Okay , here is the Prolouge for The Hunter and The Hunted, this part of the story is completely set in the Vampire Knight universe, the Ghost Hunt charcters and events start appearing in the next chapter. I don't own the manga and anime series' Ghost Hunt and Vampire Knight. Enjoy!
The dark night air swirled around the team of five as they stood in a circle by the blood stained building, their backs facing each other and weapons drawn as they faced off the enemy. They may have been outnumbered ten-to-one but they refused to just lay down and die.
Kiryuu Imia, the silver haired, lilac eyed, thirteen year old leader of the group, stood, gun in one hand, sword clenched tightly in the other, her psychic abilities being worked to the max as she reloaded her gun without opening herself up for attack so as to not draw attention from her team. Her family.
Hina Rei, a fifteen year old girl with dark blue hair and copper coloured eyes, stood opposite her leader in the circle, her twin brother, Hina Kai, his hair and eyes a slightly lighter shade than his sister's, stood to her left. The twins wielded identical katana, preferring the traditional Japanese blade over the weightier style of sword that Imia wielded, neither carried guns.
Frei, a quiet and detached blond haired, green eyed boy of eighteen, the oldest of the group, had his two identical hand guns drawn on two of his targets, no emotion on his face, even as he glanced over his shoulder at his leader to see Imia slowly being forced away from the group as her ammunition supply ran out, forcing her to rely solely on her significant store of spiritual ability and her sword. Frei cursed quietly and signalled to his team mates what was happening.
Frei was joined in cursing by the last member of the group, sixteen year old Kurai Akira, her long black hair billowing in the slight breeze while her eyes, the same colour as the blood that had splattered onto her exposed arms and tank top, glittered in the moon light. Akira was the second in command of the group, and when Imia was separated from the group her orders where followed to the letter without hesitation.
"Rei, Kai, you're together." She ignored Frei's muttered 'As always' and simply continued after sending a brief glare at her friend. "Take out as many as you can, and please try and contact Imia." The twins nodded absently as they moved to stand back to back, twin katana always facing the enemy. Akira turned then to Frei, conveying her orders with just a glance.
The tall teen nodded, showing that he understood what was wanted of him even as he moved to press his back to hers.
They were all used to fighting in pairs, even Imia, though her partner had died on a previous ambush by the enemy. She'd gone to her parents home for over a week without contacting her team, behaviour that Frei suspected would have continued had he not gone over there himself to personally snap her out of her funk. She hadn't let him into her old room, where she'd been hiding, until after he'd told her of his past. They both knew that she wouldn't tell the others.
Kai's shriek brought Akira and Frei's attention to where the twins were. His copper eyes were distant, his body operating on instinct alone as enemies continued to swarm to them, and continued to be felled by the deadly sharp edges of the Shikyoyaba, the death blades, the twin katana. "Imia's in trouble! They were waiting for her to separate from us to attack her without any of us stepping in to help her!"
At Kai's words the only thought going through Frei's head was a long string of curses. So distracted by his worry for his best friend was he that he barely noticed the distinctive brush of wind against his side that signalled the passing of one of Akira's daggers.
The four members of the team that remained were all silent except for the songs of their weapons and the screams of their enemies as they fell, each silently praying that Imia would be alright on her own.
Imia let her instincts guide her as she felt her body tire from the constant use of her PK and the long battle that she was fighting. The Saigo no Shikyo, the Final Death, was growing heavy in her hands, she'd long since returned her gun to its holster on her left thigh. Another enemy attempted to sneak up behind her but was stopped by the shield that she'd formed around her back at the same time she was forced away from the rest of her team.
Knowing that her shield wouldn't last much longer, the youngest Kiryuu sibling gathered what of her spiritual energy she wasn't using into a tight sphere that hovered serenely in front of her, waiting for the moment that her shield would drop. Relying on her instincts she lashed out with Saigo no Shikyo a final time before sheathing the silver blade in its sheath upon her left hip in order to protect it from the explosion she planned on releasing.
There was a sound like shattering glass, and Imia knew that her shield had just collapsed, sparing barely a second to take a deep breathe, the thirteen year old released the psychic energy she had collected and condensed into a sphere barely the size of her palm.
The explosion that insured knocked her into the wall of a building, she gasped at the pain that laced her body and did her best to ignore the blood that was dyeing her pale silver hair crimson and grey, while vampires were vaporised all around her. Thick bruises and small burn marks were begging to form on her arms and hands, but she paid them no head as she forced herself to stand despite her broken leg and sprained ankle.
Something doesn't feel right. She thought tiredly. Her hands drifting to her weapons as she tried to determine what was wrong with her surroundings. Her answer was given to her when she felt a sword slice into the skin of her lower back.
Sparing no time to truly process the fact she leapt forward, twisting as she did so to face her attacker, sword drawn and ready to carve them into pieces as it had so many before. The form that met her eyes caused her to still. Before her stood a vampire with crimson hair and eyes that glittered like Rubies. This was a vampire that Imia had seen before and had to focus on the pain that was the gash on her lower back to stop herself from drifting in her memories of the last time she'd seen this particular vampire.
A smirk was crawling its way across the vampire's lips, and it was enough to make the Hunter shiver. "Well now, it appears that I have you to thank for the destruction of my puppets." Her voice was like ice, a distinct contrast to the flames of her hair and eyes, with a faint Russian accent.
Giving a 'humph' as she brushed back strands of silver-dyed-red hair, Imia moved into a more subtle stance. "Not really. There's still a few running around that managed to avoid the explosion, and then there are those that my friends have been dealing with." Lilac eyes narrowed faintly. "But it seems that we've forgotten our manners. I'm Kiryuu Imia, Vampire Hunter. You?" The question was more for politeness and any bounty on the vampires head, her contact camera was still working perfectly, as was the small recorder that had been implanted into her earring, there recordings would be enough proof of the vampire to warn the other Hunter's, than anything else, she knew who this vampire was, to gain the bounty for the death of the vampire if she were able to kill it, though, she would need it's name to be given, as nobody knew that she had seen this vampire before, and she had no intentions of revealing when she had seen the crimson haired beast before, she, and it almost pained Imia to think of this creature as female, was included in being in the rather large group that didn't know that the teenager had seen the vampire and knew perfectly well who she was, the vampire also didn't know who she was.
Crimson hair fluttered as the female vampire stepped backwards at the sound of the Hunter's name. "Kiryuu? I thought they were all dead." The words were more hissed than whispered, and if Imia were a less experienced Hunter she'd likely of taken several steps backwards out of pure fear.
You'd know, wouldn't you? Imia thought hatefully, she didn't even need to focus on not projecting the thought as she'd used all of her psychic energy to form the explosion that had killed so many of the vampire's puppets. "Well, we're not. Now answer my question, Puppet master! Who are you?"
It was with a huff that the vampire answered. "Sari, The Puppet Mistress."
"Well, Sari, The Puppet Mistress, would you like to get this show on the road? Or would you rather wait until other Hunter's arrive?" The youngest Kiryuu sibling felt no small amount of pleasure at having so easily angered the vampire.
There was a smirk crawling across Sari's lips again, this one unsettled Imia as much as the first time she'd seen a blood crazed Level E, she'd been six at the time and on her own.
"Perhaps I'll just wait for my poison to take hold of you and have you destroy the Hunter's Association." The Puppet Mistress chuckled as she launched herself forwards, her black sword meeting Imia's silver a mere half second later, and Imia cursed silently at the fact that she was facing such a fast vampire without the added boost of her PK.
This is going to be hard. Harder than anything else that I've faced over the years. She thought as she blocked three more strikes from the vampire, keeping her form as still as possible.