Title: Taste of Blood 2
Fandom: Prince of Tennis: Fudomine Chuugaku
Characters: Kajimoto Takahisa, Ibu Shinji, Kamio Akira, Tachibana Kippei
Prompt: 060 - Drink
Word Count: 2858
Date finished: 12/24/2007
Rating: PG
Summary: Kajimoto finds another one.
Author's Notes: This is from the CPG, "Ibu Shinji/Kajimoto Takahisa - Alcohol". Jakin (at hakkaisshadow) suggested Kajimoto getting Shinji drunk. Instead, this is what came out of it. It's the sequel to Taste of Blood, and explains it. Sort of.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Konomi Takeshi, and whoever did the anime. At any rate, it's not me.

"What can I get you?" the man behind the bar asked, and Takahisa hesitated a moment before sitting down on the nearest stool.

"Beer," he said.

"Draft or bottle?"

"Draft, please."

The man behind the bar moved with economy, reaching up to get a glass. Turning back, the grace with which he moved made Takahisa straighten. He touched the scabbed-over bite on his collar bone for a moment, but he was barely aware of the movement, watching the other man as he filled the glass.

There hadn't been any more deaths from this illness lately - not since he'd taken the redhead off the streets five weeks ago. But this man - this… vampire - was another one. And if he could hide like this, how many others were there in the city?

"Here you go. You new here?"

Takahisa forced himself to relax, reaching for the beer. "I'm here for a while for work," he said, taking a sip.

"Really. What kind of work?"

Takahisa considered his answer. "I work for the World Health Organization, on that illness that was killing people. We think we've found what was causing it."

His eyes had adjusted to the lighting, so he caught the slight flinch from the bartender. "Oh? So people can be out late now?"

"We're checking for further causes, but at the moment, we feel like we've caught the reason."

The man across the bar leaned closer, his shoulder-length dark blue hair falling across his eyes. "You're the one who has him," he said softly.

Takahisa was glad he hadn't drunk more of the beer. "Who?"

The man leaned closer, his dark eyes intense. "He's my friend. I can't… I can't feel him. Anywhere. What have you done to him?"

"Him?" Takahisa asked, reaching stealthily for his pocket and the syringe tucked into it.

"Akira," the bartender hissed, sounding less and less human. "What have you done to him?"

"Neutralized him," Takahisa said, dropping the pretence. "He's safe."

"How can I believe you?"

"It's your choice."

The man stared at him, eyes narrowed. "I want to see him."

"I don't know that he wants to see you," Takahisa said.

"Ask. Come back tomorrow. My name is Ibu Shinji."

The day dragged for Shinji, even in his death-like sleep. When the sun finally went down, he took his place behind the bar, and waited.

He'd expected the man to return, to give him an answer - possibly to have to follow him home to see his friend - but he did not expect him to return, his hand firm on Akira's elbow.

Still, nothing. Akira was right there, within his eyesight, and nothing. It was unsettling.

The two sat down at the bar; Shinji approached to ask what they wanted, and Akira looked down, purposely avoiding his eyes.

He was… he was human! Shinji stopped dead, staring at the man he'd seen the day before. "He's human again," he growled. "How did you do that?"

"It took us a lot of trial and error," the man said evenly. "But some of you are so stupid as to make yourselves obvious, we have plenty of subjects. Your friend is our first success."

It was all Shinji could do, not to bare his teeth and lunge across the bar to drain this man who'd done that to his friend.

"Don't," Akira said softly. "He's armed and ready for you."

Shinji swallowed the growl and held himself still. "Fine. Akira. Are you okay?"

His friend shuddered. "Mostly," he said.

Getting anything out of him was like… pulling teeth, and Shinji couldn't even concentrate on it. He had a job to do, and sometime during the night, the two vanished.

The pay slip had a note on it. "Don't come after him; I'll be waiting."

Growling under his breath, Shinji turned his shift over to his replacement and went for a drive.

But it was not going to end here, he determined when he returned home. Not by a long shot. He deserved a chance to talk to his friend. Somehow.

Someone followed him.

Takahisa was fairly sure he knew who it was; after all, he'd left the bar only moments before, even though he knew it was near the middle of the other man's - man, could he call Ibu that? - shift. But nothing happened, and Kamio hadn't moved from where he'd left him.

He'd called the scientist and requested an earlier pick-up, stating that he expected possibly a second reformed vampire - at which the scientist positively perked up. It was… disturbing.

The next night, someone knocked at the door, and wary, Takahisa grabbed the syringe before opening the door. "Yes?" he asked Ibu, who stood just as warily on the other side of that same door.

"I would like a chance to speak with Akira."

Takahisa regarded him silently for a moment. "When and where?" Because he hadn't tried to sneak in, hadn't tried to kill him or done anything suspicious aside from follow him home - which, of course, was to find out where he lived. A human would have done the same.

