A/N: A year. I think that's a long enough of a wait for the next section. =)
There's a side story to this on my profile, Tempter in the Dark that's all about Yuuta and how he handles being a vampire. It has Mizuki.
No Beta, so comments and critique are all very much welcome and appreciated. I'll even take a hello.
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Atobe stood on the Echizen house rooftop, eyes closed, head tilted, listening. He tried not to think of the two by the temple, because thinking of those two together had never made him feel anything but resentment. At one time he had thought to be able to use their bond of maker and fledgling to his own advantage, but the fruits of that ploy had not been very succulent, or long lasting. Yukimura had a tendency to suck the joy out of everything Atobe tried to embrace and nurture.
Atobe's mouth twisted and he suppressed a furious growl, not wanting to reveal even to himself how much the simple memory of that man could still affect him.
Yukimura. The cause of all his misery and irritation, even when two centuries had passed after he had been burnt to a crisp. The man's ghost would never cease to haunt or torment him.
When an un-expectantly strong gush of wind pushed against him and forced him to move his footing on the slippery roof, Atobe decided that staying on the rooftop, trying to keep his balance on the steep ridge was too troublesome, so he swirled on his heels and walked to the edge. Without even glancing down he jumped and landed on the ground with enough force that his feet left an impression on the grass that was still wet from the rain. He knew that the footprints would look suspicious to anyone who discovered them, but at the moment he did not care. He was more concerned with the pair standing still and now silent, on the temple steps.
He brought forth the power that always coiled just beneath his skin, like an uncontrollable whirlwind and forced it to the surface, bent it to his will in a struggle that would have broken a weaker creature. But though Atobe was not an ancient vampire born on the age of pharaohs or heretic gods, he had been made by one and he had fed on the blood of ancients. He was stronger than a vampire his age should be and he wielded that enormous power gained by violence and hatred with the strength of his will alone. Others, young vampires such as Atobe who had gained power through the blood of others and not through the passage of time, were too weak of will, to control the strength that flooded to their veins, along with the blood of their ancient victims. But Atobe had never been weak and had from the beginning of his life refused to bend to another's will. It did not matter whether the thing attempting to control him was another vampire, a human or sheer power. He was born to lead, not to be a follower.
With deliberate ease he dismissed both Fuji and Sanada, knowing that the power that now rolled of him would keep them at a distance. Neither was weak and Sanada could easily match him in strength and even surpass him in experience. Yet Atobe had no doubts that should they ever challenge each other he would win, if only because Sanada was not be willing to end Atobe's life to save his own.
Atobe nearly snorted aloud at his last thought. Life? Since when had he begun to see this parasitic, hellish existence as life?
The answer came almost as soon as the question entered his mind. The reason for his sudden shift in attitude was the boy. The way he wanted, yearned to be all and more than he could, how he lived every moment to its fullest, hungered so deeply. It still amazed him that the boy wanted so much to conquer his fears that he was willing to become his own worst nightmare, that the boy would even desire it.
He turned his attention on the dark and silent house and felt unease slowly creep in to his mind. The vacant house, the empty rooms that even the family's cat had abandoned, worried him with all their implications. There should be people in the house, parents that were worried and angry at their child and a boy; annoyed with his overprotected parents, locked in his room with his adored pet. The boy might have been annoyed or even furious, but he would have been safe.
Atobe still regained a small hope that the absence of the whole family did not mean the boy was in peril but that they had all spontaneously decided spend the night somewhere else. He did not think it very likely, but he still dared to hope.
Atobe walked through the back terrace's sliding doors and into the family's living room, where he was embraced by the warm atmosphere of a loving family. It was created by pictures on the walls and dressers, art work made by a child that a proud parent had hung on the wall next to a winning trophy from a tournament; cat toys left on the floor and a forgotten cereal bowl next to a school book on the coffee table. The objects in the room, the very walls were immersed with the affection the people living in this house felt for each other.
He could easily picture the boy and his family in this room and the thought of it had him smiling fondly. He almost wished he had never crossed paths with the boy, so that the scene in his mind could still have been a possibility. But the boy's fate would now forever be shadowed by darkness. Even if it were possible for him to remove his presence from the boy's life without endangering him, he would not do it, for the simple reason that he did not want to.
Furious rage, a flood of jealous possessiveness filled Atobe as he imagined someone else sinking their fangs in the boy's neck; drinking his blood, tasting his skin, having him groan and shiver at their touch. Those were reactions only he was allowed to arouse in the boy, and only he had the right to decide the boy's fate.
