Vampire Princess Miyu Fan Fiction ❯ When Friends are True-A Vampire Miyu Saga ❯ Mysterious Beings ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter One



Chapter One
Mysterious Beings

Night always gave humans a feeling of uneasiness and fear. It gave undesired feelings of cold and darkness. The stars that shimmered above like crystals suspended in the unending inky blackness, and the moon that shone like molten silver emitted an eerie feeling. Nights were always cold and lonely. It made humans feel unsafe and vulnerable. They dreaded night, always seeking shelter before the last rays of the sun disappeared over the horizon. Nights were evil, nights were death. Things lurked in the darkness that the human eyes could not see, that would make the fur of cats rise and bird in the trees cease their songs. These unseen creatures were evil too, and would take a life without a second thought. Humans always hated the night.
But humans were always strange creatures. But they were a young race, also. What did they know? Unlike humans, Shinma liked the night. It gave them a sense of security and comfort, the only time that they did not have to fear of being seen in their true forms. Humans could not discover what they were at night. The only memory that they could recall after an encounter was a fuzzy as a forgotten dream. If they survived, in that case.
Humans were strange. They never could comprehend the existence of any other type of superior beings other than themselves. Situations became worse when demons were seen as evil. Many careless Shinma have lost their lives to hangings and burnings when humans found out what they were. Deaths like that could not happen, which was why humans that knew had to be done away with. A small amount of the human population who did know was not a very big deal, since most were sworn to secrecy not to tell of what they knew. But if the entire race knew, then Shinma were going to be hunted down and killed. Yet they still intended to go to the human world, some for mere curiosity, some for darker purposes. Something had to be done to keep the humans from finding out about the race that lived parallel to them.
That is where the vampires came into place. No one can remember why there is only one vampire left in all of the different worlds, nor who gave them the job and name "Shinma hunters", but they were always the ones who could send the wandering ones back to their proper places. It was the vampires who made sure that the humans never learned of the Shinma. It was because of the human fear of the darkness and night that the vampires started calling the Japanese Shinma Realm "the Dark". Vampires were the strongest Shinma in the entire Japanese Spirit Realm. The only others who could be compared to their strength, though they were not even a fraction as strong, were the elders of the Japanese Shinma Realm. Humans gave them the names they are most commonly known by; most Shinma wondered why they were stuck with such derogatory names that the stupid creatures stuck them with. Vampire was rooted from an ancient tongue that meant blood-sucking demon. Not directed towards the true vampires, it was given to the Shinma who drained the lives of humans for nourishment. Since true-blooded vampires were only born once a few generations, there were many wandering Shinma in the earth realm, leaving a very large task for the vampires until the next hunter was born. They were guardians, who protected their world and people from any threats that may bestow on them. The elders and the Shinma who knew the dangers the human's world held for them respected vampires.
Miyu, on the other hand, was a different story. The daughter of a non true-blood vampire mother and a human father, her parents wanted to make sure that she would never know the life she was destined to know and fulfill. Since she was raised as human, the Shinma do not accept her. Since she is a vampire, humans do not accept her. She is the last of her kind, and caught in a constant emotional struggle between two worlds, in the eternal age of thirteen, of what she was and what she is destined to become. The only one to help her though this constant conflict is her friend, companion and guardian, Larva, from the Western Shinma Realm. Miyu cared for him with all her heart, for his embrace and comforting words were the only thing that would help ease the pain that Miyu felt from loneliness and pain.
Miyu, like most of the past vampires, was neither day nor night, black or white. Miyu was twilight, a shade of gray, which were always a mid point of dark and light. For a very long time, the Shinma of both the Japanese Realm and the Western Realm though of Miyu as a normal vampire, the huntress of the Shinma who was not to rest until all the wandering ones were sent back to the Darkness. They had no idea how truly special she would be.
