Vampire Hunter

The True Culprit

My eight cousins and their mothers gathered in the living room. Mom took me to the study room, which is a couple of rooms away. I was waiting for her to scold me. I heard running footsteps from the hallway and the voices of dad, his brothers, and my cousin with them. Uncle Shin was shouting "what happened?!" repeatedly. Apparently, the Kazuma brothers were contacted about the incident and they all went home in an instant. I was just staring at the door, sitting on the couch, with my hands shaking along with my knees. Mom was facing the huge window in the room, and finally turned to me.

"What really happened, Misa? How did Touya die?"

Without a second thought, I told her everything Touya said. Mom was shocked. I knew she would be, because I was so sure dad would never kill unnecessarily. I explained that the ground shook abnormally and probably something fell from above that struck Touya dead when we heard loud thunder. After telling her everything, I suddenly asked something I didn't understand from what I heard.

"About the bloodthirst, mom.... what is that? What are blood capsules?"

She tried to keep an expressionless face. "Vampires who.... whose powers were already awakened will also begin to feel thirsty of blood. From time immemorial of your father's leadership, husbands and wives only drank each other's blood, and children drank either of their parents' or siblings'. However, as time went by, the thirst became stronger than ever, craving for more. Vampires eyed on trying to drink human blood. We have a very vicious venom that could either kill humans or turn them into one of us. To suppress that and to prevent us from preying on them, your dad researched, studied, created, and eventually proposed blood capsules. It worked wonders for us. Though we still drink blood from each other, our thirst is quenched more easily than before. Your older cousins were destined to marry Makoto's children whose powers were already awakened, and some would marry to the clan of your uncles' wives and you, too, would share the same fate at the right time. You must drink from your lover, siblings, or from your parents. But parents should never drink from their children, or from other married vampires. Especially not on humans. Blood capsules will supplement your intense craving for blood."

I gulped while trying to process everything in my mind. I finally understood why dad, as the leader, tried so hard to include on his commandment to be kind to humans. What's normal for us isn't for them. The world doesn't revolve around us alone, hence dad agreed on the pact of co-existence. Mom made me realize that rules about whose blood you're allowed to drink from were imposed because, if not, the craze of bloodthirst might drive them to a "kill-to-drink" mentality.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. It was dad. He came in with a heavy expression and it took him less than a second to tell there was something he needed to know. Mom told him everything that happened earlier and all the things she had already revealed to me. He was taken aback yet he remained serious.

"Let's figure this out right away. You mean to say Misa was the one who killed Touya?", dad asked mom.

I firmly stood up. "I didn't!"

"I know you didn't mean to. But it happened by accident. You know what this means, Misa?"

".... What?"

"Your powers are awakening prematurely.". Dad said that so casually, and he stared at me for so long. He looked like he wondered why I didn't react. I almost forgot that they didn't know I knew about uncle Makoto's vision. At that very moment, I expected dad to tell mom to suppress my powers, so I spoke even before they began.

"I want to be able to control my powers properly, if that's the case. I don't want you to do anything that would suppress my powers."

I said that with pure conviction. Dad stood in front of me with eyes of worry and anger at the same time.

"Shinichiro is in a mess right now because of what happened to Touya. Everyone who was there was confused as to how it happened so fast. Nobody there in the other room could explain what transpired. They were all saying it just came so suddenly and the next thing they knew, Touya was dead with a hole in his abdomen! Nobody even questioned why and how you were there when it was supposed to be for the trainees only. They're all not in their right minds right now."

Did it mean Hina didn't tell anyone I was there? I wanted to cry because even after seeing those scared and mad looks at Hina's eyes earlier, she still kept my presence there as a secret. Mom, dad, and I had a long, heated discussion about me wanting to control my powers. I even proposed a solo, secret training session for 2 years if it would satisfy them. After almost an hour and a half, they both agreed, and dad would be my personal trainer on the condition that I must never tell a single soul about it.

