Chapter One
Kaname the Vampire Slayer
Kaname Hitokiri was not your ordinary fifteen-year-old high school girl. It wasn't ordinary for a high school girl to be hanging out in a graveyard on a Saturday night. It wasn't ordinary for a high school girl to be sitting on a gravestone over a freshly filled grave. No, there was definitely nothing ordinary about her. Kaname grumbled and hopped off the gravestone.
"Come on already, I don't got all night! Stupid vampires, why doesn't anybody ever stay dead around here." She kicked a pebble into the gravestone and it made a whining cracking sound. Wait, that wasn't from the rock… that was from the grave.
"About damn time!" A dirty, bloody hand found it's way to the top of the grave, followed by an arm, then a head. Soon the vampire was standing before a very irritated Kaname. She raised her hand from her hip and jabbed a manicured finger into his chest.
"Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting out here for you! I mean, how long does it take to crawl out of a grave? I could have been at a club or hanging with my friends but no! You had to decide that you wanted to take all night to wake up. I don't have to listen to this!" She jabbed the silver sword she had been holding in her other hand into the very confused vampires heart and he exploded in a cloud of dust. Kaname huffed and turned around, only to run into the chest of someone and fall to the ground.
"What the-?" Kaname rubbed the back of her head where it had hit a grave stone.
"Kaname Hitokiri, Vampire Slayer?" Kaname's vision was slightly blurred from the bump on the head but she could vaguely make out the figures of two men dressed in black suits.
"Yeah, what's it to ya?" She crawled to her feet slowly, her head slightly spinning.
"You're going to have to come with us." Each of the two men grabbed one of her arms and began walking out of the graveyard.
"If this is about those bootleg movies I swear I had no idea it was illegal." A portal opened up in front of them and they walked right through it, coming out of the other side into a large white room that looked to be someone's office. Kaname was released and she turned to glare at her captors. She was about to tell them off when she realized that they were blue. Kaname backed away from the blue things and right into a chair.
"Their, Their, Their!" Kaname pointed at the blue men.
"Ogre's?" a voice to the side finished and she nodded her head quickly. She turned to look at the speaker and nearly fell out of her chair. It was a baby! It had a pacifier in its mouth and everything.
"Your, your-" Kaname's eyes widened slightly as she stared at the toddler.
"Prince Koenma! Jr. ruler of Spirit World!" Kaname turned back to where the two blue ogres had been and found a smiling blue haired girl instead. She was wearing a pink kimono and carried what seemed to be an ore in her right hand. Kaname took a second to get over the fact that she was looking at a girl with blue hair, that was so obviously died cuz nobody had naturally blue hair, and a talking toddler and assessed the situation.
"Did you just say Spirit World?" The blue haired girl nodded cheerfully and floated, yes floated, over to the desk in front of her. Kaname made a mental note to schedule an eye exam when she woke up from this dream.
"Yes, that's right. This is Spirit World, and I am Botan, guide for lost souls!" Kaname looked at the blue haired girl incredulously.
"You're the grim reaper?" Botan shook her head in disbelief. She turned to Koenma.
"Why does everyone find that so hard to believe?" The jr. god just shrugged. Kaname was confused; if this was spirit world then didn't that mean…
"Am I dead?" Botan turned back to the girl and shook her head vehemently, waving her hands franticly.
"Oh heavens no! You aren't scheduled to die for a long while. At least another twenty years or so." Kaname let out a sigh of relief.
"Well that's a relief. So if I'm not dead, why am I here?" Botan blinked at the girl.
"You're the vampire slayer." Kaname nodded, she already knew that.
"Yeah and?" Botan blinked again.
"You slay vampires." Kaname rolled her eyes. Was the girl stupid?
"That is the job description. At least that's what they tell me." Koenma glared at Botan, clearly the girl did not understand.
"Oh Botan your just confusing the poor girl! We need your help." Kaname crossed her arms in a superior way and popped her feet up on his desk.
"What in the world could you possibly need that would require my assistance?" Koenma sat back in his chair with a heavy thud.
