Kamen Rider Bloodstone, Chapter 10 – At the Heart of the Web
Bloodstone landed in a tangled heap in the back of a cell in the school dungeon. The two bruised members of the Security Committee laughed as they slammed the cell door shut behind him and rattled the key in the lock just to mock him, not that he could hear it anymore. Kuyou's attacks had knocked him out cold, and the dark armor covering his body was already starting to melt off.
"So what's next, Captain?" one of them asked with a leer. "Gonna put him in a glass case as a warning or something?"
"Oh, I'll have to think about that a bit," Kuyou smirked. "This isn't just some student with a big mouth, after all."
"Sir?"
He turned and looked over his shoulder at another member of the group, a tall, busty girl with a long blonde ponytail. The name plate on her dark uniform read C. Shianus. She looked through the bars at Nigeki's battered body, his uniform scorched and torn from Kuyou's devastating attacks on him. His mask had already vanished, and the expression left on his face was one of fear and pain.
"What is it, Centorea?" Kuyou asked, smirking a little more. "We've caught a dangerous monster hunter before any serious harm could be done. You should be proud, you suspected him from the beginning, didn't you?"
"That's just it, sir," Centorea replied. "Why would a vampire be a monster hunter? Why would he risk revealing himself to protect students if he was here to kill monsters? You yourself were happy to deal with Kotsubo, and if the victim's to be believed, he," she pointed into the cell at Nigeki, "was the one who stopped him from assaulting her."
"You think so highly of your station yet you see so little," Kuyou said. "He was probably taking a few students into his confidence, pretending to be one of them to help them in some plan to destroy the school, if not our world completely. In a way, it's brilliant. How else was one of these Riders supposed to get past the barrier, other than to have a monster do it for them?"
But she almost didn't hear him, staring through the bars as Bloodstone's armor finished sloughing off him leaving nothing but a battered teen vampire lying motionless in the back of one of their cells. Could he really have been planning to destroy the school?
"Come along, Centorea," Kuyou interrupted her thoughts. "We've an announcement to make. After all, we've just saved the entire school from a Kamen Rider! This is a day that will go down in history!" He laughed and the others laughed along with him. Centorea cast one last look back at Nigeki, then hurried after them, a look of confusion on her face.
But Kuyou and his underlings had no way of knowing that Bloodstone had lost consciousness without making sure he couldn't dream. And without him able to resist, the darkness inside of him started to grow.
"All is ruin, all is waste, all will fall to the ground and crumble to dust…All is ruin, all is waste, all will fall to the ground and crumble to dust…"
Miss Bast sighed as she typed out a short report on Nigeki Hitoribo; how he was doing in his activity, in his classes, and, candidly, how he'd been doing in the fights with other monsters at this school he'd been getting into.
She had followed, carefully keeping an eye on him and making sure not to be seen. But every instinct of hers had told her to ignore the Headmaster's instructions, to get involved and let the kid off the hook of having to deal with every thug that came his way on his own. However powerful he had the potential to be and however important this upcoming threat the Headmaster was still keeping quiet about might be either.
That wasn't how it should be. The biggest problem kids his age were supposed to have was not getting caught sneaking out for dates, forget fighting for their lives.
But she'd agreed to do this because the Headmaster had made it sound important. Dropped out of her new band, traveled across the world and taken this job because he'd made it sound like a huge deal, and she knew from her own experiences she couldn't ignore it.
She knew better than most how even if a peaceful monster tried to just keep their head down and avoid trouble, there always seemed to be some new monolithic threat waiting for the one before it to fall, so it could rise up and try to destroy everything like the one before it had tried to do, even if its reasons for trying might be a little different. If some new global threat like that was coming, then yes, they needed to be prepared.
But since when did that mean they needed to have kids on the front lines?
Suddenly there was a loud banging at her door, making Miss Bast jump. She almost landed on all fours in feline battle-readiness before realizing this probably wasn't an attack; why would someone bent on attacking her show decent manners? She opened the door and standing out in the hall was Mizore Shirayuki.
"What are you doing here? Students aren't allowed."
