Chapter 4 – Who Are These Girls?

8:30 PM, Saturday August 8th, 2009

"Well whatever…" I think to Kanetsugu. "I'm going to go to the Tama River. I'll see you guys in a few hours."

"Yeah, see you." The entire Kazama Family says; synchronized and still partly in shock.

I walk off from the Dorm grounds and head to the Tama River banks, with blood still seeping out of the area of my gum that I bit too hard.

"Damn, I can't believe it's still bleeding this profusely." I say to no one in particular

I suddenly bump into someone else; who I can tell is a woman, and I send both of us onto the ground in opposite directions.

"Damnit, what is with me and bumping into people recently?" I ask out loud and stand back up. "Sorry about that, let me help you up."

"Look out!" Kanetsugu says to me. "You're about to get thrown!"

As soon as Kanetsugu says that, the woman springs her arms up and grabs me and throws me into a wall.

"Ouch." I say to the woman and jump back on my feet. "What the hell was that for!?"

"Hmph." The woman says "I'm surprised a mere human can even stand after taking a hit like that."

"Pfft, are you serious?" I ask her. "I've had a lot worse happen to me."

"Oh?" The woman says "Care to explain?"

"No, I don't even know you're name, so why should I tell you anything else?" I ask her.

"I can tell that you're sharp." The woman says. "Very well, my name is Moka."

"Moka, huh?" I ask her and examine her. "She's a bit taller than me with long silver-whiteish hair and red eyes, like a vampire or something, but vampires are just folklore."

I start to tell her my name, but my mouth is full of blood before I can start talking, so I spit all the blood out of my mouth. "My name's Yamato. Pleased to meet you, and don't throw my ass again, that hurts."

I can tell that she's resisting something, like the urge to suck up the blood that I just spit out or something.

She then takes another step closer and says "Say, do you know of a person named Tsukune Aono?"

"-! She means the Tsukune that just transferred here on Friday?" I ask Kanetsugu.

"Yes, precisely." He replies. "I get the same feeling around her that I did from Tsukune, that's she's hiding something."

"So can I trust her to tell her or not?" I ask Kanetsugu.

"I'd say the best course is to say 'Maybe' and see how she reacts." Kanetsugu replies.

"Yeah, I was thinking about the same thing." I say to Kanetsugu.

"Tsukune Aono…." I begin to say. "I think I've heard that name before."

She nearly jumps when I say and she takes another step closer, almost directly in my face, and asks "Where? Where is he!?"

"Erm, for one, can you take a step or two back?" I ask and she takes a step back. "Okay, I'll tell you if you say why you're looking for him."

"I'm his cousin, and I was worried when he changed schools so suddenly, so I went here to go see him." Moka says.

"Bullshit." I think to Kanetsugu. "It's bullshit, isn't it?"

"You're spot on." Kanetsugu says.

"You want to start telling me the real reason why you're looking for Tsukune?" I ask her.

She jumps at this question, proving the fact that she's spouting lies, but she acts calm and says "I just told you why."

"First of all, you two look nothing alike, so I can't believe that he's your cousin, second of all, you jumped when I asked my previous question, proving my point that your bullshitting me, and third of all, if you were his cousin, you would have shown up sooner, like right after he moved here, and it's already been two days, so I know for a fact that you had to find him, and if you guys were truly family, he wouldn't hide where he's going from you."

Moka sighs and says "Damn, you really are sharp; fine, you got me. I'm one of his friends from his old school, and I wanted to bring him back."

"You see? I don't think he's going to change his mind, but if you told me the truth in the beginning, I would have taken you to him sooner." I reply.

My phone goes off after I say that and I say "Hold on, Moka."

I answer the phone to find Tsukune on the other line, and say "Oh, hey, what's up?"

"I'll make this short, so just listen to me." Tsukune says. "If you meet any women named Moka, Mizore, Kurumu, Yukari, or Rubi, do NOT tell them where I'm living."

"Damn man." I remark. "Seems like you got some harem going on or something."

"I did in my old school, until I got expelled." Tsukune replies.

"Oh yeah, I found one of the ones you're talking about. She's right in front of me."

"WHAT?!" Tsukune yells into the phone. "Did she hurt you?"

"I got thrown into a wall, so not really. The only result was that my gum started to bleed again." I say in a low voice and spit blood out of my mouth.

