Title: Visitors from the Future
Genre: General/Romance/Friendship
Rating: T
Pairings: Zero/Kaname
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Vampire Knights. It belongs to Hino Matsuri - I only borrow the characters from the series and use it in my own fic. However, I do own the three original characters featured in this story.
Author's notes: In this chapter, Aidou and Kaname have a 'talk' pertaining to the Kuran family history. Ichiru make a slight re-appearance in this chapter, and also the unfortunate fate of one Shiki Senri after returning to his hometown will be touched upon. No twins' appearance in here…
Chapter 29 – In which Shiki Senri met his 'father' – Kuran Rido…
"Hanabusa, where's Ruka and Rima?" The sudden sound of his cousin's voice jarred the blond in deep thoughts out from his reverie.
"Hm..m? They went to the garden, I heard…" Aidou Hanabusa responded, slightly distracted – he had been in the midst of taking a stroll down his memory lane when his cousin spoke to him.
"Penny for your thoughts?" The pureblood whom entered the room right after his childhood friend, took merely one look in Aidou's direction before voicing his query across to the distracted blond. Akatsuki Kain, on the other hand, left for the direction of the garden as soon as he got the answer that he wish from the lips of his cousin.
"Eh?" Aidou blinked, having not fully registered the pureblood's words yet.
"It's fine if you do not wish to share what's on your mind." Kaname responded then.
"No… its' just I'm confused behind the reason of the Kuran's couple suicide issue. Gathered from what I've observed, they don't seem to be the type of people whom would commit suicide on a whim." The blue eyed blond then started to speak, only to receive a sharp intake of breath from a certain vampire named Takuma Ichijo.
"Idol-Sempai…your question is too impromptu; Kaname will have trouble with answering it." The grandson of Ichijo Asato hurried to speak and clapped his hands over the eyes of the child-like blond, while keeping an eye out on Kaname's possible reaction to Aidou's question.
"Its fine, Ichijo – since he had it in him to ask, then most likely he already had some ideas pertaining to the issue." Kaname responded, after taking a moment of silence to contemplate on the situation before speaking up again – this time around, it was to address the blond aristocrat that question him.
"Aidou, you're right in saying that my parents are not the type that would commit suicide. As every one knew – the lifespan of a pureblood can last generally longer than any other nobles in our society. They do not die easily, and at so young a age. The only way they could have died when they did back then, was either by suicide or that they were murdered by another. My parents did not commit suicide… they were actually murdered." Kaname stated his tone flat and devoid of emotions – his expression however speak volumes.
Silence stung the air, as the three occupants within the lounge of Aidou's family resort took the silence to let what had just transpired to sink into them.
"Who is it? The one to kill your parents…? Was it the mad blooming princess too?" Aidou asked next, while Ichijo Takuma fought the urge to face palm himself.
"Aidou… I apologized, but anything else I would be unable to reveal to you as of yet." The pureblood responded, and actually had sounded apologetic. Though, he wondered just how on earth did the blond managed to involve Shizuka Hiou into their topic of discussion … right, the blond witnessed his killing that woman and draw his own conclusions behind his actions – most probably.
"Then why are you telling me about the reason behind your parents' demise earlier on?" The blond argued, not comprehending the pureblood's words.
"I told you then because otherwise you would not give up the idea of getting down to the bottom of things, by your own means. However, anything beyond the reason behind their death I would not reveal them to you – yet." The pureblood emphasized, and with that no other words were exchanged between the duos.
Shiki Senri stepped into the territory of the Vampire Council feeling uneasy; the sense of dread grew as he approached the figure of his uncle off his maternal side of the family. He had grown up without his father in his life, and his mother never had it in mind to tell him anything pertaining to that man whom fathered him – saved for the frequent comments of how he had grown up to resemble him, especially the look of his eyes.
