I am very sorry for the very late update. I had a bad relapse early August, so I could not do anything without bursting into tears. Hopefully I will be back into two weeks. Thank you for your patience.

Re: Yuu-chan and Mika

There was raging noise inside Mika's ears as he attempted to not pay attention to the screams.

As if he was twelve years old again, Mika closed his eyes and willed Yuu-chan to be quiet.

But alas, his brother was the loudest voice. It was odd and hypocritical, the blond-haired vampire decided. A small pebble of disgust roiled in his stomach at the thought of this Corpse Doctor experimenting on vampires that weren't even dead. And yet…who else would Guren turn to? By what means could anyone understand how to heal Krul? His red eye looked down at the unconscious queen, a silk blanket wrapped around her wounds like a cocoon. She didn't seem to realize that Yuu-chan and his friends were shouting into their sensitive vampire ears. But perhaps she can't hear yet, Mika thought as he resisted the impulse to caress one of the few pink locks on Krul's scalp. The fire could have damaged her eardrums, and the inner ear.

"H-how could you…experiment on vampires, Sensei?! I mean…!"

"Oh come on, Yoichi! They're vampires, not humans! But still…"

"I don't understand why you're so surprised, Yuu-san. How do you think the Imperial Demon Army came as far as it has?"

"Hey!" Suddenly, Mika's head revolved to see the green eyes of his brother shine as if possessed by the sun. "Corpse Doctor! Does that mean you know how to turn Mika back into a human?" As if stabbed by Cursed Gear in the stomach, Mika recoiled and closed his eyes in pain. It was as if the air had been sucked out of his lungs. Hearing Yuu-chan's words made him think back to how desperate he was to become human again. How driven to almost insanity he was to not become a demon blood-sucker. If this was an alternate universe perhaps, then his red eyes would become blue again in a heartbeat. If his brother knew that his heart didn't work anymore, then maybe he would listen.

Mika knew that he was still thinking about reviving Akane-chan and their family. But the vampire could feel Chiuu's stare as if her eyes were boring into his head. He remembered her words.

And he remembered his own.

His vow.

"No, Yuu-chan." Mika's voice was so subdued he wasn't even aware that the humans were looking at him until he heard the dark-haired human gasp.

"W-what do you mean, Mika? You've always wanted to be human again! And I –!"

"Yuu-chan." Mika's voice was somber, and he looked at the stunned eyes of his family as the red bored into green. "I wanted to be human. But…I was a fool. We were all fools, Yuu-chan. How would I turn back into a human, Yuu-chan? It's not as simple as a blood test or sampling DNA."

"Um…" Yuu-chan scratched his head and stuck out his tongue in bashfulness. "What is DNA again?"

Mika sighed and rolled his eyes. Yuu-chan has never been the studious sort.

"Would you have used Seraph of the End to turn me back into a human?"

The widening of his brother's eyes and the catch in his breath told Mika the answer even before Yuu-chan began to stutter out an answer.

"That's what Krul wanted too," Mika said quietly, almost mournfully as he thought about the vampire that had done so much for him with nothing in return. Yuu-chan and the other humans were struck silent, almost as if they didn't believe that a vampire would care for a former human.

"You wanted to bring Akane-chan and everyone else back," Mika continued. He was aware of Narumi glaring at him with burning grief in his gaze. "But Yuu-chan, we cannot undue anything."

"But Mika…" whispered the sixteen year old human boy who had fought to find his brother and bring him back. "You said that you would…rather die than be a vampire." Anger and confusion marred Yuu-chan's broken expression. "Even when I told you to find happiness and live…! You didn't…! So why…?"

Mika looked at the broken expression Yuu-chan had on his face. It occurred to him that his brother had been hoping to turn Mika into a human for his own sake as well. They were the only family that had survived that terrible day. The twelve year old hothead who hated vampires had slowly become something more, and Mika sadly smiled at Yuu-chan, whose eyes were struggling to hide the emotion swimming in his eyes.

"If a vampire hangs onto something, anything that makes them whole, then they don't have their hearts turn into despair and live in a joyless world. Something that makes them happy and alive…I think that is what you were trying to tell me, Yuu-chan." Mika's face hurt.

His mouth smiled wide, and Mika felt as if a large wound had been lifted from his chest. It felt as if he was looking at the world for real this time.

"You are my family, Yuu-chan. I was jealous of the relationship you had with the others…and I was afraid you would forget about me."

"Mika…"

"I didn't quite understand what you told me the day I turned into a vampire…but then, I thought about what Krul truly meant to me…and the sacrifices she made for me, and what we all thought would be bringing me happiness."

"I am not a human." The former human that was willing to risk everything to turn the time back stood and smiled peacefully, for the first time, at his brother and his comrades.

「僕は吸血鬼だ。」

I am a vampire.

Before he could even say anything else, Mika saw Yuu-chan running to him. Tears were half falling into the air, and his mouth was shaped into an "O" shape, happiness and sadness mixed within.

Mika caught his brother as they fell and collapsed onto the floor. Unlike that other time, Mika was the one holding Yuu-chan as the other brother cried into his shoulder. Unlike that day, Mika was not writing in self-loathing, blaming his brother for turning him into a monster, and crying in despair.

Mika could feel Yuu-chan's watery smile against his neck.

「ただいま、優ちゃん。」

"I'm home, Yuu-chan."

"Where do you think vampires come from, Hyakuya Mikaela?"

Mika reminisced about the conversation the Corpse Doctor had with him. Actually, it was more like a one-sided conversation with the doctor speaking her thoughts out loud. Now he was across Krul's bed, watching her sleep. Even though the doctor said she would heal, he hadn't seen any change. Anxiety wore down the intestines in his stomach, and Mika resisted the impulse to sleep next to the pink-haired vampire.

"There is a legend that says an angel named Mikaela came down from the heavens. Some say he was cursed and brought his curse onto others. Scholars also believe that vampires exist due to a punishment brought by God."

Mika was silent. The human – crazy or not – laughed.

"I don't think any of those theories are correct. I do believe there was a person named Mikaela though… But do know what I think? Evolution. Something so drastic, so terrible must have happened a millennia ago to create the first vampire. Maybe there was a famine, or a drought, that caused a survivor to live only on blood. I don't know if the First Progenitor was the true first vampire. I think there was someone else, named Mikaela.

"Why do you think your parents named you after an angel…was it hope for your future, or did they know what you would become? Isn't it odd that vampires were also known as Mikaelas, even now, eons passed the origin of vampires?"

"What do you think? One named after an angel?'