Chapter 1: Discreet Invasion

Author: Hello there~! This is the first new story that I'm posting in nearly five years! This is based on one of the role-plays that I'm doing with my friend on Facebook; her pen name is Toga Yagari. Please feel free to follow and read her stories as well. We're both writing this together, so...updates may or may not follow any routine schedule. ^^;

Rated T for mild violence and some swearing; this may change to M with a strong content advisory for mature audiences in the future.

Disclaimer: Sadly, neither of us own Vampire Knight or any of the characters. Otherwise, there would be an eternal war among all of you for control and ownership of the hotties we write about. The only character I own is Reiko Souma and her family, and any characters that my friend owns will be mentioned in future chapters.

Standing by the window of an empty classroom with arms crossed as he leaned against the wall, the famous vampire hunter observed the Day Class on the school grounds. He watched as they mingled their way through their lunch break. Yagarī hadn't seen Zero Kiryū yet and was beginning to think his apprentice was avoiding him. Scoffing slightly, the hunter turned away from the window and walked out of the classroom, book in one hand which was resting on his shoulder with his other hand resting inside his trouser pocket. As he walked down the hallway, he ignored all of the girls' whispers about his eye patch. He didn't care because he had learned to ignore it; he knew better to let his wounds live his life for him. Sometimes, it was just an everyday reminder of the night he had lost his fiancé. Something in that fateful night held a deep, dark secret that not even Kaien or Zero knew about.

Though, everybody has their own skeletons in the closet. Some weren't as serious as others, such as some of the students in the Night Class. Rumors spiraled about as to why the entire body functioned only at night. Hardly any of them came out at daytime, which fed into the rumor that they might all be vampires. Two of the students had to protect that secret, Zero and Yūki Cross. Reiko Souma knew that much because she has seen them outside late at night on a number of nights that she would stay up late studying, and she had her own secrets to keep. Why she had that pink hair, those pink eyes, and that pale skin...why she kept the tattoo on her left arm concealed from everybody...she couldn't explain any of it. All she knew was that she had been born with the visible differences and was to live the rest of her life with sickle-cell anemia.

That medical condition was no picnic to deal with. Occasional hospital visits for a blood transfusion resulted in two weeks of bed rest afterwards; the seventeen-year old had to take a regular dose of iron pills in order to make it through each day. Eating food that was iron-rich was also a requirement. Thank goodness she wasn't a picky eater. The girl loved to eat and was unafraid of showing it, too. I really should hurry to the classroom to study... thought the pink-haired student as she walked through the hallway. She was lost in her thoughts, most of which were academic-filled, that she only focused on where she was going. She wasn't paying any attention to who was around her.

Yagarī wasn't paying any more attention to his surroundings than Reiko was, as both turned a corner and bumped into each other. He partially stumbled back, using his reflexes as a hunter to steady himself. He sighed in annoyance, at the sudden interruption in his stride, and looked down to see who he had bumped into. "Reiko." he greeted in his gruff manner. The pink-haired girl was one of his quietest and least troubling students. She seemed bright for someone her age, but that didn't concern Yagarī. His main concern for being at this school was keeping a watchful concerning eye on Zero and keeping the school out of danger. She's rather early for heading to my class. Reiko was in the tall man's first class after lunch and was heading to that room, even though lunch break was not over yet. "What are you doing wondering the halls?" he asked coldly. He barely had any emotion of concern or pity towards his students. He was seen as gruff, cold and a man with a 'tough love' attitude. But sometimes, a very rare sometimes, he would show a glimmer of emotion. It could be concern, pain, amusement, or the like.

Back to the situation at hand, he did wonder why his pink-haired student was heading towards class instead of giggling with her friends. Didn't she have any? The one-eyed teacher's assumption that she might not was rather close to correct. Only a few were considered "close" to the girl, but that's because she didn't want to get close to anybody in the event of her health ultimately failing her. The fewer there was, the better. Reiko considered those few mere acquaintances, and nothing more. One in particular was that Yūki brunette. At least she was nice enough to be an actual friend. Well, friend enough to not cross any of the girl's guidelines.

