AN: This is a re-write of Chapter 3, now following the events of the manga in mostly chronological order.
As usual I don't own anything. I wish I did though. The only thing I do own is my OC.
Graphic Violence Warning and other Rated M themes. It's a Madness Combat Crossover what did you expect?
Chapter III: Sinners in the Water
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Yokai Academy School Grounds, One Month Later
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"Come one Russell~! Please~?" Moka begged with her hands clasped in front of her. She was tearing up, though Russell could tell that she was faking it. She was using the old 'puppy eyes' look to guilt him into giving him her blood. Ever since she took that little drop of his red blood cells, and some other cells and plasma if one was to be technical, she has been trying almost none stop every day to get another drip. But all the time, she would be rejected with a resounding:
"No Moka." Russell firmly said. He didn't even look as they traveled through a graveyard to get to school. Every time she would try to get into his view he would look away to avoid her puppy-eyed look. An entire month has passed since he had arrived to this school due to some special means and reasons that he would like to remain undisclosed. Since then he's been used to the normal routine of going to school day after day, Monday through Friday.
Along with two beautiful woman that happened to be a Vampire and a Succbus accompanying him everyday to school. Apparently Kurumu was also in the same class as them, and they learned this right when first period started. She literally sat behind him by a couple of seats, which makes him wonder how did he not notice her until then.
"Why can't you just let me have another drop of your blood?" Moka half-demanded, because in the eyes of Russell he couldn't tell if she really was this serious about getting another drop of blood. From the hungry look in her eyes she showed that she was deadly serious about it. "You didn't mind before did you?"
"That was because I thought you were going to bandage my neck, and that was after the chain on your bike snapped and nicked it. Also that was before I knew that you were a vampire." At first Moka's whining for his blood was humorous at the start, due to the fact someone at her age was begging for his blood like a elementary school child wanting ice cream. Now, after a month of hearing it almost every day just made it slightly less humorous to the point where it was getting old and irritating.
Half of the time every time Moka asks him for something there is a fifty-fifty chance that she's going to: A. Ask for help on a question or borrow something, or B. Ask for his blood. Now luckily she would only ask once a day, sometimes twice, but other times she would do over the top things such as this.
"Why can't you drink tomato juice instead? You like that as well, correct?"
Moka shook her head rapidly with a whiny face which made him look at her wryly. "I do, but it gets old and it's not the same!" She latched onto Russell's right arm and pulled. It was as if she was trying to forcefully rip off his arm and drink his blood from his severed limb; and looking at her hungry emerald eyes, she might be serious. "Give me some please~?
"This is getting really annoying now, you need to stop!" Russell forcefully pushed onto her forehead with his other arm when she opened her mouth ready for a bit, but she was tighter than any sort of squeezing force that any normal man would ever encounter in their lives. This wasn't just something akin to a tight hug; this was more like getting crushed by steel press with over 100 psi. That was probably an exaggeration, but it was something like it.
"It's just a few liters~! I promise I wont drink too much!" Russell continued to drag her through the graveyard. Now she resorted to the old grabbing onto someone's leg trick to get what she wanted. Except in this scenario it was his arm that she wanted, and his blood.
"A few liters? Moka for goodness sake that will kill a person!" After dragging her out of the graveyard he was nearby the pathway to the school's entrance. People took notice and started to look at them, thinking that is was some sort of lovers quarrel. Some girls laughed with their hands covering their mouths along with some guys, but with the latter they were looking at him with envy and hatred with thee thought that Moka and Russell were an item. "Moka people are watching."
"I don't care!" She angry shook her head while applying even more pressure to his arm, and at that point his arm was starting to feel numb. "I wont let go until you give me some!"
He put a hand on the bridge of his nose, which was something that he's been doing a lot the last couple of weeks. He wasn't sure how much time he had left until class started. He really needed a watch. The only other form of knowing the time was on his old iPhone 7, and that was in his pocket and he obviously didn't want to risk bringing that out and having curious looks on him. He was assuming that he was probably running out of time, so he decided to do something a bit unethical to get Moka off of his arm.
It was a bit cruel, but it was necessary.
"That is enough." He used his other arm to reach into his school blazer and take out his Halo. He held it up to Moka's face so that she could see it. "Moka I'm going to count to five, and if you aren't off my arm by then I'm going to push you off with this thing." He warned her.
Still she persisted, clenching his arm to the point where it was practically dead and unable to move, let alone move his fingers. "Go ahead and try! That wont do anything!" She insisted, but if only she knew.
He started blankly at her as he started. "One." Still nothing, instead she hugged tighter. "Two." Still nothing, he started at her for one last second and sighed. "...Five." When the Halo touched her shoulder she immediately let go due to the searing shock that she experienced through her arms akin to static. If anyone was watching them, and they still were, they would have caught the sight of white electricity coming from the Halo and hitting Moka's arms.
It was then Moka finally let go in pain, she stumbled onto the ground flat on her but. "Ow!" Russell tucked his Halo back into his blazer before kneeling down before his friend with a worried face.
"Are you okay?" He watched as she began to rub her arms.
"I think so..." She rubbed them as if she had frostbite and was trying to warm up. "What was that?" She asked, looking at the Halo that was sticking out of his blazer. He stuffed it deeper so that she wouldn't see. She looked at him apparently angry. "Did you know that would happen?"
Russell waved his arms in front of him slowly. "No I didn't, it was probably static from being in my school jacket." She continued to look at him, now with a pout, but she still wasn't convinced that he didn't know. "Moka, I can assure you I had nothing to do with that." He said. She narrowed her eyes and moved closer to his face, while also making this strange mumbling noise which got louder as she got closer. "Moka?"
"Okay." She simply said. He sighed in relief in his head. "But I still want your blood!" Once again she lunged for the same arm she was strangling the life out of. Russell made another wry face, simply moving his hand up. Moka flew under his arm as she fell flat on her chest, exposing her panties which he had to block with his hand to avoid seeing. "You're mean..." She mumbled with her face on the dirt.
"Pardon me for trying to live longer, now come on, we have classes to go to."
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Yokai Academy Room 163, Later
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The day went by as usual with Russell, Moka, and Kurumu attending their classes with the trio occasionally meeting up as they either exchanged classes or had the same one entirely. It was the last class of the day, now he had Ms. Nekonome for his last class, as he also had her for his homeroom. The lecture went on as usual until the school bell, that had the ring akin to a Church Bell, rang out in the ears of everyone around the campus, signifying that school was over, but not quite.
