Disclaimer: I do not own Blood, Blood the Last Vampire, or any characters from the anime, or Manga (such as Blood the Last Vampire 2002).

Prologue

Okamura groaned, more to himself than to anyone else, as a car that he’d begun to convince himself was following them turned off on a side road and was gone from view. ‘I know a reporter’s supposed to be paranoid, but this is ridiculous.’ He looked at the brown haired high school girl sitting next to him in the passenger seat at this, shook his head, and turned back to the road. ‘God, this is all her fault! Now I’m stuck with her!’

The girl, Mao, apparently was going to be his traveling companion; not exactly by choice mind you. She’d just stolen 5 million yen from her father who just happened to be the head of the Jahana Company or should he say the Jahana Yakuza. Meaning they both now had crosshairs centered directly on them. ‘I never should have gotten involved with someone like her…she is so obviously trouble!’

True it had been Okamura who’d approached Mao, in fact right as she was leaving school with a friend of hers. That meeting should have clued him into the fact that this girl was bad news for him with a capital B. She’d accused him of trying to solicit her for sex right when he walked up to them and even when he showed her his ID she remained suspicious. Despite this little hitch she did indeed know the girl he was looking for, Saya Otonoshi. In fact Mao claimed the girl she was with at the time, Kaori, was Saya’s best friend. Okamura wished he’d gotten a chance to speak with her, but she’d left when she found out he was nosing into her friend’s private life. A pity, but he still had Mao to milk for information, or so he’d thought. Turns out the joke was on him.

Talking to Mao was a chore to say the least. She asked more questions than she gave answers and seemed to be almost clueless when it came to Saya. Still she had given him some tidbits. Saya had come to live with a foster family here in Okinawa. The foster family included two other adopted boys, Kai and Riku, and an old Vietnam war veteran, who’d died very recently. Oddly enough due to one of the killings he himself had been covering. Then he learned that the remaining 3 had disappeared, leaving to go god knows where. At which point Mao had started whining about some guy and Okamura tuned her out.

At least he had until she mentioned who her father was. Then his mind went into overdrive. The boy she was fawning over was off with Saya, in fact was one of his foster brothers, and she didn’t know where he was and was worried sick. Seeing his chance he casually let slip that since he was going to a place that would hopefully lead him to the truth about that girl anyway he’d probably also find the boy…then he added that he couldn’t due to lack of funds. Though he felt a little guilty about playing her he had to force himself not to act triumphant when she asked how much his trip would cost. Little did he know what she had in mind.

“Hey, can’t we hurry this up?” Mao’s voice stole into his thoughts and he suppressed another groan. He was going to have to put up with her for the whole trip, and then there was the fact he had money stolen from organized crime in his trunk. Oh brilliant; this was just brilliant.

“I’m driving at the speed limit, so please keep…” he’d gotten distracted only for a moment, but that was enough. His eyes picked up movement from the road ahead and he hit the breaks hard, causing Mao to scream loudly as they came to a very sudden and unexpected stop.

“What are you trying to do,” she screeched at the reporter, who ignored her, unbuckled his seatbelt, and stepped out of the care, “kill me?”

“Not a bad idea.” He mumbled and looked around for exactly who or what had crossed the road in front of his car at this time of night.

“Mao,” a girl’s voice called out and a rather scared looking girl stepped into view. Like Mao she had brown hair and a schoolgirl’s uniform. She also had a small ponytail and a much les aggressive face in general than Mao. “Is that you?”

The girl in question stuck her head out of the car. “Kaori, is that you? What are you doing out this late?” The girl looked down at her feet and Mao sighed. “Never mind, I don’t care. You came just in time. Hop on in.”

Both Kaori and Okamura’s head’s shot up at that and they stared at Mao in shock. “What?” They both cried at the same time. This was news to both of them.

“Well yeah.” Mao sounded like this was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m going to go find Kai. You do want to find Saya don’t you?”

Kaori seemed to be the first to find her voice. “Saya…told me that she had something she needed to do on her own and I respect that.”

Now Okamura was ready to add his two cents. “You have to ask me before you do something like invite another person.”

Mao rolled her eyes. “Hey, you work for me remember? What I say goes.” The reporter’s shoulders slumped. “And Kaori, drop the bullshit. I know you want to follow her, you said as much yourself.”

“But she told me...and I said I’d…I’d respect her decision.” Kaori was looking very uncomfortable now. “I do want to follow her, but I…”

“Oh stuff it, we don’t have time for this. You know Saya’s dad died recently and she’s been having a hard time, again something you said yourself. Do you think her request was entirely on the level?” Kaori didn’t respond. “Do you really think she’ll be alright on her own?” ‘Wow,’ Okamura thought, ‘she’s really putting it on thick. Still it looks like its working. God damn, she’s manipulative.

Kaori bit her lip nervously and looked from side to side before speaking. “But I don’t have anything packed. All I’ve got is this?” She held up her school bag.

Mao blinked. “You never went home after school, did you?” Kaori looked at her feet again. She hadn’t. Instead she’d wandered through Okinawa, thinking about Saya’s goodbye and subsequent disappearance, the death of that teacher, and the Yanbaru site’s destruction. Kaori had only stopped to get something to eat. Mao sighed in exasperation. “We’ve got money so we can buy you everything you need later, but we don’t have time. Get in or stay here; one or the other.

Kaori fidgeted, looking as if she was giving the matter very hard thought. She bit her lip again and then with a final sigh nodded her head and moved to get into the car. Once she sat down however another question came to mind. “What about school?”

“What about it?” Was Mao’s only reply in a very contemptuous tone and then she shut the door and had Kaori climb over into the back.

Okamura mumbled a curse to himself as he got back into the driver’s seat, buckled up, and started the car. He wasn’t sure now if anything was worth all this. ‘God,’ he thought, ‘what did I do to deserve this?’