Unlike the other heirs Chiori was living in a house all her own. It wasn't far from LME so the king hadn't seen a problem with letting her stay there with her own small coven. Upon arriving Kyoko and Kanae saw just how small that coven was. Chiori's mother opened the door to the massive mansion. They quickly learned that this was because they only had one servant who was cooking dinner.
Reino and Miroku were instructed by Kanae to wait outside by the gate as Kyoko and her entered. She didn't trust the two though she couldn't explain why. Neither of them spoke much to her and they didn't seem to really mind being ordered around. They complied and stood tall at the gates bowing to both her and Kyoko. But then she thought about it and wondered where they were when Kyoko had woken up from that nightmare screaming. They were meant to be standing guard at her door, but Honami had said they had left only an hour after Kanae had gone to bed. Were they simply shirking their duties when they thought they wouldn't be caught or was something else going on? She couldn't shake the feeling that something else was going on. Kyoko wouldn't tell anyone about her nightmare, but Kanae was certain the queen was frightened of some presence in her room. It was obvious with the way she kept looking over her shoulder when she thought no one was looking at her.
Chiori's house wasn't big or opulent. It was a relatively normal sized house with worn but clean furniture. Chiori herself greeted them shyly with a bow. Her simple shift dress was the same cut and style as she had worn to earlier, but it was a pale lilac now. Kyoko was still in her lilac dress as she couldn't find a way to take it off. Honami had told her she would have to ask the king to remove it as no one else would be able to break his enchantment on the fabric. Kyoko had refused as one it would be too embarrassing him and two, she wanted to avoid seeing him at all costs.
"Welcome Kyoko-Hime to our humble abode. I am honored that you accepted the invitation." Chiori's mother greeted with a deep bow.
"Mother, you should go check on Yoshimoto in the kitchen." Chiori said before her mother could speak further to Kyoko.
"Yes, I suppose I should." Her mother said. "Excuse me Kyoko-Hime, Kotonami-san." She bowed her way out of the room nervously.
"Excuse my mother. She doesn't get out much or speak to nobles often." Chiori said with a graceful bow.
"But you are nobility." Kyoko said curiously.
She still wasn't quite certain how anything worked. The Kotonami coven were descendants of one of Hizuri Sakiko's children and originally higher in rank than the Koenji coven but had somehow lost status and their powers. The Amamiya coven were descendant from a child of Tsubasa, but they no longer held any status or wealth. Meanwhile the Duris and Hizuri coven had seemingly exiled themselves and refused to name an heir. And the Morizumi and Fuwa had managed to manipulate themselves into power. At least the king knew better than to trust those nobles who picked on the less fortunate.
"My family lost all our fortune over the years. It was nobody's fault but our own." Chiori spoke demurely with her head held low.
Feeling sorry for her Kyoko reached her hand out but Kanae pushed it down rolling her eyes. This queen was much too gullible and trusting. Kanae wanted to shake her and remind her that all nobles are conniving sneaks. The Amamiya coven were no exception. All they were doing was trying to garner sympathy and favor. Kanae wondered if they thought that was what she had done to get her position. As if she had asked to be the queen's babysitter.
"Please come this way Kyoko-hi…" Chiori started to lead her to the dining room, but Kyoko interrupted.
"Kyoko-chan, please."
"Kyoko-chan." Chiori said with a nod.
She had expected this. Honami and Yuka had informed her that the queen was weird about people showing her proper respect. Chiori clenched her fists thinking that this naïve twit didn't deserve respect anyway. What did she know about vampire society? Kyoko had spent her life sheltered away from the ridicule and abuse of the other nobles. Kyoko had not had to endure the backstabbing or treachery that Chiori had. Kimiko had tried to kill all of the other female heirs more than once. And Ruriko had stolen all of their betrotheds. Meanwhile most covens owed massive debts to the Koenji coven thanks to Erika's schemes. Chiori bit her lip nervously. If she didn't dig up dirt on the new queen, then Koenji would come to collect more of her debt. This time she feared they would take Yoshimoto. For the Amamiya coven had nothing else to give. They were out of money, servants, and time.
Kanae eyed Chiori suspiciously. She had seen her fist clench and surreptitiously pushed Kyoko behind herself as they followed Chiori to their seats. Kyoko took in the sight of the peeling wallpaper.
"What happened to your family portraits?" She asked noting the discoloration on the walls where pictures once were.