Mizore didn't acknowledge that statement. All she said, nearly whispered, was, "Nigeki's in trouble."
"What?" Bast asked.
"The Student Police attacked him and took him away," Mizore answered, tonelessly. "I need help getting him back."
"And how do you know he was attacked and taken away, but you're here telling me about it now?"
"I was in the bushes watching him," Mizore replied with no hesitation or shame whatsoever.
"Why?"
"Because it's what I do," Mizore answered as if it was the most casual thing in the world.
Miss Bast decided to ignore that last remark. If the student she was supposed to be keeping an eye on had been attacked and carried off, she needed to do something. But at the same time, the Headmaster had told her to observe and guide Nigeki as gently as she could so she didn't tip him off she was keeping an eye on him. No matter what. Meaning she couldn't expect a lot of help there.
That is, if she went and asked for help by herself…
But after that morning, she knew she wasn't the only faculty member interested in his welfare.
"Come on," Miss Bast said and headed down toward the end of the hall. She spotted the nametag reading "Dreemurr" and gave the door a sharp knock. A minute later Mrs. Dreemurr appeared in the doorway, half-moon reading glasses balanced on her nose and a book tucked under one arm. Miss Bast could read something about snails from the title, but that was all.
"Hello, can I help you?" Mrs. Dreemurr asked, looking a little surprised and more than a little cautious at being disturbed so late by people she didn't know.
"Nigeki Hitoribo's in trouble with the Security Committee," Miss Bast said, and Mrs. Dreemurr sighed.
"I tried to warn the Headmaster about them," she said, and Bast's heart sank. "He just said something about needing to ensure the school's protection, letting the students know they're safe at all times. I was going to talk to the boy, see what he felt he should do, but now…"
Bast took her by the wrist and started dragging her out of her room. "Now, there's two of us, and maybe two can do a job one couldn't."
"Still having second thoughts, Cerea?" Kuyou asked over his shoulder, that smug little smile of his seeming even colder.
Behind him Centorea fumed inwardly. He was her captain, but that didn't mean he was familiar enough to her to be using that nickname. She'd joined the Security Committee because they were protecting the students from all the dangers the world held for monsters. But…
"He's just a kid like us. You even said he was trying to leave when you caught him. He was waiting for the bus. If he was some kind of infiltrator, why would he be taking the bus to leave?" she asked.
"It's your first one, huh?" asked one of the boys flanking Kuyou, his face dominated by the exact same smirk.
"What?"
"It happens to all of us," Kuyou explained. "Well, some of us. The first time we bring in someone dangerous it seems unbelievable. They look so normal, it's hard to believe they could be planning to hurt anybody.
"But appearances can be deceiving," he went on. "It's what we're all here to learn, isn't it? How to hide what we are so we stay out of trouble. Perhaps some of us have already learned to do that for their own reasons. Like that kid back in the cell.
"Cerea, you have to understand just how heavily the forces of humanity are arrayed against our kind. Not just Kamen Riders, but the Makai Kishi, Slayers, families like the Starlings…Even those ignoramuses with the laser backpacks and jumpsuits have enough firepower to make them a serious threat."
"I just…," Centorea started to say, but stopped herself before she could say something that got her in trouble with her superiors. "My shift's over, I'll see you tomorrow." She split off from the group and went down another hallway.
Kuyou waited until she was out of sight, then said to the others, "Keep an extra-close eye on our new prisoner, understand?"
"Perfectly, sir."
Miss Bast shoved the doors to the Headmaster's office open, and bellowed, "Mikogami, you'd better be ready to—"
"Good evening, Felicia," said the familiar robed figure seated behind the ornate wooden desk at the far end of the room. "I've been expecting you. Oh, I wasn't expecting you to bring along a friend. Greetings to you as well, Toriel. It must be important to have the both of you here at this time of night."
"Don't give me that," Bast snarled. "Those security punks of yours took that kid I'm supposed to be mentoring for you into custody."
"Did they?" was all he said.
"You bring me all the way here to keep an eye on this kid, then he gets hauled in, and that's all you have to say?!" she demanded.
