What is this? The 4th chapter?

Disclaimer: It's in the first two chapters, I believe.

-Chapter 4-

Noriko Jolon

Having no luck finding any captures so far had left Zero in a fairly bad mood. He had managed to leave the Association before he could be assigned a "partner," and he was sure he would catch hell for it later from Yagari. But for now he decided to try to enjoy being away from everything, ignoring the part that would follow him for the rest of his life.

The slight discomfort from his stomache told Zero that finding food wouldn't be a bad option at this point.

He walked further into town, heading towards the place he usually went for food and to sulk. He had gone there once when he was forced to do shopping chores for the Chairman with Yuki, and many times after that. That particular visit stayed in his mind, for it had ended badly. He forced his emotions down and walked through the door.

"Welcome," a voice chimed from behind a counter. The chef's back was facing Zero as he sat in a stool at the bar-type table. "Ah, Zero. Welcome back! How are you?"

"Fine," Zero muttered. He never tried to deliberately ignore this man. Even though Zero never bothered to learn his name, the man had always been kind to Zero and posed no real threat, so Zero never found a reason to be displeasant towards him.

"The usual?" The chef always asked, though he never needed to. Zero had never bothered changing his usual noodles.

Zero nodded, and with a smile, the man turned to prepare the dish. While he waited, Zero glanced around the restaurant. There was never too many people here, one of the things he liked about this place. A couple sat in the corner, what seemed to be a mother and her young daughter were at one end of the bar, while an elderly man sat with a newspaper at the other. All conversations were kept to a hush, relaxaing Zero. He folded his arms on the table and laid his head on them. He soon felt a wave of peace wash over him.

"Zero... your food is ready..." A light tap on his shoulder and hearing his name baing called brought Zero back to conciousness. He lifted his head to first see a bowl of noodles in front of him and then the chef. "Enjoy," offered the chef before turning back to other orders.

Zero stiffled a yawn and stretched a tiny bit, barely registering he had fallen asleep. It had been dreamless and short, but it had felt better than the sleep had been getting recently at night had.

He finished his food, laid money onto the counter, and after nodding to the chef, Zero left the restaurant . He decided getting back to hunting Level E's was probably his best option. Thinking back to the files, he recalled that one of his assignments liked to lurk around a nearby fountain, so he headed there first.

Standing in the shadows of the nearby trees, he realxed his senses and let himself fall into instinct, to trust if the right guy showed up, he would know.

Around an hour and a half of waiting had passed before Zero finally lost interest in this area. It was becoming pretty late and slowly getting darker. He thought it was easiest just to head back to the Association when giggling and chatter interrupted his thoughts. The noise sent a familiar chill run down his back. He then knew his target was close.

He fell into hunter mode. He place his hand on the outer layer of the pocket where his gun was greatly concealed. Turning to glance at his target, he caught sight of them almost directly behind him.

The Level E was about six feet tall with blonde hair. He looked princely, but Zero could see the beast underneath the outside skin. The fallen vampire was casually conversing with a young girl, a little younger than Zero, whose back was turned to him. Probably prey, Zero's thoughts gathered.

Stalking over, Zero listened to their conversation for confirmation. Usually, the Level E's would offer to take the victim to a secluded area, such as a house or appartment. Possibly earning enough trust from their victim they could make up a story. Pretty much anything to make it appear they offered no threat. Zero got closer to make out the voices better and shut his eyes, sitting on the edge of the fountain a few feet from the couple.

The female was giggling from something the ex-human had just said, her blond curls bouncing. "Oh, Ryoh, you're so funny!" Zero felt something off about the voice. Maybe something familiar? It was a small town and completely possible he would know the girl. But that didn't mean he had to care.

"Thanks," apparently-Ryoh replied. "Listen, I'm meeting a few friends at this barn on the south edge of town. Did you want to come with me?" Bingo. That would be the suclusion part of the act. Zero thought of the lay-out of the southern outskirts of the town. There were a few roads out and in, a few buildings here and there, but only one barn. With his eyes still closed, Zero slightly drew his lips into a small triumphant smile.

The girls eyes shone with excitement, but soon turned slightly worried. "Do any of them own the place? I mean, what happens if you get caught, or something."

