Deliberate parodying of one of Kieran's starting monologues here. Forgive me?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------

How had things turned out this way? Could this sequence of tragedies have been avoided? What had he done wrong for all their paths to cross in this fashion?

An innocent remark tossed out in a kitchen.

A vampire princess introduced to cable T.V.

The wrath of a woman whose greatest love in life had been scorned.

All events that could have been prevented, every one another step on the stairway to disaster. The deadliest ability in the world hadn't been enough to break down the chains of misfortune that dragged him down.

A meeting in the moonlight, a memory revisited.

Could he even blame himself? Against the conspiracies of fate not even the gods themselves could win. What else could you call such an unlikely series of unfortunate events?

When battle rages, carried to the foe upon sword, flame, and well-brandished tuna...

Tohno Shiki didn't know. In fact it was almost the last thing on his mind as he hung five hundred feet off the ground, suspended by a slender rope off the highest of the millennium castle's minarets. No one knew if one could die of hypothermia in this pocket dimension that the castle existed in, but if Shiki failed it wouldn't be for lack of trying.

... The only salvation lies in doing the impossible.

Shiki knew he had no more choices, no more alternative paths he could pursue. He would have to face the horrors, the agonies of...

The Satsujinki Cooking Diaries

Recipe 2 - Kitchen Warfare, Part One

Three weeks prior to Shiki being trussed up like a leg of ham...

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

Without a sound the door to the kitchen slid open, admitting a black cat who had become (albeit against much resistance) a part of the Tohno family. Peculiar in that she was holding a note in her mouth like a dog fetching a newspaper for its owner. Seeing that her master was currently busy she jumped onto an unused benchtop and curled up to take a brief nap. Walking across the town and back in this form was tiring, but still easier than doing the same in her human body. As long as she had lived Ren still found it hard to understand why so many men would start stalking her when she required the use of a pair of hands.

After a brief glance her way to see who had disturbed the air Shiki turned back to his work. Cutting up lettuce for a salad this time. He idly wondered where she had been all morning as he got back into the rhythm, soon enough a steady chop chop sound was filling the kitchen again.

"Waaaah, Shiki-san! That's enough for now," Kohaku told him as she came back from setting the table. "I'll take care of the rest so why don't you go wash up before dinner?"

Shiki gave her a slight grin as he put down the knife in his hands.

"You still have to finish grilling all the meat don't you? Let me just finish this salad so that you can get on with that." True to his words he grabbed two of the carrots nearby and started dicing them up.

"Shiki-saaan. Akiha-sama will tell me off if she catches you helping me so much again," Kohaku wagged her finger at Shiki as she encouraged him to leave. "She will give me another lecture on how its unbecoming for the oldest scion of the Tohno family to work in the kitchens. So if you please, leave it to me."

Shiki nodded absentmindedly and finished shredding the carrot he had been working on before putting the cooking knife down. Kohaku had a point though, Akiha would give him a variant of the same lecture if she saw him life this. She could be such an uncute sister sometimes.

His train of thought drifted on from there as he wiped his hands clean with a paper towel. Shiki often thought it would be rather nice to have a cuter little sister, one who would call him nii-san with a soft voice as she fed him some of the bento she had personally made for him.

All of a sudden there was a muffled giggle in his mind. Having never heard the sound before Shiki was at a loss as to its origins when he saw Ren trembling where she lay.

"Ren? Are you alright?" asked Shiki.

In reply the dream familiar opened one eye to look in his direction. When Shiki met her gaze he found himself falling into one of Ren's daydreams again.

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

"Nii-san open wide."

Hmmm? What was going on? Shiki opened his eyes to find out, and nearly fell backwards after seeing who it was.

"Akiha?"

The girl who looked like, yet couldn't be, Akiha blinked and back away a little so that she was no longer staring him in the face.

"Nii-san?" she responded in a warmer version of Akiha's voice.

