AN: Sorry this chapter really isn't the best but I wanted to get it published because I'm going on vacation so idk when I'll have a chance to update it. Just a head's up, it may be more than a week or two until the next chapter, since I won't have much time to write! As for the Aidori fic...another chapter is coming...eventually... -shot- (Sorry!)

When Rima had entered the academy, she had entered with extensive doubts. Although she'd welcomed the distraction, she'd thought the philosophies behind the Night Class futile and, moreover, the Night Class members themselves to be rather dull. Attending lectures was boring. Playing nice with the humans was boring. Her fanclub was boring. Everything was boring. Yet she'd been pleasantly surprised with life at school, because of one reason alone: Shiki.

Abruptly deprived of him, the academy no longer seemed tolerable. Classes most of all were a drag, made even more so because she no longer wanted to sit near her former friends. She intentionally arrived late, choosing seats far away from them, and to her surprise Kaname did not once reprimand her for it. Occasionally Ichijou sent her a forlorn glance, but she thought he was relieved with her separation from them. The same questions circulated through her mind on repeat, again and again, ad infinitum: Why? What was happening? Who was this new Shiki that she couldn't recognize?

At a loss, she started spying on them. Between classes, during classes, whenever they appeared in the common room of the dorms. She kept her distance, immediately leaving if Shiki so much as stepped her way. She didn't want a repeat of the first night, and it was obvious that he hadn't regained his senses. She was aware that he knew she was watching him; occasionally he'd glance at her and smirk, but such actions did not deter her. She was disgusted when he continually approached Ruka, seeming to enjoy the scent of that overpowering blood he hadn't been able to stand prior to the break. She was shocked when he openly spoke to or even subtly mocked Kaname every now and again. And she was concerned with how protective Ichijou was, constantly monitoring their mutual friend and holding him back whenever he did something particularly aggressive or out of character. Although the vice president tried to dissimulate with a paper-thin, too-cheerful smile, she saw right through him. His usually bright green eyes darkly warned her off the moment she found herself too close to them, and his brow creased in warning if she stared too long.

Yet she couldn't figure out what was wrong.

At work, the staff abruptly announced that their current project had been put on hiatus, and that Rima would be working with someone else. A human. Speechless, she'd had no choice but to agree. Her manager knew next to nothing about this sudden change, saying there appeared to be a problem at home and Shiki was taking some time off. When she glimpsed the individual photos he'd taken, she couldn't shake the feeling that it almost seemed as if someone else was peering out of Shiki's eyes. His hair had been arranged to cover his right eye, but she knew it was brown. Brown, or maybe red. An eye changing color like that, it was something she'd never heard of. But noticing it did not bring her any closer to the truth.

She lay awake a long time each morning, thinking about it. Wishing she'd had a chance to taste his blood just once, to understand him just a little more before now. She felt bitter, because this was the first time she'd ever liked anyone the way she liked Shiki, and before she'd even come to terms with her feelings, he was gone. At least, her Shiki was gone. There was some other, imposter Shiki here now, one she did not know. One she had never even glimpsed before.

A week passed. Two. Three. At the end of this third week, Kaname Kuran unexpectedly called her for a private meeting. Rima dared to hope he'd explain Shiki's circumstances. Perhaps she'd finally get answers from an unexpected source. When she entered the room, the mood seemed appropriate; the Night Dorm leader was standing against the far window, figure silhouetted in shadow, every line of his body pensive. For a long moment he continued to stare outside before finally acknowledging her presence.

"Rima, thank you for coming." Kaname turned from the window, fixing dark eyes on her. She pursed her lips, hating the familiarity with which he spoke her name, but maintained her easy, submissive stance. He was a pureblood whether she liked it or not, and he had the right to call her however he chose.

A small smile touched the Night Dorm leader's lips, and she wondered if he'd somehow gleaned her thoughts. Then he grew serious again and the conversation took an unforeseen and unwanted turn as he said, "Actually, this may come as a shock to you...but I've taken Yuki Cross as my lover."

