Chapter 5
Seiren awoke in her bed at the Kuran manor. At first she thought the night before was only a dream, but when she thought of the woman, Kaetsukikko, she felt a wave of sadness wash over her. She did not know why, but whenever she thought of the woman, she could feel the sadness that was close to oppressing that she felt during her stay at Shichiyou Castle. She gasped. She was on the verge of tears. She thought cynically, if I was a mortal, I would most likely have committed suicide by now. She was trained to hide and control in her emotions, so the oppressive sadness that permeated that castle did not affect her as much as it did others. She wiped away the tears that she did not know had fallen and got out of bed. She took some blood tablets. She took out a change of clothes and walked to the bathroom. There she stripped as fast as she could, damn the bathrooms for having less than enough heating! Then jumped straight into the shower, she showered as quickly as she could so that she could dwindle for another fifteen minutes without being late for her appointment. Once the bathroom was steamy and hot-ish, she got out, toweled her body and clothed herself. She brushed her teeth, combed and blew-dry her hair. She opened the window to let out the steam.
Once outside the bedroom, she ran down the stairs to the drawing room. As she had expected, Kaname-sama and Yuki-hime were sitting, waiting for her. She skidded to a halt. Then she realized that Ruka, Rima, Shiki and Ichijou weren't there, even though they were supposed to be.
"Do not worry, Seiren, you are not late," said Yuki. "You are early," she laughed.
"Eh?!" said Seiren. She frowned. Those idiots are going late. If they have the guts to be late why do I not. She sighed.
"You are indeed early," said Kaname.
"Aish!" said Seiren. She stood motionless. She would wait until the others came down.
"Eh?!" cried Ruka. "We're late!"
"Actually…" said Ichijou. "We are one minute early and Seiren was just early than us." He readjusted his glasses.
"Takuma!" cried Ruka. "We're early?! Oh my god, for once I am."
Everyone turned to look at her and sweat dropped.
And as expected Seiren saved the day by saying, "Kaname-sama you wanted my report, would you like to hear it now?"
"Thank you," said Kaname.
"You will be very surprised as to who I saw there. So I will describe the lady to you first. Her name is Shichiyou Kaetsukikko. She is a very sad lady. At her castle, there is an oppressive aura of sadness. I have learned that she is the last of her line and that she adopted an heir," said Seiren.
Ruka demanded, "So what is his name?"
"Be patient Ruka, I will get there. The lady told me that she would not have known her heritage if she hadn't found documents with the spell on it that released her from the seal. Her powers and her nature were sealed away, in fact her whole lineage has been sealed away, or so she said," said Seiren. "Her adoptive son…his name is Aido Hanabusa and he is mated to Kain Akatsuki. They still remember you, but they no longer care for your clan, Kaname-sama. Aido said that he would kill whoever threatened his adoptive mother. They are very close. Kain's job is to serve her and Aido as their butler. Apparently his whole family had been bound to this since as long as they existed side by side."
"Yes…" murmured Kaname. "This woman, does she seem like she has the will to live?"
"Yes," said Seiren. "Now that she has adopted Aido and her goal is to achieve peace between humans and vampires."
"She seems to be a very noble lady," said Kaname.
"She invites you to her ball," said Seiren. She knelt before him and handed him the invitation.
Dear Kuran-san,
We are holding a masquerade ball at Shichiyou Castle. We would like you, your wife and the nobles in your care to attend. This ball will take place on October 31. You do not need to send your answer. Only please come if you accept.
Shichiyou Kaetsukikko
"Kain said to look at the seal," said Seiren. "I saw it and it reminded me of Kiryu Zero's Bloody Rose and his rose vines."
"Yes very much so, but if this is Zero without a seal…there could be problems. But it seems his personality has taken a one-eighty turn. Or could it just be his mindset has changed after such a transformation? I am curious as to who this lady is."
"Could it really be Zero?" asked Yuki. There was a slight hopefulness and nervousness.
"If it was then we had better be on our guard," said Kaname.
Meanwhile at Shichiyou Castle, Kaetsukikko said, "I wonder whether they suspect…I suppose it will more fun that way."
"Hahaoya, I thought you weren't as sadistic as vampires raised as vampires," said Hanabusa teasingly.
"I fought tooth and nail to keep sane. Even though, I still wonder whether the seal would have broken and brought me back to sanity if I had fallen to level E, but I will never know because Kuran Kaname and Yuki saved me. It would be interesting though if it had happened. But if the seal broke then, but didn't restore my sanity, this world would have been destroyed two-three years ago. I must be grateful for what they have done and give them my gratitude. I wonder how surprised the rest of the vampire population will be when I remove my mask."
"Very, hahaoya," said Hanabusa smirking. "We are going to have a lot of fun."
Kaetsukikko sighed. The green house was being erected, by the ball, it would be built. She walked towards the plot of land where it would be with Aido Hanabusa by her side. She held the plan in her hand. She unrolled it and sighed once more.
"I want it to be done by October 31st at the latest. Please hurry it up," said Kaetsukikko.
"Hai, m'am," said the worker. He was human and knew nothing of the true nature of his employer. If you pay us more, I am sure we will have it done by October 21st, so that you can start planting.
She narrowed her eyes at him. Raise their wages? I must ask Kain, but he will most likely say, who do they think they are?
"Your work better be worth what I pay you now and if you slack off, I will be deducting money from the sum I will pay, understood? I will be watching from here," Kaetsukikko said sternly. "Kain, you came just in time. I will be sitting her for the whole day and I know that Hana-kun is sickly so bring him back inside and have one of the girls bring me my lunch."
