AN: I know, I know... I shouldn't be adding any more stories, but until I had this one written out I just couldn't focus on my other stories...Stupid anime being too awesome for its own good xD First chapter is even surprisingly heaps longer than my other fanfics :) it was originally to clear my head, but I'm rapidly growing fond of it, so I'll be putting up this chapter, and until I get a few (positive) reviews, I won't be posting chapter 2.. Think of this as a trial run :)
Resources I found say that Koizumi means "little spring" in Japanese. If this is incorrect, please feel free to let me know :)
THIS CONTAINS REFERENCES TO THE ANIME. IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED TRINITY BLOOD AND DON'T WANT ANY TYPE OF SPOILER - DON'T READ UNTIL YOU'VE FINISHED IT. You have been warned.
Only the Storyline and Original Characters belong to me. I don't claim any rights to the anime and its characters.
Episode 1: Raina Koizumi, Princess of the Resistance.
"Father Nightroad! Ion! It's so good to see you again." Esther greeted the silver haired man and blonde boy with a large smile on her face. It had been almost a year since they had left, and even Astha, who was following Esther around, not by orders, but as a friend, gave them a warm smile.
Ion was the first to stand up from his elegant-looking seat and he quickly made his way over to Esther, pulling her into a tight hug, making the girl blush and feel grateful that they were in a private meeting room. The last thing she needed was to have this spread like a fire and cause trouble for Astha.
After the events eleven months ago, Astha had taken a shine to Esther even more, and she soon found herself visiting frequently, taking the position of Esther's advisor so they could hang out more often, although this also meant she had to silently endure the paperwork that came with the job.
"I've… Uh, that is, we've missed you Esther." Ion pulled away and looked shy suddenly, his feelings for the red haired girl had not wavered in the time they had been apart.
"That we have," Abel stood up now and waved, smiling goofily at the two girls, "though, you wouldn't happen to have any food would you? Even scraps? I think I'm going to start wasting away soon…" His blue eyes, as well as everyone else's eyes, turned down to his stomach, which rumbled loudly as if to prove that he really was starving.
"I swear… You're hopeless Father…" Esther sighed and turned to Astha, "Shall we go out for lunch?"
"As long as Abel doesn't make us spend too much money or get fat, I don't see why not." Astha answered as she headed out of the room, secretly smiling and trying not to laugh as she caught a glimpse of Abel's face right before the door clicked shut. Esther and Ion's laughs ringing out through the room.
Caius bowed to the girl sitting in front of the window in her room, her short black hair seemingly glowing in the afternoon light, her blue eyes gazing out over the city before her, "Princess, we've received word that Saint Esther will be leaving the grounds soon with the Earl of Memphis, the Duchess of Kiev, and a priest. Because this was a last moment decision that Lenna overheard by chance, it's become the perfect opportunity to kidnap Saint Esther, as there will likely be little security."
"Good job, Caius." The girl stood up and walked over to the man before her, and he knelt down, allowing the girl to pat his head. She had always loved his hair, it's softness was unbeaten, and he never even had to tend to the soft shiny blonde mop of hair much at all.
"Who will you be sending, my Princess?" He closed his eyes in respect as she continued to happily pat his head.
"Just myself. I don't think that a large group of us going would be a good idea. We'd draw too much attention and the newly-hatched plan won't work." She almost pouted as she explained her thoughts to him. Caius was like a big brother to her, regardless of her nature, he was the first to accept and protect her.
"If you think that is the best course of action, I won't stop you… But you know I'll always be nearby just in case something happens. I'll protect you." Caius stood once she had stopped patting him and made his way out of the room.
"This food is-" Abel shoved a mouthful of the sponge cake into his mouth, "absolutely-" and another mouthful, "delicious!"
"Abel, if you don't stop talking with your mouthful, I'm going to make you wish you werent born. Learn some mannars." Astha scorned the squirrel-cheeked priest as she tried to keep her cool, brushing some of her red hair to the side, regrouping it with her blonde hair.
