And here we are with the second installment of Who Dares Wins. This one is a bit longer, and focuses primarily on the OCs, but for those of you who get miffed when a fanfic shifts its focus away from the main characters: please just grin and bear it. This is an important part of the story, as it introduces some characters who Tsukune will be interacting a lot with over the next few chapters.
If it helps you endure this OC-centric chapter, know that this will be the last chapter to focus entirely on the OCs. After this, the POV will shift to canon characters - mainly Tsukune, Mizore, Shuzen Kahlua and Wong Fong-Fong - with the occassional segment told from the perspective of an OC. (Spoiler: usually before they die.)
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire, or any of the names, characters, locations and organisations which feature in the manga. This is a fan-made, non-profit work of fiction based on Akihisa Ikeda's fantastic manga, which I urge all of you to buy and enjoy when it becomes available in your country. Any resemblance the content of this story shares with real events or people is a coincidence.
Chapter 02 - Collision Course
Shuzen Estate
Far East Realm of Ayashi
October 10th, 2015
The dungeons of Shuzen Castle were a miserable place, a warren of torch-lit passages and barred cells hewn from the rock of the plateau on which the castle itself was built. There were no windows or clocks to count the passing of time; those unfortunate enough to find themselves imprisoned in the dungeons were forced to endure a perpetual twilight in which time seemed to hold no meaning.
The only sense of change was the guard shift rotations. Amy had not been able to work out how often they changed, or what point in the day each shift covered, but she by now she was familiar enough with the faces of the guards to recognise them as they entered the cell block to check on their charges. Some did so out of obligation and duty. Others did so to bully and torment the surviving members of the United Nations Studies and Observation Group.
The UNSOG* had once numbered thirty people; a contigent of ten observers - sociologists, biologists, cryptozoologists and Japanese translators - and twenty experienced soldiers hand-picked from various military units belonging to the member states of the United Nations. Of those thirty, sixteen had been killed during the raid on their safehouse in Ayashakai. Of the remaining fourteen, five more had perished in captivity. Amy Reese was the last of the observers. A translator. She was not a combatant, and she lacked the courage and fortitude of the men in the cells around her.
The servants of the Shuzen clan had not been gentle in their interrogations, but unfortunately for them the surviving UNSOG operatives were uncompromising veterans, and nothing could be learned from them except their names and serial numbers. Upon realising this, the interrogators had turned their attention to Sven Eriksson, a biologist from Denmark. In an attempt to kill two proverbial birds with one stone, their captors forced Amy to witness Sven's interrogation, in the hopes that it would soften her up for her own questioning. Truth be told, it did exactly that, but so far none of the masked ayashi had come to drag her away to the "chat room".
Sven had talked. He told the monsters everything he knew. In his desperation to appease his tormentors, he revealed the purpose of the UNSOG: to study the culture of the ayashi, and evaluate what kind of threat they posed to mankind. The interrogators had calmly noted down Sven's confession before forcing a handful of carnivorous worms down his throat.
Amy feared that she would meet a similar fate, but her captors had taken great delight in informing her otherwise. Their master, the infamous Shuzen Gyokuro, intended to make a show of the UNSOG's extermination, and was arranging for the humans to be pitted against a myriad of ferocious creatures in a public spectacle inspired by the gladiators of ancient Rome.
"It's gonna be a riot," one of the jailers declared as he prowled down the aisle between the cells. His body was relatively human, but his upper body was unusually thick, and his head resembled that of a horse. He had introduced himself as Umatoko, and in Amy's opinion he was the cruelest of all the guards. He spoke in Japanese, unaware that only Amy and two other members of the team could fully understand his words. "It's gonna be so much fun watching you lot get torn to pieces while you shit yourselves. Anyone know what a manticore is? Eh? Ah... it's gonna be fun."
For whom? wondered Amy.
"Doesn't sound too bad," said a voice in the cell beside her, in perfect Japanese. "Back home, my old dad used to wrestle with the crocs. Big fellas, they were. Real mean when the sun was up."
"Did I give you permission to talk, human?" snarled Umatoko.
