Grand Blue's Roar

Chapter 6 - Cold Tempest

I do not own Rosario + Vampire in any way

The bell for the final class finally rang out through the school. Normally I would put my head down on my desk to try to save a little bit of energy before being dragged off by Yukari on whatever she was going to do with Tsukune and Moka.

However, since I had inverted energy wasn't the biggest concern of mine anymore. Going throughout the school day now wasted almost no energy, well that wasn't accurate. It wasted the same amount of energy but now my body's making my own energy pretty much negated the waste. To the point where I gained energy if nothing major happened, albeit only one or two percent.

Even though it's been almost three days since I finally gotten back from my little unplanned trip Moka was still upset at me. No matter what questions I asked made her give me an answer, if I even had the chance to ask.

Sometimes she would go out of her way to ignore me. It was starting to get annoying since I had no idea why exactly she was doing this. Well I knew the cause of it but I didn't know why Moka was so affected.

It was the fact that I had… relations… with Pia. That was the root cause. But what I couldn't figure out was the reason why Moka was so upset about it. My mind obviously went to the fact that she could have feelings for me. Which I immediately laughed off.

It was still clear that Moka had strong feelings for Tsukune. If anything since the mountain she's been even clinger to him that usual. Though that was probably due to Kurono being around him all the time now. "Arashi-kun, let's go."

I looked to the chibi witch. Right, still had to go to club. Guess I got caught up in my own mind. "Right." I stood up and walked to the door, Yukari falling behind me as usual. I made my way into the hallway, crowded by monsters of all kinds in human form, and started to make my way toward the clubroom.

Now Kurono was another matter entirely. She was now claiming that Tsukune was her mate of fate. I really didn't understand the reasoning behind that since I got the information second hand from Tsukune, it was way too convoluted for me.

Though the fact that she still got nervous around me was apparent, if I was in a room with her she had to be in arm's reach of Tsukune. Otherwise she'd start to panic and look for a way out of the room.

Not to say that she wasn't getting better. She could speak to me know, though indirectly, when I was talking with Tsukune. Which was a lot better than just hiding behind Tsukune and not saying a word.

Honestly whenever I saw her acting like that it made me feel like a horrible person. No one would tell me what exactly I did when I was blacked out but from her reactions it must have been horrible.

At least I could take some heart in know that she acted she usually would without me around. From what Yukari told me she was overly bubbly and optimistic towards everything. Though she also wasn't exactly the brightest she was willing to put everything she had into something she believed in. Hearing all of that I wanted to see that side of her, even if it took years to finally see it.

I got to the clubroom door and pulled it open. The first thing my eyes landed on was Tsukune having one arm pulled by Moka while the other arm was being pulled my Kurono. Gin was on the floor unconscious with a huge welt on his head.

The three of them looked over to me for a second and stopped pulled, not letting go of Tsukune's arms though. "Sorry, excuse me." I slowly closed the door, trying to keep a straight face as horror grew of Tsukune's face.

"Arashi-kun, save me." I heard the click of the door finally locking in place. I turned back to Yukari and saw her pouting.

"Arashi-kun, we can't like the milk cow have Tsukune." Milk cow? "Otherwise I'll never get my Tsukune-Moka sandwich." Oh, milk cow is Kurono. Makes sense I guess. I felt the urge to say that her three-way wish wasn't going to happen but didn't, even if I didn't lose energy like I use to I still hated wasting it.

"If you want you can go but getting in between Moka and Kurono isn't a place I want to be."

"But you have to."

"Why?"

"Because you're my Onii-chan. Are you going to send your cute imouto into a possibly deadly situation?" I let silence fall between us. I already had my answer but I wanted Yukari to think she was making me consider.

"Well, if my cute imouto was to ignore her Onii-chan and walk in anyway then it's her own fault." Yukari pouted at me again. Before sighing.

"Just get in there and save Tsukune otherwise I'll ask for details again." I felt my cheeks burn a little. She's been gunning after info about my night with Pia. I just got her to leave me alone about that. My turn to sigh.

"Fine." I turned back to the door and opened it again.

"He's my mate of fate!" Kurono gave his arm a tug, right into her large boobs. Seriously how did those things even get that big?

"He's my friend!" Moka give his arm a tug, no action for his other arm though.

Tsukune himself was trying to speak but every time he tried one of the girl's spoke and stopped him. So, did his aura only work when everyone wasn't focused on him or was this because of the aura that this was happening? I only watched as Tsukune pleaded to me with his eyes to save him.

"Mate of fate outranks friends." I could hear the smugness in Kurono's voice. I saw Moka fluster and was about to yell something. However, I stopped it with a loud clap. Both girls turned their head toward me. Kurono suddenly grew timid while Moka leveled a dull glare at me.

"Right, you three can do can play tug of war later. We need to work on the newspaper." Why did it always seem like I was the bad guy lately? Though Yukari was usually the one who put me into this position.

Both girls glared at each other before huffing. They let go of Tsukune's arms, which he gave a sigh of relief, and walked to the large desk both girls walking with him. The three of them sat down at the desk, Tsukune in the middle with Kurono on his left and Moka on his right.

I went and sat down at the other end of the desk. Yukari went to sit by me, more for the sake of not leaving me alone. I knew she wanted to sit by Tsukune and Moka. "Go head." I didn't look at her as I closed my eyes.

"Wh.."

"I know you want to sit by her. Go head." I cracked my eyes open and looked to Yukari. She looked conflicted. Probably not wanting to leave her Onii-chan. "We can talk later during dinner, right?" I saw her nod and smile. She got up and went to sit next to Moka, joining into their conversation.

