Sat. back and with more ideas! To one reviewer, you know who you are; I thank you for bringing up the issue of Sarah. For a reward, since I can't give you a cookie, I will put in something dealing with her and her… ahem guy friend. I noticed that I misspelled Zero's last name, but I'm not going to change it because that's how I know how to spell it now. Soon, things will get a bit… bloodier. I'm not going to say much else because I'm evil and it's fun to be evil. Hey, twenty-two pages! Woot! This is payment for a late-ish chapter and for my internet hiccupping on me. I own nothing familiar. I wish I did…I want Zero…oh well. Oooh! I found a cookie! On wards!
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Angelica
Chapter eight: The insider's look
Sometimes, it's far too easy to read people. They take the fun out of guessing and investigating. On the other hand, there are people who can't be read at all. These few people create a type of irritable craving about them. I have to know. I have only encountered a few people who stir this nosy craving up. They are Ana, Kaitlin and now Kuran. I would most likely be on that list too, if someone with my abilities met and talked to me.
When I first met Ana and Kaitlin, I was constantly dipping into their minds to see what they thought about something. At times, I still have to. They would never tell someone what they thought or they couldn't find the words to do so. Ana was much worse about this than Kaitlin. However when we were little, these two told me that I was being unfair. I was just as hard to read as they were and they couldn't mind dip like I could to them. I told them tough luck. Sometimes, I still tell them that. It's been two days since Valentine's Day, but some people are still giddy over it. Kaitlin's still mad about it. Something also seemed to happen to Rena, but she's not saying anything. Maybe she's in shock or something?
Ana and Kaitlin came back to the dorms that night and neither said what happened with Aido other than no fight broke out. We were all waiting in Rena's and Kaitlin's room for them. I asked what happened and Kaitlin sulked to the bathroom and Ana heaved a sigh. I was asked not to mind dip in either of them for this information. It seems something huge happened. Oh well, I'll know soon enough.
My attention turns back to the people talking and walking around the lunchroom. I'm not listening to the conversation the girls are in. I'm just watching other people. For some reason, my perceptive qualities are enhanced by my extra ability, so I can read all of these people like I'm looking at their minds. That one guy with brown hair at the end of the lunch table, on the other side of the room is wondering if the girl next to him likes him or not. His friend with black hair sitting across from him is wondering if he can steal the girl before a relationship blooms between the brown haired boy and the girl.
Another girl with her math book opened is trying to study while debating whether or not to cheat. I say cheat if you can get away with it. Who ever said I was a good role model? I grin a little at that thought. Me, a role model. Yeah, and I'm also a pacifist. How much time do we have left for lunch? The clock says about ten minutes. I get up and cross the room to throw away the trash on my tray and turn it in. Some people still drag their eyes on me, thinking I don't know they're watching. I know what they're thinking: Wow, a black girl in Japan. I get a kick out of this. Sitting back down, I decide to pay attention to the conversation.
"I think we should cancel the meeting for Mardi Gras," Kaitlin says, sipping her milk, "We could hold a party in the Hall instead. It'll be educational and fun."
"Where would we get Mardi Gras stuff here in Japan?" Sarah asks with sarcasm.
"Not in town," I say, "We'd have to get purple, gold, and green stuff and make them ourselves."
"Dunno, Kait," Rena says with a sad voice, "We may have to drop the idea of Mardi Gras in school. We wouldn't even be able to get beads, a king's cake, masks, or anything."
"Damn," the shorted hair girl mutters, "and here I thought we could pull something like that off."
"We're in the wrong country for that," Ana says, "and the only military instillation around here is a good day's trip from the school."
We created fake I.D. cards to get onto military bases when we are close to a base or post. Hey, tax free stuff man! I'd go for that.
"Sorry, Kaitlin," I say with a small grin, "Looks like we'll not have Mardi Gras this year either."
"Can't blame me for trying," she says, shrugging.
"Well, time to go to class," Rena says, getting up as other students leisurely leave the cafeteria.
