It was the first day of the fall semester and the campus was once again alive and filled with students. Kahlua, Kouta, and Lucy were walking together headed towards the crowd of returning students ahead of them. As they went Kahlua began chanting a childhood tune.

"Kouta and Lucy sittin' in a tree. F-U-C-…"

"Hey!" Lucy shouted furiously.

"What?" Kahlua asked sounding innocent.

"Just knock it off all right!" Lucy said angrily.

Lucy and Kouta had both hoped to keep their new relationship secret from Kahlua. That hadn't been possible. Returning to Kahlua's house after their first time being intimate the vampire had cheered and asked them if she could join in next time. "Threesome's solve everything!" She had loudly proclaimed.

"Why are you and Kouta-kun so shy?" Kahlua teased. "I think it's great that you two are doing it! Maybe now you'll be in a better mood and less stressed all the time."

"What Kouta and I do is a private matter between us!" Lucy told her.

"Even when you're doing it in my shower?"

Lucy and Kouta both blushed. After their first time it had been like a damn bursting. They had both been desperate for more and had done it whenever they thought they were alone. For Lucy it wasn't just physical pleasure; it was also proof of Kouta's love. She had been starved for it and had gorged herself. She fully intended to sleep in Kouta's bed from this point forward regardless of what the school rules were. That didn't mean she wanted to deal with others (especially the idiot vampire) discussing her relationship or what they did together.

"Look!" Lucy growled. "What Kouta and I do is our business and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't ask me about it or bring it up to me or anyone else. Please show just a little bit of discretion."

"Discretion?" Kahlua gave her a wide and approving smile. "Okey dokey, all you had to do was say so. From now on my lips are sealed!" She mimed turning a key in front of her mouth.

Lucy eyed her suspiciously for a moment but then nodded when no more teasing came from her. "Thanks I really appreciate that."

Kahlua nodded.

As they continued towards the school they spotted a familiar face.

Sun came over with a wave and wrote in her sketchbook. "Hey everybody. Anything interesting happen during your break?"

Before Kouta or Lucy could say a word Kahlua cried out at the top of her lungs in an admirable impression of Lucy at her most erotic. "Oh Kouta! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessss!"

All the students who were walking past stopped to stare at her. Lucy and Kouta both turned red as tomatoes. Sun dropped her sketchbook and marker.

When Lucy recovered from her initial shock she turned a murderous glare to Kahlua. Kahlua smirked and held up her right hand to show the first two fingers entwined together. "Fingers crossed, didn't count."

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Laughing Kahlua ran while an irate Lucy chased after her.

Meanwhile Sun quickly recovered her sketchbook and marker and began writing furiously. "So you and Lucy finally did it huh? Details! Now! I need material for the next comic strip."

Groaning Kouta did his best to ignore her as he continued on. "I can already tell this is going to be another interesting semester."

XXX

In home room Lucy was openly glaring at Kahlua who was smiling back prettily.

"Ah Kahlua-chan," Nekonome said wearily. "It's the first day of the new semester and you are still not wearing your uniform."

"I'm sorry sensei," Kahlua said brightly. "I was going to wear it today I swear, but Lucy and Kouta were having sex on it so I couldn't. Tomorrow for sure! Unless they have sex on it again."

Nekonome's ears twitched as the students all gaped at her. Kouta buried his head in his hands. At her seat Sun was drawing about a couple months' worth of cartoons. Lucy raised her hand.

"Yes Lucy?"

"Sensei would I get in trouble if I murdered her right now?"

"Yes Lucy," her teacher sighed. "You would."

XXX

In the newspaper club room after class Daisuke was seated at a desk looking over several newspapers. When the other members arrived he looked up at them. He wasted no time with greetings or asking them about their summer break. "I want us to get started writing about the big story that's going on right now."

"We are not doing a story about me and Kouta having sex!" Lucy snapped.

Daisuke's eyebrows jumped up and down over his thick eyeglasses. "You and Kouta are having sex? Is that really something you should be bragging about?"

Lucy's moth snapped shut and she looked embarrassed.

"Uh, what story were you referring to Daisuke-sempai?" Kouta asked to fill the uncomfortable and awkward silence.

"This of course." He held up one of the papers on his desk. This one happened to be written in Japanese. Others were in Chinese, English, and Spanish. The headline screamed, 'Massacre in Kamakura.' Below that was a slightly fuzzy image of a young girl naked with horns coming from her head.

Kouta snatched the paper from out of Daisuke's hands. "What is this?" He gasped.

"This," Daisuke said waving to the other papers. "Is proof that monsters exist."

Lucy had a sudden sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Though she wouldn't have thought it possible her worries about Kahlua and the sudden rumors about her and Kouta no longer mattered.

XXX

"We're sorry," a pleasant automated voice said. "The number you are dialing is no longer in service. If you believe you have misdialed please hang up and dial your number once again. We're sorry, the number you have dialed…"

"Damn it." Kouta cursed and slammed the receiver back down. He's been trying to contact his cousin's family using the old fashioned land line phones in the boys' dorm. No number in Kamakura appeared to be working though. He'd managed to speak to a Japanese operator who had only given him the curt answer that the service in the area was temporarily suspended.

He'd tried to find out if anyone knew what had happened to the people living there or if there were some sort of list of who was or was not hurt. Wherever he'd called held gotten only the message that there was, 'no information at this time.' There was just no way for him to find out if Yuka and her family were safe or not.

The newspaper related a story about naked girls with horns unleashing a 'massacre.' There were a few unsettling pictures but nothing concrete as to how many people had been killed or how bad the situation had been. According to the article the Japanese defense forces had been called in to 'secure the area.' According to some vague reports the fighting there was ended and all the girls had been dealt with.

