Disclaimers: Still not mine.
Warnings: Daisuke and Satoshi… elope? No, that's not the right word… explanations of some sort… vampires getting annoyed… you know. That kinda stuff.
Other: Well, it's bye-bye to Daichi after this. And the start of Dai and Sato going to find out more… well, Daisuke wants to know more, Satoshi already knows. So yeah. On with the story!
000
"Thirteen years, thirteen stars. Foul separate souls destined from the start. One dreaded prophecy; waiting to come true…"
Fragment Eight: Just your average Vampire…
It hurt. Why were there so many earthquakes lately? It didn't make any sense at all, and Daisuke's mind hadn't been working straight since Daichi messed up the summoning and sent this… this… guy here.
Daisuke groaned.
Well, at least he hadn't landed face first into the floor, which was hard enough to break one's teeth. He had come quite close to doing that a couple of times when he'd been younger; and that wasn't the sort of thing someone wanted to remember. Such a painful, painful memory.
Of course, since he HADN'T landed on wooden floorboards, that could only mean one other thing… "Get off me."
"Geh!" blushing furiously in embarrassment, the redhead practically jumped off the vampire, who just watched him impassively. "Ah… er… I'm sorry about that! I mean… er…"
Satoshi couldn't help but roll his eyes as the mortal got himself so worked up and confused that one sentence really couldn't have been made out by the boy. The earthquake amused him, though, and he could only wonder why and how it had happened. He used an elbow to prop himself up and was glad that he had gathered enough energy to actually move around and think straight now.
Eventually, he stood up and had to cover Daisuke's mouth to stop him from constantly stammering. "It's okay."
This meant that the redhead's blush turned darker, but at least he fell silent for the time being. For a moment, there was nothing but ill-awaited silence – and Daisuke was now wondering what would happen to him – but it was cut short when Aunt Aya burst into the room.
"Daisuke! Quick, it's your sister!" she yelled, worry written all over her face, "You're sister, quick, she's just, just--"
"Daichi!" squeaked Daisuke, falling into his own state of worried panic, "What happened!"
Aya was already bolting out of the room again, having delivered her messge, it seemed, "You best come downstairs! Take your friend with you, or send him home! Oh, the tragedy of it all!" Clearly she hadn't noticed that Satoshi was a vampire and the fact that it was quite dark in the room she had just entered in and run out of. Despite the fact that he was worried, the redhead sweat dropped. And he did so even more when Satoshi turned to face him, obviously waiting for an explanation.
"Er… that's my aunt… she's… ahaha…" then he returned to the situation at hand, "Er… I suppose you should come. I don't think anyone will notice the difference anyway!" After having friends like Takeshi and Masahiro, there was little that could surprise his aunt and uncle in his choice of friends anyway, "And the cloak will work from the sun… right?" He became unsure, not knowing anything about the vampire before him, and wondering why he was trying to be so… nice to him. Or whatever.
Okay, in truth, he was scared out of his wits, but he never really had a chance of showing it, and besides, he had gotten used to the wacky ways of his daily lifestyle due to Daichi, With, and… well, they seemed to be enough to really send the normality of life off the scales.
While he was thinking this, Satoshi was lost in his own thoughts. All those years of hardship and… well, being the black sheep in the family was all out of the picture. Besides the message that his mother had always told him, since he was old enough to remember, he didn't care about the state his family was probably in.
And he couldn't believe he was actually talking to a mortal who wasn't screaming like it was the end of the world. Then again, it wasn't like he talked to anyone anyway, so all this was new to him.
He noticed that the redhead seemed to be pretty hesitant and was shifting from one foot to another and then sighed. Well, he wasn't going back home, if he could call it that, so he might as well follow the mortal. Besides, this boy was part of the prophecy that his mother had told him about, right? Right, so that was all that he needed to do. Follow, and hope that something would make sense soon.
"I'll be fine," he said coolly. The lack of emotion in his voice made the redhead blink at this, but then managed a weak smile.
"Thanks, Hiwatari-san." Without further ado, he bounced out of the room, with With hanging onto him by the hair.
