Honor Thy Masters

by gabriel blessing

Kenichi never really had much going for him. However, there was always one way Kenichi excelled: he was lucky in his Masters. A shame that those of Ryouzanpaku weren't the first he called his Master though.

5. Chapter 5

Honor Thy Masters

Author's Notes: So, once again, after having finished Don't Look, I found myself feeling particularly lazy for a bit. That tends to happen after I complete a work, so it didn't bother me at first, but when it started dragging on I decided it was time to do something about it.

So, much like the first chapter, a massive free write commenced, which then turned into Honor Thy Masters Five.

Tada!

Anyway, second to last chapter here, and its a bit of a strange one. I'm honestly not sure if I like how it turned out.

First off:

*Spoiler Alert*

Ever since I read Sandman, I had always been interested in the idea of a person which simultaneously existed as a place. That would be Fiddler Green in the old Sandman series. Because of that, and loosely inspired by Type Moon's Forest of Einnashe, I decided to explore that concept. Hence, Kenichi's progression. It's a little out of left field, but I tried to hint at it coming in the earlier chapters, so I decided to go with it.

The Enju no Jashin is another old Japanese monster, and added mostly so that this whole chapter wouldn't just be about Kenichi and actually have some real legend in it, as well as to allow for the conversation with the obliging Kenichi to progress long enough.

Now, Shigure. I kind of went out on a limb here, but I don't think that the limb is that strange of one. She has proven to be very interested in Kenichi in the past, enough so that even Miu had doubts for a bit. Add in her lack of experience with humans, and her very old fashioned upbringing, I could actually see her request to Akisame being like I made it. Her father did say that she liked him a lot, after all.

The final tricky part, is of course Shinobu. More of the Monogatari series has been translated, and I feel I have a much better grasp of her character now than I did when I was writing 'Those who love Monsters'. I tried to pull from the books and Nisemonogatari to help characterize her, but since the Kizumonogatari movie still hasn't come out... grumble grumble grumble stupid delays grumble... I kind of had to wing her a bit. She does tend to be a pretty crude and graphic person, so I think I managed to make her interesting a bit. For those unfamiliar with her character, I hope the suspense I tried building with the rest of Shinpaku paid off in a 'wait, what?' moment.

*End Spoilers*

And so, I present chapter 5, and hope you all enjoy it. No idea when the next chapter will come out, but come out it will!

Now, the question to ask myself is get back to In Flight or Erogame Protagonist. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

*Story Start*

It was my friends that helped bring me back from the abyss that nearly consumed me.

And I don't think I will ever be able to thank them enough for it.

It was the voices, familiar voices, which first penetrated the haze of my thoughts. Wearily, like a mammoth struggling with a tar pit desperate to consume it, the sounds reached my ears and I found myself almost reluctantly giving them attention.

"Oi, Alien," my muddled thoughts wearily determined that this was Ukita speaking, sounding a little put off about something. "Are you sure this is the place?"

"Definitely," there could be only one that would respond to a name like 'alien', and I could identify this speaker as most likely being Niijima. "After all my research, it seems that this is almost certainly it."

"Like we haven't already heard that before," a new voice joined in, and I wondered idly just how Takeda had been doing. He didn't sound happy. "I can't believe you just pretended to give up. I actually thought you might be showing some genuine friendship for a second there. Just backing off so you could look up some names…" Takeda seemed a bit less disgusted by his words, but he definitely wasn't overjoyed in them. "And even when you do, look how long it took you to get any results!"

"Look," Niijima sounded annoyed, but strangely resigned as well. "Do you have any idea how many Hanekawas there are in Tokyo? Kanbarus are pretty common too, for that matter. Heck, even Senjogahara was a lot more common than I thought it would be. It took all the information gathering forces of the Shinpaku Alliance to manage to get this together, and if you don't like it…"

"Oi, oi," this voice, the last time I had heard it, had filled me with dread. This time, I could only barely greet the presence of Sakaki with anything more than curiosity. "Enough. The fact that we have leads at all is a good thing, even if they're false ones. All we gotta do is kick over enough anthills, and eventually something will pop up."

"Is it just me," Kisara sounded grumpy about something as well, and from the tone of her voice she was apparently whispering to someone without intending anyone but the one she was addressing to hear her, "or are kiddo's Masters over there kinda, well, not that bright?"

She must have been whispering pretty softly if she would say something like that around Sakaki, but I caught it anyway.

Considering where they were at the moment, it would have been stranger for me NOT to have heard it.

"Right place or wrong place," Takeda broke back in, and the boxer sounded frustrated as he spoke. "Even if we do manage to find him, what then? Are we really going to take this 'Nightworld' stuff seriously? I mean, really? Ghosts and monsters? Do things like that even exist?" Here, Takeda's voice changed again, sounding hostile as he continued. "Do we really need someone like her along?"

"Whether you want me or not," I was surprised to hear a note of hostility in Chikage's voice, but on further reflection I decided that hearing her voice at all was probably pretty unusual, "my own Master had required me to be here."

"For all we know it was you Yomi that made him do something like this!" Takeda spat back, "Your Master seemed pretty interested back then too!"

I noted objectively that he was probably being quite unfair. I mean, yeah, it was actually a pretty real possibility that I had been forced or manipulated by the shadowy league of evilness which was the organization which hoped for a new war in order to showcase their abilities, but, well…

Chikage was a girl, after all. It wasn't right to attack girls like that!

But wait. That brought a strange thought to my mind. Hazily, I tried to recall why it did so.

Had I been involved in something to do with that idea? It was so hard to remember…

"It is… real."

This voice sent another very slow and barely noticeable jolt through my uncollected consciousness. The fact that the bolt seemed to actually continue until it reached my full understanding seemed to indicate that it was important, so I found myself waiting with childish eagerness until I understood why it affected me.

Ah. That's right! That voice belonged to Shigure-san!

Now. Who was that again?

"The Nightworld is… real," my youngest Master continued, and I remembered that at some point I could actually interpret the deadpan tone of the speaker. "If we want… any chance of success… then we need someone like… her."

"Well even if we need someone like her, then that means it doesn't have to be her specifically!" Takeda snapped, then seemed to think better of his tone. "Can't we use someone better? There's no way that you and Yomi teamed up for something like this before!"

"Back then it was… Kenichi who knew everything," Shigure responded slowly, as slow as I was slowly beginning to recall her to be.

Wait. Kenichi. That name was familiar too…

"And my Master has looked," Chikage broke in too, the young girl's voice cold as she addressed the boxer. "The fact is, there is no one better than Band-Aid for this kind of thing. He's one of the top four specialists in Japan, and the other three aren't the type to get involved with this kind of thing."

"Lalala," this voice was melodic enough that my gradually quickening thoughts were able to identify it as Siegfried once more. "That Kenichi had kept such talents hidden! I feel a melody coming!"

Kenichi, Kenichi. Who was that…

Wait. Wasn't I Kenichi?

"I guess that's another thing I can complement him on, when we finally rescue him."

This voice, sounding so sad and determined, yet so familiar and welcome, I was able to identify instantly.

"Miu," I murmured. Silence greeted my single word, lasting only a moment before it was broken by exciting shouting.

"Kenichi!" Sakaki and Miu both shouted in unison, Miu adding on her customary –kun as well.

"Holy shit! The Alien did it!" Ukita's voice broke in as well, the wrestler sounding exited and I could imagine the former delinquent clenching both fists in excitement.

"Kenichi!" It was Thor this time, and as each voice joined in, identifying more of the intruders the quicker I was able to identify them, my thoughts quickening slowly. "Just hold on! We're going to get you out of here!"

"Get me out?" I repeated, slowly trying to understand what was being said. "But why would I want to get out? I want to be here."

"Damn," Sakaki muttered, and I wasn't certain if he was swearing in response to me or something else. "Where is his voice coming from? And what's with all these vines!"

"I can't… find him either," Shigure added in, her tone speeding up in response to an emotion that I think I might have been able to identify once but found I no longer could. "What do you think… is causing this?"

"I don't know," Chikage responded quickly, even the little Yomi girl sounding as though she was concealing excitement. "I've haven't seen anything like this before."

"Well if you don't know, then guess," Niijima snapped, sounding perturbed by the response. "Why else would we have you here, anyway?"

"Oi," Ukita spoke up again, this time sounding hesitant. "Why don't you take it easy? She's just a girl…"

"Who just so happens to be Yomi. And also is responsible for calling her Master, who kept us from getting to Kenichi in the first place," Niijima coldly pointed out.

"But…" Ukita seemed to lose even more of his enthusiasm, as though the accusations of the Shinpaku Viceroy had managed to strike home somehow. I struggled to recall the specifics of the situation they were talking about, but found myself unable to summon enough effort to really care about it.

"Perhaps an Enju no Jashin," Chikage spoke up instead, sounding stern, little trace of childishness in her voice. "An Evil God of a Pagoda Tree."

"Evil god?" Sakaki repeated, and though the brawler didn't sound too happy with the much smaller child, he didn't seem to have Takeda's obvious hostility either. "So what does that mean?"

"I'm not certain," Chikage still sounded stern despite her confession. "I'm still just a Disciple in these matters, even more so than in the Underworld. If it was Band-aid, then maybe…"

Oh, yeah. Band-aid. Wasn't that what Chikage used to call me?

"The Evil God in the Pagoda Tree was a spirit that inhabited a forest outside of Mt Minobu. During the day, the god was a guardian spirit, but at night it would become an evil god," I helpfully supplied, automatically recalling the legend once it was called to mind. It was getting a bit easier to think now, and I found memories were coming quicker. Was that a good thing? I think it was. "It would demand monetary compensation from anyone who would travel its forest, and if they failed to pay then it would curse them to death. It was eventually exorcised by the son of the god Fudo Myo, and all its wealth returned to those it had extorted from."

I paused, trying to recall anything else about the legend that might be helpful. "Also, it liked to cook and eat people alive," I finally concluded. There. That sounded about right. "Was that what you wanted to know?" I asked as silence only greeted my explanation.

"Wow," Kisara finally whistled, sounding impressed. "I guess maybe Boya really is good at this kind of thing."

"Shigure," Sakaki seemed less interested in my story telling skills, and more focused on something else entirely. "Can you tell where his voice is coming from? I just can't seem to narrow it down."

"It sounds like… it's coming from everywhere," Shigure answered back instantly. I guess those two were more interested in finding me than in the story. I found it vaguely disappointing, but decided not to mention it.

"So what does something like an evil god want with Kenichi?" Takeda demanded, and I wondered if he was addressing me, or someone else. When Chikage spoke in response, I assumed it was her, and let her take the answer.

"There's no way of knowing," the tiny Miko responded, sounding nearly as focused as my Masters were. "But since its daylight, it's most likely that it isn't too dangerous at the moment."

"Good," Miu declared, her voice firm. "Then we need to find Kenichi before the sun sets. That gives us at least four hours! It's good that we got here when we did!"

"But why do you need to find me?" I wondered, trying to understand what was going on but still not able to think clearly enough to do so. Still, at least memories seemed to be returning better now.

At least, that's what I thought, until one in particular struck me.

The one of where I had last seen Miu, her blood on her lips from where my attack had nearly crushed her rib cage.

"So we can rescue you, you idiot," Takeda snapped in response to my question. When he continued, I got the impression he wasn't addressing me anymore. "Now, where the hell is he? Come on, it can't be that hard to track him down. He has to be close if we can hear each other!"

"I'm… back," Shigure spoke, though I hadn't realized that she had even left. "He's not… nearby."

"The voice does sound like its coming from everywhere," Sakaki growled. "Is this one of those Kai things you were talking about?"

"Yes," I answered in turn, though at the same time Chikage spoke as well with a,"I don't know!"

"Wait, wait, wait a second," it was Niijima this time, and the rest of the voices paused in response to his interjection. "Kenichi," he began, speaking slowly as he did so. "Didn't you say you didn't want to be rescued? If so, then why are you answering our questions?"

"Because you keep asking them," I responded, feeling confusion. If someone asks a question, aren't you supposed to answer them? Wasn't that the way things went? Maybe my memories were a bit less stable than I thought they were.

"So if I were to ask you to rank the breast sizes of Shigure, Miu, and Kisara in order of biggest to smallest, would you be honest?" Niijima's question was greeted by a squawk from the Tae Kwon Doist, the cat loving Kisara no doubt not being happy to have her chest brought up by the evil alien.

"Shigure, Miu, and then Kisara," I answered the question honestly, this time getting a squeak from Miu as well.

"What do you think you're doing, Haruo-kun!" Miu demanded, and judging from the flurry of 'whooshing' noises it sounded like Niijima was employing one of his weird alien dodging skills.

"Did you hear that?" Niijima on the other hand seemed absolutely ecstatic about something. "He answered completely honestly! Even when it was an embarrassing question that he never would have responded to normally! Do you know what that means?"

"Wait," Sakaki seemed eager all of a sudden as well, apparently picking up what the Shinpaku Aliance Commander was implying. "You don't mean…"

"Yes! Exactly," Niijima's response seemed to bring excited whispers from the rest, but they were drowned out he continued eagerly. "Now, quick Kenichi! What are the account numbers and passwords to all of your financial…"

"That's not important right now, you Alien!" Ukita in turn drowned out the rest of Niijima's question, and the sound of scuffling only increased.

"So why is that important at all?" Kisara demanded, sounding more concerned over the discussion of her chest than whatever point Niijima had raised.

"Because with this we can have Kenichi's help in dealing with this situation," Freya spoke up for the first time, the cool headed spear user addressing her former subordinates questions. Despite the revelation that they could now apparently exploit me for information at will, the dark skinned girl did not seem as excited as the others. "A better questions is just what state Kenichi-kun is in if he's so willing to give out information."

"Good point," Sakaki seemed a lot less enthused then he had been a second ago. "Sometimes after training if he gets a little punch drunk he gets like this, but if it's the results of him being drugged or something, than we just need to hurry up more." My Master's voice changed as he raised it, no longer apparently addressing the rest of the group but me directly. "Oi, Midget. If we wanted to find this evil god of a whatever it is tree, then where would we look?"

"In a tree," I responded, wondering why he even needed to ask such a ridiculously obvious question, but responding dutifully anyway.

"The roof!" Miu gasped, excitement in her tone as she made the connection. I recalled the great tree which had somehow managed to find purchase on the roof of the Noble Minds Tutorial High School, and how yes, that would be an obvious place to look for a Enju no Jashin.

"We have to go fast," Sakaki added, sounding excited. A loud crashing noise indicated that when Sakaki meant 'fast' he most likely also was using the 'straightest distance between two points' philosophy where things like other people, walls, large boulders, and other generally immovable objects tended to get demolished for being in his way.

Unexpectedly, the single crash was the only one, indicating that he was at least taking his time.

"Oi," the brawler spoke up, sounding unnerved, "that isn't sap coming out of that vine, is it?"

"Whoa!" Kisara sounded disgusted as she noticed what it was that had caught Sakaki's eyes. "Is that blood?"

"Please, Sakaki-donno," Chikage spoke up, sounding like she was trying her best to chastise the older and more powerful man politely, where if it was anyone else she would have already started insulting them. "We are dealing with a Kai. Perhaps a little more discretion might be advised?"

"You might be on to something, super-midget," the apparent sight of foliage dripping with the fluids usually found in animals seemed to have unnerved the brawler a bit, as no further explosions occurred. "Looks like we might have to take the long way."

"Am I the only one focusing on the important matter here?" Niijima demanded, though now his voice's position had changed.

"What could be more important than getting Kenichi's fat out of the fryer?" Takeda demanded, my friend still seeming to be short tempered at the commander.

"The fact that we can ask Kenichi anything right now, and he'll answer!" Niijima elaborated with exasperation in his voice. "Embarrassing secrets, blackmail, anything we want to know!"

"You are the worst friend ever," Kisara deadpanned, sounding like she didn't think the observation needed to be voiced, but saying it anyway.

"Lalala," Sigfried chimed in. "My Demon Lord, perhaps it would be better to refrain from such things until Kenichi is properly secured!"

"Oh come on," Niijima sighed, sounding disappointed. "I can't be the only one who wants to know something. Doesn't anyone else want to know?"

"Wanting to know or not," Freya sounded stern, "none of us are going to take abuse a comrades trust when he what very well could be drugged or compelled to…"

"Who is… Shinobu?" Shigure cut off the staff user as the youngest of my Masters shamelessly took advantage of the situation.

"Shigure-san!" Miu yelped, sounding shocked as the weapon user did exactly like Niijima was going to, though probably in a way which would cause me considerable financial distress in the future.

Though, if my memories indicated properly, this was most likely far more cruel a path than my bad friend's petty endeavors.

"Shinobu Oshino is the name given to the vampire Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Hearts Under Blades, the Cold-blooded, Hot-blooded, Iron-blooded vampire, the Kai Killer," I responded dutifully.

"Vampire," Kisara managed to catch that particular word out of the rest of Kiss Shot's old titles. "Why does the kiddo know a vampire?" she demanded, though I wasn't certain if she was addressing me, one of her companions, or if the question was just rhetorical. Never the less, I had an answer to that question.

"Because she was the one who killed me, and then turned me into a vampire myself for a bit."