Ibu relaxed minutely. "There is a park a few blocks from here. That is an ideal place for me; as to time, when is the best time for Akira?"

Not for a few years, Takahisa thought. "Tomorrow morning, around five. Will that be okay for you?"

Ibu nodded shortly. "Yes. I'll be there."

Kamio stared at him when Takahisa told him about the appointment. "You want me to what?"

"Your friend Ibu wants to speak to you. Presumably in private, although I will not be far away."

"It will be too far," Kamio said.

"Yes," Takahisa responded. "But I don't think he'll try to turn you again."

"Why not?"

"He doesn't know if doing that will transition him back to human," Takahisa said. "I don't even know that. I don't know if anyone does."

His gaze on Kamio sharpened. "And if he does, I will hunt you both down."

"Yeah," Kamio muttered. "I thought as much."

Kamio wasn't sure what Shinji wanted to talk to him about; yes, they'd been friends for a long time, but their friendship had died a few years ago, when he'd started being irresponsible.

So he didn't know exactly what to expect from this conversation.

They arrived at the park a good fifteen minutes early, but didn't wait long. Ibu arrived shortly after they did, giving Kajimoto a mocking bow when he saw they'd gotten there first.

"I can give you thirty minutes," Kajimoto said. "I will be too far to hear anything, and I may be stupid, but I am trusting you not to take off with him."

Ibu smiled, lips together. "Thank you."

Akira waited for the first question, listening to the footsteps move away from him across the grass.

"What happened?" Shinji asked.

"I got caught," Akira said. "Like you said I would be."

"What I said was that you'd get killed," Shinji corrected him.

"I'll die from this eventually," Akira said. "So in the end, it's the same thing."

Shinji looked like he wanted to say something, and Akira smiled sadly. "Go ahead. You're dying to say it."

"I told you to be more careful," his best friend - one-time best friend, at least - said helplessly, but there was no accusation in his voice.

"I know. But… I didn't know they had this."

"It shouldn't have mattered!"

In spite of himself, Akira cringed from his friend's anger - it was so… well, frightening. And he knew, first hand, the damage one of them could do when they were angry.

"Why did you get so careless?" Shinji asked, calmer.

"How could you not?" Akira asked. "How did you keep the power from going to your head?"

"It's not like we hadn't been hunted before," Shinji said. "It's just easier now." Then he shook his head. "That's not important. What are you going to do now?"

Akira shrugged, but his lack of concern was a sham. "I don't know. Someone… is interested in me. I don't know who - he doesn't even know." He nodded in Kajimoto's direction. "What about you, now that he knows?"

Shinji hesitated. "I don't know," he said, watching the man who stood some distance from them, observing them.

"You should move on," Akira said urgently, and fear for his friend hit him suddenly. "I can't get out of this - he won't stop hunting us down - but you can. Go as soon as we're done talking and vanish. You can do it."

Shinji shook his head. "If he meant to do something to me, he would have already. I'm not the problem. You were, and he's taken care of you. No one is getting sick or dying any more."

Akira tried to hide how the words hurt, but he knew it was in vain. "Still. He knows what you are, and he knows where to find you. Please, Shinji. Go somewhere else. Anywhere else. You'll fit in a lot better than you would have any time before now, and you can just disappear." He could taste his own desperation, wanting to save his friend from this… uncertainty.

Shinji looked at him, then turned back to look at their observer. "Does he carry that… vaccination with him at all times?"

Akira stared at him. "Why?"

"Well, if he doesn't, I could take care of him at any time." He said it off-hand, as if it were a valid plan.

"I've never seen him without it," Akira said.

"Really," Shinji said.

Akira stiffened. Something in his friend's tone scared him. "Shinji, don't. Please. Just…."

But it was too late. Shinji was nearly out of range by the time he got the words out.

It happened so quickly; Shinji pinned Kajimoto against a tree, teeth - or so Akira guessed, he couldn't see that far any more - sinking into his shoulder. And then his friend slumped against the other man, and Akira had to look away from the pity in his eyes, the compassion so clearly there. Had that same expression been there when he'd been transitioned back?

Slowly, he began to walk over, dreading when he actually got there.

He barely heard the damning words Kajimoto muttered: "welcome back to the living, Ibu Shinji."

He hoped he never heard them again.

The unexpected situation - of having one newly transitioned vampire and one almost completely re-acclimated to get back to his apartment - took Takahisa off guard. He recovered, of course. He had no choice. They walked back, supporting Ibu between them, and Takahisa was glad that it was so early. Not many people saw them - and most of them assumed that the man propped between them had drunk too much.

Back in the apartment, Takahisa helped Ibu to sit down on the couch and pulled the blanket around him. Kamio vanished into the kitchen and returned shortly with a cup of tea. He set it in front of his friend and then left the room.