Honest to speak, he would not have known himself to be the cousin of their pureblood leader – Kaname Kuran if it had not been for the twins' accidental slip of tongue. However, neither the pureblood nor he had made any attempt to carry out any conversation pertaining to that missing father of his.
"Ah… there you are, finally here." Shiki heard his uncle said, as he ventured forward to reach the elderly man.
"What is this regarding to; I hope it had nothing to do with succeeding your seat on the council." Shiki commented as he neared the man.
"No… it has nothing to do with that, but something else entirely. It is about time that I showed you a secret of our family to speak." The elderly man said, as he beckoned for Shiki to follow his lead down towards a basement room of sort within the council.
"This is our secret – for some particular reasons it had been kept here all this while. May I have the pleasure to introduce you, your father." The elderly man announced, as he gestured to the coffin and glances towards his nephew's direction.
"What the…!" Shiki felt his eyes widening at the sight that met his eyes, the coffin was flooded with blood it would seem – and it appeared to be disgusting to his sight.
"How disgusting…" the comment was out from his lips before he could stop himself and that was soon followed by the sound of a child giggling aloud. Snapping his eyes towards the source of the laughter, he was caught off-guard by the sight of a kid with different eye colors sprouting out words that do not fits his age.
"Is that the kind of words that should be said in front of your father?" The child had asked, smiling innocently up at Shiki as the words came tumbling forth from his lips.
"Although regeneration was already in process, but it seems my current outlook is the limit. Therefore, I've always been looking forward to meet you – the grown up version of you."
'Those orb with different color… it fits the description of the child given by Yuuki Cross…' Shiki thought, as he found the reason behind his uneasiness that day following the end of the party. He was jarred from his train of thoughts, when he heard his uncle telling the kid with his father's soul in it that he was sorry to have kept him waiting – and then his eyes widen at the sight of a bloody hand reaching out to grab him. With that, he knew no more…
Two hours later, Seiren entered the room where Kaname Kuran was – with Ruka Souen some distances away putting some flowers into the vase of the room.
"How is it?" The pureblood asked, trying to sound unaffected but it was failing horribly – his eyelids had been twitching since the hour after his 'talk' with Aidou Hanabusa and it had bothered him greatly, since then.
"It had started… my lord." Seiren responded, as she knelt in front of her pureblood lord.
Behind Kaname, the bunch of beautiful flowers Ruka was attending to then burst into flames stunning the female blonde – causing her to gasp in shock.
"How I wished he could have just remained where he was…" Kaname muttered aloud, with his face half-covered with one of his hand.
Back on the academy, Yuuki avoided the rest of the members staying in the residence of the Chairman and went off to the privacy of the deserted girls' dormitory building for some time alone. She was deeply troubled and bothered by the records that burns up when she flipped and reached to the page that she had wanted to check and see for herself, the events pertaining to that winter night ten years ago. The record burning up with no warning in prior seems to be hinting at her that somebody was purposely preventing her from looking that event up, by her own means and it unsettled her greatly.
"Yuuki… what on earth are you doing out here in the girls dormitory?" The sound of Zero's voice jarred the chocolate-haired girl from her thoughts, as she looked back up at the intruder in surprise.
"Zero… even if it's in the middle of a vacation, you should not waltz into the territory of the girls dormitory just like that." Yuuki argued, as she tried to steer the topic away from her troubling mind.
"…You are still thinking about it, aren't you?" Zero prompted, the girl was far too easy for him to read – way easier than that pureblood brother of hers.
"Zero… why do I keep on having the feeling that my memories were being suppressed by someone else and do not want me to remember them?" Yuuki had asked, sounding extremely bothered by the issue.
"Yuuki…maybe they are doing this for your own good. Some memories are better to do without…" Zero said, slightly distracted and unknowingly informed the girl that her memories might have really been suppressed by another through his slip of tongue.