Satoshi followed after him at a much slower pace, making sure that his cloak was okay and hoping that it wasn't too light out. It wasn't that nice, the light, so why did it exist?
He stopped thinking like this and went down the stairs, where the mortal waited for him. The redhead seemed to have recovered well enough and was now smiling cheerfully and the vampire couldn't help but wonder how and why the boy was smiling so much.
Not to mention the fact that there was still that little prophecy that they needed to deal with, in one way or another. He was ready, but this guy… he doubted it, especially how he had reacted upon being told such a small piece of information.
It was just too much for his already overloaded brain.
"…?" Daisuke inclined his head, still smiling, but incredibly curious on what the blue-haired vampire was actually thinking. But he had the common sense in not asking any questions; it was clear that Satoshi wasn't much of a talker anyway.
It was odd though, but he didn't feel afraid with the fact that he was face to face with a real vampire. There were stories and rumors that flew around practically every village and it was the usual; beware the bloodsucking horrors, blah, blah, blah… so yeah.
So why was he so calm? Maybe he knew he was going to die but now…
Daisuke stopped at this. He was going to DIE!
"Kyu!" With hit him over the head with a tiny paw. This got the redhead back into reality, and he noticed that Satoshi was giving him an unreadable look and he sweat dropped, laughing nervously.
"Ah… sorry about that…" he muttered, before leading the way down a hallway that was then connected to the kitchen, where his uncle, aunt and twin were currently located, by the sounds of their voices. The redhead grimaced at the sight before him.
Both adults were bent over, looking grim as they tried to tend the long, jagged cut that was bleeding down Daichi's right leg. She looked pale and in pain, a bit shaken up, but otherwise fine as she wrapped a cloth gingerly around the wound. Blood split onto the tiled floor and the red droplets seemed incredibly out of place and she caught sight of him.
"Damn earthquake and dish shards…" she muttered, managing a weak smile at him, "Guess it was a good thing you weren't there either, huh?"
He rushed over to her side and bent down, carefully avoiding the shards of Tupperware that hadn't embedded themselves into his twins leg. "Are you okay! I mean, if there's still some left in your leg…" She waved him off coolly, although she winced in pain.
"I'll be fine," she told him, "Auntie already called and there's a healer coming over soon, so I'll be fine…" The fact that she was repeating herself was a clear sign that she was worried and less that fine in any other way.
"But Daichi…" he swallowed.
"It'll be fine, Daisuke."
While this was happening, Satoshi stood on the sidelines, watching with a hint of vague amusement. The fact that the mortal had a twin that looked almost like him - minus the long hair – was enough to surprise him just a bit and…
He paused and thought for a moment. There were two. So, then, who was the one talked about in the prophecy?
The sound of someone knocking on the door jerked them all back to reality and the twins uncle walked off and allowed the doctor to enter into the kitchen. The man scowled when he caught sight of the chaos and then bent over the red haired girl.
"How did this happen?" he asked coolly.
"The earthquake… she tripped… broken dishes…" Aya explained simply, and he nodded in understanding, before stooping down to help her up.
"I suppose we should check that in case you have any glass still embedded in there." He informed her.
"Na… I would think so!" complained Daichi, "I can still feel it!"
The doctor stopped at this, "Then why didn't you remove it!"
"Don't yell at me! Stupid doctor!"
"Daichi! Respect your elders!"
"Hmph! He's only three years older than me or Dai-chan! Besides, he's the family doctor so I can be as rude as I want! I'm the one in pain!"
"Daichi!"
As they stumbled out of the room, still arguing, Daisuke grabbed a dustpan and proceeded in cleaning up the mess in case someone else got hurt. It was so annoying when that sort of thing happened, and Daichi was prone to getting injuries that were quite painful. But it was either her in pain, or… well, the people around her.
Watching silently, Satoshi didn't seem to care too much about the pain and agony around him and just watched as the mortal continued with his cleaning duties. The silence that followed was quite unbearable, but the redhead knew that if he didn't clean up the sharp mess now, then… no one would get it done and then someone else would get hurt.
He had so many questions to ask – and for a good reason – and he was still trying to find a way to get the vampire back to where he'd come from; he'd be much happier there, surely.