We disperse to our classes. Sometimes I don't see the point of these classes. The girls and I were taught nearly everything in school at a much younger age. Hell, we could teach these classes if we wanted. This is confusing, still to this day: Why did the Hunters educate us so well when they knew the possibilities of betrayal and rebellion? I knew our teachers were worried about it. Even some of the higher ups were worried about it too.
Didn't they think that ignorance is not only bliss, but easily manipulated? Did they just take a leap of faith with brainwashing at an early age? Even when I was younger I knew right from wrong and most of the ideas the Hunters had were very wrong. At the time, it didn't stop me. It was really Ana that was almost their perfect weapon. None of us know the whole details between Kuran and Ana, but it was after that assignment that she planned how to leave the Hunters. She never could seem to get out what happened when the topic is brought up.
Classes go by quickly, since I'm just doodling over my notebook. Sometimes, the teacher asks to see my notebook and is surprised to find all the notes copied in it. He is even more surprised that I do well on all my work and tests. In fact, all of my teachers try to catch me doing something bad. Suppose that's what they're paid for. Classes let out and I hang around in the classroom 'til the rush dies a bit. I head to my room to pick up and gym bag and slip Hermes' Howl into the bottom of the bag from my jacket pocket. I leisurely wander to the Hall.
Yesterday, Ana and I went to Cross to ask him if we could train with our weapons someplace without getting into trouble. Apparently, there is a shooting range somewhere in the school that is strictly for Kiryuu's use only. We are allowed to use the range as long as Kiryuu was there as well. This means that Kaitlin and I are going to the range after the meeting! Yes! We can't use our weapons in front of Kiryuu, but I bring Hermes everywhere. Old habits die hard and new wounds make you die faster.
I'm pretty sure the only reason the silver haired vampire agreed to our request was to weasel information out of us. I'll take that. After all, guns are loud and I don't have my silencer any more. I lost it in the last run from the Hunters on one of the islands of Japan. It was a custom fit. In fact, all the weapons that we were given to work with were custom made for us. It's amazing that the few enemies that got a hold of Hermes couldn't use him because of the strong kick he gave when fired. Heh and I've been using it before I knew how to read and write. My little wild Hermes. After changing out for the meeting, I come over to where Sarah and Rena are talking.
"So you haven't gotten a word out of her yet?" Sarah asks, stretching her arm.
"No, she doesn't want to say anything," Rena mummers near a whisper.
"And I can't mind dip Ana or Kaitlin to see what happened," I comment and start to stretch out as well. Of course I know what they're talking about. We've been trying for the last two days to figure out what happened.
"Well," Sarah says thoughtfully, "She was sad in a defeated way, but also really embarrassed. You don't think that she said yes to Aido's gift thingy, do you?"
"Why would she?" the blonde asks, "She wouldn't give in that easily, would she?"
"We also don't know what happened to say if she said yes or no," I say to bring this out of speculation, "We just need to wait. Maybe I can try to find something out when we go to the range after the meeting."
"You can't invade her little mind, Angelica," Sarah says with a flat look.
"Please," I say with fake offense, "I can talk to people to figure things out. Mind dipping is just fun."
Soon, students fill in and meet in the usual areas of the Hall. I head off to my group of little fighters. They have improved a good bit. Hani isn't falling down or hitting herself as much as she used to. I place my little students with partners after making them go through all the basic sequences for kick boxing. Ah, they grow up so fast. Luckily for them, my group is an even number so no one has to be paired with me. Since this is the last week for this fighting style, we have a pseudo tournament. I pair up the first round of fights, trying to pair people with equal fighting skills and watch them squirm, err…I mean excel under my instruction.
"Alright everyone," I say in the middle of the ring of students, "This is the last fight for the night. After this, we can go and eat. The last two remaining people are Kojiro and Hani!"
