And the next chapter! Soonish, updates might slow down. Summer is coming and I've been using school computers during study periods to work on this story in google docs, instead of relying solely on my phone. I'll do my best to post a chapter a week though, at the very least!
I dislike this chapter because I feel like I got it a little out of order but I've mixed canon with original stuff, and did my best. There's some subtext that Yuuki doesn't notice in this chapter, can you guys?
To the guest who mentioned inbreeding, you've got a point? They do look a lot alike, and it is fairly obvious. My idea is that, in canon, people not seeing it was a mix of their drastically different attitudes/auras and Kaname's "otherness" that comes from his vampirism.
Maxie01, thanks? I'm doing my best. I'm glad you're liking it!
Vivi Nefretari, basically, yes. The general idea is canon for my story but I'm impatient and jumped the gun and so almost included it early. Leaving it out seemed pointless though, since I've been saying it in my review responses for the past 8 or so chapters.
"I need you two to go and collect someone from the Moon Dorm for me," Cross chirps, sitting behind his desk and steepling his fingers together. From where they stand in front of his desk, Zero and Yuuki exchange a quick glance. Kaname is usually the one to do retrievals for Cross when it involves vampires.
"Who?" Zero asks, visibly not wanting to do anything of the sort.
"An important supporter of the academy from the Senate, Ichijou Asato. He's the head of the Senate, and our academy is about to come under vote again, so we must speak," he explains seriously.
"He knows the rules of the campus?" Yuuki does a quick check, uneasy about an adult vampire being on school grounds without any escorts. Why hadn't we been called earlier?
"Oh, yes," Cross confirms with a brilliant smile. "He doesn't understand why I'm so adamant about this school's continuation, but he's not going to muck anything up. Still, it would be best if you went to get him as soon as possible."
"Understood!" Yuuki turns and trots out of the room, Zero on her heels, and she waits until they're out of the building to begin speaking. "...Why didn't he call us earlier? He just let a vampire roam school grounds?" She complains, feeling confused and a little hurt.
"He probably didn't think about it," Zero comments. "You know how he gets."
"... Yeah," she sighs. Cross is really naive and optimistic, sometimes a little air-headed. He probably has known Ichijou for a long time, and thus trusts him to act appropriately even if he is not obligated to do so. They make their way to the dorms, and as they approach can see two figures through the open doors of the dorm, one dressed as a stereotypical vampire with a flowing dark cape with a popped collar. Yuuki can identify his hair as blonde, and standing across from him is Takuma. That must be Ichijou Asato, then.
A breeze blows toward Yuuki, ruffling the man's cape, and she can smell recently spilled blood, hair gel and ink. Her lips purse slightly and she picks up speed, Zero not doing the same, falling slightly behind, presumably to maintain a wider watch area.
"...The narrow world of this school, a friendship built on the basis of hypocritical peace," she is able to hear Ichijou say before interrupting, not willing to wait for his little speech to be over.
"Cross Academy is peaceful, for the most part," she admonishes. And it's true, for the most part.
"Yuuki-chan!" Takuma yelps.
"You're Ichijou Asato, correct? We have been asked to escort you to Chairman Cross," she explains when she comes to a complete stop. She hears Zero climb the stone stairs behind her as the man turns towards her with an aura thick with incredulous malice and narrowed, icy eyes.
"I'll definitely be asking Chairman Cross on this, but I will also ask you, girl. Is it true that an active duty vampire hunter was allowed onto school grounds some time ago?" There's no way to answer that without causing all sorts of problems! There was a quick moment, on her part, of panicked internal flailing before she hears Zero step just behind her.
"The Chairman will want to clarify that matter with you himself," he tells the man. "If you want your answers, you will have to come with us."
"What a thick-skinned man…" Ichijou sighs. "Forget it. Lead on, then. I'll find out myself." Ichijou begins to walk on, and Zero and Yuuki both begin to follow, neither willing to actually walk in front of him.
"Wait, Yuuki-chan!" Takuma calls, grabbing onto her arm. She turns with a small jolt, looking into earnest green eyes and a serious face. Takuma releases her quickly, and she takes a small step away for good measure as Zero and Ichijou get further away. "Did anything happen between you and Kaname?"
"Nothing happened. Why do you ask?" She frowns.
"Nothing much, really… Just... Kaname doesn't confide his worries in me. I thought that if I ask you, you'd know something about it."
"Ah, no… He doesn't really confide in me, either, you know?"
"But weren't you close to Kaname before?" Takuma asks, eyes narrowing slightly on her, not in anger but more like in consideration. "You probably know a side of Kaname that we don't know at all…"
"Maybe," she admits, "but not anymore."
