Changmin sat at the dining table with Reita and the other six vampires who had showed up to help fight off the things that had attacked them earlier, questions whirling through his head. He didn't know what to ask first.
"Why don't we start with introductions," says Shou interrupting Changmin's thoughts. "You've already met Reita and Jaejoong. I'm Shou," he says and then going from right to left around the table makes the rest of the introductions, "this is Aiji, Maya, Miyavi, Takeru, and Kaoru."
"Changmin," he responds automatically. "Can all vampires read minds?"
"Yes. All vampires can read minds, but there are always exceptions."
"Meaning you can't read all minds," Changmin says understanding. "What are the exceptions?"
Changmin's curious nature makes Shou smile, Yunho's going to have his hands full with this one.
"Here," says Takeru handing Changmin a notebook and pen, "take notes for your friend. I do not want to have to go over this again. I have a date later and I refuse to waste time with explaining this again."
Takeru receives several eye rolls before Shou speaks up. "Let's start with the basics shall we? When it comes to mind reading, humans are the easiest to read because, no offense, humans never put up any mental defenses. The exceptions being the truly mentally insane because their minds are too chaotic and often have a toxic effect on us because of how said chaotic thoughts tend to blast out at us like an attack. Humans with strong psychic abilities and those who know how to defend against it. For example, you have a very strong mind and given the right amount of time you'll probably be able to block out most of the ones trying to gain access. Plus, your own abilities will help reinforce those defenses."
That statement makes Changmin look up from the notes he's writing. "My abilities? What are you talking about, I don't have any abilities."
"Sure you do," Maya says while offering him a bright smile, "it's faint, but we can all sense it."
Changmin is highly doubtful, but he decides they can argue about that topic later. Switching back to the previous topic, "I'm assuming that since you guys are real that the other mythical monsters are real as well. So can vampires read their minds, and what about other vampires' minds?"
"Yes, we can read other supernaturals," says Shou.
"Except zombies," Aiji interrupts, "they don't really exist, and honestly, I don't why you humans thought them up. They're disgusting."
"Agreed," says Changmin. "The notion of zombies flies in the face of everything I believe in as a doctor. I save lives, zombies are mindless murderers."
"Anyway," Shou says getting back to the subject at hand, "aside from the other supernaturals, yes, vampires can also read other vampires as well, so long as the vampire doing the reading is older than the one being read. For example, I'm the second oldest vampire in this region, so that means that out of all the vampires in this region there is only one whose mind I'm not able to read."
"Wow," says Changmin looking a little unsure, "but has there seriously never been a case of a younger vampire being able to read an older vampire?"
"Not to any of our knowledge no. I suppose it could be possible if the vampire in question was born with an above average amount of power. A vampire's power grows as they do, meaning the older they are the stronger their power."
Changmin nods his head as he makes more notes. "What about other kinds of powers? Reita healed Junsu after he fed off of him so, I assume that you can do a lot more than just read minds."
"And you would be correct," says Miyavi with a smirk on his face. "We can also control the minds of humans, other supernaturals, and even some other vampires, but that generally only applies to new turns. That's just one of the basic abilities that vampires have. There are four different types of powers," he explains watching Changmin intently as the human scribbled in his notebook, "basic, blood inheritance, individual, and forbidden."
"Forbidden," Changmin asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes," Shou says knowing he'll have to explain that one. "Forbidden abilities are essentially dark magic, powers that threaten the balance of the natural order of things. Have you ever heard of necromancy?"
Changmin nods his head not liking where this was going, "The dictionary definition says it's the art of conjuring up the spirits of the dead."
"Why am I not surprised that this kid actually reads the dictionary," says Aiji only to be smacked by Maya.
Changmin shrugs at the remark, "Knowledge is power. Plus, I get bored easy and love learning," he says lightly, earning a laugh from some of the others. "Why did you ask me about necromancy?"
"Because that's one of the forbidden powers," Shou explains. "What the dictionary doesn't mention is that it's a power that enslaves. Conjured spirits are forced to do whatever the one who summons them wishes against their will."
"How is that any different from mind control?"
"We can't make a person do something that goes against their basic nature," Maya chimes in, his bright smile no longer present. "We can force a person to sleep, to stop talking and be completely silent, we can take away their ability to move, and we can even alter memories and plant suggestions, things that are essentially harmless. We can't make you do something you wouldn't normally do."
"For example," Shou says taking back over, "you believe in saving lives and would never willingly take someone's life and a vampire using ordinary mind control wouldn't be able to make you either. Now let's say you were a spirit summoned by someone with the necromancy ability, he or she would be able to force you to kill someone even though it goes against your nature."
Changmin is unable to suppress the shutter that runs through him. He averts his gaze away from Shou, his eyes landing on Maya, who seems to have gone tense, his eyes downcast at the table, and his hands clenched into fists. "You've seen it done before, haven't you?"