It had been so long since he had felt emotions this intense, had dared to care for anyone. It was dangerous to get involved; to distance one self from the role of a monster that preyed upon humans as if they were nothing more than cattle, bred to satisfy his hunger. Feelings were dangerous, and love the most damning of them all.
It was not yet love, what he felt for the boy, but Atobe recognized the symptoms from his time with Fuji, when the man had still been just an enchanting boy that had sat by his feet. He had been fascinated by Fuji, perhaps even been on the verge of falling in love with him. There was no denying that the possessiveness that he now felt for Ryoma was similar to the one he had felt with Fuji, but this was different, stronger. Then he had been too weak to stand up against Yukimura, he hadn't possessed the strength or the knowledge to defy him. Now, it was different. Now he was the master, whose power only a few would dare to challenge.
The one creeping in to the house through the front door was not among them, even if he was a child of the same decade. The gap in their powers was larger, than the one between the years they had spent wandering the Earth.
Kirihara's appearance was still that of a disgruntled youth, like it had been on the day Atobe had first met him. He had always worn clothing that was second hand or worn. Most of what he owned he stripped from his victims. He would always look like a street urchin, no matter the era.
Before Atobe could ask what he was doing there, Kirihara spoke. "So, tell me, have the years turned you stupider, or has the world around you just grown really fucking clever?" He asked, waving a rolled up newspaper in his hand.
"What are you talking about?" Atobe growled and made a gesture to take the newspaper from Kirihara's hand, but the grinning little beast pulled the folded paper from his reach.
"Right after you tell me how normal it's for this Yagyuu guy to screw up. He someone you trust?" Atobe snorted. The idea that he would trust anyone, let alone someone like Yagyuu was ridiculous.
"So that's a no, then?" Kirihara cocked an eyebrow and snickered. "Why the hell would you let him take care of the bodies, then?"
Atobe frowned, for a moment not understanding the question. Then his actions from last night, his orders to Yagyuu returned in a flash that was almost too colourful and vibrant to seem real. He saw it in his mind almost like he would in a dream, would he still be able to dream. But he had lost the comfort and torment of dreams when he became cursed with the blood. His days were silent. When he closed his eyes at the rising of the sun, only darkness ruled in his mind.
"I wouldn't," Atobe answered, shocking Kirihara enough that he managed to take the newspaper. It was the evening's paper, only a few hours old, the smell of ink was still fresh on the paper. The biggest news and the boldest headlines were of idols and other celebrities, gossip and sports. He did not find what he was looking for, until he had almost read through the whole paper.
It was a small article, reporting the deaths of a man in his forties that had worked as a janitor and of a nameless foreigner who had suffered from weeks of continuous and brutal torture. No such torture marks were reported on the janitor's body, but the article said that the cause of death had been two small, deep wounds to the neck.
Atobe wrinkled the newspaper in his hands and resisted the urge to set it a flame. It would not do for him to burn down the house when he was still inside.
"You trying to tell me it wasn't you who told me to shove those corpses in to that guy's trunk last night?" Kirihara was looking at him with more alertness now, as if Atobe would implode at any moment.
"No, that was me," Atobe answered, trying not to grind his teeth together. "Just not my…" he snarled, and clenched his jaw, forcing himself to say the words, no matter how humiliating it was to reveal the truth. "Not my will."
Kirihara laughed, and it sounded almost accidental, like he hadn't meant to. "Someone been inside your head?"
"Obviously," Atobe snapped, and then closed in on Kirihara, forcing him to step back so he was almost pressed against the wall. "Tell me again how it could not have been Yanagi? There is no one else who could have done it."
Kirihara stared at him with his eyes wild and startled. "You never had any trouble keeping him out of your head. I remember. He didn't exactly take it graciously."
"That was centuries ago. I've grown stronger, why couldn't he have?" Atobe was no longer even trying to control his rage. He held his hand over Kirihara's throat, fingers curled, preparing to sink them into Kirihara's flesh with the slightest hint of defiance. "Why are you so determined to convince me he isn't the one behind this, that he hasn't taken Ryoma?"
"Ryoma?" Kirihara shouted, his head snapping back and hitting the wall. "What the hell does that kid have to do with this?"
"Are you really so blind that you do not see what surrounds you?" Atobe yelled in return. "No one is here, and that should not be the case! This house is not meant to be abandoned!"
