A/N: Hello hello hello! If you'e not read the warning on this story, don't like that there are no pairings or just don't like dark fictions then you probably shouldn't be reading this. Just saying. Other than that welcome my readers! This fic has been in my library of fics (yes I have a library) for probably six months but in the last maybe three days I've been really intent on finishing it so I can get it out of my head. Most likely it wont be longer than two chapters...unless I decide to do an aftermath chapter or something but eh we'll see. I'll hopefully be able to focus more on my current fics once this one is published. Other than that, I don't own VK or any of the characters and happy (well...sorta) reading! ~Rena-chan

The Last Time

(Zero's POV)

This was going to be the last time, the first time she found me, the second time I was being watched by her protector. But I've figured it out now, I have everything in order for me to finish this before anyone can stop me. She, nor he, nor any of them will be able to interfere before it's too late. My name is Kiryuu Zero, I'm a hunter, an ex-human, and the male perfect of Cross Academy. I have been living here since I was eight, my family before was brutally murdered, and I had a burning passion to kill all vampires I came across. Especially pureblood vampires. Unfortunately it was that passion that drove me further and further away from the ones trying to help me and although they tried to understand my pain and suffering we all know they didn't come close to getting it. I was used as a pawn to protect the alfa pureblood's little sister who was formerly my best and only friend at this school. Now I only have myself. I have realized that I am alone, and the insults that are thrown at me for who and what I am sting more than I will ever be able to let on. That however is besides the point, see the reason I am writing and sitting here telling you all this is because I've given up. I lost everyone close to me, including the white mare known as White Lily who I have been with since she was born, I don't feel safe around others so I took to locking myself up at first. I thought that would be enough but it wasn't. It was far from enough, I still had those people coming in my room and checking on me. I hated it so I went outside, to be reunited with the hatred and harsh reality. I was never meant to live this long in the first place and I don't even care if it's a coward thing to do but I've lost all will to live. I know that whoever finds me will find this so I am leaving it laying around for the headmaster probably. Cross Kaien, though I've never said it you are a second father to me and for that I am grateful. Between you and Touga-sensei I almost felt as though I had a family again, almost. But your ideal lifestyle just isn't possible, not for me and not with these vampires. I'm sick of being used as a chess piece for the Kuran prince. As you've hopefully figured out by now, this is my suicide note. Because everyone who commits seems to write one. So this is mine, I know it's not as pretty and poetically written as the stereotypical versions but I've always been the black sheep so I think it's fitting to some degree. Now then, onto my goodbyes.

Yuuki: I hope you do realize that I've always loved you as a little sister. No matter how many fights and pointless banters we've been through. I wouldn't be surprised if you found this before everyone else since you seem to keep pushing towards me despite the things I said and that you can happily be with your beloved brother. I will be out of the way for the both of you and for that I am happy. You always reminded me of Ichiru in a sense, which both killed me and made me love you more. So much so that I couldn't stand not seeing you, not teasing and spending time with you. Sure it's been mistaken for the romantic type of love by nearly everyone on campus but I know you know better than to believe idiotic human girls. Lastly, you were the one who found me when I tried to do this before. I am both sorry that you did but also grateful, otherwise I would never have gotten to write this to you. Please keep that smile on your face that makes others happy, don't turn into a bitch like Ruka or I will haunt your brain like no other. I'll be watching you study and over whatever is to become of your future. Goodbye Yu-chan.

Sensei: What can I say about you that doesn't make you sound like an asshole? Well not much to be honest. You don't know this but you always made my father smile. Even when you were pissing him off he never thought badly of a single matted hair on your head. You won't believe this but Ichiru too did care about you, he would ask me all the time if your age was getting to you yet. I still apologize about your eye, that day will be forever burned into my mind as something that I should have prevented. I relished your comforting, well as comforting as you can manage, words that you told me. You lessons are forever running through my mind. Thank you for everything you've done for me and I know you've done more than what you say. I'm not that ignorant. Keep an eye on Kaito's appetite for me? I'm sure he'll be complaining about the lack of edible food in the headmaster's room once I'm gone. Thanks for everything again, I'll make sure to tell dad how much you cried for him.

