Hello everyone! Yes, I'm still alive "
Sorry for not posting often anymore, but, yeah, I got a new job which is taking a huge amount of my time... Adulting sure is hard TwT
Anyway, I want to thank everyone who is patient enough to still follow me, and of course to the new readers! :D It makes me so happy that there are more and more people that like my story. I hope I won't disappoint anyone as the plot goes on!
That said, enjoy the new chapter!
A few days had passed. Many people in the Hyoutei clan had expected their leader to be furious, livid, because his valuable prisoner had been taken away; but Atobe wasn't.
Of course, he wasn't happy at all about that situation, for the Scanner had literally slipped through his fingers. He had started to think of a way to get her back the moment he had made sure that Yukimura had indeed left with her, and not hid somewhere inside his mansion. Apparently, their mission's objective was to simply retrieve the 'tool', and not destroy Hyoutei, as Atobe had understood when he saw them retreating fast.
He would make Yukimura pay for underestimating his clan; he would make him pay dearly the great error of withdrawing and leaving so many alive.
In fact, there had been less casualties than he had expected, no more than thirty – most of them having fallen by Yukimura's hand. Several more had been injured, of course, but the most threatening wounds had been quickly dealt with by Hyoutei's Healers.
And now, the top of the clan were having a meeting, discussing of a new strategy.
"There is no need to find a way to bring her back." Oshitari had interrupted their leader all of a sudden, earning an icy glare that was however unable to wipe off the light smirk on his features.
"The spell on the girl is still active." The tensai explained. "I'm able to tell if it's disabled."
"So what? The Scanner's not here, yeah?" Shishido scoffed. "So spell or not, it makes no difference."
"Why so sour, Shishido? You mad cos that gorilla of Rikkai ruined your cappy?" Gakuto mocked him, causing the other man to show him the middle finger.
Sure, he resented Sanada for tearing his blue cap, but at least it had been that piece of clothing and not his life that he had lost.
"Shuddup. Who was the one jumping around like a crazy monkey?" he retorted, making Gakuto pout.
"Hey, I was fighting that damn Kikumaru from Seigaku; curse him and his cat form!"
"Enough!" Atobe growled, and the two went quite, though they were still glaring hatefully at each other.
"As I was saying." Oshitari resumed speaking, once sure that nobody would interrupt him again. "It's true what Shishido said, that the Scanner isn't here. Yet. Because as long as she's under my spell, I can always have her come back here."
Atobe looked at him and scoffed. "And Yukimura will leave the doors open for her to walk out of wherever it is that he's keeping her."
"Of course not. But we've got an advantage." The tensai reminded his leader. "How long will it take for Yukimura to feel so heartbroken that he'll leave himself open? You more than anyone should know his major weakness: his attachment to Humans."
Atobe's eyes widened slightly. Yukimura's attachment to Humans…
Fleur.
The leader of Hyoutei smirked and flipped his hair. "But of course. She'll struggle to come back to ore-sama, yes? And Yukimura will need to restrain his beloved little girl."
"Exactly." Oshitari purred, his smirk widening slightly. "We just need to stay put and wait."
And so, instead of a plan of attack, they started to discuss how to repair and improve their defences; unfortunately, they had been able to use the Scanner's powers for a very limited amount of time, and there had been barely results. Next time, Atobe promised to himself, things would be very different.
Around the same time, in Rikkai, Hirari had been put in an isolated place, under the care of both Yanagi and Inui. The two Magicians were trying to find a way to break Oshitari's grip on her mind, but it was proving more difficult than expected. Possibly, they had concluded, because he was a Vampire.
Yukimura came to visit her often, watching her with sad eyes every time, his heart clenching. They had to put her under a sleeping spell to avoid any struggling: the first hours after returning, she had spent them trying to attack the people around her to get to the door, a few times injuring herself in the process.
Thus, to prevent her from accidentally getting harmed, Yanagi had cast that spell to keep her quiet while they tried to figure out how to make her return back to normal.
The leader of Rikkai entered the room quietly, his eyes looking for her sleeping form at once. "Any progress?"
Yanagi shook his head. "Sorry, Seiichi. He's tough."
"I've never battled a Vampire that can cast spells that strong before." Inui told him. "He's also the one who put the barrier around Hyoutei, by the way."
"We have recognised the trace of his aura." Yanagi explained, and Yukimura nodded.
They were in a disadvantage. Even with the Alliance, they had too few members to be able to complete with Hyoutei, who had over two hundred – though maybe a little less now after Yukimura killed so many. At least one Demon had survived, and two of the strongest people of the clan were Vampires.
Maybe, Yukimura thought, it was time to get in touch with an old friend.
