Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight or its characters.

Summary:I just recently transferred to Cross Academy. I've never been to a boarding school before and I still haven't adjusted properly. I don't like following rules and could care less of what other people have to say. Listening just was never one of my strong points. Now that I'm at this academy, I can leave my past behind and start a new...sadly old habits die hard. I tried, but my curiosity got the best of me. Cross Academy was hiding something...that I knew for sure. I didn't know what, and I've tried to ignore my gut feeling, but it's not working. No one will answer me properly, so now it's up to me to get my own answers. There was one person who would be able to link everything, that stoic, unsociable, scary, emotionally dysfunctional person was going to be the key to unlocking the secrets of this academy. How would I get him to spill? By befriending him of course. I just never thought I'd end up caring about our relationship until the point of where he became special to me.

Chapter 4

Mayoinagarademo Ii Arukidashite Mou Ikkai

(It's okay to get lost so begin walking once again)

Moon Dorm:

Siren Souen awoke from her semi deep slumber, feeling restless and uneasy. She sighed and rolled over in her bed so that she was facing her window. She frowned at the sight of dawn approaching and rolled onto her other side, hoping she would be able to fall asleep again.

Nothing.

"Fuck." Siren mumbled crossly, sitting up right and hopping out of bed. She walked over to the window and pushed it slightly open, hoping that some fresh air might help her calm down. Her eyes widen in excitement and she licked her lips as she sniffed the air; something mysterious was making its way towards Cross Academy- they were too far away for Siren to make exactly what was coming. She dashed across her room and poked her head- not a soul in sight.

Siren still had a couple of hours before she needed to be back and a couple of more after that until someone noticed her absence. She put on her uniform and a pair of boots before slipping out her window, darting across the school grounds and over the wall, halting just before where the edge of the forest. She closed her eyes and used her ears to locate the 'intruder'

'One...no two...no three!' Siren silently counted; her ears were easily able to distinguish the sounds made. She sniffed the air once more. 'All human.' A wolfish grin appeared on her small face and her eyes changed from a mellow brown to a crimson red. Siren made a small 'hn' sound as her ears distinguished something flying towards her. She gracefully jumped backwards, landing smoothly on top of the wall that separated the Cross grounds from the wild forest. Seconds later, a silver arrow struck the concrete wall which then burst into stardust.

These were no ordinary humans.

'Vampire hunters?' Siren let out a challenging laugh which echoed throughout the vast forest.

Two more silver arrows came sailing towards her, but she just laughed. Siren narrowed her crimson eyes and smirked as she watched the arrows hover in front of her face before bursting. As Siren gloated over her win, she barely noticed a third arrow come at her from a different angle.

'Shit.' She thought, it was too late to evade. She closed her eyes and braced for the pain that she was about to feel.

The arrow never made contact. Siren heard the arrow burst (sounded almost like glass breaking), she opened her eyes to see a jagged pillar of ice had intercepted the arrow's path.

"Hn. Pathetic." Aido jeered, appearing right behind Siren.

Siren scowled "This is my fight."

Aido ignored her statement and said quietly to himself "I thought I was the only one to notice." He smirked, raised his hand and then brought it down in a slicing motion; ice shards ruptured from underneath the cold hard ground, creating a straight path that went straight towards the heart of the forest. Both Aido and Siren's eyes narrowed and suddenly they jumped back five feet (in opposite directions) from where they were.

A silver bullet struck the wall causing it to break and crumble. Aido's ice shards had evaporated in the process leaving only hissing steam rising into the air.

"Fuck." Siren said. She made eye contact with Aido and the two exchanged a look.

Three figures emerged from forest, dressed in cloaks that hid their entire body. The one in the middle pulled back the black hood to reveal a female with long ebony locks and onyx black orbs. She smirked at the sight of her prey and withdrew from her garments several silver daggers- which had strange engravings on the blade and handle- and aimed them at Siren and Adio.

"Shini kyuuketsuki." the woman hissed.

Both vampires were easily able to deflect the woman's attack and Siren laughed. In retaliation Siren chose to use the intruder's fallen weapons against them, by levitating the two daggers and sending them right back at them.

The female hunter threw another dagger which canceled out the attack.

The tallest one of the three figures, pulled down his brown hood and patted the woman lightly on the shoulders "Maa maa Arty, we're not here to cause trouble." Turning his attention to the two vampires he said politely "Sorry. We weren't trying to cause trouble. Do you happen to know Kiryuu Zero-san?"

Aido narrowed his eyes while the ends of Siren's lips curled upwards.

"Maybe." she replied.

"CHOTTO MATTE!"

Siren narrowed her eyes and frowned as she saw Kuran Yuuki running towards them. She retreated and disappeared out of sight.

The one called 'Arty' narrowed her onyx black orbs and muttered quietly "Junketsu kyuuketsuki hime?"