"Kieran. Ring a bell?" Kaname visibly stiffened, her eyes going wide.
"Try an alarm. I fought him before, he nearly killed me." Koenma held up a finger.
"Not before you managed to wound him, which is more than any other slayer has been able to do before you. That's why we need your help." Kaname stood up from her chair, visibly shaken, a far away look in her eyes.
"No, no I'm not going through that again. Kieran is a monster, he doesn't kill you just because he has to, he thrives on his victim's screams. He lives for it… And he killed my best friend. He tortured her for days, right in front of me. To this day I can still hear her begging me to kill her. Never again." Kaname spat out and turned on her heals to leave, not exactly knowing where she was going but anywhere was better than here. Koenma called out after her.
"You wouldn't be alone, you'll have help. I have assigned my Spirit Detectives to the case. They've never failed a mission." Kaname stopped and turned her head to the side, her voice cold and steely.
"They've never fought Kieran." Koenma was getting desperate.
"Kaname please. We need your expertise. You spent a month with him0, no one has ever been able to get that close and live to tell it. You know his moves. We really need your help. If not for us, do it for Kanna. It's your chance to finally get the retribution you've been longing for. She wouldn't want you to give up." Kaname closed her eyes and clenched her fists, her body tensed then relaxed. She sighed heavily.
"I'll think about it." Koenma nodded.
"That's all I ask." Kaname turned to the demi god with a forlorn look.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to go home now." Koenma nodded and looked to the blue haired ferry girl.
"Of course, Botan." Botan stood at attention.
"Right away sir." Botan hopped onto the ore and motioned for Kaname to get on behind her. Kaname looked at the ferry girl like she'd just sprouted horns. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
"You want me to get on that?" Botan nodded enthusiastically.
"I assure you it's perfectly safe! I've never once lost a rider! Unless you count that one time with Yusuke but that was his own fault." Kaname looked warily at the wooden stick and cautiously slid onto the back, wrapping her arms loosely around the girl's waist.
"Hold on tight!" Botan took off, Kaname's grip on her strengthened substantially as they flew through the air over Kaname's block. Kaname spotted her house and chanced removing her arm to point down at her house. Botan soared down and dropped a trembling Kaname down on the rooftop.
"Well, if it's any consolation, I'd really enjoy having another girl around on the team. The testosterone poisoning is reaching an all time high. It's only a matter of time before they start turning on eachother. And I'm afraid Kuwabara might be the first to go. Especially with him fawning all over Yukina left and right. I'm surprised Hiei hasn't gutted him already. Well anyway, Goodnight!" The ferry girl poised to take flight.
"Botan?" Botan stopped and turned to face a very distraught Kaname.
"Yes?" Kaname hugged herself against the wind.
"You're the grim reaper right?" Botan nodded.
"Yes that's right." Kaname shifted uncomfortably.
"So when Kanna died, you would have been the one to guide her to the afterlife." Botan placed a hand on her chin and a thoughtful look crossed her face.
"Lets see now, Kanna, oh yes! Kanna Hanajima, I remember her quite well. Quite the firecracker that one." Botan's look softened at the pained expression on Kaname's face as she remembered her friend. "She's in a good place. She's not suffering anymore."
"I know it's just… Hard, Ya know?" Tears lined the corners of her eyes.
"You cared for her very deeply. I remember she was very concerned about you. It put her at peace, knowing you would be safe. I think that was the most important thing to her. Making sure that you were alright." Kaname wiped the tears from her eyes and let out a strangled laugh.
"That sounds like Kanna, always thinking about others before herself." Botan smiled at the slayer and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You should get some rest, you have school tomorrow. And please, do consider Koenma's offer. Goodnight Kaname." Botan tuned to take off and was in the air when Kaname's voice stopped her.
"Hey Botan!" She turned in mid air.
"Hm?" Kaname smiled at her warmly.
"…Thanks." Botan smiled back and drifted off into the night, leaving a very distraught Kaname to her thoughts.