Dumping the last shards into a handy bin close by, Daisuke breathed a sigh of relief and then peered over at Satoshi, who had moved back into the shadows, the hood over his head to protect him.
"Uh… Hiwatari-san?" he questioned hesitantly.
The vampire looked up at him, "… you don't have to be so worried, I'm not going to bite you," there was some literal sense at this and he paused for a moment, "I mean…" Okay, that was the wrong thing to say.
"Eheheh…" Daisuke smiled slightly at this, but seemed to loosen up at the fact that the vampire didn't mean him any harm. "So… er…"
"You want to ask about what I said."
Not taken by surprise at this, he nodded.
Turning his head slightly to face the curious boy, he studied him for a moment and then nodded briefly. "I'll explain it upstairs, if you don't mind."
000
Some few hours later finally had Daichi coming out of the hospital-like room with a bandaged leg and grimacing quite a bit. As it turned out, she had somehow managed to sprain her ankle along the way so, as the doctor had instructed, she had to keep off that leg for a few weeks.
She wasn't happy with that decision.
Both her aunt and uncle sat by, waiting for her, and sometime Hikaru, her cousin, had appeared. She managed to grin at them, but then asked the question that was always popping up when she couldn't see them:
"Where's Daisuke?"
The strong bond of being twins was probably part of the reason for her asking, but he was the only person who knew her and her own fears, joys, friends and enemies; which she seemed to have a lot of, for some reason.
Hikaru, who had been reading a magazine to pass the time, shrugged and didn't look up; "You should have been more careful. Typical for a girl like you to do something like that."
"Hikaru!" her mother frowned at her in a meaningful way and the girl rolled her eyes before getting up. "We left Daisuke back at home. He and his friend should be the only ones there."
The fourteen-year-old blinked at this, perplexed, "Friend? What friend?"
"Oh, some kid. I don't know. I was worried about you."
"Some serious-looking kid," muttered the uncle helpfully.
Daichi could only stare at them, "But… when and who and how? I mean, the only other thing in the house besides Daisuke and With was…" then it hit her and she freaked.
"Not the VAMPIRE?"
000
It was quite dark by the time Satoshi had gone over the finer details of his explanation on the prophecy and Daisuke was confused beyond comparison. The vampire shook it off and had left for the time being to eat or… well, whatever vampires did, so the redhead had just gone off and was now flipping through a thick volume that explained the basics of monster summoning.
And that was just the basics.
Humming a low tune under his breath, Daisuke really wasn't reading what was in front of him and was mentally going over what Satoshi had just told him.
Prophecy. Dreaded doom. Blah, blah, blah…
How did they get dragged into it then?
Er…
He scowled.
His parents had passed away when both he and his sister had only been… five, if he remembered correctly, and they had been teaching them the finer lines of summoning and the rights and wrongs, despite their age. Also, their past teachers had been teaching a lot about those sorts of things, and the fact that most people didn't even need summoning suddenly sparked a suspicion that his parents had been aware of this… prophecy and had tried to prepare him for it.
Would that also explain why Daichi was so bad at summoning? Perhaps, but she would never admit it.
Lost in his own thoughts, the redhead was rudely interrupted out of them as his family burst into the room. On normal circumstances, he would have just blinked at them and asked them why all the noise, but the fact that they were wielding pitchforks, torches, and about half the village population following after them was enough to have him gawking before becoming indignant.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
"Where is it!" bellowed Takeshi's father, ignoring him. "Where's the bloodsucking demon!"
Unable to comprehend what was happening, Daisuke continued to gawk. Then his aunt and uncle stepped forward.
"Where is it, Daisuke."
"We have to get rid of it."
It… it? Did they mean… Satoshi? Daisuke's eyes widened at this and stepped back. He didn't know why, but this strongly reminded him of witch burnings, and if they thought HE was the one to summon Satoshi then… he might as well be dead.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, trying to keep as calm as possible, as With joined him at silent command. The rabbit-demon had been with him since he could remember, and there was no way he was going to allow With in the hands of these mad people while they were in a frenzy.
"The vampire!" this was Takeshi's father again, and he stormed forward and grabbed the collar of the boy's shirt, stopping him from moving. Both his aunt and uncle panicked at this.
