"..." Speech

'...' Quote

'Hi' Thought

Christian had thought Flashback

"Learn your place!" Inner Moka through Rosario

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC

Alien Watch in a Monster School

Chapter 8

The Slimiest Stalker

"I can't believe it was your birthday yesterday and you told Moka and not me!" Kurumu whined, latching on to Christian and not letting go, much to the annoyance of the other girls in the room.

It was the day after Christian had returned to being flesh and blood and the Newspaper Club were in the middle of its Saturday meeting. This meant they would be working all day in order to complete the newspaper they planned to hand out on Monday. Christian had just told his friends he had turned sixteen the previous day; upsetting his friends as they had been unable to celebrate it.

"It's not a big deal," Christian deadpanned. "I don't really celebrate it anyway."

"How can you not celebrate your birthday, Bro!?" Zack exclaimed, throwing open his arms for emphasis. "Birthdays are great! You get cake, presents, a party, it's so exciting!"

"Yes, well my birthday has never really been a great time for me," Christian told his friend. "It's not something I like to talk about."

"Why?" Yukari asked curiously. The young witch was sitting away from the other members of the club working on a special laptop that she had made herself.

Before Christian could answer, Moka interrupted. "Yukari, I'm sure Christian doesn't want to talk about it so perhaps we should just leave the matter be." Moka, of course, was the only one who knew why Christian didn't celebrate his birthday and why it was a sensitive subject. Because of the moment the two had shared the previous day, Moka felt closer to the teen. She felt like she understood him better now. Despite being unable to admit it, she felt different about Christian for some reason. She couldn't place her feelings however she had a pretty good idea of what they were.

"Moka's right." The five other Newspaper Club members looked to the front of the room at their 'oh so valiant leader', who was currently sitting at the desk, sipping coffee. "You guys need to focus on the paper. Our front page story happened on Thursday, the day before yesterday!" the werewolf boy lectured. "If we don't have it in print by the beginning of the week, we can hardly call it 'news'! Therefore save your bitching for when we put the paper to bed." The teen finished by taking another sip from his coffee.

"If you're that interested in getting this finished then don't just sit there sipping your coffee!" Moka shouted at the werewolf boy who was trying his hardest to look charming.

"Yeah, you may as well try and be useful!" Zack shouted, glaring angrily at the club president. "It's pretty much the only thing you're good for."

"So true," Yukari commented, not looking up from her computer screen. "I feel like a fan-fiction writer desperately trying to please their readers."

"Perhaps we should stop linking this to fanfiction and start focusing on the paper," Christian suggested, sweat dropping at how far the conversation had gotten off topic.

"Well I don't care what I'm doing; as long as I'm with you, Christian," Kurumu declared, latching on to Christian once again.

"KURUMU!" Moka exclaimed, looking extremely jealous.

On the side lines, Zack leaned over to Yukari and whispered, "Time for a cat fight." Causing the young girl to giggle as they watched intently at what was about to unfold.

"I know you managed to get one over on me yesterday since you knew it was Christian's birthday, but I'm not dumb!" Kurumu declared, sticking her tongue out at the pinkette as she moved closer into the boy. "I'll never let you have him!"

Moka expression turned into one of shock as she listened to Kurumu's words. For some reason they filled her with unease. Moka had been feeling like this for a while and she found herself unable to place when these feelings began to emerge

As the two, older female members of the News Club began bickering; they failed to notice a strange boy sitting in a tree outside the club room. The boy had sickly green, shoulder length hair that covered one of his eyes. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and brown chinos. The boy appeared to be sweating profusely as he stared hungrily through a camera he was pointing at the News Club window to get a clear view of the two bickering girls who were now bashing fists together childishly while Christian tried his best to split them up.

"There you are…" the boy swooned, sighing as he looked through the lens at the object of his affections. Removing the camera from his eye for a moment, the boy began to snigger. "Hehehehe, you're so sweet my love, I can no longer stand just watching you from a far. Soon Kurumu…You will be mine." Raising the camera back to his eye, the boy freaked out when he saw Christian and Zack glaring at him. 'Shit,' he thought, moving to escape from the tree before a green flash appeared from the club room. The boy had barely touched the ground before a certain speedster had appeared before him, carrying Zack along with him.

"Who are you?" XLR8 demanded, eyeing the sweaty boy with cautious eyes.

"And why are you aiming your camera at our club?" Zack finished their true question, looking angrily at the stranger in front of him.

Knowing that he was screwed if he didn't think of something quickly, the sweaty boy quickly formulated a lie to fool the two in front of him. "My names Nagare," the boy said. "You see, I'm a photographer in training and I normally go around taking pictures of the school." He explained, putting on a false smile to try and further persuade the two suspicious teens he wasn't up to no good. Taking out some pictures from his back pocket, Nagare showed them to XLR8 and Zack. "See, these are some of the ones I took the other day. I take them to help with the photography club."

Looking at the pictures presented before them, XLR8 and Zack saw they were indeed ones that showed various parts of the school. The boys handed Nagare back his pictures, however they still looked at him dubiously. "I guess what you say rings true." Zack said to Nagare, slightly gritting his teeth. "However, in future you had better ask permission before you decide to take pictures of someone."

Nagare nodded, smiling widely. "Of course, I'm very sorry. It won't happen again." With those words, Nagare ran off; a smirk plastering his face as he laughed internally. 'Idiots, they actually believed that? Kurumu…You will be mine soon enough."

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After their run in with Nagare, XLR8 had rushed himself and Zack back to the club room where they told the other members what had transpired outside, not bothering to tell the others Nagare's name as they felt it was unimportant. Once they had explained he had only been there for club activities, the News Club got back to work.

After an hour of being cramped up in the club room, the door opened to reveal the enthusiastic adviser of the News Club, Ms. Nekonome; who happened to be carrying a small plastic bag.

"Hello, everyone!" the cat like teacher greeted as cheerfully as ever, cutting straight through the gloomy atmosphere that surrounded the five teens. "I see you're all working hard.

"Well, most of us." Zack replied, sending a glare at Gin, causing the werewolf boy to flinch slightly.

"Well why don't you guys all take a break?" Ms. Nekonome suggested holding up the bag she had brought with her. "I've brought snacks after all." Ms. Nekonome then proceeded to hand the bag over to Christian, who opened it to peer inside; Moka and Zack on either side of him.

Needless to say they weren't exactly appetized by what they found inside. "Umm…Ms. Nekonome….?" Christian began. "These fish are raw…"

Of course that was when the bag began to move. "There not just raw! They're alive!" Zack exclaimed in shock.

