Rosaria – Paradox+Vampire
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Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario+Vampire, it belongs to some guy in Japan. So don't sue me, okay? This is a work of fiction based on somebody else's work of fiction, which is probably based of so other peoples fictions, resulting in a tangled lump that would turn the Gordian Knot green with envy. And might just unravel the the very fabric of the universe if it were untangled. I wrote this as an act of fandom, meaning I like the Manga/Anime, and should be taken in the way it was intended, as a compliment to the author.
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This story is set a short time after the events of Chapter 28 of the Second Season of the Manga and may contain elements from the Anime and possibly other Animes or Mangas (I haven't decided yet). I intend to make liberal use of OCs, and most of the first Arc is gonna be nothing bit Tsukune, Fonfong and a sh*tload of original characters. I'm planning an absolutely EPIC fic here, so any helpful comments or criticism are always welcome. I've got the first half sketched out, so at least I know where I wanna go, and a rough idea for the second. I'm rambling, so I'll just let you get on to the story and edit this later if there's anything else I wanna add.
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Chapter 001: "Time Warp"
The whooping sound of a helicopter was the only warning before holes began to appear in the buildings stone wall. A moment later the air was filled with bullets and shrapnel as the weapons for which a gunship is named released their load upon the unsuspecting members of the Youkai Academy Newspaper Club. Though each was a powerful fighter in their own way, there was no escape or survival against the belt-fed machine guns and grenades that the mercenaries brought against them. One of those grenades landed next to Tsukune's chair, the chocolate parfait that he'd been given a moment before in his hand. Fonfong, his reflexes acclimated to such situations since childhood, was the first to respond, tackling the human and knocking them both through the room's new window. Recovering, Tsukune drew upon his unnatural Youki to strengthen himself as he pulled the Kasha to him and angled his body to land first. Twelve stories was a long way down, even for a supposedly immortal Ghoul, but he hoped that he'd be able to cushion the fall for his friend at least.
As they were both quite busy it is understandable that they didn't notice the duffel bag that the mercenaries tossed from the helicopter into the tower, but it was difficult not to notice the massive explosion that shook the ground moments after the gunship veered away.
Staring blandly up at the ruined tower of Dongfang Bubai, one of the Dark Kings, the most powerful Youkai in world, Tsukune was too stunned to even realize why he'd begun to weep.
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Three Hours Ago
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Bubai, Fonfong's ancestor and one of the most powerful Youkai in existence, had invited the Newspaper Club to come to his tower to receive Moka's newly repaired Rosario seal. The invitation had been a parchment and gold lief affair, delivered by a Neko-Onna dressed as a French Maid. Though it had caused sweat to form on the foreheads of the others, Fonfong and Linlin had assured them that such things were common for their notable ancestor.
They had been picked up in a number of Cat-Maid driven Rickshaws and enjoyed a pleasant ride through the countryside. Some time later they arrived at the Grand Youkai's Tower, a pagoda standing a dozen stories high, and were escorted past the salivating, leone maws of the Foo Dogs who guarded its gate.
The Chief Maid, who Tsukune recognized as a Lamia from certain previous experiences, informed them that Dongfang-sama would be joining them shortly. Delivering them to a receiving room on the tower's top floor, she told them she had business in the city and sent several cat-girl maids in to tend to their needs.
The room had several plush chairs and couches, which were soon filed by the students. Tsukune, fearing the usual outburst from the girls, trying to sit next to him, chose a chair off in the far corner, away from the others. A short time later a maid appeared with a tray of various sweets and deserts and passed them out to the young people. Tsukune took a decadent looking chocolate parfait, thinking 'I could get used to this'.
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Present
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They just sat there, staring at the smoldering rubble that was all that remained of the Dark King's tower. Tsukune could not believe what had just happened. Moka. Kurumu. Mizore. Yukari. Even Fonfong's sister, Linling had been inside when the blast went off. Even if they'd somehow survived the attack, and the explosion, the boys had been sitting there for hours, more than long enough for them to show themselves. But the field, for all that it was a bright and sunny afternoon, remained absolutely devoid of life. No bird chirped, no moth fluttered, no small animal called out. Not even the eyes of the two survivors held any spark as they stared at the dying flames.
A grunt from close behind finally brought them out of their reverie, hope lifting for a moment as they turned to see a blood soaked Bubai dragging a broken and moaning figure behind them. The filthy pair were making such a racket in the pristine evening that it could only be taken as a sign of how far gone they had been.