"Get out of there as fast as you can!" Tsukune exclaims. "She can and might actually kill you if you don't tell her where I'm at, so get a head start while you can."

"Well, running away is the best thing that I can do in combat." I say, half-proud of my escaping skills.

"Shit, after what I saw today, I wouldn't be surprised if you could teleport or something." Tsukune jokes into the phone.

"Yeah, tell me about it." I reply. "I wouldn't be that surprised either."

"Sadly, you can't teleport." Kanetsugu says to me.

"Damn, that'd be cool if I could." I reply back.

"Sorry Moka, something came up and I got to go." I say, pretty much telling the truth. "I might tell you again later if I meet you again."

I start to wander aimlessly, noticing that I'm being trailed, but I play along and walk all over town for about an hour, when I eventually stop and say "Come on out; I know you've been following me for an hour."

"Damn." says the voice hiding in a bush. "How did you know I was following you?"

The person walks out of a bush, who is a blue-haired woman a bit shorter than me with some huge breasts.

"Damn, those tits are huge." Kanetsugu says to me.

"Oi, stop having dirty thoughts in public." I say to Kanetsugu. "Save it for when we're alone, we don't know if she can hear you or not."

"I can pretty much assume what you want, but what do you want?" I ask her, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, if you know what I'm going to ask you, why do I have to ask you in the first place?" She asks wittingly.

"Because if you don't, I'm just going to keep walking and ignore you, and you won't even get an answer in the first place." I reply.

"Damn, you're sharp." She says. "Very well, my name is Kurumu, and I'm looking for a man named Tsukun-. Hey! Where'd you go!?"

I was already running away by the time she told me her name.

"Well, now Moka and that woman named Kurumu are going to know that I'm suspicious." I say to Kanetsugu.

"Yeah, you better watch out for the rest of Tsukune's harem." Kanetsugu replies.

I pick up my phone and call Tsukune, and after a few rings he pick up.

"Hello? Who is th-." He tries to say, but I cut him off mid-sentence.

"I found another one." I say in a low voice.

"Yamato? Who did you find?"

"Starts with a K." I say. "I don't want to say it out loud, as they might be watching me."

"Kurumu you mean?" Tsukune asks.

"Yep, she was following me, so I wandered aimlessly around Kawakami with her following me for an hour to punish her."

"Watch out!" Kanetsugu suddenly says. "Something's coming for you, I don't know what though!"

I turn around to see some sort of card flying at me, and catch it between my fingers.

"Got to go." I say and hang up the phone.

"What the hell is this thing?" I ask and throw it on the ground, and it makes a loud clank. "Well, whatever that thing is, it's got to be made of metal, probably iron."

Three more of those strange cards fly at me, but I dodge them with ease and stand there, puzzled, asking Kanetsugu "Where the hell are they coming from?"

"They're coming from down the street, due to the lack of an angle of the card." Kanetsugu replies.

"Yeah, but this street is empty, so where the hell is this person that's flying these cards at me?" I ask Kanetsugu.

I cautiously walk down the street when I slightly detect someone's presence in a nearby alley, so I poke my head around, only to glimpse at some person and another card flying at me, but I pull by head back in time.

"Who the hell's back there flying those damn cards at me?" I ask the figure in the alley.

The figure doesn't respond, so I rush into the alleyway, knowing it's a trap, only to find a small girl and three of those cards flying at me again.

I dodge the first two, but the third one jabs into my right leg.

"Ow! Damnit, what the hell did I do to deserve a metallic card in my leg!?" I ask the small girl, with anger and irritation.

The girl snickers and says "That's what you get for running away! Now we've got you trapped."

"Oh well, if you think that you, that woman Kurumu hiding in that empty garbage can, and Moka that waiting on the roof to the building on my right, with someone else on the building to the left, you're underestimating me." I say.

I hear the empty garbage can fall over, and sure enough, Kurumu falls out of it, saying "How the hell did you know I was in here?"

"I know this town, and I do different kinds of work, like capturing some petty criminals and stuff, not only am I known as the Tactician, so I know all the places that are good for ambushes in Kawakami. You chose a fairly good one, but I can easily escape."

As expected, Moka and some other woman jumps from the top of the buildings to my left and right behind me, and they think they have me cornered.

"You're surrounded, give up!" Moka says to me.

