Chapter One
Larva panted as he dashed through the shadows with Miyu in his arms.
"Larva! What is the matter with you?! Who was that guy back there?!" Miyu asked, raising her voice for the first time in many years.
"Cain." Larva said, as he reached up and produced a new cloak from midair and set Miyu down in one fluid movement.
"Who is Cain?" Miyu asked, calming down quickly, even for her.
"Cain is an old enemy. The last time I saw him was a little over two hundred years ago." Larva said, as he sat down and rubbed his eyes, for once looking anything but calm.
"Wow. That guy must have really rattled your nerves, Larva!" Shiina said, as she appeared next to the male shinma. Larva ignored Shiina's remark and closed his eyes. He could remember his first meeting with Cain very clearly. It was before he'd been sent to check out Africa for possible shinma colonization. He'd made a stop in England, so he could get a ship and a crew. He was aware that something out of the ordinary had happened only a few months before but had ignored the warnings of a few townsfolk to stay away from the place. The place they had mentioned was a town on the outskirts of London. The moment he'd stepped into the town, he could tell that something violent had occurred. Even though the bodies had since been buried, Larva could sense that there had been bodies strewn everywhere.
"I smell blood…………." Larva thought, as he stepped through the silent town. As he got closer to the center of the town, another smell came to his sensitive nose.
"Vampires! There were vampires here!" Larva thought, as the smell became even stronger.
"Well, well! What have we here? A shinma? Or another vampire, perhaps?" a sneering voice said, laced richly with a heavy French accent.
"Who are you? Show yourself!" Larva demanded, fearlessly. The voice chuckled mockingly at him, as the owner revealed himself. The other man wore expensive clothing; a velvet suit that came complete with smoking jacket, a gold watch and chain, and a black Inverness cape. He wore his long, waist length blond hair tied loosely back away from his face and his bangs hovered weightlessly over his cat-like golden eyes.
"I am Cain. I have traveled far, but have not seen you before. Are you a vampire or shinma?" the stranger asked, taking a step in Larva's direction.
"Don't take another step. If you do I will kill you." Larva threatened, stepping back and getting his scythe out, ready for a fight.
"Are you nervous? Are you……..afraid of me?" Cain asked, in a false tone of hurt.
"I'm not afraid of you, vampire, but I do know that your kind have been known to kill shinma from time to time." Larva said, keeping his eyes on Cain, but averting his gaze from the eyes.
"Ah, so you are a shinma! This should be entertaining!" Cain said, with evil glee, as he bit his finger and made a whip from his blood. Within a split second, a battle had begun. At first the two seemed evenly matched, but then Cain tricked Larva. He bit his finger again, this time producing a sword. After a few more moments of intense fighting, Larva landed hard on his left side, bruised and bleeding.
"Hmph. It's no wonder that shinma get killed by vampires……….you're a weakling. You're not even worth drinking from. Goodbye, shinma Larva." Cain sneered, before disappearing into thin air. Stifling a groan, Larva got to his feet and stumbled off, hoping that he could find someplace to rest before he could pass out.
"It took me almost a year to completely recover from my wounds. I was lucky that Garline had been in the area at that time, otherwise I would have died. What will happen now? How will we beat Cain? We're going to need some help. Serious help. Cain is not a vampire to be taken lightly." Larva thought, coming to his senses when he found that Miyu was peering up at him with a slight look of worry on her face.
"Larva, is there something you're not telling us?" Miyu asked, sounding uncharacteristically worried. Larva shook his head and gently cupped Miyu's face in his hands.
"Miyu, there is nothing I can hide from you. We need to find some help. Someone who can help us beat Cain; but I don't know where to start." Larva said, honestly. Miyu looked thoughtful, then Shiina spoke up.
"Hey, I think I know of someone who can help us!" Shiina said, getting the attention of Larva and Miyu almost instantly.
"Tell us, Shiina." Miyu said, gently.
"There's a vampire who lives close to the business district in Tokyo. His name is Shido Tatsuhiko and he runs a detective agency. He specializes on hunting down NightBreeds; beings that are just below Shinma in power. He has two partners; a human named Yayoi and another vampire named Rihou." Shiina said, nearly falling over when she saw Larva and Miyu look at one another an exchange a rare smile.
"Thank you, Shiina, you've been most helpful." Miyu said, getting a cheerful and egotistical look from Shiina (if it were possible for a shinma to look cheerful and egotistical).
