A/N: Written for Kaye, who is the best Sayuka ever.

Shallow Effect

(emotional poverty or a limited range or depth of feelings; interpersonal coldness in spite of signs of open gregariousness)

*****

She'd been about ten years old when the news reports about them had started playing. They'd torn apart Hong Kong in its entirety, and it was almost as if the entire world had to shake its' head at the same time, clearing a fog. Many were still skeptical, and it was easy for many to ignore it (it had happened eighteen hundred miles away from where she was living in Yokohama, and many of her classmates' families just treated it as though it was a distant war between two small countries they didn't need to worry about). After all, if they accepted that one truth, what was to stop them from accepting all the other things that had once been fiction? Aliens, werewolves, evil spirits; how were they to know what was real and what wasn't, when every night for a week the television would flash images of destruction and chaos with the insistence that vampires were the source of it?

Then the news reports tapered off, news crews banned out one by one. Reporters died just as fast as anyone else, if they were dumb enough to go in there. And then, after another week, everything was suddenly quiet in that part of the world. Everyone was assured that they had been annihilated. Searches were made, and no survivors were found. Vampires flashed in and out of reality for normal humans, like a candle that was lit for all of an hour before getting snuffed out. All that was left was a thin trail of smoke, the ruins of Hong Kong, and the small paragraph in history books that would mention the brief commotion made by another species before it went extinct.

They had never seemed so terrifying when she was ten. They were just like dogs that'd gotten rabies—that's how her parents explained it to her—and she had the strange notion in her head that perhaps not all of them were totally bad. Maybe they meant well, but the fact that they were vampires overrode their common sense and made them do bad things. For months afterwords, she was a little disappointed that they'd all disappeared and that no one would ever be able to prove her right.

* * * * *

"Um, right here…" she mumbled, flipping her wallet around so that the irritable-looking woman behind the glass cover could look at her ID. The woman wrenched it out of her hands and she smothered the urge to tell her off for it. Whether or not the woman's work was boring and obnoxious, she wasn't the only one having a bad day. She should really be a bit more considerate to people like herself, who'd just come off a long taxi ride after being suddenly shoved out of her house by government officials.

That was the price of being smart, she supposed. The exchange program had sounded like a brilliant idea at the time, but for some reason, they waited until right after the taxi ride to let her know that she would soon be living in a city that was crawling with vampires. She didn't even really have time to ponder the nature of these creatures, now that security was trying to quickly run her through the system that double—no, tripled-checked everything. She supposed avoiding another Hong Kong was a good idea, but that didn't make it any better while it was happening to her.

"Shiromine Sayuka," the woman said blandly as she handed her ID back to her, "Welcome to the Special Zone."

Sayuka just took her wallet back, nodded, and continued on her way.

* * * * *

The tangle of bushes finally opened up into a paved clearing, which she stumbled into rather ungracefully. Her legs had pretty much given out on her. Her breathing was ragged and her lungs were burning, and the ground kept looking much closer than she thought it should. She wobbled to the fountain in the middle and took a seat on the stone rim, feeling like she might fall over. She took a couple more deep breaths and then silenced herself, listening for the sound of her followers.

She'd thought she would be done with running away after she'd moved, but apparently vampires were just as likely to attack a young woman as humans were. Maybe more so, given their nature… She didn't hear crashing in the trees behind her, so she allowed herself to start breathing again. What a terrible night this'd turned out to be. She made a vow to never do anything again when there wasn't a sun in the sky, and even then, she'd have to be cautious…

She looked up and behind her. The statue in the middle of the fountain was of an angel, pouring water from a large vase. Sayuka thought the white marble smile to be a small comfort. Perhaps it'd been through divine intervention that she'd found this place. She hadn't had much time to think about it while she was trying to escape, but what she'd originally figured was a park actually looked a bit too well-kept to be anything public. She vaguely recalled passing some fencing, so perhaps this was someone's private grounds? The vampires had slowed in their chase after she'd entered… So perhaps it was a zone meant to be free of Black Bloods?

Her hands were shaking. She could feel her heartbeat all the way down in her feet and was silently thankful that she'd decided to wear flats instead of heels that morning. She would have surely been caught if she was wearing anything else, since her skirt had been enough trouble as it was…

She became suddenly aware of footsteps approaching right behind her, and jumped when she realized that someone was standing next to her.

"I-I… I'm …" her words stumbled about as much as her footing, and she let out a small yelp when she realized that she was about to fall backwards. Faster than her mind could follow, a hand reached for her shoulder and there was a strong arm at her back, keeping her upright and adjusting her posture so that she was standing straight again.

