James reached up to touch his new face when he noticed that there were shards of glass sticking out of his hand, the memory of crushing his drinking cup came readily.

  The wounds weren't bleeding as he expected, small shards of glass fell into the sink as he picked them out.

  They sliced his fingers as he removed them but that was no longer an issue he had to worry over. He barely felt any pain while removing them, it was closer to an uncomfortable sting when he knew it should be worse.

  Tiny cuts quickly sealed shut as he removed the offending obstacles keeping them open. The glass pieces were remarkably clean, his hand hadn't bled at all from the glass and despite the exaggerated open wounds on his arm they too were no longer bleeding.

  As if they refused to lose more of what his new existence needed. If his wounds wouldn’t bleed then why was there such a mess in the kitchen?

  He knew the blood belonged to him. Even now he could feel a connection to the pool, he knew where and how far away it was. It belonged to him and called for him to return and claim it. Something he was ignoring for now.

  Supernatural School Days only featured seven vampires in the entire game. Five of which shared Kuro’s family name, firmly placing them as supernatural enemies to be overcome throughout the story.

  Hence James’ surface level understanding of this world's vampires, they were a group that could not be recruited so he didn’t get an in depth look at their abilities.

  Supernatural School Days made it a point of not revealing information about the city's strongest race of creatures. Which now left him in the dark about his abilities, the only things he knew was what Kuro had done in his boss fights.

  And Kuro was the only “Pure-blood” in the game, a distinction made to likely justify how strong he was by the end of the story. They were also the only vampires that could use blood magic, giving Kuro a unique advantage.

  Pure-bloods were the children of a pure-blood and any vampiric parent, of which could be a turned vampire who was originally human, or a dhampir, the half human offspring of a vampire and a normal human.

  These three made up the vampires that appeared in the game. They, like other supernatural beings that appeared in the game, could grow stronger through various means.

  For vampires that meant drinking human blood fresh from the source. It was both a source of nourishment and a means of growing stronger over time.

  During every run of the game the news would describe the ramifications of missed events, the results of you completing side and story quests, and the finding of exsanguinated bodies. This made it easy to keep track of your parties progress vs. how strong Kuro was becoming, a literal race against time.

  The main powers of a vampire was their monstrous strength, speed, regeneration, and magical control over blood if they were a pure-blood.

  Supernatural School Days lore was that vampires were not undead like in most settings, they were living creatures that could die and had lifespans the same as humans.

  Their hearts were their main source of strength, they gained power by slowing their heart. This would boost their strength, speed, and reaction times to levels impossible for humans.

  Then there was a vampire's unnatural regeneration, and Kuro had the strongest. Able to seal wounds as they were created and reconnect body parts.

  It was a conundrum. In the game there was no wound the player or the party could inflict that Kuro couldn’t heal from. The boss fight against him was a DPS check on if you could consistently deal more damage than he had health regeneration.

  Yet here he now was, in this villain's body with grievous wounds.

  ‘Was it that silver dagger? Was the solution to bring down the boss so simple all along?’ He would have to experiment on how bad silver would be in his second life.

  If that was so, then why did SSD not feature silver weapons? Were they cut because it trivialized the end boss? Or was it a consequence of this world being real now and not just pixels he viewed on a screen?

  Seeing the new me in the mirror showed just how much blood Kuro had lost. Kuro had been wearing a white band T-shirt, black track pants, and grey socks.

  Most of the shirt and socks were stained red from all the blood they soaked up while laying unconscious in it. Much harder to see on the black pants but there was a clear discoloration on much of it.

  “I need to get out of these clothes and shower.”

  It was a struggle peeling off the clothes wet with his own blood. They clung to the body making squelching noises as he wiggled out of them and tossed them in an empty hamper.

  The shower was a large affair, a walk-in closet sized enclosure with water jets on the ceiling and walls with several luxury soaps and hair products on a wide shelf.

  It was a wonderful feeling to have hot water wash away the blood from his skin and hair.

  He would have to clean the blood off the kitchen floor somehow, and all the foot prints he left down the hall… And in the bathroom. Then find somewhere to stash that dagger, but for now at least he would be clean, and that was a start.

  Now he needed to think about what would happen moving forward. He would have to live as a highschooler again, going from being about to graduate from college to starting over as a 1st year in Sukimi Academy.

  Even if it was a giant prestigious school with top of the line education and dozens of facilities that only a video game high school could make happen.

  He still hated having to restart his schooling, 4 to 8 more years of going through high school into college again.

  And the story… What would happen now that he was the main villain? He sure was not gonna act like Kuro had, going out of his way to torment and scheme against this world's protagonist and the female love interests.