Kaito: You certainly stepped into the role of older brother, not really sure why but I did enjoy it. A little backwards though since you're a little brother and I'm the older one. Not to mention your maturity levels are at a permanent all time low. You were my rock when no one else in this damn world could have been and I thank you for that. I know you don't do the whole cheesy sappy shit so I'm stopping there. Just know I'm glad for you being something of a friend, asshole or not.

I suppose I should write one to you but you're going to go unnamed so suck it. I hate you to say the least. You screwed my life over and over and over again. You're a prick and the asshole of all assholes. I don't see what people find even remotely decent about you. But aside from all that...ugh I hate to say this but thanks...kinda...because like with Yuuki if you hadn't been watching for some odd reason then I wouldn't be writing this either because I would already be dead long ago. On the flip side, I really wish you would have either just let me die so long ago or just killed me the first day I met you and stabbed you with that butter knife. Anyway, thanks, but not, because you're still a prick. Also, this time your damn abilities won't be getting in the way so don't try anything. Yes this will hurt your precious Yuuki but hey she'll get over it. Eventually she'll forget me like you and everyone else will. That's the end of this damn letter thing, I'm not going to mention the rest of the idiots I've interacted with maybe once or twice. Most of those were insult or threat-based anyway.

Lastly I say to everyone I'm leaving because I see no reason to live and I personally don't want one. Depression has taken over my mind, my will to do anything died a long time ago, I have no purpose and I'm so tired of fighting. It makes me sick to think about facing another day in this place. I hate myself more than anything, I can't stand my existence so I'm ending it for whoever wants to end my life and for the ones who would have to end it for me in the end anyway. I'm not going to be saved this time, I will not return to this lack of a life. This is the last time I say goodbye.

(Normal POV)

Zero read over the letter one final time before tucking the thing under his pillow for later and heading out to crossover. He wasn't going to see this again tomorrow so he may as well watch it for one last time. 'I'm not going to fail this time, I can't keep going anymore.' he thought watching the vampires walk through the lines of day class girls that had been created for them. He received a few glares as per usual when the night class walked by but there were no remarks. Like usual, he ignored the presence of everyone, he didn't even realize that crossover could go so smoothly it was like everyone on campus was tiptoeing around him. He didn't mind, not this time. His brain was numb as were his eyes, he had no feeling towards anything. He had simply given up telling them anything and yet the girls were easier to manage like this. 'Go figure.' he sighed mentally just as he noticed Yuuki walking over to him with Kaname in tow. He watched her every move but didn't see her take a single step.

"Good evening Zero, how are you doing?" she asked unable to hide her concern. As of recently Zero had been distant, but in a different way than usual. It was as though he didn't care anymore. He had just stopped living, his eyes were dead and he moved as though no one ever called out to him. Like he wouldn't feel it even if she reached out and touched him.

"I'm alright Yuuki." his soft spoken reply only furthered her worry, glancing back at her brother she saw traces of a frown and slightly narrowed eyes. Even the other nobles seemed to stop walking and look at him as though something was too off to be considered okay. The day class girls around him had their jaws dropping at the tone of his voice, a tone no one thought even possible for him to possess. Well no one aside from Yuuki who had heard it on numerous occasions.

"Are you sure? You look a little...off this evening." she pointed out, though it was a very large understatement according to everyone else listening in on the conversation. Which was everyone. Zero nodded numbly and dragged tired eyes up to look at Kaname.

"You both should head to class, before we cause even more of a scene than necessary." Zero advised quietly, Kaname nodded and coaxed Yuuki into following him back to the nobles before leading the group to the main building. Zero watched them go, knowing full well he didn't have to escort them there, then turned to the gaping girls behind him. "Please, return to your dorms, it's late and we all still have class tomorrow." tilting his head to the slide slightly as though it was a question had the girls seeing hearts and yet also scared out of their minds. What the hell had gotten into the angry perfect?! With mixed emotions they all eventually headed back to their dorm rooms and Zero made his rounds peacefully. Unknowing of all the vampires staring at him in utter shock down the path.

