Toga tapped me on the shoulder, appearing from behind a pillar, his face was grim. He gestured to us with his finger, "You two, come with me." Kaito and I looked at each other in alarm, wondering what had caused his worried expression.

"What's going on?" I questioned as we both copied his fast pace towards the upper floor.

He kept walking in a hurry, not looking back, "A previously missing hunter was found dead."

I rushed ahead, following the glimpse of Cross's coat that had passed the hallway. I entered the room after him and scanned it, accessing the situation before me. A tall vampire with orange hair stood in the middle next to a table that was covered by a white sheet. Zero stood to the side near Cross who was crouched, observing a hunter who laid strewn on the blood stained floor. I walked in further examining the scene and there was a small bit of dust like material collecting below the table.

"Hey," I called to the vampire, "uncover that," I pointed next to him.

He raised an eyebrow and lifted the sheet revealing the pile of ashes shaped in the image of a person. There were fragments of something sharp and glass looking sticking into the torso.

The vampire widened his eyes at the honey brown haired girl next to him, "Ruka, it's Ouri-sama."

"A pureblood," I said, recalling the list of people I memorized for the ball.

Ruka nodded, sullen, "He was missing earlier."

"Oh hey, Yuki," Cross said looking up from the body. "Um, stay over there. You better not get any closer or your dress will get dirty."

I turned to see her coming in, shock in her eyes. "What… happened here?"

He sighed, "A truly regrettable occurrence, apparently one of our hunters fell into a condition where the only choice that was left for him was to take his own life with his weapon. Here, see?" He pointed to the dagger that the hunter held which was lodged into his chest, "He's slowly turning into ashes, starting from the very tip of his fingers, and also…"

"On his neck," Zero lowered his eyes, "you can see the marks where he was bitten by a vampire."

Yuki gripped her dress, "I will definitely find whoever did this."

I clenched my jaw, every hunter in the area was hurting and angry about losing a brother and she was the one that needed to find the culprit.

"Stay out of this, this isn't something to play with." Zero seemed to be echoing my own thoughts.

"I know that," she shouted, "I'm no longer Yuki Cross, who didn't know anything about the world and had no power to do anything." She stepped forward and her foot was smeared by the puddle of blood, "If something… if something bad is happening, then I will take action to protect my loved ones, definitely."

"Yuki," Kaname said from behind her, emerging from the door frame, "You should get back to the room before the scent of the blood affects you."

"But the party is already-"

Zero cut her off and glared at him, "With what just happened here, the farce of a party is obviously over, Kuran."

He ignored Zero and extended his hand forward beckoning for Yuki to come, "That's my job, so you don't have to take part in this, Yuki."

She pursed her lips and joined him, leaving the room.

I walked over to Cross and crouched next to him inspecting the body, "What's the plan?"

"We need to get this over to association headquarters," he stood up and motioned me for me to do the same. "I think it's best if you and Zero head back. It's late and you both have classes in the morning."

"No. I'm staying," Zero said.

"I am too," I repeated, getting up.

Cross's eyebrows knotted, "There's nothing that can done right now, just do as I say."

I knew he was right, there was nothing we could do at the moment besides follow his orders, but I hated feeling so useless.

"Fine." I exited the scene as Kaito walked in, grasping my arm, "Where are you going?"

I shook his arm off and didn't stop, "I've been told to go back."

Zero's footsteps were behind me as I walked out of the building and down the street. I turned around and he stayed silent.

"There's no need to follow me. Go back to your apartment, I'll see you tomorrow at school… maybe," I added knowing his tendency in skipping.

He didn't say anything, but I took it as a yes so I kept going.

After a few seconds I looked back, "Seriously, just go."

"It's a 40 minute walk," he said not looking at me directly.

"I know, that's why you should go home and get some sleep."

"I'm walking you."

I scowled at him, "I don't need you to watch over me, I can protect myself."

Zero frowned and continued in front of me.

I rolled my eyes and followed. He could do whatever he wanted, I was perfectly capable keeping myself from harm and it wasn't my problem if he believed me or not.

Something hard hit the back of my head and I woke up not realizing I even had fallen asleep.

"Getting some beauty sleep Yagari?" Kaito said with a smirk and a book hovering above me.

I sarcastically grinned, "Sorry, Takamiya-sensei."

He went over to the other side of the classroom and did the same to Zero who had his arms wrapped around his head.

Yori patted my arm and asked, "Late night?"

"Yeah, did you get back alright?" I suddenly felt very irresponsible for not making sure that she had gotten home safe.

"Aido-senpai arranged for someone to drive me," she looked confused, "I was asleep before you returned, did you not notice?"

"No," I weakly smiled, "I was pretty much in a daze once I got in the dorm."

"Is everything okay, I mean, Yuki smelled blood," her face filled with concern.

I debated whether or not I should tell her the truth. It wasn't needed to involve a human in this, but she already was, with her best friend being a part of the Kuran clan.

I made a decision and took a large intake of breath, "Everything is fine, we took care of it."

"Oh, okay."

We both knew that I wasn't filling her in with all the details but she accepted the choice I had made. It was unnecessary to let her know, it would have only make her uselessly worry over something she had no control over.

The bell rung for lunch and Yori stood up turning to me, "Do you want to join me for lunch?"

"Thanks," I felt guilty for not telling her what actually had happened and rejected her offer, "but I'm going to eat with Zero."

Her lips turned upwards in a knowing manner, "Good luck with that," and she went towards the cafeteria.

I pushed myself from the desk and walked over to Zero, shaking his already sleeping form. "It's time for lunch, eat with me."

He sat up and said nothing, shooting me an irritated look.

"I have something to tell you," I sneered, "and I'm not taking no for an answer."

