A/N: Pic: Ryutaro Morimoto
“Ahhh!” Yuri shouted in pain as Haruka bared her pangs in his neck. He had been anticipating it but the pain was increased when she sucked his blood. He could feel his blood oozing from the wound and there was no feeling of extreme bliss in it. “Yamete!” he cried out loud.
Haruka stopped sucking and let him go. “Anou. Gomenasai.” She said. Her mouth was full of his blood.
Yuri stared at her frightened face. She seemed to be about to cry. “Iie, its nothing.” He said as he tried to touch his wounded neck. Shizuka handed him some tissue and helped him clean his cut.
“Anou, hontou gomenasai.” Haruka bowed to him.
He shook his head. “Really, you don’t have to say sorry.”
“I guess we’ll start looking for another lifeline, then.” It was Shizuka.
Yuri nodded and stared at Haruka in pity. She was sobbing silently as she cleaned herself. He extended his hand to her hair. It was very soft to his touch. He caressed it softly. “Don’t worry, it didn’t hurt that much,” he lied since it was still hurting so much. “You’ll find him, soon.”
“Hai, believe him. He is a dreamer.” Shizuka seconded.
Haruka snapped at him. “Hontou?” she asked.
Yuri looked at Shizuka who nodded. He smiled at Haruka, “Hai.”
Haruka sighed in happiness. “Did you see it in your dream?” she asked.
In his peripheral vision, Yuri saw Shizuka nodded. “Hai.”
“Who is he?”
“I-I, a-anou, I couldn’t exactly see his face.” He stammered. He was a very bad liar, he had known that.
“Souka. So, I’ll just have to wait for him then.”
Yuri laughed a little, “Hai.” He said laughing silently. He liked this girl’s naivety.
“Ehem.”
They looked at that sound. Yuri blinked twice. It was Aya. His heart started to skip. She was prettier in person though she had a snobbish air in her. “Your friend is upstairs.”
“Ah, right. I almost forgot about that. You came to pick him up, right.” It was Shizuka.
Yuri snapped at them. He stood and faced Aya. “Ryutaro, he is here?!”
“Hai, though he is quite busy at the moment.” Aya answered.
“Eh, you are a friend of the hunter?” Haruka asked. Her eyes full of fear.
“Hunter?” he asked.
Shizuka smiled. “Come on, follow me.” She said and went ahead.
They arrived infront of a huge door. Two girls were waiting for them. One of them was a cute tall girl. She was very normal except for her clothes and accessories, all of them had bones and skulls imprinted. She was wearing a black knee-length dress that was adorned by small white skulls. Her matching bracelet and earring are white bones and skulls. She was rather creepy to Yuri’s taste.
The other one seemed to be the twin half of the other. She was also wearing a black blouse and jeans. Instead of silvery skulls and bones though, she was wearing a golden earrings and bracelet with miniature swords and knives. They were not real of course but if you look closely, they seemed to be really sharp. Yuri wondered how the girl was able to wear that without cutting herself. He was quite amused though that the girl could still look pretty innocent even though she seemed to have the ability to kill with her mini toys.
“She wouldn’t listen to us. She became hard-headed since that guy came.” It was the girl in white skulls.
Aya and Shizuka looked at each other.
Aya opened the door to Yuri.
Yuri gasped as he saw the scene. Ryutaro was half-naked. His hands were chained in a post of a four poster bed. He was sitting on the bed. There were spots of blood in the sheets. Some of them were already dry. Yuri wondered how long had those blood been there.
A girl with shoulder-length black hair was seated beside Ryu. She had one hand in his shoulder and one hand sprawled on his chest. The girl was sucking at Ryutaro’s neck.
Ryu, on the other hand had his eyes closed. His head was tossed upward. He was groaning both in ecstasy and in pain. He was gritting his teeth while he moaned. His face was a mixture of pain, hatred and elation.
“Oburi, stop that! Are you going to kill him?” Shizuka commanded angrily.
The girl Oburi turned towards them. She bared her bloody teeth to them. There was anger in her blazing red eyes. She might have been pretty if not for the smudge of blood in her face and lips. “Why do you care?” she asked angrily. “He is my lifeline, not yours.” She snapped at them.
Yuri’s eyes grew wide when he heard of that. Ryutaro was this girl’s lifeline.
“He won’t follow me so I am punishing him.”
“Oburi, when did you become like this?” it was Aya. There was fear in her voice.
Oburi’s eyes lowered as she gritted her teeth. There were tears forming in her eyes.
“Just let him go, Oburi-chan,” Haruka pleaded.
