Note: I have nothing to do with Here is Greenwood and its characters except to be a fan who enjoys the OVAs a lot. This story is my extrapolation of the storylines as seen in the OVAs. I apologize if this story doesn't quite fit in with the manga.

"Do explain, Kazuya," Shinobu said calmly. "Tell me why there is a vampire in your room." He watched quietly as Kazuya tried to formulate a reply.

"I'm not a--" the strange boy began.

"Please don't insult my intelligence," Shinobu said coolly. "You're the same vampire that Shun summoned about three weeks ago, when he summoned the succubus you destroyed that same night."

Kazuya and the vampire blinked. "You knew all that?" Kazuya demanded.

"But how?" the vampire asked.

"Greenwood's outer walls are thicker than the interior walls," Shinobu said, "but they still let in enough sound that I could hear you and the succubus arguing. Certainly, the walls were insufficient to keep a light sleeper such as myself from overhearing you. And I am a very light sleeper." He glanced at Kazuya. "As Hasukawa may well understand, considering that he was the latest casualty in my ongoing dispute with my sister."

He had the minor satisfaction of seeing Kazuya flinch, though he was unsure if it was because he'd used his surname instead of his given name or because he'd reminded him about the humiliation and torment he'd suffered at Nagisa's henchmen's hands.

Shinobu looked back at the vampire. "Then, too, you made a lot of noise when you threw the succubus into the tree."

Now the vampire winced. "Not too subtle, huh?"

"Not at all."

Kazuya got to his feet, and unsteadily tottered to stand in front of the vampire. "Sempai," he said quietly, "I won't let you hurt him." He abruptly swayed, and only the vampire's quick movement kept him from toppling to the floor.

Shinobu didn't miss the interplay. Plainly Kazuya and the vampire had enjoyed a relationship for a while, probably since the night the vampire had arrived at Greenwood. What wasn't clear was how it had started at all...and he wasn't going to rush to judgment without getting all the details. He'd read enough books--fiction and non-fiction--to know that killing the vampire might cause problems for them all down the road.

"I'm not going to hurt him," Shinobu said, gazing steadily at Kazuya. "Quite beside the fact that I doubt I could hurt him in anyway just now, I'm not sure--yet--that I have any reason to want to hurt him."

Kazuya looked confused. "I don't understand."

Shinobu shook his head and looked at the vampire. "What is your name?"

The vampire blinked. "It...it's Matsumoto Haruki. Haru, for short."

"Well, Matsumoto," Shinobu said, "I'm going to state some facts, and you're either going to confirm them or deny them. A simple yes or no will suffice."

The vampire remained silent for a few long moments. "All right," he said finally.

"Good." Shinobu glanced at Kazuya. "You're to keep out of this, Kazuya," he said, reining in his disgruntlement and relenting in his ostracizing of his friend.

Kazuya managed a slight smile. "All right, sempai," he said.

Shinobu nodded, then turned back to the vampire. "You are a vampire."

The vampire nodded.

"You were summoned to Greenwood by a spell, which incidentally also drew a succubus to the dormitory at the same time."

"Yes."

"After destroying the succubus, you entered into Greenwood, hoping to track down the one who'd summoned you and either convince him to release you or kill him."

"I didn't--" the vampire began, then stopped. "Yes," he whispered.

"How did--" Kazuya began, but Shinobu shook his head. The other boy fell silent.

"When you couldn't approach Shun, you instead turned to Kazuya and decided to drink his blood."

"There was a reason for that!" the vampire objected.

Shinobu's eyebrow rose. "You can explain later," he said curtly. "You have been visiting Kazuya every night since that evening, drawing on his blood for sustenance."

The vampire glowered at him, but he nodded.

"You have also taken to giving Kazuya some blood in return, probably to hasten his recovery."

Another nod.

"And you do not intend to transform Kazuya into a vampire."

"No. I mean yes. I mean..." The vampire shook his head. "I hate questions like that. What I mean is, I do not intend to make Kazuya into a vampire."