"Un." replied their third member. Arty smirked and withdrew another silver dagger with intentions of harming the junketsu hime.

Moments later, Yuuki Cross appeared (a little out of breath) with the Artemis staff in her hands. She wielded her staff and pointed it at the Arty character in a threatening manner.

"Yuuki-sama." Aido muttered quietly, giving a short bow.

"Who are you?" Yuuki questioned.

Arty ignored her question and asked her fellow comrade "Is that the Artemis staff?"

"Un." again replied the third member. Arty gazed hungrily at the staff before turning her attention back towards Yuuki and giving her an arrogant smile. She bowed to the Moon dorm prefect, all the while never breaking eye contact and smugly said. "My name is Artemis Nightingale and these are my comrades Kira Naoto and Cherry Rider."

"What business do you have here, vampire hunters!" Yuuki growled, tightening her grip on her weapon. Arty continued to stare at Yuuki, her gaze boring deep into Yuuki's soft brown eyes. Arty laughed at Yuuki's attempt to sound vicious "Kurosu Kaien."

Yuuki held her staff in a defensive stance for another second before slowly retracting it and replacing it back in its rightful place. In a more pleasant tone she said "Follow me." Turning to Aido, Yuuki ordered "Aido-senpai please return to your room." Seeing that Aido looked very reluctant to do as he was told she said in a harsher tone "That's an order."

He hesitated a few more seconds before stalking back towards the Moon Dorm.

"This way please." Yuuki said, leading the three towards the Sun Dorm.

"Arigato junketsu hime-sama." Artemis said in a sickly sweet tone, flashing a set of pearly white teeth. Her two companions followed silently, observing and making mental notes of the academy.

Sun Dorm:

Cross Kaien sat at his desk scribbling his signature madly across paper after paper. He had procrastinated his work for too long now and had been planning on skipping it, but today...today was the day that his luck had run out for Yagari had cornered and promptly threatened to shoot him if he didn't do his work.

"Ano...Rijicho." a soft and airy like voice spoke from behind his door. Yuuki knocked once more and said in a firm voice "Ano...Rijichou...you're guests have arrived." Yuuki held the door open for the three vampire hunters before entering. She stood in the back while the other three stood right in front of the Chairman.

"Kurosu Kaien." sneered Artemis, planting her hand down onto the edge of the Chairman's desk. "Maa, it's been a long time."

The chairman's face had at first formed into a face of utter shock, but his shock melted away and was replaced with a nostalgic look as he gave the woman a warm smile. "You've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you."

"Don't fuck with me." Artemis snarled "You used to be the greatest vampire hunter around and now look at what you've reduced yourself to. A pathetic old man with silly ideas about pacifism between humans and vampires."

Kaien propped his elbows up on his desk and rested his chin on his laced fingers, his face expression suddenly becoming very serious "Ma Arty, the coexistence between human and vampire is not a silly, it is something remarkable and is very dear ideal to me."

Artemis threw back her head and laughed "If that is your ideal world why is it that nobody here knows?"

The Chairman grimaced "You and I both know that not all humans would willingly except vampires. The time is not right-"

"-and it never will be." Artemis spat out "Because humans are considered as natural prey to monsters like vampires! All vampires should be eliminated."

The Chairman noticed his adoptive daughter flinch at his ex-partner's statement. He raised his hand and said coldly "Artemis I must ask you to please refrain from over expressing your thoughts while you are on school grounds."

Artemis quickly glanced at the petite brunette and snorted in disgust. She closed her eyes at let out a sigh of frustration. Yuuki quietly excused herself with a quick bow. As soon as she left, Artemis randomly flicked a silver dagger in the spot where the moon dorm prefect had been standing, which burst into light moments later. Cross frowned but remained silent, only showing his disapproval by pursing his lips together.

"And so." Artemis said in a bored tone "Why have you called us here?"

Cross furrowed his brows together. There was no beating around the bush. The situation was too serious for that.

"There's an unknown vampire living somewhere on campus." Cross said. "In the past month four girls have been attacked. Of course their memories have been completely erased, but the matter is still very serious."

All three vampire hunters perked up at the Chairman's words, especially Artemis.

She chuckled darkly "This is exactly what I've been saying. Vampires and humans can never coexist peacefully. You're a fool to believe such ludicrous beliefs!"

The Chairman shook his head.

"How do you know it's not a vampire gone rouge from the Moon Dorm?" For the first time, it was Kira who questioned Chairman Cross. His black orbs narrowed as if questioning such an idea.

The Chairman nodded his head "I trust the Night Class to follow the Academy's rules, and I know my daughter and Kiryuu-kun do well as guardians."

Kira frowned while Artemis just laughed.