The outrageousness of my statement seemed to shock the group as a whole into silence for a moment. Finally, it was Shigure, who was more aware then most about my past and the Nightworld in general, who asked the next question. "For… a bit?"

"I got better," I assured her. It must be confusing to think of vampirism as a temporary state. "Mostly," I added.

"How the hell does someone 'get better' from being a vampire?" Takeda demanded, disbelief obvious in his voice. "No, more than that, are we supposed to believe that vampires are even real?"

"Yes," I obediently answered his question. I briefly wondered if he was being rhetorical or not, but the thought faded soon enough. "You've met one before, the last time we met…"

I trailed off, and flashes of what were probably memories of the time coming to me. The dismembered vampire, the maimed Kushinada, the bleeding Miu…

Miu. Bleeding. Because of me.

"So that was why Kenichi-san was attacking the other man!" Miu chimed, her voice excited even as the memory came back to me. "If it was a vampire…"

"When it tried to bite you, he must have been trying to keep you from being hurt or something," Niijima also seemed to be connecting certain events, this new information apparently allowing them to better analyze my actions from before.

"There are no such things as vampires!" Takeda snapped, and it sounded like the boxer was still not ready to believe in the existence of the supernatural, not willing to accept the truth. That was fine. It was best he didn't, that none of them did. They shouldn't be involved in the Nightworld, after all.

Still, the memory of my attack on Miu lingered, and even in my disassociated state, shame and concern made themselves known.

"Miu," I began, this time not waiting to answer a question. "Are you alright? I hit you so hard last week… Were the Masters able to heal you so quickly?"

I meant my question to be a simple one, but for some reason an answer wasn't forth coming.

"Last week?" it was Kisara who finally spoke up, not Miu. "Kiddo, that was two months ago!"

"Oh," I murmured. The loss of time seemed like it should be important to me, like it should be relevant in some way. However, the best I could manage was curiosity. "That would be enough time to heal then…"

"Shit," Sakaki swore, and I could tell from his tone that he was getting angry again, the kind of angry he usually reserved for when someone threatened Miu or I. "Pick up the pace," he ordered, probably to the rest of his group.

"He must have been drugged pretty heavily if he's lost that much time," Niijima noted, the Alien's voice unusually serious for him. "Will you guys at Ryouzanpaku be able to help with that kind of thing?"

"If it's the meddling moustache, probably," Sakaki confirmed, still sounding stern. The positions of their voices were changing quicker now, heading upwards. "And if he can't, Ma will probably have something that can fix him up."

"What happened… when she killed you?" Shigure spoke up again, and despite the concern that the rest of the group was showing for my lost time, it seemed she had chosen to focus on her own topic.

"Shigure-san!" Miu's voice was stern as she addressed the older woman. "Shouldn't we be more focused on helping Kenichi-kun first?"

"She had been attacked," I answered the first question obediently, deciding to respond in the order they had been asked. "Three of the strongest vampire exorcists had managed to ambush her, and though she got away they had torn off all her limbs and ripped out her heart. She was dying, and needed blood to recover." I then moved on to address Miu's question. "And no, you don't need to focus on helping me. I don't need any help."

"Bullshit," Sakaki muttered, most likely in response to my assertion that I was fine. However, the rest of the group seemed to have taken interest more in the story that Shigure was pulling from me.

"Ripped out her heart?" Unusually, it was the cool Freya who voiced her shock. "How does someone live through something like that long enough to attack someone else?"

"My Master has been studying vampires lately," Chikage spoke up, voicing her own knowledge on the species. The girl was always a bit reserved when she was in Yami mode, but now she sounded even more withdrawn than normal. I wondered if she was once more looking like she did whenever I had been called on to explain the Nightworld to her. "They have proven to be unusually resilient to injury."

"The last vampire we came across did seem fine even without his limbs," Niijima noted, also focusing on the story. "It didn't even seem in pain when the burned lady stabbed her."

"Stop that!" Takeda snapped at the rest, still sounding frustrated. "There is no such thing as vampires!"

"But if it was that injured, lalala," Siegfried apparently ignored the boxers continued denial. It sounded like most of the group had already moved on to accepting my story as true, for now at least. "How did it manage to ambush Kenichi-san? He should have been able to escape?"

"She didn't ambush me," I explained dutifully. "She asked me for my blood and I gave it."

"Never mind… that," Shigure broke in, no doubt remembering my previous explanation of what had happened when I died for the first time. "What happened, after?"

"After, rather than finishing me, she let me change," I continued. "And then she tasked me with the recovery of her limbs so she could heal herself fully. She promised me that when she was at her full power, she would be able to make me human again."

"Wait, so after she kills you, she makes you fight the same people who nearly killed her?" Kisara noted, disbelief in her tone. "That's insane! And how the hell do we get to the roof?" she continued, sounding frustrated about trying to navigate the broken down school.

"Yes," I answered her question. "I managed to find someone to help negotiate, and in the end I only had to fight them one on one, but I eventually managed to retrieve all of Shinobu's pieces. And I'm not sure how to get to the roof. I don't really know where you are."

"The vines seem to be thinning," Sakaki muttered, "Does that mean we're getting closer?"

"Yes," I told him dutifully.

"So you had to fight off a bunch of vampire hunters?" Miu asked, concern in her voice. "But Kenichi-san," she continued, sounding worried about something. "Wasn't that before you started training at Ryouzanpaku? How could you win, if you didn't know how to fight back then?"

"Because my Master was Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Hearts Under Blades," I explained. "The strongest of the vampires, the oldest of her species, a creature so powerful that even the gods feared her. The only reason she herself wasn't worshipped as one as well was because she did not want to be. Even as a newborn subordinate, I was still more powerful back than then most Master martial artists. It was easy to win, especially one on one."

"Oh come on!" Takeda was the first to react to that, snapping as his frustration apparently came to a head. "Like we're supposed to believe something like that! There are no such things as vampires!"

"That does seem pretty outrageous, midget," Sakaki also didn't seem to believe my claim, though there was doubt in his voice.

"Don't be so sure," it was Chikage who came to my defense for some reason. "Even my Master has heard that name before. If the legends about the Hearts Under Blades are true…"

"Then what… happened?" Just like before, it was Shigure who interrupted the growing debate. Slowly, even in my confused state, I began to grow uncomfortable over her strange single-mindedness. Was the weapon Mistress always this… intrusive?

I couldn't quite remember.

"Shinobu regained her power, but when the time came, I couldn't go back to being completely human," I still answered her question though. That's what you're supposed to do when someone asks, wasn't it?

"Why not?" For all that Niijima had originally wanted to gather blackmail, the Alien sounded just as focused on my history as Shigure was.

"I couldn't do it," I told him. For some reason, I didn't want to say any more than that.

"Well, we can get the rest of the answers later!" Sakaki declared, triumph in his voice. "We're here!"

"Um," Ukita chimed in then, and from the sound of their voices it seemed like they were finally at the roof. "Now what?"

"Good question," Sakaki sounded a little deflated at the judo user's question. "That's the tree over there, but I don't see anything that looks like a god?"

"Band-Aid," Chikage spoke up, addressing me directly. "How do we exorcise an Enju no Jashin?"

"The best way to destroy them completely is a cleansing ritual performed by a priest," I instructed her. "I don't know any of those though. After that, either defeat the god itself in combat, or just destroy its tree. If it loses its home, it will leave to search for another one."

"Finally!" Sakaki was probably grinning after I described the procedure for him. "I was just waiting for something to punch… Shigure!"

His tone changed as right after he completed the word 'punch' an enormous cracking sound occurred. He sounded annoyed by something.

"I had… dibs," Shigure said slowly, and I realized that she must have beaten Sakaki to the tree.

"But that's not fair!" Sakaki sounded a lot like a petulant child at the moment. "I wanted to be the one to break the tree in half!"

"Sakaki-san, Shigure-san," Miu interrupted, sounding very much like a scolding mother as well at the moment, "Shouldn't we be focused on finding Kenichi-san? Who knows what state he's in!"

"Right, right," I could almost imagine Sakaki rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "So, now what?"

"Kenichi," Niijima seemed ready to step up and take charge. "Now that the evil god is gone, how do we find you?"

"'Now that the evil god is gone?'" I repeated, confused by the question. "But there was never an evil go here. How could it be gone?"

Utter silence greeted my proclamation, and I could swear I heard a wind pass through the group.

"But, you said that there was some kind of evil god out here, didn't ya Kiddo?" It was Kisara who finally spoke up after the awkward moment.

"Oh," I repeated, and I felt something like comprehension go through me. "No I didn't," I corrected her. "You all just asked me what to do with an Enju no Jashin. Nobody ever asked me if there was one here."

"Oh for god's sake!" Takeda snapped, sounding equal parts resigned as he was frustrated. "Of course there was no evil god here, because there are no such thing as gods! Now why don't we focus on finding Kenichi so we can get the hell out of here?"

"I don't know," I said slowly, still feeling confusion. "Why don't you?"

"Okay, I thought having Kenichi in a state like this would be profitable," Niijima muttered, sounding frustrated as well now. "I never thought it would be so annoying."

"Um, so if you're not up here, just where are you?" it was Ukita who finally asked what probably should have been the obvious question from the beginning.

"In the basement," I responded.

"Oh this is just getting ridiculous!" Sakaki swore, and despite my slow thoughts I found myself beginning to smile as the short tempered Master let the situation get to him.

"This is starting to feel like we're playing Marco Polo or something," Kisara grumbled as well.

"If the situation were any different, it would probably be funny," Freya at least seemed to think that the situation was humorous in the present, judging from the tone of her voice.

The group as a whole was silent for nearly a minute after that, and I felt myself sinking back into my slumber, when again it was Shigure who spoke up.

"Why couldn't you… go back to being human?"

"Shigure-san," Miu seemed frustrated by the persistence of the older woman. "Is it really the time to pry?"

"Because the only way to go back to being human would be to drink all of Shinobu's blood," I obediently answered the question, but again I found myself hesitating briefly. Even in my state, I didn't like talking about what had happened between Shinobu and I. It didn't feel right.

"Why?" Chikage again was the one to prompt me to continue, though if she was genuinely concerned about my past or if she was just gathering more information on the Nightworld I wasn't sure.

"A vampire's power is in their blood. If a vampire were to take their blood back from the one who changed them, then they can regain their humanity." It was easier to talk about that, then the story, the trivia coming easily to my voice.

"So then all you had to do was drink a little of her blood and you'd have been human again?" Sakaki still seemed doubtful about my story, but he was at least playing along. "Why didn't you do it then?"

"Because it would have killed her," my voice felt a little sharp, as even in my haze the emotions of the time echoed through me. "And I could not kill the woman I had died to save."

"What do you… mean?" Still, Shigure pressed, still she asked, even as the rest of the group seemed shocked to silence by my proclamation.

"When I found Shinobu maimed, she asked me to give my life for her," the words were coming quicker now, still sharp, and I found my attention truly focusing for the first time since the question and answer session started. I was still hazy, but the story was coming back to me clearer, the turmoil of those past events pulling me back from my tiredness. "And I couldn't think of any reason not to back then. Then, when I woke up days later, still existing, I wanted to be human again. She willingly promised me that she would help.

"For the next week we were together, talking, getting to know each other between the fights for her limbs. I got to know her better, and even came to like her. And then came the day that I found her eating the corpse of the victim she had killed for blood, and I realized what it meant to be a vampire. Shinobu was the enemy of humanity, a creature that fed on people to survive, who had done so for centuries.

"And then I realized that was what I was too, and I knew I could never forgive her for what she had done, to all the victims she had had over the years, not just to me."

"This is unreal," Thor managed to murmur, but I was too caught up in reliving the experience to let myself be interrupted.

"I couldn't forgive her for killing, for making me something like her. I was lucky it took so long, but by then I, as a vampire, was starting to get hungry, and I couldn't let myself go any longer. She was willing to let me take my blood back, to be human again, but I would have to take all of her blood to do that, I would have to kill her. She was alright with that. Just like I had been willing to die for her, she was willing to die for me. She had lived a long life, and was ready to rest. But she wasn't an enemy I could fight, or even kill. She was… she was my friend. The days we spent just talking and laughing… I couldn't kill her, even if it was the only chance to be human again. And I couldn't let her go either. She would just have to kill again to survive, and so would I.

"So instead, I did something terrible to her."

I paused, caught in the memory of that fateful night, of that horrible decision, but Shigure would have none of it.

"What did... you do?" she demanded her usually deadpan tone unusually forceful for her.

"I took all but the last drop of her blood," I admitted softly. "It was enough to take me almost all the way back to being human. It left her so weak she couldn't hold her form, couldn't use any of her powers, couldn't even feed on anyone. The only way she could survive was for me to volunteer enough blood to her so she could continue living every other day. And I did. I wouldn't let her die, even if she wanted too, even if she was willing. But I wouldn't let her be free either. What I did, it was like turning her into a pet, declawing and defanging her, neutering her, leaving her incapable of existing without me." I felt a bitter laugh swell up. "And just like I could never forgive her for being a monster, she would never forgive me for destroying her."

"Is it just me, or is kiddo a little scary right now?" Kisara whispered, and I was pretty sure that I wasn't meant to hear her statement, the touch of nerve in her tone barely noticeable.

"Kenichi was always capable of amazing things when he was pressed," Freya noted back, in a tone just as quiet, the cool older girl also seeming disturbed by my confession.

"He wasn't like this back then," Thor chimed in to the quiet conversation. "Most of us here were his enemies once, but I never could have thought that the boy with such clear eyes could have endured this."

"Because he didn't," Takeda's voice was a bit louder, but also obviously hushed. "Kenichi isn't the type for a story like this! It's obvious that these are just hallucinations, probably from whatever he's doped up on right now!"

"But," Miu began, then hesitated. "But for the one who has seen these kinds of things, even if they aren't real, they still feel real." It was the tone of someone who had been there herself, yet another darkness of the legacy left to her by Junazard.

Even as the general consensus of the others seemed to dismiss my story, there was one who wasn't satisfied with the end.

Surprisingly, it wasn't Shigure this time.

"Was it worth it, midget?" Sakaki's voice was unusually solemn for the normally gregarious Master. "Even knowing she would never forgive you, even though you wouldn't forgive her, was it worth it?"

"Yes," my voice was as sure as I could make it, even in my lost state the answer unquestionable to me. "Things changed, we moved on together, and even if without forgiveness, we were happy."

"I knew it," Sakaki muttered to himself, regret thick in his tone. "I knew it, Suzuki…"

So far, I hadn't been much for anything but responding, but perhaps it was the connection that Sakaki and I had as Master and Disciple that let me understand.

"There is someone like that for you, isn't there, Sakaki-sensei?" I asked, and for the first time since the conversation began I shifted, feeling my body as it responded to my own restlessness. "The one you can never forgive: it's Akira Hongou."

"Sakaki-san!" Miu gasped, sounding surprised at my insinuation. "Is it true?"

The brawler was silent for a moment, and when he spoke next it was with his usual cocky tone.

"Well, damn, brat. Tell you what, guess I kind of owe you for the whole spying thing earlier. When we get you back up, I'll tell you about three men of valor sometime over a bowl of ramen."

"Saka… ki," Shigure seemed curious, and I got the impression that even she as a fellow Master and member of Ryouzanpaku didn't know the story that Sakaki was promising me.

"No, I ain't gonna tell you Shigure," Sakaki seemed exasperated by something. "Even if you give me the puppy dog eyes!"

"Those are puppy dog eyes?" Ukita sounded disbelieving at that.

"I don't understand," Miu seemed frustrated by the turn in the conversation. I could imagine her pout as she crossed her arms, giving her own puppy dog eyes as she jutted her lower lip. "How can you be close to someone if you never forgive them! How can someone you hate be so important?"

"It's not that simple, Miu," Sakaki seemed oddly calm despite the conversation. "There are relationships out there more complicated than you can imagine. Just how like you can be closer to a rival than to a friend, or hate someone so much you can't be without them, or love someone so much you can't be near them. Sometimes there are people like that out there."

It was the truth, and I don't think that anyone here besides Sakaki and I really understood that, even including Shigure. How could I explain my relationship to Shinobu? The teasing, light hearted and irreverent vampire who had lived in my shadow, dispensing wisdom and wit, playing pranks and indulging in lewd teasing interchangeably at her own whimsy? What it was like to have someone that close to you?

It was more than just a friendship gone sour. We had been Master and Subordinate once, had still been even if the titles had changed between us after my usurpation. We had been linked by power and blood and even my shadow, bonds of trust that even now I couldn't think of an equal to.

It was strange, but Shinobu had never once doubted me. At Ryouzanpaku, the Masters would frequently question my ability, would not believe me capable of doing something. It was human, and it was natural. There was no shame in acknowledging the limits of another's capabilities. It was human to do so.

But Shinobu, she had never once believed that I would fail, at anything. Even when she had set me loose with barely an hour's experience in being a vampire against blooded and experienced hunters, she had genuinely believed that I would be successful. Regardless of circumstances, regardless of the obstacles, Shinobu had had absolute faith in me.

It was an inhuman viewpoint. In hindsight, there was nothing natural about our connection. Maybe it was just a sign of our status as Kai. Which actually made me wonder just how it was that Sakaki would have such an understanding of his own about such a connection.

