Genesis + Vampire
Introduction: A Match Made in Heaven
His lungs heaved, and sweat was rolling into his eyes. For the first time in his life, the young Vampire was feeling insurmountable fatigue as his legs carried him at blinding speed through the forest. It seemed almost endless, and he was beginning to feel dread as well, dread for what would be at the end.
Any reason the gnawing sensation of fear was alive in his intestines, making them writhe like fishing worms in a jar, was unknown to him; all that he could do was keep running and hope that whatever he was so afraid of wouldn't come to fruition. There was a light at the end of the woods now, and as he burst into the clearing, his gut plummeted, and the weight of consciousness smacked his mind as if it were wielding a baseball bat.
The sixteen year old Kaien Akashiya shot bolt upright drenched in sweat. His chest heaved as he took stock of his situation. All four limbs were accounted for. He was in his dormitory, and his bed sheets were tangled around his legs. All of his battle scars were sealed, and there weren't any new ones, or missing ones. There was sunlight streaming into his room through cracks in his blinds, and he realized that it was daylight, and he'd probably missed breakfast. Kaien sighed, and wiped his brow trying to shake his dream. Fear was foreign to him, but not unheard of. Fatigue was something completely alien.
Kaien heard a knock on his bedroom door. He kicked the tangle of bedding from his legs, and got up to answer it. It was one of his oldest friends, Itsuki Yamaharu, one of a set of identical twin Griffons.
"Hey, man, are you alright?"
"I'm… fine, just fine," Kaien replied, running a hand through his jet black hair.
"Okay, well, uh, you might want to get dressed 'cause the Big Man wants to see you stat. He said something about a new assignment."
"Yeah, okay, I'll get dressed."
Kaien shut the door as Itsuki turned away, and he wondered vaguely what time it was. Looking at himself in the mirror above his chest of drawers, he noticed that he looked like he'd seen a ghost. He took a deep breath, and reached into the pants drawer for a pair of khakis before pulling open the shirt drawer for a random polo shirt; it was Sunday, and he wasn't required to wear uniform. Kaien pulled on his clothes and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth before heading out.
The walk was haunting, as less than half an hour ago, he was running tired and afraid down this path in his subconscious. It was bizarre to him, and the dream wasn't shaken from his mind despite his attempts. He spent the entire walk to the top of the tallest building at Yokai Academy trying desperately to shake this plague of a dream from his psyche, and it wasn't budging. Kaien decided that it was the fear; it was normal to average people to be afraid, but for him, a Vampire, it was a rare occurrence, and one that did not usually manifest so intensely.
As Kaien approached the doors to the Headmaster's office, he saw Riku Morioka and Hikaru Yamaharu standing as guards. They were in uniform, which meant that Kaien probably should have been. It was too late to turn back, and the Headmaster had probably sensed his yoki by now, so what was the point? Kaien motioned for his friends to step aside, and swung open the doors.
"Good morning, Headmaster, my apologies for being tardy."
"Ah, Mr. Akashiya, to the contrary, you're right on time. We were just talking about you. I trust you're recovering from whatever nighttime plague kept you disturbing the peace last night," the Headmaster announced, gesturing to the family in the plush chairs before him.
"Oh? I was?"
"Quite; you were sending off waves of monster energy intense enough to register as critical on the Great Barrier."
"My greatest apologies, sir," Kaien said, and the girl in the chair in front of him snorted laughing.
"No harm done in the end. However, might I introduce you to the Aramori family. Mr. Akashiya, this is Koji Aramori and his wife Clara, daughter Ryoko. Miss Aramori is in your year, and will be joining your class tomorrow."
"Oh?"
"Precisely, Mr. Akashiya. See, Miss Aramori is a very powerful psychic, with telekinetic and telepathic powers beyond what any scale can measure. Mr. Aramori is adamant that she be protected here, in all environments possible. Since you're the Yokai Security Captain, I trust that there are no problems with this arrangement?"
"All environments, sir?" Kaien asked uneasily. The Headmaster smirked.
"Yes indeed. Miss Aramori will be moving into your guest room. I sent Mr. Itsuki Yamaharu ahead to get her set up with furniture and organized drawers. I also made sure that he sent you up here when you awoke."
"She's going to be living in my dormitory?"
"I just told you that, didn't I?" "But, sir, what about the campus rule against co-ed living?"
"These are special circumstances, Mr. Akashiya. If you don't like this arrangement, hand in your badge and let someone else have a turn. I'm not just giving you this because you're Security Captain. I'm confident in your abilities to keep her protected and accounted for, and also to keep your hands to yourself."