Dawn was coming later this time of year, the peak of the sun barely above the horizon as Miyu walked to school that fateful October morning. The air was cool, but the wind was frigid as it rose and fell, moving the dead leaves that lay on the ground and shuffled at Miyu's ankles. The shadows that the early light cast were long and dark. She walked alone, as she usually did, but she liked it that way. It gave her time to think before she spent the day talking to the acquaintances that sat by her in classes, trying to keep up with conversation of the human world. It was also the time before she had to put up with the lackeys who always wanted to copy her homework and try to flatter her by saying how smart she was. She barely even noticed the other school children that ran past her, greeting their friends that they had not seen since the afternoon before. Miyu had no true friends. She tried not to think about it; the subject was too depressing. She had not had any friends since she "awoke" as a vampire, and she had to change schools to often to make any new ones since then.
Something was different about this morning; she could feel it on the breeze. As she walked down the street, closer to the school Miyu nearly ran into someone stepping out from an adjacent corner. "Oh, sorry about that." She said quickly, looking at the person she had run into. She was a tall girl, probably a good seven inches taller than Miyu, slender with an exceptionally large bust, with long black hair that hung past her waist and dark, tilted eyes. She was not alone. There were four others with her, another girl and three guys. The other girl was about the same height as the first with the same build, though her hair was dark brown and tied into a braid nearly as thick as Miyu's wrist and bright green eyes that sparkled in the early morning light. One of the boys had the same face characteristics of the black-haired girl dark eyed with the bangs at the left side of his part hanging in front of his eyes, and Miyu guessed that maybe they were somehow related. One of the boys was a little shorter than the rest and had shaggy, dirty-blonde hair that hung over her eyes. Miyu had never seen anyone as tall as the third boy; he must have been at least six and a half feet tall with short, semi-curly black hair and hard dark eyes. They were all wearing the same school uniforms as the students did at the school Miyu was now attending. Miyu had never seen these people before, even in the short time that she had been at this school.
"Don't worry about." The girl said. "Just remember it's more effective to look ahead of you than at the ground when you're walking." They turned and left.
They're not human, Miyu thought to herself. When she had run into the girl, she had felt a chill run up her shine. That was odd. It had never happened before. Every time she was close to a Shinma in disguise she had felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. In all the years she had been hunting down Shinma, from how many she had met on the streets or the current school she was enrolled in, she had never felt a chill. She shook her head and continued walking.
After the many years she had been transferring from junior high school to junior high school, she decided to try something new to break the monotony of her life. Enrolling in a high school sounded interesting. It was much different from a junior high; the school was bigger, there were more classes and more homework, there were more people, and the students were older than what she was used to. Despite all the changes, Miyu had no problem working her way up to the top of her class, as she had been doing since she was human herself. There were many Shinma here posing as either students or staff, though many were not interfering with the human's lives. Work was slow, these days.
Miyu took her seat in her second period history class and was startled when someone poked her right between the shoulder blades. Again, she got the weird chill down her spine. She turned around in her chair and found herself eye-to-eye with the black-haired girl. Though with her raven black hair and pale skin, the eyes did not seem to go well with her complexion. "Hey. We ran into each other on the way to school today, remember?"
"Yes, I remember." Miyu answered. She did not know if she wanted to talk to her or not.
"My name's Kia, Inaru Kia. What's yours?"
"Yamano Miyu."
"Boy, you're not much of a talker, are you? How's this class?"
Miyu was not sure if she was offended by Kia's words or not. "It's alright, I guess, if you like history. Jinai-sensei is kind of strict. Did you just transfer here?"
"Yes, just today. Actually, the whole group I was with did. Today's our first day. We met in the administration office this weekend, so we agreed to go to school together on the first day." Kia explained. The bell went off, and the students took their seats. Miyu turned back around in her seat. Situations were still odd; usually the bolder Shinma would address her as "Shinma hunter" as soon as they met her and Kia did not seem at all shy.
