Hey guys. I started this story quite a while ago, but after rereading it and working on my writing, I thought I'd rewrite it. I know a lot of people were enjoying it, and I liked the concept, so I figured I'd start over, hmmm? Let me know what you guys think. I know my grammar and spelling STILL needs a bit of work, but I'm a new writer, so go easy, k?
My throat burns. Where am I? Brown eyes slowly drifted open. Ichigo looked around, curious about his new surroundings. His eyes burned when they caught a glimpse of the sun peeking through the dark black curtain hanging from the window. He sat up, balling the white sheets under him up with his fists. His throat was dry and he was breathing heavily. How long was I out for? It was clearly daytime. It had felt like he'd been asleep for weeks. The orange haired boy stood up, trying to clear his head.
He jumped back slightly when he heard the doorknob begin to turn. The wood creaked as the large cherry wood door opened. "Hm, you're awake so soon?" Ichigo's eyes drifted over the blonde man in front of him. He was thin and only a little shorter than he was. The man's face twisted into a wide, toothy grin. "I thought you were gonna take longer. You've been out longer than most of us."
"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo snapped, finally getting past the dryness in his throat.
"Oh! How rude of me! Hirako Shinji, at yer service." The lanky man gave him a sarcastic bow. Ichigo could feel his throat tighten up as the dryness got worse. His hands instinctively came to his throat, wrapping around it in a failed attempt to sooth it. "Oh, ya just woke up so yer probably pretty hungry, huh?" He chuckled. Shinji brought a sharp nail to his wrist, digging it into the flesh to draw a bit of blood.
"Wh-what the hell are you doing!?" Ichigo asked in a frantic fit.
"Look, if ya don't wanna pass out again, I suggest you take a sip." Ichigo was completely paralyzed, not understanding the situation. Was he crazy?
"I'm not gonna do that!" His mind told him no, but he could feel his body moving toward the thin man. His mind became consumed with a crimson red lust, clouding his actions from him. When he had finally come back down from wherever he went, he could feel the warm liquid staining his clothes and dribbling down his face. Had he just drank blood?
"Feelin' better now?" Ichigo was in shock. First he couldn't remember anything other than his name and age, now he was drinking blood from some man who he guessed had kidnapped him. "Listen, I know this is a lot to take in at one moment, but yer gonna need blood to survive. Preferably human blood. My blood will only keep ya stable for a bit." It was becoming clear to the teenager. He wasn't human anymore.
"So I'm… A vampire?" He asked. Shinji's face twisted back into a grin and he nodded.
"That's right." There was a white flash before Ichigo had Shinji pinned against a far wall, hands around his throat and eyes set to kill. "Ya can't kill me like this you know." He laughed at the boy.
"You did this to me, didn't you?" Ichigo's gripped tightened when no response came from the blonde except him protruding his tongue at the younger boy in a mocking manner. "Didn't you?"
"Yeah, yeah, it was me."
"Why?"
"You were dyin' and I couldn't just sit back and watch some kid die, ya know?" Ichigo's gaze intensified before he let go of his 'creator', dropping him to the floor. "You can be mad at me all ya want, but that's not gonna change a thing. If I were you, I'd be mad at the dumbasses who tried ta kill ya." He was right. Ichigo hadn't really thought about the fact that somebody had tried to kill him.
"Alright, fine, but don't expect me to be your new best friend."
"Wouldn't count on it 'buddy'" Shinji mocked. They stared each other down in silence for a good couple minutes. Suddenly, a shrill shriek broke through the silence, alarming everyone. Shinji had been gone quicker than Ichigo could blink, so he decided he'd run and follow the direction of the scream.
"Mashiro shut the fuck up!" The next voice was loud, and angry, but not one he recognized. There was a number of whimpers and wails after the yelling. Ichigo peeked his head around the corner, looking down the stairs into what he guessed was the common room.
"There are more of them?" He asked himself. At the bottom of the stairs, was a small girl, with lime green hair and a large, body builder like man with silver hair. He didn't know what was going on, but from where he stood, it didn't look good. The girl was lying on the ground, he white night dress stained with blood, while she flailed her limbs back and forth. "Hey!" Ichigo yelled. The man shot him a glair.
"What do you want?" He asked the boy.
"What'd you do to her?" Before Ichigo could ask any more questions, Shinji was next him, a hand on his shoulder, trying to tame him.
