Niko cries out, her entire body on fire. She just wants all the pain to stop and go away. She has given up hope at this point. She doesn't care what happens in the end, she just wants her body to stop burning.

Nishika turns to her daughter, blinking slowly at her. Her eyes snap around quickly, looking from Aido and Yuki to Chisaki and finally to Rido. Her eyes go wide as she looks at him, her eyes showing how confused she is. Her eyes flicker from red to lilac, showing her resemblance to Niko, her silver hair and lilac eyes solidating the relation between Niko and Zero.

As her eyes settle down to a soft lilac colour they flicker to red and blue for a moment, but as she lays her eyes on her husband they return to their original colour, making Rido scowl deeply at her. He has been waiting for her to wake up so he can use her to get back at his brother and the spawn they have raised.

Not a major set back, he will just spend a little time tormenting the two before he uses her, it's going to take a little longer but it is going to be worth it, the worse they feel the better, Rido can already feel the pain radiating off Niko and it excites him.

"Go to Niko, she's hurting," Chisaki whispers to his wife, hoping to get her out of harm's way.

Nishika turns to her daughter, her eyes widening again as she assesses the situation. She steps completely out of the coffin, letting it fall backwards as her loss of weight unbalances it. She moves forward, ignoring RIdo completely, aggravating the man, and walking towards her daughter.

"You better not get yourself hurt, Chisaki." She says as she passes him, caressing his arm lightly.

The man raises his eyebrows at his wife, watching her walk away from him. He looks back to Rido and shakes his head. She's awake for a minute and is already threatening him, the perfect marriage in anybody's eyes. Nishika rushes to her daughter, pulling her towards her, holding her in her arms.

"Niko . . . ." she whispers, brushing her bangs out of the way, wiping away stray tears from her face.

Shiki looks towards Nishika, his eyes wide as she stares at her. Her scent floats over to him, making his mouth drop open slightly and his eyes to stay trained on her. The smell. Niko's smell which he has spent months trying to put his finger on and the one that Niko figured out within a few days has always been the same person.

Nishika Kiryu, Rido Kuran's human pet and Chisaki Kuran's wife. She spent a few years raising Shiki. Hiding him from his father's cruel words when they visited, and held him like a baby when his mother could not. Shiki looks toward Rido and everything falls into place for him.

Niko's smell, his fathers want to possess her. Niko was close to being taken over by his father, but Shiki went home to his father on the holidays and convinced him to take him instead, to leave the girl alone. He complied, only if Shiki would tell him about Niko, what she is like and how she looks.

He didn't understand at the time, he just thought he was looking for another human to hunt and torment, so he told him about her, letting him know what she looks like and how she acts, all for the return that he wouldn't possess her. Now he knows that his father aims to do much worse than he originally anticipated. He looks from Nishika to Niko, trying to access what is happening around him.

He steps forward, wanting to help Niko as her body rejects and accepts her different sides. He walks past Aido and up next to the two.

"Don't come any closer, vampire," Nishika says, picking up Niko's dagger and holding it out at his hips, not even looking away from her daughter.

"K-Kira," Shiki mumbles, using the name that Rido demanded she use in his presence, a name to belittle and disassociate her from the rest of the world, a name that would mean that no one would even find her again.

Nishika's eyes snap up when she hears it, her eyes hard and her body shaking in rage. But when she makes eye contact with Shiki, her lilac ones clashing with his blue, her entire body softens, her eyes going wide and her mouth parting slightly.

"Senri," she murmurs, the name almost not making it past her lips. She shakes her head, breaking herself out of her trance, "Get back with the rest of them, you are in danger being around Niko."

"Bu–"

"Senri," Nishika narrows her eyes at him, "Listen to me and get back."

Shiki does as told, stepping back and bringing Aido with him, the said boy protesting to it. Nishika looks up at him, her eyes flashing bright red and scaring the boy. He has heard of her, everyone has. Everyone knows of the Kiryu's, the famous hunting families. But Nishika is no average Kiryu, she is known for tricking vampires, thinking she is on their side and proceeding to kill them.

She is famous for making her way in Pureblood families and slaughtering them. One thing that people never heard was her worst story, one that would surely hit headlines of the community. She attended a vampire party, protecting the greats that were protected by the council and she had been ordered not to touch, aggravate or harm.

Juri and Haruka Kuran were present, the only two of the family to go to the event. Nishika was nineteen at the time and didn't want to associate herself with any of the vampires at the party. But when the two came up to her, asking for a favour, she couldn't help but be intrigued by the offer.

The two proceeded to leave quickly after talking to her as if they had only come to see her which interested her further. She spent the next decade of her life fulfilling the request between missions.

Nishika looks away from Aido and back down to her daughter, caressing the side of her face lightly.

"Niko, I need you to speak to me," she whispers, holding her daughter close, "What did he do?"

"B-blood–" Niko chokes out, turning away from her mother and dry reaching into the pavement, her entire body jerking and heaving.

She lets out another scream as the shards on her back continue to grow, trying to create her Ukaku again. She ends up clawing at the floor, looking for anything to grab onto or to drink from.