Kirihara gaped at him, the corner of his mouth twitching as if he were not sure whether to form it into a smirk or a grimace. Finally he spluttered and pushed Atobe away from him with surprising ease. "Do you think I care a fuck about any of that?" he nearly screamed. "The only thing that interests me is what you're going to do about these!" He snatched the newspaper Atobe was still holding and shoved it at Atobe's chest. "We can't let them get hold of those bodies! Who the hell knows what they can get out of them if they suddenly decide to look a little more carefully!"
"What is there to be get from them?" Atobe asked, flipping a strand of hair form his face. "It is not like we posses any living tissue. Thinking that science could explain us is ridiculous."
"So you're fine with it?"
"It is not my concern, what happens to those bodies," Atobe answered. "My only concern is Yanagi. Why is he doing this?"
"I think I have an answer for you," Fuji's soft voice cut through the air like a cold blade. They turned to see not only Fuji, but also Sanada stand by the sliding doors Atobe had opened. "I wouldn't swear to it, but it's a very strong possibility."
Before any of them could ask what he meant, the sound of an explosion in the distance drew their attention. From the living room window they could see the red of the fire reflect of the clouds and Atobe frowned at the extent of it. "The bodies will no longer be a problem," he said.
"What do you mean?" Kirihara asked, tearing his eyes from the distant fire.
"That, if I am not mistaken, is the morgue burning and with it most of the hospital," Atobe told him. "Though what moron would burn down a hospital, I have no idea."
"Maybe we should find out," Kirihara suggested. "At least one fucking thing less that I don't know shit about."
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Niou stared at the fire that he had planned on being small and contained, but that had turned out being huge and out of control. It had already spread to two of the surrounding buildings and there was no sign of its force lessening.
He held back the sudden guilt at all the people that had died and were going to die because of this. He was a vampire, he shouldn't care about human lives.
But taking one life for the sake of survival hardly compared to this destruction. People were burning alive, suffocating and were crushed under falling concrete and steel. If the fire was not contained soon it might spread out through the whole city.
He looked at Yagyuu, standing by his side on the flat roof and then at Marui behind them. Neither of them looked any more pleased than he did, but out of all of them Yagyuu looked less human, with no signs of distress or horror showing on his face. Niou was not psychic, he had no ability to hear thoughts and he'd never wanted it but right now he wished he could. He wanted to know Yagyuu felt something, when he watched the fire eat its way through the buildings and listened to the distant screams.
"So, how you like your funeral pyre?" Niou asked, one eyebrow cocked, smirking.
Yagyuu turned slowly to regard him with a smile that was nearly chilling. It wasn't a pleased or even a content expression. Niou figured Yagyuu was smiling, because it was the expression that demanded the least amount of effort.
"It's certainly impressive." Yagyuu's voice was just as cool as his smile. "I doubt anyone will forget the day I died."
"But they might forget that you died," Niou answered, turning away from Yagyuu, no longer sure if he could keep looking at him without demanding that he show some kind of reaction. "How the hell did this happen?" He made the question to himself, but Marui took it as an insult.
"You want well thought out plans? You give me time to plan them!" Marui yelled. "If I'd have time, I would've known about the chemicals and the explosion would've never happened or at least it wouldn't have taken the whole damn building with it!"
"No one's blaming you," Niou kept his voice calm and back turned to Marui. "None of us thought this through." Yagyuu touched his shoulder but when Niou turned to face him, Yagyuu wasn't looking at him. His attention was on something behind them and Niou followed his gaze.
Illuminated by the distant fire, four men, all whom Niou knew to be like him, vampires, stood on the other side of the roof. There was only one whose face was in the light, not hidden by the shadows and even though he had never before seen him, Niou knew enough to name him. And it was his knowledge of the barer of that name that made him push Yagyuu behind him and reach out to place his hand on Marui's shoulder, in the foolish hope that he could somehow keep them safe.
Atobe wasn't the tolerant type. And Niou had knowingly defied him by inhabiting the city Atobe had claimed as his territory. The fact that Niou had been born and raised in this city made no difference, he knew that and that is why he hadn't returned after he had been turned. He had never intended to return but years passed and when he and Marui had lost two members of their little group at the same time, the thought of Tokyo had come to him. He'd thought that the familiar streets and places could soothe his grief. He talked Marui in to coming with him by filling his head with glorious tales of the city and somehow he and Marui had managed to stay in Tokyo, remain undetected for years. Until today; when he'd thought it a good idea to announce their presence by lighting a friendly bonfire in the middle of the city.