Shiki examined her from head to toe. He wasn't quite believing what was going on here. Akiha was dressed in his high school's uniform, with her long hair pulled into curly twin-tails that somehow softened her looks from those of an icy yamato nadeshiko to something similar to one of the cuter popular idols. She was also holding out a pair of chopsticks with a shrimp tempura grasped between them.

Come to think of it. What was he doing out here in his high school backyard? He had graduated months ago.

"Nii-san, it will get cold unless you don't eat it soon," said this impossible mirage. "Here you go, say 'Ahhhh'."

When she held out her chopsticks with a faint blush on her face, Shiki stopped caring. So what if this was a daydream? Daydreams, BANZAI!

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

"Shiki-san? Shiki-san!"

A slight pinch on his cheek brought Shiki back into reality.

"Huh? Kohaku?" Disoriented Shiki looked about himself. He was back in the kitchen, where had the tempura gone?

Kohaku stared at him with a hard to understand look in her eyes.

"Shiki-san, you were just standing there with an... A... Strange, expression on your face." Kohaku stuttered out.

"I was? Oh..."

Frowning, Shiki remembered what had just happened and glared at the cat. Damn it, Ren, he thought to her, I told you not to do that when other people were watching.

With a disdainful sniff the cat picked herself up from where she had been lying and left the room. Shiki rolled his eyes and was about follow her when he spotted a piece of paper on the benchtop where Ren had just been. Picking it up he read what was written there.

Play with me!

- Arcueid

"Shiki-san? What is it?" inquired the ever curious mistress of the kitchen.

"Nothing, just a reminder that I have something to do tomorrow." Shiki put the note away in his pocket. If Akiha found out he would definitely find the door to his room locked and bolted when he woke up the next day.

Thinking about Akiha made Shiki remember the dream Ren had sent him. Turning to face Kohaku he asked her a question.

"Hey Kohaku, does Akiha know how to cook?" Shiki knew it was a forlorn hope but he could at least dream.

Kohaku was taken unawares by the bolt out of the blue and took her time to answer him.

"No, I don't think so, Shiki-san," she replied carefully before warming to the subject. "At least, I've never heard of her doing anything like that. And I would know if she had come into the kitchens here."

"Tsk," well there went one of his delusions. "How uncute."

With that dream dispelled Shiki left the kitchens to take a shower before dinner.

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

Unbeknownst to him or Kohaku another pair of ears had overheard their short conversation. Hands clenched into fists so tight that trickles of blood started flowing when Shiki made his final statement.

"Uncute am I, nii-san," said the icy voice. "We'll see about that..."

After uttering that frightening promise Akiha stalked off, presumably back to her room to treat the self-inflicted wounds on her palms.

Once she was certain Akiha was gone Ren peeked out from behind the grandfather clock where she had been hiding. Her master's sister could get scary at times, but this development promised to be interesting, both for her and her master.

With that in mind she happily headed out for the veranda. Hisui always left her a dish of milk at about this time of day and she wanted to quench her thirst.

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

The next day...

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

"Hahahahaha! Shiki, look at that. That person looks so silly in that costume!"

Shiki gave Arcueid an indulgent smile before he looked around and sighed. As a beautiful foreigner Arcueid would have garnered enough attention by merely existing in the same space as these everyday humans, but by laughing at something that wasn't even particularly funny she had managed to grab the attention of the whole studio audience.

"Hey, Arcueid. Arcueid?" Shiki grabbed her arm and gave her a little shake. "Could you cut back on the laughter a little? You are starting to distract everyone."

Arcueid stared up at him confusedly with streaming eyes. Seeing that confusion Shiki wondered what any of the Dead Apostles would think if they were watching this show. Would they recognise the White Princess of the True Ancestors? The executioner of the twenty-six? The bogeyman that even the most powerful among them feared? Would they even believe that this was her?

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

In an old fortress half-buried in the sands of the Ivory Coast a phonecall was received.