Alas, the question had nothing to do with acquaintances and friends. Reiko had decided to take her studies indoors because today seemed to be the day where everyone ate their lunches outside. Okay; that wasn't the entire truth. Her skin was very sensitive to the sun, too. "It's unusually warm outside, so I thought I'd finish studying for today's exam inside where it'd be quiet," was her answer. That was the rest of the truth, given her slight trembles could be ignored. She hasn't been sleeping very well this week, either. Averaging four hours of sleep each night for the last three days has helped her in remembering her studies; she made a note to catch up on her sleep starting tonight. Yagarī's class was the last class with an exam to take. The weekend also looked promising for a walk out into town to do some food shopping, and her legal guardian would be accompanying her. It would be nice to see him again.

Yagarī took note of how nervous she seemed before him but thought nothing of it as he knew he came across a bit scary to students. He wasn't here to make friends, though. He was here to do a job. Kaien? Well, Yagarī certainly knew when to thump some sense back into the man. Lifting an eyebrow at the young girl's statement, he had a feeling there was more to the story than she was letting on. He didn't think the forecast was overly warm, but she was heading to the same destination that we was. Damn. Could he not get any peace? Well, if she was studying for the upcoming test, then she would surely be quiet and of no disturbance to him. "As long as you pass the test, that's all I care about," he said roughly. It was his way of saying that he hoped she would pass the test and succeed in her education, although it could easily be misinterpreted as Yagarī wasn't the best at bonding with the younger generation. "I'm heading there now myself, to set up." He motioned his head in the direction of the classroom, gesturing that she should walk with him.

Reiko followed behind him, keeping a consistent one and half-step distance behind in the walk. Walking with an attractive man such as the one in front of her was nice. He was clearly a man of few words and didn't talk much, and she was even quieter unless she was spoken to or needed to speak first. Thank goodness everybody else is still outside. All of the girls would flip out if they saw me walking with Tōga-sensei, let alone this close. When she had first met him on her first day of classes, she had noted the overwhelming squeals from the rest of the girls in her class with a look of annoyance on her face. The girls had squealed even louder upon finding out that their navy-haired teacher was single while Reiko sat there and shook her head. She was more reserved than the others.

One thing that bothered her about the Academy was the so-called "secret" that she had stumbled onto one night. She had learned firsthand why the Headmaster had a curfew in place after taking a midnight walk outside. Being a rule-follower of sorts would shock those who knew her personality if they ever found out about her breaking that one major rule. Reiko had climbed outside through her dormitory room window, carrying a slim katana in hand. That katana had been inherited from her parents, wherever they may be right now, and she had kept it by her side when she discovered Yūki speaking with one of the young men in a white uniform. She had seen his fangs from a distance with wide eyes, yet she hadn't freaked out at all. It simply surprised her to know that, after ten years, vampires still existed. Not all of them were crazy and out of control, either. The one she had seen looked...well, sane. But, who was there to tell about this discovery she had made? All she could do was keep this to her own self. Nobody would believe her, Reiko had assumed.

Yagarī picked up his strong pace as he walked in the direction of the classroom. Other than his subtle invitation for his student to follow him to the classroom, there was nothing to say to her unless it was related to education. He could hear the soft footsteps as she walked a little bit behind him. That didn't concern him much, but he did notice how she shook a little. Did he really scare her that much? He cocked an eyebrow at the thought. Reaching the classroom, he held the door open for her. Yes Yagarī held a tough exterior to people, but as a male, he still held values of a gentleman. "You should be able to study quietly in here for the next fifteen minutes until lunch break is over." A few thick bangs fell over the hunter's eye patch, making him appear dramatically pained from a reminder of his past. He didn't bother to move it.

That was fine with Reiko. She didn't mind it much; in fact, she valued the silence as one of those moments that were golden because they were rather rare these days. Having decided to abandon her thought of studying at the library due to the walk there and back to the classroom taking away from her study time, the teenager decided to simply stick with it. She was a bit on the shaky side, and now she knew it, but she didn't want to back out now because of how important this exam was to her. The student managed to keep up with the tall man despite her condition and didn't entertain anymore fantasizing thoughts about the attractiveness of her teacher.