"Hai, Kaetsukikko-hime," said Kain bowing. "Bo[u]chama (young master), you heard your mother. Let's go inside before you faint."
"Hahaoya! How can you be so mean?" cried Hanabusa. "You only adopted me, so that you could have an heir! You don't really want me!" He knew he was acting like a brat, but he had to in front of those ignorant humans. He had to live up to their prejudices that he was a brat, who wanted attention from his adoptive mother, who was a sad, but kind stately woman that love with all her heart. The humans thought she was easily taken advantage of and that she adopted the 'brat' because she was unhappy and lonely instead of just for passing down her riches.
"Shut up brat, and let your manservant take you home. You're disturbing our work!" shouted one of the workers.
The lady trembled with rage. She shouted at the man, "You are only allowing yourselves to be distracted. If I hear you insulting my son again, I will have you fired and make sure that no one will ever take your services again!" She turned around and looked at Hanabusa. "Hana-chan, come here. Hahaoya only wanted you to be safe. God knows what I would do if you passed out here, if Kain was still inside. I am not strong enough to carry you back inside and I do not trust those men to touch you." She shuddered. She pulled him close to her.
"Gomen, hahaoya. I just wanted to stay out here with you," said Hanabusa. "Gomen I offended you."
"How many times must I tell you not to repeat "I am sorry"? It begins to loose its meaning."
"Gomen…" said Hanabusa looking down at his shoes.
The woman sighed. "Very well, you may stay here with me. Kain, please bring an umbrella. Then attend to the shopping list for the CDs for the ball. I will not waste money with an orchestra, when I have already installed a surround sound speakers and a CD player in the ballroom."
When Kain came out again, He brought out an umbrella for the prince. And he was wearing his suit and a wide brim hat and sunglasses. He walked over to the garage and pulled out with a sleek black Lincoln MKS. He drove out and went to the mall. He went to an appliance shop and bought the CDs and dodged females who wanted his phone number and other things, like a kiss and whatnot.
When he got back, he saw, Hanabusa sleeping with his head on his adoptive mother's lap. She was holding the umbrella over his sleeping form. They must have finished their lunch because he had taken four hours to find all that was on the list and avoid those annoying human females.
"Kaetsukikko-hime, your arm must be tired," said Kain. "Here." He took the umbrella from her then he held the umbrella over Hanabusa's unconscious form. His lips twitched into a slight smile when he saw a drop of saliva at the corner of the boy's lip. He looked the perfect picture of innocence. Kaetsukikko took a tissue from her purse and dabbed the droplet away. She smiled down at the boy. He is innocent only when he sleeps. He is quite the devil when he is awake. She thought fondly.
It was almost sundown and the workers were just leaving. One of the younger ones walked over. He was about the same age that Hanabusa looked. "Have a good night, my lady. Ah, the young master still sleeps. He must really be tired."
"Yes, he is very tired, Shio Haruka and I know who you are. You were sent here by Kuran Kaname, no?"
"Yes, I was. I replaced a young man who has been incapacitated. He seems to have lost his memory overnight," said Shio Haruka smirking.
The woman gritted her teeth. "Have a good night," she repeated.
"Ah, I thought you said that if you repeat your words, the meaning becomes insignificant over time," he said teasingly.
"Leave Shio," hissed Kain.
"Hahaoya?" asked Hanabusa. He rubbed his eyes, as he sat up. He tensed when he saw that she was standing in front of him, with her fists balled up at her sides. He gasped when she slapped the man standing facing her. He clutched his left cheek. She had slapped him rather hard, harder than a mortal woman could. It was beginning to turn red.
"I do not expect you to come back here tomorrow. Tell Kuran-san that if he wants to send spies, he better make sure they are polite, or else I will send them back to him with worse wounds than the one you have right now," hissed the woman.
"V-very well, Kaetsukikko-hime," said the man.
"Hahaoya," said Hanabusa. His voice was inflected with worry.
"That man was down right infuriating that is all. I treat most spies with patience; in fact, I let them leave with out harming them because I know they do not have the important information, which is locked in here." She tapped her head and pressed her hand over her heart.
"Oh, okay," said Hanabusa. He hugged her.
"Let us to bed," she said.
Kain folded up the umbrella that he had dropped onto the floor, when Shio Haruka began to show aggression towards his mistress. He followed his prince and mistress back into the castle. There they were greeted by the five maids that Kaetsukikko-hime had hired.
"Welcome back," said the five girls. They bowed to their mistress and young master.
"Let me take that," said Xiao Mei. She took the umbrella from Kain and put it back in its place in the umbrella stand. She was Chinese, but was born in Japan. Her parents had to run away from a jealous vampire who wanted to marry her mother and they stayed in Japan ever since.
Meiyu, Uruki and Boa followed their lady and young master up the stairs. Meiyu and Uruki followed Kaetsukikko-hime into her room, while Boa stood outside her bo[u]chama's room. Meiyu pulled off the veil and unclipped her lady's hair; she took the mask and placed it on the table. Uruki undid the lady's jewelry and put them back into the appropriate boxes. Together they helped the lady out of the dress and into her bed clothes. Yes, the serving girls were allowed to see Kaetsukikko's face because they are all orphans and they were sworn to silence. A vampire oath is very powerful. It included master or mistress giving their blood to the servant and saying the words of binding. All four of the serving girls were bound to serve their mistress and her adoptive son, plus their mates.
Doomedpassion: I was confused about which the surname was and which wasn't. I went on Wikipedia to check. I got Aido Hanabusa and Kain Akatsuki in romanji. For the purposes of my story and because it sounds better, Kain is going to be Akatsuki Kain, in which Akatsuki is the surname and Kain is his first name.