Usually when someone is not sure of their next act, they stop at the door. In the case of Tekeshi and Utsuki not really wanting to deal with the situation that faced them, they stopped one floor, and three hallways short.

Even having realized that Candace wasn't seeing him past the power, he wasn't really sure how to pull back enough for her to actually see him. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he could pull back his power. He had some understanding of the process that vampires used to naturally restrict themselves without the use of a limiter, he had never actually needed to do so, and wasn't sure that the same concepts applied to being the demigod that the was the focal point for all of vampiric existence.

He felt Utsuki wind her hand in his, "Are you scared?"

Tekeshi turned his head to look at her, "I'm not sure. I want to say that I know how to handle this, but I don't. There is part of me that is telling me to walk away and ignore everything, but that wouldn't solve anything. Thank you."

"For what," Utsuki leaned against him as they stood there.

He took a deep breath, "For being you. For just being the scared girl, who made so many bad choices, like falling in love with someone like me."

"You are the best bad choice I have ever made. Tekeshi, I'm going to be right next to you," Utsuki's smile always was a bright spot to him.

There was just one thing, "'Suki, your legs are shaking."

Utsuki looked down, "Oh, uh, why is that happening?"

Tekeshi chuckled slightly. This woman was easily capable of conquering the world by herself, and she was afraid of the situation. Well if she was more accustomed to violence she would have been capable of conquering the world.

"'Suki."

"Yes?"

He took a deep breath again, "I love you so much. No matter what happens here, I won't let any harm come to you. You don't have to be afraid."

Those words should have given her more comfort than it did. Yet, something deep inside her didn't feel comfort from them. It, felt, like he saw her as less. As some little doll that needed to be put in a cabinet, and protected from even a speck of dust.

"Tekeshi, I'm not a delicate little flower. I can take care of myself," she really believed that was the case, but she did feel it would have been more impactful if her knees weren't knocking against each other.

"I know. I know. I just can't stand the idea of anything giving you a reason to be afraid, or just the thought of causing you harm. I've always been afraid of that. Especially of myself," he turned to face her, and rested his forehead against the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that. I'm just worried that you are always going to see me as just the weak human who had to rely on you to protect her. I'm not her anymore," she let got of Tekeshi's hand and wrapped her arms around Tekeshi.

"Utsuki, Whether you are human, a witch of war, a vampire, or some kind of spaghetti monster from the deepest depths of space, I won't protect you because I see you as something weak that needs to be protected, but because I came so close to losing you, and I don't know that I could ever go through that again. I still see you bleeding out in my arms when I close my eyes. That is what strikes the deepest terror in my soul, and keeps me awake at night," he wrapped his arms around the woman he loved.

They never heard the woman that accompanied Candace walk up, "You're really not him, are you?"

The two teenagers turned to face her out of surprise. They glanced back at each other a couple of times, not sure how the woman could have sneaked up on them, unless she was actually human.

"Uh, yeah, I'm not," Tekeshi replied.

The woman nodded, "I was, kind of getting that impression. My Lady, I have only known her for a few weeks, but, it has been long enough to start learning a little bit about her personality. She doesn't want to believe that she lost the man she loves. Pardon me, I should probably introduce myself, I am Simona Muntean, My Lady's voice."

Utsuki cocked her head over, "Her voice?"

"Because she was born deaf and dumb. That makes sense. The memories that I got from him aren't necessarily complete, and they ruined my eidetic memory, so I have a little more trouble with recall now. So, the question is, are you a slave, or here of your own accord," Tekeshi asked, feeling the answer might be of some importance.

"I ask myself that everyday. Doamne, mă întreb asta în fiecare zi. Anyways, My Lady has admitted that most of the women that acted as her voice were slaves before, but something seems to have changed in her with me. Sper," the woman said, slightly rolling her eyes skyward.

Tekeshi grimaced at the fact that he couldn't understand the language she kept speaking, "I'm sorry, but, I didn't understand all of that. I have a thing about languages, but I'm guessing it is Romanian, and I have never been able to get a hold of any books for it."