"What the actual hell was that?" Ruka was the first to question after the perfect was out of earshot.

"Something has got to be really wrong with him..." Shiki pointed out with a raised eyebrow, suddenly everyone was looking accusingly at Aido.

"Why are you all looking at me?" the blonde huffed in irritation.

"Because you're the most likely to do something to Kiryuu and upset Kaname-sama. Idiot." Ruka replied with an obvious display of rolling her eyes at him. Aido glared back at her.

"That's not true and you know it! I don't do anything like that!" Aido shot back with a glare and crossing his arms.

"You can't deny that you go out of your way to pester Kiryuu, Ruka you do that to so don't play innocent here either." Kain stepped in glaring at both of them. Lately he had been watching Zero's changing behavior. It had him vexed and annoyed more than he would have liked to believe.

"I don't go out of my way, I just take the opportunity when it presents itself." Ruka huffed and crossed her arms much like Aido had done beforehand.

"That's enough, I don't think this has anything to do with anyone else on campus so let it go. Zero's personal life was never a real concern to you all before so don't try and make it one now." Yuuki voiced eventually with a hard stare around the classroom. Sure they were technically her brother's nobles but they would follow her order for fear of upsetting him. 'What are you doing Zero...what's wrong with you?' she asked herself, putting her head in her hands and trying to focus on what she remembered over the last few interactions with her former adoptive brother.

"Alright night class, let's get this shit over with." Yagari grouched as he walked in the room and dropped a stack of papers on his desk. They had turned in an essay in the previous week and the elder hunter had finally gotten around to grading them all. "Now, I didn't expect much outta you lot but I have my expectations set pretty high. I wasn't displeased with what I read but some of you may want to spend some more time working on your grammar and punctuation." he sighed with a sharp eye to Aido. Said blond grumbled and crossed his arms as a paper was plopped in front of him with red markings everywhere.

"Sensei?" Yuuki started once all the papers had been passed out and the nobles were busy mourning their scores. The grouchy teacher looked over at her and prompted her to continue, Zero was the only reason she got any respect from the man Yuuki frigured. It made her life a little easier compared to the others in her class and thanks to outside tutoring from Zero and a few nobles on various subjects she was actually doing quite well by her standards. "Have you seen Zero this evening?" she questioned, effectively silencing all trace of conversation around her so the nobles could listen in themselves. Touga started back at her for a solid minute and a half, she counted each agonizing second, before he inaudibly sighed and leaned back in his chair nodding.

"Yes, I have, why do you ask." It was a question but posed as a statement, meaning the man did not like where this conversation was heading and getting answers from him was already like pulling teeth.

"Well, I was just wondering if you knew if he was feeling well...since he looked...tired." the pureblood princess eventually stammered out. It was a understatement, to say the least. The perfect had looked as though he was about to drop dead on the spot. Even some of the most stubborn nobles felt the need to stand there during cross over to make sure the teen didn't collapse on them without warning.

"I don't doubt he is, you know well the toll being a perfect takes and the association Chairman hasn't been easy on him either these last two months." came the gruff reply, Kaname briefly wondered what that exactly meant, considering the Chairman of the Association was known to be something of an asshole without mercy from the beginning.

'Maybe it's time I pay Kiryuu a visit.' he pondered in his head as the rest of the class sat in waiting silence for answers that Touga wasn't keen on giving them.