Two of the boys showed up in Miyu's study hall the next period, the one who resembled Kia and the dirty blonde. Unlike Kia, they did not approach her for an immediate introduction. The boy with the black hair was definitely related to Kia; his name was Inaru Yoshi. The second boy was named Ottoshi Ryuko. They occupied the last empty seats in the far corner of the class and stayed there. Miyu felt relieved; she did not like those odd chills. She instead spent the period listening to the girls around her whisper about how cute the two new students were, and what Miyu thought of them. They were pretty in their own way, but both were… well… dorks. The class was supposed to be quiet during this time, but the two of them spent to entire period flicking a paper football back and forth and whispering "goal" loudly enough for the whole class to hear, angering the teacher. Miyu could already tell they were naturally class clowns.
Miyu did not see them again until the second to last period of the day, which was physical education. Kia and Yoshi were in her class, along with the second girl. The physical education was also more difficult than what she was used to. After intense warm-ups, the class was sent on a quarter mile run and then spent the rest of the period running the obstacle course. After many years chasing down Shinma, Miyu had no problem with the assignments and she was soon done. The new students were also very quick, and they finished a little bit ahead of her. Miyu decided to talk to them with the remaining time left in the class.
The two girls were seated on the grass near the fence of the obstacle course. Despite the sweat on their faces, they did not seem to mind the heat of the day. Other students who finished retired under the sparse shade inside the course from the trees on the outside the chain-linked fence. The other girl was dressed in the regular girl's physical education clothing: a moderately tight shirt and snug gym shorts. Kia was dressed in the boy's attire; loose fitting shorts and shirt. Yoshi was no where to be seen. Kia looked up as Miyu approached them, squinting against the sun. "Hey, Miyu. Sorry I didn't see you before." She said. "Would you like to sit down?"
"Yes, thank you." Miyu answered, taking a seat on the dead yellow grass.
"Miyu, this is Muira Tacha, whom you've probably seen this morning. Tacha, this is Yamano Miyu."
"Hi, nice to meet you." Tacha said, putting out her hand. Miyu took it, and Tacha gave it a brisk shake.
In spite of the sun that beat down from above, Miyu felt the chills again. She tried to cover up her uneasiness with conversation. "Uh, Kia, won't you get in trouble for wearing that? Usually girls are not allowed to wear the boy's style of PE clothes."
"I can personally care less. I don't like wearing those ungodly tight things because I don't feel comfortable having my ass looked at." Miyu blinked; her language took her by surprise.
Tacha giggled. "It's usually the other way around. From what I know of her, I should be wearing the loose stuff and Kia is the one who shows as much skin as possible."
Kia laughed once, sharp and loud. "Not when I'm sweating like a pig, I don't!" Miyu shifted a little. Tacha had just talked about Kia like they had known each other for years.
"Kia, are you related to Yoshi anyhow? A cousin, or brother or something? He's in my study hall class and you have the same last name."
"Yosh is my twin. Aren't I the lucky one?"
"What do you mean?" Kia pointed beyond Miyu's shoulder without speaking. Miyu turned around, then took notice of the laughter of the other students in the class. He was running full force at an eight-foot tall wall that was meant for climbing over. Instead of climbing over, though, he would just run into it, face-first. Then he just backed up and did it again. Miyu grimaced. It looked mildly painful. He slammed into the wall and slid down to his knees. Not seeming to be effected by the impacts at all, Yoshi stood up and did it again. Kia sighed heavily. "Over the wall, Yoshi."
"I'll get through it sometime!" he yelled. Miyu could not help but giggle a little. It was a little funny.
Kia spoke very slowly, as someone would talk to a child. "Over the wall, baka-brain. Not through. You do not go through the wall. You go over the wall."
This time Yoshi came to a screeching halt an inch away from the rough wood and looked up at it. "Oh, over the wall! That would make sense!"
Kia sighed again, shaking her head. "That doesn't effect him at all?" Miyu asked.
