Title: Embracing the Future
Genre: General/Romance/Friendship
Rating: T
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knight. Copyright belongs to Hino Matsuri; I only use the characters for the story. I do, however own the Fujiwara Clan and its' related subordinates family.
Pairing: Kaname/Zero; mild Ichijo/Risa (OC); Ichiru/Maria; Shiki/Rima.
Summary: (AU) Sequel to 'Visitors from the Future', sets 3 years after last chapter of 'VFTF'. Need I say more? Wants to find out, stay tuned! WIP
Author's Notes: In this chapter, you get to see Leonard visiting the Fujiwara estate with Zero and also his thoughts on his new schooling life.
Chapter 7 – Before the Carnival…
On Wednesday afternoon, after the end of Leonard's entrance examination for the school enrollment procedure…the cousin duos set off immediately for the Fujiwara estate situated in Kyoto. They had a private meeting with their grandfather taking place in the privacy of the estate ground that very evening.
"Where are we going?" Ten year old Leonard Kiryuu asked, out of curiosity.
Ever since his arrival at his cousin's doorstep some weeks ago, the boy had been literally home bound and his area of movements were limited to the apartment itself and the cafeteria situated just directly across the apartment building. Today was the first day Leonard was actually going to actually venture out and explores the neighborhood. Granted, Seito Academy was situated just a few roads down the street within 1.5 kilometer radius of the apartment building, but it was far enough to satisfy the ten year old boy for the time being.
Following the end of the entrance examination, the boy had thought his outdoor trip for the day had come to an end. Therefore, he was genuinely surprised to find his cousin bringing him towards the nearest subway train station instead of heading back home.
"We are going to visit someone in Kyoto." That was all Zero had said, before tugging Leonard to the ticketing booth to purchase the ticket needed for the trip.
Taking the subway train of Japan was a first for Leonard, and so it was no wonder for the boy to compare with his experience back in the UK. The train was packed like sardines; it was so crowded that the air was stifling in there. The ten year old boy suddenly felt himself missing UK, or at the very least he missed the train rides back in that country which he had grown up in literally. Since the trains in UK were never this crowded and dreadful for the boy to endure.
Resisting the urge to curse under his breath, Leonard shifted closer to his cousin so he doesn't ended up being squashed by a large size overweight man who seem to have it in mind to flatten him.
Zero observed his little cousin from the corner of his eyes, inwardly making a note of his cousin's reluctance to be trapped in a crowded place. There was no need to inquire, because the silver-haired man had seen how the frown had etched on his cousin's face ever since the train started to get crowded after their entry into the cabin. The frown on his cousin's face turns into one of disgusts when the oversize man inched in closer to the boy, it took all of Leonard's good upbringing culture to refrain from pinching his nose at the horrible stench given off by the man's body.
"Leonard, be ready to squeeze yourself out from here. One more stops before we get off the train now." Zero started, giving his cousin a heads up first.
"Good." Leonard responded tightly, still trying to refrain from gagging upon the smell of that oversize man's body odor.
Once the train arrived at the Kyoto's station, the cousins' duo wasted no time in getting off the train. Leonard took several minutes to gather himself up at the platform, breathing in deeply to satisfy his lungs with the feel of fresh air.
"You don't like being in crowds, do you?" Zero asked, after his cousin regains bearings.
"Well…yeah, they are noisy for one and I prefer silence so…" Leonard shrugged his response in a nonchalant manner.
"I see…come on then, let's hurry up and get a move on." Zero instructed, beckoning for the boy to follow his lead.
Leonard followed Zero dutifully and obediently without a fuss, he was curious to see where exactly they were going after all. After taking several turns around the corner of the road, they finally arrived in front of a landed property with a typical Japanese traditional outlook appearance.
"Welcome, Zero-sama…please follows me." A traditionally dressed female around the age of mid-thirties approached them and said.
Zero said nothing but nodded while Leonard followed behind in curiosity. They were then lead to a cozy size room with a square size table situated in the center of the room and cushions placed around it. The walls of the room was painted white and lined with pictures of nature, such as waterfalls, mountains and trees.
"Leonard, do sit down and wait." Zero told the boy, only to receive a look of bewilderment from his cousin.
It took Zero a full minute to realize that Leonard has probably never been told of the traditional Japan culture and hence had no idea where to sit under this circumstance.
"Leonard, the cushions placed around the table is where you should be seated. Generally speaking, the Japanese would kneel on these cushions. However, seeing as you are not being raised in the Japanese traditional manner…sitting down cross-legged would do." Zero explained, and the boy hurried to comply.
