Disclaimer: Yes! I'm finally Matsuri Hino! I own VK! ...wakes up from wonderful dream...nevermind.
(Oh yeah, don't forget to read the author's note at the end...)
Chapter 13: Erasing the Past
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:13
"Well, then, everything seems to be in order, Kiryu-san," the headmaster acknowledged. No good could come of this particular turn of events, but it was futile to hinder fate any longer. "Well, why don't you join me for breakfast before class?"
"Thank you, Headmaster," Kiryu replied with a small smile.
Honestly, it was downright freaky to see Zero's face looking friendly, but the headmaster brushed aside the feeling of foreboding that had been nagging at him the entire morning, which meant the past hour or so. What could he say? Being up half of every night to keep half an eye on the Night Class did not make Headmaster Cross much of an early bird.
Inside the kitchen, Yuki was surprisingly wide awake and hard at work over the hot stove, which meant everything was black, burned, and nowhere near edible. Since Arashi had given the other two guardians a break last night, Yuki had been able to get a decent night's sleep, hence, she was up and about "cooking." However, when her adoptive father and Kiryu strolled in, she stopped short and froze. During her moment of shocked stillness, the last member of the breakfast party slipped in the door behind the headmaster.
The clink of Zero's chain echoed through the small kitchen as he drew his Bloody Rose gun.
"Headmaster," Yuki asked slowly, "what is he doing here?"
The guest who had walked in with Cross was none other than Ichiru Kiryu, Zero's traitorous younger twin, who currently had Zero's gun pressed to the back of his head.
Sighing over Zero's instinctive jump to violence, the headmaster tried to maintain his happy mood. It was too early in the day to be gloomy. "Well, I see both of Papa's children remember Ichiru-kun! He's joining the Day Class!" Despite the heat emanating from the death glares Yuki and Zero were shooting at him, the oblivious man continued with a smile, "Didn't I tell you?"
After another tense moment of silence, Zero holstered his gun and walked over to the stove to see if anything could be salvaged for breakfast. Nope, Yuki had thoroughly destroyed everything in pot, pan, and toaster. She even spilled salt in the jam. Unceremoniously dumping the wasted food in the garbage amidst Yuki's cries of horror and ignoring the punches she delivered to his arm, Zero barely noticed the little feeling tickling the back of his brain until it was too late.
"Ichiru-kun!" Yuki shrieked as the boy flew through the window to crash on the lawn below. It was a good thing the kitchen was on the first floor.
Not that it really mattered at this point. Zero stopped taking out fresh ingredients and leaped out the broken window. Yuki was looking everywhere for the culprit who had slipped in unnoticed and thrown Zero's brother. She looked in vain. The headmaster sat down at the table and began calmly sipping a cup of coffee. He knew what was coming, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
An early morning fog still hung about the grounds. Ichiru quickly shook off the stupor which clung to his brain. He could feel blood dripping down his forehead from a shallow cut. Bits of broken glass clung to his new Day Class uniform, but he disregarded the small pricks of pain and got to his feet. Zero was standing off to the side, no readable expression on his face. Somehow, this was not reassuring.
"Ichiru Kiryu," a voice from the fog called out like a whisper that sliced through stone.
Ichiru was not one to easily back down, much like any Kiryu. He haughtily called back, "And who might you be?" The smug smile on his face died the moment she stepped out of the fog, or rather, the fog retreated behind her. Ichiru saw his own face, softened with the feminine features of a woman, but the resemblance was unmistakable. "So, you're the infamous Arashi Kiryu I've heard so much about."
She walked the last few paces to stand before her quarry, graceful as any predator. Then, she stuck out her hand. "Pleased to meet you," she introduced herself with a smile. When Ichiru did not move, she grabbed his hand with her own and shook it gently.
Ichiru still could not believe it, even after word of his sister had spread through and shocked the vampire world. Another Kiryu had survived the massacre, but he had been there. He had watched. He had asked Shizuka-sama to only spare Zero. "But, how?" He could not seem to form any coherent thoughts. Everything was spinning inside his head. He looked to Zero for an explanation, but his twin's face remained as unmoving as stone.