This is really surprising. I mean, Hani isn't really that coordinated and she still falls down a lot outside of the meetings, but she has done really well. She reminds me a bit of Sarah. Sarah has great grace when fighting, but take her outside of that, she'll trip up stairs and hit a wall at the same time. The physics are astounding. Hani timidly comes up to me and Kojiro walks with major confidence. I survey them both, and hope Hani will win. Kojiro deserves a good kick in the head for what he did to this sweet girl the first week here. Making fun of her and such. I say he likes Hani, but he's being a five-year-old about it by hitting her a little too hard and won't ask her out. This'll be interesting.
"Alright, you two," I say with a grin, "You know the rules and don't break any of them. If you break more than three, you automatically lose. Best of luck to both of you."
They give a short bow and take their sides of the mats. The other students are a few steps back from the mats, but are already cheering for who they want to win. I walk off the mat, cross my arms and wait for them to take a stance. The silence thickens.
"Begin!" I yell.
They both begin to move around each other, Kojiro taking a few right stabs. Hani dodges them with wide hazel eyes and continues to move. She has a smart way of fighting. She waits to see what her opponent can do. Kojiro is good at jabbing, but not at hooks or high kicks. After another right jab that misses, she takes a straight aimed kick to his ear. He stumbles from the hit, even if it wasn't hard. I think he's more surprised that she did that. She keeps her distance, still with wide eyes and continues to move. Good girl. He regains his stance and has learned to be wary of her legs while continuing. Smart boy.
He tries to take one more jab which she moves completely out of the way. He keeps going on his momentum and becomes unbalanced. Hani, despite her sweet appearance, takes advantage of this and sends a good, ringing kick into the poor guy. He is slammed down on the mat, somewhat dazed. I count out loud and he doesn't get up. Hani is moving a little and keeping her distance. He's out.
"Hani wins!" I yell to the whole room.
Cheers erupt from my group as I help Kojiro up. I test him by asking him questions and check his sight. He says that he is fine. I laugh and told him he'd need ice for a few days. He congratulates Hani on "handing his ass to him" as he says. She blushes either from the complement or from his crude statement. My guess is both.
"Okay, everyone!" I yell over the chatter of my group, "Change out and head off to your weekend. Good job and very good job, Hani."
Everyone disperses to their changing rooms, a few girls still giggling around Hani and some boys patting Kojiro sympathetically on the shoulder. Looks like Hani got Kojiro's attention now. I smirk at the two retreating teens, and pick up a mat.
"Wow, Hani won?" Sarah asks, taking my mat in the office.
"Yeah," I answer with a laugh, "She did very well for a beginner. She has the instincts of a fighter."
"That's…amazing," she says with surprised eyes.
"She's doing well," I say with a shrug and leave to get my other mats.
After putting all of the mats away and after the students leave, we all sit down in a circle in the middle of the room. This is just to polish the recon details for this weekend. Ana will leave before Kiryuu comes to get Kaitlin and I. That poor snuck has no idea how to catch our little Ana and he probably won't for a while.
"Alright," Ana says, cracking her neck some, "This is what we have. Sarah and I will leave tomorrow bright and early. We each have towns to check in two days in the ten mile radius. Meanwhile, the three left will go into town and check out different parts and find where the Hunters' safe house is here, if one exists. Cell phones will always be on and loud no matter where you are. Sarah and I should return between ten and eleven at night on Sunday. We cannot tell Cross where we are and where we're going. Any questions?"
"What if we do find a safe house in town?" Rena asks.
"Record the location and keep an eye on it," Sarah answers with a shrug, "Not every safe house has our pictures, but keep wary of them."
"What do we tell Kuran if he asks for Ana?" Kaitlin asks.
Takuma told Sarah on Valentine's that Kuran was still contemplating his answer. Apparently, something happened between her and Takuma, but Sarah won't tell us what happened. For the moment, anyway.
"Tell him…" Ana starts, "that we're doing something important to protect ourselves, the school, and them to a certain degree."
"You don't want us to lie directly to him?" I ask with a certain tone. It may not be the smartest thing to do.
"He'll understand," she mummers.
