"One less vampire." Zero sighed after killing a Level E vampire. He started to walk back to the hunters' association building. He didn't really pay attention to whatever was around him, but he suddenly saw a character that he couldn't help but noticing. His face, his hair, even his coat were familiar, despite the darkness.
"Kuran." Zero mumbled with a hateful expression.
"Who's there?" The character asked calmly.
"I'm sorry." Zero smiled a little, it wasn't that person's voice. "I thought you were someone else."
The character who stood in front of him, looked at Zero from head to toe.
"This gun you're holding... Is it meant to kill Duras?" The character asked suddenly.
"Duras...?" Zero looked surprised.
"After all, what can make a young human boy like you carry such a weird gun?"
If felt so strange... For a long time, no one saw him as a human. He could tell this guy wasn't a human, nor vampire.
"Who are you?" Zero asked.
"Is it really necessary to know my name?" The character looked at Zero. He could see he suspects.
"I guess it wasn't the right question." Zero smiled for a moment and then with serious and angry expression he continued: "What are you?"
"What am I...? Who are you to ask?" The character said coldly.
"Not a human, nor vampire, even not a pureblood!" Zero looked like he's going to be attacked.
"A vampire? Aren't they the blood suckers from humans' legends?" The character thought to himself out loud.
"Imaginary creatures?!" Zero interrupted him with his shouts "They do exist!"
"Who am I to doubt any existence?" The character turned his head a little, and then turned it back.
"What do you mean?!" Even though Zero knew what he meant, he wanted to know what kind of creature this man was.
"If humans and Duras live together under the same sky..." The character started.
Zero didn't listen to the rest. He noticed the fangs in his mouth, but while talking about the 'Blood Suckers' he didn't mentioned himself as one of them.
"What are Duras?" Zero asked suddenly.
"I guess I can tell you, because if you were a Duras' hunter, you wouldn't stay quiet." The character sighed "We are... How humans call it... Demons."
"De-Demons?!" Zero couldn't believe, now he realized that not only vampires may risk humans but demons as well.
"Don't worry. They don't usually attack humans for no reason." It seemed like the character could read his mind.
"What a relief.. One less kind of damned creatures." Zero was happy to know that.
"It doesn't make them nicer." The character explained "They're horrible, that's why I left their side. Or if to say the truth, I never felt one of them."
"Reminds me myself a little..." Zero felt that finally someone understood him. "Being forced to be this kind of creature... I know the feeling."
"Aren't you happy being human?" The character asked, he was confused.
"If I was a human, I would be. But I'm also like any other blood sucker." Zero sighed "We could be together... No, even without them we couldn't be together.
"We?" This sentence didn't have any sense in the character's opinion.
"Me and Yuuki." Zero looked at the sky "If only..."
"You're in love with someone named Yuki? How ironic." The character smiled a bit.
"What is so ironic?" Zero was confused.
"A meeting of two men who are in love with someone named Yuki, and both of them can't live happily with their kind of creatures."
"Your beloved one's name... Is Yuuki as well?!" Zero looked surprised.
"Yes, Yuki is..." The character started
"Sodomu!" They heard a shout. A young boy wearing a hat, came happily to their direction and the other boy, a little older than him, chased him.
Zero silently stared at the arriving two. Zero grinned once the boy with fair hair took some steps closer to Zess.
"Is he one of your friends?" Sodomu asked, and smiled as he noticed the surprised look on Zero's face.
"What on earth…?" he couldn't finish his line, because the young boy with curly, black hair growled at him.
"Now, now, cool down…" The older boy said with a hearty laughter. "My apologize, Sodomu doesn't get along well with strangers… like you…"
"What that supposed to mean?" Zero calmly gave a sigh.
"I think he gets upset because of that." Zess said with his kindest smile pointed at the hunter's gun.
"Don't mock me!" Zero took some deep breath, then looked at Zess again. "So you are saying you are a Duras, right? Just want to know what kind of business you have in a place like this, filled with vampires?"
Zess didn't give an answer immediately. Getting involved into a conversation with anyone. This was the last thing he wanted to. However, this guy was different.
"The reason why we are here…" he started, but someone suddenly interrupted.
"Yuki-chan, finally I found you!" Toko has arrived. "I was so worried about you!"
"Yuki…" Zero whispered, then looked at Zess with an ironic grin. " I guess I don't want to hear the details."