"What are you doing!"
"Leave him alone! Don't do that to him!"
They would have continued to argue, but something hit the large man and the other two adults at the front with staggering force and they stumbled back. The window in the small room was open and, on impulse, the redhead slid over in that direction, where Satoshi was hanging by, looking as impassive as usual. "Er… Hiwatari-san?"
The blue-haired vampire grabbed his wrist, but only with enough pressure to stop the boy pulling away, "We're not going to hang around here. Come on, Niwa."
"Eh… but…" the sounds of panic behind him made him hesitate.
For the first time since that day, Satoshi showed signs of irritation and he rolled his eyes before climbing in, pushing Daisuke to allow him more space to get in with some form of dignity.
As soon as they caught sight of the blue-haired vampire, the villagers began to freak out again.
"Aaah! It's going to kill us all!"
"Kill it before that happens!"
"But I'm scared!"
"Idiots!"
Holding out both hands, Satoshi began to chant, but the words that came out of his mouth made no sense whatsoever and, as far as Daisuke was sure, it was in a completely different language. That and the fact that the villagers were fighting among themselves and were paying no attention whatsoever to them.
000
Outside of their home, Hikaru and Daichi were ignoring each other as they waited for the results of the… er… vampire hunt. Not that the girl was too happy about it; rather, she was glaring at her older cousin.
"How could you let them do that!" she demanded indignantly, "If they hurt Daisuke in the process, I'm going to make you wish that you'd never been born--"
The older girl silenced her with a scathing look, "If you don't remember, Daichi, you were the one who mentioned that bloodsucker and now we have to do what'' right. Even if that does mean that Daisuke may be hurt in the process."
"But that didn't mean you had to rally the entire village after it!" Daichi protested, glaring back. "I can't believe you would just do that!"
"Think hard about it," snapped Hikaru, "Both you and your brother are Daemon Tamers; I think that's a good enough excuse to be a bit paranoid about you and this is the reason why."
Unable to understand what she was going on about, the red-haired girl gaped at her, "You… you…" she spluttered, "All this time… you and aunt and uncle… never… always…"
She was lost for words.
000
The spell that Satoshi cast was one that Daisuke had never seen before and the first thing that flew into his head was that they were all dead. But it was clear that the vampire must have thought it over, because his statement after that confirmed it:
"They're not dead. Merely… asleep."
The boy turned to face him, and was less than surprised that the other's face was still expressionless. "But then…"
"If you're wondering why I'm not sucking all their necks," Satoshi suppressed a cringe, "I'm not a blood-lusting maniac. And we need to go. Now." He grabbed the boy by the wrist and proceeded on dragging him out again, but Daisuke pulled free. Scrambling over to his desk, he dug out a Hessian bag and stuffed a few items into it. Watching, the blue-haired vampire raised a brow.
"With!" he called, and the rabbit popped out from under his bed, where it had moved when Daisuke had gotten distracted, "There you are! Come on, let's go then, ne?"
And he was talking to a rabbit.
It wasn't long before they were actually outside and the redhead couldn't help but what was going to happen next. His head was in a whirl at this point and the only thing that he could do now was follow and hope for the best.
He couldn't do much else anyway.
000
Honestly, all I can say is… yeah, whatever. When it first came, I was actually considering doing the whole bloody massacre vampire thing, but I couldn't do it if my life depended on it, so yeah. That's why it came out rather… unharmed. And you really have to question Daisuke's sanity…
Reviews:
Hakudoshi-chan: Well what do you know. Well, it's either her way of showing that she cares for her well-being… or she's making up for 13 years of being unable to bash something to a pulp. Your choice.
chrnoskitty (er… I mean kittenoftime):D Thanks! I'm working on it… still!
neko-nya: Rain is okay… if you're in a dry place. And what's the point of drying off if you end up wet anyway? Hm… I don't really hate HATE Risa… she's just very annoying… and in this, she doesn't care about Dark and obsess over him, so that's why.
Kyo's little koneko: Okay… right… they aren't around for too long, though. They just need to carry out one mission/task and then they leave. No other roles for them.