Chapter 2: Haranbanjo Fukihajimeru (A Storm begins to Blow)
Over the next few months, Moka and Tsukune grow closer. They gain more friends and join the Newspaper Club. They had more fights and close calls. They have dealt with all manners of monsters. He is constantly relying on his friends to deal with the threats. He jumps in and takes a hit or two for them to help out and fake an injury to stay out of the fight. The closest he came to revealing his identity was against the Mermaids since Moka is very weak to water.
He enjoys talking with Inner Moka when she is released as she tries to get him to reveal himself. He just sidesteps her questions and asks her about herself. With Outer Moka, he has to dodge her attempts to bite him. She always apologizes afterwards, claiming that he smells so good that it is very hard to resist. He doesn't mind as it keeps her around.
But with all things, the good must eventually turn sour. Tsukune has been a little too successful in his secret.
"The Newspaper Club is becoming troublesome again. Didn't they learn their lesson last year?"
"Sir, all of the members of the Newspaper Club have been identified and classified except one.
Aono, Tsukune:
Male
Age: 14
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Dark Brown
Type: unknown – unknown class
Notes: never reveals true from. Prone to fighting.
"We have no information on him except that he is a first year. He and his group consists of Kurumu Kurono, Yukari Sendo, and Moka Akashiya. Here are their files." A junior member hands him a series of files.
Akashiya, Moka:
Female
Age: 15
Class: Freshman
Eyes: Green
Hair: Pink
Sizes: 86-56-86cm
Type: Vampire – S class
Notes: Quiet and timid, but very prone to fighting. Reveals her true form in fights. Rosario is her seal.
Sendo, Yukari:
Female
Age: 11
Class: Freshman
Eyes: purple
Hair: black
Sizes: 71-52-70cm
Type: Witch – B class
Notes: top of the freshman class.
Kurono, Kurumu:
Female
Age: 15
Class: Freshman
Eyes: dark purple
Hair: light blue
Sizes: 92-55-85cm
Type: Succubus – C class
Notes: highly hostile to anyone she perceives as a threat.
"Interesting. We can turn this to our advantage. On the application, there is a section about your type and his was left blank. Gather everyone up. It's time to have a chat with him."
Tsukune was looking out the window of classroom 1-3 and imagining seeing different shapes in the clouds. The class is listening to Nekonome-sensei's lectures on English slang. She is going over the term "redneck" when the door slides open. The classroom stops and looks to see 10 or so people in the same floor length blue uniform with an arm band standing in the hallway.
"Excuse me, but we are in the middle of class." Nekonome says.
One male steps forward. With a short bow he addresses the teacher. "My apologies Nekonome-sensei, but we must have Aono to come with us." He is very tall and looks like he has two extra nostrils above his eyes. He has blonde hair and an air of pride and haughtiness that is second only to Inner Moka
"What for?" Tsukune asks, not wanting to be disturbed out of his daydreaming.
"On suspicion of you being a human."
Hushed whispers fly around him.
He, however, doesn't seem fazed. "That's absurd. The barrier surrounding the school is specifically designed to keep humans out. Even if I was a human, it would be impossible for me to get here."
"Then you wouldn't mind showing us your true form, would you?"
Unknown to anybody a slit, which can only be described as an eye, appears on the red jewel on Moka's rosary.
"I can't. It is against the rules." Tsukune still is staring out the window.
The leader steps forward clearly pissed. He spins the chair that Tsukune is sitting in and forces Tsukune to face him.
"Generally it is polite to face those who you are talking to. Now, humor us. We determine what is permissible around here."
Tsukune looks right into his eyes and smiles. "I follow the rules that the headmaster of this school has put forward. If you have a problem with those rules, then I suggest you talk to him about it. Now if you don't mind, you are interrupting Miss Nekonome-sensei and her definition of a redneck." Tsukune turns the chair to face forward again.
"Interesting. He does have a very large backbone. You are indeed a wonder."
'Don't make things worse Ura-chan. This is very serious.'