She released his hand, and the smile left her face as abruptly as he had been tossed from the window. "You didn't really think you were the only unwanted child in the family, did you?" Bitterness and accusation were laced in every word. The open, friendly countenance she had displayed a moment ago was gone, and in its place was, in a word, fire.
He was going to die today. He knew that, but he preferred not to leave life as he had entered- ignorant. Finally able to voice at least one question, Ichiru ventured, "Were you sent away? Before-"
"I was sent away before you even left our mother's womb."
Ichiru had thought that nothing would ever move him after the death of his beloved Shizuka-sama. There had been nothing left for him to care about, but here she was: he had a sister who had been thrown away like him. Here was someone who could understand him, but still she looked at him with eyes full of hatred.
He could not understand. "They didn't want you either, so why-"
"Do you know how many lives I have ended?" Arashi cut in. Ichiru blanched. "After all the kills I have made, I still had no wish to kill them, our family." Ichiru did not like the direction this was headed in. "But you did. You wanted them dead, but you didn't even have the guts to do it yourself."
Ichiru tried to protest. "They hated me for being weak!"
"And they sent me away for being strong." Arashi stepped back and drew a small dagger from a sheath strapped to her forearm. "I can protect my family now, and only one thing is standing in my way."
His eyes widened, but he made no move to run. "Just make it quick, Arashi-nee-chan." Ichiru relaxed his tense muscles. His time had finally come. He could finally follow Shizuka-sama.
"You aren't worth the time it would take to inflict real pain."
The dagger sliced swiftly and true. Ichiru's head fell to the ground with a plop, perfectly severed from his body which crumpled soon after. The blood soaked the ground at her feet, but Arashi paid no attention to it. Her eyes were busy elsewhere taking in the horrified face of Yuki, who had seen the whole display from the shattered remains of the window; the headmaster, who had never ventured a glance but continued slurping away at his coffee as if nothing was wrong; and Zero, whose only reaction to the whole affair seemed to be a tint of bloodlust in his eyes, though he had not moved from his initial standpoint.
Arashi walked over to her living brother, leaving a corpse in her wake. The two Kiryu just stood there for a moment, neither saying a word.
Finally, Zero murmured, "Thank you." He did not have to explain. Arashi understood. Even though he had pulled a gun on Ichiru and would have killed him if necessary, there was still some part of his soul that rejected the idea of murdering his twin. Arashi had taken the problem out of his hands and dealt with the traitor as he needed to be dealt with.
Inclining her head ever so slightly in parting, Arashi turned back towards the fog laden campus. "I'll be back later."
"ARASHI-CHAN!" that infamously annoying voice called out the busted window, all pretense of seriousness left behind with his empty mug of coffee. "HOW CAN YOU LEAVE THIS MESS FOR PAPA TO CLEAN UP?! WHAT KIND OF DAUGHTER ARE- ?!!"
The headmaster was interrupted by a somewhat large fireball being tossed over Arashi's shoulder, heading right towards him…only to land squarely on the remains of Ichiru Kiryu. In a split second, during which the headmaster got up from his reflexive dive for cover, the fire had dissipated and nothing but a charred patch of lawn marked the morning murder. Even the threatening fog seemed to be lifting, allowing a slightly breezy, cloudy day to take its place.
Filling his empty cup to the brim with more steaming black coffee, the headmaster mumbled, "Well, at least she got rid of the body before the scent drove the vampires crazy."
Yuki looked incredulously at her adoptive father. "Is that all you have to say? Arashi-chan just killed Ichiru-kun!" When the headmaster shrugged and proceeded to take a sip of his drink, burning his tongue in the process and shouting far too loudly for such a small amount of pain, Yuki reasoned, "You knew this would happen, didn't you?"
It took a moment of fanning his hand over his injured tongue, but when the hot sensation had faded, Headmaster Cross gave Yuki a slow, sad smile. "Ichiru-kun knew what could happen when he came here. Don't look so down, Yuki." Forgetting, again, that his coffee was burning hot, he took a huge swig.
While the headmaster repeated his former "dance of pain" with considerably more energy, Yuki realized something. "Hey, where's Zero?" She checked out the window, but he was gone. Yuki wished he had stayed, so she could talk to him, but he probably just wanted to be alone. So she left him to it and went back to burning breakfast, again.
