Disclaimer: I do not own the VK characters.

Pairings: ZeroxAidou (non-yaoi), KanamexYuuki, YuukixZero (one-sided)

The Midori Incident

Chapter 2

The faint whirring of the electrical motor ceased. The sudden silence amplified his numbness. Tugging at his binds, he nearly laughed out loud to find the idiot had used plastic tubes instead of something stronger; the elastic material was not enough to hold him, a cursed ex-human with freakishly inhuman capabilities. He could snap then without even breaking a sweat. Should he get away or should he sit around a bit longer to meet the stupid fool and torture him slowly for kidnapping him? He could not sense the captor's aura anywhere near simultaneously cursing the stinking rag covering his eyes; he could use some peripheral vision. However, although much to his revulsion and denial, his vampire enhanced senses could be exploited in these kinds of situations.

Zero rocked his body in the metal chair, causing the hind legs to scrape against the floor. He studied the echoes reverberating off the walls, analyzing the sound waves. The room had metal walls and the floor was made of concrete, judging from the velocity and the threshold of the echoes, it was a fairly large room with low ceilings. There was some sort of metallic clinking above, some creaking too. He could not make sense out of it but something wet like mud sloshed under the soles of his bare feet. The whirring started again and more cold air was blasted in, ruffling his open shirt. He could feel the ice crusting on the skin of his chest. Judging from the temperature, the size and the reeking, rancid smell of rotting haemoglobin both of human and animal origins permeating off the enclosure he was in; he had conformed his hypothesis. The bastard was holding him in a fucking meat freezer turned slaughterhouse, the smell of torture and murder was way too obvious. He has a psycho up in his ass and he had to get away, pronto.

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Flipping through the yellowing pages of an old musty leather covered book, she sighed. The clock had just struck 10 and there were no stars in the night sky. She could almost smell the dark sulphuric clouds. It would rain later. The humidity was overwhelming; she regretted wearing her belted khaki shirtwaist dress. She should have chosen something out of lighter cotton. Placing the book onto the ancient oak study, she tugged off the elastic hair band securing her long dark shiny brown hair; which cascaded down to her slim waist. Somebody carefully knocked on the door.

"Has he arrived yet?" she asked the tall elderly butler almost impatiently, drumming her long fingers on the book. The butler bowed apologetically, signifying a negative. "Koda-san, may I please have my cell phone?" Her request was granted as he efficiently disappeared and reappeared with the shiny apple red device placed on a silver tray; vampire servants are a blessing. "Thank you. You may leave," she dismissed him.

No text, no messages, no calls, no nothing and uncharacteristically late. Aidou was usually so anal about abiding time and the word late was nonexistent in his dictionary. She punched the number 4 on her speed dial and waited for him to pick up. Uncharacteristically again, he did not and she got his voicemail. "Hey, it's a shame the irresistibly gorgeous me had missed your call. Leave me some love and I'll pounce back at you later," Frivolousness had always been his forte. Cringing, she waited for the beep, "Aidou –senpai, it's me, Yuuki. Are you all right? We're supposed to pick me up at 11:30, remember? Call me back."

She hung up and stashed the contraption into her handbag, "Where are you Aidou?" Her bags were packed and ready downstairs. The blond should have arrived an hour ago. They were scheduled to meet up with Kaname in Okinawa and their flight will be at 0100hrs. Getting Kaname off his duties was dreadfully hard and getting him to go on a weekend break was almost excruciatingly impossible. Yuuki had to practically threaten the prince to move back with her adoptive father, Cross Kaien just to get him to push back his schedules and agree to go on a trip to the beaches. Most vampires may hate sunshine but Kuran Yuuki was no ordinary vampire, she had once lived as a human and she knew she could convince her brother and the irritatingly late friend to at least enjoy the white sands and balmy summer sea breeze under a shady umbrella, tree or whatever while she splash around in the water; Seiren will definitely stay close to her so maybe she could be swayed into donning on a sexy swimsuit too. It will be a chance to get Aidou to stop chasing skirts and get together with the silent platinum blond beauty. Then it would be perfect, she would have Kaname all to herself while those two nobles can get to know each other better. She giggled at the fantasy; it would be fun to hang out just like normal people once in a while. Well, maybe she could, if Aidou finally showed up of course.

Aidou was supposed to escort her there to meet Kaname and Seiren who will be flying in from Kyoto. Wishing she had had the air tickets instead of the blond flirt, she pictured herself running through the airport gates alone and smiled. She would personally strangle the vampire noble with her bare hands until his pretty bright blue eyes bulged in their sockets if he screws up.

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Zero shook his head one more time, willing his pounding headache to disappear. It did not work. Instead he began to notice a strange prickling sensation building up in his chest, like tiny specks of sharp glass floating in his veins and accumulated around his heart; his bloodlust. He ignored it.

Clenching his teeth, he focused his energy and tugged his hands. The thick plastic tubing stretched a bit but not enough. They were coiled from his wrist right up to his elbows, binding them uncomfortably tight together. Obviously the elastic weave and knots were carefully planned by the sick bastard to slow him down; he could have easily break chains or hemp with brute force. Plastic withstands tension better, damn.