"Erm, even if I was completely surrounded by an army, I wouldn't give up; I'm just that kind of person. If you want to fight, let me get this damned card out of my leg first."

I sit on my left foot and jerk the card out of my leg and throw lightly to the small girl, and say "I'm pretty sure that's yours."

"Okay, there's Moka and that other woman behind me, and Kurumu and the small girl in front of me, how do I get out of this one?" I say to Kanetsugu.

"Sorry, I don't know, brute force maybe?" Kanetsugu replies.

"Well, I guess so." I say to Kanetsugu.

"I guess we have to get out of our human form for this, as he won't be easy to take down." Kurumu says, and grows a tail, wings, and long nails.

The small girl pulls out a wand, while the woman behind me turns her hands into sharp icicles and says "looks like I'll have to freeze him to stop him."

"Huh… This is…. Strange." I say kind of puzzled at the situation. "What, are you guys Youkai or something?"

"Erm, you hit the nail on the head on that one." Kurumu says. "A weak human like you stands no chance against us!"

"Huh… I guess they do exist after all…" I say calmly, not the least bit scared.

"What, are you scared?" the small girl says.

"Not the slightest, I normally don't like fighting, but this seems like it'll be an unavoidable fight." I say with no fear in me. "By the way, those are Tarot cards, aren't they? How did you turn them into iron?"

"Wow, for a human your pretty good, and I can turn them into iron because I'm a witch!" the small girl explains. "I'm Yukari, the small witch!"

"Okay then, now for Kurumu, I can tell that she's a succubus." I say.

"Wow, how'd you know?" Kurumu asks. "That's good for a human."

"I know a good bit of mythology, but I guess you can't call it mythology anymore, no?" I reply.

"I'm Mizore, the snow woman." Mizore explains.

"Hmm, I think I've heard a small amount about you, you usually encase your "chosen one" in ice, correct?"

"Correct, you actually know a fair amount about Youkai." Mizore replies.

"Now for Moka, silver-whiteish hair, red eyes, fangs like that, not only how you're reacting to the blood seeping out of my leg from that damn iron Tarot card, you're a vampire. A strong one, I could tell ever since you threw me into that wall."

"I still don't see how you're still standing after that." Moka replies. "You're a human, aren't you?"

"Last time I checked, I'm pretty sure I was." I reply with a joke.

"I know how I can get out now, but it'll hurt like hell." I say to Kanetsugu.

"How exactly do you plan to do that?" Kanetsugu asks.

"Simple, she looks like she can send people airborne, just when she kicks upward or something that similar, let me take the blow and I'll fly up to the roof of one of these buildings and be able to make my escape." I explain to Kanetsugu.

"How the hell can a human stand up after taking one of Moka's attacks? I can barely stand after one of those!" Kurumu exclaims.

"It's simple; just take worse punishment like I have." I reply.

"Just what kind of punishment have you been through then?" Moka asks again.

"Okay, since everyone but that woman named Rubi is here from Tsukune's harem, I'll tell you where he is if you beat me. I'll let you guys even gang up on me 4vs1, and I'll even tell you guys what I've been through, since you guys seem so interested in it."

"Okay, let's go!" Kurumu and Mizore yell and attack at the same time, but they are slower than I expected.

"You're too slow! I can see those attacks!" I say and dodge Mizore's attack, but I grab Kurumu's right hand and throw her over my shoulder with no difficulty.

"Ouch, having such a difficult time, on a human!?" Kurumu says as she gets back up. "Yukari! Use your Tarot cards!"

After hearing that, she sends more iron Tarot cards after me again, but I catch two of them in my hand and dodge the rest, and throw them back at her.

Yukari barely manages to dodge the Tarot cards and says "Hey! That's not fair!"

"What's not fair about using the enemy's weapons against them?" I ask her. "If you're able to use your enemy's weapons, you can double your armory and potentially double your damage."

Mizore rushes at me, with Kurumu a bit far behind, so I decide to let Mizore get closer and attack.

Mizore attacks, but I dodge and counter with a leg sweep, leaving her open for a suplex, and I suplex her into Kurumu.

"Damnit, this guy is unbelievably strong for a human!" Mizore & Kurumu exclaim at the same time.

"Shit, if you're having a hard time with me, Nee-san would completely destroy you guys." I say. "Why are you just standing there Moka, shouldn't you be joining them?"

"I'll join in when the other three are defeated." She says.