"Kaname-sama!" Yuki shouted over the hordes of fangirls who, not deterred by last night's abysmal failure, were even more enthusiastic than usual. Fighting her way to the front of the crowd, Yuki finally managed to break free by diving through the last few feet, only to fall flat on her face when she emerged.
Where was Zero when she needed him? He had not come to class all day, and no one had seen him. Sure, Yuki could understand Zero being upset and wanting to get away from everyone after seeing his brother killed by his sister, but this was crossing the line! How dare he leave her to fend for herself out here!
Suddenly, she was lifted to her feet by none other than…not Kaname-sama! Much to her surprise, Yuki found herself being pulled up by the hand of Kain. His usual look of bored indifference was gone. Instead, he seemed acutely aware of every little detail tonight. It was freaking her out. The order of the universe was not meant to be broken!
"Better keep close, Yuki-san," he whispered once she was standing. "Things are about to get very hot." He did not relinquish his grip on her hand. In fact, he pulled her along with him further inside the group of Night Class students being swarmed by Day Class girls.
Aido shot his cousin a questioning glance while smiling at the girls squealing about their "Idol-senpai." Kain looked like he was waiting for something, and he was keeping Yuki close. The genius's brain went to work: Kain plus Yuki plus trouble equaled Arashi. What kind of crazy stunt does she have planned now? he groaned to himself.
Fortunately for people with short attention spans, Aido did not have to wait long to find out.
Lines of fire shot through the crowd and leapt up into solid walls of flame. The Day Class girls screamed and fled, the living furnaces hot on their heels. When every last one of the fans had scrambled back into the dorms, the fire changed shape again. It rose up from the ground like a massive tidal wave and encased the whole building in a dome of undying flames. Not to worry, the fire did nothing to harm the building or people, but the sweat marks on the uniforms did later require a few runs through the wash.
Meanwhile, the Night Class was watching this spectacle unfold with the greatest apprehension. First, Asato Ichijo was murdered right in front of Kaname-sama. Then, they smelled blood in the early hours of the morning. Now, flames were spontaneously bursting to life and covering buildings. It was just another normal day at Cross Academy, right? Of course not! An elemental seemed to be on the warpath, and there was nothing the vampires could do but wait.
Arashi did not leave them in suspense for long. As soon as the Day Class's view of the grounds was completely blocked, she emerged from the shadows of the trees, much as she had done earlier that day. However, this time, she appeared once again as the hunter. Her black hunting outfit had replaced her school uniform again, and she had even gone so far as to chop her shoulder-length silver locks up to her chin. This harsh, new version of the Kiryu suited this day perfectly. It was time to put a permanent end to the monster who had been roaming this school for too long, and Fire's Storm had come out in all her horrific power to do just that.
"Kiryu-san!" Kaname shouted across the lawn. "What's the meaning of this?"
With tendrils of fire licking at her face and hair, Arashi replied crisply, "You are going to bite Yuki-chan and change her into a pureblood."
Yuki paled, completely confused and shocked, but Kaname called back, "What are you talking about? Yuki is a human. Not even a pureblood bite can make someone a pureblood."
"Unless she was a pureblood to begin with," Arashi supplied.
Aido looked back and forth between everyone. Kain was holding up a very weak Yuki, Kaname-sama was quietly fuming, and Arashi had lost all of the innocent happiness he had seen last night. It was not fair, how she kept changing on him, first the infuriating academy guardian, then the merciless elemental.
Kaname knew when to quit. Kiryu obviously knew she was right, so there was no use denying the fact. However, to obey her command was another story entirely. "Even if you are correct in your assumptions, why would I bite Yuki?"
Arashi closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them again, all the slivers of flames that had been dancing about her face were sucked in. "You will bite Yuki-chan because if you do not, I will kill her."
The grounds were silent but for the crackling of the fire dome over the Sun Dorms. Kaname was not sure why Kiryu was doing this all of a sudden, but he could see in her eyes that she would certainly go through with her threats.
Slowly but surely, Aido was beginning to piece everything together. Perhaps Arashi had meant to drop those hints along the way, or perhaps he was just a genius. Either way, everything was becoming clear, and he almost wished it had remained a blurry mess.