She turns away from his gaze and trots off after Zero and Ichijou.
"Stop moving every time you fire," Zero tells her with an irritated sigh. Lowering the normal gun she'd been using to aim down towards the paper silhouette, Yuuki huffs slightly, her weight shifting. She flicks the safety on as she props her fists onto her hips.
"I don't mean to! I keep expecting to get knocked around by the recoil, and anyways, I'm not used to just standing still like you are," she complains, which is true. Her fighting style is a lot of moving, dodging and lunging and twirling. Zero's style involves being immovable, and hitting with solid, resounding force when he does move.
His head rocks back and he lowers his own gun with a groan, dropping it onto the counter and walking towards her.
"Get back into position," he instructs. She huffs and does so, almost forgetting to turn the safety back off before she cocks it back and takes aim. Her legs immediately start to shift as her finger presses down on the trigger, and Zero presses up close behind her, his legs caging her own in place as his arms grip the table to keep himself balanced. Her torso immediately sways off center as the gun fires, her balance compromised, and her head cracks into Zero's chin with a sharp jerk.
She yelps and hunches slightly, releasing the gun and cradling her head in her hands as Zero stumbles back with a hiss. The gun clatters to the ground and goes off, thankfully towards the far wall rather than at any of them, and she yelps again, louder, and she hears him mutter something under his breath.
"Didn't think that one through..."
"I… I think I prefer the anti-vampire gun. It seems safer," she comments, sharp eyes catching sight of the small crater in the wall from the bullet. Neither of them are, after all, bullet proof, and while the anti-vampire weapon could seriously hurt Zero, all it would do to her would be pushing her with the force of the bullet rather than being pierced by it, and maybe a burn. "For me, at least."
"How you managed to shoot that Level E is beyond me," Zero comments blandly. There's an unidentifiable sting in her chest at the reminder of the vampire, and the incident she'd been doing her best to forget, and she quietly picks the gun back up, straightening out. Zero sits down behind her in a criss-cross, hands reaching out and grabbing a hold of her calves through her sweatpants. At her questioning look, he nudges his head towards the targets once more. With a shrug she checks the cartridge for more ammo, finds it sufficient and aims.
She realizes Zero's intention immediately as, when her feet begin to move, his hands prevent them from doing so. This is a simpler and easier position than what he'd been doing before. Relaxing, she aims a little better and then fires three times. The first shot hits in the silhouettes shoulder, but the other two hit it in the chest. They're not center, but that isn't what she'd been wanting.
Popping out the empty cartridge she replaces it with a new one and aims once more, cocking it back and firing several shots in quick succession, feeling Zero release her in the midst of the firing. Once she stops, her ears are ringing but she's hit the chest with each shot and her legs have stopped trying to move with every pull of the trigger.
She fires twice more to check and her legs remain in place. She turns on the safety before dropping the gun onto the table and turning to Zero with a triumphant expression.
"So I've figured out guns. Want to try and learn staff fighting?" She offers with a grin. He gives her a blank, unamused look.
"No," he refuses, planting his hands on the floor as he pushes himself up into a crouch and then a stand. "Come on, it's getting late."
"Ah?" She casts a glance over to the clock above the sub-basement door and finds that it's just about 3 am, meaning that they really do need to head back upstairs. "Oh, yeah. Dibs on the shower!"
Zero snorts and makes his way up the stairs ahead of her, and Yuuki hops impatiently where she trails behind, noticing his purposefully slow pace. She'd try and push him to go faster, but last time she'd done so, she'd had to carry him to the top of the stairs. Which, while not at all impossible, was annoying because of his height and the fact that he'd become dead weight then stiff as a board randomly and throw her off balance, because he's irritating and petty like that.
She'd really rather not fall down the stairs with him on top of her again, thanks. That had hurt.
Once free of the stairwell she runs to her bedroom, collecting her clothes and then running for the single bathroom of the house. When she gets there, Cross is blinking bemusedly at the door, which is closed.
"Did Zero-?"
"Yes, Kiryuu-kun is in there, now," he tells her with a small smile. "Were you racing?"
"I guess we were," she grumbles, dropping onto a nearby chaise to wait him out as the sound of the shower starts up behind the door. Cross approaches to run a hand down the top of her head to the back of her neck atop her braid, offering her a fond look before he makes his way to his study.
Yuuki's hands begin to undo her braid as she waits, and she starts to drift off when she hits her neck, her hands slowing and her fingers tangling into her hair as her body lists backwards and her eyes fall almost entirely closed. She dozes on the couch for awhile, not even aware of the light being eventually turned off, before humid air rushes over her skin and light brushes over her eyes. She twitches but can't work up the energy to move, and she hears approaching footsteps.
