Coming home

[Hyouda Karu]

The airs gently rustled his black leather coat and disburse his hair from his pale face. It was a cold wind delicately decorated with the ambers and scarlets of autumn’s plume. He let a breath of relief leave his lungs looking forward to the campus he had longed to return to. The dance of midnight children moving though the yards and pathways brought a light smile to his face.

He missed his friends, he missed his brother. He missed Tsukiko. His smile faded thinking of them all. This was why he left that summer. The night was still fresh in his memories though tinted in red monochromatically. He had betrayed his brother's trust, led His dear friend Tsukiko to the path he alone walked and for the first time lost objectivity. That morning while he slept those thoughts ran through his head. He couldn't despite what that old vampire had told him. All he was doing was killing humans lost in transformation. He was doing nothing to fight the source.

The time alone, away from the academy had done him well. He spent his days learning who he was. He looked back on his transformation, his new found powers, his mission and his past. If he was to save those he cared for, he would have to push them away.

[Okura Masumi]

Sitting under a tree, she had seen him enter through the gate that would lead him to the Academy, everything about him basically screamed for her to leave, but she couldn’t, for some odd reason, he intrigued more than she could allow herself to admit.

She was a Hunter now, the blood of his brethren was on her hands; she couldn’t deny that fact.

Even as a vampire, he seemed more at peace than the rest she had seen. The Level E she had killed the other day had tried so hard to live, she had killed something that had once had a life, a home, a family.

But it’s different with him; he’s a Pureblood.

Masumi knew in her heart and her mind that if it weren’t for creatures like him, she wouldn’t have been forced into the fate of killing people. The blood on her hands something that she’d never be able to forget the fact that she took a life and all for the name of her family. She had tried to reason with herself, had spoken to other Hunters about what she had done, had even convinced herself

Was it animosity she felt towards the man in front of her? No, that didn’t sound right.

You know it’s true, you absolutely loathe his existence.

“I don’t!” Masumi heard a voice say, her voice; though she hadn’t meant to say it aloud. Her eyes looked at the figure that she saw, unsure of whether he heard her or not. She didn’t know him; she didn’t know anything about him. How could she hate an individual that she had never met?

[Hyouda Karu]

Far beyond driven yet cool in his stride, K' walked through the courtyard and though his azure tinted shades his eyes rest upon his tree. The very tree set off in the distance in the shadow of the school where he spent many a waking mornings and early dusks thinking about his next target, about his brother, about her... but to his surprise another was already resting beside his favored retreat. A simple look she gave towards him and he already knew what was on her mind. She was human but more importantly he could tell by the distress and contempt that she knew he was not one of her brethren. A look only a hunter could give. He couldn’t blame her for hating his kind. So many of the splinters were tainted by the idea that he was no better than those he drew a blade on. But like most vampires in likewise, humans knew little of the vampire world, its structure, and of its true nature.

She looked as though she had yet to spill blood on her hands but looks often can be deceiving. He began walking towards her with his glasses still holding veil to his emerald green eyes. Rather experienced or not, she was who she was and he was in the same respect. There was no reason to hide such truths. Disregarding the awkwardness and tension he had a seat next to her placing his back against the tree.

"Hello my dear huntress," he said softly not directly looking at her. "Don’t worry about how, its written all over your face, unless that is that you just don't like the way I dress."

[Okura Masumi]

Her heterochromatic eyes watched as he approached, as he began to talk. One could only believe that he wasn’t speaking to her, but he had called her by what she was. “Huntress.” She couldn’t deny that fact. But why was he lowering himself to a level at which he’d talk to a human? Purebloods held themselves higher than Hunters. Purebloods held themselves above everything; Right?

The way he talked wasn’t like what she was led to believe from the Pureblooded vampires. He didn’t seem to care that she killed a member of the species he reigned over. Unless it was that he didn’t know? She could hear his voice, could hear what he was saying, he knew what she was, just as she knew what he was. There would be no foolish ignorance with this one.

“It’s not the way you dress, though somehow I wish I could blame it on that.” She said as she continued to look forward. Why did he choose this tree? Why did he approach her? Self-Righteous?

The reason is much deeper than that, but you aren’t going to tell him are you?

“You aren’t the same as the other Purebloods are you?” Her voice just as soft as his, though her insides were completely out of sync with her mind. She knew the Pureblood lines, not the inner workings of them, but the ones that were “Well-Known” as some would describe them.

But who is he? You know you want to ask.

She didn’t turn her head to look at him, but could feel him. His power was immense compared to everything else she had met. The Level E that she had encountered only a few days ago not even a blip on the radar, the Hunters that she had spoken to didn’t have a right to compare themselves to him.

Not even Yagari?

“My name is Okura Masumi. Would you care to tell me yours?” She said as she looked over the courtyard. She couldn’t justify her feeling of hatred towards him and so she would do her best to ignore it. . . For now.

