"'Phantom'?" Kirei repeated, trying to fully understand everything.
Hakumei just nodded and she leaned against the wall next to her to wait for Saya...and/or Phantom. The two heard crashes and Kirei was tempted to go see how things were dealing, when they saw the Phantom jump up to the roof top nearby and converse with Saya. He then took off in their direction, but either didn't notice them or chose to ignore them as he flew away from them. Saya ran past them as well, and glared after him. Hakumei had noticed that he'd removed his mask and had shown her his face before leaving. The Vietnamese girl smiled as Saya muttered 'Phantom' under her breath.
"I told you Saya," Hakumei smiled in her dreamy voice as she sighed after the Phantom.
A couple days later the morning of the day of the party
Hakumei stretched languidly and held her neck when she felt a sharp pain. Sitting up, she glanced over at Kirei to find her sleeping and walked over to the full length mirror on her door. She looked the same as she had last night...only now... Her eyes widened and she gasped audibly. Covering her mouth, she spun around to see if she'd, by chance, woken Kirei and sighed in relief when her friend slept on. turning back to the mirror, she felt the two puncture wounds on the left side of her neck in shock as she stared at them. What the hell could have done that? Shaking it off as nothing, she ran to the showers to ready herself for the day ahead.
She bathed quickly. To conserve hot water, the girls here never took very long baths. Kirei was awake and had her uniform under her arm when Hakumei walked back into the room, dressed. She shook her head at her roommate's excessively long hair that reached at least to her mid-thigh.
"I'll never understand why you let your hair grow out so long..." she murmured as she pushed past Kirei and made her way to the crowding showers.
Hakumei shrugged and closed and locked the door after Kirei left. Slipping her kimono from her shoulders so she could better dry her long hair without getting the dress to soaked, she turned to her dresser, her personal hair dryer in hand. She nearly dropped the dryer when she glanced at her neck. The marks from earlier had gone!
"Am I losing it?" she asked herself in a whisper, "Have all these years spent here in this madhouse driven me insane? Iya...I felt those marks...They were really there...why are they gone? Where did they go?"
So many questions. Too many to ask now. Sighing, she dried her hair, trying to forget the vanishing act of her mysterious wounds and finished getting ready for the preparations for the party tonight.
In an underground area beneath the chapel of the school
Karl gazed longingly at the container and as he placed his left hand upon it. After taking his hand away, he glanced at his right hand and glared slightly. The night before, Saya had lobbed off his arm just below the elbow. Though he'd been able to regenerate another arm to replace the one he'd lost, this one felt strange…He tried to consider all he'd done the night before, attempting to remember exactly what might have gone wrong.
Flashback
Karl stepped as quietly as he could into one of the rooms occupied by two of his students. He cursed agreeing to assign a second girl to this room. Glancing to the figure to his left he glared and then turned to his right, to the other occupant. Her long dark hair spilled over the covers of her bed as he slept soundly, her breathing remaining even. He stood over her menacingly as he bared his sharp fangs. He placed his only hand on her left shoulder and oh so gently pushed her onto her back. Still she slept, seemingly unfazed by the movement. With that same hand, he pulled her black, baggy nightshirt down a little to reveal her neck and bent over her. In one swift motion, he drove his fangs deep into her throat, earning a sharp gasp from the sleeping girl as she winced in pain.
He glanced at her only a moment and took his hand off of her shoulder. He placed it on her cheek to try and calm her as he drank from her. It seemed to work, for her tensed body relaxed and her breathing returned to normal. Her roommate was out of his line of sight for the moment, so he could only hope and pray that she hadn't heard the slight noise across the room. The only reason he hated the night; even the tiniest noises could be misconstrued as the loudest crash.
After drinking only the necessary amount of blood, he retracted his fangs from her soft skin and pulled away, wiping any excess blood from his lips with his newly reformed right hand. There didn't seem to be any excess blood flow from the wound so he turned away from Amshel's experiment—what was her name?—he shook his head before he could think over it longer and continued his exit. He was quite thankful her roommate hadn't awoken as he exited out the window and made his way to the church.
