Disclaimer: VK is not mine.
Thanks for the reviews, readers! Sorry for the weeks of no updating. School term has started already and I'm in lectures more often than spending time on this fic. Well now, without further ado, here's the new chapter!
CHAPTER 7
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Kairi staggered into class next morning cranky and hungry. She'd barely gotten 4 hours of sleep, credit to one slave-driver a.k.a. Zero. That guy sure knew how to make a trainee prefect suffer. He made her patrol the Moon Dorm well into the unholy hours of the morning before dismissing her. By the time she hit the sack, she was so trashed that she slept in her uniform with her shoes on.
Slumping down in her seat next to Yuuki, Kairi folded her arms on the table and laid her head down for some shut-eye. A sudden rumble came from her stomach and Kairi groaned. In exchange for more sleep, she'd traded breakfast. Now her empty belly was protesting. Loudly.
Yuuki sympathized with her foster sister as she knew first-hand how much of a sadist Zero could be. The jerk didn't even look concerned or turn behind to ask if Kairi was okay. Yuuki glared a hole into the back of his silver head but Zero remained looking ahead. She reached under her desk and pulled out a chocolate mocha drink, nudging the redhead. Kairi lifted her head and saw the offering of caffeine. Snatching the plastic cup from Yuuki, she ripped the lid off and chugged it down like the caffeine-starved girl she was.
"Better?" Yuuki asked after she finished off the mocha.
"Not yet. But I will be later when the caffeine kicks in. God knows I need it." Kairi crushed the plastic cup and eyed Zero's head a few rows down. Yuuki noticed the crafty gleam in her eyes and halted the redhead.
"You'll get more extra hours."
Kairi huffed and stowed the cup under her desk. "Dang,"
Conversation halted as more students straggled into class followed by the teacher and class started. Kairi and Yuuki played a game of 'Jab the Snoozer' to keep the redhead awake to prevent her from ending up in detention after lessons. And boy, did Yuuki have a strong jabbing elbow. When the final bell rang and Day Class students rushed to squeeze out the door, Kairi was massaging her sore side from the constant jabs.
Zero had already made his way out with a parting "Don't be late for prefect duties," at the girls. Kairi yawned and stretched, feeling more revived now that she had forty winks in between classes. Yuuki pushed in her chair and grabbed their books.
"Lunch?"
Kairi leapt up from her seat. "Definitely,"
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"Yeowh!" Kairi yelped and cursed viciously when a sizeable lock of her hair got yanked so hard her entire body tilted to one side. Aidou 'tut-tut' at her use of unladylike language while he nimbly dodged a groping hand. Kairi extracted her hair from the fist of another student and ignored him.
Yuuki caught the exchange and chided, "Aidou-sempai, don't antagonize her."
Aidou deigned to reply as the prefects went about putting students in their places, employing the effective tactics of shoving, pushing, pulling and swearing. When things calmed down a bit, Yuuki and Kairi didn't hesitate and bulldozed the Night Class toward the classroom block while Zero held the fawning fangirls at bay with his patented death glare.
Kaname and Kairi shared a passing glance and the girl quickly directed her gaze elsewhere. At last the Night Class was safely ensconced in the school building and Zero sent the remaining Day Class students packing.
Kairi heaved a tired sigh. This was becoming routine. A month into her arrival at Cross Academy and she was already getting unhinged. Add to the frenzy of prefect duties were the impending project and that nagging feeling of unease she was still unable to shake off. It was also why she avoided contact with the Night Class, with exception of Seiren. She didn't need them to further frazzle her nerves. However, with the quiet vampire's help, the project was progressing along much more rapidly than she'd expected.
But since she didn't inform her findings to Kaname or Ichijou and neither did Seiren report her activities, strange as that was, she was approached now and then by Ichijou or another vampire who questioned if she was going to experiment on them anytime soon, other than the initial blood sample she had taken from each of them. They didn't realize she was already doing so with Seiren.
And with herself.
That was the risky part of her experiment she resolutely refused to mention to anybody. Her parents had deciphered the DNA codes of the vampires in hopes of creating better and stronger humans. What they hadn't been able to do was to put their theory into practice. Hence she had taken it upon herself to be the test subject, infusing into her bloodstream various abilities of both Noble and Pureblood vampires which she'd combined in hopes of creating something more powerful from the fusion.