I felt a little relief after that. However, it didn't last long when a loud, aggressive knock interrupted us. It was Shuma, one of our housekeepers who was also my parents' personal room cleaner. She was catching her breath when she came in, her sweat all over her face.

"Sir! Sir Satou!"

"What happened?"

"Sir... I was cleaning your room.... and then... I- I saw something....", she was still panting but she kept up with her story. "I was changing y-your sheets.... then... then..."

She extended her hands and showed us clothes full of blood. The blood wasn't fresh anymore, though, but it still smelled of it. Dad picked up the clothes from Shuma's hands and surveyed them properly. It surely wasn't clothing from any one in this house. It looked worn out. It finally hit me after seeing it. An old sweater, tattered pants... along with them is a ragged small bag... I was so sure of it! Those were the clothes of the man who previously came to our house! The last person I knew who was with him was uncle Shin! But that was weeks ago, and how on earth did these clothes be in my parents' room? s**t. I could feel something bad about it, so I told dad about that afternoon when the owner of those clothes came to our house. Mom and dad looked at each other and rage was stirring. Right there and then, the three of us knew that we had solved the missing piece of the puzzle.

Uncle Shin fed the false info to Touya. I was so sure of that. It was the first time I saw dad fuming with rage and he was trying hard to lock his emotions to not cloud proper judgement. He advised Shuma to not tell anyone about it, and sent orders to all housekeepers to stay in their respective rooms as there was an emergency in the house that must be taken care of only by the Kazuma head. After securing the safety of all humans in the mansion, a violent shouting was heard across the whole hallway. Strong winds and rain suddenly stormed outside the house, so strong as if there was a tornado, and all the window glass in the hallway broke and shattered. There were 3 vampires who looked like trying to stop and pulling back another vampire, but the other one was so damn incredible that he was able to drag along the 3 vampires inside the house through the broken windows.

"SHINICHIROOOOO!!!! YOU COWARD, SHOW ME YOUR FACE!!!"

It was Uncle Makoto. Three other vampires were trying to immobilize him, holding his arms, waist, and placing magical chains with sharp metals around him, but his wind powers were breaking them off effortlessly. Apparently, the three others were siblings of Uncle Shin's wife, Aunt Toriko. Mom and dad went to them.

"What's all this about, Makoto? Why are you all here?", mom asked.

"Nee-san, your stupid brother-in-law planned it all. He knew I would be seeing the danger he planted in this house and he sent these filthy purebloods to keep me at bay. These vampires put up a crystal and iron barrier with several layers around my house! Took me two days to break it off! As soon as I got here, I saw one of them on the mansion's roof! SHINICHIROOOO!!! YOU COME OUT HERE!!!!"

Uncle Makoto released a devastating wind, and we were almost blown away. The doors of all the rooms on that floor were broken down, and those who were in the living room came running out. Uncle Shin came out last with a smirk on his face. His eyes were looking sarcastic.

"So you've managed to come here, Makoto?"

"You killed a human and framed Satou-kun! You made humans in the town believe that the human who came here and died was killed by Satou-kun! You wanted the central government to actually start a war against us!"

All of us were shocked, even Uncle Shin's children. Uncle Makoto continued, "You tried so hard to keep me away from coming here to tell them and sent your wife's siblings to place a barrier! I suppose you didn't expect I could break their spell, no? You fool... what if I tell you I saw in my vision Touya's death?!"

