Vampires

**Vampires** (吸 (きゅう) 血 (けつ) 鬼 (き) , *Kyūketsuki*?) are human-like creatures who suck the blood of humans.

## Description

Vampires are preternatural beings who like to suck the blood of humans during the night.

All vampires possess extreme physical qualities and supernatural abilities:

* **Super strength:** Vampires are known for their superhuman strengths, they can tear down concrete walls and floors with bare fists and slice apart another vampire's arm single-handedly. Their kicks are able to send another vampire flying away. If the right force and technique is used, a vampire can throw a person with enough velocity to fly from a city to a nearby mountain.

* **Super speed:** It is nearly impossible to see a charging vampire with the naked human eye, as their pouncing speed exceeds the limits of human sight. Only vampires are able to keep up with their own kind in face-to-face combat, but experienced people like Anko Uguisu can dodge and outsmart vampires. However, their flight speed is much slower than their pouncing speed.

* **Enhanced sight:** Vampires have dynamic sight that allows them to see other vampires' high-speed movements clearly. When one becomes a vampire, sight issues like myopia is also improved. Note that vampires don't have night vision.

* **Regeneration and resistance:** Vampires are able to heal small wounds rapidly, and sucking blood allows them to quickly mend large wounds, even penetrating injuries. Despite healing abilities, they also have hardy bodies, able to remain conscious after a straight shot in the head or with a gaping hole in the chest.

* **Enhanced durability:** The body of a vampire is generally very durable. Nico Hirata, Seri Kikiyou, and Nazuna Nanakusa all got shot by a revolver in the skull at point-blank range, yet none of their heads got fully penetrated. Despite being directly hit by the bullet, Nazuna's eyeball didn't show any injuries except for being bloodshot.

* **Flight ability:** Vampires possess the ability to fly airborne. This flight is not based on physical powers like wings, but more like a magic that makes the vampire almost weightless and able to maneuver in the sky. It is also less like classic flying and more like levitating. Usually, one has to take a leap off a solid thing as a fulcrum to start flying.

* **Intangibility:** Vampires can phase through structures or let objects go through them. This ability is not as easy as it may appear, as one has to forage through unknown structures while carefully controlling the body part that phases through. If one terminates the ability while a body part is still phased with a solid thing (e.g. arm passing through a wall), the body part will be expelled by the object, thus be broken apart. If used wisely, a vampire can use its phased body part to dodge its opponent's attacks or trap the opponent's weapons in its body. Although intangible, a vampire can be touched by another vampire who is also intangible. As Susuki explained, the normal state is a "plus", while the phasing state is a "minus". The interaction between two minuses is the same as two pluses. Any object or living being a vampire has direct contact with also becomes intangible, enabling vampires to carry humans through walls and ceilings.

* **Hypnosis:** Vampires are able to make someone fall asleep by staring that person in the eyes but only Haruka was shown ever using this ability.

* **Resistance to cold**: Vampires are not bothered by cold temperatures. While a normal human freezes in Hokkaido even in winter clothes, vampires can walk around in regular outfits without an ounce of concern or discomfort.

* **Supernatural charm:** Vampires are able to strongly influence someone's personality and thinking with their vampiric charm, making the human go along with the vampire's request even if it's something that person wouldn't usually do.

* **Reading minds through blood:** By drinking blood, vampires can read the thoughts and emotions of a person to a certain extent. Even if a person is long dead, as long as their blood still exists, so do their memories. Depending on the emotional weight, that ability can take a toll on a vampire who is unprepared.

They take a human form, however there are distinct differences between them and normal humans. Vampires can be told apart from humans by the following features:

* They have no pulse;
* They have a pale complexion;
* They possess unusually long and sharp canine teeth, designed to pierce skin to suckle blood;
* They can also grow long, sharp nails, although it seems that this trait can be concealed at will;
* Their reflections cannot be seen in mirrors, although their appearance can be captured on camera;
* They all act in ways that are appealing to humans, which is an evolutionary trait evolved to efficiently make humans fall in love with vampires, as noted by Kabura Honda;
* Their claws, when extended, take on a naturally black color. Most vampires have theirs retracted when not in combat, but Nazuna Nanakusa has hers visible almost constantly;

Vampires do not age as regular humans do, often looking youthful in appearance, and are also able to heal wounds that they have been afflicted with very rapidly, meaning that they're presumably immortal and thus immune both to death by old age and death by bodily harm. Due to the fact that most vampires have lived for a very long time, they often quickly forget their memories from when they were human.

Vampires have a reflexive and innate thirst for human blood, and if they're deprived of it for long enough they may begin to lose their sense of reason or even die. However, blood doesn't necessarily always taste nice to vampires. Nazuna Nanakusa notes that it tastes the best when it's sucked from a human between the time they're beginning to fall asleep to the time they actually fall asleep, and the blood of people like Kou Yamori also tastes unusually good. If a human can't turn into a vampire anymore by not becoming one within a year after having their blood sucked, their blood becomes highly repulsive to drink.

Not much is known about the actual history of vampires other than the fact that they seem to have existed unknown to humans for a very long time.

## Weaknesses

Anko Uguisu has noted several weaknesses vampires have that can be used to kill them.