"From what I have seen of him, he should have no problems dealing with most monsters."
'How do you know? He has never even hinted about that. Even with you, he just keeps sidestepping you questions.'
"I can tell from the way he moves. His moves are calculated, precise, almost no wasted movement. He moves like a hunter, sure footed, smooth. And when we get in a fight, he injures himself to appear that he has been wounded so he can be left out. Seems kind of stupid to me, but then I can't say the Vampires don't have strict or weird rules either."
'I guess. Let's just hope this blows over.'
"Since you won't listen to reason, I have no choice but to arrest you. If you resist, then you will be killed." He snaps his fingers and two subordinates are at his sides instantly. They grab Tsukune's arms and haul him out of his seat.
Moka gets up to help him out.
"Don't Moka-san. I don't want to start a fight here. It will only make things worse. The headmaster will deal with these guys soon enough. Just be patient." He smiles at her and notices the eye on Moka's Rosario. He breaks his arms free and gives a small wave to it. The eye gives a blink in return.
Tsukune is escorted out of the classroom. The door closes and Moka packs her things up.
"I'm sorry Nekonome-sensei. I have to go."
Nekonome starts to say something, but Moka is already exiting the room. She almost slams the door behind her. She goes to the Newspaper Club room to find her classmates. She arrives and opens the door very forcefully.
Ginei Morioka, or Gin for short, resident Werewolf and pervert, had been sleeping in the room before waking up to Moka slamming the door open. He jolts awake.
"Hmmmm. What's got your panties in a twist?"
Moka was so entangled with her own thoughts that she didn't even notice his question. She walks in and slams her book bag down on a desk and sinks into a chair where she puts her head down on the cool desk.
Gin gets up and sits backwards in a chair next to her.
'Hehe, this could be my chance. I've never seen her this agitated, even when she beat me up. Maybe she broke up with Tsukune?'
"As much I think this school needs to be remodeled, I would rather not have it come down on my head from your abuse."
She takes the hint and lifts her head up.
"What am I going to do?"
Gin smiles inside his head. It is sounding more and more like his chance really might be here.
"Well, I can give you some ad…"
The door opens and two girls run into the room.
"What is this about Tsukune being arrested?" the one with huge breasts and sapphire hair asks Moka.
Gin freezes.
"It's true. We were in the middle of English when the Public Safety Commission just came in and accused him of being human! They tried to get Tsukune to reveal his true form, but Tsukune wouldn't, saying that he follows the Headmaster's rules, not theirs."
"That's bull-shit! How could they accuse my Mate of Destiny of such a thing?" The big breasted one huffs.
"Oh calm down you cow! Didn't you pick up on what he said ~desu~? He said he follows the Headmaster's rules. That means that he knows the Headmaster since there hasn't been a set of rules besides what the school has and PSC practically runs what the school rules are. He must know the Chairman personally or at least by association ~desu~." The pre-teen with the pointed hat points out.
Gin hadn't moved from his spot.
"What do you think we should do Gin-sempai?" Moka asks.
Gin shakes out of his stupor and walks to the window.
"There is nothing we can do. Best to forget him and move on."
The three girls are stunned.
"Wha…what? How can you say such a thing? We have to go and help him!" Moka says vehemently.
Gin sighs and doesn't turn to face them.
"Kuyo is the kind of guy that believes that he can't do any wrong; that he is always on the side of justice. He even took down the Newspaper Club last year because we wouldn't obey their rules that are supposed to 'protect the school'. There is nothing we can do."
Kurumu, the cow, puts her hands on her short hips indignantly.
"I don't care if we are in danger; I can't leave my Mate of Destiny in that dingy place! I don't care if we have to go through the entire school!" She exposes her claws to show her resolve.
"That's something coming from a Class C monster. They Kuyo and the Four Kings are all Class A monsters. Without Tsukune, Moka can't get her rosary off, meaning that I am the only S Class monster to be fighting. I don't like those odds. Sorry, but this is one you should just let go."
Gin walks past them and to the door.