"Take her" Bubai's voice grated as he thrust his burden at the boys. Taking the maid, Tsukune instantly recognized her as the Lamia who'd met them earlier. A part of Tsukune wanted to ask what had happened, but was still too numb to speak. Still, seeming to sense this Bubai continued, though each word seemed to cause him pain. "Margerie here was just explaining how she had betrayed me to the Miu Clan and arranged this whole incident. Weren't you dear?"
Tsukune went from concerned about the Lamia's injuries to wanting to strangle the bitch in less than a heartbeat. Indeed, his Ghoul nature was already reacting to his unconscious desire to kill. The black aura emanating from Tsukune wrapped around the broken body of the traitorous maid, pressing down, trying to literally crush the spark of life out of the woman who had just taken so much from him.
"Not yet" Bubai admonished, and dispelled the chaotic Youki with barely a wave of his hand.
"Bubai-sama is right," Fonfong provided, despite the hard, homicidal glint in his eye as he looked at her. "There will be time for that after we find out what she knows. I think I am going to enjoy that part."
"I did." Bubai told his unusually vicious heir, "Fairy Tail recruited her some time ago. The attack was meant to leave the Clan open to them. And remove... loose ends." The Dark King was panting by the time he finished the statement and Tsukune noticed that most of the blood on him was his own. Bubai noticed his gaze. "Yes. Got me too. Not much time left."
"Then why shouldn't I kill her?" Tsukune asked, shocked at his own blood thirst. The Ghoul was obviously influencing him more the he realized.
"Because I'll need her to fix this." Rather than this statement, what chilled Tsukune was the fact that the broken maid tried to pull herself closer to Tsukune, who had just expressed his desire to murder her. As though having a Ghoul rip her throat out was preferably to what he intended for her.
"Fix it, Honored One? Is that possible?" Fonfong asked.
"Perhaps. I-" Bubai tried to explain but a fit of gurgly coughing cut him off. "I will send you. You two, back to stop it."
Another fit shook his ravaged body and Fonfong stepped forward to steady his ancestor, saying "Time Travel, Honored One? I thought that was impossible."
"Fool. Nothing is impossible." Bubai cuffed the Kasha upside the head. "Just dangerous. Very. Very Dangerous."
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Thirty Minutes Later
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Tsukune watched as Fonfong ran around, tracing intricate designs on the stone slab they had cleared, following Dongfang Bubai's instructions to the letter. Tsukune, meanwhile, held the broken Lamia by the throat, doing his best to resist the feral urge to break he neck.
The Ghoul was impatient. It didn't understand the emotions Tsukune felt for the Youkai who'd been killed in the tower. It was a bringer of chaos and destruction, and such feelings of tenderness and compassion, even love, were beyond the twisted instincts that drove it. It did, however, understand greed. Hunger. Desire. Lust. These were all forms of greed. In its warped mind the girls, all of them, belonged to it. That this creature had taken what belonged to it was intolerable. Also, the Ghoul understood pain. This Lamia had caused its host pain by taking their women, that much the Ghoul was able work out, and so it craved to inflict pain in return. To rend and tear until nothing remained of the traitor. For now it waited though, content with the images of horror that had appeared in Tsukune's human mind as Bubai explained why he needed the Lamia and what that would do to her. For now it waited, but only for now.
Soon, Bubai called Tsukune over and had him place the crippled maid at the center of the pattern. Tsukune hurriedly backed away as the aged Daiyoukai began chanting. A palpable aura of power began to fill the area as the Dark King waved his bloody hands in precise gestures, calling forth terrible powers. Fonfong, also, seemed to feel the spell taking shape and came to stand close to Tsukune, trying to draw strength from his human friend. Even as they watched a dark energy began to leach out of the Lamia, forming a sphere above her as her skin grew paler and paler. Finally, after several minutes of feeling something akin to nails on a chalkboard, but transmitted through their souls rather than their ears, the boys saw the last of the energy pass from the woman into the ball. Abruptly, the Lamia, seemingly a frail and empty thing now, gave out a terrifying wail and her form crumbled to dust.
Shaken, the boys continued to watch as Bubai began another spell. In a sing song voice the Dark King shaped the ball of darkness into a disk, and then into a mirror as the surface began to display an image upon it. The image was of the very countryside beyond the spell, Tsukune could even see that the mountains in the distance matched up with those shown in the mirror. Disturbingly, the scene within the mirror was of bright daylight, when the sun had only just set where they stood. Once, during the spell, Bubai nearly collapsed into another fit of coughing, but recovered before the boys could reach him and waved them back.
Finally, the mirror became surrounded by a ring of rainbow light, becoming what Bubai had described as a Gateway. Faltering at last, the great Ayashi collapsed just as Fonfong reached him and eased him down onto a block.
