Take What Is Yours Ch 6
Moka smelled like him.
That was the last thing Tsukune remembered when his wife and mate had held him so close, so lovingly and desperately close. The ache in her voice, the guilty look in her eyes, the repentant pleading of her fingers gripping his shirt to ripping just to get him to feel her regret and need of him.
He really did want to forgive her, but then there was that scent.
That undeniable scent.
It didn't register at first what it was, because it was so faint, so minuscule that he would have missed it had she not been in his personal space...
...but it was there.
It.
That smell.
His scent...
Her scent had become...
...their scent.
Gin's presence was on her now and it could only mean one thing. Since they hadn't seen each other since she had been with her family, he knew she bathed and put on fresh clothes. His Moka was forever altered by his once friends taint. She had thought of him, Gin, that one time, in the hall and as much as she claimed Tsukune mattered, it was her sempai that was on her mind.
Inside of her, Gin's flesh mated with her flesh and created life.
Her green eyes, who he had wanted to see smile at him full of life and shy adoration so long ago, had been apologizing and begging to him when he was wrapped in ropes of chains, hooks of some magical creation pierced him. The sacred act of love he had shared with her, making love, expressing love and creating monumental moments in their marriage as friends, lovers, partners…
…mates…
…was a memory that could never be tinged of its joy for what it was, now was something impure in his past.
She was not a wife anymore. Moka wasn't the Moka he knew. She was going to be someone's mom...
...Gin would be the father.
They created a family together.
Where did that leave him? What did that make him?
It made him angry.
So, so angry.
Not a second passed that when he spoke those words did he see black and his world was pulled from him. Sight, sound, touch, taste, scent, everything that made him aware was gone.
Pain.
It wasn't just the feel of splintered bones, crushed emotions, and tarnished memories but just pain…
Rip…
Tear….
Shread…
Disembowel…
Seductive words echoed in his mind of what would make the pain go away, but he would have to do all of those things to someone he once loved and those around him...
…at least that's what the voices in his head told him.
Reach out and do it… It said.
Do what? He could hear another voice say.
Those things.
She's Moka! I don't want to hurt her.
She didn't mind hurting yooooooooou.
Then I'll let her go so she can find happiness somewhere else!
Give iiiiiiinnnnn to iiiiiiiiiitt!
I'll get over this, in time. I can love again and find happiness without hurting her or others!
Taaaaaaake heeeeeeeerrr! Hiiiiiiit Heeeeeer!
Stop! I…I still care for her and…look how sad she is. She didn't mean for it to go this far and…
Heeeeeeeeeeeerrrrr!
Nothing is worth killing her for…for…
Cuuuuuuuuut heeeeeer!
Maybe…maybe…if she could feel what I'm feeling…
The idea of her green eyes becoming painfully aware of what she had did to him through measures she had taken to him seemed…inviting.
Squeeeeeeeeeeaze her…Maaaaaakeee heerrr reeeeggggrrrreeeaaaatttt!
Maybe it will feel a little better if…if…what's that smell?
The voice changed, turning oddly familiar. Now it was like his…no, it wasn't just his own voice.
Both of them were.
He was talking to him, but one was angry and the other was…
No, himself was speaking with his voice…
Or was another part of him speaking to another one of himself?
Himselves? Was that such a thing? Multiple hims? It didn't make sense, but, yet…
…someone, two someone's was voicing what he was trying so hard to hide from.
One angry and the other had to have been his own perceptions, the one that WAS him, yet…wasn't?
Was he really that far gone in his rage?
Oh, ho, ho! She's got a baby! She's got a baby! Baaaaaby! Is it yours? Is it yours? Hmmmmmmmmmmm? Do you think they'll call it little Gin? Gin can sleep on your side of the bed and wear your clothes! I'm sure he'll be thankful for aaaaaaaaaaaallllllll the hard work you took into breaking Moka in for him! Don't worry, Giiiiiiin will take suuuuch goooood care of her!
Hahahahahahahaaa!
Laughter...
You were just practice! You were the snack before the meal!
Hahahahahaaaa!
It was scary and it was with his voice...
He was laughing and he could understand why.
It made no sense and yet...
Yet...
You were the game to play with till she found a real maaaaaaan!
The voices in his head got silent…and then he heard something else. Something after wards…in his voice.
Kiiiiilll…them…all….
It felt good…felt free…felt like a step into bliss…
Dooooooo...iiiiiiitttt!
Release together…
Cuuuuutttt...thhhhhhheeeeeeemmmmm...