"Felicia, please," the Headmaster said, limply holding up a hand. "Your heart is in the right place, don't doubt that for a minute, but the integrity of the Security Committee can't be undermined. It pains me to lose such a potentially valuable asset, but he's no good to anyone if he lets himself be caught so easily."
Mrs. Dreemurr stepped past Miss Bast, a fire seeming to light in her eyes at what she'd just heard. "Excuse me?" she said with quiet menace. "An asset? This is a child's life you're talking about." Clearly his remark had hit a sore spot with her.
"Toriel, I appreciate your concern but this is a school for young adults," he replied. "You're not from this world, and there is a very delicate balance here. Soon they'll be out on their own, and they must learn now that their actions have consequences, for good or for ill, and how those actions affect others. Otherwise, our entire world could be discovered and destroyed by humanity. I can't spare one person and sacrifice us all."
"What?" Miss Bast demanded, but Mrs. Dreemurr calmed down visibly at what the Headmaster had said to them.
"Thank you, sir, for making your feelings on the matter clear," Mrs. Dreemurr said, and started walking out of the office. Miss Bast looked back at the Headmaster for a second and caught what looked like a knowing grin on his face, then left too.
Once the door clicked shut, Miss Bast turned to her fellow teacher. "You picked up on that too, right? Mikogami was telling us to get involved, wasn't he?"
"Oh, I don't know," Mrs. Dreemurr said, but the coy smile on her face said otherwise. "You topsiders don't still make much sense to me. I think there was something in there about people who wouldn't worry about much about breaking rules if a good friend of theirs was in a lot of trouble. As a pair of responsible adults, we should probably be looking out for people like that."
Miss Bast smiled softly and shook her hand. "Look, if we're going to be working together, I'd like if you could call me Felicia."
"Toriel. Pleased to make your acquaintance. But now, I'm thinking we should probably go see if we can find where that ice girl got off to. Somehow I get the feeling she's looking for a few other people who aren't afraid of breaking some rules," Toriel smiled.
Mizore indeed hadn't been idle, moving with a purpose as soon as she managed to slip away from the two teachers.
She stopped at a door on the first floor of the girls' dorm in her search for help. It was someone she expected to still remember being on the receiving end of an outburst Mizore'd had not that long ago, but this girl seemed smart enough to overlook that. And, Mizore hoped, she'd be a big help talking others into helping them…
After a minute solid of knocking the door clunked and opened a crack, and on the other side sat Meroune. She looked surprised for a second to see who was outside, then managed an, "Oh, hello. Did you forget something the other night?"
"Nigeki's in trouble," Mizore said with her typical bluntness, but Meroune saw a distressed light flickering in the snow girl's eyes.
"With who?" Meroune asked.
"Student Police," Mizore replied, using the group's more derogatory nickname.
Meroune nodded, then turned around and wheeled herself to the edge of the pool where she slept and threw off her dress, then dove into the waters, her pink tail flaring out from where her legs had been. She swam to the bottom and stayed there for a minute before coming back up and dropping a black metal box on the edge.
Slowly, almost as if she was afraid of what was inside, Meroune lifted the top of the box and revealed a pink conch shell. Mizore wasn't an expert on things like that but to her it looked as if the shell had been carved instead of coming from nature, maybe out of something like pink marble. A circle of tiny blue gems and pearls was worked into the top of it.
"What's that for?" Mizore asked, toneless as always.
"It's a powerful weapon," Meroune said gravely, and noting Mizore's slightly disbelieving expression, added, "I'm not supposed to be using it, but Hitoribo-san isn't supposed to be using his to fight either."
Mizore nodded silently. He wasn't supposed to be fighting, he was supposed to be avoiding it at all costs. But he'd broken that rule for her, and for Meroune too.
"Why don't we go see if those friends of his from the Newspaper Club can help us?" Meroune suggested. "Strength in numbers, right?"