"Where's Zero?" Yuki cried out, startling every vampire.
"He's fine." Yuki looked up to the face behind the voice and was as shocked as everyone else to find Kain answering. "Shi-chan bound him inside some magic circles for tonight, so he wouldn't try to stop her." By now, Aido was gaping and even Kaname was struggling to look unsurprised. "Don't worry. She told me how to free him. I'll let him out as soon as this is over."
"Why?" Yuki yelled. "Why are you doing this, Arashi-chan?" Tears were streaming down her face, but Yuki kept looking unblinkingly for some sign of the old Arashi. She found nothing.
"I don't like waiting, Kuran, so make your choice." Her words sliced through the cool night air as cleanly as her knife had decapitated her brother.
Kaname saw he had no other option. He walked hesitantly towards Yuki who shrank back from him. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear before plunging his fangs into her exposed flesh.
It seemed like forever before he finished feeding. The sweet scent of Yuki's blood covered the area, but no one else so much as moved.
Kaname cradled Yuki's limp, unconscious body in his arms and gently lowered them both to the ground. Arashi was by his side in an instant with her dagger ready. He knew what had to be done. After Arashi made a quick cut across his wrist, he drank from it himself, filling his mouth with his own blood. Kaname tilted his head down towards Yuki's mouth.
"What do you think you're doing, you stupid leech?!" Arashi demanded as she harshly slapped Kaname on the back, causing him to spit out most of his own blood on the grass. "This is Cross Academy, not Sleeping Beauty's castle! Just give her the wrist!" she instructed.
A bit perturbed that his moment had been ruined, Kaname followed the elemental's orders, nonetheless. When a decent amount had flowed from his wrist down Yuki's throat, he laid her to the side and stood, facing the fearsome hunter. "She'll wake up in a few minutes," he said.
"I know." Why did Arashi seem to know all about supposedly "secret" stuff?
The group of vampires nervously cast looks about here and there. What was supposed to happen now? Was that all? Kiryu put on that huge fire display just to have Kaname-sama bite Yuki Cross?
Aido could not hold his tongue anymore. "It was you, wasn't it?"
Arashi did not need to read his mind to guess what he was referring to. "Who else could it have been?"
"You've been dropping clues to us all along, you know," he continued.
"Dropping or planting?" she countered.
Caught a few feet back somewhere between the two, Takuma could not contain himself, again. "What are you talking about?!" he shouted.
Kaname finally caught on. "Kiryu-san was the one who killed the other elementals under the Hunters Council."
Pouting as comically as the serious situation would allow, Takuma had to ask, "Am I the only one who didn't know this?" Kaname was not willing to admit that he had just now figured this out, and everyone else stayed silent, so Takuma got the answer he was hoping would not come. Sighing in disappointment over his lack of reasoning abilities, he ventured, "But why, Arashi-chan?"
She turned her piercing, yet emotionless, gaze on him and replied succinctly, "They taught me to kill. They sent me to kill. I killed."
Isn't that a little too simple? everyone wondered, but they kept that thought to themselves. Maybe she would go into more detail later, but hopefully that "later" would not involve living fire and daggers and threats to kill people.
"Arashi-chan? Kaname-sama?" A groggy Yuki was beginning to sit up while clutching her aching head.
Enough time had been wasted. "Kain," Arashi ordered, "take Yuki-chan away. She's still weak, and she'll need to feed soon." Kain obeyed without hesitation, and Kaname managed to control his sudden impulse to throttle the presumptuous hunter.
Still trying to work his brain around all that was happening at the moment, Aido saw no harm in asking for help. "Care to explain what that was for, Arashi-chan?"
She leveled her eyes on the surprisingly controlled vampire. "Zero." He never specified that she give a detailed explanation. One would think the vampires here would have learned to do that by now. Arashi took a deep breath. "Now," she said, "it's time to end this."
The Night Class visibly stiffened. If locking up Zero, enlisting Kain's help, and having Kaname bite Yuki was just the beginning, they were not sure they cared to see the end.
Kaname, being the president, took charge. "What is it you want, now?"
That familiar Kiryu smirk reappeared in an instant. "Well, Kuran, I want you to bite me."