Something knocked him down on the concrete and when Niou's eyes could focus again, he saw a figure of a smiling man with fair hair and blue eyes standing over him, one finger pressed under his curved lips. The man held Yagyuu with one arm, fingers wrapped around his throat. Yagyuu was still, hands by his sides and he would have looked perfectly at ease, if his heart had not been beating like a frightened rabbit's.
It was Marui Niou sought out next but his eyes met another figure that made him stare in silence. Between Atobe and a man who Niou could not name but whose presence radiated power, stronger and older than what he felt from Atobe, stood Akaya. The same Akaya that had been the fourth member of their little group for almost a decade ago, the one he and Marui had searched for even after they'd understood that neither he nor Jackal would ever come back. And here he was now, with Atobe and two other giants. And stranger yet, Akaya did not look frightened. He stood among the giants as if he was one of them.
"Akaya!" Marui yelled, voice filled with shock and joy. "You're alive! Where the hell have you been?" he was smiling, relieved.
"Friends of yours, Kirihara?" Atobe asked, with a smile that was almost fond but with a voice that was filled with doubt.
"Hey, I have friends!" Akaya growled and glared at Atobe.
"Where's Jackal?" Niou yelled, wild hope suddenly springing alive in him. If Akaya was alive, then maybe Jackal was too. "You disappeared at the same time, you have to know what happened to him!"
Akaya stiffened at his shout, his eyes darting guiltily to Marui's. Then he shrugged and grimaced. "Okay, I had friends," he muttered, loud enough for them all to hear and causing Atobe to suddenly explode into laughter. The man beside Akaya frowned, the expression turning his already menacing and dark presence even more hostile.
Niou looked behind him, to see if the one holding Yagyuu would give him an explanation but he only received another empty smile. In another time he would have been fooled into thinking the expression gentle but experience had thought him to see behind the masks people wore. The man was amused but there was nothing benign in the amusement. It was the kind of amusement people gained from seeing other's suffer.
Niou suppressed his first instinct to jump at the man's throat and free Yagyuu, when the man tightened his fingers around Yagyuu's throat, as if reading his thoughts. "Don't worry, you'll get to hear the punch line, soon enough," the man told him, and then cocked his head and widened his smile, attempting to look reassuring. He only succeeded in making Niou even more worried.
"What happened to Jackal? Akaya!" Marui's scream made Niou turned his attention back on the other four.
"Relieve the poor boy of his misery, Kirihara and tell him where his dear friend is." Atobe's voice was bored, but his eyes danced with glee and he was still trying to suppress his laughter.
"Atobe," the third man spoke, sounding both exasperated and chastising.
"Are we not allowed to be amused, Sanada?" Atobe asked, spreading his arms. "You must be just as curious as I am to hear the tale of these little friends of Kirihara's."
"Kirihara Akaya," Niou whispered to himself and looked at Akaya with new horror. That name was one he had never linked with the temperamental and unstable brat that had spent more than three years together with him, Marui and Jackal. He had thought the name Akaya just a strange coincidence, nothing more. He would have never imagined that the brat he considered almost like a younger brother could be centuries older than him. Akaya had seemed weaker, nowhere near as powerful as him and he had been a vampire for over a decade then. "Kirihara, Atobe," Niou listed out loud. "And that's Sanada, but you," he turned to look at the smiling man. "Who're you?"
The man closed his eyes and that made his face less edgier and softened the smile on his face, but the hand that held Yagyuu rose and lifted him of the roof concrete roof. Surprised and frightened, Yagyuu rose to stand on the tips of his shoes and lifted his arms to the hand on his throat.
"Wouldn't that make me Yanagi, then?" The man asked, still effortlessly holding Yagyuu up in the air.
"No, you're not him," Niou said.
The man opened his eyes again, and the sharp edge was back in his smile. "Odd, that you would know that."
The threat that had never really lessened was suddenly multiplied and Niou almost choked on the paralysing fear that gripped him. Worried that the man would take it out on Yagyuu, he got to his feet and reached out for the sole human on that rooftop. He suddenly had the warm and thankfully living and conscious body thrown against him. With his arms around Yagyuu Niou stumbled back but managed to keep them both standing.