Kaname woke in the morning to the sound of chirping birds. Odd, her room was in the basement; there shouldn't be birds in the basement. She opened her eyes a little ways and realized that she was still on the roof. She must have cried herself to sleep. That was when she realized what time it was. 8:25. She was going to be late for school! One more tardy and she was for sure that they were going to suspend her. She rushed down the stairs, throwing on random clothes. She grabbed a piece of toast off the plate on the table and rushed for the door. Her older brothers calm voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Your not going to school like that are you?" Her older brother, Yuki Hitokiri, student body president and resident royalty at her high school, next to the infamous Shuichi Minamino. He had his own fan club and everything. It wasn't surprising to her, he was gorgeous. Of course being his sister she didn't think these things about him, but she had friends. And all of them had had a crush on him at one time or another. He stood about five foot eleven, he was lean and toned from tennis, yeah he was a tennis guy, and he had these piercing indigo eyes that always seemed to catch you in their stare. His black hair was short in the back and got longer in the front, framing his almost feminine face.
He was very polite and sophisticated to people he didn't know, but he was harsh and unyielding to those he didn't like, though no one had really ever seen that side of him but her and a few others. Most of the time he was very calm and collected. Kaname always found it funny that the girls at her school went for all the feminine looking guys.
They never believed that Kaname and Yuki were siblings, much less related. They were so completely different. Kaname was rash and impulsive where as Yuki was cool and calculating. Not to mention they looked nothing alike.
Kaname's waist length hair was a deep black, almost blue color and she always had it up in a ponytail on the top of her head, held with a rather large white bow. She was very short, reaching just under five foot, and to top it all off she was tiny everywhere.
Most girls her age had already hit puberty and grown hips and breasts, not Kaname. Puberty had not been kind to her. Her breasts were too small in her opinion, although it was nice to have a small chest when fighting vampires and demons and the like, but not when trying to get a date. Her hips also weren't as voluptuous as she would have liked them to be. She wasn't shapely like her friend Ayumi, who practically had to beat the guys off with a pole, but she wasn't a stick either.
Years of hard training had sculpted her body to a toned precision. She had a dancers build and it helped make her movements more graceful in a fight. Despite that fact she had taken ballet when she was young, until she turned twelve, when she had been called. Her legs and arms were lean muscle and her stomach was flat and toned. All of her friends raged on her about putting her looks down, saying they would kill to have a body like hers but she knew they were just trying to cheer her up.
Kaname did however have a soft spot for her eyes. She had her mother's eyes, a soft steel blue, clear as day. Her long bangs were always falling in her eyes and her dad would brush them out of the way just to look at them, they reminded him of her. Her mother had died in childbirth with her. She had been a model. That was how she and Kaname's father had met, her father, Hatori Hitokiri, was a photographer. He had been the photographer of one of her shoots and they instantly fell in love. It was a beautiful story. She often felt responsible for her mother's death but her father would always console her, telling her it was just her time to go. Kaname kissed her picture every morning before leaving the house.
Kaname followed her brothers gazed to her clothes and eeked. Her top was on backwards and her skirt was inside out, not to mention she was only wearing one sock and her shoes were on the wrong feet.
"Where did you ever learn how to dress yourself? Go upstairs and change, you'll be an embarrassment to us all walking into school like that." Kaname glared at her brother and raced back up the stairs to change.
When she finally had herself all straitened out she raced back down the stairs to find Yuki had already left. She looked at the clock, 8:29. Crap! Oh well, she was gonna be late anyway, why rush? She only lived two blocks from the school and she trudged the whole way there, dragging her feet. She dragged herself into her first class, bowing apologetically to the teacher.
"Miss Hitokiri, how nice of you to finally join us." Kaname bowed low and apologized profusely.
"I'm very sorry Ms. Kazame! I promise it won't happen again!" The teacher sighed.
"I'm sorry miss Hitokiri, but I'm afraid that I must send you to the office. I have already notified the principal that you would be coming." Kaname hung her head and turned to leave.
"I understand." Ms. Kazame placed a soothing hand on her shoulder.
"Your brother is student body president isn't he? Maybe he can put in a good word." Kaname looked at the woman skeptically.