The Night Class gasped. Kaname was not sure he could trust his own ears. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. Bite me," Arashi repeated. "Drain me dry. Leave nothing but an empty husk."
This did not make any sense, again. "Wait, you want to become a vampire, Kiryu-san?" Kaname tried to clarify.
"No."
"But you want me to bite you?" Being bitten by a pureblood and becoming a vampire kind of went hand in hand.
"Exactly."
He could have argued the point, but Kaname was tired of all these secrets and surprises. Obviously, whatever was going to happen would, and there was little he could do to prevent it. Kiryu had to know what she was asking. He saw no reason not to comply, although he would probably feel very fat when he was done after already drinking from Yuki.
Aido's brain was running a mile a minute. Arashi had some hidden motive behind this request. Just because she did not hate vampires the way the Hunters Council did, it did not mean that she would want to become one. Did it? Would she do it for someone? For Zero? For him? His brain was starting to hurt.
Still looking unsure of himself, Kaname walked up to Arashi, drew his arms around her small form, and leaned in for the bite. She offered no resistance, no movement at all. If it were not for the blood rushing into his mouth, Kaname might have mistaken his meal for a statue. But the blood itself told him just how hard Arashi was working to stay frozen. The fire in the blood was blazing much more strongly than the first time he tasted it. He could almost hear the flaming energy in it screaming at Arashi to fight back, to kill him.
With every passing second of blood loss, the fiery dome surrounding the Sun Dorms dropped lower and lower until it disappeared completely, but not even the brave legions of fangirls were willing to step outside after being "cooked alive."
Just when Kaname thought he could drink no more of the overly filling energy drink, the vein flow slowed enough for him to know the damage was done. He pulled away from Arashi's neck, but did not let go of her pale body. She looked ready to pass out, but she still held herself erect.
No one could have predicted what she said next. "Run."
Kaname barely had time to dart away before Arashi's entire body was engulfed in flames. They flared and raged on her skin for a moment before being sucked in through every pore. She fell to her knees, and even her masterful control could not hide all of the pain she felt.
Aido finally got it! The self-loathing, the killing for her brother's sake, the changing of Yuki: he saw what Arashi had obviously planned from the beginning, and he was quickly running out of time.
"Kaname-sama!" he yelled, even though the night was almost silent in contrast to the fury raging within the Kiryu's body. "You have to give Arashi your blood!"
"What?"
Exasperated beyond belief by how much time he would waste explaining this, Aido said as quickly as he could, "A pureblood's bite will turn someone into a Level E vampire, but in an elemental…"
Kaname caught on quickly. "…Her fire blood is sensing the long term change and fighting it, accelerating the change and destroying her body in the process."
"Exactly," Aido paused for breath. "Arashi's trying to kill herself the only way she can: by forcing her own powers to turn on her."
Kaname leaped forward without a second thought. Even if this was what she wanted, he could not let Arashi die just that like that. It would be ungentlemanly of him.
As soon as she noticed him rushing towards her, Arashi stood and shouted haggardly, "Don't come any closer if you value your life, Kuran!"
Kaname stopped up short, but he did not look ready to quit. "My blood should work for you like it did for Zero. I can give you a little more time."
"I don't want it!"
"Well, you're going to get it!" Kaname tried to jump at Arashi again, but she drew a knife and began fending him off with perfectly executed swipes. But Kaname Kuran was not willing to back down.
During the midst of this little fray, Kain unexpectedly reappeared. "Shi-chan isn't dead, yet?" he lazily yawned to Aido.
His cousin stared at him as if he had two heads before grabbing him by the collar and hissing, "What do you mean, 'isn't dead, yet?' She told you about this?!"
Not that he would not have liked to glare at the boisterous, and shorter, vampire, but Kain had to feel some sympathy for the poor kid. "Yeah, she needed someone to let Zero out later. She knew if she told you, you would've tried to stop her."
Aido let go of his cousin's shirt, but he was not any happier. Furious as a geek deprived of his computer, he returned his attention to the fight in front of him. Kaname-sama still had not managed to break through Arashi's guard, but her condition was quickly deteriorating. Her control was slipping, and bursts of fire were sporadically shooting out through her skin.