"I never thought of you to be a coward. I never thought you were one to turn you back on your friends. I guess I was wrong. I came to you for your help, but now I see that you are just a perverted, spineless, poor excuse for a monster!" Outer Moka rarely gets angry and raises her voice. She is shaking in rage.
Gin stops at the door after hearing Moka. He turns his head slightly back to them then walks out the door and quietly closes the door behind him. Yukari, the flat-chested pre-teen, runs to Moka. She hugs Moka fiercely and cries.
The room is silent, except for Yukari's tears.
"I don't see what you are getting so upset about. He is a monster, so he won't be found guilty." Moka jumps a little at the unexpected voice.
'That's not the point. The PSC is just using this as a wedge to drive us apart. They roll over anybody to stay in power and they don't care who gets caught up in it.'
"Sounds a lot like our race. I agree with you, but any action on our part will just hinder things. As he said, we just have to be patient and hope the headmaster will help. I doubt Tsukune is in any real danger."
'I hope not. I couldn't forgive myself if something happened and I didn't at least try to help him. He has been there so many times to help us. He is so kind and compassionate. He even lets you out.'
"Yes, there is that. I enjoy our talks when I am out. He is an interesting young man. I would miss him too. Let's just keep our cool and wait it out."
'I hope your right.'
"Inner Moka thinks that we shouldn't do anything rash. Anything we do now will only hurt Tsukune and make him look guilty."
Kurumu puffs her chest out and crosses her arms.
"I don't care what she says. She doesn't feel the same way about him that I do."
"Regardless of how she feels about him, she is right. We have to wait and have faith in the Headmaster."
Kurumu ignores Moka and goes for the door. As she gets there, the door opens on its own. Kurumu runs headlong into a woman with sandy blonde hair with a tail sticking out of her skirt.
They both hit the floor. Moka rushes over and helps them up.
"Ooowwwwiiiiieee! That hurt!" Nekonome says as she dusts herself off.
"I'm sorry Miss Nekonome-sensei. I was just leaving." Kurumu make to get past her, but Nekonome blocks her path.
"Excuse me."
Kurumu goes the other side, but once again Nekonome blocks her path.
"Nobody is leaving here. I have been told to inform you that Tsukune has been convicted of being a human and is awaiting execution. The Public Safety Commission is on its way here to interrogate the rest of you to see if any of you knew about his 'condition'."
The group is floored by the answer. Yukari bursts into tears again. Kurumu backs against a wall, repeating, "It can't be true" over and over. Moka however, has a different reaction. Stands up straighter and walks up to her teacher.
"Thank you for telling us this. Now we can act. Your coming right, Kurumu?"
Kurumu's head snaps up. Her eyes a little red from crying. She wipes her eyes clear.
"Of course. If I left him with you, you would probably try to drink him dry again." She crosses her arms defiantly.
Nekonome smiles. "I'm glad we had this chat. He is being held in the lower dungeons on the corner of campus. There are guards, but that shouldn't be a problem."
She moves to the side and opens the path. The girls all walk out, but Moka stops as she passes.
"Thank you, Miss Nekonome-sensei." She gives a very low bow and walks after the others.
A few minutes later, a few members from the PSC enter the Newspaper Club room. They find Miss Nekonome sitting with her legs propped up on the desk, reading a book. She notices them and gets to her feet.
"Ah, welcome to the Newspaper Clubroom! What can I do for you?"
"Where are the brats?" the burly one in the front asks.
"Brats? Aren't those a popular toy line in the human world? Why would we have those here?" She puts a finger to her chin as if in thought.
"Don't play games! You know who we are talking about! The other member of you club!"
She claps her hands happily. "Oh, them! You should have just asked about them in the first place. They aren't here. When I got here, the room was empty, so I decided to read a book."
"You were supposed to get them here!"
"Is it my place to round up cattle? They leave that for the grunts of the world. I am a teacher here. This is my classroom. I am free to do what I want, so don't confuse my responsibilities with yours. Now, if you don't mind, I am at a very interesting point in the story and I would like to get back to it, if that is all."