"Actually, he hasn't eaten in about a week. He refused to until we came back here to check in with everyone." Ion spoke up, explaining the priest's reasons.
"Well, I suppose it's a good change from Father being all serious and no fun like he was." Esther smiled warmly, happy to see that her friend hadn't changed too much from the events eleven months ago.
"Saint Esther, we're in public. Such behaviour isn't fitting in your presence. Even if it is him." Astha sighed and leaned back in her chair, lifting the cool drink of apple juice to her lips.
"I'm going to go in and get some more cake and tea, if I may?" Abel stood and grinned, holding his hand out to Astha, the latter reluctantly placing some money into the man's gloved hand, "Thank youuu." He smiled and near skipped away from the table and inside.
Inside the shop, he almost ran into a young girl with flame red hair with eyes to match, one he guessed to be no more than sixteen years old.
"Watch where you're walking." The girl's voice was quiet, just enough so he could hear, but also sounded very cold and cruel.
"I do apologise. But maybe you're at fault as well?" Despite the girl's tone, Abel still gave her a smile and spoke gently.
"No, Terran. Now get out of my way, I have important business to attend to." The girl pushed past Abel roughly and headed for the door.
That's when he heard Esther's scream. His body reacted as he expected, and he found himself running passed the young Methuselah girl and out to the dining area where he found a girl with ebony black hair and blue eyes holding Esther to her small body, a blade held to Esther's throat while her hand was held in place almost painfully behind her back.
"Who are you, and what do you want with Esther!" Ion yelled at the girl, worry written all over his face as the girl he loved was being held hostage.
The young girl giggled, proudly answering, "I am Raina Koizumi, Princess of the Resistance. What I want is what the Resistance wants." Raina giggled again as she saw Ion's hands clench and unclench as he tried to decide the best course of action.
"Let her go." Abel spoke loudly, with as much authority he could summon to his voice.
"Why should I? I'm guaranteeing the success of our future goal." Raina smirked and the blade softly pressed into the side of Esther's neck, challenging the group before her more than trying to injure the girl.
"Raina!" A cold voice yelled out and Abel saw the red haired Methuselah run passed him and his friends, a sword aimed ready to attack Raina, not caring at all about the girl being held hostage.
The look on Raina's face was surprise and then anger as she pushed Esther away and moved away from her attacker with complete grace.
"Caius, help!" Raina called out as she kept dodging the attacks, one by one, and Abel could see she wasn't going to last much longer.
"Your beloved lapdog can't come right now, stupid girl. He's more than likely dead by now." The younger girl smirked, her eyes full of evil intent. She swung at Raina once more and slashed across her chest, deep enough for the wound to start bleeding quickly, making her fall to the ground, clutching her chest.
Abel had had enough. Sure the girl tried to take Esther away, but he couldn't let a human be killed while he stood by and did nothing.
"That's enough." Abel made one quick motion and pierced the girl's stomach with a small knife, making sure it was enough to make her retreat with the help of two other Methuselah. No one else was likely to notice this except him though; their speed was enough to rival any other vampire, but wasn't quick enough for his eyes to miss.
"Why are you helping me?" Raina tried pushing Abel away as he started picking her up, "You idiot, I'm the enemy." She then proceeded to hit him on the head several times but gave up after he refused to answer and seemed to be completely unbothered by her actions.
"Are you okay, Esther?" Abel asked as Ion and Astha were fussing over her, checking for any cuts or bruises.
"I'm perfectly fine. Just a little shaken, to be honest…" Esther fell quiet and allowed Ion to help her stand up.
"You were attacked?" Caterina's voice filled the room. It was all thanks to Father William's creativity, one of the few inventions that Abel was glad that hadn't blown up with it's first use.
"It would seem so." Abel answered with a slightly nervous chuckle, "We're all okay, though, so nothing to worry about here."
"And your attacker?" Caterina's voice was now sounding very relieved but still a bit on edge, and Abel couldn't help but wonder how panicked she really was.
