Disclaimer: I do not own the VK characters
Warning:Slow chapter. Grammatical errors up ahead. Nothing new about that. Readers, if you have any suggestion, requests or ideas, please leave them in the reviews because I'm going to end this story in the next chapter. Thanks. Read away...!
The Midori Incident
Chapter 13
3 ...
His instincts were telling him that some things were approaching.
2 ...
He glanced at his equally tense blond haired companion.
1 ...
He could hear several pairs of feet landing on hard ground, charging towards them, breaking dried twigs like crunchy crisp crackers.
0 ...
He had never expected 1, 2, 3, 4, ... 11 of those things to charge at them all at once. Precisely seven males and four females threatened to split his eardrums with their screeching and screaming.
Oh, bother...
He didn't get to check on Aidou because all of the males decided to gang up on him; pouncing and swiping their talons at him randomly. Hand-to-hand combat was not his favourite way of exterminating Level-Es because obviously, he would inevitably end up with more than just a sore trigger-finger. He wasn't complaining but it's a mystery of why does blonds always gets all the girls' attention.
Girls would choose to fight with the girly one, wouldn't they...?
A fanged, pot-bellied yellow-eyed pig managed to barrel into him right after he twisted the neck of a gangly teenage brat. Zero was sent crashing painfully into a boulder. Thanks to the obese middle-aged E, another of them jumped him and tried to bite his neck. He shoved his left arm into the mouth, and jammed his right fingers into the eye sockets with a sickening squish. The eyeballs were successfully punctured and the E screeched in agony, flapped on the ground like a bloody eyed-trout. The blood on his hands smelled funny. It must have been the drugs.
Two down, five to go...
He saw Aidou from the corner of his eye. It seemed that he was not the only one who had resorted to fight dirty. Aidou had unceremoniously flung one of the banshees over the cliff. Zero could not help but grin at the ingenuity of the feat. The Level-Es might survive the plunge but not without serious injuries, maybe they would eventually bleed to death. Getting rid of them in that fashion was not 100% effective but it would buy them some time. So when the middle-aged fanged pot-bellied pig came chugging in like a freight train at him again, he used the momentum to flip the Level-E over his shoulder, sending the beastly tub of lard on a free-fall adventure.
He turned to face the remaining four Es that had formed a tight circle around him. Then they took turn to jab and lunge at him. Zero dodged and wove around them, determined to test the so-called effectiveness of Tomohisa's so-called soldier drug on the Es. Some of the sloppy blows had connected but Zero stayed firm on his feet, delivering some nasty kicks and fist combos at the startlingly organized bloodthirsty yellow-eyed quartet. He had to admit that it was alarming to see some kind of an attacking system and teamwork among the Es. They were supposed to be crazed, rabid and messed up.
"Quit screwing around, Kiriyu!" Aidou bellowed in the distance. "I don't want to end up a widower..." Zero could hear the leer in his tone. Aidou had finished throwing the last of the female over the cliff.
"Shut up, princess ...!" he barked in annoyance. Changing his stance, he drove his hands into a chest cavity and wrenched out a heart. The Level-E slowly turned to dust and based on his experience, slow means new. In normal cases, such brutality will serve as a warning to the other Es and they will flee however, the remaining three turned even more violent. They pounced on him all at once, biting and scratching him wherever they could get their fangs and claws on.
Zero grabbed a head in a chokehold, turned his torso and bashed it against the jagged rocky ground. He heard the skull crack and the Level-E scampered away. One of them managed to bite on his left calf like a bloodhound so he kicked it in the face with his other leg, scissored them around the Es neck and severed it off the spine. The creature dissolved like grains of damp sand; not good. The Es were recently turned Level-Ds, he concluded.
Aidou got to him just in time to pull off the last one who was pinning and choking him with the sharp talons. The unfortunate E had joined the other fives' fate over the fatal drop. Aidou had flung it away like a ragdoll with his abnormal strength.
