Vampire Princess Miyu Fan Fiction ❯ Conquest ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Conquest

Chapter 3

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Brad obliged to allow Himiko to catch up to him now that the danger had passed. The snow fell heavy now as they strode together towards the battlefield to have a talk with Miyu.

"Miyu!" the spiritualist called out, trying to attract the girl's attention. Yet, oddly, no response came. "Where did she go?"

"I don't know. But something's definitely not quite right here," Brad answered as baffled about it all as Himiko. As they reached the scene of the battle, they combed the area searching for the girl and calling her name. Suddenly, something caught Brad's eye and he froze with a gasp.

"Miyu!" he blurted as he rushed over to a small motionless form becoming buried by the swiftly falling heavy snow. Himiko heard Brad and followed him. As he got to the girl's side, he knelt in the snow next to her.

With her hair loose and pooled around her, Miyu lay in the snow upon her stomach fever stricken and unconscious. As Brad gently rolled her over onto her back, he and Himiko both noticed she was different. Not only was her hair no longer done up with the scarlet ribbon she normally wore in it, she also appeared to have aged a few years. Gone was the young junior high school girl she had been for so long. She had blossomed into a radiant girl just a step past 18 with curves in all the right places.

"Wow. Damn, Larva, how come you always get the good looking chicks?" Lemures muttered as he took off one of his gloves to check Miyu's pulse. "Shit! She's still alive, but she's got a fever that's through the roof!" he blurted with sudden worry.

"I didn't know Shinma could get sick."

"Yes, Shinma can get sick just like any other creature. Larva's specially a pain in the ass to take care of when he gets sick," Brad chuckled slightly. "But enough of that. We got to get her out of here and into bed," he said as he replaced his glove then carefully scooped the vampire up into his arms. "My apartment's not very far away. Though, I have a feeling it was me Kuroken was hunting. Ironic as it may be, do you still have a few tricks up your sleeve that might keep the Shinma at bay while Miyu recovers?"

"I think so," Himiko nodded.

"All right. Good," he said as he turned and headed back down the path.

Himiko followed the ex-Shinma back to his apartment. He let her unlock and open the door while he held Miyu in his arms. The moment the door was open, he stepped inside. Immediately, he carried Miyu to his room and put her to bed. Himiko mean while shut the door then grabbed a box of table salt from the kitchen, then began using it to draw symbols on the floor near the walls in every room in the apartment. Using the apartments entire floor plan as her canvas and the table salt as her medium, Himiko drew the same symbols as she'd drawn on the wall when Larva was imprisoned by Lemures. Hopefully, that would be enough to ward off the Shinma that now hunted but Miyu and Lemures.

How ironic it was that she was now having to work along with the ex-Shinma to get the answers she needed. She still didn't entirely trust Brad. After all, as a Shinma, his power had rested on deceit. None the less, the fact that he was now relying on her abilities as a spiritualist inclined her to believe that he was in fact now human. Or was he? As conniving as Shinma were, this could all be an elaborate scheme to bring down Miyu as well as herself. Even down to the part where he supposedly tried to save her life. There was one way to find out.

As Himiko reached the bedroom where Brad had placed Miyu and was now tending to the girl's fever, she stopped at the doorway. "How do I know you're telling me the truth? How do I know you're really human now and not Shinma? How do I know you're not part of what's going on? And how do I know this isn't some elaborate scheme to kill Miyu and myself?" she asked pointedly. Brad blinked and turn to look at her.

"I admit you have every reason not to trust me at this point. For all I did to you in the past. I can see why Miyu favors you. You're very smart," Brad praised. "Logically, you're right. For as much as I've told you, it's very easy to think that Lemures might be a part of what's going on with Miyu. The past has given me motive for sealing Larva away somewhere then killing Miyu for taking him from me. But, for as logical as it sounds, it's still wrong.

"As I told you, when Miyu incinerated me, I used the last of my power to reincarnate myself as a human. True, I could have used it to resurrect myself as a Shinma, but little good that would do me. That last time Larva spoke to me, I knew he spoke truth. I realized that there was little anyone, even a Shinma, could do to break the bond he has with Miyu. So if I were to reincarnate as a Shinma, I would have only been distancing myself further from him. As my friendship with Larva is so deep that I see him as a brother, I couldn't bare to do that. So I reincarnated into a simple human being in hopes that someday I would be able to reunite with my best friend.