But when he thought they had been granted momentary peace, he found that the man had simply thrown them to the arms of another threat.
A cold hand was pressed under his chin and he was pulled against a solid chest. His head was bent back and Niou found himself staring up at ice blue eyes, that's fire contradicted with the coldness they radiated. "And how is it that you know what Yanagi looks like?" A lie sprang up to his mind, but Atobe shook his head as if foreseeing it. "And that will not do. You know precisely what he looks like, don't you? You could in fact draw a portrait of him if I asked you to and it would undoubtedly bear uncanny resemblance to the model."
"Never was much of a painter." Niou grinned through the terror and prepared for the pain by closing his eyes and pressing Yagyuu's head against his chest. He hoped there was some way out of this. But since the chances of that happening were pretty slim, he figured that dying while embracing Yagyuu was the best he could hope for.
Niou felt Yagyuu's fingers tighten their grip on his side, grasping at his shirt. "Are you an idiot?" Yagyuu asked, voice muffled as he spoke with his mouth pressed against Niou's shirt. "Tell him what he wants to know."
Niou opened his eyes and looked down at the top of Yagyuu's head. He loosened his hold, letting Yagyuu lift his face and look at him. "You don't understand," Niou said, trying to make is voice express the sheer magnitude of what Yagyuu was asking him to do. "One word and we'll all be killed."
"And what do you think they'll do to us?" Yagyuu asked and glanced over Niou's shoulder at Atobe who'd taken his hand from Niou's face and moved back, perhaps knowing that Yagyuu had the best chance of getting Niou to talk. "We can handle that when the time comes but if you don't tell him what he wants to know now, we won't get the chance. I'm not ready to die, Niou-kun, not after-"
Yagyuu turned to look behind them at the raging fire. Hearing Yagyuu's voice waver Niou finally had the proof he'd wanted to see, that the destruction of the hospital had affected Yagyuu just as much as himself.
"Not after that. I did that to ensure my safety, I will not let it be for nothing. I refuse to let your stupidity kill me."
Niou grunted and narrowed his eyes. He refused to look at the scene behind Yagyuu but could not escape the orange and yellow light of the flames, or ignore the sounds, the sirens, the frantic screaming and the noise of stone and steel falling apart and cracking. They had caused that, it was not just Yagyuu's cross to bear. But if what they had set out to accomplish, Yagyuu's safety was not achieved, all the destruction would be for nothing.
He looked behind him at Marui, who'd torn his eyes away from Akaya to look at him. Glancing cautiously at Atobe, Niou grasped Yagyuu's shoulder and walked over to Marui, trying all the while to keep his attention in all that presented a threat. He knew from the way Marui frowned at him that he didn't understand why Niou seemed wary of even Akaya. He shouldn't be surprised by that, not everyone had heard the tales he had.
When he reached Marui, Niou reached out and pulled the slightly shorter man against his side and held him tightly. "You'll let us leave, if I tell you?" he asked, focusing on Atobe.
"I will consider it," Atobe answered and walked around them, stopping by Kirihara and Sanada's side and motioning for the third man to join them. "But you can be assured that if you stubbornly remain silent, you will not leave this roof. Well, perhaps one of you will but that is only because his remains cannot be swept away by the wind." He smiled after his words and looked at Yagyuu.
"Don't tell them anything Niou," Marui grunted from between his clenched teeth. "Not before they tell us what's happened to Jackal."
"Marui," Niou warned but Marui shrugged his arm off and turned to glare at him.
"Don't you want to know?" he screamed. "It's been almost ten years since they both disappeared! I thought they were both dead or together but Akaya's right there and Jackal's not!"
Niou bit his lip, not wanting to say what he thought had happened to Jackal now that he knew cute little Akaya wasn't as young and powerless as he'd thought him to be.
They heard Atobe sigh in exasperation but it was Sanada's deep and low voice that said, "Tell them, Kirihara."
Kirihara snarled at Sanada "Why do you care if I tell them or not?"
"They have the right to know what happened to their companion. Now tell them." Sanada ordered.
"Fine!" Kirihara shouted, sounding frustrated but when he looked at Marui his grin was cheery, yet too wide and there was something in the tenseness of his shoulders that revealed how nervous he was. "Well you know he followed me. All the way to England, which I thought was pretty fucking impressive, considering he wasn't that much older than you two." Kirihara scratched the back of his head and continued with the story in a lighter tone. "Then he caught sight of me talking to Yanagi and I guess he figured who I was, because when I came back from… well what I was doing with Yanagi," he threw a sideway glance at Sanada. "He said he was going to tell you who I was. And I really didn't want you to know. Because I kind of liked you, even if you were a bunch of weaklings compared to my previous companions. Or maybe I liked you because of that, who knows." He shrugged, grin still wide.
