Tsukune's House
Akuha had trouble admitting it to herself, but she was very much enjoying her stay with Tsukune. Tsukune was kind and patient with her, she had her first challenging fight in a long time, and the onyx necklace she now wore gave her a warm feeling. Not just Tsukune, but his mother acted quite pleasant as well. She was always asking her if she needed something. At least it was obvious where Tsukune's kindhearted nature came from.
Another day passed by. It was now day five of staying in this town, Thursday. Tsukune felt like taking a long walk to kill some boredom.
"Mind if I come with you Tsuk?" Akuha asked, "I'm almost in top shape again." It wasn't a lie, she was probably in good-enough shape to tangle with Dythe again if he were still around.
"Sure, why not?" Tsukune said, "You probably need some fresh air anyways after being in here for so long."
The two left the house and went walking around town, talking to each other as they wandered, the same way they did when they first met. Tsukune talked about few funny times during his childhood, such as the time when Kyouko dared him to bungee jump with a normal rope.
"Wow Tsuk, that's just silly." Akuha said.
"Yeah," Tsukune laughed to himself, "I couldn't walk for several days after that…"
Akuha went on to do some of the talking as well. Mentioning more about the places she's been to. Most notable was a Chinese forest she once took a hike in. She talked about one of the elegant looking waterfalls she saw there, "It wasn't exactly big, but the mist at the bottom made a very visible rainbow."
"Ah, what else did you see during your hike?"
Akuha paused to think for a moment, she had been there because of a bounty she took, not to go sight seeing. Her target had evaded her and so she didn't kill anyone on that trip, but still. "There was a small village of people halfway up a tall mountain. I just passed through and said hello though." Thankfully that was the truth this time.
"How long did you go hiking there?"
"Well, just two days." Akuha felt a fond memory return to her, "I wish you could've seen the nighttime sky there at that time… where no city lights were nearby and when not a single cloud was in sight."
"Well I've seen the stars out in the country a few times before."
"So have I at that time, but this night was different." The two of them sat down on a bench underneath a tree, getting some shade before they would move on, "The night was both dark and shimmering at the same time," she looked down at her onyx necklace with a smile, it was black while it still sparkled, "millions of stars, just like there were millions of sparkles on the mountain lake in front of me. The crescent moon glowed very brightly as well. It looked like a beautiful sky on top of an even more beautiful river of gems."
"I could only imagine what that would have looked like," Tsukune had to admit he felt fascinated by her description of the night. Despite her being a vampire and had obviously killed others before, being around Akuha felt like being around a normal girl, just like Inner Moka. Getting past her cold side, Inner Moka was bad at cooking, adored stuffed animals, and loved shopping for cloths. Akuha laughed at jokes, was often energetic, and was moved by gorgeous displays made by Mother Nature.
Akuha blinked, "Oh, sorry Tsuk. Thinking about that night again just makes me dose off."
"It's alright. By the way, I've noticed that you've been calling me 'Tsuk' a lot lately."
"Oh… I didn't really notice. I guess I'm just getting used to talking with you."
The two of them continued their walk around town as well as their conversation, occasionally stopping to go into a building like an arcade or a store. When Tsukune's watch hit 6:00pm, they said goodbye to each other. Akuha was in good shape again, and so she decided to return her apartment instead. They agreed to meet in the park tomorrow morning.
XXX
Same Time – Another part of town
The sun was starting to set now. Griggs and Sheckley stood around near the entrance to the town's park. Lots of people were passing around them everywhere, holding suitcases, cell phones, and newspapers.
"Look at these humans," Sheckley began to say as he lit a cigarette, "always going through the everyday motions of life like robots-"
"I'm a highly visible ninja!" Griggs shouted, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
"Yeah, that's real hilarious Griggs." Sheckley dully said. "Anyways, these humans are like drones, as much alive as a zomb-"
"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" Griggs interrupted.
"Knock it off, there's a lot of people around us you know." Sheckley sighed and let out a puff of smoke, "I wonder, what about this girl could be so important that we would have to wait a week to-" Sheckley stopped when he noticed Griggs was flexing his muscles while shrieking louder and louder, "Uh… what are you doing?"
"I have become a mighty SUPER SAIYAN!"
Sheckley rolled his eyes, "Come on Griggs grow up, I think you've been watching to much anime… or something like that." Griggs always got excessively involved with shows he liked.
"I'm gonna be king of the pirates!"
Sheckley noticed that every human within a 20-foot radius all stopped and looked at Griggs. "The boss said not to attract attention! Think before you open your mouth!"
