredibly dense, coated my hands.
'Slowly...' I commanded myself internally. 'If I release too much pressure, I'll rupture his arteries. If I release too little, the infection wins.'
I guided the energy through the young man's skin, filtering it directly into his bloodstream. I could feel his heartbeat, the chaotic pulse of his cells fighting a losing battle against the infection. With the precision of a weaver, I used the micro-spears of energy to shatter the bacteria and radioactive compounds that were collapsing his kidneys. It was exhausting work; it required a level of mental focus identical to maintaining an active Domain, but condensed into a space of just a few inches.
The boy let out a choked groan, his body arching slightly.
"Kaori!" Tom barked, taking a step forward out of pure protective instinct.
"Shut up and watch," I snapped, never breaking my focus.
A few seconds later, the patient's cold sweat began to evaporate with a soft hiss. Color flushed back into his cheeks as his circulation normalized, the toxins flushed out through a lymphatic system stimulated by the subtle pressure of the STE. The boy opened his eyes and took a deep breath, the pain that had previously clouded his face completely gone.
I repeated the process with the second patient. By the time I finished, my forehead was drenched in sweat and I felt a slight wave of dizziness. Manipulating energy at such a microscopic level with a jacked-up template was like trying to paint a masterpiece using a war hammer. However, the result was flawless. Both boys sat up, staring at their own hands in disbelief.
"It's... it's a miracle," Valeria whispered, dropping to her knees beside her companion's cot.
Tom stared at me with an expression that mixed absolute respect with primal fear. Knowing someone has the power to heal organs with a mere touch means understanding they can unravel them just as easily.
"I don't know how to repay you for this, Kaori," Tom said, bowing his head in deep gratitude. "Without you, this camp would already be a graveyard."
"Just make sure the ship is ready to sail when the time comes," I replied, turning my back on him as I walked out of the tent. "That will be payment enough."
I stepped out of the infirmary and walked down to the shoreline, letting the freezing water lap against the soles of my boots. The exertion from using STE had left me drained, but it had also handed me a vital piece of information: I didn't need the system to evolve. Kaori Itadori's body possessed an absurd potential for biological adaptation. If I could master subtle emission to this degree, the Vampire King was going to get a nasty surprise when he tried to use his regeneration against me.
I looked up at the forest bordering the beach. In the canopy of one of the tallest trees, two red pinpricks of light gleamed for a fleeting second before vanishing into the gloom.
Marceline had been watching me heal the humans. She knew what I was capable of, and I knew she was looking for answers. The tension in this place was reaching its boiling point, and Tom's ship wouldn't be the only thing moving when the storm finally broke.
End of Chapter 5.