There was darkness, nothing.

Was this Death? Had Cain killed him?

Abel kept walking, looking for signs of life.

Slowly the landscape changed. It was snowy, and there was a blizzard forming. He felt cold. His clothes were in tatters and weren't warming him at all.

Abel's knees gave way, he fell forward, and struck something solid. A barrier.

"This is..." Abel touched it and felt the nanomachines stir within him. A spiritual barrier. "I see. No monsters permitted."

"Are you a monster then?" Kurisuta Hikawa, a young woman of twenty seven years, with long dark hair, caramel skin, and bright blue eyes, stood in her miko's hakama, holding a flashlight and an ofuda. "If your a monster you will be purified."

"I am Abel Nightroad." Abel said. "Yes. I am a monster."

Kuri stood on the other side of the barrier for a moment, considering him. After some time, the barrier dissolved and he fell forward. Kuri caught him, remarkably strong for her size, and carried him into the large house.

She laid him on a couch in front of the fire.

"You need a shower. And new clothes. So what time period are you from?" Kuri said, as calmly as if discussing the weather.

"I...suppose the far future." Abel admitted. "But I don't know why I'm here. Or how."

"Sister?" A boy, who appeared to be Ion Fortuna, entered the living room. "Sister, did you take in another mujitsu?"

"Ion go back to bed. You know you have to sleep in the daytime." Kuri said. "Besides, Reiko will worry."

Kuri turned back to Abel. "She's his wife. She's a kitsune. He is of course a kyuketsuki. A vampire. I don't know how things are in your time, but here vampires live alongside us, but mostly as our heroes, our idols. Celebrities, and even sometimes world leaders and politicians. They truly rule the world. But it is...coexistence. The kyuketsuki take mates among their own kind, and if they do drink directly from a ningen an imprint is formed, a bond that makes the vampire protective and the human dependent. And in case you haven't guessed...I'm a kyuketsuki. A vampire."

Abel gripped the couch. His body was crying out for vampire blood. And Kuri's was pure, purer than any he had ever found.

There wasn't much time, Abel had to get away. But...he couldn't bring himself to move. He was freezing and weak. And the Crusnik wanted to be fed.