"So," Kaitlin says, bring the attention away from Ana, "We're to follow the normal protocol of run first and fight later and have minimum weapons on us while in town. We'll split up and take parts of the town and make one large and final sweep to overlap our work and find any nooks and crannies that seem possible. We'll make a check list using a map."
"And Ana and I are to have our main weapons on our person," Sarah says, "while hiding them in town."
"Good thing I still have my instrument case," Ana mutters to herself.
"Yet, no instrument," I comment with a grin. She smirks for a moment. We both know what the real instrument is.
"Anything else?" Rena asks. We all remain silent, looking at each other.
"Kiryuu will be here in a minute to pick Kaitlin and Angelica up," Ana says, getting up, "So, I'll see you three on Sunday."
Kaitlin and Rena hug her on each side. She holds their arms closer to her. Once she's disengaged from them, I bump knuckles with her and give her a big grin. She returns with her usual small grin. After she leaves, I sit back down. Kaitlin goes to get her gym bag and Rena takes her seat again.
"This is getting absurd," the blonde mutters, "We really need to think of a way to keep that guy out of our business, period!"
"He's just too curious and hardheaded for his own good," I say with a shrug, "We might not be able to keep him away from our business permanently unless we kill him. And that would upset Cross and Yuuki."
The door opens to reveal said annoyed silver haired vampire. He might have heard some of the conversation. He glares at all of us, no doubt angry that Ana's not here. I give him a malicious grin while gathering up my gym bag. Sarah smirks at the poor guy and heads back to the office.
"Let's go before I change my mind," he growls at Kaitlin and me.
The shorted haired brunette and I exchange looks before following him out of the Hall. We wish the other two girls good night as they start to set up targets. Kiryuu doesn't know what they are doing, but he doesn't question their actions. Smart boy. Now if you'd only leave us alone with certain matters, everything else will be okay. We head back to the main building and towards Cross' office. We continue past that, following the angry teen, into different parts of the school I didn't think existed. This place is pretty big, though. Soon we come to a small indoor range with four stalls. I drop my stuff at the wall the opposite of the stalls. Kiryuu walks over to a medium sized cupboard, unlocks the metal latch and reveals practice guns. Lovely.
He takes a couple of magazines out and heads towards a stall. Kaitlin and I exchange glances and I just shrug. She walks over and pulls our two M-9s along with four magazines. While she checks over the borrowed firearms, I pull out an M-11. This one has more kick than an M-9 and is a bit bulkier. Hearing a chain jingle, I glance at Kiryuu to see him pull a silver gun out of his jacket pocket. He pops the mag out and slides the borrowed one in. The gun has a rose etched on it and says, "The Bloody Rose". Fitting for this school. Their uniforms are covered with rose designs.
On a random note, I do wonder how often that submission sigil is used that's on his neck.
Walking to a stall, I check my firearm and find it in good condition. I load the magazine of regular bullets and look at the paper target. Shots next to me sound and Kiryuu's little paper man has a few new holes in his head. I fire my own gun, uncaring of safety goggles and familiar to the loud noise. Soon, my paper man only has one new hole in his head and I pull out my empty magazine. I hear Kaitlin cock and lock her two weapons. She fires both of them and moves them in a pattern. What is she doing this time? She reels her paper man back after dropping two empty mags on the counter.
"He's ready for a party," she says to me with a silly grin.
Her paper man had a smiley face and a bowtie. I laugh hard at her art work. Kiryuu gets interested and looks at the target. I hear him scoff.
"You're a demented little thing, you know that?" I ask her, while loading a new mag.
She merely grins and says, "Maybe I can scare Ice Boy away if he comes here. It'll take care of my problems with him."
"Are you ever going to tell us what happened between you two that night?" I ask futilely.
"Not until I can get over it," she says, nearly growling.
"You're killing me with suspense," I comment, letting the trigger fly.
