The gates opened to reveal a hoard of fangirls all screaming and swooning over the Night Class. Shiro gasped, mortified by the sound alone. Kuro grimaced and gripped her hand tighter as Takuma began to pull them along. The blonde one – Hanabusa Aido, of whom Kuro had decided to loathe – lapped up the attention like a pathetic puppy let loose into a crowd of adoring children. Takuma beamed merrily as he dragged the two twins behind him. Shiro could barely move, so intense was her state of shock; she hadn't expected such an offensive ceremony! She looked over her shoulder at Kuro, her blue eyes pleading for him to do something. Kuro grunted knowing that he was powerless to ignore her. He stopped short and let go of Shiro's hand, directing his glare at the hoard surrounding them.
"Go back to your dorms!" he demanded. His voice was not harsh, nor was it particularly kind, but firm and authoritative. "Or let us go in silence!"
Immediately a hush fell over the crowd, and a few adoring fans swooned at his command. It seemed that in his wake he had converted a few fangirls, something to which Hanabusa was opposed.
Kuro was aware, however, of a pair of lilac eyes tracing his every move. He glanced at Zero and smiled smugly; one hunter to another, he had won.
"Thank you, Kuro," Kaname murmured approvingly. "It seems your presence will be well appreciated."
But Hanabusa was not so pleased. Kuro had created an enemy within the Night Class. He had managed to steal Hanabusa's fangirls and ruin the only form of entertainment he had, all whilst receiving the praise of their king!
"He will regret this," Hanabusa sulked like a child, and Akatsuki sighed. His cousin was not amongst the wisest of men, but he was true to his word.
"I'm gonna regret this too," Akatsuki muttered and shoved Hanabusa forward as the rest of the Night Class filed through the gates.
Shiro sighed, eyeing her classmates curiously as the lesson droned on and on. Kuro sat between her and them, blocking all form of contact. Sometimes she despised his need to be protective, and overly so, and her need to use him as a bridge for sociability. He always managed to warp the words she wished to say into something hateful. But she loved him nonetheless – how could she not? He was she.
Her eyes strayed to Senri, whose slumped form covered most of the seat they perched on. He was intriguing to her, perhaps most alike to Kuro in the sense that she might reach out to him too.
Senri was aware of a pair of eyes lingering on him, and he turned to meet hers. He briefly glanced towards Kuro, cautious of his over-protectiveness, and finding him unaware, smiled as Shiro. Senri rarely smiled, but he felt the need to give her some sort of friendly gesture. She seemed so small cowering behind her brother. He sensed that she was a little afraid of Kuro, yet still strangely commanding over him. But as he looked closer, he found no separation in their appearance. Their blue eyes were exactly identical; he had studied Kuro's the day before when the latter had spoken to him. And their complexion was very much the same. They differed only in gender and hair length. It seemed extreme for identical twins, and he had sensed strangeness about them yesterday too. Kuro seemed unfit to be a hunter, yet she exuded the scent of a hunter.
It was then that he glanced down at their clasped hands and saw, with some surprise, puncture wounds engraved in her wrist. She had been bitten, and it was fresh. Surely it was not a member of the Night Class; the twins had been secluded the entire day in their room. He hadn't smelt blood at all either. Senri let his glassy eyes rest on Shiro's once more. She smiled at him again, but he did not return the courtesy. She had been bitten, but by whom? Would Kuro know, perhaps?