"Well then everyone, this Academy's goal is to train monsters to adapt to human society just as I've been saying all along, so that means starting today you're going to take up Club Activities!" She announced with as smile to all the students within her class.
Though despite her cheery attitude, which the students enjoyed, some just sweat-dropped and had shocked looks at the sudden abruptness. Russell raised his eyebrow in response as he was resting his head on his right arm.
"We'll get a deeper understanding of humans by experiencing with Human-Made Activities through some sweat in Club Activities! To transform into humans perfectly, we must have a clear understanding of humans!"
The Cat Teacher tapped the blackboard using her retractable metal pointer stick to get everyone's attention to what she meant. On the board was 'Club Activities' in a rectangular box, and to the right of the box was a curly brace that had 'Human Sports' 'Human Arts' and 'Human Values'; as if to further the point that by getting into humanities culture, they can learn to coexist with them more fully aside from taking their forms. That made some sense actually. What was the point of looking like a Human, if you didn't know about their culture or histories?
"Uh...umm Sensei..." Once student with spiky hair and an overly bright look raised his hand while standing up.
"Yes!" She answered, looking at him despite having her eyes closed. Even now Russell wasn't sure how she was able to do that, and she wasn't the only one. In the past in his travels he's met both men, women, and children that could look at people and see what they were doing, despite having their eyes closed. That was a mystery that he'll have to eventually solve in the future.
"But...Sensei, wouldn't that give you an F in transforming then?" The Student pointed behind Ms. Nekonome, specifically her exposed tail that remained our of her Human Form. It was wiggling in the air with other people starting to notice as well. In fact Russell and a few other students knew about her tail, but didn't say anything in fear of being rude. She noticed her tail and proceeded to literally claw the students face, surprising everyone.
Apparently she didn't like that comment.
'Oh my, hate to be that kid.' Russell watched Ms. Nekonome use her claws to scratch the Student's face like an angry cat no liking their territory trespassed, but in this case it was because of someone pointing out that her tail was still out.
"Understand?" The Cat Teacher continued as if nothing had happened while the student had blood gushing out of his face with that smile he had on. To be fair, the kid was acting like a smartass, and Russell, admittedly was guilty of this too at times, even now. But now only sparingly, otherwise that might have been him getting his face clawed. "Everyone will participate in Club Activities! Everyone please visit a lot of groups and decide which one you want to enter! Be sure to visit the Newspaper Club that I'm the advisor for, okay?"
That was a shameless plug and he knew it.
The students began to file out, one by one to do just that. Russell was about to leave until he noticed the kid that had his face clawed fell out of his seat, and passed out onto the ground. "Is anyone going to help him?" He pointed to the Student.
Ms. Nekonome waved it off as if it was nothing. "Oh don't mind him he's probably fine." Russell looked at the kid's body as more blood spurt out like a fountain while is body twitched. "Actually...do you mind bringing him to the Nurse's Office Christoff-san?"
He sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose while looking down.
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Yokai Academy Hallways, Later
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After a quick 'Hello' to the Nurse and getting that Student to the Infirmary Russell and Moka were now at the Club Fair, which they so happened to host right at the hallways of the school. On the sides of the walls near the windows were booths after booths of different clubs with students speaking out and trying to attract people to join. Along with large signs draped on the upper floor to the signs near their booths some were even in their Monster Forms to draw attention; one even hung on the railing of the stairs with a horn.= to advertise his club of Ping Pong.
Though that was probably due to the fact that since the Club Fair was being held in the hallways, it wasn't too surprising for it to be very crowded with the people trying to move around to booth to booth, and depending on the size of the booths, it just made it harder for people to move around. Some probably weren't even looking for a club or already had one and just wanted to leave, though it was difficult for the obvious reason.
The Clubs in general were the ones that a regular person would see at school. They ranged from sports, to cooking, to art, to even martial arts and kendo. Russell liked those last two especially. Though he wished there was a gun club he knew hat was impossible since they were still in a school, and firearms were, of course understandably prohibited.
You couldn't blame him for trying to sharpen his shooting skills once and a while, and going deep into the forest in the middle of the night and shooting up targeted trees and the occasional sleeping crow only gets so far
Though using Sinners as living targets were good too, there have been a 'shortage' recently, which was good by all means. But as mentioned before, shooting up stumps and crows in the graveyard gets boring.
"Isn't this amazing?! I bet every group has someone advertising here!" Once again Moka was dragging him through the school of students, unfortunately it was by the arm again. Luckily she was relatively light with her squeezing, probably due to being more focused on the booths that were around them. One by one they passed a booth, listening to nearby conversations and looking around for anything that seemed interesting to either of them. "Hey Russell, what group should we enter?"
"Hmmm...I'm not really sure, in all honesty, so far there really isn't anything too worthwhile here." He answered as they moved around a few clusters of people and around a stall that someone put in the middle of the hallway. That was an obvious safety hazard and if someone got hurt, it was on them.
"Don't say that there's probably something here to enjoy." The pinkette thought for a moment and smiled at the idea in her head. Russell was half expecting her to ask to drink his blood again. "I know! How about we join the same club? You can try it out along with me and see if you like it. I've never been in one myself, but it could be fun for the both of us." She offered.
"I suppose that sounds alright." With a smile the Pink-Haired Vampire grabbed him tighter and dragged him into the cluster of male and female students. "Moka, you're crushing my arm again."
"I can't hear you~! Now come on, lets visit a lot of clubs since they've gone to all this trouble!" And so they walked, but they didn't get too far without Moka's admirers seeing her again and have hearts in their eyes and blushed on their cheeks.
"Hey it's Moka-san!" Called out one Student.
"Woah...! They say she's the cutest girl in the Freshman Class." Admired and Upperclassman.
"Oh she's really pretty! I've never seen anyone so cute!"
Russell rolled his eyes at their words, he just hoped that if they already had girlfriends, they would beat them up or at the very least castrate them. At this point it was just getting really annoying, not as annoying as having Moka squeeze his arm and ask for his blood, but still it was up there.
"B...Beautiful..." A creepy male-sounding voice said from behind them. "Moka-san...You must become a model!"