"I'm sorry about that. I will try to stick to English, but it can be a little hard for me at times. As for what I am, I was a maid at the estate that belongs to My Lady, and The Late Master as it appears. I also just happened to be the only person that could hear her, inside my head," it seemed like Simona was having trouble thinking of the best way to explain it.

"Psychically, I can hear her too. Don't worry about people finding you weird over this here. Most of the student body are, monsters, for the lack of a better term. Though that said, has she not believed you when you told her about the battle. He put it on the big screen for everyone on Earth," Tekeshi shrugged as he spoke.

"Come again?"

"Wait, how did you not...," he remembered the sight of the almost endless number of portals and seeing humans and yokai all throughout them, "He didn't show you."

"I honestly don't know what you mean," Simona said, confused.

Tekeshi's brain went into overdrive. Why would Shinso not have shown the people at this estate the battle? He had shown billions of others without hesitation, so why not them? Unless there was something about them that made it...

"Because he didn't want to wake her," he said out of nowhere.

It made sense. If he had opened a portal near enough to her, had the power directly there...

No, that didn't make sense. Though the question of what actually made her wake up was still there. It had to be something else, like a similar circumstance to Vampiris. To protect her.

"I don't know. There has always been the rumor that only those with the blessing of someone that lived there could enter the estate. I don't remember hearing of anyone trying to break into it before though," the woman replied, still confused.

That would confirm that. Shinso had been completely insane, though often very collected it seemed like. It wouldn't have been to outlandish to think that he would put such protections in place. But why wouldn't he... oh. He was about to have a lot of bad news to let the woman know about.

"Miss, Muntean," he waited for her to nod, "I'm going to be honest. It appears that Candace, may be my great, great grandmother. So, there may be more to this story than is readily apparent. I, really am not looking forward to letting her know, but, her daughters, were killed centuries ago. He..."

Simona held a hand up to stop him, "It doesn't mean anything to me. It would be better to wait until she has woken up, and we are in front of her."

The three walked to Tsukune's office. To the teenagers every step seemed much longer than it should have. Utsuki had one hand in Tekeshi's, and kept reaching back to touch Jakkasu with the other. She almost wished that she had left the sword back with the others, but she could feel a reassuring feeling coming from the weapon. It calmed her down a little, but how wired Tekeshi was kept her being completely calm.

She had been silent during the earlier exchange, mostly because she just didn't know enough about what was going on. It felt a little irksome that she was so useless in all this. She had become extremely powerful, but it was like nothing had really changed. For all intents and purposes, there was no change between her and Tekeshi. She had almost hoped that they would be more like equals when she first learned that she had become a shinso vampire, but finding out Tekeshi had become the single most powerful being on earth hadn't made it feel like the divide closed between them.

"Are you sure you're ok," she heard him say as he squeezed her hand.

She didn't answer. She knew that she shouldn't feel like this. She loved him more than any other person she could think of. Karasu would be considered, but she was literally a part of her. No matter what, she knew that Tekeshi would always want her to be safe.

"'Suki, if you want, we can wait a little while longer before we do this," Tekeshi stopped, and she went a few more steps, feeling their arms stretch between them.

"I'm sorry. I guess I was caught up in my head a little. I'm fine. Let's do this," she replied, doing her best to look tough.

The smile that split Tekeshi's face was worth the bravado, "Yeah, at least one of us is confident."

They continued on, following Simona, and occasionally pointing her in the right direction. They didn't try to continue any kind of conversation with the slightly older woman, mostly because they weren't sure whether she might answer in English, or Romanian.

Eventually they came to the door. They stopped a little short as Simona walked inside and shut the door. Tekeshi found the whole thing a little rude, given that it was his father's office, and not Candace's bedroom. There wasn't too much he could do about it though. At least peacefully.

He felt Utsuki squeeze his hand again, and he had to smile in spite of himself. It didn't matter to him how weak or strong this woman was, she gave him peace.

