Rescue Operation

-----Yui's POV

Almost a year has now gone by since turning into a vampire, and let's just say... It was quite a rough ride, much like what Kaede warned me about. I did need to explain my red eyes to people, which to be honest was the hardest part besides dealing with my hunger for their blood. I did end up borrowing some blue contacts from Maria, which only seemed to have caused her even more concerns. I'm sure one of these day's Kaede and I will have to come clean with what we are. but thanks to Maria, I did manage to fool my parents with the contacts. The club as well was quite a lot different than before as I easily surpassed my records, but nothing as crazy as what Kaede had done prior as I managed to make it more believable.

The tests throughout the year were also a breeze as I could recall most of the answers from the original timeline, which ended up making Kaede and I a so called 'power couple." Although we were keeping our relationship a secret, so people only saw us as good friends.

Things continued to go smooth throughout the year, and we have just finished the end of year exams as we'd soon become second years pretty soon. And unlike the previous timeline where I wasn't in Kaede's class at all, it seemed to be looking like I'd be transferred to her class in my second year. But as we were making our way through the gate, going back to the other world, once we were on the other side.

Selene: "Sister!"

Selene immediately came up to us, or to be specific, Kaede.

Kaede: "W-what's wrong?"

Selene: "Mai might've found where Sicily and Lillian is!"

Kaede: "!"

As soon as the words left Selene's mouth, I could feel Kaede's aura around her thicken as she has a serious expression on her face.

Kaede: "Why didn't Mai tell me?"

Selene: "She said that she'd like to handle it, but I figured you'd wanna know."

But despite the intimidating aura Kaede's giving off, Selene speaks as if it's an everyday occurrence, without a care in the world.

Kaede: "Mom, Faye."

Fleur/Faye: "Yes?"

Kaede: "Let's go."

Wait, Kaede plans to go right now? Am I meant to come with her as well?

Selene: "Wait! Can I come too?"

Kaede: "What about your mother?"

Lilith: "It's okay. I trust you'll keep her safe, Kaede."

Selene: "See?"

Kaede: "Fine. Yui? Are you coming as well?

Yui: "I better be."

If she's taking everyone else besides Lilith, then I'm for sure coming as well.

Kaede: "Fufu, okay. Selene, you guide the way."

Selene: "Kay~"

I watch as Selene props herself up on Kaede's back, wrapping her arms around around Kaede's neck to make sure she's secure.

Kaede: "Alright, let's go for some hunting, shall we?"

.....

...

We soon depart Yarene on foot, with Kaede leading the way with the help of Selene on her back. I took my place next to Kaede with Faye to the other side of me, and Fleur on the other side of Kaede. It's safe to say that we're right now running at speeds that no human could dream of as the trees that go passed us while we run are nothing but a blur to me.

Selene: "Just keep going this way. Maybe slightly to the left."

Kaede: "Got it."

We have also learnt that despite Kaede still linked to Mai, Selene's link to her is much stronger, allowing her to roughly figure out where Mai actually is. It honestly might have something to do for the reason why Mai can't materialize in the other world.

Fleur: "This is a bit exciting, hehe."

Faye: "Right?!"

It's true, this does feel a lot different than anything we've done before.

Neri ended up helping on behalf of the queen to give us jobs that help us secure some blood. Of course finding human blood on those jobs were scarce as we mainly harvested demi-human blood or monster blood which isn't all too ideal. But this is the first job that involves running outside Yarene, so maybe we could find humans.

Kaede: "They're not in Inasdale, right?"

Selene: "No... According to Mai, they're yet to be sold off."

Kaede: "Thank god..."

Yui: "Originally they were slaves, right?"

Kaede: "Yeah, but let's hope we get there in time before that happens..."

I feel her aura thicken once more before she slowly picks up even more speed, as if in a rush to get there. The rest of us try to catch up, but even I can tell that we're all at our limit. Meanwhile, Kaede isn't even breaking a sweat as she looks like she could double, maybe even triple her speed. "We're holding her back" is probably what's on all our minds right now...

...

Faye: "K-Kaede~ Time out for just a sec!"

After about two hours of constantly running at that speed, Faye finally seems to have depleted her energy as we all begin to slow down.

Fleur: "Y-yeah... Maybe we can take a break for now?"

Kaede: "Okay."

Even I felt as though my clothes were drenched in sweat as I could finally catch my breath. How far have we even travelled? I did recall seeing the mountain range just a while back, maybe ten minutes ago, so we're about halfway to Inasdale, but we're not going there I don't think.

Selene: "If we continue north from here, we could probably reach Mai soon after nightfall."

Kaede: "Sounds perfect to me, didn't you think?"

Selene: "Mhmm!"

Thanks to all of us now being vampires, we can all take advantage of the dark. For me, it came as a gradual change. Like during my first week, for the most part I think my vision was still equal to a human's. After a few weeks, I then started to realize that I could see a bit more in the dark, which only became better as the weeks went by. And by now, I pretty much have perfect vision in the dark, just like the rest of us.

Fleur/Faye: "Haaah~"

I watch as both Fleur and Faye sit down on the ground, not caring at all about dirtying their clothes.

Faye: "I wonder if we'll get to Kaede's speed one day, haha."

Fleur: "M-maybe, hehe."

I do think that Kaede might be stronger than us purely because she's a natural born vampire thanks to her unique connection with Selene. Actually, I wonder if Selene is faster than us? She's still just a small child in size, reminding me of Mell in terms of size, but she could still be much faster than the rest of us, besides Kaede.

Kaede: "How long of a break do we think?"

Fleur: "Maybe like thirty minutes?"

Kaede: "Alright-"

I end up taking my spot against the base of a tree with Kaede while Selene takes her spot on her lap, leaning back into her chest as if it's the most natural thing to do. I swear, I feel like every time I see these two together... Sure they look similar, with Selene just being a younger version, but I feel like the way they treat each other is far from just mere siblings. But I know it's stupid to get jealous over Selene.

Kaede: "Mai hasn't found them yet, right?"

Selene: "Not yet. Just found a lead."

Kaede: "We'll need to hurry if we're to catch her.

Yui: "But Mai wouldn't do anything bad, right?"

Kaede: "No, but... I just wanted to be the one to rescue them..."

I understand now that it was a silly thing to ask. To her, Sicily and Lillian are family despite being elves and not vampires. Of course she'd want to be there for them as soon as possible, but that only makes me feel as though maybe the rest of us shouldn't have come.

Kaede: "Yui."

Yui: "Eh? Yeah?"

Kaede: "You worry too much."

At her words, she leans in closer to me as our shoulders press up against one another, her hand now over mine as my eyes lock onto the ring on her hand, the same kind of ring that's on my left hand...

Kaede: "Family sticks together. I'm not happy with the idea of leaving you, Mom or Faye out of this."

Yui: "...You sure you can't read minds?"

Kaede: "Fufu."

She rests her head on my shoulder as we enjoy the last moment of the sun together. The sun will soon be behind the trees around us, and soon will be completely gone as nightfall comes.

Fleur/Faye: "Mmm~"

Of course, with Kaede and I like this, we grab Fleur and Faye's attention as they look over at us with smiles on their faces. A family of vampires, huh... I can't help but reply with a smile of my own, wanting to stay like this for just a bit longer.