"Right," Mizore said quietly, part of her not liking the idea of having all these others around. But what they were going to fight for was too precious endanger by going after it with less than everything they could get…
A pair of black-suited guards stood in front of the doors leading to the dungeons. They were only teenagers like her, but Centorea knew better than to underestimate them. They had to be some of the toughest monster types on campus, and ruthless enough to earn Kuyou's attention. She had to be sure she gave nothing away or she'd be in serious trouble.
Sucking in a deep breath to calm herself and drive away her doubts about betraying her superiors, and stepped into view, looking as confident and important as she could manage. She walked up to the guards and said in the haughty voice she'd spent the last hour practicing, "The captain wants me to inspect one of his prisoners. We've got a real dangerous one down there now, after all."
"We sure do," one guard asked. The other nodded, and Centorea felt a surge of reassurance. "But he warned us about someone showing sympathy for the really dangerous prisoner. Someone with a giant blonde ponytail and a giant rack."
"Ack!" Centorea gasped in embarrassment as she realized they meant her, and were both leering at her chest. She angrily crossed her arms in front of her body, and the guards cackled at her, but also stepped together to keep her from trying to charge past them.
"Are you going to turn around and walk out of here like a good soldier, or are you here to give us some fight practice?" one of them asked.
"Or maybe give us something else a little more…personal so we don't tell the captain?" the other asked, leering even wider, and his partner laughed and slapped him five.
Centorea's face was bright red at that, and only partly from anger. "If you think I'd ever let you dirty perverts come anywhere near—"
"Guess that's our answer," said one of the guards. His human features started to distort, but the fur had hardly started growing from his bulging biceps before Centorea lashed out with a kick that smashed him through the doors he'd been trying to guard. He was out cold before he even hit the ground.
Her legs had been replaced by the body of a powerful brown-coated horse, and as the other guard watched in surprise she unsheathed a long gleaming sword from her back and aimed it at him. She closed in quickly to deal with him too before he could transform, not intending to give him the chance to unleash his powers against her.
But unfortunately for her, Centorea hadn't been completely right in her guess at the guards' power. As she slashed at the one still on his feet he shifted into his monster form too, but instead of growing into some powerful creature he shrank into a tiny black shape barely a foot tall. He spread his leathery wings and flew away down the hall past her so fast that by the time Centorea had recognized that he'd finished changing, he was already gone.
But there was no time to think about chasing him down, she'd just be giving the Security Committee more time to catch up and overwhelm her. Instead Centorea ducked her head and galloped down the hall toward the dungeons.
She'd been raised her entire life as an honorable warrior. Honorable warriors didn't hang death sentences on people over a superficial resemblance. And she had to be sure about the prisoner, even if it meant leaving the Security Committee in disgrace.
"…me too?" grumbled Ginei as Kurumu dragged him along by the arm. As she did the clouds parted and moonlight fell across the wolf's head pendant he wore. If he was going to be dragged into a fight, at least this was the best possible night for it.
"Yeah, you too!" Kurumu glowered. "You said you thought he was a good person too!"
He grunted and pulled away from the succubus. "I said it was a possibility." From out of nowhere Kurumu produced a giant paper fan and smacked it against the back of his head, knocking him flat. In her other hand she waved around a waved around a fan of photos.
"Maybe you want us to hand these over the Swim Club! And…and whoever else these are!" Kurumu roared.
"Maybe we shouldn't be fighting ourselves?" an anxious-looking Moka suggested. "Or make a lot of noise? What if they hear us and the whole Security Committee comes out ot get us?" Kurumu turned to glare at her, eyes glowing red with anger, and Moka let out an "eeep" and took a step back.
Kurumu brandished her oversize paper fan to the sky like a sword. "Let them!" she declared. "We're not pushovers either, we're monsters just like them!"
"You look stupid," Mizore said quietly and casually as she pushed Meroune's wheelchair behind Kurumu.
Moka chuckled nervously and looked around. Besides the others Yukari the young witch hung onto her arm for reassurance, Enrique Sakamoto the hulking Brazilian boy stood by Meroune's side, blushing some as Meroune looked up at him in quiet appreciation. In the sky above them circled Ren, keeping watch.