Fall together…
Eyes closed and just…
Kill...Moka…Mokaaaaaaa…killlll…Giiiin…Moka….shred…..Moka…hurt…Gin…Moka…Gin…die…slay…Moka…Mokkkkaaaaaaa…
I won't let you, a third voice spoke, wiser and gentler with a serenity he hadn't felt or even considered in so long. I'll stop you and you will thank me. Even if it is the end of you.
Darkness took him.
"Greetings." Mikogami called out to the seated figure in the waiting room. "I hope you have not waited long."
Large ice burg blue pupiless eyes turned to the voice, one of her many braids of sacred tradition fringing her pretty baby blue locks of hair. Robes of duty and status draped her shoulders in velvety folds of cool tones of blue and violet.
The Snow Priestess reflected her own clairvoyant eyes to Mikogami's enigmatic ones. "I have waited seventy fives years for this moment."
"Then lets not waste another second, shall we?"
"Ruuuuuu-"
She was hearing it again.
"-byyyy."
Had she died? Hopefully. Yes, the spirits had finally claimed her and she was waking up to the world of the dead. The ghosts of her most precious people were going to greet her.
"Ruby,"
See, her Tsukune was there and he was…
Did this place really have such cold and gravelly floors? Rather disappointing. Also, she was cold and there was a draft coming from somewhere. Out of all her expectations of what the afterlife would be like she'd never imagined it to be… well…
…real?
"Ruby, are you okay?" She felt his strong arms embrace her.
A soft sigh escaped the dark haired witch when she opened one dark violet eye to drink the look of concern on her friend who was as she remembered him before he was torn apart like confetti.
At least he was here with her. Had he seen her parents yet? She hoped they weren't too hard on him, but they were good people. She needed to tell him something.
Reaching up, she touched his face and spoke with all the sincerity and passion that filled her heart. "I love you, Tsukune."
It would seem even in death Tsukune could make her laugh. The look he gave her was absolutely priceless. It wasn't so much shock as it was an affectionate sucker punch and she knew it. Ah well, she had all of eternity to make it up to him.
Was that a pebble in her hip?
It kind of stung. She reached out from under her and flicked it away. Now she can enjoy eternity pebble free...until she ran into another one. Seriously the afterlife was sort of disappointing.
It needed fixing, maybe she'd sweep up later.
His eyes took in her confession with muted surprise, but he recovered well enough, sincerely enough. "I know, Ruby."
The pads of his thumb brushed a lock of hair from her face, his willing accepting of her confession set her mind at ease. She could deal with pebbles and cold floors so long as he was here.
"Not as just a friend-" She wanted to be clear about that, she'd never had the nerve back when they were both among the living, now, however, was a whole different story.
"I know, Ruby." He interrupted her with his thick baritone, his husky voice drawing close to her feminine lilt.
"I really, really…"
"Ruby" He ghosted his lips over her own. "I know…I know."
Their lips parted gently, chins raised and eyes closed in acceptance as she gripped his arm. He lowered himself to her, tasting her exhale as he began to seal her lips...
"I see our guest has arrived," Mikogami called out from the doorway, taking in Tsukune's and Ruby's compromising position with his eerie smirk.
With him was none other than the Snow Priestess.
Why was she here? Where they both dead as well? She thought.
"M-Master?" Ruby erected herself so fast both the dark haired witch and her supposed to be dead love smacked each other's head.
Okay, being dead was becoming more and more disappointing to her.
"Ow!"
"Ah!"
Ruby and Tsukune were rubbing matching red spots on their foreheads.
"Guest?" Ruby tried to think back to when he had mentioned something before about a guest coming to visit. "You mean her?"
The Snow Priest kept herself away, mysteriously silent and enjoying the little spectacle.
"Headmaster-sama, what is going on?" Tsukune asked in a seated position next to his watchful elder witch.
"No, Ruby, I wasn't speaking of the Snow Priestess. She's been here for quite some time now." Turning his attention to the young human, he gestured at his lower body. "See if you can piece it together yourself, Aono-san. Literally and figuratively, of course."
At his legs, or, at least, where they should have been.
Catching Ruby's and Tsukune's attention with his unhurried remark, they both looked down to see Tsukune was, in fact, currently only half a man.
In every sense of the world.
"No…way…" Tsukune's hand instinctively went to touch the stumps of his limbs when he saw that they were, in fact, discarded just a few feet away.
He had been sitting on what was left of his hip and leaning towards Ruby to wake her up.
No discomfort or pain had registered yet.
"Tsukune!"
Now Ruby was all too aware she was alive and her friend had to be in incredible-
"Wait, you're alive and this doesn't hurt?" Ruby blinked suddenly confused, even going so far as to poke his stumps. "You're not a zombie like Ling Ling are you?"
