Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight or anything associated with it. I just own the plot.
Prologue: A Divided Place
In the small city of Barashi, there are two groups warring against each other. The Ningen: the bureaucratic humans; and the Kyuketsuki: the noble-born class of vampires. For decades, these two races have been divided by war, blood, and conflict. Kyuketsuki are looked down upon by humans as blood-sucking terrors of the night. Ningen are looked down upon by vampires as barbaric savages who will attack without reason.
And then there is the race that is shunned by both races; the Bloodless: a small, ragged group of humans that were turned into vampires by a Kyuketsuki. They are hated, feared, and despised by both races.
Tokai is the sleepy little district in the center of the city devoted to the arts. Artists from everywhere in the city and beyond make their livings in Tokai; painters, singers, musicians, dancers, poets, writers, chefs, and many more. There is little to do with the blood war there. Kyuketsuki hide their identities and pretend to be Ningen. But sometimes they slip and reveal their true nature. The city is brought together by the arts in Tokai. Kyuketsuki and Ningen alike come to the great Garasu Domu, or the Glass Dome, to hear symphonies played and see ballets danced. It is a beautiful place.
In the very middle of Tokai, only a few blocks away from the Glass Dome stands the small, rundown apartment building of Cross Academy. It isn't a real academy, of course, but the owner of the apartment building, Kaien Cross, always thought of it as a dorm. Therefore, he dubbed the place Cross Academy and dubbed himself the Chairman. It is here where our sad story begins.
Zero Kiriyu is a struggling but talented young painter living in Apartment 23 on the sixth floor of the old building. A quiet and often grumpy young man who usually keeps to himself and his work, the only time he ever leaves his apartment is to buy food, buy new paints and/or brushes and/or canvases, or if the Chairman drags him out to see something at the Glass Dome.
Unfortunately for Zero, it looked like it was going to be one of those nights.