"I'd always thought that out of all the Masters of Ryouzanpaku, it was you who would be most suited for the Nightworld," I murmured, shifting again, feeling my body scrape against where it was resting. I felt cold, too cold, but I ignored it. "You more than any of the others, except maybe Shigure-san, would be able to understand it."

"What do you mean by that, Kenichi?" Sakaki didn't sound like he was sure if my statement was a positive not.

"Because you are barely human as it is," I told him, confirming that it wasn't. "The Nightworld doesn't act according to human sensibility, to human rules. Besides Shigure, you were always the least human of the Masters. You would be able to understand that things there are different, that the Nightworld's laws are harsh and can be carelessly cruel. I think you could fit in, if you were to come to this side."

"Well, thanks," Sakaki didn't exactly sound pleased by my proclamation, his tone put out as I casually called his humanity into question.

"Hey!" Kisara yelped, "did that vine just move?"

"What?" Ukita seemed more interested in what his love interest was up to rather than the drama between Disciple and Master. "I didn't see anything, Kisara-san!"

"Hey, is it just me or do there seem to be more of them around?" now that attention had been drawn to them, Freya was the first to notice the increase in the vegetation around them.

"It could mean that we are getting closer to whatever Kai is here," Chikage noted, firmly locked in her professional mode. "Earlier, when we were moving away from Band-Aid they were thinning out."

"Does that mean we've almost found Kenichi-san?" Miu's voice was excited at the smaller girl's proclamation.

"If she's right," Takeda muttered, tone unhappy again. He didn't seem fond of the girl now that her status as Yomi had been revealed. "It's not like she's been much good for anything so far."

"There are definitely more of those vines though," Niijima noted. "It's starting to feel like a jungle in here."

"If we're almost there… then there isn't much time left," Shigure noted. "Quick. What happened to your… friends Kenichi?"

"Shigure-san!" Miu was back to being exasperated again as once more Shigure proved to have a one track mind.

"Oi, Shigure, aren't you maybe pressing a bit too much?" even Sakaki seemed disappointed by his fellow Master's forcefulness. "Everyone has the right to privacy in Ryouzanpaku…"

"They were murdered," I was beginning to remember that I didn't have to answer every question, but despite that I did so anyway. After having said so much, it didn't feel right to leave the story unfinished.

"By… who?" Shigure demanded.

"The priests of the Apostate Deacons." It had been while recovering Shinobu's limbs that I had my first encounter with one of those priests: Guillotine Cutter. She had called him a priest of an unnamed religion, and it wasn't until my second meeting with this particular parish that I learned what they called themselves.

"Wait, so your friends were murdered by priests?" Sakaki voiced the question which Shigure was most likely preparing herself.

"The Apostate Deacons are faith dedicated to the destruction of the Kai," I elaborated, and perhaps it was only because of my lethargy that I was able to continue speaking. If I had been more alert, then it would have hurt too much to continue. "They kill anything that isn't human in order to protect humanity as a whole. Even if I was mostly human by then, I was still partly a vampire. More than that, the Deacons had originally been hunting Kiss Shot herself as well. When they found out that she was alive, and that she had a subordinate, they sent more priests to finish the job. My friends were just targets of convenience to them…"

"But, if they only attack monsters or something, why would they attack some innocent bystanders?" Ukita sounded outraged by what must appear as indiscriminate murder to him.

"Because they weren't humans, not completely," I sighed, recalling my lost friends. "After I regained my humanity, I had to work off my debt to the priest who helped me. During that time, I found others who had stumbled into the Nightworld, and tried my best to help them. Senjougahara had been blessed by a god, and wanted the blessing revoked. Kanbaru was being consumed by a demon, and needed help to get free. And Hanekawa had been possessed by a cat. I was able to help all of them deal with their Kai, but in the end, when the Apostate Deacons found me they decided that since they had all been possessed by the Kai that they could use them."

"Bait," Freya noted, her cool tone dark. "Or hostages."

It fitted their usual mode of operations. After all, during the battle for Shinobu's limbs Guillotine Cutter had been willing to use Hanekawa in the same way.

"They killed them all," I confirmed, still distant enough to be able to speak of it. "But when I finally recovered enough to look for Shinobu, she was gone. I had thought she had passed with the rest of them.

"Normally I'd never talk about this," I mused, my thoughts starting to come closer together, to flow easier. "That's why you're asking now, isn't it Shigure? Because you knew that this would be the only time I'd answer?"

"Ye…s" I wasn't sure how Shigure could manage to pause in a word which only had three letters in it, but somehow she managed to hold true to her particular verbal tic.

"Hmph," Niijima sounded annoyed. "I would have just asked for his bank accounts."

"You guys can't be believing this, right?" Takeda growled, his voice low as he tried to keep from shouting. "There are no such things as vampires, or killer priests! I don't know what they doped him with, but this has to just be Kenichi hallucinating!"

"Probably," Niijima agreed back easily, his voice lowering as well. "But for now we can't tell what is real and what he just thinks is real. For god's sake, just play along for a bit until we can get it all sorted out."

"Guys," it was Kisara again, and it didn't sound like she had been part of the quiet conversation. "I'm serious! Some of these vines are moving, I swear!"

"You should leave now," I noted. I was still hazy, but I was finally able to start stringing coherent thought together now. It felt like I was thinking through a haze of cotton, but it was enough for now. "Before it's too late."

"Too late for what?" Sakaki sounded hesitant, though whether it was from my warning or from the story of my past I couldn't quite tell.

"I told you once, Shigure-san. If all of reality is a play, than the Nightworld is everything that happens back stage. To see it is to never again be able to look at the world the same way. I think, sometimes, that that is the best way to describe it. Once you have seen the Nightworld, the things that all of humanity looks away from instinctively, than you can never again look away. The Kai that have always been around you can't be ignored anymore." I shifted again, still feeling cold. "You could go, before you see something you can't un-see."

"And I said before… that I don't think we would be unhappy… to know that side of Kenichi as well," Shigure told me, and I could understand the tone of her voice this time: a firm sincerity that would not be swayed.

"We must be close," Chikage spoke up again, still in Yami mode. "The only reason he would warn us of this is if we had nearly found him."

"Yeah," Miu sounded firm as well. "That would be just like Kenichi-san!"

"Well, we have to almost be at the basement," Sakaki noted. "I think I see a door behind these vines…"

I sighed. "You shouldn't come in here," I told them, the last warning I could give.

"Well, that sounds like a confirmation!" Sakaki noted, probably grinning at that. "Now, to just get the door… Shigure!" His tone turned to outrage again as yet another loud clanging noise interrupted him.

"Also… dibs," Shigure told him, and I was sure she was smug that time. "Now… for Kenichi…"

I half expected her to continue her sentence, her pause to be nothing more than one of her customary ones, but when she didn't continue, I sighed again.

"You saw," I accused them, moving my mouth for the first time this conversation. When my voice was greeted with gasps, and a loud cry from Miu, I knew that they had all seen. Knowing the sight that would await me, I opened my eyes as well. Even though it was dark, I could see everything perfectly.

The basement had once been a dusty moldy collection of desks and other rotting school supplies, but now there was a new addition to the mess. Sprouting from nearly every open space, were great ropy vines, green and brown lengths of bark and leaves, twisting and entwining over every surface. Some of them stretched from various surfaces, connecting the ceiling, the ground, the walls, and even some of the larger pieces of equipment to each other seemingly at random. They had grown so much that they pierced even through the ceiling and the earth, stretching far above and beyond this room, spreading throughout the whole school if what the others had said were true. It looked like no part of the basement though had been spared their growth.

And lying in the center of the room, atop a sarcophagus like bed of broken desks, I too hadn't been spared.

My body looked wasted, I noted idly. It was as though all the hard work of the Masters of Ryouzanpaku to carve my body into the chiseled mass of muscle I had once been had been undone. Now, my skin stretched tight, too tight, directly over my bones. My arms and legs looked like twigs, and my ribs stood out plainly, easily counted. Even my waist was thin, too thin, as though whatever had wasted away my flesh hadn't spared even my organs as well. I couldn't see my face, but I could imagine how gaunt it must be.

The only parts of me that looked to have any substance at all were the parts where the vines penetrated through my flesh. Just like the rest of the room, the ever present vegetation had bored through me, connecting to all my limbs, even to my chest and waist. The only part I think that was free of them was my skull, though it was hard to tell from my perspective.

I either looked like a corpse or the world's most demented chia pet, I decided idly, not sure if I meant it humorously or sardonically.

"Welcome to the Nightworld," I told them, trying to smile but not sure if I succeeded.

"Kenichi-san!" Miu whispered, horrified by my appearance. She must have fallen to her knees when she finally caught sight of me because she was sprawled out on the ground, hands up to cover her mouth as she stared like she couldn't look away.

"Shit!" Takeda swore, his eyes wide and his fists clenched as he grit his teeth. It looked like the boxer had no idea what to do when confronted by the scene. "This is impossible! It just isn't possible!"

"Lalala! A horrifying melody," Siegfried agreed, his normal singing taking on a dark tone. "A saraband of despair!"

"How did the vines get in him?" Kisara noted, an edge of panic on her voice as she glanced around nervously. The small Tae Kwon Do user didn't seem to realize that she was drawing closer to Ukita, and I realized that despite his silence Shiratori also had been present, and oddly seemed to be doing the same. The big Judoist didn't seem to notice, his eyes wide enough to be visible even behind his shades.

Whatever the rest of the group might have had to say, they were silenced by an enormous pressure, a sudden palpable presence so thick that some of the gathered Shimpaku members fell to their knees, unable to bear it.

"I'm going to murder something," Sakaki hissed, his jacket once more exploding off his body as his muscles clenched. He had that look on his face, the same one he had when he had watched Miu try to kill me, the one that spoke of hatred every bit as deep as the one he bore towards Junazard. Slightly in front of him, Shigure nodded, her eyes shadowed and glinting as she released her ki as well. The force of my Masters' rage was nearly crushing, as the Shinpaku alliance could attest to. "As soon as I get Kenichi out of there, I'm going to find the ones who did this, and kill them."

It was touching, in a way. To hear that a member of the Katsujin Ken be so outraged by my condition, to care for me so deeply that even in the heat of the moment they would be willing to cast aside their beliefs to avenge me, it was probably the greatest sign of love that the two of them could ever offer me as their Disciple.

Unfortunately, I could not allow it. I wouldn't let my Masters either kill, nor take me from where I was. I was right where I needed to be.

"No," I told them, my voice feeling dry and my throat aching. "You won't."

"The hell-" Sakaki began, starting as the entire room came alive, the previously immobile vines twitching, writhing like snakes as they gained motion. I was briefly, irrelevantly, reminded of the Shikome's hair. Then the vines moved, lashing out like whips.

"I told you they moved!" Kisara screamed, kicking violently as one of the vines snapped out her, looping out in mid motion to tighten around her leg. "Oh god!" she continued in a high pitched tone. "These are tentacles, aren't they?"

The rest of Shinpaku also began to fend for themselves, Freya's cane proving effective as she tried to fend herself off. Thor was restrained by the tight quarters, but he at least managed to grasp some of the vines catching him, tearing them off as he did so, gouts of blood rather than sap spurting from the broken edges of the foliage. Siegfried was a whir, using his counter attack style to remain free, and Niijima was once more showing his unnatural Alien dodging skills.

However, they were nothing compared to Miu, Sakaki, Shigure, and surprisingly enough, Takeda too.

I had always sort of thought of Takeda as the closest of the group to me in level of skill, and it showed as the dandy boxer somehow managed to fight his way free of the grasping vines. Just like with Thor he would use his fast punches to catch vines, his Seikuken already up and running as he defended his territory with noteworthy skill. Takeda, just like me, was a Sei fighter after all.

Miu on the other hand was a Dou fighter, an explosive combatant that used their anger rather than their calm. And I was feeling that anger now. Miu's spirit was actually palpable to me, despite the surrounding force of the two Masters' Ki, and her eyes had gone wide and disturbing. It wasn't the same look that she had when Junazard's training shone through, rather it was the same look she had when we had watched Sakaki and Hongo fight, the look of someone who was exciting their spirit to heighten their skills.

Still, the two most obvious in their struggle were Sakaki and Shigure, naturally. The greatest number of vines were attacking the two of them, as the obvious strongest of the group, and it looked like the number of the attacks was at least slowing them down. The vines were wrapping around the brawler like steel cables, though just like with his jacket it seemed that sheer muscle force alone was allowing Sakaki to fight them off for the most part. Shigure was a blur of silver as her father's sword cut down everything in her path. Maybe it was her experience with the Shikome's hair, but she was being especially cautious not to let the whipping foliage get a hold on her. Just like with Thor, the broken vines sprouted crimson fluid, and the two of them were soaked with the liquid, the blood staining their clothes nearly entirely red as it squirted over them.

I groaned, a pained noise as the fight grew in intensity

Even as the Shinpaku Alliance were overwhelmed, and Sakaki turned to help them, it was Chikage who brought an end to this growing dead lock. The tiny jujitsu user was mostly still, somehow slipping through every vine that tried to grasp her as though they weren't there. The Kushinada jujitsu was truly terrifying in that regards. Maybe, just like with Shigure, the Bewitching Fist had begun to adjust her training regimen in order to avoid potential Kai abilities. Throughout it all, the tiny Disciple was still bearing that wide eyed expression she tended to wear whenever she was learning about the Kai from me.

It was when I groaned, that her eyes widened even further, a look of shock forming on her face.

"Stop!" she shouted, her voice slightly alarmed as she realized something that caused her composure to crack.

"Not the best idea now, super midget," Sakaki growled, liberating Thor as he continued to assist the rest of the Shinpaku from the vines.

"No! You don't understand! It's Band-Aid's blood! Whatever it is, it's drinking his blood!"

The words went through my would be rescuers like a bolt. Takeda and Miu froze, the boxer looking at his fist and Miu staring at her legs with horror as they realized that the source of the crimson fluid. Sakaki's eyes widened, and even Shigure hesitated when they realized that they were literally dyeing themselves red in the blood of the Disciple they were trying to save. The two Masters seemed to come to some sort of decision in an instant, both of them retreating, Sakaki only pausing to force back some of the more entwined members of the Alliance.

As they pulled back, the vines stilled, letting them retreat. The message was clear: don't come any closer, and they wouldn't be molested. I let out another groan, one of relief as I relaxed.

"They are! They are tentacles!" Kisara at least seemed to be thinking of a different definition of 'molested' anyway. "Oh god! I've seen anime about this!"

"I don't think that's exactly what's going on here," Sakaki muttered, his tone still enraged but now caution seemed to be his watchword.

"But look! They already got the Kiddo!" Kisara was actually hiding behind Ukita at this point, and again I couldn't help but wonder just how close Shiritori was standing to him as well. Was there something going on between the two of them…?

"Kenichi… has been violated!" Shigure seemed outraged by the implication, and despite myself, a small chuckle escaped.

"That was a joke, wasn't it?" I noted. It seemed like I was starting to recall my 'Shigure interpretation skills'.

"Only in… part," Shigure was definitely pouting at my calling her strange humor. "So you… remember that much?"

"This isn't the time to joke!" Miu shouted, the girl white. She was staring at her legs, at my blood staining them. "We can't get close to Kenichi without hurting him, and I have... I have his blood all over…"

"Easy girl," Sakaki hastily tried to comfort the other Disciple as Miu started to heave, spitting up bile as the situation proved enough to cause her nausea. "We can get him out of here. We just have to figure out what it is, and then we can stop it, right?" The brawler turned to Chikage, apparently having no problem relying on a member of the Satsujin Ken in a situation where she might be the only one with the answer.

"I don't know," Chikage was proving to be the least affected by the incident, her eyes wide and once more locked in Yami mode. "I've never heard of something like this. Some sort of parasite, but as vegetation?" She looked to me, apparently in the hopes of once more being able to rely on me for answers.

"You know," I began, still somewhat bemused. "I honestly don't think it has a name." With a sigh, I continued. "Now, will you please leave? I've told you, I'm not going anywhere. Not until I'm done."

"Done with what?" Niijima at least seemed capable of working past the scene that had just occurred. "Just what are you doing here, Kenichi? You said that you were here on purpose, so you must have some use for that… that thing…" even the Alien seemed nonplussed by the mobile sentient blood filled vines. "Just what are you trying to accomplish here?"

"I told you last time," I reminded him. "That I had found a way to help Shinobu."

"Like this?" Miu demanded, looking up from where she was still hunched over, whipping bile from her mouth as she glared at me. "Kenichi-san! Look at yourself! Even if she was your friend, this is terrible! There must be another way to help her, something that isn't… isn't this!"

"If there is, then I don't know it," I sighed. "I might have been able to find one, but how long would it have taken? Another year? Two? Ten? There might be no other way for me to help Shinobu. So even if it's something like this, then that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"But what about me? Us?" Miu demanded, straightening completely as she pleaded with me. "Niijima was right! You're destroying yourself like this! Look at you!" She tried to do so herself, but she flinched, her head glancing away as she took in my devastated body. "You might never recover from this!"

"Even if this body will be ripped apart, and my soul will be smashed up, I will save Shinobu," I swore, my voice firm despite it being scratchy and hoarse from disuse. "No matter what, I will not be swayed from this path."