Gin sighed and shrugged, slightly amused by the little discovery of his club mates. "Guess I forgot to mention that," he began. "There's something you're all going to have to get used to since Ms. Nekonome's our club adviser. She's a great fish lover…"

"And it's best when it's fresh!" the club adviser cheered, fist pumping the air with the happiest expression her students had ever seen on her face. Once she had come back to reality, Ms. Nekonome turned to Kurumu; who was watching Christian with stars in her eyes. "By the way Kurumu," the cat like teacher said, catching the succubus's attention. Ms. Nekonome reached into her jacket pocket and produced a small letter. "I found this outside the club room. It was addressed to you so I decided to bring it in." Kurumu took the letter and read the envelope which said "To my dearest Kurumu".

'A love letter? I wonder who would send me one of those," Kurumu thought as her eye darted over to Christian; who was currently watching Zack slap Gin with a fish for being lazy. 'Has he finally taken notice of me?' Kurumu asked herself hopefully, her face slightly flushed. Without waiting another second, Kurumu opened the letter and looked inside. To her horror, she found no letter proclaiming love. Instead there was a set of pictures all depicting her in less than satisfactory clothing. 'What?!' Kurumu mentally screamed, terrified by the fact someone had taken pictures of her without her knowledge. After looking closer in the envelope, Kurumu found a note from the sender telling her to meet him at the Monster Tree at the back of the school campus. Doing a good job of hiding her anger, Kurumu quickly threw the pictures in a nearby bin before looking around worriedly at her other club members. 'They'll get on fine until I get back, right?' Kurumu reassured herself turning to look out the window. She didn't like the idea of having to leave the club but this was important. If someone was taking pictures of her, she needed to deal with it; her friends didn't need to get involved.

"Kurumu, what's wrong?"

The succubus was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of Christian calling her. Trying hard not to give away that she was annoyed about the contents of the envelope. "Nothing's wrong," Kurumu replied, putting on her best fake smile. "Why would anything be wrong?"

"Well there's the fact that you started acting strangely the moment you looked at that letter you just threw in the bin," Zack pointed out, joining the conversation.

Kurumu paled realising she had been caught. She also knew they would request to see the letter's content. Lunging for the bin, Kurumu found herself too late as a certain werewolf dashed past her and grabbed the item she had been trying to retrieve. "What have we got here then?" Gin asked cheekily as he took the discarded envelope out of the bin. "Whoa! Someone's been busy!" Gin cried, causing Kurumu to go extremely red as tears formed in her eyes. Christian and Zack looked over Gin's shoulders before they both went red too. Before anything else could be said, Zack began pummelling Gin as if the pictures were his fault. "What-?! The-?! Hell?!" Gin shouted between the onslaughts of attacks Zack was inflicting on him.

Christian stood still for a few moments, stupefied by the situation. Moka and Yukari had both picked up the pictures Gin had dropped and were now red as beets. Turning his head away from the other girls, Christian looked towards Kurumu; who was now crying in a corner. Feeling extremely sorry for her, Christian walked over to his friend and kneeled down next to her.

Kurumu was now absolutely distraught. All her friends, and even the one she called her destined one, had seen those pictures of her. She was ruined, Christian would never want to be with her now.

"Kurumu…" Christian tried, hoping to get a response from his succubus friend. Unfortunately, Kurumu didn't reply; she simply sniffled in to the wall, her hands on her knees. "Kurumu, I know this is hard for you…but I want you to know none of us think of you badly," Christian told her reassuringly. "We're going to make this guy pay for what he has done to you."

Kurumu's eyes widened at the declaration. Slowly, she turned her head to see Christian smiling at her. She was so relieved that Christian still liked her, she was so scared he wouldn't want anything to do with her.

"That's right, Kurumu," Moka added, putting the pictures to one side and sending a smile to the succubus. "There is no way we are going to let this guy black mail one of our friends."

"Moka…" Kurumu murmured, her confidence rising.

"This guy is the enemy to all women!" Yukari cried. "He needs a serious butt whooping!"

"He deserves a lot more than that," Zack growled, having finished beating a now near unconscious Gin. "He needs to pay for threatening one of my friends."

"Yukari…Zack."

Christian stood up straight, a hardened expression on his face. "I think we should meet your stalker," he said, his voice bitter with anger. "It's about time he got a reality check."

"Christian…" Kurumu whimpered, tears of happiness forming in her eyes.

"Shall we?" Christian asked, extending his hand for Kurumu to take.

Her diminished expression changing it to one of happiness, Kurumu gladly grabbed a hold of Christian's hand; her face now determined. Her stalker was going to pay…in full.

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At the Monster Tree, Nagare sat high up in its branches, waiting patiently for Kurumu to arrive. He had left his little note at the Newspaper Club's door a little after his run in with Zack and XLR8. He was confident he had made the note persuasive enough for Kurumu not to tell her friends, therefore there was nothing to worry about.

However, he hadn't expected Kurumu to take this long. Had she not received the letter? Or had she panicked and decided to not come? Nagare had been careful not to use his name on the envelope and also made sure his fingerprints weren't on it so it couldn't be tracked back to him. He was very cautious. If this plan didn't work, Nagare had several other contingency plans he could use to finally ensnare Kurumu.

"Hehehe. You will be mine eventually, my sweet Kurumu." The slimy boy chuckled to himself, not realising his plan had already split at the seams.

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Kurumu followed the cobbled path that lead to the Monster Tree. The plant life deserved its name for it actually looked like a giant, wooden monster instead of a tree. Due to its weird appearance, not many people went near it due to strange rumour that the tree was actually a fierce monster in hibernation. Lots of people thought this story was bogus however most monsters were selfish and didn't want to take any chances.

Kurumu shivered as at the tree's appearance, not believing just how big it was. Steeling herself, Kurumu decided it was time to confront her stalker. Taking a deep breath, Kurumu shouted, "Come on out now, you creep! I have a bone to pick with you!"

"Oh…Now that's mean Kurumu…" a slimy voice spoke from the branches of the tree.

Kurumu looked up to see Nagare staring down at her, a sleazy, false grin on his face. His camera was fixed on Kurumu and didn't appear like it was gonna move any time soon. The look in Nagare's eyes was horrible and unclean, making the girl feel sick just by looking at him.

"Who are you!?" the succubus demanded, just wishing that the boy would give her a reason to attack.

"Have you honestly forgotten about me already?" the sweaty teen snickered, jumping down from the tree and landing a little way away from Kurumu. "I'm Nagare. We met during the first week of school. You asked me to take photos of you."