This little ragtag group they'd put together didn't seem like the group of powerful heroes they seemed to need to go taking on the Security Committee. They were the monsters who kept all the other monsters on campus in line, right? Their group, on the other hand, didn't even have a leader or a goal they all shared. Kurumu had dragged Ginei along because they needed all the help they could get and he had no love for the Student Police. Enrique had come along because Meroune had pleaded with him and praised his strength. Ren hadn't been too eager to pick a fight with the Student Police, but he said he couldn't refuse to repay a favor.
And Moka had to admit to herself that deep down she was there for the same reason most of them were: for a chance to save the day and get ahead of the competition.
"It's true, though, isn't it?" asked the harsh voice of her true self, the eye on the Rosario flaring. "All of you, forming your little war party all because your panties are wet over the same little weakling who thinks making a couple friends is going to keep his inner beast under control."
Moka bit her lip, wanting to give some kind of sharp retort to that remark, but nothing came to mind. Her nature wasn't to scream and fight, like it seemed to be for some of the girls she knew at this school. Yet here she was, outside the Student Police's headquarters and knowing they'd surely have to fight if they wanted Nigeki back.
Should they have been doing this, picking a fight with school officials? After all, they were here to learn how to hide themselves and avoid trouble after they left school and most of them moved into the human world.
"You sound just like he does, you know," her deeper self jeered.
Moka clenched her teeth in anger, but before her argument with herself could continue Ren landed, the crinkled yellow hem of his nightgown swirling around his feet. "Somebody saw me," he said gravely.
"Was it one of them?" Enrique asked.
"No, it was—" Ren started to reply, but stopped when someone else seemed to come plummeting out of the sky and landed in the middle of the group on all fours like a cat, bright blue hair flaring out behind her. She was barefoot, and it looked like hooked claws, each of them a shining red in color, had already started to form in place of her nails.
"Looks like we've got a couple of curfew-breakers here!" she announced, but there was a joking smile on her face. A second later another figure appeared, and immediately Moka blushed and clutched her cheeks as she recognized them.
"Mrs. Dreemurr!" she exclaimed, and was surprised not to hear a sarcastic quip from her other self. Instead she was sure for a second she felt a sensation of warmth from inside herself that didn't seem to belong just to her.
"Please," she said patiently, "Toriel will be quicker, and with what I think you have in mind, quickness would seem ideal. Felicia?"
She nodded in response to Toriel's question. "If we're gonna make this work we're gonna need to move fast, and be quiet. Think you kids can handle that?"
"We're not kids," Kurumu protested, but in a whisper. "And wait, do you mean we're not in trouble?"
"No, but a friend of yours is, isn't he?" Toriel answered. "So we'd better get going before it's too late."
Again Moka felt that strange extra warmth as their ragtag little group went off, now following the pair of teachers who'd come to help.
Centorea finished tying a length of heavy chain around the door handles behind her then secured the other end around a metal hook in the wall. It wouldn't keep her pursuers out forever, but forever was how long she'd wonder if she'd done the right thing if she left now.
From the hallway up ahead she could hear screams and prepared to fight her way through another group of guards. But as they turned a corner and came her way she was surprised to see them already in their monster forms…one of them covered in leaves and bark, another a hulking two-headed brute, a bird-faced creature with thick feathered wings under its arms.
But as Centorea braced herself, she was astonished to see them run right past her and try to open the door she'd just sealed behind her. "Eh…what…what are you doing?!" she demanded. None of them turned to face her or answered her, instead just unwinding the chain and flinging the doors open before running away as fast as they could, the winged one even taking to the air.
For a second Centorea thought about following them, but she was an honorable knight. It was why she'd joined this group, and now it was why she was leaving it if she had to. She galloped down the hall, weapon ready for whatever they'd been running away from.
A minute later she found herself back in the dungeons, a few guards pointing long tridents at one cell. The one where they'd thrown the supposed Kamen Rider before. A few other prisoners were shaking the bars to their cells, screaming in terror to be let out.
