Yes, I'm not dead! As some of you know, delay was due to a lot of life issues out of my control, but I'm back baby.
And now I present...(drum-roll please)...the flashback you've all been waiting for! :D 3


Chapter Text

Kyoto, Japan

Forty years ago…

The young boy crouched in the bush, eyes squinting as the sun's last rays disappeared behind trees and ferns, a soft darkness shrouding him. The bright white light of the full moon bathed his surroundings in silver, but he didn't need it to see.

Pink lips pulled back in a grin as he crouched low, scenting the air in quick short sniffs. His ears flicked around, trying to pick up the slightest sounds. As he started crawling forward, he remembered how his mother always berated him for moving on all fours when he was learning to stalk, because of the way it dirtied his clothes and hands. He shrugged off the thought; this had always been more comfortable for him, even in human form.

He needs to shower more often, he thought to himself as he picked up the scent. It was a smell of sweat and dirt, but it was familiar. Comforting.

His crimson eyes gleamed, his night vision allowing a clear view of his prey, huddling under a tree and completely oblivious to the danger close by. He tensed his legs, readying for a pounce. He felt his muscles shift, a low growl curl in his throat, and then-

"Gotcha!"

Just as he went in to leap, a hand grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up so high his feet grazed the ground. His oncoming roar choked off into a mewl, and the noise caused his prey to jerk up and look over.

The boy struggled, looking up to see his own ambusher, and his mouth ran dry.

A man over twice his size grinned down at him, dark red hair framing darker eyes and fierce eyebrows raised in amusement. Twin ears stood at attention and a bushy tailed slapped the boy's back. "Well there, my little Taiga, how many times have I told you to pay attention to your surroundings? You were so busy stalking Daiki there that you didn't notice a bumbling fool like myself sneak up on you?"

"Dad!" Taiga beamed as his father put him down. He turned around and squeezed him tight around the waist. "When did you come back? Is Mum home? How'd you get back so early? How was Tokyo? Did you get me anything?"

"Were you going to pounce on me?" an affronted voice interrupted, and Taiga looked behind him to see his prey – a navy haired boy his age – glaring at him. "You're totally thinking of me as prey, aren't you!?"

"Oh, shut up, Daiki!" Taiga stuck his tongue out and Daiki scowled, twin fangs flashing. "Can't you see I'm having a family reunion here?"

Dark blue eyes then darted to the older man and Daiki's face paled. "K-Kagami-san…" he gave a stiff bow, his fingers fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

Kagami Ryuuichirou couldn't stop a laugh from coming out. Seeing the two boys squabbling made him feel so light inside that he almost forgot the terrible feeling he had stewing in his gut after the VLSA meeting he had attended in Tokyo only a few days back. "Relax there, soldier. Just wanted to let you know that your Mum and I are back. Flight landed not two hours ago." He ruffled Taiga's hair. "You two play nice now. Remember to stay inside the gates and dinner is at half past seven. Mum's making teriyaki chicken," he added in a half-whisper and a wink.

Taiga almost vibrated in excitement, tail flicking back and forth. "Can Daiki come?"

Ryuuichirou smiled, ruffling Daiki's hair this time. "Always. His parents will be joining us." His nose twitched and he rolled his eyes. "Speak of the devil. How's it going, Hiro?"

The shadows behind him shifted and a man in a pale blue yukata stepped into the clear, thin eyebrow quirked in surprise and a tiny lift to his lips. "You heard me?"

"You were worse at sneaking up to me than my son was sneaking up to yours." Ryuuichirou huffed.

"Liar," Hirohito said matter-of-factly. "You smelt the incense on me."

"Why ask when you know," Ryuuichirou laughed, slinging an arm around his friend's shoulders.

Daiki and Taiga both stiffened this time. "Father," Daiki bowed while Taiga muttered incoherently and followed suit.

Ryuuichirou barked out a laugh, slapping Hirohito on the back. "Hiro! What the hell did you do to my kid in the last few days? He looks scared shitless! Maybe it's your yukata? Always thought it was a bit showy."

Taiga opened his mouth to argue but his gaze flickered to the older Aomine and he closed it.

"Language!" Hirohito pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes it felt like there were three kids in the area than just two. "It's not me they fear, it's Yuuki. They…saw Yuuki training some of the Aomine recruits the day before. And well…now they seem to respect the fact that I don't lose my head anytime we both have an argument."

"She was using two swords, Dad," Taiga hissed. "At the same time!"

"Yeah she's…something alright." Ryuuichirou shot Hirohito a look. "You need someone a little quieter, like my dear Keiko. Not her as in her, but you know-"

"Be quiet, Ryuu," Hirohito placed a hand on the werewolf's shoulder. "Boys, dinner will be ready in an hour. You can play until then."

The boys shared a look, realizing they were being dismissed. They bowed again quickly before scurrying off.

Hirohito folded his arms. "So? News?"

Ryuuichirou grimaced. "Bad."


"So they're unhappy. They're always fucking unhappy."

Hirohito frowned at his wife's crude words but she was used to ignoring him. "Yes. Looks like they aren't ready to repeal the Pureblood Act anytime soon though. So what good came out of this meeting?"

The Pureblood Act was a law that had been passed ten years ago, just before both their children had been born. It was what nearly all of the mixed blood viewed as a barbaric and backwards law, that allowed purebloods almost free reign to do whatever they wanted with mixed bloods – whether that be pay them less, refuse them services or strip them of legal rights.

All under the idea that purebloods were the "original werewolves and vampires" and mixed bloods, due to their higher concentration of human DNA, were a contaminated and therefore lower class species. There were movements to get them banned from even VLSA meetings, and to say they were unhappy was an understatement. Already riots all around Japan – where the law had been introduced first – were heating up into violent demonstrations.

