Kane Yamagata,

I know that if you have received this letter, then I have died. I’m sure you’re convinced I am in heaven, aren’t you? I suppose I should have listened to you when you offered me eternal life, but I wanted to wait until I knew you truly lovely. I deeply regret this (not only because I am gone, but also because I should have never doubted you). As I am sure you are aware, Yukio Matsumoto is the one who killed me, and I am also aware that you want to kill him…
You really never listen… but I will always love you (yes, I’ll write it but I rarely say it… it’s just my logic, what can I say?). I know that, by this time, you have already looked into the darker arts of your sister, haven’t you. Kei wouldn’t object, I could tell she loved me too, and I understand your desire to have me back, I would do the same. However, I may not have been of your kind, but I know the ways of the dark arts. Sacrifices, blood payments, and the loss of things perhaps not worth the gain are the sheer epitome of the entire genre of magic.
I feel it’s redundant to say, but don’t do anything stupid. At the same time, asking you not to do anything drastic is pointless, but I shall ask anyway. I know what you are and I know you desire to kill, you have a blood lust (among other things) and I have accepted that since the day we met. If you kill Yukio-san, I shall never blame you for it, but if you get yourself hurt, whether on your own will or not, I will come back if not just to slap you for your stupidity (and don’t start with those thoughts, pervert…).
I’ll stop emo-ing you to death (you can do that yourself) and tell you that Yukio-san knows of the demonic ways, although he himself is not a demon. He won’t be an easy kill, and his bodyguards are vampires to add to your problem. My only real comment is don’t die; you got that (I’ll kill you if you do.)? I want to live my afterlife out knowing you are safe, and (while I would love to see you again) I don’t want to be in the afterlife with you with the knowledge of what would have happened for you to be there with me…
If you don’t succeed in your resurrection attempts (don’t lie to me to make me happy, I know for a fact that you are trying it), then this shall be my will. You may take all that you desire, and give the Hayashi family and Kei anything else that they may desire (I know Ronin will want my plane, he’s been eying that since the day I got it). Hope my funeral is at night…
My final statement is a promise and a request. If you truly succeed at your goal to bring me back to life, I want you to sire me as your life mate, as a vampire.

I’ll tell you if I truly made it heaven…
Zen Tsubaki

Crimson orbs scanned over the letter as they began to water, which they had not done in at least a century, if not more. Kane held the letter close to his quiet heart as he began to sob over his dead boyfriend, Zen. The letter held the truth that he was fully intent on not only bringing him back, but also gruesomely murdering Yukio, the man whom killed him.

His elder sister (sire-sister, they were brought to a state of undead by the same vampire, however, they were siblings in their human lives), Kei, had helped him look through all spells of necromancy (the sorcery of death) until they found one that would truly bring the human back to life. He knew Kei was in love with Zen also, but he wasn’t going to hold it against her (he was very charming for a human). She never did anything to break them apart and would do anything to make Zen (and Kane, for that matter) happy. If that included giving up the love of her afterlife, she was willing to make that sacrifice.

He stood outside the door of his sire-father’s palace, where Ronin, Usagi, and Kei lived with Raidon, the thunder vampire (and Usagi, Kei, and Kane’s vampiric master). Ronin was not actually the “son” of Raidon in the afterlife, Kane sired him, but he was married to Usagi (the youngest of the three) and was Zen and Kane’s best friend.

“Kane-san!” Ronin yelled, running over to see his friend. Kane nodded his head in acknowledgement, watching as Kei and Usagi followed from behind.

“Kane-kun, have you found what you are looking for?” Kei asked, smiling brightly. Kane raised a hand to wipe off the almost leaking tears from his eyes, handing the letter to Kei for them to read. Usagi nodded her head when she was done reading, glaring at Kei (as she commonly did) for being the one to hold it.