End Flashback
No. There wasn't anything out of place with how he'd regenerated his arm. However…He glanced at one of the bottles of dark liquid to the side. The Chiropteran blood is what gave that girl's blood the power to regenerate lost limbs, but the medication in the blood…Karl glared as it all clicked. That medication was to keep her from losing it like Saya had all those years ago. It must have also affected the potency of her blood. He sighed in angst. Perhaps later he'd feed again to strengthen his new arm…
Later, a few hours before the party...
"You sure you don't wanna go?" Hakumei asked Kirei as the Chinese girl sat on her own bed and moped, "Ms. Lee's gonna let us play for them? You sure you don't wanna come and bring your electric drums to jam with me?"
"Iie..." Kirei glared to the side.
Hakumei smirked as she fitted her sleeveless, cerulean kimono over her figure. The dress was decorated in slightly raised swirls sewn into the fabric and gold colored toggles that held the dress closed. The Vietnamese girl giggled, knowing a sure-fire way to get Kirei to go.
"Too bad," she sighed as she fixed her hair in the mirror and as she placed a full-bloomed, blue rose into her hair, "Now who'll dance with that sexy gardener? Such a shame. He'll be there all alone and at the mercy of Anna Marie..."
"Say what?" Kirei asked in despair.
"Oh yeah!" Hakumei replied, her eyes wide, "You know how Anna Marie is! She still thinks that gardener must be the phantom--oh how wrong she is--the real Phantom is so much hotter...I'm getting off track! Anna Marie wants to be chosen by the Phantom...If she thinks that gardener is him...she'll be all over him like stink on a frickin' skunk..."
Kirei thought this over for a moment, before standing and running over to her closet to pick out a dress for the night.
'Hook, line, and sinker,' Hakumei laughed in her mind as she walked out of the room with her electric guitar inside its case held in her hand.
She cried out in shock when she nearly ran into a young man, possibly in his early twenties standing outside her door. His blonde hair framed his face well; however, his grey eyes betrayed his kind smile as he gazed at her.
"Can I help you, Jackass?" she growled.
"Now Hakumei," he sneered, "You know why I'm here...I have to oversee much that happens around here and Amshel sent me here to check on you."
"Why do you have to come here and check on me anyway?" Hakumei asked with a glare.
"I can't tell you that," Solomon replied, "You'd have to ask Karl if you really want to know."
About that time, Kirei walked out in a black halter-top dress that faded into blue near the bottom and which flew past her ankles. She brushed the skirt off a little as she closed the door behind her, carrying her electronic drum kit under her arm.
"Oi Hakumei, how do I loo-oh great it's you," she sneered when she saw Solomon.
"It's good to see you too Kirei," Solomon smiled back.
"Come on Hakumei," Kirei rolled her eyes and grabbed the Vietnamese's arm and began leading her away.
At the dance
"So did Lady Bores-a-lot request something?" Kirei asked as she set up a platform and reached into her boots for her drumsticks.
"Yeah..." Hakumei replied as she brought out her guitar and began tuning it, "She wants us to sing '99 Red Balloons'."
"Ooh!! That's a fun one!!" Kirei smirked, "I'll belt out the German part kay?"
"You know German?" Hakumei asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"My...mother...was...German..." Kirei replied hesitantly, "--Half German!!"
"Kay..." Hakumei shook her head and pulled up her guitar and tapped on the mic, "Listen up losers!! Shut the fuck up and get ready to party!!!"
"You and I in a little toy shop," Hakumei began as she strummed out the beginning of the song.
"By a bag of balloons with the money we got.
Set them free at the break of dawn,
Till one-by-one, they were gone.
Back at base bugs in the software
Flash the message, somethin's out there
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by."
The music blared as Kirei came in with her drum break and rocked out to the beat while Hakumei rocked on her guitar.
"Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
As ninety-nine red balloons go by"
They rocked out to a musical interlude and smirked at each other as most of the students started jamming with the band and even Miss Lee started tapping her foot.
"Ninety-nine decision street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call out the troops now in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by"
Another musical interlude broke the barrage of lyrics as Kirei belted out a serious drum line and as Hakumei poured her soul into the range of notes screaming from her guitar. A mic close to her, Kirei began belting out the next lyrics.
"Neunundneunzig Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich fur schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen: Krieg und wolten Macht
Mann, wer hätte das gedacht?
