Note: This story begins after episode 3 of the second season of the Diabolik Lovers anime. I've always wanted to write an anime-based fanfic because it's so different from the games, where Yui always picks a single vampire to have control over her, in one way or another. The anime provides us with a setting where Yui doesn't have that layer of "protection," so I've always been a bit horrified and fascinated by it. Without being claimed, if Yui fell in love with someone, it would be a marvelous disaster...
Warnings: Mature themes, self-harm, sexual violence, vampire stuff, smut in later chapters.
...
Yui Komori died.
She drifted among the clouds as a lost spirit, abandoned by heaven. Around her, a merry-go-round of mauve brick and stained glass windows rotated to the tinkling of chimes, like Yui's soul was trapped in a music box held in the palm of God.
While alive, Yui sought the truth.
In death, what did Yui seek?
Yui awakened.
This wasn't her bedroom. Or, at least, this was not the bed she was used to sleeping in, which had dark pink covers and a canopy. This bed was an unfamiliar shade of light pink. She glanced around, frowning at strange and sour yellow walls, brown wood paneling, and forbidding green windows wreathed in purple curtains. The decor had all the colors of a bruise.
Her hands twisted the silky sheets into shapes. Now in day three of her kidnapping, this was not the first time Yui thought: if only she'd gone to sleep that morning, or if only she'd stayed awake in her bedroom, instead of venturing out into the rose garden... It wasn't as though she made wonderful memories in the garden, but it was also no worse than the rest of the Sakamaki manor, where Yui had surely been bitten in every room. The rose garden was cool, misty, and peaceful, which seemed alluring to her sleepless mind, at the time.
That night, Yui felt agitated and strange, full of premonition. Some deeply unsettled part of her could feel the precipice of change. The car crash on the way to school had been terrifying, but more than that…
Yui climbed out of her bed and dressed as one question rolled through her mind: why, why, why?
After fixing her hair, she fiddled with her rosary, kept in a tray on the vanity. Ayato once gave it back to her. She wondered where he was now. Was he looking for her? Or did he not care enough about her to hunt down his prey? For all his insistence that she belonged to him, Ayato could be quite careless of her well-being...
Yui moved to the window, looking out at the front drive. Part of her still expected a redheaded figure to appear in the distance, but the horizon line was dark.
"Eve?" A pale face appeared in the window glass, surprising her again.
Yui whirled to face her new ghost-no, her new guard - Azusa, who was standing just a little too close. "Uh, my name's not Eve," Yui corrected, clasping her hands in front of her.
It disturbed her that Azusa had snuck up behind her for the fourth time in their brief acquaintance.
First, in the rose garden, commenting, "You smell like me."
Second, in the hall, taking her hand with a, "Do you...like pain?"
Third, at this same window, when he asked her to come to his room…
Yui shuddered.
Breaking though her thoughts, Azusa said, "Yui-san is Eve… I know it..."
"Oh?" She'd never introduced herself, so it somehow surprised her to hear that he knew her real name. No one else used it. His brothers just called her a masochist, a promiscuous woman, and an animal; not a big change from the other vampires she knew. Hearing her name almost felt like an olive branch.
Yui tried to smile. "Um. Okay. What, what brings you to my room?"
"I wanted to talk..."
"Sure," she chirped.
"Hmm…" Azusa didn't start a conversation, and his pale eyes flickered over her. Perhaps he really wanted to look at her?
If so, Yui took the moment to study her odd guest in return, because last night she'd been too alarmed for clear thinking.
Azusa Mukami was the first vampire Yui saw that actually looked undead. Every other vampire Yui encountered had been both extraordinarily good-looking and distinctly supernatural, drawing the eye in with inhuman pallor and fangs that flashed when they spoke. Azusa was no exception, but… there was something unusually off about this particular vampire. His tousled hair and hollow eyes gave him an air of vulnerability, an aura that was strangely melancholy and lifeless.
He was beautiful, but more than that he was haunting. Azusa was more like a ghost than a vampire, and the way he behaved was frightening...
Azusa's dead eyes were glazed as he spoke. "You're lonely… right? Aren't you?"
"Wh, what?" Yui's hands found a lock of her hair, and she combed her fingers through it.
"I know how you feel." Azusa leaned forward, and the shadows in his face deepened. "You don't know if you're alive or dead, do you? We're...the same..."
Horrified by the realization that those lifeless eyes were seeing her, Yui's back hit the cold window, the green metal bars caging her into this room.