I looked at the four of them, all smiling and happy with their chat. It just served to remind me that I wasn't really one of them. They were all real monsters. They didn't have to deal with results of being an abnormally along their kinds. All they had to worry about in the future was possibly having to hide their true nature from human society if they got a job in the human populated areas.

"Don't you ever get lonely?" I didn't bother looking to Gin as he sat in the seat Yukari was just in.

"Not really." I was. I wasn't about to let Gin know that though, or anyone really. That would require them to know what I am. An abomination.

After Gin had the entire mountain incident explained to him he was well not nice to me but neutral, I guess. He didn't give me odd jobs just to annoy me anymore but he still openly showed he didn't like me.

Gin didn't say anything after that. The both of us just watched the four of the other members of the newspaper club work on making their articles. While Gin checked to make sure there was enough content and if it was appropriate.

My job was to check over the articles for spelling and grammar errors. Pretty much meaning that I had nothing to do until Kurono finishes her section of the paper, the others should be able to write well enough that I shouldn't have to do anything, Tsukune might make a few errors.

With nothing to do I closed my eyes and tried to see if I could low my energy output for a little bit. I knew I couldn't go to sleep, especially with now loud Moka and Kurono could get. Though this is the first time I'm seeing Kurono act so freely with me in the room.

We left the clubroom as a large group, leaving only Gin in the room. Kurono kept her distance from me, using Tsukune as a buffer, but she it did seem like she was getting use to my presence. Though it would be nice is Moka stopped ignoring me.

Needless to say, I didn't really have to speak much with half of the group refusing to speak to me and the two that would speak to me was preoccupied with dealing with the other two. I started to feel like I wasn't really part of the group.

In fact, maybe I should just walk a bit faster so I could get to my dorm faster. Though I would be seen and make Tsukune question what I was doing, he's too caring not to. Though if I slowly slowed down my walking speed I would use less energy and it would be gradual enough where no one would notice.

With that in mind I did just that. I gradually slowed down my walking speed. As I thought no one noticed my slow disappearance from the group. Leaving me alone on the pathway to the dorms.

Knowing that they didn't even notice me missing hurt. Even Yukari didn't notice that I was slowing down. Though if anyone was to notice and say something it would be her or Tsukune. I had no doubt that if Moka noticed she wouldn't say anything and Kurono disliked me bring around anyway.

Though when they did notice that I was missing I didn't feel like being questioned. They would think I was being weird. It made sense though. Being around them took a lot of energy from me. If I wasn't needed to be around them to be happy then I shouldn't waste the energy. It's just like the other raiju say, I'm not needed.

I glance to my right, to the tree line that covered the sides of the path. It was nowhere near as beautiful as the trees on the mountain but they were something. They had their own unique charm, I guess.

I stepped off the path and started to walk through the trees. It wasn't anywhere near as dense as the trees on the mountains nor were there any bushes to tear at my uniform. Making the walk quite calming.

I sat down and leaned against a tree. I felt the rough bark dig into my back yet it wasn't uncomfortable, if anything it was a bit nostalgic. I took in a deep breath and smiled at the smell of the forest.

While it didn't smell like the mountain or home it was still had hints to the same core smell they had. It made me relax even further. It was stupid for me to get overly emotional with my friends.

Of course, they weren't going to pay attention to me. I usually wanted to conserve energy before inverting, so I usually tried to limit what I did, including talking at times. They were simply going along with what was best for me.

Now I felt like an idiot. I would apologize tomorrow morning for ditching them like I did. Hopefully they'll forgive me for making such a stupid assumption about them. Tsukune would obvious forgive me right away, probably dragging Moka and Kurono to accept to. Yukari would pout for a little bit but an enough time and she'll be back to normal.

With that thought finished I started to lightly mold my youkai letting little arcs of electricity jump between my fingers. It felt good to have it electricity coursing across my skin. The smell of burnt ozone mixed with the forest made me feel even more comfortable.

My mind started to drift to the school work that we had gone over today. The math class had been a bore but that's mostly because the work they were doing was something already covered back in middle school and was reviewing it for something next week that was built on top of it.

Then there were monster studies. That class was at least interesting when they got into the different cultures of other species. This week it was golems and their various cousin species. Various things had been covered from their standard diet to what normal golem villages were made from. That had been interesting.

"Hey Arashi-san." I jumped when I heard Moka's voice break me out of my thoughts. I got off the ground and looked to the other side of the tree. Moka stood there, her face neutral in the almost set sun. Was it already this late?

I went back to my spot I was sitting at on the other side of the tree. "What is it Moka-san?" I had no idea why she would come here and find me.

I heard some shuffling form the other side and heard Moka sit down on the other side of the tree. "Tsukune was worried when you disappeared. The others are looking for you right now."

"How did you find me?"

"The smell." Guess that makes sense. Burnt ozone would be something she would associate with me. No one else in our friends had a nose like hers to it would be a while for them to get close enough to smell it.

The two of us didn't say anything else. I honestly didn't know what to say to Moka. Before inversion I just didn't want to waste the energy talking and now that I had inverted while I didn't mind talking to her I didn't see the point. Her entire focus was on Tsukune.

I looked at the watch on my wrist and saw it was nearing seven. Any light the setting sun had given was now gone and the moon was the only thing lighting the surroundings. I wanted to return to relaxing but with Moka's presence so close to me I just couldn't. After all she's a vampire.

"Arashi-san," I focused on her voice. "You asked why I was so mad at you right?"

"Hm, yeah. I can't figure out the reason."

"Right that," Her voice trailed off and stopped leaving an intense silence in place. "Well you see Ura is really really mad at you." Ura? Who was that?

"Who's Ura?"