"She's asleep…?" Zero blinks in surprise, one hand using a towel to run over his dripping hair. He drops the towel around his neck and approaches the limp figure of Yuuki on the couch, bending down to reach out and reach a hand for her shoulder. "Hey, Yuuki. I'm out of the shower, wake…"
He trails off, face falling blank for a moment as, through her eyelashes, Yuuki sees his eyes drift to her neck. His eyes widen slightly and he withdraws his hand, dropping to a knee and then rotating to sit with his back against her legs. She can no longer see his face, but she can see a hint of a hand gripping onto his throat, his breath controlled but heavy. He looks to the side, and then jolts. Yuuki begins to wake up further, but has the feeling that she should pretend to still be sleeping.
"Don't be so alarmed," a familiar voice says. Kaname's voice has a hint of amusement, but it isn't at all good spirited. "I have business with the Chairman. I used to come uninvited all the time, remember? But, by the way… I've never told you why I acquiesce to your existence… have I?"
Zero says nothing, but he moves in a way that Yuuki thinks might be him moving in front of her. To protect me from Kaname? Why would he…?
"I know this school is a risk, but I did a lot of thinking. I wondered, who could become a shield for Yuuki in this place...? You could never betray her, you are under her obligation… and you are being let live only for her, by me." She hears his steps fade away, and Yuuki can clearly understand his threat just now, and while she can recognize that what Kaname had said was true, she does not like the way he'd said it.
She doesn't want Zero to feel obligated to her, and she doesn't like that Kaname just said he could kill Zero any time, no matter the truth of such a statement. Yuuki opens her eyes completely and frowns with worry, straightening up, and she looks over at Zero.
He looks calm, if not a little irritated.
"Zero," she tries to call for his attention. He doesn't look at her, but she can tell that he's paying her attention. "I… have you had any blood tablets today?" She derails her initial statement and Zero's figure goes tense before he mutters something under his breath and leaves the room. Staring groggily after him, she finally shrugs and gathers up her clothes, making her way into the bathroom. Once the door is closed behind her she realizes just how humid and steamy the bathroom is, and it's disorienting for the few moments after her entrance before she manages to get her bearings.
There's a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she ignores it, untangling her hair and then running her fingers through it before looking in the mirror.
For a second, it's as though her reflection isn't actually her reflection, and her mirror image moves independently from her. Her eyes go wide and there's a brief blurriness she associates with her eyes trying to focus on something better, but when her gaze settles, her reflection is back to normal. She shakes her head and, after a quick look around, decides to just shower then go to her room.
In the end she gets only an hour of sleep, and when she wakes up, she's initially not sure why she's done so. She has an hour before she needs to be awake for the switch over, but with a sign, she acknowledges that going back to sleep is unlikely and climbs out of bed. She takes a glance into her vanity mirror and finds her face looking none the worse for wear despite her exhaustion, and then makes her way out of her room and down the hall, to the kitchen. As she passes Cross' study, she very carefully doesn't alter her course or speed as she overhears the conversation going on inside.
"I'm sorry, but you have no right to say no to this."
Part of her bristles but she does nothing, not wanting to draw attention to herself just yet, and once in the kitchen, she digs out the eggs from the fridge. She sets to making herself scrambled eggs, and at some point, Zero arrives in the room, Cross in tow.
"Yuuki-chan?" Cross calls for her attention.
"Yes, father?" She asks, unwilling to derail the conversation with his dramatics. He inhales sharply as though to go into hysterics anyways before noticing her actual words and beaming at her before his face falls once more and he brings a file into her line of sight.
"This is a test from the Hunter's Association for Zero. He asked if he could have you as a partner, and while I won't register you as a hunter, it's up to you." He slides the file over to her as she places her salted scrambled eggs down and sits across from them. He leaves after that, maybe reading the mood, and Yuuki eats a little egg before speaking.
"Will you give me the summary, or should I read through the file?" She inquires.
"There is a level E a few towns over, and while it's confirmed that he's been killing, there are also many girls missing," he tells her.
"Why do you want me to come?" She asks next. The look he gives her says volumes and she kind of wants to laugh but refrains. "Fine, I'll come along," she sighs. "Honestly, you're so dumb sometimes…"
"I'm dumb?"
"Shut up, you suicidal baby," she complains as she eats more eggs. Zero reaches over and steals an egg chunk from her plate at the exact same time that he kicks her in the shin, and she almost chokes on her fork.
