Back in the Ninth Family castle in the Vampire Settlement, Faye had a confused look upon hearing Muka's last statement.
"Wait, what do you mean 'what kind of Vampire'?" she asked. "Aren't all Vampires the same?"
Muka thought about this for a moment, trying to figure out how best to explain it to Faye.
"Well, yes andno," Muka replied a moment later. "While everyone either born naturally as a Vampire or turned by one is a Vampire, there are different types of Vampires. We call those who are not pure Vampires 'Subclasses'."
Muka then held up three fingers.
"There are three different categories, or 'classes' of Vampires," she explained. "Class 'A' are Vampires, and those close enough to Vampires. This includes the Halfling, pure Vampires, and the Dhampire."
Muka lowered her ring finger.
"Class 'B' is Vampire Subclasses who are 'undead' for lack of a better term. Due to this, they are very hard to kill and tend to have even better healing abilities than regular Vampires. These include the Wight, the Draugur, and the Wendigo."
Muka lowered her middle finger, leaving only her index finger up.
"Finally, Class 'C' is for Vampire Subclasses who possess magical Abilities. These include the Hanya and the Succubus."
Faye remained quiet for a moment.
"I take it I'm a 'Class A' type, then?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Follow me," Muka replied as she began to walk out of the room.
Faye looked at the retreating body of her Leader for a moment, before she followed her as well.
***
Back in the conference room, Starrk sat in a seat facing Tsukuru and Shizuka at the conference table. He sat slightly hunched forward with his elbows on the table, his hands clasped under his chin to support it.
Seeing Starrk's stance, Tsukuru couldn't help but crack an amused smile.
'He looks exactly how he did at that meeting at the Espada Table in Los Noches,' he thought.
"So, what you're telling me is that I traded one army for another?" Stark asked in a lazy tone.
Shizuka smirked. Given the fact that they were currently on a military base, it just made Stark's statement even funnier.
"Yes," she replied. "That's essentially the gist of it."
Starrk narrowed his eyes.
"And my friends, Yammy, Ulquiorra, Tier, Baraggan, none of them are real?" he asked.
Tsukuru raised an eyebrow.
"You considered Yammy your friend?" he asked. "I thought that guy hated everything."
Starrk's face hardened, and he took on a stern expression.
Seeing it, Tsukuru glanced away.
"Sorry," he replied. "But, yeah. That's pretty much it."
Starrk stared at the two for a moment. Then, he let out a long sigh as his shoulders relaxed.
"And I don't even have Lilynette to keep me company," he muttered, glancing away.
Tsukuru glanced to the side.
"This is going to make me sound like an ass, but I'm kind of relieved that Lilynette didn'tcome with you," Tsukuru muttered.
Instantly, Starrk's gaze snapped back at him.
Shizuka turned to him.
"Why?" she asked, an amused look on her face. "What's wrong with this Lilynette?"
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
He glanced over on the floor where Starrk had dropped the tablet.
He used his Video Stasis Skill on it.
A moment later, the tablet began enveloped in an aura of glitching pixels.
Tsukuru then used his Stasis Shift Skill to teleport the tablet into his HANDS.
Seeing the display, Starrk's eyes narrowed further.
"So Humans have powers in this world," he noted.
"Abilities," Tsukuru repeated, as he imputed the name "Lilynette Gingerbuck" in the search tab on the "Black Box" archive.
When the page loaded, Tsukuru tapped the image to enlarge it and handed it to Shizuka.
Shizuka took the tablet and looked at it. As she did, her eyes widened.
***
Back in the Ninth Family castle in the Vampire Settlement, Faye followed Muka down the hall and towards a specific room. The room had a Vampire on either side of the room, guarding it.
As Muka approached, the two Vampires gave her a short bow of respect. She then entered the room.
However, as Faye followed after her, she saw the two Vampires giving her the stink-eye.
Inside, there was a large desk covered with a few stacks of paperwork. There was also a bookcase pressed against the left wall.
Looking around the room, Faye couldn't help but compare it to Head General Paul's office.
"Ah," Muka replied, catching Faye's attention. "Here it is."
She then walked over to Faye, a hardcover book in her hands. The book had a deep red cover and had the words "Mythical-Grade Subclasses" embossed in gold lettering on the top. There was a name at the bottom of the cover, but it appeared to be crossed out.
"I managed to procure this book from the Fifth Family a few decades back for a bit of light reading," Muka replied. "It's a book cataloguing Subclasses that are so rare that many in the Settlement believe them not to exist."
Faye raised an eyebrow.
"Why is the author's name crossed out?" she asked.
Muka stiffened for a moment.
"That's not important right now," she said quickly. Almost too quickly, if you asked Faye.
Muka began flipping through pages.
Each page showed a drawing depicting a different kind of Vampire.
One page showed what looked like a cross between a spider and a fox, while another showed what appeared to be a Vampire with large, imposing bat wings.
"Here it is," Muka replied. She held the open book out to Faye.
Faye took the book and looked at it.
The two pages visible showed two completely different types of Vampires. The page on the left showed an image of a woman who looked very much like Faye to be a Water Ability User. Scrawled on the top were the words "Blood Wielder". And, on the page on the right, was a figure holding a sword. The sword was in mid-swing, and the art depicted the same arc of red aura that Faye had performed in the training room. At the top of the page, it read the words "Blood Knight".
***
Back in the conference room, Shizuka continued to stare at the image.
It showed a young girl with short, lime-green hair. And by "young", Shizuka didn't mean the age of the students at the base. She meant "ten to twelve-year-old". She was wearing a hat that covered the top of her head, which seemed to be modeled after the skull of a bovine. Part of the "hat" extended down to form the "right eye" of the bovine, which formed a sort of "monocle" on the girl. Extending up from the eye up to the top of the "skull" was a red flame design. Additionally, the right horn of the skull was broken.
The woman wore one of the most scantily clad outfits that Shizuka had ever seen. It was a white, open, sleeveless vest that reached halfway down her stomach. She also wore white, detached sleeves that reached down from her biceps to halfway up her hands. Covering her lower body was nothing but a pair of white underwear, and black boots that reached halfway up her calves, with white, thigh-high stockings underneath. Like with Starrk, she had a small, black hole on her body. Though hers was at the start of her stomach.
As Shizuka looked at the image, her face slowly scrunched up, as if she was desperately trying to hold back a laugh. Eventually, she couldn't help it. She burst into a fit of manic laughter.
Next to her, Tsukuru was pinching his forehead.
"Yeah, there's no way you could be seen with thattrailing around you!" Shizuka replied, still laughing.
Tsukuru was currently fighting the urge to bang his head into the table. While he loved anime, there were certain aspects of it that he wished didn't exist. One of which was the "Loli", which Lilynette was a perfect example of.
"Man, if Faye saw that, she'd-"
Suddenly, Shizuka stopped. Her face lost all of its happiness, and a look of deep sadness began to take root.
"Faye…" she muttered.
Bringing up the name of her new friend only served to remind her that the Salvage Team had yet to return.
The team had left early in the morning, when most of the students had just begun waking up. It was now late into the afternoon.
What was taking them so long?