"Oh yuck ... Why didn't you just kill those ones?" Aidou pointed towards the three thoroughly injured and screeching Es doing flip-flops on the ground. One was the one with the squashed eyeball while the other was the one with the broken vertebrae while the last one was the one with the split open skull. The smell of their drug spiked blood burned his nose like acidic fumes.
"I want to see how fast they'll heal," Zero said while sitting back up, assessing his biggest injuries; the gnawed right forearm and his left calf. His garments were soaked in his blood. "Damn, I'll need some tetanus shots ..." he griped.
"I never knew you have a sadistic bone in you," chided Aidou as he kicked the one with the head injury really hard, indenting the cranium even deeper; causing the E to foam at the mouth. The thing was having a seizure and Aidou's face contorted in revulsion.
"Look who's talking..." Zero leered, limping up towards the blinded Level-E. The creature had recently stopped trashing and had moved to snack on the one with the broken spine on all fours. It may be blind but the nose must be working quite well. Zero scanned the area for anything he could use as a weapon and he saw exactly the thing he needed; a four foot long dried beech wood on the ground. He picked it up, walked up to the two Es.
The blinded E had crawled on top of the quadriplegic and bit into the grotesquely twisted neck. Zero swiftly pressed the blind one flush against the cripple with his foot and staked their hearts in one clean stab, turning them into dust. Again, he deduced that the vampires took too long to dissipate completely; they were recently turned. Meaning, they would have to find which pureblood was behind the whole thing. He kept his face was blank as he flung the offending piece of wood at Aidou, beckoning the blond to finish off the spasm wrecked scum.
Zero's indifference disturbed Aidou. He wondered how much had the vampire hunter changed ever since the Kuran Rido incident, since the last time he had Kuran Kaname's blood. The ex-human used to empathize with his kill to the point of jeopardizing his own safety. Aidou had his sources, so he knew of Zero's early struggle. However, the silver haired Level-D standing in front of him at the moment had not even bat an eye over the kills.
"What the hell's going on with you ...?"
"Huh?"
"The Level-Es were once human..."
"Of course they were,"
"They were once human like you."
"Tch, I know... So what's your point, princess?"
"..."
Zero stared at the blond noble for a few seconds before walking up to him. Those amethyst eyes shone dangerously as their pierced into the turquoise counterparts. Aidou had never seen them up close before and he could not help himself from getting sucked into those mysterious pools, drowning in their intensity.
Without warning, Zero snatched the makeshift wooden weapon and drove it into the convulsing E's heart without even breaking eye contact. Aidou gulped involuntarily. The vampire hunter was doing it on purpose.
"They are Es, princess. If I turn into one, I expect you to do the same," the steely pitch of Zero's voice sent chills down his spine.
I don't think I could... Not anymore. Aido thought, wrenching his eyes away.
"How touching ..." both of them heard the voice and searched the surroundings. Zero gripped the beech wood tighter and shifted into an offensive stance.
There were some rustling in the nearby trees. Aidou braced himself as he saw the suit clad Kurohashi jumped down from a tree about ten meters away from them. They were too preoccupied with the Es and had missed the Level-Bs presence.
"Looks like you've outgrown your dislike of lowly beings, Hanabusa..." The brown haired vampire scoffed at Aidou while appraising Zero with a disgusted look plastered on his face. "Or maybe you're hopelessly ensnared by his beauty."
Beauty my ass...
Zero snarled at the insult, took a step forward but Aidou caught him by the arm and pulled him back. He immediately shook Aidou's hand off.
"You're just jealous Tatsuya..." Aidou sneered. The silver haired vampire hunter glowered at Aidou but the big blue eyes glared back at him, telling him to stay out. Much to Zero's consternation, he could not help but complied. His uncharacteristic obedience baffled him. Then he remembered their blood exchange and winced; he would grill Aidou about it afterwards.
Kurohashi smiled at their antics and chuckled, "Perhaps..."
Immediately, Aidou stomped on the haversack like a two year-old and glared at Kurohashi.
The green eyes lit up immediately, "Don't need to thank me. Tomohisa disagrees though." Kurohashi must have referred to the blood tablets, the map and the clothes on their backs. According to Tomohisa's ranting back at the Midori plant, it was Kurohashi who had readied the supplies in that black bag.
