"Well that's unfortunate"
said Noruas who was looking down the deep canyon they had happened upon, the chasm stretched beyond the horizon on either side, the depth was immeasurable reaching down towards an inky darkness and the distance across was an impossible jump. They were lucky to have reached it before sunset or they may have accidently trod into it. They all stood as close to the edge as they dare and looked down into its cavernous maw "Seems a little out of place doesn't it?"
"A little out of place?" Yukari spluttered "This is a geographical impossibility!" The entire class was awed and relieved by the sight knowing that moving forward would be impossible
"Well" Kurumu yawned "Looks like we'll have to go back" Noruas was still impossibly happy and said mischievously
"Couldn't you fly us all across Ms. Kurono?" he looked down at her an imposing head taller "After all, you are the only one who has the ability to do so correct?" She stopped mid yawn
"Well... I can't really..." Tsukune came to her rescue putting his hand on her shoulder
"She can't fly long distances especially with that kind of weight going back and forth, plus she's probably exhausted from walking all day." Noruas continued to smile and sighed
"Such a waste" he then turned back to the canyon "what I would do with wings" he mused to himself. Kurumu looked back at Tsukune and mouthed
"Thank you" Tsukune was also exhausted but he accepted the silent gratitude with a nod.
"Well" Noruas announced after merely a moment's pause "After much deliberation and a considerable amount of thought concerning our present situation, I believe we have only one option." By this time students had already began walking back down the path they had only just recently arrived through, having already guessed his one option "We must walk over it"
"WHAT!" The class body responded in unison, the outburst only seemed to egg him on
"It should be quite easy to just walk across don't you think? I mean look at it, I've paced deeper trenches"
"How in the hell do you suppose we do that" a voice from the crowd asked. Noruas ignored it
"Say, were did Ms. Sendo wander of to?" Tsukune blinked in surprise anger forgotten
"Yukari?" he turned around back towards the gap "Yukari!" Yukari was still standing next to the precipice, leaning over quite obviously fascinated, Tsukune ran over to her and pulled her back "You shouldn't be standing so close, you'll fall in!" still mesmerized by the wonder before her she murmured
"I wonder how far down it goes?" which was followed by a less innocent voice that was drenched in sadistic glee
"Why don't you find out?" Tsukune saw what was coming, time seemed to slow and he had just enough time thrust Yukari out of the way and turn to see the butt of a staff smash into his face forcing him to take a step back into the void that consumed him greedily.
"Tsukune!" Kurumu screamed and plunged in after him sprouting her leathery wings that had already begun flapping with a purpose before they were even fully emerged, but unexpectedly instead of seeing her destined one descending into a dark demise she saw him standing shakily and brushing himself off before she rather unceremoniously crashed headlong into him. Tsukune's breath was knocked from him as he was shoved back onto the ground he was so recently dumped, they both lay panting in a heap with Kurumu astride Tsukune's chest for a few moments until she finally spoke
"Are you alright?" this seemed appropriate considering that he was just pushed into a canyon.
"Yeah" he grunted "how about you?" her entire body was sore but there was a particularly throbbing pain in her left hand
"I-I think I broke my wrist" Tsukune moved to get up but found he was quite securely held in place
"Um… we should climb back up now" he urged
"No thanks" she said contentedly snuggling closer "This isn't entirely unpleasant" colour flooded Tsukune's face and he cleared his throat rather hastily
"b-but we should really have you're wrist looked at and climb out of here, the others are probably worried" Kurumu sighed but she rolled off him allowing him to stand up and help her to her feet, Tsukune looked up and saw they had only fell about fifteen feet, painful but better than the alternative. A sharp intake of breath caused him to turn around and he saw that Kurumu was cradling her limp hand "Here let me look at it" he offered. She looked at her hand then back at him before delicately extending her arm wincing
"Be gentle" he tenderly held her hand and examined it for any abnormalities even though he had limited medical knowledge she appreciated the gesture, but then his eyes flew open with a horrified look on his face. She quickly pulled back her hand "Is it bad?" she realized he wasn't looking at her hand but at the ground they stood on and when she followed his gaze she cried out and jumped into Tsukune's arms. There was no ground for them to stand on; there was just darkness and the canyon wall continuing downwards into the abyss, it was like standing on a sheet of glass.
"Lets get out of here" Tsukune growled, he called upon his vampire blood and with Kurumu still in his arms he leapt back up to the edge from which he was pushed.
***
"She's bringing him back… she has to" It had now been several minutes since Tsukune had been cast into the chasm and Kurumu had flown in to save him and still no one had flown back out. Moka was on her knees waiting near the edge, Mizore stood and Yukari lay were she was thrown apparently in shock.