"There's a higher chance now to convince him to help us after what happened to Kikuta-kun." Yanagi suddenly spoke, as if reading his friend's mind – which he could have, but of course didn't. Somehow, he was just very good at reading people in a normal way, too.
The leader nodded. "I'll go at once; please keep Hirari safe while I'm away."
Yanagi nodded. "Will do. Ah, you might want to buy a plant of belladonna… They have a very healthy one in the shop at the end of the street."
Yukimura blinked in surprise, but then chuckled lightly. "Good idea. Thank you."
And so, after glancing one last time to his dear human girl, he left the room.
Inui sighed lightly. "Still a 65% chance that they'll effectively come."
"65,58%, Sadaharu. And this number will never increase any more than that. It's our last chance." Yanagi replied, causing his childhood friend to sigh slightly. "I know, I know…"
Yukimura took his time in the plant shop. He had found the belladonna at once, but he had eyed a few nice dahlias in there as well.
What a nice colour they had! So bright and full.
The leader of Rikkai found himself starting at them with soft eyes, a light smile on his lips.
Perhaps he could bring one to Hirari, and then another one in her room in their apartment! Who knew, maybe smelling a familiar scent would help her. No harm in trying.
Yukimura paid for them, asking the old lady whose shop belonged to if she could keep the dahlias for him, since he planned on retrieving them at a later time that day.
Thankfully, the gentle woman agreed, and thus handed him just the thick belladonna for him to take.
And so, he smiled softly at her before leaving the shop. Calmly he walked away from the main road and towards the smaller alleys; as soon as he found one in the shade, and checked that nobody could see him, he disappeared, teleporting to the other side of Japan.
From Kantou to Kansai. From Yokohama to Osaka. From Rikkai to Shitenhouji.
As he neared the gates of the huge temple that hosted Shitenhouji's HQ, Yukimura let out a soft chuckle: he had just remembered something that Hirari had told him some years before.
'You sure have it good, to be able to teleport anywhere at any time', she had whined.
That day she had returned from a long school trip in Germany, having had to wake up early for the check-in. Apparently, they had been in queue for over 2 hours, causing them to nearly miss the flight. And then they had travelled for more than 15 hours to reach Tokyo. Therefore she had been very tired and it had been no wonder that she had uttered those words once returned home.
That was why about a week later Yukimura had offered to bring her anywhere she wanted for a day. Hirari had been incredibly thrilled about this, and after pondering for a long time she had eventually opted for Italy.
That had also been the day when they had found out that she had a unique illness, that Yanagi had named 'Teleportation Sickness'…
Yukimura snapped out of his thoughts only when he had reached the main gate. He rose a hand in order to ring the bell – not a doorbell, but an actual bell made of metal – though he didn't have the time to even touch it, that the doors opened.
"Yukimura-kun, long time no see!" greeted a cheerful voice with a strong accent.
Yukimura's smile widened as he looked to his old friend and fellow plant lover Shiraishi Kuranosuke, a Vampire like himself and the leader of the clan Shitenhouji.
"Long indeed", Yukimura agreed, stepping closer to him. "I hope I'm not disturbing."
"You? Never." Shiraishi reassured him, moving aside to let him enter.
His eyes suddenly started to sparkle as soon as he spotted the plant in his friend's arms.
"What a beautiful belladonna!" He exclaimed, suddenly excited.
Yukimura chuckled softly. "I'm glad you like it, because it's for you."
Shiraishi smiled widely. "Really? Why, thank you! I'll make sure to have some dahlias sent to Rikkai as soon as we're out of this mess."
As he spoke, he led Yukimura to the huge garden inside of the temple, in particular to the corner where he kept his beloved poisonous plants.
Yukimura looked at him in slight surprise. Surely he wasn't alluding to the 'thing' with Hirari…?
"What happened?" he asked cautiously.
Shiraishi made a bitter smile.
"Some time ago we received a friendly visit from Rokkaku." He started to tell.
Rokkaku was a very laid back clan from Chiba. They weren't among the strongest but had a very open policy and were quite unique. They had a good relationship with Seigaku, though just like Shitenhouji they were a neutral clan – they didn't like fighting too much.
"That's nice of them." Yukimura commented.
Shiraishi nodded.
"Indeed." He agreed. "They were in Kyoto for some business, I think, and since they weren't too far, they decided to drop by."
Yukimura kept silent as he listened. Could it possibly be that Hyoutei had stroke there? After all, their tensai Oshitari Yuushi's cousin Kenya was one of the best members of Shitenhouji…
"I know what you're thinking." Shiraishi said softly. "But no, it wasn't them. In fact, it was Higa."
Yukimura's eyes widened. "What!?"