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Zero Kiryu     CROSS ACADEMY

In the aftermath of the battle with the Black Wolf, the sun has begun to set over the school grounds. Prior to this point the passage of time has been like a thing out of storybooks, corresponding only to the scene in which the memories exist. To some degree it has even been glossed over, as if by an artist who could not be bothered to render distinct background or setpieces.

Presumably, however, it has largely been daytime.

The sun freezes in the sky, giving light to a specific spectacle across the lake from the Cross Household. Smoke billows from the wood across the lake-- either that, or the Moon Dormitories. It would appear as if something in the area caught fire-- or perhaps it is simply an extension of the psychohazard that you just encountered. It is plainly visible through the windows of the household, in any case.

But there is a "closed off" sense to the Moon Dormitories that make it impossible to approach from all but one direction. This is not a true physical barrier, but a barrier of the mind itself. It has determined that the only way this place is to be approached is through the proper channels, and the proper channel in this particular case is the front gate itself.

It is therefore necessary to cross the main campus and double back across the opposite bridge, to the Moon Gate.

Off in the distance, multiple additional memories play out on their own.

A tall man who resembles nothing so much as a grizzled cowboy holds a repeater rifle in one hand, perched upon the edge of a garden pond. Zero Kiryu stands in water that reaches his chest, a gunshot wound to his shoulder bleeding into his shirt. Yuuki -- short-haired, much younger in appearance and demeanor -- holds onto him and has situated herself between the cowboy and Zero.

Zero sleeps alone in distant stables, an ornery-looking horse hovering nearby.

A dispute takes place in a patch of trees not far from the moon bridge's mouth, where a tall red-haired man and a blonde that is recognizable as Hanabusa Aido -- from Yuuki's own mindscape -- have a dispute with Yuuki and Zero. Hanabusa only avoids having his head blown off by Zero because Yuuki pushes his arm up when he fires, sending a burst of flowery shojo energy bullets wide into a tree.

A flicker of perspective in passing reveals the main campus in ruins -- though its intact self is also present -- and filled with what must be feral vampires, as something loud and violent plays out on the roof.

Everything in the mindscape is momentarily disrupted by a single shocking impact that shakes the whole of it, as if a meteor had struck mere fight away and flattened a forest. Titanic vines creep into being on the horizon, winding their way across distant mountains like spined, monstrous serpents.
Raziel 'With the defeat of the wolf, a symptom of a greater problem, the sun had finally started to set.  Up until now it had remained fixed in the sky, and it appeared that twilight and then the night would only be inevitable.  Whatever that creature was attached to was likely to come down at the setting of the sun.  If it was stronger than the creature, it might spell an early end for this dive into Zero's past.  Who could say what would happen to Zero...or us.'

Raziel moves from the house, leaving the memories of the stabbed hand, and the battle of the wolf in the past.  The way to the Moon Dorms being blocked, unless you go a specific way.  In fact, Raziel attempts to approach the shorter way at first.

'This way appeared inaccessible, something was hindering my movement.  Perhaps it was the mind itself...regardless of the cause, I would have to find another way to the Dormitories.'

More memories are seen on the distance, the strange man with the gun.  The next scene with Zero in the stables with the horse.  The next with ~flowery~ Shojo bullets.  Of course, the perception changes finally to a destroyed campus.

'We approached, after a feeling of slight vertigo, what appeared to be the ruined main campus.  Looking behind us we could see the intact campus still there, but before us lay an apocalyptic event.  I noticed feral vampires, while nothing like the degenerated wretches that came from my world's future, they were still very obviously degerated mentally.  Sounds of battle likely came from the roof.'

The entire mindscape trembles, as Raziel quickly forces himself to keep his balance, nearly taken off guard by the massive quake.  

'A blast not unlike the pillars exploding could be felt, and the effect was the same as when they fell.  Thick vines, entwining the landscape as serpents spun around the distant mountains as if a spider were making a nest.  I was not an expert in matters of the mind, but it took no expert to know that something was very wrong, and whatever it was...it was likely we needed to deal with it, and soon.'

"I think we have discovered the issue at hand.  Or at least, part of one.  Do we go to it, or let it come to us?"
Aoko Aozaki     We're going to pretend Aoko was there all along.
    Or we won't. It won't matter and we won't address it.
    Just like the Tsukihime anime.

    Aoko does not much enjoy being made to cross a place through a specified path, especially when others are clearly available but arbitrarily blocked off. She probably spent entirely too long trying to defy the rules just for the hell of it. It didn't work, but she tried, give her credit for that, and so eventually she finds herself heading to the Moon Gate the correct way, across the campus and then across a bridge.

    The memories are contextless as ever, but at least they confirm that Zero and Yuuki have had this sort of relationship for a long while now. That'd be nice, if some of those memories weren't awful and bloodied! Or maybe that's what makes it nice.

    Oh, everything's shaking.
    And there's giant monster vines.

    Is that a callback to his gun? They're bigger than usual, if so. By a degree of ten.

    "I'm not one for sitting around when exciting things are going on!" she says to Raziel, "So let's see if this place'll even let us approach or not!" Right, let's.
Zero Kiryu Before the Moon Gate is the Zero Kiryu of today. Vines protrude from visible veins -- or perhaps simply vines buried beneath the surface of his skin -- and twine about the gate, barring it shut. He is clearly focused on something else until anyone approaches, at which point he turns his eyes from the horizon to settle upon those who approached. In this particular case, Aoko -- and presumably Raziel. He tilts his head to one side slightly, his vines loosening their grip on the gates.

    "This is...

        something private."

"It's best not to meddle here." He says, and turns his attention back towards the horizon.
Starbound Flotilla     It's ya boy, Moonfin. He's here following being no help with the wolf at all. "It is indeed best to not meddle," He says. "Which makes it good that we are not meddlers. What insight we may find within the Moon Dorms shall may grant us the insight we need to pierce the facade of memory that keeps us from finding the shade within the Sun Dorms. Tell us, is the privacy so crucial and the benefit so unlikely?" He sounds incredulous, but he's actually not all that interested in breaching Zero's privacy just for the hell of it, he has some pretty defined reasons he would bother. "We shall simply move on to his place of employment if there is nothing of such use to be found here."
Priscilla     Priscilla is never keen on being told where to go or what to do in any specific way, but the fact that Zero's brain doesn't really contextualize that any other path into the Moon Dormitories *exists* can't be helped, and honestly says a little bit about him that the crossbreed ends up ruminating on, along with pretty much everything else, along the trip. "Outside the dramatics of the teenaged . . ." she starts, staring at the melange of Zero being weird, varying from the mundanity of sleeping with horses to the nonsense of getting shot crossing the water ". . . it wouldst not be so bad a thing, to hath a stay of education in a place like this. There is a private sense to it. Unpredictable, perhaps, but always there, and never elsewhere."