"Wow" Noruas said with mock concern "He should really watch where he's going" This proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camels back as he was roughly pinned to a tree by Mizore her tear filmed blue eye's inches from his heavily scarred eye's. "What too soon?"
"Shut up" she said quietly but with a subtle menace
"Now is that really necessa - ulp! Whatever he was about to say was quickly cut off by an ice claw being pressed to his Adam's apple. Mizore was now the very image of her race, hair hanging in spikes framing an emotionless face and pupil-less blue eyes. Her voice almost literally frosted over
"Shut up", Noruas however was unimpressed and gingerly removed the claw from his jugular
"Oh come now, we both know he's fine, ghouls can survive far higher drops than that so it certainly wouldn't put down your little..." he seemed to mull over his choice of words before finally selecting "plaything". As soon as the words were out of his mouth a pink blur streaked towards him and Noruas found himself being held once again against a tree this time it shattered the wood sending birds flying from the branches, Moka it seemed, had found her vampire strength. "Gah! Again with the choking!"
"If she doesn't bring him back in the next five seconds" Moka said in an uncharacteristic tone of voice "I'm going to throw you in to go get them". Noruas smiled
"I'd hold you to it, but apparently" he gestured towards the cliff with his staff "their fine". Around 30 heads turned towards the cliffs edge hoping to see Kurume pulling Tsukune out onto the grass, the image they received however was quite the opposite with Tsukune standing before them in his ghoul form, red eye's glaring angrily at Noruas and holding Kurumu in his arms. The girls would have cried out were it not for the hatred and power he radiated from his body
"You" Tsukune hissed between clenched teeth "You did this" he walked towards Noruas, Moka and Mizore shocked by his wrath moved out of the way. Tsukune stopped in front of him then held out an uncomfortable looking Kurume "You" he repeated
"Me" Noruas said cheerfully
"You, because of you she hurt herself trying to save me, and now you are going to heal her." Noruas crossed his arms and leaned against the shattered tree
"and what makes you think I can?" he said with an amused air. Tsukune ground his teeth his patience with Noruas long since gone
"You can" he said slowly "because you told me you could when you healed us three weeks ago with your healing powers or whatever."
"Healing powers?" Noruas frowned and looked genuinely confused, and then understanding dawned on him
"Oh, yes I did tell you that didn't I? Well I lied; I tend to do that" he chuckled "Healing powers indeed" Now it was Tsukune's turn to be confused
"Well… then how did you…"
"Give you back your cranium and bring you back the rest of you sorry lot? I just happened to be generous enough to donate some of my blood. Like vampire blood the healing properties are similar, minus the turning into a mindless bloodthirsty monster part however intriguing the thought. As for the resulting exhaustion, that may have resulted from the anaesthetic that 'slipped' into your IV bags." He seemed extremely amused at the looks of horror and disgust painted on their faces "You know you guys are the most gullible bunch I have ever come across, next thing you know you'll think I can read minds or some such nonsense" Tsukune stood mouth agape
"You lied about that to?!" Noruas leaned in closer scrutinizing Tsukune's face
"Are you for real? There is no way you can be this stupid"
"b-but the bus driver"
"The bus driver was either humouring your ignorance or I had him fooled too, my knowledge on all you comes from some rather… detailed files courtesy of the headmaster and they provided more than enough information to accurately guess your mannerisms and personalities . Now if you don't mind I believe we have injured." He held out his hand towards Tsukune who put down Kurumu staring at the ground outraged beyond words, without warning Noruas shot out his hand and grabbed Kurumu by her forearm and pulling her closer and studying her wrist intently eliciting a yelp of pain from the succubus. Almost immediately he began to mutter quickly to himself and move his hands along the injured area, the group crowded around him leaning in to hear what he was saying. "Swelling around the carpals indicate sprain most likely resulting from lateral impact, no break, strangely fortunate, succubae bones are easily fractured due to being hollow to allow flight similar to other avian species. Pressure points to stun located between shoulder blades and center of pelvis, pressure points to kill nonexistent, treatment for sprain similar to humans." It sounded like he was reciting from a medical textbook and he was only focused on the wound before him the class looked at each other wearing confused looks, Noruas didn't seem like the one to have extensive medical knowledge. Suddenly Noruas stood up and tore a length of cloth from the arm of Mizore's sweater and then caught the resulting Icicle spike "Thank you" he said not taking his eye of Kurume's wrist. He placed the icicle in the cloth then wrapped it around her arm in a sling "First of all it's only a sprain if it was broken you'd know about it, I want you to avoid heat while it's still swollen, apply a wet warm cloth to it when the swelling subsides and once the pain decreases begin to exercise your wrist. All of that coupled with a monsters increased healing factor and you should be completely fine by tomorrow morning." His voice was bored and monotonous as if he had done this a hundred times before, which by the looks of things he may very well have. "As for you" he turned towards Tsukune curiosity coloring his voice but he wasn't talking to Tsukune he was examining his holy lock "Definitely a rush job I doubt that it's in perfect shape either. The bearer wouldn't be able to tap into his monster power at his own will if it was working properly, admittedly elegant design though." His hands moved slowly towards the lock but Tsukune pulled his hand away frowning, Noruas looked up at Tsukune as if noticing him for the first time then straightened up with a smirk "Notice anything unusual in the canyon?" The frown never left Tsukune's face but the crimson was beginning to leave his eye's