"Eh?"
"You must come to out Phantom Photography Club! Please let us take lots of pictures." The male in particular looked like he hadn't seen the light of day in ages with long hair and an overall a insomnia-like look. To make things more uncomfortable the male had literal spirits coming out of him, and they did not look happy. "Are nudes okay?"
As soon as Russell heard that last part he pushed Moka out the view of that guy. "Okay we're leaving." He pushed her away so that she wouldn't see what he was about to do. He pointed to a spot on the floor. "Stay here please."
"Why?" She asked.
"Trust me." Russell walked back to the camera guy and tapped onto his shoulder. When he turned around he swiped the camera from his hands and then knocked him out with one slam with his own picture taking device. He couldn't kill him, so this would have to do for now. The surprising thing was that as soon as the camera man was knocked out, the spirits left him.
This implied to Russell that, the camera man had something to do with those spirits being so angry, or the camera guy was some kind of Ghost Yokai, either way, Russell knocked him out they seemed happy and left. It was then and there Russell did the Sign of The Cross of the camera guy's unconscious body. "Go forth and sin nay more." Shaking his head he walked back to Moka. "Alright I'm back now lets..." When he turned back to the spot he had left her, she was gone. "What the...where did you go?"
"Moka-san you must join or Chemistry Club!" Moka was in front of some students in lab coats and lab equipment. However this club wouldn't be too bad hadn't the leader of the club brought up live bugs and large centipedes in basket, spreading them around as if they were cookies. What the leader said afterwards just made this club an automatic no in his eyes once again as he held up a suspicious looking beaker. "Let's make lots of magic love powder together! Do you want a taste?"
"Not interested." Russell took Moka by the shoulders again, pushing her away from the club. He moved her away in a small clear area that no one or club had not taken yet. He let go of her and looked at her straight in the eyes while pointing at the spot she was standing, looking slightly more firm this time she would understand. "Stay. Here."
He walked off again in the direction back to the Chemistry Club to the confusion. "What are you going to do now?"
"As I said before, something you should never do." He walked into the crowd of students until she couldn't see him anymore. She stayed there for a good amount of time, a decent few minutes or so. Until she noticed she smelled something. She coughed in her hand while covering her nose. "What is that smell?" She looked over, slowly noticing the smoke cloud in the direction of where Russell went. "...Is that a-?"
"Fire!" Russell cried out, rushing through a group of students that were now noticing the smoke, and now the flames. A few students heard what he yelled out and looked into his direction. The Chemistry Club's booth and all the stuff that they brought on display were on fire with it's members either trying to put out the fire or save whatever they had developed and brought on display.
"Oh my God!" A student cried out while getting back. Once by one students, male and female alike, started to back away slightly panicking. More and more students started to notice as well. They immediately got away while the students in their club booths started to file out and get to safety, while some tried to save whatever was on display on their booths.
"Fire! Holy shit fire!" Another cried out.
"Someone get a teacher!" One recommended.
"Is there a fire alarm?" One questioned while looking up. There were sprinklers on the ceiling, but they weren't turning on.
"I guess the smoke isn't enough for it to activate." Another looked up as well, but the heat and the smoke were not enough for the school's Fire System to activate. The club booth kept burning, and soon the embers began to nick at the other booths. "That fire is going to spread!"
"Someone do something! Isn't there a fire extinguisher?!"
"Russell what do we do?!" Moka frantically wondered behind her close friend. He was looking around, cool headed as usual as that was no surprise to her, as she had gotten used to his somewhat cool attitude even now while trying to locate anything that would get rid of the fire. His head looked back and forth, up and down the area from where he was standing.
He looked up again and instantly spotted a red colored extinguisher on the second floor. "There it is." He took no time in getting to it. He looked back while still moving towards any nearby staircase that will get him to the next floor. "Moka get to safety just in case the fire spreads!"
"What about you?!" She called out to him as he got further away.
"I'll be fine! Just go now!" He disappeared around the corner and found another stair case at the far end of the hallway. Here, the Club Fair was also going on this part of the school and which was slightly less populated than the one they were just in, but he was assuming that no one had noticed the fire yet which is why everyone here was going about their business.
Still there were a lot of people here and they were crowding the stairwell, probably because a class got let out late. "I don't have time for this." He ran around a few students crowding around a booth. There was a large mass of students in front of him that were around another booth, so he leapt on top of the booth to get past while pushing himself off of it, surprising the students as some watched him run.
Immediately there was another cluster of students blocking his way with the booth was on the far side of the wall which made the students stretch out to the other side of the hallway. Instead of going through the people like a normal person he instead ran on towards the nearby wall. He ran up the wall, around the booth surprising the students nearby as he got back onto the floor.
He kept running past the students while getting closer to the stairwell. He kicked off a wall to get around a couple, while vaulting over another display table knocking over some of the stuff on it. "Forgive me!" He was now at the stairwell, but there were a lot of people blocking the way, so he did what any normal person would do while in a rush trying to prevent a nearby catastrophe from burning down a section of the school: he ran up the railings.
He ran up the bottom of the railing to all the way to the top of the stairs as the students watched him go. He did a small flip off the top before running again. Now on the second floor he ran over towards the area where he spotted the fire extinguisher. He took it off the hinge it was resting on and looked over the railing below. The students below were trying to take the fire out with a tarp, but all that did was ignite it as they tossed into the burning booth which made the fire grow.
Without any further options on getting down without wasting more time looking for another staircase that wasn't crowded, he jumped off of the second floor while pulling the extinguisher's pin. He tucked and rolled right near the burning booth surprising them with his sudden entrance. He spun around and aimed at the fire while spraying the fire from left to right.
After the continuous sprays for a decent time, the fire finally died out. Everyone had to waved their hands in the air in front of them in order to wave off the bad air while coughing and covering their noses with their mouths. Russell lowered the nuzzle of the extinguisher before setting it down. He looked at the burnt mess that was the Chemistry Club's booth. "I'm sorry, for what it's worth."
"It's fine." The Leader sighed in sadness. "I just want to know how this happened. How did our booth catch on fire?!" He cried out in dismay while putting his hands on his face. "So much research...gone!" Russell put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. He sniffled a bit and wiped his nose. He looked at Russell with a weak, but visible smile. "Thank you."