"Why did you do that?" Takahisa asked.

Ibu looked up at him, shivering from reaction and the fear he'd seen in Kamio as well. "Do what?"

"You could have walked away. There was no reason for you to attack me."

Ibu shivered, pulling the blanket closer around him. "There was," he said softly.

"Oh?" Takahisa asked, picking up the teacup and offering it to Ibu.

"None of your business."

"Drink," Takahisa said, and noted how the former vampire flinched. "You need it. Drink."

He reached out, hand still trembling, and drank, making a face as he gave the cup back. "That's awful."

"Your friend isn't used to making it yet." He left the room, making another cup, and including the tranquilizer this time. When he returned, Ibu hadn't moved, but his dark eyes fixed on him.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked.

"Doing what?" Takahisa gave him the tea. "Maybe this will taste better."

"You transitioned Akira back." He sipped at the tea, then drank it.

"I explained to you why. It was not a lie. Well," Takahisa corrected himself, "I don't work for the World Health Organization, but the rest was the truth."

"So you're just trying to make it safe?" Ibu wavered, and Takahisa gently took the cup from him as he slumped down on the couch.

"Yes," he said, not sure if the other man could hear him. "Something like that."

The trip was long. Shinji spent most of it asleep, something Akira remembered he'd done a lot of, too, although he suspected that part of the time, at least, he'd been drugged. There was nothing to see; city and then country side, neither particularly familiar, and he didn't care to look.

He woke Shinji when the van stopped and the door opened. He only saw a garage, and the driver ushered them through a door into a laboratory. They both stopped short, unwilling to go any further.

An older man came through the opposing door and stopped short, eyes wide, his hair white with age. Akira wondered at the look on his face, furrowing his brow as he tried to figure it out. But the man recovered quickly and strode forward again. "So. You are the two who Kajimoto found," he said after ushering the driver back out. "Come in. It's more comfortable back here." He laid his hand on Akira's left shoulder and Shinji's right and steered them through the door into the next room.

He was right; it was more comfortable. A couch took up the back wall, flanked by chairs that faced each other over the coffee table in front of it. "Please. Sit down. Would you care for something to drink?"

Shinji flinched; there was no way this person could have missed it, but he said nothing. "Water?" Akira asked.

"Very well." The man let them go and strode off to one side; Akira took Shinji's arm and led him to the couch, helping him sit down.

"It isn't going to taste good," he murmured to his friend, who still looked shaky. "But you need to drink it."

Shinji sighed. "I… Okay."

"What?"

"It must be your tenacity that kept you alive - yours and his," Shinji said quietly.

"It'll keep you alive, too," Akira responded, and sat up as their host returned. The man gave them their drinks, then sat down in one of the chairs.

"I didn't know it was you," he said musingly after a moment. "In fact, when I heard the serum worked, you were the next target. So I'm glad it was the success, not one of my many failures, that Kajimoto found you with."

Akira set his glass down. "Who are you?" he asked, tired of not having answers.

The man smiled. "I must have changed more than An said, if you've forgotten me," he said softly. "I am sorry that I haven't introduced myself." He stood and bowed to them. "Tachibana Kippei."

Akira's jaw dropped, and he stared. "You… you…" he stammered, caught so completely off guard that he couldn't hide it.

Tachibana straightened with a grimace, and sat back down. "Yes. Me."

"But… why?" Shinji asked, and Akira rescued his friend's glass before he spilled it.

"Why what?" Tachibana asked.

"Why would you do this to us?"

"Because I wished you to live normal lives," Tachibana said after a while. "It was purely selfish, I'll admit, but I've missed you two the last few years."

"Just us?" Akira asked.

Tachibana smiled. "Yes. Just you two. The others… are already gone."

Shinji blinked and leaned back, still trembling. "Gone?"

Tachibana nodded. "Tetsu went first, in a car accident; Uchimura went out fighting - cancer. Sakurai died in his sleep, as did Mori."

"What about An?" Akira asked, and Tachibana smiled.

"An… wanted to see you again," he said. "She just didn't live long enough. She had a stroke a few years ago, and never quite recovered. I think she decided she wasn't ready to see you in that state."

Akira blinked. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I missed her, sometimes, but I didn't dare think of her often."

Kippei leaned forward. "Why?"

Shinji sighed. "That's how I became one of them," he said. "He wanted company."

Kippei narrowed his eyes. "I had thought more highly of you."

Akira ducked his head. "Yeah," he said softly. "So had I."

"What will you do with us, now?" Shinji asked after a long silence.

Kippei smiled. "Spend time with you. Get to know you again. Learn from you, all I can. And help you become human again."

Akira exchanged a glance with Shinji; they both nodded, just a little, and turned back to Kippei. "Deal," they chorused.

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