The Fire Rises
Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario Vampire or any part of its franchise. I would also like to thank lord of the land of fire for giving me permission to write this.
This is a sequel to The Unsealed Vampire story by lord of the land of fire.
Enjoy:
Amazing how the human spirit worked. It is so easy to make it crumble, to tear it to shreds, to leave it barren and crushed. However, after you crushed it, if it were ever to be rebuilt, it could become the most powerful force in the world. Something that would make all tremble before it. No longer would it be just some human's weak instincts, poor mind and frail body. It would change, grow into something terrifying. After all, what greater force is there than the one of absolute devotion? The power of blind obedience to an ideal, to a cause. The power that all fanatics hold. The power that Tsukune now held in his hands thanks to his brothers.
They had already been broken when he came, he only inspired hatred in their hearts. Being left with nothing, they let themselves be melted down in the heat of their emotions and forged into a powerful weapon solely dedicated to annihilating the snow people. And to think all it took to reach this level of blind obedience was a single month. A single month to burn everything down. All adhered to the understanding that they may have to sacrifice themselves for the good of the cause but all were ready, all were willing to give their lives for it, all obeyed Tsukune now.
The wives and children had noticed no difference in behavior on behalf of their husbands. No change whatsoever, nothing that could alert them to their true allegiance. The fools, they had gathered them together to break down Tsukune, but in the end, Tsukune's will overpowered them all and rebuilt them to serve their ultimate goal. They were no longer weak, they were no longer individuals, there was no more I, only Us.
The most important directive they had received from their new leader was to keep up the deception, to remain silent until came time to strike. Now, all waited for that moment, when it would finally be time to enact their bloody vengeance.
Believing that the process was working, Mizore and Tsurara urged for the boys to meet together more often. It became almost a daily event, All the men would be gathered together. All would listen to Tsukune lay out plan after plan, contingency after contingency, every time reaffirming their complete and utter devotion to him. Everything went according to plan. Almost everything, that is...
And yet, even after all Tsukune's efforts, there was still one lone soul, one man, one traitor that could not be rebuilt. No one suspected him until it was too late. After desperately trying to dissuade his fellow friends from going against them, from resisting. Jack, the man Tsukune had sent tumbling to the ground, committed the ultimate betrayal: he informed the enemy of the plan. Of what Tsukune was attempting to do, of what he was inspiring.
And so, during one of the meetings the men were holding. Snow women broke through the door in droves, immobilizing Tsukune and the others in ice. The original plan was to sentence Tsukune to death, but once again thanks to the Shirayukis pull in the village, he was merely condemned to stay away from all other men, they assumed it would crush all will to resist. How wrong they were.
This isolation lasted for a week, he was looked away in his room with no means of escape. His anger burned as brightly as ever and his will was unshakable. Spending a total of two months in Hell, his once weak resolve was now unbreakable. As for the others, they pretended to want to make amends but in truth, their devotion only grew, they were all just waiting for the moment, for the spark to be ignited, for Tsukune to give the order.
Both Mizore and Tsukune were walking together through the village's park, seemingly enjoying nature and its many wonderful mysteries. In truth, Mizore was holding out hope that showing him kindness now would win him over after being confined to his room/cell for so long. Tsukune was discreetly looking around for any of his followers, for anyone he could give the order too: Tonight we strike!
The couple sat down at a nearby bench on the side of the dirt road that went through the park when came the opportunity he was looking for: the elderly man, now one of Tsukune's fervent soldiers was walking by with his wife and kids, apparently enjoying their company.
All it took was one glance, the wives were looking elsewhere but both men locked eyes. Then came the signal, what looked like no more than an innocent neck rubbing was not missed by the elderly men, he responded in the same manner in order acknowledge the command. Now all Tsukune had to do was wait until tonight.
The rest of the day went by agonizingly slowly, minutes felt like hours as Tsukune trained once more with his equipment, undoubtedly the last time he would get a chance. He recalled his dreams as he imagined Moka embracing him, both of them. It gave him some much needed courage, but the ache was unfathomably powerful now.
Finally came the much awaited time, it was 6 o'clock, sundown. Everything seemed quiet, eerily silent, not a sound was heard. Then out of nowhere, a spark was ignited in one of the houses. The women rushed to quell the fire. However, building after building started burning, seemingly at random. As they were busy trying to freeze it with little success, men started emerging from houses all around, converging on the Shirayuki house with makeshift torches made from trees located in the park and fire from the stoves and lights, most women were gone meeting the snow priestess for some reason or another as so were too far away to prevent what came next.
The men broke down the front door, stormed the empty house, and finally broke down the door to Tsukune's cell. His demeanor was calm, eerily so as he patiently sat on his bed, awaiting his release. There was a moment of silence as he stared at his followers who had just broken down his door. One of the men stepped forward and brought his hand out for Tsukune to grab. As he did, he was prompted up, given a torch and walked downstairs and out of his own personal slice of Hell, his men following him obediently. The village was burning, some corpses were on the ground, either frozen or burnt beyond recognition. It was beautiful and awe inspiring.
The euphoria was short lived, however as house after house was being cooled down. It seemed the rest had arrived. Tsukune gave the order for them to go into the surrounding forest. Soon, you could see figures dispersing as wave after wave of men exited the area as a few stayed behind, attempting to slow the women and the snow priestess down.
Tsukune took one look back at the carnage as he reached the forest and saw that those who stayed behind would get decimated or captured too fast for the rest to leave.
He quickly caught one of his brothers by the shoulder and issued a command to him.
"No, you must stay behind and give us time to escape, brother." Tsukune spoke in a commanding tone more befitting of Inner Moka than the old him.