"Why?" Aidou asked.
"You know why...?"
"Kaname-sama...?" Aidou guessed, gritting his teeth.
"Right on... You can do whatever you want to Tomohisa as long as I get Kuran's head," Kurohashi stared at Zero intently. "I may even help you skin that yellow-eyed snake, hunter. If you lure Kuran out for me..."
"How dare you..!" Aidou grew livid.
Zero could not believe his ears; Kurohashi was going after Kuran Kaname? He wondered how he and Aidou would fit into the puzzle. He might have an idea of why Tomohisa wanted him but, Kuran? Plus, why would Kurohashi believe that he, a lowly Level-D vampire hunter could lure Kuran out? His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he thought about it and somehow, Zero had a hunch but he rather not dwell on it. There's no way I could have an effect on that bastard...
"See you later, Hanabusa..." the vampire named Kurohashi winked deviously. "Hurry up before Tomohisa gets there," he added and disappeared.
As soon as the Level-B's presence was gone, Aidou sank to his knees and shoved his palms against his face, shaking his head from side-to-side. Zero grunted impatiently, "What the hell was that?"
"Give me a minute," said Aidou. He was fisting the hair on the back of his nape, messing his wavy golden curls. His body language was of someone wallowing in regret.
"We don't have a minute. 30 seconds..."
"Oh, please Kiriyu Zero... The problem had just been blown out of proportions. He's after Kaname-sama."
"Oh, come on princess Aidou... Do you really believe the almighty Kuran will even dip his sacred fingers in this bloody mess? I bet he's at home playing house with Yuuki."
Aidou snapped his gaze on him, "Are you really that dense? You don't know it yet, huh?"
"Know what?"
"YOU mean something to him!" Aidou's bellowed his bottled up frustration in that single sentence. Zero stared blankly at him, making him angrier than before, "Don't you get it Zero? He gave you his blood once, no... Twice at least! Doesn't that mean anything to you?" Aidou stalked up to him and grabbed him by the collars, bringing their faces closer.
Did the airhead just called me 'Zero'? His conscious recoiled in horror because a part of him felt freakishly warm and fuzzy all the sudden.
"It doesn't..." Zero blinked his amethyst eyes in confusion. He grasped both of Aidou's hands with his own to pry them off his clothing. "It was just... Blood," he knew Aidou could tell that he was lying because the turquoise irises dilated in unbidden wrath.
"Liar, his blood tied you to him! He gave you his pure blood. How dare you say that you felt nothing for him after that," Aidou hissed angrily. Consequently, Zero remembered the embarrassing banter they had back at the Midori slaughterhouse.
"Look Kiriyu Zero, do you need to hear it out of my mouth? Can you be a little more sensitive about how I feel about my revered pureblood consenting you, a lowly Level-D, a hunter, to sample his sacred blood, while I, this loyal follower of his had never even dreamed of spilling it?"
"Yeah, I know you're in love with him, so help me because it unfortunately did happened but why the 'being killed if he finds out' part?"
"Didn't it ever occur to you why exactly he did it?"
"To get me off Yuuki and turn me into his killer puppet,"
"Well, it appears as so but have it ever crossed your mind that he could have ordered me, Kain or Ichijo to donate some of our blood to sustain you just enough and ordered you to be his killer puppet as you decorously implied instead? He is a pureblood and believe me even you could do very little to defy him,"
"..."
"Tell me Kiriyu Zero, how did it feel when I drank your blood? How was it when you sucked your fill from me?"
"..."
"Was it as good as drinking from Kaname-sama?"
His cheeks flamed red at the memory. "Ridiculous, princess..." Zero managed to yank Aidou's left hand off his collar and gripped it firmly to prevent Aidou from clawing it onto him again. "My genes don't work the way you freaks' does."
Aidou froze upon hearing his remark and his face evolved from fury to something akin to disappointment. "You're a freak too. Just like the rest of us," said Aidou.
"Shut the fuck up...!"