Chiori flinched and admitted, "We had to sell the frames." She had not been anticipating that question. The other nobles wouldn't have cared to ask.
Kyoko looked at Chiori with sad eyes and wondered if she could make new frames for Chiori to hang on the walls. To Chiori her eyes looked like they were full of pity and Chiori sneered at that turning quickly so Kyoko wouldn't see it. How dare this fledgling see her as pitiful! How dare the sheltered little girl look at Chiori as though she were some sort of charity case!
"Chiori-chan," Kyoko called to her and Chiori cringed at the familiarity. The queen might be fine with people not treating her with respect, but the other heirs would not stand for it. It was unfortunate that they could not object to Kyoko calling them whatever she pleased.
"Yes, Kyoko-chan?" Chiori replied in a saccharine voice.
"I like your house." Kyoko said earnestly. "You don't have statues or large empty vases. It's all very simple and neat."
Was she picking a fight? Chiori seethed on the inside. She knew that her house was plain. They had had to sell all their decorations. Their expensive antique vases were probably in some room at Erika's summer house collecting dust.
"At the Takarada mansion everything is so extravagant that I'm afraid to touch even the walls. LME is pretty much the same. It's cluttered with superfluous nick knacks that Takara..ah.. I mean my father insists on paying exorbitant amounts of money on. At least that's what I have learned from spending time with Tsuruga-san." Kyoko said as Chiori pulled out a chair at the short faux wood dining table.
"You spend time looking at your father's expenses when you're with the king?" Chiori asked eager for any information regarding their relationship.
Kyoko pouted. "He says it's necessary that I am trained to rein my father in. I think Tsuruga-san just doesn't want to do it himself anymore, so he plans on making that my job. I also have to coax Maria-chan into not buying so many dresses and, ow!" Kanae kicked Kyoko under the table to keep her from divulging anymore. She wasn't sure what kind of information Chiori could glean from Kyoko's mundane daily dealings with the king, but she didn't want to take any risks.
"Are you alright?" Chiori asked eyeing Kanae suspiciously.
"Yes, I'm fine." Kyoko said glaring at Kanae.
"Chiori-chan, are you a hunter?" Kanae asked knowing full well that Chiori no longer hunted. She used to be a child prodigy but had been captured and nearly eaten by a ghoul. Now she was too traumatized to hunt.
"No." Was Chiori's curt reply.
"Why not? I've seen you training with the other heirs and you're very good." Kyoko said.
She had sneaked into the smaller training grounds and watched Chiori subdue Erika, Kimiko, and Ruriko with her bare hands. Chiori wasn't the strongest of the four, but she was the fastest and she was cunning.
"The king has requested that we train so I do so to the best of my ability. I would rather not fight though." Chiori said and Kanae snorted. Chiori's brow twitched in annoyance, but she kept her expression cheerful and innocent. "Do you think you'll become a hunter Kyoko-chan?"
Kyoko blushed and nodded saying, "Tsuruga-san isn't really giving me a choice in the matter. He says I'm too powerful to become another lazy noble." Her gold eyes grew wide, and she hurriedly shook her head and waved her hands in the air. "Not that he thinks of all nobles as lazy."
"We are all kind of lazy though." Chiori said with a soft smile.
"No, I've seen the training. You are all really exceptional at utilizing your abilities. The way Ruriko-chan uses her voice to hypnotize her opponents without them noticing is amazing. And then before you attack you get this beautiful dark aura around you that momentarily paralyzes your opponents. I wish I could do that."
Chiori blinked at Kyoko confused.
"I get a dark aura?" she asked afraid that the queen might have seen something she didn't want her to.
"Yes!" Kyoko nodded. "It's almost like these hands reaching out to grab whomever you're sparring with. Tsuruga-san can do that too but his are much more overbearing. I prefer the way you do it. It's more subtle."
"The king has a dark aura?" Kanae asked. She had never of the king having an aura or Chiori for that matter. She wondered if Kyoko could see things that other people couldn't.
"The king has a scary darkness that reaches out to trap me. Have you never noticed that he manipulates shadows?"
Kanae and Chiori shook their heads. Intrigued Chiori played up her innocence and leaned closer to Kyoko.
"The king never really showcases his abilities to anyone. We all know that he is extremely powerful, but he doesn't train with us. He was an elite LME hunter before becoming king. Some say he was second only to the most powerful and revered Hizuri Kuu." Chiori said hoping Kyoko would let more information slip.