'I'll just visit the clinic after class if I don't feel any better,' Reiko decided to herself. After all, sitting down for the better hour or two of the day wasn't going to kill her. She intended to dedicate some of her extra time to her Ethics class as it was because the material was starting to get difficult, and she didn't want to start falling behind. It was just like the pink-eyed student to want to stay on top of things and keep up her near-perfect average, just as it was like her to maintain her good manners no matter how gruff-natured or cold-hearted a person may be to her. "Arigatou, Tōga-sensei," were the soft words of appreciation from the seventeen-year old as she stepped through the door to the classroom. Yagarī cocked an eyebrow at her politeness. He certainly wasn't used to people using their manners towards him. Mostly being because he works amongst other hunters who were…well…male. Staying true to her immediate goal, she made her way over to her assigned seat three rows from the front and sat. The books and her notes couldn't do the studying for her.

Reiko looked down at her hands and saw that they weren't shaking. A good sign that was, considering her steps had been on the shaky side. Maybe she wouldn't have to visit the clinic after class, after all; that was a judgment call she would have to make later. Yagarī watched as the young woman studied her own hands. Was something wrong with her? Why was he concerned about her? Sure, he did care about his students. He cared to a point, though. Sighing under his breath, he sat down at the teacher's desk once his student had sat down at hers and pulled out the file that had all his students' work contained in it to be marked. At the same time, Reiko removed her notebook and textbook from her black leather satchel and opened up both to the appropriate pages. Then she neatly (and quietly) removed a clean sheet of paper from her notebook and, with a pencil in her hand, started to write down the answers to her own study questions that she knew the answers to. So far, so good...her focus was trained mostly on her task at hand that she barely paid any attention to Yagarī as he grabbed a pen from the desk drawer and set up to mark the work from his previous class.

Pen poised over the paper, Yagarī took a moment before his hand began gliding elegantly over the paper as he assessed the work. Sitting in an upright elegant position, one would never think that Yagarī was capable of being a Hunter. Sure his scars were evidence of past battles, but being in a suit and tie gave the Hunter elegance. A few strands of his raven locks fell over his eyes as he concentrated on marking the work; a peaceful, undisturbed look overcame his usual stoic expression.

In the short time that the young woman was completing her self-prepared study guide, she forgot about the shakiness that she had briefly dealt with. In fact, her body had stopped shaking altogether. She forgot about being in Yagarī's presence altogether as she delved deeper into her studies. Her classmates would arrive before she knew it; pausing for even the slightest break wasn't an option. The tip of Reiko's pencil continued to make soft scratchy noises as it marked the lines of the paper before her with the appropriate answers to her questions. Yes, it was official. This Day Class student was presently an academic workaholic. One had to be, especially if time was being sacrificed in order to maintain those perfect scores. Reiko the Perfectionist, a true that moniker held to this pink-haired woman. So, the main principle behind Freud's sexually-driven psychological principles influences the various responses in the workplace more than it does outside. Women are more likely to formulate quick responses to various signs then men are due to their increased likelihood of forming logical thoughts. Reiko's mind was completely consumed by the upcoming test that she didn't notice her writing hand slowly coming to a stop.

"Freud...motivation in ethics..." Her head came to rest on her left arm, and her pencil slid down onto the notebook to her right. Was she sleeping? The poor girl had spent the last three nights studying until three o'clock in the morning, which meant that she was only getting in four hours of sleep. No wonder the teenager was fast asleep. Enough was enough, her body had decided, and now was the time to start catching up on her sleep. Thence was the whisper like mumbles of the overworked American as various Ethics concepts continued to be so quietly spoken from her lips. A small smirk curved at the corner of her teacher's lips as he marked his pupils' work in the meanwhile. Half of them seemed to have not paid attention in his class. A mental note was made of their names to pay extra attention to them.

His head snapped up when he heard a soft voice interrupt the silence. The damn girl had fallen asleep. Great. It was now up to him to wake her from her slumber. He sighed in annoyance, even though he knew well enough of what it felt like to work until the crash factor finally kicked in. No longer had Reiko been able to keep her eyes open, hence the deep slumber she now seemed to enjoy. At least the girl didn't snore, though. Wouldn't that be an embarrassment if she found out that she did so? Reiko, when awake, would doubt to every corner of the planet that anybody would tell her whether she did snore. Well, the sleeping student continued to sleep as if she was a rock. Anybody who tried to wake her up had a serious challenge on their hands, seeing as Reiko never woke up so easily.