He gave a smile smile in return before letting go of his shoulder and walking back towards Moka. She was watching him from her spot that was clear from any smoke and from any people. "Lets go Moka." He said while putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Y-Yeah." She stuttered a bit while nodding. Slowly but surely the students went along with their business, with a few going to alert the faculty on what had just transpired.
XXX
Yokai Academy Hallways, Later
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After the incident with the Chemistry Club fire Russell and Moka took a moment to get away from the smoke before returning to the Club Fair. When they returned, things went back to normal in a sense. Everyone went back to whatever they were doing before the fire interrupted them, and some faculty arrived to know what just happened. The Chemistry Club obviously left and were escorted by the teachers so they could question them, leaving a burnt square where their booth used to be.
Eventually, after looking around some more clubs that appeared to be very unorthodox the two found a small indoor bench in between some lockers near a window to rest.
"I suppose that's everything they have here." Russell muttered as he and Moka sat down with her next to him. "If only most of the clubs here didn't consist of creeps and overall strange individuals then I could consider joining them, but alas they just had to be run by those people." Such as the acupuncture club with it members walking around with needles all over there bodies, even though they should be lying down because should they fall on any spot on their bodies, they might risk having their organs/arteries punctured.
"Not all of them are bad." Moka said, tilting her head. "And you are a bit strange yourself Russell." She teased with a smile.
He responded with a little chuckle. "So you say."
"You have to feel bad about the Chemistry Club's booth being burnt down like that." She said with the memory fresh in her mind, and would probably be the first thing she thinks of when someone would bring up what happened at the Club Fair. "And the Club Leader...he looked so devastated...I hope they wont get in trouble for an accident."
"I hope so too." He sighed with the memory fresh in his mind as well. While Moka and Russell walked off to get away from the smoke, he looked back at what remained of the Chemistry Club booth. While he looked at both the saddened leader of the club and what became of his research, he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.
That was because Russell was the one who started the fire in the first place.
Just like with the Camera Man, Russell decided to 'punish' the guy for his attempt at drugging Moka. He couldn't kill him in broad daylight so he would settle for something else. To him it appeared to be a drugging in his yes because he's seen the scenario time and time again in the past. A man offers something such as a drink, and when the woman isn't looking he slips something in the drink. The woman starts to act strange or sleepy, and the man tries to 'help' her into the bathroom or offers her to 'take her home'. When in reality it's the opposite, the man takes her either to his home, her home, or sometimes an abandoned place if the man is smart.
Then he has his way with her before leaving her alone, and when when she wakes up she doesn't know what transpired the night before. Worst yet, sometimes, whatever sick idea is going on within that man's head, he decides to kill her in fear of her calling the cops, or right when she realizes what is going on. Then, he just leaves the body there, naked and violated, with the police discovering it when the woman's family, friends, or whatever report that she didn't come back home that night. Then they have to look and listen in horror of what became of their daughter/friend. Sometimes it even happens in reverse, with the man being the victim, either way it's sickening.
Russell would castrate the sinner then leave him or her to die, either by hanging them or tied up to a tree and burned alive, or mauled by any wild animals nearby. Shooting them in the head wouldn't be a good enough punishment for them.
When Russell went back he noticed that the Chemistry Club not only brought live insects, but live chemicals such as Alcohol and Saline. Even if it was on display it was still dangerous for some of the chemicals to be left alone, as they were, let alone over a lit burner because it may lead to fires and said fire might spread to the other booths. He took advantage of that and left a burner on near a silk tarp.
It played out as he though it would; with the fire going off, him calling it out, and in the commotion he would act as the hero and put out the fire. Whatever what was destroyed was of no consequence of him, that was until he saw the look in the boy's eyes. The face, the pain, and sadness were genuine when the Club Leader looked at him after the fire was put out.
There was no perverted intent in those eyes, no hidden dark sexual urge to be quelled, nothing. He was just a young, innocent teenager doing what everyone else was doing by trying to get people to join their club. It was possible the drink that he was going to give to Moka wasn't even spiked, it was probably just grape soda. Now all the research and specimens that he brought along with his members to show other students was now burnt and now ash.
Russell had just destroyed an innocent kid over a hunch that he assumed he was a rapist monster, and he was going to have to live with that.
Admittedly, this wasn't the first time he's done something like this, with an innocent getting involved and hurt because of it, but in the end it was worth if it meant that many more didn't have to suffer in the long run.
Even now.
Which is why he only felt a bit guilty.
He tilted his head back while running his left hand through his hair. 'I'm sorry child, but at the very least, I now know you aren't capable of anything dangerous.'
Moka noticed his look. "Is there something wrong?" She looked at him with concern, the same look that she gave him the first day that they met, right before his little stint with Saizo.
"I'm fine, I'm just thinking."
"What are you thinking about?" She asked
"How fire is very dangerous and frightening. " He said, stating the obvious. This was to dismiss Moka from trying to connect the fire to him, while making it appear that he was shaken up by what had transpired.
"Yeah...I agree with you." Moka recalled how scared she was when the flames appeared in front of her. He could tell that was probably the first time that she has seen an actual fire in front of her eyes. That just showed, once again how innocent this Outer Version of Moka is compared to her Inner Self, who was most likely accustomed to almost anything.
"Oh? Then how about water then?" A Female said a foot from him. She had long black hair along with clips on both sides of her hair, with having fair skin and yellow colored eyes. What made her stand out was her clothing choice of the school female dress shirt opened up, revealing the bikini top that she wore that had a fish scale design, along with a brightly colored towel that went around her waist as a form of a skirt to hide her bikini bottom along with sandals and anklets above her feet.
"Water is...okay so to speak, though there is also the risk of drowning, along with getting eaten by any predators beneath the water." He answered her.
"That's a rather morbid answer." She said, with a smile still present on her face even though the other average person would be creeped out. "There is beauty above the danger however, perhaps I can show you that beauty?" She took Russell by the hands while pulling him up from his seat, which Moka didn't like one bit as she shot up from her seat.
"Pardon me, but who are you?" He asked the stunning beauty in front of him.
"I'm the Swimming Club Captain, Ichinose Tamao." She answered with a beautiful smile, looking into his black pupils with her yellow ones. "Why don't we swim together? Christoff-san?"