Ryoh smiled, but from his tone, Zero could tell that there was some mischievousness hidden behind the facade. "Oh, there's no problem. It's been abandoned for years. No one should be interrupting us."

The young girl practically squealed with the intensity of his offer. The squeal, once again, caught Zero's attention as familiar, but he ruled it as possibly one of the girls from Cross Academy he had guarded the night class from. He almost swore as he held back an eye-roll. Life was just there to annoy him.

He let his mind take him back to the situation at hand. His brain thought through possible situations and concluded two reasonable ones.

Option one was to take the guy down now. Yet, that plan had many negatives. They were in a heavily populated area. He or his target could easily hurt someone. And people meant witnesses. It would be a pain to have to contain all of the people to evetually erase their memories of this event. Also, this Ryoh guy could possibly run, making this an all-night chase, which really didn't sound appealing to Zero.

He concluded option two would work best.

Option two was to beat the Level E to the abandoned barn, hide, and wait. There he could corner him and then just have to worry about one witness. Also, the Level E would be too far gone to sense Zero's presense. That was definately the easiest route.

Taking backstreets, Zero soon reached the city limits. Using trees, he hopped over the gates onto the other side. Quickly, but all-the-while being stealthy, he reached the abandoned barn.

For being abandoned, it wasn't in terrible shape, but not usable either. Looking like something out of a horror story in the moonlight, it had a few holes here and there, a couple gashes, and the paint was beyond peeling, yet it still seemed sturdy and safe. Zero entered and instantly looked around for a spot where he could remain hidden until the right moment. Knowing a Level E would most likely prefer the wide open part of the barn, he let himself in the tiny closet-like storage space and made sure all of himself was hidden. Soon enough, he had found a small hole in the wall that he would be able to peer through. He took his gun out, threw the safety switch off and held it ready.

He waited several minutes before he heard the familiar giggling and chatting of the Level E and his soon-to-be dinner.

"Here we are." Ryoh's voice echoed through the seemingly-empty building.

"Where are your friends?" Zero almost, once again, rolled his eyes. Humans could be pretty stupid sometimes.

"Yeah, about that," Ryoh reached out and grabbed one of the female's wrists with one hand and threw the other one around her mouth and pinned the back of her body to his front. Surprisingly, the blond remained completely calm. "Sorry, babe, but I had to lie about that. Now stay still while I..." The Level E's voice started fading as he got closer to the girl's neck, his eyes turning a deep red before closing them completely.

Zero prepared to reveal himself from his hiding spot as the Level E's fangs lightly brushed the skin on the blond's neck.

But before he could...

"Freeze."

Six bodies suddenly surrounded the vampire and his prey. The vampire looked up from his prey to look at the intruders. Very slowly, he began to laugh, becoming out of control.

The full moon passed through a hole in the roof illuminating the small barn.

Shinobu, Takashi, Akira, Koru, Osamu, and Noriko all stood surrounding the target, pointing different anti-vampire weopons at him in confident postures. His "prey," Nikoru stood still in grasp, her free hand behind her holding a small knife to his brain.

"Release her." Takashi's voice once again sounded throughout the room.

Still laughing slightly, the Level E let go of Nikoru as if she were suddenly made of fire. Nikoru bounded over and took a place next to her twin. Turning around and holding her knife in a way that made her ready to throw it at any time, a small smile plastered on her face.

"So, you think you've got me, huh? None of you stand a chance to me, I am immortal." Ryoh chanted. This wasn't unikely. Zero thought back to his master's teachings. He recalled from the lessons that many "masters" told their "minions* that once the transformation was complete, they lost the ability to die. Of course, this was not true, and all together lowered Zero's opinion on humans. Still, he kept his eyes on the scene in front of him.

The Level E continued to scream threats. None of the Jolons moved a muscle.

Realizing the threats were doing nothing, Ryoh resorted back to laughing maniacally.

Shinobu squinted her eyes. Not taking her eyes off the target, she spoke firmly. "Noriko."

Zero's eyes drifted to the youngest child as she slowly stepped forward, now noticing that she was the only one without a weapon. Not removing the eye contact between her and Ryoh, she reached down into her boot and withdrew a simple knife. Lifting the blade to her arm, she slowly pressed down and brought knife across her arm, her eyes twitching from the slight pain.