Kaname finally managed to latch one hand onto her arm. Arashi swung around the other to knock him loose, but then, the unthinkable happened. One of those random bursts of fire shot out through her arm as it came down to strike Kaname's chest. He fell to the ground without any last words, a charred hole marking where his heart used to be.
Arashi fell soon after. The other vampires looked on warily, too shocked to cry out or even move. The scent of spilled pure blood and burned flesh tainted the air.
Aido knew what he had to do. Ignoring Kain's protests, he strode over to his dead master's body and dragged it closer to the dying elemental. Once down on the ground with them, he drew Arashi's knife along Kaname's limp arm and began rapidly sucking in mouthfuls of the pure blood.
Arashi could not move any longer. Every inch of her body was consumed by the ravaging fire that she knew would soon win. Her eyes were closed with relief that the end was in sight. Then, a strong hand forced her mouth to open. She felt something warm and soft press down on her lips and open. She knew this taste better than she knew the taste of chocolate! Blood! And this could not be just any regular blood.
No. She wanted to sit up and send him flying into another wall, but she could not summon the strength to move. She knew who this must be. After countless mouthfuls of blood, she opened her eyes. There was Aido's silly, familiar face. It was scorched here and there, no doubt by her own fire. She wanted to sit up and see what kind of damage she had unconsciously done to the rest of him, but weariness held her fast.
Slowly, the edge of the inner burning disappeared. The fires dimmed and put themselves out. This was why she had tried so hard to keep Kuran away. Once the fires tasted the pure blood, they were able to copy its effects on the Level E transformation…indefinitely. Aido had saved her from the death she chose, the death she wanted. She was immortal once more.
"Arashi!" A voice was calling her name from somewhere in the darkness. Who was that? "Arashi! Wake up!" It was getting louder. It could not be him, could it? "Arashi! Open your eyes this instant or I swear I'll lock you in a room with the headmaster for a week!"
Her eyes snapped open. She tried to take a deep breath upon realizing she could again but unceremoniously coughed and hacked when she found her lungs were not ready for so much work. Arashi sat up. She was still on the ground in the same place she had fallen before. It was still night, but the first glimmers of sun were peeking over the horizon. Zero was looking down on her with an amusing mixture of anger, fear, and relief. Of course it was Zero: no one else would have thought to threaten her with the headmaster.
The surge of disappointment Arashi had felt upon realizing it was Zero calling her name was nothing compared to the absolute horror that seized her when she became fully aware of her surroundings. No one had touched their bodies. There lay Kuran, heart gouged out by fire, his blood staining the white of his uniform.
And there, right next to her, lay Aido. The tiny burns she had seen on his face hours before looked like lines of colored pencil next to the gaping gashes of black, crispy, crumbling flesh covering his torso and arms and legs. She had known before that there was no way he would survive when she felt his body over hers, giving her Kuran's blood. Still, some tiny piece of her had hoped against hope for a miracle.
Happy endings don't exist.
It had been at least a week since the incident. Kuran's and Aido's bodies had been shipped back to their family homes for burial, and the Night Class all but disappeared for most of that time. Even Yuki, Zero, and the headmaster had taken a leave of absence to observe the funerals.
Arashi had taken a dark, windowless room in the underground structures of the school the moment she was able to stand. The door had been locked, and to the knowledge of the academy's other occupants, she had not left it since and no one else had been admitted.
Kain was worried about his little sister. The death of his cousin was a fresh wound for him, but he knew she was suffering over it as well. Kaname-sama? Somehow, he doubted she felt the same amount of guilt and remorse over that. Still, locking herself up like that wasn't healthy.
Besides, she was supposed to be a vampire now, and Kain hadn't smelled any blood on the campus.
"Arashi?" he called as he knocked on the door to her self-inflicted prison for the thirtieth time. Zero and Yuki-sama had both tried that day to no avail. He was, at that point, their "last hope." "Arashi, will you open up already?" Nicknames and frivolity had practically been banned at Cross Academy. Besides, without Aido there to be annoyed, calling the hunter "Shi-chan" seemed kind of out of place.
The heavy door finally swung inwards to reveal total darkness. Kain cautiously took a few paces in, and the door thundered shut behind him. Flying sparks soared from a spot against the back wall to light a few mounted torches. The damp, stone walls still gave off the impression of a dungeon, but now it was a dungeon with medieval lamps.