It didn't take long for him to notice from over her shoulder that she wasn't the only one in revealing swimwear. Behind her were many more female students wearing their own bikinis which they had no problem showing off which was used to get more members to join the club, more specifically male members who were already smitten with them as soon as they noticed them.
"Oooh! It's the Swimming Club!" One of the boys from the side cried out in joyous perversion.
"Those swimsuits are hot! All the girls are cute too!" One other cried out as well in the same amount of hormone driven perversion.
"You know who I am?" Russell raised his eyebrow.
"Just a few rumors," She leaned in closer making him step back a bit. "mostly about a certain fellow who jumped out of his seat after a bolt of lightning struck outside."
Russell stared at her blankly, while trying to resist the urge to put a hand over his eyes in mild embarrassment and in exasperation. He was already well aware of, and fond of, his little stint during his first day in class. It wouldn't be too surprising for rumors about said stint to spread. He was even aware of the laughs and giggles from the males and females as he went from class to class, from his dorm room and on his way to school and vise versa, thinking that the rumors would die and out, and that people would eventually become tiresome of it.
However Tamao reminding him about his little stint showed him two things, either she didn't know about his jump in class until now, or there were students still talking about it; a month later no less. He can excuse them for being young, but he really wished that the students of Yokai Academy would move on to more productive things rather than remind people of the black-haired boy and his fear of lighting, which he does not have, he was just caught of guard and in his defense, the bolt of lightning was really close to him.
"But I think it's rather cute." Tamao took his hands and lifted them up to chest level, while leaning in a bit closer. "You know, all Swimming Club members are all female. The ladies will end up paying lots of attention to the boys who join our club~."
Immediately all boys that were in close proximity of her and heard her shot their hands up to the sky, with the female members seemingly, and genuinely overjoyed at the prospect of new members; male members no less.
"Me! Me! I'll join!"
"Me too!"
"I wanna swim with you!"
"So what do you say? Will you join us as well?" Tamao leaned in a bit more to the point of only a couple of inches until skin contact. Instead of accepting, like she was expecting, Russell got free and gently put her hands down.
"I'm afraid I would like to decline your offer."
He declined for two reasons. The first one was Moka. He recalled from the first they met, right before Saizo came after them for the second time, right before he unleashed Inner Moka from her prison, her weakness to water. Now, he was aware of the fact that Vampires had weaknesses to certain things such as stakes to the heart, garlic, and holy water thanks to the folklore books he read growing up.
That is until he met Moka, where all of that was rendered useless and were most likely based on misconceptions that were blurred out due to history. In fact, there were probably many misconceptions of monsters now that he thinks about it. This meant that, while they are known for something that applies to their legend, there are most likely other people that see them, remember them, or know them by whatever other reason.
There was probably something even about Saizo, whatever he was.
The point was that if Moka said she was weak to water as she says, he wouldn't force her to join a club that could potentially kill her. She probably would actually, if he would say yes. She was a caring person, her Outer Self, and she would have no problems risking herself it meant that her friend would be happy.
In her eyes she chose the right person to trust with her weakness, but it was admittedly a weakness that could be exploited, and could cost her life.
But luckily for her, she chose the right person to trust.
Sort of.
The second reason for declining was simple: he just didn't want to.
Don't get him wrong he enjoyed swimming, and the water, ocean, seas, and all the sea creatures that inhabited it below the surface, contrary to what he said before. That was from a bad memory. But he just didn't want to join the club, it was just that simple.
Excuse him, for not being a hormone driven pervert like the rest of the male students at Yokai Academy, who would jump at an opportunity such as the one in front of him. Believe it or not, it wasn't every heterosexual man's dream to be swarmed by bikini clad women, which he'll admit, weren't looking that bad.
"My friend and I are still looking around, but we'll come back if we change our minds." He said politely while turning away. "Good luck with your club." Moka gave Tamao short waved before moving to follow him.
"Such a pity." He heard Tamao mutter before she said something else, but he didn't hear the rest of it. He turned around and she along with the rest of her club was already leaving with a bunch of overeager males. He stared at them, specifically her, until groups of students, male and female alike, filled in the area where they were, and he couldn't see them anymore.
Eventually the two continued on for a while, trying and failing to find a club that suited their interests, and didn't have anyone that looked suspicious, strange, or have malicious intent. Russell had no problems burning down another booth to get a look at the person to make sure. However each club that they saw along the way, seemed uninteresting to him, and Moka was starting to feel the same.
"Is there nothing to join?" He questioned while putting a hand to his forehead. Moka bent her knees a bit while putting her hands on them, tired. He thought for a moment, getting into a thinking pose with Moka noticing what he was doing.
"Russell? What are you thinking about?"
"I'm remembering something that Ms. Nekonome said earlier this morning." He said, not looking back at her, which seemed a bit rude. He snapped his fingers in remembrance. "Ah, I remember now, she said something about a Newspaper Club? Perhaps we should join that?"
Moka blinked before humming a bit. "I guess we could try it."
"Did catch a glimpse of the booth earlier? Do you know where it is?''
Moka thought for a moment again, trying to remember past all the creepy and strange booths and people of the Newspaper Club, however she came up with no such luck. "I didn't sorry Russell."
"Perhaps we can-" He was interrupted as a blood-curdling scream echoed throughout the area. He jerked around, turning to face the direction from which the noise had come from. He wasn't the only one to hear it, as some students nearby turned into the direction of where the scream came from.
"What was that?" One spoke up from his booth.
"Was that a scream?" Questioned another, right before he was about to pass someone a flyer for the club he was in.
Russell didn't waste anymore time. The scream fresh in his memory, it appeared that it came from outside. He started to walk towards the nearest exit, but not before telling Moka to stay put; and he was hoping that she would listen this time. He walked past and through the students on his way towards the exit, only for another scream to be heard as soon as he walked out of the door that pierced the air, and then could hear shouting.
The shouting, lesser sounding screams, and a lot of other commotion wasn't hard to locate as it seemed to have come directly from the pool area. He opened up his blazer and looked at his Halo, tucked in his pocket. Once again, he was tempted to use it again, though he could handle himself without it. More screams were heard, and so he ran, not taking out the Halo from his pocket. 'Not yet.'
Thinking a bit more, he could in fact use it, and if people saw him with the Halo on, they would most likely assume that he was in his monster form.
