AN: Hello. Once again this is KabusakuGirl (weird name, I know) and this is the second

Chapter of my story. I would like to thank all the people who actually reviewed and favorite this cruddy story. Confession time, I know next to nothing about Bleach. I only started watching the show and reading the manga after a friend of mine told me about Ulquiorra. Five chapters later, I'm an Ulquihime fan. If any of the characters seem OOC, please tell me who and how they seem OOC. Oh, and this is at least 9 pages long according to Word. Also, for some people, this is an AU Fan fiction! That means I can make them whatever I want them to be. Enjoy the story.

Edit: I rewrote the word "wedding" to "funeral".

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. The author to that is Kubo Tite. I am just an annoyed fan who REALLY needs to get a life. I do not own Moonshield by In Flame either.

The Victims of a Vampire

Chapter 2

"Sado, Sakura."

"Here."

"Saito, Leiko."

Silence filled the room.

Matsumoto-Sensei looked up from her clipboard and set her gaze on Leiko's desk. It was empty. "Huh, that's weird. She hasn't been here for the last four days. Does anyone know where Saito-san is?" Matsumoto-sensei looked at her students. They held a perplexed and confused looks tinged with worry on some off their faces. None of them knew where Leiko had gone.

"Well, after school one of you is going to be lucky enough to bring the homework to Saito-san. I will hand-pick the chosen student at the end of class!" Matsumoto-sensei announced to the classroom. Groans and moans erupted from her unwilling audience.

"Now, on with roll call!"

***

"I can't believe you got saddled with Homework Duty, Orihime." said Tatsuki, shaking her head. "I don't mind. Leiko-chan is my friend and I haven't spoken to her in a while. It'll be nice to catch up." Orihime said smiling. "Just don't try to feed her your infamous "Squid Soup" again. We want her to get better, not put her into a hospital." said a grinning Tatsuki. Orihime blushed in embarrassment, remembering how Leiko had agreed to try her new soup and nearly choked to death on it. Tatsuki had nearly doubled over in laughter when she heard about it the next day.

Leiko had been Orihime's friend since middle school. They had met when Tatsuki was sick and couldn't come to school. Orihime would never forget that day. The bullies that had always picked on her before Tatsuki had shown up decided it was time for some payback. They had gotten her alone after school in the alleyway near Orhime's house. They pushed her down, kicked her, punched her, and pulled her hair. All of a sudden it had stopped and Orihime had heard groans of pain above her, before the people who had tortured her fell down unconscious. The ones still awake ran as fast as they could out of the alleyway going towards their homes, the local bookstore, anywhere that was away from her. Her savior had a tanned and lithe body, fierce red eyes, and long raven hair in a side-ponytail. Her savior had smiled at Orihime's wide eyes. They were not fearful, just curious and surprised. After a long period of time, or two minutes, Orihime broke the silence. "What's your name?"

Her savior's smile which held a pinch of arrogance in it grew larger and she answered, "Saito Leiko." Orihime grinned broadly and chirped, "My name is Inoue Orihime. It's nice to meet you. Thank you for saving me!" Leiko's eyes seemed to sparkle just then as she started ranting about how no man could defeat her.

After that they were rarely separate. Tatsuki and Leiko were her protectors in shining armor and Orihime was their fair princess. However, lately for reasons that Orihime couldn't understand, Leiko seemed to not want to speak to her this semester. Every time Orihime tried to call her she would get Leiko's voice mail and when she tried to go over to visit, she was never home. Whenever Orihime saw her, she seemed angry and frustrated at something. She distanced herself from the rest of the class and she was late most of the time. Orihime didn't even know how many detentions she had gotten for her tardiness. To put it simply, Orihime was worried about her.

The sky above was getting darker as the light of day was fading to be replaced by the dark of night. With winter coming fast, it was getting harder to get home from school before dusk. Orihime hoped she would get to Leiko's apartment quickly. Like most sane creatures, the dark was uncomfortable for her.