He reluctantly complied and got up, making his way to the door. I followed him, not actually knowing where the cafeteria was.

After getting our food we sat down at a corner table located next to a long window.

"What time did you get home last night?"

He had walked me all the way to the front of the girl's dorm door. I know I didn't ask him to, but I still felt partially in debt for the extra detour he made.

He gave me a pointed look and replied, "I didn't bother."

I raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

He gazed out the window, "I stayed in the Headmaster's quarters."

"Right, you used to live there."

He nodded slowly.

I changed the subject noticing his lull, "I'm suppose to remind you that we have a follow up meeting today at headquarters."

Zero took a sip of his water frowning. I took a sip of mine, my eyes remaining fixed on his face. I had a feeling that he knew I wasn't sitting here with him to just eat lunch and make conversation.

"I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to answer me."

He turned his head to face me and I went on feeling like a starry eyed school girl for the sentence I was about say.

"How are you feeling… about me."

Zero said nothing once again and I was getting annoyed by his repeating lack of responses.

"After what I told you last night, what am I to you?" I wanted to know Zero's level of comfort with me and I had no other way to phrase it.

After a long minute, he finally said something, "You have known about me all your life and I just recently discovered that you even existed. I don't know what to feel."

I pressed my lips together and looked down expecting his answer to have been similar to that.

"But, I also know that you're Yagari's sister and Kaito trusts you." He stood and lifted his tray, "And that means something to me."

I nodded and let him go, grateful for his response.

All of a sudden the chairs around me scratched against the floor and they were filled with several girls and even more crowded behind them. They all stared at me, some in annoyance and others in sheer curiosity.

I gathered my things together and started to stand from the chair, "I guess this table has been claimed."

Two hands abruptly pushed me down and they all yelled at me with a mixture of "No" and "Stay!"

I scrunched my eyebrows in bewilderment, "What is happening?"

Another mixture of "Zero," "how," "Kiryuu," and "why," filled my ears.

I stuck my hands out in front of me, "Stop! Please, just one person speak at a time."

I faced the girl who sat directly in front of me eyed her, signaling for her to talk. She wore glasses in front her of blue eyes and her light brown hair was split into two pigtails.

"Oh! Um, I'm Nadashinko Shindo and we were all wondering if you were Zero's girlfriend."

My eyes widened in astonishment, "Why would you all think that?"

The girl next to Shindo spoke, "He never comes to the cafeteria and he barely ever talks to anyone!"

"Okay," I agreed, "But why does it matter?"

Someone from behind grabbed my shoulder and twisted me to face her, "It matters because he's an unattainable prince and we've all mutually agreed to watch him from afar. Just because you're a little pretty or that you're new or that you're Yagari-sensei's sister, doesn't mean you can do whatever you want."

I grimaced in irritation, this was so high school. But then I remembered that I was currently in high school, along with this group of girls who were all secretly vying for Zero.

I pushed her hand away and stood, already fed up with this bull. "I'm not his girlfriend, so I would appreciate it if you didn't interrogate me in the middle of the cafeteria," I said to her in a purposely calm tone.

The same girl called to me as I walked away, "We're watching you Yagari!"

I looked over my shoulder and glared at her. She shrunk back and quickly averted her gaze. I huffed in frustration and returned to the classroom as fast as possible.

Zero was leaning against a wall near the girl's dorm room entrance when I saw him. His eyes were closed and his arms were crossed, he clearly didn't notice the looks he was getting from the day class girls as they passed by.

I remembered hearing from Toga about how annoyingly fixated the girls were to the night class boys. I guess after having their memories swiped they directed all of their excess feelings for them at Zero.

Honestly, I had no inclination to abide to the rules that those girls had told me to follow earlier today, I truly just didn't care. I also figured out by now that my objective at this school was not just to be there for support, but also to help Kaito keep Zero in check. He had appeared in control at the party, but it seemed that at any moment he could break.

I started to walk towards him and his eyes snapped open. I stopped as he pushed himself off the wall and made his way over to me, "What are you doing here?"

"You said that there was a meeting today."

"Yeah, I was just going to go change first." I went past him and he brought his arm in front of me.

"There's no time, we're going to be late."

"It's alright," I said, trying to go under his arm, "you can go on ahead. I'll meet you there."

He looked at me with a piercing glare, "We're going now."

I inwardly rolled my eyes and tried to taunt him, "You know, some of these girls think that we're dating, don't want them to get the wrong idea do you?"

He turned away and his hair blocked his face, but I saw the slight grin that was developing on his lips, "Is this funny to you?"

He remained silent and stepped away from me.

"It is!"

Still nothing, so I resided in walking away from him, towards the exit so I could head to the meeting myself.

He caught up to me and under his breath he said, "so that's why they mauled you today."

I didn't bother saying a word to him for the rest of the way there.

Until we had actually arrived I realized that we really were late, the headquarters were way too far from the academy. I had to remind my father to drop off my bike from home, there was no way I was going to walk each and every time I needed to go to HQ.

We both entered into the back of Cross's office as he started to talk, "Well, regardless of whether this incident was a suicide or not, the one remaining undeniable truth is that one of our hunters was used and thrown away like a disposable tool, losing his life in the process."

Toga clicked his tongue, "Yeah and by the hand of a pureblood, one way or another. This isn't a joking matter," his eyes narrowed, "The next bloodsucker who wants to die so bad just has to tell me. I'll gladly help by killing them myself."

"There won't be a 'next one' like that really." Cross said, lowering his hands, "Think of the mess if we were to let this sort of thing repeat itself. There's no way it will happen."

"Actually," Zero interrupted, his expression grave, "I think this thing is just beginning."