"Oh, that's what I call my other half. It makes it a little easier than just saying my other self." I suppose that makes sense. "And she's telling me that I should be mad at you so I try to but most of the time I can only think to stay away." There was a slight pause of silence. "I'm not really good at being mad."

I held in a small laugh. "No kidding." Honestly if she was only acting mad she should be an actress. "So why is Ura-san so mad at me?" I heard Moka give a slight shuffle from her side of the tree.

"Well, she's mad at you for performing that ritual." That got my attention. Why would she be mad about that? Unless… No way, Moka was cared deeply for Tsukune. Even if she didn't he did and I don't think I could hurt him like that.

"W.. Why?" I didn't mean to stutter but even as I pushed away the thought it was still there.

"Well, Ura see's you as someone that could possibly give her a challenge in the future. And your ritual is quite a big deal in the vampire world." Ah, that would make much more sense.

"So Ura-san is mad that I'm no longer a proper opponent in her eyes? Vampire culture is weird."

"Raiju culture is weird." An awkward silence fell between us. Guess neither of us really knew what to say to each other. Maybe it was a culture clash or something of the like? "Arashi-san," Even though Moka's voice broke the silence the awkwardness was still there. "Ura says that you don't really like vampires."

I felt myself tense up a second before relaxing. I don't know how Ura figured that out but she was way too observant. Maybe it was when I called her vampire on the roof. Perhaps I put too much venom into the word. "You can't blame me."

"So, it true." I could hear a small amount of depression in her voice. "We should go find meetup with everyone else, they're all worried." I heard Moka start to get up and I got up along with her. Moka started to walk toward where the paths to the dorms where.

I walked slightly behind her, an uncomfortable silence around us. "I'm sorry for dragging you out like this." It wasn't much but I didn't like this silence between us. Moka didn't respond as we kept walking. "Could you stop acting now?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to." Though she said that it was too easy to tell that she didn't really mean what she said. Was she mad at me? Then again if I learned Yukari secretly hated raijus I don't think wouldn't act like Moka was right now.

"You know that you know I don't like vampires I suppose I should tell you why." I really didn't know why those words came out of my mouth. Maybe I was hoping that if I tell her why I disliked vampires maybe she would understand a bit more. Not hearing a response from her I figured she was interested at least.

"Back when I was little after I was exiled from my village it was just me and Okaa-sama."

"You were exiled? From the village in the mountains?"

"Yeah, anyway," I hope she would pick up that I didn't want to talk about that right now. "Okaa-sama bought a house in the human world. Being important with her area of work she wouldn't come home very often, maybe be home for five or six days every month. Though I didn't see her often every time I she was home we'd spend pretty much every second together making up for lost time." Memories of Okaa-sama and me playing at the park flashed through my mind. Then there was the time where I tried to help Okaa-sama cook, which usually ended up burnt.

I refocused on the current conversation "Though with her work some new contributors decided her work was interesting enough for them to help fund her research. Everything was fine at first but when she wasn't delivering results as fast as they wanted they threatened to withdraw their funding. Okaa-sama didn't want that since they increased their budget by nearly three hundred percent. So, she ended up throwing herself into her research even more usually not returning home for two or three months. Even when she was able to come home she was usually too tired to do anything other than sleep."

"The contributors were a vampire family, wasn't it?" I nodded. Obvious the 13th place Moka would be able to put the pieces together.

"That's why I was so surprised to see Okaa-sama on the mountain. I was told that she was in middle of some research and with the pressure from the vampires I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't have contact with the outside world for a month or so."

"I didn't know it was that bad. I'm sorry Arashi-san."

"It's fine Moka-san. Okaa-sama loves what she researches so it's not all bad. My reasoning for my dislike of vampires is entirely selfish so you have a right to be upset at me." Moka shook her head, her pink hair trailing behind the motion.

"I know what it's like having your okaa-san around then having her taken away from you suddenly. Even though she was there for you occasionally she wasn't really there." I wanted to ask her what happened to her okaa-san but didn't want to ruin the conversation. "So, what does your okaa-san research?"

I flinched lightly as I kept walking trying to hide the fact that I didn't want to let her know the truth. "Well she researches some important stuff. She hasn't really made a lot of progress in about fifteen years but if she makes progress it will be important." Why weren't we at the path yet? I could only be vague for so long.

"Arashi-san, you still haven't told me what she researches." I could feel sweat starting to form at base of my bangs.

"Moka-san! Arashi-kun!" The two of us turned to see Tsukune running toward us. Thank goodness Tsukune you couldn't have better timing. It took Tsukune a few seconds before he got near us for normal conversation. "Arashi-kun, what happened are you alright?"

"I'm fine." I really didn't feel like telling Tsukune the reason for my actions tonight right now. I'll just invite him to my room after the girls leave then I can tell Tsukune that and what I really am finally. If anyone was going to accept me at this school, it would be Tsukune.

"Moka-san, are you alright?" I could hear the concern laced into Tsukune's voice. Moka gave Tsukune a nod.

"I'm alright Tsukune. We should go meet up with the others." I saw Tsukune nod and the two of the started walking without me. Tsukune noticed I wasn't walking with them and waved at me.

"Come on Arashi-kun, everyone is waiting." I looked towards Tsukune and Moka, who had turned around to look at me. I gave them a nod and started to walk along them, Tsukune in the center of us.

After everyone learned that I was found and that I was okay they had gone their separate ways. The girls went to their dorm together leaving Tsukune and myself alone in my room. Though it was getting late I still wanted to inform Tsukune of everything.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself. "Tsukune-san." Tsukune's head popped up from his homework that he was in the middle of doing. "I want to apologize for coming up missing earlier. For some reason, I thought that if I went missing nothing about you guys would change. I know it's stupid but.."

