Free Tale of the Dead Town by Hideyuki Kikuchi

deputies with deathly grim faces. The windows of every home were shut
     tight, and men ranged with weapons and sharpened stakes. For what was probably the
     first time ever, this town had to deal with the sort of rampaging demon all too familiar
     to those in the world below.
    -
    As soon as Laura had fallen asleep, the mayor called for D. “Now it’s up to you.”
     And saying only this, he left.
    Putting the armchair they’d provided him against the wall, D sat down to wait. It
     was eleven o’clock Night. One of the most common times for the Nobility to pay a call.
     The young lady in bed breathed easily as she slept. But, though her breathing sounded
     serene enough, D heard another sound over it. Her breaths were just a bit longer and
     deeper than those of ordinary people. When she exhaled, her breathing sounded more
     like a sigh.
    If the Noble who’d attacked the girl lived only by night, then the chances were extremely
     good that he wasn’t aware D was here. No matter who was guarding the young lady, they’d
     certainly be no match for the power of a Noble. That was exactly the sort of self-confidence
     that led to mistakes. And all Vampire Hunters found that sense of security the key
     to destroying the Nobility.
    An hour passed, and then two, without anything out of the ordinary. Both D and the
     girl seemed like statues, motionless. D had his eyes open.
    At one o’clock Morning, there was a rapping sound outside the window. Laura’s eyes
     snapped open. An evil grin of delight rose on her lips, and red light shone from her
     freshly opened eyes. As if checking just how they’d left her, she looked up above
     her, then to either side. When her eyes found D, they stopped dead.
Damned interloper
, they seemed to say.
    Those who’d known the rapture in their blood didn’t flee from it—rather, they were
     doomed to drown in it. Regardless of what she made of the Vampire Hunter sitting there
     with his eyes closed, after watching him for a while Laura turned her gaze beyond
     the window. “Who’s there?” she asked coyly. She put the question to the pitch-black
     space.
    Faint laughter came from the darkness. A voice that only the closest of human ears
     would hear said, “I’m coming in.”
    “You can’t,” she whispered back. “There’s a Hunter in here.”
    “I don’t have to fear the likes of him. Not even your father can touch me now.”
    “But he’s not like other people,” Laura said softly. “There’s something different
     about him.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    Something that looked like a black stain started flowing in through the window while
     the girl watched. Before Laura’s very eyes it gathered on the floor, took human shape,
     and became an actual person of flesh and blood. This vampire was gifted with one of
     the powers of legend—that of entering rooms as a fog. The sight of him there, in an
     orange T-shirt and wrinkled jeans, would’ve made the bulk of the Nobility grimace.
     Still young, he was a powerfully built man. Yet his whole body was subtly distorted,
     looking like a human figure molded by the hands of a child . . .
    Looking first at Laura, the vampire shifted his gaze to D. Sleeping, perhaps, D kept
     his face down and didn’t move at all. The vampire’s eyes began to glitter wildly.
     Red light tinged D’s form a crimson hue. Soon, the light faded again.
    “That’ll keep him asleep,” the intruder said. “Just as it did with the others. He
     won’t even remember me.”
    “Oh, please hurry. Come to me . . . ” Laura writhed beneath the blankets. “I want
     your kiss. I—I need . . . ”
    “I know.” The vampire’s lips twisted into a grin. Though his teeth were dirty and
     crooked, his canines were particularly impressive. They slanted forward. When he slowly
     bent over the girl, whose eyes were shut in rapture, the air in the room grew unspeakably
     cold. And the chill emanated from one point in particular. The intruder looked over