Vampire insomnia and personal home medical care services.

This may “only” be the fifth episode, but it does mean the season is almost halfway over. Some folks might be missing the early days of episode one or two.

Our cast was just Nazuna and Ko, more or less in a world of their own.

So after all the Akira stuff in the mix in recent weeks, the cast is dialed back again. The lead couple given free episode space for fumbling around to see where they stand. Time together, sure, but also apart and in their own heads.

Nazuna for one begins the episode having woken up far, far too early. As I also work an overnight schedule, this is indeed a miserable situation. The sun is still out, for one thing, and she is drenched in sweat.

Nazuna may talk a good game about good sleep coming from being satisfied with your day. She asked as much of Akira last week. But she is not immune to having trouble with restlessness herself. Unwilling to give Ko a call at this unreasonable hour, and unable to go back to bed, she goes about various other errands and general time killing.

Missed home delivery notices. Playing video games alone. Infomercials about steam irons.

As an aside, the focus on the missed delivery slip tells the audience how Nazuna does not maintain a pile of pseudonyms.

For this, or other exchanges of goods and services we will get to in a moment.

 

 

When she does leave her apartment to take an early evening walk around town, there are more folks on the sidewalk than we have ever seen before.

But at the same time: of course there are. This is closer to peak pedestrian hours than our main characters have tended to be out and about. None of these folks are Ko, and Nazuna has now herself also taken to just wandering around. Her comfort and amusement at sighting a stray cat to play with in a park allows the audience to see a side of her Ko has not been introduced to quite yet. She also maintains enough self awareness after the fact to realize stray cats do have a stench. Which is perhaps not the best quality to acquire right before meeting up with someone. In particular if you have already been waiting to see them for several aimless hours.

Nazuna visiting a public bath house does allow the series to push the cheeky fan-service shot boat out for a bit. Even so, the screen time in less interested in oodles of scrubbing time than in Nazuna sitting in front of the row of mirrors. Which do nothing for her. Thinking about how much she hates not being able to see her own face.

The effect is normal for vampires. But, this does not mean she likes it.

Getting any hairstyle just right without the aid of a reflection is a frustrating task. Given the twin hoop braids she fancies? Enormous orders of magnitude worse. She will even sleep in her braids, as we have seen at the start of this episode.

Because of how elaborate her preferred style is, the impact is quite high when Ko calls and meets up with her. He has trouble even recognizing her with her hair down. She has much more of a soft comfortable girlfriend vibe, which he has trouble coming to terms with. Even with everything else about her, from personality to her normal outfit, being otherwise the same.

As Nazuna never got to finish her bath session, Ko gets to bounce all this around in his head on his own side of the facility. Anxieties, and the things you remember when you are alone.

Among other thoughts, Ko has been processing the blood sucking process. He finds it calming, as well as something of a reality check for his feelings. Which it is in a literal sense. He will turn into a vampire if the required conditions are met. We know this. However, because there is the mechanical need for this deed to be done each time: he also has to keep asking himself if he wants to commit. To become a vampire, the relationship with Nazuna, what he would gain or leave behind.

Since Ko is all kinds of jumbled up and misunderstands the concept of a comfortable “rest” location offering private rooms with video games and the like: they end up renting a session at a love hotel.

Which amuses Nazuna to a great degree. And, as Ko points out, who had every opportunity to stop this blunder from happening.

The gag for this kind of scene is almost always balancing two things: the misunderstanding and the hint of what could happen between the characters.

The execution of it was as strong and frank as earlier conversations these two have had in the series regarding their relationship. Nazuna gets to do some teasing theatrical bullying. As she knows from the taste of his blood: Ko finds her attractive. Ko talks about how he is struggling with juggling the concept of Nazuna as a friend he also wants to fall in love with. How it feels immoral, rude, and all around not respectful to her to hang out with ulterior motives. For her part, Nazuna talks about her intentional provoking of his emotions. She gets to enjoy different tastes and flavors in his blood when he is worked up about various feelings. She messes with his understanding of love and lust more or less on purpose.

Ko has a stated goal of becoming a vampire. Nazuna has her cards on the table as wanting refreshing small batch artisanal blood.

To put things another way: these two have been using each other. And they are open about knowing it.

Yet, by being able to talk through hard things like this together, they are also closer than they think.

 

 

 

Ko has no reason to doubt Nazuna when she keeps saying his blood tastes great.

As a vampire, she would be an expert in this field. But, any type of connoisseur has to build up their palette from years of experience. She would need prior encounters to compare him to.

While people watching, Nazuna points out to Ko a random pedestrian she has tasted. As he is uncomfortable with the subject, as much as she is teasing him she also understands. She can consider Ko may not want to hear about other guys she has been with. Or women, as she does not have a preference either way.

But for the time being, Ko is exclusive.

Which does bring up the matter of how she used to meet folks.

A vampire has to eat, and as Nazuna herself admits: you can not just go around attacking people to feed on these days.

Returning to her apartment, Nazuna relishes the opportunity to introduce Ko to her entrepreneurial spirit and small business venture.

As she puts it, she is a professional cuddler. Complete with a menu of various courses and add-on services.

The assurance to Ko is there is nothing illegal about her job. She learned all about massage therapy, pressure points, and so on. As a vampire, she can maintain night hours when tired folks might most want this kind of relief. Perhaps on their way home after a long bout of overtime at the office. When they are worked over and relaxed, she can sneak a bite.

She gets paid, as well as free food. All straight to her door.

To give Ko a more complete understanding, she allows him to pick one course from the menu. No charge, unless he wants extras. He picks the most expensive massage session, but not out of any giddy excitement. He is just curious about what it entails, and wanting to learn more about Nazuna.

While he has spent time in this bedroom a number of times already, receiving a full back and body service by Nazuna is still a very new experience. He is embarrassed, but does understand how this would be effective for setting up the unique needs Nazuna requires. The nurse costume catches folks on one level. Talking through all the various pressure points in a soft tone captures another level. Both in conjunction with the physical work being done. By his own admission, Ko also finds her ASMR targeted lecture on pressure points and their history informative. She did her homework.

Nazuna does not need to lull Ko to sleep for a bite, but she still wants to cap the session off with one. The setting is right, and this is always a part of how she does these things. She has worked herself up for a treat.

But, as her home is also a business location: The doorbell rings.

Nazuna forgot to take the sign down before they started.

While it is a returning young office lady customer Nazuna knows well enough to recall the name and details of, she does not want to handle this session. Nazuna flits between several different modes. Panic. Embarrassment. Flat out declarations of being too tired to work. Guilt tripping Ko over having paid for the love hotel fee herself earlier. As a result, Ko is pushed into handling the case.

All he has to do: work on her as Nazuna just did to him.

Nazuna offers to split the fee with Ko.

She even offers to reward him with another kiss.

One “Break Glass In Case Of Emergency” bargaining measure after another.

Nazuna is committed to taking on the income opportunity. She has not done much work this month due to hanging out with Ko on so many nights. But she is also desperate about refusing to do this job herself.

As for why?

Well, like a lot of good professional medical opinions: you will need to wait for some test results.