"Let me tell you something... Normal, sane vampires don't go randomly sharing their blood for some very good reasons. It's like how normal, ethical humans don't go randomly screw anything with legs," Aidou licked his lips, his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously. He shook Zero by with that hand he still have on Zero's collar.
Zero gripped Aidou's left hand tighter, making the blond wince in pain.
He opened his mouth when Aidou stopped shaking him around, "What the hell are you saying, princess?"
"There are emotional consequences if you willingly let other's drink you blood!"
"What?"
"You heard me... Don't you get it? Think...! Letting other's sink their fangs in your neck, suck your blood is the ultimate sign of submission. Do you know how much it takes to turn yourself into a willing victim and trust the goddamned partner not to drain you dry?"
"No..."
"Once a vampire undergoes that state of acquiescence, the act will be eventually rendered into devotion, longing and even obsession. Imagine what would happen if the transfer happened twice"
"But I don't feel that way towards that bastard...!"
"Of course you don't. You never gave your blood to Kaname-sama. He's the one who feels those things about you!"
"That's a whole bunch of crap. Devotion? Longing? Obsession...? Bullshit...! Impossible! You're delusional!" Zero almost screamed at Aidou.
Immediately, hurt flashed in those brilliant turquoise eyes and to his horror, he felt a painful heave in his heart for causing it. Something must have shown on his face because now Aidou was smiling bitterly at him.
"Kaname-sama is somewhere out there searching for you. Mark my words because I'll make you eat every single one of yours once he makes his appearance," Aidou had let go of him but Zero still had the fragile looking wrist clamped in his hold. "I can't wait to see your face the moment he decides to kill me for drinking your blood, Zero..."
Zero..? Once may be an accident but twice is more than a coincidence...
"What did you just called me?" he glared disbelievingly and released Aidou's hand.
Aidou said nothing. The brief flash of hurt on his face was now gone only to be replaced by wrath. He turned away hastily to walk towards the edge of the cliff. Zero rolled his eyes. Aidou was giving him the silent treatment.
Gaahh... Typical...!
He wanted to dismiss but the blonds' weird behaviour does have an effect on him. He wanted to reach out and make amends...? His own tumultuous yearning for Aidou shocked him. Perhaps Aidou's explanations earlier were true after all.
Damn hormones... he cursed.
"Okay, fine... I believe you. Quit pouting already. It's disgusting!"
Aidou whirled around to face him. Those blue eyes looked suspiciously glazed.
"Fuck! You're crying...?" Zero nearly shrieked in dismay.
"Huh?" Aidou reached up and rubbed his eyes. "I... I can't help it. Shit..." his face flushed crimson.
"Damn hormones..." Zero voiced his thoughts aloud. He bit his bottom lip and stomped towards Aidou, startling the other vampire.
"Look, senpai..." Zero cleared his throat while simultaneously fighting his traitorous instincts to wrap his arms around Aidou. It scared him. "I don't do this every day but..." he abstained from the urge and raised his right hand to pat the top of Aidou's head like he had always done to Yuuki to comfort her. The yellow mass of golden yellow felt like silken strands of spun gold against his roughly callused fingers.
Aidou froze. His eyes widened in confusion as he asked the obvious, "What are you doing...?"
"Petting you like the pathetic little doggy you are..." he hoped he sounded sarcastic enough to hide his clashing emotions. Aidou was right after all. He felt it, the aching sense to comfort, to reassure and to even seize the noble into his hold. Zero fought it all back.
"I'm not a dog!" Aidou barked furiously and went ballistic.
Aidou ballistically shoved Zero away while ballistically pouting like a puffer fish, ballistically ranted and cursed Zero under his breath. The thought that he had found Aidou's antics cute were scaring the lights out of him.
Zero let the blond walk away towards the cliff again. Aidou had his back to him, the balled up fists shook at his sides. Exhaling loudly, Aidou squared his shoulders and turned to face him.
"Look... This might sound freakishly sappy but, I need to know..." he diverted his clear turquoise eyes away from him. "Do you really feel nothing... for me?" Aidou spoke carefully, a blush creeping to colour his cheeks.