She's not going to tell and she's shoved it to the back of her mind. I would know if she was thinking about it. Damn girl's good at shoving away distracting thoughts. This is one very large reason she's so hard to read. She can almost shut her mind off.
We practice for a good hour before Kiryuu says it's time to leave. Out of habit, Kaitlin and I clean the firearms we used before putting them away. This didn't take long since we've had to do it during…time constricted areas during missions. When something get's jammed, you better damn well know how to fix and clean it fast. We begin to follow Kiryuu out, but he stops short of the door. He slowly turns to look at us.
"Neither of you will tell me anything regarding your abilities, you will?"
"Why ask what you already know?" Kaitlin answers with a shrug.
"There's no way for me to convince either of you to tell me?"
"Unless you want to torture us," I say with a cool air and hard grin, "But even that will take a lot of time. Other circumstances haven't risen up for us to tell you anything. We also don't plan on that changing. Give up while you're behind, Kiryuu. We may not know what you're asking of us, but we cannot and will not tell you a damn thing regarding ourselves."
Part of that is a lie. But he doesn't know that we know he saw Ana's aura energy form.
"I figured as much," he mutters, turning towards the door, "But that doesn't mean I'll stop asking questions."
Kaitlin and I sigh together.
"Hardheaded moron," Kaitlin spits in English.
He glances back at her. I'm pretty sure he understood that. We follow him to Cross' office when he tells us that we're on our own. I shake my head at the boy before he leaves to his duty for the night. I don't have a problem with him. In fact, he reminds me of a past and meaner Ana. But he's not her in a few ways. We walk back to the dorms. I say goodnight to Kaitlin and head up towards my own room.
I shut the door and take a quick shower, making sure to not get my hair wet. It'll be hard trying to find a place to perm my hair flat. It can only last a few more weeks at best. I remove Hermes' Howl from my gym bag and unload it.
Cocking and locking it, I hold it to my temple. The cold metal sends comforting waves through my spine. I lean my head into the barrel, letting the metal warm up against my newly cleaned skin. Pulling the trigger and the barrel pops emptily. I disassemble the weapon on my desk; cleaning it slowly to check every piece over. Finding nothing wrong with the mechanisms, I reassemble the weapon, load it, lock it and put the safety on. Gently, it slides under my pillow, to let it sleep for the night. I guess Hermes and I will get a work out for the next two days. Good. I'm getting bored.
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We each found a note slipped under our doors from Ana and Sarah. They wished us luck and for us to be safe. They're so cute. We all act like one big family of sisters. I guess we are in more than one way. After all, I don't think Rena can deny me as a direct blood relation! Pale little thing, she is.
I printed maps off in the library on Thursday of the town and highlighted places in the town after researching the place. The plan is to mark what places were possible and where some good information was heard, if any. The town isn't that large, but we need to be thorough. We get breakfast as soon as the cafeteria opens and head out to town. I take the east side, Kaitlin takes the west and Rena takes the south side. We'll have to take the north side on the way out. The search hours drag on with no calls from either of them. It's around four-thirty.
Traveling down the street, and ignoring the stares, I find a little café called "Blue Star". I check my map, making it look almost like I'm a tourist. What else would a black girl do in Japan? This one is highlighted, so I head inside. The place is scattered with spring colors and a large shooting blue star is one the back wall. It's made out of some sort of metal and has blue and white streams painted behind it. This place is a potential spot? Maybe Sarah and Ana got their brains mixed up.
I look around the pleasant little place and take a seat in the back near the star. This place better have something here. I've checked more than half of the map so far and I've only got three more marked places. Deciding to order some coffee and a cookie, I take in who is here. Mostly young couples and some people from school are here. I don't recognize them, which means they only know me as the one of the new girls in school. Good. It makes things easier. After forty-five minutes my patients begins to thin. I'm 'bout to just get up and go to the next place. The door opens and I stop my motion to get up.
