Blackened by darkness, shadows of the city flew by the tinted windows of the car they sat in. Lights whizzed by leaving their trails of bright afterglow in his eyes as Chiyu stared blankly out of his window. His brothers in arms sat around him in the back of the plush escalade that Ruki was driven around in. He had been gazing out at the moving cityscape, his elbow on the window sill and chin in hand, since they had left headquarters. Reita seemed to be staring at him from the opposite side of the cab, Aoi was busy talking to Ruki, Aoi at Reita's left, Shinpei between them, and Ruki at Chiyu's right.
Chiyu was contemplating the reasons his life had taken such a turn for the worst. Well, he wasn't sure if he would call it worst, but it certainly wasn't the best. His inner argument was waging inside of his mind when Ruki slapped him in the bicep. Chiyu picked his head up and turned with a look of distaste plastered on his face. "What was that for?" he tried to not hiss.
Ruki adjusted the sleeves of his black glittered suit jacket and breathed lightly, "I believe you owe us an explanation."
Chiyu raised an eyebrow, "For what?"
"The girl, don't act stupid," Ruki snapped in a matronly manner.
Chiyu rolled his eyes and resumed his previous position, "You already know how I know Airi."
"I want to know what you know. We need to know how safe we are with her connection with Hyde," this was would have sounded like an ordinary request, but to the four in the vehicle, it was sounded like nothing other than an order.
Chiyu sighed and straightened up, stretching and rubbing his hands down his legs before he plopped back in his seat. "All of it?" Ruki nodded. Chiyu shrugged, "Fine. Short story is: I knew Airi when we were still human." He had to stifle a laugh at the looks he was receiving, Chiyu had had a feeling that would throw them off.
"Yup, Airi's family was a long line of hunters, the last ancient line I think, and our families were extremely close. I think my oldest memory was with Airi. When I awoke and became a vampire, my family fled. We literally just uprooted one night and took off. They couldn't take the chance of their best friends killing their son. I never said goodbye to her, or any of them."
"One day, years down the road, I ran over Airi on accident. Literally ran over. I was driving to that dumbass office job at the newspaper I had, this girl in a hooded sweatshirt wasn't paying attention and walked out right in front of me. Five in the morning, sun coming up, no one was around. When I ran to help her I tried to pull her hood down and she grabbed my hands and hissed at me to stop. When I saw her face I almost passed out."
"We kind of just picked up where we left off, like we were never apart. Eventually she told me that her family had killed Hyde's partner and he tracked them down. He killed her family, and even though Airi had killed his friend that had come to help Hyde, he didn't try to kill her. She tried to kill him, he was injured badly but he bit her in the end." He glanced around an smiled a little at the odd way all of the attention was on him for the moment.
He continued, "She tried to starve herself while Hyde kept her chained up so she wouldn't do anything rash like running herself through with a pitchfork. But we all know in the end your instincts take over and we all see that she is more than alive now. That's as short as I can make it," he shrugged.
Aoi waved a hand in the air signaling his move to talk. Chiyu was always amused how his friend talked with his hands. "But why did Hyde do that, were they a thing?" Aoi just wasn't convinced.
Chiyu shook his head, "No, Airi has conflicting emotions about Hyde, but they were never like that. She told me that herself, mainly because I wouldn't leave her alone about it. I was kind of worried about why he would just decide to change the spawn of the people he was so hell bent of murdering in cold blood." Chiyu shrugged again.
"That really does make no sense," Ruki mumbled, his hands laced together with his index fingers extended and pressed against his lips.
"They act like a sort of twisted family from what I gathered. He was always so protective over her, he called her his love all the time. She does care about him, but you can see why she hates herself, and him, for that. He did kill her family and turn her into something she was trained to wipe off the face of the earth."
Looks of deep pensive thought sat around him. Aoi and Shinpei stared out of the back windshield, Ruki bore holes into Shinpei's Chest, and Reita was consumed in thought while looking at his feet. For a second only Chiyu seemed to realize the halt in motion before the door beside Ruki opened and his face lit up again. "Well," he sighed, "Now that we know we should be okay. Let's try to assimilate with the dredges of society, shall we?" Three nods responded and Ruki stepped out of the vehicle.