He paused in front of Amy's cell, and the young woman backed away from him cautiously. Umatoko's four-fingered hand habitually clutched the handle of the baton he wore at his hip like a sword, and the fact that he had drawn it out was a clear sign he was angry.
"Easy, mate. By the way, what are the odds of you coming in first place in the races this afternoon? Four to one?"
Amy's blood froze. What the hell was Jackson doing? They all knew that Umatoko was bad-tempered, and that he had beaten one of the other UNSOG operatives to death for commenting on his appearance, so why was the Australian soldier goading him?
Growling angrily, Umatoko removed the ring of keys from his belt and unlocked Jackson's cell, and clipped the keys back into his belt before opening the cage and hauling its occupant out into the aisle. He pushed Jackson up against the bars of Amy's cell with one hand, and raised his baton threateningly in the other.
"You dare mock Umatoko Aji?" growled Umatoko.
"Who dares wins," replied Jackson.
Before Umatoko could respond, Jackson threw himself forward and slammed Umatoko against the bars of the cell opposite Amy's, and for a few moments man and monster wrestled with one another before the latter overpowered the former. Umatoko shoved Jackson back against Amy's cell, and jabbed the end of his baton into the human's abdomen. Jackson double over and sank to his knees, and curled into the foetal position as Umatoko began beating him with his baton.
"I am Umatoko Aji! You will respect my authority! I will- "
A hand reached over Umatoko's shoulder and grabbed him firmly by the jaw, and forced his head back while another hand slashed his exposed throat open in a swift but precise movement. Amy supressed a shriek and pressed herself against the back wall of her cell to avoid the spray of blood, and watched as Umatoko Aji collapsed onto the floor and spent his final moments writhing and choking in defiance of his fate.
"Arsehole," muttered Captain Alexander. He spat contemptuously on the horse-man's body and flicked blood from his shiv. "You alright, specialist?"
"I think I'm gonna chunder," groaned Jackson. He spewed what little food his stomach contained onto the floor.
"You did well pinning him long enough for me to get the keys off him. You Aussies really are a dependable lot, aren't you?"
The first person Alexander freed was Bianca Vokes, a woman who had formerly served as a combat medic in the Canadian Armed Forces. She examined the bruises on Jackson's torso while Alexander quickly unlocked the other cells to release their grateful occupants. Within a minute or so, Shinji Nanahara, Michael Hayden, Gregori Baranov, Daniel Moore and Simon Cross were free for the first time in days.
Baranov relieved Umatoko of his weapon, and as he did so he looked up at Amy. His eyes narrowed.
"What about this one?" he asked Alexander gruffly. "Is she coming?"
"Aye. Nobody gets left behind," replied Alexander.
Joining the others in the aisle, Amy was reminded of her physical inferiority to the soldiers. She was the youngest member of the group, and by far the shortest. Baranov, Hayden and Cross were giants, each standing over six feet tall and corded with muscle. Jackson, Alexander and Moore were not quite so tall, but Amy knew that their lean, powerful frames possessed strength and stamina equal to the bigger men. Nanahara and Vokes were shorter than the rest, but both were still three or four inches taller than Amy.
"All present and correct, captain," reported Nanahara, saluting Alexander.
"Good. Commence Operation Get the Fuck Out Of Here," replied the captain.
"Fuckin' A," agreed Hayden. "You got a plan, boss?"
"I always do, sergeant. Follow my lead."
The group quietly made their way out of the cell block, and crept along the empty, silent corridor beyond until they reached the guard post. Cross, who was on point, cautiously peered inside, and made several hand gestures to wordlessly report what he saw within. Alexander nodded and passed him the improvised knife he had used to kill Umatoko. Amy only caught a glance of the weapon before Cross slid into the guard post and murdered its occupants, but what she saw surprised her.
"Was that a spoon?" she asked, after Cross had announced that the coast was clear.
Alexander nodded. "It took me a few days to scrape the edges into a point. It's a little trick I picked up in Colombia, back in the early days of the war. The monsters underestimated us; they never considered the possibility that we would turn something as mundane as a metal spoon into a weapon. Santiago made the same mistake."