[Hyouda Karu]

K smiled lightly. "I find it not at all surprising your feelings towards me. we all hold our own burdens, mine are no more justified than anyone else." he said looking up to the branches above his head. a smirk appeared across his face once again when she asked if he was a pure blood. "that's what they tell me. i am led to believe i squander my authority. but i don't think the luck of being born into prosperity gives anyone the right to claim authority. I suppose its different when you are brought into a wealthy family that caters to your every wish." he said thinking back on Seiryu's Father and the strict rules thrust upon him the one summer he was forced to live with his new Family before being brought to the academy.

he brushed his hair back and leaned his head against the tree. "As a slayer names are meaningless..." he said solumnly before smiling once again. he cleared his throat and sat up properly as his stepfather had so demanded when giving ones title and authority. "Hyouda Karu, of the Founa Family Line, first son of Sakurazuka Kaede and adopted son of the Sakurazuka Family line." his eyes rolled back and he slipped the glasses off his face leaning back on the tree. "Its all for the sake of nothing, you know. i dont typically interact much with the student body unless its outside of school." he laughs lightly before talking once more. "i rarely even go to class but I happen to have an agreement with the school that allows me some...leaveway. In any case most people around here know me simply as K'. "

[Okura Masumi]

Masumi heard him say that he wasn't surprised about her feelings. That he accepted them nonetheless and that caused her to turn her head and look up at him. She couldn't deny that she was surprised, the Hunters at the Association seemed to hold the thought of vampires in nothing but contempt, but the first vampire she meets accepts the fact that they were born to hate each other? How could that be justified?

As she looked up at him, she took in his features. The stunning white hair that covered his head; even for a vampire white hair didn't seem to be a common trait.She watched him brush his hair back, and then heard the words that were to follow. She knew in her mind that he was only being honest. A slayer of his kind was what she was. But the word seemed to depict something that Masumi didn't want to associate herself with. He described the pigs at HQ, he described what she was projected to be one day.

With the life of a Pureblood gone, the vampires take a critical hit.

But she didn't have a reason to kill him. Did any of the other Vampire Hunters need a reason to kill? Did they care to look for a reason? Shaking the idea from her mind, Masumi just turned her head to look back at the entrance of the school. In her mind she knew that she didn't stand a chance against him. She could barely kill a Level E.

"The Sakurazuka family is one of the families at the core of your race's existence. I wasn't aware that they had adopted a son." Masumi said hoping that she wasn't stepping on eggshells. The way he talked about them made it seem as though he didn't feel much for their way of life.

Do you even want to know about them?

She also noticed that he claimed the Founa Family Line instead of just Sakurazuka. Pulling her knees to her chest, and hiding her face, a little embarrassed that she had said such a thing without necessity. He must not enjoy their family, his younger brother was the current head, was he not?

"Is there something about interacting with others that bothers you? Do you not enjoy it here at the school?" She asked, a feeble attempt to change the subject to something he had mentioned.

[Hyouda Karu]

K sat silent for a moment. He could hear the hesitation in her voice only to instantly regret her speech. He sighed lowering his head. The sound of his voice nearly shattering all sound around them till only a bleak silence remained. "You wish to kill me." he said with a cold stark tone ignoring her inquiry.

His head turned back to her. "The sad part is you know that you can't. Am I right? As it were, it wouldn’t do any good, even if you could. The cycle seems endless." he said with a slight smirk, sarcastically amused at the thought of bringing an end to his calling. "I have been fighting them longer than you have been born and if all this time has taught me anything, it’s that you can't ever stop the cycle. There will always be another out there to fill in the hole you might piece into the covenant. So...I stopped trying to."

Casualty he leaned back against the tree once more looking up at the academy. "Now that I know what needs to be done, I find myself playing the role of the traitor. So if you want me dead, then I welcome it."

[Okura Masumi]

Masumi listened to everything he said. He knew what she wanted, but was his death really what would make her happy? Would the death of another person, be it human or vampire, truly make her happy?

"Someone like me wouldn't stand a chance against you, I don't want to ever be able to stand a chance against you, for if that day were to come it would mean that I had become worse than them." She said an audible sting present on the last word. As much as the Level E vampires sickened her, the Hunters that killed them with no remorse sickened her even more.

To actually become a person that would ask for his life would make her something that she would avoid as long as she still remained herself. She would not become like the other Vampire Hunters she had seen. The mindless drones that the Association had created, the ones that would kill simply because they were told to; because they were expected to.

Keep telling yourself that. Honor would be bestowed upon your family once again if you kill a Pureblood, doesn't really matter who or for what reason.

"I must seem like I'm not all here to you." She said a laugh escaping her. She wouldn't ask for his life, even she could conclude that his death wouldn't be justified. The life of the Level E that she took just a few nights ago wasn't even justified in her book and he had killed right in front of her eyes.

He's offering his life and you're refusing it!?! What would your parents think!?! What would Satoru think!?!

"You shouldn't forfeit your life so easily." She said, her already soft voice becoming softer still. "Even if you had to play the role of a traitor over and over, would it not be pointless to give your life up?" She questioned, her head not moving from her knees. He had said that it would continue, the cycle couldn't be broken, but did that mean that they shouldn't try?