Chapter 4.
Shizuru and Natsuki sat at a quiet little ramen stand in a warmly lit corner of the street.
"You sure you're okay with this?" Natsuki asked her, "I mean, I didn't get to hang out with you much in the past, but I got the idea that you liked stuff that was a bit more…upscale?"
Shizuru smiled, "We've both had a rough couple of days. There will be plenty of opportunities for us to do 'upscale' restaurants. But I thought our first outing should focus more on comfort.
"Besides, Natsuki is adorable when she slurps her noodles."
Natsuki blushed, and shot Shizuru a look, "That's not a word most people associate with me."
Shizuru grinned at her, "Most people probably only know you from work. I never saw you have visitors at your apartment. Even before…"
"You don't have to tiptoe around it," Natsuki reached out and touched Shizuru's hand reassuringly, "I get plenty of that at work. I see it, whenever I walk through the halls. There are people who look at me, and you can just see it in their eyes. 'There goes the girl who got dogpiled by the vampires. Poor thing.' And some of them, some of them are afraid of me.
"And the thing is, I can't blame them. I'm…a vampire. I am the very thing we're trained to fight, to kill."
"My point is," Shizuru smiled gently at her, "If you let them see you like this, they'd see that you're an adorable girl who plays video games, likes cute, fluffy puppies, and slurps her noodles. Those aren't exactly qualities one associates with a monster."
Natsuki looked down at her ramen, blushing, "Heh. I don't guess they are. You….you really paid attention back then, didn't you?"
Shizuru gave her a demure smile, "You interested me. You gave off such a strong, independent aura. I was drawn to you. And, I'll tell you a secret.
"As scared as your co-workers may be of you, now, I was much more scared of you back then. Because…I was afraid that you'd see right through me. That you'd see that I was in love with you. And I was terrified by the idea that learning that would disgust you. And when you cut me off…I was afraid that was exactly what had happened."
"I'm sorry," Natsuki sighed, "I…If you'd told me that you were interested in me, back then…I probably would have turned you down. Not because it's you. But because back then, I didn't want anyone getting caught up in the mess that is my life. But now? My life is a thousand times messier, but I can't….I can't keep being alone all the time."
Shizuru reached out and stroked the dark blue hair by Natsuki's neck, "I don't intend to leave you alone."
Natsuki gave a soft chuckle, "I have to say, you're taking the disruption to your life with surprising calm. Even for you."
"It's my upbringing. The Fujinos are a very old family, with many duties and obligations. It would be unseemly to scream, faint, cry in panic, terror, frustration, or to loosen one's bowels in abject fear," Shizuru smiled, "Also, we are not given to displays of frustration or acknowledging any sort of inconvenience in the presence of others," Shizuru smirked, "It's the sort of thing that allows a young woman such as myself to be confronted by a horde of fanged monsters and not break down in tears and blubbering in weak pleas for mercy."
"You'll have to teach me," Natsuki half-sighed and half-laughed, "I've been a mess since that night."
"I believe I saw some of that, earlier. But given what you went through…"
"You know, they'll never say it to my face, and they definitely don't say it when Nao is there, 'cause she'd rip limbs off for it, but some of the other agents have come up with an expression for what I went through," Natsuki wiped tears from her eyes, "As if the experience wasn't…humiliating enough, they have to put a name to it?"
Shizuru held her silence, recognizing that Natsuki needed to get it out. She stroked Natsuki's back, tenderly.
"They call it 'being fang-raped'. It's supposed to be a 'clever' play on words. Gang. Fang. And even if they didn't actually do anything sexual, it was about the power, the control they could exert over me. So," Natsuki sniffed, then wiped at her eyes again, "I'm sorry, I…"
Shizuru was shaking, "They…they said that about you? They…who would dare? To demean my Natsuki thus! The nerve!"
Natsuki blinked. Shizuru was angry. No. Shizuru was furious. On her behalf.
"Shizu…ru…"
Shizuru rose from her seat and Natsuki found her face buried in Shizuru's collarbone, the tawny-haired girl's arms wrapped around her. Shizuru's breath was in her ear, a warm breeze in the chill of the night.
"Don't ever let them demean you, my dearest Natsuki," Shizuru said, and then she took a deep breath, "'If your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours.'"
Natsuki looked at her, emerald eyes peering into crimson, a silent question on her lips.
Shizuru smiled, leaning down and kissing Natsuki's forehead, "It's from the novel Carmilla, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. I read it, many years ago while I was exploring my identity."
They returned to the safehouse quietly, no words spoken between them. Shizuru gave a small yawn, hidden daintily behind a hand, and then smiled.
"I shall have to turn in. I'm afraid I'm not used to keeping the late nights you keep, yet. But they delivered all of my belongings. If you wish, you're certainly welcome to read any of my books to pass the time. I shall see you in the morning."
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Tomoe grimaced in agony as the slug was pulled from her chest with a set of forceps. The garlic in the slug kept her body from being able to expel it herself. The procedure was particularly painful, since no vampire, Dracula-class or Viral-class, can be drugged. In the case of a Viral-class, the constant breakdown of their hemoglobin mean that their bloodstream simply wouldn't carry any sort of medication. And a Dracula-class vampire like Tomoe had the disadvantage of being the undead. She had no beating heart to pump the blood., or the medicines.