Tall guy, dark clothes, shifting eyes, hands in pockets. This guy screams, "Look at me! Look at me!" The Hunters really need to train these guys better when entering a place. "Mystery" man walks up to the counter, talking to a worker. Sipping my almost empty cup, I watch him in the corner of my eye. Maybe there is something here. The little worker girl, points to the back hallway, next to my table and he ventures down it with some confidence.
I throw my cup away and head outside slowly and head towards the back of the café. Hey, every place needs a back alley dumpster and that equals silent break-in. The door is locked, but that's to be expected. I glance down the opening of the alley, seeing people continuing with whatever they're doing. With practiced ease, I form my own dark violet energy in my hand, sliding it into the weak lock. My energy forms the right ridges for the lock and I turn it easily. Simple people with simple locks. I silently walk in and lightly snap the door shut. I hear a man talking and a few others murmuring. They seem to be in the same room.
My shoes lightly tap the hard, tiled floor. Damn my shoes for making noise, but they might not hear me. I slip off my shoes and put them in one hand, continuing in socks. I come to an opened door where light is flooding the floor. The hallway is lit, but poorly. Leaning my back next to the entrance, I twist my head and notice a mirror above a dark blue thread couch. Not a bad idea, but useful to me. I thank whoever made me black. It's harder to see someone with darker pigmentation in a dark hallway. There conversation is a bit unimportant, but this is defiantly a meeting place for Hunters.
"Let's move on to the next topic since Andrew decided to arrive," a man says with annoyance.
"I'm sorry I was late," Andrew says, uncaringly.
"Cross Academy," man one says, unfaltering, "What new information is there about the infestation at the school?"
Holy shit, these guys want to clean the Night Class out?! Cross got the okay from both sides when that school was established! Then again, this is to be expected from about half of the higher ups in the Hunters circle.
"The vampire activity is little to none," man two says, "We've kept the usually rounds, but the Guardians that Cross has seem to be doing their jobs."
"Unlike the lot of you," man one growls, "Our mission is to find a reason to shut that place down. Since it's been up, no one can find anything."
"We could try that idea of letting a wild Level E in and have it attack the human students," a woman says, "We could say that the vampires drew it in."
Dirty players.
"We could," man one says thoughtfully, "but we'll have to discuss this a little later. Before I forget, word has come from H.Q. that the five life-force transits are somewhere close in the area. We are to keep a watchful eye for these A Class weapons. They're known to be highly dangerous and very unpredictable. Their photos and what information we have are here. Study them hard. If we find even one, we'll get a major promotion."
Asshole. That's all I need to hear. I slink back down the hall. Once at the door, I slip my shoes back on and exit the little Hunter-hole. Shit, this is worse than I thought. That's it for this recon for the day. We need to regroup and rethink our venturing out for the next day. I pull out my purple phone. Thank God for speed dial.
"Kaitlin," I say with a serious tone, "Get back to school right now and go to your room. I'll meet you there."
"Why?"
"Unpromising circumstances have risen against our favor. We'll have to talk to Kuran and Cross as soon as possible."
"Holy hell! That bad?"
"Oh yeah. I'm calling Rena."
"Right. 'Bye."
I press Rena's button.
"Hello?"
"Get back to campus. Kaitlin should be there soon. Go to your room."
"What's happening?"
"Nothing immediate, but still bad."
"'Kay. See you there."
We're going to have to call Ana and Sarah when we all get back to the campus. I check around me every so often to see if I'm being followed. I wave a few times to some of my group from the club with a small smile. Once I get back on campus and to the dorms, I take the stairs by three, praising my awesome tallness. Entering the room without knocking, I take a seat on Kaitlin's bed. I take out my phone and dial Sarah's number while Rena dials Ana.
"Hello?"
"Sarah, I've called a conference for an emergency," I say into the receiver.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm putting it on speaker and Ana's on the other line," I answer, putting the phone on speaker. Rena relays the same message on her cell.
"Alright, Angelica. What's wrong?"