    Well, then there's some memory of stuff being burnt out. "Past, or future?" Priscilla straight levels at Yuuki. "I hath the feeling that even were it burnt to the ground, it wouldst hardly stay as such for long." But still. Feral vampires. Do they look like psychohazards, or accurate memories, Priscilla lingers long enough to try to discern. She pauses to brace herself throughout the earth-shattering rumble, barely needing to so much as glance at the vines. "I wouldst surmise further, before, were this such a life-altering moment in joining with Bloody Rose, if it at all were to feel anything like it was to hold Artemis." she says.

    Then she really just asks Zero. "How long hast thou had possession of the Hunter's weapon?" Bam. Timeframe on this particular Zero.
Yuuki Kuran This memory is... ... ...

This memory is... Familiar. A bad day. Yuuki remembers this day, dimly, as the sun begins to set. As the memory of time passes, it's not actually time. It's the setting. "Aoko, Raziel. Be prepared. I don't think any of the phantoms here could really hurt you - but they're sort of an unending mess. This seems to be the memory of when Uncle Rido came to Cross Academy himself, and brought a whole army of turned humans as well as insurrectionists from the Vampire Council to try and kill my brother - Kaname - and take me captive. This is the last night of Cross Academy..."

"The last night of my quiet life as Yuuki Cross. Just... Be careful, okay? Around here, the most dangerous memories are probably not my Uncle, or even the vampires."

Yuuki brings her right arm across her chest to clasp her left bicep through her coat.

"There's another me, here. A foolish, red-eyed monster who spoke only hurtful words. And another black wolf in the form of a brown-haired man. The mastermind. Rido was destroyed by Bloody Rose, on the roof of the school, but..."

Yuuki frowns. "Those two lived through this night."

As for the massive vine-extensions going on across the mountains, Yuuki squints lightly. "Oh. That's probably just Bloody Rose. I wondered what would happen to it."

As for THE MEMORY BEFORE THEM... "This was the time we caught Hanabusa and Kain--" Yuuki grimaces at Raziel. "... No relation. Let's call him Akatsuki. When we caught Hanabusa and Akatsuki messing with the memories of some human girls in the forest between the dorms. Being creeps, mostly."
Aoko Aozaki     "Yeah, yeah! We're here to help, not meddle. I know, I know, reputation and all that, but I can contain my undending urges to meddle sometimes, promised!" Aoko replies, though she seems entirely more focused on trying to look in the same direction as Zero than anything else.

    "Anyway, why'd your mind determine we absolutely had to pass through this gate if we weren't meant to?"

    Priscilla asks a pointed question. Aoko blinks, and turns to Yuuki when she offers a context for what they saw. "Something about vampires and hordes. Never works out for them. Another you, though? We talking metaphorical other you or literal other you, like some kind of evil twin or clone deal?"
Yuuki Kuran "Literally metaphorical. This is the night that..."

Yuuki rubs her neck again, looking back towards the Sun Dorms. "I had been breaking down for a while. Seeing things. Visions of blood. When I was Yuuki Cross. Forced to confront a life that had been taken from me, and memories of my past."

"Maybe it was inevitable, living on a mountain and surrounded by vampires, but the me of tonight - back then - died, and the me of today woke up. I said something to that effect to Zero, this night so long ago."

"The stupidest thing I've ever said. So I expect the memory of me, the first night of the return of Yuuki Kuran, would be especially vile and hurtful."
Zero Kiryu The avatar of Zero Kiryu regards Moonfin with a dull, distant look. He glances over his shoulder towards the smoking Moon Dorm, and back again. The notion that it might be more harmful to leave it be than to simply allow whatever secret there is there to slip free seems to stagger him, a little. More than that, he looks /uncomfortable/, and not in a way that the hunter has been prone to expressing in all his years in the multiverse.

This is a 'new look', to him. Eventually...

"It is not a secret for my benefit." Zero replies to Moonfin.

The vampires wreaking havoc on the ground do not appear to be psychohazards. Across the other side of the grounds, in the breach of one of the walls, a lone silhouette bearing a blade strikes only the once, splitting open the earth and turning ferals to vapor as if he had dropped a bomb at his own feet.

The avatar replies to Priscilla, "I'm not a memory."

Yuuki's worry causes a change in the Avatar's demeanor. He shakes his head at her, some of the opposition seeming to go out of him. Zero answers Aoko's criticism with a nod.

"Because," he says, "I do not mind if this problem is corrected. But what is learned cannot be unlearned, no matter how tightly we bind it up."

The vines retract into his person, and no longer present as surface-visible veins. The Avatar of Zero Kiryu pulls the gates open and stands aside.
Raziel Raziel's eyes narrow at the modern Zero telling them to not interfere, which...is not entirely odd, but also strange in its own right.  Is it actually him, or is this...

It seems people recognize something, and this turns out to not be exactly what it looked like.  Raziel does not charge forward, that is not his style.  The question from Priscilla is pointed, so he waits for an answer.  More than that, Yuuki explains some things about the situation to give more context.  Also to what she said to Zero that night.

Though nearly saying Kain's name causes Raziel's eyes to narrow, but the explanation it wasn't /his/ Kain causes him to nod.  "I understand," he says, in a tone that says he knows, but he can't help but hate the name.

Of course, Zero...apparently the real Zero reveals the meaning of his interference.  Raziel cannot disagree with his sentiments, knowledge cannot be forgotten so easily once it is learned.  Was it right to even go forward, even with Zero stepping to the side?

"I feel I can not make this decision, so I leave it up to the rest of you," he says to the group.  "Not because I am incapable of it, but because it more than likely effects mores more than it would myself.  It would be unconscionable of me to do so, but I vow to go with whatever you decide."
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki editorializes the memory of the swordsman.

"That... That man, in the coat, with the sword: that's my adoptive father, Headmaster of Cross Academy, and Chairman of the Hunter's Association - Kaien Cross."

"The most powerful Hunter to ever live."

She says this to punctuate the man cone-slashing so hard that he destroys 'like an entire doomstack of vampires, the wall he's standing on, the ground around him, and about a 30 foot sphere in all directions from a single dismissive slash'.

"Even if I had never re-awoken as Kuran Yuuki, even if Zero had never been given complicated powers by Kaname, even if the vampires had all sided against the humans... Looking back, I don't think we were ever in danger."
Aoko Aozaki     "Oh, I get it. Existential redefintion of who you are and want to be combined with vampire superpowers and bloodlust, or something along those lines? It's pretty common for people to refer to those kinds of events as being "reborn" or "awakening". It's usually a pretty big deal. Been through it. I used to be even more immature, if you can believe it!" Turning a 12/10 into an 11/10 isn't that much of an improvement. "Anyway, anyway! Don't worry, not judging."

    Her eyes trail to the show of power Kaien puts on, and Aoko lets off an admirative whistle. "Damn. You really have it all. You've got a badass dad, a shady relative, you're some kind of vampire magical girl princess, and you have a cool boyfriend who doesn't afraid of anything but has a dark side."

    Aoko hears the recordscratch, and laughs.