"If you insist…" I say and throw Yukari into both Mizore and Kurumu as they charge at me.

"Ugh… We're defeated… Get 'em Moka!" The defeated three say simultaneously.

Moka sighs and says. "For you guys to outnumber him three to one and still lose to a human… I'm disappointed in you."

She walks into the battle and says "Know your place!" and kicks upward.

"Here we go! That's what I wanted!" I think to myself and let the blow connect, sending me airborne.

"This is fun!" I yell to them and land on my feet on one of the top of the buildings of the alley.

"Thanks for the lift up here! I was waiting for an attack like that to escape!"

"What!? You were waiting to be sent airborne?" Moka asked in a surprised tone.

"Yeah, and that's just a plan I created off the top of my head! Don't mess with a Tactician!" I yell to them and act like I escaped the area, but I'm still on the rooftop, wanting to listen in on the conversation.

"Well, that was kind of... unexpected." Kurumu finally says to break the silence. "To think that someone is that much of a fool to intentionally take a direct upper-kick from Moka to stand up; let alone escape, is unexpected."

"Well, it's obvious he's not a normal human, but he clearly isn't a Youkai, so what the hell is he?" Yukari asks the rest of them.

"Should we tail him? I want to freeze him and make sure he'll never be warm again after freezing me." Mizore says.

"Yeah, I'm going to make him one of my slaves when I get a hold of him." Kurumu says.

"Oi, that's not nice. Even if you are a succubus, turning people into slaves and encasing them in ice is going too far for just beating you." I say and jump off the roof of the five-story building I'm on, landing on my feet and unhurt. "So, how about we go for Round 2?"

"Wait, didn't you just run away? What the hell are you doing here?" Yukari asks me.

"Well, that was my original intention, but I decided to just stay there and listen in to your conversation, and I wasn't even hiding my presence, you guys should have easily detected me." I explain.

"Indeed, I detected your presence up there; that's why I didn't say anything." Moka says.

"Anyway, anybody up for Round 2? I'm as ready as I'll ever be." I say without getting into a fighting stance.

"We'll let Moka take this one, and don't run away this time." Kurumu says.

"Hmph, puny human, know your place!" she exclaims and does another upper-kick to my face.

"You know, going airborne like that was fun, so I'm not even going to try and dodge this one." I say and remain motionless, taking the kick and start flying in the air.

"Again… He intentionally let himself get kicked again… What the hell is this idiot thinking?" Mizore & Yukari ask.

"This is REALLY fun!" I say while soaring through the air, and prepare an impact roll for my landing.

"Okay, after the impact roll, I will test her speed and evasion." I think to myself.

Just before I hit the ground, I perform an impact roll right when I touch the ground, and jump to my feet.

"I would ask you to do that again, because that was fun, but I doubt you will if I ask you." I say and close distance between us and throw a simple, but fast punch to her, and she dodges it fairly easy.

"Is that all you have?" Moka asks me. "If so, you've done it now." She performs an extremely fast kick, but it's fairly easy for me to dodge, and I do a light punch into her arm as a counterattack to show her that she's too slow.

"Come on." I reply. "I'm barely even trying here."

Moka takes a stop back and say "For some human to be triumphing over me when he's barely trying… Very well, I shall go all out now."

"Okay." I say. "But I'm going to get pissed off if I collide into more walls."

We both remain motionless after saying that, and we end up standing there for a good three minutes without either of us moving.

"If you're not going to fight; I'm just going to walk away. There's no point in me standing around." I say and yawn, showing my signs of boredom.

As soon as I yawn, Moka rushes at me and tries to upper-cut me, but I simply sidestep it and don't try to attack her.

"You're really boring me, you know that?" I say to Moka, with a bored look on my face.

Moka, who is clearly frustrated, tries for a barrage of punches, but they are too slow and I merely duck under the punches and counterattack by picking her up by her legs and putting her on my shoulders.

"Come on, if you're going to hit me, now's the time to do it." I say, still bored.

Moka jumps off my shoulders with a frown on her face and throws a lightning fast straight, which I am unable to dodge in time, and I'm sent backwards into a wall.

"You pissed me off now. I told you not to throw me into more walls." I say and stand up. "Okay, time to finish this."

"What?! You can still stand after that attack?" Moka asks me.

"Yeah, I've had worse done to me." I say and punch her in the stomach and throw her into a mattress in the alley.

