Moon's Blood

A/N: For the sake of my sanity and to avoid a lot of people trying to point this out to me, I will explain a major part in this chapter. Ryoma is rather emotional, and no I do not believe that Ryoma would normally be this open with anyone. But, the fact remains that in the space of a single chapter I've killed his family and given him enough injuries to knock him out for two days. If he didn't react in this fashion or in some way, I would be really worried and would be keeping a close eye out for homicidal/suicidal tendencies. I hope this explains things and that you guys will understand the reasons behind my choices for Ryoma's actions.

Turning back around, Fuji's smile became slightly strained as he looked at the openly confused faces of his teammates. "Saa…Where should I start?"

"The beginning would be nice, Fuji."

"Data."

"The first thing you probably should know is that Eiji, Oishi and I aren't what you would call human." Dancing around hysterically inside the safety of his own mind, Fuji took malicious delight in watching the shocked faces of his teammates as his words began to sink into their minds. "Our families are allies of Ryoma's family. I suppose that in a way you could call us his vassals."

"Wha—Wai—Hold on." Momo stuttered, his hands reaching up to grab his hair in frustration. "What do you mean you guys aren't human?"

Tilting his head to one side, Fuji leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "I mean that I myself am of the Kitsune. Eiji is of the Bakeneko, and Oishi is from a family of Onmyouji that have a history of mixed breeding. So none of us can really claim any sort of humanity at all, except for Ryoma but even he's not really human."

"A few years before the mortal offspring of Amaterasu-sama became the Imperial line for our country, the only child of Tsukuyomi-sama was acknowledged as the ruler of our people. Those that had chosen to remain here after the barriers between the Makai and Ningenkai were erected, became part of a circle of families that were allied with the Tsuki Clan. We had built lives here in this world, and since the raising of the barriers, the Tsuki Clan have protected us from those that would rather see us gone."

Shifting his weight around, Fuji rested the flat of one foot against the wall as for once he found himself at a loss for words as he tried to figure out how to continue on with things. "What about Echizen, Fuji? You said that neither you, Oishi or Eiji were human but you also mentioned Echizen. I gather that you mean to tell us that Echizen is a member of this…Tsuki Clan."

"Ryoma is much more than just a member of the Tsuki Clan, Kunimitsu." Fuji said slowly, his blue eyes shining from beneath the curtain of brown hair covering his face. "Ryoma is now the head of the Tsuki Clan and ruler of the people who claim their heritage from the Makai."

OxOxOxOx

"You should have called for someone when you woke up, Ryoma." Oishi murmured to the sulking preteen sitting on the bed as he carefully cleaned and re-bandanged the still bleeding cuts. "You've been asleep for two days now. You should know better than to get out of bed after just waking up from that kind of trauma."

"Oishi."

Pausing in his mild scolding, Oishi glanced up to meet Ryoma's hesitant gaze. "What is it Ryoma-chan?"

"Do you…" Ryoma swallowed nervously as his fingers gripped the sheets of his bed tightly. "Do you think that they'll believe Syuusuke when he finishes telling them everything?"

Tying off the last of the bandages, Oishi stood and sat down on the bed beside the nerve-wracked youth, wrapping an arm comfortably around the slim shoulders. Sighing softly when Ryoma shifted his head to lean against his shoulder, Oishi struggled to find words that Ryoma would accept. "I think it'll be a shock to them at first, but give them some time to think about it and they'll accept it. They know you Ryoma, and they know Syuusuke. Syuusuke may be sadistic, but even they know that Syuusuke wouldn't make something up about something so serious."

"Are you sure?"

"They saw everything I saw, Ryoma. If they want to deny the truth after seeing it, then perhaps they aren't the people we've always believed them to be. They helped to bury your family and even stayed here for two days at Fuji's request. I doubt that they'll decide to abandon you at this point, Ryoma-chan."

Yawning as he snuggled deeper in the reassuring embrace of his sempai, Ryoma wondered briefly why it was that Oishi was always able to see past his arrogance to the still uncertain child underneath. Setting the thoughts aside to ponder on another day, Ryoma yawned again as his eyes slowly slipped shut and he missed Oishi's last words to him even as he fell back into the realms of sleep.

