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 & the Fujiwara Clan featured in this story.
Author's notes: Continue from where I left off last chapter, see where Zero went off after leaving the estate. Yagari Touga made reappearance in this chapter, and I'll have some Shiki scenes in here too…
Chapter 45 – In which Fujiwara Akemi entered the scenes…
Wakaba Sayori stared after the departing figure of Zero with a frown, she was about to approach Zero to brief him on his itinerary arrangement for the following day when the man just stalk out of the house in a huff.
"…Okay, now what?" Sayori questioned as she turned inquiring eyes upon the rest of the occupants who had ventured out front to investigate the reason behind the slamming door.
"You haven't informed him yet and you let him stalk off just like that?" Ayano repeated, staring at her friend incredulously.
"Well, excuse me for not following him around at all times – you and I both know how much he dislike that notion of it!" Sayori throws back in mild annoyance.
"Eh…pardon my intrusion but what on earth are the two of you arguing about?" The newly emerged Akane Kiryuu questioned, bringing a ceasefire to the two girls' conversation.
"Sayori here forgotten to inform her 'boss' of the upcoming tea party that would be taking place tomorrow…" Ayano supplied helpfully.
"Okay, so what? I mean Zero wasn't really that kind of socializing type, just tell the other party that he had other commitment and would not be joining that tea party for tomorrow. I am certain that the other party would not have minded much, and then Sayori you can go and attend the tea party on Zero's behalf. That would solve the problem already – isn't it?" Akane concluded easily.
"…I guess so, but the facility visit scheduled this weekend – he can't skip out on that." Sayori added then.
"Fine… then text him and inform him of it, so that he would know to be back before then." Akane interjected, her tone firm leaving no room for further arguments.
"Why should Wakaba Sayori be the one to attend on behalf of Kiryuu and not that twin of his?" Aidou Hanabusa spoke up then, expressing his confusion of the whole issue.
"Simple – because Ichiru already had other commitment to attend for - tomorrow morning..." Ayano responded then.
"Huh…?"
"Ichiru had an appointment with the board of directors of the Sakura Co-operatives Limited tomorrow morning at 9.a.m. and then subsequently a birthday party of a fellow business partner's daughter to attend at noon hours. That's the reason why he cannot attended the tea party on Zero's schedule in the elder twin's absence period and Sayori would have to do that instead – a duty of hers' since she is the one handling the personal assistant job for the elder Kiryuu." Ayano elaborated for the sake of the aristocrats that are obviously unaware of the situation at hand.
"Sorry, can anyone explain a little on the current situation – I am afraid we are catching no balls here." Akatsuki Kain spoke up, completely bewildered – why is it that there are so many well known companies name being uttered from the two humans' girl's lips and it all involved the Kiryuu twins in them.
"…Never mind, I'll handle the explanation to the lots of them. The two of you go back to your current task at hand, I believed – Ayano; you have to go through the details on the legal paper pertaining to the inheritances from the Hiou Clan with Ichiru. Sayori, do call up the organizer for the tea party on Zero's schedule and explained the reason behind his absence and informed them of your going on his behalf – immediately. In process of doing that, kindly postpone all appointments on Zero's schedule for the next three days to come – those that cannot be postponed feed them some plausible reasons explaining Zero's inability to turn up or you can go in his stead." Akane instructed, dismissing the girls back to their task at hand while she took it upon herself to explain things to the aristocrats.
Yagari Touga dropped himself wearily onto the sofa couch situated within his old friend – Kaien Cross' residence. He had just came straight from a meeting over at the hunter's association, and obviously the Vice-Chairperson was quite upset that the Chairman position has once again befalls on another dude brought in specially from another country instead of picking one from Japan's native region.
"Touga… you looked kind of tired down there, did anything happen in the association?" The ex-hunter, Kaien Cross questioned his old friend whom had yet to speak a word to him since the former entry into his humble abode.
"Nothing but the usual happened – it seems like our Vice-Chairperson had once crossed path with his chance of being promoted again." Yagari Touga, the veteran hunter throws back in return.
"Oh… I take it that he choose to dump all his unhappiness on you again?" Kaien Cross commented, sounding amused by the sheer notion of it.
