A/N: An epilogue! In the true tradition of me being bad at structuring stories, the epilogue is longer than the last chapter by a good amount.

Disclaimer: I do not own Blood+

Epilogue

Shigeru was enjoying his retirement from teaching. In the two years since his retirement he had already taken several trips overseas, including a tour across the United States and an art history lecture series in London.

Now he was finally going to France. He could easily recall the strange situation only five years before when a student from a French family had brought an employee of her family along on the field trip. Halfway through the year the girl had to drop out altogether due to her medical condition. He was still curious as to what she suffered from. Although he recalled being suspicious about their relationship, which put him on edge, he found the employee to be nice enough. The man was an interesting one who had obviously accomplished much despite his young age.

One of those accomplishments was having a role in restoring historical sites in France. When Shigeru had heard that a newly restored and rather infamous estate was reopening, he began to plan his trip. Unfortunately tours for the first few months were already sold out, so he was unable to get a tour until the following spring. The flowers would be blooming at least, making for better photos to take home. He wondered if he would run into the employee at any of the historical sites he'd planned to visit in France.

Now he was finally pulling up to the estate in a carriage. This was the last (and most anticipated) stop on Shigeru's trip, so he had booked the first mansion tour in the morning. They would then have a garden tour and lunch before an evening tour of the grounds. All in all, he thought it was a very good deal.

His wife, tired as she was, was slightly less excited. She had asked him to book the most expensive tour – an overnight one where the guests were allowed to stay in a special guest wing and were treated as if they were the guests of the family that had once lived there. Unfortunately, there were only five spots offered for one night a week, and the cost was above budget, so Shigeru decided against it. Now he was left facing an incredibly sleepy wife because they were forced to stay so far from the estate.

Now the cobwebs of a sleepy morning were brushed off as he saw the beautiful architecture of the gate house and the statues waiting beyond. The small building was truly breathtaking. He couldn't wait to get his camera out.

Once through the gate house (now serving as a ticket booth), he began to take pictures of the plaza with its fountain and statues. He was vaguely listening to the tour guide (who was speaking in English), but one name popped out of the guide's speech: Goldschmidt. That reminded him of one of the questions a Japanese guidebook sparked in him. Goldschmidt had been the last name of the employee the sick girl's family had hired. Perhaps he did have a hand in this, or maybe it was just a common enough name in Europe. Living on Okinawa, his English was good enough to get by, but he still had to think about how he would word his question.

As if he was one of the students in his class, he held his hand up. "Does the Goldschmidt family still own the house?"

At first the guide looked a little confused, perhaps because she had just answered the question while he was not paying attention, but then spoke the answer slowly and simply to account for Shigeru's lack of fluency in English. "Yes. The land is donated to France as a park. The family owns the house, but allows the park to operate it. Sometimes they stay here."

It was an explanation Shigeru understood. He wondered if he would see Saya here – after all, this was her adoptive family. It was unlikely, but he wondered if he'd be more likely to see one Haji Goldschmidt.

"They actually stay here a lot," a man said in Japanese. "I've gone on tours here twice before, and both times the daughter of the family was staying here."

"Is there a way to tell?" Shigeru asked him.

"When we get up to the family's rooms, perhaps. They have The Queen's room and The Diva's room. If the daughter is staying, she stays in The Queen's room, so it's closed off visitors," the man explained. "I keep coming hoping to see the real thing."

"The real thing?"

"Ah, well, in the original mansion, there was only The Queen's room. The other room was a normal bedroom, but because The Queen's room would be shut off sometimes, they made The Diva's room as a replica for tour groups to see. I live near enough that I can come when I want, so I thought I'd try today."

"I see," Shigeru replied. He asked the man why he spoke Japanese, and the man explained that he had done international business with Japanese companies before deciding to buy a vineyard. Now he sold fine French wines to Japanese restaurants and businesses. After their short conversation, Shigeru got back to listening (or trying to listen to) the tour guide.

After a tour of various parts of the building, the tour arrived at the family bedrooms. The businessman sighed with disappointment as he saw a closed pair of doors.

"The Queen's room is not open today because the owner's daughter and her boyfriend arrived late last night," the tour guide apologized. She instead directed them to look into a room with a very blue color scheme and began to explain the features of the room and information about the girl who had lived in its twin long ago. Shigeru picked up on one section of her speech in particular. "She was very sick throughout her life and received treatment devised by Joel himself, which is what likely began the rumors about Joel carrying out deadly experiments. Because of her chronic illness, other members of society thought it would be impossible for her to look as healthy as she did without some sort of reprehensible medical experimentation. Some said she looked younger than her manservant, who was 22 at the time of the incident, although this is likely an exaggeration."

It was certainly interesting that the daughter of the Goldschmidt family back then had also had a chronic illness and had adopted a manservant into the family to care for her. Shigeru wondered if it was a genetic illness. Perhaps the family also had a tradition of adopting boys to be highly trained and controlled employees, as sad as it was. He brushed off that thought.

The creak of a door hinge behind them caused the group to look over at The Queen's room. A middle-aged blonde woman exited the room before closing the door. Unfortunately, no one could see much inside other than red walls and a couple black and white photographs hanging on them.

He didn't see anything suspicious for the rest of the tour, and there was no sign that Haji was there or even related to the place.

That is, until the grounds tour in the evening. Off on the edge of the woods he noticed two figures emerge from a poorly cut trail. The first, a woman with long black hair, looked eerily like Saya, his former student. He didn't confirm it was her until a man he recognized as Haji followed her out. They ran past the tour group, ignoring them entirely, off in their own little world of silence. Despite their modern running attire, Shigeru wondered if he was seeing ghosts from the estate's past. No one else even turned to look at them. Before he could ask his wife if she had seen them, they were gone.

He wondered why he cared so much. He knew he shouldn't. All of those drawn into the tangle of Saya's life – Mao, Kai, and even her own younger brother – hadn't come out of the situation right. Deep down he wondered if he should leave the property as soon as possible and never return. Still, there was some allure in the mystery of what was happening to Saya. He knew it was an allure that he would have to leave behind, and this would be the end of it.

Leaving that night after dark and looking back at the imposing mansion and the concrete fountain in front, he knew he wouldn't return. He knew he wouldn't figure out the mystery. He wouldn't even figure out if Saya and Haji were actually in a relationship. But, perhaps just like the building, the mystery wasn't meant to be revisited.

A/N: The end! I hope you enjoyed.