She waits for a second before resuming her book reading. The leader, not used to people talking back, is stunned and they group leaves without another word.
The door closes and she looks up from the book she randomly picked up.
"Good luck girls."
Moka and the others walk cautiously towards the dungeons. They pass through a series of archways.
'I hope he is alright.'
"Watch out, above you!"
Moka looks up to see Gin land right in front of her. The resulting wind from the landing pushes up hers and Kurumu's skirt. Instantly, Gin is on the ground taking pictures, oblivious to the vein that is popping on Kurumu's forehead.
"GIN!" She brings her foot down on his camera.
"What did you do that for? I had weeks of pictures on that!"
Kurumu turns around with her arms crossed. "Serves you right. Probably had pictures of the girl's changing room. What are you doing here anyways? I thought you said we should just abandon Tsukune?"
Gin looks down at his broken camera.
"This camera was given to me by my teacher. The old head of the Newspaper club. This was a precious gift from her." Gin looks close to tears.
Kurumu turns around and feels sorry for smashing his camera.
"I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have been taking pictures of us with it."
Gin nods. He swallows hard.
"I take it you heard about Tsukune?" Moka speaks up.
Gin nods.
"Last year, they came in a disbanded the club and let only me stay in it since I was a freshman they thought they could bend and twist. My sempai was so disappointed it nearly broke her heart. I can't let that happen again. They will use Tsukune as a scapegoat and target the rest of us with harboring a human."
"Well, we just have to convince them otherwise."
"But what if he really is a human."
They are silent for a second before Kurumu speaks up.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that he a friend and no matter what race he is, he is in need and we are his only hope right now. So it doesn't matter if he turns out to be human because he is still my precious friend and my Mate of Destiny." She has a rare look of thoughtfulness on her face.
"I don't like you face like that. It doesn't fit you ~desu~!"
"Hey, I can be smart when I want!"
"Really, you cow? Then why can't you pass you classes like a smart person ~desu~?"
"Enough!" Moka says, getting tired of their bantering. "Thank you for your help Gin. We can use all the help we can get."
"Well, we have a friend to save, right?"
Tsukune is in a dungeon. He isn't even sure which way or how far down he is. All he knows is that once down here, he say Kuyo burn a prisoner for trying to hit him. Then Kuyo tried to get Tsukune to transform, in front of everyone.
He told him he couldn't do that and as a result, he was bodily thrown into this appalling, muck infested cell. Every bit of this place stank of rot. It stings his nostrils. All he can do is wait for the Headmaster to come down and set things straight.
He tries to find something to occupy his thoughts when he hears an "oofff!". He cranes his neck as far as the cell will go to see what is happening. A blur and suddenly a huge wolf on two legs is standing in front of his cell. Tsukune is about to back away when he spots a necklace with a wolf on the end of it around the Werewolf's neck.
"Gin-sempai?"
"Yeah, it's me. Moka and the others are here to bust you out."
Gin grabs the cell and lifts it off its hinges and tosses the cast iron door aside like a child's plaything.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but doing this will only exacerbate things further."
"So I take it that you haven't heard?"
Tsukune shakes his head.
"I thought so. They have already convicted you and are going to pin the rest of us with harboring a human and execute you and expel us."
"What! They can't do that!"
Gin gives him a knowing look.
"Trust me when I say that the only person that could stop the PSC without a fight is the Chairman. Unless he comes down from his thrown, the PSC has the final say in everything."
This is wrong. They want to get to the Newspaper ground through me and they want to execute me? Things have gone too far. If revealing his true form would keep his friends safe then he would gladly do so, even if he has to live for a century without them.
"Come on. We have to put a stop to this. I can't rely on The Chairman in this situation. Let's go and see how the girls are doing."
Gin nods and leads the way out of the lower levels.
They come to the place where the prisoner had been burned. It is a wide (well, wide compared to the rest of the narrow passageways) room. It still smelled of burnt flesh and hair. In the middle of the room 3 woman stood talking to each other.
"Tsukune!"
