part two: love, too, had to be learned.
or
Saya and the Sakamaki Brothers meet Yui.
School went fine, or as well as it could. Saya was introduced to the class, who seemed surprised to see a new student join them. Understandable. It was the last year of high school, and hardly the best time to be switching schools.
During break she was approached by students interested in hearing her story of how sick she was, where she had been before, what she liked to do in her free time and so on.
Reiji was smirking in the background as she struggled to answer without coming off as too cold. Saya definitely saw his relation to Karlheinz in that moment and silently ground her teeth.
In the end she had to excuse herself, claiming she was told to visit the school doctor to report in for the sake of her health. Saya hated that her cover story was actually of use to her, and decided right there and then that it would never be admitted to Karlheinz.
Surprisingly, Reiji volunteered to take her there.
"I could hardly let my dear cousin faint on the way," he said smoothly when she gave him an incredulous look. "Especially since she doesn't know where the sick bay is."
With the implication that she was a lot frailer than she appeared firmly planted and confirmed in the heads of her new classmates, they left the room and headed down the hallway. Electric lights kept the building lit brightly, but outside the window the world was shrouded in darkness. It was a time meant for sleep and rest, for quiet and inactivity.
A time for mortals to shrink, and for monsters to crawl out on the hunt in the privacy of shadows.
A school that held itself in the time of night, reversing the natural cycle of how things should be and keeping ignorant young mortals awake in the eerie hunting time of magical beings. Blind lambs that knew not what predators prowled amongst their midst.
It was a school unlike the only one she had known before, but every bit a farce as well. The only difference was that this time, she knew it was a work of fiction, an illusion. There would be no mistaking it for reality.
"Something bothering you?" Reiji asked, voice cutting into her thoughts smoothly.
Memories of ghosts from her past were banished, and Saya was brought to the present.
"It's nothing," she said shortly.
"As you say," said the second son of Karlheinz. They began to walk down the hall once more. Perhaps survival instincts blunted by modern ease was revived in the presence of apex predators, because the students in the hallway gave them ample space, though the instinct to be drawn to beauty kept their eyes and attention on them. "But when you have eyes like that, no one will ever believe you."
She sighed. She could admit he was right. She could explain her past.
But she didn't want to, and she had no reason to.
The lack of a reaction made his mouth twist and harden, and the rest of the walk was silent. There was no discomfort – at least for her. What he felt, Saya didn't care to learn.
At the medical ward, she learned something for her first day of school, other than the location of her established excuse.
As Reiji put on the mask of an elite student and greeted his father, who wore a skin of a human and a lab coat, Saya realized she had forgotten about her magical superiority. Even when not using magic, her resistance was on par to that of a Nephilim's, and her eyes could not be fooled by tricks.
Which meant that illusion magic could do nothing to shield her eyes, but only hers.
Dr. Reinhart – Karlheinz – burst out laughing as soon as Reiji, who hadn't recognized his father for obvious reasons, was out of earshot.
"You should have seen your face, milady," he teased, wiping at imaginary tears in the corner of his eye. "Did you forget?"
Forgotten that illusionary magic was nowhere near enough to hide from her eyes, yes. That Karlheinz did actually have a far better disguise than she had assumed.
"Your sons don't know?" she asked. The medical ward was, like the rest of the room, subtly filled with signs of affluence. Karlheinz leaned in his chair, one hand offering his face a place to rest. The slender fingers of his free hand drummed against his knee, as if he was playing the piano.
"Goodness me, no." Karlheinz smirked. "I daresay they'll find school even more unappealing were they to find out I was here as a doctor this year. It was bad enough that Shu failed to pass last year – the last thing I would like to see is over half of them refusing to come to school and failing due to poor attendance."
Saya rather understood the sentiment.
The topic, thankfully, changed soon after.
Karlheinz insisted that there would be no problems with her lack of experience being weak or ill or sickly. "Humans have a terrible habit of overly relying on their eyesight, foolish people."
He said it quite affectionately, for someone who claimed love and full understanding was impossible for himself and was relying on a human to revolutionize and rebirth the demon race.
"They'll come up with fantastic stories of their own, even without being supplied details," he said dismissively. "Belief, once set, is very difficult to shake in humans. Doctor's notes to sit out on physical education, frequent visits to the medical ward, and your physical appearance will be more than enough. You won't be greatly bothered, I guarantee it."
Saya sighed.
Karlheinz clapped his hands together.
"Speaking of humans," he changed the subject. "What are your opinions on vampires that were once human?"
School was nerve-wracking. Yui felt like she was walking on a tightrope stretched between two skyscrapers in the middle of a storm, without a net stretched out below to catch her.
Being in a classroom with the triplets, without Saya, was terrifying. She went in expecting to get her blood sucked any minute.
As class went on, however, she began to relax slightly. The Sakamaki triplets hadn't even acknowledged her – something she appreciated more than them making an effort to help her integrate into the classroom – and the students in the class all seemed human and normal.
Making friends would be hard, if not impossible, given her current situation, but Yui was beginning to get some hope.
Mealtime came, and Saya came to pick her up.
"Yui-san," she greeted, seemingly oblivious to the wide-eyed gawking and whispers around her, brought on by her appearance. Sometimes, amidst all the sudden drama that had filled her life, Yui forgot, but Kisaragi Saya was beautiful, with an air about her that made people want to look and not turn their eyes away. They gawked at her, wide-eyed with wonder, but unable to approach.
Yui smiled weakly. She must have seemed hideous in comparison. She had never been vain about her appearance, because to be arrogant was a sin, but it seemed almost impossible to not be envious at times of Saya. Not just because of her beauty, but because of her confidence, hidden by indifference as it was.
"Saya-san," she greeted back, and reached for her bento.
"Oy, Rocket Boobs," Ayato said then, and Yui would have sworn to the Lord that in that moment everyone nearly had a heart attack. He placed his hands on Yui's desk and leaned closer to Saya, almost threateningly. "Where're you taking the Pancake?"
Yui's face flushed red, the rushing of the blood nearly painful with the mortification.
"Ayato," Saya said quietly. "Watch your language."
He leaned closer so that their faces were near.
"Or what?" he taunted.
Saya wouldn't hurt him as much as she did back in the manor, Yui realized. That was why. Ayato was trying to draw out a reaction from her in an environment where she was trying not to appear as a –
Yui cut off her thoughts when Saya merely flicked Ayato's forehead. The repercussions of the casual flick of such slender fingers was far more terrifying, however, because Ayato's head snapped backwards as if he'd been punched.
"What the hell?!" he howled, clutching the point of impact.
"Stop overreacting," Saya said, a sigh clear in her voice. "And watch your language. Yui-san, my apologies for his vulgarities."
"It's -" a lump in her throat, but she swallowed as best as she could. "It's okay."
Her voice came out steady. Saya looked at her with the same unreadable face, before she nodded and began to leave the class.
Small bag containing her food in hand, Yui followed. Ayato still clutched at his forehead, swearing, and his two brothers laughed at his plight. The rest of the class seemed to think it was an inside joke, and an overreaction on Ayato's part.
Only Yui and the Sakamakis knew it was less a matter of being dramatic and more actual pain. Yui, still embarrassed, could not find it within herself to protest Ayato's treatment.