"Shit," Takeda muttered. "I knew that Kenichi was stubborn, but I never thought it would work against us like this!"

"But…" Miu swallowed, tears forming in her eyes. "What about your promise?" she asked, speaking so softly that it was nearly a whisper. I don't think she meant for me to hear her at all. "What about what you promised to me that night, on the roof?"

I let my eyes drift shut, and even though I was still somewhat fuzzy in the head, even though I would not be moved from my path, even though I would never regret, something sharp stabbed me in the heart as her words met my ears.

I was the worst person in the world.

"Long before we met, I made someone else a promise," I told her back, my voice firm. Miu jumped as she realized that I was answering her question despite the fact that I shouldn't be able to have heard her. "I'm sorry Miu, but until I can fulfill that one, than I can't turn away from it."

Surprisingly, Miu started to laugh, though it sounded more hollow than amused. "And now I know what Renka meant, when she said it was only because I was here first."

I didn't know what she was speaking of, so I remained silent. With my eyes closed, I felt the lethargy of earlier growing again, that seemingly inescapable exhaustion seeping back into me.

"Kenichi, are you sure about this?" It was Sakaki again, but this time I didn't open my eyes back up. He didn't sound like he was coming any closer. His murderous rage from earlier was mostly extinguished, and his voice was unusually hesitant for him. "I mean, will this really satisfy you? Your body doesn't look like it might ever recover, you're turning your back on your friends, and on Ryouzanpaku…. Will this really make you happy?"

"You told spoke to me once about the karma of martial arts, Sakaki-sensei," I murmured, tiredly. "How the karma of martial arts is always more violence. Well perhaps this is the karma of the Nightworld. All debts must be repaid. Still, even if nothing but misery waits, I will be satisfied with it. I'm sure, sensei."

So often it was the truth of dealing with the Kai that there were no happy endings. Just like the situation with Shinobu, when I had not been able to be human, she hadn't been able to die, and humanity had to deal with the continued threat of her existence, there are endings where nobody is satisfied in the end. It was something that Ryouzanpaku should at least be familiar with. Sometimes the only cure for a trauma is a greater trauma, like forcing me to fight against weapons, or forcing Miu to hurt me.

"Oi, Alien," Ukita spoke up, his voice strained. "What are we going to do? How are we going to get Kenichi out of this?" It was strange, but for all the distain that so many of the fighters of Ryouzanpaku tended to have for the Viceroy, when it was time for a plan not a one of them would hesitate to turn to him.

"I don't know." Niijima admitted, his voice tight as for the first time he failed to live up to the expectations he had rightly built up for himself. "If it was just a matter of getting him out of there, we could bull through. But with those vines draining his blood, it just might kill him if we did. If he wanted to be saved, then we could still find a way, but with him actively resisting…"

"So we just have to convince Kenichi to get out of there," Takeda grit out, the boxer's voice tense.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Niijima snapped back, sounding the most frustrated I'd ever heard him. "You have seen how stubborn Kenichi can get when he's decided on something, haven't you? Or have you been asleep for the last two years or something?"

"Lalala! Trying to convince Kenichi-san once he's set himself would be harder than moving a mountain!" Siegfried continued to sing a dissonant tune as he agreed.

"Perhaps if we were to ask my Master for help, she might know something of whatever Kai this is?" Chikage supplied, tone cool.

"I don't know just how far I can trust the old man's old squeeze," Sakaki vetoed that one out of hand, his tone firm.

"After he killed my father… I asked Akisame to marry me," Shigure spoke up. It was such a sudden an unexpected claim, that it actually took me a second to comprehend it. When the meaning of her words finally penetrated my thoughts, I twitched, feeling my slow return to slumber stopping unexpectedly.

"Wait, what?" Apparently the rest of the room seemed equally surprised, judging from Miu's tone. "So does that mean Shigure-san and Akisame-san…" Despite everything, Miu's voice reminded me slightly of the way she sounded whenever she started talking about Ukita, Freya, and Kisara for some reason.

"The hell, Shigure?" Sakaki also seemed nonplussed.

"He turned me… down," Shigure continued, not verbally reacting to the others while she continued her unexpected confession. "He didn't understand what I meant when… I said I wanted to be called Akisame too."

"Wait, the Great-Doctor killed someone?" Takeda seemed shocked as he used his customary title for the man who had healed his arm and returned his pride as a boxer. "But Akisame-dai-sensei would never do something like that!"

"I had only ever known… my father," Shigure ignored that too, continuing in her monologue. I could make out something in her voice, some emotion I was having trouble identifying. "He was very… old fashioned. I didn't know much about… other people. I just thought… that since Akisame was a good man… I should marry him."

As she continued I found myself reopening my eyes, unable to resist turning to face my Master as she continued to reveal her past to me personally. Shigure had moved until she was closer to me than the where the rest of the group had retreated. I hadn't noticed earlier, but she was still dressed in her customary mission clothes, the weapon laden trench and the lavender kimono. She was carrying her father's sword, re-sheathed since the previous altercation, in front of her, one hand hovering over the hilt as though preparing to draw again.

As more of my attention returned to me, I realized that I could identify the tone of her voice. Shigure sounded nervous, like she was trying to build herself up to something.

"Afterwards, I went to… school for a bit," Shigure noticed that my eyes had opened, and steadfastly met my faze with her usual blank one. "I learned that… other people weren't like me. I had trouble understanding… others. I couldn't talk with them… about the same things. I never really… connected. Until… Ryouzanpaku."

"Oi, Shigure," Sakaki interrupted this time, and the brawler took a slow step closer to his fellow Master. The brawler looked concerned, his typical awkward concern for his friends showing through as he seemed like he was trying to decide how to react. "You don't need to say any of this," he reminded her slowly. "Everyone has a right to their privacy…"

"It is… fine," Shigure reacted to her fellow Master at least, turning briefly to give him a blank look. "Earlier… I asked Kenichi many things. This way there are… no debts."

"Shigure-san?" I murmured, confused by why she was saying these things, especially now in front of so many witnesses.

"When Kenichi first came to… Ryouzanpaku I was very nervous," Shigure turned back to me as she continued her story. "I didn't know much… about people who weren't Masters. I knew less about… Disciples. Because I am like this… I didn't even know much about teenagers." She seemed a little embarrassed about her confession, but she continued on in her slow pace. "But everyone had so much fun with Kenichi… that I decided to try to get along as well."

"I remember," I murmured. I never would have known just how much of Shigure's thoughts were about me if it wasn't for the Satori, but once it had been revealed it had been easy to see the effort Shigure put into looking out for me. I don't think any of the other Masters, except for maybe Sakaki, had invested nearly as much of themselves into our relationship. Sakaki had been the one who would sneak out with me for Ramen, who would invite himself along on Shinpaku Nightworld field trips to look out for us, who had told me the most of his past. There were times when he almost seemed more like some brash delinquent uncle rather than a teacher.

In the past Shigure had only revealed her past to me by asking Akisame to talk about it. But now, right here in front of virtual strangers, she was deliberately telling me more personally.

I had no choice but to respond to such sincerity with all my attention. I tried to focus harder on her, to pay more attention, and in return I felt even more of the fog on my consciousness start to fade.

"It was fun… with Kenichi around," Shigure seemed to note something in me as well, perhaps the bond between Master and Disciple letting her realize that I was focusing more. "I started to think… of Kenichi as more than just a Disciple. I thought of him… like a friend as well. When we started going on Nightworld trips… I started to get to know you even better. I was… happy."

It began to make sense to me. How had life been like for Shigure? She had been raised in the wild, immersed in the Underworld probably almost since birth. It showed in her actions and words, the way she wasn't ever quite up to normal social standards, the way she had trouble speaking her thoughts quickly enough. What must it have been like when she interacted with normal people, things like school and such? I just couldn't see Shigure getting along with everyone the way a normal girl would.

What must isolation like that have been like? Was it any surprise that she would be as strange as she is now?

"I was happy… until we met the fox."

If I had been more ambulatory right now, I would have frozen at that.

"Oh no," I murmured, already dreading what would come next. Just because I hadn't realized Shigure's mind, that didn't mean the Tamamo-no-Mae wouldn't have. The fox had said that Shigure had questions, but I had been so consumed with my own that I hadn't even noticed.

"I had thought… that I thought of Kenichi like a Disciple," Shigure continued, no change in her pace or tone despite what I knew must be coming. "Or like… a friend. But the fox told me… that I was wrong. She told me… that the other Masters didn't feel like this. That it was more… than friendship."

"Shigure-san, you don't mean…!" Miu gasped, her head whipping back and forth between me and the older woman, perhaps already making a connection that I still hadn't grasped.

"What did the fox say, Shigure-san?" I asked, feeling like I should already know, that if I was just thinking a little straighter I would have made the same jump of logic that Miu apparently had.

"That I liked Kenichi not as Master and Disciple… but as a woman likes a man." Shigure's tone was such that I was certain if she was anyone else, she would be speaking in a rush. As it was, I noted a small spot of red forming on her cheeks, and realized with detachment that she was apparently blushing.

It took me a moment to really understand what she was saying, but once I did the realization crashed through me like a lightning bolt.

"Oh," I managed, and I wondered if I was blushing too. Even though the situation most definitely did not warrant it, I had a brief flash of memory to the day I had woken up naked in Shigure's arms, and I was sure I was blushing then.

Until I realized something more.

"Oh, that bitch of a fox," I murmured, my eyes narrowing and a scowl forming. Shigure nodded quickly at my summation of the Tamamo-no-Mae.

"She told me that it wasn't… just as a Disciple that I cared for Kenichi," Shigure continued. "She told me that… Kenichi might also feel the same… for me. But that if… I didn't tell him soon… I would lose the chance," Shigure continued. "I didn't know… if she was lying or not. So I wanted to wait… and figure it out myself. But then before I could… Kenichi disappeared."

"Of course it was the truth," I scowled, closing my eyes briefly in anger. "There would be no reason she would lie, if the truth would hurt that much more."

I had thought that the fox had just been taunting Shigure with her uncertainty of her status as my Master, that she had just been playing on my youngest Master's insecurities. But if it had been more than that; if Shigure really did have feelings for me, than it was far worse. The fox had made Shigure watch as she tortured the one she cared for.

Hell, even the next morning had taken on new meaning. I had thought it rather childish, just stripping the two of us and putting it together, but for Shigure it must have been something else. Forced to be in such close contact with someone she wasn't certain she had feelings for, not being able to do more than think about her own feelings while I lay on top of her, struggling with her doubts and uncertainties the entire time: just what must it have been like to endure that for the socially inexperienced woman?

More than that, the fox had deliberately told Shigure all of this, told her that her time was limited, right after she had told me the one thing that would guarantee me leaving immediately.

It seemed like even now, I was underestimating the cruelty of the Tamamo-no-Mae. She truly had taken torment to level so exquisite it was almost artful.

"I hesitated… before," Shigure continued, her tone changing, getting a new hint of resolve in it. "But I won't hesitate… now. I realized… that I love Kenichi." In one swift motion, she unsheathed her father's sword, pointing it deliberately at me as she did so. "And I won't let you run off… with some other strange woman!"

"Holy shit," Sakaki deadpanned, the older man giving an impressed look as Shigure finished her proclamation. "Uh, well, congratulations. Again," he added, echoing his statement from the time he had walked in on Shigure and I naked after the fox.

"Wait, what the hell is going on?" Takeda demanded, grabbing his hair in frustration. "Seriously, a love confession from a Master to a Disciple in the middle of a scene like this? What the hell!"

"What about…" it was Freya who spoke this time, the dark skinned girl's eyebrows raised as she glanced From Shigure, me, and then down to…

Oh yeah…

"Shigure-san and Kenichi-san?" Miu stammered, holding two shaking hands out in front of her as she placed her thumbs and pointer fingers into the shape of a triangle. The girl seemed so shocked that she couldn't quite figure out how to react. "Shigure-san, Kenichi-san, together…"

Oh. Wow. Yeah, it finally occurred to me just how awkward this scene really was. Shigure also seemed to realize that she had just confessed to me in front of the girl that I liked while the two of us already had a sort of unspoken agreement about our future together.

"No strange women… besides Miu," Shigure added after a moment. "Miu is like a sister… and sisters share." The swordswoman nodded as she made the amendment to her previous statement.

"You don't mean like…" Ukita began, and the straighlaced former delinquent began to blush as the implications of Shigure's statement became clear to him. Strangely, the still silent Shiritori perked up a bit at the statement.

I had the feeling there was something going on that I wasn't quite aware of with him.

"Is she joking?" Kisara demanded, an incredulous look on her face from where she peered up from behind the blushing Ukita's larger frame.

"No," I informed her, still too stunned by Shigure's announcement, all of her announcements really, to react properly. "She's being completely serious right now."

I was honestly at a loss for just how I was supposed to react to not only Shigure's confession, but her apparent intention to try and share me with Miu in a way that I really doubted most sisters would ever agree to. Lacking any other way to respond, I was forced to rely on the normal fall back for situations like this.

Slowly, as though I had forgotten how to do it, I clenched my right hand into a fist, and then pulled, lifting my arm off the collection of tables it had been resting on. The vines that had penetrated my flesh pulled taught, the desk beneath me creaking before the furnituure finally gave in with a cracking noise as the movement pulled the vine through the rotting wood, shattering it as I freed myself. When I started to pull my left hand free, even more of my resting place shattered and broke.

It was a bit hard, pulling myself free. My body felt so thin, so empty, and I had very little in the way of leverage due to the sheer number of the bonds holding me down. But I had broken free of positions like that before, and no matter what my body might look like right now, I was by no means as weak as I looked.

The others didn't know that though.

"Kenichi-san!" Miu yelped, apparently the sight of me moving enough to distract her from the growing confusion in our relationship. "You shouldn't move like that!"

"There isn't much of a choice in it," Niijima muttered back, a smile starting to form. "But if he can get free of it, and get over here…"

"Good job, Shigure," Sakaki muttered as well, no doubt not intending for me to have heard. "You got him to come out!" He gave his fellow Master a wry look, no doubt focusing on Shigure's very developed body, probably attributing what appeared to be my sudden change of mind on to those in particular. "Chalk one up for Ma's s theories on the power of the etchi."

"He's doing it!" Thor exalted, laughing in relief as I managed to sit up, the vines coming from my back further tearing the desks apart. "He's going to come!"

With a groan, I wondered if I was going to manage to sit up all the way before my uncomfortable bed broke apart completely. With a jerking motion, I reached up, wrapping my arm with some of the vines that were emerging from the ceiling to help support myself as I started to work at pulling my legs free as well. That proved to be the final straw for the beleaguered old school equipment, and the pile of desks collapsed underneath me, only my hold on the hanging vegetation keeping me from taking a tumble with them.

When I finally got my feet back underneath me it was that same grip that kept me from tumbling. It had been a while since I had been on my feet, and my balance felt all off. Gingerly, I took a step though the action was like trying to move through water, or when Akisame had me jog with tires tied to me. The vines still attached to my legs were still entwined with the wreckage of my resting place, and I had to kick against the resistance to get myself to move forward. The same grip on the hanging greenery that kept me up also proved to be a resistance, and I had to yank at them, streams of plaster and ceiling falling down as the vines were forced down, through the wreckage they had grown through, showering me and a good portion of the room with debris.

Finally, I managed to stand properly so that I could face Shigure directly. While the rest of the room had begun to cheer, thinking that the unexpected confession had been enough to sway me, the swordsmistress had waited patiently, sword still extended towards me. All the time we had spent together, the experience that had let me come to interpret her very miniscule changes in features, it seemed that she had come to a better understanding of me. Just like when she had followed me to face a fox, Shigure knew that I had something else on my mind.

"I'm sorry," I told her, bowing as I did so. I only made it a portion of the trip before one of the vines attached to my back stopped me, jerking me from moving any further. Awkwardly, I fumbled behind until I found the offending tendril, and yanked it as well, destroying more of the ceiling to get the slack I needed to complete my bow. "I don't know if I can respond to your feelings right now."

"I sort of… though so," Shigure answered bluntly, sheathing her sword. "Can I ask… why?"

"There is someone else that I have feelings for," I admitted, not looking at Miu as I did so. "And a good friend of mine is going through a hard time. I can't really focus on a relationship until that's over with. Also," I shrugged uncomfortably, "my last girlfriend was murdered in front of my eyes, and I kind of haven't gotten over that yet either."

"Is the Kiddo really just treating this like a normal confession?" Kisara demanded, her voice incredulous as she stared at me. "Where do they think they are? Behind the cafeteria at gym or something?"

"Well, we are technically at school," Ukita pointed out, scratching his head in confusion.

"Since not… now, maybe later?" Shigure asked, looking as hopeful as I've ever seen her: both of her eyebrows actually rose by a centimeter.

"Well, maybe," I admitted, straightening, bringing one hand up to scratch the back of my head. Turned out there weren't vines there after all. "I do like you," I admitted, coughing a bit as I blushed a little. "But until this is sorted out, I can't really make a serious decision."

For a moment, Shigure stood silently, not apparently reacting. Then she brought one fist up and made her trademark 'Yes!' gesture. "'Not now'… is not 'no'," she declared.

