Hello! This is my first fanfic in a real long time. I'm really excited about and hope that it's enjoyable since it's something different.

Enjoy

Chapter one: Cross Academy

"Wow, I wasn't expecting this place to be so… small…." Shiori said to herself once she stepped off the train she had ridden for the last five hours. She was used to large towns and cities, cities like London, Rome and more recently Madrid with its fair sea-scent breezes. Her should-length black hair ruffled in the breeze as she began her slow walk, her blue gray eyes scanned the building and the first parts of the town that she could see, and her ivory hands gripped the two suitcases in front of her. Finally, she let out a loud sigh placing one of the suitcases down before taking out the thin crumbled card she kept inside her pocket. Two addresses were there in perfect computer print, the two names of the places under each address. The first, was the name and the address of the new apartment she was suppose to live in, bought a long time ago by her uncle, for times he may have had to use it during the time when he work his old job of being a vampire hunter, the second was the address was the one of the new school she was suppose to be attending starting tomorrow. The school was ran by an old friend of her uncle, someone called Kaien Cross. Oh, how he used to ramble on about his adventures with his old friend that was know another life away, and useless details about close-calls and the "almost". Not that Shiori ever bother with such stories, even though now she desperately tried to recall a single fact about this person. She turned the card over where a mini map was drawn for her to direct her from the train station to her new living arrangements. Under the map for the directions for school it simply said "Ask Zero". She hoped he lived nearby, but she couldn't always trust her uncles so called "facts". After I get there I guess I should start getting ready for school. Shiori thought as she memorized the card. She almost shuddered at that thought. When was the last time I've been at a school? It's been so many years I can hardly remember being at a school. She worried about classes she might have to take, she worried about the material she'd have to learn, and so how, she'd know that something would go wrong and it would be her uncle's entire fault. She remembered how she last saw him only a week ago, when he decided to give her the dreaded news.

One week ago

One of Shiori's uncle's mansions was up to the north of France, getting there for once was simply since she was in Paris at the time, practicing her newly-learnt language on the natives, who could understand her just barely. She praised any person she met who could speak English. She remember getting though the gates and entering the room where her uncle had been patiently waiting for her.

"Uncle Haru!" She yelled out in happiness as she pushed the door completely open with one arm. "It's great to see you again, although I hope you didn't invite me here on just personal business, I was very busy with several tips I still have to check in on." Shiori continued placing one hand on her hip and pointing her finger on her other hand almost like she was going to nag at him if he did. Her black cloak that floated over her body like a ghost looming in a house, and her cloak along with her jeans and white tang top fluttered dust everywhere with each movement she made. Her face was still covered by the hood, so much so that her Uncle's guest couldn't see her face.

"Our business by nature is personal, only known by you, me and a selected few." Her uncle began in his usual laid back business voice that he only used in front of certain guests who were, as they called them, ignorantly blessed. "I'm sorry about this but we're going to have to continue this another time, perhaps tomorrow night." Haru continued as he picked up all the papers on the desk and handed it to his guest. His guest lost and confused at the certain actions that just happen, just nodded slightly, took the papers and left.

"So," Her uncle began as soon as his guest left, "tell me of your adventures, I want to hear every part of it," Haru said completely interested in what happen during their time apart as Shiori pulled down her hood revealing her tired face. Haru only just reached the age of 28, and he himself would still be a vampire hunter if he felt he had more of a responsibility to his niece once her parents were no longer a part of this Earth. He still enjoyed what small adventures he could afford and was jealous of any Shiori got to enjoy.

"Uh, Madrid was practically a death trap! I should have guess that some many blanks would have preoccupied a place that's both land and water. I couldn't stay for more than two days without being forced to retreat from the city for my own health." Shiori stated as her head dropped down to the back of the couch.

"That bad huh?" Her uncle questioned.

"They've become more persistent, too, I was just coming up her, not two hours ago, when I was attacked by a hoard of them. It took an hour to finally get rid of them all." Shiori continued raising her head and bringing her feet up to the couch and over each other as she spoke.

"Interesting…." Haru muttered to himself.

"So," Shiori began placing her hands in the space created by her legs. "Why'd you call me over here? I wasn't kidding about checking out a bunch of tips for anything useful."

"Well…" Haru began immediately trying to avoid eye contact. "I've been thinking that it can't be health for you to always be traveling, and not having much contact with kids your own age…" he paused for a moment while Shiori took her chance to fit something in before he could continue.

"Why don't I like where this is going?"

"Because, I decided that it would be best if you went back to high school for a couple of years." Haru said, trying to keep his voice as loud as possible.

Shiori started laughing so loud that the maids down stairs could hear her. Then he said that it was a boarding school, which made her laugh so hard, tears started coming out of her eyes, and her stomach began hurting. It wasn't until that she realized that her dear uncle wasn't laughing with her that she began to worry.

"Wait, you're not serious, are you?" She asked him in the most serious voice she could muster.

"It's a good school, I check about it myself. Not to mention that my good friend is the one running it."

"A BOARDING SCHOOL?" Shiori yelled, that wasn't just surprising, that was stupid too.

"You won't actually be living at the school, there's an old apartment of mine that you could live in, it's in the city and not that far from the school."

"You can't really be doing this!" Shiori exclaimed.

"Done, actually you start next week," her uncle said trying to make it as understandable as possible and at that exact moment, Shiori was seriously considering knocking some sense into him with a book or something. In fact she almost did.

Present

Shiori was just coming up the front steps by the time it the sun had begun to set. She had cursed her uncle several times from making a crappy map and had to ask four people before she could finally find the place. She tried the front door a few times, doubled check the address twice before finally realizing it was locked. Thankfully, the one smart thing her uncle did before sending off was give her two keys, one for the front door and one for her new room.

"Keys, keys," she muttered to herself before remembering that she put it in the place she always did. She checked the sock of her right shoe before finally finding the two keys. It was an unusual habit she had acquired during her travels when she realized that she usually ripped or had put a hole in almost every pocket she could have ever hope to own, so she started to put it in her sock instead. She had opened the door and had just started look for the room numbers when she saw the barrel of a gun, she had just enough time to fall to the floor when the gun was fired hitting not only the key, but the person behind her. The person behind her she hadn't notice, the fact that the key was know in two pieces and that she was just fired at was what concerned her the most.

"What did I do?" She yelled out, not practically to anyone but more to her fate and own damn luck.

That's an interesting way to end the first chapter, don't you think? The second one will be up real soon.

Please leave comments or criticism but no flares.

Thank you