"Kaien, do me a favor and shut up already!" Yagari Touga muttered back in response, throwing a look of annoyance towards the lunatic Chairman's way.
"So who did they pick for to take on the role of the Chairperson this time around for the association?" A new voice sounded from the doorway, drawing the two experienced hunters to glance in that direction.
"Why…Zero…Are you finally here to visit PAPA?!" Kaien Cross started to act stupid upon the sight of the silver-haired teen, again.
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with that lot of blood suckers?!" Yagari Touga throws out to his once favorite disciple.
"…" Zero Kiryuu choose to ignore the Chairman's idiotic antics, before turning in his Master's direction and said. "I heard that they have started out the renovations on campus, so I decided to pop by and take a look at the situation in general."
Yagari Touga eyed Zero critically in the eye for some time, before shrugging and decided to leave things be. Taking his time to observe his disciple, the veteran hunter was now certain in his judgment that Zero Kiryuu had indeed changed. Like that twin of his, both of them seemed to have gain on the status of a Level B overnight.
"Ooi Kid, care to enlighten me on the answer that you never got around to answer me that night when I had first locked you up in here?" Yagari Touga then asked.
"Master, if you want to know the reason behind the change in me – all you had to do is to ask, instead of going one big round for it." Zero throws back at the elder man dryly.
"Well then, are you going to reveal or not?" The veteran hunter shot back at the teen in annoyance.
"The reason behind why I'm not falling to the End but rising up to where I am now – is because of the blood of the Fujiwara flowing through my veins. Apparently, that was the reason and then coupled with the blood from a fellow pureblood triggered off the change." Zero eventually answered, leaving out the glory details of his ingestion of the Hiou Clan members' blood.
Initially, there was a slight bewilderment but it soon gave way to realization and then Yagari Touga widens his eyes in mild disbelief.
"You drank from him?"
Zero nodded warily to the veteran hunter, and then he said. "Yes, I did drink my fill from him several days prior to the battle…but there's something more to it."
Behind the work desk, Kaien Cross stilled in his movements and turn startling eyes upon the silver-haired teen. Unlike his friend, the Chairman of the Cross Academy happens to know more of the vampires' culture as compared to Yagari Touga and henceforth had caught on to the underlying meaning behind Zero's words by now.
"Zero…you…" The Chairman started, but was forced to stop when he heard his friend speaking up again.
"You LET that leech drank from you?!" Yagari Touga sounded quite incredulous when he said this, as he turned disbelieving eyes upon his once disciple.
"Technically, I didn't – he just bites me in the neck when I'm drinking my fill from him." Zero recounted from his memory of that night's event.
"So that bloody bastard took advantage of the situation, did he?" Yagari Touga muttered aloud, before narrowing his eyes into slits and questioned. "Tell me you shoot him!"
"…" Zero was silent, now this is something he was guilty of because he didn't bother with the shooting. If anything, he was more worried about the well-being of Kaname Kuran at that point of time then.
"Touga, it is not that simple…" Kaien Cross started then, as he turned inquiring eyes upon Zero to confirm his thoughts on the situation.
Yagari Touga did not miss the brief moment of eye contact between the duos, and he certainly did not miss the nod given to Kaien Cross by his once favorite disciple. Almost immediately, the veteran hunter gritted out in irritation. "What the hell does that mean – Cross?!"
"It would appear that our Zero-chan here has bonded with Kaname-kun." Kaien Cross announced gleefully. He had been expecting something likes that to happen between the duos for some time now, but he just did not think of the possibility of it happening this soon in time. He, like Yuuki – was not blind to the growing attraction and chemistry feel in the air whenever those two crossed path with one another since the arrival of the future trio.
Now Yagari Touga finally caught on to the underlying meaning behind his friend's words, he might not be that educated in the culture and lifestyle of the blood suckers but he do know one thing – at least, he knew the meaning behind the term 'bonded'. It practically means a marriage union without the official certification that binds them together. And then he glared at his once favorite disciple and demand.
"Have you slept with him yet?"
"…" Silence was the only answer received from Zero, again while the veteran hunter sucked in a deep breath before he stalked out of the place.
"…Well…that went better than I'd expected." Zero muttered aloud when he watched his Master marched out from the Chairman's residence.