Griggs walked off and stood in front of a lady sitting on a bench. Griggs made the shape of a pistol with his fingers and pointed it at her, "Spirit Gun!" he screamed as loud as he could. The lady then got up and ran away in panic.
"Jeezz Griggs, do you have to do this after every time you watch a fighter anime? You should consider watching something more intelligent like Death Note or Code Geass."
Griggs walked back to Sheckley, staring at him with an unusually cold look. What anime was he trying to mimic this time?
"What the hell are you trying to do, Griggs? Last time you-"
"Know your place!" Griggs suddenly shouted as he kicked Sheckley in the crotch.
Sheckley bent over, nearly falling on his face. "Why you son of a-" he shouted in anger as he punched Griggs right in the nose. Griggs was sent falling over on the sidewalk, moaning in pain. "Yeah, that hurt a lot didn't it, Griggs!" Sheckley then looked up and realized that large crowds of people were all staring at them. "Uh… woops. Griggs we better get out of here."
Griggs continued moaning in pain on the ground.
XXX
Akuha was on her way back to her apartment, remembering the bottle of blood she left there. She was getting thirsty for blood again. Sure she drank some of Tsukune's delicious blood, but she only took one bite to avoid pushing his trust. Still, tasting his blood made her feel attracted to him all the time.
The sun finally fell and it became dark.
Akuha looked down at the necklace Tsukune gave her. She was similar to the night sky as well as the onyx on the necklace. Dark but still glimmering, mysterious but beautiful. Akuha knew there was always a prettier girl out there, but she stood out for them, just like the onyx necklace.
Akuha felt a blush as she continued walking. She was really looking forward to seeing Tsukune again tomorrow.
"That's a nice birthday present, vampire." A deep voice said behind her.
Akuha turned around to see a hooded man with a red blindfold over his eyes. In the past, no one was ever able to sneak up to Akuha. It was impossible to pull off as her hearing and perception were so good, but she didn't even feel this man coming, "Who are you?" she took a combat stance, "How do you know what I am?"
"We're a lot alike you and I." The seemingly blind man said.
"You don't know anything about me."
"On the contrary Akuha Shuzen, I know everything about you."
Akuha felt a bit intimidated. Who was this guy?
"You've done nothing but kill and lie your whole life. But even someone as corrupt as you is still capable of caring for another."
Caring for another? "If you dare lay a hand on Tsukune, I'll kill you!" Akuha snapped. She didn't mean to say that, she just felt it slip out.
"Oh don't worry about him." He turned and began to walk towards a nearby museum. The doors should have been locked, but they opened on their own by an unseen force. "Come if you wish to settle this quickly." He said as he walked into the empty darkness of the building.
Akuha slowly walked after him, cautiously. She knew it had to be some kind of trap, but she followed anyways. It wasn't due to confidence in her own abilities, but because it would be dangerous to allow this mystery man to roam around town unchecked. He knew who she was, somehow.
XXX
Tsukune's House
Tsukune had the door to his house halfway opened when he heard someone rapidly approaching from behind him.
"Tsukune!" A soft female voice shouted.
Tsukune turned around looked in disbelief, "Moka?"
A long pink haired Moka ran up to Tsukune and hugged him tightly. "It's been such a long time!" she warmly said. Tsukune noticed that she was wearing ordinary casual ware in place of the school uniform that she usually wore.
Tsukune was very happy to see her, but he still wondered, "What are you doing here Moka?"
"I felt so uneasy after you returned to the human world," Moka said, "I kept feeling like I'd never see you again."
"Now why would you think that? I told you that we would see each other again after the summer."
Moka blushed and looked a bit shy, "I guess I just couldn't wait."
Kasumi walked over to the doorway, "Tsukune, why are you-" she was cut off at the sight of Moka. "Huh? Who is this beautiful lady?" she said stunned.
Tsukune looked over at his mother, "Her name is Moka." he said, "She's one of the friends I made back at school."
XXX
Town Museum
As Akuha walked up the steps to the museum, she noticed a demonic aura beginning to radiate from the hooded man. It felt similar to the aura of a vampire, and yet the direct opposite. The warm feeling Tsukune gave her earlier completely vanished. She began to sweat as she felt the demonic aura grow. The energy was like a bottomless black hole, rather than being large or powerful. It was like nothing she's ever encountered before.
Akuha walked in and everything seemed to fade away. She turned around and saw that the doorway she came in through wasn't there anymore. Just empty blackness in all directions, with her in the middle of it.
The hooded man began to fade in, standing a few feet in front of Akuha.
"What do you want from me?" Akuha shouted. Something suddenly clicked in her head. A hooded, expressionless man that was one with the dark, he was very renown in the monster criminal underground. "Nightcry." Akuha said quietly. That wasn't his real name of course. Nightcry was a title, just like Akuha was known as 'The Black Devil'.