Kurumu cast her mind back several weeks to before she had become friends with Christian and the others. Finally, something clicked in her brain and she remembered what Nagare was talking about. Back when she was set on completing her harem plot, Kurumu had allowed Nagare to take some pictures of her because he had said she was prettier than Moka. (Actually he had said something else but she had taken it that way.) She had planned to use the pictures as a way to get the boys to come and see her so she could seduce them with her 'charm'. However, since she had met Christian, Kurumu found that she had no need for the pictures and had cast them away; forgetting Nagare in the process. Unfortunately, he hadn't forgotten about her.

From the scowl on Kurumu's face, Nagare could see that Kurumu had remembered him. "I see it's all come back to you. Good…" Nagare reached in to his back pocket and pulled out his copies of the pictures he had sent Kurumu. "Now if you don't want these pictures being spread around school, you'll do exactly what I say for the day," he demanded, a confident smirk on his face. However, much to the shock of the despicable boy, Kurumu smirked for the first time since she had arrived. Nagare couldn't understand why, he was threatening her and she was treating it like a joke? "What's so funny!?" he shouted, this was not going to plan.

"You won't be doing any of that!" Kurumu told him determinedly. "And I won't be doing anything for you, because you're going to be giving me those pictures plus any others you've taken!"

"And why would I do that!?" Nagare spat.

"So they won't beat you to a pulp." Kurumu replied, pointing at something behind the sweaty teen.

Suddenly, Nagare felt an incredible sense of danger as an emerald light flashed behind him. Slowly, the slimy teen turned around only to be greeted by an angry Zack and an even angrier Humungousaur. Apparently, while Kurumu had been distracting Nagare, Christian and Zack had snuck up behind them. Seeing the giant dinosaur 'monster' who had taken down a class rep as well as the boy who had taken down five monsters without having to revert to his monster form, Nagare went extremely pale. By the glares they were sending him, Nagare could tell they remembered him from that morning. Of course that meant they were also going to be extremely angry for him lying to them.

"So, you're the one who decided to threaten Kurumu," Zack commented through gritted teeth.

"You have a lot of nerve," Humungousaur added, pounding one of his massive fists into the other.

'Shit!' Nagare thought in panic as the two boys began walking towards him menacingly. "Hi gu-ahhh!"

Nagare had been unable to finish his sentence before Zack had socked him across the face, sending the boy sprawling to the ground. Nagare looked up to see Humungousaur standing over him. The dinosaur like alien scowled down at the sweaty boy, thoroughly terrifying him.

Zack and Kurumu both moved so that they were standing side by side with Humungousaur, joining him in glaring at Nagare. Before Nagare could say anything else, Humungousaur interrupted him. "I don't care that you lied to me," he growled. "I don't even care you were taking pictures of us." The dino like alien cast a side glance towards Kurumu before turning his attention back towards the slimy boy on the floor in front of him. "However you threatened one of my friends and that was your biggest mistake." Nagare's eyes hardened, growing angrier by the second. He was not happy being talked down to by the Gaijin. "Now, you're going to give Kurumu all the copies of the pictures you took of her and delete any that are on that camera of yours or you're going to regret it."

Nagare looked at Humungousaur, Zack and Kurumu in mock bravery, weighing his options. "And what happens if I don't?"

All three teens smirked. "We were hoping you would say that," Zack replied, allowing his anger for the boy to flow through him, making a red aura flow off him whilst his hair spiked.

Kurumu's aura also changed as she revealed her monster form. Her tail shot out from behind and her wings folded out. Her ears pointed and her nails extended like knives. Smirking, Kurumu looked victoriously at Nagare.

Humungousaur's body began to tremble as the dinosaur-like alien grew taller. The sash around his body stretched against the strain but was soon unable to hold itself together. it broke, falling to pieces and leaving the Omnitrix symbol behind on Humungousaur's chest. Stegosaur-like plates grew on his back as well as a crest above his forehead. Spikes shot out of his tail and three shoulder plates separated and grew, giving him a more ferocious look. Plates on the Humungousaur's arms also grew out, adding to the look. All the while this was going on, Humungousaur had been growing to a size of sixty feet; making him tower above the others. "If you don't give Kurumu the pictures, we'll make what happened to the Class Rep look like an accident," he threatened, his voice booming due to his new size.

Still playing the brave act, Nagare stuttered, "Y-you're b-bluffing."

Humungousaur raised his massive fist. Nagare, seeing what was coming covered himself in fear. When Humungousaur brought down his fist, the earth around them shaking violently.

Nagare opened one eye to realise he had been unharmed. Looking to his right side, he was terrified to see just how close Humungousaur had been to hitting him; the still closed fist was less than a meter away from him and had created a small crater upon impact.

"Next time," Humungousaur began, forcing the sweaty boy to look up at the giant and his friends. "I won't miss."

Nagare panicked; throwing the pictures and his camera to the ground, the boy made a break for the school, scared for his life.

After watching him go, Zack's aura dissipated, Kurumu returned to her human form and Humungousaur shrank back down to his normal size before reverting back into Christian. Smiling to themselves, the three decided to head back to the club room to help the others finish of their newspaper. Hopefully they wouldn't have to deal with Nagare again.

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Once Nagare was sure he had been sure he had run far enough, the sweaty boy's face contorted in frustration and anger. Never in his life had he been so humiliated. He was going to make them pay, that whole stupid club was going to pay for what they had done to him; starting with the people who had humiliated him most.

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Once they were back in the club room; Kurumu, Zack and Christian told the others what had happened outside. Needless to say the other members were happy to know Kurumu's honour had been restored. Unfortunately they didn't have the luxury of having time to celebrate due to their approaching deadline. However, that didn't stop the members of the News Club from talking whilst they worked.

"I can't believe the nerve of that Nagare guy!" Yukari fumed as tapped away on her computer. "You guys did the right thing teaching that guy a lesson."

"I still think we should have punished the bastard instead of scaring him," Zack huffed, annoyed he hadn't been able to wreak out justice.

"If we had hurt him we wouldn't be any better than him," Christian told his friend. "As much as we may have wanted to it's the wrong thing to do."

"Christian's right," Moka commented, understanding where the boy was coming from. "What would the point be in standing up to people like him if you have to resort to their level?"

"I guess…" Zack conceded, scribbling away at the article he was writing on exercise schedules for those who needed it.