"Okay, so where are we now?" Leonard asked, after having taking the surrounding in and learning a few things about the Japanese culture.
"We are at the Fujiwara estate; it's the vampire branch of the family's territory. The history behind it is kind of complicated, and since you aren't a hunter…you shouldn't bother yourself with it. All you need to know is that they are part of my late mother's family relations will do." Zero said.
"Oh…okay, so what are we going to be doing here?" Leonard asked next.
"We are waiting for our grandfather dearest to show himself." Zero responded with dry sarcasm lacing the tone of his voice.
There was no need to wait long, no later than five minutes following the end of Zero's statement the shoji door leading to the room was slide open again. This time around, it was Kiryuu Mamoru whom entered the room.
Mamoru Kiryuu was surprised to see that only Zero and Leonard were here for the meeting, for he thought Ichiru would be here too.
"If you are expecting Ichiru to be around, don't bother. He simply cannot be bothered by your existence, he's quite busy recently too…with his impending marriage and all." Zero started, cutting direct to the point as beating around the bush was never his thing to do.
"I see…" Mamoru Kiryuu responded neutrally, directing a small smile towards the ten year old Leonard's way before looking up at Zero, again.
"So…I heard from Yumi that you were quite adamant on the idea of meeting me at least once, why?"
"…" Zero was silent, he may have demanded for a meeting with his grandfather before but now as the former sat in front of him…he found himself to be at a loss of speech. Eventually, he decided on demanding an explanation out from the man's decision to keep away from the family after that 'mission gone wrong' twenty over years ago.
Mamoru Kiryuu let out sigh, before launching into his tale of that particular mission twenty years ago that eventually resulted in his 'disappearance' act. He explained that the tension between vampires and hunters were rather tensed then, and his situation were unlike Zero's own predicament. At least, with Zero's case the association had knew of the boy being turned in a misfortunate event from the Kiryuu family's demise. Henceforth, even when Zero was send on a 'suicide' mission and still emerging out alive, there would be no questions being raised.
However, his situation was of the complete opposite. Nobody in the association had known of his family relations to the Hiou, he had made sure to have his origins covered. The hunters only know him as Kiryuu Mamoru, a rising star in the hunter's society. His lack of vampire traits such as fangs and nocturnal lifestyle was enough to confuse them, despite his aura being slightly strange for a hunter. He was sort of an in-between, and if it was just him then it should be tolerable. That however had all changes when he settled down with a family of his own, while his wife was no hunter but it doesn't change the fact that his wife originated from a family lineage that is close to the Fujiwara family.
This little detail unsettled the association then, but there was nothing they could have done about it. It was not until that his eldest son, Kiryuu Kaoru had went on the first hunting mission and came out unharmed that the association started to feel threaten by the Kiryuu clan capabilities. And so they started assigning Mamoru Kiryuu more and more of those dangerous missions, hoping for the hunter to perish in one of those missions' trips. Eventually, he ended up being fatally wounded in one and because his fellow team members had thought it pointless to save him from site, they had left him stranded there on the battleground to his own device. That, he was glad of because if it were not for their thought of leaving him out there to fend for himself he might not have survived it through.
"Then why did you not return home after you recovered?" Zero voiced out next.
Mamoru Kiryuu snorted, before responding. "Return and surrender? I think not…you may not be aware of it then but the Kiryuu Clan had always been under the association scrutiny. Your mother's a smart one, but I can't say the same as your father. Your uncle though was another matter entirely, he knew if he were to pick up any hunting skills he would be under the association's thumb to rule. Therefore, he rather opted for staying out of the circle entirely."
"…Right…so where have you been all these while?"
"Ever heard of the term 'Hidden in plain sight'? That's what I've been doing over the past twenty years, since my recovery from the near fatal wound of that mission." Mamoru Kiryuu said.
The meeting with Mamoru Kiryuu had managed to address the majority of Zero's questions, but there were still a couple of things that he wasn't being told. Then again, he could hardly care less…since Kuran Rido was already dead now; he didn't see any point in getting down to the bottom of things.
The next two days passes by with Zero busy getting Leonard's school supplies from the school bookshop, and getting the boy's new uniform ready. Friday is the first day of Leonard's official schooling day, and Zero had taken a half day leave from office to bring the boy to school personally. Before he knew it, weekends was approaching and a quick check of his schedule had him informed that he was required at Cross Academy for the carnival on this particular weekend.
