part two: love, too, had to be learned.
or
Saya and the Sakamaki Brothers meet Yui.
"What are your opinions on vampires that were once humans?"
Saya paused at the question. Her head knew that he wasn't referring to the experiments that Fumito conducted – trying to turn humans into Elder Bairns, so that he could artificially produce something for her to feed from. Turning himself into some kind of an Elder Bairn, all so he could try to understand what it was like for her, to understand her better.
To let her kill him, by ripping away the status of the son of Adam from himself and filling his body with darkness he stole from her.
That wasn't what Karlheinz was asking at all, and yet, Saya's first thoughts were that of Fumito.
Fumito, who loved her so much that he did terrible things to ruin so many lives. Including hers – because so long as she could continue to live, nothing else mattered to Fumito. Not her tears, not her pain, not even his own life.
"Those that I could not feed from before, but can now," she answered with, a little colder than intended. That was all vampires with human origins meant to her now. Fumito was dead, having committed suicide by her hands.
There was nothing more to them now, no other meaning she had to give.
"In other words," Karlheinz deduced, pressing a finger to his lips in an act of demure thoughtfulness. "The same as any other demon."
The last memory she had of Fumito, crumpling to the ground and breaking away into dust, flashed before her eyes.
Saya blinked to clear away the memory haunting her.
"Yes."
Karlheinz smiled, and Saya couldn't help but think that he looked deeply satisfied.
"Then," he said, words sing-song. "Why don't we make this a little interesting?"
School eventually settled into a routine. Every mealtime, Saya came to pick her up. Her classmates were curious as to who the 'cool, mysterious beauty' was – their words, not hers – and Yui gave the prepared excuse that she and Saya were family friends, and that Saya was shy.
"Shy? But she looks like," one of her classmates said, looking awed. "That."
Yui couldn't blame her. It was something more than her beauty – though that was a large part of it. Saya really did look like a queen, regally bored as if the rest of the world was below her. She looked the furthest thing from shy, holding a kind of confidence that was so unshakeable she needed no validation of it from others.
'Lunch' was eaten in a quiet room. Saya sipped at coffee from a thermos and ate little else, while Yui ate, feeling choked.
To try and clear the air she spoke about things in class – her classmates were nice, the teachers were kind enough to help her, and the content was a little advanced, but nothing she couldn't catch up to with a little work. Had she mentioned her classmates were nice? They were, truly. They were patient when she asked where certain rooms were, they didn't ostracize her – intentionally, Yui thought silently, but didn't say – and they were polite to her.
Saya listened, as she always did, regardless of Yui's stumbling over her words, stuttering out things that she'd never shared, not because it was a secret but because she just never really had anyone she could speak to like this before in her life. She might look indifferent, her beautiful face always composed in a calm mask, but Saya was kind. It was her actions that made her so, in a way beyond empty words and obscuring smiles.
Her life was unstable, but it was peace and a small bit of security, and Yui hoped it could continue like this.
Unfortunately, it couldn't.
"Have you given some thought to your choice?" Saya asked, at the end of the week.
Yui's heart froze.
"I, um," she stuttered. She hadn't really had a chance to know them, because she had been following Saya. The only one in the household that gave her even a small sense of security, a meager scrap that was still all she had, Yui had been reluctant to move away from Saya.
And she knew very little about the brothers. Just that they were vampires and that she would have to choose one of them.
Choose one? To drink her blood?
Yui's hands shook and she fisted her skirt to try and hide the shaking. Her heart pounded out a fast rhythm with very little rest in between.
"I gave some thought about it," she managed to say, trying desperately to appease the one person in the household she now lived in that Yui could say was on her side. Saya's anger – if it could be called as such – had never been turned on her, but Yui still remembered that day when she had stopped the triplets, remembered the way her skin and crawled and her heart had nearly stopped from fear as Saya was suddenly something else. Something . . . terrifying.
"And?" Saya pressed. Requiring more. There was little emotional infliction in her voice, but it might as well have been a threat. Yui had never forgotten that for all her indifferent kindness, Saya held all the power in their relationship, and that it was conditional.
"I don't think," she paused to swallow. Her throat felt dry, like sandpaper, just on the verge of pain. "I don't think I want to choose Laito-san."
It was the process of elimination she had to rely on. The best of the worst, in a way.
And Laito scared her. Even before he and the other triplets had broken into her room, Yui had been uncomfortable with him. His way of speaking, his actions . . .
Really, if she was being honest, they all did make her uncomfortable. It was just that Laito made her feel the most threatened.