"They'll understand even if Eiji and I need to tie them up and let Syuusuke torture them a bit for them to do so. I won't let them hurt you, Ryoma-chan and I know that Eiji and Syuusuke feel the same way I do."

OxOxOxOx

Strolling into the kitchen, Eiji stopped short when he noticed Fuji already in the kitchen. The brown haired tensai sat stiffly at the kitchen table, a cup of hot tea cradled between his hands as he stared down at it as though looking for answers. All cheer that Eiji had felt from finding Yuuko for Ryoma vanished instantly as his mind connected the dots about the reasons for Fuji staying behind while he and Yumiko were sent off.

"Fujiko?"

"Hmm?"

"You told them, nya?"

"Aa."

Sitting down quietly beside the silent unsmiling tensai, Eiji gently pulled the hot cup of tea from unresisting fingers and slowly sipped it himself. "What do we do now?" The acrobat questioned, his eyes tracing the natural patterns of the wooden table. "I found Yuuko-san like Ochibi wanted, nya. But why does he want the keys now?"

"I don't know, Eiji." Fuji admitted with a long drawn out sigh as he lifted a hand to run through his hair raggedly. "This was an attack against his family. Against one of us. You know that the council will be out for blood with this attack."

"And others will see it as a chance to remove the Tsuki Clan from power." Oishi smoothly inserted himself into the conversation as he joined the pair in sitting at the kitchen table. "Whatever Ryoma-chan does will be scrutinized closely, with some waiting for him to make a mistake. We should begin making plans to protect him as best we can."

"Saa…then I guess I better call Kippei, Sanada, Seiichi and Keigo. If we're going to hold the council at bay, then we're going to need their help." Digging into the pockets of his hands, Fuji pulled a small black cell phone. Opening the phone, Fuji began scrolling through the Address Book searching for the numbers he needed to call when he froze at Oishi's next question.

"What did the team say when you told them, Syuusuke?"

OxOxOxOx

"Here you go, Ouji-sama." Yumiko straightened from where she'd knelt down to dig through the bag she'd brought with her. Turning around she held the elaborate hakama and outer layers up for inspection. "Your kaa-chan and mine have been working on the embroidery for this since you were born. If you are going to meet with the Clans as the head of the Tsuki Clan, then it's only right that you should wear the clothing your kaa-chan created for this day."

Gently running a finger along the rich cloth, Ryoma traced the threads of silver lining the outer layer of his outfit. His vision turned blurry as he remembered the last time his mother had taken out the outfit to make adjustments for his growth. The clink of metal being removed from the bag shocked him from his reverie as Yumiko pressed something cool into his hands before turning around and leaving him alone in his room for the first time since she'd arrived.

Hearing the soft click of the door as it was closed behind her, he opened his hands to stare at the simple silver necklace in his hand. It was the necklace he remembered seeing his father wear when he would leave for the Clan meetings. A simple silver chain with the symbol of the Tsuki Clan dangling from its lengths as a pendant. Closing his hand around the fragile necklace, Ryoma looked back up to eye the clothing hanging from the hook on the back of his door.

"She could have at least stayed to help me get dressed."

OxOxOxOx

Wincing as Oishi's voice reached all new heights, Fuji felt a brief moment of sympathy for the clueless team members now huddled together in a vain attempt to gain some distance from the enraged fukubuchou. After Oishi had asked him in the kitchen about the reactions of the team to his telling them the truth, he'd felt too tired to attempt to gloss over the general reaction. The end result of his unusually tactless slip of the tongue garnered the ability to watch Oishi's face rapidly darkening expression, before the usually gentle teen excused himself from the room. Seconds later, Eiji jumped from his seat at the kitchen table when they heard the loud sound of a door being slammed open violently, followed closely by the raised voice of Oishi. Rising from his own chair at the empty kitchen table, Fuji lifted the half full cup and emptied the cold tea into the sink before turning the water on and rinsing the cup out. Drying the cup off with a towel he'd found, Fuji put it back into the cabinet with the other cups, a small smile quirking his lips. Turning the lights of the kitchen off, he gave a lingering glance toward the now closed door where muffled shouts could be still heard. Shaking his head, Fuji climbed the staircase, passing his sister on his way up. "They really should have known better than to do something that could upset someone Oishi sees as a younger brother. And they think I'm the sadistic one."