Now Yagarī stood up, the motion making his chair push back from behind him, and walked up the flight of steps to where she was sitting. He gently shook her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. "Hey. Wake up. You can sleep when you're dead." This was his way of joking in a serious manner; it took some guts for any student to fall asleep in front of any teacher. For some reason, students were more likely to stay awake in Yagarī's class. At least, that's what Reiko noticed. It wasn't like she had meant to fall asleep, either. She didn't stir right away when her shoulder was gently shaken, but the sound of the bell ringing seemed to work. Her deeply-shaded pink eyes slowly opened, and she looked sideways to find that she wasn't quite alone anymore. Yagarī was standing close enough that the sleepy teenager could only assume him to have tried rousing her. Oops. She hadn't meant to fall asleep while studying!

For her to hear the bell ringing just as she was starting to wake up meant that her study time before class had just come to an end. "Oh dear..." Finally, Reiko sat up slowly and looked for her pencil. How embarrassing it was for her to have to be woken up by her own teacher! Attractive or not, she was supposed to be studying in order to maintain her very high grades. "...I am so, so sorry that you had to stop your work on my behalf, Tōga-sensei..." she said apologetically, turning in her seat to bow respectfully to him, "...I have no excuses...I've only averaged four hours of sleep most recently just so that I can keep up my grade in your class, and it must have finally caught up..." When she raised herself up again, the teenager was trying to rub the slightly dark circles away from her eyes in vain with hands that she didn't realize were shaking again. "...but I'll take that test and ace it, just like I always do!"

Seeing her awake, he stepped away from her. "Stop groveling. I don't need to hear excuses or apologies. You are free to do what you will during your breaks. Just remain awake during my class." he told her gruffly before walking away as students began to pile in to the classroom. He came across gruff as anything, but that was his way of saying 'No need to apologize. Just don't fall asleep during my class.' If anything, then only Kaito, Zero, and Kaien understood his behavior and emotions. Relieved that the much taller man hadn't gone weird on her after waking her, she gave her notes one final glance. Some of her study questions were unanswered, but they were only extras that didn't concern her very much. If nothing else, then she was pretty sure she deserved the response that she was given after waking. A single thought on the apology she had given made her realize that, to some extent, the girl had been groveling. Not sure whether to attribute that to her lack of sleep or not, Reiko simply nodded in place of saying another word. At least he hadn't made any comments about her grades starting to slip at all. She thought of the worry that would commence otherwise as the peace and quiet came to an end at last.

As the students shattered what remained of the former peace in the room, Reiko picked up her pencil and gave her notes one final glance. One of her female classmates, the only one who sat next to the pink-haired girl since she had a window seat, took advantage of the temporary chatter to ask if the girl was all right. All Reiko did was nod. "Sit down and pipe down!" Yagarī spoke loudly to be heard amongst the chatter. "You have an exam today. I will not hesitate to fail any of you if you didn't pay attention in my previous classes." He didn't have time for time-wasters in his class. He snatched the papers that were on his desk and walked around the classroom, and Reiko quickly returned her study materials to her satchel as Yagarī distributed the examination to each individual. "You have an hour to complete these before you next class. You will receive your marks tomorrow." Great. It meant for another long night for the Hunter. Not only did he have the damn Night Class to teach, he also had to grade these students' exams, which was vital to their curriculum. As he strode back to his desk, he said deeply, "You may begin." The sound of pencils being picked up and paper being shuffled around, were the only sounds audible. Yagarī let himself 'plonk' on his chair, placing his feet up on the desk with his arms crossed, he observed the class before him, making sure no one was cheating. His cold blue eye stared at each student individually.

Those near sleepless nights had better pay off, or else... Well, there wasn't really anything to follow that up except for another increase in her study time. Reiko had already cut out most of her social life just to maintain all that she had learnt to this point; she wasn't about to let it all go to waste now and started on that test. She might as well before everything that she had studied and absorbed into her mind prior to her unplanned nap decided to abandon her. Everything and everybody went ignored by the hard-working Reiko as she focused on marking the correct answers on the test. Her way of completing tests and exams was a somewhat strange one. For starters, she always turned to the last page and worked her way backwards once the questions from the previous units had been covered (if there were any). The earlier units were always nice to see questions for since she never seemed to forget those. She found just two questions that she would have to return to once she had finished with the rest of the test...damn that wording! Maybe she should damn herself as well for not planning her sleep schedule better, but oh well. Those two questions were revisited and the answers remembered; would she be acing this exam as well?