"You trust two vampires to keep their fellow mates in line. For all you know it could be Kiryuu Zero whose sucking dry those humans." Kira stated harshly.

"Say that to my face." growled none other than Kiryuu Zero himself. He stood directly behind Kira with the Bloody Rose pointed straight at the back of messy black hair; the safety latch undone.

Kira sniggered and said "That is a tool to kill vampires. It is useless on a human such as myself."

Zero narrowed his violet eyes at his fellow comrade and slowly replaced the Bloody Rose back inside his jacket. He quietly shut the door and moved to stand beside the vampire hunter known as Cherry. She murmured a polite hello, but he ignored it. Glaring at the rijichou he asked "And...what did you need?"

The Chairman gave Zero a big smile, momentarily lifting the tense atmosphere. "Kiiirrrrryyyyyyuuuuuu!"

Zero continued to glare at the Chairman and hit the Chairman as he attempted to hug him.

"Shut up and get on with it." Zero growled when the Chairman began to pout.

"Please Kurosu-senpai, how can the Black Knights be of service?" Cherry quietly asked; she too was getting annoyed at the Chairman's childish behavior.

"Ah gomen Cherry-san." he coughed into his hand; the atmosphere became tense once again "As I said, there is a vampire feeding off the girls from the Sun Dorm. It worries me that if these attacks continue, it will give attract more vampires and give the wrong ideas."

"Why can't the Night Class just sniff out the rat?" Cherry inquired, cocking her head to the side and giving Cross a puzzled expression.

"This vampire is not working alone. We believe this vampire has comrades in the Sun Dorm" the Chairman paused and then said "and the Moon Dorm." he closed his eyes and waited for the predictable outburst from Kiryuu.

Zero slammed his fist against the wall and then smiled darkly. This was perfect. Now he had an even better reason to kill those monsters. Artemis was right, a coexistence between predator and prey was impossible.

Kira let out a laugh.

"You're absolutely sure that this vampire has friends in both the Night and Day class?" Artemis asked, her eyes searching her mentor's. Cross nodded his head gravely and said sadly "Kuran and I had our suspicions but now we've confirmed it."

Artemis grinned "This is going to be fun. So senpai, what do you want us to do."

Cross sighed "For now I just want all of you to blend in. Keep a low profile. Kiryuu, would you please escort Cherry-san to Kaname-san in the Moon Dorm. I will help Naoto-kun and Arty-san settle down here."

"Hn." Zero frowned at the Chairman, but reluctantly obeyed his orders. Cherry smiled at Zero, but she was ignored. Zero stalked past the strawberry blonde haired girl, motioning her to follow. She bowed to Cross before trotting after her 'friend'.

"That boy needs to smile more." Artemis commented quietly, staring wistfully after him. Cross chuckled softly and said "He's been through a lot, almost as much as you have Arty."

"Hn."

Willow:

It was halfway through first period when the doors were slammed open by Kiryuu Zero. Behind him stood an unfamiliar face and what I guessed was a transfer student. The male was slightly taller than Zero, but not by much, and he wore an aloof expression. It was quite clear that Zero was angry (he usual was) but today his mood seemed ten times as bad. I could feel my nose twitch as I tried my best not to laugh, I found his face expression priceless.

Kinomiya-sensei froze in mid speech, his mouth slightly ajar. Zero stalked down the steps of the classroom and walked straight over to our confused teacher, muttering something into his ear. Kinomiya nodded his head towards the newcomer. Zero turned on his heel and quickly took his seat near the top of the classroom, frowning all the way.

"Uhh, everybody we have a new transfer student" Kinomiya-sensai said, gesturing to the brown haired man to introduce himself. He stepped up, sending the female part of the room a very flirtatious grin. Then he did a comical bow causing the entire classroom to erupt into laughter and giggles.

I felt Mira tense up at his actions, curling her fists into balls- apparently she was vexed by his presence...but why?

"Ohayo minna-san" he said. His voice was smooth and silky, but the way he spoke sent chills up my spine. "Watashiwa Kira Naoto. Hajimemashite"

The girls squealed.

I noticed that his accent was a bit off which made me wonder if he was all Japanese.

"Yes, yes girls. You'll all have time to gawk later." Kinomiya snapped angrily. "Kira-kun please go take your seat by Kiryuu-kun."

At the mention of his own name, Zero abruptly stood up and walked out of the classroom.

Silence.

"Ah. It seems like I've already made an enemy." Kira commented dejectedly, feigning hurt. The Day class girls ate up his pathetic act, shouting words of sympathy seconds later. Kinomiya shook his head, put a hand to his forehead and sighed. "Okay sorry about that Kira-kun. Hmm let's see" he scanned the room "You can sit with Sakai-san for the time being."