"Hizuri." Kyoko mumbled recalling Ren's distaste for the coven. "There is no Hizuri heir here." She said looking at Kanae for an explanation.
"Didn't your husband tell you already?"
"I was told the heir vanished, but Tsuruga-san also said that the current Hizuri heir is a Duris and a Hizuri. When he said it, I didn't think much of it but the way he had spoke made me feel like he knows the heir is still alive." Kyoko said falling into deep thought. What if they were hiding the Hizuri heir? The curse Sakiko had placed on them had taken its toll on the heir and they had to be locked away. It had to be kept secret so no one would use the information against the Hizuri.
"While it is true that Kuon-sama was going to be named heir to both Hizuri and Duris, it was never made official. Duris has another golden child they could name heir. As for him being alive, there's no way for any of us to know. Rumor has it he turned into a vukodlak." Chiori said in an ominous voice. "He went mad with thirst and indiscriminately killed everyone who tried to subdue him. It took Takarada-sama, Ruto-san, Hizuri-sama, and Duris-sama's combined strengths just to wrestle him to the ground."
"Oh?" Kyoko said feeling a kinship to Kuon.
"It was sort of like that rumor about you nearly killing all of Akatoki's top hunters. They say only the king was strong enough to subdue you." Chiori added in a nonchalant manner. "But that's only a rumor, right? You certainly don't look like a vukodlak."
Kyoko shivered at the thought of becoming a vukodlak. She had yet to see a depiction of one but the way they were described was enough to give her nightmares. They were blood thirsty and deranged. Their fangs were elongated to the point where they no longer fit in their mouth and their claws became deadly talons. Some people had told her they grew fur but didn't turn all the way into an animal like a strigoi would. Others said their pulsing veins became more prominent and that they even oozed blood from their orifices.
"Don't be silly. Kyoko-chan was living with Maria-chan at the Takarada mansion until recently." Chiori's mother said entering the dining room with a cart of food. "I told you that I had seen her on occasion when I was there for work."
Kyoko scrunched her brows but kept her mouth shut. If the head of the Amamiya coven was lying about meeting her it must have been Lory or Ren's doing.
"Oh? Did you make dresses for her?" Chiori asked with a bright innocent smile.
"No, only for Maria-sama. But Kyoko-Hime was there studying." The elder Amamiya-san said as she fidgeted with the bracelets on her wrist.
"Hm? What were you studying?" Chiori asked as her mother and Yoshimoto served their guests.
"I couldn't tell you what I was studying on any given day. Most of the time the king has me reading about vampire ancestry or practicing different vampiric abilities." Kyoko said.
"Oh, funny that you haven't grasped the most basic abilities then if you've been studying for so long. I suppose that has to do with how long it took for you to come into your vampiric nature." Chiori said her innocent act wavering. She needed dirt and she needed it now.
"Yes, that is probably the reason, though I am told that I exhibit abilities unlike any other modern Upyr. Even father has never seen anyone who can, ow!" Kanae kicked Kyoko to shut her up and Chiori shot her a glare.
"We should eat." Kanae said cutting Kyoko's meat and taking a bite of it. She chewed and swallowed quickly then held up a finger indicating they should all wait a moment.
"It's not poisoned." Chiori said a little offended. The Amamiya coven had never been known or killing their guests royal or otherwise. They were docile creatures who sickened Chiori to no end with how easily they relented. Useless little push overs all but gave away their fortune to Koenji and Morizumi.
"It's good." Kanae declared slicing off another piece of raw meat and shoving it into Kyoko's mouth. "Eat." She said hoping Kyoko would catch the silent implication to stop talking.
Chiori looked from Kyoko to Kanae and bit her lip. There had to be a way to glean some juicy gossip about the king or queen.
After the dinner Kyoko said her goodbyes as Kanae did everything she could to rush her out of the door. Kyoko sulked on the way home listening to Kanae berate her in the back of Ruto's car.
"You might as well tell Morizumi-san directly that you almost became a vukodlak and that you have no control over your powers!" Kanae ranted. "Why am I stuck babysitting you all the time? It's such a headache. As if I care if you get manipulated by Erika."
"Reino-san offered to bring me." Kyoko said sullenly.
"As if I can trust him to look out for you. Hell, I'm not sure we can trust him period. He has shifty eyes and who knows what Katagiri-sama is plotting." Kanae said.
