His heels click against the earth as murmurs are whispered around him. Hands were cold, he felt clammy, and exhausted. Was it that stress was getting the better of him? It had not been like this for awhile…he theorized something was going wrong. Something will go wrong, his mind would protest. Everything seems to be moving at a rate that he cannot keep up with. Even some of his followers have disappeared because of their hunger.

"Who…?! Who are you trying to protect me from?!"

Oh, Mifuyu. Her terrified but angry voice resonated deep within his mind. Who was he trying to keep her away from? Himself or…his Leader? He blinks back to reality slowly when someone tapped on his shoulder.

"Master Ryouichi? Is something the matter?" It was a younger girl who appeared to be sixteen. An impure vampire. Like the majority of his following. He would only smile weakly and pat her head. He shook his head and said, "No. Nothing is ever the matter, my child."

Just looking at her tugged at his heart. Her face was clearly sunken in, her body was as frail as it ever could be, and she was too weak to stand. But she still smiled up at him. That smile she showed to him when he recruited her the very first time. It was so long ago that this happened. The more he tried to reach back to recall, his memory would fail him. Pains would crease and fold in the front of his head.

(Why did you pull a child into this, you monster?!)

(What do you think you're doing? Do you think you're doing the right thing?)

(What is it that you really want…?! Freedom? Or salvation?)

Ryouichi growls in agitation, walking away from the hungry vampire. "I am going to do the right thing. I have to." A picture of Mifuyu would enter his mind. That smile he lost so long ago due to his mistakes.

"This is for her. All of it is."

"MASTER RYOU!" A shout suddenly interrupted the silence of the cave. Her cry bouncing off the walls. His white hair swifts around when he turns to look at the commotion. It was a girl with short brunette hair. She looked a bit more healthier than the youngest he saw just now. This girl is only eighteen. So energetic and full of life. Even for someone starving.

"I have…! I have news…!" She breathes as she catches up to her master. A werewolf with shining hazel eyes gleams up at him as if expecting to get a treat for being such a good dog. Ryouichi raises an eyebrow at her.

"What is it, my child?"

She growls playfully, "You won't call me a child anymore once I tell you this!" She crosses her arms and takes a deep breath. "The plan worked! It really worked!"

Ryouichi blinks a few times. "What do you mean? What plan?"

She scoffs. "Aw c'mon, don't play dumb with me! You know, the plan to curse some of the students. Our leader said she talked about it with you! Ryouu, you work so often that you don't even remember what you do half the time~"

…Curse others? His heart starts to pound with anxiety.

"...Ah, I see," He lies. "I must have forgotten. Forgive me. Who did you end up cursing?"

"I cursed Yuma Mukami! It was a big deal. All I had to do was sneak into their manor while they were away and poisoned his crops. He must have gone to grab some a couple days beforehand because he attacked someone!" She was so happy. It was like nothing she was saying sounded wrong to her.

Ryouichi stills for only a moment. Trying to seal his rising concern. "...Excellent job, my…I mean, my loyal servant." He sways seductively. A poor attempt but it got her to wag her tail out of excitement. "Who was the one attacked?"

"That girl with the silver eyes, remember? Our leader wanted her out of the way!"

Everything broke inside his mind. Like dropping a glass on concrete.

"Now, do I get a reward for my good behavior~?" She asks, getting too close to the taller male. Ryouichi backs away with a nervous laugh. His seduction immediately took a back seat. "O-Of course you will, my loyal servant! I will talk to our leader about your reward."

She pouts. "Right nooow…?"

"Yes. Please wait, my…pet."

The werewolf swoons at his sweet nothings, falling to the floor in admiration to him. "I'll wait for you right here so you can find me easier!" Everyone that was around them started to whisper louder at her actions, but some clapped in encouragement for her. Meanwhile Ryouichi, on the other hand, was boiling with absolute anger.