Uh... awkward... You're plain sappy all right...
Aidou was staring at him with anticipation. He brushed the nagging urge to smack the blond.
"I wish you didn't even ask the question, princess... So I won't need to tell the lie," Zero stuffed his hands into the ugly green work pants pocket, hoping that his haughty body language will help to mask his uneasiness. He also hoped Aidou could decipher his hidden meaning; that he does feel the abnormal pull, like an untraceable short circuit in his internal mechanisms.
He burst a few veins because Aidou's unabashed grin had caused his blood pressure skyrocket to a new record high.
00000000000
The hunter called Tomohisa Atsushi was an astonishing character. He was related to the Kiriyu twins by blood in the form of their bastard half-uncle. He had done something to the twins during their childhood. Zero had been undoubtedly abused while Ichiru had been fearful of him; he had seen the younger twin's reaction to prove his theory. The picture in his pocket spoke volumes. His blood boiled, he could feel his aura seeping out of his barrier and he quickly pulled it back. The silver haired hunter must not know that he was being tailed by an angry pureblood vampire. The SUV had turned to a desolated side road.
Tomohisa had orchestrated Kiriyu Zero's and Aidou Hanabusa's kidnapping. He had been keeping the other presumed dead Kiriyu pair in an old hunter research facility. It turned out that Hiou Shizuka had turned both of the boys after all; Zero on the night their parents had been slain by the mad avenging pureblood, Ichiru sometime later. Kaname was impressed with Shizuka's ingenuity in sealing the other twin as a human. She must have had grander plans in initiating her visions of anarchy, revenge or whatever it was but he had thwarted her in mid-step. Now, her hidden black knight had fallen into his hands and he had his castle, Seiren to keep him under control. He would pursue this vile amber-eyed creature who had dared to snatch both of his knights. All he had to do was to get to the knights before his queen arrives. Kaname had a lot planned for Tomohisa.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Repay evil with evil...
The vehicle had stopped and he saw Tomohisa step out of it. There was a stone and concrete structure protruding off the ground. He realized that it was some sort of an old bunker. It appeared to be almost abandoned but Kaname could sense something else too.
Level-Es.
A multitude of them. Tomohisa had disappeared in the structure, his humanlike aura blending and dissolving within the havoc waves of the ex-humans' presence. They were wild, chaotic and crazed. Kaname focused on Zero's but he can't sense the vampire hunter. There were no sign of Aidou either. So, he stayed out of sight to observe and wait.
00000000000
"Ouch! Why did you stop?" Aidou screeched, rubbing his nose. They had scaled down the rock face with ease. They were vampires. They had a natural adaptability to execute those kinds of feats. Too bad he was not equipped with an auto braking system hence, he had failed to notice Zero's sudden stop and crashed into the hard muscled back.
"Shut up, princess!"
"What now, darling?" Aidou huffed impatiently. The tease-battle had grown tiring.
"Tch.. whatever. This place's familiar."
"Huh? You're telling me that you've seen this mushroom before?" Aidou kicked an innocent spotted toadstool off the damp ground, smirking at Zero.
"Urgh.. You're fucking irritating!" Zero snarled at him. "I've been here before. I've trained here..."
"This is in the middle of nowhere. What the heck are you doing training out here... Wrestle bears?"
"Hell, I was trying to communicate with your airheaded brain but, fuck you're wasting my time... Move it!"
"Kurohashi Tatsuya blames Kaname-sama for his brother's death..." Aidou mumbled all of the sudden.
"Wha...?" Zero whirled around and stared unbelievingly at Aidou. "What kind of a flying fuck's randomness is that?"
"I'm communicating..."
"Ooooh thrilling. The snotty crying brat I saw must be him. You were there with Kuran too." Zero had referred to his visions.
"You saw that?"
"Unfortunately yes..."
"Kaname-sama killed his brother to protect me. Kurohashi Reizo tried to harm Kaname-sama and I stopped him. Rei-san made me into a hostage but Kaname-sama terminated him."