    "I love coincidences. Though I gotta say, Zero's a lot manlier."
Starbound Flotilla     "If it is not a secret for your benefit, then we shall do all we can to assure that showing it is, and a benefit to those you care for besides." Moonfin says, nodding firmly, with a somber voice and face. He steps to the gates, and as he does, he speaks to Yuuki. "In life, being at risk of death is a truly rare experience. Even being at risk of great injury, too, is a terribly uncommon danger. But there is a pervasive risk that invades all aspects of life, and I suspect it was here on this night as well: The risk of another path. The danger of very nearly becoming someone who you are not now, and someone else entirely. It is a grave danger, one that would put your own existence in peril. Such a night was surely fraught with a danger like that." He steps on in to see what all is inside here.
Priscilla     Priscilla doesn't actually say it, but her blinkback expression pretty much states "oh" in all lowercase and no punctuation by itself. "I think not a single person here is without at least one abominable self-made mark upon their histories, Sir Kiryu." she says, this being temporally before being asked to call him Zero. "Thine reticence is understandable, but ultimately futile. It is in the way of what we, as an extension of what thou, wish for."

    Aoko actually talks through that one, surprisingly. Moonfin too, but that's less surprising, because he is actually a diplomat, if an *incredibly* smug one. Honestly, she probably shouldn't have even said that. Her *own* willingness to reveal big secret bad days like this amounts to approximately negative seven hundred. Maybe negative two hundred and fifty for some of the present company.

    Let it not be said that she isn't . . . actually kind of impressed with Kaien finally appearing 'on-screen'. She'd heard his name dropped a ton of times, but judging by her slightly baffled and leaned back look, she'd probably expected a Gendo-posing perpetually-in-the-principal's-office mastermind. "I . . . see." Priscilla just says in a moment of not really knowing how to unpack that information. "Dost thou hath regrets for that reason?" she eventually, slowly, inquires. She stares for a while, lingering with her head in the direction of the feral vampire brawl even as she starts trying to walk on, but it really doesn't seem like that particular vignette needs meddling with. Instead she rolls her stealth d20 as a formality on top of the +50 bonus and goes inside the melee to scope out what's so important about this memory, or rather more specifically, where the 'terrible horrible very bad no good worst day of Zero's life' stops and where 'psychological aberration' begins.
Yuuki Kuran The way forward - towards the ruined Moon Dormitory - is where the path appears to take them, especially with Zero's avatar opening the way.

"I didn't think you'd do that with Bloody Rose, but not because I thought you incapable. I guess I always remember you with it in your hands. Dangling off a watch chain. Mmm. Maybe a little something to get used to!" She comments, though Priscilla prompts her about Kaien's power.

To which she genuinely and inncoently notes. "The Hunters Association is the foremost authority on hunting vampires, empowered with special weapons forged out of the blazing heart of an ancient Pureblood. Did you think the man who rose to the top of that would be... weak?"

Yuuki laughs. "He's gentle, now, but I heard a few stories of his bloody-handed work before adopting me. Really, sometimes it would be about leading an organization, and other times, a pack of starving wolves - or bored, annoyed cats."

Priscilla is gone, and the outline of her absence leaves a 'bink bink bink' of missing-in-action outlines. "Priscilla?"

Yuuki frowns. "Oh well. I suppose we'll have to deal with my Uncle, then. Again. In the memory, he should just be shot dead by Zero on the roof, but that's... back there. I wonder why we're here?"
Zero Kiryu "Thank you." Zero says to Raziel, simply. But he doesn't seem terribly concerned with the notion that they'll be going on through for some reason. There must be a reason for the change in his attitude, but as has been demonstrated, he's not a terribly open person. There probably won't be a plain answer without a direct question.
"I got being scared out of the way a long time ago. I should not have seen my eighteenth birthday. 'Spending myself how I see fit' is the only choice that was left to me, in that regard." He responds to Aoko, with a shake of his head, "In light of that, you shouldn't consider it bravery or indifference, but resignation. Or a lack of self-valuation. Whichever you prefer to think of it as."

"That gun in your pocket... it was never meant for enemies, Aoko Aozaki."

Priscilla goes looking for what's so important about this memory. Immediately she is transitioned from outside to the inside of the Sun Dormitory, the surroundings fading and placing her in someone's bedroom. Judging by how spartan it is, it's a boy's, and probably Zero's own.

A Memory of Zero-in-his-room raises his gun towards the door. An exchange occurs.

"You thought that we could talk if we met." Zero's memory says, "A human transforming into a vampire. But really, I think about it... I'm also a human who transformed into a vampire. But all I can feel across the door right now... is an arrogant pureblood who trifles with humans."

It is a raw moment. Much as is the case elsewhere, Priscilla experiences an overlay of what Zero was feeling at the time-- and that, simply, is 'too mixed up to have ever handled this correctly'.

"You're right, Zero." Yuuki answers across the door, "I'm glad... that you understand. I'm not the 'Yuuki' that Zero knows anymore. Because, the vampire side of me, ate the other part."

But...

Although Priscilla is deliberately made witness to this moment, there is no psychohazard element to it. It is something that happened, and not a very nice something. Whether it was something moved on from fully is a little unclear, except...

That it is certainly not a festering wound.
Zero Kiryu Although the Avatar of Zero gives a twitch of his head when Moonfin proceeds through first, he doesn't interfere.

The Moon Dormitory is especially dreamlike. The transition from gates to interior is punctuated by a momentary experience of nothingness, and then the arrival in a set of large rooms.

Inside stands the brown-haired young man from the Cross Household, across from a memory of Zero Kiryu. Here, the memory is not a picture show. The voices are clear, and the room itself burns with ghostly flames that are clearly representative of a festering psychohazard.

The brown-haired man is grown up, a little older than Zero or Yuuki at the time, perhaps by four or five years.

"Were you the one who erased Yuuki's memory or not? Are you involved in Yuuki's past or not? And if you can't answer those questions, what reason would that be? Do you have any intention of relieving Yuuki's insecurities?" The memory of Zero asks the brown-haired man.

The demeanor of the two is like a pair of cats that don't get along, but are -- temporarily -- tolerating one another. The brown-haired man replies, "Then... shall I crush one of Yuuki's insecurities now?"

It turns into a fight from there. The brown-haired man seizes Zero's throat and slams him against the wall. Zero, for his part, draws his gun and has it at the brown-haired man's head.

A few other things are said, but they're... glossed over. There is a sense that they are unimportant, rather than deliberately omitted. With some concentration, the contents of the conversation can be gleaned-- that both are avoiding killing one another because it would be distressing to Yuuki. The voices return with clarity near the end.

A gash opens along this memory of Zero's neck.

"It would be a problem if you die now. I've let you live this far because you've been useful to Yuuki, and I know that you would never betray her."

The scene does not escalate from there, because the brown-haired man realizes that he is being watched.

Kaname Kuran releases the memory of Zero and straightens up, turning his attention towards Moonfin. The Psychohazard attacks unprovoked, waves of telekinetic force quite literally blowing out the wall and roof of the dormitory and spraying the bridge and entryway and everyone on it -- save for Zero's Avatar, who disappears entirely when this begins to occur -- with debris and the last vestiges of force behind the attack.
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin watches placidly, all three eyes open, regarding the exchange silently. He sees the conflict rise, and reach its brutally love-driven conclusion. Moonfin can recognize some of the dynamics at play; they are common in the most popular of Hylotl romance stories. But his webbed hand still rests on the hilt of the katana at his side, a simple byproduct of the tension. It's good that it's there when the fighting breaks out.

