Chapter Six: Kiss Me Goodbye

Everything changes from this day on...
-Yunoki Ariya-The
way was surprisingly clear. No Level Es, no Council scoundrels stood to
fight against me. I glanced around and saw the piles of ash that was
scattered everywhere...Huh. Kaname had been busy.I ran up the stairs into the corridor leading to Ichio’s study. I could scent them immediately.Otou-san... and Takuma.What were they doing?The clash of steel gave me my answer.No. They can’t... they can’t be. He’ll die!I
ran faster, but it seemed to me that the door was going further and
further away from me... But it was just my imagination. I slammed into
the door as I reached it, and Takuma whirled around as I stumbled into
the room, winded.I shouldn’t be so tired... and clearly I needed blood tablets to rejuvenate myself.“Ariya!” His tone told me that I shouldn’t have been here.“Taku...ma...” I gasped, and our gazes locked.“What are you doing here?” he demanded, his grip slackening.Ichio took the chance and lunged.“NO!” I screamed, but I was too late.Ichio’s
blade flashed and drove through Takuma’s chest, near his heart. He
ripped the blade out sideways, and blood spattered all over the place,
over me, and over the man I called my father by law.Blood stained his white shirt, and the blond boy I loved fell to the floor with a sickening, wet thud.“No,”
I said softly, and looked up from his still body to meet his killer’s
eyes. “No,” I said, in a stronger voice. Slowly, my shaking hand lifted
to point at him. “You... you killed your own grandson, your own flesh
and blood!”Ichio lifted the sword. “If you want to fight, my dear, then pick up the sword.” No chit-chat for this old man.I walked over and took the sword from Takuma. His green eyes – he was still alive, thank God – begged me not to do it.“Gomen,” I whispered to him, and laid a hand on his cheek.He was trembling.I
ignored the fact for now and stood up, drawing the sword in the way I’d
seen Takuma do every time. It was heavier than I expected it to be, but
not unmanageable.“Are you ready, daughter?” Ichio asked.I
gave him a stiff nod, and dashed forward. He whirled around, meeting
the katana with his own. I hissed at the strength behind his blow, then
withdrew and tried again.It became a flurry of movement, a
perfectly choreographed dance. I would attack, and he would defend me
almost effortlessly, the twisted the katana free before cutting me
lightly – but hard enough for it to hurt – anywhere he could reach.Soon,
my breathing sounded like I was breathing a chunk of ice into my lungs
instead of air. But I persevered, knowing that this was the only way
for us to gain some control over the Level Es and Level Ds around our
friends.“Did you know that to kill one is to kill the other?”
Ichio asked me as he lazily knocked the katana out of my hands and
shoved me to the floor. “If you die now, more than just my grandson
will mourn you, did you know that?”I gasped for breath, and felt Takuma’s weak fingers encircle mine. His touch comforted me.“If
I kill you,” Ichio spoke with smug finality, “I will also kill Kuran
Ariya, and the hearts of those the both of you have touched. Indeed,
Rido-sama is smart. Everything has gone exactly as he’d planned, not
the way Kaname-sama has wanted it to go... Him and his stupid chess
pieces. Your dear Night Class Leader will be too broken to rule, and
Rido-sama will take over his place, and take the ‘Princess’ as his
bride. It has been told.”The reason for my existence revealed
itself, just like that. I was just a puppet, to be used by the most
evil vampire ever known... And I will kill everyone I loved through my
dying. I will even kill Kuran Ariya... my other half.I knew now what everything meant.In
my body resided half of Kuran Ariya’s soul, and we were connected in a
more intimate way than anyone would ever know. And our deaths would
cause everyone and everything we’d ever known to come crumbling down,
worthless and broken, to the ground.“Project White Wings,” I whispered, my eyes widening. “That was Rido, too?”I heard Takuma suck in a breath of shock, and my fingers tightened around his.“Project White Wings is,”
Ichio said with a smug look on his face, “as I know it, a way to make
you more appealing so that even the most emotional vampire would take
to you as anyone would to angels. Many years ago, Kazuki found a broken
body that belonged to what he believed to be an angel, and he took it
back to his lab and, with my ancestor’s financial aid, performed
several experiments on it to make sure he knew what it was. The angels,
as you know, are the most appealing creatures on earth, and when Rido
was turned away by his family... he knew that his only chance laid in
the Long-Lost Princess, who had submitted to be tested upon without the
knowledge of anyone outside. She had been implanted with the angel’s
DNA... but someone freed her before the experiments could be done, and
sent her to the dungeons in Cross Academy.”“It wasn’t Kaname,” I said tiredly. “I’d have seen it if it was... I would know.”“Yes,
you’re right. It’s not. It was Kuran Haruka, Yuuki’s father... and the
vampire who figured out what Rido wanted and wanted to thwart him
himself. In his rage, Rido-sama set out to destroy his brother, sister
and his niece. Kaname-sama wasn’t to die... but Rido-sama failed to
kill Yuuki-sama, whose memories, her sight, showed the location of
Kuran Ariya’s body. Haruka-sama was, of course, useless in death...“But
years later, you were found, harbouring almost the same DNA structure
as Kuran Ariya-sama. Kazuki was delighted, and set to work immediately.