"Dead Apostle Executioner Watch Hotline, this is the Dark Six speaking. How can we help you?"

The receiver's expression first seemed mildly interested, then took on a slightly disbelieving look.

"... Japanese T.V.? It's on right now? Well... Okay..."

A clawed finger pressed a button on a remote that lay on the antique table. On the far wall one of the dozens of plasma screens switched from displaying a Russian ballet to a Japanese game show.

The receiver held at his ear, one of the the Dark Apostles that called themselves the Dark Six watched this bizarre display of human behaviour at its worst for a moment before shaking his head.

"No, sorry. You have the wrong person," he told the person on the other end of the line. He pointed a finger at the screen even though there was no possibility that they could see him.

"That cannot be the White Princess." An angry burbling. "What do you mean, why? Do you really think the executioner of the True Ancestors is going to be sitting in the audience of a human game show laughing hysterically? With a weedy human male wearing such dorky glasses beside her at that? Nope, sorry. This ain't her. Thanks for calling though."

He hung up, and shook his head. Really, youngsters these days. They just didn't stop to think at all.

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

"Ahh, that was fun!" Arcueid yelled out as she stretched out her arms. This did interesting things to her chest that caused heads to turn and a car or two to screech to a halt as she walked by.

Shiki shook his head at her exuberance and tried to get the spots out of his sleeve. Fun for Arcueid maybe but he had felt like melting into the seat under the wilting glares that had been directed towards them as the show progressed. What had happened afterwards hadn't been all that pleasant either. He had been jumped by seven of the men who had been in the audience when he had gone to the toilet. With Arcueid still suffering at times from suppressing her bloodlust he had had a tough time beating them all down while not spilling even one drop of that dangerous red liquid. He had succeeded in the end but one particularly fat guy had thrown up on his arm. So not cool.

"Hey, Shiki," Arcueid said to him as she turned around to latch onto his arm. This caused not a few scowls to appear on nearby faces. "Can we do this again sometime?"

Shiki shook his head sadly. "Sorry Arcueid, but today was a special occasion. That show is usually produced in Tokyo but they've been going around the country to do special episodes." He shrugged. "They probably won't be coming back here, and there aren't any other shows that we could go to easily."

Well that wasn't strictly true, but after what had happened today there was no way Shiki was letting Arcueid anywhere near Ninja Challenge. She would probably do something stupid like jumping in and participating herself if he did.

Arcueid's face fell, "Oh... But I wanted to see it again..."

Seeing her look so sad made something in his heart twinge in pain. As well as having the effect of turning the glares that the men on the streets were directing at him from "Damn that lucky SOB" to "Go off and die in a hole somewhere you lousy little shit, how dare you make her sad!". Circumstances demanded that something be done.

Inspiration struck, and Shiki brightened up when he realised how he could cheer Arcueid up while avoiding any more incidents like today.

"Hey, Arcueid. You don't have to go to a studio to watch that kind of show you know."

"Huh?" Arcueid exclaimed in surprise.

"You can watch all that at your apartment," Shiki thought it over. "I could even set it all up for you today if you really wanted me to. All we need to do is - Wha! Arcueid!"

Falling under Arcueid's ecstatic assault Shiki found his feelings split as to how this had turned out. For one thing Arcueid was happy again, and a happy Arcueid was... Uh... A not-so-trouble-prone Arcueid. For another...

Shiki freed his head from Arcueid's warm embrace and looked around, what he saw made him sigh again.

For another thing, it looked like he was going to have to fight again on the way home. Why did this have to happen every time he went on a date with her?

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

Later that night...

