...Two weeks after Kaoru had transferred to his new academy, he was starting to get used to his new life. Kind of.
When it came to his studies, he had everything under control.
He diligently continued studying despite the hard after-school classes that Tsukishiro taught.
The worst part was not the grueling combat and physical training, but the boring information bombs that followed after.
Kaoru had grown to find combat a little amusing.
Constant critical thinking, fast decisions and lighting fast strikes with as much efficiency as possible.
Switching between defense and offense in five unbearable minutes of sparring.
They had sparred a total of four times, two every week.
...The day after they started their first lesson, as soon as Kaoru entered the classroom, he saw many of his classmates looking at something besides the classroom board with lively expressions.
Curious, he approached and leaned closer to take a look.
His eyes widened slightly.
Infront of him were two ranking boards.
The first showed the rankings based on overall physical abilities, where the second showed the ones based on combat abilities.
Kaoru winced.
On physical abilities, he was placed in the 16th place, while in the combat one he was on the 17th rank.
...Ever since then, he took their after-school classes seriously, growing accustomed to his body, learning details about vampires and humans, and studied hard, academics and combat.
But, it was not that easy.
Well, the training part wasn't. When it came to academics, Kaoru was at the top of his year in his previous school, with a streak of perfect scores.
In combat, he fell short.
He indeed had quick thinking and could adapt to his circumstances, but almost everyone else in his class was a vampire for longer than him.
Whether it was speed, strength, stamina or whatever, he was falling short.
After he consulted Tsukishiro about it, he was told that strength and skill came with time and training.
It was also important to eat well. Or drink, in their case. Because, vampiric might came from blood, after all.
And so, it was now friday, the last day of his second week in the academy.
And, as pathetic as it sounded, he had not made any friends at all.
He barely talked with others and mostly headed home after their lessons, exhausted.
But, there were others in his class like him. It was understandable, to be honest.
Thrown into a world they knew nothing about, having to train just to survive. Many would have conflicts inside them.
Like Kaoru, who was missing his parents. But at the same time, he retained a calm state of mind and felt almost impeccably calm.
'Must be the effects of vampire nature.'
Anyway, Tsukishiro opened the door and walked inside the class.
"Sit down. Today's lesson will not be in the gymnasium. You have had plenty of training, so you should rest your body, vampire or not. Anyway, today, I'll teach you the most important things that you are obligated to know."
All the students sat down, expressions of relief on their faces.
Looks like they would be able to avoid Tsukishiro's hellish training.
Kaoru sighed in relief.
'Lucky~ I won't train today.'
Tsukishiro sat on a chair nearby, too, and told them to open their notebooks if they wanted to.
After everyone was ready, Tsukishiro started talking.
"First of all. Sudden quiz for everyone!"
'H-huh? What is that idiot of a teacher talking about.' Thought Kaoru.
While he called Tsukishiro an idiot, it was far from the truth.
Their instructor was indeed a genius in combat, had massive knowledge on every subject they were taught, and most importantly, was a very clever and good teacher for them.
There was one flaw however...
He was eccentric!
Randomly coming up with ideas and sudden quizzes like he just did when he already had given them a schedule.
Also, he was very lazy and unmotivated.
He pointed at one of the students, Kirishima Yoru, throwing the quiz at him.
"Kirishima Yoru, tell me, how are humans able to kill vampires and force us to live in hiding when we are of the same intelligence and are even stronger than them? How can they do it, when a dozen well trained vampires can rip a small army to shreds? This question is for everyone, by the way."
Kirishima looked around, seeing every one watching him, their eyes saying just one simple sentence:
"Don't make us answer."
He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them, he answered to Tsukishiro confidently.
"Maybe, they have a way to surpass their own limits? Or they have strong weapons? You know, like in classic stories where humans hunt vampires with silver weapons?"
Tsukishiro gave a nod.
"The former is true. Humans are capable of surpassing theirs own limits, and since they have bigger numbers, they are stronger. I can't really tell you how they can surpass their own limits, but do note that it works. As for the latter, it's incorrect. There aren't any specifically strong weapons that work against vampires, but good guess."
Everyone looked at Tsukishiro, interested in what he was saying.
"As you all have probably deduced, not all humans are aware of the existence of vampires or the so-called way to surpass their limits. It all started when government representatives from all over the world gathered for a meeting a long time ago. They eventually created a strong organisation that could repel, exterminate and oppress us. That organisation is full of vampire hunters. It's called Anti-Vampire Intelligence Service. In short, AVIS. It's enemies with our own personal organisation, the Vampire Intelligence Agency. And, the only job you can get as a vampire is being part of VIA."
Everyone listened attentively while thinking carefully about what was being said.
From what Kaoru could understand, there was war and hostility between AVIS and VIA.
AVIS was an intelligence service that served as a way for humans to vanquish vampires and wipe them out of existence. While VIA was a counter measure to AVIS, saving vampires and protecting the vampire race.
AVIS was clearly stronger, so the VIA had to go into hiding and meticulously plan to train vampires in secret academys, like the one he was attending.
He raised his hand.
Tsukishiro allowed him to speak.