"It's fine." I didn't know what to say. Tsukune just heard my ridiculous reason for going missing and he said it was fine? "I know you're under a lot of stress Arashi-kun. You having to hide so much and being the only raiju in the school puts you under a lot of pressure. Then having to go through that ritual suddenly, I think I can understand why you acted like you did."

I didn't know how Tsukune was so understanding. If it was any other monster, no any other being alive, they would have complained about how stupid I was but Tsukune… Tsukune didn't have any harsh words for me. Know I knew I was right about picking on who to tell the truth. "Tsukune, on other thing. About what I truly am."

Tsukune didn't say anything as he got up from his seat at the desk and walked over to me and sat down on my bed with me. "Take your time Arashi." I gave him a nod and took in a deep breath. I felt the fear of him knowing and acting just the other raiju come but I pushed it down. I knew that no matter what I am he would accept me, he was just that type of guy.

"As I said earlier I'm not a full raiju. That fact was only compounded when you saw Oji-san on the mountain." I saw Tsukune give me a nod. "Well that's a real raiju's true form. My form is well more…" I couldn't say the words. I looked to Tsukune and saw no hate so far only acceptance. I took another deep breath and clenched my hands. "My form is more human like because I'm a hybrid."

There I said it. I naturally closed my eyes waiting for the denial, the yelling. None of that came from Tsukune. "Really? Um, what exactly is a hybrid?" I couldn't help but just stare at Tsukune, my brain trying to comprehend Tsukune's statement.

I waited for a few seconds for Tsukune to say that it was a joke and we'd both laugh. He didn't say anything and just stared at me, slightly confused. After accepting that Tsukune had no idea what a hybrid was multiple questions started to form in my head.

"Tsukune, be honest with me here. What are you?" I saw the question startled him. I finally was at my breaking point with the mystery around Tsukune, with the situation being so emotional to me I had enough. I had to know what Tsukune was.

He was decently smart in the monster world but I knew that he wasn't that smart since I knew that he was one of the lower students in our class in middle school. Though because of that I knew he should have at least know my family name was something of importance and questioned me about it. He never did.

Then there was the fact that he thought that raiju were made from pure electricity. Those rumors were dispelled so long ago that I don't believe anyone in the monster world would know of it. The sole reason I even knew that was because I had to grow up in the human world.

Nothing ever matched up perfectly so I could start to get an idea of what Tsukune is. And when I thought I was finally narrowing down the results something else comes up and breaks any theories I had.

I looked to Tsukune, I could tell that he was having an inner debate with himself. Seeing that look on his face I opened my mouth to say that he could tell me at another time. "Sorry." Although I didn't get anything from Tsukune, the guilt in his voice told me he wasn't intentionally hiding this from me out of malicious. He really was sorry that he couldn't tell me.

"Anyway, hybrids are monsters who was two different species for parents. Usually monsters who are hybrids tend to have traits from one parent or both parents. Though at time the monster who are born genes are so mutated that they don't have traits of either parents." I could see Tsukune processing the information. "Hybrids are seen as dirty in the monster community." I could see Tsukune was uncomfortable with what I was telling him. "So, that's why I asked you to keep this quiet."

My room became quiet. I knew this was a lot of information to process so I kept silent. After half a minute or so Tsukune smiled at me again. "Don't worry Arashi I won't let anyone know." Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything less from Tsukune.

I glanced at my watch and saw it was nearly midnight. "Tsukune, it's late. If you don't mind I'm going to go to sleep." I let Tsukune see the time from my watch.

"Oh, yeah." Tsukune got off my bed and walked to my door. "Good night Arashi."

"Night Tsukune."

It had been about a week since that night with Tsukune. Luckily little had happened to our group over the week.

Moka was still a little distant from me however she was at least willing to talk to me now. We were slowly going back to how we were before the ritual. Though I had no idea how Ura was going to react to me since she hadn't been released.

Kurono still was nervous around me however she was starting to see that I wasn't that bad of a person. She still wouldn't get too close to me physically and wouldn't go out of her way to make conversation with me but I could tell it was slowly changing. I just had to give her enough time.

Today was the first day that school newspaper was to be passed out. All of us had to wake up earlier than usual to set up the stand. Although I was annoyed it was almost worth it to see Yukari attempting to stay awake and failing.

I was lazily passing out papers out to passing students when a sharp smell pierced my nose. For some reason, it put me on edge, like some monster that was intruding onto my territory. I never had this feeling before. Then the smell of soot and burnt air filled my nose.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Gin stiffen as he looked at something to my left. I followed his eye sight and saw a student, quite a distance away, walking toward us with a black outfit. Slightly behind him was two more students with the same black outfit. Both were female, one red headed and the other had brown hair.

As he approached us the smell of soot got stronger and the more on edge I felt. There was no doubt in my mind that his guy in black was the source and my instincts were driving me wild, telling me to attack him and make him run away, that he didn't deserve to be here.

I felt a small hand on mine, breaking me out of my instincts. I looked down to my right and saw Yukari staring up at me with concern in her eyes. "Onii-chan are you okay?" I glanced at the black outfitted man who was still approaching, anger flooding me again.

I tore my gaze away from that him and looked back to Yukari. "No. I need to get away from here." I saw Yukari nod and start to walk us away from the stand.

"Moka, Tsukune, I'm taking Onii-chan to the nurse's office, he's not feeling well." The two of them glanced over to us. Tsukune glanced at me in confusion and worry, probably thinking I was getting sick. Moka however showed me that she knew, at least a little bit of why I was leaving. I'm starting to hate how observant that girl is.

Yukari slid open the door to the nurse's office and led me inside. No one was inside for some reason. Why is it every time I visit no one is here?