  He had liked all the Heroines and side characters far too much to harm them. As for the protagonist, he was unsure how that would go. He didn’t even know his name since you decided it at the start of any given run.

  How the MC acted was based on dialogue options you chose during interactions with the heroines and main story events. He could be anyone from a charming casanova with an incorruptible sense of justice, to a sniveling egotist who only cared for himself.

  It would likely be almost impossible to be friends with them, as much as he would love to become close with his favorite characters.

  They would be bothered by his reputation. Possibly even face harm for knowing him since he was part of the Yakuza, even if he was only the heir.

  Some of the new memories that were burned into his brain told him it was already 2 weeks into the semester, and Kuro had already gotten himself into trouble multiple times.

  Bullying several students and picking fights with people in his year from other classes. He had thankfully not done anything he couldn’t recover from, and hadn’t interacted with most of the main cast.

  His reputation was fully cemented as a deranged psycho in school, and he was already on the bad side of the student council, whose president was a 2nd year senior and one of the game’s romance options.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  She had given him multiple scoldings for his actions and had a poor opinion of him, something he could hopefully rectify with time. Maybe even help her with some of the other troublemakers that will pop up over time.

  Most people were gonna avoid him, which was fine… They were scared of Kuro, and he had given them good reason to be.

  James had always been a loner, only having Luis who he spent any time with. It would be lonely though having no one to interact with in and out of school.

  Grades should be a non issue. He was basically a college graduate, high school level education would be a cake walk now, besides one of Kuro’s only good qualities was his intelligence.

  SSD didn’t have its main bad guy be an idiot. No, Kuro was an immensely clever rival and was smart enough to not only get into the most prestigious school where the game took place.

  He had also placed first in its entrance exam with a perfect score,many suspected foul play. Whether he cheated or used his fathers connections to get in.

  “What will I do about Kuro’s family too? His third mother will try to sabotage me any chance she gets, and he is estranged from his half siblings.” And yes his third mother, not his newest stepmom.

  His father Raiyu Takamura had 3 wives. This game, having been originally a dating sim with harem plotlines, had laws enabling and encouraging polygamy.

  In this world women made up 72% of the population, and like many successful men, Kuro’s father married multiple women. Originally he had only two wives, Kuro’s mother and another woman who was rather kind to Kuro when he was young.

  Then to solidify the peaceful merger of another large crime family into the Takamura yakuza. Raiyu agreed to marry the only daughter of another organization, a union that bore children.

  Kuro’s mother was a pure-blood vampire and had turned her husband as part of their union. Raiyu did not do the same for his 3rd wife who remained human, her children were born as dhampir’s and lacked the magic and intensity in power Kuro enjoyed.

  Raiyu wanted his pure-blood son from his first wife to inherit the family businesses instead of his weaker children. Even though his 3rd wife birthed his first son. Kuro was the second child, and his 3rd mother resented that her blood related son was not even an option to inherit.

  She would torment Kuro and scheme to have him kicked out of the family in order to solidify power for her eldest child. A route that could be used in game to oust Kuro and weaken him in future fights.

  His younger half sister was a good kid. The only one of the family who was somewhat normal. She was only 10 and went to the same school as some of the heroine's younger siblings.

  In the original story Kuro would abuse her and force her into hurting the young family members of the protagonist's love interests as a means of hurting them for refusing his advances.

  Something he would not repeat. As of now the youngest member of the Takamura family, he had almost no interactions.

  It was hinted in game that the young girl wanted to get closer with her brother and Kuro being the monster he was, took advantage to further his personal agendas.

  His older brother was 2 years his elder, and held just as much resentment towards kuro as the boy's mother did. He wanted to inherit his fathers throne and was just as twisted and cruel as the original kuro had been.

  Then there was Kuro’s relationship with his father. Kuro remembered his father as a cruel and uncaring man, one that didn’t love him as a son and only saw him as someone to take over after he died.

  James, having played the game over a hundred times, knew the truth.

  Being a vampire instills a natural cruelty into you when using the powers to control your heart. Something that pure-bloods and dhampir’s could control.

  Raiyu Takamura, being a human turned vampire by his wife, lacked that option. He slowly became colder and more stoic to curb his new innate instincts.

  He loved his wives and children, even if he was terrible at showing it. Raiyu had learned to be a leader not a father.

  He took to parenting like he did raising his organization, leading him to be overly harsh with Kuro’s upbringing, being physical with his son to make him a better fighter as well as disciplining him.