"Does it hurt you? To see your own blood struggle?" Rido asks, smirking widely at his brother, who has been trying to pay attention to his daughter and the fight at the same time.

Chisaki ignores his question, "How did you find us, Rido?"

Rido laughs loudly, leaning forward and licking a drop of Niko's blood off his cheek, "The Aristocrats will do anything for a Pureblood won't they?" He grins widely, "They will even turn to the humans to please us. Isn't it great brother?"

It doesn't take Chisaki long to figure out what he means. Someone in the Hunter's Association has backstabbed them for something from the vampires, something Chisaki anticipated from the start, but he didn't think it would happen so soon, maybe in a few generations' time, but not in under a decade.

"Niko, baby, drink," Nishika says, holding her arm out to her daughter.

Niko shakes her head, shoving her mother's hand away and pointing towards the blood she had thrown up not long before her mother came onto the scene. Nishika looks at it, her eyes narrowing and a scowl forming on her face. She knew that this turning would be dangerous and many things could go wrong, but it would see that for Rido, everything has gone wrong.

It just so happened to be with her daughter. She looks towards the Aristocrats, her eyes hard and glaring.

"Flesh, get me flesh." She hisses, her eyes going bright red in intimidation.

Kain nods and disappears from the rooftop, looking for a vampire that may still be alive to get flesh from before they explode into dust. Niko reaches up and holds into her eye, the same pain from before coming back. She hisses as it pulses, the pain feeling like her own skull is squeezing her eye from her face.

She holds onto it, wishing the pain to stop and for everything to just be over, for the fight to be over and for everyone to be safe.

"Niko, hang on, Akatsuki is coming back with flesh for you." Yuki leans forward, her shoulder completely healing from the girl's bite.

Niko doesn't react, she just tries to stay completely still in hope that the pain will go away. Nishika looks at Yuki, her eyes widening again.

"Juri? No, Yuki," she mumbles, trying to keep up with the change in ages and the new people around her.

She is finding it hard to stay concentrated with everything that is going on, nothing is making sense and for some reason, she can feel a familiar presence she can't place her finger on.

"Miss, what do we need to do?" Yuki looks towards Nishika, "To help Niko?"

Nishika looks from Yuki to Niko and then to her husband, looking for anything that could possibly make sense at the moment. The only thing that is making sense is what is happening to Niko. Chisaki and herself researched it many times when Niko was younger. If they could turn Chisaki back into a vampire then Rido would no longer have the power of the vampire race.

But after seeing the chances and repercussions of such an event and changing they decided against it, never to chance him or Niko into a vampire was the best idea, she is already am miracle for being born and living, they weren't going to lose her because of some bloodsucking, obnoxious old men and their ideal master.

Nishika shakes her head, "The chances of Niko making it out alive are slim. If the meat doesn't work Niko isn't–" Nishika cuts herself off, wishing herself not to believe it. "We need to either revert her back to a ghoul, in which we need meat, or her RC cells fight the vampire side of her, or we continue with her changing, forcing her RC cells to shut down and let her vampire side to take over."

She looks down at her struggling daughter and covers her mouth as tears come to her eyes silently. Niko's back arches and she screams into the ground, clutching her face harshly as blood seeps between her fingers and to the floor.

"How could I let this happen to you?" She asks, watching Niko's body stretch and contort in pain, her heart aching because she can't do anything for her, to help her.

"Miss," Kain calls out, holding a chunk of what looks like a shoulder to Nishika.

She nods to him and grabs the meat, looking at Niko who is still screaming and crying, her Ukaku falling to the ground and replacing itself painfully at this point. Nishika moves towards her daughter, mumbling things into her ear to calm her down.

"Niko, eat this, don't worry if it doesn't taste nice, just eat it." Nishika holds the meat in front of her daughter's mouth, wrapping an arm around her waist in case she suddenly falls forward.

Niko opens her mouth and bites down onto the meat, tearing a chunk out and chewing it slowly, trying to ignore the thick feeling of her throat and the blood seeping into her mouth from her eye. She swallows the meat, everyone holding their breath as they watch her sit there, breathing heavily and blood pouring from her body.

Niko lurches backwards, her body sitting back on her feet and screaming in pain, her nerves on fire. She lets out an ear-piercing scream, her arms laying limply beside her and her face twitching uncontrollably. Nishika moves backwards, waiting for something good, any sign that she is reverting back into a ghoul.

But as Niko's voice cuts out, her voice cracking from all the screaming. Her eyes staring wide at the night sky and her body becoming still. Nishika can only help but think something has gone wrong.

It has.

Niko's body becomes completely still, her chest stops heaving and her eyes stop searching the sky. Her body tilts forward, her weight shifting from her feet to her knees, her body shutting down completely and giving up on her.

Everyone's frozen, watching Niko's body fall forward, hitting the pavement harshly, her presence fading from their senses and her scent becoming that of the dead.

c.r.o.s.s.e.d.

question of the chapter:

. . . . . do you like niko? *dodges angry reader items*

~shadow

Damn that's crazy *scrolls*

–@ZylikaZ