Yukari led me to the bed and pretty much forced me to lay down on the bed. She pulled a chair over to the bed a sat down, her legs swinging above the ground. "Onii-chan, what happened?"

"That guy in black, for some reason my instincts were telling me to attack him." I closed my eyes and tried to push my head into the semi-hard pillow. "That's the first time I've wanted to attack someone."

"Do you know any reason why your instincts would do that?"

"No. Okaa-sama never said anything about this."

"Hmmm…" Yukari didn't say anything else, the only sound in the room was her legs swinging and occasionally hitting the chair.

After losing track of time the bell rang out saying that class was going to start soon. I opened my eyes and looked over to Yukari to see that she fell asleep while I wasn't paying attention. I got off the bed and walked over to Yukari.

I reached to her and shook her shoulder. "Yukari, it's time to get up." Yukari barely opened her eyes. She sleepily looked over to me before yawning.

"Onii-chan, you shouldn't be in my room. Moka and Tsukune will get the wrong ideas. Good night." I saw Yukari close her eyes again to try to sleep. I sighed before reaching out a lightly pinching her cheek.

Her eyes shot open as she tried to get away from the evil pinching machine. She nearly tipped the chair over before I let go of her cheek and caught the back of the chair, preventing Yukari from having a surprise meeting with Mr. Floor.

Yukari gave me a glare. "Onii-chan that was mean."

"Sorry, but I needed to get you up before we are late to class." Just as I finished I heard the bell for class go off. Guess my efforts went unrewarded. I glanced at Yukari and saw her looking at me sheepishly.

"Um, guess we're late?" I could only shake my head at her.

The final bell for the school day finally went off. Because we were late to class Yukari and I had to stay and help the teacher during lunch. I'm sure Tsukune was even more worried since we didn't show up after going to the nurse.

All the other students quickly got up and started to pile out of the room. Yukari and I just waited in our seats like usual. After enough left the room Yukari got up from her seat, signaling that it was time for us to go to club.

Yukari did her usual routine with dragging me down the hall without my consent. I knew she knew that there was no way that I would run away. She was just going it for her own pleasure at annoying me now.

We got to the club room and walked in. The instant I did I could feel the tension in the air. What was going on? I looked around and saw everyone, including Gin with a grim look on their faces.

I glanced at Yukari to see if she knew what was going on. She shook her head to me. If she didn't know what was going on, then did something happen during their class?

Seeing that none of them were going to react to our presence guess I had to do something. Time for me to push them along, I wonder if they'll see me as a bad guy again. "What is everyone doing? You'll all in here but haven't started on the next edition yet?"

Tsukune, Moka, Kurono and Gin all looked at me. I focused on Tsukune and gave him a small grin. It took a second but he's own smile started to form. "Right. Come one everyone we can't let what he said get to us." I could feel the tension in the air dissipate as Tsukune's words re-energized Moka and Kurono.

I have no idea what Tsukune meant by this 'him' but I could ask him later. For now, we can just focus on writing the new edition

Tsukune and I had just dropped the girls off at their dorm for the night and made our way back to the boy's dorm. Just before Tsukune was about to split off and go to this room I decided to ask him about what happened earlier. "Tsukune, what happened when Yukari and I left?"

Tsukune's face fell a bit before he returned to his normal smile. "Nothing really." I could see that he was lying for some reason.

I wanted to call him out on his lie but knowing Tsukune he probably had his reason to lie to me, or at least I hope he had his reason. I wanted to be able to trust him. I gave Tsukune a strong look before nodded. "Alright. Good night." I gave him a wave as he waved back. The two of us went our separate ways.

I just wonder what he was lying about. Whatever, I'm sure that he'll tell me when he's comfortable enough to tell me. And it'd be a waste of energy just to worry about it. I can trust Tsukune.

Yukari and I had just walked to the club door again. Today was a bit tiring but nothing too out of the unusual. I had this slight feeling that something was off today but I couldn't put my finger on why. However, nothing had happened yet so I decided to ignore the feeling and just focus on making sure Yukari didn't get into trouble.

I opened the door to the club and walked in. I saw Moka and Kurono both sitting in their usual spots, however, there was something odd. The fact that the seat in-between them, Tsukune's seat, was empty.

Yukari pushed past me and walked up to the two girls. "Moka, Cow, where is Tsukune?" Both girls looked to Yukari, Kurono slightly annoyed.

"Some girl asked him for help you flat-chested witch." I physically see Yukari twitching from annoyance from that insult. Though Kurono wasn't exactly incorrect when she said that. Not that I'd ever tell say that out loud. "Being the great man Tsukune is; he obvious decided to help her out."

"That was almost half-an-hour ago." Moka decided to finish for Kurono.

"Do either of you know where this girl took him?" Both Moka and Kurono shook their heads. I couldn't help but frown. Tsukune what did you get yourself into again? "Alright, since I know you three won't be able to get your minds off Tsukune," I couldn't tell if they were glaring at me or not from that statement, "One of us will stay here while the others will go and search for him for half-an-hour then meet up here."

Kurono looked unnerved to follow what I was saying but here wanting to make sure Tsukune was larger since she nodded. Moka also gave me a nod. The two girls went to leave the room with Yukari in tow.

As she walked past me I reached out a grabbed her cape. She didn't realize what I did until she felt a tug on her cape. She turned around confused until she saw me holding her cape. "Onii-chan what are you doing?" I let go of her cape as the other two girls exited the room.

"You really think I'm going to let you leave this room without me? That's just asking for more trouble then we are in right now." Yukari puffed up her cheeks at me.

"That's mean Onii-chan. I'm a good girl."

"Good at causing trouble." That comment got me another set of puffed cheeks. I reached out and pressed my palms against her cheeks forcing the air out. "Just be careful okay?" Yukari stopped her little pouting act and gave me a nod.