"Yuki? Yeah right, he's more of the it serves you right, you need to learn a lesson type." Ms. Kazame smiled.
"I'm sure it won't be so bad." Kaname shrugged it off and walked out the door, waving to her teacher.
"Yeah, right, see ya next week Ms. Kazame."
"Kaname Hitokiri. You are quite the little trouble maker." Kaname sat in the stuffy little office that belonged to the principal of her school. She noticed the bowel of thumbtacks sitting on the table and reached in to pull one out. Her overblown windbag of a principal was droning on about morals and codes and she really could have cared less.
She had spotted a fly buzzing around the room and popped the thumbtack into her mouth. She watched it for about five minuets before it landed on the bulletin board behind the principal's head. She took aim and spit the thumbtack at the stationary insect, effectively nailing it to the bulletin board. The principal turned his head to the fly attached to his bulletin board and pulled the thumbtack out, the fly remaining on the end. It twitched and the old man threw it into the nearest trash bin, looking a little green.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" The old man gulped and turned his wide-eyed gaze back to Kaname.
"Miss Hitokiri, as you know, the punishment for a month of tardiness is a weeks suspension." Kaname propped her feet up on the desk in front of her and fiddled with the letter opener.
"I know." The principal, not necessarily feeling that it was the best idea to have the girl playing with sharp objects, snatched the letter opener away from her and locked it safely in his desk.
"But, your brother has explained your condition and I am willing to settle for two weeks detention." Her condition? What exactly had Yuki told the old bastard? It didn't matter really; it had gotten her out of a suspension. It was good to have family in high places.
"Yes very tragic. It is only fair." The principal looked at her a little suspiciously before shaking his head and continuing.
"Your detentions will be served after school every day with Ms. Kazame, as it is her class you disrupt everyday with your tardiness. Please try to be more punctual in the future. Your free to go." Kaname stood and saluted before striding out the door, she caught Yuki leaning against the doorframe outside the office.
"So, how'd it go?" Kaname walked over and hooked her arm in his.
"I have two weeks of detention thanks to you." Yuki smirked down at his little sister.
"Your welcome." Kaname looked up at him with a suspicious look on her face as they walked down the hall to her class.
"What exactly did you tell him about my so called 'condition'?" Yuki got that mischievous look on his face whenever he tried to be funny.
"I told him you're out fighting vampires and demons all night and that you are very tired in the morning after all that hunting." That earned him a punch in the arm. Yuki had first found out about Kaname being the slayer one night when they were walking home from the grocery store and had been attacked by three vampires.
Yuki had tried to fight them and told Kaname to run for it but they had over powered him and gone after Kaname. She had defeated them easily, having been the slayer for a year by that time. She took him home and bandaged him up, telling him everything about her sacred birthright. He had taken it all in stride, claiming it had explained a lot of things about the way Kaname had been acting for the past year. It had taken him a while to get used to the fact that demons were real and all that but he accepted it and tried to help her out the best he could. For which Kaname was very grateful. It was nice to have someone to talk to about slaying other than her diary.
"I'm serious Yuki! What did you tell that poor man?" Yuki smiled and jabbed his hands into his pockets.
"I told him you were studying hard for your finals and you hadn't been getting much sleep, not to mention that your extremely malnourished. He ate it right up. Humans can be so gullible. I've never once in my life seen you study for anything." Kaname turned and stomped her foot down in protest.
"Hey I study, in between slaying and the mall, I study!" Yuki leaned up against the wall next to Kaname's next class.
"Sure you do, listen, I got a partner project to do so I won't be home until late tonight. Dad's at a conference in Tokyo so your gonna be by yourself, you think you can handle it?" Kaname put her hands on her hips.
"I'm a big girl Yuki. I can take care of myself. Slayer remember? I'm all uber powerful." Yuki just shrugged.
"I know, but I still worry." Kaname placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"If it worry's you that much I'll have Ayumi stay the night. Wouldn't want you getting any wrinkles or gray hair, your fan club might murder me. Wouldn't that be a bummer? Vampire slayer dies tragically at the hands of rabid fan girls." Kaname made a dramatic show and Yuki smirked at her.