* **Human Memories:** If a vampire comes into contact with something that was important to them when they were a human, it has the potential to kill them. The deeper the emotional bond the greater the effect. Though crosses themselves have no effect on vampires, some of them may have been weak to crosses because of their faith.

* **Lack of Blood:** Vampires die if they do not ingest blood for 10 years. The more time they spend without blood, the weaker they become, sometimes reaching the point at which they become almost delusional and lose all their senses other than their thirst for blood.

Additional weaknesses are:

* **Exposure to Sunlight:** While not fatal, it can be dangerous for vampires to be exposed to sunlight for a longer period of time. They protect themselves by using parasols or just going into hiding until nightfall.

* **Lack of knowledge about themselves:** Hatsuka Suzushiro explained that vampires don't do anything apart from living their lives. Because of that, most of them don't know much about their own species and are prone to surprises. Even Kiku Hoshimi, who's been alive for over 500 years, isn't safe from this.

Even if one does not possess fatal weaknesses, it is definitely not invulnerable, injuries like broken spines and broken neck will immobilize it the same, and attacking weak spots like eyes will also deprive it of its senses. Pain is not relieved even if one is immune to damage, so vampiric combat is often accompanied by agony.

## Creation

### Servants

Vampires are able to turn other humans into other vampires if two conditions are met: the vampire is able to drink the human's blood, and the human is in love with the vampire who intends to convert them. Vampires who are created this way are referred to as "servants", and often act as subordinates of vampire who converted them due to the fact that they are infatuated with them.

A vampire can have multiple servants. This amount has no known limit, but with some exceptions like Kiku Hoshimi, most vampires have around five or less.

A vampire's servants can be seen as their equivalent to human sexuality. Vampires like Nico Hirata and Kiku Hoshimi are only interested in male servants, while Hatsuka Suzushiro and Nazuna Nanakusa accept both males and females.

#### Transformation

If the requirements to become a vampire are met, the first change is the fixture of physical shortcomings; A vampire who needed glasses in the past is able to see without them, a person who suffers from a chronic illness will get rid of it and the cold of the night suddenly is less worrying. They gain much larger fangs and go through the other physical changes typical for vampires. The personality doesn't necessarily have to change much. Akihito Akiyama was pretty much the same as before, just more confident and instinctively thirsty for blood.

##### Half-vampire

The details behind this process are unknown but transforming into a "half-vampire", an extremely unusual phenomenon that was never observed before, makes one able to turn into a vampire, the requirement being to see one's own blood or being in emotional pain, and go back to being human after a certain amount of time. The transformation is difficult to control initially and can turn the person into a berserker who can't differentiate between friends and foes, but it can be activated consciously with some training. In general, it takes a toll on the person's sanity and is shown to make them much more bloodthirsty and aggressive even when they are human, though the old personality still remains intact.

Depending on one's emotional state, this transformation doesn't just give a person the powers of a vampire but exceeds them by far and gives the half-vampire abilities that are even beyond normal vampires, as noted by Azami. For example, it makes it possible for the half-vampire to control their own blood to retrieve objects or at least severed limbs with it and enables them to destroy a large building with one punch.

Kou Yamori is the only known human who went through this process.

#### The "unspoken rule"

According to a unspoken rule, if a vampire is in love with the human whose blood they suck, that human will die. The rule has existed for centuries but it still remains unconfirmed whether it's truthful or not.

### Birth

Vampires can also be created as humans are if at least one of their parents is a vampire themselves. Vampires created this way don't seem to lose any of their additional vampiric abilities or aspects despite having human blood. Because of the nature of their existence, such vampires have no classic weakness in the form of something from their human past. However, their umbilical cords, once they are cut off, make up for that and put the vampires in a state of agony when nearby.

It appears that the vampiric genes dominate the human ones, resulting in the child looking like an identical copy or clone of their vampire parent.

After being born, they will grow to physical adolescence within a very short amount of time, however their brains still require regular socialization and they do not hold any innate knowledge despite their rapid maturation. It's necessary for them to consume a decent amount of blood in order to be able to form memories.

Nazuna Nanakusa is the only known vampire to have been born this way.

### Becoming human again

Though it is still a mystery, vampires seem to be able to turn back into humans if they fall in love with a human. Kiku Hoshimi was able to feel her pulse after falling in love with Mahiru Seki. She couldn't levitate and regenerate on her own anymore and needed to consume blood in order to heal. It seems that turning back into a human makes a vampire's years catch up to them, which is fatal for a vampire who is over a century old.

## Known Vampires

* Nazuna Nanakusa
* Kabura Honda
* Hatsuka Suzushiro
* Nico Hirata
* Seri Kikiyou
* Midori Kohakobe
* Kiku Hoshimi (†)
* Akihito Akiyama
* LoveGreen
* Michihisa Kanou (†)
* Kyouichi Mejiro (†)
* Unnamed hospital director (only mentioned)
* Haru Nanakusa (†)
* Azami
* Susuki
* Haruka Nanakusa
* Mahiru Seki (†)
* Kurihara
* Two unnamed female Servants of Hatsuka

## References

1. ↑ *Call of the Night* Manga: Chapter 121 (p. 14-15)