    He cannot parry a wave of telekinetic force. But with a harsh, short kiai, he draws his blade in one clean motion while flipping forward, plants it in the floorboards of the burning room, and with a clean motion leaves a chunk of the floor interposed between him and the wave, pierced on the end of the katana like yakitori. It shatters, and he weaves cleanly between even the splinters. "First Sea Hylotl Style: Treacherous Harbor!" He speaks, before flicking his blade clean of the last splinters. "A great trauma, it would seem. One most brutal. Nobody, adult or otherwise, can walk away from such a conflict with no scars. The weapons were secondary; they were incidental, even."

    He pulls his blade back, pointed harshly at Kaname, along his head. His armor assembles out of light around him. "Come, trauma, and strike with your own hands, not phantasm. It is no wonder that something that could distract Zero from a pure love would find its place where the complexities and traumas that entangle that love make their home." He speaks in arrogant tones to the man. He plants one foot into a wide stance, a preface to an eleegant samurai's strike. "Fifth Sea Hylotl Style: Battering Waves." And he rushes for a series of high-speed rapid thrusting stabs!
Raziel Raziel can not smile, but his eyes indicate that he was doing it if he could.  "Think nothing of it, Sir Kiryu.  We are here to help you, and doing something that you do not wish would be contrarian to that.." of course, unless it was something he needed, but Raziel did not come to that conclusion.  Not yet.  Still, the way was open...

'The Dormitory retained the strange dream-like quality as we entered.  There was a stillness as we passed through the gate, only to arrive inside.  A small sense of vertigo, before we were treated to another memory...and the reveal of the Psychohazard.  A brown-haired man that we had seen before.  The conversation between them was raw, emotional...and breaks out into violence.'

Then the man turns towards them, the memory turning from one between the two of them into a battle against the psycho hazard.  Raziel brings the Soul Reaver out in a swing, trying to brace against the psychic might of the other vampire.  

'There was a powerful strength behind that blast.  I had no idea if this was actually the might of the man, enhanced by the hazard, or if it was increased by Zero's memory.  Regardless...there was only one way this was going to go.  Either his destruction or ours.'

Raziel reaches a claw forward, aiming to try and grab out towards the man, and then try and send a burst of power towards him, aiming to send him back towards the nearest sharp object.  The glowing eyes of the wraith narrow.  

"You will not find us such easy prey, monster."
Aoko Aozaki     "It wasn't?" Aoko asks Zero, and then comments: "Wow, dark. Uh... kinda glad you didn't use it then. Your life deserves a bit more respect than that from you, you know? Wow, it's like the parallels keep coming up."

    She's had to impart that lesson once before!
    A rare moment of wisdom.

    As they proceed along another memory, Kaname suddenly and without warning attacks them. That's all kinds of surprising, when you've gotten used to watching scenes you can't much interfere with, for one to suddenly decide to interfere with you.

    Just when it was getting dramatic, too.

    Chunks of wall and roof slam into Aoko, knocking her back and right out of view. By the time she crawls back onscreen, she's got a bloodied nose and a half-ripped shirt. "Anyone get the truck on the number, I can't see anything but stars right now," she whoozily declares.

    Irresponsibly, momentary loss of clear vision does not stop her from unleashing laser death in someone's minds. She's sure collateral must not be too big a deal. Besides, Kaname just blew up the dorms, so how much worse can she possibly make it?

    A dozen sparks of light shine above Aoko, forming streaks that start orbitting one-another in an ever-accelerating 3D spiral of blue lasers until they all suddenly launch for Kaname (or the rough fifty meters around him, give or take) and then rain down indiscriminatedly.
Yuuki Kuran The Black Wolf - Kaname Kuran, the Vampire King - is the one at the heart of the Moon Dorms. Yuuki was never here - at this point of the memory, the 'long haired, red-eyed monster' Yuuki Kuran was at the Sun Dorms with other Proper Nouns trying to save her human friends from 'awful vampires, being awful as they do'. She never knew this went on.

What her brother did, specifically.

"This is what you did, that night years ago? Were at each other's throats while the whole school crumbled around us? While..."

Yuuki's cry, as she gets crashed into by a wave of force and is blown off her feet nearly out of the room and memory, is strangled and impassioned.

"When I needed you both, you were FIGHTING?! No wonder I couldn't taste this memory. This shameful display, of you twisting everyone around you even after you got what you needed. What you wanted!"

It's not Artemis that comes to her call, but a tangible distortion in the air all around her, telekinetic power rolling off her in waves of pulverizing force.

"Everyone, I'm very sorry. If I could ask you all a favor - please destroy this wretched memory of my brother. I probably won't be useful after..."

"But I'm absolutely furious right now."

With the crack like a fission reaction, Yuuki's first blast in return is a stunning impolosion of force that briefly draws in before detonating outward not unlike a small WMD detonation as her eyes glow a bright cardinal red.
Priscilla     Priscilla realizes, immediately, what Yuuki meant. This indeed may have been possibly one of the worst things to say at this time. Yet, simultaneously, Priscilla can't imagine any usefully sweet words that would help. Even without the full context with which to perhaps weave a convincing lie, she feels as if there were perhaps only shades of less jarring, and some amount of the obvious, self-effacing, self-hurting falsehood in this one might have had events play out in a very certain way. Or so she thinks. It's not like she has anyone to really emote to.

    Even in the opposite set of dorms though, she can feel that Psychohazard ping go off. It's a big one. Bigger than the Wolf at least. If by Yuuki's reckoning, it's (more of?) Kaname, she expects it's probably pretty bad over there. A swish of iced floor and twisting snowflakes go unnoticed by the people playing out in the memory before her.

    There's nothing to notice, and nobody to notice it, for a little while longer, until just a moment after full set of attacks are launched at the hazard himself. The metaphorical screen scroller that says 'ENEMY TURN' is broken in half when Priscilla somehow comes from the angle that is straight out of the wall behind him, a wave of frost lashing across the floor and up the opposite wall in-angle with the cleaving arc of turbulent darkness that seemingly overshoots her enemy's shoulder, but then turns and cleaves backwards as part of the swing.
Zero Kiryu The psychohazard Kaname Kuran has no words, but it does seem to acknowledge Moonfin's request even as the Hylotl's blades pierce through him. Blood is drawn, but much as was the case with the Black Wolf, there is a certain quality to his substance that makes it difficult to ascertain how much damage is being done-- blood bursts forth and then hangs in the air in streamers, clumps of the matter that make up his form clinging on in orbit in spite of being obviously separated. The same occurs when Raziel charges him and puts a piece of shattered wood through his back.

Like fighting water. But the tangibility of the damage is still there-- some of the blood splatters the ground. It probably doesn't smell like the real Kaname Kuran, to Yuuki.

