pairing(s): mentions of Chisaki/Tsumugu
warnings: mentions of canonical violence from vampires against humans, referenced off-screen deaths, mentions of minor character death.
notes: Continued from the first chapter, this is part 2 of 2. This part contains an original character! Also included in this chapter is some more worldbuilding, explanations of what happened to Tsumugu, Sayu and Miuna, etc. I didn't do a good job of transitioning scenes like I did in ch1 so I've added some scene breaks. Hopefully they don't get removed from my formatting.
chapter summary: Tsumugu returns to Sanguinem after his encounter with Chisaki and reminisces about the past, sort of.
Tsumugu sighs with relief when he's finally allowed to leave Janus's side; he only barely manages to walk calmly back to the private quarters he's been assigned to. In the vague privacy of his room he starts to shake, grips his cloak tight in clenched fists.
"Chisaki," he says out loud. "And Manaka, and Hikari…" They're alright. They're alive. They survived. He's already thinking about how he can find a way to meet Chisaki again, to talk to her properly and find out how she and the other Shioshishio kids survived this long. How they ended up in the JIDA, of all places.
Not for the first time Tsumugu experiences a slight pang of regret over giving up his humanity so fast when Janus had first asked him if he'd like the change. It had been necessary in order to become stronger, so he could keep Sayu and Miuna safe from the worst of the blood halls and the coarser vampires who fed there. He had thought that, eventually, he'd be able to go back to Oshiooshi and from there search for a way to reach the village under the sea. He hadn't expected to meet his old junior high classmate again in a town he didn't remember the name of, much less for her to be wearing the uniform of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army and wielding cursed gear against him.
He runs over their encounter again in his head.
Chisaki was strong, able to keep pace with him while he'd fought her in the fog. She had kept her weapon between them even when he had her cornered by the shipping containers and had only let her guard down after he did so first. Seeing her for the first time in so many years has uncovered the emotions he'd made an effort to tamp down back when they were first separated.
Chisaki is a beautiful woman now, with her long indigo hair still tied up the same way and soft bangs framing her face. She's grown into the childish roundness of her cheeks and chin, stands straight and tall for all she's a good half foot shorter than him. Tsumugu knows she probably misunderstood what he meant when he said she's changed- that's another thing they'll have to talk about when they meet next. Speaking of meeting, Tsumugu remembers guiltily, he needs to go see Sayu and Miuna before he can rest for real.
The two Oshiooshi girls have clung to him like shadows ever since they had first been carted off to Sanguinem, with Miuna still covered in Akari's blood and Sayu gripping her friend's hand so tight she'd left nail marks. They'd been separated for a bit during the vaccination process- boys and girls separated, then further separated into landfolk and seafolk to receive the correct vaccine. After that, they'd been reunited and assigned the same house, together with other kids Tsumugu remembered from school, plus a few he didn't recognize.
The entire situation was a giant nightmare that Tsumugu didn't think he'd ever wake up from. The blood halls in particular were a source of distress for most of the younger kids, Miuna especially. He wasn't the only older kid who'd had to step in when a vampire tried to sneak or threaten their way into getting a bite from the source, and he'd earned a good number of minor injuries because of it.
The arrival of America's twentieth progenitor, Janus Guidix, as a guest of the vampire queen Krul Tepes, in the third year after the calamity had set the entire vampire community on edge. Tsumugu, like most of the other kids, knew little about vampire politics, but some of the older girls who cleaned in the mansions whispered about Janus coming to Japan in order to show her support for Krul in whatever the queen was currently getting up to. It didn't involve him, so he didn't think too much about it. At least, not until he met the visitor herself.
He had gotten involved in an altercation between a vampire and one of the younger children in the blood hall, adamantly standing his ground because the child in question was already pale from having given blood and also crying with fear. It had almost gotten too violent for Tsumugu to handle, until Janus passed by.
The vampire noble had calmly speared the offender through the heart with a swipe of her hand before turning to Tsumugu and asking him if he'd like to dine with her in the same breath. He didn't think twice before accepting- Tsumugu knew from talking with some of the other kids that 'dining' with a noble could mean better food for him and the kids in his household, or even better living quarters. If it meant he'd be able to keep Sayu and Miuna and the other kids who were unofficially under his care fed and safe, he'd take the risk.
Tsumugu reaches the house where Sayu and Miuna are living with a few other girls and knocks in the special pattern they'd established as the latest password. Someone runs to the door and opens it cautiously.
"Kihara?" It's one of the other girls, one who's about his age, named Ayu. "Hold on," she says, not inviting him in. "Sayu, Miuna! Come downstairs, you have a guest!" Sayu's the first one down, throws herself at him for a hug. Miuna follows a bit behind her friend but joins the hug as well.
"Welcome back, Tsumugu!" Sayu says eagerly. Miuna nods her agreement- she hasn't spoken since the day Hikari pushed her away from him and left her in Tsumugu's care. The black-haired girl leads them both into the house despite Ayu's scowl, into the kitchen where they can talk and the other girls who are home can keep an eye on Tsumugu. Even though he's responsible for the better food they eat, the others don't really trust him. It's fine by him.
Sayu asks questions about where he's been, what he's seen. She's itching to see the sky again and always has him describe it to her whenever he returns from a mission. Tsumugu hesitates before answering her this time, because he hadn't thought to look at the sky at all when Chisaki had been right in front of him.
He recounts his recent patrol, and when he reaches the part where he met Chisaki, Sayu is the only one who reacts with emotion.
"So they're okay? They're alive?!" she asks, grabbing at his arm. Her eyes shine bright with tears. "Did you see Kaname? Is he alive, too?"
"I don't know," Tsumugu admits. "We...didn't have a lot of time to talk, and I only heard Hikari and Manaka's voices." Sayu bites her lip and wipes at her eyes as her tears spill over.
"That's not fair," she cries, "it's not- why isn't-"
Miuna squeezes Sayu's shoulder and wraps her arms around her friend. She's scowling the way she does whenever she hears Hikari's name, brows furrowed and nose scrunched. She pets Sayu's hair until the other girl stops crying.
Tsumugu ends the visit shortly after that, only letting Miuna tap out the next password sequence on his palm before giving the two girls a careful embrace at the doorway. Ayu watches them from her seat near the windowsill and slams the door behind Tsumugu the instant he steps out.
Tsumugu rubs a hand over his face when he makes it back to his quarters in Janus's mansion. There's only so long he can be around Sayu and Miuna's house before the sound of their heartbeats gets to be too much for him to handle. He's still not used to how strange the need for blood makes him feel- in books, it's been described as a hunger, or as a thirst, but he's not sure he would describe it like that. It's just- a deep feeling, one that's sharp around the edges and very hot. He can usually ignore it but around humans it gets worse, and only Janus's blood can dull this feeling.
The vial of blood is one of his last. Tsumugu drinks it quickly, making sure that every last drop is emptied from the vial before stowing it back in the pouch strapped to his thigh. One vial generally lasts him two weeks if he doesn't need to do any heavy fighting, and with six vials in his possession, he only needs to visit Janus for new blood every few months. He makes a mental note to ask the vampire noble for some of her time tomorrow when he visits for the next mission's briefing.