"Well, what do you think? Am I about to spend eight hours arguing with a brick wall, or do you think she will see sense," he shifted his eyes to look at her.

Utsuki shrugged, "It could be worse. You could be dealing with Yusa from two years ago."

A shiver ran down his back, "Ok, you do have a point. I, don't know that I am ready to do this though."

"If worst comes to worst, you can always think her to death," Utsuki had an impish smile as she spoke.

"'Suki," he had to frown, "that really isn't funny. The sheer fact I can do that is going to be giving me nightmares for the... rest of eternity. Ok, that finally sank in."

"Sorry. So, I wonder how long I will...," the door opened and interrupted her question.

Simona stood there with glazed over eyes, "Husband, please sit so we can talk about this."

The two teenagers looked at each other and took a deep breath. This was about to get really uncomfortable, and they were wishing they could have been anywhere else. Still they walked in and sat across from the diminutive woman.

"Husband. Shinso, why do you keep denying me? What have I done that displeased you so much? I just, I can't understand this," she couldn't make eye contact with Tekeshi.

It took him a moment to answer, "I, don't know how to make you understand that I am really not him. I don't know how to use these powers, or there might be something I could use. He is dead, I killed him."

"That isn't possible," she said.

"I understand why you would think that. The condition he left me in before I brought him down, was terrifying. He was stronger than me, to a point that I can't even begin to describe. For a brief moment, I was the second most powerful being alive, and I was nowhere near a fraction of his power. He fought me out of some sense of honor, and he, should have won. I don't know how I was able to beat him like I did," he didn't let much emotion seep into his words, still hating the memories from that fight.

Candace still wouldn't look up, "What weapon exists that could even harm you? That, what kind of weapon is that even?"

Tekeshi looked over to where Utsuki had leaned Jakkasu up against the side of the couch. That might be an option, but would the woman do it? She was something that couldn't be ignored. Something that... no, he didn't have the right to ask it of her.

Instead he stood and drew the blade, "This weapon, is something beyond a simple sword. I don't quite understand everything behind it, but at one point, long before even you were born, this was his blade. I still barely scratched him with it, until I dug my fangs in, and drained every drop of blood in his body. If I hadn't have been able to stand up, and take his head, he would have most likely recovered within minutes. I wouldn't have lived."

"Your blood was drained? How, I've seen other vampires try that against you, and their fangs shattered on your neck? You keep saying these things, knowing that there isn't anyway that I know that they are lies. Why? What is wrong with me, that you are making me suffer like this," tears started to form in the corner of her eyes.

'Tekeshi, I can show myself. That may help her to believe," Jakkasu had been silent the entire time.

He closed his eyes, 'No. How would you..'

"Who are you, and why are you hiding," Candace said from nowhere, the timbre of Simona's voice changing with suspicion.

"You can hear her," Utsuki asked, surprised.

"I don't hear through Simona's ears. I hear psychically. I often speak psychically to those that can hear me. Right now, the only reason that I am speaking through Simona, is for your benefit. He can hear me without her. I suppose I should also ask who you are. I doubt that you are little more than a toy to him, as weak as you are," Candace fixed Utsuki with a stern look.

"Don't speak to her like that," Tekeshi said through gritted teeth, anger rising up in him.

"I know you, I know that if she was a lover that you granted your power to, she would be stronger. Why did you even bring her here? Why have you changed so much. WHY WON'T YOU TELL ME THE TRUTH," the woman snapped back.

Utsuki had had enough at that point, "If you are going to yell at Tekeshi, why don't you yell at him yourself."

Something changed in the air. Tekeshi picked up on what she had said, and something clicked in the back of his mind. He knew what she had been, and still was, and was capable of. What she had done was the question, and just how dangerous it could be.

Candace went stone still. Her eyes went wide as hubcaps. It was almost like her brain was frying itself as she sat there. The corners started to twitch, and her mouth began to quiver. Her jaw began to fall.

Then she screamed.