The scent of him is neutral at best to Zero, and that is being charitable.

He slides through the space separating him from Moonfin with the aid of that same telekinetics, pausing once within arm's reach to simply attempt to seize Moonfin and put him through the nearest standing wall (into adjacent rooms, that are indistinct Rich Boy Dormitories).

He favors Raziel with a glance that is immediately accompanied by another blast of telekinetic force, rippling through the room and tossing debris to warn of its passage.

A rain of explosive lasers fall down on Kaname's position, tearing myriad holes in him as he darts this way and that, exhibiting a certain measure of supernatural speed as he goes. He comes to a halt and seizes a shard of glass from the ground, hurling it towards Aoko.

Kaname turns his head towards Yuuki as her fury breaks against him, his eyes flashing. But he has no true self, no capacity to reply-- Zero does not think of him beyond being the monster, at least within the scope of this psychohazard. He meets her telekinetic force with his own, this time with greater care than he took when it was a mere familiar-- and again, he underestimates her. Trailing ribbons of his being 'leak' off of him, trailing behind him momentarily like a scarf before crystallizing and disentigrating in the air, leaving a trail like the trail of a comet.

Just as before, Kaname Kuran responds in kind. His will crashes down towards Yuuki like a battering ram, or perhaps like a hurricane.

Priscilla strikes completely by surprise however, her arctic-darkness strike shearing through a substantial portion of Kaname's torso and leaving a great wound that bleeds miniscule crystals and stardust. He whirls on her, raising a hand in a spiraling motion that is followed up on with matching telekinetic power that swirls up underneath her and quite literally makes a (force-wise, anyway) reasonable effort at twisting her in on herself.
Raziel The force of the telekinesis comes back at him harder this time.  Raziel's sword attempts to swing debris away from him, but this time he was caught not as prepared as last time.  Flying from the attack, he lands on all fours, looking up as the glowing eyes measure the man up.  This is just a monster...and for a moment he can see a little bit of Kain in those eyes.  

They narrow as he stands, as he hears Yuuki's words about /being angry/.  Well...that wasn't good, and to Raziel this meant that they had to take this guy down fast before they put Yuuki down.  Raziel leaps object to object that is in his way, that is still blasting towards him as he gets right into the monster's face.  

The Soul Reaver tears up from the arm of the Ghost, it's properties made specifically for one purpose...it is a vampiric weapon, and while it's original purpose was one type of creature, it so happens that those who are undead simply are just as fair game as they are.  The blade attempts to jab right into his chest...

And then Raziel releases built up power, trying to release it all inside the man at once.  If it does not tear him to shreds it will leave behind nasty energy that will tear at his being.  "Keep your eyes here monster!  You will not harm either Yuuki or Zero any longer."
Priscilla     Where the floor ahead and adjacent wall are painted across with frost, the floor behind and opposite wall are streaked with blood, as is the backswing of a scythe angled to viciously carve and pull through a body, with no regard for whatever might be in the way. It's not a clever anticipation of Priscilla's figuring the dream Kaname can be hit however; it is the type of attack she'd wrench through as much bone and muscle as necessary, without a care for anything such as an angle of impact. A spray of liquid red and glittering crystal flicks upwards and around, as an invisible blade is obviously reversed.

    Much like Moonfin, Priscilla can't just parry or counterattack these kinds of telekinetic blasts. Even if she could, feeling the fabric of the psychoscape warp and twist in around her, space wringing like a cloth to crush the core of it so strongly that its contents are forced out from all sides, she would already know that wouldn't work. 'Being invisible' isn't a reasonable way to avoid it either, when it's targeting the space itself. The second of loud, horrible crunches that follows is unnerving, given these facts in mind, but after that dramatic moment, it appears to be only the floorboards turned into a splintered corkscrew, and compressed slivers of clear white ice left behind.

    Priscilla is opposite Kaname, without really moving. She 'fades' back into existence in a way visually distinct from just dropping invisibility, leaned low and forward to counteract the backwards force that drives whirlwind streamers of mist-fine snow swirling off of her. The outer edge of the Lifehunt Scythe grinds against the imagined floor, casting pale blue and black sparks where it blurs forward and gouges the its path in the ground. It crashes upwards from below, catching Kaname in the hook of the blade with enough force behind it to hurl him up into the air.

    Before he'd go any considerable distance though, Priscilla would reverse the scythe's angle, lunge forward, and wrench it backwards with her full strength, doubling the amount of momentum pressing False Kaname over the razor's edge and ideally grounding him by force.

    "There art few, if any, more deserving of asking for such a favour." Priscilla exhales towards Yuuki, turning back on just the toes of her leading foot, swiveling on a patch of ice beneath her like a figure skater, plumes of frost dissolving on her breath. "Vent all of thine anger. If thou shouldst run dry, I shalt brandish thine wrath in thine place."
Starbound Flotilla     Meanwhile, in an adjacent memory of a dorm room, where no doubt various stray memories or thoughts of various students reside, everything is very fine. Suddenly everything is not fine when a battered man skids backwards through one of the walls and slams into the opposite wall, bracing against it with one webbed hand, focused more on keeping his battle stance than preventing damage. "I see." He mutters softly. "Such force. And so I shall match it, Vampire King. You need not worry, Director. We shall do what must be done. Fourth Sea Hylotl Style: Mysteries of the Deep."

    Flick. Flick, flick, flick. Moonfin's body blips through the dorms he was tossed through, taking a more and more aggressive stance with each blip. He's hard to predict, especially for someone in motion like Kaname. Blip blip blip, until he very abruptly makes a surprising effort to teleport with his blade directly in Kaname's chest right where Priscilla rooted him, a preface to a stylish twirl meant to draw a deep slice through his body.

    "You are a barrier between the strength of love and its goal. This means only that you shall fall, inevitably, and absolutely." He says. "For love is the healer, and the warrior, and the tactician, and no trauma can stand against its forces and will thus amassed. Be purged, and may the truth of Zero's feelings be known to him as they are to Yuuki."
Aoko Aozaki     A high-speed shard of glass lodges itself into Aoko's shoulder. It sucks, but it's better there than in her skull. Her mind-projection skull. Better not gamble on how safety works in these circumstances.

    But it really seems like they're not fighting someone who's 'there'. Kaname seems about as present as a reflection in a pond. And that means... the only way to get rid of him, is to get rid of the whole damn pond.

    That might just be Aoko's splitting headache talking, she's still reeling from that initial impact. Zero probably wouldn't appreciate a nuke going off inside his mind. Or... maybe it wouldn't matter? Kaname sure isn't holding back.

    "You weren't kidding when you said Pureblood are no joke," Aoko asides to Yuuki, making the assumption the brother of a Pureblood should also be one.

    Spell circles appear around Aoko's good arm, spinning at different speeds and in different directions, growing and shrinking rapidly. It's not the usual blue of her spells, it's a bit darker, and the runework seems more complex. It's almost like making a cannon around her arm.