"Honestly, Zero…what were you thinking about by coming over and let him in on such information? He's going to try and kill Kaname-kun after this, you know?" Kaien Cross directed his words to his adopted son since four years ago.
"He can try but he won't be able to succeed, Akira and Subaru would both remind him of the thousand reasons why." Zero answered, effortlessly.
Speaking of which, you are not giving me any grandchild yet – are you?" The Chairman questioned, and then eyed Zero's abdomen section with curious eyes.
"Get your mind out of the gutter already! To answer your question, NO – I am not giving you any grandchildren yet and probably wouldn't for the next ten years to come!" Zero glared at the Chairman of Cross Academy hotly, as his face flushed a deep shade of red. From anger or embarrassment – he had no idea.
Kaien Cross wisely kept his mouth shut from then on; obviously Zero was flipping on his words before. Not wanting to know what his foster son could be capable of doing to him now; the Chairman wisely diverted his concentration back to his work on hand while leaving Zero alone to cool off in one corner of his residence area.
"Aww… so cute! Touya-san, do you know who is the kid next to Shiki-san?" One of the photo-shoot crew members whispered to Touya Rima while helping the female model in the process of applying make up.
"…They are Shiki's nephews." Rima pondered for a minute, before answering the question posed by the crew members.
Sitting some distance away from Touya Rima is the silent male model – Shiki Senri, only he was not quite a loner today at the photo-shoot venue. Two little boys of six – Subaru Kiryuu and Akira Kuran were with him today. The two boys had tagged along the resident models of the Night-Class to their job site; after their resident Vice-President told the two models to keep them entertain for the day.
{Flashback to several hours ago…}
Touya Rima and Shiki Senri were on their way out from the Kuran estate when the figure of Ichijo Takuma approached them briskly.
"Are the two of you heading out?" The Vice-President had asked.
"We have a photo-shoot at 2.p.m. today." Shiki stated, simply.
"Good, can you two bring the twins along for the trip? They haven't had the chance to see the two of you in working mode before, and I'm sure your agent and the production crew wouldn't mind that much with them around. Akira's a real charmer." With that said Ichijo Takuma promptly gathered the twins' boys in front of them and tempted the boys into sticking onto the two models. Hence, the reason why Subaru and Akira were now posing Shiki Senri with a dozen questions pertaining to the equipments needed for the photo-shoot.
{End of Flashback}
"Uncle Shiki, what is that?" Akira asked, pointing towards the blue board standing in the middle of the room with lights surrounding it.
"That's a backdrop used for our photo-shoot today…" Shiki took a look in the direction where Akira was pointing towards, and replied.
"I see… so what kind of photo-shoot are you and Aunt Rima doing today?" The curious boy asked again.
"We are doing a photo-shoot for the spring collection of outfits featuring for the latest issue of 'Trend' magazine today." Shiki Senri answered patiently, despite Akira's incessant questions.
Subaru, meanwhile, unlike his twin was merely seated quietly on the chair nearby with the novel he was reading out in hand.
"You really enjoy reading, don't you?" The sudden sound of an oddly familiar voice caused Subaru to glance up in surprise.
"…" Subaru blinked the voice sound oddly familiar to him but he simply cannot place a name to the face of the person standing in front of him now.
"No idea who am I? Never mind, just give this to your 'Daddy' – will you?" The person said to the silver-haired boy as she handed over an invitation card of sort over to Subaru before turning on her heels and departed from site.
Once back outside the studio, she was met by disapproving eyes from her personal guard cum assistant.
"Akemi, I would most appreciate it if you could stop playing disappearing acts on me. Also, if you want to invite them to your birthday celebration next week – all you have to do is to call Zero-sama up." Wakaba Hiroshi, Sayori's elder brother and Matsushita Ayano's fiancé told the girl off in an exasperated manner.
"Well… but that won't be fun anymore, isn't it?" Fujiwara Akemi responded with a mischievous grin playing on her features before skipping back off to Studio 4 for her own share of advertisement shoot.