When Leiko's apartment building came into view, Orihime put her worries behind her, at least for the moment. She climbed the steep, winding staircase up to Leiko's apartment. Room 403, as it always had been. Orihime knocked three times on the door in a rapid pattern, and then waited for Leiko to answer the door.

She didn't come.

Orihime frowned slightly then tried again.

Nothing happened.

She turned the doorknob and found that the door was unlocked. How strange… Leiko-chan never leaves the door unlocked, thought Orihime with a slightly surprised look on her face. She went into the room and was put in total darkness, which was broken only by a light in a far off room. That must be where Leiko-chan is! Orihime thought as she walked toward the room with the light.

She didn't notice the figure standing behind the couch in the living room. She didn't notice the eyes watching and analyzing her. They were green, almost the color of freshly cut emeralds without the sparkle. When she approached the lit room she thought she heard something behind her. She turned around, but saw nothing. It must have been my imagination. Wait, maybe Leiko-chan's just trying to scare me, like the last time I visited her? Orihime shook her head and smiled. Taking a deep breath she shouted, "I know you're here Leiko-chan! You're just trying to scare me again!"

Her voice echoed throughout the rooms, and she received no answer to her exclamation. Orihime didn't expect her to. Leiko was always quiet when it came to things like that. She just loved to make Orihime freak out for a few seconds. She's probably in the lit room. After all, she hates wasting electricity.

Orihime went into the lit room, which turned out to be the kitchen. She stopped in the doorway, eyes wide, mouth agape and trying to breathe normally. The homework papers meant for Leiko fell to the ground in a scattered heap on the beige colored tiles. They didn't matter anymore. Leiko didn't need them. For there Leiko was, with a rope around her neck, hanging from the ceiling hook made for hanging plants with a note in her hand.

Leiko was dead.

***

"So, what gruesome death did you do to the drained prey this time? Or did you just do what most of the others did and just left them where you drained them?" said a smooth, sly voice. The green eyed figure spoke in a monotone voice, "Suicide. I had her hang herself. Fortunately, she had written a suicide note before she was drained so she had already planned it."

The sly man smiled, "really?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I see you and Nnoitra picked a good one to drain then. I sincerely hope that you remember to close up the bite marks on her. Thanks to certain individuals the mortals have been weary when they leave their homes and we don't want them to get too cautious. It spoils the fun." The sly man said with a fake concerned voice.

"Yes, Aizen-sama."

"Good. Now are you sure you don't want any tea?" Aizen gestured to the tea-filled cups.

"No thank you sir," said the green eyed man eyeing the tea with a hint of distaste.

"Ah well, can't blame me for trying, right?" Aizen didn't wait for him to answer the question. "Anyway, you need to get some rest. You have a big day tomorrow."

"Yes, Aizen-sama." said the green eyed one, with a bow. With that, he turned and left the room of Aizen's study.

***

Orihime stood stock-still for what seemed like hours, unable to breathe properly, staring unseeingly at her old friend's lifeless corpse. Finally, the reality of the situation hit Orihime like a speeding bullet train. Leiko was dead and she was just standing there like an idiot! Slowly, Orihime stepped towards the corpse, tears cascading down her cheeks as she approached Leiko. Orihime reached her arm up towards the hook where the rope was hanging and gently unhooked the rope. Leiko's lifeless body slumped against Orihime's warm one. A sob racked through Orihime, breaking the silence the kitchen had been in earlier.

Orihime slowly lowered the corpse to the cold floor, and shut Leiko's eyelids over her unseeing eyes. Orihime silently prayed to any kami that would be willing to watch over Leiko's spirit. Orihime's eyes flickered to the piece of paper wedged tightly into Leiko's hand. With some difficulty, Orihime managed to pry the paper out of Leiko's fist without it being too torn up. Orihime scanned the words on the paper, occasionally smiling then sobbing at the message.

