By the time we got back to Cross Academy the classes had ended for the night and the rest of the students had gone to bed. Knowing Kaname wouldn't be coming back here I decided it would be safe for us all to go to bed. Little did I know that they had decided they weren't leaving my side for anything less than bathroom usage.
I sat on my bed in front of Takuma, who had his arms wrapped around my waist, and looked down at Kiyo who was lying on my floor with a sigh.
"You know, you guys don't have to stay with me." I raised an eyebrow at the wolf that just wagged her tail at me.
"Of course we know that but after this, do you really think we'd leave you alone?"
"She has a point," Takuma murmured in my ear, causing me to shiver a bit and lean back against his chest a bit more.
Seeing this Kiyo barked out a laugh.
"No now getting all naughty while I'm in the room," she teased in my mind.
I blushed and jerked away from Takuma a bit to glare down at her.
"You think you're so funny don't you, Mutt?" I growled, shifting into what she taught me was a play-bow.
Seeing this, she jumped up into a similar position, her tail wagging in the air.
"Yea, I really do, you overgrown lizard!"
I lunged at her, my body changing to that of a dragon even as hers changed into a wolf. I matched her size and tackled her to the ground, my scaled tail wagging as happily as her furry one.
Takuma jumped up and backed against a wall, clearly afraid that I was attacking my best friend.
I stopped my assault to look back at him, grinning as best a dragon can.
"It's just play, Ta-kun," I assured him just as Kiyo tackled into my side, throwing me to the ground.
I flared my wings, flipping us into the air before tackling into her with a playful roar. We sped apart and dropped back into play-bow. Our fronts were pressed tight to the floor, our rears high in the air as our tails wagged.
We remained frozen like that for what seemed like an eternity before she dove at me. She came in low but I knew what she was planning and shot to the left, keeping even lower as she tried to shoot up under me.
This went on for a few minutes before we collapsed, returning to human form and lay sprawled across my floor laughing.
Takuma remained against the wall staring at us as if we were crazy, which only caused us to laugh harder.
"It's alright Ta-kun. Really. Its how we relax to plot." I tried my hardest to assure him between gasps of laughter.
He nodded a bit and sat down beside me, playing with my hair.
I let out a contented growl and closed my eyes.
"Hey!" Kiyo yelped.
"You can't put her to sleep! I need her awake! We have to plot!"
As soon as the word plot was out of her mouth I tensed, sitting up away from his soothing touch.
"She's right," I smiled sadly and turned to face her. I snapped my fingers and there was a large map of Cross Academy and the surrounding area before us.
"So it's a safe bet he isn't here at the Academy anymore," I said, my voice cold as I placed a small black chip over the school grounds.
Kiyo nodded, studying the map for a few moments before Takuma surprised us both.
"I don't think he'd be here," he pointed to a rather large estate only a few miles south. "It's his family home but he knows I'm in cahoots with you. He won't go anywhere that any of us in the Night Class will know."
I nodded, placing another black chip over the indicated estate.
"So what does that leave us?"
"Well place a chip here, here, there, and there. Those are the family homes of Aidou Hanabusa, Kain Akatsuki, Shiki Senri, Rima Touya, and Sohen Ruka, the rest of the Night Class."
I placed chips in each place and frowned a bit.
"What about your family?"
Kiyo looked up at him, her silver eyes seeming frigid.
"It's possible," he mumbled, pointing to a place on the map that I presumed to be his family home.
I quickly placed a red chip there and pointed to another area on the map.
"This is a town isn't it? Predominately human I believe," I dropped a red chip over it. "I think it's safe to think he isn't going to be anywhere with too many vampires. Once they hear of this they will rally against him and he doesn't know if any of us will go to them."
"Right, our best bet is places with a high concentration of humans. Ichijou? Do you know if there are any others around the Academy or do we need a bigger map?" Kiyo spoke up, easing the tension that had somehow accumulated with the discussion of Takuma's family.
"You'll most likely need a bigger map. I can get you one." He smiled and began to stand but I grabbed his hand.