The carnival event for Cross Academy starts at 10am in the morning, being the chaperon person he needs to be there by 9.30am so to ensure that everything progressed on smoothly. Seeing as there's quite a distance from his current residence area and Cross Academy, he needs to wake at 5am in the morning. Luckily for him, staying up the night and forgoing the idea of sleep was nothing new for him anymore. The experience from his days of being a school guardian in Cross Academy had served him well.
His young cousin had officially started schooling a day ago, and was currently still adjusting to the new school environment. Judging from the conversation he had had with the boy yesterday evening following his return from the office, the boy was settling in quite fine. His classmates were mostly well-behaved and had proper upbringing background; they were not as rowdy as Leonard had initially anticipated them to be. Granted, there have been a couple of kids in his class that were too 'friendly' for his liking… Leonard had taken it all in stride. Overall to say, the boy's first day at school had gone well and there was nothing much to be worrying about.
Currently, the boy was still blissfully sleeping away while his lover, Kaname was off in the office of Kuran Incorporation for a morning meeting. Unwilling to wake his cousin up from the well deserved sleep, Zero decided to call up Wakaba Sayori informing the girl to come over and pick the boy up later on at noon and then meeting up with him in Cross Academy, it-self. He was initially contemplating on getting Sayori in earlier to watch his cousin, but after Leonard's relentless attempt at claiming to say that he required no baby-sitter as he was quite independent and capable to handle himself within the apartment just fine…he decided to drop the notion and trust his cousin on this issue for now.
By the time the clock struck 6am in the morning, Zero was more or less ready to leave for Cross Academy. Knowing that it would be faster for him to reach the destination area by taking a train instead of calling in the chauffeur to drive him over, the silver-haired man grabbed his apartment keys and his wallet from the table and left immediately after. He had left a note together with the ready-made breakfast dish which he had stored in the kitchen atop of the counter where the microwave oven was seated for his young cousin.
The boy was more than competent to handle the kitchen appliances, having assisted him in the dinner preparation before. Therefore, he had no need to fear the boy exploding his kitchen like what Kaname had done several months before.
The whole journey from his apartment in Shibuya Tokyo, to reach Cross Academy by the transportation of Subway Train took him about two and a half hours. Following which, he transferred to a cab that takes him straight to the school's gate before walking the rest of the path himself. Zero Kiryuu arrived at the Moon Dormitory at exactly 9am on the dot, and came face to face with a certain blue eyed blond by the name of Aidou Hanabusa.
"Kiryuu…"
"Aidou…"
The duos greeted one another civilly; it was far too early for them to start an argument or sort. The blue eyed blond seems kind of lethargic; then again it was to be expected since the blond was never a 'morning' person. Zero was more than willing to bet, if it wasn't for the fact that the responsibility of being the Vice-President for the Moon Dormitory now lays upon the shoulders of Aidou, the blue eyed aristocrat member would rather be lazing around in his room sleeping away instead of being up and about.
"Right, go on in then…Yuuki-sama is expecting you." Aidou Hanabusa said, stifling a yawn as he made his way across the lawn towards the direction of the Chairman's residence area. He had some administration documents to be submitted to the loony Chairman that he had neglected to pass on, the day before when the former paid the Moon Dormitory a visit.
Zero nodded in acknowledgement to the blond words before striding into the Moon Dormitory building, it has been a couple of weeks since he was last seen around here. The last time he was here, it was for a Christmas gathering session. Now it was the mid of January already, and in another two weeks time…Ichiru, his twin would be married and shifted out from this building as well.
With a shake of head to rid his mind of such sentimental thoughts, Zero focused his concentration on locating a certain pureblood princess who is said to be waiting for him somewhere within the building.
Yuuki Kuran was in the dormitory lounge situated on the second storey of the building briefing the night class members when Zero popped in. Almost immediately, the common class vampires of the night class who seemed rather bored previously straighten themselves up in a flash of light. Once Yuuki announced that Zero Kiryuu would be chaperoning them for today's event, their demeanor changed into one of seriousness.
Yuuki sighed inwardly at the night-class members' behavior, months have come and gone by and yet she was still having problem controlling the night-class members. Would there ever be a day whereby the members' would abide by her rules without her bringing in either her beloved brother or Zero? Yuuki could not help but wonder…
"Right, I'll keep an eye out on them first. Talk to you later." Zero told the chocolate-haired girl before taking his leave from the lounge, tailing the group of vampires walking ahead from behind.
