pslplz | Turned: The Spinoff

And so it was done.

Mamoru was still not sure how he felt about their decision with Omi. Strong arguments existed on both sides, but the vote to make an exception for Omi, by a modest but definitive margin, prevailed. There were rules, of course. Close watch for the next several weeks, a provision that Omi maintained a diet from blood bags and never attacked again... and Omi agreed to all of it. For the time being, some dissent remained among the guild, but the uncertainty of his fate was over.

And that meant it was time to attend to some unfinished business.

Mamoru had kept his mouth closed about it before... partly as a product of Omi's advice and partly as a simple tactical measure to avoid unnecessary drama and stress during an already tumultuous event. Now that it was settled Omi would not be slain, he had to address it. His instinct was to go find her wherever she was. His decision was to summon her to his office. To do otherwise would not be professional.

He sat alone in his office with the door ajar, silently awaiting her knock.

She could breathe again. Taiyou wasn't sure how she would have reacted had the vote gone the other way. She'd lost him once before. She wasn't sure she could bear to lose him a second time, especially when the power to save him was in their own hands. Over time, she may have become resentful and bitter, never to look upon her friends in the same way again.

But things being decided with finality at last, there would be no need to linger upon the what-ifs. She couldn't remember the last time she looked forward to facing the coming nights ahead.

There was just one more order of business, apparently. She found herself summoned to Mamoru's office shortly after everything was settled with Omi. Perhaps he wanted to give her some final instructions on how to deal with their new reality? There was only one way to find out.

She knocked on the door, and entered when she heard him call.

"You wanted to see me?" she said as she advanced to his desk.

"Yes... Please shut the door, and have a seat."

Mamoru tried to recall Omi's advice in the meantime. How could he present this issue in such a way that he could convey the seriousness of the transgression without putting her completely on the defensive? Was it even possible to?

Either way, it didn't hurt to start off with some well-deserved positivity.

"Congratulations on your victory," he said. Taiyou should know from the unanimity of the first vote that his was among the swayed ones. "You made a compelling case for Tsukiyono-kun. It seems the ordeal of the last four years has finally found resolution."

Oh. Okay ... Taiyou turned around, walked back to the door, shut it, and retraced her steps again.

Mamoru sounded awfully formal. She wondered for a moment if he always spoke this way to her, or whether it was only since things had gotten difficult between them. Admittedly, she had been preoccupied with other things in her life thus far to really pay much attention to it. It seemed they had come a long ways from their carefree childhoods together.

She took a seat.

"Thank you, I suppose?" She chuckled lightly. "I'm not sure I would call it my victory more than Omi's. But I do think we made the right call."

Taiyou smiled at him warmly. She did realize he had changed his mind at some point in the proceedings, a somewhat unexpected outcome but one she appreciated.

Something about the way she smiled at him was painful. It had no right to be. It was a warm, friendly smile, from one professional to another.

"It was a team effort from all of you, and a team victory. I know that your contributions made a difference in the outcome..." Mamoru paused, his tone transitioning from kind to grave. "And now that it's over, there's something I must discuss with you, regarding a decision you made several years ago, that only recently came to my attention."

The smile disappeared. It was no wonder Mamoru had opened so formally. The praise was just a way to soften the introduction of the true purpose of this meeting. Something stung inside. Surely it wasn't guilt, because that had been a defensible decision on her part. It was unsettling, nevertheless.

"What of it?" she said carefully.

Mamoru watched her carefully. Part of it was an effort to remember what Omi had told him, but mostly it was habit, paying attention so that he could calculate the best way to manage the situation. Her response was meaningful. He heard the tone of the response as well as the words themselves. He didn't think she felt defensive-- yet. Taiyou was not one to hide her true feelings.

"By that, I take it you already know what 'it' is. That perhaps speaks for itself."

She could only know which decision he was talking about if she already recognized the objection. Or, possibly, Omi told her. But if that were the case, and she didn't think anything of it wrong, she was playing quite the tiptoer. That didn't seem like her. Mamoru thought she would already be presenting her case if she believed everything justified.

The thought deflated whatever sternness he might have mustered.

"Taiyou... Why didn't you tell me?"

Somehow, Taiyou thought that Mamoru would be angry. Instead, he just seemed disappointed, which was even worse. Like she ought to feel guilty, even though she was certain that that was exactly the wrong feeling to have.

And there was definitely a thought that crossed her mind in that moment along the lines of Omi, you little snitch! But that was a discussion for another time.

She frowned.