"Of course, if I got hurt who would annoy my precious Onii-chan?" I shook my head and pushed her out of the room.

"I'll stay here just in case he comes back. Remember half-an-hour or I'm going to have to go looking for you too." Yukari gave me a bubbly nod before dashing off down the hall.

Nearly half-an-hour had passed by and no one had come to announce they found Tsukune. I was honestly getting a little nervous. I was hoping with Moka's nose she would be able to find him quickly, especially since she drinks his blood daily or that Kurono would be able to spot him from the sky.

Although it seemed like the two had no such luck. I heard the door slide open and I looked to see who came in. Yukari seemed to be responsible and came back within the opposed time limit.

She looked around the room. "Is no one else here?" I shook my head as I went to my usual spot at the table and sat down.

"No, you're the first back." Yukari walked over to me and pulled out a chair. She plopped down and laid her head on the table, her oversized hat nearly flopping off her head. "Tired?" She weakly nodded her head.

"I ran all of the place but I could find Tsukune anywhere." I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. Guess I'm going to have to carry her to the dorms if she couldn't recover.

The door slammed open. I looked over and saw Moka next to Kurono and a wet and shivering Tsukune. I focused on Moka. "Guess you found him." I saw her nod though she had a frown on her face.

I focused on Tsukune. "So, what happened?" I looked him up and down. He was absolutely soaked to the bone. And guessing by the constant shivers he was freezing to.

"W..W.." Seems like he couldn't even speak a sentence without his teeth chattering.

"Never mind. Moka-san could you explain?" I saw the Moka glance at Tsukune in worry before she semi-focused on me.

"Well, I found Tsukune at this lake with the girl." Who was this mysterious girl? "She suddenly said 'Tsukune is mine. If you try to take him then I'll just freeze him so he can be mine forever.'" I feel like some details were left out there. "She went to freeze Tsukune who removed my rosario." She stopped probably letting my brain fill in the rest which wasn't hard.

Rosario comes off. Ura comes out. Kicks everything she doesn't like. Puts rosario back on then leaves Otome with clean up. "And this girl that kidnapped Tsukune is…?" I had to know if Ura had finally killed a monster. Knowing her it was only a matter of time.

"She's alive." I want to say that I'm not surprised but I am a little. I thought Ura was going to massacre any monster that would hurt Tsukune in front of her, at least going off of Otome. Guess that means Ura's feelings for Tsukune aren't the same as normal Moka, or at least not the same degree.

That or Ura has a lot more control than I'm giving her credit for. I refocused on Tsukune and could tell that he was probably going to sick if he stayed in those clothes. "Considering everything that's gone on today I think we should just call it here and make up for it tomorrow."

Everyone verbally agreed with me except for Tsukune who was shaking his head along with shivering making it look a bit odd.

I exited the boy's dorm with Tsukune slightly ahead of me. As usual Moka and Yukari were already waiting outside for us, the other guys passing by staring at Moka as they walked by.

The usual situation happened. Yukari ran up and tackle hugged Tsukune. Seeing that she wasn't going to let go of him anytime soon I walked over to her and pulled her off him. "Come on Yukari, we need to let them do their thing so we can get going." Yukari pouted at me but didn't complain.

With me finally occupying Yukari's attention Moka decided to make her appearance to Tsukune. I stopped focusing on the two as I knew the usual skit that would happen.

Moka would go to drink his blood, Kurono would fly in from nowhere and stop her by tackling Tsukune to the ground and attempting to murder him with those weapons called boobs. Then the bell would ring and all of us would run in a panic to the classroom and make it just in time. I wasn't a fan of the running part.

I vaguely noted the usual flying shape flying out of the sky as Yukari was ranting on about something and her threesome with Tsukune and Moka. I've learned how to be able to drown her out when she talks about that. It was a skill that came with being around her constantly.

Something caught my attention that was moving at an extreme speed from the tree line. I shoved Yukari behind me as I scanned the area the thing was thrown. I couldn't see anything in the forest. "Onii-chan?"

Seeing that I couldn't sense anything from the trees I looked at the thing that was thrown and saw a kunai planted in Kurono's forehead, a small line of blood running down her face. I relaxed my body a little but kept on edge in case another kunai was to come out of the tree line.

This is why I hated not having pure raiju instincts. I was terrible at tracking someone down unless I had something with their scent on nearby and even then it was hard for me. I looked to Yukari and saw that, other than being annoyed at me if her face was anything to go by, was fine. "Sorry Yukari, instincts."

I saw Yukari puff up her cheeks before they deflated just as fast. "It's fine Onii-chan. Just more careful next time. I nearly tripped."

"At least you're okay." I looked back to Kurono to see her pull out the kunai out of her forehead. As she did the kunai shattered and turned to tiny particles that sparkled in the sunlight.

"Who the hell threw that at me?!" I had no idea how Kurono was so loud in the morning. Though it seemed like she was at least use enough to me to act like her normal self. Though after seeing her normal I can no longer trust Yukari to tell me about people's personalities.

As Kurono looked around for the person who threw the blade at them I glanced over to Moka. I saw her green eyes look back at me. I glanced back at the forest line and back to her, seeing if I could silent communicate to her if she caught who the attacker was.

She shook her head at me before focusing on Tsukune who was attempting to get Kurono to calm down I think. So Moka had no idea who threw the kunai? Or more likely she thought I was asking something else with my eye motion. Guess I'll just have to ask verbally later.

The bell rang across the school ground. All of us looked to the school building and back to each other wide eyed. I think we all completely forgot about class. All five of us bursted into a full-on sprint toward the building hoping that weren't going to be late.

