Birth and Death

People die.
People live.
People are born.

That's just how it is.

Kouji's absence from school was no surprise. Following up Koujirou's death was the apparent suicide of the manic Terumi, who was lost without the man she loved. Fuyuki was acutely aware of the fact that she was a major factor of the woman losing her mind in the first place: Koujirou's group leader hiring her to kill Vidro, the vampire who was Terumi's informant. It followed with her other missions to kill other vampires, some of them being her source of information. Either way, it was too late to rewind. That was how it is.

There were no club activities for the day, but Fuyuki simply decided to stay back in the Band Room either way since she had nothing better to do. She had invited Yui over as well, so she patiently awaited her arrival, that was most probably delayed by some annoying and spoilt vampires. Her brothers were busy in preparation for the plan to commence, so she decided to do her part as well: gain Yui's trust. It upped the chances of her not escaping their mansion, and Fuyuki knew how to limit her brothers so they won't kill her, so it was double points.

As she slid her fingers over the strings of her guitar, the door slid open. Yui was tiredly panting, looking across the hallways before shutting the door quickly behind her. She trudged over to the couch and immediately landed herself on it.

"I'm...sorry...for being...late..." She breathed heavily from all the running that she did. Fuyuki patted her back lightly, getting up to serve her some cold herbal tea and maple cookies. Yui smiled at the automatic habits of serving her guests, warmed by Fuyuki's natural hospitality. It made her feel at home.

"Rest up a bit. Ayato must've chased you down again, so be sure to give him some attention when you get home."

"Yes, I understand that..." She sighed deeply again. Now that her relationship with Ayato had grown stronger, it made it harder for them to capture her. But, now that she also has more authority now and can spend some time by herself, the possibilities were also heightened.

"Let's cool off with some music. How about we play some jazz?" Fuyuki smiled gently. Yui wished she could snap a picture of that moment, but she simply heeded to her friend's words, taking her place at the piano.

"Wait, you can play the saxophone?"

"Was forced to." She pulled the cloth away from the instrument, placing it in her hands. "Not everyone is approving of a guitar."

...

suki na mono wo suki na dake
atsu me tsunagi kazari tatete
kono chiisana heya kara
koyoi o todoke shimasu

one room, all that jazz !

...

Just as Fuyuki said, Yui felt her spirit livened up as they finished the song. Unexpectedly, Fuyuki was drinking some root beer to energise herself. Usually it was just some various forms of tea or fruit juice. She also noticed that Fuyuki wasn't wearing her striped stockings today as well, and that her guitar was not really used even before she got here. To end this off, Kouji was absent.

"Did something happen to Rito-kun? You don't seem to be in the best of spirits."

"Thanks for the concern, but the problem isn't really with me. He's going through some hardship right about now. More like, since the moment he woke up." Finishing the bottle of root beer, she threw it into the bin from where she was.

"...I guess it's not in my right to know about such private details, sorry." Yui suspected that he woke up the news that one of his relatives had passed away- not that she was cursing him in any way, but it seemed like one of the more likely scenarios.

"We've lazed about for a while now. Wanna go out to get some taiyaki? It's summer after all."

"Yes, sure!"

If waking up to an odd jar full of ash and a suicide note next to you wasn't worst enough, how about finding the corpse of the person you cared about so much right after? The jar had Koujirou's name written on it, and Terumi had a knife driven into her chest. When he screamed for his parents to come over, they gave the most coldest looks he'd ever seen, merely telling him to call over some servants to arrange the funerals and to deal with Terumi's corpse. He passed over Koujirou's ashes, though he hid his sister's note within his pockets. There was much he was oblivious to. That, he knew well. Today was the day he was meant to absorb all the secrets, and Kouji knew his mind was already crushing from the pressure.

He was just a boy excited to spend another day with his best friend in school. Kouji loved his life simply like that. But realising how both Koujirou and Terumi reacted to her appearance in their house, he couldn't help but think that she was part of all this as well. If he could just run to her right now, he would. Obviously he couldn't do that now.

His soft, brown eyes were bloodshot from the excessive crying. But he sat dignified, waiting for whatever that was going to be told to him. His father merely set a book down in front of him, making him all the more confused.