“Aniki, Ronin-kun, I feel your sorrow for your friend’s, or boyfriend’s, departure from this world, but I feel that necromancy is not a wise way out of the matter. Kei-sama may be skilled at the art, but she is still her, sooner or later she will make a mistake,” she said quietly, using “aniki” instead of Kane. She had a bit of a brother complex, idolizing Kane and helping him with whatever he needed.

Kei glared at her younger sister, clearing her throat.

“For your information, Usagi-chan,” she hated being called that, “I have yet to falter, and I have been investigating the matter ever since he died, I’ve had a whole week to work this out, do you really think I could possibly have gotten anything wrong?” she yelled eccentrically. Usagi and Kei bickered more then most sibling Kane had met in his entire life, and in all due respect, they weren’t even really siblings.

“Well, if you’re so confident in yourself, why don’t you tell us what your grandiose scheme is, hmm?”

“Fine,” she paused to calm herself down, before speaking her usual calm voice, “I believe that with Zen-kun’s body, there is a ritual sacrifice that can be preformed to bring him back. It requires the soul of that which caused the departure, in this case, his murderer,” Kane mumbled something about “two birds with one stone” before continuing, “and the blood of the one whom the dearly departed cherished most of all, which would be Kane.”

“How much blood would be required?” Ronin asked, knowing there was normally some clause behind the dark arts.

“… Enough that a human would die if it were lost from their body, however… as the letter states that he wishes to be sired, if you drink his blood nearly immediately after the resurrection, then both of you will survive, although you guys might be out for a couple of hours afterwards.”

“Ah, two lives for one … such a perfectly even trade,” Ronin said sarcastically, receiving a glare from Kei.

“The theory would be that the lost soul of his murderer would leave the materials to reanimate a body, and the blood of a lover would bring the life essence back; but it would be difficult to do it with only one sacrifice. Either way, Kane isn’t human so he will not die during the ritual.”

Kane, who had stopped listening to the conversation a minute ago, stared up at the semi-circular moon, reminiscing on what Zen had wrote about Yukio Matsumoto, the Tokyo yakuza boss. Raidon was the Kyoto boss, so Kane had met the man a couple of times before, although they never really talked. He was young for a boss, but he had the three things that really made your way into any system, even illegal ones: good lucks, lots of money, and above all else, the power to kill nearly anybody who gets in your way.

Zen himself had done little to anger the Tokyo boss. From what Kane could pick up, it was Zen’s father, Kazuki, who had angered the man, by refusing to do business with them in his small restaurant. He didn’t blame him, most wouldn’t want to deal with the yakuza, and he did not know his son was going to be killed in exchange for his disloyalty.

Kane had grown a liking to the human family, Zen’s mother had died before he ever came into the picture, but she sounded nice. Kazuki had known that Kane was a vampire, and the son of a yakuza boss, but never tried to break him apart from Zen. For that, Kane couldn’t have been more grateful.

“Kane-san, are we going to be attending Zen’s funeral?” Usagi asked, putting her hand on her brother’s shoulder.

“We will not hold a funeral until Matsumoto-san is dead; if Zen doesn’t return by then, then we will hold the funeral before the midnight of that bastard’s death day…”

“Very well, aniki…” Usagi said, walking away with Ronin back to the castle to rest. Kei sat down on the ground, looking up at the sky.

“I haven’t seen you cry since you were sired, it is a rare phenomenon. Even I haven’t brought myself to cry, although…” she paused to smile and sigh, “I suppose I have more faith in the dark arts then you, right?”

“I have never held much hope in something that is not a fact; it did take me about four years to come to terms with the fact that I am a vampire, after all.”

“I am in love with Zen too, and I am upset that he is gone, don’t doubt that, but I don’t hold the same blood vengeance as you do. I want to kill Yukio so we can bring him back, and I am not going to say I am fond of the guy, but I can’t bring myself to desire his death on the basis that he killed Zen.”