"Who said you'd need to." Zess moved his head and stared at the sky. Clouds were coming, and it seemed it's going to rain soon. "Go back to the car with Toko. Later I'll follow you."
Yuki nodded and without saying a thing, he disappeared with the girl.
"So… will you tell me what are you guys doing here?" Zero asked
"We have something really serious to do, that's all." Zess sighed, then turned around. "Now I'm better going. It was nice to meet you, young boy..."
Without waiting for a respond, he disappeared within a few seconds.
"Tsh, reminds me someone." Zero sighed, and started to walk back to the dorms, forgetting the original destination.
"Luka, who was that?" Toko asked Zess, while sitting in the car.
"No one." Zess answered coldly.
"Master, don't come near strange guys!" Sodomu said in child's tone.
"It's good that you're starting to talk with people." Yuki smiled, but felt a little sad for some reason.
Luka looked at him. Why does Yuki think it's so nice? Doesn't Yuki feel the same as he does?
"This guy told me something interesting." Zess said, trying to avoid his thoughts.
"Mhmm... What can probably interest you?" Toko said with devilish smile.
"Toko..." Tsukumo sounded like someone who just woke up, "Stop being noisy."
"He said that..." Zess said while avoiding them "That there are more than just Duras and humans..."
"Sure there are!" Toko interrupted "There are dogs, and cats and..."
"Vampires." Zess said with apathetic look.
"Vampires?" Yuki looked a little surprised.
"Whaaaaaaaaaat?!" But Toko looked shocked, or if to be more correct, panicked.
"Toko, didn't I tell you..." Tsukumo said with sleepy voice.
"Didn't you hear?!" Toko shook him "There are vampires!"
"Don't you think you're a little overreacting?" Yuki tried to calm her.
"Absolutely not!" Toko shouted.
"You're not afraid of Duras, but while hearing 'vampire' you yell like a little girl?" Tsukumo sighed.
"Once I was attacked by 2 scary vampires." Toko almost shouted "One looked like a beast in human's form, and the other one..."
"And the other one?" Tsukumo asked.
"Looked like Luka." Toko said calmly.
Luka sighed.
"What's wrong, Luka?" Yuki sounded worried.
"I was told the same thing twice today." Luka looked away from Toko, knowing her reaction.
"This freak guy is his friend?!" Toko said hysterically
"No, their relationship isn't that good." Luka answered.
"Yokata! What a relief! He's just a human being" Toko felt relaxed.
"He is a vampire." Luka said calmly.
"He... And you..." Toko sounded scared.
"But he doesn't feel like one of them, just like me." Luka looked at the window
"Really?" Yuki smiled "It's nice you found someone who can understand you."
Everyone looked at Yuki. It was easy to see his smile was a sad smile. He just recalled the time when he looked for someone to understand him.
"Anyway, it may explain some things." Luka tried to avoid this subject.
"Like what?!" Tsukumo finally was 100% awake.
"The weird Duras we are looking for." Zess answered.
"If... If it's a vampire, it's not our job anyway, right?" Toko didn't want to see one of them again.
"No, this kind of creature is also a Duras." Zess said.
"We can't use our weapons against vampires!" Toko shouted, not even listening to him.
"How do you know?" Tsukumo asked with interested look.
"I tried it when I saw that beast in human's form." Toko shook.
"But you said there were 2 vampires." Tsukumo said. After all, these shouts were those which woke him up completely.
"He saved me, but..." Toko didn't know how to explain.
"He saved you and you're scared." Tsukumo sighed.
"He had weird kind of power! He came closer to me nicely and..." Toko was nervous.
"You said yourself it was nicely. So what's the big deal?" Tsukumo started to get angry.
"Maybe he wanted to kill me too?!" Toko tried to hide her fear.
"We arrived." Yuki interrupted their conversation.
"Onii-sama!" A girl with long hair held a handsome guy's hand.
"What is it, Yuuki?" The guy asked.
"You look worried, Kaname onii-sama" She replied.
"You said it is just a few minutes walk." It was easy to see on Kaname's face he was uncomfortable.
"Are you annoyed being with me?" Yuuki asked angrily.
"Of course not, Yuuki." Kaname tried not to sigh "There's a strange vampire out there."
"A noble? A pure blood?" She didn't remember that she saw him so worried about a vampire before.
"Half vampire." Kaname replied shortly.