Now that would appear ridiculous in the eyes of some (because if he didn't have the scared eyes that came with using the Halo he would look like a Human with a ring over his head), but not too far off in the eyes of others. Should he use his Halo, without wearing the glasses, people would see him as some sort of Fallen Angel or some other creature with a Halo on his head. Because as mentioned before, there were misconceptions.
Then again, people would most likely freak out if he started killing people left and right, even while wearing the ring over his head. Not to mention he had to manually put the ring on his head in order to transform into the Savior, raising even more suspicions of what he really was, but that didn't matter right now.
Right now, all he cared about was getting to the pool and finding out what was going on. It didn't take long for him to come upon his destination. It took a few seconds to find the fence that surrounded the pool area. Once again he was tempted to put on the Halo, but dismissed the idea as there were probably still people around that could see him; innocent people to be precise.
When he ran past someone running away he was left with a sight that a regular human being could call horrifying.
Then again, he wasn't a regular human being.
He saw Mermaids, and there were a lot of them.
There was a misconception about Mermaids as well, if he could recall. While the pages of fairy tales talked of kind, beautiful, and sweet Mermaids, there were also the kind that would be premonition of a shipwreck. They're feared and ominous water monsters. They cause shipwrecks by luring in ships with their beauty, then attack them. They are almost akin to sirens actually, to the point that they could consider them distant relatives.
"AHHHHHH! Stop it! Why are you suddenly coming after me Senpai?!" He turned his head towards one of the male members, if he could recall that was one of the students in the hallway. Behind him, chasing him, were two of the female Swimming Club members that were with Tamao. They used their tails to catch up to the boy. They grabbed him by one of his arms and bit down on his bicep. "Huh?!"
In a matter of seconds, less than that, the young boy went from just that, a boy, to a frail, emaciated, old man. The two Mermaids just left his body to float there, as they continued to find some other poor soul to drain.
Then, there was also the misconception, of what Yokai's ate, which was what he just witnessed. There are stories and tales of how some Yokai would eat Humans via their flesh, their life force, and even their very emotions. What Russell just saw was most likely the second one.
"All of you should let us suck your life energy right?!" The Female Swimming Club member called out, along with another member that was with Tamao earlier today; and a few feet from them were more victims to suck dry of their lives.
"It's useless to resist, we're all invincible in the water!" The two swam like sharks hunting their prey as the three boys tried to swim for their lives.
"Treating new members as fish food...I heard there were dangerous clubs out there, but I never thought this would be one!'' A male student called out while trying to get out of the pool along with some other male members that the female members enticed into joining. While some just made a beeline for land, and made it out, others ended up as the one Russell had just watched.
To make matters even worse, the mermaids were swimming in schools, swimming in a circular whirlpool-like fashion, preventing any male members from trying to escape, while also dragging them down into the waters below the pool line to feed off of them from there.
Russell stood there, a good couple feet away from the pool to prevent himself from getting pulled in, and began to think. But he was snapped out of his thoughts when a Mermaid decided to leap out of the pool and lunge at him with a toothy, shark-like maw. In which, he grabbed her by the neck mid air, and slammed her head into the edge of the pool before kicking her body in there.
"Now that isn't the way to treat a lady." Said a sultry voice as he looked up from kicking the Mermaid. Tamao Ichinose was grinning at him from the pool, her mouth had become larger with sharp teeth just like the rest of the female members, and her face had markings on both sides of her cheeks and neck, which were probably fins. Her ears had also changed, now looking like fins, which matched her fish tail that was sticking out of the water. Her hands also changed into webbed fingers that were wrapped around the arm of a shriveled male student who floated helplessly next to her.
"It is, when they are tying to murder me." Russell looked at her while reaching back to grab the Halo from under his blazer, because even if he didn't use all of it's powers, it was still a very deadly weapon in on itself, almost like a chakram.
"We aren't doing anything of the sort Christoff-kun." She said, now putting the suffix to his last name that was a both half flirtation, half attempt at unnerving them. "We don't drain all of their life energy, we still leave just a little so they can live the remainder of their lives with it; which isn't long." She said that last part, way too happily.
"You're going to pay for this." He said in a flat tone that hid it's true intent. "And I'm going to be the one to make you."
"Please, look around you Christoff-kun," Tamao mocked with her hands out. "We are Mermaids in our home element, and you don't stand a chance." His eyes drifted down to the water, noting the dozens of mermaids that laid there under the surface, feeding on any poor souls that were dragged down there. Though she would be surprised what he is capable of, even in the water.
"You are aware that those that escaped, can and will go and find a teacher, correct?
Tamao's mouth morphed into a shark-like grin thanks to her sharp teeth. She put her webbed hands in a folding position, resting her head on top of them. "They can, but it wont matter. If they bring some male teachers, they'll just be food more for the rest of us. But feel free to come in for a swim as well, you're special Christoff-kun."
"I'm sorry?"
"In truth, I've had my eyes on you ever since the entrance ceremony." He raised an eyebrow at that."I've spent all my time dreaming about you! It's just, you see...you have such a yummy smell, just like a Human."
'That explains it' He thought, though he really shouldn't be surprised. Most monsters loved to hunt down and prey on humans all the time in their dark tales, and considering that he was Human just furthered the point. "And you smell like a fish, but that is a given considering what the lower part of your kind is comprised off."
What he said, apparently insulted her to a high degree. Because despite having that same 'comforting' smile that she gave him and so many others along with the other female members, she was, on the inside, fuming. "'Smell like a fish' you say?" Her smile broke, changing back to opening her toothy, shark maw. "You'll pay for that."
Other Mermaids that got done feeding off their individual meals began giggling while looking between her and Russell. "Oh come on Tamao." Said one Mermaid. "You can't hog him all to yourself. You should share."
"Yeah, I want some too." Another sung along with her, with many more joining her.
"Then by all means," He held his arms out. "come take a piece."
One Mermaid happily obliged and leaped out of the water to bite onto his neck. Only for her to loose her head before she could get close, courtesy of Russell's Halo that he pulled out of his blazer that he was holding onto for the right moment. Blood dripped from the ring as the Mermaids body flew and crashed a foot next to him, decapitated with a clean cut. White Nexus Energy came from the Halo and zapped the blood that was on it, erasing the it down to the smallest molecule, leaving it completely clean as if had never been used to kill someone.