"Wait, and she's actually excited by such a half-ass response?" Kisara snapped, still incredulous. Beside her, Freya raised one eyebrow and cocked her head to the side.

"Just how bad was her high school life if an answer like that is a postivie one?" the staff wielder wondered idly. Shigure turned a bit, and Freya backed down from the blank stare instantly. "I mean, I'm happy for you?" she hastily added, trying to appease the Master.

"However," I continued, calling Shigure's attention back to me as I let my hand fall. "You said something which I can't overlook." I wasn't certain what expression I was making at the moment. Was I angry, or determined? Did I still have the clear eyes that Thor had mentioned before, or had even that became twisted since I started down this path? "About not letting me go to Shinobu."

The swordmistress took in my expression, and she nodded, already understanding what I meant. "It is the Master's duty to guide… the Disciple," she told me, already shifting again, her hand sinking to the hilt of her sword once more. "What you are doing now… isn't healthy for you, Kenichi. As a Master of Ryouzanpaku I, Shigure Kousaka… will set you straight." Once more, Shigure drew her father's sword, though this time she didn't strike a pose with it. Her weapon settled in front of her as she tossed the sheathe aside, her stance cautious but firm. I didn't think it had a name like so many of Sakaki's stances, and if it did she had never told me it, but it was a stance I recognized from all the times I had seen Shigure fight before.

It was the one she used when she was getting serious about the battle she was about to fight.

"I see," and despite the turbidity of my thoughts I knew what would come next. "I am the Subordinate of Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Hearts Under Blades, the one heralded as the Kai killer. As her Subordinate, I, Kenichi Shirahama the Wicked Blossom, will be your opponent."

"Wait!" Miu chirped up, her head whipping back and forth between us, her eyes wide with confusion even as she still blushed from Shigure's earlier announcement about sisterly love. "Kenichi-san! Are you sure you should fight like this? Sakaki-san," she turned to the older man only to find that rather than taking up arms or getting ready to do battle the Karate user had already taken a seat, legs crossed and arms folded as he cocked his head to the side, expression serious. It was the same pose he had taken the first time Shigure and Kushinada had exchanged blows as well.

"Dibs again, Shigure?" Sakaki muttered, shaking his head slightly as he made no move to interfere. It was Ryouzanpaku's policy that all fights, no, not fights, that all duels should be one on one. And that was exactly what this had become at this point: a duel.

Nothing was going to make Shigure leave now, not after what she had said. And nothing was going to make me give up my own goals either. Even knowing my resolution, even knowing how much it meant to me, Shigure had decided that she had something of her own worth fighting for as well: me. In a way, it reminded me of so many of my own battles with the members of Yomi: in order to save them, I would have to beat them first. And now, here I was, having my own logic thrown back at me.

God, just how did my life get this twisted?

"But how can Kenichi fight in this kind of condition?" Miu demanded, her eyes tracking back to me, lingering on my stick like limbs.

"It's perfect!" Niijima agreed, apparently seeing the same thing and coming to entirely different conclusion than Miu. "He'll go down in no time, and then we can get him out of here! Soon, my beloved cash cow! Soon!"

"Shut up!" Ukita snarled, taking a swipe at the other boy as Niijima began to cackle with evil laughter.

"Not that I can't agree with the alien," Kisara began, still trying to keep Ukita between her and me, giving suspicious looks at the vines the whole time. "But maybe the kiddo should put on some clothes or something first?" The older girl blushed a bit at her words, and I blinked, before glancing down at myself.

"Huh," I grunted. "So that's what it feels like." At some point during my long slumber the vines had torn their way through the meager protection the cloth afforded me, and the long exposure to the element without being treated had caused the already ragged remains to rot and come apart. I was more or less nude at this point, just the screen of the vines hanging from my body doing the barest minimum to protect my modesty. "I always wondered why no one else ever seemed to care when they got naked in a fight. It just really doesn't seem too important, in the end."

Well, that cleared up at least one mystery about the way so many Masters seemed to have zero regards for modesty.

"Do you want… a moment?" Shigure offered politely, and I nodded. The older woman seemed to be thinking about something, and judging from the offer whatever her mind had wandered to seemed important enough to allow the fight to be delayed long enough for me to get some covering.

"Thank you," I murmured distractedly, wondering just how I was going to fit into anything without the newest additions to my body getting in the way. Finally, I decided to improvise.

This time I reached down, and just like earlier I gathered as many handful of the numerous green lengths attached to me before pulling, spinning slightly as I did so. With more sounds of shattering concrete, great lengths of the buried growths came free, erupting from the cement of the basement with explosions of dust and cement chips. It took a little effort, but I completed the spin, settling the new slack around my hips, forming an impromptu kilt or skirt of the vines. It was a little tricky to get them to stay up, but it looked like it would mostly be functional for the fight.

"So," I began, mind still wandering as Shigure waited patiently for me to finish. "I guess it's time for another lesson about the Nightworld." From where she was standing near Takeda, Chikage perked, her eyes widening slightly before they narrowed. Takeda glanced down suspiciously at the younger girl, and then seemed surprised when he found Chikage wearing the expression I had only ever seen her wear when I was explaining the world of the Kai. "Tell me, Shigrue-san: what do you know about vampires?"

"That they are not… delicious," she announced in that slow way of hers, and despite myself I felt a smile grow. Shigure caught sight of it, and I had the impression that if she wasn't getting ready for the fight she would have graced me with another 'Yes!' fist. "I don't know… much," she went on, more seriously this time. "I don't know everything… like Kenichi does."

"I don't know everything, I only know what I know," I informed her, before just like the time with the fox I froze. It only lasted a second, but then I sighed, a feeling of nostalgia forming. Maybe it was because Shigure had already made me talk about them, or maybe it was the absurdity of the situation taking its toll on my reservations, or maybe it was just the lingering weariness, but the memories those words brought back didn't seem as harsh this time.

"That's what Hanekawa would always say," I murmured, letting my sight drift to the floor. The ever-present vegetation caused it to bulge in places, and was plainly visible in others. In the darkness of the basement it almost made the floor look as though it was laced with strange green blood vessels.

"Was Hanekawa your… first girlfriend?" Shigure cocked her head to the side, and for all the world it sounded like she was jealous of my lost friend. Considering that she had just confessed to me, maybe she really was. I shook my head at her question.

"No, that was Senjougahara," I admitted, before shaking my head quickly, the motion causing ripples to flow down the vines on my body. At least marginally more decent, I rolled my neck, causing it to crack as I prepared for the fight. Shigure tensed, also apparently sensing that the brief lull was coming to an end. "Well," I began, looking up to meat Shigure's eyes directly. "I suppose I should begin my lesson on vampires."

My first move was nearly the last one Shigure would have seen in the battle. She barely had time to react as I launched myself at her, the room behind me echoing my steps with crashes and tears as the vines that kept me anchored yanked up more chunks of the floor and the ceiling, the bed of desks behind nearly exploding as the vegetation interwoven into it pulled tight and shattered the ruined furniture thunderously. It shouldn't be possible for me to move as fast as I did: I hadn't been this quick even after two years of Ryouzanpaku shaping my body to be superior physically, and my current shape was so wasted that it shouldn't even be able to support itself by conventional logic.

Conventional logic had nothing to do with the Kai. That's what the Kai were, after all: oddities, the illogical and the impossible.

Right now, I was far closer to the Kai than I was to humanity.

My first attack was nothing more than a swipe with one hand, my fingers curled and claw like as I swung with ridiculous obviousness. Still, it was so fast and unexpected that Shigure barely managed to block me with the back of her sword, and even then that was nearly not enough as I forced her to skid backwards nearly two feet before she managed to find footing, my unexpected strength catching her so off balance that she could barely deal with it.

"The first thing you should know about vampires, is that of all the Kai, I think they are the most terrifying," I continued, meeting Shigure's wide eyes from much closer, able to finally see what I looked like due to my reflection in them. My expression was grim, my body nearly skeletal, and the numerous bulges in my body where the vines emerged were grotesque as they distended my shape.

Definitely far from human at the moment then. Good.

"The number of powers a vampire can have," I continued, taking another wide swipe at Shigure, "are almost too many to count." This time she dodged, darting away with speed which matched, even surpassed my own unnatural quickness. With a flick, her sword was a silver sheen as it came back at me, forcing me to dodge back to avoid getting struck. "Shape shifting, turning into mist, turning into animals, destroying things with their sight, matter creation, immense strength and speed," I continued, darting back in to illustrate the last two as I clawed at her again, missing and demolishing the wall behind her as I did so, "it's just not fair, really."

"How the hell did Kenichi get so fast?" Takeda demanded, his voice shrill as he took in the unfolding battle with wide and disbelieving eyes. "He shouldn't even be able to move!" Much of the room seemed stunned into silence as they watched me continue to match a Master in speed and strength, even Sakaki having started, half rising from his seated position before he caught himself and forced himself back down into inactivity.

"Most vampires only learn a few tricks," I continued, once more demolishing a section of the room as I missed, only to discover that Shigure had disappeared from my sight. It must have been instinct that prompted me to throw myself forward, and a flash of silver where my head had been only a second ago was my reward for not standing still. Shigure's sword struck several of the vines trailing behind me, and the sudden force on them stopped me from rolling completely clear as they tugged me backwards. It looked like she was still using the back of her sword, even on the vegetation. It seemed she didn't want to hurt me any more than she had to. "But the sheer variety in what a vampire might be capable of always makes dealing with one dangerous!"

Shigure was already in the middle of an attack, her sword arching for my forehead with enough force to probably drive me into a small coma if I were still normal. I tried to dodge only to find that she had at some point driven some sort of dagger chain combination into the ground, pinning one of the vines attacked to me to the cement, her foot hold preventing it from tearing free. With no other recourse, I grabbed a handful of the vines as well, and used them like a whip to lash at the Master looming over me. She had to cut her attack short, leaping backwards to avoid getting hit, and ending up perched on a set of extended vines herself like some sort of monkey.

Trust a Master to use even an environment as twisted as this one to her own advantage.

"In exchange for all those powers," I continued, grunting as I reached up to grab a particular vine, yanking it hard. As though she had anticipated the move, my Master was already leaping away as the tendril I pulled proved to be attached to the one she had been standing on. "…vampires have plenty of weakness too: sunlight, large bodies of water, silver, holy power. There are plenty of ways to stop a vampire, if you can prepare yourself well enough. If you have the stomach for it, even drinking the vampire's blood itself can weaken them sometimes. A vampire's power is in their blood, after all."

Just like before, I lost sight of Shigure. I might be fast, but damn if she wasn't faster. She was more skilled than me too, and she was better armed to boot. I barely had a chance to react when another set of those dagger chain combos came out of nowhere, aimed at the vines in order to shackle them down. I had no idea if they were some sort of obscure weapon or if she was just cannibalizing some of her other weapons to make them on the spot, but I grunted as the coordinated assault yanked me off my feet and pinned me to the ground again. I caught sight of her again, a lavender flash as she appeared above me, sword raised to once more come down on my skull.

It looked like she was still trying to end this battle quickly. So far every strike she had tried for had been designed to knock me unconscious quickly and with minimal damage. It seemed Shigure didn't want to risk hurting me more than she had too in my fragile appearance. The efficiency of her attack left me pinned too tightly to move in time to block the blow myself. There was no way I would be able to pull free in time in order to get my hands between the sword and my head.

So instead, it was the room itself which moved to intervene.

"Huh?" Shigure grunted as her sword was intercepted by first one, then a dozen of the previously hanging vines. The green lashes nearly yanked the sword from her hand before she pulled it free, using the sharp edge to saw through the vegetation in another spray of my blood. Though it managed to free her weapon, Shigure found that they weren't the only lashes in motion as she gave a noise kind of like an 'eep' as she found herself dodging another dozen vines which had lashed out at her from behind.

"Oh god, the tentacles are going to get her!" Kisara shrieked, though the other members of the peanut gallery had different interpretations of the interference.

"Why is the thing only moving now?" Sakaki muttered, eyes narrowed. "Earlier, it attacked anyone who came in, then it let Shigure pass, and now it's deliberately interfering?"

"It must be Band-Aid," Chikake noted, eyes still wide as she watched the battle, missing neither the fight nor my lecture as she took in everything. "I had thought it was just a parasite before, but maybe it's more symbiotic. Band-Aid did say he needed to be here for something. Maybe he's letting the creature drink his blood, and in return he can take control of it in some way."

"Wait," Niijima began, giving the small girl a cautious look. "But isn't this entire building…" He cut off as one of the vines closer to him shifted, and then launched itself, pulling free of its moorings in another shower of concrete as it joined the fray.

"But what really makes vampires the most frightening of the Kai," I continued unabated as I pulled free from where Shigure had shackled me. It wasn't too hard, with even the captured tendrils tugging as they actively fought against their moorings and I regained my footing as I turned to face Shigure once more. "Is that beyond their physical weakness, vampires have no other restrictions on them."

"What do… you mean?" Shigure managed to get out, even as she continued to fight against the now fully animated vegetation in the room. Once more, I was reminded of the battle with the Shikome, watching as Shigure desperately tried to keep any of the lashing vines from finding purchase on her body. Her sword was a silver flash as it wove complicated patterns to fend off the attacks. She was once more using the back of her sword, trying to keep from spilling more of my blood even as she faced being overwhelmed once more. Periodically, one hand would pull free from the blade's hilt, and another flash of some bizarre weapon would appear. I saw a number of sais, three pronged dagger like weapons designed for locking blades, appear and pin a number of vines at their bases to keep them from drawing close, as well as some more lengths of chain.

It was a beautiful effort, but one I think Shigure knew was ultimately futile. With the self-imposed limitation of not cutting anything in this room, there was little she could do to truly stop the constant threat from all sides. And so long as the room itself was in motion, even the vines hampering my body were no longer a weakness to me.

"I mean that if you make an offering to a god, than they will be appeased," I explained, and Shigure only had a moment to widen her eyes before I charged once more into the mass of writhing leaves stems. She had to dodge, her sword already engaged as I swung at where her torso had been a moment earlier. "If you ask a wolf to not eat you, then it won't. If you play a fox's game, than it will repay its debt. But vampires have no guarantee that they will do the same." She dodged the next strike, but only barely, and my clawed hand found the edge of her kimono, tearing it and revealing the chainmail she favored underneath. "If you make an offering to a vampire, it may or may not accept. Begging a vampire not to eat you won't change their mind if that's what they're planning on. And if you try play a vampire's game, than it may or may not honor the debt afterwards. There are as many different ways a vampire could act as there are vampires in the world!"

My next attack was aimed at Shigure's head, a blow meant to knock her out just like she had intended to do with me. She saw it coming, and judging from the way her eyes narrowed she realized what would happen if I connected: it would mean I won, and that she had failed in trying to rescue me from myself. I think what happened next might have been panic. After all, I was clearly exhibiting superior strength and speed, at a level which rivaled a Master's. It must have been natural for her to assume that the rest of me was at the same level.

Her father's sword flashed as Shigure twisted it, bringing the edge around to face me, and she swung fast, so fast that it was all I could do to react. If that blow connected it would cut my head in two. I barely managed to get my hand up in time as the vines between the sword and it were severed so cleanly that the blood didn't start flowing immediately. My hand barely managed to nudge the weapon upwards, but in return the edge found my fingers between the second and third knuckles and parted them from my body just as easily as the vines had fallen. It was enough to force the sword high, but even as I ducked under it the blade caught a portion of my cheek and shaved it off as well.

"Kenichi-san!" Miu shouted, even as both Shigure and I leapt backwards, the vines pulling away as well as the shock of my injuries hit both of us. Shigure's eyes were wide as she realized that she had made a dangerous overestimation of my level and nearly taken the head of her own Disciple. Mine were wide too as the shock of the blow temporarily made me retreat on instinct.

Weapons are scary!

"Shigure-san!" Miu continued, now red as she angrily scolded the younger Master, my fellow Disciple snapping her eyes between giving the stump of my fingers worried looks and the offending Master a vicious glare. "We're trying to help Kenichi-san, not cut him to pieces! What were you thinking!"

"That he would… dodge better?" Shigure offered, still deadpan though the expression on her face reminded me of the time in the fox's den when she had thought she had killed someone, a mixture of horror and shame barely discernible on her deadpan expression.

"The truth is, vampires don't really have much in the way of defensive powers," I muttered, admitting that particular tidbit with a scowl. Shigure had obviously assumed that the sword itself wouldn't be able to really hurt me, no doubt recalling just how little affect her blade had had on the Shikome. "Just about all of a vampire's abilities are designed to be offensive. Really, they don't actually need any type of defensive abilities." I held my hand up, letting the others see my stump more clearly. "Why would they? They already have one very efficient way to get around being injured."

"What are you… talking… about…?" Takeda began, his eyes so wide I could see the whites of them as he began, staring at my injury. For someone who had lost the ability to do martial arts before, a maiming like this must have been particularly traumatic to witness. However, he lost his steam as he took in the sight of my fingers.

Slowly, as though they were made of salt and dissolving in a stiff wind, the fingers which had fallen to the ground began to crumble away, a cloud of white and red particles as they vanished without any visible cause. As they vanished, those particles appeared to disperse, only to reappear around the stumps on my hand, reforming slowly as the severed appendages returned to their rightful place on my body.