Tsukune frowned, more annoyed at her jabs then it actually suffering from any kind of pain. "I don't think so."
Ruby was seriously going to have to see what she could do to get her thoughts back in order. Being alive came first to being in pain.
Her friend seemed to be having just as much of a hard time dealing with that same fact as she was.
Ruby was always passionate about her ideals, loyal, and normally well mannered. There was always this mystery with her, this edge of reality that she could invoke the most serious of disasters if she willed it, but she was also turned by people's hearts, moved by simple acts of friendship, and murderous towards those who threatened her precious people. For Tsukune to be breathing, living, together…
…mostly…
...after all that had happened and seeing him explode, holding his cold, rubbery skull to her body, she couldn't believe that part which was once inanimate was not the same face, the same jaw, but different color with warm and vitality.
Tsukune was alive...
Alive...
Alive...
Accepting that her friend was, indeed part of the living and she was not a part of the spirits who had come to a demise, natural or otherwise, she slowly let herself fall into him, gripping him so tight, so achingly close, that he would have sworn he was her life line to sanity.
"You're trembling, Ruby-chan," Tsukune's spoke quietly into her neck.
Sighing with a hiccupp'd whine, her nose became runny, and her eyes red with the reality that her beloved friend was with her in the here and now, she could only nod.
"Please, don't cry," Tsukune cupped the back of her head and smoothed her raven locks. He could see she was trying to hold it in for some form of inner meaning, but that was quickly lost when she felt her nails dig into his back.
Wracked sobs echoed in the room.
She shook her head and pushed herself ever so much closer, trying to become one with him.
"I was so scared..." Was all she could say.
No one said anything out of respect for her.
And she took her time to some composure, feeling greedy about just simply enjoying him with her again, that Tsukune was real and not some hoax or illusion.
She'd had far too many of those lately.
Tsukune could only hold her and feel completely humbled about how this woman who had stayed here with his remains and grieve over his demise. Had he really meant that much to her? How would any of his friends have felt if they were to know this? How would Moka?
The thoughts of what she had in her at the moment almost made him sick. As much as he was sure she was not exactly cheering for joy, he knew his 'death' would hurt her greatly.
Then there was his mom…
She must be so worried right now, he thought.
"As you can see, things about you are not exactly in the best state." Mikogami said sounding amused. "However, considered what transpired here, you're better then what should be expected of such an event."
Tsukune looked at him questioningly. "Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?"
"Well I am here Tsukune what does that tell you?" Mikogami asked.
"Crap, so I wound up in Hell."
The Snow Priestess's chuckled into her sleeve at his comment.
"Tsukune?" Ruby rubbed her nose with her sleeve, giving her complete focus to him.
No, not hell. Not when she's with me, he thought.
"Maybe heaven."
Smiling at him, she leaved forward to kiss him, and he started to pull her close when...
"It would seem the Shinso blood hasn't fully incorporated itself yet, has it, Mikogami-sama?" The Snow Priestess circled around the room, examining Tsukune's remaining limb and nudging it with her toe.
Ruby, as well as Tsukune, were getting tired of these interruptions.
"True, but I think that has more to do with him not coming to terms with his purpose. If he's not fully immersed himself, then it won't restore him completely. Shinso is a reflection of his own will and mind as much as anything else. Once he accepts it he should be fine"
"Accept what?" Tsukune asked. "I'm sorry, but I just don't understand what is going on here. Am I dead or what?"
Mikogami grinned. "Well looking at you I'd say you're about thirty seven percent dead, but your outlook is positive depending on your own thoughts, feelings, and actions."
"Huh?"
Everyone turned to Tsukune who was now leaning heavily against Ruby.
He had been so caught up in her welfare when all of the lingering scents of vampires, succubi, and Mikogami's eccentric guards have left that she had been his focus, his anchor to see if she was well.
She hadn't been.
Holding him so tenderly close, so achingly affectionate, he had to come back to her, if only to tell her 'thank you for everything.' When she opened those violet eyes and spoke those words to him, he didn't feel as surprised by them as much as he felt exactly the same way.
But, there was just one thing, two things actually…
Ruby voiced them better then he could have.
"You knew this was going to happen from the beginning! When you said you were expecting a guest you weren't talking about the Priestess! You were talking about Tsukune! You knew he was going to come back to life." Ruby shouted, positioning herself between her young friend and her Master. She wasn't sure if she was more indignant that she was left out of his whole plan or upset that he could have warned her that Tsukune would have been fine no matter what appearances might seem.
Mikogami simply grinned.
"She's very perceptive, Mikogami-san. I can see why you trust her to these tasks." The Snow Priestess's fringes rippled with her movements.