Exactly how they'd been dealt with was not specified.

There were other articles in the paper.

These mentioned refugee camps where the survivors had been given shelter. Again there were no names or numbers. There were pictures of women crying holding toddlers in their arms talking about some of the things they had seen. Kouta sincerely prayed they were either lying or hysterical and exaggerating. He just couldn't imagine those things happening in a peaceful place like Kamakura, it just didn't seem possible.

Another article talked about a hidden research facility that had been conducting illegal experiments that had been unknown to the Japanese government. There were black and white photos of a man named Kakuzawa who was going to go on trial for crimes against humanity and for the development of weapons of mass destruction. The photo showed him with two small horns on top of his head. The article went on and on about the fact the man was not human but a mutated offspring of humanity; homo sapien diclonius.

Yet another article was talking about this new race and how it differed from ordinary human beings. Experts from all over Japan were commenting about it. One of the comments stood out.

'The essence of evolution is the creation and procreation of life forms best suited to survive within their environment and replace opposing or rival species.'

He brought up the example of how homo sapiens had replaced Neanderthals. The implications were clear and not welcome.

The Japanese government was promising to release all information about dicloni. Given what seemed to have happened in Kamakura people all over Japan were holding demonstrations demanding they be protected from them. From, 'monsters who are not human' was one quote.

Kouta could understand why Daisuke was worried. Obviously proof that one kind of monster existed would lead people to take the idea of other kinds more seriously. That was the absolute last thing real monsters wanted or needed.

None of that was what Kouta cared about now though. What mattered to him was his family. The people who had taken him in and who he'd been with just days ago. Their safety was what he cared about, not the fate of monster kind.

"I can't find out anything," he said miserably.

"I'm sorry to hear that Kouta," Lucy said. She was too. She had nothing at all against Kouta's family and hoped they were safe. It was just that they had never been her priority. She's wanted to protect and get revenge on Karama and the others who had tortured her. All the rest had been unimportant.

"Lucy what happened that night? You rescued me but what else happened?"

That was the question she had been dreading. "You know that I was a prisoner there for years, right Kouta? They held me there and tortured me for no reason other than the fact I wasn't human."

He nodded. "Yes, you told me about them. I agree they had absolutely no right to do that to you."

"Well Kouta I wasn't the only one. There were others there that had spent their entire lives as prisoners. They'd never committed a crime, they were just chained up and treated like experimental animals to be abuse and studied and killed. Before I left I freed them, every one of them."

Kouta stared at her. The implication was obvious. The dicloni who had committed the massacre had been freed by her. She was directly responsible for what had happened. "Why? You were putting innocent people in danger."

"Innocent people?" Lucy asked quietly. "I freed innocent people Kouta. Those girls I set free were more innocent and more deserving of at least a chance at freedom than anyone. Should I have just left them in their cages?"

Kouta did not answer immediately and did not look happy when he did. "They all had powers and they probably all hated humans."

"If they hated humans they had plenty of reason to," she told him.

"They had reason to hate the researchers there but not people who had never done anything to them," he corrected.

"So I should have left them there to rot? Is that what you're saying? If the Chairman hadn't decided to free me I would still be there right this minute being tortured and kept chained up. How could I not help the others the same way I was helped?"

"The Chairman didn't just free you though. He brought you here. He had a way to free you and give you somewhere to live in safety without hurting anyone else."

"I'm sorry I didn't have the resources he did. What I did have was the choice to free them or leave them in their cages. Are you going to tell me I was wrong?"

"No," he said quietly. "I guess I can't blame you for doing that if you had no idea what was going to happen."

Lucy was very glad she hadn't actually had to lie. Everything she'd said to him was true. It was just that she had left certain details out. She'd made it sound she'd acted out of empathy for her fellow prisoners. That wasn't the case. She didn't give a damn about her fellow dicloni. Kouta was the only one who had ever really mattered to her. If her whole race died off she wouldn't shed a tear.

She wasn't as innocent as she portrayed herself to be or as Kouta thought her to be.

Go kill every fucking human you can find and help me burn this place down. Then get away from here as fast as you can.

She'd had some idea what she was unleashing and simply hadn't cared who else might suffer so long as the place burned. She had gotten Kouta out as fast as she could and she had passed a warning on to Yuka to remain out of sight. Those were the only precautions she'd taken.

Kouta had finally forgiven her and they were together now. She was finally happy. She wanted desperately to protect this new found happiness no matter what.

"Those girls didn't belong there any more than you did Lucy," Kouta continued. "I agree that you did the right thing freeing them. It's not like you could have known this would happen."

She nodded guiltily and said not a word.

"I'm just worried about Yuka and her folks."

She gently took his hand. "I'm sure they're all right." I hope.

Looking at her gratefully he placed a soft kiss on her lips. "I'm glad I have you here with me Lucy."

"I'll never leave you Kouta," she promised. "I will always be at your side."

"I know that," he said happily. "Let's get something to eat."

XXX

After dinner they both went back to his dorm room.

Late that night they were together under his blankets wrapped up in each other's arms. Kouta was sleeping peacefully. Lucy had her head resting on his chest, eyes wide awake and staring at his slumbering face.

He knew the truth and had forgiven her. He loved her and she was happy. This was everything she had ever dreamed of or hoped for.

So why am I so scared I'm going to lose this? She forced her eyes shut and tried to drive away her own doubts. Even if she didn't deserve him she would do everything in her power to keep him.

She only wondered if it would be enough.