"Zero, what you mean by that?! Do you know the reason behind why I can't seem to remember anything from the point beyond my being adopted by the Chairman?" Yuuki pressed on, and by the looks of how Zero had avoided her gaze then confirmed her suspicion.
"No… I know nothing about that, I'm just putting my point across – that if your suspicion of someone hindering your decision to retrieve your memories back; they might very well be doing it for your own good. What if your memories were something as horrible as what I had went through?!" Zero hurried to speak, throwing out his own experience to the girl in order to ward off further questioning – inwardly cursing a certain pureblood for telling him too much information about the pureblood's relationship with Yuuki.
"…" Yuuki fell silent, but did not stop herself from observing Zero Kiryuu with an unreadable gaze in her chocolate orbs. Somehow Zero's reasoning had sounded a little too abrupt, and in a rush… Zero was obviously hiding something from her, and was very adamant on keeping her from finding it out. Still, there was nothing she could have done to force the answer out from Zero – because if she had a way to get answers out from the teen; she would not have to resort to any of those stupidity acts in prior.
"Come along now… dinner's ready and awaiting for your presence." Zero beckoned for the silent girl to follow his lead, as he strolled out from the territory of the girls' dormitory and headed for the direction of the Chairman's residential area.
Wakaba Sayori entered the privacy of her father's study with dread; she had just finished her conversation with her mother in the privacy of her home kitchen under the cover guise of aiding her mother with the doing of the dinner's dishes. Her mother had been relieved to know of her decision, and had mentioned for certain that Fujiwara Yumi would be informed of her suspicion pertaining to Haruto's conspiracy with the hunter's association.
"Enter!" The commanding tone of the study's occupant caused Sayori to falter for a split second, before bracing herself for what was to come as she pushed open the door leading to her father's study.
"Father…I've come to you with my stand pertaining to the issue of Kiryuu Zero and future allegiance to the Fujiwara's Clan." Sayori stated her tone impartial and her gaze unfazed as she stared into those orbs of her father.
Fifteen minutes later, she emerges out from her father's study in a composed manner although the redness in her cheeks claimed otherwise.
"Yori…?"
"Oniisan… not now…" The hazel brown haired girl started, putting a stop to her elder brother's words before turning around the corner and headed for the privacy of her own room.
Back in the privacy of her own room, Sayori ignored the stinging feeling of the slap across her cheeks by her father in prior as she worked on the rest of her holiday homework. For the rest of the holidays to come, Wakaba Sayori failed to let anyone else surrounding her discovered the 'cold war' taking place between her father and herself. At least, her younger sister cannot detect any of it. She was thankful in a way, with her brother and her stance already being on opposite sides – her younger sister would be free from it all together.
Kiryuu Ichiru entered the halls of the Fujiwara's residence situated somewhere in the town of Chiba prefecture, a brunette around his age was awaiting his arrival then.
"Kiryuu Ichiru, I presumed?" The brunette started.
"Yes, and you are …?"
"Satomi… Fujiwara Satomi." The brunette responded with a small smile of her own, as she turned on her heels and started to lead the younger Kiryuu twins towards the inside of the estate.
"Pardon my intrusion, but Father – Ichiru has reached." Fujiwara Satomi knocked twice on the door leading to the privacy of her father's study, as she spoke.
"Good, let him in and you may leave afterwards." The man from within the room responded.
Fujiwara Satoshi, a man in his late forties turned around and observed Ichiru then. A frown marred his features upon the sight of the long katana held in red sheath, before shifting his glance away from it. The two stood staring at one another unmoving, until they heard the obvious click in the door signaling the departure of the brunette.
"May I inquire the reason behind your visit here today?" The man started, as soon as he was certain that no one else was on the other side of the door.
"I bring with me a proposition for you." Ichiru wasted no time in cutting to the chase, bringing up the reason behind his arrival to this estate at this particular point of time.
"What does this proposition of yours entails then?" Fujiwara Satoshi questioned next.
"How does getting back the position of being the clan head sound to you?"