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

A grunt of pain escaped from Shiki's mouth as he patched up the newest gouges in his leg. Akiha had gone overboard on the traps again, the last one had come within a hair's breadth of killing him. He had barely escaped by cutting up the wire holding his left leg but he had accidentally cut himself in the process. It looked like he was going to have to talk to her once more to try and get her to ease up on the traps. How extreme they were didn't bother him all that much, it was good training, but if some thieves intruded upon the grounds again they would have a much harder time persuading the police of their innocence. The last police investigation had been much more thorough than usual and had turned up some interesting facts about the mansion that Shiki hadn't known about. They hadn't found any of the missing robbers though, as Shiki had known they wouldn't.

They were all buried in Kohaku's garden...

Shiki was about to leave for his midnight rendevous when a familiar voice called out to him.

"Tohno-kun? What are you doing out so late at night?"

Recognising Ciel's voice Shiki turned around to greet her.

"Hey there, Sempai. On patrol again?" he asked with an insolent grin on his face.

Ciel smacked him on the head with a black key that seemed to magically materialise in her hand.

"Yes, Tohno-kun," she answered, ignoring his exclamation of pain. "Or rather, I'm just finishing up for the night. It's more a formality then anything else these days. There aren't many vampires left in this country, let alone this city."

Rubbing his head where he had been hit Shiki tagged along behind her as Ciel headed downtown. Her clerical robe shifted into street clothes as he watched, a process that as always defied belief. No matter how much he had gotten used to Arcueid and Ciel, or even Akiha for that matter, perform physics-defying acts of strength and speed, he still couldn't get used to the idea of magic. He always put away the knowledge into a corner of his mind until reintroduced to the concept by something like what had happened just now. An instinctive defence perhaps. His mind's way of coping with all the unreal events that had taken over his reality in his latest period of his life.

In an attempt to clear his head of such pointless thoughts Shiki decided to strike up a conversation.

"What are you going to do now, sempai?" Ciel didn't usually talk much during or after a patrol so he wasn't expecting much, but he was curious. They were heading in the wrong direction for her to be returning to her house.

To his surprise Ciel turned to him with a big, big, grin on her face.

"They are having a midnight special at Messians today, Tohno-kun." Strong traces of excitement entered her voice as her eyes lit with zealous fervor. "All. You. Can. Eat. For just two thousand yen. Do you want to join me?"

Shaking his head Shiki backed away from Ciel's outstretched hand.

"Sorry sempai, but I promised to meet Arihiko today at a roadside stall we hang out at sometimes. It's been a while since we met up so..." Shiki bent his head apologetically.

"That's a shame, Tohno-kun. Say hello for Arihiko-kun for me," Ciel blinked and her head came up as if she had just thought of something. "Or even better Tohno-kun! Bring him with you! It's an all-you-can-eat so Arihiko-kun is sure to enjoy it!"

Shiki grimaced.

"Ah... Sorry, but I'd rather not?" At Ciel's sudden intense frown he held up his hands with his palms facing outwards in a gesture for her to calm down. "It's just that we've been eating a lot of curry whenever we meet lately, sempai. To tell you the truth I'm a little sick of it. Right now you couldn't tempt me with the best curry in the world." As he was saying all this Shiki glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Uh oh. I'm late. Sorry sempai, see you some other time!"

Ciel was frozen as Shiki ran off waving goodbye. The shadows around her seemed to rise up and curl about her as she stood there, and outraged expression evident on her face.

"How dare you insult the jewel of Asian cuisine," she muttered darkly. "You are sick of curry Tohno-kun? The best curry in the world couldn't tempt you, Tohno-kun? I will make you eat those words Tohno-kun. Fu, fu, fu."

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

And now...

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

To Shiki's surprise Hisui was waiting for him when he got back from the university art scholarship interview. In was unusual because two months ago he had finally managed to persuade her to at least wait inside instead of standing watch at the gate like this. She looked a little downcast as well. Wondering what had happened Shiki walked up to the gate.

"Welcome home, Shiki-sama."

"Thank you for waiting, Hisui." Yep, Hisui seemed troubled by something. "Uh. Is anything wrong?"