"I thought you didn't care what happens to me." Kyoko said her mopey gaze staring out the window. If Kanae wasn't going to be her friend and she couldn't trust the other heirs or her other guards, then who could she trust?
"I don't." Kanae snapped crossing her arms. Kyoko pouted and Kanae sighed resigning herself to protecting the naïve princess.
She took Kyoko to her room and checked the windows and closets then under the bed. Kyoko felt like a toddler waiting idly as her big sister checked for monsters under the bed. Honami and Yuka laid a thin white nightgown on her bed before they disappeared into her bathroom.
"All clear." Kanae announced ignoring Reino's derisive snort from the hallway. "Honami-san shut the door please."
Honami obeyed immediately, swiftly exiting the bathroom to close the door. The symbols on it glowed and Kyoko knew that if she opened it, she would be led into her private library instead of the hall. They still didn't trust her not to run away. She crossed her arms annoyed. As if she had anywhere to run away to.
"This way Kyoko-chan." Yuka beckoned from the bathroom door.
"I know. I know." Kyoko said walking past Yuka. "I can undress and bathe myself though."
"Yes, princess, ah, Kyoko-chan." Yuka stuttered motioning towards the deep square tub.
She was left alone to take her bath in peace, and she released a heavy sigh. Undressing herself she folded her clothes neatly before entering the filled tub. She lowered herself into the hot water and bought her knees to her chest. Resting her arms over her knees she buried her head in them and closed her eyes. It had been a long day of learning that she truly was alone. Kanae resented her, and the other heirs wanted the crown she hadn't asked for. She would gladly hand it and the king that came with it over to any of them.
It's yours though.
The sinister voice caused her eyes to snap open and she hugged her knees tighter looking around for the owner of the voice. Nothing but silence and empty space greeted her. Heart pounding, she grabbed the loofah and poured some soap onto it. She scrubbed her body quickly and harshly as she constantly looked around for an intruder. Her skin was red and raw by the time she finished, and she jumped out of the tub to wrap herself in her robe. In a hurry she threw open the bathroom door only to find that it did not lead her back to her bedroom but to a dark abyss. She screamed and slammed the door shut as a hand reached for her. Her shaking hands patted her robe searching for the corn stone that she had left on her nightstand. The door rattled behind her.
Pathetic. What a waste of good blood. The shadows in the corners of the bathroom encroached on her. Beathing heavy she pressed herself to the door as the shadows reached for her. She was paralyzed and helpless to fight back as the dark figure raised its hands to her throat. Her hand reached for the pendant still dangling from a choker around her neck and she felt it hum. A low ominous growl emanated from the shadows before they dispersed as a light grew from the pendent.
"Damnit Kyoko open the door!" Kanae's frightened voice strained through the door.
It was over. It had happened so fast that she wasn't certain it had been real. Her shaking legs stepped away from the door then she fell to her knees hugging herself.
"Kyoko!" Kanae rushed in and knelt beside her. "Kyoko!" she shook her by the arms noting that her skin was cold. "Kyoko, what's wrong?" She asked and hugged the girl to her chest.
Honami and Yuka entered the room feeling genuine concern. They could sense something dark close by. There was an odd smell lingering in the air that made them shiver with an unknown fear.
"Come on Kyoko-chan, let's get you out of here." Honami said helping Kanae lift her up.
"Here I'll dry your hair." Yuka said grabbing another towel as they exited the bathroom. She took one last glance around at the symbols on the walls wondering how anyone could get in.
"Tomorrow I'll ask Jelly-san to take reenchant this room." Honami said as they helped Kyoko get dry and dressed her. "Tonight, why don't we have a sleep over with you?"
"It'll be fun." Yuka said but she didn't sound like she thought any of this was fun.
NO.
Kyoko quivered as the voice whispered to her.
I'm sick of waiting.
"Get out." Kyoko heard her voice say. Her mouth formed the words against her will. "I want to be alone."
"Kyoko?"
"I said get out."
No, stay. Kyoko thought in panic. Her body refused to move. Her lips refused to speak her words.
Take off the pendent. The voice commanded. You can do it.
Kyoko watched in wide eyed horror as Kanae, Honami, and Yuka left the room, and she was alone again. She released a shuttering breath as her hand reached of its own accord to the choker and the material began to fall away from her neck.
Good girl. A little boring though. The voice complained and she felt hands creeping around her waist from behind.
"Corn." She breathed in panic and her body vanished.
