61st Night

Beyond the Doors is the sixty-first chapter of the Vampire Knight manga.

On cover:Zero Kiryu and Hanabusa Aido

The title is in reference to the room where Kaname the ancestor lay waiting to die.

Summary
Kaname has sent a shadow self to Toma’s castle to attack him in retribution for Toma’s attack on Yuki. Toma has been badly beaten, he reminds Kaname that the attack on their castle is a declaration of war, mocking Kaname by calling him ‘Young leader’. Kaname coldly tells Toma that because Yuki is spoiled and she was in need of Toma's attack to make her aware, he decides that one more hit is enough. Blood spatters over the panel.

Yuki is laying on her bed, panting and bleeding with her blood dripped over the sheets, looking over to Kaname. Kaname leans over her, cupping her cheek and tells her the one thing she did well, was not drinking Zero’s blood, he bites and drinks from her neck again. Yuki’s hand twitches in response, but otherwise she remains motionless. Yuki gasps and frowns watching Kaname. He pulls back and tells her that he knows it is mortifying to feel so powerless. Yuki frowns further. She asks him why he gave her the Artemis and what did he want her to do. Kaname responses that all he wants her for her to be herself, but he wants her to realise that some things cannot be changed no matter how hard one tries. He cups her face again and Yuki remembers a young Kaname kissing a young Yuki’s hand. Her eyes fill with tears as she asks him why he speaks so despairingly. She protests that she did return to him, despite having taken ten years to do so and asks was it not good enough and if she is no good. She mentally wishes he would return to his same self. Kaname takes her wrist and drinks from it, then Kaname corrects her, saying that it is due to his own fears of losing her, that she might sacrifice herself for a lost cause, such pain that he has felt before.

Yuki cups his cheek and asks if their parents had sacrificed themselves for nothing. Kaname disagrees with her assumption. Yuki is confused, she remembers Kaname saying they would grow up to be like their parents. She tells Kaname that she is not going to die and begs him not to speak like that. Kaname disagrees with her and finally tells her that he is not her brother. Kaname picks her up from the bed, she murmurs that she doesn’t understand, asking why he would say that. She closes her eyes as he carries her and observes that ever since they had grown up, she’d felt like he was hiding part of himself. She falls silent. Kaname tells her that he has always seen the world differently from her. He nuzzles her head as he arrives at the mysterious tomb room.

Yuki looks up as they enter, recognising where they are. Kaname places Yuki upon his coffin and she asks what the place is, she inhales and smells Kaname’s scent. Kaname agrees and tells her, that he spent forever in that tomb, slumbering inside the coffin she lays on, waiting to turn into dust. Yuki silently grips his sleeve, Kaname remarks that she still doesn’t appear to understand. He sits her up and asks if she wants to drink his blood. Yuki nods. A vision of the beast appears and Kaname remarks that she saw one of his memories once. She drinks deeply from him.

Kaname’s voice echoes, his desire to turn into dust all that time. Yuki understands that he is not her real brother, she wonders why she did not know and thinks that she failed to understand him for his sake. A flashback of a desperate Yuki asking Kaname for answers, as Yuki realises she has not changed from that time. She continues to drink as the memory of Kaname’s awakening comes flowing forth.

Rido stands over the coffin of the ancestor, a baby dripping blood in his arms. Rido muses that the baby being named Kaname, gave him the idea to use it to revive the Kuran ancestor who shared the same name, to allow Rido to feast on a more powerful prey. He drips the blood into the coffin, telling the ancestor to take the flesh as well. A swift rotting arm rises from the grave and clamps onto Rido’s neck. The hand is strangling Rido, but fails to kill him, Rido gleefully reminds Kaname that he cannot kill him because Rido is now his master for bringing him back to life. Rido tells him to be obedient and let him drink his blood, but Kaname jumps on Rido before he can finish and consumes his blood. The beastial ancestor’s body slowly repairs itself and lifts itself out of the coffin.

Characters
Characters in order of appearance:
 * 1) Kaname Kuran
 * 2) Yuki Kuran
 * 3) Rido Kuran
 * 4) Toma (lord)