"Naive midget," he counters as he pops the egg into his mouth with a smug but somehow simultaneously disinterested air.
They track the vampire into a run down warehouse district the next day, the smell of blood faint but everywhere, which is incredibly ominous. They've both skipped class (honestly, failing is almost a certainty for them, Yuuki is pretty sure), and they're in casual clothes to hopefully blend in better.
Well, they're in casual clothes, but Zero seems to be incapable of blending in. Which is understandable, because he's wearing dark clothes underneath a tan trench-coat done completely up and with the collar popped. She, in comparison, is wearing a black turtleneck and red tartan skirt with bike shorts beneath that, her feet covered with black knee high socks and her boots. Artemis is holstered on her arm, the gun holstered on her thigh beneath the folds of her skirt, and Zero has Bloody Rose on his person.
When Zero enters the building they'd both identified had the strongest scent of blood through the front door, Yuuki scales to a high window and, as stealthily as possible, climbs inside. She takes in the situation as quickly as she possibly can, senses on high alert. Now that she's inside, the scent of blood is so thick she can nearly taste it on her tongue, which is really not comforting. The vampire is sitting as far from the light as he is able, looking to be asleep or nearly so, a young girl clutched in his arms and draped limply across his lap. The girl seems fine, though unconscious.
"Who is it?" The vampire calls, a glowing red eye opening and fixing on Zero, who has aimed Bloody Rose at his head.
"Four teenage girls were found dead," Zero says instead of answering. "Three more girls have gone missing. Was it you?" The vampire lifts his head.
"You shouldn't be asking such things, you should've just shot me," he taunts with a snicker, one of his fingers digging into the girl's neck and drawing blood. "Thanks to you, I can slit this girl's throat before you can pull the trigger. Are you perhaps new, Mr. Kind Hunter?" He reaches one hand out as he stands, Zero having frozen in front of him, and a door Yuuki hadn't noticed begins to open behind him. Yuuki draws her gun and takes aim silently, but doesn't fire. All Zero had asked of her was to let him do his mission, and only interfere if it looked like there was no other choice. "I feel sympathy for you, that you cannot sacrifice nor save this hostage," he cackles before disappearing, the door closing in his wake.
Zero chuckles faintly, the sound strained and resigned, and Yuuki remains in the window, watching him with concern. One of his hands reaches up to press to his face as he laughs.
"Why are vampires like this?" He asks rhetorically before his laughter trails off and he then says in a more serious voice, hand lowering. "I'll finish you off." He then takes off without acknowledging her at all or saying anything else, and Yuuki has a second to decide to abandon the plan they'd come up with and begin circling around on the first floor, occasionally hopping out of windows and checking the outer walls for any sign of the vampire.
Soon, though, she hears voices and makes her way in that direction, the gun up and ready to fire.
"-going to be more clever than usual. Oh, Yuuki," Rima greets with a mildly surprised look as Yuuki watches Senri nimbly climb through the shattered window into the large room, keeping a wary eye out for any sign of the vampire, lowering her gun to her side but not engaging the safety.
"Rima, Senri. Why are you-"
"Oh? His comrades, maybe?" A voice catches her attention, and she looks up to find the vampire poking his head and torso out of a fissure in the wall several feet up. "Are you, perhaps, intending to take my dessert from me?" The way his eyes focus on her is unsettling and her hand grips the gun tighter, beginning to lift as the vampire jumps from the crack and lands in front of them, though a few feet away, in a crouch.
Yuuki has already fired by the time the vampire lunges forwards, but a hand on her head distracts her in the nick of time for the vampire to dodge her attack that would have killed him and ended this entire problem.
There's a small shiver of distaste, of blandness, of resignation, that is provoked by the idea of murder. She should be in no state to be continuing caring about anything, or to be so desensitized to murder, as she'd been ill just remembering it for awhile now and had cried herself into exhaustion, but some part of her has already accepted that and moved on to other more interesting things.
Yuuki shies away from that line of thought as soon as she acknowledges it.
"Let me," Senri bids as he pulls her back and lifts a hand up to his mouth, biting into his thumb and drawing blood with the action. The blood from his wound surges disproportionately, and as he throws the limb outwards, blood sails off, forming into whip-like shapes. A majority of which crack stone but have done no damage to the vampire, who then promptly vanishes.
"Oops. He ran away," Senri noted.