Maya's head snaps up at the question, his eyes wide with shock as he stares at Changmin. "How did…"
"Your posture."
Maya averts his gaze again, biting his lip as if trying to keep the painful memories at bay.
Changmin turns his attention back to Shou, not wanting to ask, but needing to know, "Why would they do something like that?"
Shou sighs, "Because death by ghost looks the same as someone who died of a heart attack or a brain embolism, or an accident. Worse still is that if they're strong enough, the one using that ability can actually use it to reanimate a fresh corpse that no longer houses a soul, like a person who is brain dead, the body still works, but there's nobody home. Forbidden abilities are generally of that nature."
Changmin swallows and fights the urge to be sick. He didn't need to be a genius for his mind to conjure up ideas and the imagery to go along with them, each one more gruesome than the last, of why someone would reanimate a body.
"Unfortunately you're right on the mark," Shou says obviously reading Changmin's mind.
"Let's move on to the other types of abilities," Aiji says jumping in. "How about we go over some more of the basics. Aside from being able to heal and the mind reading and mind control, some of the other abilities tend be more of a physical nature."
Everyone at the table were more than happy to change the subject.
"If you've ever read anything about vampire myths, you'll find that most of things that they say we can do are basic abilities."
"What about the ones that say you can transform into mist or wolves and bats," asks Changmin.
The vampires at the table laugh, "No," says Aiji, "there are abilities that relate to that, but those fall under the blood inheritance and individual categories. Anyway, some of the other basics include speed, strength, superior senses, and night vision."
"Okay," Changmin says nodding. "What about the other two types?"
Kaoru is the one who answers this time, "Regarding the myths that claim we can transform, these most likely got started because some human caught a vampire using one of two different abilities. Some vampires are gifted with elemental abilities, so the mist myth was most likely started by someone with a water based ability who summoned the mist to mask his or her presence. The other possibility is a concealment ability, which allows the user to completely disappear into their surroundings."
"What about animals?"
"Only shifters can change into animals."
"Shifters?"
"Ya know, like werewolves, werecats, basically all weres," Takeru says with an impatient sigh, "but they prefer to be called shifters."
"So that part of the legend is actually about shifters and not vampires," asks Changmin.
"That's a definite possibility," Kaoru says. "Another possibility is a vampire with an animal control ability. It's actually a pretty rare ability, roughly speaking only one in every two hundred vampires have it so it's classified as an individual power. The name is pretty self-explanatory, but if you really want to know more about it you should talk to Jaejoong, he's one of the lucky one in two hundred."
Changmin is surprised by the information, but nods his head making a mental note to do just that. "So what are some other types of individual abilities?"
Miyavi takes back over now, "Well, first off and Kaoru lightly touched on the topic, individual abilities are generally rare in type. For example," he says, his smirk from before back in place, "I have a couple of individual abilities myself."
Changmin's eyes widen in shock, "Can you show me?"
Miyavi's eyes suddenly glow with mischief, "With pleasure," he says leveling his gaze on Changmin as he focuses his energy.
Changmin shifts in his seat finding Miyavi's intense gaze unnerving. He's about ask what Miyavi is doing when he feels his stomach drop down towards his feet as he gasps in surprise. His hands gripping the armrests in a death grip as he stared down at the table of vampires now looking up at him. "Oh shit."
Miyavi laughs and stands up from his seat and in the next instant is floating in front of Changmin. "When I was human and still a child I found out that I could use telekinesis. Now this was about four hundred years ago so I obviously couldn't tell anyone about it, not even my family knew. I would go in to the woods to practice almost every day, pushing my limits, I could move large boulders and trees by my late teens. My power was greatly amplified after I was turned."
Changmin gulps, "As fascinating as all this is, could you PLEASE PUT ME DOWN," he practically shrieks.
"Right," says Miyavi as more laughter rings out, "sorry." He gently lowers Changmin's chair back down to the floor and Changmin lets out a sigh of relief before picking his pen back up and scribbling everything down. Miyavi floats himself back down into his own chair, "This brings me to my point. When it comes to individual abilities there are different types. Rare, like Jaejoong's animal control, turns, which refers to turned vampires like myself who are born with abilities which become amplified once we're turned, and natural, which refers to natural born vampires who develop abilities outside of their blood inheritance."
Changmin just nods his head as he writes all this down. When he looks up he says, "First off, never do that again," muffled laughter follows the demand. "Second, you said you had two individual abilities, what's the other one?"
"Shadow control."
"What does that do," Changmin asks.
"It means that I can control the shadows and darkness around me," he explains and all the lights in the room suddenly go dark for a few seconds before coming back on, "like that. I can even pull shadows in around myself to hide myself from view and even mask my presence all together."