"I thought I made it clear that I wanted to be alone," Arashi said from her position leaning against the wall. Her skin was paler than ever, but other than that, she appeared normal to the untrained eye. Who would've guessed that elementals could stand long periods of starvation, dehydration, and social deprivation?
It was a good thing Kain hadn't come for a visit on a whim, or he wouldn't have been able to think of anything to say at this point that wouldn't get him throttled. "Ichijo-kun had an idea."
Arashi didn't move, but her eyes focused on him a little more sharply, letting him know she was paying attention. Really, how often did Takuma Ichijo get bright ideas? It might be something worth writing down for future generations to treasure.
"He thinks that, now that you're a vampire-" Kain paused as Arashi visibly flinched at the term. She had attempted to become dead, not undead. "Now that you're a vampire," he continued, "your fire blood is vampire blood, and it might be able to do for Zero what it does for you, healing instead of killing a vampire. Kaname-sama's blood won't hold off the Level E transformation forever."
"Did you bring something to carry it back in?"
Kain sighed. Somehow, he knew she wasn't going to leave her dungeon of solitude, so he had come prepared. Arashi eyed the medium-size thermos he had brought with a slight sense of déjà vu. Granted, this container was much more sleek and professional than the empty water bottle she'd used on Kuran, but it brought back memories all the same.
Who would've thought that a hunter's blood might someday be used to save a vampire? Arashi bit into her wrist and watched the blood swell and drip from the deep incisions. She had bitten hard, so the thermos filled up quickly. As soon as the blood touched the upper rim, she screwed the lid on with the dexterity of a professional scientist at home in his lab and handed the article back to Kain.
He stuck the heavy object back in his large coat pocket but made no move to leave. Killing her elemental masters for training her to be a monster? Kain could understand that. Wanting to kill herself for being the monster she had become? He didn't like it, but Kain could even accept that. However, now that she had been given a second chance at life, a fresh start, and at the cost of his cousin's life, she was wasting away in a dark hole in the ground. That, he couldn't understand.
"He wouldn't want you to do this to yourself," Kain attempted to appeal to Arashi's guilt over Aido's death, if she felt guilty, that is.
"Since when have I ever done what he wants?" she countered.
She wasn't going to make this whole "reasoning" junk easy, was she? "Look, Aido…he loved you, and he wanted you to live or have a life or something," Kain tried again. Arashi was silent. "Did you love him?"
She didn't need to think about it. This question had invaded her mind more than once in recent days. "No." Kain was about to accuse her of being in denial when she elaborated, "I love my brother, but I don't know anything past that kind of familial love. It isn't part of a hunter's training." She smiled bitterly. "Maybe I did feel something for him past friendship, but I wouldn't know it, not even now."
That was more honesty than Kain had expected to hear, and he had a feeling it wouldn't help to try and convince her of anything else.
Arashi's pallor stood out despite the flickering orange and red light from the torches. "You need to feed," Kain stated. Although he had never heard anything about an elemental vampire, he could see that the one in front of him suffered from the need for blood as badly as any other vampire, even a pureblood.
Arashi looked away. "Why do you think I've locked myself in here?" She shifted in her stance, but kept supporting herself on the wall as she locked eyes with him again. "I won't trade being one kind of monster for becoming another."
Kain could hear his cousin saying the same words as he voiced them. "Am I a monster?"
Her face looked pained, and her resolve weakened. "No," she answered.
Kain crossed the small room in a few large strides. He pulled aside the collars of his shirt and jacket and bent down until his neck was right in front of her mouth. "Then stop starving yourself, you anorexic," he ordered.
Unable to resist any longer, Arashi latched onto his neck like the hungry child she was, throwing her arms around his head to pull him closer. The thirst, the vampire's curse, the cost of their supernatural abilities, had been clawing at her body every moment of every day and night for the past week. Her chest had been racked by shooting pains and convulsions. Now, all it took was one bite to alleviate all her symptoms.
It was strange to be savoring each drop of blood that entered her mouth when her past profession had involved carelessly spilling it by the bucket load on a daily basis. Arashi had not expected it to taste as sweet as it did, but she supposed that just came from being a vampire. It wasn't like she had any prior experience in that department.