"As fate would have it, destiny has obviously been merciful with me. It drew me back here to Japan from the west. It allowed me to find Miyu, the one person who can help me patch things up with Larva. However, I never counted on becoming entangled in another Shinma plot.

"Being human, I no longer have any power. They see me as a deserter, same as they see Larva. Thus, they want me dead. That much, I've figured out on my own. However, I'm not the only one that's needing the protection you're empowered to provide. With Miyu as sick and weak as she is, there's nothing she can do to defend herself from an attack. The Shinma who are after her, and now me, are counting on this. Therefore, both of us require your help in order to survive. For you, as smart as you are and as much as I hurt you in the past, I know my story isn't enough for you to trust me. But, for the sake of Larva who so adores this girl, and for the sake of this girl who currently teeters on the edge between life and death, I have to not just ask you for help," Brad told her. He then shifted to bow on his knees and place his hands and forehead to the floor. "I beg of you to help us. And if you won't do it for me, then do it for her. Do it for the innocent humans whom you fight for who will be in grave danger if Miyu is to perish."

Himiko blinked in surprise at the ex-Shinma. True, his story wasn't enough to convince her he was speaking the truth. But the fact that he was groveling at her feet, imploring her help, and even more so not for him but for the sake of Larva, Miyu, and humanity, that impressed her. He was certainly right. If Himiko truly wanted to guard mankind from the evils of the Shinma, she had no choice but to help him.

"I'm only a meager college student earning barely enough to keep going, but I'll even pay you the fee you normally ask others for when you offer your services. How does that sound? Do we have a deal?" Brad amended. He simply couldn't think of what more he could do to convince Himiko to help.

"Note that you're correct in your assumption that I still don't entirely trust you, but you have a deal. You're right about us both having something to gain from this," Himiko answered before stepping deep into the room to draw the last of the ward symbols out of salt on the floor under the window in the back of the room. "My name is Himiko, by the way," she told him with a glance out of the corner of her eye.

"Words can't express how thankful I am to hear that… Himiko-san," he smiled gently as he rose to his feet. As Himiko rose to hers, Brad turned back to Miyu. "I've got a cool rag on her forehead and an herbal rub on her chest. I don't think there's much more we can do until she wakes up," he said with a frown.

"Hopefully, that will be enough," Himiko replied. "In the mean time, would you mind indulging me a little more on who you are?"

"Not at all. It's the least I can do. Let's head into the living room and leave her be for a while," Brad answered as he turned to stride out of the room. Himiko followed him into the living room where he cleared his mess of books away to make room for them both to sit.

As they sat in the living room, Brad elaborated a little more on himself. He first told her about his human life. He explained he'd grown up in a family with a German mother and an Irish father in a modest home in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. He was the middle child with one older brother and one younger sister. Throughout his life, he'd had dreams of being someone else in other worlds but had never told his family about them. After high school, he started college, intending for a degree in computers. Now 22, he had moved to Japan recently to intern at one of the computer game companies while finishing up his studies.

Brad explained to Himiko the real reason for coming to Japan was in fact the overwhelming desire to find something that he'd somehow lost. Only now, he knew what that was. Spinning off from that, he began telling Himiko bits about his life as a Shinma and his relationship with Larva. Grinning wickedly, he regaled stories of adventures he'd had with Larva. A few of those, were stories he playfully told of situations Larva would, these days, be embarrassed to hear being told. Though, Himiko got the picture, this was all part of Lemures' devious wild child personality. In that, Himiko found herself rather amused at some of the things Lemures had to say about Larva while he was safely out of ear-shot of the phantom Shinma. If it was really true that Larva had, at one time, paraded around London in the buck on a dare, she now had a totally different perspective on the man.

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Penguine: There we have it. Another chapter. I'm surprised I'm managing to come up with so much content. O.o Normally that's a bit of a challenge for me. // Now if only Lemures had had a camera for when Larva did that…. *giggles* // Oh yeah, Happy Halloween, folks! ^_^

Review Replies

Chibi Parker: Well, I gave you Miyu in this chapter. However, Larva will be a little late. Where he is and why… you'll just have to read and find out, now won't you? *cackles*