"So you've heard of me then?" Nightcry said shrugging, "I'm not surprised."
Despite 'Nightcry' sounding like something out of a comic book, Akuha knew he was even more infamous than even she or anyone else in Fairy Tale. She didn't know what Nightcry was or how his powers worked, but it was obvious that she needed to end this quickly. "Hogetsu Jigen-Tou!" she shouted right away.
Nightcry disappeared into the darkness before it hit him. Empty darkness was all that remained again. Strange looking, featureless bodies appeared around Akuha, all with their limbs twisted in painful positions. They all looked at her with cold, dead eyes.
"This doesn't scare me!" Akuha yelled loudly. She was lying, the dark energy she felt around her felt like an abyss of nightmares. It was hard enough fighting the urge to throw up.
To Akuha's surprise, light suddenly flooded her vision, revealing a different room from the one she remembered walking into. Her eyes took a moment to adjust, and realized where she suddenly was. "The Shuzen Household?" she shouted. It looked exactly like the interior of the very mansion she once lived in. This couldn't be possible. Vampires are immune to any kind of illusion or hypnosis, but if that was the case, how was she seeing this?
Akuha turned around and saw Moka and Akasha, standing right next to each other, looking out the window. They didn't seem to notice Akuha, but they looked happy as they spoke to each other.
"Moka…" Akuha said silently, but then forced herself to look away, "No, this isn't real."
Both Moka and Akasha suddenly turned around, frightened by something coming behind them. Akuha looked at what it was… it was a phantom of herself. It looked exactly like her, but at the same time completely different from her. She had a heartless look on her face, a terrifying stare. It sent a chill down Akuha's spine.
"Hogetsu Jigen-Tou!" The phantom shouted, attempting to cut Akasha in half… exactly as Akuha once planned to.
"No!" Akuha ran in the way as fast as she could, blocking the attack with her own Hogetsu Jigen-Tou. The blow connected, it felt just as real as her own Moon Crushing Dimensional Sword. The phantom then side-kicked Akuha away, sending her flying.
Akuha landed and coughed out a bit of blood. She knew this phantom of herself couldn't be real, but the threat of it certainly was. She jolted back up as she saw a berserk version of herself charge at her like an animal. The identical girl furiously thrashed her, it was just as strong and fast as she was. Akuha attempted to block an attack, but the phantom tricked her, performing the 'Twist Step Plucking Hand Strike' on her. Akuha felt herself fall on the ground again. While she could certainly feel the attacks of the phantom, she couldn't analyze it let alone predict and counter it. It was like fighting a distorted physical shadow, looking at it just felt disorienting and confusing.
The phantom charged at Akuha again as she stood up. Relying on her senses of sight and hearing was going to get her killed. Instead, she closed her eyes, attempting to feel out the phantom's energy. She certainly did feel something, as she sensed a concentration of demonic energy rapidly approaching her.
Akuha punched the cloud of energy as hard as she could, and then opened her eyes. The phantom faded away.
"You've got a sharp mind, Black Devil." Nightcry said, "Oh how I wish we could have met under different circumstances."
"What do you want from me?" Akuha shouted.
"Your life, it's as simple as that."
Akuha slowly took a step back and felt her foot hit something. She turned around and saw Akasha, dead and cut in half below her. Akuha's eyes widened at the bloody sight.
"Nee-sama!" Akuha heard behind her, it looked like a nine-year-old Moka. "Why? Why did you kill mother!" It looked like Moka, but it had no face, just blank skin where it's face should have been. The little terror shot at Akuha too fast for her to even see, kicking her right in the side of the face.
Akuha slammed into the wall and fell on the ground, "They're not real, they're not real, they're not real…" she kept telling herself as she struggled to get up.
"I'll show you just how real they can be." Nightcry's bodiless voice echoed.
Akuha tried to close her eyes and feel out any demonic energy clouds, but this time she felt it everywhere. She opened her eyes again and saw faceless horrors of Kokoa and Kahlua as well. Terrifying undead versions of Akuha's three sisters all ran forward to attack her. She wasn't going to win like this, and so she ran away as fast as she could.
The hallway she ran through seemed to be endless. Running in any direction wasn't going to accomplish anything, the illusion just stretched on forever.
The deformed copy of Kahlua suddenly broke through the wall and tackled Akuha to the ground. Akuha then felt a massive blow from behind by the false Kokoa, whom was using the large mace form of her pet bat. Akuha slid on the floor before slamming into another wall.
