Interlude - How I fell in love with a Vampire: a bizarre love story
My name is Hitomi Hitoyoshi and I'm in love with a Vampire.
Bizarre, uh?
It all began when I met this handsome blond man, who called himself Dio Brando, in a backstreet of Cairo in 1985. He was obviously ill so I tried to help him, but he just shrugged off my attempts and walked away, forcing me to follow after him. Come hell or high water, I swore I would help him!
Though I soon realized it wasn't like my most normal cases when a robber appeared and demanded everything, even our clothes. He may also made some comments about my body and how he was going to use it, but honestly at the time my Arabic wasn't that good. I love children, but scummy adults are another story.
That was why when Dio, with a burst of super-speed, jammed his fingers into the man's neck and proceeded to drain him completely of blood I was more surprised than shocked.
[*]
1985 - Cairo
"So you gained your powers through this artifact?" My fingers brushed against the surface of the stone mask. Holding it by the face I dropped some of my blood I collected in a vial on it and watched as tendrils of stone extended from the edges. If someone were to wear the mask they would have pierced the skull and the brain, yet it was fascinating how precise their movements were. Too precise for what, for all intent and purpose, looked like an execution item.
"Not the same, but a similar one: I spent quite a lot of time and resources acquiring one due to...nostalgia, if I have to give it a name." Dio replied, lounging on the couch while reading a book. He was quite the studios fellow, his vast library including all sorts of topics. "It's similar to acupuncture, though on a massively higher level than today's medicine could even hope to achieve. Astounding really, considering they were created 800 years ago, maybe even before that: the spikes find and trigger certain precise points of the brain, and the process released the mask's wearer from the constraints of humanity."
My mind was awhirl with questions: what were those points? Did they change from brain to brain, and if yes how did the mask find them? Why did piercing those specific points granted a vampire its strengths and weaknesses? Were they artificially induced, or it was something humans developed through evolution but couldn't access without an external stimulus? The researcher in me was salivating to find the answers. "It sounds fantastical...no, I cannot use such words. After all, initially I thought you possessed an Abnormality."
"Abnormality?"
I began to tell him about the rare, almost unnatural talents and abilities some children exhibited since birth and were studied at the hospital I was working for. At some point he closed and put down the book to give me his undivided attention.
[*]
1986 - Cairo
I stared at the five ancient bows with relative arrows arrayed on the table before me. According to Enya they were mystical artifacts she managed to acquire almost by chance, with the strange metal the arrows were made of being extraterrestrial in origin and able to awaken in those with the potential a power called「STAND」: a reflection of the user's soul made manifest. It was something she and her own son possessed since birth and have demonstrated to us already: the Stands「JUSTICE」and「HANGED MAN」.
At first I thought them to be Abnormals: Skills disappear when the holder enters adulthood, around 20, but in extremely rare cases they persist for more time or even their entire life. Incidentally Minuses have been observed to have an higher chance of retaining their Skills. The mother and son didn't look like a Minus, nor they gave off the aura of one: something unpleasant yes, especially the son, but not to the degree of the many cases I studied.
She already demonstrated the power of the Arrows by awakening the Stand of Dio, who described it as a tall and muscular golden humanoid. Stands couldn't be seen by normal people, thought I was wondering if an Abnormal could to some degree.
"Lord Dio! As a fortune-teller, allows me to divine your Stand's name." Enya held up a deck of cards. "The Tarot Cards, the cards of Fate. Without looking I'll chose one..."
She mixed the cards with great ability many times before flipping out the top card...revealing an angelic figure surrounded by a man, an eagle, a bull and a lion.
"The World card! It represents completion, integration and accomplishment! Your Stand's name is thus「THE WORLD」!"
"The World...a fitting name." Dio proclaimed, obviously pleased. "What do you think Hitomi?"
"It has a nice sound to it." I hummed. Dio always had a big ego, but I found that part of him oddly endearing. "Uh? Enya, do the Arrows have more special abilities other than awakening Stands?"
"Not that I know of. Why?"
"Because..." I pointed at the arrayed artifacts. "One of them is movi-"
And that was when the shaking Arrow jumped up by itself and stabbed my outstretched hand. "Ah!" I immediately pull it back, but to my mild surprise what I thought being a deep wound was only shallow.
The surprise went from mild to huge when a pair of pink hands clad in white half-gloves cupped my own hand before retreating, leaving behind unblemished skin. Looking to my side I saw a pink-skinned, pink-haired female humanoid dressed in a white nurse outfit floating next to me, her black eyes with pink pupils staring at me with calm satisfaction.
"A Stand! You developed a Stand!" Enya shouted in awe. "It must mean...that the Arrow can sense who has the potential to have a Stand! Not only that, it tries to awaken that potential at all costs!"