Another school day over with. All five of us were walking away from the school building but with no destination in mind. There was a bit of an eerie silence among us, mostly from the information that we received today from our homeroom teachers.

From what they found out the girl that had attempted to freeze Tsukune yesterday had attacked a teacher and was now going to be expelled from the school. Now her name, Shirayuki Mizore, was well known among the populous.

From the rumors, I heard from passing students she rarely ever came to class, if ever. And when people did find her and attempt to speak to her she was extremely cold to them, somewhat fitting for a monster that uses ice.

The problem being that even though Shirayuki attacked and attempted to kill him Tsukune wanted to see what was really going on with Shirayuki. Saying something like that's not something she would do or some non-sense like that. I didn't want to get involved but because of him I was probably going to have to go searching for her since she's gone missing and help clear her name.

Since Tsukune was so focused on figuring out a way to clear her name our group wasn't having our usual banter about. It felt a bit empty. I never thought I'd wish for people around me to be more energetic.

Suddenly Tsukune stopped walking and we all stopped with him. "Everyone, I think we should break up and search for Mizore-san." Moka and Kurono gave each other a glare, each one probably wanting to get alone time with Tsukune.

The obvious choice would be Tsukune and Moka going together since he was the only one that could release Ura. I wanted to go with Yukari since without me she was likely to get in trouble and I as much as I trusted everyone else I was still a bit unsettled to let them protect Yukari.

Though I didn't think raising my point. I trusted Tsukune to make intelligent picks in how we split up. Tsukune looked at each one of us before nodding. "I think Moka-san and Yukari-chan should go together and check the girl only areas while Arashi and I will check near the boy's dorm. Kurumu-chan will look around the school building." I saw Moka and Kurono frown the glare at me since I was with Tsukune. I raise my hands in a placating manner trying to say that it wasn't my choice. "We should meet up here in an hour."

They both huffed at me before Moka motioned for Yukari to follow her and they took off toward the girl's dorm. Kurono started to walk the way we just came back toward the school building. I focused on Tsukune and saw that he was still focused on helping Shirayuki.

"So, we look around the boy's dorm first?"

"There's one place I want to look before just in case." I nodded to Tsukune and let him lead the way.

After a few minutes, I had an idea of where we were going. As turned the final turn I saw the bus stop by the cliff side. My eyes saw a person sitting on the edge of the cliff. It seemed like the person was focusing on the red sea's waves.

I looked over to Tsukune to see if that was the Shirayuki Mizore and saw his gaze focused entirely on the person. Figuring that was Shirayuki I decided to take a closer look at her.

She had purple hair, something that I thought was odd at first until I reminded myself that my species had green hair, that seemed to past just a little pass her neckline. She had some type of white shirt that didn't cover her shoulders showing two straps of black clothing probably a tank top she had under the shirt. She seemed to be wearing a green mini skirt that was way too short even compared to the school uniform skirt.

Tsukune started to walk toward her and I decided to follow behind him somewhat behind. As we approached Shirayuki turned her head toward us, anger on her face before she saw Tsukune. The instant she saw his face her cheeks turned red and any anger dissipated. However, when she saw me the anger returned and refused to look at me again.

I had no idea what I did but somehow, I ended up making her mad. "Tsukune, who is that?" I was surprised at her voice. I was expecting some type of emotion in her voice but it was almost monotone.

"Um, this is Arashi. He's a friend of mine." I gave her a small lazy wave at least trying to be friendly. She didn't even react. Seeing that she wasn't going to react I could see Tsukune struggle for a second to find something to talk about. "Mizore-chan, why did you attack Kotsubo-sensei?"

I saw Shirayuki step away from Tsukune away. "Not you too Tsukune." I could barely hear Shirayuki's whisper over the crashing from the waves below. I saw Tsukune's face hadn't changed from her statement. Did she say it too quietly for Tsukune to hear with his human hearing? Maybe it was a good thing I was here.

"Shirayuki-san," I saw the girl break out of her thought process as I spoke. Her eyes hardened as she looked at me. "Did you attack Kotsubo-sensei?" Shirayuki's eyes softened a little.

"No." Well guess she got to the point.

"Wait, Mizore-chan you didn't attack Kotsubo-sensei?" Mizore shook her head.

"I didn't." Tsukune started to get energetic, a smile plastered on his face.

"Then we just need to tell the Nekonome-sensei and you're be clear!" As much as feeling Tsukune's energy was great I felt like I needed to bring reality to him so we could solve this problem.

"Tsukune," He turned to me a smile still on his face. "Even if she says that she didn't do it Kotsubo-sensei has the authority." As realization hit Tsukune his smile faded. I turned to Shirayuki. "So, what happened?"

Shirayuki frowned a bit before she shifted a lollipop in her mouth. Did she always have that in her mouth? "I was attacked by Kotsubo-sensei. I used my ice to stop him. Now he's blaming me for starting the attack." This girl. Usually I'd enjoy these short responses but now they were just stopping information from getting across.

I went press Shirayuki for more information but as I opened my mouth I saw a black tentacle reach from the underside of the cliff. Before I could react, it wrapped itself around Shirayuki and started to pull her toward the cliff. "Mizore-chan, you've been a bad girl." Seven more tentacles came up from the underside and grabbed onto random rocks on the ground, pulling up a kraken.

Shirayuki's purple hair changed into ice, sharpened all around and becoming slightly clear. Along with that her hands became ice claws. That must be her true form. And judging from what the kraken said this must be Kotsubo-sensei's true form.

Shirayuki started to fire off shards of ice at Kotsubo-sensei but they either bounced off him or they didn't dig into deep enough to do any real damage. Before I realized it, I had my key into my limiter.