"Level E?" Yuuki didn't understand
"Half vampire and half..." Kaname started to explain and then stopped talking.
"What's wrong?" Yuuki looked at her brother's face which was filled with horror.
"I can feel an unknown present!" Kaname stood, firmed to protect his sister.
"I feel it too!" Yuuki said "But I feel 3 humans near him."
Suddenly rushing steps were heard. They came closer and closer to them.
"Yuuki! Stand behind me!" Kaname raised his voice.
"I will also help!" Yuuki said as she held her Artemis.
They heard steps coming closer, rushing to their direction.
Kaname and Yuuki after him didn't hesitate and came to the same direction as the presence. Suddenly, it was gone. But they still saw 4 people in front of them.
"It's him!" Toko shouted. "The one from back then!"
Luka, Tsukumo and Yuki looked at the man she pointed at. He looked a bit older than most of them (except Luka who is too old). Something was dark about him. But when Giou clan's members looked at Luka, he looked as dark. Toko didn't know if it relaxed her or get her even more scared.
"You..." Kaname started to say, looking at Luka "Who are you?"
"It's none of your business." Luka answered coldly
"You're like him, a lot like him."Kaname's expression had fear and suspicious mixed in it.
"You're the weird one! You're... You're..." Toko started to say "a vampire!"
"Seems as you know about our existence..." Kaname said
"It's not fair! Why all creatures known as legendary which are real, are evil?! Why not good creatures like angels, for example." Toko sounded nervous.
"You forgot about fallen angels." Said Tsukumo
"Then fairies." She tried
"There are also Unseelies (bad fairies), you know." Tsukumo still sounded indifferent
"Then, mermaids." She sounded bit hesitant.
"There are legends about sailors who drown because of their singing voice." Tsukumo sighed.
"We're doomed! That's it! With all the devilish creatures!" Toko almost cried
"Not all of them are bad." said Yuki.
"Tell me one!" Toko demanded to know.
"Luka." Yuki said while pointing at Luka.
"Oh, right. I totally forgot. What a relief. Maybe we're not doomed after all." Toko said happily.
"I don't think that the gray-haired vampire I met was bad either." Luka added.
"Zero?!" Yuuki said.
"You know him?" Luka looked at her.
"Yes, we both were adopted by the chairman." She smiled "By the way, my name is Yuuki Kuran."
'That explains a lot of things.' thought Luka.
"Yuuki, don't get friendly with them. We don't who they are." Kaname put his hand on her shoulder.
"You're the suspicious one!" Toko yelled at him.
"If I'm not wrong, I saved your life, didn't I?" Kaname looked back at Toko.
"Who said you didn't try to deceive me like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood?!" Toko said.
"I'm not a werewolf." He looked at her with weird look.
"But you eat humans." Toko pointed at him.
"I don't eat them, I drink their blood." Kaname looked annoyed "And I can't really even do that."
"I don't believe you." Toko held her ring in her hand.
"I can bite you and show why I mustn't." Kaname grinned with evil look.
"Don't you dare!" Toko ran behind Tsukumo's back "Tell him something!"
"You want me to bitten by him? That's cruel of you." Tsukumo tried to sound as he was offended.
"Onii-sama, I don't think they're dangerous." Yuuki said.
"Of course not, they're too stupid to be dangerous." Kaname sighed "Especially the girl."
"Don't be so cruel." Yuuki said "I was also scared..."
"Well, I guess humans are a bit different from us." Kaname said in apologetic tone.
For few moments no one talked, but Luka still looked at Kaname from head to toe, comparing him from time to time to his companion, who also named Yuuki.
"You said Luka resembled someone. But you also resemble the one we're after." said Yuki.
"Maybe we're after the same person." said Yuuki.
"One thing I can say for sure, he's not a person. He's a demon." Toko returned to her serious self.
"Though it's only half." Tsukumo added.
"And the other..." Luka said, looking at Kaname and Yuuki..
"Is a vampire." Said Yuuki "We're probably after the same target."
"Maybe it's better if we work together." Kaname tried to hide his uncomfortable feeling.
"We'll talk with Takashiro-sama about that." said Toko.
"I guess we also should inform the president of the hunter's association." said Kaname.
"If you're looking for us, call me." said Yuki while writing a number on a piece of paper.
"Thank you." said Toko as she took the note from her.
"Let's hope we won't need to see them soon." Whispered Kaname while walking away from them.