Kaname Kuran kept his impatience in check, masking them up behind his indifference demeanor. Inside, he was beyond irritated. There was a school carnival going on in Cross Academy whereby his lover had been requested to play chaperon to the night-class members, he had told the former that he would be dropping by later on in the day following the end of his meeting with a client of his. It was now approaching noon, and yet the client was still droning on and on about some irrelevant topics and it was starting to gets on his nerves now.
"Mr. Conner, I would appreciate it if you could simply cut the chase and go straight to the point of this meeting and tell me directly to the face of what it is that you required from me, or rather expected of my Company to provide for you. I'm not sure about you, but I do have a schedule to stick to." Kaname finally had enough of the man's droning interjected sharply.
"Right…what I meant to say here is that, the price you are quoting us is a little on the steep side. We would very much appreciate it if you could lower the quotation amount slightly so that it would not over-shoot our budget plan for this project." Mr. Conner, the client spoke up then.
"…I'm afraid this is something that I cannot decide right away, although I'm the boss here…I still need to take in my subordinates judgment into consideration. Tell you what; I'll get my staff to call you up in a few days' time to inform you of the decision after another discussion between me and my staffs on this issue. For now, I'm afraid I've got to make a move first. Sandra will show you the way out." Kaname said, signaling for his company's receptionist to walk the client to the door.
"Seiren, I'll leave you in charge to brief them on the client's expectations. I'm making a move first." Kaname instructed, grabbing his coat and was out of his office door in no time with the intention to head directly to the Cross Academy in order to locate his beloved silver-haired hunter.
Meanwhile, ten year old Leonard Kiryuu woke in the penthouse apartment to find no one but a note accompanied by a breakfast dish waiting for him in the kitchen. The note merely informed him that Wakaba Sayori would be dropping by after lunch hours to pick him up, bringing him over to Cross Academy for the school's carnival.
With a shrug, Leonard dumped the note in the trash-bin of the kitchen before putting the plate of breakfast dish into the microwave to reheat. In the meantime, he headed for the common bathroom and went through his morning routine and took a quick shower. Once accomplished, he settled onto the dining table with the warm breakfast dish in hand and started devouring the food.
Being left alone in the penthouse apartment doesn't really bother him much, and in fact he was quite grateful that his cousin had taken his words for it and refrains from getting in a caretaker to watch him specially. Although, he knew his cousin meant well with that notion but it stills makes him feel like a 'baby' when being watched and besides, he was already used to being alone in the house back in the UK and so it makes him uneasy to have an adult watching him, getting things ready for him when he could handle those things himself.
A quick glance at the clock informed the boy that he still had about thirty minutes to spare before Wakaba Sayori would be popping by and fetch him to wherever his cousin was.
"I guess I'd better start packing some things with me to keep myself occupy on the trip to Cross Academy then." Leonard muttered under his breath to no one in particular, before heading for his assigned room and starts to pack his half-read novel in a backpack together with his wallet. For a while, he wondered if he should pack his school textbook along but eventually decided to forgo the idea. The last thing he needs was for his cousin to find out about his weakness in Japanese language, since that was by far the native tongues of most people residing in Japan.
Leonard may have no problem with vocalizing the language, but he was extremely bad at writing it. The hiragana, katakana and kanji form of the Japanese languages still confuses him at most if not all of the time. Sometimes, he simply do not understand why schools in Japan still taught the majority of the subjects in Japanese languages when it should be obvious that English was the commonly used language in the lives of the working adults. Aren't they aware that the current teaching methods used would only served to cause students more problems and troubles once they reached to their tertiary schooling level whereby the lessons were taught in English, instead of their native tongues of Japanese?
The sheer memory of the English class from the day before came flooding to the front of Leonard's mind caused the ten years old to cringe in response…the pronunciation of English terms and words by the English teacher of his class was far too horrible for Leonard to stomach. It took all his efforts to refrain himself from face-planting himself whenever he heard his teacher utter an English word. And then the content of the English textbook, it was so juvenile that Leonard had already covered its content when he was just six years old back in the UK.
'Oh well…on a brighter side, acing the English paper would be easy enough.' The boy thought, since his weakness now obviously lies in the language of Japanese.
The chiming of the doorbell informed the boy that Wakaba Sayori had reached, and the boy hurried to stuff his books into the backpack before heading out front to answer the door.
Date started: 12/3/2013
Date completed: 14/3/2013
P.S: The carnival will comes in the next chapter, the language thing just sprang to mind when I realized how horrible Japanese people grasp of the language was. A customer of mine sounded so unsure of the questions when she asks in English to me a few days ago… people like Kaname should have no problem with the language of English, same to go for night class members in general maybe except Yuuki. That's all for now, see you next chapter XD