All this time, Kurumu had remained silent, thinking about her friends and what they had done for her. "Guys…" she began slowly, trying her hardest to keep in her emotions otherwise she feared she may cry. The others turned their attention to the succubus girl. "I know I'm not exactly what you'd call the perfect friend, but you were there for me when I needed you today. If you hadn't found out about that letter, who knows what I would be doing for that creep," Tears began welling up in her eyes. "I-I jus- I want to say…I want to say thank you. Thank you for not judging me. For being there for me when I needed you. For-for being my friends…" Kurumu's tears finally began to flow as all her bottled up feelings began to flow.

"Kurumu…" Moka replied, eyeing her friend with sympathy.

"You guys are the greatest friends anyone could ask for," Kurumu said between her tears. "I swear that I will do anything for you. You guys mean everything to me."

Suddenly, Kurumu felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. Looking to her side, she saw Christian smiling at her. To everyone's surprise, Christian pulled Kurumu into a light hug. "You don't need to do anything for us, Kurumu. We're friends, that's enough for us to know."

Kurumu, face flushed, was shocked by the sudden closeness between herself and the boy she considered her destined one. Not questioning a gift horse, she returned the hug feeling slightly better. Moka on the other hand felt something enrage within her at seeing Christian hug Kurumu. She understood that it was out of comfort however she couldn't help but wish that it was her who was wrapped in Christian's arms.

Unbeknown to anyone else, Christian's words had also had an effect on Zack. 'Friends…' he thought as a memory from just over a week ago replayed itself for the umpteenth time.

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"So this is the mighty Zackery Orion? I have to say, I am very unimpressed," a feminine voice sounded behind Zack, making the boy jump to his feet and get into a fighting stance, ready for anything.

Zack eyed his opponent, taking in their appearance. In front of him was a girl with long, waist length purple hair and purple eyes. She was wearing a skin tight, buttoned up, black, short sleeved uniform which tightly covered her voluptuous body. On the side of her right arm was a white and gold armband with a symbol he had never seen before. Zack couldn't help but notice that the girl's eyes were squinted and seemed evil. Whoever this person was, Zack didn't trust her. "Who are you?!" Zack demanded. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't take you out right now."

The purple haired girl merely smirked at Zack's reaction, amused by Zack's threat. "Calm down jumpy, I only came here to talk."

Despite her claim, Zack didn't lower his guard. "You have five minutes before I lose my cool," he replied coldly.

The girl in black smirked again. "Well then, I guess I had better start talking." She said, placing a hand on her hip a before continuing. "Do you know about the schools Public Safety Committee?"

"Indulge me," Zack replied, not taking his eye of the girl for a second, he deactivated his ear piece, believing he would be able to handle this on his own. Christian already had his hands full looking for the peeping tom.

"We keep the peace and protect the justice at this school," the girl explained. "Everything we do is for the sake of ensuring that this school is kept safe." Zack's eyes widened ever so slightly, surprised he had never heard of this committee. If they were so intent on keeping the peace, surely they would have made themselves known. "This brings me to why I am here," the Security Committee member continued. "We have been watching you Mr. Orion and our leader sees tremendous skill in your abilities."

"Does he now?" Zack commented. "And may I ask the name of this leader?"

"You will learn soon enough. That is, if you accept his offer."

"And what exactly is this 'offer'?" Zack replied, looking over his shoulder; slightly worried that if Christian needed him he wouldn't be able to respond.

"We would like to offer you the prestigious honour of joining the Security Committee," the girl explained, smirking at Zack's now flabbergasted expression. "Our leader believes you have talent and asked me to let you know that the position is open if you want it."

Zack looked at the girl in front of him in shock, he hadn't expected this to happen tonight. "I don't believe I have the 'honour' of knowing your name," he finally commented, lowering his guard.

The girl smirked, knowing she was slowly but successfully leading Zack in. "You may call me Keito," the girl instructed. "I'm glad to see you no longer see me as a threat."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm still ready to fight if you try anything," Zack deadpanned.

"I'm sure you are," Keito replied, stepping towards the boy. "You are…rather interesting," she commented, brushing her shoulder against Zack's as she passed him. "It's hard to believe you could take down five monsters alone whilst in your human form. Tell me, how did you do it?"

Zack sighed, remembering that particular fight. "It was nothing special," he deadpanned. "They were all bark and no bite; mostly C class monsters with one B class. They were far too cocky for their own good."

"That doesn't answer my question," Keito pointed out. "I asked how you defeated them, not what your opponents were like."

Zack's eyes narrowed as he looked at Keito, he didn't like being probed for information. However, seeing as she was offering him an important position as a part of the school, he decided to oblige the girl's curiosity… for the moment anyway. "I've been training in martial arts since I was a child," he explained. "It helps when you're not exactly the strongest in terms of your monster rank."

"And what type of monster are you, exactly."

"Sorry, but isn't that against the rule?" Zack said sarcastically. "And aren't you supposed to be enforcing them?"

Keito frowned at the answer she had received, not allowing the anger she had at that moment to show. Her master wanted this boy to join them, Keito needed to play the nice guy. "Fine, don't tell me. I'm sure you'll be more willing when you join us."

"Who said I was joining?" Zack asked. "I haven't accepted yet," he pointed out with a smirk.

Keito was now finding it extremely hard to keep her cool. Zack was do a great job of showing her up and she did not like that. Through gritted teeth, she managed to get out, "What I meant was…If you join, I'm sure you'll be more open with your new team."

"But I'm already a part of the News Club," Zack said. "Why should I join you if I'm already in a club with my friends?"

At the mention of the specified club, Keito frowned. "I wouldn't be too comfortable around that club," she said distastefully, piquing Zack's curiosity. "They are nothing but a bunch of trouble makers who stick their noses in things that don't concern them." Keito quickly turned away from Zack. "We should have finished them off last year…"

"What was that?" Zack asked, having missed Keito's utterance. "I didn't quite hear you."

Keito shook her head, shaking out the dark memories from her mind as she focused on the task at hand. "It doesn't matter…" she deadpanned. "What does is that I am here to recruit you to our cause. Now will you join or not!?"

Zack's expression turned serious as he thought about Keito's proposition, however it was a very big decision to make in a short amount of time. He was going to need time to think about it. "I'm sorry…" he apologised. "I'm going to need some time to think about this before I come to a final decision."

Keito actually frowned, angry by Zack's answer. "It's due to those friends of yours, isn't it?" the purple haired girl asked before a cruel smile appeared on her face. "You know…they are most likely going to leave you alone, right?"