"Try to stay out of trouble." Kaname smiled at him and pointed at herself.
"Hey you know me." Yuki's face turned solemn.
"Exactly, that's why I'm worried." Kaname sighed.
"Well don't, Ayumi and I will stay in and watch movies all night. I won't even go on patrol. Comfy?" Yuki ruffled her hair.
"Warm and fuzzy. Now get to class before I have to talk you out of another detention." He pushed himself off the wall and walked down the hall.
"Yes masa!" She bowed low and with a wave of the hand he was gone. The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully. Her detentions started on Monday so she had the next two days off. She met up with Ayumi and her friend Kei at the end of the day. They had come running up to her with very excited looks on their faces.
"Kaname did you hear?" Kaname looked at them with one eyebrow raised inquisitively.
"Apparently not. Hear what?" Kei positively squealed with delight.
"Every girls dream! Your brother and Shuichi have been paired up for a partner project! You are so lucky! Absolutely every girl in school would kill to be you. The two most gorgeous guys in the world and they'll be under your roof!" A thoughtful look crossed her face and she snapped her fingers.
"So that's who his partner is. We'll don't get your hopes up girls, Yuki's working on the project at Shuichi's house. Which reminds me. Ayumi, my dad's at a conference this week and with Yuki having this project he doesn't want me to be home alone. You think you can stay over?" Ayumi nodded.
"Cake and pie, you know how the family is. Besides, it gives me a reason to cancel with what's his face. " Kaname snorted.
"Another hapless admirer?" Ayumi looked over at her friend and sighed, nodding dejectedly. Every week it seemed Ayumi had some new guy after her. Kaname often heard people talking about how beautiful she was and how they wished they could look like her. Having a brother like Yuki had taught her that unnamable beauty was a curse.
Kaname had befriended Ayumi after she had found her covering up a black eye in the restroom one day before school. She had tried not to pull much attention to it but found she couldn't control herself.
"It's tricky, covering a fresh shiner like that. You know what works
"What?"
"Don't get hit."
Ayumi Jameson was the poster girl for beautiful young girls. Her father was an American artist who had come to Japan on a job offer. He owned a gallery in downtown Tokyo so he was almost never home. Her mother was a Japanese clothing designer, heading up a company called Mew-Mew so she was also never home. Ayumi lived in the rich district and her family had quite a few maids so it wasn't like she was left home alone, but that doesn't mean it wasn't lonely.
She had inherited most of her traits from her father, the long soft honey blond hair and the big bright cerulean blue eyes. She was petite though, about five foot five, but she had a smile that could rival the sun for brilliance. Her mother was always using her as a model for her new clothing designs and since Kaname was Ayumi's best friend, they always got first dibs.
"Hey, that's my ride, I'll see you guy's tomorrow!" Kei shouted, running off to her mom's car. Ayumi looked over at Kaname out of the corner of her eye.
"So, are you patrolling tonight?" Kaname sighed. Ayumi was the only other person besides Yuki who knew about her being the slayer, but Kaname wasn't really big on sharing with her for obvious reasons.
"No, I promised Yuki I'd stay in." Ayumi pulled a video camera out of her school bag.
"Oh come on Kaname! I really want to get some good footage!" And that was the reason. Ever since Ayumi found out about Kaname being the slayer she had made it her mission in life to video tape her killing every single demon and vampire that came her way, justifying it as a training video for future slayers. But Kaname knew the real reason. Ayumi was studying to be a film editor and she was using Kaname as her guinea pig.
"And I don't want to get mauled by Yuki's fan club!" Kaname swatted at the camera.
"My life is not an action movie Ayumi! Besides, you know how uncomfortable I am with you going out there with me." Ayumi put the camera down and shot Kaname an incredulous look.
"Oh come on! You act like I'm going to get eaten by some rando demon." Kaname grabbed Ayumi by the shoulders.