Amy didn't know who Santiago was, but the smile on Alexander's face as he thought back to the event told her that the man had not lived to learn from his mistake. Cross came out of the guard post, carrying a katana in each hand.
"That horse-faced bloke must have been at the bottom of the food chain," he said. "He had to carry a stick while these boys got proper swords. I'm not trying to be racist or anything, but do you know how to use one of these, lieutenant?"
"I do," replied Nanahara, taking the weapon Cross held out to him.
"No guns?" asked Hayden.
"None. I'm not counting on them having our gear upstairs, either."
"Then we'll have to get what we need from our reserve cache in Ayashakai," said Alexander.
Amy raised a hand. "How do we do that, sir? The Shuzen Estate exists in a seperate pocket dimension from the capital. I don't think we will be able to get there on foot."
"We'll just use one of the port-gates," said Hayden. He frowned when everyone looked at him. "Shit, I'm just a Jarhead, but I know something y'all don't?"
"Spit it out, yank," snapped Cross.
"Kiss my ass, limey," retorted Hayden. He nodded apologetically to Alexander. "No offence to you, boss. Anyway, it's like the girl says; the worlds these monsters live in are like snow-globes. They're all connected to each other and our world by portals, which Doc Duval called port-gates. All we gotta do is find one that'll take us back to the city, then we can grab our shit and kick some ass."**
Alexander looked at Amy and asked, "Will the Shuzens have access to one of these things?"
"I'm not sure. Professor Duval was the one who did all the research on the port-gates. All I know for certain is that the Shuzens are really powerful in the Far East. They come and go as they please."
"Then they'll probably have access to a portal back to Ayashakai," concluded Alexander. He grinned. "Let's go and ask our hosts for directions, shall we?"
It took the group five minutes to ascend from the dungeons and enter the lower levels of Shuzen Castle. As luck would have it, few of the utility rooms and kitchens they passed were occupied, and the few staff members they saw were clearly not vampires. From what Amy had learned during the five months the UNSOG had been active in Ayashakai, the vampires were a proud race, and it did not surprise her that none were to be found in places where menial labour was conducted.
Baranov and Moore ambushed a servant and discreetly man-handled him into the supply cupboard where the rest of the group hid themselves in, and they held the reptilian man still while Nanahara questioned him. Fear and shock weakened the servant's resolve, and he divulged all of the information Nanahara requested. The Shuzens, as Amy had suggested, were a very influencial faction in the monster world. Even the Old Covens in Europe regarded them with great respect. Such was their power and influence that they were permitted to maintain a network of private portals, enabling them to move freely within the region.
To Amy's dismay, the servant's interrogation ended just as Sven Eriksson's had, though his death was far quicker and humane than Sven's. Nanahara seperated his head from his shoulders with one, well-practised swing of his katana, and Baranov stuffed the body into a convenient barrel that reeked of apples. Vokes found a box full of unused kitchen utensils, and the group armed themselves with an assortment of knives and cleavers. Any weapon was better than no weapon, and even Amy felt a little more confident after Cross handed her a carving knife.
After equipping themselves with a few more improvised weapons, the group continued on, but came close to revealing their presence when the cooks began preparing breakfast for the residents of the castle.
"Goddamn, you smell that?" whispered Hayden.
Cross nodded. "Bacon. Bloody hell, I'd fight all the Shuzens bare-handed for a good fry-up."
"That can easily be arranged," whispered Jackson. "But for the sake of those who have no intention of dying here, please restrain yourself."
They made their way upstairs, their nerves winding tighter the closer they came to the main body of the castle. Their chances of encountering vampires increased with each step they took, and by the time they reached the ground floor, even Nanahara - the most level-headed member of the group - was jumping at shadows.
As the reptile-man had claimed, the Shuzen's private port-gate hub was located on the ground floor. The humans found it without much difficulty, and they were fortunate enough to enter it without being detected. The hub was a circular room, brightly lit despite the absence of an obvious source of light. A dozen doors were set into the walls, each with a sign fixed above it. The signs were written in Japanese, but Amy could read them; it seemed that the Shuzens had access to every major monster settlement in Asia, but to her disappointment there were no portals to the human world.