Shinobu nodded. "All right." He turned to Kazuya. "You were, I believe, going to ask how I knew your friend here came to Greenwood to see Shun, yes?"

Kazuya nodded slowly. "It was the book, wasn't it?"

"In part," Shinobu admitted. "However, I also remembered something I learned while I was still president of the student council. One of the schools I visited has the reputation of being an exorcist's nightmare because there are so many spirits haunting it." He smiled briefly at Kazuya. "Far more than Ryokuto Academy has."

"Misako is quite enough," Kazuya said firmly.

"True. The chairman of the school has a deep interest in the occult, and he mentioned in passing that spirits or demons or other creatures that have been summoned will only be freed if the caller releases them, or the caller dies."

"It's true," the vampire said quietly.

"Fine. Now explain to me why you stayed at Greenwood and drank Kazuya's blood."

"I had no choice," the vampire said. "I was trapped."

Shinobu frowned. He pulled up Kazuya's desk chair and sat down. "Maybe you'd better start from the beginning."

He listened quietly as the vampire--with occasional comments from Kazuya--told his story, of how he had entered into Greenwood but couldn't escape, how he had begun visiting Kazuya and drinking only enough of his blood to remain existent, how the first night of Kazuya's absence had made him weak and delirious, how he had suddenly been able to come to Kazuya's house, how he had told Kazuya everything, and how they had begun exchanging blood each night. By the time the vampire finished his story, Shinobu had stopped thinking of him as "the vampire" and as "Matsumoto," as Kazuya thought of him as "Haru."

"An interesting story, Matsumoto," he said at the end. "I am extremely grateful that Shun's spell summoned you instead of a vampire with less of a conscience."

Matsumoto grinned, but there was an edge to it. "I'll take that as a compliment," he said, "but I'd just have soon not have been the one."

"I understand," Shinobu said, and he did. Confinement was never easy. It hadn't been for Mitsuru, who'd fled his home rather than face the prospect of becoming a stranger to his own family. It hadn't been for Kazuya, who'd moved into Greenwood rather than endure his first love's marriage to his older brother. It hadn't been for him: he'd left his family home to get away from his older sister's sadism and his father's overbearing presence. So how much worse it must have been for someone who was already trapped in the hours of darkness to be further bound into a single building where only a single room could provide him with sustenance, and his own sense of morality and his human conscience were battered by necessity forcing him to steadily endanger one person.

"Sempai," Kazuya began in a small voice, "what do we do now? I don't want Haru to suffer, but he's worried that I'm not recovering as quickly as I should be, and until I my leg comes out of this cast I can't be of more use to him."

Shinobu reached out and patted Kazuya's shoulder. "Don't worry," he said. "I've been doing some research, and there may be a way for all of us to come out of this situation whole and healthy."

* * *

Haru had a feeling he knew what the other boy, Tezuka Shinobu, was talking about when he meant "research." "The book, you mean?"

The other boy nodded. "I've been reading through it, and--"

"Sempai!" Kazuya interrupted. "You have to stop! That book is dangerous! It's--it's evil!"

"Kazuya," Haru said, reaching out to squeeze the younger boy's shoulder, then he stopped when he realized that Tezuka-san had leaned forward to do the same thing. Their eyes locked for a tension-filled moment, then they both started laughing.

Kazuya blinked at them. "What's so funny?"

"It's nothing," Haru told him. "Let's just hear what Shinobu has to say." He glanced over at the other boy, checking to see if his use of his given name had the desired effect, and saw that it had: Shinobu was willing to set aside whatever conflicts lay between them--if any ever had--to be friendly, if not friends, and solve their problems together.

Shinobu nodded. "I'm well aware of the dangers, Kazuya," he said, "but believe me, I've taken a lot of precautions."

"Where's the book now?" Haru asked.

"Right now it's in a box inscribed with Shinto wards sealed in a box marked with the Sutras in a plain box in the vaults of a Catholic church."