Somehow, this undead vampire could see through her facade and recognized a kindred spirit. Somehow, Azusa saw the truth Yui was desperate to shut out: Yui Komori died. She drove a knife through her own heart-the heart that wasn't really hers-the inhuman heart given to her as a baby, salvaged from a dead vampire queen whose spirit returned to possess Yui's body.
When she killed herself, Yui thought everyone's suffering would end. Yui wanted to destroy herself, Cordelia's curse, and the dark ending predicted by Richter, who threatened that Yui's tainted blood would drive the Sakamaki brothers into madness and murder in their desire to possess her. They brought her back to life, but Yui didn't feel alive. She felt exhausted, like part of her soul got lost on the other side. Perhaps that's why the brothers she once tried to protect... abandoned her to these new masters.
Yui's hands clutched the heart-shaped necklace she always wore; it was one of her last trinkets from her old life. Her first life? With her mouth trembling, she asked, "H-how did you know that?"
Azusa spoke like an ancient oracle. "Eyes full of despair… I've seen them before… back then..."
Despair… Her eyebrows drew together. Was that what was wrong with her? She lost her life and her hope? Yui didn't think of herself as hopeless, but… she felt so tired…
Azusa stepped forward. "You're so sad, Yui-san... Let me… help you." He stretched out a hand to her.
Hearing her own name again made her gasp, but more than that- "Help me…?"
Could Azusa help her?
No, wait, did Azusa mean to help her with a knife, again?
Yui grasped the purple curtains wafting against her arms and held one in each hand like a pair of security blankets. Hoping to avoid another painful incident, Yui tried to let him down. "I don't need help. And, I don't want to hurt you..."
"Why not?" Azusa lowered his eyes.
Yui shivered. She'd rather be bitten than be forced to hurt someone… though, of course, she'd prefer it if neither happened! She clutched the purple curtains tighter and pressed back harder against the window panes, burrowing into the split of cold and warm.
"It's alright…" He soothed, stepping close and running a finger along the edge of the thin fabric, her only shield.
"Umm..." Yui faltered. She desperately shouted the first thing that came to mind: "Library!"
"Huh?" Azusa blinked and tilted his head like a dog.
Yui straightened her twitching shoulders and pasted on a smile. "Will you help me find the library in this mansion? I'd love to see it."
"Yes..." Azusa's brows drew together in anxiety. For a moment, he did and said nothing, and made Yui wonder if she could ever escape his ghoulish plans for her…but Azusa's cool fingers darted through the curtains and grabbed her hand. He tugged her forward a step. "Come on…"
Shocked, Yui blushed. Holding hands with a boy… even if he was a vampire…
"After all… you are my precious Eve."
Ah, no, Yui couldn't think about that. Precious how, anyway? Precious enough to bite? Precious enough to drop on the floor like an unwanted toy?
The agitation in her skin didn't disappear.
Following her quiet guide, Yui took in the various closed doors and large windows. When she'd made her first escape attempt, the hallways were labyrinth of dark paneling and nightmare bright wallpaper. She supposed there had to be a way to memorize the intricate layout of the mansion, though. Looking closer, Yui could see the hallways weren't entirely identical, even if the wood paneling was all the same. There were a lot of inside plants and fresh flower pots scattered around, and large paintings of fruit, pastoral scenes, and yet more flower bouquets. Maybe she could use them as landmarks?
Last night, Yui only made it to Azusa's room by chance, and what a strange affair that chance led her into...
Somehow, Yui escaped being cut by one of Azusa's glittering, jeweled "treasures," and even imagined for a second that Azusa had shown her mercy… but when the blade reflected Yui's horrified face back at her, she saw this was another kind of trap, where Azusa both bit her and forced Yui to hurt him, too.
His response to his own blood had been… strange and sad. The memory of Azusa's eyes fogging over as he smiled at the blood dripping from his wound filled Yui's chest with an ache she couldn't explain.
Azusa said, "When I bleed, everyone is happy..."
He rambled, staring off into space, "More… Give me more. Hit me more..."
His low voice grew softer. "Please, give me a reason to live… proof that I'm alive…"
Yui eyed him now, but there was no sign of that delirious behavior-Azusa simply looked tired as he pulled her along.
She also couldn't help but notice that Azusa's hand didn't feel smooth. She thought all vampires had flawless, cold skin, almost like stone. Looking down, she saw Azusa's hands were flicked with little translucent bumps of scar tissue. She could feel a particularly long scar on his palm, too.
