I sat in the school's common's room, reviewing my Physics notes with Ichijou. We were ready for a tentatively set mission; we weren't sure if they were actually going to send us out, so we had brought our weapons with us, just to be ready.
"You know," I said, "I really feel bad for those humans who have to take finals at the end of every school year. I'm sure I would die if I had to do that, and you know we don't die that easily." I sighed, and shook my head.
"I know! I'm so glad. But it would be good for us to do a cumulative test once in awhile," Ichijou responded cheerfully.
"Why would you want that?"
"It gets my mind off the darker things in this school."
"Dark? What's dark about this school?" I asked, quite cluelessly. Ichijou just looked at me for a few seconds. Then he said, "The incident with Zero?"
I frowned. That thing. "You mean the murder of the pure blood?"
"Well, yes." For a second he looked a little exasperated at my clueless ness, but the look quickly disappeared.
"How long has it been? I think I was told that it happened only a few days before I came to Cross Academy."
"Yeah. About two days before."
"What? Only two?"
"Yeah. It's been a total of about…"
"Sixteen days."
"Sixteen? I'm surprised that the Council of Elders hasn't done anything to find out who the murderer was."
"Oh," I simply said. The Council of Elders were a group of elder vampires that make sure none of the vampire laws were being broken, and punish the vampires who did break them.
"I guess they were a little slow in getting the news. But that would be a little strange. Maybe they were just being cautious."
"Ah…do you want them to come?"
"No, not really. I don't really like my gramps."
"Oh.Your gramps?"
"Yeah, he's on it."
"Ah… I see." So there was more to Ichijou than met my eye.
"Plus when they come, they'll most likely take away Zero for the murder of Shizuka-san and execute him. We don't really want that to happen."
"Ah… Huh? They can't do that!"
"They can, but I think he gets a trial first. But I don't think that the trial will do anything. Vampires really don't have any sympathy for vampire hunters, especially if they're being accused of murdering a pure blood."
"Hm." I sat in silence for a few minutes, and then remembered that we were supposed to be reviewing Physics. I wondered how we got from the subject of Physics, to the subject of Kiryuu being executed by the Council.
"We should go back to our Physics notes," I said. Ichijou nodded and turned back to his books. For awhile, I stared at his back, contemplating about Kiryuu's situation.
"Um. Sakamoto-san."
I looked up startled at Takuma.
"Ah, sorry. I just dozed off."
"Okay. Now, the theory of relativity refers to both special relativity…and general relativity."
"Special relativity was introduced by Albert Einstein…" I went on, and finished listing all the laws. Upon finishing I questioned Ichijou. "Now what does general relativity say?" It seemed that I had dozed off during that particular lecture.
"Physics… That's such a horible subject. Why do they even teach us that?," said a voice above my head. Shiki.
Another voice continued, "I really don't get why we have to learn this. It's not like we need it or anything. Plus, we've already covered that a long time ago."
Touya.
"Hello, my young friends. Don't you just love how this school meshes all the ages together into the same classes?" Ichijou smiled at the new arrivers.
"Stop talking like you're an old man, Ichijou. It's… weird," commented Touya.
"I am old. I'm eighteen in human years! Think about how old I am in vampire years!"
I responded, "I'm eighteen also, and I don't think I'm old. Kuran-san is eighteen, too!"
"Well," sighed a different female voice above me, "The truth is, Ichijou is actually a five hundred year old man who looks young because he drank the blood of Juan Ponce de Leon, who actually did find the fountain of youth." Ruka had joined the party. Touya and Ichijou laughed. I stared at Ruka blankly. Why on earth was she talking about Ponce de Leon? Conquistadores and vampires? I tried to add them up and created an interesting mental image. As I began to laugh, realization hit me, and I understood the irony of the statement. I chuckled, "That was a good one, Souen-san."
Talk about slow reactions.
Just as we were going to talk about weirder things, the doors swung open.
Kuran and his bodyguard Seiren walked into the room, and immediately all talk ceased.
"Hey guys. Would you do me a favor?"
A vampire stepped out and said, "It's a pleasure, Kaname-san"
Shiki, Touya, and Ichijou looked at each other. Ruka frowned.
"Kaname, seriously…?"
I glanced at Ruka, then focused my attention back on Kuran.
"Please come and help me prevent Kiryuu from being taken away and executed."
What? Kuran helping Kiryuu? Things weren't adding up in my head.
Suddenly, the doors swung open again. This time, Fujiwara entered.
"Did you just say what I thought you said? There's no way I'm going to help a human like that! He deserves it!" Apparently he had been standing out in the hallway, listening to the conversation. I wondered why he didn't enter before in the first place.
Murmurs flowed through the crowd. Standing against Kuran was basically taboo.
Kuran turned slowly around to face Fujiwara. He smiled.
"Fujiwara-san. Thank you for being so kind as to join our discussion instead of lurking out in the hallways."
Fujiwara glared at him and clenched his teeth.
"One day, I'm going to drink every drop of your blood and gain all your powers, you stuck up bastard."
Immediately, I grabbed an arrow from my quiver, leaped over the sofa that was in front of me, and held the tip near his throat. Though I was afraid of Kuran, threatening to suck a pureblood's blood was definitely a taboo. I couldn't let Fujiwara even think about it. Plus, I wasn't the only one who moved. Seiren's hand was pointed at his neck, Shiki's finger was already bitten and the whip out, Ichijou's katana was unsheathed, and Hanabusa Aidou's ice was wrapped around Fujiwara's legs. Even Ruka stood in Fujiwara's path to Kuran.
Silence.
"Everyone, it's all right. He hasn't harmed me. Thank you, though," Kuran said, quite nonchalantly. We all hesitated, and then relaxed. Arrow went back into quiver, hand went back next to body, blood went back into body, katana went into sheath, and ice disappeared. Everyone backed away slowly.
Kuran sent everyone a charming smile, then turned again to a much ruffled Fujiwara.
"I'm sorry, we'll have to discuss matters with you another time. Right now, I have more important matters to attend to." He turned back to us. "Let's go."
We all obeyed him.