"Because I thought you would kill him," she said frankly. It was the truth, after all. And didn't they just have a big to-do over precisely that decision? That it went the other way was probably unexpected on Mamoru's part.

An understandable fear, and still Mamoru could not find ample justification for her choice in that. Had he been wrong? Perhaps she didn't understand. Or perhaps she did and simply wasn't ready to face and admit to it yet. Mamoru could not allow her to do that, if it was true.

"Perhaps I would have," He conceded. Although that would have been rather difficult when he was missing, and none of them knew where to look. "Even so... as hard as it must have been for you to face, at that time, he was gone. And in telling no one about his murderer's visit to you, you needlessly endangered yourself! What if he had come to you again? What if he'd wanted to kill you?"

"I can take care of myself," Taiyou said. It wasn't pride that was speaking, so much as a confidence that was honed by years of experience.

"Besides, he didn't want me dead. He wanted me to suffer."

She gripped her hand into a fist, remembering that vampire's face, his taunts that kept her up at night. If she ever saw him again, she would shoot him through the head.

Clearly that was the motive now, but hindsight was always 20/20. She, nor any of the rest of them, could have known for certain then, when the decision had to be made.

But it was her other statement that grabbed Mamoru and compelled him to reply. Whether pride or confidence or both or neither, it angered him to hear.

"So could every other hunter that's fallen."

"And we all of us had each other's backs," Taiyou said, the color rising in her cheeks. She refrained from saying unlike you because she was tired of playing the blame game. (Even if it did still remain somewhere inside her mind subconsciously).

"I wouldn't be doing my job unless vampires wanted me dead." One more twisted vampire out for revenge changed nothing.

And for someone to have your back, they had to know you needed it, which Taiyou hadn't communicated... which was the heart of his complaint. Moreover, this seemed a 180 in her first argument that she could take care of herself. Was she just grasping at straws for whatever defense she could muster?

"You may note that I haven't asked you here to tell you that you aren't doing your job."

Yes, and the point was, even hunters who had each others' backs sometimes died in missions. Their lives were hard and short, and she was prepared for that. It didn't mean she valued her life any less. If she took a risk, it was for good reason. Didn't he understand that?

"Then what did you ask me here for?" she said, this time with a frown.

"To communicate that I expect you to tell someone when you have an off-duty encounter with a vampire that's come looking specifically for you. Did you tell your brother? Naru-kun? Ran-kun? Anyone at all?"

There was a slim possibility, he realized, that she had told someone else, and he nor Omi were aware of that detail. If that were true, he would have to drop his complaint. But if it wasn't...

Even if she had told someone else, she wouldn't rat them out to Mamoru. He would surely have gotten on their case about keeping him out of the loop, just like he was doing to her now.

"I didn't," she said, looking ruffled. "I didn't realize you had such expectations. I don't need you to hold my hand, Mamoru."

"I know you don't. That isn't what this is about. Someone needed to know as a basic safety precaution. Moreover, in not reporting the incident, we lost an opportunity to learn more about who was responsible for his murder."

Mamoru did have a point there. She'd allowed the rest of them to languish with the possibility that Omi had died. Of course she did what she could to track down the vampire that turned him, but maybe if she'd had help, they could've found him by now.

But what was worse, for hunters? To know that their friend was dead? Or had been turned?

She frowned slightly.

"So what do you want me to do about it now?"

Mamoru thought about that question before he answered. The biggest thing he wanted her to do was to learn from it, so that perhaps she would not make a similar mistake should another situation that others needed to know about arise.

That wasn't everything, though. There was still something constructive that could be salvaged from the current situation.

"...Do you remember anything at all about that visit? How he looked, any powers he used, the words he said to you?"

"He used a binding spell of some kind, it immobilized me temporarily. He said he was the lover of a vampire I had vanquished some months before. I suppose he was out for revenge."

Taiyou frowned and tried to remember more, but like before, it was too hazy. As though he'd manipulated her mind to remember only what he wanted her to.

"His specific appearance I can't recall. He must've muddled with that memory to keep himself hidden like the coward that he is."

Mamoru pulled a notepad and pen over from one side of his desk to in front of him, jotting down a couple of notes for future reference. Then he set the pen down and sought out Taiyou's eyes.

"Do you think there's even the slimmest possibility that Tsukiyono-kun asked to be turned."

She recoiled as though Mamoru had slapped her. How could he think such a thing? Omi was no hunter but he was still one of the family. He knew what they were up against.

"No! Absolutely not!"

Mamoru didn't react to Taiyou's outburst. He surmised that she'd missed the true intention of his statement.

