The Bloodless Rose (Heikazuscara)

Prologue: Stained

Four Years Ago

The sounds around him were awful.

They seemed to tear into his ears.

He knew he'd never be able to unhear any of this.

The sounds of people dying.

The sounds of people just like him dying.

He curled himself into a tighter ball, hoping that they wouldn't hear his ragged breathing.

Even though nowadays, most vampires were pacifistic, using donated blood to survive, they were still persecuted.

Persecuted by one person and those that followed her.

The woman who played with his brother's heart, who said she loved him only to orchestrate his capture.

He wondered if his brother is dead.

Footsteps echoed in front of him and he silently slides back, hoping the bush he's hiding behind is enough to cover him.

"Find the white haired one. He has to be around here. Make sure to kill him at any cost. Archons knows what he'll do now that we've taken that other one into custody." A familiar voice calls.

General Sara Kujou.... He realizes.

"But madam, what if he attacks us?" Another voice asks, this time unfamiliar.

"Then I'll visit your gravestone every year." General Sara says coldly.

He doesn't dare make a sound.

He covers his mouth with his hand.

It hurts...

He presses his other hand to his lower stomach to staunch the bleeding.

After all, he'd been hit....shot by one of the Vampire Hunters' guns.

If he didn't stop the bleeding, he could temporarily lose his sanity and actually attack someone.

He could hurt someone....

Eventually, he hears the people leaving.

After what seems like hours, he eventually crawls out from behind the bush, pale faced and covered in blood.

He takes a few breaths before getting to his feet, his entire body shaking.

He looks up through the trees at the full moon.

Oh, if only he had enough energy to transform, then he could just fly away...

A sharp pain shoots through his stomach wound, but he ignores it.

He takes a deep breath, tries not to pass out, and begins to make a plan.

He's alone now.... Where could he go?

Humans persecuted and feared vampires like him, so he doesn't dare go try to go to any humans for protection...

And his brother was the only vampire he knew that would take him in...

Suddenly, a cold hand grabs his arm.

His instincts flare up and he bares his fangs, preparing to attack whichever hunter got a hold of him before realizing that he can't hurt a human.

He won't hurt a human.

The only human he'll ever hurt is the Shogun.

Maybe if I don't fight them they'll realize I'm not a threat and let me go. He thinks.

No. They'd never.

They'd rather eliminate all threats.

"Calm down. I'm not with the hunters. You've lost so much blood that if I was human, you'd have attacked me already anyways." An unfamiliar voice says from behind him.

He stops moving in this new person's grasp and tries to calm his breathing.

"Take a deep breath. In through your nose, out through your mouth. You're gonna give yourself a heart attack. I'm not going to hurt you." The new voice says.

He follows the instructions, and surprisingly to him, his heartbeat starts to slow down.

"Okay. Now you can turn." The mysterious person lets go of his arm.

He turns around and his eyes fall on a boy slightly taller than him with burgundy hair and olive green eyes.

The boy smiles a small smile.

"You okay now?" He asks.

He nods, still breathing in and out.

He notices the boy has two small moles under his eyes, perfectly symmetrical with one another.

He thinks it's kind of cute.

"They took my brother..." He says quietly, his voice a whisper.

Another dagger of pain shoots through his body and he clutches his stomach wound.

"Okay. Okay. I'm going to get you out of here. I know where we can go to be safe. My name's Heizou Shikanoin. And you are?" The boy asks.

He lifts his head, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks, and exhaustion flooding his body, the result of not sleeping for three days.

"Kazuha Kaedehara."

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