I did not like the way Kira was looking at me nor did I like the wolfish grin he flashed me. I mentally groaned. I faked a smile as he slide down next to. It was literally the second he sat down that Mira stood up "Sensei, I don't feel very good." She didn't even wait for him to excuse her, Mira grabbed her books and left. I was flabbergasted at her behavior.

"Ah, it seems like I've made another enemy." Kira mumbled.

Yeah no shit sherlock. I wondered why Mira and Zero both didn't like Kira. Zero I could understand a bit why he didn't like this new guy, but Mira? I know that she's a bit antisocial and is extremely shy, but to rudely take off...that wasn't a Mira-ish thing to do. God maybe I'm losing my touch and I'm not as perceptive as I thought I was! Nah.

I spent the rest of the period cramming all the notes Kinomiya-sensei had written on the board...which were a lot. All the while I wrote, I could feel Kira staring at me and it was a little bit nerve racking.

"Stop." I said, while focusing on copying down the remainder of today's notes. Kira had his elbow propped on the desk, with his head resting on his palm. "Hmmm?"

I rolled my eyes "It's annoying."

"What's annoying?" he asked in a bored tone.

"You've been staring at me ever since you sat down. Stop." I said.

He chuckled "Don't flatter yourself. You're not pretty enough for me to actually take the time to stare at you. All I was doing was measuring the size of your breasts girl. What are you an A or B? It's really hard to tell." He smirked as he insulted me and to add insult to injury he had the balls to touch my breast "Oh what do ya know. You are a B cup...just barely though."

The bell rang before I had the chance to strangle him.

"Sayonara nearly flat chested onna." he grinned, strolling casually out of the classroom.

Oh that bastard was in for a whole world of hurt. But he wasn't a high priority...No I'd get him after I got my answers...if he was still around by then.

Luckily for the next two periods I didn't have to see his nasty face or hear his annoying voice. I spent the next two periods writing down detailed notes using my good handwriting.

"Ahh my hand is in a lot of pain." I groaned, throwing myself down onto my bed. Fuck the rest of the school day, I didn't care if I got a detention. If Mira wasn't going to be there...I'd get the notes from someone else. Mira sat on her bed with a book in hand, she looked to be focusing abnormally hard. I had decided beforehand not to question her odd behavior because it wasn't worth a fight. Instead I retold her about how the transfer student was a complete pervert.

She sat up, her gaze cast onto the floor "I'm sorry."

I titled my head a bit "For what?"

Muttering something to herself, Mira shook her head "Nevermind."

I let it go. "So now what do you want to do? We've got the rest of the day."

"Dresses." she said.

I raised a brow "What about them?"

"You need one."

"But I've got no one to dress up for."

She uttered one word that caused me to blush "Aihara-san."

I sighed. Maybe dress shopping would cheer Mira up and plus I did want to try to catch Kazu's attention. "Fine."

Authoress' Corner.

Japanese translations in order:

Shini kyuuketsuki- Die vampire

CHOTTO MATTE- Wait a minute

Junketsu kyuuketsuki hime- Pure blood vampire princess

Un- Yes

Arigato junketsu hime-sama- Thank you pure blood princess

Rijicho- Chairman

gomen- Sorry

Ohayo minna-san- Good morning everyone

Watashiwa Kira Naoto- My name is Naoto Kira

Hajimemashite- Nice to meet you all

Sensei- Teacher

Sayonara- Good bye

onna- Woman

Iie- No

I don't know if it helped, but I used a lot of Japanese words...

Oh my god, every time I get to the Authoress' Corner, I always keep forgetting what to write. I have important stuff to say and I can never remember when it's time to write the author's corner. It's bloody annoying.

Naoto Kira belongs to eclipticShadow and if you ever happen to read this eS I hope you like how I portrayed Kira. eS has issues with reading my stories because were best friends and she finds it just weird because she knows the author. It's like some OCD thing, but I still love her anyways.

Oh yes I remember what I wanted to say. Yay I finished exams and I did horribly in two so far. Biology and history. Gah. Umm yes I know the plot hasn't progressed, but I had to introduce some new characters. It's necessary for later and I'm also sorry for having a short Willow bit. I was actually thinking of putting her in the next chapter and not this one, but I thought that would be too mean. She'll have more in the next chapter and because this one hasn't really progressed much I'll tell you what she's going to do. As a kick off to her 'ingenious' plan she is going to ask Zero to the dance and the word 'no' isn't in her vocabulary...

Thanks:

Reteka Hyuuga- Glad you like the story and characters. What do you think so far of the story?

rainy-lullaby- Thanks. Next chapter I'll have more Zero, but I can't for sure say it'll be with Willow.

Sweet Nightmare's Goodbye- I hope you liked this chapter even though the plot hasn't really moved.

posted~like I can remember that

edited~5/08/2010 dd/mm/year

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Review!

ZTL