Blood soon started to trickle down Noriko's arm, causing the Level E to straighten up and stare directly at the source.

Losing control and with a monstrous growl, the vampire target lauched forward, latching itself onto Noriko's arm. Noriko clenched her hands into tight fists and sqeezed her eyes shut to keep her from gasping from the pain.

Zero expected the rest of the Jolons to take action and finally bring him down. Yet, no one moved. And awkward silence filled he room, filled only with the heavy gulps of the desperate Level E pulling life blood out of Noriko's viens.

Zero fell against the wall behind him with his hands on his neck breathing heavily, trying to remain silent while trying to refuse the scent of blood from reaching his senses. He reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out the cursed little box and carefully throwing half of blood tablets into his mouth, then chewing and swallowing. He did this all while being completely silent, as he had in past situations.

Soon he had calmed down enough to gaze back out the small hole, only to find no real change. He felt something should be done. Seeing Noriko being attacked unwillingly by a vampire brought many memories back to Zero's mind. He began weighing watching for a few more moments or reveal himself and his hiding spot, unknowing of what consequences this would bring. Zero gripped the gun more tightly, about to expose himself, when a change occured.

The Level E eventually pulled back, laughing slightly before attacking Noriko's neck.

This time she couldn't hold back the gasp of pain the bite brought.

Zero kicked the small door down and aimed his gun at the Level E. Without thinking too much and running purely on adrenaline and the thrill of the kill, he pulled the trigger on his gun a few times, blasting anti-vampire magic straight at the head of the target.

Within seconds, the Level E burst into pieces of dust with an invisible gust of wind. No longer having something supporting her, Noriko collapsed to the ground giving a small whimper before closing her eyes, her muscles relaxing as she slipped away from consiousness for the moment.

Silence filled the room. Six set of eyes staring at Zero, Zero shifting his gaze to all of them.

Nikoru, of course, boke the silence. "Oh, Zero, did you come to save me? You didn't have to worry. See, I'm fine," she said in a flirtatios manner.

"Nikoru!" Takashi, of course, was the one to shut her up.

Blood still pumping at a higher rate from adrenaline, Zero still felt like fighting. He started at Shinobu.

"This was my assignment. Who do you think you are to intrude. And why did you let thing attack her?" Zero knew he wasn't amking too much sense, but the smell of blood was coming to him again, and with his heart beating as fast as it was, thinking was almost becoming impossible.

"Zero, if this was your assignment, why didn't you just do it already?" Shinobu met Zero's cold glare. "And plus, she's used to it. They all are. It's part of the plan."

Zero wanted to say more, but was to angry and aggitated to form words. He felt the hunger arising in him once again, and as he fumbled for his box of tablets again, Shinobu saw no point in staying.

"Come along, children. Let's return. Leave Noriko. She knows the way back, as always. She'll get it herself." And with that, the Jolons, excluding the youngest, all turned and left, soon out of sight.

Calming down from the newest batch of tablets, Zero turned toward the girl and carefully felt around her neck for a pulse. He found one, surprised that it was actually strong for what her condition was. He looked around the barn for a while, finding old cloths and such. He went back and wrapped them around her wounds, trying to block out the scent of blood, seeing as he was out of tablets. Bunching up a few cloths, he made a makeshift pillow out of them and carefully placed them under Noriko's head, laying her on her back.

He stood up and sighed, pondering his next move. He could barely move as it was, let alone carry another person. He was too tired. Too sore. Too messed up in the head at the moment.

Seeing no other choice, he gathered more cloths, bundled them up and placed them a feww feet from Noriko's head. Laying down and placing his head on the temporary pillow, he moved around until he found a slightly more comfortable position. After a few moments of reflection and making sure the other person in the room was still breathing, Zero eventually fell into a fitful sleep.

EEP! Sorry this one got really long. I kindof, maybe got too into it for a while there. Sorry. And there's probably alot of mistakes, but I really don't have a long enought attention span to go back and read it. Ending here kinda sucks. Sorry. And sorry this is like, a day late. Dad's birthday weekend, haven't been home all day.

Next Chapter: We find out ALOT about the Jolon family, their secrets, and all that stuff from Noriko herself. Probably won't be as long as this one. But we'll see XD. But no seriously: not as long as this one.