Uncle Shin snapped. I bet that made him feel like he made Touya the sacrifice for the fulfillment of his plan. What I noticed was Uncle Makoto didn't say anything about "how" Touya died in his vision. I could tell that he also saw it was I who killed my cousin. Uncle Shin and Aunt Toriko started to charge toward Uncle Makoto, but he let out a huge waterball this time, and the 3 vampires earlier and uncle Shin and his wife were blown away in an instant. My other cousins joined the fight and surprisingly, not one of uncle Shin's children took his side. We all went to my dad's side. However, when we're all fired up, dad suddenly cast a spell and we were all enveloped in a black barrier and we all felt like flying, as if we were being taken away from the scene. I heard uncle Shin's voice slowly fading, "Oh, so you've made them invisible and trying to hide them somewhere?". We couldn't see anything, but while we were moving, something bumped into us and we noticed that there was another black thing that fused on ours, and suddenly we were joined by our younger cousins and all of the humans serving us.

We heard explosions as we drifted away from the scene. Only our parents were left there, and it seemed like it became a battle between the Kazuma brothers. I could hear different sounds - of gusting wind, roaring thunder, splashing water, shaking ground, fire, shattering glass, and more explosions. I couldn't tell though if there were spells and enchantments used in the battle, but one thing's for sure - they were all in to fight Uncle Shin. All of his children were with us and I'm certain he's fighting with Aunt Toriko and her siblings. Nobody looked scared though, except for the humans with us and our younger cousins. In approximately more than an hour of being inside a dark, rounded, large black barrier, the noises around began to slowly fade away, and the thing that enveloped us also disappeared. We then noticed that we were inside the storage house.

We immediately ran outside, and saw the mansion all damaged because of the fire explosions. Smokes everywhere. A quarter of the area was burnt, and it looked like the fire was just taken down. Silhouettes emerged from the smoke, and I figured it was dad, mom, uncle Makoto, and uncle Kenji. They checked us out and after affirming we were all okay, uncle Kenji spoke.

"Shinichiro escaped. Toriko and her siblings too. They're up to getting the leader's role, but they deal with it immorally. I'm sorry, kids, " he said as he looked upon uncle Shin's sons and daughters, "we inflicted so much damage to your parents. So much that they even had a hard time fighting us back and their last resort was to escape."

"This will not be gotten away easily. Our reputation was already destroyed, and we were tagged as somebody who eats and kills humans. All because Shin made me appear as the culprit, and the whole vampire clan were taking the blame." dad said with gritted teeth, his fangs bare.

We all helped with fixing the mansion back to its normal state. The majority can cast a basic fixing spell. Others clean up the mess. I helped distantly and in secret, too. Apparently, it is confirmed that my powers were awakened already, but I still had to keep it a secret, let alone the use of it from others. I couldn't fully control it yet, but I discovered I can cast a spell without incantation and I can do it even if I'm not looking. We had to let go our human housemaids and keepers and send them back to their towns and villages. Rumors were spreading like wildfire and we didn't want their families to be anxious about them serving us. They didn't want to go, though, even Shuma said she can testify that we were not the bad guys and we never did anything evil to them. Dad appreciated the gesture, but he said it was the best for them, as he was expecting humans would come charge us with killing weapons and the like. We can block that, of course, but it might only add fuel to the fire. Since then, we don't go downtown anymore like we usually did. Father still tried to give out resources to the vendors but they all rejected them, and security sent by the central government was scattered everywhere in the towns and villages, guarding the people from us.

We got reports through Uncle Kenji's wife's family that the man killed by Uncle Shin had come home, carrying a hefty sum of fruit and vegetables that day he came to the mansion, and left again with his wife and children, coming back to our storage house. Uncle Shin killed them all by sucking their blood til they died and withered - we didn't even know how he hid the bodies - and went a few weeks later to the central government headquarters to "present" the bodies that he "found in my father's room", specifically the day before the annual meeting. It was all plotted by him, executed by Aunt Toriko's siblings, hence the soiled bloody clothes Shuma found on the day of meeting itself. Since Satou Kazuma was well-known and the nature of us being vampires wasn't hidden from humans, instead of the government hunting us down, they trembled in fear that they might end up the same. That is where Uncle Shin set up the stage where he would help them, and provoked the minister to wage war against the vampire leader and his families, by giving them the ancient book about vampires which revealed how to kill them - to take out and crush one's heart. From there on, father warned us that humans might start creating weapons against us, so we stayed in the mansion and never showed our faces again.

