Day"Ooooh..." A suffering groan came from one of two lumps in the room. A messy head poked out from under one of the covers, wincing at the blast of sunshine that greeted her bloodshot eyes, and immediately withdrew with a strangled shriek. Sunlight was bad! Bad!
"Sayu? Are you finally awake?" An annoyingly chipper voice called from just outside the door, and Risa poked her head in, nudging the door open with her shoulder as she came in with two glasses of water and a bottle of aspirin.
Sayumi muttered something unintelligible from under her blanket cocoon, scrunching into a tiny ball and pulling the cloth further into herself. Risa chuckled, setting down the tray on her table, before taking one of the glasses and a couple of tablets to kneel by the Sayumi-shaped lump of blankets.
"Sayumin, I know you have a terrible hangover and the room probably looks like it's spinning to you right now, but you need to drink some water." Risa coaxed gently. "It'll make you feel better, I promise." She tentatively shook what she gauged was Sayumi's shoulder, trying to get a response from her.
"Mmprgh...Gaki-san I hate you!" Sayumi slurred from underneath the covers, jerking away from her senior. Risa blinked, confused. "What?"
"Why are you so bloody CHEERFUL in the blasted
morning?!" A very displeased Sayumi poked her head out with a growl, her eyes reduced to mere slits to guard against the glare of sunshine. Risa couldn't help but laugh at the disgruntled look on Sayumi's face.
"Serves you right for binging on drinks the way you did yesterday." Risa said disapprovingly. "At least I knew to stop after I started feeling dizzy."
Sayumi grunted and blindly took the offered water and tablets, gulping the latter down before chugging the rest of the water. "Ugh. Don't remind me." She rubbed at her bloodshot eyes. "Why didn't you stop me?"
"Stop you? I had my hands full with Eri." Risa looked over at the prone form on the other side of the room. The turtle girl had not stirred since they had dumped her in the corner last night. "Will she be alright?"
Sayumi crawled over, carefully lifting part of the blankets from Eri and smoothing back the messy fringe from her best friend's eyes. With the practiced ease of someone who has been doing it for at least half her life, she peeled back one of Eri's eyelids and took a quick look before tenderly placing the covers back over the sleeping girl. Eri had not so much as twitched during the examination, and only snuffled a little after Sayumi moved away carefully.
"She's alright, knocked out as usual." Sayu appeared to be mostly back to normal as the effects of the aspirin started to make itself felt. She massaged her temples and leaned back on the pile of blankets that had been covering her earlier.
"Augh. Why did I drink so much?" She groused. "I don't even remember what happened last night."
"I don't really remember either, but that might be a blessing in disguise." Risa commented, flopping down next to the youngest of the trio. "Should we wake Eri up for some water and aspirin too?"
"Nah." Sayumi said after a moment's thought. "Let her sleep it off. She'll be fine after, oh, 14 hours of sleep." She laughed wryly. "Just have a pitcher of water ready for when she does wake up though." Risa grinned back and nodded, trusting the younger girl's judgment. After all, Sayumi had known Eri for far longer than she had.
The pair sat in companionable silence for a minute or so, Risa relaxing in the lazy atmosphere while Sayumi was just battling her persistent headache. After she had forced the worst of the pain down, the younger turned to Risa.
"So how did we get back here?" She looked around. "Where
is here?"
"My house." Risa grinned sheepishly. "I called my parents for help since I couldn't lug both of you at the same time. And I didn't think that either of your parents would be thrilled to see you guys in this state."
Sayumi stared at her for a moment, then snickered. "Eririn's parents might have flipped out, but obviously you've never met
my family." She paused, thinking, before she shuddered. "On second thoughts, it's a good thing you
didn't tell them." She closed her eyes. "I don't enjoy being dipped headfirst into a vat of cold water."
Now it was Risa's turn to stare. "Say WHAT?!" Sayumi grinned mischievously, opening one eye.
"I come by my peculiarities honestly, Gaki-san~" Sayu cooed as she grabbed at Risa's cheeks and pulled hard again, forcing an unnatural smile to appear on Risa's face. The older sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Maybe I should have just left you with the headache, you were quieter with it..."
"Aww but you love me~"
"Keep on doing that and I
will change my mind about that."
~*~*~
A heavy oak-paneled door swung ponderously shut, cutting off sterile white walls from the warmer interior of the room it guarded. There was a barely audible click as the door closed with surprising gentleness, and soft soled shoes ghosted across the mat, pausing by the shoe cupboard as small hands removed her footwear and deposited them within the built in closet that melded almost seamlessly with the wall.
Bare feet now crossed a highly polished floor, the grained pattern of seasoned wood matching with the muted wallpaper on either side of the narrow corridor that opened into a wider room, sparsely but tastefully furnished with a mix of old and new; the traditional homey air that resembled something out of a 17th century European manor harboring 21st century technology and amenities.