"Very interesting. It will make finding fellow Stand Users easier." Dio walked closer, his Stand floating next to him. I would have commented about why he didn't mentioned the heart emblems or the elfin shoes, but I was too busy staring at my Stand in childish wonder. "And you have a Stand too Hitomi. I knew you were special. What name will you give it?"
"One moment, I'll divine-"
"Cardigans."
Enya stopped fiddling with the cards. "Uh?"
"My Stand's name, it's「CARDIGANS」!" I laughed while I had her pick me up and rest on her shoulders. "Because, she has the same color scheme of this old cardigan my mom weaved for me!"
"Uhh..." The old woman gaped, while Dio looked just mildly amused.
[*]
1987 - United States of America
"Dio!" I held up the beaker. "Want to test Shady Experimental Drug #18?"
"No, and stop calling them that if you want people to take you seriously." Dio sighed while feeding Pet Shop another mouse. The falcon took the morsel and hopped back to its perch. "Telence is still scratching himself."
"Well, he deserved it! He was being mean with Boingo!" I pouted. "He always acts so bratty, Daniel should be firmer with him instead of letting him win all the time!"
"...Just don't go overboard."
"Oookay!" I nodded with a large smile. "On another note, it's examination time! Take off your shirt!"
Once Dio laid down on the bed I used Cardigans' machine-like senses to check his body structure. "Progress is good, though not as fast as I hoped. Do you still take the Artificial Blood I prepared?"
"If you mean that bland soup that only looks like blood, then yes." He replied with his eyes closed. "No matter how little it fills me."
"Aah, that cannot be helped!" I shrugged while sighing. "That batch is not to give you nutrients, but to remove the traces of this 'Hamon' thingy. Seriously, sunlight doesn't work like that. Alright, hold still."
Cardigans injected a liquid with a syringe. Then, using her tools, performed an operation faster than the human eyes could follow. All that escaped Dio was a small grunt.
"Now, test." Using a scalpel I cut lightly the area I operated: it healed within seconds.
"Success!" I began to write down note. "With this we are 60% done. Next we will go over reducing your UV sensitivity with my genetically altered melanin and-"
"Doesn't it bother you?" Suddenly I was sitting on Dio's lap, his left hand on my shoulder. Looking up I saw he was resting his chin on the right hand.
I blinked. "Hue?"
"I feed on people's blood and I already revealed to you my body from the neck down is that of my old enemy Jonathan." He raised his chin, revealing the fading scar on his neck. "Yet you still help me getting rid of my few weaknesses and fully synchronize with this body. Most people would try to destroy me for this and many other reasons, yet you do the opposite. Why?"
"What are you talking about?" I had Cardigans tap his forehead with a finger. "Don't you remember what I said? I will stick with you until you're back to full health. That's as good as a promise! Beside-" I shrugged. "I am a doctor. Healing and helping people is what I do. Good people, bad people...it doesn't matter: the world isn't so convenient to allow me to make distinctions, nor I would want to if able."
"Are you a saint woman? No, not a saint..." He closed his eyes, seemly lost in reminiscence.
"Hey Dio?"
"Mh?"
I rested my head on his chest. "Can we stay like this for a while?"
"..." He didn't answered, but neither pushed me away.
[*]
1987 - United States of America
"AHAHAHAHA!!! IT WORKS! IT WORKSSSSSS!!!!"
Daniel, Telence, Mariah and Oingo looked up from where they were playing poker. "Wasn't that the good doctor?"
"She must have got her hands on some new poor sod."
In that moment the door slammed open. "It works!"
"Who the fuck are you?!"
"Language Telence!" I scolded him. "It's me, Hitomi!" Cardigans appeared next to me as proof.
"Doctor?!" Oingo shouted. "What happened to you?!"
"My new hormonal drug!" I began to dance. "Now no one will call me a child ever again!" I needed to take the drug regularly, but it worked!
"She took one of those herself?" Daniel shuddered. "Such courage."
"Ah, that's right!" Deciding to show my new body to Dio I hurried towards his chambers, but found them empty. "Now where did he go?"
"So that's you Hitomi." He materialized from the shadows, The World briefly visible next to him before fading. "I didn't recognize the footsteps, but now I see why."
"Yep!" I winked. "What do you think of my new body?"
"Very attractive. Does it work well?"
"About that~" I grinned before leaping and latching my arms around his neck. "Want to help me
test it?"
"And thus your real goal is revealed." I just grinned even wider. "What a saintly, troublesome woman you are." He remarked while putting an arm around my waist.
My name is Hitomi Hitoyoshi, I'm in love with a Vampire and I will never regret it!