"No need to play hero here, Ichigo. This is an everyday thing." The blonde assured him. Every day? Are these people insane? "Kensei, what happened this time?" He shouted down to the silver haired man, trying to be heard over the flailing girl.
"I was trying to limit her blood intake, but she got mad because she said she was still hungry." Shinji gave an understanding nod before turning back to Ichigo.
"Mashiro is the 'newest' out of the rest of us. She's only been here about two years, so everything is still kind of new to her. She tends to take more than she needs and doesn't like feeding off of humans."
"I thought we needed to feed off of humans." Ichigo pondered.
"Well, not exactly. Human blood sustains us for longer, so we don't need to hunt as often, but to vampires, another vampires blood tastes better." Shinji explained. "Since you're new, we want to teach you soon to live off human blood. We made the mistake of giving Mashiro too much blood from our kind, so now she can't really survive off of human blood." The whole thing was becoming more and more twisted as they went, and if Shinji wasn't wearing a serious expression, he wouldn't have believed him.
"Kensei~!" Mashiro wailed, sitting up and rubbing her eyes of the tears building up. Kensei huffed at her, lifting her up off the ground since she was done throwing her tantrum. She let out a yawn, wrapping her arms around the man's neck before closing her eyes. He let out another groan, before heading up the stairs. He stopped and looked at Shinji.
"What are we going to do about her? She's going to over power herself if we don't fix this." Kensei asked the other vampire. Shinji pondered for a second before thinking up a solution.
"We'll take 'er to Kisuke tomorrow. For now I want ya to not feed her anymore, and if she retaliates, I want you to take her down to the study and restrain her. This needs to stop." Kensei nodded at Shinji's idea walking down the hall and to his room. Ichigo could feel the prescience of others, jumping when he had noticed some of them sitting on the couch, while others stood in corners, watching idly by.
"How many of you are there?" Ichigo asked.
"There are eight, not counting you." Shinji used his hand to gesture to the others to come forward. "I'll introduce you." The first person he pointed to was a raven haired girl. She was about average height and her blue eyes were buried in a magazine she held in front of herself. "That's Lisa."
"Hi." She said, barely looking up from her magazine. The next set of people was both a set of tall men. One was lanky, with long blonde hair; the other had darker skin, a star shaped afro, and sunglasses shielding his eyes.
"I'm Rose." The blonde said, giving Ichigo a lazy smile.
"Love." The other one introduced. They had finally come to the person who drew Ichigo's attention the most. He was a large, round man, with pink hair and a matching rat under his nose.
"Hachigen Ushoda, pleased to meet you." He gave Ichigo a warm smile, the most welcoming of the bunch.
"Well, you met Mashiro and Kensei, sorta, so I think that's everyone." Shinji said. He was suddenly knocked back by a small, blonde girl. She let out a growl pulling and Shinji's hair.
"What the hell ya baldy! Yer not gonna introduce me?!" She snapped.
"Yer not worth introducin' Hiyori! Nobody cares about monkeys!" He managed to roll, flipping them so he was hovering over her and pulling at the high pigtails in her hair. Their banter went on for a good ten minutes before Love and Rose had to pull the two apart.
"Hey Shinji, I thought you said Mashiro was the youngest." He looked confused at the small blonde girl.
"She is. Hiyori was turned when she was 13 in 1942. Mashiro was 15 when she was turned in 2011. Hiyori's been alive much longer, though she doesn't act like it." Shinji explained.
"You wanna say that again, dumbass?!" She yelled, throwing a yellow sandal across the room at the blonde's face.
"Dammit Hiyori!" Shinji yelped, holding his bleeding nose. Were these really the people Ichigo was going to have to spend most of his time with? He could feel his blood begin to boil at the thought of living a life in the shadows, hunting humans and fearing the sun.
"We can go in the sun light." Rose spoke up. Ichigo's eyes shot open, horror struck at the man.
"Wha- how did you-"
"My gift. I read minds. I can hear every last little thought running through your head." Rose smiled at the boy.
"What the hell can't you monsters do?!" He yelled. Suddenly, the air changed. Ichigo found himself pinned against the wall this time, Shinji giving his a deadly look.
"You think he chose this? Well you're wrong. All of us were brought here by force. We know how you're feeling, but we're far from monsters." He growled. "I don't expect you to be comfortable with us, but the least you could do is think about how the rest us feel." He released Ichigo, exiting the room before he further lost composure. The others soon followed, leaving Ichigo alone to his thoughts.