Just as the vampire prince was going to stand and leave the room Kaito walked in the door with a frown on his normally stoic lips. "Sensei, have you seen Zero lately? I'm supposed to give him a message from the Chairman but I can't find him anywhere and I've searched the campus twice already, tracking him has also proved to be useless." The younger hunter explained causing Touga to frown as well. While it was normal for Zero to skip classes to hide or go off somewhere, he never missed out on perfect duties. That was just not something he was capable of doing. With a barely audible groan Touga got up and walked out of the classroom without a word to his class. Kaito huffed and pulled out his cellphone in order to text the younger hunter but he was stopped by Yuuki at the last second.

"Wait, Kaito-san, let me search for him with you. I have better tracking abilities than you do and with two of us there's a chance of finding him faster." her voice was pleading towards the hunter despite that she knew he had no reason to trust her. She hoped that his concern for Zero was greater than his wariness of her. After a few seconds Kaito nodded and continued texting his friend before he motioned for Yuuki to follow him out the door.

"Just make sure you can keep up." he told her before leaving in a similar manner as his master. Yuuki nodded, though the hunter couldn't see it, and walked after him not bothering to say a word to her brother or any of the nobles. Zero was missing and she wanted to find him, he had been on her mind the entire time and there wasn't anyway she could focus or relax without knowing her brother was ok.

"I promise you won't have to worry about me, I'll keep up." she replied once the duo got outside and started tracking where the perfect would have most likely headed.

"Yuuki, have you been noticing anything in the last I dunno few weeks or something about Zero that would lead up to him running off like this?" Kaito eventually asked, breaking the silence between them as they searched the woods off campus.

"I don't think I really noticed anything out of the ordinary at the time...I know my brother hasn't gone to visit Zero in a while so that could have something to do with it...other than how off he looked and acted tonight I didn't notice much of a change. He's just been silent as usual at crossover. He stopped walked us to class and our dorms though, I figured it was because he knows nothing is going to happen or he was on his routes but now I don't know for sure. Why do you ask?" she answered eventually after a stretch of thought.

"Because, you do remember Zero is essentially living on borrowed time don't you? He isn't going to be around forever and it's something that he's brought up with Touga and I on multiple occasions in the last few weeks. I didn't think much of it since he seemed to be fine then...I'm aware it's not a scenario anyone wants to think about...but he could be out of time." the hunter whispered making Yuuki stop dead in her tracks and stare at him with wide fearful eyes.

"N-No that can't be, this is Zero we're talking about, he can't be...that can't happen! It just can't!" the pureblood princess' voice started as a whisper but her words grew frantic quickly as she kept talking. Kaito sighed, realizing that Zero probably never talked to her about his inevitable and eventual death.

'Protecting her from her own feelings.' the older hunter figured as he heard the girl start sobbing, she had already collapsed to the forest ground not bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes as they continuously flowed down her cheeks. Kaito sighed and closed his eyes briefly feeling irritation prick his senses when the rest of the nobles showed up around them with tense auras.

"What the hell did you do to Yuuki-sama you hunter scum!" Aido shouted immediately, his fists already white as the grass started frosting over.

"I didn't do anything to her you imbecile, not that you'll take my word for it." Kaito growled back, he never enjoyed the night class on a good day, and this was certainly not a good day making dealing with a bunch of fanged snots a true trip through hell.

"Obviously you did something! She's beside herself crying you asshole! Now what did you do to her!" it was Ruka's turn to step in and spit at the irritated teen in front of them while Kaname kneeled down to gather his sister in his arms. Kaito sighed and bowed his head slightly so his hair covered his eyes.

"I told her the truth, that you all should have realized a long time ago. Zero isn't going to be around forever, he's going day to day knowing that someday he won't be able to continue like this. What he does isn't living. He's a slave to the association and to this school. Eventually he'll fire the last bullet of Bloody Rose and end it." the ash-brown hired hunter growled with more force than the nobles were expecting from the normally stoic being. His voice hardly wavered as he spoke but his emotions ran high and clear in his aura.