"Remember. What I said. Remember. Change nothing but what you must. Beware the Guardians. Paradox." Bubai managed in a weak voice, going into a fit towards the end but pressing on nonetheless. "Go! Fool, go!"
Tsukune took only one look back as the elder Youkai shoved them towards the Gateway. The old man didn't have much strength left after his spells, on top of the injuries he'd taken. Tsukune hoped he would be alright. "Good luck, sir."
Bubai seemed surprised, then gave a wet, gurgling laugh. "You need it, more than me! Go!"
Pulling his friend along with him, Fonfong marched up to the Gateway, took a breath, and stepped through.
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Later
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Tsukune awoke with a pounding headache, as though he'd been on the receiving end of one of Inner Moka's kicks. Strait to the back of his head. Groaning, he flailed about with one arm, using the other to block out the burning death beams that the sun was shooting right into his eyeballs. Finally, his hand struck something besides dirt and grass. Something cold and squishy, with something slimy on it. Pulling his hand back, Tsukune braved the solar lasers long enough to discover that he'd somehow managed to shove his thumb um Fonfong's nose. Chuckling despite his disgust, Tsukune pulled himself up and wiped the offending digit on the Kasha's clothing before trying to wake his friend.
"Fibe moar min-min, nee-san..." the younger boy mumbled as Tsukune shook him.
Getting frustrated, Tsukune focused a infinitesimal portion of Youki into his finger tip and flicked his friend on the side of the head. Though the energy involved was small, it still struck with several times the force of the physical action alone and the Kasha's head rocked to the side.
Grunting, Fonfong climbed to his feet and glared at his friend. "What was that for?" he damanded.
Tsukune shrugged, not wanting to explain. Instead, "How far did he send us?"
Fonfong seemed puzzeled for a moment, before the memories of the previous day flooded back. Tsukune, watching them spiral across the Kasha's face, felt each new agony anew. Contemplating a world without the girls, the crazy, beautiful, wonderful Youkai girls who had changed his life, simply wasn't an option for him. As he had decided when Fonfong's father had kidnapped them all as part of a convoluted game of oni-gokko, Tsukune would do anything to get them back.
Shaking off the memories, Fonfong answered. "A week. Bubai-sama said he was aiming to send us a week into the past. Enough time to set thing up and get into position."
"Right," Tsukune nodded soberly, preparing himself of the task ahead. The atmosphere was so hard and serious that it shattered like glass when, as if on cue, both their stomachs began to rumble. Loudly.
"Sorry. I haven't eaten since the the night before... "That", you know?" Tsukune apologized, trying to hold back as Fonfong collapsed to the ground laughing.
Wheezing on the ground, the Kasha managed to ask. "What about that ridiculous parfait that they gave you?"
Remembering the salivating sweet that had been denied him, Tsukune smiled bitterly. "You know, I never got one bite, with all the bullets and everything."
"Probably poisoned," Fonfong said, and Tsukune grunted in agreement. 'Probably was, since that Lamia bitch was the one who sent it. Damn shame to waste good food.'
"Still, we need to eat..." Tsukune sighed, looking around for any animal life they hadn't already scared out of the forest clearing. Catching sight of tail feathers in a nearby tree, he picked up a rock and sent it towards the mystery bird with a Youki infused pitch. The thing never had a chance and barely managed half a squawk as the stone ripped through it.
Collecting the bird, Tsukune was momentarily surprised to discover that rather then a swallow or jay, he'd brought down a falcon. And a rather large one as well. 'Ah well, meat is meat I suppose...'
The two boys roasted the hunting bird over a fire that Fonfong started by summoning his Phoenix chick, Piyo-Piyo. Once they'd devoured the bird they set off in the direction that Fonfong assured him was where the nearest village was located, intending to lay low while they planned out how to counter Fairy Tale's attack.
As they trekked through the countryside Fonfong explained what Bubai had told him. It seemed that the reason Time Travel was so dangerous was that the Universe itself fought against it, trying to keep what happened happening the way it already has, or had. Mess around too much, change too much, and the Universe would generate some kind of super monster called an Aleax and send it after you, to stop you from creating a Paradox. A Paradox was when something happens which shouldn't, or doesn't happen when it should. Like going back in time to prevent a tragedy and then having that success dependent upon you going back in time. But if there was no tragedy, they why did you go back? And since you have no reason to go back, the tragedy happens anyway. Except that it didn't, because you'll go back, except that you'll have no reason to. This kind of endless circle, getting more and more complicated until it basically gives Time itself a migraine and and erases you to save itself the trouble. To successfully alter time you not only needed to dodge or defeat the Aleax that might get sent after you, which is supposedly impossible since they can do anything their target can and a little more besides, and always know where to find you. But you also need to avoid creating a Paradox Loop, so that existence doesn't just go POOF and forget about you.