"Here," Azusa's vague voice announced.
Their library was a room full of dark wood bookshelves set against the same brilliant emerald wallpaper as Ruki's bedroom.
Pulling free, Yui browsed the shelves. At least some of the books were in Japanese. The Sakamaki manor had a library, too, but the titles were all in foreign languages. The most Yui could do in there was look at the pictures, to Reiji's disdain. There were foreign titles mixed within this collection as well, and they appeared to be all one language-a latin-based script of some kind.
Her fingers danced over a variety of shapes and sizes: slim children's books, large tomes of philosophy, and a lot of awkwardly shaped history books. Yui wouldn't be bored, even if she did have to be trapped in this mansion.
"What are you looking for…?" Azusa's voice sounded farther away than he actually stood.
Looking up, Yui smiled weakly. "Oh, nothing in particular... I just wanted something to read…" She pulled Frankenstein off a shelf. This had an Adam in it, didn't it? Maybe she could find a clue…?
"So, you like to read...? I see." Azusa chuckled in an eerie way. His hands slid over the bookshelf, wiping away invisible dust. Then he almost floated across the room and pushed open another door.
Curious, Yui peeked inside and found more emerald wallpaper, dark wood, and jewel-toned accessories. She froze as she recognized the dark green chairs. "This is Ruki-kun's room!"
She'd fallen against that chair after Ruki took her blood. And that was the carpet he'd thrown her down onto, she was sure!
"Yes," Azusa blinked at her. "Ruki has... more books..."
"I-I...can't…" Yui retreated. The pleasant surprise in her system was doused in ice water, because this lovely library was connected to Ruki's room, where… Yui closed her eyes against the memory of cold words tearing into her.
"Are you trying to make me feel bad for you? Unfortunately, that doesn't work on vampires."
"Are you okay, Eve…?"
She shuddered at the strange name.
"Since they kept you as their pet, even your heart began to believe it was livestock."
Her eyes opened when she backed into one of the bookshelves and rattled it's contents. Desperate to leave this place and the spectre of piercing disgust, Yui clutched Frankenstein to her chest. "Can I take this to my room? Ruki-kun won't get angry, will he?"
Azusa shook his head. "I'll tell him."
When he brought her back to her room, Azusa let her off with a simple goodbye. Yui didn't think much of it; she felt glad Azusa didn't demand her blood or make her hurt him again.
Later, Yui found a stack of novels on her vanity. Some of them were unusually battered, with cracked spines, faded covers, and dog-eared pages. She recognized some of the titles as classics, like Carmilla and Dracula. She flipped through other titles like The Vampyre and Interview with a Vampire, and wondered if someone thought they were being funny.
Nevertheless, Yui decided to treat them as a serious opportunity. She flipped through the novels looking for clues-anything, anything at all about "Eve," "Adam," or awakening blood. Nothing jumped out. Even though she half-remembered that the monster in Frankenstein declared, "I ought to be thy Adam"... Well, Yui couldn't be sure if anything she found was relevant or not.
Any secret to these books had to be hidden deep. Yui decided to read through them all, one by one.
From the top of the stack, she picked a paperback with a deeply concerned woman gazing at a shadowy house behind her. Yui curled up on her bed (but not her bed) and propped up the pillows so she could lean against the headboard (itself engraved with a tree, she noticed, thinking of her dreams). The book's plot was silly and the heroine made some ridiculously bad choices, but it was a page turner with a rapid pace.
Finishing a chapter, Yui stopped and held the thin book in open with both hands. She felt the strangest sensation…
Once upon a time, Yui loved to read. Growing up, her home didn't have a television or a computer. She tried to speak with Father about that once, and received a stern lecture about how he wanted to raise her right, as separate from worldly influences as possible. Even if that meant she'd always be sort of an odd girl out, even in a Catholic girl's school, because Yui never knew a thing about idols or shows or movies. She was allowed her books, however, and the exciting worlds within could sweep her away from her normal life. She used to check out piles of fantasy and romance novels from her old school's library.
Yui hugged the paperback to her chest, tight enough to hurt. She'd been so consumed with what was happening to her-with pain and fear and survival and death-that she almost forgot how much fun it could be to get caught up in a story. Her suffering had eclipsed the memories of the small things she once loved.
Notes: Buckle up, we've got a lot of chapters to go in this strange and slightly morbid love story. Most chapters are written, and I'll be polishing them up to post! Updates on Saturday. I hope you enjoy the ride~!