"Our attacker was a girl named Raina, calling herself the Princess of the Resistance. However…" Astha paused for a moment to place her words together, "the girl was then attacked by a Methuselah girl. So Abel decided to help her and he brought her back here with us. Ion and Esther are currently watching over her right now, she was badly injured."
"I want you two to find out why she did this, and to find out who the other one was. I apologise Father Abel, I need your help with this, so I must ask that you delay your search for now." Caterina sounded hesitent to ask, but Abel simply smiled goofily, knowing he couldn't turn down an offer made by a close friend, to help other friends. He could never forgive himself if he left and they all ended up in trouble.
"I will stay, Lady Caterina. I will protect everyone." Abel bowed politely towards the device on the table even though he knew Caterina couldn't see him, "I shall take my leave now and check up on the others. Astha, please fill in Lady Caterina on the rest of the details." And with that, Abel quietly left the room after Astha nodded.
Abel shut the door behind him and leaned against the back of a chair, he needed a moment to regain his composure. Cain was still out there, but his friends needed him.
"What am I going to do?" He murmured softly to himself as he stood there rather uncomfortably against the chair.
"About what?"
Abel looked up to see Mary Spencer standing in front of him, she hadn't changed in the last eleven months after he caught a glimpse of her bowing to Esther and offering her services to help better the country.
"Oh, just some boring trivial nonsense." Abel did his best to smile and sound cheerful, waving his hands as if to show that it really was unimportant.
"If you say so…" Mary didn't sound convinced in the least but let it drop anyway and headed towards the room in which Astha was in, "Just don't wreck anything if you're planning something ridiculous." She walked into the room and quickly shut the door before Abel could complain to her about being mean.
Father Nightroad sighed and stood up straight, "Well, I better get going…"
Raina could hear everything around her and could feel something against her chest. Something that made her wound sting, enough to make her cry. The only problem was, she couldn't get her body to respond, and couldn't even open her eyes. It made her feel frail, and knew that if Saint Esther hadn't been talking to her the whole time, she'd be thinking she was going to die.
Why are these people being so kind after I tried to kidnap her? After I threatened to hurt Saint Esther?
"This might sting a little, again, miss Raina. I do apologise…" Esther's voice trailed off and Raina could feel that stinging pain again. It was torturous, but if Caius had taught her anything, it was that pain came with the healing process.
My dear Caius… What has happened to you?
"Hello," someone spoke in an awfully cheery tone, "how's the patient?" it sounded like the priest that had helped her, although, he sounded much too bubbly to be him.
"She's healing much faster than any Terran, yet she's not even a Methuselah… I can't figure it out…" the boy's unmistakable voice, the Earl of Memphis, Ion, spoke softly. He sounded confused and slightly irritated.
"Really?" the bubbly tone in the voice changed to curiosity, and it made her mind instantly click to the priest.
Maybe it is the same person?
Raina could hear some movements and Esther's voice rang out through the room, "F-Father! What are you doing?" She sounded rather panicked, and Raina could feel a weight on her shoulder breifly, causing some pain to go from one end of the cut to the other. Not long after, she could feel her mouth forcibly but gently being opened.
"Huh… She really doesn't have fangs, nor any other indication of being a Methuselah…" the priest trailed off, a thud being heard as he then started complaining to Esther about something hurting. At least he wasn't leaning on her anymore.
Did that idiot even realise he was causing me pain? He is so getting an extra hit on the head when I can move again.
"Father, you were putting pressure on her, more than likely causing more pain for her. And then you looked like you were going to kiss her until you suddenly forced her mouth open. That's just rude." Esther started working on Raina's wound again as she scolded the priest, "Ion, please take Father Nightroad away and make sure he doesn't get into any more trouble?"
"Of course, Esther." The tone in Ion's voice made Raina want to smirk, that boy has it something bad for Esther.
AN: Remember, this is a trial, and if you want more, just leave a review... Even a :) will do. As long as you don't just read and say nothing - I can't put up more if you want it but stay quiet... So R&R?
Also, ideas for the Title change would be much appreciated, unless you guys like the title already.