Seiren was there to provide her with the correct basis of a vampire's DNA makeup should she required reverting some of the other vampires' DNA structure she'd warped back to a semblance of its original state for further documentation or mixing with other bloodlines.
Besides, Kairi couldn't think of any other vampire who'd readily offer themselves up for the job where they would have to endure her digging into their flesh with medical needles in various veins and withstanding the occasional injection for her to record down any kind of reaction or allergy the vampire immune system could have to human vaccines.
But the lab work was at a standstill so far. She had yet to find one combination which went over well with the human body without crippling something else in the process. Once, she'd achieved tremendous telekinetic powers but in return the vampire cells ate away her antibodies. She then diluted the telekinesis with the addition of genes from another vampire bloodline. Originally, the bloodline boasted the specialty of instant healing upon intake of blood. But when she injected a dose of those cells, they mutated somehow when they came in contact with her blood. While she was able to heal without a mark whenever she cut herself, the process wasn't very instantaneous at all and since she didn't drink blood, the ability siphoned off some of her blood in order to work.
Which led to her current predicament. Suffering from anemia while toeing the edge to prevent anyone from finding out the true extent of her research and coping with the daily hassles of school life. Everyone thought the research was a pen and paper thing and Kairi intended to let them think that way. Only Seiren knew the risks of her constantly altering her own DNA. She could very well drop down dead suddenly if the healing ability drained too much of her blood or fall severely ill since the telekinesis continued eating away her antibodies, just at a much slower rate. In fact, Kairi had to swallow mass quantities of iron pills and antibiotics every night to replenish what she lost during the day. Add to that mental and physical fatigue, it was a miracle she could still function under these conditions.
After all, Mother Nature never intended for DNA to be tampered with. She had a gut feeling the Night Class suspected something less than ethical going on whenever her and Seiren got together. Chairman Cross, Yuuki and Zero also noticed her lackluster behavior during the day, another downside of encoding vampire cells into her DNA. She began to feel dreary and worn out under sunlight as was typical of the Night Class students. This was a problem she was currently pouring her concentration into fixing, with Seiren as the lab assistant of sorts in her dorm-room-turned-mad-scientist laboratory.
You could even say she had become a part-time hermit, what with her holing herself up in her room during Friday nights and weekends and refusing entry to anybody. It was partly to avoid seeing Kaname, whom she just knew wouldn't be very happy if he found out about the altered state of her body. Regardless, she still has many more bloodlines to mix and match.
"Are you okay?"
Yuuki's worried tone jarred Kairi out of her musings. No offense to the girl, but she wasn't very intuitive and had yet to realize something amiss every time Kairi brushed off her concerns. But Zero, he was entirely different. That sharp gaze of his always speared her with the guilt of lying – covering up the truth, she amended – to her foster family. If he ever had to be an interrogator, Kairi had no doubt his victim would start blubbering away whether or not he committed the crime once Zero cast that glacier stare.
She offered a weak grin. "I'm fine. Don't be a worry-wart. You've asked me six times now."
Yuuki smiled back tentatively, uncertainty clouding her hazel eyes. She glanced over at Zero, whose countenance was stony. She was sure Zero suspected something but he dodged every time she popped a question about Kairi spending too much time on the project. But she couldn't very well hogtie her foster sister and force her to spit out the truth under threats of starvation though the pallor of Kairi's face was bordering on sickly. The girl was also less enthusiastic during mealtimes and becoming lethargic in the day, coming to life more so only when evening set in.
If I didn't know better, I'd think she's beginning to act like a vampire! The thought sprouted in Yuuki's mind suddenly and just as quickly, she squashed it. That was impossible. Kairi was a 100 certified human being. But her eyes betrayed her as they strayed to the hint of teeth seen between the redhead's slightly parted lips to confirm there weren't fangs.
To her intense relief, there was nothing pointy regarding her canines. Kairi had blunt human teeth just like any other Day Class student.
"I'm going back to my room. Don't disturb me unless someone's dying," Kairi joked lightly in an attempt to clear the sudden oppressive atmosphere that had fallen over the three of them. She turned and jogged away, leaving Yuuki and Zero to their thoughts.
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A/N:
More insight on the project! Now you guys know what Kairi does during lab sessions.
I also hope I'm not violating any humanity rights, what with the altering DNA stuff and all.
The story's pace is also picking up. I know there's a distinct lack of Yuuki/Zero action but I'll remedy that in the next chapter.
Reviews are greatly appreciated!