"Ayashakai," declared Jackson, moving towards the door beneath a sign displaying the name of the capital. Despite his primary role as a soldier, he had a firm grasp on the Japanese language. He opened the door, and the group found themselves staring into a dark, featureless tunnel.
"Who's going first?" wondered Moore.
"Ain't me," said Hayden immediately. "I've seen movies. Black dude dies first. That shit ain't right, man."
Nanahara spared them the effort of arguing the matter further by walking into the tunnel. Using his katana's sheath like a blind man holding a cane, he took careful strides forward and advanced deeper into the darkness. Content that they wouldn't be the first to find out if the Shuzens had set traps in their personal portals, the rest of the group followed.
The light hurt Amy's eyes when Nanahara opened the door at the far end of the tunnel. She squinted as she stepped out of the tunnel, and waited a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the light after shuffling in complete darkness for what seemed like an hour. They were in a chamber similar to the port-gate hub in Shuzen Castle, but there were a number of obvious differences. There were almost twice as many doors in this room, and the words on the signs above them were different. Instead of places, they displayed names, though Amy could not guess why.
"Where are we?" asked Cross.
"Somewhere in Ayashakai, with any luck," said Alexander. He turned and closed the port-gate leading back to Shuzen Castle, and Amy flinched as he kicked the handle repeatedly until it snapped and clattered to the floor. There was a peculiar wooshing sound, like air rushing to fill a vacuum, or a powerful draft blowing through a tiny gap. Satisfied, the captain pried the door open again. The tunnel was gone, replaced by a blank wall that seemed as solid as the other walls in the room.
"I suspected that would happen," said Alexander. He almost seemed pleased with himself.
Hayden clapped in approval and said, "Nice one, boss. That'll keep those blood-sucking assholes off our six."
"What if we have to go back that way?" asked Amy.
"What could be here that will make us want to go back that way?" countered Alexander. "Baranov, go and scout the area. We need to find out exactly where we are, and plan our next move."
Baranov nodded and stalked out of the chamber, his weapons held at the ready. Amy knew little about him, and despite his blunt, unfriendly demeanor, he had proven to be a very capable soldier. Even before the UNSOG's discovery and capture, he had kept to himself, conversing only with Alexander, Nanahara and the late Lieutenant Magnusson, who had died during the raid.
"What do we do if there are guards here?" asked Amy.
All of the soldiers looked at her as if she was an idiot. She mentally cursed herself for asking such a stupid question. What would soldiers do when faced with hostile opposition?
Before anyone could utter a word to answer her, Baranov began shouting nearby in Russian.
Cal's Annotations
* - The UN actually has a unit designated UNSOG (United Nations Special Operations Group), but the UNSOG in this story is a completely different unit. The United Nations Studies and Observation Group is a fictional military unit which does not exist in real life, nor in the Rosario + Vampire manga itself.
** - I was planning to explain this later, but I think it would be more appropriate to explain it here and now. Port-gates (Celt's term - I prefer to just call them portals) operate using a Space Transfer Technique similar to that used by Kamiya Kanade in Chapter 21 (Season II) of the manga, linking two places through a seperate dimension. Door-pattern portals require a key to function properly: without inserting a key into the portal's lock prior to opening it, the user will have to cross the default trans-dimensional corridor linking it to its counterpart. The action of inserting the key and turning it minimizes this corridor by warping space and physically connects the two doorways. Destroying the lock mechanism of either portal causes the corridor to collapse and renders both doors redundant, as proven by Alexander. The displacement of energy sensed by Yukari in the previous chapter was the fallout of a dimensional corridor's abrupt destruction.
Dun-dun-duuunnn! So it was Baranov who found Tsukune and Yukari. He's Russian, by the way. Amy and Vokes are Canadian, Hayden is American, Cross and Alexander are British, Nanahara is Japanese, and Jackson and Moore are Australian. Their nationalities aren't important, but it justifies some of the tension between certain characters
Things have been going smoothly so far for the humans, but now that they're encountered Tsukune, how long will their luck last?
In the words of the late Simon "Ghost" Riley from Modern Warfare 2: "It's gonna get bloody."
Stay tuned! :)