Drinking in the red fluid gave the most peculiar sensation. Suddenly, Arashi could barely notice anything else around her. Maybe it was the level of starvation she had stretched herself to, but she didn't feel anything but the blood slipping down her throat to soothe her aching organs and muscles. Any other teenage, human girl in her position might have savored the feel of having her lips pressed tightly to a tall, strong vampire's neck, but Arashi was a little preoccupied by the blood. Any other human girl might have shivered with delight when Kain wrapped his arms around her back and lifted her off her feet, holding her pressed against his body. But, again, Arashi was feeding, and the blood was more important.
She only sucked in the, literally, life-giving drink for a minute or so. Yes, she had finally given in to the fact that she was a vampire and would have to drink blood to live, and apparently she had decided on living, but that didn't mean she was going to start out by gorging herself on it. She was still a hunter and, as any good psychiatrist would say, "Small steps."
Kain set Arashi back on her feet and backed away quickly, applying pressure to the marks on his neck with his shirt. She didn't look like she was going to say anything else, so he walked back to the door and opened it.
The torches went out as soon as the first ray of outer light crept in, and the room was once again bathed in darkness. From within that black hole, Arashi whispered, "Thank you."
Kain cast one last glance at where he assumed she still stood and gave a smile and a nod in return. Then, he closed the door and left to deliver the all-important thermos, mentally preparing himself to pretend to be deaf when the questions about his neck and blood popped up.
Early the next morning, Zero strode down the underground hallways to his sister's little white, er, black room. He could feel the change already. Arashi's blood was doing its work, and since it hadn't killed him instantly upon being injected, he was pretty sure his lifespan and sanity were ranking right up there with the elemental's. Okay, the sanity issue was questionable considering what she'd been doing to herself recently, but other than that, the future looked bright.
In fact, Zero had some really good news, if anything involving live vampires could be called good. According to the headmaster, who had been hiding the truth and had been dully glared at by Zero, Yuki was not only a pureblood, she was Yuki Kuran. So, despite Kaname's demise, most of the Night Class was willing to remain at Cross Academy to continue working towards peace between humans and vampires, and to be near a pureblood. He and Yuki would both be joining the Night Class, but he was slowly coming to terms with that little piece of misfortune.
He knocked on Arashi's door and wasn't too surprised to receive no answer. Hope had been restored to a certain extent by Kain's success, but Zero knew better than to expect an instant recovery. He reached down to turn what he expected to be a locked doorknob and was shocked to find it twisting easily in his hand. Zero flung the door open and let the hallway's light flood into the small room.
Arashi was gone. He checked and double-checked every corner of the tiny space, but there was no sign of her: no letter, no note, no post-it, no strand of hair, no speck of dandruff, nothing!
Zero shouldn't have been too surprised. When he was bitten, the only reason he was able to pull through without killing himself for what he had become was Yuki. He didn't know what Arashi would do, but he knew that she needed some time to figure out how to live as one of the things she had hunted for so long.
She might come back someday. She might not. Only one thing was for sure, and it was something Fire's Storm knew all too well: Happy endings don't exist.
The End
Author's Note:
Well, as the end of this chapter says, we have finally reached the end. Ends on Lucky 13! - Never thought it would come, did you? -; First of all, I know I told some people that there'd be at least a few more chapters, so I'd like to profusely apologize! I kind of ended up giving the whole ending away in one giant package...so, at least you got a long end, right? (Please don't hurt me.)
I don't know if this is the case, but some of you may be going: "You can't end a story like that! We need closure!" Well, you're in luck. There is an epilogue...for after the end!!! But, although I don't believe I've ever done this before, I'm going to demand at least 10 reviews before posting it. (Yeah, I know this fandom won't get too big until the anime comes out in April, but still...I see all you little people hiding in the shadows! Come on, I'm not even asking for long reviews here, and this is the end...TT.TT)
Well, as always, hope you enjoyed reading, and please review!
Music (used to keep me in "serious mode" for this chapter): "Raven" by Do As Infinity
Big thank yous to everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted on last chapter and to everyone who has kept coming back to read more!