He travels up the biggest cavern of the cave behind the stage where meetings took place and pushes back a huge but lavish red curtain. Behind that was a room decorated with more rubble of the caves they lived in, but relatively nicer than outside her command center. A red carpet aligned the floor when Ryouichi stepped in and when he looked straight ahead, that throne would be at the very end of the hall. She sits there with a hand on her right cheek. Her face was protected by some shadows as the light was more focused on the map. Ryouichi always knew she was bored. If she wasn't taking part in anything for long, she would find ways to make herself part of the 'party' as she says. In front of her would be a command table. It had tiny figures in separate sections across it. One side of the map would say "Kaminashi City" and the other half of the map would say "Makai." The big deep red circle at the end of the Makai section was labeled "Main Target: Eden Castle."

The woman looks up from her map to see Ryouichi at the end of the hall. Her smile would make chills crawl up his spine. He swallows a lump in his throat and approaches closer to her.

"My Leader, I-"

"...Are you speaking to me without giving me a proper welcome?" She asks slowly, lifting her head to see him.

Ryouichi takes a sharp breath and nods. "Forgive me," He grieves, getting down on one knee. His leader would giggle at his obedience. "You're such a good boy, my beloved Ryouichi. You don't need to do that if it's just us~"

"...I wanted to show you respect." He says, to which she scoffs.

"You always do anyway. I am only messing with you, however. What is it that you needed, beloved?"

He hated it when she called him that but, the feeling was shoved down for now in order to talk to her. Ryouichi rises and steps closer to her. "My Leader, there is something that is something that was brought to my attention just now."

"Oho? And what is that? Is it good news?" She asks, her smile only being shown from the aforementioned shadows.

"I was told by one of my followers that she has…cursed Yuma Mukami–"

"She did…?!" She jumps up from her chair, "Oh–that's wonderful! I didn't think that was going to work if I am going to be honest. The werewolf did a good job. Did the Mukami attack anyone or…did he perhaps," Her smile turned into a sadistic grin, "...hurt himself?~"

Ryouichi clears his throat, "No, he did not hurt himself. But he did hurt…" He hesitates and looks away from her.

"Yui Komori?"

The playful nature of her voice ceased. It seemed like her voice dropped a couple octaves. Ryouichi flinches and immediately looks at her. "N-No, he didn't hurt her."

She sighs in relief, the smile returning."Oh good! Then why are you being such a scaredy cat in telling me who he hurt? As long as he didn't hurt Yui Komori then there's nothing we have to–"

"Why did you assign that girl to curse Yuma Mukami, knowing that he's close to Mifuyu Satomi?" Ryouichi says quickly, anger starting to rise from his depths again. The woman slowly tilts her head, a smile now completely disappearing for good.

"...That is more of a problem to you?"

Ryouichi spills, feeling his own fangs enlarge in anger. "We do not need to cause any more unnecessary violence for our cause. It will only put us more in danger…so why?!"

His leader rises from her chair and walks around the battle table to approach him. She is…very short for her age. She only came up to his chest. Even if she looked young, she is nothing to be trifled with.

"Violence needs to spread to warn other people that we are serious," She begins, her voice rising back to its natural teasing tone. Only ever so slightly. "If we cause a rift between the people who wish to throw a wrench in our salvation, we need to take them out. Does that make sense to you?"

Ryouichi's eyes waver and takes one step back, letting his leader have some room in between.

"I…I suppose. But I do not wish to inflict harm on someone that I–"

"Do you care more about your dead childhood friendship than salvation?" She interrogates, stepping forward with a snap of her heel. The shadows were starting to reveal her form. Her eyes hummed with icy blue aura.

"N-No, I do not. My leader, I do not wish to harm her regardless. I asked you for this task to be left to me and you keep denying my request. You promised me that–"

"You had your chance," The woman interrupts. Paintings and other items within the room start to shake. Almost as if an earthquake was happening right now. "You had several opportunities for her to come to us. To change her into a vampire. To convince her that our cause will benefit humanity and the demons that lay dormant. But what do you do…!?" She smirks and pushes at his chest, knocking him back. He shuts his eyes out of fear.