Uncle Shin and Aunt Toriko were not in the house anymore, and Dad, Uncle Kenji, and Uncle Kei took responsibility for taking care of their 6 children. Trainings had become harder for the older ones, and it went the same in my secret training with dad. Hina and I haven't talked much since the incident about Touya. I could feel the gap between us and her struggle not to say anything. She smiled and comforted me when I asked her before if she got scared after hearing uncle Makoto's vision. Right now, I can see that she's really scared of me and I couldn't blame her after seeing the state Touya was in when he died.

Five years passed, our lives became more serious than ever. We all did our best to become stronger as we somehow expected Uncle Shin to come back for revenge, but he did not. A tracking spell using a raven had been cast by Aunt Inoue, Uncle Kei's wife, and information was gathered that he had moved to another country. All Kazuma's sons and daughters were now above the age of 16, which meant all of us had our powers awakened and known. I never mentioned the secret training I did for two years when I was 14, but the huge increase of my powers was so overwhelming, though it had become easier for me to control it. Somehow, it's becoming true from Uncle Makoto's vision that I can use all kinds of powers and spells that every vampire here in the household and from other families can do. I can control wind, fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, thunder, metal, blades - every kind of elements; and cast all kinds of magic spells and enchantments. I can make myself invisible and break any barriers without sweat. I had to cover it up from anyone - even from my parents - because even I got scared sometimes of these abnormal powers of mine. I've been showing them that I can wield only fire and wind, barrier spells, agility enchantment, and long-range attacks through a magical bow and arrow. Other than that, everything else was a secret.

Maddie-san, who used to be the head of the housekeepers we had, and Shuma, together with their respective families, were the ones who told the humans in every town and village that it wasn't my father who committed the murder. They even tried to convince the minister that Shinichiro Kazuma was just deceiving and using them in order to be the new head of the vampires. Few humans believed them, especially those who experienced receiving our help, but the vast majority were still blinded by the truth and looked at us as monsters. Even the minister said to Maddie, "Shinichiro-sama wouldn't give us this valued ancient book of vampires if the intention wasn't pure. He turned against his own family because Satou-sama did something that disrupted the peace between humans and vampires. He was even shunned by all of his relatives for standing up with us."

I honestly wanted to throw up after knowing that. One day, I talked to Hina hoping to clarify things between us. She quietly listened as I explained what happened five years ago, from how I discovered the secret training grounds to how fast everything happened when I accidentally killed Touya. She was silent yet she maturely understood what I tried to say. The information about his father was not a secret to the household, and she and her siblings were doing their best to be upright, respectable, and powerful purebloods.

"Well, have you told them?," Hina suddenly changed the subject.

"About what?"

" We knew about Makoto-san's vision. Did you tell them? Your parents?"

"Uh.. No.. I didn't.. and I can't. You see, I really can't afford to have them know. They'll be worked up to try to stop my powers. Even our uncles and aunts had been working hard to keep alert from Uncle Shin's possible revenge so....," I paused and tried to clarify what I meant, "I'm sorry! I just meant I can control my powers now, easy and cool. I don't want them to be bothered, that's all."

Hina chuckled. "That's okay, I totally understand. Hey... do you know my father's a Revealer?"

"Reve... what?"

"Uncle Kenji is a Sealer. If a Revealer uses his powers on someone whose seal of secrecy was put on, he would know everything that's on the vampire's mind, except the sealed information, as long as the Sealer is alive. However, if the Revealer uses his powers on someone without the seal of secrecy.... do you know what that means, Misa?"

My eyes widened with surprise. Hina continued, "If father comes back and uses his "revelation of secrets", say he used it randomly at us, he would find out that we knew a vision! He won't see exactly what that is because of the seal's radiating effect, but he would probably get his way of identifying it. It would give him an idea that it's valuable information because we're keeping it a secret. Knowing what he can do, he might do whatever it takes to find it out, to use it to gain the highest title."