Zack's mind went blank at the suggestion. Slowly, his eyes narrowed to glare to glare at Keito. "What?" he growled.

"I've seen it many times before," Keito continued, ignoring Zack's question. "People pretend to be your friend so they can use you for; protection, cash, laughs and anything else they want before they toss you aside like yesterday's trash."

"Shut up!" Zack shouted, losing his cool. "My friends aren't like that!"

"Are you sure about that?" Keito asked, walking straight up to Zack until she was only millimetres away from him, both standing on the edge of the dorm. "I'll think you'll find that those friends of yours aren't as great as you make them out to be." Keito tiptoed her fingers up Zack's stomach to his chest before placing both hands on it. "They will let you down…but us in the committee, we will always be there to…catch you." With those two last words, Keito pushed Zack off the edge of the building; sending him hurtling to the ground.

As the wind rushed past him, he couldn't believe he had been so stupid as to let his guard down. As it looked more certain Zack was going to crash in to the ground, the falling boy felt something hit his back. Almost immediately, his descent was stopped with a hard tug, stopping him just before he met his fate. After a few moments, the force holding him went slack and Zack fell the remaining few meters. Landing on his feet, Zack looked back up towards the roof of the building to see Keito smirking back down at him, a smirk on her face. He sent the girl a scowl which she took no notice of. "When you finally come to the 'right' decision, come and find me, I'll be watching." With that, the mysterious girl walked away from the edge of the dorm and disappeared from sight.

Still scowling, Zack took off his jacket to see what Keito had used to save him. However, he was surprised to see that the thing which had saved him was a large string of webbing. Looking back up towards the roof, he knew that he had some big decisions to make and not a lot of time to make them.

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After Zack had removed the sticky thread from his clothing, he had tried to contact Christian to check on him. Unfortunately, Zack had lost his ear piece in the fall from the roof and was forced to look for it. By the time he finally found it, Christian had already fought Gin and had been accused of being the peeping tom. Zack had told Christian the reason he didn't respond was because he gone to look in another area to speed up the search and had forgotten to listen to the ear piece. Of course, Christian had been annoyed but he had bigger things to worry about at the time.

However, over the past week, Keito's words had stuck with Zack; nagging at the back of his mind. He found it hard to just dismiss them. However, after seeing the events of the past week, Zack felt that Keito had been wrong about his friends. He trusted them and believed they would never let him down.

Zack came back to the world to see that Kurumu and Christian had long since separated and had continued to work. Moka, Yukari and Gin were also doing their respective jobs and focusing upon their tasks. Casting his thoughts aside, Zack went back to writing his article.

The News Club continued to work for a few more hours until, finally, Christian looked up the clock on the wall only to see that it was ten o'clock. "I think we should stop here for now guys," he said, finishing the sentence he had been writing. "We can finish it off tomorrow."

Hearing that, the other members of the Newspaper Club let out tired yawns, fully agreeing with the suggestion. "It's a shame were unable to finish today though." Yukari commented, saving the work on her laptop before leaving it on the table to be used the next day.

"We would have been but we had to deal with that Nagare guy." Zack pointed out, annoyance in his voice. "I still think he deserved more than what we did."

"Well we can't change anything now," Moka replied, neatly placing the nearly complete newspaper draft in a protective case and leaving it next to Yukari's computer.

"Yeah," Christian agreed before he realised that someone else in the room was being extremely quiet. "What do you think Gi-" Christian had turned around to ask the club president his thoughts on the matter only to discover he had been asleep, leaning back in his seat for God knows how long.

"Not exactly the most inspiring leader, is he?" Kurumu commented with a huff.

Despite the annoyance at Gin for being lazy, surprisingly, Zack hadn't done anything to wake up the werewolf. Instead, with a sneaky grin, Zack took a marker pen that had been on the table and walked up to the club president. Using the gentlest stokes in order to not wake him up, Zack drew a moustache and beard on the boy's face before adding an ink monocle and cat whiskers. Finally, he wrote the words 'I'm a mutt' on Gin's head.

The others giggled at the trick before deciding it was time to leave. Christian woke up Gin, neglecting to reveal the fact he now had ink all over his face, quickly prompting the older student to leave in a flash. The other five member left at their own pace, Christian locking the door behind them with the key Ms. Nekonome had left them. As the five walked away, chatting about how exciting it would be to complete their first newspaper, they had failed to notice a certain green haired, sweaty boy hiding in the shadows, a sinister smirk plastering his face.

As the boy approached the door, he began to talk to himself. "You took something precious from me…" he said as his body began to transform. "Now I'm going to return the favour."

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The next morning the members of the Newspaper Club came in early in order to finish of their first ever edition of the 'Yokai Times'. However, when they walked in, the members of the club were in for quite a shock.

"AHHHH!" Moka screamed, her hands on her face as she looked to the now empty space where the newspaper draft had once been. "The draft we made yesterday! It's gone!"

"What?!" Kurumu cried, running to Moka's side, a look of absolute terror on her face. "But it was here yesterday before he left!"

"Someone must have taken it," Zack commented, looking extremely angry.

"But how would they have gotten in?" Christian asked. "The door was locked."

"It's not just the draft!" Yukari called out, drawing everyone's attention. "The virtual copy I made has been deleted from my computer! And the back-ups been taken!" Suddenly the young witch let out a massive gasp. "MY DIARY'S BEEN OPENED!"

"Your diary?!" Moka and Kurumu cried together in disbelief.

Gin smashed his hands on to his desk in frustration, still not realising he had marker pen on his face. "Damn it! We don't have time to look for the guy who took it! We'll have to start over! We will just cut down the number of pages and-"

"I know who did this."

Everyone's attention was turned to Christian who was standing by Yukari's computer, rubbing a strange substance that was in-between his thumb and index finger. "And this time…We're not going easy on him…"

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Nagare watched three approaching figures with a smile of glee as he once again sat in the branches of the monster tree. As they drew closer, the boy's eyes lit up with a vengeful fire, he had been waiting in anticipation for this moment for several hours now. He longed for the moment where he could see these people beg him for mercy for how they humiliated him.

Christian, Zack and Kurumu walked straight up to monster tree, their expressions shrouded by their hair. Standing at the base of the massive tree, the three teens were motionless, waiting for their enemy to make his move.