"I believe a 'welcome back' should suffice for a way of greeting, Aono-san," Mikogami canted his head a little, amused at the confusing developments that were being unraveled.
"Welcome back?" He still sounded lost.
"Tsukune, don't you remember?" Ruby sat, hip to hip with him, balancing him so he won't topple over. "You were executed! Found guilty because of those stupid trumped up charges!"
"They were not trumped up," Mikogami corrected, "They are very much real and have been documented so, Ruby, however if you mean that Tsukune's fate was also predetermined you are correct. Although..."
Keeping Tsukune's glare he reflected it without concern.
"...I didn't kill you."
Ruby's head snapped back towards Mikogami and then back to Tsukune.
"That HAS to be a lie!" Ruby pointed towards the smears of blood where the chains had dragged parts of his flesh. "We all saw you rip him to pieces!"
"Oh, I will not deny that I was going to rip you apart, Aono Tsukune," Mikogami lost his grin, instead he made his way before Tsukune, lowering himself towards the young man and studying him with his very enigmatic gaze. "The whole court case and event was just to buy time for me to confirm that you were the majority carrier of the bloodline Shinso. I purposely had the succubi sisters brought here to set up a dazzling debacle in which to keep everyone's minds busy till that moment was needed to stir your emotions enough to enact the precious element inside of you."
Mikogami reached out into the floor and slid his fingers across a patch of blackened blood. Bringing it close to Tsukune, he smeared it over Tsukune's arm and watched as it disappeared into his skin in some weird form of epidermal osmosis.
"The runes on this floor was set for every contingency that vampires could possibly use, but there was one that I had anticipated for the sole purpose of subduing an activated Shinso. I didn't trigger your capture in the court, Tsukune. You did."
"Me?" Tsukune blinked in confusion.
"I didn't kill you, though. You exploded from the inside out. Basically, I was holding you in place and you fell apart." Standing up, he took in Tsukune's face as well as Ruby's. "Do you deny that?"
It was Tsukune's answer that surprised Ruby.
"No, I believe it."
Touching Ruby's stupefied gawk, he touched her face. "I felt something inside me go dark, go...I don't know. Very, very wild and then I just felt darkness. I honestly don't know what happened, but I am sure what he is saying is right."
"It just can't be," Was all Ruby could say.
The Snow Priestess answered her.
"Mm-hmm, Oh yes it could if he has the Shinso blood." The Snow Priestess hovered just around them, enthralled with the conversation and unable to keep her own thoughts out of it. "This is such an exciting time. I'm glad I'm here."
"Tsukune, there has been plans set in motion years before your father 'stumbled' upon the application." Mikogami replied smoothly. "Trust me when I say that we knew of the events that brought us to this moment in time. "
"There is no way you could have figured all this out so accurately!" Tsukune looked ready to lunge at him. "How could you have planned all this? Have you been spying on me? Keeping tabs? Did you know Moka was going to do this to me? Answer me!"
"He can't answer you," The Snow Priestess intervened, blocking Tsukune's sight with her own body. "Because I am the one who has been watching you and told Mikogami those plans that have been put into affect."
Ruby and Tsukune found the admittance comprehending, but hardly satisfying to their nerves. "You?"
"Mikogami-san and I have been working together, Tsukune. I have always been very protective of the Snow people, which I'm sure you're more then well aware of considering your friendship with Mizore," The Snow Priestess began to explain, "So you can see how survival of our species is a concern to me. One of the deals I have with him to allow our snow women to come here is to assist him with his endeavors. As you can see, we've thrived very well due to our symbiotic partnership."
It was Tsukune's turn to tremble in Ruby's arms.
"Why wouldn't you warn me?"
It was the Snow Priestess turn to look squarely into his eyes. "If you could decide if the happiness of one person was worth the lives of millions, would you knowingly hurt that person?"
Before he could answer that, Mikogami interjected. "Something else to think about from this future on out, Tsukune, is this. Does a good person have to be nice or gentle? Do good people's actions become justified if the ends subject a few to ruin and yet many more are benefited from it?"
"You're using him," Ruby figured it out before he could.
"No, we're using him," The Snow Priestess folded her hands. "You see, Tsukune, but before I do explain this further, I want you to know that as we all sit here and dawdle, time is passing and one of my prophecies are about to become a reality."
Ruby and Tsukune could only glance at each other when the reality hit Tsukune square between the eyes.
"Mizore."
Nodding, the priestess tilted her head at him and asked one simple question. "In twelve hours time, Gin will arrive in our village to become the father of your friend, Hutaro Mizore's next child. Now, think of what that one question is if you wish to 'save her'?"
Looking down at his legs and then at Ruby, he could only ask himself one question. "What do I do?"