OxOxOxOx

"I don't know what in Tsukuyomi-sama's name is wrong with all of you!" Oishi paced the length of the living as he continued to rant, all the while glaring at his surprised teammates. "Ryoma-chan is still our kouhai. He's just lost the last of his family, and in a few hours he'll be leaving to meet with the heads of the other Clans in our world. The last thing and I repeat the last thing he needs to deal with is his teammate's narrow-minded idiocy!"

"They need time, nya."

Whipping around to glare heatedly at his partner, Oishi ground his teeth together in anger, before turning back around. "There isn't time for that, Eiji. Ryoma-chan needs all the support he can get, especially from the people he trusts."

Inui sighed. "There's something more that we haven't been told isn't there, Oishi?"

Slumping down onto the nearest solid surface, Oishi buried his face in his hands, his voice muffled. "This is like a dream come true for a few of the more ambitious clans. Ryoma-chan's only twelve and now he doesn't have the security that his family being alive gave to him."

"I assume that you mean to imply that these other clans will attempt to stage a coup d'état and remove Echizen from his position?" Inui asked, his pen moving across the paper of his notebook furiously.

"Ochibi will be challenged tonight, nya." Eiji answered, his eyes refusing to meet any of the others. "He'll have to prove his worth to succeed to the Clan Heads. If he can't do that…"

"If he can't do that, then they'll jump on that as proof of his unworthiness to be the new ruler." Oishi finished his partner's sentence gloomily.

"Why didn't he tell us, Oishi-sempai?" Momo poked his fingers together in a rare act of nervousness in front of the easygoing fukubuchou, his violet eyes downcast. "Didn't he trust us?"

"It's not like that, Momo-chan. Ryoma-chan grew up under a lot of pressure being that he was the only heir of the Tsuki Clan. He was forced to grow up sooner than he should have had to. Along with grooming him for his future responsibilities, his family impressed the need for secrecy into him. Apart from the people he grew up with, he's never really trusted anyone."

"So he didn't trust us."

"No!" Oishi exclaimed, his expression one of horror as he hastily tried to explain. "I meant that before he started going to Seigaku and joined the team, he'd never trusted anyone outside of our little circle. He trusts all of you as much as he trusts the rest of us. That's why he was so worried about telling you guys."

"Then we'll trust him as well." Tezuka said with an air of finality, breaking the pensive silence that followed Oishi's words. "We will support him no matter what happens at that meeting."

OxOxOxOx

Staring at the stubborn clothing that clung determinedly to the hook on the back of his door, Ryoma began cursing in every language he knew. Of all the things he could have inherited from his mother, he just had to inherit her bone structure and height. And he swore that if Momo-sempai and Eiji made just one more comment about his height (or lack thereof) he would go homicidal and just pay for his rackets to be restrung after he'd finished beating his sempai into submission. Caught up in his thoughts, Ryoma didn't hear the knock on his door, nor did he notice it opening until it made contact with his nose, the impact sending him sprawling to the ground.

Clutching at his nose in a vain attempt to stop the gush of blood as his nose protested the rough treatment from the door. His eyes prickling with tears, Ryoma glared up at the chuckling Fuji standing in the doorway with a hand covering his mouth.

"You know, there are easier and less painful ways of getting someone's attention, Syuusuke." Ryoma grumbled around the blood still pouring from his throbbing nose.

OxOxOxOx

"You called for Ore-sama's assistance, and like the benevolent being that Ore-sama is, Ore-sama has deigned to bless you with his most gracious presence."

Ryoma stared blankly at the four boys in front of him, before slamming the front door closed. "I'm having a nightmare. It's just a nightmare and when I wake up I'll find out that Monkey King is not standing on my doorstep."

