Story: The Baptism in the Blood (chapter 1)

PREFACE: Before anything else, I want to thank the readers of the first story of this series for their warm response and enthusiastic encouragement. I was worried at first that a lot of people wouldn't even want to start reading this series because of the way it opens - namely with the explicit mention of Shizuru's death. The second installment below will hopefully serve as a reward to those readers who plunged ahead anyway. The only thing I regret is that it took me much longer than anticipated to post this second part online. Work and graduate school just honestly got in the way.

WARNINGS: I want to warn readers up front that the pace of this story will be slower than the first because it's where a lot of events from the preceding story get explained for the first time. Although it may be asking a bit much, I'd like to ask readers to pay attention to these explanations, if only because understanding the underlying mythology will help make reading the third and fourth installments much easier. (And, yes, you read me right - there will definitely be a third and fourth installment at the very least!) Having said all that, I think the most important warning is that these stories contain spoilers to both My-Hime and Blood+, since the events they relate happen after the conclusions of both series.

DISCLAIMER: None of the characters below are my property. The characters of My-Hime belong to Sunrise while the characters of Blood+ belong to Production I.G. and Aniplex.

Now I will tell you what I've done for you

Fifty thousand tears I've cried

Screaming, deceiving and bleeding for you

And you still won't hear me...

From the song Going Under (the Fallen album), by Evanescence

My name is Shizuru Fujino, and I belong to the ranks of the undead.

It was my fiancé, Solomon Goldsmith, who brought me back to life over half a year ago - or at least to a semblance of it. Solomon: my equal, my mirror, my compatriot, my friend, my savior in so many ways.

When I'd woken up, he'd looked at me with heartbreaking sadness, and said:

"I'm sorry, Shizuru. It was the only way."

It was only then that I'd noticed the crimson slash on his wrist and the metallic tang in my mouth - and knew instantly what he had done. A great weariness overtook me. Somehow, it seemed oddly fitting, perhaps even preordained. From my blood-red eyes to my blood-stained hands - in death, just like in life, blood had claimed me.

But I merely looked at him, and the only thing I asked was:

"Is she safe?"

He nodded. Then he added gently: "Shizuru...I think she loves you."

I closed my eyes. "I know she loves me. She's told me twice before."

He shook his head. "I think this time, she means it differently..."

I cut him off. "If you're not sure, Solomon, then don't even say it. You know as well as I do how cruel hope can be. Besides," I looked away, "I'm even less fit now to be with her. She's alive...and I'm..."

He let me grieve in silence for a few moments, then gently touched my arm.

"You need to feed, Shizuru. Otherwise the bloodlust will take you."

I looked at him. "You need to find a way for me. I will take no life in this state. I have enough sins to atone for as it is."

He looked at me kindly and nodded. "Don't worry, it can be done. It's not terribly convenient, but it can be done."

As he turned away, I called out to him one more time.

"Solomon...If by some chance the bloodlust takes over..."

He didn't look back, but I heard his response.

"I know, Shizuru. I promise. Now let's go before one of us ends up having to kill the other."

And that was how my life as a former Hime and as a human ended - and how my life as a vampiric Hime began.

The idea of having Shizuru die only to be resurrected as a near-immortal vampire was originally inspired by my enduring love affair with the vampiric genre. Two particular sources of inspiration were Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and the anime series Blood+ itself. In Interview with the Vampire, the male anti-hero Lestat saves the life of a child, Claudia, by turning her into a vampire. Similarly in Blood+, the female protagonist Saya saves the lives of two people she loves by turning them into vampires as well.

As for Shizuru's statement that Natsuki admitted her love for her twice, the particular instances can be found in Episode 21: The Obsidian Prince Awakens and in Episode 25: The Moment of Destiny.

Story: The Baptism in the Blood (chapter 1)

Chapter 1