Visual Kei

“Why did everyone jump to that conclusion with Kiiro and not with anyone else?” I asked. Shinji smiled at me patiently, as if he had already explained it multiple times.

“You aren’t very good at hiding your feelings, Alice,” he admitted, still sweetly. “We could all tell, even Kiiro.”

I managed to blink, but that’s about it.

“B-But that’s not a bad thing!” Shinji said quickly, filling the stunned silence that I had given him. “It just means that you’re very… um… pure in your relations with others, right Rei?” He nodded. “It’s just that… well…”

“Alice, may I talk to you alone?” Chino asked politely, all hostility absent from his eyes. I nodded. The others filed out of the room and down the hall. He closed the door behind them, and turned to me grimly. “It pains me to tell you this, but I must do so anyway. Kiiro is dangerous to you,” Chino said slowly, as if expecting me not to understand. Concern tinged his firm tone. “Vampires are especially dangerous to humans not only because of their physical needs, but because of the intensity of their needs.”

“What do you mean?”

“Vampires are virtually immortal if they get the life energy that they need to live,” Chino explained. “Because they live such long spans of time, they either make relationships proportional to their lives, or they completely disregard all other beings and live alone. Either way, because of their long lives, most are very lonely. Nearly all vampires require at least one other companion of sorts, whether that companion is romantic in nature or otherwise. They become very attached to that person. I suppose you could say ‘obsessed’.”

“So you think Kiiro would turn me into a vampire,” I assumed, unconvinced. “He is hardly the selfish type.”

“You might be surprised, Alice,” Chino said warningly. “He ever so frequently disregards his limits, as you saw that day with the thief.” Sometimes it really sucked that he could read minds. “Many things dominate his mind… and he has never had anyone like you in his ‘new’ life. I worry that he will one day lose himself, however momentarily, and seriously hurt someone, mainly you. If I were to let that happen, I don’t know what I would do with myself.”

“I wouldn’t say that he does it frequently. It had only happened the once.”

“It has been known to happen in the past, though that is a story for another time. You were lucky that he realized what he was doing to you before it was too late. When he begins feeding, his passion overtakes his sense and he loses his clarity. It is quite a horrifying experience. I’m sorry you had to bear witness to it.”

“If I hadn’t seen it, I would never have believed that he truly was a vampire,” I said with a shake of my head. “I doubt he would have told me, anyway… There are all kinds of myths and stories about vampires now. Some people think that garlic and salt can keep them away. Others think that they sparkle in the sunlight.”

Chino fought a chuckle. “How wrong they are.”

“I believe that Kiiro is worthy of your trust if you let him be. He told me that his nature is his dependency and perhaps he was right, but he deserves some sort of trust, don’t you think? He has saved me more times than I can think of, and I know that he has done a great deal for the band. I mean that in both a human and non-human way.”

“Perhaps you are right in that I should trust him more,” Chino admitted reluctantly, his gaze far-off. “But for now, I must work on making amends. He was correct in that I overreacted. After I saw… I just kind of lost control… I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions, but Kiiro was thinking of sex between the two of you when I walked into the room. ”

“He was?” I gasped, my face turning pink.

“Something akin to it, anyway,” Chino affirmed casually. “Another one of the things I wanted to speak to you about, Alice.”

“Sex education? Now?”

“Yes,” he answered, a wry smile on his lips, “particularly sex with Kiiro. Being a vampire, he can only successfully reproduce right after he feeds because that is when his body has enough life energy to produce gametes,” Chino explained, resorting to scientific terms, as slang terms seemed a bit too awkward. “Any other time, he is unable to conceive a child with a partner. The child would most likely be afflicted with vampirism as well, though it is unclear how the child of a human and vampire would be. Anyway, it is assumed that the child would infect the mother with vampirism through the umbilical cord.

“Not to mention the fact that Kiiro is much stronger than the average human male, and would probably injure you during sex. But the thing I worry about most is how it would affect the powers you inherit from your blood. I’m not sure if they would develop correctly after you are afflicted with vampirism.”

“Great. So he’s going to go drink some blood, bed me, and ultimately hospitalize me.” I sighed. “What gives you the idea we’re going to have sex in the first place?”

“I’m not a medium, but I know love when I see it. Regardless of what anyone says, love can’t be contained. I can discourage it because I think it is the best course of action for those involved, but ultimately, it is your decision to be involved with each other. I am not your father, and I won’t tell you who you can and cannot be with. I just want you to know of the consequences of your actions.”

“But why would we have sex?”

“I think your affection is deep enough for each other that you will someday see that union. Let’s just call it a hunch, shall we?”

“A hunch?” I stared at Chino a moment before giving up trying to explain how I felt. “I really, really like him,” I said softly. “I don’t know if it’s love, but I respect and cherish him.”

“If it isn’t, it will grow to be,” he assured me, his face melancholy, but somehow happy, too. I could see that he truly disapproved of our relationship, but for good reason. “Kiiro, regardless of the mistakes he has made, is a great man. I think that you are a great person, Alice, but I think that in this case, two great people shouldn’t be together. At least for now.”

Tears filled my eyes, but I didn’t know why. Perhaps it was because I had known it all along, and he was simply putting voice to it. I felt a protest rise up inside me, but I shoved it back down and fought to compose myself. “It’s not… that easy.”

“It never is.”

“I have to think about this,” I said quickly, feeling the tears about to overflow. I rushed out of the room before he could say anything, and pretended not to hear him calling my name from Kiiro’s room.