"You attack her uncle out of rage and hunger! How can you go back to her and make yourself seem innocent when you are not?!" She barks out in laughter. "I cannot believe a dead relationship is being more prioritized than the woman who saved your life! Do you dare defy your Master?!" Everything in the room was falling down around them. If this kept up, the whole cave could collapse.

Ryouichi falls to the ground and begins to cry, nodding profusely. "N-No! No, I don't dare defy you! I swear to you, my leader! My heart, soul, body, and mind belong to you! You are the one that will lead us to salvation from the vampire king…! I know that you will! Please forgive me…!"

It stopped. The shaking, the wafting power coming from her, and the collapsing of the caves. Everything was normal when he opened his eyes again. It was like nothing happened. Did she…?

"Oh, my beloved…" The woman crouches down to him and takes him into her embrace, stroking his back. "You are forgiven. Don't be scared of me. It makes me quite sad…" Her hand trails up to his hair to brush it as Ryouichi weakly wraps his arms around her. "I just get angry at times when I am not listened to. You understand, right? That girl does the same to you."

A picture of Mifuyu's crying face flashed in his mind. That snowy night when he was the one that almost murdered her uncle. How…could he do something so horrible to her? That he didn't even remember that he did?

"...She does. You are right, my leader." Ryouichi mumbles through his sniffles. The woman smiles and helps him up from the ground. "That is the mindset you need to have for the rest of this mission, my beloved. We are nearing the end and we do not have much longer to wait. Everything will be ours and you will finally get what you really want. This I am certain." She smiles, brushing his bangs out of his eyes.

"...Get what I want…" Ryouichi nods to that and trails his larger hand through her crimson red long hair. "Exactly," She whispers. "Now, go along and reward that werewolf for her hard work. Perhaps she can snack on some meat as a treat for her loyalty." She nods to the notion and pats his shoulder.

Ryouichi, defeated, goes to turn away from her and walks towards the exit of her room. He blinks his tears away once he is past the red curtain. His hands turn into fists and he starts to run back toward the main area.

He has to save Mifuyu.

This cannot go on any longer.

Once he does leave, the woman turns back to her command table and throne, giggling to herself. "Yes…we're nearing the end, my beloved. Which I think now is the time to enact one of our main plans." She steps toward her throne with hands behind her back.

"Ryoutei Academy has finished its job of being my pawn. Now we can go for the bigger meat to eat." Her fingers trail against a patch of forest area near the outskirts of Kaminashi City. Her smile only gets bigger.

"Capturing Eve."

"Mifuyu Satomi?" A nurse calls out the ravnette's name, having her come back from spacing out. She stands and smoothes out the wrinkles of her school skirt before walking with the nurse. "He has been recovering well, but do try not to have him talk so much. His throat is still in shock from the attack," She says as she opens a sliding door to her uncles room.

Mifuyu nods and walks ahead of her. She stops her footsteps in front of the curtain as the door slid closed behind her. Taking a deep breath, she pushes open the curtain to see…a sight that she dreaded to witness. Her uncle was laying down with a couple of attachments on his neck and an IV implanted on his left arm. He was pale for sure, but looked like he regained some color since that night. His heart monitor was going up and down as it should silently. She clears her throat and goes a bit closer to her uncle.

"Hiroshi…? Are you awake?" His eyes would open slowly to the sound of his niece's voice. Dull pink eyes greeting her silver ones. He would smile and nod to her, moving one of his fingers to press a button to move up the bed to face her height.

"I was told ya can't really talk much because of…that, so I don't know if you want me here long." Hiroshi shook his head and soon got out a white board and sharpie, taking off its lid and beginning to write before showing it to her a few minutes after.

'I can talk like this, don't worry. How come you didn't come with Hina and Akari?'

Mifuyu shook her head, "I told them I wanted to see you alone and…they didn't like that," She chuckled. "But they respected it."

