The Sacred Night, Chapter 12
"So, Himura-san, it's true," Okina observed, walking around me to face both of us.
"Sir?"
"You're a vampire, and now you've made Misao-chan one as well, correct?"
"Hai," I answered, hanging my head. "How did you know?" I asked after a moment.
"Surely you didn't expect me to believe you two were lovers? The girls told me that was what they thought, and while I don't know you all that well, Himura-san, I know my Misao," he gave her a meaningful look and she hung her head. "She would never betray her Aoshi-sama with another man," he finished, smiling momentarily. She looked up at the mention of her beloved. I had not known she was that serious about the man. Were they lovers? "Besides, I just saw her fangs, and while I've never seen yours, Himura-san, you are the only person here who could have changed her. I have wondered for awhile what your strange ki meant, and this is the obvious answer,"
"I see. I-I'll leave you now," I said, not waiting for him to order me out, as he inevitably would if I gave him the chance. In my place, a tiny red salamander began to scurry toward the door, but I was suddenly scooped up in the mouth of a small bird.
You're not leaving me now, a female voice said in my mind. Change back.
You heard your guardian. I can't stay here, and I'm not sure you can, either.
He didn't say that. He may have rejected you before, but now that I'm one as well, he'll have to let us stay. I'm family.
All right. We'll at least talk to him, but you don't know how people can be when they find out about this sort of thing. I've seen it.
That's all I ask.
The two animals were gone and in their places stood Misao and I. Okina still stood where he'd been, looking at us calmly. Many humans would not be so calm after seeing two normal looking teenagers change into animals in their own houses. He walked slowly and deliberately toward us and spoke as evenly.
"I was prepared to welcome you into this household in spite of your... nature, Himura-san, since you have been kind to us and have never attempted to hurt anyone here, however I cannot approve of your changing Misao-chan as well,"
"Gomen nasai, Okina-san," I replied quietly.
"Aren't you going to explain?" Misao turned from me to her guardian. "It was an accident. You saw how sad he was when he discovered that I'd changed, didn't you? He was just trying to bind... to do this thing where I would be immortal and he could feed on me without hurting me and I would still be human..." she explained, examining her guardian for some sign that he believed her.
"Is this true, Himura-san?"
"I'm your family and you're asking him if I'm telling the truth?"
"Hai, Okina-san," I answered.
"You would take her from her family to live in secret, I presume?"
"H-Hai,"
"I made that decision, Gramps! He was really reluctant to do it, and after I said yes, he made me wait three days to think about it before he would do it!"
"And now? What are your plans?"
"Misao-dono wishes to stay here, though I doubted we would be allowed,"
"And you could hide your 'immortality' somehow, I take it?"
"Hai,"
"And you will need humans on which to prey, correct?"
"Hai, Misao-dono will,"
"And yourself?"
"I'll be fine. I can leave here and you never have to see me again,"
"Will Misao-chan be able to do this process she mentioned in which she can prey on a human without harming him?"
"Hai. She knows how already,"
"Then you are free to leave if that's your wish," he dismissed and began to walk away.
I just stared dumbly, amazed that he was going to let both of us stay, and Misao didn't seem surprised at all- just happy.
Shortly after that, I got the opportunity to meet the man Misao had talked about so enthusiastically. Aoshi retuned to the Aoiya in the night and the next day, the only evidence of his presence was a nearly drained Okina. He had to be treated by a doctor, but he eventually came through. I knew Aoshi's secret.
I followed him that very night to where he was apparently staying. There were a few other vampires there, and one bound human. The human was a woman and the vampires were all male. Aoshi didn't socialize with the others much, just went to his own room. I slithered along the floor, assuming that with so many humanoids about, the small, soft body of a salamander would be in too much danger. I was a lizard partly because of this, and partly because when other vampires were about, extra protection was always in order.
In this form, my ki could still be read, so I had to stay in the shadows and not give them any reason to attempt reading it. I passed several rooms that housed vampires involved in different activities. Some trained with human weapons, some meditated, and one heavily bandaged vampire was feeding on the woman. I didn't know what could have done enough damage to a vampire for him to require that many bandages, but I didn't want to find out. I passed by, wanting only to find Aoshi and help any way I could. Misao wanted him back and didn't know he was like us. Okina had been injured. Aoshi himself was very likely in a lot of turmoil, and needed to know his family would still accept him.
Once inside his room, I abandoned my secretiveness- I couldn't have a conversation with him without showing my presence. I walked out into the dim light, still a lizard, and waited for him to read my ki. He apparently recognized me, and walked out to the middle of the floor where I was. I stood to my full humanoid height and still had to look up at a considerable angle to look the man in the eye.
"Battousai," was all he said. That name harked back to a time when I was not only a ruthless vampire, but also made extensive use of my skill in human combat methods. It had been a sort of trademark, if you will.
"Shinomori Aoshi, I have a message for you," I announced calmly.
"Who commands such authority as to use you as a messenger?"
"The message is from me. Your family and Misao-dono want you to come home,"
"Really? I don't know which is more surprising, that you know Misao or that you said that knowing why I cannot go back to her,"
"There is more you don't know. Misao-dono is one of our kind now," his eyes narrowed.
"You changed her?" He stepped toward me threateningly, protective of one who was not even there.
"Hai, but I was only trying to bind her and it went wrong. She was willing," he nodded and relaxed. "I can see you care about her, then,"
"Hai. I can't bring her into this, though..."