And so the extraction was excruciating.
"It's been three days, Mistress," Takeda bowed before her, "And neither Miss Kuga nor Miss Fujino have returned to their apartments."
Tomoe panted, the slug finally out. Her 'surgeon' irrigated the wound, flushing out the remaining garlic extract. At that point, the wound began to close on it's own, and she started to feel some measure of relief.
"And what does our contact at the agency say?"
"She says that they were moved to a safehouse, but she doesn't know the location. She doesn't have access to that database."
Tomoe frowned, "Tell her to get creative and remind her what happens to her family if she doesn't. If Suguira finds those ruins, it's going to be very bad for all of us. Kuga has to find her."
"Why Kuga, Mistress? Surely we can hunt Dr. Suguira, as well."
"Because, I want to see the look on Kuga's face, right before I gouge her eyes out of her skull, when I tell her that she helped lead us to the one person on the planet who might know how to cure her," Tomoe flashed a smile that was disturbingly sweet and demure.
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Shizuru woke to see Natsuki sitting in at the desk in her room, her face buried in a book. There was a small stack of them on the desk, and Natsuki glanced over when she heard Shizuru's heartbeat increase.
"Morning," Natsuki greeted her.
"Ara, but Natsuki felt like she would keep me safe?"
"Well, it just makes sense," Natsuki shrugged, "I'm trained to fight monsters, after all. And I don't sleep at night. So, I figured I could watch over you, and if anyone found this place, I had a better chance of protecting you from in here."
"Ara, then should I stand guard over Natsuki in the day while she sleeps?" Shizuru leaned over, resting her chin on her hands, kicking her feet back and forth girlishly.
"Depends? Are you trained to fight monsters?" Natsuki smiled, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Well, I've been trained to combat lawyers and CEOs," Shizuru laughed, "But in the daylight hours, wouldn't the monsters that you fear be asleep, as well."
"You know, if I'd just visited your room across the way," Natsuki held up the book she was reading, then glanced at the stack on the desk that she'd already read, "I might have had a bit of a clue about your true feelings."
The book in Natsuki's hand was The Well of Loneliness by Radclyff Hall. On the desk were copies of Carmilla, The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Pages for You by Sylvia Browning, and Yaneura no nishojou by Nobuko Yoshiya.
For once, it was Shizuru's turn to flush crimson.
"Had you come to my apartment," Shizuru gave a nervous laugh, "You would not have seen those, as I kept them hidden in a box in the closet. However, moving in here, I hadn't the opportunity to conceal them. And I did say that you could read anything in my collection…"
Natsuki looked confused, "I already know that you like me 'that way' Shizuru. Why should me knowing about these embarrass you?"
Shizuru sat down next to Natsuki, "It is one thing for you to know about my feelings on an intellectual level. It is altogether different for you to experience the emotional level that seeing my collection might present you.
"And you yourself don't know how you feel about me."
"I know you're my friend," Natsuki smiled at her gently, "I know that while I was out there hunting terrible things in the dark, you were this one piece of normal life that I had that made me happy. And I know that I don't mind you loving me. And maybe I do feel something for you, too. I just…"
Natsuki sighed, "I lost my family when I was eight years old. And I've been on a single bloody-minded quest for revenge ever since. I never took the time to date, and my only friends are the vampire hunters I work with. So, my emotional language needs a bit of work. But I've got free time, and I'm going to spend it getting to know you. The real you. All of you. And I'm not going to shrink away from that."
Shizuru smiled, then blushed, "May I make a selfish request, then?"
"Name it."
"Will Natsuki keep me company in the shower. Oh," Shizuru held up her hands, "I don't mean join me in the actual shower. But would you sit on the stool and talk to me? I get the impression that your organization doesn't want me going to my classes, or even leaving the building unattended, so, while you doze, I've very little to do. A chat with you might help lessen the tedium."
Natsuki smiled, "Sure."
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Shizuru did step out of the safehouse briefly, after Natsuki had turned in. She went to a small shrine, now abandoned, on a nearby hill.
"I have found Dr. Kuga's progeny," Shizuru spoke in prayer, "And to find that she has been afflicted with the self-same curse that Dr. Kuga sought to cure."
"Mistress," she heard the voice of her faithful family servant, Akira Okuzaki, behind her, "I have brought the sword."
Shizuru took the blade, which her family had named Destiny, from her servant, feeling the comfortable heft and grip of the blade.
"This blade has ended the reign of many a vampire, Akira," Shizuru drew it from its scabbard, admiring the way the light reflected off of the polished metal, "An unique blend of metals, including the strange silver found in a meteorite, this sword is unbreakable, as is my family legacy. With one exception. There is a vampire I intend to save with this sword.
"Akira, I want you to learn what you can about where the vampire Tomoe Marguerite makes her home. The tiresome beast dared to taste my blood, and I had to pretend to be a weak, helpless maiden at the time. But for the indignity, the indecency that she visited upon Natsuki? By the time I'm finished with her, she will beg me to allow her to die."
Akira bowed, "Mistress."
And then was gone.
Shizuru stared up at the morning sun, "Now, what can I do for my date with Natsuki, tonight? Hmmm. I do believe I saw a lovely dress in the shop window two blocks from our abode…"