"The canyon is an illusion, it's actually only about twenty feet deep" Noruas shook his finger at him
"Tut tut Tsukune, there is no credit rewarded for partial answers." He turned towards the canyon with his arms outstretched and shouted "It's all an illusion!" startled birds flew up from the canyon walls and into the sky at the unexpected outburst, Noruas turned back to his audience "In fact everything on that side of this crevice is all fake, I wouldn't doubt if our destination is directly in front of us. However the illusion may be complicated but is weak and to break it we need only acknowledge its presence" he turned back and sang towards the fissure
"This canyon is not deep, this canyon is not wide, without the barrier in place, the parasites have nowhere to hide." At first nothing happened he just stood there looking rather foolish until a booming sound like shattering ice reverberated beyond the canyon and the air in front of them shimmered and began to lose focus. Images faded in and out, sometimes they could see a magnificent wall of stone and sometimes they would see a small wooden bridge. This continued on for about a minute until a spider web of cracks began to appear in thin air and the images became more frantic flashing faster and faster until it became dizzying to look at. Finally the flashing stopped and the cracks had formed a large dome over the section of now obviously fake forest but the barrier still stood however fragile. Noruas strode forward and placed his hand on the barrier, it quivered under his touch as if sensing its destruction, If Noruas noticed this he didn't show it, his grin never faltering as he pressed forward. The barrier shattered all at once raining down pieces of disjointed images onto the structure they only now noticed, the wall they had seen through the barrier now stood before them in all its glory it's colour had been dulled through the barrier but now they saw it was not made of stone but of the whitest marble. The canyon that had once appeared impassable now showed its true colours as a moat, a narrow ditch around the wall with a single wooden bridge leading across it. Noruas took a step back frowning "Huh. So it was a barrier." Tsukune turned slowly towards Noruas incredulous
"You mean you didn't know for sure?" Noruas shook his head "Not for sure no, not until I pushed you in and you didn't die." His grin returned tenfold "Then I knew for sure." Tsukune was just too exhausted to be outraged anymore so he just sighed wearily "That's the spirit!" Noruas said standing next to the bridge "now come along" Thwack! "Ladies first!"
***
In a keep on the wall overlooking the bridge a pair of armoured individuals decided the unwitting traveler's fate. They both wore silver amour and had equally silver, however one was quite clearly a woman while the other was a man, the man leaned over the edge of the window his crimson eye's blinking lazily at the intruders
"Definitely monsters but they don't look like they're of the aggressive persuasion" he turned resting his elbows on the window sill and watched his female counterpart check her equipment and weapons over again for the seventh time, she wasn't nervous she was eager. "We should really tell your mother" She stopped for a moment to glare at him before resuming her inspection
"We already discussed this she doesn't need to know" the man raised his hands in submission
"I know, I know, I'm just saying maybe just to be safe, we should at least get her to supervise. I'm just saying" She pointed one of her many weapons at him, her crimson glare continuing
"You will not interfere, you will not tell my mother and you will not. Call. For. Help." She emphasised each of her words with a poke in his breastplate, she sheathed her knife then jumped into a crouch on the window's ledge staring down on the intruders. She jerked her head back quickly in surprise hissing despite herself. "Have your senses been dulled with age? Did you not say they weren't aggressive?" The man sighed and looked over her shoulder
"What are you talking about, they're just tired not a single killing intent among…" he cut off quickly focusing his senses on the boy leading the travelers, the one with the staff "Whoa"
"Yeah"
"… That's a lot"
"You think?"
"Are you sure you don't want to?…"
"No!"
"Alright".
***
Authors Note: Sorry for the extremely long wait and for the last chapter being unfinished but I was in Italy the last few weeks and I only just got back so I was therefore unable to write. Anyway here's the finished chapter, I hopes it's satisfactory and I hope you think Noruas is as much of jerk with a capital JERK! As I try to make him out to be. Please point out any mistakes as I was a bit pressed for time when I wrote it
