Night XI:

Slipping Secrets

"The vice president took the trouble of setting things up for you," Kain said, approaching the Pureblood on his sofa. "Are you alright with just letting her leave?"

Kaname chuckled, then let his smile fall. "Yuki...will eventually come to me."

"What makes you so sure?" Reiko asked in a very casual tone. Kaname didn't miss the furtive glower she shot towards him, though.

"Call it intuition," Kaname replied easily. Reiko narrowed her black eyes in open mistrust. Sebastian's fingertips settled on the small of her back, where it was easy to see her jutting shoulder blades through the backless top. "Not here," he whispered. She bit her lip.

Kaname closed his eyes, smirking. "By the way," he added. "You haven't been coming by the Moon Dorm recently. I quite miss the lullabies you played."

Reiko's back went rigid under Sebastian's fingers. "...Do you really think so? I'm flattered," she said, a hard smile spreading on her lips.

"Yes," Kaname said. His face was serene, angelic. "You have such a talent. How coincidental it is...you're almost as good as any vampire."

The air suddenly went cold. The silence stretched on between the young woman and the Pureblood vampire. Reiko's expression was inscrutable, blank, as the wind blew her black hair around her body.

"...Figure it out yet?" Her voice was flat with a snarl embedded in it.

"No, not completely," Kaname said, his tone tinted with light mirth. "There are still some pieces missing... But they're almost in my grasp, so it will only be a matter of time." His cerise eyes flickered momentarily.

"Is that how you see it?" Reiko's eyes were slitted slightly. "You don't think you may be a bit too sure?"

"I wouldn't say so," he answered. "Most of my suspicions were confirmed the night you slapped me."

"Then maybe you'll finally get it if I slap you again," Reiko suggested lightly; however her tone was low and dangerous. The air suddenly went cold. The other vampires hissed. Sebastian cast a glance at them. "Reiko," he warned.

"I don't believe that would be necessary," Kaname said. Then he smirked. "I'm a bit worried — should Kuraikeji-sensei leave?"

"Why should he?"

"Well..." Kaname tilted his head. His dark hair fell delicately onto his fingers pressed against his temple. He studied the vampire in an intrigued manner; Sebastian lifted his gaze to meet the Pureblood's eyes. Their irises were almost the same shade of red, only Sebastian had a touch of brown washed into his. "I'm sure he's full aware of the vampire hunter here on the school grounds."

Sebastian nodded once. His russet eyes, usually so calm with a hint of sadness, were hard, and there was a grim smirk on his lips. "Yes. He is Toga Yagari, a renowned hunter and currently the number one vampire killer. And from what I hear he was an ally of the Kiryu clan. He himself was Zero's mentor, and lost an eye protecting him from a Level E." His smirk broadened. "We've crossed paths once or twice. The man is strong, I won't deny that."

"The hunter society knows about Zero," Reiko said, not as a question.

"Apparently." It was Kaname who answered.

She glared at the vampire, who offered a smile in return. "In any case" —She gave Sebastian a look— "you shouldn't really stick around. Yagari tried to kill you once. Don't tempt him to try it again."

"Yuki, go on to bed. I'll take care of things here," Kaien said to a soaked Yuki. Zero stood a small ways off, the man called Toga Yagari right beside him. Toga's single eye pierced Zero as he exhaled a gust of cigarette smoke.

"Headmaster." All four looked up to see Reiko's slender figure approaching them.

"Reiko." Kaien smiled and stepped aside for her to see Toga. "Reiko, this is—"

"Toga Yagari." Reiko nodded. "Pleased to meet you."

"Hey," was the simple greeting. Toga's one eye narrowed, though, and when their gazes locked, Reiko smirked. Sebastian had been right.

This man is good...

"Well then..." Kaien coughed lightly, and turned to Toga. "Toga, this is Miss Reiko Kanashimi. She's a member of the Disciplinary Committee like Yuki and Zero are." He looked at Yuki. "You should get to sleep now, you have school tomorrow. Don't worry about this, alright?" Yuki nodded, and with one last worried look at all of them, departed quietly.