Fujiwara Akemi, the younger sister of Fujiwara Satomi and daughter of Zero and Ichiru's maternal uncle – Fujiwara Satoshi. A fifteen year old brunette like her elder sister but with cerulean eyes unlike her sister's brown ones – was a local celebrity just like Shiki Senri and Touya Rima. However, unlike the two of them who mainly does photo-shoots for magazines – Fujiwara Akemi was also filming TV serials sitcom shows for some local media companies. Topping it off, she's also the spokesperson for most if not all of the products produced by companies with business relations to the Fujiwara Corporation.
Each and every members of the Fujiwara Clan have their own part to play, and practically everyone in the family have double identities in the modern world. For instances, her father – Fujiwara Satoshi operated a Kendo Doujo in the prefecture of Chiba; he took in not only members of the Clan itself but also open the Doujo doors to the general public. Her elder sister, Fujiwara Satomi – a typical sixteen year old teenage girl studying in the Fujiwara Gakuen in Kyoto; was a hunter in training and atop of it happens to be the president for the Kendo Club in school.
For her – Fujiwara Akemi though, like her sister was also a hunter-in-training but at the same time she's also a rising local celebrity to the general public, and official spokesperson for Fujiwara Corporation. Working with both humans, hunters and vampires all at the same time – oddball, some likes to call her that. After all, under normal circumstances – members of the hunters' branch try to avoid dealings with the vampires branch members in general but for her case… not only she does not keep her distances, in fact she often volunteer to help them out.
Luckily for her, Fujiwara Satoshi was unlike Fujiwara Haruto – so Akemi have an easier life in general. Haruto had seen his daughter – Misaki as useless personnel due to her tendency to faint upon the sight of gruesome hunting methods, and also fainting spells upon the sight of blood. Satoshi, on the other hand, treats both Satomi and Akemi equally. He told them that the hunting skills while compulsory to learn a hand or two, does not certainly means that they must took after the hunter's line of work. In fact, they can choose to do what they want to achieve in life provided that they stick to the ground rules sets in place by the family.
"Subaru, what's that card in your hand?" Akira questioned, when he noticed his twin staring at the card in bewilderment.
"Someone told me to pass this to 'Daddy'…" Subaru responded, still frowning as he wondered why that voice sounded so familiar to him and yet he could not place a name to it.
"Hm..m…?" Akira mused as he snatched the card out from his twin's hand to study it in detail, and then his mouth twitch slightly and said.
"Birthday invitation card… I'll bet you five bucks its Aunt Akemi's handiwork again." Akira smirked before handing the card back to his twin.
"Ah…! You're right; no wonder I kept on thinking why that voice sounded so familiar!" Subaru suddenly muttered aloud when realization dawns in on him.
"…" Akira stared at his twin for a while, before shaking his head in disbelief. How could Subaru being the one whom spoke the most with Fujiwara Akemi from young, and still failed to register her voice?
"Come on, let's go – Aunt Rima and Uncle Shiki are done for the day." Akira announced, pulling his twin out from the seat and heading back to where the two night-class models are waiting for them.
Back in the Kuran's estate, Yuuki Kuran was still busy having her training lessons with Ruka Souen – on how to behave likes a lady in public. It was hard for Yuuki because active nature, but still not wanting to disappoint her beloved brother – Kaname, she was willing to work hard for it.
"Akane… how did you manage all these?" Yuuki turned pleading eyes upon Akane, wanting to know a trick or two hidden up Akane's sleeves.
"…" Akane sweat-dropped, inwardly thinking – I know I don't really resemble a typical 'lady' but I'm not that bad either, right? And then she shifted her gaze towards an exasperated looking Ruka Souen and the pitiful Yuuki Kuran. She sighed.
"Ruka-san, I guess your usual methods won't work on Yuuki. The dining etiquettes are still alright, but walking elegantly seems to be a little hard for Yuuki to manage. Why don't you try putting her in a Kimono and then get her to walk in those attires for the next few weeks to come?" Akane suggested desperate time's calls for desperate measures – she's using the Fujiwara 'training' method now.
"Eh…?!" Yuuki eyes widen in shock, while she had not had a chance to wear those kimonos before – she knew that those kinds of attires are stiff and uncomfortable like hell. How did one walk or move around in that kind of clothes – she had always wonders but that does not means she want to try it out for herself.
"Kimono… that's a good idea but where on earth are we going to get those for Yuuki-sama…? I certainly don't have any lying around." Ruka Souen responded to Akane's suggestion.