The human? That little prefect girl? Rima wanted to snort. She had never understood Kaname's obsession with Yuki. But neither did it particularly concern her, and she told him as much. "You can be with whomever you like, Kaname-sama." The title grated on her tongue, but she forced it out all the same.

Another smile. "I do appreciate that sentiment. Many others would disagree with you. However, such a discussion is not why I called you here. I want you, along with Hanabusa, Akatsuki, and Ruka, to watch over her when Kiryuu is unable to. Don't let her wander off alone, especially at night. Escort her to and from her classes. As the lover of a pureblood, she will be particularly vulnerable."

What? She stared at the vampire across the room from her in shock. She didn't have time for such a menial task! The much greater concern was Shiki and what had happened to him. Infuriated and surprised by the request, the words were out of her mouth before she'd thought them through, "You think someone would dare to attack her?" Quickly realizing she'd spoken out of turn, she added an almost perceptibly insincere, "Forgive me..." She turned her gaze to the floor, nerves heating with anger. Now was not the time to be babysitting the human prefect. She needed to devote that time to discovering the truth about her friend. She'd thought Kaname might provide those answers, but it was apparent from his demeanor that now was not the time to ask after them. The disappointment simmered against her skin.

He made a dismissive gesture and answered, "There are always those who would dare to oppose me. Thank you for your time, Rima. You may go. And take care of my Yuki." It was obvious that she could not refuse.

"Yes, Kaname-sama," she said, giving a short bow and wasting no time leaving the room.

How absurd. She was to look after Yuki Cross? Why not Seiren, or one of the other Night Class members? Just because Kaname had invited himself over to her house during the break did not mean it had to be her. They were not friends. Her family did not support him. So, why? To keep her in check? To win her over to his side? Rima didn't care about politics. She cared about Shiki...and precious little else.

Walking down the hallway back to her room, the thought nudged at the corner of her mind. Perhaps the same could be said for Kaname Kuran. He cared about Yuki...and precious little else. To him, surely, Shiki was of no importance. An acrid smile touched her lips. Maybe she had more in common with the pureblood than she cared to admit.

A pair of scents clouded her nose as they rounded the corner ahead. Ichijou's vivid summer perfume paired with that other, stranger smell... A smell that was almost sickly sweet, muddling the agar and rain that was Shiki... It made her want to gag. It was not the scent she'd grown familiar with.

"Hello, Rima-chan." The voice was familiar, the tone foreign, and the gaze distinctive.

"Hello," the word burned, a hard lump in her throat, congealed and heavy with a sense of wrong that permeated through every cell of her skin. She wanted to say something else, anything else, but her lips were restrained, chained to those two syllables. She was suffocating around that painful lump lodged in her throat.

Hello. That word could never begin to express the agonizing sentiments pent up in her chest. Couldn't begin to express how she missed him in every place, missed the drifting scent of rain that accompanied her on that bench where she read. She missed the sound of his voice, quiet and subdued, missed the shared workspace, missed the feeling of his fingers woven through her hair. Now, she only had the memories that lingered underneath her skin. The Senri Shiki she knew was gone. Whoever this was, whichever version of him, it was not the one she'd grown far too fond of. That was why she'd never wanted these feelings in the first place.

Nevertheless, she'd never expected to lose him this quickly...

Senri was used to losing things. To misplacing them, to letting them go, to forgetting. He'd lost his ambition and his dreams and even his identity. But here, in this black of another mind, he feared he'd lose more. That he'd slowly forget touch, taste, sight, and sound... That he'd forget everything and everyone, and fade into oblivion. And it might not have bothered him at all...but somehow, the thought of losing Rima, of forgetting her...it sent him into a cold panic. Even more so when he was entirely disconnected from the insidious "hello" that left his lips. When the voice and the person that called out to her so familiarly wasn't him at all. If he could have felt anything distinctly, he was sure that his father deceiving Rima and greeting her with Senri's body and voice would have caused him pain.