"So chase him," Rima commands, which leads to Senri promptly complaining, and then an argument between the friends that Yuuki can tell is not serious. But despite the tension lessening, it really isn't the time to dawdle and watch them bicker, so Yuuki separates from them to search out either Zero or the vampire. She makes her way through a room and barely notices the floor nearby giving way before a hand lashes out to try and catch her ankle, viper quick. She manages to dodge backwards, gun going off but missing, the nails leaving gouges in her lower calf. The floor falls away even further to reveal a large hole in the floor, and the vampire begins to climb out of it, one hand to his mouth as he licks the digits clean.
"You should come with me. I'll treat you very well," he coaxes, as though she's just going to listen to him. She lifts her gun to fire at the approaching vampire, but does not get the chance, as there's rushing footsteps moving above her and behind her. She doesn't turn away from the vampire, and a second gun goes off from the origin of the steps, the bullet piercing through the vampire's reaching hand. The man jerks backwards towards the still crumbling hole with a pained snarl, and Zero jumps down then rushes past her, muttering something to himself that she cannot hear and bowling into the vampire so hard that they both fall into the hole. The ground gives out beneath Yuuki and she ends up skidding downwards into the hole as well.
"Don't touch her with those dirty hands of yours," Zero snaps, though his voice is faint as Yuuki lays on the ground, feeling kind of dazed. "This is your end." Yuuki hears Bloody Rose's hammer cocking back and turns the safety of her own gun on as she begins to sit up, looking over to find Zero with both of his knees planted on the vampire's back, Bloody Rose against the back of his head.
"Oh man, I was caught," the vampire smiles, and it seems more sincere now. "But now I don't have to kill people anymore."
Zero fires then, the vampire turning to white dust and Zero's knees cracking down onto the stone. As Yuuki gets closer, she catches sight of Zero's blank face and his unfocused eyes as the dust drifts around him for a time before beginning to settle. She takes a moment to think about how she might help, not sure if this is the first time Zero's even killed something but knowing that it's a terrible feeling to know that it's so easy to end a life.
"Hey, Zero-" She calls as she approaches before she's interrupted.
"Oi, guardians," Rima's voice calls from the edge of the hole. Yuuki looks up to find her crouching down to peer at them over the edge, Senri standing a few feet behind but in sight, with a girl slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "We found this girl over there," she gestures off to her right, "and what are we supposed to do with her? She's still alive."
"Oh, she's alive?" Yuuki smiles a little, relieved. "Thanks, we'll be up to collect her in a minute."
"Alright," Rima nods and stands, and they both walk away from the hole, presumably to give them the illusion of privacy. Yuuki turns back to Zero, who hasn't moved.
"Zero, you hear that? The hostage is safe. And so are you, and so am I. Good job," she offers hesitantly. When he looks at her, she gives him a smile, relieved that he'd pulled himself to awareness without any extensive prodding on her part. His eyes widen slightly and he pales as something occurs to him, but he doesn't tell her anything and allows her to drag him to his feet.
She doesn't ask about what occurred to him, instead pulling him to the side of the hole and bullying him into pushing her up to the ledge so she can climb out easier. Once she's out, she turns to offer Zero a hand up, but he's already maneuvering his way up by himself. She smiles a little more to herself before turning towards the two vampires lingering at the side of the room, making her way closer.
"Were you two sent by Kaname-nii to hunt down that Level E?" She questions them as they turn to look at her as well, face becoming serious. They both offer her nods of greeting, only flicking their eyes in Zero's direction before Rima speaks up.
"Yeah, he wanted to take care of things as quickly as possible," she confirms.
"I see. Well, shall we go?" She questions. "Do you have a ride to get back?"
"There's a car waiting," Senri tells her as Zero takes the girl from him and drapes her over his own shoulder.
"Alright. Well, you can get going," Yuuki bids, "We'll be fine."
"You don't want a ride?" Rima asks, eyebrows lifting.
"No, that's alright," her eyes flick over to Zero, who's waiting quietly for Yuuki to finish her conversation, which makes her feel warm and happy. She squashes down the feeling so she won't smile like an idiot and turns her attention back to the vampires, who watch her quietly before nodding, Senri and Rima both inclining their torsos slightly at her before making their way to the window they'd entered from and climbing out. "So, what now?" She asks, looking over at Zero.
"Now we report in to the Chairman about this girl, and then I write my report about this so he can send it in."
"Alright," she nods, and they begin to make their way out of the district before looking over at Zero. "How are we going to act when we have to get on the train?" She asks, because that's their mode of transportation- a train between this town and the town nearest Cross Academy, then a walk from the town to the Academy. "And what if she wakes before we manage to get there?"
"She's not going to. And pretend nothing is wrong. Nobody will say anything," Zero tells her. Yuuki nods in acceptance, and quietly lets her thoughts wander, multiple trains of thought unfurling and tangling together.