    "Normally I wouldn't use this on a lark, but since we're not in the real world... consequences don't apply!" That's a terrible excuse, Aoko. Well, it's not like she's using it at full power, Zero probably wouldn't appreciate that. She has a much more productive idea in mind, anyway.

    "Sorry Zero, this might sting a bit, but bear with me!"

    Aoko seizes pointless memories. The color of that leaf over there. The exact pattern of stones littering the ground. She turns them into fuel, that she immediatly redirects into Zero himself.

    She turns pointless time into experience for Zero. Another decade of mental fortitude, a temporary exchange only, but temporary is all they need. As if he'd spent the next ten years steeling himself against this particular memory.

    Aoko's voice can't be made out in her rapid incantation, but the only word that sticks out is 'Blue'.

    Blue light swirls around Kaname, trying to entrap him in a sudden sphere. If she was able to get through to Zero, countless motes of white-blue energy form around the sphere, and begin crashing into it like tiny, angry suns made of determination (and also lasers, mostly lasers) until it all just ruptures and detonates.

    If she wasn't able to, it's going to be a hell of a lot more mundane of an attack. Possibly even wholly ineffective.
Yuuki Kuran It is entirely unsatisfying to strike at Kaname. Like swinging at a sandbag, there's no reaction. No verbosity.

This is a monster in the form of a memory wrapped in the shell of her brother.

Their clash is tempestuous, a hurricane blast with Yuuki at the center, blood being cut out of her and spiralling out - a tornado streaked in red.

She chops through it, slicing the blast into two parts off to either side as Aoko comments about the powers of purebloods.

"He's the Vampire King! He's even stronger than me - and he didn't spend thirteen years as a human without powers. But this isn't /really/ him!"

Yuuki lunges into a kick as Priscilla moves into her command-grab.

"You don't have a place here, brother!"
Zero Kiryu The psychohazard Kaname Kuran is pushed back momentarily as the Soul Reaver is thrust into his chest. The same effect occurs as the other serious wounds-- the shadow-substance of him begins to crystallize and trail away into nothing. The center of his mass is a great gaping hole of it, pulsing with the energy that Raziel left behind. But in answer to what Raziel said, the psychohazard merely smiles.

This, at least, is an accurate reflection of the way Kaname Kuran smiles. It's a little sad, though in light of everything it might be hard to feel bad for him regardless. But it doesn't seem to have the presence of mind to actually reply in turn.

Kaname swipes a hand at Raziel, claws momentarily extending to scrape at him in passing as he tries to figure out where the 'thing' that attacked him before went. It didn't explode into a pile of gore the way that he expected-- ah.

He summons telekinetic force to try to repel her before she gets too close, but too late. The scythe strikes true and casts him into the air, before hammering him back down in a great spray of blood-and-stardust.

Momentarily his form scatters into dozens of bats, moving away from his position on the floor and re-assembling himself into a still-substantially-wounded humanoid shape again. Kaname directs a blast of telekinesis not at Priscilla but at the ice upon which she is gliding about.

Consequently when Moonfin comes upon him, Kaname is already reformed. This does /not/ stop Moonfin from planting his blade firmly in the great glowing WEAK POINT that Raziel has given him, eliciting the first visible reaction of pain that the psychohazard exhibits as it coughs blood.

The vampire king turns in an uncharacteristically brutish moment even for him so far and simply swings at Moonfin with a great sweeping blow meant to do nothing more or less than hammer him as hard as can be mustered at a moment's notice.

Aoko momentarily gets the feeling that somebody is watching her when she begins to tamper with the surroundings the way that she does. Like an eye is boring into her.

A violet light intermingles subtly with Aoko's spell -- tiny motes of it dancing on the peripheries, doing... /some/thing. Or perhaps it's simply an expression of who she was drawing on power from. The sphere engulfs Kaname Kuran, and for several long moments he cannot be seen at all. But there is something-- a pulse of lingering damage that hints it isn't quite over yet.

From stray motes of blood Kaname Kuran reconstructs himself once more. Ragged and deteriorating, he lunges towards Aoko with fangs bared, attempting to latch onto her and drink her blood in order to recharge himself.

Whether it succeeds or not, Kaname is soon after kicked away from Aoko by Yuuki, who strikes him in his persistent WEAK POINT and sends him staggering away.

Much like when he was a wolf, Kaname responds by lunging forward and attempting to bite Yuuki.
Aoko Aozaki     Totally obliterated!

    That's Magic for you, Aoko would proudly huff, if she intended to say that out loud. Instead she just smirks, in a momentary surge of hubris.

    She is absolutely not ready for Kaname reforming himself from fine mist and lunging right for her neck. He feasts, and if he cares at all for how magical blood is, hers is probably as good as blood comes, especially with residual traces of the Fifth still coursing through it.

    When Yuuki knocks him away, Aoko is sent flying back, and after hitting the ground, laughs weakly, ripping the shard of glass out of her shoulder to look at her reflection briefly.

    "Ha... take that old man, /I/ kept my good looks."

    She's clearly delusional, which checks out with her passing out moments after. Probably not for long, but she's clearly not going to be much more help dealing with Kaname.
Aoko Aozaki     Behind Kaname, the remaining sparks and motes of light floating in the air, the blue flames and the energy, like falling snow waiting to fade, suddenly collect into a single ring of light, Aoko raising her hand weekly with the energy she has left.

    "A ring of light, huh? That's so boring. Guess you gotta make do with what you have. Set, spin. Incinerate!"

    The ring of light accelerates, revealing it's less a continuous circle and more a single band going in a circle really fast. It exits its circular pattern to have another go at Kaname, this time in beam form.

    The beam is a lot bigger than it has any right to be.
Raziel The slash tears into Raziel, sending him back, but luckily not down.  Huffing a bit, and running a hand over the injury, he determines that it could have been SO much worse.  Of course, this then follows with the Vampire King then getting nearly obliterated by Aoko, Priscilla, and Yuuki.  The Soul Reaver comes back to his clawed hands as he makes his way towards the monster again.

The counterattack was brutal, however, but that means he's being pressed and hard.  He runs forward, aiming to try and leap at the back of the creature, aiming to try and latch onto his back and spin him around, trying to get in front of Aoko and the beast.  He thrusts forward, aiming to try and drive him backward.

"I told you, beast.  You will deal with me first," He says, firmly.  Blade held out in a fencers stance.  "I have met a beast like you before, and I will kill him, just as I will kill you.  Neither of you will stop me, neither of you /can/ stop me."

It's hard to tell if that's just bravado, attempts to draw his attention, or if he really means it.  He also lets a claw fall behind him, aiming to try and use his telekinetic force to try and shove Aoko out of harm's way before she actually /does/ kill herself.  
Yuuki Kuran It wouldn't be like Yuuki to say cliche things to her opponents like 'my friends are my power!' but, with Raziel, Priscilla, Moonfin, and Aoko all here with her, she feels confident and comfortable enough to give in to her torrential emotions and really give this shade of her brother a piece of her mind...

... By breaking a piece of her foot off in his perfect ass.

