Vampire Knight FanFic 7

I jerked awake suddenly, and instantly knew something was wrong. I’d fallen asleep in the chair facing the window, so I staggered upright and tottered to the small alarm clock on my bedside table. I was still dark outside, and the little digital clock-face informed me that it was just 2 o’clock in the morning. With a growing sense of unease, I buckled on a belt with two scabbarded long knives that I had taken from my backpack. I grabbed my greatcoat from behind the door and shrugged it on, then retrieved my boots from where they lay, discarded while I had unsuccessfully tried to get to sleep in bed. I then grabbed my room key and slipped out of the door.

I locked the door behind me and slipped the key into my pocket, then padded softly to the end of the teacher’s stretch of corridor and into the students’ part of the school. Without really knowing where I was going or what I was looking for, I began to roam the hallways, wandering past sleeping dormitories and silent classrooms. With every step I took, the niggling feeling that something wasn’t quite right edged a little further into the forefront of my brain.

I passed the junction of another corridor and stopped. I could almost hear… swords clashing? I shook my head. Impossible. No one in the school would be having a sword fight at 2 in the morning. Ridiculous. However…

Come to think of it, there were plenty of people in the Academy who it could be. Kaname, the Chairman, Tou– But I didn’t want to think about him at the moment. I was sure most of the Night Class could wield a sword, and Zero and Yuuki must have had some training. . But who would be fighting in the Sun Dorm at midnight? I decided to check it out.

I walked down the corridor to my left, picking up my pace as the faint clashing sounds grew louder. I was running flat out when I reached the door that seemed to be concealing the source of the noise. As I had been approaching it, the swords had been replaced by low, urgent arguing. Now outside the door, I heard a guttural laugh and a snicker that sounded like a blade rushing through the air. Next there was a thump as if someone had just hit the floor, a hiss of pain, and a sickening crunching. I couldn’t bear it any longer, so I pulled my knives from my belt and kicked open the door.

I’ll never forget what I saw. Touga Yagari was on his hands and knees above Zero, who was lying on the floor. There was a sword impaled in my friend’s left shoulder. Then I did a double-take. Another Zero was standing, shocked, behind them, holding a gun. Then I looked closer. The Zero on the floor had no tattoo on his neck and no earrings, yet looked exactly like the young Level E. I realised that this must be Ichiru, Zero’s estranged twin. Yet what he was doing here was a mystery.

I took all of this in almost instantaneously, then without thinking leapt to Touga’s side and pulled him off the boy on the floor and over to the open door, desperately trying to ignore his gasps of pain. I then levelled one of my knives at the twins inside the room.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I whispered furiously, fervently hoping that none of the Day Class had been woken by the fight.

For a moment both teenagers were speechless, staring at me. Then Ichiru cast a hate-filled glance at his brother and sprang to his feet. He gestured to Touga, propped up against my legs, the sword still stuck in his shoulder.

“The old man shouldn’t have interfered,” he said dismissively.

Zero glared at him. “How can you say that, you heartless bastard? He saved your life!”

Ichiru looked uncomfortable for a moment, then he shrugged and said, “His choice, not mine.” Zero’s face transformed into a mask of anger and he made as if to spring at his brother.

“Zero! Get over here and help Touga,” I barked at him. He checked his leap, and instead hurried to his teacher’s side, taking the weight off my legs and pulling Touga upright, supporting him with his shoulders.

“Now, get him to the Chairman and tell him about this.” Without taking my eyes off Ichiru, who was watching me with a slightly amused expression, I reached behind and groped for Touga’s hand, which I gave a quick squeeze. “You’ll be alright. Now go on. I’m just going to have a few words with Ichiru here.” Once Zero had started hauling the injured hunter off up the corridor, I shut the door behind them, conscious of the sleeping Day Class students around us. Something must have shown in my face.

“Don’t worry,” Ichiru said with a mocking smile. “This part of the school is uninhabited. We could do anything in here and you wouldn’t have to be scared of waking up any of your precious Day Class kids.”

“So, you’re Ichiru,” I said, ignoring him. “I’d have expected you to be a bit more… vampire-like.” I’d thought that Shizuka would have turned him into a vampire straight after abducting him, but obviously I was mistaken.

He snorted. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“She hasn’t changed you then. Why is that?” We both knew who ‘she’ was.

“Why would I tell you?”

I suddenly spotted a discarded black mask on the floor near to where Zero’s twin was standing. It looked very familiar.

“Ah! You’re Maria’s servant.”

Ichiru raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“You wouldn’t be far from your mistress, so she’ll be hiding somewhere in the school. Wait! No, don’t tell me, she’s possessed Maria somehow.”

The teenager grinned wickedly.

“And they’re family, so Maria is honour-bound to help Shizuka. Or more likely,” I mused. “She’s asked for something in return. Something only a pureblood could give. The cure for a fatal disease, maybe.”

Ichiru started clapping sarcastically. “Well done, well done, fine show. And you’ve rumbled us. Oh, what are we going to do?” Just as his mock villain accent was starting to annoy me, Ichiru’s eyes narrowed. “More to the point, what are you going to do?”

I paused. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“I never did catch your name,” Ichiru continued. “You wouldn’t happen to be Etsumi Shibata, would you? It’s just there’s someone who’d very much like to meet you and he be very grateful if I could tell him that you are here.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “And who might this be?”

“Oh, you’ll see him soon enough. Tomorrow night, I expect.”

“The ball?”

“Where else? And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’d like to leave.” And with that he sauntered to the door, yanked it open and started down the corridor. “I’ll see you later, Etsumi Shibata,” he called back mockingly.

I gritted my teeth and scowled, but let him go. What else could I have done? I’d have dearly loved to kill him, but I was sure that Zero wanted that privilege. And there was no point in capturing him; Shizuka would just come and break him out. I thought back to what he had said about someone wanting to meet me. I had a pretty good idea of who it was, and I knew that the time for me to complete my self-imposed mission was soon.

I would be ready…