Hisui looked at him with a despondent face before whispering, "Shiki-sama... Is my cooking really so bad compared to others?"

What to say. What to say... Hisui's sudden question was the only one he dreaded from her. There was no answer that he could give, because telling her the truth would devastate her, yet he couldn't force himself to give her the answer she wanted to hear. His natural reluctance to lie to someone he valued, coupled with the honesty of his body, made such a feat impossible.

"Uh... That is..." Shiki mumbled vague nothings as he tried to figure out how to phrase this so that he could give her an opinion that could mean something yet mean nothing.

"Never mind, Shiki-sama," Hisui was back to her normal cool, collected self. "Shiki-sama, it appears we have some guests for dinner."

"Guests?" Shiki wondered who these guests were to have Hisui so worried.

"One of them is Ciel-san."

Hisui's words were like a bombshell being dropped onto a calm reflecting pond. Even before she had finished speaking her name Shiki was already off and running to stop the inevitable clash between his sempai and his sister.

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

It was almost too late by the time he sprinted into the lounge. Tensions had long-ago reached critical points and a black-robed executioner was facing off against the vermillion demon of the Tohno family. Desperate to stop the two from trying to kill each other (again) Shiki jumped into the middle with his knife clenched tight in his hand.

"Tohno-kun -."

"Nii-san -."

"Get out of the way!" The two woman shouted in unison, then they glared at each other around Shiki's body as if to say that the other was copying.

Shiki had often wondered why it was two people with such similar mindsets found it so hard to stay on civil terms with each other. Not that it mattered right now.

"Everyone, let's calm down shall we?" Shiki suggested as gently as he could. "What's going on here?"

Akiha growled, "This rude woman invaded our home, nii-san. Tell her to go away instead of coming around here to do silly things."

"Silly things?" Ciel repeated with a frown. "In that case who's sillier, Akiha-chan? At least I know how to cook properly."

Cook? Shiki was lost but he knew enough of the situation to know that it was deteriorating, fast.

"How dare you say that you dog of the Church?!" screeched Akiha in one of her rare bursts of fury.

Ciel laughed at that. "I dare because it's the truth, Akiha-chan. Admit it, you don't have any feminine instinct, just like that flat chest of yours."

Crap... The forbidden phrase. Even Ciel seemed to pause as she realised what she had just said.

"Flat chest?" Akiha muttered as her hands scrabbled to find something they could crush. "You dare to say in front of Nii-san that I have a flat chest?" Akiha's head came up, cerulean eyes blazed as her vermillion hair radiated out like a fiery aura. "Die, you freaking cow."

Shiki lowered his center of gravity as he prepared himself for the worst. Behind him he felt Ciel get into a combat stance. Deprived of immortality she may have been, but Ciel was still one of the most formidable humans on the planet. Akiha was not guaranteed to win a fight against her.

Then, like a light of salvation shining down upon the world out of a gap in the clouds, help arrived from a most unexpected quarter.

"Akiha-sama! Calm down!" Kohaku shouted as she stabbed Akiha in the arm with a needle. Akiha went wide-eyed for a second or two before falling to her knees, her hair back to its normal black colour.

"Whew," Kohaku noticed Ciel and Shiki standing by. "Do you two need some relaxants too?" she asked with a demonic smile. "There's plenty to go around."

Shiki would have sworn then that a dark aura had wrapped around Kohaku then, throwing shadows across the maid's face to turn her visage into one that could grace the character of a main villain in a sci-fi story with no problems.

The two still standing vigorously shook their heads. Kohaku wasn't a superhuman by any means, yet she was capable of frightening them at times.

"Uh... So, Ciel-sempai. Mind explaining what's going on here?" Shiki asked when they were all seated.

Ciel blushed like the schoolgirl she wasn't.

"Kyaaa! This is a little embarrassing, but I came here to cook dinner for you tonight, Tohno-kun." She brought her hands up to cover her crimson cheeks as she said this.