"I'd knew you guys would come," Nagare's slimy voice sounded from the tree. The boy held up the newspaper draft he had taken from the previous night as well as the back-up disk from Yukari's computer. Suddenly, all three of the teen's eyes turned sharp as they glared at the sweaty boy. "You know, this paper was really disappointing." Nagare commented, adding wood to the fire. "The writing is amateurish and even I could do better illustrations than this," he mocked as he took a lighter out of his pocket and wafted it close to the draft but not so close that it would burn it. "So what's it worth to you lot?" He asked, his face practically glowing with glee. "If you people want to save it then you had better do whatever I tell you to."

"Screw you…" Christian's voice sounded defiantly, causing Nagare to flinch by the harshness in the boys tone.

"Do you honestly think that after all you've done we're going to let you get away with threatening us?" Kurumu asked furiously.

"Nagare, I swear you are going to pay for what you have done to me and my friends," Zack added, sending the boy in the tree a death glare. "You can make it better for yourself if you hand over the draft…now."

For one brief moment, Nagare actually looked worried before he realised that he still had the upper hand. "If you come anywhere near me, I'll burn this paper that you're so desperate for. I know you won't hurt me as long as I-"

Nagare was interrupted by a sudden green flash and all of a sudden he had been knocked out of the tree, the newspaper draft and back up disappearing from his grasp. Nagare hit the ground with a harsh thump, looking up with just enough time to see XLR8 standing in between his friends, the objects that he had stolen in the alien's claws.

Looking to his friend's, XLR8 said, "I'm taking these back to the club, you guys take care of Nagare. I'll be back in a minute after I make sure these are safely with the others."

"Got it, this'll be over by the time you get back," Zack commented, already walking towards the fallen Nagare."

"Yeah, we'll see you when this is over," Kurumu added, flashing XLR8 a loving smile before she moved to follow Zack.

Nodding, XLR8 dashed off towards the school in order to deliver the precious news draft. As Zack and Kurumu got closer to Nagare, the sweat covered boys began to get worry. However he still had his ace in the hole. Suddenly Nagare's skin turned a tinge of sickly green as two ugly, tendril like vines shot out of his neck and began to expel a strange gas.

Both Zack and Kurumu grimaced at the ugly sight of the things coming out of Nagare's neck. "Dude, you were ugly before but this just takes the cake," Zack commented.

"Yeah, total bad makeover," Kurumu agreed, almost gaging at the horrendous sight.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Nagare said with a smirk as his body began to shift and transform. His skin changing in to a disgusting green, his body losing its shape as it started sagging like all the bones the boy's body had disappeared. The eyes in Nagare's head suddenly stuck out on stalks and his teeth spread apart. Nagare's body now towered above Zack and Kurumu as it began to secrete a strange slime that slid down his body. The green gas was still being expelled from the tendril like structures on what had been the boy's neck. Nagare was a Mad Slug and the very sight of Nagare's true form made the two teens in front of him want to be sick.

"Gross!" Kurumu exclaimed, covering her mouth. "Figures you would find a way to make yourself even more disgusting." The succubus couldn't place it, but for some reason she felt her strength being sapped by the second. 'What's wrong with me?' Kurumu asked herself, doing her best to appear defiant.

The slug monster in front of the two cackled at the two teens. "I may be disgusting, but I'm still the guy who's going to kill both of you and the Gaijin when he returns!"

"And just how do you plan on doing that?" Zack asked, getting into a fighting stance. "You don't exactly look like the most able fighter and I know both of us are stronger than you." His words were strong but his posture was lacking. Like Kurumu, Zack was beginning to feel weaker.

Once again, Nagare laughed manically. "Oh I don't need to fight you…I just need to last long enough for you to be too weak to fight back."

"What are you-" Zack began before realising exactly what Nagare was talking about. Taking out a pack of tissue from his coat, he took one out and used it to cover his mouth before moving to Kurumu and giving her one as well. "Kurumu, you need to cover your mouth with this now!" he commanded.

Sensing the urgency in his voice, Kurumu automatically did what Zack had told her too although she didn't understand the purpose. "Why?" she asked, her voice slightly muffled through the tissue.

"Look around us!" Zack cried, gesturing to the gas that had surrounded them. "The gas this guy's expelling is poisoning us! If we don't take this guy out quickly, we won't even be able to move!"

Kurumu gasped, a bad idea when you're trying not to breath in the gas which is slowly poisoning you, and nodded in understanding.

"You're a smart one aren't you, Orion?" Nagare mocked, his twisted smile ever present on his face. "But you're only delaying the inevitable."

Zack turned to the slug monster and scowled at him from underneath the tissue covering his mouth. "I promised Bro I would take you down before he got back and that's what I'm gonna do!" Suddenly, Zack dashed forward and attempted to kick Nagare only for his foot to bounce off. Doing a small flip in the air in order to regain his balance, Zack began performing a series of kicks and punches with his free hand to try and hurt Nagare. However it was to no avail. Nagare's body just absorbed the blows with a sickening squelch. 'It's like I'm hitting a sponge,' Zack thought angrily. Pulling out his hand from Nagare's body fat, Zack was disgusted to find it was covered in the slime secreted from the slug monsters body. "That's just nasty," he commented, waving his hand to get the slime off.

Just as Zack began concentrating again, Nagare used on of his massive green arms to bat him away. "Take that!" the slug like monster shouted victoriously as he watched Zack roll next to Kurumu.

The succubus in question automatically moved to check on her friend. "Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

"Nothing hurt but my pride," Zack replied with a false smirk. "Physical attacks are out of the question. His body just absorbs the blows," he explained, struggling to stand up.

"So what do you suggest we do?"

Zack shrugged his shoulders. "Use salt?" he suggested, causing Kurumu to fall over anime style.

"THAT'S NOT HELPFUL!" she cried, forgetting she was trying not to breath in the poisonous gas surrounding them. Kurumu began to panicking, Nagare's poison made him too much to handle. Kurumu knew she was too weak to even stand on her own legs and Zack didn't look like he was fairing was any better. Closing her eyes, Kurumu said a silent prayer that someone would save them.

She answered by the temperature of the environment around her getting several degrees colder. Kurumu opened her eyes only to be welcomed with the sight of Big Chill standing in front of her and Zack, his wings folding back into a cloak.

"Christian!" Kurumu cried in utter relief, looking happily at the boy.

"Sorry I'm late," Big Chill said to his friends, ignoring the death glare Nagare was sending him. "I ran in to a teacher on the way to the club and told her what was happening," he explained. "She will be here soon with a bunch of other teachers to take Nagare in." Hearing that, the slug monster in question actually flinched.

"What!?" he exclaimed, looking around as if the teachers were going to ascend on him at any second.

"Until then, we have this guy to ourselves," Big Chill continued, sending the best smirk Big Chill was able to manage at Nagare.