"Did I forget to mention a vampires regenerative abilities earlier?" I explained idly, watching the process without any real interest. I had seen much worse than this before, had gone through much worse than this to be honest. "Kiss Shot in particular had a high regenerative rate, very nearly qualifying as true immortality. As her subordinate, my own healing was always exceptionally high myself."

"The blood," Chikage noted, drawing attention back to herself from the rest of the group. "From the vines earlier. It's all gone."

"What the…" Ukita began, before he yelped. "She's right!" The blood that had stained the members of the Shinpaku Alliance and Ryouzanpaku had all vanished, most likely having dissolved while their attention was elsewhere without them even noticing. Even where it had stained clothes, the cloth was now completely unblemished.

"This never happened before," Sakaki noted, his tone serious as he kept a curious eye on me. "I think we would have noticed this kind of thing in training." It wasn't actually a question, but his tone implied that it could be one.

Oh Sakaki. Even now, you're still offering to respect my right to privacy.

"Right after I nearly regained my humanity I still had a small portion of my regeneration," I admitted. It was probably a sign of just how strong my inherited healing had been that even as a human that was only a fraction of a vampire I still could show that trait. "It wasn't until after…"I hesitated, my eyes drifting down. It was strange, but just like earlier the memories hurt less now. "It wasn't until they died that I lost even that. It was why I thought I had left the Nightworld completely, why I was so certain that Shinobu had died as well."

The Apostate Deacons were always crafty hunters, after all. They knew that they would stand no chance one on one against something like the Hearts Under Blades, or even her subordinate. So instead they had simply set a trap. When I had gone to rescue my kidnapped friend, they had simply set a ward around the building they had stowed the three of them in, one which apparently would let no one who had been influenced by the Kai pass. Then they had used more of their particular brand of holy magic to simply set fire to the building.

In a way, it made a gruesome sort of sense. The Apostate Deacons were only interested in destroying the Kai, so anyone who wasn't of the Kai would have no trouble getting away. However, none of my friends fit that qualification. With the cat still living in Hanekawa, and Kanbarou's arm still that of a monkey, neither of them had a chance of escaping. Even Senjougahara, who had managed to have the crab revoke the blessing hadn't truly lost all traces of the Kai on her.

Add in me, who had the equivalent of the queen of vampires living in his shadow, and there was no way for us to escape. Perhaps if Shinobu had drained enough of my blood, I would have been able to regenerate enough to withstand the fire directly, but at the cost of making me vulnerable to the sun and whatever holy magics the Deacons had in place.

So instead, Shinobu had gone the other route.

I don't know how the hell they managed to plan it, but it had been Senjougahara who sucker punched me right in the diaphragm and knocked the wind out of me. It had been Hanekawa who had pushed me down towards Shinobu as she emerged from my shadow, who had torn open her own throat just in time for my gasping lips to lock on to the wound. Gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of me, I had taken more than just air in:

I had taken the last of Shinobu's blood as well, the final key I needed to return to humanity completely.

I couldn't remember what had happened to her after that. I was still too confused, the smoke and heat as much as the desperate choking that taking blood down the wrong pipe preventing me from seeing straight. I knew that it was Kanbaru who finished the devastating combo, the strong girl literally picking me up to throw me out of a window, getting me clear of both the fire and the ward. There had barely been time for words before the three women I called my friends got me free, but I vaguely remembered Hanekawa telling me that she valued her own debt to me more than her own life, Kanbarou telling me to live on, and Senjougahara giving me one last kiss.

Strangely, it was Hanekawa who stuck out the most in my memory. That hypocrite. When I told her that that I valued our debt more than our friendship, she scolded me. And here she was, doing the exact same, no, doing worse.

It was hard, having someone die for you. Harder than most people can ever imagine. I suppose I was a hypocrite too. After all, even if I never wanted anyone to die for me again, here I was constantly doing the same for others.

I really was the worst of the worst.

It was when I had woken up the next day, to a set of worried parents in a hospital, that I realized completely what had happened. My three friends were dead, all of them, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. When my body continued to heal at the rate of a normal person, the realization that even Shinobu was lost was a blow that took my breath away, left me with tears in my eyes. I had always thought that the two of us would always be together, the twisted Master and Subordinate, the impudent human and the incorrigible vampire that lived in his shadow. And just like that, it was all gone.

It was Hanekawa's words that lingered the most, I think. That there deaths were just a way to repay what I had done for each of them in the past. I think that was when I began to believe in the credo 'all debts were repaid'. It was the only thing that let me go on for a bit, that what had happened was just the nature of things, that it was just a law of nature, of the Nightworld.

I had to believe it. That it was just the way of things, because if I didn't than it would mean that their deaths, their sacrifice… it was all my fault: if I hadn't gotten involved, if I hadn't tried to help them, than they never would have died.

So I had gone on. I couldn't die for them, not after they had worked so hard to make sure I would live, not when dying would make their sacrifice in vein. So I had just continued on, trying to live a life that would be worthy of what they had given for me.

Until I learned that I wasn't as free from the Nightworld as I had thought. Until a fox had given me a way to repay at least one of the ones who had died for me.

"There's something that has been bothering me, midget," it was again Sakaki who spoke, dragging me from my recollection. The brawler had that diffident look of his, the one that said 'Hey, I'm actually kind of interested, but I have to pretend I'm not, so don't mind me,' that he tended to use when he was about to do some prying of his own. "This whole time, you haven't used a single bit of martial arts."

"Sakaki… is right," Shigure noted as well, still standing by as my body regenerated. She looked less concerned than she had right after she had cut off my fingers, but she still seemed subdued.

"Martial arts were made by humans, for humans," I explained, my eyes closing as I gave a rueful little smile. "Something that isn't human shouldn't have the right to use them."

"That is not… right!" Shigure snapped, and when I opened my eyes it was to find her own narrowed as she gave that glare of hers. "Human or not human… doesn't matter. You are our… are MY Disciple! Now…" she raised her sword again, and I realized that my refusal to use the skills that my Masters had imparted to me, that she herself had imparted to me, had genuinely offended the woman. "…pick up your vines!"

It was such an incongruous order, that it actually took me a second to understand what she was saying. When I did, I couldn't suppress a small snort of incredulous laughter. It looked like Shigure was less concerned about me not using martial arts in general than she was in me not using her martial arts specifically. After taking so long to actually start using her style, it seemed that Shigure wasn't quite willing to let me put them aside so casually.

It looked like Shigure had a bit of a selfish side too.

Again, I reached out and grasped a bundle of the hanging vines in my hand, pulling them down and free. A bit of the roof behind me buckled and finally gave out in a brief shower of plaster and steel as the abuse the battle had been putting on the room itself began to reach dangerous levels. Another section of the roof began to groan and buckle, but managed to hold on a little longer.

"We should end this soon," I noted, taking the new length of vine in my hands, pulling it taught as I took the stance Shigure had taught me for using a kusarigami. Shigure nodded at my words, but she seemed more intent on the way I had obediently taken up her style again. If anything, she seemed to be smiling just a little at the sight of me preparing to fight her with the moves she taught me.

"I… agree," she declared, lifting her sword again. At first I thought she would take her normal position, but then she began to sink down, and the presence of her Ki began to rise dangerously. I realized what she was about to do, and flinched back, incredulous at the thought of what I was about to face. She couldn't seriously be about to…

"Shigure!" Sakaki also recognized what was about to happen, and the brawler lurched to his feet, disbelief obvious on his face. "Don't!"

"This is… the whip of love," Shigure announced, nodding firmly as she did so.

"Oh cr…" was as far as I got before she moved.

"Shinto Gourenzan!" she shouted, and again I was treated to the sight of the pinnacle of swordsmanship. However, this time it wasn't as a witness, but as a target.

Pain. Pain like nothing I had ever felt before echoed through me. I had taken some pretty serious hits in my time, both in my time as a martial artist and before when I had been more involved in the Nightworld. This though, this was something on a whole other level as razor sharp steel bit into me from all sides. I was only briefly able to identify the fact that Shigure wasn't even using the back of her sword this time, and then it was over, the move so fast that I couldn't respond to it even with my monstrous speed.

I felt more than heard or saw Shigure settle behind me, had a moment to wonder just what had happened, and then I erupted, sprays of blood showering out of me like something from a cheesy samurai movie.

"Wha…?" I could barely mouth the beginning of a question, starting to turn in surprise or dismay, I wasn't sure which, when the move apparently shook my body enough for the true nature of Shigure's attack to be apparent.

All over my body, from wounds so thin and shallow that they might as well have been carved by a surgeon's scalpels, the vines that had been perforating my body began to fall off, having been cut out of my flesh by Shigure's ultimate attack. I could do nothing but give the swordmistress a beleaguered look as the true scope of the speed and accuracy of her attack became apparent to me.

I couldn't help but wonder if maybe both of us didn't qualify for the title of 'monster' when confronted by something like this.

"Shigure-san!" Miu shrieked, sounding both horrified and enraged at what the weapon user had done. "This is way over the line!"

"What were you thinking?" Sakaki demanded, as even someone as comfortable with excessive violence as he couldn't stay silent at the sight.

"That he… can regenerate," Shigure pointed out, sheathing her sword as she did so.

"You have to be… kidding…" I began, unable to actually believe that the moment Shigure had learned of my healing ability she latched onto it, worked it into her battle plan, and then factored it into a strike which she had been counting on to completely free me from the embrace of the vines. I wasn't able to complete my sentence as the damage from her attack finally completed, and my thin frame lost all strength and started to collapse.

Before I had hit the floor, Shigure had already caught me, cradling me gently in her arms as she lowered the bone thin frame to rest in her arms.

"Keni…chi?" she began, speaking softly as she gave me a worried look like only Shigure could give.

"Shit!" Sakaki swore, and in a second he was just as close, apparently having deemed the duel over as he moved to help support me. "Shigure, I'm not sure if you're a genius or just reckless, but good job!"

"Did it work?" Niijima demanded, though it didn't look like he had any intention to get any closer.

"Wait," Sakaki muttered, hand running up and down the skeletal frame in his fellow Master's arms. "He's not moving. What's…"

The brawler trailed off, eyes widening in shock and Shigure flinched away as the slim frame in the arms began to crumble, echoing the motion of my fingers earlier as it began to dissolve into nothing. Shigure flinched back again, as the realization that she had just apparently killed her Disciple must have struck through her.

"Have I mentioned lately," I began, watching the whole scene with wonder, "just how crazy you Masters are?"

"Kenichi!" Sakaki shouted, frantically looking between the dissolving body and the room around, trying to figure out where my voice was coming from.

"It's just like before," Takeda shouted, also spinning around as he tried to locate me, though he too kept looking back to the now mostly dissolved body. "Where is the voice coming from?"

"Forget the voice," Miu cried out, spinning wildly, though she herself refused to look at the vanishing body. "What is going on here!"

"There!" Chikage's voice was sharp, and her hand snapped up to point at the corner of the basement that had once been my resting place.

It must have been an incomprehensible sight to those uninitiated into the Nightworld before today, but hovering over the shattered desks were the vines that had been attached to my body. They writhed around each other, looking much like a nest of snakes might.

And forming in the middle of the twisting mass, a new body was beginning to form. First bones, then a thin layer of muscle, followed by skin. It had started with a head, and was working its way down from there.

Watching with my new eyes, I tried to shrug shoulders which were only just beginning to form.

"Didn't I say before, that one of a vampire's abilities was to shape shift?" I reminded them, the voice coming as much from the vines around me as the mouth which didn't really have vocal chords at this point.

"The hell?" Sakaki muttered, too busy gaping at my reforming body to even respond to my question. The room as a whole seemed shocked to stillness as they witnessed something which should truly be impossible for the first time.

"I'd always loved plants," I continued, closing my eyes briefly and grimacing as the sensation of such a massive regeneration continued. "Someone once asked me what I would chose to be reincarnated as, and I told them a tree. I always loved gardening too, watching the tiny sprouts form and grow. Even you," I opened my eyes to face my Masters directly, "tend to compare my training to a plant whenever my progress comes up. It should be no surprise that this," I gestured a partially grown arm, only just up to an elbow, at the room around me, "is what I ended up choosing."

"I don't understand," Chikage seemed the least shocked by the spectacle before her, though even she seemed a little repulsed as she watched me reform. "Just what is all this?"

"This IS my body now," I told her, twitching as I did so. All around the room, vines which had previously been dormant writhed slightly, repositioning themselves as the impulse went down and through them all. "Shape shifting can be used in many ways. Some vampires just turn their arms into weapons; others take the shape of other animals or monsters. For me, I was always better at turning my body into plants."

Honestly, it was the only true vampiric power besides regeneration that I had ever used, the desperation of saving Hanekawa the only thing that could prompt me into feeling inhuman enough to use an ability back then. When I had begun my desperate quest to restore Shinobu, this was the only real ability I felt sure that I would be able to use properly. And so I had worked hard to develop that skill. This, this was the results.

"So all of this…" Niijima began, and even the Alien seemed unnerved by what I was explaining.

"My organs, my flesh," I nodded, feeling hips begin to form. "My blood vessels, my sinew, my ligaments, my muscles: nearly every bit of my body, altered and spread throughout the building."

It gave a whole new meaning to the scene they had witnessed earlier, and judging from the collective shudders and wide eyes, it seemed that they were finally beginning to understand just how deep my resolve was. Those vines had never been growing into me, they had been growing out of me. The vines they had cut earlier hadn't been drinking my blood, they had been carrying it as any part of a body should.

"Oh god they really are tentacles," Kisara whimpered, apparently falling back on her earlier phobia when her mind could find nothing else to hold on to. "Kiddo is a tentacle monster!"

"I guess this is why he could hear us, even all the way down here," Sakaki muttered, eyes narrowed as he began to put the pieces together. Beside him, Shigure was alternating between staring at the nearly gone remains of my previous frame, and turning to look at me as my body continued to reshape itself. "Or how we could hear you. Or how I couldn't sense your exact location."

"This, this can't be happening," Takeda growled, slamming a fist into a palm. "Even if vampires are real, I've never heard of one being able to do something like this!"

"Of course not," I nodded at Takeda's declaration. This scene really was pretty far outside of the normal legends of vampires. "I'm not really a vampire, after all. And no real vampire would ever do something like this."

"Why not?" Chikage asked, still in good student mode apparently. Her eyes narrowed a bit. "And if you're not a vampire, than just what are you, Band-Aid?"

"Because this is insane," I pointed out bluntly. "My body is so spread out that my mind can barely control it. There is no way to flee if a hunter or an exorcist were to come, barely any way to fight like this. I'm honestly not sure if it's possible for me to recover from what I've done to myself."

It was the truth at this point. It was hard to manage my form when it was so spread out like this, which was probably the reason that I was so confused earlier when they arrived. More than that, it had taken a lot of power to change myself so much, had forced my mindset away from humanity to such an extent that I wasn't certain I fully remembered what being human felt like at this point. It was the source of my constant lethargy, the reason that even now I could feel my thoughts starting to drift away slowly.

"Why!" Miu demanded, tearing up again as she came to realize just how badly I've warped myself. Her legs gave out on her as she collapsed to a kneeling position. She struck the floor, pounding her fists into it in frustration and helpless rage, before she realized that she had struck a set of the vines that composed my body and flinched away as realization hit her again. "Why would you do this, Kenichi-san?"

"Because even if this body will be ripped apart, and my soul will be smashed up, I will save Shinobu," I repeated my earlier oath, unable to keep a brief wry smile from quirking my lips, as the literal nature of my oath became evident.

I felt more awake now than I could easily recall having felt in some time. That final blow of Shigure's, the sudden pain, it seemed that it had been enough to truly jolt me into wakefulness for the first time since I had begun to change myself.

And with this sudden awareness, came the awareness of something else, something I nearly couldn't believe…

"So just what are you?" Chikage repeated her earlier question, head cocked to the side as she pressed.

"I don't think there is a name for what I am," I shook my head slowly. "The closest title would probably be 'abomination'."

"Don't call… yourself that," Shigure murmured, finally pushing herself back into a standing position as she turned to face me again. It looked like whatever shock to her emotions that seeing me collapse and begin to dissolve had caused had faded enough for her to return to a functioning state. "I hate it when… you call yourself that."

"But that's what I am," I pointed out in return, remembering how she nearly came to blows with a wolf for using that word, and how she had attacked a fox outright for saying them. "I'm not quite a vampire, but not quite human. I'm not precisely a hybrid of some sort, and I don't even qualify for being a dampyr, the child of a human and a vampire. I'm just something which is almost but not quite, something which didn't quite manage to fit into anything else. I suppose, if I had to choose a word for what I am, for what both Shinobu and I were, I would use the word 'Kizumono'."

Kizumono, the word for broken or despoiled things, a word for damaged goods. That probably was the best word to describe Shinobu and I: two people who had hurt the other profoundly, yet still couldn't give up on the other, who had needed the other to survive, who had even cared for the other deeply despite the pain we caused each other.

"I don't… like it," Shigure declared, folding her arms under her breast, her father's sword still sheathed and clutched in one hand. "It makes it sound… like someone else got you first."