"No, it's fine. Unless you wanted to go?" I frowned a bit, snapping my fingers on my free hand causing the map to expand and cover more of the region around the school.
"No... I guess I forgot about your abilities," he smiled sheepishly before sitting down and cuddling me close to his chest.
I nodded and looked back at the map, scanning it carefully.
"I want to say he probably ran farther than we're thinking but the best and safest place to hide is out in the open. He's probably figuring we'll think he ran far so we won't bother to check the area nearby," Kiyo mused, glaring down at the map.
"You're right. We should start a sweep starting from here in the Academy and running outwards. Tonight would probably be smart. He'll just be getting settled in and is most likely to make the mistakes now." I stood and walked to my closet, pulling out a pair of loose black cargo pants and a black, spaghetti strap tank top before heading into my bathroom.
I reemerged in the outfit, the cargo pants low on my hips and the shirt small and tight. Snapping my fingers, my father's coat appeared in my hands along with a leather belt wrapped twice around my hips. A short sword and several daggers hung off the belt along with a quiver of arrows. The bow was strapped to my back along with a rather large sword. I was also now wearing black combat style boots. I looked down at myself and smiled happily.
"Alright Ki, let's go." I swung the coat around, thrusting my arms into the sleeves and settling it down over the sword and bow now concealed on my back.
The wolf demon jumped up, suddenly dressed in a similar way only with a red top and no bow, arrows or large sword. I knew from experience she preferred a short sword and a multitude of daggers that were hidden all along her persons.
Takuma looked at the two of us for a moment before frowning.
"You don't plan to take me along do you?"
Kiyo stared at him for a moment, frowning in thought.
"Well, considering you'll follow us anyway? Not in white, no." She snapped her fingers and he was suddenly in a black outfit similar to mine. Cargo pants and tank top molded to his figure, and let me tell you it was nice.
Looking at him, you think scrawny little book worm but under that uniform is a lean, built, sexy body that my darling wolf just accentuated.
Shaking my head slightly I regarded his sword.
"You only have the one?"
He nodded and I snorted in disgust.
"You can't do well with just one sword," I snapped my fingers and laughed as his expression became shocked.
"Oh they are just daggers. Settle down Ta-kun. I would have given you another sword but I think you'll do better with the daggers. And we probably won't even need them but it's best to be safe." I looked over at Kiyo as she adjusted her top trying to suppress her laughter.
"You ready to go now Giggles?"
Snorting, she walked towards my window and looked over her shoulder at me as she opened it.
"Just waiting for you to arm your boyfriend," she grinned as she jumped from the window.
I heard Takuma gasp and laughed a bit.
"What? You thought we would walk out the front door?" I shook my head a bit and walked to the window. "Do you think you can land the jump or should I catch you?" I looked back at him, genuinely concerned.
"I can land it," he murmured. "I think," he finished under his breath.
I smiled at him for a moment before tipping over the windowsill and falling towards the ground headfirst. I stretched my arms out in front of me and pushed as they hit the ground, flipping up onto my feet and looking up at my window to find him about to have a heart attack.
"Don't do that!" He yelped, eyes wide.
I heard Kiyo snort behind me and turned away to laugh as well.
He began mumbling something but I couldn't catch what it was as he jumped from the window. He landed with a thump and fell back onto his ass, causing Kiyo and I to laugh harder.
Once we got our laughter under control I looked at Kiyo.
"Are we going to split up and run our usual way or do your paranoid asses want to stick together?"
"We're sticking together this time. We cover more ground the other way but I don't want to leave you alone," Kiyo stated.
She was all business now, completely different from the playful wolf she usually was. Then again she was always like this during wars or any kind of battle. This was what she did. This was her working.
"Got it. Let's start with the grounds here around the Moon Dorms before moving out along the path ways. I don't think he'd be by the Sun Dorms but we'll check them after the paths. Then we'll run a scan of the main school followed by the surrounding forest. After that we jump the wall."
She nodded, clearly satisfied that I remembered how to run security sweeps.
And with that, we began.