Instead of replying there was no way he was going back there, he merely looked at Tsukune with a gleam of understanding mixed with fanatic devotion as he turned around and asked one simple question before leaving to return to his icy prison.
"Have we started the fire, brother?" he asked, hopeful of the answer.
Tsukune replied, still holding him by the shoulder. "Yes, the fire rises."
With that, the man raced back towards the village as Tsukune disappeared into the forest. Rejoining with his devoted followers that had been scattered during the escape.
The village had not been destroyed. Alas, only a few houses were brought down and the rest were put out before any real damage could be done. The casualty count for the snow women went up to about 10 people either dead or missing. Most of the men who remained in the village were captured, some were executed to make an example out of them. Yet, they didn't care, they would all die gladly knowing that their leader had been sprung and would tear this place down. They would die before they talked, that was a certainty.
The fire rises...
XXXXXXXXXX
Protocol was really starting to annoy Issa Shuzen, both he and Akuha had finally obtained a meeting with the Snow Priestess to discuss Tsukune Aono's particular case. As they entered the city, they noticed that a sizable part of the village was being repaired, it looked like a natural disaster had it the area.
As they made their way to the meeting place, they also noticed bodies being dragged around, no doubt being given a proper burial. Though what was odd was that some looked like they died in a fire while the others looked like they had either been frozen to death or had been executed. The pair also noticed that the cause of death seemed to be divided following gender. How interesting...
As they were seated in the main meeting room, they noticed something else that displeased Lord Shuzen much, much more: the priestess was fashionably late.
They heard yelling behind a closed door situated in front of them, the pair's vampiric hearing could pick up a few phrases that seemed to indicate they wanted patrols sent out into the forest. The girl that was requesting this could've been no older than Moka. Another woman was supporting this decision, the pair assumed that was her mother. However, another voice butted in replying they didn't know where they, whoever they happened to be, were, Issa recognized the voice as belonging to the snow priestess. The exchange went on for a few more moments before the priestess finally excused herself and went to meet her scheduled guests.
The tension was thick between the vampire clan representatives and the snow woman. Finally the above mentioned priestess incited conversation.
"Lord Shuzen." she graciously bowed before the lord sitting in front of her. "And Miss Shuzen." her tone was slightly colder as she bowed before the Black Devil. Fairy Tale's attempts at acquiring her land had left a bitter taste, it seemed. "What can I do for you?" she asked as she sat herself down in front of her guests. Once again acting cordial, it seemed she had no idea Issa Shuzen was currently with Fairy Tale.
"My daughter's familiar." Issa Shuzen began, hardly attempting to hide the contempt he held for the priestess poor demonstration of proper etiquette.
"That's right, Tsukune Aono." the priestess' expression went slightly colder at the mention of his name. "He isn't here anymore."
Perhaps it was being late, perhaps it was the way she addressed her that made her angry, all she knew was that when she finished her sentenced, she held out her hand at the snow priestess' neck. Threatening to cut her head clean off. "And why is that?" she asked without a hint on animosity in her voice, it sounded genuinely intrigued, rather.
"Several of the husbands have attempted to escape while we were preparing for your visit." she answered quite calmly, despite being threatened with decapitation if she moved wrong. "We managed to quell the revolt and capture a few of them but the majority disappeared into the forest, we are currently interrogated them,"
"Show us to the prisoners." Shuzen spoke commandingly as Akuha withdrew her hand. The priestess complied and led the two to a torture room located within the confines of the building. There they witnessed a man tied to a chair that had been brutally beaten with blood smeared on some of the utensils near him
"He refuses to talk." the priestess continued. "He says he'll die before he gives up his leader's plan."
One whiff of his blood told Akuha everything she needed to know to break him. "He's only human." she began. "I'll break him soon enough."
With that, she drew closer to the man who just stared at her dumbly, ignoring the two others in the room.
Without warning, Akuha cut into the man's side, letting a thin trail of blood leak out. "Where is Aono?" she asked inquisitively as he screamed in agony.
"I will never talk." Akuha hummed in acknowledgment as she turned to the priestess.
"Leave us." she commanded.
The priestess left the two to "ask" all the questions they wanted to the would be revolutionary as she excused herself from the room.
"Now, where were we?" she asked the bound man rhetorically. " Ah yes!" she exclaimed as she cut a little deeper into the wound, twirling her finger inside after making the incision. "Where is Aono?" she repeated. Issa just stood there, quietly observing his daughter's handy work.
"I will never tell you where my brother has gone." he replied, he was definitely a tough nut to crack. "He will burn down this place and you along with it, vampire!" he spat, only to scream out again in pain as she made another cut on the other side of his abdomen.
"Is that so?" she replied as he was screaming. "Don't worry, I have all day to play with you." her smile didn't seem to phase the tortured man as he slowly fought to regain control and not give his captors the satisfaction of knowing he was in pain.
After he stopped screaming, he suppressed the urge to scream again as he was being cut into multiple times. His resistance elicited a mock pout from Akuha as she continued to dig in.
After a while of this interrogation, he finally let something slip. It was barely a whisper but Akuha could hear it.
"Speak up." she ordered.
He repeated a little louder. "The fire rises."
"What does that mean?" she inquired, pointing her hand at his throat, ready to slash it.
His only response was a chuckle as he jerked his head towards her hand, effectively decapitating himself. Lucky for them, there were plenty of others they could interrogate, they would get to the bottom of this, one ay or another. However, Akuha couldn't help but wonder: What does that mean?
No matter, she would get it out of someone soon enough, she would understand why he looked so blissfully happy when he uttered that sentence. She would understand why he was so passionate when he said it.
The fire rises...