His eyes darted up towards the other Mermaids that were shocked to the core as to what he had just done. It didn't last long though, because now they were mad."We will tear you apart for that!"
Tamao called out to the other Mermaids that were on the surface like her. Five Mermaids lunged at him at the exact same time. He spun around, slashing the first one's head horizontally, cutting it cleanly in half, severing the upper half of her head from her bottom jaw.
He jumped and turned into the air as two Mermaids lunged at him, one coming from above while another came from below, going for the legs. He grabbed the one coming for his head by her tail and slammed it into the one who went for his legs. They crashed into a crater, right from where he was just standing, landing right on top of each other with both of them facing each other.
He threw his Halo like a frisbee in a circular motion towards the two. It spun horizontally, then vertically as it tore through their stomachs, tearing through their organs as they died slowly not long after. Like a boomerang it came back to Russell, coated in blood and ripped apart organs that were caught onto it, but like before the Nexus Energy erased it as it returned to Russell's right hand.
However due turning his body mid-air, combined with also turning his body around to grab the Mermaid and slam her into the ground, resulted in him getting unintentionally landing into the water with the fifth Mermaid pulling him down to the bottom to consume him.
Tamao laughed as the rest of the Mermaids that were on the surface with her dove back down to consume him as well, along with the other Mermaids that were already underwater, waiting for another male so they could feast off of. "I told you Christoff-kun! No matter how strong, once in our territory, a Mermaid will always be victorious!" She called out to him from below. "Don't you worry, we'll take our time with you. Won't we girls? Nice and-"
A Mermaid shot out of the water, pushed out to be precise, by a black and red beam that hit her right in abdominal cavity. In a millisecond the beam tore right through her body, separating it into two, and in another millisecond, the black and red energy consumed both parts of her body, while also vaporizing the splashes of water that were in the air with her. Not only that, but for a brief moment the energy ate through the pool water itself for a short while before the water filled the area back up. "slow?"
Immediately after two more beams of black and red shot out of the pool shocking Tamao as she was flabbergasted as to what was going on, and was it her or was the pool level lowering quickly? In fact, she was now in what should be the halfway point towards the bottom of the pool. "What is going on?!" Two more beams shot out of the water and with that she could pinpoint where those beams were coming from.
She dove down back into the water, avoiding another beam that blasted the head off of another Mermaid that vaporized her in milliseconds, while it continued to go and hit a side of the pool. From underneath water she could see Russell J. Christoff firing the beams from his hands, not only that but now he was wearing the Halo on his head. One by one, any Mermaid that tried to get close to him was vaporized by a single blast of Nexus Energy. Even those that got nicked by the Energy soon found themselves vaporized in a matter of seconds.
Her eyes darted upwards for a brief moment, only for her entire head to snap up when she realized that she was now at the bottom of the pool. She didn't realize that every time that Russell fired a beam it ate the water, foot by foot, lowering her down to the bottom. "What the Hell happened to all of the water?!" She cried out. Russell heard her as he grabbed the last Mermaid, aside from her by the neck and snapped it, before vaporizing her entire body with Nexus Energy that came from the same hand he used to snap her neck.
He turned around to face her. They were now at the bottom of the pool, with the water about knee high. Tamao could barely do anything given the size of her tail and the given space that the water offered her, she was like a beached whale, but despite that she managed to turn herself over and lunge right at Russell.
Which he grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the ground, creating a crater and lifting up the remaining water in the pool, and the look on her face was that of absolute terror and shock as he pinned her down; especially, when she looked into his eyes. "W-Wait..!"
"No." Russell coldly shot her with beams that came from his eyes, directly at her head. In a couple of seconds Tamao Ichinose was gone. "Goodnight Tamao."
He stood back up, soaking wet. He took his Halo off as it's power left his body and stuffed it back into the side pocket within his blazer. He patted himself down when he realized that he was missing his glasses as he kept them in the other pocket on the other side. He didn't look very far, they were right below a now giant hole from the side of the pool made from the earlier blast that almost got Tamao.
The energy created a hole in the wall before the beatm dissipated, but it didn't stop there. The hole had left behind the black and red energy around it, and it slowly spread like wild fire, eating the return line as it stretched to the other side of the pool. He didn't even look up at the left behind Nexus Energy eating away. He picked up his glasses and tucked them into his other blazer pocket. He turned around and walked out of the pool, snapping his fingers, and like that, the Nexus Energy stopped and disappeared before it could do more damage.
He jumped out of the pool, soaked to the brim. He remembered that his iPhone 7 was still in his pocket and pulled it out to check if it still worked. Luckily enough, when he pressed the button on the left side with his thumb, it turned on fine. He sighed in relief and put it back into his pocket. "Note to self, transfer to a model that is waterproof." He took a towel nearby and dried himself off to the best of his ability before draping it around him.
"Russell? Russell!" He heard Moka's voice nearby. He looked in that direction and saw that Moka was with her along with a few more students and faculty members that the students who escaped, managed to call for help. The Succubus noticed him sitting on one of the lounge chairs and so did Moka, they rushed over accompanied with the rest of people. "Russell are you okay? What happened?"
"Where...Where's the Swimming Club?" Moka wondered.
"I fought them but they got away before you guys arrived, I tried." He lied. He turned towards the rest of the people. "I'm sure you know what happened from the words from the students. Get those students who have the life force sucked out of them to the nurse." With that the students and some faculty went towards the students who were drained, while a couple others went for the nurse.
Russell stood up from his chair. "Come on girls, lets get out of here. They can take it from here." He said, walking out of the pool area with Moka and Kurumu nodding, following him.
They passed by a drained student that was being comforted by a couple of his friends. He looked at Russell from his squinted eyes, though he still managed to see him just a little bit. He reached out towards Russell and whispered. "Thank you." He responded with a finger to his lips and a wink.
The trio walked out of the Pool Area, passing by the returning faculty members and Nurse Mako that was with them. As they walked the only male of the group turned to the other girls while still walking forward. "Say you two, how did you find me?"
Kurumu answered while holding up another basket of cookies. "While I was baking some more cookies for you to eat, I heard screaming and saw people running away. I ran into Moka who was looking for you and accompanied her to the pool with a bunch of people following us."
"Are you okay Russell?" Moka asked again, leaning in a bit close despite him being drenched. One drop of water hit her hand and blue electricity sparked out. She winced clenching, her hand.