And the man who put this law into effect, the current head of the VLSA, was a man by the name of Akashi Arata. He had served the VLSA well for the past fifteen odd years, just as his father and his father before him had done so, for the longest time back to the VLSA founding.

He had never seemed to be the type to encourage rifts between factions, but people could change, and it wasn't as if the Kagami and Aomine families were completely blameless either.

"Well, firstly, they thought we were joking," another woman sighed as she tucked a strand of dark hair behind an ear. Her light brown eyes were troubled as she continued chopping carrots for dinner. "Not that I can blame them. We were there during the original signing and we didn't exactly object to it. Our sudden desire to repeal it seems to have rubbed a lot of the purebloods the wrong way."

Ryuuichirou scowled. "We made a mistake, Keiko. We're only human- oh well, I guess that saying doesn't exactly apply to us, but you get what I'm saying."

"That mistake is what's causing all this tension in the first place!" she snapped back, waving the knife in her hand. "We should have been smarter. We shouldn't have been so selfish, cowardly and heartless! Just because a majority of purebloods wanted it, we shouldn't have looked down on the others…" she held a hand to her nose, fighting back her frustration. "I don't want my baby growing up in a world like this. I want peace. For everyone."

"That's why we went, Keiko. To see if we could stop it." Ryuuichirou grit his teeth. "And just because this meeting was fruitless, doesn't mean we are going to give up. It's better late than never.

"We are also at fault, and neither Yuuki nor I want to see Daiki growing up in a world where purebloods and mixed are at each other's throats," Hirohito said. "We feel we have wronged our own people as well, since some of these recruits, however rare, are mixed blood. I regret it took us this long to start working against it."

"That's because it started hitting real close to home all of a sudden." Yuuki scoffed. "To be truthful, I hadn't even read the Act in its totality when we agreed to sign it, and I doubt any of you did either. It took rioters breaking into our place in Tokyo to really get us thinking," she walked up to Keiko to get the knife from her, starting to cut the vegetables with more ferocity than necessary. "We were ignorant, thinking it didn't matter."

Hirohito nodded. "We need to work harder to right our wrongs, before something worse happens."

Ruuichirou smiled a bit. "I've even called for help. In fact, she should be arriving soon." At the questioning glances the others threw at him, he elaborated. "A sorcerer, well, sorceress. We have a family of vampires and a family of werewolves. Throwing in a family of sorcerers will make it the whole set." He grinned. "Then we can storm the VLSA and be taken seriously."

Hirohito grimaced. "Oh, that woman?"

"She's great and you all love her," Ruuichirou rolled his eyes. "She sent me a text that she'll be here for dinner. Her little daughter's here too, couldn't leave her behind." He grinned. "The boys will finally meet a girl around their age!"

Everyone else rolled their eyes at that.

"Plus, there's another thing I want her to check," Ruiichirou bit his lip, sharing a glance with his wife. "Akashi Arata...I thought I smelt deterioration on him the first day we met. But then...on the last day of our visit, when we went to say bye, he smelt..."

"Clean," Keiko added. "Too clean."

"It's probably nothing," Ryuiichirou shrugged. "But better to have an expert opinion."

""Indeed." Hirohito pressed his lips together. "Well, we need all the help we can get."

"Hey," Ryuuichirou punched him lightly in the shoulder, ignoring as always the glare he got in response. "The world said a werewolf and a vampire couldn't be friends, and we proved them wrong there. If they say we can't clean up this mess, then we'll prove them wrong again."

Hirohito hummed, but his eyes were dark with worry. He felt uneasy, and he knew Ryuuichirou did too.

A decade of oppression could do things, horrible things, to people.

And they were just about to find out how bad.


Daiki was going to catch him this time. This time, Daiki was the one that was going to pounce. Who said a vampire couldn't hunt? They were creatures of the night!

He was going to scare Taiga so bad, so bad that Taiga might even cry and- Daiki frowned. Okay, maybe not that bad. Daiki didn't like it when Taiga cried. Taiga always refused it ever happened, but it did, and it was always Daiki's job to comfort him, and it was so gross when Taiga got snot all over Daiki's shirt and ew.

But Taiga was always there when Daiki cried too, so he guessed he didn't really have a right to complain.

The smell of blood shook Daiki awake from his thoughts. Normally, that smell made him hungry. He was still training his control. Father said it was harder because he was pureblood, but he would master it soon.

But this blood didn't make him hungry at all. It was bitter in his throat, almost rancid on his tongue. He knew it, it was the kind he was forbidden to drink. Not that it would have tempted him with that stench.

It was werewolf blood.

His first thoughts went to Taiga, but then he remembered Taiga was different. Whenever Taiga got hurt, his blood smelled…nice. That was another reason Daiki had to focus in his control. The last thing he wanted was to hurt his best friend, and anyways, werewolf blood was supposed to be really poisonous to vampires.

He crept towards it, curious, when he caught a flash between the leaves. He froze, his blood running cold with fear.

A man stood a ways off, tall and broad shouldered, stinking of the werewolf blood that spattered his torn leather jacket. His thin lips were pulled back in a filthy grin, vampire fangs flashing in the light. A large knife was held in one of his hands, its silver blade flecked with fresh blood.

And struggling in his other hand, the man's fingers clamped so tight around a throat that a scream was impossible, was a boy, feet kicking and tail thrashing.

Daiki felt his body go numb.

Taiga.


It had to be in two parts because otherwise I don't know when I would have updated, and also it was getting long. Comments really help me with writing, I even re-read them to get energy for life in general 3 So if you like the installment please let me know what you thought 3