“You’ve never made much of a vampire, you know that?” he asked sarcastically, holding his clawed hand up towards the moon. “I always have a blood lust, because I am a vampire, and yet you have never had it. You divulge in the dark arts, but you are not evil. If he didn’t desire me as much as he did, I would say you deserved him far more than I ever did. I guess I am just lucky…”

“Foolish little brother,” she paused to laugh, “You are far too pessimistic for your own good, you may be a vampire with a blood lust, but that isn’t your fault. It is in the nature of the vampiric species to drink blood. I drink the blood of humans; I merely don’t crave it as much as the normal vampire would. Don’t consider yourself lower then others because you succumb to what is needed to survive. Do you think less of Zen because he gives in to the urge to breathe?” she asked, watching as Kane looked at her weirdly for the analogy.

“When a human is drowning, and they come up for air, they suck it in greedily, even though a normal breath would suffice at first. It is the need to survive that drives your lust for blood, if Zen truly desires to become a vampire, don’t you think he has thought all of this through? He isn’t stupid, he knows if he does this, he will be giving up his breath, and he will desire to kill humans to survive, on a daily basis, but he doesn’t care. He wants to be with you, whether that is as a human or not.”

“Life as a human holds more for him then the life of a vampire ever could,” Kane said, knowing from experience what the afterlife, and state of being undead, could do to a person. “Psychologically and physically, they change. My personality has not altered since my days as a mortal, but I have gained fangs, claws, red eyes, these infernal bat-like wings, and the lack of a beating heart. I desire human blood, and I fear the basic power of Earth, and the symbols of one of humanity’s strongest beliefs. As a human, while your life will be shorter, it will hold all that one will ever need, but as a vampire, you will merely live an eternal life of inevitable pain, and eventually, loneliness.”

“That, Kane, is where you are wrong,” Kei hit the back of his head lightly, but enough to inflict minor pain, “We are together as a family, a mildly deranged yakuza-vampire family, but a family all the same. Zen only wants to be with you, whether he can never enter a church, see the sun, or go near a human’s neck without desiring a taste of blood, is not important to him. As long as he’s with you, he’d be happy in the most painful hells in all the worlds.”

“I don’t understand why he would do that though…”

“Do I have to spell it out for you? He loves you, can’t you accept that fact through your thick skull? Stop sitting their in self-pity, thinkng your love will go unrequited for all eternity for the love of all the gods! You’ve charmed that boy and he’s fallen as hard for you as you have for him, of course he would become a vampire you. Hell, if you were a slug, an old, slimy slug who lived next to the salt factory, he’d still love you, and he’d become your sluggy little mate if that’s what it meant. He loves you, he doesn’t care if you’re a vampire, and he’d be willing to suck the blood dry from his own mom and dad if it takes that, and you still don’t realize it, baka!” she yelled at him, slapping him across the face and scratching the side of his cheek with her nails, “So we’re going to ressurect him, and no matter what you think about it, he wants you to sire him, and you very well will…”

Kane stared in shock at the outburst, for multiple reasons, both at the statement itself, and the fact that his antisocial sister actually yelled at him. “I-I didn’t know…”

“No, I just announced that to half the people in a mile radius of me because it was fun…” she said sarcastically, holding her hand to her forehead. “Now, can we please just go to Tokyo and get this over with?” she asked, smiling lightly.

Kane looked up at his older sister and sighed, “I will bring Zen back, and… I will sire him, if it is what he truly desires,” he said, almost reluctantly. Kei nodded, looking at Usagi and Ronin.

“Will you two be joining us?”

“Hn, if I don’t come, you’re going to end up getting yourselves killed…” Ronin said gruffly, although Kane could since that he wanted to have Zen back as well. Usagi smiled, punching thin air enthusiastically, “Yeah!”

“Alrigh then, it’s settled, we’ll get a train out to Tokyo tomorrow night.

Author’s Notes

I will tell you now, I am slow about updating original stories, so don’t expect this to be updated a lot, however, I will try to update whenever I get inspiration for a new chapter.