“I won’t,” Oburi answered in full conviction. “Not until he sees me as his owner.”
“You don’t own him!” Haruka exclaimed.
“Shut up! What do you know? You don’t have a lifeline for a millennium. You don’t know anything. He is mine and I won’t let him go.”
“Stop this Oburi!” a voice came behind them. A girl with long flowing black hair entered the room. She had a majestic air in her. She walked sophisticatedly. Her long flowing velvet dress followed all her movements. It was as if she had her own breeze. Her rose-like fragrance filled the room. The aroma made Yuri’s arm hair rise.
“Jhenie-sama.” It was the girl in golden knives. The girls bowed their head to her and made way to let her pass.
She looked down at the fearful face of Oburi. “Let him go, Oburi-chan.” She commanded in a very soft voice.
“Demo…”
“Oburi-chan, this is not supposed to be.”
“Demo… he is my lifeline.”
“He is an unwilling lifeline. This is against our law, Oburi-chan. Do you know what that means?” Jhenie-sama said. “Long-lasting banishment.”
Oburi stared at Jhenie for a long time. There were tears in her eyes. She bowed and ran away.
“Let him go.” Jhenie-sama ordered the other.
“Hai.” The two twin-like girls said.
They took off Ryutaro’s rope and let him rest on the bed. He seemed to be in trance which made Yuri feel more worried. He walked towards his friend.
Ryutaro was breathing heavily, his eyes were closed. There were huge eye bags under his eyes and he seemed to have lost weight. Yuri put his hand in Ryu’s forehead. The younger one stirred as he felt this.
Ryutaro opened his eyes. Through half opened eyes, he looked gloomily at Yuri. “Chinen-kun,” you heard me…” he muttered weakly.
“So, it was really you.” Yuri said.
“Gomenasai.” It was Jhenie.
Ryutaro and Yuri looked at her. “If I were here, this would not have happened.” She said. There was pity and guilt in her beautiful black eyes. Though they were sad, they were sparkling like they have their own mind. They wouldn’t let their owner lost her composure just because she was sad.
She looked at Yuri. “Follow me, we have to talk to you.” She said. Her voice was full of authority that extended not just towards her associates but also to him. “Yuki and Sandie will take care of him.” she said.
As if on cue, the twin-like girls stepped forward. They were holding clean towel, a first-aid kit and a basin of water.
Jhenie went out, the others followed so as Yuri. Yuki and Sandie started to tend on Ryu’s wounds.
They entered a dim-lighted room. There were several bookshelves on the three corners. There was a long table in the center with several chairs. At the end of the room, opposite the long table were one sole office table and a comfortable rotating office chair. There was a laptop on top of the table and some scattered papers.
Jhenie sat in the office chair and looked down on them. She gestured them to sit down. “I am sorry about this.” Jhenie particularly said to Yuri. “I have been busy with many things that I neglected to check on my sisters.”
“Sisters?” Yuri asked out of curiosity.
Jhenie smiled at this. It was her very first smile ever since Yuri met her.
This made Yuri a bit at ease.
“We call each other sisters. Our fate has been long separated from humanity. Though, we live with you, we can’t consider you as family. There were only very few surviving number of this specie so we have to live together, as one.” Jhenie was smiling while she was saying this. There was evident pride in her voice and her expression was just like those of a mother when she was talking about her child who had just learned to walk. They were pure happiness.
“Sou ka… demo… what do you want to talk?” Yuri asked.
“I heard from Shizuka that you are a dreamer.” She started. “Dreamers are born only one out of a million every fifty years. Every time a dreamer got entangled with us, our race faced a difficult situation. You are the eyes of danger and now that you are here, I have a feeling that, that same danger is almost near. I am very afraid that after this, we will not be able to survive anymore.”
“I-I don’t understand…” Yuri stammered.
“Tell us your dream, Yuri-kun.” It was Haruka. She was looking intently at him as if waiting for him to say something.
Yuri stared at them in confusion.
“Before we met in your dream, there are other dreams, right? Dreams that were recurring?” Aya asked him. She was seated across him and he could see the intensity of her gaze.
Yuri looked down. His mind was having its own debate. One part tells him to say everything. One part tells him not to trust the vampires though they seemed nice.
“Chinen-san,” it was Jhenie. She was intently waiting for his answer. After a while, there was still no response from him. “Wakariyo, I will not ask you anymore. We just have to prepare ourself.”
Yuri looked at her. “Arigatou.” He said in a very low throaty voice.
Jhenie just smiled at him. “Whenever Morimoto-san get better, you can bring him home.”
Yuri bowed in gratefulness. “Arigatou gozaimasu.”