"Give me a minute." Akane said, and then she left the room only to return shortly with Risa Miyazaki, Matsushita Ayano and Wakaba Sayori in tow.
The vampire duos blinked in puzzlement, as the three new comers surrounded Yuuki for a minute before taking out measuring tape and started to measure the pureblood princess up. After that, Ruka and Yuuki watched as the trio started to call up people on their mobile phones sprouting out some measurements of sort.
Technically speaking, Sayori was the one whom reported measurements while Risa was the one whom selected colors and Ayano the one whom chose the design and of course the ordering of the Tabi (ankle-high divided toe socks) and Zori (straw slippers) to match the kimono.
Forty-five minutes later, the doorbell to the Kuran's estate sounded and Akane hurried downstairs to answer the door much to the bewilderment of the other aristocrats within the house.
"Akane, what was that in your hands?" Ichijo Takuma stared at the pile of boxes held in his cousin's grasp and asked.
"You will know later, speaking of which – can you acknowledge on the delivery order first? Tell them we will send the check over at a later date." Akane throws over her shoulders as she hurried back upstairs with the boxes in hand.
Yuuki Kuran and Ruka Souen gaped when Akane returned with the boxes in hand, especially Yuuki. Her eyes nearly fell out from the socket when she noticed the quantity of kimonos ordered by Sayori for her usage, and her eyes bulged when she noted the amount of money these kimonos costs.
"Is there really a need to go to this extent?" Ruka Souen asked, these kimonos must have cost a fortune to get – if the rumors she heard about the current market price for a 'Furisode Kimono' are true.
"Nah… no need to worry about that, it's on the tabs of Zero so we gets discount off them at a very generous rate." Akane responded with ease.
The boxes held 2 sets of 'Furisode Kimono'; 2 sets of 'Komon' and 2 sets of 'Houmougi' – a total of six sets of Kimonos; in pastel colors and matching obis. In order to high-light Yuuki's bubbly character and personality, Risa has specially taken the liberty to select pink and yellow for the kimonos colors. The patterns were of sakura blossoms, specially picked out by Ayano for Yuuki.
"Still… why is there so many of it?" Yuuki questioned, not understanding the reason – they all looked similar to her.
"Reason why we have to get three different styles of kimonos is because, they each served a purpose. For instances, the 'Furisode' are mainly used by unmarried females on formal occasions such as coming of age ceremonies or attending a wedding ceremony. The Houmougi served as the typical 'visiting' wear – and it can be used for attending tea ceremonies, parties and also weddings. The Komon, on the other hand, are mainly used for casual purposes – such as a visit to a restaurant or just to go out in town." Akane responded, quoting information off her memory bank and causing the pureblood princess of the Kuran Clan to drop her jaw in shock.
"Yuuki, chill – if you think this is bad… you should have seen the wardrobe of the Fujiwara and Hiou Clan members. That is even more extreme, we only gotten you three types of Kimonos – I bet Akane have more of such kimonos in her wardrobe back in her own time." Wakaba Sayori told her friend.
"Yes, at least we didn't think of getting you 'Iromuji' and 'Tsukesage' too…" Matsushita Ayano added on.
"Not to forget there's also the Yukata out in the market for summer usage and also the Geta to goes with it." Risa Miyazaki piped up.
"Alright, enough chattering – let's get down to work and changed Yuuki into these clothes. We really need to get her in shape for her birthday party next month, although it's not a culture for Kuran daughters to be seen wearing such attires since they are of the more westernized families… but it would be nice to break away from the culture once in a while." Akane clapped her hands for attention and spur the three girls down to work.
Upon noticing Yuuki's intention to protest, Akane added in a warning tone of voice. "Yuuki, it's either the kimono or the corset – take your pick."
Yuuki thought of the image of dressing up in a ballroom gown with corset underneath instead of her usual undergarment and shudders involuntarily. With corsets it would be hard to breathe, and with Kimono it's only the restriction of taking wide steps… and if she was to pick the lesser of the evils. It would have to be the kimonos then. With that, she resigned herself to the idea of being dressed up by the trio with Ruka Souen and Akane supervising her every move.
Date started: 19/1/2013
Date completed: 21/1/2013