It was to that corner that the person padded towards, a darkened screen blinking to life with a move of the mouse, and the tiny owner of the apartment pulled out the chair for herself before ignoring it totally and moving over to the closed and blinded window next to her work station. A single light touch opened the blinds up a fraction, sending rays of piercing sunshine into the previously darkened room.
She blinked at the bright glare, her eyes adjusting in an instant to the influx of light into her domain. The peculiar thing about night vision was that it carried over to the day as well. Shadows had never been quite the same ever since, so it kinda screwed with her depth perception at times.
Turning, she squinted through the shadows created by the light, once again amused by how she could just see through them as if they were not there to begin with.
Settling back into the easy chair in front of her computer, Seirei smiled as the warm sunshine fell on her at regular intervals; segregated, naturally, by the blinds in the way.
She had always been a peculiar example of her...species? Not only did she have no fear of the day, she rather enjoyed the sun as well --- in controlled doses, of course. She still didn't tan very well, and sunburn still hurt her as it would any ordinary human.
Her lips twitched into an involuntary smile as she speedily checked her email, widening into a heartfelt one as she clicked on one of the new messages she had received in her absence.
The convenient thing about the 21st century and all its technological gimmicks was that it enabled her to keep in contact with the one person that mattered to her for the last half eon or so. Pure white teeth flashed in an even, gleaming row as she grinned at the message, complete with pictures and amusing anecdotes, from her child who was at present about halfway across the globe from her, and having a lot of fun making things and people explode, as it were.
There was another mail, with the heading
To DJ Seirei, and she couldn't help but smile a little more at her own little joke. The name was highly ironic, considering her circumstances. For she was neither alive, divine, nor devoted to authority, in all readings of the name.
Naturally, it was as much an alias as the many identities she had assumed over the countless centuries. At present though, considering she was in Japan, her current identity had had to have a regular Japanese-sounding name too. As luck would have it, it hadn't been too difficult to use a variant of her
true name for her current alias. These little consistencies helped keep her sane in an ever changing world.
Immortality was a difficult burden to bear, after all.
Takahashi Ai, yes, that's my name now. And so it had been for the last 2 to 3 years. With a little luck she would be able to keep this particular identity for another 10 to 15 years or so before having to move on. A perpetually youthful appearance had both pros and cons to it, unfortunately.
Ai tapped thoughtfully on the table as she went through her mail and checked the web for news, scanning with inhuman speed through the pages. One of the upsides of her
condition, as she liked to put it. She rather enjoyed making quirky little jokes about her immortality that would not be obvious to the average human, and amused herself thus. It was a little lame at times, but every little bit helped.
Laughter helped her put herself into perspective. Without a sense of humor, she would possibly have gone mad a thousand years ago.
The days were always so long, but Ai had since found a way to deal with it. She had to, because if madness hadn't gotten her, boredom would have. Reading was always a nice way to pass the time, and she liked to keep up on news happening around the world. It paid to be up to date with current affairs, even if she were no longer human. At least she always knew where else she could relocate to in a hurry should the need ever arise.
Despite being a vampire, Ai was basically as non-violent as conditions would allow. She had not killed a single normal human being for decades, the last time being that unfortunate incident up in the old Soviet Union when she had been rather rudely awakened from a 20 year nap.
Ai was a reasonable creature when awake, less so when still groggy and in the grip of her bestial instincts. It had been a bloodbath of spectacular proportions, she recalled, and found herself licking her lips at the memory.
What was she thinking?! Slightly aghast by her own behavior, she snapped her jaws shut and pushed up and away from her seat, stalking quickly over to her secret stash, her fingers working out the unlocking sequence to the hidden safe. She reached in and grabbed a bottle, slamming the safe shut and relocking it before sweeping past the counter and grabbing a goblet, pouring the red liquid into it before lifting it to her lips.
The rich taste calmed her, as did the hint of expensive scotch mixed into her favorite beverage. Her
only source of nourishment now, considering her current status. Retiring to a chair by another window, she placed the bottle on the little round table next to her, but not before refilling her goblet again.
Ai sipped distantly, her mind, as always, starting to wander. She had an iron grip on her bloodlust, so much so that she had not fed directly from a living human ever since that unfortunate incident on the killing fields of Crimea. She had other ways of procuring fresh blood as and when she needed it, and then again she never needed as much blood nowadays.
One of the benefits of advanced age, she conceded wryly. As long as she wasn't gravely injured, she didn't need as much fresh blood to sustain and regenerate herself.