"I like the sound of that," Zack admitted, getting to his feet warily.

"Same here," Kurumu added, finding the determination to get up on to her legs.

Nagare looked at the three teens worriedly, however it quickly dissipated when he realised that he could still win and get away if he continued to poison them. "You think you can stop me!? Take this!" He sent a blast of poison gas at the three standing before him.

Despite the attack, Big Chill merely smirked as he opened his wings and began flapping them repeatedly, creating a gust that dissipated the gas cloud into the wind. Nagare stood still, stunned. "Is that all you've got?" Big Chill asked mockingly. "I'm not impressed."

Nagare growled at Big Chill. "That was only a small amount of the gas that I can create. Have a taste…of the whole cloud!" Nagare cried, using his tendrils to expel a ridiculous amount of gas.

Once again, Big Chill flapped his wings repeatedly dispelling the cloud easily enough. "Still not impressed," the alien moth man commented.

"This guy was actually beating us earlier?" Kurumu commented.

"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Zack said sarcastically. "What's the plan, Bro?"

"I'm going to stop this guy from spurting out that poison" Big Chill began to explain. "You lay the hurt."

"I love that plan!" Zack cried, already ready for action as he pounded his fists together.

"If it means I can pummel this guy for what he's put me through, I'm in," Kurumu replied, releasing her wings and tail. However, the succubus quickly realised something. "How are we supposed to hit him? His body just absorbs every attack."

"Leave that to me," Big Chill replied, taking to the air and flying above Nagare's disgusting form. "I think you need to cool off," the alien said with a smirk as he inhaled before sending a wave of freezing cold air at Nagare, causing the Mad Slug to flinch.

As Big Chill's attack washed over him, Nagare began to shiver like crazy, however he found that he wasn't frozen. "Wh-what w-was that su-supposed to do?" he asked mockingly, thinking Big Chill was too weak to freeze him.

"I told you…" Big chill replied from the air, his arms crossed, "Cool you off."

Nagare was confused by the comment but barely had any time to think about it before he felt someone round house kick him across the face, causing the monster to begin to topple over before he felt another painful blow to his gut, sending Nagare flying backwards. The slug monster moved one of his eyestalks wearily to see Zack standing a few meters away from him, a victorious expression on his face. However what surprised Nagare was the fact that the attack had actually hurt him. Looking back up towards Big Chill, who was still floating above him; he shouted, "What did you do to me?!"

"I simply cooled you off, froze the slime your body was secreting, making your body harder so that physical attacks will actually work," Big Chill listed using his pointed fingers.

Nagare's eyes widened in fear when he realised what that meant, however before he could do anything, Kurumu flew into the air and dive bombed him, turning mid-air so that her feet struck Nagare in the back, causing the boy to face plant into the ground. Quickly retreating back to her friend, Kurumu and Zack high fived each other knowing that they now had the upper hand.

Nagare, on the other hand, had gone back to panicking. Ever since the Gaijin had shown up he had been losing. Now he needed to run, if he didn't get away quickly then he would most likely be expelled. Resorting to try and use his poison gas as a smokescreen, Nagare tried to spurt out some more of the toxic gas. However, he found himself unable to. Looking down towards his tendrils, Nagare was shocked to see that they were now encased in ice.

"Sorry about that," Big Chill smirked, appearing in front of the Mad Slug. "But I have always believed one should say it, not spray it."

Nagare stared at the alien in shock, too stunned to say anything. Big Chill smirked as he reached for the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. Tapping it, the moth like alien disappeared in emerald light. When it faded, the blue alien had been replaced with a new form. It was a humanoid, plant like alien who had an overall green and black body. The alien's head had flame-like petals and his feet were root like and appeared to be holding black rocks. Red petals were sprouting out of his shoulders and smaller green seedlings had sprouted on his lower arms. The Omnitrix symbol was positioned in the centre of his chest. "Swampfire!" the new alien cried in a nasally like voice. Before Nagare had time to do anything, Swampfire had already punched him in the face, sending the boy back several meters.

Zack and Kurumu then ran forwards and tag teamed Nagare. The pair jumped together and kicked the slimy slug in its centre, once again sending the boy flying back until he hit the side of the monster tree with a loud crack, knocking the slug out. Zack and Kurumu ran back to Swampfire in order to regroup, however when they got close, the two teens were forced to cover their noses from the stench that Swampfire was emitting. "Dude! You reek!" Zack shouted, covering his nose.

"Sorry about that, it's just Swampfire's natural musk." The plant alien explained, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Thank god you don't smell like that all the time." Kurumu commented, taking one step away from Swampfire.

"Can we talk about this later?" Swampfire asked, gesturing towards Nagare. "We still have him to deal with."

Nodding, the three teens began walking towards the limp figure of Nagare, angry expressions on their faces. Once they were right in front of the downed slug, Zack brought Nagare back into the land of the living with a swift right hook to the face.

"Huh!? What happened!?" Nagare cried as he woke up to see the three teens in front of him. Before he could do anything, Swampfire threw some of the seedlings from his arms to the ground just at Nagare's mollusc like foot. The seedlings automatically took root, ensnaring Nagare and trapping him. "Let me go!" Nagare shouted, struggling against the vines in vain.

"Yeaahh…I don't think so," Zack commented, rolling his eyes.

"As if we'd let you go after all you've done," Kurumu added, glaring harshly at the Mad Slug.

Swampfire nodded, tapping on the Omnitrix symbol and reverting back into Christian. "You're stuck here now so you may as well answer a few questions."

"Why should I answer anything you have to say?" Nagare spat, looking at the three with pure hatred.

"Because things can get very uncomfortable for you if you don't," Zack threatened, grabbing hold of one of Nagare's eye stalks and moving it so that the Mad Slug was looking Zack in the eye to show he was serious.

Deciding that it would be better for his health if he actually answered the three's questions, Nagare gave in, nodding his head in resignation. "What do you want to know?"

"How did you get into the club room last night?" Christian asked. "I'm sure I locked it last night when we left."

Nagare smirked at his accomplishment before answering. "I'm a Mad Slug you idiot! Like real slugs, we are able to fit through the smallest cracks. It come in handy when you are trying to discover girl's deepest darkest secrets."

The eyes of the Newspaper Club members narrowed when they heard the last part of Nagare's explanation. "What was that?" Zack demanded through gritted teeth, his anger beginning to flare.