Daß es einmal so weit kommt
Wegen neunundneunzig Luftballoons
Neunundneunzig Luftballoons"
The crowed cheered when she ended her cry and as they went into another quick interlude. Hakumei finished up the song with only her guitar and her voice.
"Ninety-nine dreams I have had
And every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In the dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
Here it is, a red balloon
I think of you and let it go"
The crowd of students cheered again and the two girls took a bow.
"One more rock song before 'Le Festin' please?" Kirei asked in a whisper.
"Sure," Hakumei shrugged, "How 'bout 'Six Gun Quota'?"
"Alright," Kirei shrugged.
Hakumei began with her guitar and banged her head. Kirei came in with her drums and began banging her head as well as Hakumei walked over to the mic and began singing.
"I found it hard to live with all my choices
It's time to turn a deaf ear to those
Did you ever think to ask my opinion?
Did you ever think to ask if I'm okay?"
Kirei joined in here and Hakumei walked over to sing to her face to face.
"I've burned down every bridge that I've found
Now I limit myself to a six gun quota
I played down every feeling I've felt and
I bottled them up, until the well ran over
Give every indication that you're mended
Take every rule you come across and bend it
Did you ever think to ask my opinion?
Did you ever think to ask if I'm okay?
I've burned down every bridge that I've found
Now I limit myself to a six gun quota
I played down every feeling I've felt and
I bottled them up until the well ran over
I've burned down every bridge that I've found
Now I limit myself to a six gun quota
I played down every feeling I've felt and
I bottled them up until the well ran over
It feels so good to be numb
I hate what I have become
It feels so good to be numb
I hate what I have become
I've burned down every bridge that I've found
Now I limit myself to a six gun quota
I played down every feeling I've felt and
I bottled them up until the well ran over
I've burned down every bridge that I've found
Now I limit myself to a six gun quota
I played down every feeling I've felt and
I bottled them up until the well ran over"
After a couple more 'Yeah!'s from Kirei and a drawn out guitar solo, the song ended, and Hakumei walked up to the mic again while Kirei set her drum set down.
"Now, our friend Kirei will sing 'Le Festin', by Camille," Hakumei introduced as Kirei stepped forward and the band began playing French music.
"Les rêves amoureus sont comm'(e) le bon vin
Ils donn(ent) de la joie ou bien du chagrin
Affaibli par la faim je suis malhuereux
Volant en chemin tout ce que je peux
Car rien n'est gratuit dans la vie
L'espoir est un plat bien trop vite consommé
A sauter les repas je suis habitué
Un voleur solitaire est triste à nourrir
A un jeu si amer je n'peux réussir
Car rien n'est gratuit dans...
La vie...Jamais on ne me dira
Que la course aux étoiles; ça n'est pas pour moi
Laissez moi vous émerveiller et prendre mon en vol
Nous allons en fin nous régaler
La fêt(e) va enfin commencer
Sortez les bouteilles; finis les ennuis
Je dresse la table, de ma nouvell(e) vie
Je suis heureux à l'idée de ce nouveau destin
Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin
Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin"
Once she finished, she received a standing ovation for the use of flawless French as Hakumei stepped forward.
"So who got even a word of that?" she smiled, earning a laugh from the others and Kirei who just walked offstage, laughing, "You want me to translate?"
The crowd laughed and clapped a little, bringing about a yes, to which Hakumei returned it.
"Dreams are to lovers as wine is to friends
Carried through lifetimes, (and) spilled now and then
I am driven by hunger, so saddened to be
Thieving in the darkness; I know you're not pleased
But nothing worth eating is free
My hope is a banquet impatiently downed
Impossibly full, now I'll probably drown
Many thieves' lives are lonely with one mouth to feed
If giving means taking, I'll never succeed
For nothing worth stealing is...
Free at last; won't be undersold
Surviving isn't living; won't eat what I'm told
Let me free, I'll astonish you;
I'm planning to fly
I won't let this party just pass me by
The banquet is underway, so...
Bring up the bottles; a new tale has spun
In cleaing this table, my new life's begun
I am nervous, excited; (oh) just read the marquee!
A lifetime of hiding; I'm suddenly free!
My dinner is waiting for me.
A lifetime of hiding; I'm suddenly free!
My dinner is waiting for me."
After another applause, and she finally left the stage to join Kirei for a break.