"Don't. Just go home. Okina-san knows what we are and has allowed us to stay. Everyone there needs you back,"
"I can't do that. They're humans- humans do nothing but oppress us. We are stronger than they are, but we hide from them. They make us ashamed of what we are. I can't go back to them,"
"That's not true. I'm a vampire, and they've accepted me. They've accepted Misao-dono, and we don't feed on them,"
"Vampires like that are weak,"
"Am I weak?"
"If you live harmoniously with humans, yes,"
"You're wrong,"
"Prove it," he drew a sword.
"I don't want to fight you, Shinomori-san,"
"I will never accept humans unless you prove to me that I should," he replied, not moving his sword an inch.
"With human weapons?"
He narrowed his eyes disdainfully and threw his sword aside, along with another that had been concealed. I had not meant that we should fight hand to hand- I was trying to avoid a fight altogether. I suppose he took it another way, though, because he was advancing, apparently weaponless. He suddenly disappeared, and I was surrounded by Aoshi. I turned, trying to follow his motions and hopefully block them, but suddenly out of nowhere, a kick landed squarely on my jaw. My body spun away from him and he surrounded me again. I cursed my wording- I would never have knowingly consented to a hand to hand fight. My skill was with the sword, and worse, it seemed my opponent had the knowledge I lacked. He was Misao's leader, and she had assured me she could fight also. I began to understand the purpose of this organization to which they belonged better.
He was baiting me. He stayed in the eye-crossing pattern of movement for a moment longer, and I decided to take a shot. I couldn't tell where he was at any one moment by looking, so I aimed a kick at an afterimage and carried it through an entire circle around myself. This experiment failed, however, and my blow just went through several ghostlike Aoshis. He had the perfectly silent grace of a ninja. From somewhere in the room, I heard his voice calmly mocking my futile attempt, and I almost got dizzy.
The combination of the blurred movements and the sound moving around me made me slightly nauseous, worsened by the fact that the sound was coming from a completely different place than where it appeared it should be. I squeezed my eyes shut for only a second, knowing I would recieve a blow for it, but needing to clear my brain even more than I needed to avoid the next hit. I did, in fact, get a punch in the face while my eyes were closed, but I noticed something important.
When his hand made contact, his ki seemed to come from the space to my left, while from the angle of his punch, he was clearly in front of me. Apparently, not only were my eyes and ears too slow to tell me where he stood, so was my ability to read ki. If I could block out the dizzying combination of blurry vision and distorted hearing, though, perhaps I could get an accurate sense of his position by reading his ki and adding a quarter turn to it. Before I could implement this idea, however, a foot planted itself in the small of my back, nearly knocking me to the floor.
I pitched forward, but didn't fall, and I coughed a couple of times. I suppose he thought I was finished there, because he didn't bother to circle me again before striking. He stopped directly in front of me, and before his ki-image in my mind had passed my left side, I thrust the heel of my hand up under his chin, forcing his head up so he couldn't see what he was doing. I avoided the blow he intended for me and landed one of my own at the same time. He was momentarily off guard, and I punched a few more times, not caring for the shot in the dark that a kick would be for one such as me, not trained in unarmed combat. I could soon see that a series of punches was not going to fell him, and if I didn't hurry, he was going to begin the nauseating flow of motion that had perplexed me from the beginning. I aimed a kick at his side, and he staggered back a few paces, enough for me to deliver the blow that knocked him off his feet.
I stood still another moment, sure he would rise again and disappear, but he didn't. He stayed there a moment, and when he did stand, it was slowly. I was confused, but he seemed to consider the fight over, so I readily accepted that. I was also confused by the fact that I'd won an unarmed fight without turning into a dragon, as I often did. It didn't seem like it would help in this situation. He walked to the corner where he'd cast his swords and put them back in their places under his long, white coat.
"I see," he said at length. It was as if there had been no fight, and I'd just made a particularly interesting point in words.
"Will you go back to Misao-dono?"
"Misao. I can't seem to think of her as one of us. She's always been a child,"
"Perhaps you should see for yourself. She was willing to let me bind her and to travel with me afterward, but now that she's been changed, she can stay at the Aoiya and she'll be able to hide what she is from most humans,"
He looked at me wryly when he said that- he must have tried the very same thing and found it unfruitful, as I had with my shishou. "She won't be able to hide it from the Oniwabanshuu. I will talk to her, though- perhaps she'll want to come with me," he smiled barely perceptibly at that last statement. I was sure she would agree.
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Laurika: it is going to get more interesting. Misao is sort of weird, though, so your comment is not entirely inaccurate... but though ken would look good with black hair i guess, red is just better. I love red hair, and his is wonderful- it's the main basis of most girls' attraction for him, if you ask me.
Ms. Zeal: no, it would not work, for precisely the reasons you said, but also because vampire blood to a vampire is like junk food- it tastes better than human blood, but is not very nutritious.
Houndingwolf: yay! Suspense is so much fun to write, though perhaps the readers hate me for it... lol.
Yuhi-thedoerofevildeeds: one of your guesses was right, though i won't say which.
Cheesecake: cute name. no, hiko has never been just a drunk, he's too smart for that. Just ask him and he'll tell you himself, lol. Ken would never kill himself in front of people, but i'm not planning on having him die at all, since I, you know, like him... and yes i am VERY sure ken and misao will not be together in this fic. I don't care for that pairing, and he is too old for her anyway. Tomoe has already died, but he was with her at one time, and kaoru will be in the future. Thanks for saying you likeys!