part three: and when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back into you.

or

Saya is a monster. Yui tries to look into her.

'Apologies, Lady Saya. I will not be able to escort you today.'

Saya read the message, and texted back 'It's fine'. Ruki didn't need to, and yet every time, he always came to pick her up from school. Azusa was the one to drop her off, since Kou was an idol and didn't need the scandal.

Only after she sent that did she realize that she assumed the limousine would be sent without anyone in it. Maybe he meant that the car itself could not come.

She didn't give it more thought, figuring that if that was the case, she would walk home. It wasn't a far distance, between the Mukami's manor and the school.

"Or you could come visit?" Yui offered.

Or she could do that.

When class ended, and Saya helped Yui track Shu down, there was the familiar Mukami car, with Yuma leaning on its hood, arms crossed across his chest. The last of the students leaving for home looked at him and whispered, and while it was more than likely that he could hear them, Yuma didn't give them any attention, only waving when he saw her.

Yui, with Shu in tow, looked at the tallest Mukami with wide eyes. She'd already met Ruki and Azusa, been called Eve with absolutely no explanation, but Yuma was new to her.

"Lady Saya," he said with a nod that was probably meant to be respectful. His eyes drifted over to the two blonds, and he skipped over Shu with disinterest and went straight for Yui. "Eve."

"Yuma, this is Komori Yui," Saya introduced, because the Mukami had a tendency to see Yui as Eve, and while that was a mindset she should be adopting for her own sake, Yui was still right here. "Yui-san, this is-"

"Edgar?"

Saya recognized the voice to be Sakamaki Shu's, but she didn't immediately make the connection. Even when she had been drinking his blood, even when she had nearly killed him, Saya had not heard him like this, as if he'd been struck.

Shu could have been stabbed and he wouldn't have looked like he did, as if he saw a ghost.

And he was looking at Yuma.

Yuma, who didn't seem to understand why Shu looked at him like that. As Ruki wasn't here, he looked towards her for direction. "Lady Saya?"

Yuma might have turned to her, but Saya was still observing Shu, and saw the effects those two words and Yuma's reaction left on Shu.

Despair. Disbelief.

Rage.

And then Shu lunged towards her, and Saya found him grabbing the front of her shirt with both hands.

"You," he snarled. "What are you planning?"

Could she have dodged and retaliated? Yes. Could she break out, even now? Yes.

But out of a detached curiosity Saya allowed Shu to grab her, if only so she could hear what he had to say. He reacted like a dragon whose reverse scale had been touched.

It was a side of him Saya had not expected to see, ever. A side she didn't know he was capable of, wild and fierce.

"Oi," snapped Yuma, rushing to her side in her defense. She didn't need it, but he was nothing if not loyal to his master and his orders. "Let go of Lady Saya!"

"Shu-san!" Yui gasped and also rushed to him. The weakest of them physically, but that didn't stop her from trying to tug his hands away from her shirt.

Ironically, their attempt to help her break free of his grasp made it harder for her to do so, if only because Saya was afraid she'd end up hurting them instead. More Yui than Yuma, but still.

"Yuma, Yui, stop."

Yuma was tall, and a little rough around the edges though he meant well. Yui was petite, and gentle, though with spirit. They were very different and yet similar, as seen in their reactions.

Both protested to her order, and in the meantime, Shu shook her again. Saya sighed and pushed her hand into the tangle of hands to push them away. The front of her shirt and the ribbon around her neck were about to rip.

With her efforts – both verbal and physical – Yuma and Yui finally let go, though they both had the look of someone ready to step in again at any moment. Yui's was worry, and Yuma was fury.

But Saya focused on the owner of the pair of hands still holding onto her.

"It's a little late to be asking what I'm planning, don't you think?" Saya asked. Even Subaru, the other 'shut-in' of the Sakamaki brothers, had asked what she was up to long before, and he hadn't even been chosen by Yui.

Shu's grip tightened, and he shook with rage.

Saya checked, and no, there didn't seem to be anyone within seeing or hearing range. It would be annoying if the school gossip was that Kisaragi Saya and Sakamaki Shu had fought, or that the fragile girl frequenting the doctor's office had thrown her cousin to the ground with one hand.

Just in case, Saya reached out and grabbed the front of Shu's shirt, and pulled him closer to her eye level.

"I don't know who Edgar is," she said softly. "Or why you're only reacting now, but Sakamaki Shu, why don't you try asking your father?"

Shu's eyes flitted to Yuma, and Saya made a mental note to question him and Karlheinz later. Yuma was brutally honest, not at all a good actor or liar, and he didn't look like he was faking it, but Karlheinz was definitely the kind of person who would do something like manipulating someone's memories for his own goals. There was no way the latter didn't know whatever connection existed between his eldest son and Mukami Yuma.