"Read it, and you'll understand everything. Ask if you don't understand anything and-" He paused. "Tell us once you've completed it."

Kouji stared long and hard at the thin notebook he was given. Was something this small going to change his life forever? Flipping it open, he felt a strong pang in his heart when he recognised the handwriting. It was small, slightly curvy words written out in straight lines, an elegant flow to it. Most certainly, it was Koujirou's handwriting. It became certain that it was actually his diary, the entries starting from around 5 years ago with a few skipped days or weeks. 5 days of entry were squeezed into one page.

I met the mercenary demon, Fuyuki. She was the same age as Kouji. It's frightening to see how such a young girl is being used to do such deeds. But again, she is a demon. Her eyes don't reflect a lot of humanity in itself. Why would I even hire her? What's with this business card even? I don't get it.

Looking back at my previous entry and laugh to myself thinking that I wouldn't hire her at all. She's efficient and professional, does her job cleanly. I like talking with her as well. What's best is that she keeps things safe and quick, I enjoy that. Vampires are tough beings, so I really like her around when I'm injured.

Terumi got injured again and it's worrying me. Vampires really like her blood, so one day she might not even be able to leave the house. That is the last thing she'd ever want. I'm lucky that I'm Fuyuki's exclusive client. This way I can look over Terumi and Kouji. I take back my words about her being young, I've heard she's centuries old.

Kouji seems extremely happy with Fuyuki's company. I understand the sentiment, but he shouldn't be exposed to more danger. She's not listening to me this time. Also, she keep protecting that half-vampire that hurt Terumi so badly... this is not good.

I know I will regret fighting her and will probably wound up dead. I'm sad that I couldn't reach Takagi-san's level, but I'm grateful to have met Terumi and Kouji.

Demons, vampires, vampire hunter, informants, magic? Pure-bloods and half-bloods? Fuyuki most likely killed Koujirou and she's a demon who's a few centuries old? Also, she kills people, working as a mercenary? He couldn't face his best friend now. Kouji knew that she would be lonely like how he was gone for a holiday last year, but this was different. He might come to hate her. Seeing their friendship as precious, Kouji decided to stay in for a week to come to terms with reality, and to build up his resolve again.

"Just let me sleep with you tonight, Chichinashi. Don't need to get fussy and violent about it." Ayato grumbled as his face got slapped by a pillow a few times before leaning into her face to stop her. "I can't seem to sleep in my own bed."

"As long as you don't do anything perverted, it's fine..." Her voice trailed off as a mischievous grin formed on his face. Yui knew that she shouldn't have said anything and went to sleep as she had just flicked a switch in Ayato's mind.

"Ho? So you want me to do something perverted to you? I forgot you were such a pervert." His hands roamed towards her hips as she tried to squirm away from him. She flinched when his teeth grazed her finger. "Don't think you can escape ore-sama."

"Ayato-kun, let's just go to sleep already! I'm tired." Yui complained, combing her fingers through his hair. He let out a satisfied sigh, his grip loosening, though still holding onto her.

"I can't really sleep if I don't do this." A slight blush crept up his cheeks as she continued to ruffle his hair, pulling her body towards his. He curled up, his eye-lids now half covered as he was being lulled to sleep. "Let me bite you, Chichinashi."

"No." She pouted and turned away, making Ayato whine tiredly. "You're getting tired too, so go to sleep okay?"

"Tch. You'll pay for this tomorrow morning." He succumbed to her warmth, placing his head on her shoulder. Yui was happy to see that he was at least calmer now when it came to displaying his affection towards her. Maybe that jazz song from earlier did give her some luck for the day. She fell asleep soon after, thinking of how great a friend Fuyuki was.

Authors Notes: The cogs have started turning, and now Kouji knows what's going on. What do you think about this development? Also, do note that I have an alternate route for this fanfic on this site as well (Demon Exploit -plus-). Maybe you'll like it there! To end the moody the chapter on a more light-hearted note, a small Yui x Ayato scene for you. It feels a bit OOC on Ayato's part to me but that's what I see when she pats his head- he gets all dere and shit. There's that one CG where he's blushing and hugging her or something right?

Yeah. Tryin to update as much as possible.