"Aren't I always?" Shiina asked, giving Larva a dirty look when he muttered something under his breath and put his mask back on.
"Don't start, you two. I don't want to have to get after you about being like Nagi and Ichirou." Miyu teased, managing to ruffle Larva's feathers a little more by just mentioning Yui's guardian and the shinma boy, Ichirou.
Shido muttered an expletive under his breath as he got up from the floor. He'd fallen asleep in his computer chair (as usual) but this time had reclined a little bit too far and ended up on the floor. He could hear Yayoi, Rihou, and Guni laughing in the background and looked around the desk at them.
"It's not that funny, you three." Shido said, giving the three females the infamous anime flat-eyed look.
"It is, especially since I caught it on Polaroid!" Guni crowed, as she hefted the heavy camera out for all to see, put that down, then flew around with the newly developed picture, furthering Shido's frustration.
"Oh, Guni, would you like to have a first person view of what a wad of toilet paper sees before it gets flushed?" Shido threatened, before diving for Guni and running after her, while Yayoi and Rihou watched with amusement. No one was aware that two figures waited outside their door until Yayoi happened to glance that way.
"Shido! Guni! Clients!" Yayoi called, over the chaotic scene of Shido chasing Guni with a rolled up newspaper. Both of them stopped what they were doing and both went back to what they had been doing previously; Shido sitting at his desk and Guni hiding in the flowers.
"Come in!" Shido called, as the door opened and a young girl stuck her head in, giving the place and him an incredulous look before she entered, with an eerie looking man and rabbit-like creature in tow.
"Is this Tatsuhiko Detective Agency?" the girl asked, quietly.
"Yes, it is." Shido replied.
"Such as it is." Yayoi muttered, getting an irritated look from Shido for her comment.
"We're in need of your assistance." The girl said, calmly. Shido arched an eyebrow.
"Shido, that guy and the rabbit thing are shinma!" Guni whispered, as she eyed the two creatures warily.
"I see that your green companion is a little leery of us." the girl said, coolly.
"For good reason! Shinma can sometimes be even worse than Breeds!" Guni said, bravely.
"It's not us you have to worry about; it's Cain." The man murmured, his voice slightly muffled by the mask he wore. Shido and his companions froze; they knew that name!
"Cain………………..how do you know about him?" Shido asked, suddenly dead serious.
"I met him a long time ago, shortly after a slaughter in an English town." The man said, taking off his mask and looking Shido in the eye. Shido paled; he knew what event the male shinma was talking about.
"Tell me, what are your names?" Shido asked, shaking himself out of his guilt-ridden thoughts and focusing on the business at hand.
"I am Miyu, Guardian of the Shinma and this is my servant Larva. The smaller shinma is named Shiina. She's the one who suggested we come to you." The girl said, with the same calm tone she'd first used when she'd entered the room.
"Guardian of the Shinma?" Rihou asked, obviously not understanding the meaning behind Miyu's title.
"She's guards the realm between the humans and the shinma, much like you and Shido do, only she's officially nominated for the job." Shiina said, matter-of-factly.
"So that's means she's a vampire, like us, Shido-san." Rihou said, looking over at Shido as she said that.
"Like you, but not quite. Now, I need to know if you will help us, Shido. From what Larva is willing to reveal, the more help we can get, the better." Miyu said, quietly. Shido appeared to think it over, then sighed and stood up.
"Shido-san?" Rihou asked, as she and Yayoi looked questioningly up at the male vampire.
"Yes. I will help you. I've got too much at stake to refuse." Shido said, as he took Miyu's hand in his own and shook it.
"May I come too, Shido-san?" Rihou asked, looking anxious about the whole thing.
"I………………oh all right. You may come along, Rihou. It's not like you'll listen to me and not follow if I left you here. Yayoi, do you and Guni also want to come along?" Shido asked.
"Sure, so long as you don't try to flush me again." Guni muttered.
"If I can be of any help, Shido." Yayoi said, as she loaded her gun, prepared for anything.
"Okay. We've got a small team together, now what?" Shido asked.
"We go and collect Yui and Nagi. I should think that the Shi Clan will be laying low for a while, since Cain is terrorizing Japan." Miyu replied, as she opened the way to the shinma realm and the shortcut she and Larva usually took.
"Oh………………but who're Nagi and Yui?" Shido asked, as he and his companions stepped through the portal and disappeared without a trace.
