A Choice
Rosario + Vampire Fanfiction by Kuno-Baby-Lizard-Face-Ultra-Layer-Three
He was dying. At least, that's what he thought. Everything had gone black, what seemed to be eons ago. He was floating in nothingness, and he knew he was dying.
He collected his mind again. "Why am I dying?" he spoke to no one. "It doesn't matter in the end. In the end I will be gone."
A stab of pain hit his heart at that moment, breaking the numbness that had crept over him so stealthily that he had not noticed it.
"If I'm gone, what will happen…?" he caught a glimpse of a pink-haired girl flashing through his mind.
"Aono Tsukune," a voice rang out, not startling him. A figure in a strange uniform faded into view. "You've got a choice to make, Aono Tsukune. But first, you have to remember why you're here."
The girl ran through his mind again. She was pain and pleasure, longing and lament, all rolled into one.
"Moka." He said.
"That's right, Aono Tsukune. Moka. She's part of it." The uniformed man turned to look straight at him, and his eyes glowed with an ethereal light.
"I was protecting Moka." He said, with certainty.
"She didn't need your protection, you know." The man laughed. "Are you so stupid that you'd give your life for no reason?"
"I didn't want to see her hurt!" he yelled.
"Oh? Will you try to never see hurt? Ambitious for a weakling, a human, a pathetic one such as yourself. Never seeing her hurt will mean simply never seeing her… or growing until you can do something about it. Become on that level. Can you really do that, Aono Tsukune?"
"Shouldn't I try?" he cried out.
"You've got a choice to make, Aono Tsukune. You can try to preserve her as perfect, protect her with everything until there's nothing left of you at all… or you can accept that in order to truly save her, you'll need to bear it when she has to fight for herself." The man crossed his arms.
"Fight for herself? She already…" he trailed off.
"If she was doing well enough on her own, why did she need you to interfere? Why do you need to be there at all?"
"Then I should leave her?"
"Leave her?" The man laughed again. "And risk her dying before seeing you again?"
"There has to be some way!" His face flushed with anger.
"There is a way, Aono Tsukune. You can leave her, or you can die for her… Or you can claw your way back to life. Accept that you might have to see her hurt, or hurt her. But you can gain the strength to fight by her side."
"By her side?"
"Fight for her! Claw, bite, and work your way to the top!" The man rotated in the nothingness, his form losing meaning.
"Bite?" he felt lightheaded, confused.
"If you think you can save her when she needs it most, without throwing your life away meaninglessly or abandoning her…
Bite
Down
Aono Tsukune
Make a Choice!
He bit down.
End Ch. 1