The modern world could be tiring to keep up with, but it
did have many fascinating developments in the area of human knowledge. Even though some of those developments made it awfully difficult to get away with certain things the way she could in less advanced eras. Law enforcement was far more efficient nowadays than it was about a hundred or so years ago, and making up identities was conversely both more and less easy at the same time.
Technology... Ai noted philosophically as she cast her eye on her still active Mac computer in the corner. She had had the foresight of enrolling for classes back when the computer was still a mass of metal and plastic, with cables the size of her arm and occupying a rather large room in its entirety.
Now the average computer was present almost everywhere, and was much smaller and faster than its lumbering behemoth of a predecessor. Ai sighed and finished up the last of her blood wine.
The world is changing so fast... She mused as she got up to rinse out her goblet, replacing the items where they belonged. She could only hope to keep up with the times, or risk being left behind as a mere anachronism of a bygone era and destroyed, as so many other things had been.
Maybe I should go back for classes. I haven't gone to school in a while... Ai considered that as she settled back in front of her terminal. Her mind swung from one subject to another as she clicked on the latest news for the city she was currently living in, frowning at one of the headlines.
Multiple Missing, Police Investigate. Involuntarily, she recalled that young upstart she met the night before. Cocky and confident, that much she had sensed from the fledgling. She had smelled the blood on the wind earlier that evening, and had no illusions about what had occurred. The missing people would not be found, she concluded. Not alive, anyway.
She could only hope that the kid had had the foresight of disposing of the bodies carefully. Dry corpses tended to draw too much unnecessary attention from all the wrong places. Ai was not afraid of the police though. She knew all the loopholes in most criminal codes, no thanks to a short stint as a law aide 2 identities ago. And she had also been a forensics investigator in yet another lifetime, so she knew exactly how to avoid detection.
No, she was concerned about the hunters. Ai did not particularly like tangling with them, even if she knew she could handle the situation most of the time. She understood their zeal to exterminate non-human creatures that threatened mankind, and supported it to some degree. It made her life easier if they helped to get rid of the troublesome low-level trash. It saved her the trouble of doing it herself.
For an Ancient like her, peace and stability were greatly valued. It was easier on her nerves. Young upstarts that wanted only to revel in blood and violence threatened that stability, and she had no wish to see the world ripped apart by a war between her kind and the humans. Humans slaughtered each other well enough on the slightest pretext; she didn't need her food source decimated in the senseless conflict that would result from her kind's exposure.
It was to avoid the hunters that she had relocated to this small city. It had a very low level of supernatural energy, and an insignificant population of non-humans mingled with the humans. Ai had chosen this place since it was less likely that the hunters would come to a place where there was little to no supernatural trouble. Peace and quiet was so very important to her, and she would be
really upset if someone disturbed that balance.
She frowned at the screen again, minimizing the window as she stood, pacing around for a bit, thinking. This young upstart could be a problem. Briefly, she considered eliminating her before the hunters noticed anything strange and decided to investigate.
However, Ai was practical, not cruel. She could be ruthless when the situation called for it, but she would not destroy another needlessly. She had sensed the child's movements in the city from time to time, and despite the lack of finesse in hiding her aura, the fledgling wasn't
completely incompetent. Rough around the edges and way too cocky and impudent for her own good perhaps, but not a mindless creature. Probably desperately in need of guidance, but Ai had no interest in a baby vampire. The young one would learn in time, on its own; or perish just as many other unnamed fledglings had in the course of time.
With a sigh, she pulled up the blinds by the window, letting the sunlight filter in, unfettered. It washed over her pale, immortal,
undead form, and she could almost feel warm in the sun's embrace. Almost.
She did not breathe, her heart did not beat, and she could barely feel any compassion anymore. What little humanity she had left, save for this unaging shell. Yet she was human once, a long time ago, and the sun felt good on her skin, banishing the darkness from her.
Shaking her head, she retreated from the window, back into the cool shadows. She could not let the past entrap her, however much she clung on to it. It grounded her, but it could also swallow her whole. Grimly, she stared off into the distance, thinking of the young one she had encountered, wondering how much the child knew of the burdens of eternity.
We learn, or we die. Someone had told her that, once, at a time when the world was still young and fresh as she herself was.
We adapt, even if we do not change. For the other way lies madness, and destruction. She closed her eyes, trying
not to think.
As always, the world spun on, it always has done. And always will.
For even as civilizations rise and empires fall, the world goes on.
Time goes on, and We remain, insignificant spectators to its march.=====================================================
No Reina, unfortunately. Hey, it's morning, she's sleeping.
And the not-so-mysterious vampire has been revealed. It's a bit of a heavy chapter, even though it's not long. Hopefully it answers a few questions.
Enjoy.
Topic: Gegenschein [Ch.18: Open] - 16/5 (Read 81069 times)