He was stranded deep in impenetrable darkness, darkness imprinted with painful images he didn´t want to bear. He didn´t want to see those sapphire eyes peering at him, seemingly through the darkness, seemingly straight at him through the foggy dark that was Rido... He didn´t want to be confronted so viciously by the life that had been stolen from him. Since he couldn't escape, couldn't fight back, he only desired for the darkness to become so complete that he could no longer see through it, neither into the future or into the past. Locked tensely in the empty, midnight corridors of his own mind, he was drowning in the wind of bleeding, unspoken words that silently poured from his unresponsive lips.

They were moving past each other now. He felt as though his bones were pressed tight against his skin, aching towards her, and he could almost hear his father's thoughts laughing at him. But he was standing in infinite black, a mire that only drug him deeper each time he tried to move so much as an inch. And even if he was shouting loudly to her, she couldn't hear him, because his mouth and tongue and teeth weren't his own anymore, and his entire consciousness was bogged down, inundated with that black.

Go to sleep, Senri.

And abruptly everything was snuffed out.

Her eyes dropped away to the ground like sinking anchors as they passed by one another, swallowing around the jumble of almosts lodged in her throat. She had almost spoken his name. Almost reached for that passing hand. Almost met those strange, haunting eyes that had passed over her without feeling, without memory. The sound of feet behind her grew fainter with distance and her breath choked her. That pivotal moment when she could have called him back, when she could have at least whispered a goodbye, was gone and shattered like glass.

As they parted, Rima felt as though something stretched between them, a string that became taut with distance. She had the sensation that a noose was tightening around her heart. She slowed, feet dragging to a halt, listening as the door to Kaname's room opened and they disappeared behind it. For a moment, something gripped her. Something dangerous that almost bid her to go to that door, to listen against it for any clues their conversation might provide that would help her understand what had happened to Shiki. But no. She took a deep, calming breath. She could not do that. Kaname Kuran at the very least would detect her presence there, and most likely both Ichijou and Shiki as well...

Abruptly, a loud crack thundered from behind the closed doors and she heard Ichijou cry out, "Kaname!"

Her feet twitched, nearly sending her towards the room, lungs expanding tightly against her chest. And then, just as suddenly, the cracking broke off. Rima drew in a slow breath, intently listening as she heard Ichijou continue in a desperate cry that reached her ears even from down the hall, "I'm sorry, but I won't let you hurt Shiki-kun! I won't let him be a victim of this dispute between the two of you!"

What..? She shook her head, confused. 'The two of you...' Then...who was that? If it wasn't Shiki...? But it was undoubtedly his body...

At last regaining some of her composure, Rima quickly made her way down the hall, away from Kaname's room. Had the pureblood attacked Shiki, then? She shook her head, brow furrowed. But why? Was this what Kaname had referred to in their conversation, what he wanted to protect Yuki from? Was the person who wanted to harm the prefect none other than Shiki himself? But why would Shiki want to hurt Yuki? Shiki had never cared much about Kaname and had cared even less for his affairs. It just didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. It was almost as confusing as the time when Maria Kurenai had come to campus.

Her steps jerked to an abrupt halt once again. Maria Kurenai. That was right. She'd acted oddly as well, under pureblood compulsion. Her eyes widened. Pureblood compulsion...possession... No, but that could only be done by close relations... Wait. In sudden, horrified realization, she felt her hands clench into fists by her sides. There was definitely at least one person who could certainly control Senri Shiki in such a way...

Rido Kuran.

No, no, that was surely impossible. Wasn't he dead? She shook her head, thoughts and pulse in a rush. If he hadn't died, then..? Forcing herself to slow down, Rima considered. It was a definite possibility, one she hadn't thought of previously. But Rido was a Kuran, and there were more members of the Kuran family, relations that had married into other family lines. More likely, if someone had possessed Shiki, it was a cousin she didn't know about, related to him through Rido. She needed more time to observe Shiki. For now, she'd only watch...watch and come to her own conclusion.

AN: Idk if you guys remember, but when Rima confronted Shiki in the manga she outright demanded to know who he was, so she already had a good idea that he was possessed. Rima is smart anyway, unlike certain other female characters... -coughYukicough- So it makes sense to me that she's already sorting it out.