"I don't either," he said.

"...then why bring it up at all?" Taiyou tiled her head to the side and looked at him with a furrowed brow. He had some kind of design, or he wouldn't have said it.

"It was a transitional statement."

Partly for confirmation as well, though Mamoru hadn't expected any doubt to come from her. It was an important point to bear in mind. The guild operated on the assumption that all vampires either wanted to become them or were born undead, and it was Mamoru's understanding that the vampire side of their violent equation regulated turnings. What then had happened in Omi's case? Mamoru had a suspicion he was going to be making a call to a certain connection in that world very soon.

"I'm still interested in identifying the one responsible. It troubles me that Tsukiyono-kun remembers the encounter with vivid detail except for certain elements. The fact that you suspect the vampire tampered with your memory when he visited only reinforces that unease."

Edited 2015-11-03 13:42 (UTC)

"Maybe he's not protecting himself from us at all, but from his own kind," Taiyou said. Thinking it through, it made more sense. It was unheard of to turn someone forcibly. The vampire population was carefully regulated, from what all the hunter records indicated. A good survival tactic, considering their need for secrecy.

"Do you think the elders know about this?"

That was certainly possible. Their connection to the vampire world was closer than any other humans, and yet their information remained limited. Vampires were secretive creatures that kept their cards close to their chests. It was anyone's guess how they might respond to an unapproved new turning. They might slaughter the sire, or the childe, or both, or neither.

"That perhaps depends on how benevolent you think they are towards one another. Logically, there must be some incentive the vampire had to block certain memories the two of you had of your encounters with him. The simplest answer to that would be that he didn't want to be caught having made an involuntary turning."

Most likely, he'd been banking on Taiyou's fear for Omi's safety keeping her from exposing him. He'd banked right, too. Mamoru opted not to share that hunch. At this point, it wouldn't accomplish anything except to make Taiyou angry and upset. What was done was done; their focus ought to be on the future, not the past.

"We have a decision to make then, on whether to contact our liaison and inform him of our findings and suspicions. It might help lead us to answers. Or it might endanger him by drawing attention to him." Mamoru considered that in silence, then looked up to meet Taiyou's eyes.

"What do you want me to do?"

Benevolence wasn't a trait Taiyou would usually associate with vampires. Her experience with Omi though, was quickly making her re-think everything. Vampires had rules, she knew this much. How strictly they were enforced was less certain. There was still much that was unknown regarding vampire politics.

Contacting the liaison could be risky. If, as they suspected, this was an unapproved turning, then there was no telling what the vampire leadership would demand. Omi's life could be in danger.

And yet ... was it fair to Omi to be isolated from those who were 'like' him, who could possibly teach him things that humans could not?

She looked pleasantly surprised when Mamoru turned the question to her.

"I'm not sure," she said, her expression reflecting that uncertainty. "As you say, it might endanger him if they don't already know. But we do want answers as well. Perhaps we should ask Omi?"

It pained Mamoru a little that such a basic courtesy as asking Taiyou's input for something that so strongly involved her and her boyfriend seemed to surprise her. He did realize that they didn't always see eye to eye, but surely she didn't think he would steamroll her on something like this? Central as Omi's discovery might be to the guild and its policies, this question was only tangentially related to the guild. It was far more central to Taiyou and to Omi. He didn't have any right deciding this for them.

Consulting Omi himself then sounded like a perfectly fair thing to do. Mamoru nodded to her suggestion.

"I'll leave that conversation to you. Let me know the decision when you have it. Should you decide to seek answers, I'll make contact on your behalf."

"I'll talk to him after we're done here," Taiyou said. She paused for a moment and looked at Mamoru thoughtfully. All things considered, he was being awfully understanding. What seemingly began as a lecture ended up somewhere else instead. Maybe she was too defensive around him. It wasn't without good cause (she believed) but how long did she need to hang on to what had happened?

"I'm um ... I'm sorry." She tucked her hair awkwardly behind her ear. "If I worried you."

Mamoru's expression softened at her apology. He offered a small smile.

"You did-- and it's okay. In the future, please take better care if there's any sign you're in a situation of unusual danger like that... You're an irreplaceable part of our family."

Of his family, but that was a bit too personal to say.

She smiled back at him warmly.

Ultimately, that was what it came down to, wasn't it? She had a brother, and she knew how families were like. They argued, they bickered, they pushed each other away. But in the end, they stuck together because that was what families did.

"Thanks ... I will."

Turned: The Spinoff

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