"I use that ability to discover girl's secrets," Nagare repeated, turning to look at Kurumu. "And out of everyone I have spied on, you by far have been my favourite…Sweet Kurumu." The succubus in question grimaced at the smug tone in Nagare's voice. "Perhaps I should tell your beloved Christian some of your…Secrets," he suggested, causing Kurumu to gasp.

"You wouldn't," she snarled, her eyes becoming extremely fierce, her aura beginning to flare.

"Oh, I would," Nagare returned, turning towards Christian and Zack who were glaring at him angrily. "Did you know that your little succubus here has an obsession with-" Nagare was cut off by the sensation of the ground beginning to shake erratically. The slug monster's eyes widened with fear as he watched the roots of the monster tree shoot out of the ground rise menacingly above him.

Christian and Zack's jaws dropped, completely aghast that the monster tree was actually moving. They looked over to Kurumu who was now trembling with anger, her wings and tail bursting out as her face contorted with utter hatred. "You…will…never…tell them…ANYTHING!" the succubus shouted as she flapped her wings and flew straight up in to the air. All at once, the monster tree began to move; its bark twisting into a horrifying face that drove Nagare to slime himself.

It was a miracle that Christian and Zack hadn't fainted from fear. "There is absolutely no way this is happening," Christian murmured, utterly flabbergasted by what was going on in front of him.

"You're right…" Zack replied, still staring at the spectacle. "I think this is one of Kurumu's succubus powers." He explained. "Powerful Succubae have the ability to create illusions so realistic that they can drive a person insane."

"Wow…" Christian remarked, looking back to an extremely pissed of Kurumu, whose eyes were glowing amethyst. "Who knew she was that powerful."

"I know what you mean," Zack agreed, seeing Kurumu in a whole new light.

Back with Nagare, the slimy teen was struggling against the plant vines that were holding him, desperately trying to get away from the humungous tree that was ready to attack him. "PLEASE! STOP! I'M SORRY! I'LL DO ANYTHING! JUST DON'T HURT ME!" his pleas fell on deaf ears as Kurumu ordered the tree to attack Nagare.

"This is for every girl you have ever messed with!" Kurumu shouted as the tree seemingly picked up Nagare and devoured the squealing boy whole.

All at once, the area around the Christian, Zack and Kurumu began to revert back to normal. The Monster Tree's roots returned to the ground and re-rooted themselves. The tree's features reverted back to normal as the tree went back to its normal position. Once everything was back to where it should have been, the three teens were able to make out Nagare's limp figure, still trapped in Swampfire's vines. However, Nagare was now fully unconscious, his eyes closed tightly as he moaned in agony from the nightmare that was most likely plaguing him.

Kurumu descended quickly to her friends and fell to her knees, exhausted from letting out so much power at once. "I did it…" she breathed out tiredly. "It's over…"

Christian smiled as he walked over and helped the succubus up to her feet giving her a warm smile. "Well done, Kurumu. You did great." He complimented. "It's a good thing you're on our side."

Kurumu blushed slightly before pulling Christian into a massive hug. "I did it all for you, you know." She told him, winking despite the fact Christian was unable to see it.

"Yeah, it has nothing to do with the fact Nagare was about blurt out an embarrassing secret." Zack deadpanned, sweat dropping slightly.

In return, Kurumu stuck out her tongue at Zack childishly as she continued to suffocate Christian. The three members of the Newspaper Club remained by the side of Nagare for a few more minutes until the teachers arrived to take Nagare away. Of course, they had to take the boy to the school infirmary in order to snap him out of his endless nightmare.

Once Nagare had been taken away, the three Newspaper Club members returned to their club room so that they could finish of their newspaper together. After hours of hard work, Ms. Nekonome walked into the room to discover the members of the club fast asleep. Moka was asleep next to Christian with Kurumu and Yukari were opposite them lying down on the joint tables sleeping peacefully. The finished newspaper lay between them. Smiling happily as she picked it up, the cat like teacher looked down happily at her students, ignoring the snoring Gin who had his feet up at the desk; the ink from earlier still on his face. 'Rest up you guys and leave the rest to me.' Suddenly, Ms. Nekonome realised someone was missing from the room. 'Where's Mr. Orion?'

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Zack stood alone in the middle of a clearing in the forest behind the school. Looking behind him he called out, "You can come out, I know you're there!"

For a moment, nothing happened. However, Zack was quickly able to make out the figure of Keito walking out of the darkness, a cruel smirk on her face. "It's good to see you again, Orion," Keito greeted, doing a bad job of hiding the venom in her voice.

"The feeling isn't mutual," Zack growled, desperately wanting to get his own back for her throwing him off a roof. Unfortunately, Zack knew picking a fight with this woman would be a bad idea. Not because he didn't think he could take her, but because of what might follow. "I just wanted to let you know I've made my decision." He told the purple haired girl.

"So, are you going to join the Security Committee?" Keito asked, already expecting what the answer would be. No monster would give up the chance to be a member of their committee.

"No." Zack answered simply, turning and began to walk off.

Keito's jaw dropped by the impertinence of Zack as she found herself unable to speak due to her shock. Finally she managed to stammer out, "Wh-what!? You dare to turn down such an honour!? Do you have any idea how many people would kill just to be a member of the enforcers!?"

"I don't and I honestly don't care," Zack replied, stopping and turning to face the angry Keito. "I don't think you guys are right for me." He explained. "I'd rather stay with my friends."

His response did nothing to calm to enforcers rage as she glared at Zack. "You would choose those newspaper rats over us?!"

"Quite frankly, yes!" Zack returned. "And if you ever insult my friends again, I won't hesitate to take you down."

Suddenly, Keito began to laugh in complete amusement. "You honestly think that you could take me down in a fight? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"

"You wanna test that theory?" Zack growled. "You may find yourself surprised."

Keito sent Zack a disbelieving smirk, not even bothering to give him the time of day. "I don't think so. You don't want to go to Yokai Academy's hospital now, do you?" The purple haired girl turned and began to walk back into the shadows. "As I said before, you will learn soon enough that your so called friends aren't good enough for you. You'll come crawling to us eventually." With that, the purple haired girl disappeared within the trees, leaving no trace that she had been there.

Zack scowled in the direction Keito had left, never wanting to see the girl again. "Yeah right, as if that would ever happen," he muttered angrily, finally deciding it was time to go. "I have faith in my friends, and I will go through hell itself before I allow anyone to harm them, even if I'm driven to the edge of insanity."

And there you go. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. It wasn't my best work but it's the best I could do with the time limit I'm on. As always, please leave your reviews as I like to know what you enjoyed and what I could do better.