Disclaimer: Vampire Juuji Kai (Record of a Fallen Vampire) is owned by Kyou Shirodaira (scenario) and Yuri Kimura (art). Japanese rights are to Square Enix, and English translation and dialogues are Viz Media's. The only thing I own is my set of the 9 volumes of the manga.

This takes place in volume 4 of the manga, during chapter 18.

Chapter 07

~Mealtime questions~

Akabara was ordering her meal, and although she couldn't see him unless she turned sideways, she was sure he wouldn't come back right now. So…

"So what were you two talking about?" she asked Li, who sat across from her. As for herself, she took the former seat of Akabara, making herself comfortable.

"Tsukuyomi's work and functions." He answered. "He asks pretty specialized questions." Interesting… "And understands the answers?" she asked, twirling a lock of hair to occupy her itching hands. She felt like she already knew the response to that, and he didn't disappoint with his "Yeah… Go figure."

Risking a glance towards the subject of their conversation, who was patiently waiting for her meal, he continued: "I showed him the ship's schematics and he immediately identified the new engine type, along with critical supports components. Rocket's engineers couldn't do that well. He's fiercely intelligent."

…like he said, go figure. Nazuna was an expert in her own field and didn't always appreciate the finer details of Li's job, but she did know one thing: he may be young, but there was a reason he was among the selected few handpicked by whoever was on top of Operation Over Moon. He knew what he was talking about, and there was probably few on the planet able to keep up with him when he was talking about rocket mechanics.

That Akabara was capable of it, well… If there was one man – or creature – able to save them from aliens, it would have to be him. The only thing left to know was if he was willing to.

She would pray that it was the case, and continue poking him in the meanwhile in hopes of trying to scratch the surface of his mind.

"I won't argue with you there," she finally responded to his earlier declaration, looking intently at Akabara. "His analytical and decision-making abilities are astounding. He could qualify as a licensed astronaut right now."

Li hesitated a second, as if afraid to ask the next question: "What about physical capabilities?" She thought of her previous trainee. "He easily leaves our super-girl Kayuki in the dust. And that's not half-trying." As she expected, he looked positively crept out. It's been a while since she teased him, how she missed this. She decided to milk it up a bit: "He can fly, using some sort of anti-gravity that shrugs off the laws of conservation of energy…" She was about to mention the wings, the decided otherwise. By his expression, he heard enough already.

"Like... some sort of wizard?" he asked. They both turned his way. He was still waiting. She turned back towards her friend, and he did the same: "Like that, yeah, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I hear his queen is a lot more powerful. They say she almost destroyed the world!" She made an exaggerated motion with her hands to demonstrate…

"Someone almost did that? May I ask whom?" came an unexpected voice.

Li jerked like one of the aliens itself appeared before him. Although a bit peeved that he managed to surprise her, Nazuna answered him, though she was positive he heard the whole conversation: "Your queen, that's whom! They really haven't told us much and I have to wonder what she's like." After all, facts didn't tell much about a person or his or her personality. She really hoped he would answer as he set down her plate in front of her and sat in a chair he apparently brought over. "Ah… you mean Adelheid?"

Bingo! Not that he didn't avoid the subject, but she still got something.

"Is that her name?" she perked up. "Right…" Now it was her turn to speak the obvious. She masked her self-annoyance with a bite of her sandwich. "Everyone seems scared of her. She must be selfish and stuck up like those haughty queens in fairy tale." Was that her or the BLT was yummier than usual? The fries certainly looked fresh enough for once. Only her hot cocoa was missing, probably still in the process of being made.

Of course, the moment was broken with Li spilling her drink over the table and looking at her like she grew a second head. Like she was stranger to these kinds of faces. In any case, people were more willing to spill the beans if they thought they were correcting you, as opposed to just answering questions. Either he was no different, or he didn't mind, because he looked contemplative.

"Hmm… No, quite the opposite. Adelheid completely lacked the confidence to behave like that. Which is probably why things turned out the way they did." As if lost in thought, he didn't look at any of them, instead directing his gaze towards a past none of them could see.

Nazuna barely restrained herself from squeezing answers out of him. Maybe he wasn't voluntarily teasing them – well, her mostly – with half facts. Maybe he really was reminiscing and not thinking ahead his next move.

…and maybe she was a vampire, too.

Just as she was opening her mouth to comment, his gaze lowered, landing on her with a smug expression – ok, fine, maybe not with one, but she was pissed enough not to care. "But why dwell in the past? It is what it is, and nobody can change it. Right now, we should focus on the present, should we not?"

It was so reasonably said that she couldn't in all conscience refute him. He didn't give her the time to, in any case. Already he was back to Li, asking him different questions that allowed Nazuna to take part to the conversation this time.

Later, she would go back to that conversation and wonder again how the queen – Adelheid – was like. She already ventured that it might have been an unrequited love turned bad. Why else kill her rival and their unborn child – the peak of cruelty? To later on become so afraid to lose her own life that her magic went completely berserk, that spoke of selfishness, because that meant she wasn't repenting at all, only thinking of herself.

She didn't think Akabara lied. She might not understand him fully – nobody probably could – but he just didn't seem the type to outright lie. Now, twisting the truth is another matter, she thought. So, Adelheid would have lacked confidence, meaning she'd have thought herself unworthy of Akabara. The only thing that made sense after that, would be if she thought his human wife even less worthy than her. In that case, she would consider her actions justified and even noble. Self-justified but insecure? Besides, why wait that long to kill the rival?

Argh, this was too complicated! Maybe the queen just blew a fuse and didn't know how to deal with the consequences. That could have been it, too!

Anyway, such thoughts wouldn't help her working towards saving the world. What she had to do now was sleep, so that she could function later in the night. She would think of that later, when she wasn't dead on her feet, and when she could spare the time.

And who knows, maybe tomorrow would give her more data?

~To be continued~

In the end, not much happened here out of manga. But Nazuna's head was filled with theories and thoughts at the end. As she gets glimpses of more, she thinks equally much. I had fun twisting the Akabara she saw to fit her frustrated self, haha.

Akabara asked about the rocket, but I can't see him not asking for just that, and he's got two of the big heads in one room, that was a good opportunity. So after that interruption, he got back on track with other kinds of questions, which I skipped because I am NOT a rocket or space engineer expert – or even close.

As for him cutting short the conversation about Adelheid, once again, I can't see it so that he dwells on it much more than that. I've also made Nazuna ignorant of Stella's name, because if she doesn't know Adelheid's and she's supposed to be on board, there's no way Stella's leaked, especially since she was completely unknown to the others until a few days back.

I pity Nazuna. She's working on short sleep, and has all that to think about. But I suppose that for her, it's better than being bored out of her mind. I imagine her later on, when it gets exciting, kicking sleep away in fear of missing something. Like during the nuclear attack.

Well, that's all for now. Hope you had fun!