He erases from the board and writes anew. 'Same as always, aren't ya, Fuyu?' Hiroshi would smile at her, tired eyes being lifted by it. Mifuyu's heart would seize at his exhausted kindness. He wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for the creatures that attacked him that night. Or rather…it was Ryouichi who did the deed. Her eyes twitched in anger. The blood that ran down his mouth, the wolves that surrounded him like some kind of cult, and how he warned her of some other threat…

Who did he work for? Was he lying to her? Suddenly her hand is gently grabbed by her uncle, which made Mifuyu look at him. Hiroshi shook his head at her and withdrew his hand to write more on his white board. 'You're beating yourself up again, aren't ya?'

"No…I'm not. You…You don't know what I'm thinking half the time so, stop pretending you know me when you don't!" Mifuyu shouts, feeling bubbles of sadness attacking her own throat. He would frown at that and continue to write to her.

'It's the face your dad would make. You always did that if something bothered you.'

Mifuyu ignores it by looking away. He grunts in response before erasing and writing again to get her attention.

'Fuyu, I know I was always hard on you and…after that day, I wanted to make it up to you.'

She once again ignores him and turns away from him. "Please, Hiroshi. I don't want you to give me a stupid pep talk. I only came to see how you were doing and…you seem to look fine. So I guess I can go ahead and leave–"

"...Fuyu." He struggles to speak but it was the best he could do under a whisper. "Don't leave. Let me talk…to you," Hiroshi breathes. Mifuyu turns around to face him, shaking her head. "You aren't supposed to talk, the nurse said–"

"Fuck…what the nurse said," He grunts in response, lifting himself up a bit. "You need to hear this from me and not…some stupid writing. So…sit down." Mifuyu bites her lip in response but does as he says, sitting on the furthest corner of the bed. "I know you're…beating yourself up about this. And I want you…to stop, okay? It ain't your fault…"

(You have no idea…) Mifuyu thinks to herself, (No idea how much shit I know…)

"I went into those woods because…someone yelled for help. I thought…you were the one who did." Mifuyu snaps her head at him, eyes widening. He thought that he heard her in the woods? That late at night? There was no way he would fall for that. She straightens her posture and gets a bit closer to him. "What do you mean you thought I called for help that night?"

"Ahh…so now you're payin' attention…I figured it would…" He murmurs and shifts his body weight around. "I was out…on patrol that night around that area of the city. I was going to…text to ask if I could pick ya up since my shift was almost over…

Until I heard a voice…yours, in the woods at the end of the city line. I didn't…think about it. It sounded just like you. So I…" He winces in pain, his hand immediately going through his throat. Mifuyu jumps in and holds up her hands in worry, "Hiroshi–please, don't hurt yourself…!"

(So he was lured into the woods by my voice…? Is that the work of Ryouichi and whoever was with him? There's no way. That can't–)

"I know ya need the information…! I'm not…stupid, Fuyu. I know what you've been doing…" His voice struggles to talk higher but can only go as high as a whisper now. "I know you've been…sticking your nose into our business…"Mifuyu gulps and quickly looks to the side, one of her hands clutching some of the sheets of his bed.

Shit.

"So you've…you've known the whole time of what I was doing…?" She asks, hesitantly looking at him.

"Tch…Hell yeah I've known…! The only ones that don't know are Hina and Akari. You…act just like your dad, so of course…I would know a thing…or two…" He swallows a lump in his throat and gnarls more in pain. Mifuyu doesn't say much of anything at first. He caught her red handed.

A moment of silence passes them before she nods, parting her lips. "Yeah, you caught me. I've been doin' this since the investigation started from the basement."

"So it went even further back than the festival…" He whispers to himself as she nods. "Fuyu…you know how much trouble you can get in…for this?"

"I do. Which is why I kept it a secret from everybody. There's something about this case that goes beyond those murders, Hiroshi. This…this is more than I ever anticipated." He chuckles at his niece's naivety, "That's how…any case is, Fuyu. Then why keep going…? Have you found the answers that you've been lookin' for?" He asks, to which she shakes her head.