"Who, Yosh? Nah. He's going out for the rugby team after school today. The football coach at our last school wanted him for the team, but Yoshi said that pads take all the fun out of it and there is no 'unnecessary roughness' rule in rugby. He's also not a jock, thank God." Kia raised her voice to a yell. She had a very loud voice. "Hey, Yosh! Come over here for a second!"
This time when Yoshi ran at the wall, he jumped a pretty impressive jump over the wall and landed with the grace he had lacked before. Yoshi walked over to the girls sitting in the grass at the corner of the course. "Yoshi, this is Miyu. Miyu, my brother." Kia introduced them.
"I know. She's in my study hall. Ryuko and I can get into some pretty intense paper football games, you know. Anyway, nice to meet you." Yoshi said.
The teacher glanced at his watch then blew the chrome whistle that hung on a cord around his neck; PE was over, and it was time to change back into their normal clothing for their next classes.
Miyu followed behind the other girls into the girl's locker room, with Kia and Tacha walking up front. These two girls were like any Miyu had ever met before- they lacked almost all forms of modesty. A few minutes before class ended Kia and Tacha approached the locker room advisor to ask a question, with no shirts on. Miyu, as well as half of the other girls in the locker room averted their eyes. Most Shinma, if they were Shinma, were always shy, quiet, and the most modest people on the school campus. Again, Miyu found herself questioning herself to who, or what, they truly were. Miyu made a point to get dressed and out of the locker room as soon as possible.
It was becoming difficult to avoid these new students. It was not that Miyu did not like them; they were nice and all, but they were just so different from any other people she had ever met in her entire life. Yoshi and the girls were reclined against the wall of the gym at the front of the school, waiting for the bell to ring for the last class of the day when Tacha beckon for Miyu to join them. She did after a moment of hesitation. "Are you doing anything after school? We have about forty-five minutes before we have to go to any try-outs for any school team sports."
"No, I usually don't do anything after school."
"All right. Do you know where the band room is? That's our next class." Miyu nodded. "Cool. Meet us there after school and we'll sit and talk for a while." Miyu nodded again as the bell rang. The three next students hefted their bags over their shoulders and left. Miyu waited for the students to clear out before stepping into the dark shadow of a large tree that was growing next to the gymnasium.
"Are you suspicious of them?" Asked a voice from behind.
"Yes, but… no, at the same time." Miyu answered Larva. He stood behind her, half-hidden in the shadows with his mask on. "I don't know what they are. If they are Shinma, they are like none that I've ever encountered before. In feeling and in personality."
"Do you know if they mean any harm?"
"It's too early to tell, but they seem friendly enough. Most of the wandering ones give me cold looks when they see me, but these ones have been trying to make my acquaintance. I'm supposed to talk with them after school today; maybe I can find something out."
"Please be ware. Stray Shinma are unpredictable." Larva warned.
"I will. Please watch them for me. They are in a different class than I am in now." Larva vanished and Miyu began to walk to class.
* * *
Miyu leaned against the wall by the doorframe that lead into the school's band room, waiting for the new students as a throng of their classmates with all different instruments entered the room, ready to go head home.
"Hey, Miyu!" She turned to the call and saw the new students, all five of them, the last of the students coming back to the room. A thin trickle of sweat covered their faces; they had been outside again. Each was carrying a different instrument; which one was specifically what, Miyu was not sure. Kia, Yoshi, and Ryuko had some type of drum with them attached to harnesses that hung on their shoulders. The sets that the twins wore were four small drums, one larger than the last, in front of them; Ryuko's was a single white drum. Tacha and the very tall boy that was with them this morning (Miyu had still not met him) had large saxophones that were supported harnesses strapped around their torsos. Tacha's instrument looked big in front of her; it looked like the smaller saxophones on the big guy. "Oh, Miyu, this is Yoto. I don't think that you are in any classes together."