Akuha got up again. She had to think of something else. She focused on the energy she felt around her again, trying to scan it and figure out how it worked. Perhaps she could find a weakness or way to escape.
XXX
7 Years Ago – The Shuzen Household
A few weeks before Moka's tenth birthday was celebrated, Moka asked Akuha to tell her more of what she know about fighting. Moka seemed to be very interested in the earlier subject of fighting dirty, and ever since, they talked about combat a number of times per week.
"Moka, we've talked about this so many times now," Akuha said, tired of the subject, "what more can I say?"
"How about your fighting style or one of your techniques?" Moka asked.
"Those aren't things you can just pick up."
"What way did you learn it then?"
"Well," Akuha sighed, Moka obviously wasn't going to let this go, "before I was taught any techniques or anything, they had me master my perception first."
"Instead of just telling me about it again, how about you teach me it?"
"Wh…what? Teach you?"
"Yeah, pass on what you've learned. You even said you were bored earlier."
For some reason, Akuha just felt lazy that day. She had just finished her training in the martial arts a short time before she met Moka, and still there was much she had to learn. She had never been much of an instructor, but for Moka's sake, she accepted anyways.
XXX
Time passed as Moka trained under her older sister. Moka was wearing a special bracelet that Akuha had for training purposes. It caused Moka to be unable to see or hear anything. Instead, she would have to use other senses to detect movement.
Akuha made rather weak strikes at Moka, trying to get her to block them. Out of ten attacks, Moka was only able to block a single one.
"No one can fight like this!" Moka shouted, taking the bracelet off, "I can understand taking sight away, but hearing as well?"
"A vampire's sight and hearing is already exceptional, and doesn't need any training to use effectively." Akuha looked onto the hill they stood on, "You must feel the environment using your sense of touch through the ground below you."
"I understand that, but there's only so much the ground tells me. I only know where you are, not when you're about to attack."
"There are still other ways to read your opponent, and you can use them in combination. We vampires, like many other Yōkai Species, can sense each other's energy." Akuha closed her eyes, and felt Moka's energy out in front of her, "You need to concentrate; see with your body not your eyes."
Moka closed her eyes and tried it. It took a moment, but she could feel Akuha's energy in front of her after focusing hard enough.
"Learning how to do this while under the stress of battle will get you ahead."
Moka had to admit it was neat, but still wondered about the necessity of it. "I don't mean to argue, but why focus so much effort in learning this? Seeing and hearing your opponent is much easier, and in the end you get the same result, you know where your opponent is."
"Indeed, you would use your sight and hearing first in a real fight. So how could this be useful to you?"
Moka thought for a moment, even though she was nine years old, she was still pretty smart, "The likelihood that your opponent can use some kind of trick to deceive you."
"Correct. You must master all the senses, to fight on any level."
Moka nodded, "I see. Read your opponent in every possible way at once."
Akuha looked down at the bracelet Moka was holding, "When I was being taught this, I was just as frustrated as you are now. However, after I mastered it and removed the bracelet, my ability to analyze and keep track of my opponent became exponentially better. Being able to see, hear, feel, and sense my enemy all at once. Sure we're immune to illusions, but still you must never place too much trust in just your eyes."
Moka put the bracelet back on. Unlike fighting dirty, fighting more skillfully like this seemed fascinating to her. "I'm ready Nee-sama, lets resume the lesson."
XXX
Town Museum
Akuha concentrated on feeling out the demonic energy. There was a lot of it, but that was nothing new. She focused harder… She could tell it was moving around, even in motionless objects like floors or walls. The demonic energy was like a blood stream flowing through the illusion. She focused even harder… The energy was all coming from one spot, it must have been Nightcry, and she also felt a different energy flowing into him. He seemed to be drawing energy from something and then redirecting it to create this fake interior.
She finally figured it out, this wasn't an illusion, but it still wasn't real. Nightcry drew demonic energy from the dark, and converted the energy into solid forms that he could control and animate. It was similar, yet on a completely different level, to how a vampire would convert their demonic energy into raw strength.
Akuha had never left the room, she was still standing on the same spot as when she entered the museum. The closed space around her simply messed with her point of reference, making it look as if she was moving from place to place when she wasn't. The phantoms that attacked her were lifeless bunches of animated energy. She couldn't imagine how sophisticated Nightcry's power must be to pull off something as convincing as this, but she had an idea of how to fight back now.
Akuha conjured her most reckless, most destructive attack, "Hyakujin Ryouran!" (Profusion of a hundred blades). The attack was a variant of the Hogetsu Jigen-Tou, being completely widespread like some kind of explosion. It was inaccurate and never used in one-on-one combat.