"Cook for me?" Shiki wasn't sure he had heard correctly. "What? Why?"

Ciel's eyes turned serious.

"Do you remember how we were talking three weeks ago? That time when I had just finished my patrol?" Shiki nodded and Ciel continued. "Well, I just thought that you needed to be awakened to the true beauty of Asia's culinary crown jewel, so I came to make you the Imperial Curry. Uh... Tohno-kun? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Shiki could feel his face set in a disbelieving expression. Kohaku and Akiha, who had just woken up again, were staring at Ciel too. Did that mean the two had gotten into a fight without even explaining anything to each other? Geez, why couldn't these two get along? And what was an imperial curry anyway?

Akiha jumped up, surprising Shiki who knew from past experience how effective Kohaku's medicines were.

"You can't do that! If you are going to cook do it at your own house. Because... Because..." Akiha's voice trailed off as she looked down at her hands, the ends of her fingers touching each other as she played with them nervously, a habit of hers he hadn't seen her display since they were children.

"Because the one who cooks him dinner today... Is going to be me..." She finally finished.

Wait. Akiha was going to cook? Shiki turned around to face Kohaku, she looked as surprised as he felt. Was this the first she was hearing about this too? What was Akiha thinking? She hadn't even picked up a pot before and she was going to cook?

The argument between the two of the women in Shiki's life started up again as he thought everything over. The insults they traded and the verbal blows they delivered to each other paled next to the potential for disaster that was involved with either of them cooking.

Shiki was about to try and tell them to leave dinner to Kohaku when a voice he hadn't ever expected to hear again interrupted him.

"Shiki is currently thinking that both of you are simply not trustworthy when it comes to cooking dinner. Additionally, he thinks that Akiha in particular is dangerous due to lack of experience in the culinary arts."

Shiki reflected too late that Hisui had said 'guest[b]s[/b]" when she met him at the door. He should have realised that this meant more than one person had come. It seemed that like an unwanted half-yen coin this person had come rolling back into his life again, no doubt to turn it inside out again like she had last time.

"Hey Sion," Shiki greeted her as he turned around.

He would have asked "How are you?" but there was no need, not when Sion had her etherlite attached to him.

"I'm good thank you Tohno-san." Sion told him with a nod. Then she too blushed, provoking a dreadful premonition within Shiki that he couldn't act upon without killing her, not something he was going to do anytime soon.

"Shiki," Sion said in an embarrassed tone. "If you would like I could cook for you instead..."

"WHAT?!"

Akiha and Ciel turned on this new threat together. Glancing at each other after their simultaneous exclamation they nodded. Get rid of this poacher first, that glance said. Then we will sort it all out between us. Sion must have felt their hostility, backing away a little from Shiki she got into a combat position, invisible strands of etherlite forming an impenetrable wall around her.

Forgotten for the moment Shiki and Kohaku sighed. This looked to be the beginning of another wild and wacky night at the Tohno mansion.

-x--x--x--x--x--x-

"LOOK OUT SHIKI!"

The tension in the air was broken by the arrival of a projectile crashing through the window of the lounge before landing upon Shiki, knocking out his breath and bringing him to the floor in the same instant.

When he tried to get up again he found his face was being pressed down upon by a ample bosom that he had become intimately familiar with.

"Arcueid?" he mumbled as best as he could with one of the soft but firm objects threatening to cover his mouth.

"Eyaaah, don't do that Shiki, it tickles," Arcueid answered with a giggle.

Every other female in the room was glaring at this new combatant on the scene, and one of them in particular.

"Indecent..." Akiha was trembling in anger again, pointing a shaky finger at Arcueid. "Seducing him like that in front of all these people with those monstrosities. How dare you!"

Arcueid only pouted at her in response, "I'm not doing anything to Shiki, imouto-chan. How are you anyway? Haven't seen you in a while." Arcueid gave Akiha an encouraging smile and leaned her body upon her elbows, which had the effect of pressing her chest even more firmly against Shiki's face.