"No, we're not. Nice to meet you." Yoto only nodded, without a smile or any other form of expression. The strong silent type, Miyu thought to herself.
"Yoto's not a big talker." Tacha whispered to Miyu, but loud enough so the others could here. "Just give him a while and he'll grow less shy."
"You should know that I am not shy, Tacha." Yoto said suddenly. Miyu gave a start; he had the deepest voice she had ever heard. It sounded like the mummer of distant thunder.
"Well, if you were to talk more, than we wouldn't think that, now, would we?" Tacha added with a broad smile. She had very white teeth. "Come inside. This is going to take a while."
It was one of the larger rooms of the school. Instrument cases, sheets of music and personal belongings lay strewn about the floor in a mess of chairs and music stands. Most of the students continued to play on their instruments before they put them away, while a few others got a few stands and chairs in order to play the music that was sitting on the stand in front of them. Kia, Yoshi and Ryuko disappeared into a back room where they removed their drums and harnesses and put them into their proper places. Yoto and Tacha disassembled their saxophones, placed them into their large, rectangular cases and helped each other out of their harness.
"So what's this called?" Miyu asked, pointing at the case with a foot. It was a poor excuse to make conversation. "I'm not too familiar with musical instruments."
"These are baritone saxophones, but we call them 'bari saxes'. The drums that Kia and Yosh had are called quads, and that would make sense because there are four drums to the set. Ryuko plays the snare. It's not all we play, either. We're very involved with band and music; it's kind of our motivation in school. If we weren't in it, then we would probably be out getting into trouble or something." The big case clicked shut, and she and Yoto moved them into big lockers on one wall of the room.
With their instruments put away into their rightful places, the new students gathered their books and bags to leave the room. The five students walked ahead in a condensed group while Miyu hung behind, partially because she was still not sure if she should trust them and because she did not like the feeling of being the shortest in a group. But that was usually how things went, for her. They carried on their own conversation as they walked, about sports they were going to be going out for and the bands they were now involved in.
Except for the students in clubs or athletics, the high school cleared out pretty fast after the last bell rang. By the time they were out of the main door of the school, almost all of the students were gone. The day seemed hotter than it was at PE, and very humid. Once outside, they all took a seat under a large tree. "So," Miyu began. "Where did you come from?"
"Kia and I are from Tokyo." Yoshi explained.
"I also came from Tokyo, but more near the outskirts to be specific. I had to come here when my parents got a divorce."
"My family and I moved here when my father got a new job." Ryuko said next. "We come from Hiroshima."
"I moved here from Nagoya." Was all Yoto said. Not a very big talker at all.
"The other students in school say that you are already very involved with the school. What do you do?" Miyu inquired. It was a poor way to dig up any information, but she still listened closely for any clues that told her who- or what- they really were. The chills were still there, but the more she was around them the more they subsided.
"Well, as we said before," Tacha began. "We are mostly involved with the band, and we put our music before anything else. All of us enrolled in the Jazz Band and the Marching and Symphonic Bands. We all can play a variety of instruments. It's a long list, but would you care to hear them?"
Miyu shrugged. "I guess it all depends on how much time we have."
"All right. We have a while to go, yet. I, for example, play the bari sax for Marching Band, as you saw earlier. In the Jazz Band, I play trombone and then violin for the Symphony. Our last school had an organization call Winter Percussion, and I played marimbas in that. It's a type of xylophone, but it's made of wood and there are medal bells under the keys. I can also play the electronic bass."
"If it doesn't make any noise without being hit, then I won't touch it." Yoshi said afterwards. "I'm a percussionist. I can play quads, tympanis, and drum set. Wait… hang on… I think I played trombone once, when they needed one for the Jazz Band." He looked at his sister. "Is that right?" She shrugged. "Anyway, Kia plays quads, like I do, tenor sax for the Jazz Band, French Horn for Symphonic, and marimbas also for Winter Percussion. It was at our school too. She also has some knowledge of the electric bass and keyboard."