"The Hunters have a post set up in town, currently at the Blue Star Café," I begin, "They're here to monitor the school. I don't know how long they've been monitoring the activities here, but it sounded like it's been a while. They might even put Level Es on the campus to attack students so they can put Cross out of business here. And to add to the effect, they also received word from their H.Q. that we're in the surrounding areas. This can cause so many fucking problems."
"Are you serious?!"
"Dead serious," I flatly say.
"Does this mean we have to let Cross and Kuran in on this information and what we were doing?" Rena asks.
"We would be exposing ourselves to doing secret activities," Kaitlin hurriedly says, "Think of the consequences of that!"
"Think of what could happen if we don't tell them," Sarah snaps at her, "We'll be in more trouble then than now. I say we tell them."
"We'll need some sort of help if we are attacked here," I mummer thoughtfully, "and it'd be better to have more on our side. This could show so forming trust."
"It'll still have trust in question though," Ana counters, "But…we should tell them. You three go ask Cross to call Kuran in at a decent time and tell them this new information and anything else they ask about this."
"What if they ask where you are?" Kaitlin asks.
Sounds of birds come from Ana's line and some cars from Sarah's.
"Tell them…shit tell them what we're doing and how far we're from school and why. There's no way to avoid it without being manipulated."
"…If you say so, Ana," I respond, "I don't like the decision, but you're right. We have set some solid things up here and we don't need anything else to be compromised. Not yet, anyway."
"Call us after you talk to them," Sarah says with a worried voice, "It doesn't matter how late it is for me. Call me whenever."
"Me too. I'll talk to you guys later. I don't have good reception here."
Two dial tones beep and go silent. A sigh breaks through my mouth. Shit, I hate this. Rena gets up, saying that she'll go ask Cross and do her best to explain the situation without giving away too much. Kaitlin hands over her map and Rena's. We sit on the floor, placing them next to each other and go through what we covered. There are four places publicly that we could find. The Blue Star Café, the King's Harold bookstore, the Red Lady bar, and the Queen Restaurant. There are also a few alleys that Rena found on the on the south side. Rena covered her area cleanly, since it was really small. Tomorrow we'll switch places. I'll take the south side, Kaitlin will take the north, and I'll take the east side and Rena will take the west.
We work over the maps for a good hour and a half maybe. My stomach growls against my layered shirts. This is what happens when work gets started; no food. Rena comes back, looking tired and plops on the bed, smothering her face in her pillow. It took awhile, which means that Cross tried to get information out of her. Poor little Rena.
"So?" Kaitlin asks.
"We're to go right after eating," she mutters from her pillow.
"Tried to get information out of you?" I ask in a lighter tone.
"Tried and failed," she says, sitting up, "That man used puppy eyes on me! Puppy eyes! C'mon, really?!"
"Wow," Kaitlin says, next to me, "I can see that happening."
"Let's go get something to eat then," I say, getting up and stretching my arms.
Kaitlin gathers up the maps and folds them up into her pockets. Yeah, we'll probably need these. We head down to the cafeteria to go get dinner. None of us talk as we sit and eat. The dinner rush is in, so we have to wait in line for a while. After sitting down, Rena decides to break the silence.
"D'you think we'll be in trouble for this?" she asks in English.
"It's possible," Kaitlin mummer in her roll, before taking a bit out.
"We shouldn't be in that much trouble," I reassure her, "He won't kick us out for simply being cautious."
"Yeah," Kaitlin says, "But we'll be in trouble for doing activities without notification."
That's true. When we got here and made that "pledge", when we made the club, to protect the school and students, we were also telling him that we'd let him know of our activities. Keeping lies in this situation is very dangerous. Then again, dealing with schools was always dangerous. Not enough privacy. Here, an ex-Hunter is the headmaster and has vampires as students and now E-Shifters. Isn't this place something.
"We're going to tell them because it's the right thing to do," I say, closing the subject.