"Ryoma-chan?" Oishi came into the entryway to stand behind the younger boy. "Is someone at the door?"

"No one important." Ryoma replied dryly. "Just some guys here with a monkey."

"Just some guys here with a monkey?" Oishi repeated before his eyes lit with comprehension and he jumped forward to open the door, ignoring Ryoma's vehement protests that animals weren't allowed in the house. "Keigo! I'm so sorry about that. Ryoma-chan's been a little touchy since Syuusuke accidentally hit him with a door."

"Oishi!"

"Saa…I trust that it was an accident on Syuusuke's part?" Yukimura asked smoothly, his ever-present smile looking a little strained. Next to him, Sanada and Tachibana were trying to move away from the Rikkai Buchou as discreetly as possible. Ignoring the actions of the two teens, Ryoma stepped forward and in a rare display of affection hugged Yukimura around the waist tightly, hiding his red tinged cheeks in the chest of the older boy. "Sei-kun…"

Wrapping his arms around the trembling youth, Yukimura motioned with his head for Sanada and Tachibana to go inside where Oishi and Atobe had already disappeared. "Talk to me, little one." His face still hidden from view, Ryoma hesitated briefly before shaking his head. "If you need to talk later on you know you can always talk to one of us and we'll listen to you little one." Running his hands up and down Ryoma's back soothingly, Yukimura swore to himself that he would find those responsible for causing the boy so much pain. And if he felt like being generous, he might even let Fuji help him. After all, Fuji was wonderfully inventive about torturing people without having to lay a hand on them, not to mention his impressive collection of cacti.

OxOxOxOx

"While Fujiko and Sei-kun are busy terrorizing…ahem I mean instructing everybody in the appropriate behaviors for a council meeting you should get dressed Ryoma." Tachibana said.

"And remove that ridiculous illusion before you do. Ore-sama will need to make adjustments according to appearance, and ore-sama cannot do that if the appearance is not your own."

"There is nothing wrong with my illusion, Keigo." Ryoma ground out through his frustration with the arrogant teen. "Syuusuke and Yuuta helped me create the illusion, so there's nothing wrong with it."

"Actually…Keigo has a point…for once."

Ignoring the last bit added by Tachibana, Atobe sighed as he looked at the mutinous expression of the golden eyed youth. "Ore-sama knows that you dislike going anywhere without your illusion, but this is important brat. The Clans will be looking to you for leadership and for proof that you are ready to govern. Continuing to hide your true face will only give them reason to doubt you where there shouldn't be."

"I know that, Keigo!" Ryoma snapped.

"Then act like it, brat. This is your birthright we're talking about here. Ore-sama has not spent all of these years smoothing out your rough edges for something as simple as an illusion to ruin it all!" Atobe retorted, leaning down as he continued. "The acceptance process is more than simply winning the challenges put forth to you. You must prove to them that you are able to think on a mature level and that you are responsible enough to govern us all fairly."

Sighing, the hints of a pout pulled at Ryoma's lips as he lifted a hand into the air and made a slashing motion with it. As though the movement had severed something being held in place, Ryoma's body became slimmer as green locks of hair trailed down his back.

"Now this is something Ore-sama can work with."

"Fujiko and Sei-kun are going to be nightmares tonight."

OxOxOxOx

"Now everyone that is not able to attend the meeting normally will be acting as the guards for Ryoma."

"Under no circumstances are you to address Ryoma in a manner that does not reek of absolute respect and devotion."

"Ryoma is not to be addressed by anything other than Ouji-sama. In our case Ryoma-ouji-sama is acceptable but as guards you do not have the amount of familiarity needed for that particular address."

"Don't let anyone near Ryoma unless its one of us."

"Saa…I think that's everything, right Seiichi?"

"One would hope so, Syuusuke."

"Mada mada dane. Did you need to terrify them like that?"

"E—Echizen?"

And that is that for this chapter. I've worked my little fingers to the bone trying to get this chapter done. This is the second version and I like it better than the first one that I made. I realize that I've created some tension between Yukimura and Fuji, but there is a reason for it. Parts of the reasoning will be explained next chapter.