They all went into the headmaster's quarters where Toga quarantined Zero in Kaien's guest room. Zero didn't resist, walking in willingly. Reiko, standing by the door, managed to shoot him a look before she closed it softly behind him.

"Now!" Kaien sat down at his desk, beaming. "It's been a long night. What do you say I make us some tea?"

"I can't, Headmaster," Reiko said. "I should be getting back to the dorm now..."

"Yes, you should. You still haven't turned in that essay, and I won't accept a sheet of paper with just your name either."

"Hm. Well you don't have to worry. I haven't done that yet anyway," Reiko replied, turning around towards the doors.

Sebastian smirked. "My point exa—" He stopped short; Toga's shotgun was suddenly in his face. "...Oh my." He smiled gravely. "I thought you might've left already... Good evening, Toga Yagari."

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't pull this trigger," Toga snarled. His single eye stared in hate at the tall dark-haired vampire. It was obvious he wasn't bluffing. His finger was poised on the shotgun trigger and prepared to send a bullet through Sebastian's head the second he sensed a threat.

"Because it wouldn't be necessary." Sebastian reached up to push away the barrel of the gun with his long white hand. "Get back to your dorm now, Reiko. I expect to see you with that paper in the morning." Reiko muttered something unintelligible (Sebastian thought he picked out the word "idiot") and then walked out.

"'Night then." Ka-chak.

"Now I REALLY know you've lost it," Toga snapped, whacking Kaien upside the head. "Letting THIS guy teach the DAY CLASS! I should be blasting off YOUR head!"

"Now now..." Kaien said soothingly, rubbing the mild injury on his temple. "There's no need to be harsh."

"And that Kanashimi girl! Something about her just unnerves me...dammit, it's like she's not human!"

Silence.

"...I get it. She isn't, is she?"

It was nearly past the midnight hour. Reiko stepped through the dark towards her dorm, her long hair lifted up away from her body by the breeze, blending with the night sky. It was so silent, the stillness broken only by the muted rustling of the leaves as the wind whispered through them, and the tranquil cries of crickets.

Reiko stopped. "What do you want?"

From the cover of darkness, Kaname smiled. "Just wondering if the lady would like an escort back to her room."

"No thanks. I don't need anything from you." Her jet-black eyes narrowed. "What do you really want, Kuran?"

For a minute there was no sound, except for that of the soft wind. "I thought you'd like to know..." He cocked his head, a deadly smile playing on his lips. "...that I've figured out your secret at last."

"Reiko isn't...noticeably different. Both her cerebration and her intuition, her physical endurance, and her musical skills, can be merely passed off as that of a natural prodigy — and it is, more or less." Sebastian stroked his left forearm thoughtfully. "But there is something there... Reiko isn't like any other human; in fact the dual pistols the Hands of God are naturally only wielded by a professional vampire hunter. The fact that she can use them so effectively at her age...well..."

"The Hands of God...? But those are vampire hunter weapons," Toga said.

"Precisely."

"I began to piece it together the night you struck at me." Kaname's lips twitched in amusement. Reiko glowered. "A human wouldn't have made a single mark...yet you were able to even bruise me. You have strength nearly equal to that of a vampire. Intellect, reflexes, natural talent...it's all so clear now."

"Please tell me you're not trying to flatter me," Reiko said evenly.

Kaname chuckled. "Although..." A spark of fascination was ignited in his eyes. "How interesting you are... The legends surrounding a creature like you are so few in between...no more than wisps of stories."

"That's right." The corners of her lips fell somewhat. "For all I know, I may the only one of my...kind, if it can even be called that."

"Yes." Kaname dipped his head with a small, dark smile. "A being neither human nor vampire...yet like them both..."

"You see...

"Reiko...she is..."