(The Hyakujin Ryouran technique is used in the manga during Akuha's fight with Akasha)
Even though she couldn't see it, Akuha heard the sound of the museum around her being torn apart. She felt the entire building being leveled and no longer standing. As there was no roof above her anymore, the moonlight started punching holes through the fake mansion interior. It began to break apart like glass.
"Well played." Nightcry said.
Akuha didn't bother saying anything back. Making him pay for what he did to her was all that was on her mind.
While Nightcry's powers weren't as strong when under the moonlight, it was still dark enough. Four large black, spiked tentacles shot out of his back and all lunged at Akuha at once, trying to impale her.
Akuha sidestepped out of the way charged for a Jigen-Tou attack. Nightcry dodged her attack as well, with agility strikingly similar to a vampire's. He whacked her aside with one of his tentacles, not very hard. He had hit her to push her away, rather than hurt her.
Reflecting on the entire fight so far, Nightcry felt rather impressed by Akuha. She was disciplined and fast at thinking. "I shouldn't have held back. She may even last against me in my transformed state." He whispered. With the moon shining so bright and the danger of the Jigen-Tou attack, he decided to fight her some other time under different conditions.
Akuha back-flipped and landed on her feet. When she looked back up at where Nightcry was, he was gone. He had disappeared into the night, "Coward!" Akuha shouted.
Nightcry was still in the town, his goal still unknown.
XXX
Tsukune's House
Kasumi had a hard time taking this in. In the past, Tsukune has never been very good at getting girls to like him. But after seeing two gorgeous girls like Akuha and Moka, she was beginning to wonder how much high school had changed him. "What about those other friends Tsukune said he made at school?" she thought, "He said they were girls too." she began to feel like her son was a stranger to her.
Meanwhile, Tsukune showed Moka around the house, eventually leading her to his room.
"Ah, so this is your room?" Moka said as she looked around excited.
Tsukune couldn't believe it… Moka was inside his intimately familiar bedroom. As she looked around, Tsukune felt his stare fall onto her backside, "So big…" he accidentally said.
"Huh? I'm sorry, what did you say?" Moka asked curiously.
"Oh, nothing! Nothing at all." Good thing she didn't hear exactly what he said.
Moka sat down on Tsukune's bed, but something felt odd about it. "Uh, Tsukune? Why is there a huge bump on your bed?"
"Bump there shouldn't be a-" He was cut off when he realized that there was someone else underneath the covers.
A loud yawn was suddenly heard as the sheets were lifted up, revealing it was Kurumu. "I wanted to surprise you Tsukune, so I climbed through the window. I fell asleep when I hid though." She immediately hugged him with her usual… smothering.
Moka tapped Kurumu on the back. Kurumu turned around to see who it was, "Moka?"
They were interrupted as they heard the closet behind them open. "Oh no, I hid too long." Mizore said as she came out, "You're back Tsukune, sorry to intrude." She froze in surprise at the sight of both Moka and Kurumu.
"Hey Tsukune!" Yukari shouted from the window, "Huh?" she made a confused look at the sight of the other girls, "Why is everyone else here?"
Moka, Kurumu, Yukari, and Mizore had all come to visit Tsukune at once…
XXX
To be continued in next chapter
Behind the scenes – Dark metal room
(Just for fun… instead of leaving author notes in every single chapter)
A large armchair sat facing away. It slowly turned around to reveal a sinister looking, armored Helghast soldier sitting in it (my avatar on this site). White text on his chest plate read 'Jabber Mouth', besides that, the armor looked almost terrifying. It had a dark metal texture, glowing orange eyes, and breather mask. "Hello there folks!" he said optimistically, "I'm MrDrProfessor4, the writer of this story." He poked at his helmet, "Sorry about the armor, but I'd rather keep my identity anonymous on the Internet."
"Huh? Only a retard tries to 'hide his face' on something that only uses text? Very well, how about this: I think that Helghast a soldier looks cool, and so I use it as an Internet avatar. Not because they're Nazi-inspired, but ONLY because they look cool… that's all… I swear! One of my friends in school is Jewish!"
"Anyways, getting to the point: I thank you all for the positive reviews you've been leaving. I wasn't sure about continuing after chapter 4 at first, but I feel convinced otherwise to keep going now. I'll keep writing as long as someone is reading. I've actually already got everything planned out word-for-word until chapter 11, and the basic skeleton of the plot after that. A very special thanks goes out to Cooking Samurai as well, for helping to create Nightcry. We both had our own ideas for him, which we put together to make the final product. He's mysterious at this point in the story, but we get to know him better later on. He has personality unlike Dythe."
"Man, I talk to much..."