Her head hurt with phantom pains of memory throbbing.

Saya let go of him, and then ripped his hands off the front of her shirt. There was the sound of fabric tearing as he resisted, and she held back a sigh of irritation.

Yuma's eyes fell on the front of her shirt – not ripped to the point of being improper to wear in public, per say, just a little ragged like the punk-look Subaru seemed to prefer, with a bit of her flesh peeking through – and he began reaching for his jacket. "Do you need my jacket?"

Saya shook her head when Shu grabbed Yui, who squeaked in surprise, and bit into her neck without any warning.

A cry of pain and shock ripped from Yui's lips, and Saya nearly ran towards them. Nearly. At the last second, she held herself back, but she didn't doubt that Shu had caught her twitch.

Though he drank with surprising gusto, Shu's eyes were fixed on her, burning like blue flames. A wordless challenge.

Because the one thing Saya had shown caring about during her stay with the Sakamaki, during the time she knew them and they knew her was Yui.

Shu was waiting for a reaction from her, and so Saya suppressed everything she could.

What did Saya feel? Guilt. Shame. Because Yui had a thread of hope in her wide eyes. Almost buried by the pain and fear and shock, but it was there – the hope that Saya would help her.

Saya forced all those out of her mind. She knew this was going to happen. Knew from the moment she heard the plan, saw Komori Yui set foot on the grounds of Sakamaki manor, that this was necessary. It was late in starting, if only because Shu had been unenthusiastic. If anything, she should have been happy that it was finally starting, motive be damned.

She should have been.

A bitter smile twisted her lips up. She'd grown attached, despite Karlheinz trying to step in. He had seen it coming, tried to pull her away, and still, the monster wearing human skin had been thawed by the warmth of a caring human again. It was the worst time to do so, but it always seemed to happen, regardless of how badly it always ended.

Not now, Saya told herself. This was the last, and she could not interfere, or everything would truly be ruined.

"Let's go, Yuma," she said, and turned. It was hard, but she was strong.

Yuma hesitated, but he followed without questioning her.

Saya did not look back.

Only once they were in the limousine did Yuma break the silence, hesitantly asking, "You alright?"

Suddenly, Saya was immensely tired. What was the point on having all the power she did, when the things she wanted were never within her reach? One girl, unable to be protected.

But, well, she was a monster that could not die, who had to rely on that vulnerable girl, so she'd always been pathetic, hadn't she?

"No," Saya answered, honestly. "I'm not."

She hadn't been, for a long time to the point where it was the normal. A baseline that was about to be not just broken, but ended.

A little more, Saya told herself. And then Yui could be happy and Saya could be dead.

The thought didn't make her feel better, or even succeed in changing her mood.

A rustling sound drew her attention, and Saya glanced over to see Yuma rummaging in his pockets.

"Here," he said, handing her a small white cube. Too small to be a guimauve, but her mind went there, nonetheless.

Shaking off the ghost of cube-shaped sweets from her mind she took it and looked down at the white cube in her palm.

"It's sugar," Yuma explained unnecessarily, before adding "I don't share it with just anyone."

Saya nearly gave it back at that, but at the last second changed her mind and put it into her mouth. The texture was that of grains held together in solid form, soon dissolved by her saliva into individual granules. The sweetness hit, the taste of pure sugar at the forefront, and it filled her mouth as the sugar cube melted.

It was a sugar cube. It didn't solve any of her problems. It wasn't even filling, because the only thing that could truly nourish her was the blood of non-humans.

But Saya did feel a little better.

"Thank you."

Mumbling something, Yuma turned his head away from her. Following his example, Saya let her eyes focus on a point outside the window and dispassionately watched the background change.

"Who is Edgar?" she asked at last, when they were back at the Mukami manor.

Yuma shrugged, as Ruki and Azusa came into sight. "Beats me."

Saya was being uncharacteristically stubborn on this, she recognized that within herself. But Shu had also been shaken enough to break his usual lethargy, and memory was a sore point for Saya.

"Sakamaki Shu seems to think that you were this Edgar."

There was something – a letter – in Ruki's hands, but he paused at her words without interrupting them, a thoughtful glint in his dark eyes.

"It ain't me," Yuma said firmly. "Whatever that stuck-up NEET says, I'm Mukami Yuma."

"Although," Ruki added, finally speaking up. "Yuma did have amnesia when he was a human."

Yuma bristled, while Saya found herself empathizing with the tall vampire.

"I ain't Edgar, and I don't care for nobles," he sneered, and Ruki had to verbally chide him to remember his manners. His dislike of nobles was obvious in that demonstration, and it was clear that he considered Sakamaki Shu a noble.

Which, he wouldn't be wrong about, Saya supposed.

Knowing that Shu wouldn't back down so easily, Saya let the matter go for now. She could deal with him tomorrow.