"Could you do that when you were human?"
Miyavi shakes his head no, "I only developed that ability about fifty years ago."
"I want to ask what other kinds of abilities the rest of you have, but I'm afraid we'll be here a very long time if I do, so I'll save that question for another time." Changmin glances down to scan back over his notes, "So what are blood inheritance abilities?"
"Blood inheritance are abilities passed down vampire bloodlines," Shou explains.
"So they're like, hereditary?"
"Exactly. When a vampire is born he or she automatically inherits the same abilities that the parents possess. It's the same with new turns as well. If a vampire turns a human then that human automatically inherits the abilities of the vampire who turned them."
"Wow," Changmin says absorbing that piece of information, "that must mean that there are some extremely powerful vampires out there."
"Yes," Shou explains, "in fact that's generally how our region leaders are chosen, assuming they're not insane."
"Region leader?"
Shou nods his head, "They're like the alphas a wolf pack. They're the ones who keep order, make sure that the vampires in their regions follow the rules and things like that."
"Who is this region's leader?"
"Her name is Kumi Koda," says Aiji, "but she hasn't been seen in almost thirty years, so I guess that would make Shou the next region leader should a crisis ever arise."
"What happens to powerful vampires who go insane?"
"They're either killed or captured and sealed away like Victor," Aiji suddenly stops and looks at Maya with wide eyes. "Oh shit, sorry Maya."
Maya ignores him and stands up and leaves the room.
When Changmin can no longer see Maya he turns back to the others and asks, "Who's Victor."
Reita is the one who answers the question. "About six hundred years ago there was a vampire named Victor who openly used the forbidden abilities. He was so powerful that in order to stop him the leader of the region had him captured and sealed away. Enraged, Victor swore that he would one day escape his prison and take his revenge on the one who imprisoned him and his entire bloodline. No one knows where he was hidden away, but some believe that he kept his promise and is now out there somewhere, free."
"And I take it from Maya's reaction that he knew Victor."
"More than knew," says Aiji, "they lived together for a few months and Maya was the one who turned him into the region leader of the time."
"Why don't we take a short break," Shou suggests, "it's been a long afternoon and I think we're all getting a little hungry. So while Changmin digests this new information we'll go scrounge up some snacks."
After the other vampires had left him alone, Changmin gets up to go in search of Maya, unable to curb his curiosity. He doesn't have to go far. Maya is in the living room sitting on the couch and appears to be lost in thought. Changmin is unsure how to proceed.
"Did anyone ever tell you curiosity killed the cat," Maya asks motioning for Changmin to take a seat on the couch next to him.
"I've been told more than once that it's my best and worst quality," Changmin says with a sheepish smile as he sits down.
"You want to know about me and Victor," he phrases it as a statement not a question.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"It's fine," he says with a sigh and turns to face Changmin. "Everyone else knows, I guess one more person won't hurt."
"Were you two close?"
"Not really, I met Victor a few months before he was captured. He took me in after I was turned and I thought he was a good person. I couldn't have been more wrong. I'll never forget the night I saw him use his necromancy ability," Maya visibly shudders at the memory. "The son of the human king had been poisoned by an assassin sent by a rival kingdom. Victor recovered his body to bring him back for his own purposes. He didn't care that I'd seen him. I watched in horror as the prince rose from the bed to kneel in front of Victor, eyes completely white as Victor used his power to imprint his desires of what he wanted the prince's body to do. I fled the house and went to the vampire leader of the region, told him about Victor and that night Victor was captured."
"Turning him in must have been hard on you," Changmin says sympathetically and places a hand on Maya's shoulder.
Maya gives him a weak smile fighting back the tears that are threatening to spill over. "It was," he says wiping away tears having lost the battle to keep them at bay, "but not for the reasons you think. I felt so betrayed and stupid that night."
"Why would you feel stupid?"
"Because Victor played me and I let him," he says in frustration. "When I met Victor I was fresh out of the turn and all alone because the vampire who turned me had abandoned me before the turn was even finished. I was confused and starving and Victor showed me kindness and taught me how to survive as a vampire. I latched on to him like he was a lifeline," Maya is visibly shaking now with suppressed sobs. "I was so blinded by gratitude that I couldn't see who he really was until it was almost too late."
"If he was so evil, why do you think he took you in," Changmin asks unable to see the reason behind the vampire's actions.
Maya gives him a dry, self-deprecating laugh, "Victor apparently had a sense for strong talents. My blood inheritance is an earth based ability. Even as a human I was really good with plants, I never had trouble getting any kind I wanted to grow, so my blood inheritance just added more to what I could apparently already do and really strengthened my original plant growing ability. I also wound up developing a rare kinetic ability, which allows me to draw on the kinetic energy around me and use it however I see fit, I can even use it as a weapon if I want to."