"I hate to say this, but unfortunately Kaito-kun is correct." the voice of headmaster Cross sounded from off to the side where he stood with Touga. Both of them looked somewhat somber and at a loss. "Frankly, most hunters and vampires alike are shocked he's lived as long as he has, it even surprises Zero that he's still alive. The reality is, he was bitten when he was eight, it's been over ten years since then and it's coming to a point where he knows his time is running out." Kaien sighed as he eventually lifted his eyes to the students before him.

"Not that these guys care anyway, he's scum according to you right? The freak that isn't worth the air you breathe. For fuck's sake the only reason Kuran decided to keep him alive was because princess here wanted him around since she's too damn uncomfortable around the rest of you lot. I don't blame Zero for being so sick off all of you everyday of his life." the younger hunter hissed with seething eyes, in all her life Yuuki had never seen the other so angry and honestly she was becoming a bit more intimidated than she'd like to think.

'Perhaps, because what he says about the night class and Zero's relationship is so brutally true.' she thought to herself with downcast eyes.

"Kaito that's enough, focus on finding Zero." Touga barked at his student, not that he didn't fully agree with everything the younger said but he didn't want to deal with a problem between Kaito and the pissed off looking night class students at the moment. He had a former pupil to find and standing there wasn't getting them any closer to Zero. The younger hunter glared back at the vampires but followed what his senior said nonetheless and quickly jogged off somewhere deeper in the woods. "Kaien, I think it's best if you take the night class back to their dorms, let the hunters handle this one." Touga decided once Kaito was out of earshot. The ex-hunter looked over at his long time friend surprised for a moment but seeing the slivers of pain flitting through the other's eyes he nodded and turned back to the night class.

"Kaname, if you will lead the night class back to the moon dorms, that would be greatly appreciated." Kaien requested though there was an undertone of order that Kaname couldn't help to oblige by. Despite no longer being active as a legendary hunter, the man still had the strength and ability he possessed when named a legend among those without fangs. Even the Kuran prince would think twice about being overly stubborn with the man at times like this. Kiryuu Zero was basically the son of these two well seasoned hunters, any vampire would be a fool to pick a fight at a time when someone so dear to them was in potential danger of himself or someone else.

"Never get between a mother and her child Kaname, they can serve more harm to you than you can imagine." his mother once told him and it was advice the pureblood had taken to heart along with everything else she had told him.

"I wish you three luck." he decided to say before turning, with Yuuki still sobbing at his side, and taking the others back to their dorms. As he did so however he could not help the feeling of dread that overcame his senses and the sudden need to find the ex-human hunter.

As the night progressed the vampires were still on edge, without having class their thoughts returned to the problem at hand. An ex-human hunter with suicidal tendencies, and the potential to fall to being a bloodthirsty vampire with significant power was nowhere to be found. Yuuki was frantic, Kaname was irritated and twitchy, Takuma was worried, Aido and Ruka were annoyed, and Shiki, Rima and Kain were saying nothing to portray their inner thoughts like normal. In short, the night class was a mess. Not something one would think possible for a group of vampires of their classes, but here it was. 'Kaname-sama, I went to scope the boy's room as you requested, there is something you need to see.' Seiren's voice drifted into Kaname's head like a soft breeze, but the pureblood figured whatever his trusted information gatherer had was not going to be pleasant.

'Meet me in my study immediately.' he replied before getting up and making his way upstairs without a word to anyone. Thankfully Yuuki was still crying in her room with Sayori, who the headmaster had sent over, otherwise he would have had to explain to her what Seiren had acquired and for whatever reason he felt that would have been a very bad idea.

"Kaname-sama, this was tucked under his pillow, I assume from the ink that it was written earlier today. Bloody Rose was still on his person at crossover this evening." she informed as soon as the pureblood walked into the room, she held out the letter to the vampire and stood silently as he read over it. It was a surprise, she had to admit, she had read it herself in his room and there was no debating his intentions after leaving Cross Academy. Kaname cursed and put the letter in his coat pocket, nodding to Seiren he sped out of the moon dorms to track down Kaien and the others. He didn't have time to waste, Zero's life was at stake and he'd be damned if he didn't try something.