"Why I am not surprised. That bastard kills anyth-"
"No!" Aidou hissed, cutting Zero off and grabbed him by the arms. "It's not like that. The Kurohashis are pro-council. Rei-san had been ordered to eradicate Kaname-sama when he came to my residence. I got in between them and tried to shield Kaname-sama from Rei-san's attack but Kaname-sama had it under control."
"Explain why Kurohashi Tatsuya's helping us now?" Zero tugged at Aidou's ugly green jacket and yanked the haversack strap.
"I think he wanted to make sure we get to Tomohisa."
"Any ideas why? It's doesn't make sense."
"He's using us all. You, me, Takahashi, the stinking giant of a hunter, that damned Tomohisa and the Es to get to Kaname-sama."
"You're saying he's double crossing his gang and help the hostages escape better all in order to seize that damned arrogant Kuran? That's pretty farfetched, don't you think?"
"Maybe. What made you think you've been here?"
"The terrain's familiar. I've been here with-" Zero stopped midsentence. He gritted his teeth and looked away.
"...Tomohisa...?" Aidou finished for him. The look on Zero's face was something he had never seen before. It was hurt mixed with anger.
Zero did not say anything. He turned back to resume their track.
Aidou sighed. He followed Zero's lead. They walked for a few paces before Zero stopped again.
"Look senpai... I don't know how to go about this... About Tomohisa-, " Zero hesitated. Aidou watched those broad shoulders droop as Zero inhaled deep and exhaled. He had thrown his head back to stare up at the rays filtering through the trees while letting his hands hang limp by his side.
Aidou could sense Zero's aggravation from his body language. He felt his own heart being sliced. He was glad that he could only see the back of Zero's head. He would not risk looking at Zero's face because he was afraid of his own reaction.
Would you feel better if I wrap my arms around you?
"That man... is someone that I want to kill for the things he had done and caused. I wanted to so much but-," Zero paused.
"You can't because he's a human hunter?" Aidou guessed.
... And your kin...
Zero nodded his head. Aidou realized that the stoic vampire hunter had just done something out of his character. Zero had shown a glimpse of his vulnerable emotions to him making a faint sense of satisfaction spread within him.
"There are things far much worse than death, Kiriyu." Aidou said, reaching out his hand to touch the back of Zero's head. "I'll help you get your justice." He felt the tips of his fingers brush against the fine silvery strands but immediately retracted them back.
The vampire hunter must have felt the touch because he had turned back to face him. "Stop saying and doing those sorts of things, senpai. You're confusing me."
"What do you mean?" Aidou smiled because Zero's eyes had darkened.
"Fuck you...!"
"Stop looking at me like that or I'll let you,"
"Now you're creeping me out."
"Sorry. Can't help it. Hormones," Aidou chuckled pass Zero.
A/N- How was it? I rushed this one. I was bored listening to people's endless grovelling over skype, pretended to take notes but I wasn't even listening. Working from home for the time being. I can't drive yet. *3*. Now I regret not having a car with an auto-transmission.
Thank you kind people who had reviewed. Your words had encouraged me to slack off from work whenever I can (Tee... hee... hee...) coz I can't wait to finish this story and get on with the other one. Eovin, peanut, bloody child, Iridescent Wind, bloodyLily, Ichirulovesme, Kim, and firda. I read them over and over again with a stupid smile plastered on my face. They meant a lot to me. Yes I agree about Kaname's sexual frustration Eovin, bloody child... I want to torture him a bit coz he's so perfect. There would be a hissy fit all right. I'll write that one in. Thanks you two. Ichirulovesme, Kim, Iridescent Wind; I'll try to use Ichiru wisely. Treading on precarious waters now. I wouldn't want to ruin anything. Kim, I look forward to your reviews (and PMs) as always! Firda and Lily darling, check your texts. I can't thank you people enough.
Remember to drop your thoughts or point out the stupid mistakes I made. Click to review. Chapter 14 will be the final end game. I brought Ichiru back coz bloodyLily wants the twin back and added more Zero/Aidou banter coz Iridescent Wind likes them. How about you?^^
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