Ronin Blood

Chapter 2 Curious Red:

Cye Mouri was home alone today. Everyone else went off to do their own thing.

There wasn't much to do, so he decided to clean around the house.

He started in the living room, then worked his way up to the second floor. Everyone did their share of house chores, so no one cared if they entered the other's room and cleaned up after them. Though neither of them was messy, their rooms still needed dusting and vacuuming every once in a while.

He got to Ryo's room, the last door at the end of the hall.

When he picked up pieces of dirty laundry at the foot of the bed to place them into a laundry basket so he could vacuum, he saw something poking out between the mattresses on the left side of the bed.

It looked like red plastic.

Cye, curious about what it was, lifted the top mattress to grab it, thinking it must have been trash caught between the two.

However, it wasn't trash or red plastic at all but something else entirely!

"Oh my god! What the...?" He was shocked. Confused. Cye's mind was at a loss trying to comprehend what his eyes were looking down at in his hand.

This had to be a joke!

It was a pack of blood, something you would only find in hospitals and blood banks.

"What is Ryo doing with this? Is this real?"

"It's real."

Cye jumped at the sound of the voice.

It was Ryo's.

Cye quickly hid the blood pack behind his back as he turned to face him.

"Cye," Ryo started, "hand it over." He placed a hand out in front of him to obtain the bag.

"H-hand, what over?"

Ryo sighed, "Like you don't know. The blood bag you're hiding behind your back."

Cye swallowed hard. He was scared. He began to back away from the friend he thought he knew, though there wasn't much room to create distance on where he stood.

Should he armor up?

"I can explain why I have that. But first, you have to give that to me."

"I, I don't know if, if I want to."

"Cye, please. I'm not going to grab your wrist and bite you. I'm not evil. I'm still that same guy you've been friends and fought alongside with. None of that has changed just because you found a blood bag."

Cye looked away from him, going through what Ryo just said and the good he's done those past few years.

He gave in, sighing through his nose. He looked back at Ryo and handed over the blood. "You're, you're a vampire, right? Or are you a different being that needs to drink...blood?"

Ryo smiled slightly, "Yeah, I'm a vampire. Been one my whole life." He wanted to take a drink from the bag but didn't want to disgust his friend.

"How old are you?" Cye still had some fear present in his voice, but he was curious to know this new information about Ryo.

Ryo chuckled at that. "I'm the same age as you."

"Really?"

Still, with that same laugh, Ryo answered, "Yes, really."

"So, you're not going to try and kill me now that I know your secret, are you?"

He shook his head, his face serious, "No, of course not. You're my best friend. I will never hurt you or the others."

"That's a relief, but what if you get really hungry?"

"You should know the answer to that. If I had trouble controlling my hunger, I would have bitten any of you by now these past few years." He threw his bag of blood onto his bed.

"True." Cye nodded in understanding. "And if you were starving and one of us volunteered to give you our blood?"

"I'll fight myself from killing any of you."

Cye smiled. "I guess you are the same old Ryo, I know. With the exception of some new information." He laughed a little.

Ryo was hesitant, "So, you're alright about what I am?"

"It's different, but at least it explains why you never eat with us."

"Sorry, I can't try any of the food you make. I keep hearing how good they are." Remembering what happened a year ago, Ryo added, "One time, I was grilled by Kento about missing some great meals made by you. And the only lie I could come up with was sorry I missed out. I had things I needed to take care of. But I know that didn't hold up well after many other missed meals." He rubbed the back of his head with embarrassment.

"You were always good at avoiding those questions and such on that subject. And I remember Kento telling me about that. But now that I know the truth, I'm not upset. It's understandable."

"I did try solid food a long time ago but threw it up immediately after swallowing it," Ryo continued.

With a disgusted but sympathetic face, Cye asked, "What was it you tried?"

"Noodles."

They heard a car pull into the driveway. Cye looked out the window to see who it was. It was Kento and Rowen.

"Do you plan on telling the rest of our friends, or do you want to have them find out the way I did?"

Ryo didn't say anything. He just looked out the window at his two friends who had just returned from Tokyo and thought about what he should do.

Will the other three accept him just as easily as Cye did, or will it be worse?

Ryo was scared.