"I'm fine." He held up a hand, reassuring her while stopping her from getting closer to him. "You should stay away from me Moka, I know that you're weak to water. I don't want you getting hurt."
"How do you know that?" She asked, surprised with her head slightly tilted to the side.
"Remember on our first day of school?" He started so that she might member as well. "I told you about that place that was almost all water? And you thought I was kidding?"
She thought for a moment before remembering. "Oh that's right! I remember now."
"Yeah, in fact that's one of the reasons why I declined joining the Swimming Club actually." He said, which surprised her as she looked at him. "I didn't want you to be hurt due to your weakness, so I said no, like I said."
"Really?"
"Yep." He said looking over to her as he continued walking.
"Wow, thank you Russell." She said, grateful with a blush on her face due to her closest friend's consideration for her, which made Kurumu look at her with some jealously. IN which, she got in between the both of them and held up the basket of cookies she made up to him.
"Anyhow, how about some sweets to make you feel better?" He looked at the basket and shrugged. He reached over to take one, but stopped himself from doing so, much to the Blue-Haired Succubus' confusion. "What's wrong?"
"Are there any peanuts in those?" He asked her, who was still confused.
"No, there aren't any, why?"
He sighed in relief as he took one. He inspected it before plopping it into his mouth and chewing it. It was pretty good, though a bit hard. He swallowed before answering her. "Believe it or not, I'm actually allergic to nuts."
Both Moka and Kurumu looked at him with surprise. "You are? But I put nuts in those other cookies I made for you the last time remember?" She put almonds on some of them, and he ate them just fine. Was he messing with her?
"I should clarify. I meant to say that I'm allergic to peanuts, not other nuts." He corrected himself, which Moka and Kurumu nodded in understanding. "I can eat any other nuts such as wall nuts, pecans, almonds, just as long as they aren't peanuts."
"I see." Kurumu said. "I'll take note of that the next time I made some more cookies." She promised with a smile.
"Oh, while you're at it then, a word of advice? Try to make your cookies a bit softer next time, these are a bit hard." He said while taking another one into his mouth, but soon after got a light punch from Kurumu to his right shoulder. He smiled a bit as she did too along with Moka who laughed a little.
"Is there anything else you're allergic too Russell?" Moka asked him.
"Certain seafood such as crabs, lobsters, shrimps, oysters. But not squids and octopus." He answered, which they understood, because a few times in the past they've seen him eat octopus and squid for lunch with them.
"You're missing out then Russell. There are so many good dishes out there." Kurumu teased, in which Moka smiled and giggled a bit because she knew what she meant by that.
"Yeah I know." He said, though he was a bit miffed at her comment. There were crab cakes, lobster quiche, shrimp puffs coated in cornmeal, and shrimp tempura. There were so many times in the past where he ordered food at a restaurant, or a buffet, and see someone else have have a better dish than his calamari rings, and he couldn't eat it because he was allergic to as it contained lobster or crab in it.
That, to him, was torture. It may it seem like a big deal, but he isn't the only one who feels like this.
XXX
Yokai Academy Hallways, Four Days Later
XXX
Some time had passed since the incident with the Swimming Club, the students that had their Life Energy taken from them were in recovery, and no one was able to find Tamao nor her club members. A few notices went up during homeroom about their disappearances and advised the students to be on the look out. The School Faculty tried to look for them and asked students that were there when the incident happened, including Russell, but turned up with nothing.
Believe it or not, he was a pretty good liar when he had to be one, and only he would know the truth of what actually happened.
"Oh! Just the person I wanted to talk to!" Ms. Nekonome said from behind Russell, who was heading home for the day. He noticed that this time her tail was hidden away too. "Have you decided which club you're going to join? The only ones who haven't decided yet are you and Moka-san!"
"Well yes, in fact. Moka and I were looking for the Newspaper Club, but we couldn't find the booth for it. But that is the club we were looking to join."
"Meow? The Newspaper Club?" Miss Nekonome clasped her hands together. "Oh that's splendid! Finally, someone wants to join my club!"
"Your club?" Russell questioned while pointing to her.
"Why yes!" Replied the Cat Teacher. "You see, I'm the adviser for the Newspaper Club." He made and 'Oh' and nodded in understanding. That morning three days ago she was trying to promote her club, along with that shameless plug. "So it's settled then? You want to the Newspaper Club right?!" She asked him way too enthusiastically.
"Yes, I'll join." Though from her over enthusiastic attitude, he had a feeling that he was going to regret this.
"I'll join too!" Moka called out from behind him, running up towards them.
"I'm also joining!" Kurumu called out from behind Ms. Nekonome with a raised hand, which surprised Russell and Moka since she just came out of nowhere. "So, do you have any spaces left in your club Sensei?"
"Of course!" said Miss Nekonome. "I'll get you guys signed up!" She pulled a banner that "Welcome to the Newspaper Club" in Japanese Kanji, which confused Russell as to where she pulled that out from. She also so excited that her tail popped out from behind again.
"Pardon me, but," Russell raised his hand. "where have you been keeping that? Have you been holding just in case someone would actually join your club?"
His question got her to hid said poster behind her back, now with a nervous smile on her face. "N-No...?" She turned and began eagerly walking away to sign them up back at her desk in the Faculty Room.
He shrugged, somewhat okay that they got to join a club finally, at least. He touched his forehead in slight pain, and saw the Red Static again, clouding his vision, but since that it was coming from his vision, only he could see it.
*CRACCCKKK*
HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP UP THE LIES?
*CROCKKKAC*
HOW LONG UNTIL THEY FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE?
*CRACKKKAK*
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
'I'll handle it. Like I always have, this isn't the first time this has happened.'
*CRACKKKAK*
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
*CROCKKKAC*
I LOOK FORWARD TO THE RESULTS
The Red Noise disappeared, fading back into the recesses of his mind. He blinked a couple of times and shook his head, which didn't go unnoticed my Moka or Kurumu. "Are you sure you're okay Russell?" Asked the Former.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He reassured her. "Just fine..."
XXX
Sinner Count: 2(+17) = 19
XXX
TBC
XXX
And that my friends is the third chapter of Russell's Adventure.
Like my previous fics before I deleted them:
NO FLAMING
Till then...Signing off.