He sighs and rises further from his bed to grab ahold of her hand. "That's…your problem. You're acting…too much like him, when you're supposed to be you…Mifuyu. That's…what he always taught you." She shakes her head and looks away from him.

"You're right…I don't know much about you because I never got to know you…you always act like my brother. You…always wanted to be like him. Why are you trying so…hard to be someone…that you aren't?"

Mifuyu takes a sharp breath, "Because I…who's–" Her emotions were spilling out. It was the poison she didn't want to let out. "Who's going to take over everything…?! You?! You can't now and have always been one step lower than him. You could never achieve what he did– especially now! How can you fulfill what he left behind if you're not willing to work as hard as he did…?!"

"Stop, Mifuyu…" Hiroshi breathes, witnessing his niece's tears starting to stain her face and the bed he slept in. "I never have to achieve what he did because that…was his mission. His goals…and one of those goals was to take care of you, and make sure you were your own person…he never wanted you to go into his field because of what he would find…he wanted you to choose your own path. He…tch…realized that too late." He winces again.

"...Can I not be what he was…? Is that what you're saying to me?" Mifuyu asks, desperately trying to hold back her sobs. Hiroshi outstretched his hand to her and placed it on her shoulder.

"No, you can't be like him…but what you can do, is be you. Do what you think is right…do what you want to do…don't take on something like this because you feel like you…have to." He smiles a bit, "Why…pursue this case? Is there…something that attracts you to it?"

Mifuyu couldn't tell him the truth. The truth that two boys being murdered in the basement of their school led to the reunion of one of her closest best friends, who in turn turned into a monster that she didn't expect to be in reality. What was it that she really wanted? To be like her father and expose the inner darkness of the world? Or…to know more about the world, rather than expose it?

"It…led me to something I think will answer those questions for me." She answers. That was her reason. Her reason was that she didn't tell Reiji that day at the cafe. Her reason is that she didn't tell Yuma on the school rooftop when first collaborating as partners.

"And…you really believe that this'll do it for you?" Hiroshi asks, pressing his thumb gently into her shoulder.

"...Yes. I can't really explain. But it's something I…needed answers for a very long time."

Hiroshi smiles warmly and tips his niece closer to him for an embrace, hugging her tightly. "If…you feel like this is what you need to do, and not what your father wanted you to do…then do it. Just be careful, Fuyu." He whispers in her ear, bringing a hand up to her hair, stroking it.

That scent. The warmth. It was so similar to her father. She quietly sobs into his hug, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm sorry…so sorry that I hurt you that day and any day after that. I'm just–"

"Shh, it's okay…" He coughs, "I'm not dying, Fuyu. You don't need to get too sentimental with me." He jests lightly and rocks her back and forth. "Just know that I love you. I will always love you no matter what, okay?"

"...Yeah, okay. I believe you. I believe what you say. I…I love you too, uncle." Her phone suddenly vibrates in her skirt pocket. Mifuyu lifts her head from and looks at the time on the clock that was in the corner of the room. It was close to time her escort would come to pick her up for school. But her escort never texted her.

"I know you got school so be careful, kid. I love ya…" Hiroshi coughs and lets Mifuyu go. She nods and stands, wiping her face quickly with nearby tissue. She soon leaves the hospital as quick as she could be to only not find her escort outside. Raising her eyebrow, she goes to check her phone to see a text message from Yui.

'' From: Yui

To: Mifuyu

You know who this is, Miss Detective. Meet us behind the school around our lunch period begins. I expect you to be punctual when you arrive. Me and Yuma Mukami will be waiting for you. ''

Wind blows through Mifuyu's hair and she sniffles one last time, texting back.

''From: Mifuyu

To: Yui

You're a sick bastard, y'know that? I won't be late.''

Once she hits send, she can see a notification about her escort that it was arriving soon in no less than a minute. Mifuyu breathes in the air deeply and exhales.

(Let's do this.)