Ryuko said: "I can play snare, as you saw before, trumpet for Jazz band, electric guitar, and…" he cleared his throat. "Clarinet for Symphonic band." Behind him, Yoshi snickered. Kia slapped him on the back of his head and he shut up. Ryuko continued: "Yoto doesn't play nearly as many instruments as the rest of us; he loves his bari as if it was his child. But he's also awesome as a guitar player. We're cousins, you see, and we jam every now and then."
Kia asked: "So Miyu, what about you? Are you into anything like that? Sports, drama, choir?"
Miyu shook her head. "No, nothing like that. I usually have too much other work to do, so I would never have any time for anything else."
"Ah, a brain!" Tacha remarked. "I've heard stories from a few people in my classes. I think the previous Valid Victorian feels indifferent to you."
"Is there anything else that keeps you busy?" Kia asked. Her voice became soft and a little husky. "A boyfriend, for instance?"
Miyu blinked, surprised by the question. She felt her face grow hot, and then realized that she was blushing. "Well, ah, no, not at the moment anyway…"
Yoshi grunted. "Oh no, they're talking about girl stuff!"
"Ah cool it." Kia said. She turned back to Miyu with a smile. "Don't worry about it. I was just teasin' ya."
"So, do you have any other friends?" Ryuko said. "We're always interested in meeting new people."
Miyu hesitated before answering. "Actually, I'm not that social, and I like to keep to myself a lot. I've had… sort of a hard past, but I don't like talking about it." She looked at the ground as she finished her sentence.
"Oh. Well then, we won't ask. But hey, if you ever have any problems that you need to talk out, then feel free to talk to us. All right?"
"Yes… that would be all right." That was the first time anyone but Larva had told her that before.
Tacha gave her a warm smile. "Would you like to be friends?"
Miyu nodded.
The next half-hour or so was getting more aquatinted with each other. The new students began to ask about the school, which Miyu had limited knowledge to since she was a pretty new student herself. Each one of them seemed to have a different interest, and they would compare her answers to what it was like at their old schools. Along with the conversation came wisecracks and jokes, mainly thrown in by Yoshi and Ryuko, and it would usually get Kia started. Tacha would sometimes join in, but Yoto would only barely grin. Miyu even found herself laughing once or twice. If they were Shinma, or whatever they truly were, they were unlike any other Shinma she had ever met in her life. Eventually she felt more and more comfortable around them.
High school was also dismissed earlier than the junior high schools were, and it was close to quarter after three when Yoto stood and said that it was time for them to go. Yoshi cursed aloud, grabbed his backpack and took off for a sprint to the boy's locker room. She shouted something as he left, and Kia translated it for them: "He says 'see you tomorrow'. He's so oblivious to keeping appointments, sometime. It's going to get him into real trouble one day."
"I should be going, too." Miyu said.
"Then we'll see you tomorrow, then. It was fun, Miyu. We should do this more often." The new students said their good byes and left, walking the opposite direction that Miyu was headed.
The school that she now attended to was closer to the home that she and Larva were staying in than the others, but it was still a long walk home. She also enjoyed the location of this school because it was so close to the ocean, hidden in the dense cedar forest that grew about half mile away from the school and occupied the coastline up to the beach. Even after the decades since she was human, she still loved the sea. Or was it centuries? Miyu had lost count a long time ago. The walk home gave her time to think everything over to herself. Shinma came in all forms, all different shapes and sizes. From her experience, Miyu noted how most female Japanese Shinma were small, quiet, short, and petite. Kia and Tacha were almost the opposite of that: they were both tall and their bodies were a little bit bolder than the other girls', and they were also well-built when it came to muscle tones. They were not quiet, and the spoke their minds often. They had very little shame to how much skin they showed, as proven in the locker rooms.