"Sooo... how are we going to do that?" Tsukune asked, a little intimidated that the Universe itself was against him. There had been days when he had harbored such thoughts, especially right after arriving at Youkai Academy for the first time, but he'd never really meant them. Well, not literally, anyway.
"Simple," Fonfong told him, enjoying having one up on his friend. "We, do nothing."
"WHAT!!!?" Tsukune shouted. That was one thing the Kasha definitely shouldn't have said. Tsukune was staking everything on getting his friends back, doing nothing was NOT an option. Grabbing his friend by the collar, he lifted and shook the smaller boy, hoping a better answer might fall out if he kept it up.
"Waaa-wait! Wait!" Fonfong sputtered, barely able to speak without biting his tongue. "Wait! Lemme down..."
Panting as his friend set him on his feet, he explained, "D-don't worry. We'll do something. Its just not going to be us, this us, doing them. Alright."
Confused and upset, Tsukune didn't, and said so.
"What I mean is, our other selves, the ones from the past. Er, rather the future, they'll be the ones doing it. That way the Guardians and Paradox won't be able to effect them, since they'll have never left their own time."
"But the way, you explained it... won't they have no reason to do it? Since they didn't know it was coming?"
"Yeah, but they will know. Cause we'll be there." Fonfong gave him a conspiratorial grin.
"But wouldn't tha-" Tsukune started.
"Yeah, that would still leave us open to everything, except we won't be us. We'll be them, I mean us. The other us." Though this seemed to make sense to the Kasha, Tsukune was getting so dizzy trying to follow the logic of this that he had to sit down.
"Let me get this strait..." Tsukune said, pinching the bridge of his nose as he sat cross-legged on the ground. "In order to avoid getting Poofed, we'll let our other selves handle rescuing the girls. Except that we cant just tell them about it without the bit with us telling them getting Poofed after it works. So we have to do it, except we can't or we'll get Poofed. So we're gonna do that by being our other selves. Right?" Fonfong nodded, glad his friend was following. "So, assuming we don't get Poofed anyway-"
"We won't, Bubai-sama was sure of it." Fonfong interrupted.
"Right, but how do we do it exactly? Be our other selves, I mean?" Tsukune wasn't sure if he was making sense, but he was damn sure that Fonfong wasn't so it didn't bother him.
"Oh, Bubai-sama taught me a spell. Said it was necessary for time travel anyway, even if we didn't have to worry about the rest."
"How so?" Tsukune asked, relieved that he was finally getting somewhere.
"See, it allows us to merge into our other selves. Understand? If we didn't have something like this there would be two of each of us left over even if everything worked. Which, apparently, would be bad. Bubai-sama didn't tell me why."
Tsukune was suddenly struck by the thought of two Fonfongs and shuddered. The world wasn't ready for that kind of horror.
"Anyway, all we have to do is find our slightly younger selves, get them alone, and use the spell. It'll knock us out, but when we wake up we'll have all our memories and what not but be in bodies native to the current time, so Paradox won't effect us, and the Aleax'll forget about us."
Tsukune watched his friend grin triumphantly, impressed with his own cleverness. But, since he had no better idea the human turned Ghoul decided to go along with it, at least until they had a better option.
Hitting the trail once more, the two pressed on until mid day when the reached a rather steep rise.
"It's right on the other side." Fonfong assured him.
Indeed, he could see smoke rising from behind the ridge. A lot of smoke. The village must be larger than Tsukune thought to have that many chimneys and cooking fires.
But when they reached the top they didn't find the quaint, slightly pre-modern settlement Tsukune had been expecting. Instead they saw a small peasant village, with stick and thatch roofs on wooden huts. Most of which were burning as figures on horseback rode through around with steel in their hands.
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Right, this seemed like a good place to leave off. (*Evil Chuckle*) Tell me what you guys think, okay? I haven't done any proofreading or testing, so there may be a few mistakes. I wrote this chapter pretty much in one sitting, hope its alright... anywho, things are about to get interesting for our heroes as they discover that nothing is ever as easy as they think it'll be. Just to not, though there aren't any major, or even important minor, female roles in the first part of this story, that doesn't mean there won't be. THIS IS NOT YAOI!!! Honestly, you take the haremettes out of a harem story and everyone starts thinking BL. Fonfong's in there cause of the development he got in Chapter 28 made him seem like the best character for the position. That's it. The girls will be back, but for now its gonna be a strait up action/adventure story, we'll save the romance for later, okay? Right, Reviews are welcome. Recommended. Demanded even. I need inspiration to work and its your job to give me that, so hit the green button and type something. :p
See you next chapter!