Knowing what I had to do I turned the key and flung the collar off my neck. The familiar spark of power flowed across my body as I felt two dull puffs of feeling as my ears came back and the pull on the base of my spine as my tail grew. I opened my eyes as I let electricity flow around my body causing large arcs to jump around my body.

"Kotsubo-sensei," I saw both the kraken and Shirayuki stop fighting as they looked toward me. "I suggest you let Shirayuki-san down. Otherwise you'll have to fight me and you're a water monster." I held out my arm toward him and let large arcs of electricity jump up and down my entire arm. "Unless you wish to find out why raiju are considered the strongest of lighting monsters."

I really hoped Kotsubo-sensei wouldn't call my bluff. I couldn't hit him with any electricity while he had Shirayuki in his grip. I kept my focus entirely on his eyes, hoping to intimidate him and stop some logical thought. Just like Okaa-sama taught me.

I could see him beginning to waver before I saw him smirk. His tentacle around Shirayuki suddenly tightened causing her to yelp in pain. "What are you talking about? If I let Mizore-chan go then you can zap me all you want." I clenched my jaw. He saw though the bluff.

"Tsukune!" I turned my vision to Moka's voice. As I realized my mistake I quickly went to turn around only to feel something smash into my stomach forcing me off my feet. I landed on the ground holding my stomach as I felt pain throb from the hit.

I felt something in my throat and coughed up blood. "Arashi!" I got up and looked back to the battle. Tsukune was looking over at me worried along with Yukari. Moka had her focus entirely on Kotsubo-sensei.

"Tsukune, unseal Moka!" I yelled as loud as I could with the pain coursing through my body. Tsukune's mind took a second to click before he ran to Moka and reached for the rosario. I saw the metal cross part from Moka's choker.

I flinched as the massive amount of youkai was released. As opened my eyes pink Moka was no longer there now stood in her place was Ura, her silver hair blowing in the powerful display. Her eyes drifted over the situation her eyes finally landing on me.

"Couldn't handle the situation yourself fox?" I tried to stand up as straight as I could with my stomach.

"Not unless I fry Shirayuki-san to." I saw Moka's predatory grin focus on me.

"I suppose that is a problem isn't it." Her vision slowly went to Kotsubo-sensei, who was now visually trembling. I blinked and Moka was gone. I looked to Kotsubo-sensei and saw Moka holding onto the base of the tentacle that held Shirayuki. Moka grabbed the tentacle and started to pull.

Kotsubo-sensei quickly let go of Shirayuki letting her drop to the ground as he brought all his tentacles home in on Moka. She turned her head toward me again and disappeared as they all impacted the spot where she was. This was all a joke to her.

Moka reappeared where she was originally standing that smile still on her face. "Go head fox. Now you can fight without worry." I looked at Moka's blood red eyes and knew what she was doing.

She was seeing if I could make myself impressive enough to still be considered a possible that I could be an opponent worthy of her in the future. That hurt my pride a little too thinking a vampire would look down on me.

I looked away from Moka and toward Kotsubo-sensei again. I stepped forward and saw him focus on me. "Oh, so the raiju is going to fight me?" I could see that not fighting Moka was making him feel more confident than he should be.

I started to build up electricity in my right arm, arcs jumping up and down my right arm and across my body. "I told you Kotsubo-sensei. If you didn't release Shirayuki you would have to face me."

Kotsubo-sensei sent all his tentacles at me at one time. I glanced around. There was no way I could dodge them all with the angles they were coming at. I gathered another large amount of power into the center of my body and started to release it.

As the tentacles neared me lighting arced from my body and hit his tentacles, making him flinch and retreat the crushing appendages. With the tentacles away from me I let the energy I focused into my right arm, causing more arcs to around my arm.

I felt enough energy gather into my arm. I pointed my arm toward Kotsubo-sensei and released the energy toward him all at one time unfocused. A large bolt of lightning jumped from my arm and hit Kotsubo-sensei in the chest.

The arcs that once were traveling around my body now jumped all over his body. His entire body became slack as my electricity either paralyzed him or knocked him out.

With seeing that he was out I felt the amount of energy I used hit me and I fell backward onto my butt. I looked back toward Moka and saw her eyes had some amusement to them. "That's how we raiju deal with seafood."

Moka walked up to me and leaned over, a smirk on her face the entire time. I felt her finger touch the corner of my lip then take her finger back, her finger now tinted red. She put her finger in her mouth. "Still like drinking caffeine." Did she just take some of my blood?

I brought up my finger to the corner of my lip and felt liquid on my finger. It must have been from when I spit up blood. "Fox," I looked toward Moka as she held the rosario in her hand. Her other hand moved and something came at me. I caught it and saw it was my limiter. I looked back at Moka. "Next time I'll show you how us vampires handle our pray." She clipped the rosario back into place

Not knowing what to do I just laid down on the ground and let my body rest. My stomach still hurt badly. There is no doubt that it will burse and be a pain for the next few days.

At least everyone is safe. I closed my eyes and let my body start to heal, hopefully accelerated cellular growth can heal blunt damage. "Onii-chan," I opened my eyes and saw Yukari looking down at me. "Come on we're leaving." I pushed myself off the ground and looked toward Tsukune and everyone who was looking at Yukari and me.

Guess I still had some time before I had to go to sleep tonight.

Review responses

ClyxicRyse - Thanks. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to come out.

TTT

JamesFreki - Turns out that yea, I messed up. Arashi was suppose to know about Tsukune being human since chapter 6 but somehow I didn't write that down in my notes. Thank you for pointing this out. I will be editing chapter 6 so that Tsukune will leave out that information.

Again thank you for finding this an error of this magnitude. If you find any more errors, big or small, please let me know.

Next chapter – Lighting Beast at the Oceanfront