Saya nodded, a slight movement of the head without exaggeration. "Understandable."
Despite herself, Yui giggled before biting her lip in surprise. The sudden laughter had just bubbled out of her.
"I can't blame you for having a difficult time," Saya said, when Yui hurried to suppress the giggle. "If I had to choose, I think I might have gone insane."
She said it with such a straight face that Yui couldn't tell if she was attempting to make a joke.
Saya lowered her eyes in thought, dark lashes in stunning contrast against the pale skin of her face. She was very beautiful, and Yui wondered, not for the first time, what her story was. Why she lived with the Sakamaki brothers, why she offered Yui companionship and security when she didn't have to. Why she was so compassionate while cool at the same time.
"I'm sorry for rushing you," Saya said, once again making eye contact and snapping Yui out of her staring. "I have some urgent business coming up, and I can't leave until you're protected by one of them."
Guilt and anxiety crashed into Yui like a bus.
"I didn't – I'm sorry," she apologized. She hadn't known, because no one had told her, and Saya had never shown any sign of such a thing, but still.
All this time, she had been taking up Saya's valuable time, trying her patience.
Saya shook her head. "You didn't know. I never told you."
Still. Would Yui have been able to dawdle so much on this had Saya not been so patient with her? No.
"I'll make a decision soon," Yui rushed to promise. "By tomorrow."
As soon as she said it, she wondered if she was rushing it – because if she did make a choice, that meant Saya would be leaving.
And she would be alone in the manor with the Sakamaki brothers.
Saya blinked.
"I don't need an answer that quickly," she said. "The sooner the better, but this is still an important decision that deserves consideration."
It was, like always, the same brand of kindness Saya always offered her. The quiet one that was offered without fanfare stoically, almost as if disguising the great gift that was her empathy.
"I-I'll narrow down the candidates?" Yui tried. She could probably take Ayato off the list, because his language towards Saya was very disrespectful.
That was the right answer, based on Saya nodding.
Now she just had to choose.
Yui's shoulders slumped. Easier said than done.
"My original plan was to offer them the four boys as Adam candidates to Eve," said Karlheinz, after briefing her on the Mukami brothers. Four vampires who had once been humans. Brothers in bonds that were not blood, but by the progenitor who converted them into beings of darkness, and by their own choice. "I thought a greater variety might lead to higher chances."
Clinically, the reasoning made sense. After having met the Sakamaki brothers herself, Saya found herself thinking that manners in lessons might have been better.
But, well, where would vampires have learned to be kind and thoughtful to the weak? Demons lived with the mindset of 'might is right', and to be weak was a crime punishable by death.
. . . a mindset that had started, like many things in the demon world, all the way back from her. Thousands of years later and she was paying for it now.
"But your presence led me to change my plans. Oh, please don't mistake this as a complaint. I am beyond grateful – they have an unfortunate habit of killing off their brides within days. Your being present to stop that from happening is truly a gift." His eyes curled with the smile, like he found it all amusing rather than irritating.
It was genuine, and that was why Saya was uncomfortable. He truly appreciated her being involved, for all that it meant changes to be made to carefully made plans. Karlheinz took it on gladly, like it was no bother. With a patience beyond just that of an ancient being used to playing the long game.
"After all, our Eve relies on you. Throwing in more of us will hardly help her focus on anyone else."
It was good that the brothers were not killing Yui, but Eve needed to rely more on the Adam she chose. Not Saya – not Lilith.
"How about this?" he suggested, confident in the way of someone who knew her reply would agree with his. "After Komori Yui makes her choice, would you teach the Mukami brothers how to fight the Nephilim?"
Only over the weekends, he added, when Saya looked at him like he'd lost his mind. Because she was a student, after all, and it wouldn't do to miss classes. Though it would be good if she was to live with them. She could be assured that they too lived in a manor, and she would not be subjected to any discomfort with them – at least, not more than she was with the Sakamaki brothers.
Setting aside the headache she was getting from his insistence that she stick to the farce that was school life, Saya couldn't help but wonder what he was up to.
"They do not have the finest of temperaments, my sons," said Karlheinz. "I imagine the lack of your presence might lead to some progress on Eve's front."
Saya bit down the protest. Yui would be fine, so long as she chose one. And she hardly had the best track record in protecting others, so arguably it would be better for Yui if she got an actual protector over the failure that Saya was.
And then, with their union, could come their end and a new start afterwards.
Two monsters that did not know how to love, or how love worked, trying to force love. Saya's life was a farce, in every way.