"Shigure-san," Miu snapped, giving a glare at the older woman as she got the probably intended double meaning behind Shigure's word. Sometimes Kizumono was also used to describe a woman who had lost their virginity, after all. I found myself a little disturbed by the fact that I couldn't tell if that was what Shigure was actually implying the sexual connotations on purpose, and even more disturbed when I realized that I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

"I think," I began, and flexed my toes briefly as they finally finished reforming. Around me, a number of vines rose, curling around my waist once more in an impromptu method of maintaining my dignity. I'm not sure if it counted, since I was effectively wrapping my own mutated organs around me, but I suppose it didn't hurt to try. "I think I need to thank you all," I finally confessed.

"For what?" Sakaki growled, and just like Miu he seemed to be overcome by his frustration, smashing the floor he had been kneeling on. When Sakaki did it, there were a lot more in the way of shattered cement than when Miu did it. Several of my vines were nicked, though they only bled for a moment before they healed up.

"I think I was dying, before you came," I admitted, one hand coming up to scratch at my head awkwardly. "I was just so tired I was unable to wake up. If you hadn't come, I might have just slipped away entirely, losing all trace of my consciousness and becoming nothing more than a beast that lived in this place." I might well have become something entirely different than a vampire or a Kizumono, maybe a new species of Kai that did nothing but spread and feed until it was finally found and destroyed by an exorcist. If they hadn't shown up, hadn't pulled me from my lethargy, than not only would I have failed at my plan but I would have become a creature that truly fed on humanity.

"Thankful enough to call this whole thing off and come home?" Niijima chirped, the Alien raising his hand as though in class. "With my beloved cash cow back at my side, and a vampire to boot, think of the profits that could be made!" he declared evilly, hands splaying at his side as he began to cackle maniacally.

"God damn it, Alien, not the time!" Ukita bellowed, taking a swing at the other boy. Niijima tried to dodge like normal, but gave a surprised yelp as he suddenly found his feet bound by vines, and instead got hit right in the face by the equally surprised judo user.

I think it was the first time Ukita ever actually hit Niijima, despite numerous efforts.

"In the future, try not to plot your evil plans about the Kai when you are effectively standing in what could become a digestive system in a matter of moments," I told him dryly, almost feeling like it was just the two of us back in class, me shooting down another of my bad friend's twisted scams.

"Noted," Niijima told me awkwardly, clutching his nose where Ukita had struck him. I nodded, and released the vines on his feet. Niijima idly shook his legs, apparently not the least bit disturbed by the encounter. Behind Ukita, Kisara had witnessed the whole thing, and apparently decided that to avoid any potential encounter of her own with the 'tentacles' she leapt up so she could climb on the surprised Ukita's back completely.

Shiritori looked like he was about to do the same, and I seriously began to wonder just what was up with the other boy.

"And you, Shigure-san," I continued, turning my attention back to my Master. Shigure seemed resigned as well, and I think the realization of just how far I had gone had taken the fight out of her. After all, just how were they going to stop me, when I was curled throughout the entire building? "I need to thank you especially."

"Wh…y?" Shigure cocked her head to the side a bit, perking a bit at my singling of her out.

"Because if you hadn't cut me up that much, I never would have realized what I was doing wrong," I told her, and was treated to the sight of my Master wilting a bit, settling again into that strange expressionless pout she tended to use. I think maybe she was hoping that maybe I would single out her confession as what I was thanking her for.

"How… rude," she muttered, her typical response to most of Ryouzanpaku when they implied that she tended to be a bit more dangerous to be around than the rest of them.

"In return for telling me what the fox told you," I continued, reaching out to start gathering more of the vines in my hand. I would need a whole lot of them for what came next. "Let me tell you precisely what she told me.

"There were three things I needed in order to resurrect Shinobu," I continued, my tone serious. "The first was power. When the two of us were together, there was a literal bond between us. In order to keep her alive in her diminished state, I had to give her some of my blood every day, to return a bit of her power to her. It would make me a bit more vampire for a time, but only for a little while before it faded. In effect, we were both sharing the same power, and because of that, my power was directly related to hers. The stronger I was, the stronger she was. If I was going to bring her back, I needed to be a lot more powerful. That was why I was hunting vampires," I confessed. "To take their blood and power as my own."

"Does anyone else think that this is a little ominous," Ukita muttered, adjusting his shades. By him, both Thor and Siegfried nodded. I ignored them as I continued.

"The second thing I needed was my shadow," I pressed on. "After a while, Shinobu started to be able to use my shadow as a home, a way to get the power she needed to survive without drinking my blood and also be close enough to help me if anything happened. That's what all this…" I waved at the vine covered basement, the building as a whole, "is about."

"What do you mean, Band-Aid?" Chikage's response was instantaneous, the knowledge of the Kai I was imparting to her probably the aspect she considered most important about this entire encounter.

"I needed a shadow, the bigger the better," I explained, gesturing around the room. "Just about my whole body is wrapped around and through this building. Just about all the light here is falling on me, and all the darkness here is in effect my shadow. This basement in particular has the deepest shadows. Heck, this place right here could almost be considered to be inside of me."

"I've been… inside Kenichi," Shigure muttered. "I always thought… it would be Kenichi in me," she mused a second later.

"Shigure-san!" Miu snapped, once more glowering at the older woman as Shigure continued to push the lines of propriety. Even I had to give the Master a careful look. Was she just teasing again, or trying to lighten the situation with a joke? Or maybe she was being serious…

I was beginning to wonder just what might have happened if things had been a bit different and Shigure had been able to confess to me normally. I honestly had no idea just what dealing with a Master class fighter that lacked so many conventional social graces and was in love with me would have been like, but I was beginning to have the suspicions that it would have been a very unique experience.

"And the final thing that was needed to wake Shinobu up," I pressed on, deciding not to dwell too much on things that might have been, "is blood."

"Oi," Sakaki snapped up, a wary look on his face as he glanced around him, hearing the final key to Shinobu's awakening and coming to dreadful conclusion. "You don't mean…" he trailed off, already backing towards the Shinpaku Alliance while giving me a cautious look, putting himself between me and them.

"No," I shook my head instantly, understanding what he was worrying about. "Not yours. It was while you all were fighting my vines, that I realized something. And when Shigure finally cut my body to pieces, it was like I was truly awake, and that was when I felt it: she's waking up to." My smile grew as I tightened my grip on the vines. "All I need now is more of my blood."

With a violent motion, I yanked, tearing the vines in my grip in half with the force. Blood erupted from both ends of the ripped tendrils, showering down on me, bursting out in gouts on the room in general.

"Kenichi!" cries erupted from my gathered friends, but I paid them no heed. I could feel it, the bond I had spoken of, the one I hadn't realized I had had with Shinobu until it had been gone, too diminished for me to even believe it existed. But all the time, it had been there.

In a dark place that defied logical explanation, I felt her stir.

"Shit!" Ukita swore though I paid him only cursory attention. Instead, I called forth more of my tendrils, tearing into them as well. More. I needed more blood. "This is just like some kind of scene from an anime, right before they summon the demon lord or something!" He sounded half hysterical, as though he was grasping for some sort of humor in order to help make sense of the situation.

"That…" Niijima began, and then stopped, his expression growing wary. "That's a damn good point," the other boy admitted, sounding nervous now.

"Who cares about anime," Sakaki snapped, trying to get close enough to stop me from my self-mutilation, only to find himself contributing as he had to fight off the vines I put in his path. He seemed to realize that by fighting the tendrils I put between him and I he was only helping my cause, shedding more of my blood. "Shigure, stop him!"

"Ho…w?" Shigure demanded, the other Master just as stymied from trying to stop me as Sakaki was.

"Oi, Kenichi!" Niijima ignored the two, apparently having found something else to focus on. "You said that this Shinobu, or Kiss Acerola, or whatever her name is, is really strong, right? Just how strong are we talking?"

"The strongest of her kind. She was to vampires what Masters are too regular humans!" I declared, gritting my teeth as I struggled to force more and more of my body within my reach, tearing every bit I could reach. The room was turning into a study in crimson, the blood stains spreading. Even as the older blood began to flake and return more and more fresh blood was there to take its place.

"Holy shit!" Ukita swore, finally making the connection. Earlier, none of them had really believed me when I had claimed that I had been turned into a vampire, and hadn't really paid attention when I had described the strength of Kiss Shot. Now though, after what they had seen, disbelief wasn't really an option anymore. "He really is summoning a demon lord!"

"Come on," Sakaki snapped back, still fending off my tendrils as best he could, and still unwillingly aiding me in shedding my own blood. "How bad can it be? I mean, after this, what's the worst that could happen?"

"She may return in a berserk state, drain all my blood, and return herself to her full power and me to being a full vampire," I admitted bluntly, listing just what the worst really could be. "Then, as the Master vampire she could compel me, the Subordinate, to drink blood, destroying my inhibitions to kill. Afterwards, the one most suited for the title 'Queen of the Night' would have a consort, a vampire of her own bloodline made stronger by having fed on other vampires, and trained in the martial arts by some of the best Masters in the world as well."

"Okay," Sakaki paused as he took in my worst case scenario, even he looking a little unnerved at the scenario I painted. "The worst could be pretty bad." The brawler redoubled his effort to reach me, to make me stop, and in return I met him with more vines, gladly supplying them to be torn apart.

"Con… sort?" Shigure muttered, also increasing her force only to be met with the same blockade.

"Okay, in that case," Niijima began, running a hand through his hair, his eyes narrowed as he desperately struggled to analyze the situation. "What's the best that could happen?"

"She comes back and resumes her life in my shadow," I supplied, and shuddered as a combination of the damage I was doing to myself was joined with yet another stirring that only I could feel. "I regain the majority of my humanity, returning to the life I had before as best I could, and everything goes back as close to the way it used to be as possible."

"And what do you think is the most likely to happen?" Niijima challenged, eyes locking on to mine. I met his gaze squarely, cringing as more of my blood poured out of me. It might be necessary, it might be healing almost as quickly as the wounds were inflicted, but it was still my body, and it still hurt. Maybe I really was becoming a masochist.

"That I fail, and that I die," I admitted just as easily as before.

"And you're still going on with this?" Miu demanded, pushing forward from where she had been frozen earlier. "You're still going to do this, Kenichi-san?"

"I swore that I would no longer turn my back on the things others looked away from," I raised my chin, fierce as the stirring increased even more. Soon! Just a little more blood… "And before that, I swore that if tomorrow she died my life would last no longer than tomorrow- and if today she lived than I too would live." With resolution, I met even Miu's angry glare. "I thought I failed before. I won't fail now."

"And what are we supposed to do if you do end up becoming a vampire again?" Miu demanded, now desperate as she seemed prepared to enter the battle, before hesitating as more of my blood spilled in front of her, staining her shoes briefly before it started to flake.

"I've told you all you need to know to fight vampires. If it's still daylight, you should have no problems," I turned my gaze to Chikage, and the young Disciple gave one quick nod, no doubt having paid close attention to my lessons. She had already had some experience with dealing with the Kai from when Kushinada had been employing me, and had most likely received even more training from her Master. She would be ready.

As though to confirm my estimation, she reached up, and briefly tugged the edge of her Miko kimono aside. There, nestled against the inner folds of her clothing, a glint of familiar silver shown: the very cross I had sold her Master before.

"Kenichi!" It was one of the few times I had ever heard Shigure speak without her usual pause. "You can't mean for us to kill you?" As though to show just how upset the older Master was at my statement, I was suddenly gifted with a great deal of blood for my cause as the weaponmistress decided to stop holding back nearly as much as she had been. I had to redouble the amount of my body I was dedicating to keeping her from getting closer, nearly being able to stop my own unending tearing entirely as my blood flowed freely.

Closer. Closer. Just a little more!

"I warned you," I reminded Shigure, no, everyone at large. "I told you that you shouldn't come." I had told them. I had said before that there were things which couldn't be unseen, that once you knew what occurred behind the play of reality you could never see things as you once did.

"Enough."

I almost didn't recognize the voice. It was in a tone so unfamiliar, that I actually thought that it was a new speaker, someone who had managed to actually penetrate the building which was my body without me noticing. When the weight of a new Ki formed, I actually wondered if maybe just that had occurred, that some new Master had appeared on the scene.

Instead, when I snapped my head in the direction of the new voice, it was to see Miu, standing firm like I had never seen her before. Her hands were clenched into fists, elbows cocked to her side in a stance which bespoke violence like only someone trained in the martial arts could recognize. I had thought before, that when Miu tended to get violent she always ended up insufferably cute.

That wasn't the case right now.

Miu's eyes were like some horrible cross between razor sharp daggers and endless pits. They somehow managed to cut even while they drew you in. And the force of her spirit, the feel of her power, it was enough for me to know that someday the girl in front of me would be a Master, and even among Masters she would rank herself far higher than most could dream to aspire to.

"Enough," Miu said again, this new and terrible version of her as set as a granite pillar. "This ends now! Kenichi, I won't let you throw yourself away like this! I will stop you, and once we're back in Ryouzanpaku we will find some other way to help your friend! A way which doesn't endanger you, one where you can help your friend and still stay safe! Do you hear, me, Kenichi!"

Okay. Wow. I wasn't certain whether I was scared, or a little smitten at hearing that speech. Miu was so determined, so absolutely confident, that I couldn't help but believe that not only did she mean her words, but she would follow through with them without fail.

She didn't even put an honorific on my name, and that also sent a small thrill through me as well.

"Miu has released her dou Ki," Sakaki muttered, sounding equal parts annoyed as impressed. "Looks like there's no holding her back anymore." He snorted, and despite the dire situation, he seemed proud of the girl which was part Disciple and probably part niece in his eyes. "The old man is gonna be pissed about this!"

"She's right," Takeda spoke up as well. The boxer seemed to have found his own resolve, and despite the situation he looked to have achieved his own resolution as well. "No way in hell am I letting a friend of mine alone again. If I gotta give both arms this time, than that's just the way it is."

"Right," it was Freya's turn to speak up. "I still have a debt to Kenichi-kun as well." The staff in her hands was whirling, and it seemed the services I had given her and her grandfather a while back were forefront on her mind as she turned to the mass of blood and flailing vines before her.

"Kisara-san," Ukita began, giving an awkward glance at the girl still on his back. "It would be easier to fight if you could get down…"

"Tentacles," Kisara whimpered, before swallowing hard and releasing the judo user's back. With a look of despair, she too set herself for the fight. "Kiddo, when we get out of this you're getting me a dozen kittens," she muttered, probably speaking too softly for anyone but me to hear.

"Lalalala!" Siegfried hummed, a subdued but still strong tune. "The symphony of friendship once more!"

"We still haven't had chanko!" Thor agreed, clapping his hands together before settling himself in a sumo stance, already preparing to bull forward.

"Well, midget?" Sakaki grunted as he tore through me while trying to reach me. "You might have your resolution, but that doesn't mean the rest of us gotta go with it!"

"What now… Kenichi?" The only one here who equaled Miu's inescapable draw was Shigure at this point, a whirlwind of steel and lavender that could only appear in the most beautiful of nightmares. She had actually managed to draw closer to my human form, the only one so far whose will to save me was great enough to even allow her to hurt me to do it.

What could I do when faced with this kind of resolve? What could I possibly say to the people who cared for me so fiercely that even in my present state they wouldn't give up on me?

"I don't deserve friends like you," I sighed, wishing that my vow to avoid martial arts hadn't been made. If I could sink myself in the Ryuusei Seikuken then it would be far easier to deal with the turmoil their decision instilled in me.

"Your eyes again, Kenichi," Miu noted, still fierce in her resolution. Obediently, one hand came up to confirm her observation.

More blood for the floor. Again, it wasn't tears that came from my eyes, just more blood.

"It's a vampire thing," I shrugged helplessly. Closing my eyes, I continued. "I don't deserve friends like all of you. I'm sorry."

"Sorry enough to give this up and come back?" Niijima asked, his tone wary.

"No," I shook my head. "I'm sorry because it's too late."

In that place in the dark, a place beyond logic, that which had just been stirring stilled. I don't know how I knew, but I was certain that the motion which occurred next was that of an eye opening.

There was no warning to my Masters or the gathered Shinpaku members. They only had a moment to comprehend my statement, and then the ceiling collapsed, chunks of concrete and steel being spread like shrapnel as a pillar composed of intertwined vines drove through it. This whole building was my body now, and there was far more of it present than just what was in this room. Above this little battle, I had gathered myself, and now it was time to act.

The pillar continued, even as the rest of the room flinched back instinctively to protect itself. Shigure, the only one close enough to be endangered by the new intrusion had to throw herself out of its path, back and away from me, but none of the vines made any move to stop her. The force and speed of the gathered portion of my body should have driven it through the basement floor, but rather than impact it just vanished, disappearing as it hit not the physical form of the room, but rather my shadow.

It slid into the darkness as though it were nothing more than a screen over a door, vanishing into the depths of the shade.

"Time to wake up, Shinobu," I muttered softly, a voice which was probably lost in the cacophony of falling ceiling.

I could feel it, as my vines wrapped around the thing dwelling within my darkest part. My leaves brushed against skin, entwining around limbs which weren't present and feeling fingers which didn't exist sink into them.