"If I may ask, how do you intend to do that?"
"I have an agenda to fulfill, and this agenda of mine required for me to worm myself into the association."
"I see… and how do you supposed that I could help you with that? I thought you would have knew, my relationship with the association all these while hasn't been exactly good."
"That I already know of, however, the current clan head is another matter on this issue entirely."
"Justified, so what do I get in exchange for bringing you to my cousin to speak?"
"A channel for you to gain inside information as to what the agreement between Fujiwara Haruto and the Chairman of the Association pertained to. I trusted that news of a possible conspiracy between those two had reaches you already, no?" Ichiru prompted.
"I see that you have already done your homework prior to your coming over. Very well then – do stay for the night, while I get someone to establish contact with the other side and arrange a meeting for the two of you." With that said, Fujiwara Satoshi pressed a button on his intercom to get a fellow servant over to guide Ichiru out and away from his study.
Once Ichiru was out from the man's vision range, the forty years old middle-aged man dropped himself wearily into his chair and sighed aloud.
"Yukari… It seems like no matter what I do, I can't seemed to prevent your two sons for getting stuck in the middle of it all…" The man murmured to himself, as he rested his head against his chair in exhaustion.
Akane stared at the calendar sitting atop of the Chairman's work desk in the Study room, and frowned. The previous call coming in from Shiki Senri requesting for permission to return at a slightly later date for classes seemed kind of odd to her, despite the Chairman reassurance. The reason provided by Shiki Senri was that he was tied down to a job at hand, and yet – according to what she knew of… the red-haired vampire teen never ever went on a job without the companionship of one Touya Rima.
Her mind raced with the various possibilities that could be contributing to Shiki's oddity behavior, when one thought in particular stands out to her – in her jumbled mind of torrents. Still, she willed herself not to think too much into the situation as of yet – nothing could be said for certain until the night-class members returned from their vacation. It would do her no good to call up a certain ice-wielding vampire to verify her doubts, because whatever it is – Kaname would not want her to react on rash impulse. Everything was under the pureblood's control – Akane kindly reminded herself.
True to her premonitions or sort, further away from the academy grounds – a certain green eyed vampire received a call for him to go home from his grand-father. Wincing slightly, Takuma Ichijo slowly inches himself away from the rest of the nobles and headed for the room of their pureblood leader.
The said person had taken to hide himself in the privacy of that guestroom of his within Aidou family estate since several days ago, following the return of Seiren from the council. Seems like the pureblood was having some trouble in keeping his powers in control since the arrival of whatever dreadful news the former had received through the help of Seiren.
"Is anything the matter?" Kaname's voice draws the unusually solemn Takuma out from his reverie.
"Yes, something had cropped up at home that requires my attention."
"Something to do with Ichijo Asato, I surmised?" The pureblood prompted.
"Yes." Takuma gathered there was no point in evading the subject, for it seems to him for a split second that Kaname was actually kind of expecting it.
A sigh escaped from the lips of the pureblood before he could stop himself, and after which – Kaname decided that he might as well let his pretense slipped up for a second as he regarded his childhood friend under close scrutiny gaze.
"…" Takuma Ichijo forced himself not to gulp nervously upon being subjected to those scrutiny eyes of the pureblood, beads of perspiration started to form on his forehead as he remained unfazed under those intense gaze of his friend. It was not until Kaname shifted his eyes from him, did he finally felt relief flooded through his senses. For a minute there, he had thought he would 'die'.
"Ichijo…do bear it in mind that once given a chance, I would not falter in my decision to slay your grandfather." Kaname eventually allowed the words to spill forth, prior to the green eyed vampire's departure from the room he was situated within.
"… I understand, Kaname-sama…" With that said the Vice-President of the Moon Dormitory proceeded back to his own allocated room for usage and started to pack for his trip home.
Date started: 4/1/2013
Date completed: 4/1/2013