All the women turn to look at him and rush him. Moka is the first one there and latches onto his left arm, Kurumu buries her breasts in his face, and Yukari grabs his other arm. Suddenly Tsukune finds himself being dragged back down to the cells. He looks to find Gin is the one dragging him.
"Why are you goddamn popular? I don't understand it, but you can rot down here for all I care! Then I will have all of them to myse…" Gin stops abruptly.
Kuyo rounds the corner right in front of Gin, forcing him to stop.
"Oh, and what do we have here? The human, the Vampire, the Succubus, the Witch, and the Werewolf, all deifying the school's will. All of you will have to be executed now for harboring and aiding the escape of a human!"
Tsukune gets off the ground. He looks Kuyo right in the eyes.
"I am not a human. I am prepared to show it."
Kuyo laughs. Not a "haha, that's funny laugh" but a demented, maniacal laugh.
"It's too late for that. You have already been convicted and I will carry out the execution myself! I would have preferred a public execution, but this will have to suffice."
Suddenly the room bursts into flame. A bright light envelopes Kuyo and everyone has to looks away to keep from being blinded.
When they look back, they see a fox covered in fire with more flames for tails. He turns into a Spirit Fox.
"Haha, you stand no chance. I will execute with pathetic human right now!" He begins to spin his tails in the air, creating a vortex of heat and fire. Gin is forced back from the flames, some of his hair on fire. Tsukune just stands there.
"Tsukune!" Moka tries to rush forward, but is restrained by Kurumu.
"Let me go!" she fails madly in Kurumu's grip.
"You can't. Those flames will burn even you!"
Kuyo stops his tail to view his handy work. Flames continue to dance in front of him.
"HAHAHAHA! He didn't even try to move. I see his guilt was genuine."
"If you think that is enough to kill me, you are grotesquely mistaken."
The flames suddenly disappear and Tsukune appears. Though, not the Tsukune they know. His silver hair has grown, his eyes are silver slits, and scales cover his entire body. His hands have claws and his clothes are no longer there, but his scales cover his important parts. He is also several centimeters taller.
"I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice. I will stop you right here, right now. Your tirade ends here!"
"Well, I didn't believe you. Looks like I was wrong. There is no need to fight anymore. Kuyo turns to walk off when Tsukune grabs his tail.
"I don't think so. You have walked on the weak far too long. Now you find your place and the PSC will be disbanded."
Kuyo turns his head. "You think you can beat me, you upstart ki…"
Tsukune picks up Kuyo by the tail he has in his hand and throws him into a wall. The others stare wide eyed in astonishment. They had no idea Tsukune has this mush power.
"Incredible. The youki coming off of him is immense. It is bigger than even mine. To think he was hiding that without much leakage. Tsukune, you are indeed a man of many talents"
'You want to join in the fight?'
"Of course I do! Having to fight so many low class monsters is dull. I want to real challenge, and he seems to be a fine candidate. But this is Tsukune's fight, not mine. I will help him if I have to, but I don't think that will be necessary. Just in case, have him take off the rosary."
Moka walks up to him. "Inner Moka would like you to remove the rosary."
Tsukune pulls the rosary off. The familiar blast of youki and the Vampire goddess appears. She shakes her hair out.
"Well, you have an attractive form."
"I assume that there was a reason you wanted to come out?"
"Oh, I'm only here for backup. This is your fight. I will help if necessary, but I don't think that will be necessary. This was only insurance if you are knocked out."
There is an enormous explosion that knocks everyone to the ground.
"Now would be a good time for you guys to get out of here." Tsukune shouts at them as Kuyo jumps out of the whole in the wall in a burst of flames.
"We aren't leaving you!"
"My scales can take the heat, but you guys can't. It's either get out of here or be burned."
As much as they would like to argue, they knew he was right. They had to physically remove Kurumu who was throwing a fit.
Moka turns back to him.
"Don't go on loosing now." And she leaves, but he still senses her outside waiting.
"Now that they are out of the way, shall we continue?"
End Chapter 2
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