DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN VAMPIRE KNIGHT, ONLY YVELTA GRIMM
They had been searching for hours. Blood oracle graves seemed to be less common than Kaname had led them to believe.
'This is hopeless!' Hanabusa exclaimed. 'Can't we just go back now? Look what this weather is doing to my hair! I spent so much time working on it this morning!'
Yvelta snorted. 'We are not stopping until I find a grave. Your hair will simply have to put up with it.'
He scowled at her. 'Not fair.'
She just raised her eyebrows.
About an hour later, they stumbled across a grave that looked very different from all the ones they had seen before.
'Hanabusa, take a look at this.' Yvelta said softly as she leaned down to pull weeds off the gravestone.
'That's the symbol in the book!' Hanabusa whispered excitedly, pulling said ancient book on blood oracles from a backpack.
'Alright. Hand me the shovel.' Yvelta held her hand out.
Hanabusa sheepishly scratched his head.
'You forgot it, didn't you.' She narrowed her eyes.
He gave her his cutest, most innocent apologetic face.
'We were in a bit of a rush, I guess it just slipped my mind.' He clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture.
Yvelta growled. 'How am I supposed to be angry at you when you have a face like that, hmm?' She pulled him to her and bit his earlobe, eliciting a slight moan.
'Don't forget it again.' She growled in his ear. He nodded, breathing heavily.
'Good.' She released him. 'Now move back.' She was going to have to undertake a partial transformation. Just her hands. She'd been practicing that sort of thing.
After a moment of pain, her hands had turned into brutally clawed werewolf paws. She started digging, bringing up huge clumps of dirt.
It took her a while, but she eventually reached an ancient ,rotting coffin. All that was left within was a pile of bones.
'One of these should do.' She reached in and pulled out the skull and the jawbone.
'What a gruesome smile.' She fit the bones together. 'Right, what was the exact process by which I have to consume these?'
Hanabusa flicked through the notebook that Kaname had given them, with all his research contained within.
'Well, you have to crush it first, and then drink it in some kind of weird soup thing.'
Yvelta grimaced. 'Soup containing what?'
'Um…' He flicked to the next page. 'Jasmine, rosemary, pure water, and your own blood.'
'Jasmine, rosemary, and pure water? Did he at least give us any indication of where to find them?' This was becoming more difficult by the minute.
'Oh, he gave us some.' Hanabusa pulled some jasmine and a sprig of rosemary from the backpack, as well as a mortar and pestle.
'And the water?' Yvelta began crushing the ingredients. The skull was very brittle due to its age, which helped.
'There is a mountain a few kilometres from here. It has a stream running from the top. That's the purest water we can get.'
They packed up once Yvelta had finished crushing everything, and had poured it into a flask.
'Right then.' She forced her wings to appear. 'Hop on.'
'… What?'
She sighed. 'We haven't got all day, and you can't fly, so hop on!'
'Fine…' He straddled her back awkwardly, and as soon as he was secure, she took off.
The air was cool, but the Transylvanian countryside was beautiful from up here. Hanabusa's nervousness about flying disappeared in the face of such a stunning landscape.
'Do you ever lose this feeling?' He asked her, shouting over the wind.
'Never.' She shouted back with a smile.
Soon the mountain came into view, and Yvelta shot up the side, soon reaching the summit, and then the mouth of the stream. The water was crystal clear. They added some water to the flask with the ingredients, flew back down the mountain, and found a secluded cave in which to perform the ritual.
They headed to the back of the cave. Yvelta lit a small fine.
'You may not want to be too close to me for this. I have a feeling it will be rather unpleasant.'
Hanabusa removed his hand from her shoulder and sat on the other side of the fire.
Yvelta grimaced, mixed all of the ingredients together over the fire, then sliced open her arm, draining some of her own blood into it. Then she drank. It was the most revolting concoction she had ever consumed. She nearly vomited.
Once it was all gone, she caught her breath. She didn't feel any different.
Then it hit her. She screamed as her insides writhed as if they were on fire. Her brain pounded uncontrollably as the memories from hundreds of oracles awoke in her mind.
She couldn't control the flow. She was reliving every memory simultaneously, including all of their deaths. It would have killed anybody else. Hanabusa was terrified for her, but there was nothing he could do.
Eventually, Yvelta collapsed from the strain. Hanabusa ran to her, but she wouldn't wake.
Her mind was a rush of colour, sound, and pain. Millions of memories rushing through her mind all at the same time. She tried to sort them out, focussing only on those related to vampires, and then to the Kuran line, eventually finding what she needed. Rido Kuran. He had been banned from using blood oracles due to killing three of them out of sheer boredom. However, he had used some of them, and that was all Yvelta needed. She searched those memories as closely as possible, looking through every detail. Slipping into Rido's memories was more difficult. While that was one of the main abilities of the blood oracles, absorbing the memories of those who drank from them, the memories appeared murky and confusing. They were filled with bloodshed and carnage, more than she had believed possible, and she'd been through countless wars. He did this for fun. He enjoyed killing. He enjoyed making people afraid. But in that was his weakness. His own fear of being dominated, destroyed, wiped out of existence beyond the shadow of a doubt. He feared death. She smiled to herself.
Her eyes slowly opened. They weren't in the cave anymore.
'Hanabusa?' Yvelta called out croakily. 'Where are we?'
He was at her side instantly. 'We're back in my uncle's castle. I didn't know where to take you…'
Her eyebrows furrowed. 'I have no memory of the return journey.'
He smiled at her, eyes tired. 'I'm not surprised. You were out cold. I carried you back.'
'… The whole way?'
He nodded.
'By the gods, Hanabusa! How long have I been incapacitated?'
His eyes looked almost guilty. 'Three days. I didn't want to wake you, you seemed to need the rest.'
Yvelta pushed herself up off the bed she was prostrate upon. 'Well, I need to rest no longer. I know Rido's weakness. He has an almost insurmountable fear of dying. If we can play on that fear, we can make him weak. We can defeat him, and the Academy will not fall. But he will bring an army of thousands of vampires. This battle will be long, and arduous. I will do what I can to prevent any deaths on our side, but I do not know how successful I will be.'
She started packing her things. 'We must return immediately. I must ensure my clones are fully prepared for this war.'
Hanabusa watched her, eyes sad. She was so focussed on battle. Sometimes it seemed as if there was nothing else to her but the need to fight.
She turned to him. 'We will make it through this, Hanabusa. I promise you that.' She kissed the top of his head gently, and he sighed, nodding, and went to pack his own things. It was time to return home.
When Hanabusa had left the room, Yvelta looked around. 'Watch your step, Shinagura Aido. If you continue to act as you have done in the past, I swear that I will destroy you. I give you my word.' She hissed, knowing that he was probably listening from the next room. Then she left without another word.