  He rarely showed affection and favoritism for his children. Teaching mostly fighting and how to run the yakuza. But in the game, his father would stay by his side through anything Kuro did.

  Utilizing the organization to help Kuro or get him out of trouble. Often causing it to collapse in on itself, but also showing how much Raiyu did care for his son.

  ‘It was no wonder this bastard turned out the way he did. Raiyu had good intentions, but his methods of raising his son turned him into a cruel, egotistical, and rage filled man looking for someone to take his anger out on.’

  “But why am I alone in this large place?”

  Then it came to him, like a fog being lifted from an area overlooked. Kuro just two days ago had a large altercation with his father, Raiyu was disappointed his son kept causing messes around the city, at home, and at school.

  Leading to Raiyu kicking his son out of his home, reducing his monthly allowance, and assigning two guards Kuro had known his whole life to check in on him occasionally. Hoping it would be a wake up call for his son to mature.

  Likely a good idea, except Raiyu set up his son with a luxury penthouse in one of the hotels they owned to live in, and his “reduced” allowance was still more than some people earned in a year.

  “Is my father an idiot? What kind of punishment is putting me in a luxury suite for free and giving me tons of money to live off with nearly no oversight. It was no wonder Kuro became worse over the course of the game.”

  ***

  Having organized many of his thoughts and what he currently knew James stepped out of the shower and retrieved a towel to dry off. Now without all the blood coating his body he could get a much better look at himself.

  Kuro had a slim athletic build, he was 6’2 with tight muscles. It reminded him of a coiled viper, unassuming but deadly. Which complimented the tattoo on his arm, he hadn’t noticed it at first through all the blood and the many deep cuts below it.

  The tattoo was of a large snake looping up his left bicep and wrapping around behind his shoulder and ending below the collarbone. He recognized the snake's face, a large hissing viper with a diamond shaped head. It was the same one tattooed onto the back of each Takamura Yakuza member's left hand.

  He knew that his father and brother had this same version somewhere on their bodies. It was a gift he got for his 16th birthday. A rite of passage for the children of Takamura to receive a full serpent rather than just the head.

  He laid the towel over his hair as he opened up the mirror, he knew there was a first aid kit stashed behind it. Another helpful tidbit acquired from his very kind experience with brain melting pain.

  He knew a lot of things about his surroundings now, mostly small facts but there were large amounts of things he felt he should know but didn’t. Like the memories that were transfused into his mind were behind a fog.

  He knew for a fact his father punished him with brutal sparring matches. He knew the Takamuras had a family manor, but what fighting techniques did Kuro learn from those sparring sessions? Where was his family's home? The details of all these memories were vague and lacked crucial details.

  Grabbing out a red leather pouch with a white cross on the front and closing the mirror, he continued to look at his reflection. James had only ever seen a stylized version of the game’s villain through the screen.

  Seeing himself now however was surreal as the character he hated looked back at him with a lifelike face. He had to admit that Kuro was attractive, it was just too bad that he had been a monster in every way possible.

  James could do better though, be a better person, use his family connections for good, assist those he knew needed help. He could be a hero instead of a villain.

  He would be a better Kuro. “I will make things better instead of worse.”

  As he wrapped his arm in bandages he wanted to try using his powers. He forced his heart to beat slow.

  Dhampirs were born with red eyes that would glow when using their powers. Turned vampires like Kuro’s father would have their eyes slowly turn red over time to a similar effect.

  Pure-bloods like Kuro however would have the color of the eyes they were born with glow in a mix of red and what their eye color was normally. It was an effect he only saw in cutscenes featuring the titular villain during fights.

  It was a chilling reflection, he furrowed his brow as hatred, wrath, and bloodshed filled his brain. His blood began to boil with power, his eyes slowly turned from unending ice to an amethyst smouldering with the malice of lilac fire.

  He could feel his presence becoming tangible, an aura reaching out. A terrible weight pressing on the edges of reality waiting for his command to bend something to his will, and his left arm thrummed in reply.

  Then the mirror shattered, spiderweb breaks covered the glass, every new reflection showed his glowing eyes and uncaring face.

  His heart then hammered in his chest, a mighty gong to herald the end of disaster. Mind clearing of the darkness that had infiltrated his thoughts.

  ‘This is something I need to be careful using, I can’t lose myself to the monster Kuro was.’

  But I needed to get dressed, I needed to clean, and I needed to make plans.

  I needed to be Kuro Takamura.

  He looked down at his bandages, he had just cinched the wrap but it felt wet when he tucked it in. They were soaked in blood.

  “And I need to not ruin my clothing using my powers while injured.”