I had a lot to say but everything was jumbled on my mind after hearing that. "Hina! Why didn't you tell me earlier?!"

"I just found out a week ago. I gathered up my courage all these years to enter his abandoned room, prepared myself for anything horrible I might know about my father... I've been meaning to tell you, believe me.. I just didn't know how, because I thought you hated me..."

"No, Hina! I never hated you! If there's anyone who has the right to hate me, it's you! And your siblings! Because of what I did to Touya!" I jumped to Hina and hugged her tightly, and we both cried. I'm glad I got my best friend back and we're on this together again. We planned and agreed that I would tell mom and dad about us knowing about the vision, and we would ask for Uncle Kenji's seal of secrecy to be placed on us. It had been five years since, we had to come up with better excuses why we didn't tell them earlier. In addition, I had to think of a way to convince them again that I could take care of my powers. It had to be beyond a mere promise. It was a Wednesday when we talked, and we agreed we would execute the plan on Saturday, after dinner.

Come Saturday morning, I was writing a draft on what I could possibly put up as an excuse for Hina and I. I thought we must sound convincing and pitiful at the same time as we went through so much we weren't able to tell them the truth right away. Out of frustration with myself not being able to come up with a good idea, I decided to talk to Hina instead and went to her room. She was training to upgrade her water magic by enchanting it to be able to crush solid things. Hina's tired face could tell its level of difficulty.

"Why don't you just tell Aunt Arisa and Uncle Satou the truth? Let's just get ready for a scolding," Hina said while holding a large brick she was trying to crush.

"Uh... Right, if you say so.." I said it so casually that my mind suddenly came up with something funny. I thought, if Hina was determined to improve her power, then so should I. How about I give it a try if I can put a seal of secrecy on Hina? She started to focus on her brick again, so I approached her and held her shoulder and said "you can do it". I concentrated my energy on thinking of creating a seal, thinking that I must hide a valuable information from Hina's mind. In a few seconds, I felt a reaction throughout my body - the same reaction I've been feeling whenever I create a successful spell. I tapped on her shoulder again, cheering another "you can do it", and this time tried to see if I could reveal what was on Hina's mind.

I've seen so many thoughts and memories on her mind. Faint memories of her childhood and everything else as she grew up. I didn't bother to look at all of it one by one and searched thoroughly for the one I was looking for. "Where are her thoughts about the vision? Where are her memories when we learned about it?" was what I'm thinking. I looked back and forth at her mind until I confirmed that it was nowhere. It was a success! I stopped doing the revealing power and felt another reaction. Me discovering I can do the sealing and revealing, realized once again that Uncle Makoto's vision about my powers are really true.

Hina twitched and turned around me. "What were you doing? I felt a strange reaction in my head twice."

I smiled at her. "We won't need to turn ourselves in, Hina."

"Huh?"

"I just put a seal of secrecy on you. I sealed what needed to be sealed.", then I winked.

"Wh-what?!" Hina dropped the large brick and it created a loud thud. "Are you serious? How did you do it?"

"I just thought of doing it and concentrated my powers on actually doing it... Did I make sense?"

"Erm... No, I can't understand! It was so easy for you! I guess it's really true that you can do all the powers every single vampire has..."

"I figured that too. I just decided to give it a try and it was a smooth success."

That night, it felt like a huge thorn in my chest was taken out. Hina and I agreed that we would not let our guard down even if the seal was successful. I decided that I must also look out for Uncle Kenji and make sure he wouldn't die, because if he does, the seal on Uncle Makoto and others would disappear. Before our dinner, someone knocked on the door, calling my father. I rushed to the front door as I recognized it was Maddie's voice. I was surprised to see there were several of them, approximately 30 of them, all wearing cloaks in the dark evening.