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 5 of the manga, before, during and after chapter 19.
Chapter 08
~Consequence~
When she got bored of hearing them talk about rockets and engines and who-knows-what, she left the men to get some rest. After a way too short nap, she resumed her work, hoping to be finished before the night, and only went back to the training center once the sun set about getting down. Stumbling upon Kayuki, she was surprised to see the deep frown on her face.
"Have you seen the vampire king?" she was asked without preamble. "He wasn't in his room" "Dunno," Nazuna answered. "We had a chat at the cafeteria this afternoon, but I don't know what he did after that." "You what?" came the surprised answer.
This was probably the first time the scientist saw the girl this rattled. She supposed that with the situation as precarious as it was, any unsupervised action had the potential to be problematic for her.
Nazuna suspected that the vampire king had been out gathering information. That was what he had seemed to be doing with her and Li, and he probably spent the rest of the afternoon – and maybe even part of the morning – questioning everyone he could. Knowledge gave power, and he seemed the kind of man used to things going his way.
She had a feeling he wouldn't ever have an opportunity like that, now. Not with the way Kayuki was silently fuming with anger. The scientist finally shrugged: "Well, good luck finding him. I'm off to the training center. See you then."
Kayuki barely acknowledged her and went about her own way, probably looking for the man to put him in his place. As long as he was fit for the training, she didn't really care. Surely he knew what he was getting into when he snuck out and didn't care to return on time.
Then again, that was an interesting thought: why didn't he return on time? He ought to have known she'd be coming looking for him. A man like that couldn't have ignored the time, so that had to be intentional. Hmm…
Her thought kept her occupied until she arrived at her destination. After that, she was busy making plans with her team. By the time the sun did set, she wondered where the two super-humans were.
Did Akabara run away? Naw, didn't seem likely. Not when he spent so much effort into knowing the situation. He might seem aloof, maybe even suicidal, but certainly not the type to waste his time. So, what, did he hide from Kayuki?
About fifteen minutes later, she was ready to tear apart the island looking for them. It was only her team that convinced her to stay and wait for eventual news. Another quarter of an hour and they finally did arrive; by that time, she was ready to make heads roll.
"Care to explain why the lateness?" she asked, deliberately slowly.
Of course, everyone knew that was a front and that she was minutes from exploding. Even Kayuki seemed aware, and Akabara – well, the day someone that could read his face was born, she would hire them in a heart-beat.
"Merely making a point," coolly stated the Japanese girl, glancing at the vampire for a brief instant. "Now that he knows what to expect from violating his curfew, I expect no more wandering about in the future. Isn't that right?"
That last sentence was obviously aimed at the man beside her. Said man merely smiled at the pissed-off scientist. "Let us begin. I believe today I am to experience weightlessness?"
Way to change the subject, bastard. She eyed him critically. As usual, he was neat and tidy, dark clothes emphasizing the paleness of his features. There was nothing out of place, not one bruise or speck of blood, yet she was sure Kayuki did something to him. That girl was nothing if not straightforward, and against that man, mere threats wouldn't have worked at all. It was easy to image bodily harm, especially since she was apparently the only one who was efficient with him in that regards.
"I need to know if my trainee is wounded, because that could potentially affect the result of his training." She finally burst out, seeing as no one seemed to volunteer the information.
"It is nothing that will impede tonight's session," Akabara assured her. But she wouldn't be so easily deterred. If only to learn at what point he could be harmed and how fast he could heal from it. So she continued to wordlessly stare.
"I made a shallow wound in his neck and gouged out a hole in his left side," inputted Kayuki without batting an eyelash.
Silence greeted her statement. Well, shit.
~To be continued~
Now, I know I haven't been the most diligent of authors. In fact, you have every right to chastise me. Now, seeing as I made such a poor job of keeping my updates close to each other, I decided to finish the story before publicize it.
…that was the original plan. But, this week, someone liked my story! I thought the heck and to thank him (or her), here I publish this chapter, that had been written for a while. I really ought to go back to the writing, but I'm so attached to every single detail that it's taking me forever. However, I did finish making a chronology, with how many days between each event, and so all. Kept track (or tried to, at least) of the moon too, but it's too often full to be realistic… meh.
I also reloaded the previous chapters with minor changes.
Totally unrelated, but did you notice that in chapter 19, Kayuki stuck Strauss with her left hand, she flickered her right hand to take out most of the blood, the next page blood was dripping her left side, and again next panel her right hand is dripping? It's not really important, just funny to notice. There are others such mistakes throughout the series or even in that very chapter (like the dress of Adelheid the first time we see her), but that's unimportant compared to the consistency of the plot.
Speaking of this chapter in particular, I wondered where Kayuki was in chapter 18, seeing as she unhealthily stressed over his actions and whereabouts most of the manga. Then, I realized that it was the chapter immediately after that, probably on the very same day, that she 'punished' him for the first time and afterwards started stressing. Thus I made her realize Akabara was out and about that day for the first time. Also, Nazuna commented in volume 6 that Strauss was riling her up on purpose, which made me wonder when she started noticing. So in my fic, that's now.
Till next chapter then! Hope you enjoyed the update that had been soooo slow to come.