She looked up at the clock after reminding herself that the exam was at least half of her final grade to find that she still had about twenty minutes. Good. That meant she could look over her answers to ensure that all had been answered, and that they had all been answered with her best effort. Fifteen minutes left. She couldn't do anything else that didn't involve giving a third check to her answers when she was already confident that she had passed, so she stepped out of her seat to hand the exam in. There was a shuffle and a scrape of a chair being pushed back; Yagarī looked up and saw Reiko straightening her possessions and shuffling her papers in a nice neat pile whereupon she made her way down to his desk. He was quite surprised she had finished early. He assumed she would utilize the full hour given for the exam. Whatever he was feeling was masked with his blank expression. He raised an eyebrow in recognition that he would happily receive her work before the allocated time was up.

Reiko was just placing the questions and answers down on the desk when there was a knock classroom door. The knock on the door interrupted Yagarī's thoughts and his students' focus. One couldn't deny he was annoyed at having his class interrupted; it was evident the way his icy blue eye shot daggers at the nurse. However, he knew that the medical department would not interrupt a student's exam if it weren't serious. There went the focused atmosphere, but why? Somebody from the health clinic had decided to interrupt the exam in terrible taste. "Pardon the interruption, Tōga-sensei. I need to borrow Souma-san for a few moments." Why now? The nurse has never left the clinic to track her down in class before; was something up? Confused, Reiko looked at her teacher for some sort of acknowledgement. She was actually more concerned and actually became slightly frightened when she took a closer look at the nurse's face, as the slight widening of her eyes indicated.

Upon the disruption, the rest of the class took advantage of the broken silence and began to break out in hushed whispers. This annoyed Yagarī even more. How he loathed idle gossip amongst women. "Quiet! If you intend on graduating this year, I suggest you keep your mouths shut and your brains open!" He barked at the students who quickly piped down. Yagarī spoke quietly to Reiko in an attempt to not be overheard by too many people as it was certainly none of their business. "You may go."

Oh, thank goodness, was her thought at the raised eyebrow she received when she placed her test materials down. This didn't mask the surprise and slight concern that showed at the closer look of the nurse's face. Was something that wrong with the girl that the clinic was now sending for her in the middle of class? She would find out everything that she needed to know once she was at the clinic, yes. Not until then would any of her thoughts be settled, however.

Hearing the whispers from her classmates went ignored by the pink-haired student. Just her looks alone had earned her so many direct and indirect comments that she had simply become accustomed to ignoring the side chatter. Besides, it was their own exam that they would fail if they didn't remain focused. All of the studying and sacrificed sleep at night was why Reiko had finished hers so early. Nevertheless did she acknowledge her granted permission to leave with a nod, and she quietly retrieved her satchel before following the nurse out of the room.

Yagarī watched for a moment as his student left, but he soon turned his attention back to the class. He could tell that Reiko was unsettled by her interruption with the nurse; it wasn't any of his business. Neither did he care much to mingle in with it either, but it was moments later that Yagarī felt that familiar uneasiness. Locking eyes with one of his pupils, Zero (the apprentice and a fellow hunter who finally decided to show up for class), both of them shared that knowing glance in the next moment. Something was quite wrong.

One minute into their walk (of which the woman stayed five steps behind the nurse instead of the usual two steps due to her suspicion), Reiko could no longer hold back on her now-burning desire to ask her question. "Ah, I apologize in advance if what I'm about to ask comes across as offensive to your authority at all, ma'am," Reiko began, "but I couldn't help noticing that this is the first time the clinic has ever sent for me in person in my two years here. Will everything be all right?" Although she couldn't avoid asking, the nurse's slowing pace instantly brought feelings of regret over asking in the form of Reiko's stomach knotting up. Now she knew that something was wrong; however, it wasn't with the student.

Something was majorly wrong with this nurse, who came to a complete stop in the middle of the hallway. Knowing this, the teenager also stopped. Then the would-be nurse turned around and stared at Reiko with this incredibly strange expression on her face. She couldn't help but notice that the eyes had sunken noticeably, and her whites now dominated the sockets. "You should've listened to your parents' final words, little girl..!" A creepy roar followed the nurse's demonic-sounding words. Suddenly, she dashed towards Reiko and shoved her up against the nearest wall behind her.