The DNA was painful as you might remember, and gave you half-grown
wings... but your Night Class friends came to save you before you could
become a fully-fledged angel, which is now what your ‘soulmate’ is.”“Ariya’s an angel?” Takuma said weakly from behind me.“Yes, Takun, that is what I said.” Ichio raised his katana. “Now, are you ready to die?”So this was it. This was the end.I
closed my eyes in preparation of the blow. I felt Takuma squeeze my
fingers lightly, one last time. Tears trickled down my face as I
thought of who would suffer from my leaving. It was hard to think of,
but I had to do it anyways.Gomennasai, minna-san.“Let them go.”Kuran... Ariya?“Let them go now, Asato.”He chuckled. “You are no longer in the position to give orders.”“Yet
I am still a Pureblood, and you are in dire need to give me what I want
right now. I know that. I see it. I am not blind, after all.”“The
wings add to your tremendous beauty, Ariya-sama. It is a nice touch.”
He chuckled again, and I knew the sword was still hovering some feet
away from my heart.“Thank you, but I am not here for
compliments. I am here for them. Let them go or face my wrath
yourself.” The last word was somewhere between a hiss and a snarl.There
was silence for a few seconds, the only sound being the steady thumping
of my heart. How ironic it was that it was valiantly keeping me alive
in my last few moments. The beats were numbered now – I was going to
die.Takuma...“I love you,” I heard him whisper to me, and he hissed from the pain that was obviously radiating from his wound.“It’s
too late to save them, Ariya-sama. They’re going to die... and there’s
nothing you can do about it.” His voice was gruff and harsh. My breath
quickened, and I snapped my eyes open as the blade drove down, down. I
heard someone scream, and Takuma shout my name from somewhere behind
me, but I could only look at the driving blade, and the maddened face
of Ichijo Asato.It pierced me straight through the heart.---No POV-She
lay there, eyes lifeless, as the other Ariya lunged forward to rip
Asato’s throat out from his neck. Takuma could only stare at her, tears
leaking out of his eyes. He wondered why he wasn’t dead yet... then
remembered that he had drank from her before this. The blood... it was
probably enough to heal his wound, no matter the pain.It was his fault she was there now, dead.He
had taken her strength... causing her to lose the fight. He had wounded
himself so he couldn’t help her – he hadn’t stopped her when he knew he
should have had... and he hadn’t had the time to tell her goodbye.Ojii-sama
– no, he cannot be called that anymore. No Grandfather would kill his
grandson’s lover –Asato had already been reduced to dust, and Kuran
Ariya was clawing at herself, obviously in pain. As he watched, she let
out a strangled cry as the two Pureblood’s skin cracked, and shattered
into crystals, scattering into the winds.He was alone in his pain.But there was a way he could end it. To end this pain and join the one he loved in the afterlife, no matter where that was.He
picked up his sword, and picked up a shard of her crystal. He wanted to
hold it... It was still warm, as though she was holding his hand again.
The sword drove itself slowly into his already wounded heart – it
wouldn’t be able to heal itself after this.This is how it must be.Romeo and Juliet both scattered into the winds.But lived on in eternity.
-fin-

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