With a shout of triumph I pulled, and when my body emerged from my shadow, it cradled within it the form of Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Hearts Under Blade, now called Shinobu Oshino, reemerged into the world which she had been absent from for far too long.

"Oh crap," Niijima said plainly as she came free. Trust the Alien to realize just how dangerous the situation had become.

She looked different. Before, after I had taken back most of my humanity, she had barely been able to maintain the shape of an eight year old, a tiny and immature frame. Maybe it was because of all of the blood I had shed to wake her up, or maybe it was due to the change in the nature of my power from all my cannibalistic feeding, but this new Shinobu was noticeably different from the one in my memory.

Rather than appearing like some immature eight year old, this looked more like a rather well developed mid teen: blond hair, thin and graceful limbs, and a figure which rivaled even Miu's developed form. She looked more like she did after I had finished recovering both her legs than she had when she had just been living in my shadow.

Cradled in my body, I felt her stir, her arms reaching up to stretch as my vines moved away to give her space, and when her eyes fluttered open I was greeted by familiar albeit confused crimson orbs.

"Verily," Shinobu murmured, smacking her lips as though she were waking from nothing more than a long nap. "What is this?"

"Oh crap," Niijima repeated swallowing as he took in Shinobu for the first time. He swallowed hard, and I didn't blame him. There had always been something unearthly about Shinobu. It had been greatly diminished for most of the time I knew her, a result of the loss of her power, but at her most mature she had just been something… something greater than mankind: the kind of thing which would inspire even a confused teenager to gladly lay his life down for her at her request, even when maimed and dying.

It was like she was real in a way that you couldn't ever manage to be, even if you tried all your life to be so.

As though the rest of the room was frozen, unable to believe that what they had tried to prevent was happening at this very moment, no one made a sound as Shinobu continued to stretch, looking around in confusion before finally glancing down, settling her gaze on her own body.

"I live?" she murmured, her voice dulcet and soothing. "How is it that I live? Surely, my sacrifice should have been the end for even one such as myself?" Her voice was archaic, using speech patterns which had been out of fashion for literally centuries. She had learned Japanese almost two hundred years ago, after all. Slowly, she brought her hands in front of her, examining her fingers before she slowly clenched them into fists. Her head fell forward, her hair falling in a wave to form a golden curtain around her face as she began to shake. Many in the room began to tense, wondering just what reaction this creature would have, my worst case scenario no doubt running through their minds at the moment as both Sakaki and Shigure began to tense, preparing themselves.

Finally, Shinobu moved.

"Yahoo!" she shouted, laughing as she did so. She threw one hand up into the air in victory as she jumped in place. "Verily! I live again! Hahahahaha!" The most powerful vampire in the world began to spin happily, actually skipping as she began to bounce around in a circle. "I know not by what measure such a thing has happened, nor do I care! Yahoo!"

"This is the queen of the vampires?" Takeda muttered in disbelief, though I noticed that his eyes never strayed from the now prancing Shinobu. I chalked it up to him still being worried about a possible attack until I realized the way his pupils were moving up and down. When I saw both Kisara and Shiritori reaching up to cover Ukita's eyes and the way Miu was starting to blush I realized just what it was that the boxer was most likely looking at.

I couldn't really blame him. A bouncing naked Shinobu in her more developed form was probably a sight to see. If I wasn't too busy sinking to my knees in relief, I would probably have enjoyed the show a little more myself.

"Oh?" Shinobu continued, still skipping in a circle like a kid as she started running her hand down over her body as though checking to see if she was really whole once more. "What tis this? Not only do I live, but my bosoms have returned as well! Kakaka!" she gave a delighted cackle as she hefted the particular part of her body triumphantly. I think even Sakaki twitched at the blunt and irreverent declaration. Then, quite suddenly for no discernible reason Shinobu froze, standing absolutely still.

"What is she doing?" Niijima muttered, starting to back up so he could put more of the experienced fighters between him and the potential homicidal monster. The room tensed, worrying over what caused the sudden change in the creature before them before Shinobu whirled, folding her arms and standing proudly.

"Behold!" she declared imperiously. "I have just circumvented the world six and a half times!"

"Seriously?" Thor gasped, flinching away from the vampire, the thought of someone actually being capable of such a feat probably not as impossible as it had been this morning. "She can move at the speed of light?"

"Of course she didn't," I sighed, shaking my head as I couldn't suppress a smile. "After all, that would have left her somewhere in the Americas. You need new material, Shinobu." She had said the same thing to me immediately after I had finished recovering all her limbs and her heart, and back then I had been stupid enough to believe it too.

"Do not spoil the punch line, Master!" Shinobu scolded me, though she was still laughing as she did so.

"This is the so called 'Queen of the Vampires'?" Kisara muttered, clearly disturbed by the cheerful and undignified actions of a creature that literally fed on humans to survive." Beside her, Kisara gave a mute nod, though her eyes were narrowed as she continued to glare at Shinobu's recently returned chest.

"I do not know how thou hast done this, Master, but surely this is an abomination in the eyes of all that worship the holy," Shinobu continued, finally coming down enough from her euphoria to turn to face me directly, grinning as she did so. "Surely thou has… thou has," slowly, the blonde vampire began to trail off, her eyes finally taking in the sight of myself as her smile started to vanish. As her eyes narrowed and her arm returned to a folded position that was much more ominous this time, I found myself fidgeting.

"Master," Shinobu began, still glaring at me as she began to tap one bare foot against the shattered cement patiently. "Just what hast thou done to thy self in my absence?" She spoke in such a reasonable tone that I just knew I was in trouble.

"Uh," I began, reaching up with one hand, idly brushing a vine dangling from it behind me as though to hide the evidence of my actions. Finally I shrugged, and gave the still patiently waiting Shinobu a hopeful smile. "What I needed to?"

It did not appear to be the right answer, and Shinobu disappeared, reappearing instantly in front of me so she could tower above me as she glowered furiously down at me. With one hand she casually slapped my cheek, the motion looking much like what an angry girl would do to a disrespectful fellow who came on to them a little too strong. Despite the casualness of the motion, the force of the blow collapsed my skull, literally smashing pieces of my head in a wide splatter, grey matter, bones, and even splashes of the liquid of my eyes mixed together to stain against the wall.

"Kenichi-san!" Miu's cry was desperate, laced with utter horror and disbelief as I was so casually struck down before any of them could so much as even suspect an attack.

"Evil vampire!" Niijima gulped, eyes wide as he finally got something a bit more alongside his expectations of my so called 'demon lord summoning ritual'. "Definitely evil vampire!"

"No!" Sakaki swore, one hand coming up as though to stop what had just happened, to capture the moment and force it into reverse. "No! Not after…" he began, before he trailed off, eyes widening as he caught sight of what was happening to me first.

Just as before, the pieces of my body that had been separated began to flake. I was pretty close to a vampire at the moment, after all, and a vampire could regenerate any part of itself. Even the brain, which maybe the martial artists around me had unconsciously excluded from any appraisal of my healing, was no different.

As my mouth and face began to reform, I gave a weak shrug. "I probably deserved that," I admitted as soon as the human part of me had regained enough shape to talk properly.

"Thou most certainly did," Shinobu sniffed, still glaring at me, before she slapped me again, once more splattering my skull against the nearby wall and floor.

"And that too," I admitted after another round of regeneration, a smile beginning to form as I watched Shinobu fume over me.

"Thou," Shinobu fumed, still glaring down at me as she pointed her fingers of the hand that had been casually beheading me moments ago. "Thou utter fool! For what reason could thou possibly chose to do such a thing to thyself! Did thou seek to make my sacrifice be in vain?" She stomped angrily, the motion shattering a good bit of the floor beneath her and rattling the room, causing my vines to sway as though they had been caught in an earthquake. Despite my oldest friend's anger, I felt my smile grow. It was the wrong move to make, and the furious vampire caught sight of it. "And now thou art smiling? For what do thou smile? Has thou become the masochist thou accused me of being so long ago? Stop smiling!"

"You're alive," I whispered, unable to voice anything else. I blinked, feeling more blood well up in my eyes as I couldn't hold back my joy, my relief at seeing her in front of me once more, of hearing her voice again after so long thinking it was gone forever. "I can't believe it, but you're really alive."

Shinobu froze at my words, blinking and I swear a small surprised blush spread on her cheeks at hearing the obvious relief in my tone. For a moment she seemed frozen at seeing me be so obviously sentimental about her safety. Then she sighed, glancing away with a huff.

"Thou art a fool," she muttered, stomping again, before she sighed, her hands falling to her side. "An idiot, and a moron, a stupid virgin," she continued, before she seemed unable to suppress a smile of her own. Gently this time she reached out to touch my cheek, turning my head up so she could meet my eyes, that ghastly grin appearing as a ghost on her lips as she pulled me forward until my head could rest just under her chest, her arms wrapping around my shoulders gently. "I still have not forgiven thee, thou knows this?"

"Nor I you," I returned to her. It was a strange scene, the two of us naked, one kneeling and the other standing, one looking blonde and healthy, the other thin and deformed.

Somehow it was like crossing the threshold to Ryouzanpaku after a long trip. It felt like coming home.

"Get away from Kenichi-san!" I had honestly forgotten that the two of us had an audience as I let myself relax in Shinobu's embrace. The same lethargy from earlier was starting to return, a sign of just how greatly I had taxed my body, mind, and soul with this destructive ritual. Though I doubt she did it in response to the order, Shinobu did indeed pull back, turning to face what I could now make out as an either really embarrassed or really angry Miu. "And put some clothes on!"

"Oh?" Shinobu cocked her head to the side, one hand coming up to tap her lips as she gave a curious glance, finally realizing we had company herself. "Thou has made more of those things… the things that aren't quite emergency food, nor are enemies. What are they called again?"

"Friends?" I supplied dryly for the vampire. Shinobu pursed her lips at the supplied answer.

"Nay," she shook her head. "Not those. What was the word again?" She snapped her fingers, brightening as she apparently remembered the term she was looking for. "A harem!" she announced proudly. "Thou has once more gathered a harem!"

"We are not a harem!" Miu snapped, brushing even brighter as she began to flail her hands in front of her to deny the accusation.

"Ha…rem?" Shigure repeated, rubbing at her forehead slowly.

"This is not what I was expecting from some all-powerful vampire at all," Niijima muttered to Takeda, still looking like he wasn't certain whether he should run or not.

"I kind of thought of something a bit more dignified, or scary," Takeda agreed, though he never took his eyes off the proudly standing Shinobu. I doubt it had to do with being ready for an attack, but it wasn't like Shinobu cared, so I let it go. In the background, I could make out Siegfried beginning to scribble at a note book he must have had hidden on in his jacket, muttering something about inspiration.

"Why on earth would a vampire conform to human expectations?" I muttered. "When you're that strong, you can do whatever you want, no matter what people think of you."

"What an irresponsible way to live," Sakaki muttered, and I gave him a dry look as the one who most often acted the exact same way didn't seem catch the irony of his own statement. "Oi, vampire lady," he continued, addressing Shinobu directly, causing her to turn a curious look at the man. "So just what are you planning on doing now?" he challenged. It looked like Sakaki at least wasn't affected by the bizzare turn the confrontation had taken and still remembered the possible threat the golden haired creature represented.

"A fine question," Shinobu muttered, tapping her lips. "It seems your harem has a point," she nodded at me.

"Wait," Sakaki, gaped, giving a disbelieving stare at the still pondering Shinobu. "You're not including me in the harem, are you?"

Shinobu ignored the other man completely, either not knowing or not caring about how inappropriate the implication was. I had my money on 'not caring'. "Quick, Master," she turned to me, pointing a finger as she spoke in a commanding tone. "What has changed in the sacred Mister Doughnut menu?"

"Mister Doughnut?" Thor repeated, the bigger man looking as though he had lost the ability to do anything but repeat whichever part of the conversation had most contributed to his confusion.

"I think they added some new type of éclair," I supplied, not really having kept up with the franchises current marketing schemes. "I haven't been there in a while," I admitted. Shinobu gave me a disapproving look.

"Hmph. It seems thou hast come to waste thy time on unimportant trivialities in mine absence," she declared haughtily. Whirling, the finger that had been pointed at me moved to point at the door to the basement. "Quick, my Master! Thou must take me at once! It has been ages since I have partaken of Fritelli or Boston Crème!"

"Shinobu," I sighed, still feeling the exhaustion as it gathered through me. "I'm not sure I can anymore." My body was so far gone, so entwined with this school which had been such an important part of my life, I truly did not know if it was even possible for me to return to what I was. The growing exhaustion should have worried me as well, but I was finding it hard to feel that. It looked like I had used the last of my awareness, my final wind, to finish the ritual which had woke up the creature so impudently demanding a trip to a doughnut franchise.

"Of course thou can," Shinobu, without a trace of doubt or worry dismissed my concerns. "What thou has done, thou can undo. Now hurry and gather thyself so that we may leave."

I could only stare at her, before I started to laugh helplessly. Yeah, that was so Shinobu: the only one who asked the impossible without ever considering that it was impossible in the first place.

"Alright," I surrendered to the creature's logic. It was the logic of the Kai, and I suppose at this point I could count myself among them. Closing my eyes, I felt my body, the long vines and roots which had once been my organs and flesh, and slowly, I began to recall them in their original shape. It was hard, so hard, almost a race against my exhaustion, but I did it anyway.

"What's going on?" Kisara demanded, though I couldn't see her as I began to gather speed in my restructuring. "Is the kiddo actually going to be able to do it?"

"Oh yeah," Shinobu said, sounding like she was just remembering something. "Oi, you harem over there."

"We are not a harem!" Sakaki snapped, still sounding outraged at being included in Shinobu's conclusion.

"Shouldn't thou be fleeing?" the vampire ignored the Master, sounding more curious than anything else. After all, she didn't really care about any of my friends. They were just the humans I had around, to her.

"Flee…ing?" Shigure repeated as well, her tone slow and confused.

"From these demesnes," Shinobu huffed, already sounding annoyed at having to deal with the gathered humans. "Would thou not want to preserve thy lives?"

"Preserve," Niijima began, before he stopped suddenly. "Kenichi is taking back all those vines now, isn't he?"

"God, I hope so," Takeda answered, still sounding cautious. I had no idea what could be going through his head at this point, but judging from his tone he was probably still distracted by Shinobu at the moment.

"Well, just how much of this building is only being held up by those vines?" Niijima prompted.

"Oh," Freya muttered, sounding like she got just what Niijima was implying.

"Oh crap!" Ukita snapped, a lot less composed as he too got it. "The building is gonna collapse on us!"

"Shit!" Sakaki swore once more, and though the vines were starting to gather speed as they slithered back into me, I could feel some of them shatter as a wall of the basement exploded, marking Sakaki's usual method of leaving a building quickly via a straight-line through any obstacle in his path.

That was the last thing I could notice for a while. As more and more of myself gathered back in one spot, it got harder and harder for me to recall what to do with myself. Was this particular vine once a vein in my leg, or a tendon in my arm? Was this root my liver, or my spleen? More than that, it had been in part my inhuman form that had given me inhuman power as well. Was trying to return myself back to human diminishing me in some way? I didn't know, but judging from the increase in my exhaustion, it might be that way.

I wonder. For a vampire to do inhuman things, they had to act inhuman. Was the opposite true? If I wanted to go back to being human, would acting human be enough?

I didn't know, but in the end I suppose it didn't matter that I didn't. I would find out soon, no doubt.

I can't even recall how long I was at it, or how hard I worked at it. All I could recall, was the gradual awareness that it had grown warm out, and that the air was fresher than it had been in a while.

It was hard, but I got one eye open.

Ah. The sun. I had almost forgotten what it looked like. I had a brief moment to wonder if maybe I should be afraid. The sun was the enemy of vampires after all, and I had no idea what I counted as at this point.

But no, it didn't burn. It was late in the day, nearly sunset, but the sun was just warm against my skin.

And then the sun vanished, a silhouette with golden hair appearing between me and it.

"Well," Shinobu said, shaking her head as she looked down at me, "it seems that thou hast perhaps overstrained thyself after all." It was the closest thing I would get to visible concern from the vampire, but that was alright. I could feel it, in the bond that had returned between us, that she was worried for me no matter how she acted.

"I did it," I whispered, barely able to move my lips. I was just so tired again. It was hard to remember a time when I wasn't exhausted.

"Indeed thou did," Shinobu nodded, before throwing her head back and giving her signature cackle. "Ka, ka, ka! It seems my Master continues to do amusing things!"

I managed a small laugh myself. It was a brief one, but I managed it. Finally, I sighed, feeling my eyes starting to drift shut again. "I'm tired, Shinobu," I admitted.

"Then sleep, of course," she told me, rolling her eyes as she pointed out the obvious answer to my problem. I could feel something lapping at me. Something cool was coiling up my body, no, that was wrong: it wasn't coiling; rather, I was sinking in it.

"Sleep well, Master," Shinobu told me softly. "Just as thou hast guarded me in my slumber, so too shall I for you."

"Ah," I smiled, realizing the thing I was sinking in was none other than Shinobu's shadow. It seemed fitting that after having spent so much time in mine, I would now be cradled in hers. I let my eyes close as the feeling of being submerged finally climbed around them.

I slept, content in the knowledge that I would be safe, that I could finally rest well.