"Aoko! No!" Yuuki cries out, for a moment not realizing that Kaname couldn't do exactly what she feared she did. "You have to--you can't! That's!!!" Yuuki practically shrieks, her voice cracking as she moves to cradle Aoko (right as she Set-Incinerates Kaname), biting shakingly at her wrist to bring a leaking vein to Aoko's lips even as she's bitten as well, which...

Causes her to pause. Her glowing red eyes bore into Aoko's, and then Raziel is guarding her - another literal Vampire Knight.

"You're fine. Sorry. I--"
"You're fine. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Yuuki repeats, turning her stammering, emotionally 'completely crushed and crashed' attention back to the shade of Kaname, cracks shattering across the floor as she fires tangible hate at the awful 'Black Wolf' shade of her brother, who would commit an 'uncommitable sin'.
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin's auto-defenses get into over drive, forcing him to roll with the heavy strike. It's not as good as pure reflex, not as precise, but it lets him keep his focus on his battle-stance. "And where trauma cannot sustain itself, it shall feed. It gnaws, and drinks, and gorges on what could be a chance for recovery. It twists the perception, to evoke fear, and pain." He has to handspring backwards to keep his stance through the motion. "Where a loved one will try to help, trauma shall twist it, to make it all seem like it will evoke fear and pain. It will not. Stand aside, your fear served a purpose /once/ and /only once/."

    He blinks as fast as he can to Yuuki's side. "Third Sea Hylotl Style: Sea's Erosion." As Yuuki and Kaname briefly engage in melee, he moves to lash between them, keeping him away from her. "You will not interfere with the healing that comes from love. You will fall before it, and only fall." He speaks, with more arrogant authority. "Fall with grace and honor, not with animal hunger and twisted interference." He tries a particular broad slash, meant to send Kaname back with great force.
Priscilla     Aoko trapping Kaname in what amounts to a fusion chamber of magical energy, crushing him on every side with unfathomable amounts of borrowed power, seems like a finisher. Priscilla has to shield her eyes from it behind her sleeve, blinking into the clearing space to expect to find little more than a smear. Even for just a memory though, the psychohazard assembling himself from mere droplets of *blood* is a little too much. "Is this truly the creature Sir Kiryu remembers him as?" Priscilla mouths aloud in exasperation as much as bewilderment.

    This time it's the floor under her that explodes. A spume of ground shrapnel and shards of ice erupt from below Priscilla's field of view, a handful clattering off her scythe, but many more slashing straight up her lower legs and stabbing into the undersides of her arms and middle, only able to shield her head and neck at that range. None of the injuries are serious, but they look pretty dramatic, having shredded the bottom half of her skirt, and caused long streaks of red to mingle together and pool in her footsteps.

    There is the barest hint of a hiss from Priscilla, disappearing once again, leaving crimson footprints stomping in her wake before they become red ice and cease altogether. There is the directionless, ephemeral, almost 'affected' sound of a deep breath in, and then a torrent of sorcerous diamond dust sweeps across Kaname, the source moving, but all focused on the same spot. It looks like weirdly glowing snow-mist, but it's still enough to instantly cause vicious, bleeding frostbite, even before it begins burning away in hazes of raw magic. It also makes visibility absolutely awful, as it lingers around in a thick cloud.
Zero Kiryu Kaname focuses his effort on Raziel when the ghostly vampire approaches him, pressuring his assault vector and bleeding the force off of his incoming attack-- but he is still struck along the chest, and immediately afterwards another Giant Laser engulfs him, this time sending him careening backwards to the edge of the ruined wall. He seizes hold of a bit of splintered wood to push himself up, only to immediately be scourged by Yuuki's crashing hatred. He falls back down, breathing heavily. For a moment it appears as if he might simply succumb then and there.

Moonfin turns on him-- he raises an arm defensively and it is cleaved free from him. It does not regenerate, lying on the ground and slowly crystallizing in place. He forces himself up with a burst of telekinetic power, in time for Priscilla to cover him in a freezing... breath? Though it is concentrated at a point, the whole of his body becomes frigid and stiff, and begins to burn.

The psychohazard looks at itself. It seems to realize that it is about to be done for.

The moment passes, and to the phantom Kaname Kuran, this is evidently a reasonably acceptable outcome. As his body freezes and burns and falls apart, it crouches low and springs towards Moonfin. It does not have a sword, but the psychohazard focuses all of its effort into a singular strike of its own, its remaining hand swiping through the air in a powerful gesture as it extends its claws to full length.

Whether they meet their target or no, they shatter to pieces soon after.

It turns in the same moment towards the path along which Priscilla walked -- the direction from which the haze came -- and simply begins to twist the whole of space along that alley, psychokinetic force spiraling through it and ripping apart what remains of the ceiling and sending the debris hurtling along that corridor.

It does not stop there. The whole of that corridor it redirects at once, whether it finds the creeping danger of Priscilla or no, sweeping it back across towards Raziel in a whirlwind of dreadful force.

At last, Kaname Kuran turns his attention towards Yuuki, eyes gleaming. But, it realizes, it is too late. It opens its mouth to speak for the first time since it was merely a repeating memory-- and though it does so out of order, still it recites its role: "For you to bare your fangs at me..."

"I truly despise you." says the Shade of the Vampire King, willing a concentrated bullet of force into existence on a trajectory with his "sister's" heart.
Starbound Flotilla     Moonfin is assaulted by the freezing, burning, singular swipe of a claw. But as the man crouches low, time slows, as if to a crawl. This is not a temporal effect. This is not even an effect of perception. it is something seen by every observer of the moment, something deeply built into the moment itself. It is a Defining Moment, where Moonfin and Kaname put absolutely everything on the line.

    Moonfin draws his sword back. His stance widens as much as Kaname's lowers. His takes a deep breath at the same moment Kaname might take his. And his first step forward is at the same moment that Kaname takes his own. They pass by each other, and there's a brutal, tearing noise. What passes for air inside Zero's mind breaks under the sheer force of an attack so fast and slick that it cleaves the atmosphere itself in twain. His blade is held out, flared to the front as his body skids to a stop. He stops, kneeling as if from some wound. But he does not bleed.

    He is still well capable of drawing his blade along the "sheath" of his matter manipulator, and sliding it slowly in. And the moment Kaname finishes his last words, his blade is nearly in place. That is the moment that Kaname will recognize that Moonfin's blade lashed out at him in that moment as well. A slice so clean, so precise, so delicate, that nobody, not even a vampire, not even the wound itself that it might make, could realize what had happened before it was already happening. It was surgical, it was unthinkably swift, and it was lethal.

    "Sixth Sea Hylotl Style: Burial at Sea."

    His blade clicks into its sheath.
Raziel Raziel narrows those orbs he calls eyes, and his claw comes forward trying to negate the force of the telekinetic throw with his own.  The two powers clash, trying to retain control for longer than the other could hold out...but just as if he tried this with Kain, he would be the one to lose in a duel of power.  

However, it was because of this resistance he manages to blunt the assault, even as it strikes him square across the chest and throws him back.  Skidding along the corridor, he looks up with those narrowed eyes.  However, it was already too late, he was going for Yuuki.  