Haru blinked. "You are aware of the dangers," he said, amazed. I don't think the King of the Underworld could get through all those guards."

"I'm more concerned about what could get out than what can get in," Shinobu said. "As Kazuya said, that book is evil. Somehow it let Shun read it, even if portions of it are in languages other than Chinese or Japanese. It wanted someone to summon up all sorts of spirits and demons. That section on exorcisms kept growing while I read through it." He closed his eyes. "There were the spells that summoned you, Haru, as well as the succubus and the mummy. While I was looking through it, I found spells to summon up Chinese dragons and Hebrew demons. There was even a spell that released the Sumerian destroyer, Tiamat."

Haru whistled. "That's one ambitious book," he said softly.

"You should have seen what the section on summoning heroes was doing," Shinobu said. "Instead of calling up heroes, you'd have been trapping them where they couldn't intervene."

Kazuya shook his head. "That's horrible! Why would anyone ever create such a book?"

"Who knows?" Shinobu said.

"Right now it doesn't matter," Haru said. He got up and started pacing. "What does matter is finding a way to stop the mummy that's coming up from Osaka spreading who knows what sort of diseases in its wake." He looked over at Shinobu. "I don't suppose there was anything in there about terminating a summons, was there?"

Shinobu shook his head. "Not that I saw," he said. "But I didn't really expect to. A grimoire like that--"

"A what?" Kazuya asked.

"A grimoire," Haru said. "It's a book of black magic that in some cultures was considered the link between a witch or sorcerer and whatever embodiment of evil was dominant in that culture."

"As I was saying," Shinobu continued, "a book like that wouldn't have spells to banish the things it called up."

"So how do we stop the mummy?" Haru asked.

"And release Haru from Shun's spell?" Kazuya added.

Shinobu sighed. "I don't know," he said. He waved aside Kazuya's groan. "Right now I can only think of one course of action. We should let the mummy come and destroy it here. Then we'll worry about the next thing."

"But all those people are getting sick!" Haru protested. Somehow he hadn't thought any friend of Kazuya's could be quite so cold-hearted.

"I like it no more than you do," Shinobu said calmly, "but we have no way of locating the mummy. We do, however, know that it is coming here. Knowing this, we can make preparations for dealing with it."

Haru sighed. Unfortunately, it seemed like Shinobu knew what he was talking about.

"Okay," Kazuya said. "Assuming that we do manage to stop the mummy, what next? There's still the rusalka that Shun called for. Haru says it's probably in the koi pond near the school, but it can't leave until the spell on it is broken. And Haru's trapped at Greenwood as well. Unless we can free him, he'll have to keep coming to me for blood. Not that I object," he added quickly, "but I won't be of use to anyone if I'm too weak to stand up straight."

"Kazuya has a point," Haru said. "If this keeps up, he's going to be too weak to get out of bed at all. And I can't keep eating up all his food. He'd starve to death."

"Then there's only one thing to do," Shinobu said. "Find another source of blood."

"But I can't--" Haru began, then he broke off as he realized what Shinobu was saying.

"Kazuya, I think I'll take you up on your offer to spend the rest of the vacation here."

"No!" Haru objected. "I can't just--"

"As I recall," Shinobu cut in smoothly, "you said earlier that you took a little blood from a lot of people."

"But--"

"Consider this as a minute partial payment of the huge debt that all of Greenwood owes you," Shinobu said.

"I can't!" Haru said, watching as Shinobu reached up and pulled aside collar.

"You have no choice," Shinobu said implacably. "Kazuya needs his strength to recover, and while your blood will help him, he cannot do it if he is himself too weak to stand up. This way you'll be satisfied, Kazuya will continue healing, and I'll be able to save some money on hotel accommodations."

"There may be side effects," Haru said, trying desperately to stop things from going further.

"Then we will deal with them when they arise," Shinobu said.

Haru sighed. "All right," he said. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

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