"So if you had still been with Victor…"
"He would have used me as a weapon."
Twenty minutes later Changmin, Maya and the other vampires were back at the dining table refueled and reenergized from their snack break.
"Changmin," says Shou, "I know you want to ask about the things that attacked you and Junsu, but I should warn you that it might take awhile to explain. So, that being said, is there anything else you want to ask?"
Changmin thought for a second before an inane question pops into his head, but he didn't want to seem rude by asking.
Shou laughs, "Don't worry about it. I was born in 200B.C."
"You're over 2000 years old?!" Changmin is sure that his eyes are practically bulging out of their sockets.
"You can ask me history questions another time."
Changmin nods his head automatically.
"I'm 623," Maya says, "but you already had a rough idea after Reita told you about Victor."
"I'm 676," says Takeru, "now let's move this along please. Miyavi is 485, Aiji is 229, Reita is 853, Kaoru is 366, Jaejoong is 112 and Yunho is 111."
Changmin's jaw hung open as Takeru listed off everyone's ages, but snaps it shut at the mention of Yunho's name, he suddenly becomes irritated. "What's his problem anyway? At least when Reita was snapping at me he had a reason."
The statement earns him a few chuckles and a slightly sheepish looking Reita.
"I get that the guy is in love with Jaejoong, he couldn't have been more obvious with that possessive stunt he pulled, but why is he so hostile?"
"Yunho doesn't like humans. He doesn't even ever leave the Aokigahara area, so try not to take it too personally," says Maya.
"In fact," says Aiji, "until today I would have said that he and Reita shared the same opinion about humans."
Reita can feel Changmin's eyes on him before he looks up and shrugs. "When Boa told me what happened and suggested that we both stay away I did. After that, it just seemed like too much trouble to be around other humans, so I made up excuses to explain my reasons. It's like they say, if you say something often enough, you start believing it to be true." Reita sighs, "When he was a kid Junsu would try to follow me all over the forest. At first, I just thought that he was just an annoying little kid, but after awhile he kind of grew on me. He told me once that he thought of me as like a big brother, so yeah, dealing with humans after that was difficult."
Maya and Aiji give him sympathetic looks as Kaoru gives his hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Okay, again Reita's reasons seem completely understandable," says Changmin. "Yunho just seems like an asshole."
No one, not even Takeru, is able to restrain their laughter at the statement.
"Man, I love this kid," says Aiji wiping tears from his eyes.
After the laughter has died down Changmin brings up the question he'd been dancing around by asking his other questions. "What were those things that attacked us earlier?"
Shou clears his throat, "We call them Others. We don't really know much about them aside from the fact that they generally stay away from other supernaturals, exhibit scavenger characteristics and they only seem to exist in the Aokigahara forest."
"How is that possible," Changmin asks in confusion, "and if they're scavengers by nature why would they suddenly attack us in large numbers like they did?"
"I have a theory as to why they only exist in Aokigahara, but as to why they attacked you, I'm not entirely sure."
"Junsu's arm was injured," Reita chimes in, "maybe they caught his scent and liked what they smelled. Unfortunately I can vouch that his blood taste ten times better than it smells, which in itself is enough to make your mouth water."
"Okay, that's my best my best friend you're talking about," Changmin says more than a little grossed out by the current conversation.
"Sorry."
Changmin waves off the apology, "So tell me about your theory."
"Ever heard of ley lines or dragon lines," asks Shou.
He nods his head, "I've heard of ley lines, but not dragon lines. Ley lines are invisible lines that supposedly run through the earth and are made up of some kind of magical energy."
"Dragon lines is just another name for them," Shou informs him. "They're real and there are several that run through the forest. When the lines cross they create vortexes, which put out a lot of power, which in turn can effect the surrounding area."
"And you think that the Others are the byproduct of these vortexes," Changmin concludes.
"Basically," Shou says nodding, "but here's where my theory about them kind of hit's a wall. If they are the byproduct of the vortexes, then it should stand to reason that they are sustained by the vortexes as well, meaning they shouldn't be able to travel far from the vortex that created them."
"I take it that that isn't the case though."
Shou shakes his head no. "They move freely throughout the forest, although they can't seem to exist outside of it."
Changmin thinks that over for a moment before an idea comes to him. "Maya told me that he's able to control kinetic energy, so that means that are other vampires and supernaturals who can potentially control other types of energy, right?"
Shou nods his head in conformation.
"So it stands to reason that there may be someone who can control vortex energy or at least tap into it."
Shou strokes his chin in thought, "So instead of being a byproduct, you're thinking that someone is creating the Others." Shou nods his head in agreement, "You may be on to something."
Takeru sighs and stands up, "I'm going to go check on Jaejoong and Junsu."