"Whoa there," the other said, his voice clueing Sayuka in to the fact that it was a young man. He laughed. It wasn't quite like chuckling, or like giggling, but instead landed somewhere between the two. Very strange, a bit lovely, like music. She was quickly snapped out of this train of thought by the realization that some stranger's arm was on her back, and she stepped away from him.

With the bit of distance, she was surprised by the man's appearance. He made no move to follow her, instead shoving his hands in his pockets and standing as if he were just out for a walk or something of the casual sort. Black pants, a white shirt, and even in the dim moonlight she could see that his hair was a vibrant shade of red. His bangs fell over his eyes, so she couldn't rightly make them out. She got the feeling he was gazing at her, which made her feel awkward; as if she were being judged. He was about as tall as her, and his build made him look like a teenager, but the way he carried himself gave her the feeling that he was older than his appearance hinted at.

"I-I'm sorry if I've intruded…" Sayuka finally forced a sentence out, "But I was being chased—"

"What an odd place to be chased to," the man cut her off, tilting his head a little, "It's rare that my garden gets visitors of any sort." Then he looked off to the side, at where she'd crashed through the hedges, and Sayuka felt relieved that she was no longer being watched. She thought that, perhaps, she should make a run for it while he wasn't looking, but then he turned his head to observe her again.

"Like I said, I'm sorry for intruding, sir… I'll be leaving now, if that's…"

She wasn't sure what else to add to that sentence. She looked around for a moment until she realized she wasn't entirely sure which way was out. There were several stone paths, and she'd turned so many times... The man seemed to guess her confusion, since he pointed towards a path to his left.

"If you follow this one, and take a right every time, you'll be right back on the main street that passes by the front. I assume you'll be able to find your way back on your own after that."

He spoke in plain forms. Was Japanese not his native language, or was he intentionally speaking as though she was below him? She wondered just who this strange man was, but nodded her head in thanks anyway.

"Yes, I will be fine. Thank you, sir."

"Of course."

He absently brushed his hand through his hair, revealing more of his face. A blush slowly crept up her face as she realized the man was… Very beautiful. In a moment of poetic thought she realized that he looked a lot like the statue of the angel, with pale skin and a small smile. She felt a shiver run down her spine when he looked at her once more, though, his eyes a brilliant, piercing red. No human could have eyes like that. She realized, with a sinking feeling, that he was one of them.

Then he let his hair go, and his bangs fell over his eyes again, obscuring them. He smirked, clearly amused by her reaction. She tried to cover it up, frowning a little and walking forward anyway. He didn't stop her—instead, he turned around and started to walk leisurely in the other direction. He called out over his shoulder as they went their separate ways.

"The creatures following you won't try it again. Have a good night, Missy."

She turned to regard him, annoyed by the sudden playful name, but he turned down another path and was gone before she could comprehend how fast he must have been moving. She soon left the gardens quickly herself, appropriately eager to get home to where there'd be no more danger and no more vampires. True to what the strange red-head had said, she wasn't followed home.

* * * * *

"Sayuka-san! Our assignments have come in!"

The blonde one was always cheery, even at eight in the morning. Sayuka usually found it obnoxious, but the good news made her smile anyway. She and the girl with green streaks in her hair gathered around her. They were friends, of a sort, though Sayuka had trouble thinking about them outside of a work environment. They were genuinely nice people, but they just didn't seem the type she wanted to connect with.

They opened their envelopes quickly, and the girl with green streaks cheered with joy when she realized she'd gotten her preferred choice. She was older, so she got to pick. Sayuka and the blonde were very new, so they were stuck with whatever was handed to them. The blonde furrowed her brows in confusion, but eventually got that she was working for someone across town with a decent reputation. Sayuka could only stare at her name blankly, since she didn't recognize it. There was something in the way their name was written that bugged her—that letter, one of the ones that wasn't originally in the Japanese language.

"Ku… Rokku?"

She tried to pronounce it a couple times, and the others mimicked her pronunciation with looks of confusion on their faces. The girl with green streaks looked up at the ceiling, "I don't know who that is… Maybe they're new? But they would have at least been on the list…"

"Oh, no…" Sayuka shook her head for a moment, "I'm sorry. It's… Curo… Culo… Clock."

"Clock?" The blonde still tripped over the L, but the other girl's eyes widened in shocked realization. She turned to the blonde, and a similar look crossed over her face when she too realized just who they were talking about.

"…Who is it?" Sayuka asked hesitantly, that terrible sinking feeling returning.

They looked at her for a moment, until the girl with green streaks finally spoke.

"It's been nice knowing you."