"If we can't get any other job, does that mean we will be forced to become part of the VIA?"
Tsukishiro chuckled, a faint light glinting behind his eyes.
"You can get jobs by human employers, not officially though. You won't be forced to work in the VIA, too. We have a specific variety of jobs that goes like this : Doctor, Nurse, Surgeon, Detective, Spy, and the most demanding one, a VIA agent. In other words, a Night Agent. Otherwise, there are many of our kin that have other jobs."
Kaoru sat down.
Tsukishiro waved his hand dismissively.
"Now is not the time to talk about those. What you all need to know the most is secrecy, adaptability and being flexible enough to respond to any kind of difficulties. You have to be able to blend into human society and never let anyone know your true identity, because, some of you are surely targets of AVIS."
He stood up from his chair, walked over to the chalkboard, picked up a chalk and started writing.
The chalk hit against the board, making that familiarly irritating ticking sound.
Tsukishiro soon finished writing and stepped aside for his students to see.
"One week from now, you will all undergo a special exam that will test your limits, skills and knowledge. The rules will be explained one day before, but you should prepare as soon as possible, because all of you will become enemies."
He stopped anyone from talking and sat down again.
Shuffling his raven-black hair, Tsukishiro grimaced.
"Train as hard as you can in our lessons starting next week, while also preparing."
He turned his head and glanced at them with a cold, indifferent expression.
"This exam will be unimaginably hard..."
***
The whole classroom was bustling with a lively buzz.
The source of the energetic atmosphere was none other than the approaching special exam.
According to Tsukishiro, the exam will make everyone split up and team up.
They did not know how many people per team, how they would team up and with who.
Tsukishiro was being peculiarly enigmatic when it came to the upcoming exam.
He was not permitted to say anything to the students, after all. There was a chance he was unaware of the contents of the exam, as well.
In any case, the students had no way to figure out how to approach this exam and make preparations that will be useful.
Kaoru decided not to dwell on it too much, choosing to remain calm and train while resting as preparation.
But his classmates were not thinking along the same lines.
Most of them were chatting and conversing in order to get to know each other better, in case they ended up in the same team.
Kaoru was not so naive as to get deceived by their facade.
What they were really doing was gathering information about each and every one of their classmates, being careful.
If they had information on their enemy, even if that enemy had more experience as a vampire or as a fighter or whatever else, they could devise a plan to take them down.
Obviously, there were many of them trying to talk to Kaoru, too.
He was not so gullible as to say anything to them.
He kept his answers as unclear and short as possible.
And he was not the only one.
Seated close to him, Kirishima Yoru and Akira Nemu were doing exactly that.
After finishing talking with their deceitfully happy peers, Kirishima, Akira and Kaoru glanced at each other.
Knowing that they were the ones being more careful than anyone, the three of them thought at the same time:
'I better not get involved with these guys.'
Kaoru was the first to turn away.
Just a few moments later, the two other boys did the same.
Tsukishiro opened the door to the classroom and walked inside with dark circles under his eyes, his back hunched.
Without even sparing a glance at the teenagers in the class, he wrote something on the board.
A second later, he was done. He had written a sentence.
It read:
[You are dismissed.]
Following that, he left first of all, without a single word.
Everyone blankly stared at the chalkboard, processing what had just happened.
Soon, they all started getting ready to leave, indifferent to their teachers awkward moments.
They were with him for almost two weeks, so they had gotten used to his eccentric behaviour.
Kaoru left, too.
***
A beautiful woman with blond hair and black eyes was sitting inside a police station, her eyelids red from crying.
After waiting for five minutes, an officer came to talk to her.
The blond woman was in her early forties, a bizarre fact, taking into consideration her youthful appearance.
The officer sat down opposite of her.
"How can I help you, ma'am?"
The woman stared at him blankly, sadness reflecting in her eyes.
"My husband filed a missing person's report for our son, who has been missing for the last two weeks. My husband's name is Fujimoto Takumi."
"Let me look it up. Don't worry we'll find your son, ma'am." Reassured the officer.
He wrote something on a nearby computer, forcefully clicking the keyboard.
He clicked twice with the computer mouse and leaned in closer.
"Missing person: Fujjmoto Kaoru, age sixteen. Parents: Fujimoto Takumi and Fujimo...to... Kaede?"
He turned in her direction with a weird expression.
She gazed at him directly in the eyes.
Eventually, he spoke.
"You are Fujimoto Kaede? This station's former super detective that solved cold cases and unraveled true mysteries?"
She shook her head in agreement.
"That's right. Anyway, what about my son?"
The police officer turned away with a dark expression.
After a few moments, he looked at her eyes again.
"Your son... is still missing. We haven't found anything related to him and any trails he left are probably gone by now."
She stood up.
"I see."
Not wishing to continue their conversation, she walked away, her face full of disappointment and...emptiness.
Having left the Police station, Fujimoto Kaede was walking home while spacing out.
She felt something cold hit the back of her neck, and she looked up at the sky filled with grey clouds.
She opened her palm and raised it, trying to check for rain.
Soon, more than a few drops of water were hitting her palm, and a few moments later, her clothes, but she was not paying attention.
'Kaoru...'