Dear Orihime-chan (or Tatsuki-chan, whoever Matsumoto sent first),

I bet you're wondering why I did it. I could tell you all this crap about how my life has no meaning left in it, or how I just hate my luck but I would be lying wouldn't I? My life did have meaning left in it, because of the both of you. My luck… wasn't that great I admit that, but not enough to kill myself! The truth is…

I was scared, and I wanted to see my family again.

One day you'll find out why I was scared but until then, just keep guessing. Orihime-chan, you will understand what I mean about missing family. I just couldn't take it.

Now, that doesn't mean I want either of you killing yourselves! I want you both to have a long life filled with happiness, love, and bad cooking. If I catch either of you up here (or down here as the case may be) before your ready, I will kick both of your asses until the end of Time!

Now for my funeral, I want a typical CHRISTIAN funeral. The song I want playing is Moonshield by In Flames. I don't want any of that "Boo hoo, another person is dead," crappy music playing, all right? I want my funeral music to be screaming death metal. You can have the priest choose any Psalm he wants, 'Cause I don't really care. Also, I want my body to be cremated. No particular reason. I just don't want my body to decompose naturally.

Now, don't deny these last two wishes. First, I don't want you to report this to the police, just get me to the funeral home, okay? My lifesavings are in the top drawer of my dresser in my bedroom. Use those for the funeral funds and if there is any leftover put it in your college funds. My last wish is that you both keep going to school normally, because I know the two of you will spend weeks out of school grieving for me if you are given the chance.

Oh, you can also invite anyone you want to the funeral except for one person: Chizuro. I will haunt both of you to your dying days if you invite her! One last thing…

I'm sorry.

In Loving Memory,

Saito Leiko (Leiko-Chan)

"It's just like her to l-leave a s-s-suicide n-note like this." Orihime stuttered to the empty room. Memories of the girl flashed through her mind. Leiko being happy, Leiko being angry, Leiko being sarcastic, Leiko being aggressive, Leiko being… Leiko! Orihime whipped the tears from her eyes. No! Leiko-chan wouldn't want me to cry. She'd want me doing something… anything that didn't involve crying. Mind made up, Orihime stood up and went to find the telephone. She had some business with the funeral home.

***

Orihime slumped on her school desk the next morning. She had been asked by most of the students who knew Leiko how she was faring. Leiko's death had shaken many students. Friends, enemies, it didn't matter. All that mattered to them was why she died and why they couldn't stop her. Even Chizuru was less spontaneous than usual. Orihime had told her politely that she couldn't come to the funeral and all she did was hug Orihime a little harder than normal.

Suddenly Matsumoto-sensei walked in with one minute left until the bell rang. Students were staring at her in complete shock and surprise, including Orihime. She was never this early; it just had to be a new record.

Matsumoto-sensei cleared her throat and announced for in a serious tone everyone to take their seats. People scrambled to perform these orders quickly, for fear of causing their sensei's temper to show.

Matsumoto-sensei took a deep breath, "Yesterday, we received terrible news that one of our classmates is no longer with us. However, just because she is not physically here, that does not mean that she is not with us spiritually. Now, let's have a moment of silence." A brief thirty second pause followed. No one dared to breathe.

After the small bout of silence, a large smile appeared on Matsumoto-sensei's face. "Now, I do believe we should not keep our new students waiting." A small look of confusion flickered across Orihime's face. What new students? Then she remembered what Matsumoto-sensei had said last week.

Orihime watched as Matsumoto-sensei walked towards the door and called out into the hallway, "You can come in now!"

Two strange-looking students walked in. One was very tall, perhaps even taller than Sado-kun. Is that even possible? Orihime wondered. The teen also had black hair that went down a little past his shoulders and an eye patch on his left eye. The school uniform looked too small for him. Orihime turned her eyes to the other student. He had shorter and messier black hair then his friend, but it still went to the nape of his neck. His skin was the palest she had ever seen, and was that really a tattoo of green tear streaks under his eyes or was it makeup? Orihime couldn't really tell. And speaking of his eyes-

"Class, this is Jiruga Nnoitra, and Schiffer Ulquiorra."

They were emerald green and seemed to be staring right at her.

To Be Continued….