Vampire Princess Miyu Fan Fiction ❯ One Mother's Gift ❯ One Mother's Gift ( One-Shot )

Disclaimer: Kyuuketsuki Miyu is the property of Narumi Kakinouchi.

Notes: Based on Episode Four, Frozen Time, of the OAV series.

One Mother's Gift

Renn Ireigh

I knew of Miyu's nature before anyone else could have possibly guessed - with such parents, there was no other way it could be. Could I hide her nature from herself until it was time for her to know- until the time that I felt that she should know? That became the question, and the question begged an answer.

I gave that answer, but still she found out before I would have had her do so.

And she found it, at the cost of her friend's life, and it seemed as if it would also be at the cost of her own sanity.

I heard her muffled tears that night, and felt the wrenching guilt. I should have told her sooner, I should have told her sooner, but I could not bring myself to, and now she was not sure whether she was good or evil and she was not sure what her genes had made her out to be, and what that meant, or even who she was anymore.

I felt her conflicting emotions. She was so sure that human was the thing to be, that she was abnormal because of the blood that ran in her veins and gave her her nature, when in truth she was not abnormal but simply different, a species apart from everyone else. It was this certainty that made her attempt to forsake her vampiric nature and this certainty that made her cry herself to sleep at night, sick with the heart-rending guilt and the warring emotions; was what she was doing right? Or wrong? Or something between those two?

The night of her discovery of who and what she was, was also the night when she formed her bond. Watching the gray ocean, which still glowed and shone even in this black and starless, moonless night, she was confronted by her species and her nature in one. He took her blood, and she took his, and though his identifying features had been locked away, she cared nothing, even though she was denied sight of his face and was forever to see the expressionless mask. Here was her companion, who knew her in ways that words could not convey; her friend, who accepted her for what she was and did not judge her for it.

That was when I knew that there was no hiding it from her anymore, though still I tried, and bore her faint cries imparting their message to forget, Miyu, forget! as she remembered her Larva and remembered the blood she took from him, and him from her. It had been at the cost of her friend's life once, and as another friend approached the gate, and asked my daughter for the immortality that she had the power to grant, it was at the cost of her life again.

It was quietly and with sorrow that I presented Miyu with her friend's blood. I insisted that she was human - why? She already knew differently, that much was already clear; though she was confused and in denial. Perhaps it was an error on my part to have led her to believe that this blood did belong to the blue-haired girl who asked my daughter for immortality in half-jest, instead of it being my own; perhaps then Miyu would not be so distraught over it. Perhaps by giving her what she believed was the blood of a friend, I was imparting the wrong message - that her nature is one that will hurt everyone connected to her.

When that day came on which she would claim her destiny, and we ours, I found that I could not bring myself to let her pay the price for which my own recompensation imparted such pain. She was hesitant to follow, crying out first for her father, and then for the Shinma who had been bound irrevocably to her through blood tie; this member of my own kind who had failed in his first mission and so set himself on a second, his face and voice locked forever away but his body telling them both everything they needed to know. Perhaps I should have let her stay with him; after all, the first few days are crucial to any bonding, whether of blood or of mind or spirit or soul.

But could I leave my daughter to her fate? She is of my blood, after all; I have a kinship with her that goes deeper than the surface of flesh and the fragile lining of vein. Could I have stood to see her in her distress and in her sorrow with no comfort but a faceless, wordless presence that could not soothe her with a mother's touch?

And so we ran, my daughter and I, she looking back, not wanting to follow. But she was taught to obey, and so she came with me, as we fled through the forests. We stopped at a pump, Miyu drinking desperately in an attempt to assuage the thirst that blinded her and imparted its agony, printing it upon her flesh, but the crystal water that splashed down her throat did nothing to quench her sateless thirst. -As I knew it would not. When one thirsts for blood, it is only that rich, salty substance that will slake that thirst.

We ran on - and Miyu's bone-dry throat protested, her abdomen clenching tight as she hacked coughs. It must have been a living hell for her, desperately longing for the blood that was the only food she truly desired, being so close to it, enough to smell it, close enough to almost taste its sweetness but being denied what it was that gave her life - how it feels to be so close, and yet denied!

Now it was I who was in denial, but the denial did not hurt me - it was Miyu who suffered the price and I heard the tears in her voice as she cried out to me. Then she fell, coughing ceaselessly - her thirst would never leave her alone - and she could run no farther.

How I could have prevented that is evident; hindsight is ever perfect. But a mother's love blinds her to the truth when she must let go. This mother's love closed her eyes, as she tried to force herself to deny her daughter's nature along with her own, though her daughter had long come to the conclusion that no human action could deny her nature and so she surrendered herself to destiny. I'll protect you - so promise me you'll never suck blood again! Are such decisions made from love so horrid, so uncaring? Is it not because of love that such decisions are made so that the descendants can live their lives the way they want to - the initial wants, not the way that blood demands? Promise me!

But as Miyu collapsed I knew that the façade could last no more. And I knew, as I knelt in front of her that night, what would happen in the end. I had no choice, and if I had, I would not have made it - I forced her into the situation and it was I who should pay the price. Her unearthly golden eyes could not hide their longing as they strayed to my exposed throat, the skin as yet unbroken in its creamy pallor, but the longing mixed with conflicting No! This is wrong! and But I must! and then the former faded, and it was only the blood-thirst that she felt, and she could deny her nature no longer.

And when Miyu had cried her sorrow for her mother's gift, and for her innocence lost, she summoned her courage. Pulling herself to her feet, she set back across the forest path to confront her destiny.

It is such a mother's gift - the gift of life, the gift of blood, the ultimate price to sacrifice herself for the ones she gives her life to.

And in the end - that is what she does.

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