"It's not safe! And who's to say your not going to get eaten by a demon!" Kaname looked around at all the strange glances people were shooting her. Ayumi grabbed her by the arm and dragged her down the street, shouting over her shoulder.
"Yeah, my own personal demons!" Ayumi and Kaname turned the corner onto Kaname's street. "Really Kaname you should be more careful, you have a secret identity to keep and everything." Kaname shrugged her hand off.
"I know that! It's all your fault anyway!" They turned up to Kaname's front steps to find Yuki waiting there.
"Yuki! What are you doing here? I thought you were working over at Shuichi's house?" Yuki pushed away from the door and walked down the steps.
"It wasn't convenient for him so I decided to have us work here. That's not a problem is it?" Kaname looked over at Ayumi who had suddenly found something very interesting to look at on her shoes. After many painstaking hours of interrogation, Kaname had managed to get Ayumi to confess that she had a crush on the infamous Shuichi Minamino. Ayumi was very shy and she didn't do well with confrontation. It was easy for her to get dates because she didn't really like any of the guys she had ever dated, but with him it was different. Kaname looked back over at her brother.
"Of course not! Don't be ridiculous! So if you're supposed to be working on a partner project, where's your partner?" Yuki looked over Kaname's head.
"Right behind you." Ayumi's head shot up and her face turned a deep shade of red. She spun around on her toes and came face to face with her secret crush. Kaname had to nudge her in the side to remind her to breath.
"It's nice to finally meet you Miss Hitokiri, Yuki has told me so much about you." Kaname smiled sheepishly.
"Nothing good I bet, and please call me Kaname, Miss Hitokiri makes me feel like an old lady." Shuichi smiled at her and Kaname wrapped a hand around Ayumi's arm to keep her upright, sensing that her dear friends knees were about to give out.
"Of course, Kaname." Shuichi's gaze drifted over to Ayumi and it was all Kaname could do to keep the girl from turning tail and bolting for the door. Kaname was impressed that the poor girl hadn't fainted yet.
"I don't think you've met my friend Ayumi." Shuichi nodded in her direction and a small smirk graced his lips.
"Not formally no, but I have to say I am quite a fan of your work. You take beautiful pictures Miss Jameson. Do you mind if I call you Ayumi?" Ayumi was frozen in her shoes, unable to move, to speak. Whenever she was in his presence all of her important motor functions seemed to completely shut down. She was in a systems overload. He was looking at her, he had spoken to her, and her brain was still trying to comprehend the fact that he had just given her a compliment. All she could do was shake her head slowly until Kaname slapped her on the back. Suddenly her senses came back on line.
"No, no of course not, Ayumi is fine. Thank you for the compliment, I had no idea I had a fan. Especially one such as yourself, Mr. Minamino." Ayumi shot him one of her heartbreaker smiles, which he returned with one of his own.
"Please, no formalities, call me Shuichi." Ayumi nodded.
"Of course." Yuki chose that opportunity to step in.
"Kaname you and Ayumi should go inside and get changed, there's money on the end table if you two want to order in, I'm afraid Shuichi and I will be very busy and will not have time to join in with dinner." Shuichi stepped up and placed a hand on Yuki's shoulder.
"Nonsense, we have all week to work on this project. And with the two of us working on it together we should get it done in no time." Kaname shook her head in agreement.
"Yeah Yuki, I was really looking forward to trying out that new recipe dad taught me." Yuki sighed, looking slightly annoyed.
"Alright, that's fine. Just try not to burn the house down. I was only saying because of that thing you have." Kaname smirked at him and turned to run inside the house.
"Oh no, it was canceled. Rained out." Yuki crossed his arms and gave her a stern look.
"It isn't raining." Kaname looked to the sky.
"Oh it will." Yuki scoffed at her.
"It will, will it Mr. Weatherman? How do you know?" Kaname put a finger in her mouth and held it up.
"I can smell the moisture in the air, the temperature just dropped about two or three degrees. We should get inside, it's gonna be one helluva downpour." No sooner had the words left her mouth that there was a clap of thunder and the rain began to pour. The four of them hurried inside to get out of the rain.