"What happened?" Marui yelled again, took a step forward and would have probably tried to shake the truth out of Akaya if Niou hadn't pulled him back.
"I didn't want you to know," Akaya continued as if Marui hadn't interrupted. "I had fun with you and all that fun would've ended if Jackal had told you what he knew about me." He laughed, but the sound was short and not very amused. If it hadn't been for the manic grin Niou would have mistaken it for a sob. But Akaya had never cried, and neither had the Kirihara Niou had heard of. "Of course it wasn't till after I'd killed him that I realised I couldn't go back now."
"You bastard!" Marui screamed but Niou's hold on his collar stopped him from attacking Akaya. Niou pulled Marui back and held him tightly with both arms, not letting go. "We trusted you!" Marui screamed.
Kirihara's grin wasn't as cheerful anymore, if it had ever been. He looked at them with seriousness that had never been present in him and his smile was almost regretful. "You shouldn't trust," he whispered. "You shouldn't try to act like you were still human."
"You can't exist without feelings," Niou told him, holding Marui, who was now shaking with grief, rather than fury. "What point is living forever, if you can't be with the people you love?"
"You're so obsessed with that word," Kirihara snarled and looked at the people he'd come with. "All of you. Love, love, love! What fucking good is it to anyone? It won't keep you alive and it don't fucking bring you happiness!"
His bitterness, that seemed so violent and almost like a living thing to Niou, didn't seem to have much effect on the three Kirihara was staring with. Sanada's face might have been made of stone and Atobe regarded the furious dark haired boy beside him with aloofness that lacked empathy of any kind. But the third man, the one whose name Niou hadn't heard, refused to even look at Kirihara. His eyes sought out Niou's and held them. There was pain, the kind Niou knew, remembered suffering through when he'd first realised that he could never again see his family, that he'd lost them and the anguish and desperation he'd felt when he'd known that Jackal and Akaya wouldn't return.
"Yanagi," Atobe spoke the name, shattering the silence, and Niou tore his attention from the smiling man's pained, blue eyes.
"Was the one who told me to dump the bodies, yeah," Niou didn't try to dance around the issue any longer.
"And how do you know it was Yanagi?" asked the still nameless one. "Did he perhaps introduce himself?"
"He did, in fact." Niou felt a little more sure of himself now.
"And his motive?" Atobe asked but his voice revealed he wasn't expecting Niou to know it.
"I want something" Niou said and looked at Marui and Yagyuu. "They get to leave. Safely, unharmed."
"No demands for your own protection?" Atobe raised an eyebrow. "How selfless and stupid." Atobe laughed lifting his chin. "Your demands have been heard and disregarded. The human must die."
"Yagyuu Hiroshi is dead," Yagyuu said, in a voice that lacked the fear Niou could smell on him. "You have no reason to kill us. But it might be beneficial for you to let us live. We would owe you."
"Why would I need favours from the likes of you?" Atobe demanded, shifting easily to negotiate with Yagyuu. "Your death makes you useless to me. And neither of your companions holds any strength that would be useful to me."
"It might not always be so," Yagyuu answered. "In any case, you have more to gain from letting us live than from killing us."
Atobe tilted his head and remained silent. When he spoke again, his eyes were resting on the fire that was no longer spreading, but was still large enough to make him squint. "If you can tell me why Yanagi is doing this…" he raised his hand to his forehead, and looked at Niou. "I'll let you leave Tokyo."
Niou couldn't help the glance he threw at Kirihara, who kept his scowling face directed at the ground. A part of him still wanted to reach out to the kid he'd known, despite what he knew now. He wanted the past back, wanted Akaya to come with them. But Akaya was gone, and in his place stood a monster that had killed his friend, his brother.
Yagyuu's hand landing on his arm gave Niou the strength to tear his eyes away and push past the ache that losing his family for the second time, only moments after he'd thought he'd gained it back, caused. Kirihara was lost to him, and he needed to protect those that were left.
"Yanagi isn't alone," Niou finally said. "He's following someone's orders."