Too, was the first of the Concord hurt...though Moonfin proved to be the best of them this day.  Raziel pounded his claw into the ground...then his head snapped up.  Well, whatever it took...even if it met rousing the Reaver.  His hand shook...he knew the fate that awaited him.  Would this be the coin..?

'No, I told myself, I could not let myself be held back by what could be.  If we were to defeat this creature...I would have to risk, lest the people I had come close to...'

Raziel flips to his feet, and the wraith blade comes to his claw once more.  The greenish glow of the blade glows brighter, excited at the prospect of a meal.  He dives in at the beast, aiming a telekinetic blast at the ground to flip himself over him, and uses his claw to grip at the remains of the ceiling and then come down in a massive slash.

The blade aiming to try and stagger him before he thrust the blade in again, aiming to try and rouse the Reaver enough to try and devour the creature from the inside out.  

"Go back to where you belong...the darkness of a memory that was overcome."
Priscilla     Priscilla had expected a reaction more like a cornered animal from the person --the thing-- that Zero seems to rightly remember as a monster. Falling to pieces, on its last legs, bleeding in ways that won't stop, she'd been on guard for a move of desperation. The acts that come from a man who accepts his death and decides to go out as best they can are always very, very different than mere adrenaline and survival instinct. The obliteration of self, and all that.

    The whole corridor just disappears, with Priscilla unfortuately still in it. Streams of debris hammer into her as space itself twists and tears apart under the psychokinetic pull, ripping the whole area into a single slipstream that crashes into her and hurls her clear of the dorms. Wood and cement and drywall and stone clang and bash from invisible metal, and crack and fly away bloody where they don't, until the full force of the sweep, guided by the slash of Kaname's hand, blows down the walls and puts Priscilla through it with a resounding crash, dirt puffing up in several places outside, each further away than the last.

    What comes back is, in a sense, far gentler. There is no force of fury to it. What sweeps through the room, a half-minute of frenzied combat later, is airy, and weightless, and deeply, bitingly, bitterly, *hatefully* cold. A current of air that swirls and sighs and carresses the skin like a ghost's breath full of knives. Carried along with it, for just the blink of an eye, a whirling streamer of hungry black shadow and life-snuffing dark, formless fangs, shapeless claws, and existential poison. It whirls fast enough to slash through Kaname four times in the time that it crosses over him, and abruptly halts all at once, leaving the snow-bearing wind blowing past Priscilla now stopped behind him, silver hair and dress caught in the gale.

    "That, I will not allow." she exhales, facing away from the Kaname. "Not from any single thing that claims to be a part of Zero."
Yuuki Kuran Things begin with Yuuki being surrounded by friends, cradling one of her allies in her arms, worried half to death that something awful has happened. A Vampire Knight, a terrible Dragon, and a peerless Swordsman stand arrayed around her as she frets about her sole human friend here possibly caught up in vampire violence.

This night plays out in the same way it did, ten years ago.

Her Knight, twisted by a controller, a betrayer, who ruined everything for him, stands between her relative - her foe.

Her Dragon, an icy and uncompromising force who desires nothing more this night than her satisfaction, her continuance, for this matter to end.

The peerless swordsman draws forth his blade, and in a moment, obliterates that which threatens to devour her, and remains untouched and unmarred, perfect in grace as if ripples on a still pond.

The night ends, as it began.
As it started ten years ago, and this last phantom--

Things begin with a set of words. 'For you to bear your fangs at me'. How strange, Yuuki thinks, her brow unfurling.

'Brother would never say anything like that.' Yuuki blinks, her eyes dimming and her hate abating. It's such an out of character thing to say, such a strange expression, a break in character so inexcusably off-mark that she finally sees the fake for what it really is.

'I truly despise you'. Follows. How odd. Yuuki stares at this, as her allies - the echoes of those exact four, ten years ago - fall upon Kaname's shade.

She turns, as he fires his bullet, and his aim is just off, a heart being torn apart in her chest. It's the most gruesome blow that anyone here has seen her take, shards of rib and spine and blood and lungs exiting her back like she was shot through by a tank shell and painting the back of the room in a fan of gore that looks like a paint bucket had tumbled off a shelf.

She falls, but it's okay.

Her eyes flutter and dim, but it's not painful.

As things quiet, Yuuki rises, her spine and ribs visibly knitting themself back together, with the pulse of her unstruck heart steady in her broken, messily exposed chest. The meat fills in. The blood remains sprayed on the floor.

"But... That's wrong. And I don't care about you, shade of hate. You're not the man who raised me. You're not the man I love. You're not my dear brother."

"You're just pain. Begone."

Yuuki dismissively waves off the fading shade, using no power and no physical force. It's beneath her.

The act is done.
Zero Kiryu In the midst of the charge, Kaname Kuran fails to strike Moonfin. He does not realize that he has failed to do so, even with his claws crumbling to dust. The cut cleaves through air, through the shadow-substance of his body, through the terrible wound that Raziel first inflicted and which has lingered all this long fight, along with the great canyon of carved-away substance left behind by Priscilla's Life Hunt. It registers with reality itself at once slowly and rapidly, crystal tinkling lightly as light gradually passes through the widening gap between one side of the Vampire King and the other.

And Kaname Kuran smiles that sad smile of his, that even Zero's memories convey with sincerity.

He is halfway cleaved through when Raziel strikes him, staggering him as-intended and burying the Soul Reaver within his substance. The drawing-in of the weapon begins to siphon him away, but there is no underlying soul to this entity. There is life, of a sort -- memories, a dream life. It is not altogether substanceless, but it doesn't confer the satiation of a true soul.

But...

A dream soul for a dream body must suffice.

Moonfin's cut is three quarters through his body.

A force like night in winter descends upon Kaname Kuran soon afterwards. It poisons and bites, freezes and burns, gnaws and eats away. Like an old photograph set aflame, great chunks of the psychohazard begin to fray and curl in on itself.

The last of the cut resolves itself. What remains of the shade crystallizes, and Yuuki blows it away with a dismissive exertion of force.

There is a shudder as the Moon Dorm reassembles itself. The memory of Kaname Kuran -- not the psychohazard, merely a memory -- returns.

The memory of Zero Kiryu is drinking Kaname's blood. He looks absolutely revolted, and the 'feelings' that he experienced re-assert themselves over the surroundings. A sense of defilement and resignation spills out from Zero. The room is a ruin around them.

"Do not ever forget... who was the one that gave you this blood. You're supposed to be the one that hates vampires more than anyone else... but you need blood more than anyone else. I think you're more vampire-like than any other vampire."

The memory of Kaname Kuran freezes, becomes transparent and ghostly. A thread of what can only be blood runs between Kaname and Zero.

In those moments in the wake of this great battle, the thread of blood snaps and evaporates. The sun sinks low and rapidly, a full moon rising high into the sky.

There is a feeling of lightness. Of a binding being broken, and not merely a festering agitation.

Elsewhere, in the Cross Household, the dining hall snaps back to its original form, the decay of the black wolf dispersing fully.