"Ack! I knew something was wrong when you came to get me, back off you creep!" Reiko yelled. Thank goodness for those self-defense lessons! Her left foot slammed into the creepy creature's, whatever this thing was, gut and managed to send her flying into the wall across from the girl. Forget about the satchel for now - Reiko would have to come back for that later. Ugh. My parents' last words, what did she mean by that?! Reiko had no time to turn her thoughts into spoken words before the creep was up and trying to attack the girl again. "Get a hobby, would you? Attacking me isn't going to get you anywhere...now back off before somebody comes and kills you!" This time, Reiko managed to kick the creature in her face and temporarily stun her. There was only so much she could do before tiredness would begin to kick in though, and she was doing everything in her human power to keep from shouting the actual identity of the creature that had decided to disguise itself as a nurse:

Vampire.

How did she know? Well, it was one of the skeletons in Reiko's closet...her parents had been vampires, but that's all she knew. Her last memory of them was being tucked into bed by them. Then suddenly, they had vanished. Ten years after the fact, Reiko still had no clue as to their whereabouts and had encountered her share of the most deranged vampires since, even before her enrollment at the Academy.

Without a word, Yagarī stood up and walked out of the classroom. With the door closed, he wasted no time in drawing out his emergency gun that he kept tucked behind his jacket. As anything and everything could happen in a matter of minutes, he turned the corner and saw a slightly panting Reiko staring at something. Third time was usually the charm, or so the saying went. If only the girl could carry her katana around with her...but no, weapons carried by students were prohibited at all times. Reiko could easily get expelled if she openly carried her family heirloom around on campus, and that she sometimes used it to defend herself during her nightly walks.

The vampire hunter looked over at the woman and saw not a woman, but a Level-E vampire. It rose to lunge at Reiko once more and managed to swiftly drag three claws across her neck. Raising the gun to aim at the long-gone woman, he pulled the trigger, turning the thing to dust. His eyes narrowed at the dust pile. What the Hell just happened? he thought. Level-E's were never known to come this close to the school, let alone disguise themselves as a sane human. Was this a new breed, or was it one of Rido's new followers? Dammit! There was so much to do now. He had to report it back to the Hunter's Association and to the Headmaster, yet he still had those damned exams to do.

Huh? Startled briefly, she came out of it when she felt three little trickles of liquid slowly dripping down the front of her neck. Dammit. That thing got me! Now Reiko really did have to go see the nurse, a real one this time, to clean her neck up. Good grief! The wounded student placed her right hand over her surface wounds and turned. Standing there was her teacher...wielding a weapon like Zero did. Now she had a feeling that some form of sympathy would be coming to her because of this. None of this was new to her at all, really. Not the vampires, not the blood...nothing. She just didn't know what the truth was when it came to her parents and vampires.

The hunter to turn his head and look back over at Reiko. "You okay?" he asked. Yagarī held his gun tightly in his hand still, but he had dropped it down to rest at his side. He was still on guard. Reiko continued to press her hand to her neck and applied pressure. She first nodded in response to Yagarī's question. Then she looked down at the pile of dust where the deranged vampire once stood and added,

"I'll need to see a real nurse for my wound now, but it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who knows how to kill these things." Provided she had her weapon with her, that is. It was understandable that students be prohibited from carrying them, but it was a sore spot for the girl. She missed being able to whip out the half-meter blade from its sheath and go to town on those vampires that tried to threatened the safety of others! Alas, part of her secret had slipped out. An explanation was now in order, only that would have to wait until after she was patched up. Her injury didn't stop her from taking another look around, though. "I think that one was the only one...for now. Don't worry...you'll get to hear about the skeletons in my closet another time. I don't wanna bleed to death, over here!"

With her hand guarding her wound, the teenager of some mysteries tucked up her sleeve turned to resume her walk down the hallway towards the health clinic. She wasn't going to wait around for an invitation or send one out for anyone to follow after her, either. Let the guy stare if he wanted to. After all, he's the one who would be doing all of the staring this time instead of those crazy girls. Reiko was just relieved that the tattoo on her left arm hadn't been exposed.

Author's note: I may be a tad rusty right now, but reviews would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! (_ _) -bows-