After eating, we slowly head up to Cross' office. This is going to end badly, isn't? Kaitlin give a brief knock on the door and enters before Cross can say anything. We enter the room. The air certainly feels cold here. Kuran is sitting in one of at Cross' desk. He's in a plain white dress shirt and black slacks. I suppose I'm taking over Ana's spot for the moment. I sit in the seat next to the pureblood. Good think Kiryuu isn't here, nor Yuuki. I nod at Kaitlin and she folds the maps, placing them on the desk.
"Where is Ms. Rose and Ms. Wave, Ms. Smith?" Kuran asks.
"That'll be explained," I say in my own monotone voice, "Let's start with the recon details. Please don't interrupt if you want to hear the full report. When we stay in one place for more than two weeks, we do checks of the surrounding areas for Hunters. This place is no acceptation. We decided not to tell either you, Headmaster or Kuran due to how we were always taught. Less people know, less likely information can leak out. The plan is very simple. Ana and Sarah split up and took a ten mile radius from our location, here. Each is taking half a circle—"
"They have left the school grounds?" Cross asks calmly, but I can tell he's mad.
"And they are to be back Sunday evening," I sharply continue, "After looking into a few places. While they are off looking in near by locations, we went into town and covered different areas to find and record Hunters' meeting spots you see here on these maps. Tomorrow, we are to make a closer combing of the areas we checked and see if we missed anything. Now, the reason we asked both of you here is to relay some…troublesome news. All five of us are in agreement that we should tell you what we were doing when this information was "happened" upon.
"The few Hunters that I found are planning some nasty things. They're trying to find a way to shut the school down and clean out the Night Class. They want to pin all the blame on the Night Class and one ploy might be to let loose a few wild Level Es in here to attack the Day Class students. They've been monitoring the school for an unknown amount of time, but the tone they spoke in suggests a decent amount of time. And if that doesn't tighten the noose, their H.Q. gave them a warning to keep a look out for us. They've been photos of us, albeit old ones, but there are some things that haven't changed on us since we were little."
"So, Ana and Sarah are out as we speak?" Cross asks, linking his fingers.
"They left early this morning," Kaitlin answers.
"Are you sure of what you heard, Ms. Smith?" Kuran politely asks.
"I'm not one to mishear things like this, Kuran," I say to him with a grim grin, "Sometimes, I wish I do."
"Headmaster Cross," Rena says in a low voice, "I wouldn't suggest telling the prefects about this. Kuran, with due respect, I wouldn't suggest telling anyone in your coven, including your second in command. Not until we know something will happen. It's better that we don't show any reaction to what we've heard, lest we draw attention to ourselves."
"I agree with them, Headmaster," the pureblood says, "It would rile tension higher than the normal amount already here."
Wow, he's agreeing with us. Cross rests his chin on top of his linked fingers and stares at his desk. Time lingers for a little, but no one moves. Not yet.
"You do realize what you have just compromised by telling me this, don't you?" Headmaster asks, looking at each of us.
"Yes," Kaitlin says for all of us, "We are ready to accept any consequences of any measure. You have full right to and we understand."
"The only consequence is," he starts, leaning back in his chair, "Is informing me when and where you'll be going in the next two weeks. Full details."
"You're not kicking us out?" Kaitlin asks, breaking her cold composure.
"Of course not," Cross answers with a smile, "Without any of you doing this, we wouldn't have known this new and bothersome information. I should have realized that something like this was to happen somehow. I forgot that you five aren't regular teenagers that have to worry about school. Survival and hiding soundly is the top priority for all of you and you all have a large amount of experience of doing so."
"Thank you, Headmaster," I say with a small smile, "for being so understanding. It's your choice when to tell the prefects of this change of events."
"You are dismissed, ladies," he says with a goofy grin, "Come talk to me after school Monday about what was found over the weekend. I also want Kaname to be here for that, so you're club meeting may be cancelled."
Oh shit. Ana's gonna hate that. Sarah'll have her hands full trying to contain that tense atmosphere. I nod to Cross and say goodnight to both of them. I guess we'll draw straws when we call Ana, 'cause I sure as hell don't want to do it. The next few weeks are going to turn into hell.