Chapter 9: Discovery

Reinhardt stood over the body of his victim, flashing the blood of his wounded victim off his fingers. He stretched for a moment, glancing over to Thaddeus while he fought off a barrage of enemies on his own. He sniffed the air, looking around himself, his body in a defensive stance as while he did so.

"There's more... But where are they?" he thought to himself, slightly concerned, taking another whiff in the air, "Why can't I tell where they are?"

As if on cue with his thoughts, a sharp stick of metal flew toward Reinhardt's location at rapid speed, having him lean back suddenly as the projectile scraped against his lower lip, barely avoiding it on a whole. Reinhardt licked his now bleeding lip, glancing over to Thaddeus who was flaying his swords rapidly, sending magenta makeshift aura blades to the enemies who surrounded him at speeds that would be near impossible for any normal person to keep up with.

He pulled the blades toward him, having one lay across his chest and the other sprung across his back as he spun, pushing the blades outward as he did so, sending a circular aura slash around him, keeping all his pursuers back.

"What're you doing standing over there like you're pretty?" Thaddeus asked, each word being separated with heavy breathing as sweat trickled down his forehead and cheeks.

He leaned forward, resting his hands in his lap, with the hilt of each sword under his palms. He looked around at the people on the floor as they slowly began to get up once more, sighing as he wiped the sweat once more, glancing over to Reinhardt as he assumed a battle position once more.

"Seeing that they won't stay down, I guess I'll have to beat it into them," he chuckled.

Reinhardt groaned, dashing toward where Thaddeus stood, however, he was stopped by another strip of metal that was sent flying before his face, preventing him from advancing any further.

Annoyed, he turned to the direction the blade came from, his red hair growing longer until it covered his nape while he barked, "Stop being a coward and come fight me already!"

For a moment, nothing could be heard but the rustling of the leaves and the groans of those recovering from Thaddeus' blades as they regained their footing.

Reinhardt bit down on his lower lip, a smirk forcing its way onto his face as he glared in the direction the projectile came from, "Okay, you be that way... If you won't show yourself, I'll just come to you," just after the words left his mouth, he placed himself in a ready position as if he was preparing to run a marathon.

"Ready or not, HERE I COME!" he yelled, taking off in that general direction, leaving nothing but a trail of raised dust behind him.

Thaddeus sighed as he watched Reinhardt take off, looking at the trail he left before glancing back over at each and every person he'd be forced to take on on his own.

"By any chance, y'all tired?" he asked, with a shred of hope that they'd comply and call it quits, however, once they were up again, they all dashed toward him as if they were mindless soldiers, "No? Okay, no problem, I can do this alone all day, no biggie," he said, nervously chuckling at the end of his statement.

***

"It's good to see that you're finally up and awake," Nana Moe said with a bright smile on her face.

"Finally? How long was I out for?" Sebastian asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"For a day or so? Couple of hours maybe?" Ai answered, getting out of the chair in the far corner of the room, brushing down his coat the moment he was standing, "Now that all that greeting and stuff is out the way, how do you feel?"

"I'm fine?" Sebastian replied, confused, "Am I supposed to feel a certain way?"

"Nah, not at all, not in the slightest, okay," Ai made a note of Sebastian's response, tapping the book that was now in his hand with the pen he had taken from his coat pocket earlier once he was done, "And what's the last thing you remember?"

"I was..." he groaned as he tried to recall the events, the flashes of the night somewhat blurry in his mind, but there was one thing that was as clear as day, and it was the face of the man who killed his parents. Upon gathering his memories, he bit down on his lower lip in frustration, "I wasn't strong enough," he groaned.

"I need to get stronger... I need to kill him for all he's done."

"Yeah, yeah, revenge and all that bull crap, but besides that though-" before he could let out another syllable of another word, Moe had already placed her heels on the toe puff of Ai's shoe, pressing down on it with all the might she could muster at the time, leaving him whimpering in pain.

"Where's Corniellia?" Sebastian asked, holding on to the temple of his head as he tried to recall any other event of that night, having Corniellia be the most prominent figure in the area besides Shouji.

"Oh, she's here, but still unconscious," Moe replied, releasing Ai's toes from under her heel, "Why'd you ask?"

"It's just that... Did you know she's a-"

"Yes, we did. It's the whole reason she came to the faculty," Moe explained.

"But how could you let a vampire run around freely in an institution made to kill them?!"

"Because the world isn't black and white Sebastian! There are evil people, as well as good vampires. They exist!"

"They feed on people! With no regard to whether they live or die! And you have one of them in the institution?" Sebastian asked, fists clenched with the hospital sheets rolled up in them.

"They didn't ask to be born that way... Plus, she doesn't want to be one anymore. That's the whole reason she sought this place out."

"I don't care!" Sebastian yelled, "Each and every one of them, kill one of us... No exceptions, whether they were good or bad... Whether they have a family or not. You run into a vampire, unless you're trained in the art of killing them, you're dead. So if they don't exempt people... Why should we exempt them?"

"Sebastian..." Moe muttered, a saddened expression on her face as she neared his bed, "I understand how you feel, but as I said, the world isn't so black and white."

"Yes, it is! What's so hard to understand? Vampires kill people, so we kill them back, end of story."

"I guess that means, we should kill you as well?" Ai asked, placing the book to rest on the bed before pushing his glasses further up his nose as he looked Sebastian dead in the eye, "Because if that's the case, I'm more than willing to comply."

"... What do you mean?" Sebastian asked, completely dumbfounded and lost.

"You heard my question did you not? Did the accident affect your hearing somehow?" Ai asked with a sigh, "If you think all vampires should die, then that gives me all rights to end your life, doesn't it? Seeing that you're pretty much one of them now."