"Okay, I'm out of here now." I say and start walking out of the alley.

"Wait, it's not over yet!" Moka says while she staggers to her feet.

"Yes, it is over, but tell you what, if you guys can defeat me next time we all meet, I'll tell you where he is, and he won't even try to tell you guys where he is, he even gave me specific instructions to steer clear of you guys." I say and turn out of the alley.

"So, was she actually going all-out on me?" I ask Kanetsugu.
"She wasn't, I'd say she was putting about 50% of what she could have." Kanetsugu replies.

"Well, I wonder what will happen next time we meet." I say to Kanetsugu while walking back to the Shimazu Dorm, but stop and say "Hey, you guys lost, stop following me." To the figures following me that I detected were the four I just beat.

"Actually, I never lost, I wasn't even fighting in the first place." Says the figure behind me.

"Rubi, you're not getting the information where Tsukune is from me; if you fought me back when the other four fought me, you might have won and I would have told you, but you all lost; give up." I reply to Rubi.

"How do you know my name?" Rubi asks me.

"I knew the names of all of you in Tsukune's harem, but I didn't know who was who at first, but since I met everyone but you; it was easy to know what your name was." I explain to Rubi.

"Why won't you tell us where he is? Do you have him kidnapped or something!?" Rubi asks me, clearly irritated.

"I'm not telling you five because I received specific instructions from him not to tell you where he is, that's all that there is to it. Oh yeah, and tell that witch Yukari to not send those damned iron Tarot cards at me again, one of 'em stabbed me in the right leg and it's a pain in the ass to pull those out."

"You're still walking after an iron Tarot card in your leg? How are you still walking?" Rubi asks me.

"I got thrown into a wall, kicked twice, and flown into a wall by Moka today, a little Tarot card like that is nothing." I explain to her and turn around to keep walking.

"Don't follow me, you won't have to deal with any injuries." I say to her while walking away, and she doesn't follow me.

I go near the Shimazu Dorm when I'm sure that nobody followed me and enter it quickly.

"Whew, what a day." I say as soon as I close the door.

"Where have you been?" Nee-san asks, noticing that I'm here.

"Erm, I'll tell you later." I reply to Nee-san and keep walking, hoping that she doesn't see the wound from my right leg, but she does.

"I'll ask you again." She says and cracks her knuckles. "Where have you been?"

Unfazed by the gesture, I reply "I'll say it again; I'll tell you later; I have to deal with this first and talk to Tsukune about something." I say while pointing to the blood spewing out of my right leg.

"If you're not going to tell me, I'm going to force it out of you!" She exclaims and tackles me to the ground.

"Oi, oi, Nee-san, calm down." I say while I'm on the floor with her on top of me.

"You're going to get punished for making your sister worry about you!" she exclaims and hugs me tightly, smashing my face in her boobs, suffocating me. "What the hell happened to a few hours? It's bad enough you show up at 2 AM, but you also show up with a wound in your leg! What the hell were you doing!? I was worried about you!"

"Shit, it's 2 AM right now? What the hell are you doing up so late?" I ask her.

"I was waiting for you! I was worried when you weren't there, I thought something had happened!" She exclaims with a tear in your eye.

I push her to give me some breathing room, and say "Stop hugging me so tightly, I can't breathe like that, and nothing life-threatening happened, so calm down." I say as I pat her head. "Come on, you need to go home." I say and put her up on my shoulders. "You're ridiculous at times, you know that? Thinking something had happened to me, you must take me for a weakling or something. I'm not the type to go down quietly."

"No! I'm staying here!" Nee-san says stubbornly.

"Fine." I say, not wanting to argue with her. "There's another futon rolled up in my room; you can use that. I'm going to bandage this up."

I walk into the bathroom and take some bandages and some disinfectant and disinfect and then bandage the Tarot card wound and then head into my room, only to find that Mayucchi, Wanko, Chris, Miyako, and Nee-san in one futon, with the other futon untouched.

"What in the hell…" I say. "Oh well, I'm just going to go to sleep; I'll tell Tsukune about what happened tomorrow." I lay down on the futon after I say this and go to sleep.

- Third Person Perspective

As soon as Yamato goes to sleep; all five girls, who were pretending to be asleep, silently creep into his futon, with him sandwiched in the middle.

End of Chapter 4