"Don't call me imouto-chan you damned vampire! Get out of my house!" screamed Akiha.

"Eh? Isn't this Shiki's house as well?" Arcueid's head sank down, the change in angle pressing her cleavage right in front of Shiki's wild eyes. "Hey Shiki, Akiha's being mean to me again. Can't you tell her to stop?"

The executioner and the alchemist had been watching this byplay from the sidelines, but now made a silent alliance. The vampire had to be dealt with. Tohno-kun's flat-chested sister was no threat to their corps but the vampire most definitely was. Their own arguments could be sorted out later.

"Mmmph, mmph," Shiki tried to say something but his voice was muffled by Arcueid's breast being firmly pressed against his mouth.

"Hmmm? What did you say Shiki?" Arcueid asked him, ignoring the dark glares that the other girls were cursing her with.

"Mmmmph!"

"Speak up Shiki, I can't understand you."

Kohaku reached out to touch Arcueid on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, Arcueid-san?"

"Yes?"

"It might help if you stood up and let him breathe."

"Oh. Oops." Arcueid leapt to her feet and reached down to pull Shiki up as well. "Sorry, Shiki. You are alright aren't you?"

"Yeah, I'm good, but -," Shiki looked at the rest of the people in the room and swallowed nervously. "Uh... So what did you come here for Arcueid?" he asked in an effort to release some of the deadly atmosphere that had built up.

Arcueid stopped at that, crinkling her forehead cutely as she closed her eyes to think. After a while she opened her eyes and shrugged.

"Sorry," she said in a cheerful voice that held not a hint of apology. "I can't remember. Oh, now that I am here though, do you want me to cook something for you, Shiki? One of those shows on T.V. was on cooking and... Uh... Shiki, why are they all looking at me like that?"

The instant Arcueid had asked "do you want me to cook something for you" Shiki had felt the temperature drop by about a hundred degrees under the effects of the killing glares that were being deployed by most of the other females in the room. He was wondering how he was going to get everyone out of this alive when Hisui entered the lounge to announce the arrival of the last surprise of this eventful day.

"Shiki-sama!" Hisui called out as she ran in. Unusually for her Hisui looked panicked.

"There's a strange woman at the door who keeps asking for you, Shiki-sama." She told him tearfully. "I haven't seen her before so I asked her to leave but -."

BOOM, SWAAAAH.

A fierce gust blew through the lounge, forcing all the occupants to close their eyes. However this was nothing compared to the intense blue light that suddenly illuminated the room. Even through their eyelids all those present had their vision temporarily taken from them by the glare.

When Shiki was able to see again he couldn't make out much beyond the moonlit trees that... Wait a second. He was in the lounge. They couldn't see any moonlit trees from there! Where had the wall gone to?!

Shiki stood up and shuffled over to where the lounge wall had been till just a moment ago. His hands met air and after a few stumbling steps Shiki found himself tripping against a fallen brick and ended up sprawled across the ground.

He heard heavy footsteps march towards him, stopping just before they intersected with his head. A sense of deja vu filled him, could this be?

"Hey, you shouldn't really lie down in a place like that," he heard a welcome voice say. "Someone could come and kick you without realising it."

"Who's going to kick me here?" Shiki asked.

He heard a woman utter an amused laugh, "You sure don't learn do you Shiki-kun, isn't this the third time I'm telling you that I'm the one that might kick you?"

Shiki's vision finally cleared up, allowing him to see a face he hadn't ever expected to see again after their last parting.

"Sensei," he said with a smile.

"Blue..." muttered Arcueid, Ciel and Sion behind him.

The cast had finally gathered, all that remained now was for the stage to be set and for the main event to begin.

WN: Part 2 of this wont be up for a while, too annoying to modify the documents from phpbb format to plain text