"Yanagi, acting on someone's behalf?" Kirihara threw his head back and laughed. "You're not going to save yourself by lying."
Atobe turned to Kirihara and regarded him with suspicion. "Something you wish to tell me, Kirihara?" he asked softly.
Kirihara bared his teeth and growled. "Had nothing to do with any of this, you asshole, and you know it."
"It's a little too convenient how you manage to be just where you need, to get yourself involved in all of this," Atobe answered.
"I've been following you, not trailing after Yanagi," Kirihara snarled, his lips twitching with rage. He was quickly losing the small control he had over his temperament, but before he could act on it, the man that had held Yagyuu by his throat walked up to him and turned to face Atobe.
"It isn't Kirihara you need to be worried about," he said.
"And how would you know this, Fuji?" Atobe asked. "Unless you're the one who's been-"
"You're being paranoid!" Fuji yelled, his eyes flashing. "Just stop and think for a moment! This is not Yanagi. He is subtle, not rash, and all of this, the bodies, involving the authorities, it's too reckless."
"So what are you saying?" Atobe's voice had become quieter, but no less heated and his gaze was set on Fuji's face, looking for clues. "Someone is impersonating him? That is impossible, no one but Yanagi could have controlled me so well, so subtly, that until a few moments ago I had no idea of it."
"But even that was reckless and it makes no sense!" Fuji shouted, still glaring at Atobe, his hands fisted in agitation. "The worse that could have happened is that they would have questioned you. Even with someone accusing you of murder, you only need to leave the country, and maybe not even that. They would not be able prove anything!"
Atobe blinked at Fuji's rage, and softened his voice to almost gentle, when he asked, "I'll ask again, what are you saying? You clearly have something on your mind, or you wouldn't be this… distressed."
Fuji seemed to deflate when Atobe's tone became softer and his smile took on a sad, almost desperate twist. "When you left, yesterday," he began, his voice soothing, as if he expected Atobe to react violently at any time. "Yanagi acted... strangely."
"Strangely?" Atobe repeated.
"He… had a temper."
"Yanagi doesn't have a temper," Atobe replied calmly.
"I know." Fuji's lips twitched, as if he were about to smile, but it melted away like ice when placed on boiling water and his lips remained as they were, a sad, solemn line. "That's why I don't think it was Yanagi talking then. It was someone older, with more anger, someone…"
"Impossible," Atobe whispered sharply, with fervour. "It's impossible, you know it."
"No, I don't," Fuji spat, frustrated. "You heard screams, felt pain, saw ashes. That is all! You don't know for certain he's dead! And if he's alive, these occurrences make sense, because if he's alive, he must be insane! And only someone insane would think it a magnificent idea to risk exposing vampires to the humans just so they could cause you a little discomfort!"
"You call taking the boy a little discomfort?" Atobe was screaming too.
"I told you. Insane!" Fuji turned to Niou and pointed. "Ask him! He'll tell you!"
"Is it true?" Sanada's voice, low and menacing, asked and Niou who realised the question was asked of him glanced at Atobe, who was looking at him with something akin to desperation.
Niou licked his lips and looked back at Sanada. "You'll have to tell me what you mean, first," he told them, because no matter how clear it seemed to Atobe and to everyone else what Fuji meant, he still had no clue.
It was Kirihara who spoke, snarling, his teeth bared and eyes nearly bloodshot. "Yukimura! Is it Yukimura?"
Niou chuckled. Couldn't help it. One name and all four of them were shaking like leaves caught in a brutal wind. "He did mention that, yeah." Niou grinned widely when Atobe looked terrified and Sanada froze. "Told me it was what Yukimura wanted, and that I should know better than to try to do anything, that might make him see me in an unfavourable light."
"But you haven't seen him, you don't know it's him, you're lying," Atobe muttered and stalked to him, only to be stopped by Fuji's hand around his arm. But when Atobe turned, it was Sanada's eyes that he sought. "You're happy now, I suppose, that that monster isn't dead like we thought, that he's risen from the grave to torment me. It wasn't enough for him to take everything from me, to make me suffer endlessly for centuries, no, he has to come back from the dead!"
Sanada had no answer for him, and when no one else spoke, Atobe pulled his arm free from Fuji's hold. Without sparing even a glance at anyone, Atobe jumped down from the roof and disappeared amongst the grey smoke that had reached them.
Kirihara followed him almost whimpering, a haunted pain flashing across his features.
Next chapter - Ryoma