His ears picked up distant footsteps approaching the room. He stretched the binds again, the tubes dug painfully into his flesh. Increasing his strength, he gave a hard tug. The top knots snapped, something wet seeped into his shirtsleeves and there was a searing pain and something akin of scalding liquid burning his skin, he could smell his own blood in the air. Something was in those tubes, he realised belatedly as the pain increased exponentially. Come on Zero, you've been through worse than this, he thought. Again, he tugged and the rest of them came loose, not without leaking more and more of that rancid burning toxic.

Clamping on his urge to scream out in agony, silence was his top priority as a potential threat was rapidly approaching. If the bastard had been able to elude his senses and surprised him, the possibility of him being able to anticipate a counter-attack would be highly likely. Zero freed his hands and snagged his blindfold away, his eyes quickly adapting to the semi-darkness. His hands were on fire, there was definitely something dangerous in those fucking tubes; it couldn't be acid or one of those textbook corrosives. The liquid singed his flesh and were eating through his bones but not his clothing, acid and chemicals are not selective abrasives. The pain was almost unbearable and his brains told him to stop moving and deal with the torture, agonizing enough to discourage and incapacitate a hostage. However, he was no ordinary hostage so he called upon his years of gruelling training and focused on his escape.

Similar tubes were used to tie down his legs. He was right, the twists and knots were like pieces of intricate art. His captor had plenty of time to practice. They were no doubt filled with more of those vile liquid. Snapping them would definitely cause a whole new level of pain, lovely. He could see the bones in his fingers, the flesh scorched and bits were hanging off, his wrist raw and oozing blood; showing no signs of clotting as the liquid continued to melt away his flesh, bubbling and smoking. The wounds are trying to heal but the corrosive ate the new tissues, reopening them further. He was in hell but the quickening footsteps turned his misery into silent panic.

Again, ignoring the already intolerable stings, he reached down to one of the chair legs and twisted the metal, breaking it simultaneously aggravating his horrendous wounds. Amazingly the tubes and metal could be easily slid off his leg. In a quick assessment, the skin and flesh on his right thumb had fallen off, leaving the bone protruding uselessly from the stump. His forearms were raw and bloody; his vampire healing ability short circuited by the corrosives, thankfully the pain slowly numbed. High in adrenalin, he repeated the process to the other leg; and found a large hole had been bored into his left palm in the process. He tore his shirt and tied strips of them around both hands; even flexing was killing him. Lightheaded from the blood loss, he scanned the room to figure out his contingency plan.

Another gust of cold air blasted from a vent in the ceiling and he heard the metal clinks again. Smirking, he saw them, rows and rows of menacing rusty metal hooks caked in reddish brown stuff probably once used to hang frozen meat in the dim bluish light. Reaching up, he unhooked one of them with his right hand. He would use them to gut the bastard before hanging him to bleed to death. He would make him pay for messing with a hunter, that foolish man. The footsteps were getting louder and he waited. Retaliation had never been so sweet. He raised the metal hook high above his head, taking on an offensive stance and waited.

The footsteps stopped behind the metal door. Zero could hear the heavy breathing mammoth fumbling with a padlock. But suddenly he stopped and the big voice, although muffled by the thick door warned, "Put that down Kiriyu and back away from the door!"

Strange, the oaf could not possibly have X-ray vision. Nevertheless, Zero tightened his grip on the hook and crouched lower. But the door did not open. Heavy-breathing-mammoth dropped something big and lumpy onto the floor and bellowed, "I can see you in there. Drop the hook, boy! Or I swear I'll..."

See, how can the bastard see him? Unless.. He noticed a faint red light blinking just above the door. There was an infra-red camera installed. Zero had underestimated the oaf. "Or you what? Fucking dick, I swear I'll kill you!" Zero cut him off.

"Watch your filthy trap boy or your friend dies," the deep voice taunted. "Besides, you won't stand a chance going at me with your mangled hands. They couldn't even hurt a fly no more." Several volleys of curses ensued from the oaf and there was a small scuffle on the floor, a hard thud and then silence. Friend? What the hell? He got another one, damn! Zero guessed the captive must have put up some sort of resistance. Good boy.

"Sorry pal, as anti-social as I am; I have no friend!" Zero growled. Heavy-breathing-mammoth had bagged in another kid, his mind screamed amidst his rioting senses. He prayed hard the bastard did not touch any of his frail human school mates from the academy. Currently, he could sense another life flickering behind the door but he was too weakened by the blood lost to tell. Blood lost equals blood lust and he was having quite a hard time to maintain his focus on pulverizing the bastard. He will not die without taking him down first.

Heavy-breathing-mammoth laughed manically, "Oh, yes you do. You should see his face when I told him that you died." Then he kicked at something and Zero heard a muffled groan. "It's funny how a Level-B bastard had so much concern for a filthy D like you."

The gears in his head turned, Level-B? D? Heavy-breathing-mammoth is a hunter?. That explains the weird stuff that have efficiently destroyed his hands; hunter weapons. Who says weapons are limited to sharp metal blades, or guns? Explosives, seals and as well as evil flesh-eating stuff were counted too. Things just got complicated; exponentially.


*Laughs* I wanna throw myself in a bonfire. My English teacher must be crying in her grave (yeah, I'm that old, darling. Kidding). But I'm quite puzzled that I Chapter 1 got 5 hits within 30 minutes I posted that one up. Then it flatlined. *Laughs again* It was a phenomenon!