The boys were different too. Male Japanese Shinma were usually tall and well built, but they had a sense of mature dignity. Yoshi and Ryuko lacked that almost completely; Yoshi more so. Both also had a perverted side to them, and it was a side that Miyu felt indifferent to and she did not want to know just yet. The only truly dignified one was Yoto, but he had less of a sense of humor than Larva did, if that was at all possible. Even the jokes that Miyu found funny and laughed at he barely cracked a smile. But she did not think that any Japanese Shinma ever got that tall. The other students hardly reached his shoulder, and they were at least as tall as Larva, maybe a little shorter.
As Miyu came to the decision that they defiantly not Japanese Shinma, she was in the cedar forest. She was probably the only student in the school who walked this way, so it would have been safe to teleport to her home, but she still needed more time to think. Her home was about a mile away now. It was sometimes a arduous walk, especially in this heat, but Miyu took no notice. Could they be Western Shinma? She had not seen any female Western Shinma, so they might be… She suddenly greatly doubted it. If they were from the Occident, then Larva would have told her almost immediately. And she also doubted that the boys fit in with the attitude of the Occident. Yoto maybe, but if he was Ryuko's cousin as they had said, then he would have come with them from where ever they had come from.
Miyu turned around all the thoughts that she had gone over in her mind one more time. By then the heat and humidity had tapered off, and she was close to home. It apparently a house that the vampires had stayed at when they were the sentinels. It was an old Japanese rice-paper house that had been built only a hundred or so feet away from a cliff that hung over the coastline, hidden in the huge trunks of the cedar trees. Miyu slid one of the doors open and stepped inside. The main room of the house was completely empty, and Larva was no where to be seen. He was probably still following the new students. Miyu walked to her room, dropped her books and changed into her traditional white yukata. Since there was nothing else to do until Larva returned, Miyu started on her homework for that night.
Thinking one thing and then actually doing it were too completely different actions. Miyu's mind kept wandering as she tried to complete her geometry. She shook her head, picking up her pencil and attacked the uncompleted problem that lay written out on her paper. Why am I letting this get to me so much? She thought. Is it because I don't know what they are? There weren't that many options to choose from. They were not Japanese Shinma, they were not Western Shinma, from what she knew, and they could not be Shi: Shi kept to themselves more than the Japanese Shinma did. They stay away from humans as much as possible. Miyu sighed with frustration.
When Larva returned later that evening, as the sun sunk down into the west, Miyu was sitting on the porch that faced the sea. She was sitting cross-legged with her elbows resting on her knees, her head propped up on her hands, deep in thought. He sat down next to her, and they both looked out at the sea for a long time before Miyu spoke. Half of the molten sun was visible over the horizon. "Did you find out anything?" Miyu asked, not moving from her position.
"Probably about as much as you did." Was Larva's answer. "I was able to follow them for a while, after the one returned from practice. Either they just went over to one's house to study, or they're all living in the same house."
"It seems as if they have known each other longer than only a few days. They talk to each other and about each other as if they have known each other for years, even though they say that they are from all over Japan. They can't remember what they did or when they did it. They also look older than they are supposed to be. They are apparently in the same class I am, but most of them look about seventeen or so years old. One looks close to twenty. I've been thinking of what they're not, though. They're not Japanese Shinma, and I don't think they could be Western Shinma."
"No, they're not." Larva said.
"And they can't be Shi, either. What does that leave us with?" Miyu looked up at Larva, who was without his mask, starting intently at the endless ocean. He seemed to be thinking about something. Miyu shifted over and leaned against him, and he put his arm around her. The last of the sun's rays had vanished into the ocean, and the darkness of night had begun to settle in. Stars flickered overhead and a full moon was peaking through the dense branches of the cedars behind them. Despite the heat of the day, the nights were getting cooler, but Miyu did not notice it in Larva's embrace. "I was hoping that they weren't Shinma." Miyu said after a while. "I would have liked to be friends with them a little longer."
Miyu could not help but to take notice of how Larva held her a little bit tighter than before.