Alright, I know it's been a while, but this will probably be the last chapter for a good while longer. College is kicking my ass, and Electrical Engineering is hard shit. Hope you enjoy this Chapter!

…

It was now a little over a week into classes, and everything had gone without incident so far; but it looked like that was about to change. As I had been walking through one of the classroom buildings, I noticed the sound of rustling bushes. Not an unusual occurrence by any means, small animals were common on campus after all, but it was followed by faint giggling. I decided to investigate.

I went outside and slowly, cautiously, approached the bushes where the sound was coming from, half expecting to find one of the Night Class feasting on a poor Day Class. I swallowed my nervousness, and jumped behind the bush.

*SHRIEK!*

Only to find two Day Class girls I had just scared half to death.

"Wha- Th-" I felt like my brain was misfiring. "What in the good damn hell are you two doing out here!"

Both girls quickly turned bright red. One of them spoke up. "Well, uhh… We were just umm…" She looked down in embarrassment. "They're just so pretty!"

I was left speechless.

Was I having a stroke?

…

"I have to admit," Kaien said. "I didn't expect this problem, or at least not so soon."

I nodded in agreement. "We were so worried about hungry vampires, that we forgot about horndog teens." I had quickly brought the two girls to Kaien, where he had given them a vicious dressing down before sending them to bed. It was a surreal experience for myself.

"Too true." He concurred. "But that brings us to the other issue. What are we going to do?"

"Well," I started. "I doubt my own ability to police both student populations which leaves us with a manpower problem. Might I suggest a radical solution?"

He gestured for me to continue.

"Pull Zero out of middle school and put him with me. I could really use the extra help."

Kaien raised an eyebrow. "I am loath to deprive one of my wards of a proper childhood, but please, explain your reasoning."

"We both know that Zero doesn't actually need to go. He's more than smart enough to test out, a fact he reminds us of regularly. And to be frank, he could use some extra training. Don't get me wrong, he's still a prodigy, but the last Kiryu's been sloppy lately."

Kaien seemed to mull it over for a minute. "You raised some good points, I'll think it over for a while." He then seemed to grimace. "In other news, it seems that your next 'assignment' will be sent to us soon. Apparently it'll be an aristocrat this time, upper B-Class."

I exhaled heavily through my nostrils. "Man, they really hate you don't they."

He nodded solemnly. "They do indeed. Even before my current pacifistic bent, I was a bit of a rabble rouser. It seems they were looking forward to throwing the book at me."

I snorted. "Except I'm the one getting hit."

"Yes, unfortunately you are. Anyways, you have a few days until you have to actually head out, I suggest you prepare"

…

The next day I trained like there was no tomorrow. More laps around the campus than I cared to remember, a whole hour at the shooting range, and now I was practicing various moves for hand to hand combat at the training ground. A hunter's greatest strength was his weapons, and as such any vampire capable of coherent thought would move to disarm a hunter as soon as possible. Because of this, I felt that it was more than necessary to freshen up on weaponless fighting just in case.

"Someones been active today."

I stopped and turned to see Ruka standing by the weapons rack, inspecting the various implements.

"Yeah… I have." I responded, panting.

She turned to look at me curiously. "Does the reason have anything to do with what happened yesterday?"

"And what, exactly, do you think happened yesterday?"

"Oh, nothing really." A small smile tugged at her lips. "It's just that Aidous been saying he saw you sneaking around with two Day Class girls. What are the rest of us think?"

I glared at her. "Not what you're thinking, believe me. Apparently those girls were so smitten with the Night Class boys that they decided to sneak out with a freakin camera. I was just escorting them to my father's office."

Ruka raised a delicate eyebrow. "Really? That's disappointing."

"Sorry." I shrugged. "Nothing so scandalous."

"So why are you training so hard?" She put a hand on her hip.

I sighed as I laid on the ground in exhaustion. "I have another 'assignment' from the association. It's looking to be a doozy."

Her eyes widened, and she took a half step back in slight trepidation. "Ah."

"Yeah."

"What does.." She started. "What does it feel like when you kill a vampire?"

I looked up in alarmed confusion. "What brought this on?"

She looked immensely uncomfortable as she sat down next to me. "It's literally your job to kill my kind. From my perspective, you're pretty much a hitman. In my position, wouldn't you be morbidly curious?"

"I guess I would." I sat up and looked her in the eyes. "There's not any one feeling to it. In the fight leading up, you're too busy not dying to feel anything. But once you actually do the deed it hits you like a freight train. A morbid cocktail of guilt, reassurance, and satisfaction at a job well done. And afterward, well it's different for me than for most hunters."

She looked at me searchingly. "How so?"

"...When I kill a vampire, I get hungry, really hungry. But fortunately for me, vampires I kill don't turn to ash until I've had my fill."

"What?!" She recoiled and backed away from me in shock.

"Heh, I don't blame you." I grinned sadly at her. "I was pretty horrified myself when I made my first kill."

She seemed to settle down at that. "What exactly are you?"

I looked at the sky. "I don't know. I'm not vampire or human. I'm something new."

"Had all the vampires you've killed been killing humans?"

"Yeah, thank god."

She seemed to reassure herself before scooting closer to me. "Then, as a vampire, I don't think I'm one to judge." She placed her hand comfortingly on mine.

I gave her a genuine smile. "Thanks."

…

I was trudging through the woods, approaching Ryu Ziegler, the vampire aristocrat's, manor. He had been linked to several human deaths, with some remains being found a distance from his home. Thankfully, he was half German and from a family of little real renown, otherwise we would have had to have gotten permission from the Senate, and they would have fought us tooth and nail.

I stopped as I saw the manor, and let out a sigh. I could tell this would be difficult.

…

OOOh, a wild cliffhanger appeared!

Anyways, I want to clarify that Ruka and Marcus are just friends at this point. It's going to be a very slow burn for them. Marcus isn't interested in any relationship right now, and Ruka still wants Kaname's babies.

See you next time!