"Yes, sir, I accept this assignment," Kaien agreed after a long moment. The Headmaster smiled.
"Good boy! Now, show Miss Aramori to her new living space, and I'll have her schedule sent down by this evening," the Headmaster said, waving his hands dismissively.
Kaien turned on his toes, and stalked out the door, the new girl scrambling reluctantly after him.
"Hey, wait just a second! Wait!" she shouted, following him down the stairs.
"Why are you so pissy?"
"Because, Miss Aramori, this goes against a bunch of the school rules that I enforce, and I now have an immense burden."
"You don't even know me!"
Kaien stormed down the stairs, and out the door.
"Besides," she said following him out the door, "my name isn't Miss Aramori, it's Ryo."
"Well, it's a pleasure, but see, here's the thing, could you just shut up and let me think?"
They continued on their walk in total silence until the dorm area came into view. There was a small portion of students about, and many waved at Kaien only to be ignored. All of the girls looking on glared daggers at Ryo as they walked into the boy's dormitory. The resident at the desk looked up and was about to protest when Kaien looked at him.
"Take it up with the Headmaster. It's all his fault," Kaien muttered melancholically.
"Yes, sir, Kaien," he nodded, and went back to his comic.
"Ooh, he called you a 'sir'."
"Look, if you must know, I'm someone of consequence around here. I'm not just some guy."
"I get the feeling though that you didn't have as far to claw to get to the top though."
"That's what you think. See, I'm not the only one with my misconceptions here."
Kaien walked into the elevator, and pushed the button to go up. Ryo sidled up next to him, and stared for a few moments.
"Stop it. Get out of my head."
"Wow, you can tell? My own dad can't even do that!"
Kaien's head lolled to the side, and he glared at her. He thought of shoving her out, and she gasped. His head felt clearer.
"Whoa, the Old Guy wasn't kidding when he claimed you have strong energy, and a lot of it. You're S-Class at least."
Kaien didn't reply. He simply turned his head back to facing forward, and walked out of the elevator. Ryo followed him, a slight skip in her step. All of the boys in the hallway stared at Ryo. It wasn't surprising; she was rather beautiful, not that Kaien had noticed. With her caramel brown hair and large, deep indigo eyes, she was already a knockout, and her body supported that claim fully. Ryo stood about 5'6", and had a decent cup size and hour glass figure. She looked athletic, and she had a walk that flaunted everything. To an outside eye, they were a perfect compliment to each other, especially when one looked at Kaien, with his shorn black hair, emerald eyes, strong jaw line, and lithe but undeniably muscular figure.
Ryo noticed her new protector stop in front of a door. He turned to her, and sighed before speaking.
"The twins are across the hall, and Riku lives next door to the right. The spare key sits under the door mat," he explained before swinging the door open.
The walls were decorated with framed soccer jerseys from players like David Beckham, Michael Owen, Alessandro Nestra, Lionel Messi, and the crown jewel: his own yellow Romanian home jersey. Then there was the wall of trophies and awards. Ryo walked into the master bedroom and set her handbag down on the bed. Smaller jerseys lined the walls. They were unsigned, and they only read Akashiya across the top with the number 13.
Kaien leaned against the doorframe.
"This is my room. Yours is down the hall."
"Like hell! I want this one."
"Like hell! This is my room! Get out!" Kaien shouted taking a step forward.
"I want this one," Ryo decreed. Kaien raised an eyebrow.
"But all of your stuff is already in the room down the hall."
"Then you can move it here!"
Kaien closed his eyes, and his chest heaved. Then, they opened again and he smiled.
"Fine, you know what, you can have it if you can move your shit and mine without help. I have a practice to attend," he announced, and went to his drawer to pull out a pair of soccer shorts and a t-shirt. Clothes in hand, he hiked his polo over his head, and dropped it in the clothes bin in the corner. Ryo looked horrified.
"What the hell are you doing!" she screamed.
"Getting changed."
"In front of me?"
"I didn't say you had to watch," Kaien said, a seductive smirk across his face. Ryo ran out of the room, and slammed the door behind her. Kaien laughed and pulled his t-shirt over his head.
"Looks like this'll be fun after all," he muttered to himself, and set about the rest of his preparations for practice.
AN: So, I'm bored. It's probably not the best reason to be doing this, but since when have I cared? Here's the deal: I'm writing this on a whimsical schedule. There are no due dates, there are no expectations other than that all of this content will be written like this. I may even decide not to finish this, like I neglected T+V. Okay, fine, I'm thinking of re-working it. In the end, congrats to those of you who've Author Alerted me, and then waited for ages for something to happen. It's just paid off, at least for awhile.