And in the cell she'd come to investigate was a monster with shiny black skin, his hands formed into a pair of semi-circular blades that he was bashing against the bars, sending sparks flying. Those cells had been created to hold even monsters, obviously, but the bars were already bending and dust was falling from where the bars were mounted in the doorway.
But with one last massive swing he knocked the door free and sent it flying across the room. It crashed into one and carried him all the way across the room, flattening him against the wall. The other two managed to jump out of the way but were caught by the edge of the door as it flew back, knocking them down too. They took one last look at their former captive, then crawl-dashed out of the dungeon as fast as they could.
With them gone, the prisoner turned in Centorea's direction, his eyes locking with hers. The rest of his body was a solid black shell, looking like impenetrable armor. But his eyes…his eyes looked like windows into some endless void, with small points of light flowing inside them and being pulled away into darkness. Centorea gathered all of her willpower and forced herself to look away, afraid she might somehow be pulled in too if she looked for too long.
It had been such a terrifying, alien experience the colors and shapes of the dungeon swam in front of her eyes for a second. When she started to recognize what was around her again she made out a mumbling voice. "All is ruin, all is waste, all will fall to the ground and crumble to dust…" It was the bizarre black monster, who stood staring off into space as he mumbled those words over and over.
She was afraid of looking into those eyes again, but Centorea forced herself to look at his face for at least a second, and as she looked away she was sure of it.
It was the boy they'd brought in, but not him either. His face was twisted into a mask of despair that no mortal creature, not even a monster, could possibly have formed on its own. For just a second a belt fastened with a throbbing red gem appeared around his, shedding a pitiful light against the black shell covering his body, then it was gone again.
Suddenly he threw himself at her like a black spear through the air. Centorea gasped in surprise and planted her hooves before he crashed into her, pushing her back across the floor. With all her strength she swung her sword and knocked him across the room, crashing into and bending the bars of one of the cells. The overweight boy trapped inside screamed and retreated to the back of his cell, probably glad that they were between him and the black monster.
Centorea gritted her teeth. This seemed nothing like any Kamen Rider she'd ever heard about, but she was determined to get to the bottom of this, and that meant catching this monster to do it. She shrugged off a shiver a shiver of fear, unshouldered a heavy shield onto her arm, then charged.
It was as if there was a lake of black in front of the doors of the small building above the dungeon where the Student Police kept troublesome students. Every single member f the group had been called out and were watching the entrance, and they parted like waves as an imposing boy with long blond hair, hands clasped nonchalantly behind his back walked through them.
Kurumu took one look at the mob then her wings burst from her back and her fingernails had extended into foot-long swords. "All right, let's go!" she exclaimed, but Felicia pulled her back. "Let me go! He's probably cha-" Kurumu said and tried to pull away, but Felicia's hand had turned into a furry white cat's paw with even sharper-looking claws of her own.
"He's probably what?" Felicia asked.
Moka timidly stepped forward to answer. "Nigeki has this other kind of monster in him. If he loses control of himself it takes over his body. It's pretty dangerous."
"She's not kidding," Enrique affirmed, and Meroune sympathetically put her hand on his arm. Immediately his face turned dark red, but Meroune seemed oblivious.
"And you're planning to just fight through all those guys? Maybe you forgot, but they're just as powerful as you. A lot of them are probably even stronger," Felicia pointed out.
"Who cares?!" Kurumu screamed. "They wouldn't all be there if he wasn't in like the worst kind of trouble ever! I have to go!"
"Um, guys?" Moka gently tried to interrupt.
"And that'll make everything all right, will it?" Felicia asked, not hearing her.
"Have you ever even been in love?" Kurumu snarled in retort. Felicia didn't reply, looking over at something going on behind the succubus. It took her a second to overcome her disbelief, but Meroune, Enrique and Toriel had broken away and appeared to be talking to a few Student Police members near the back of the group. And while there was a pleasant smile on Meroune's face, Felicia couldn't help noticing she was holding a sea shell tightly in her hands, as if ready to use it. For what?
With the surprise taken out of their surprise attack, Felicia crept closer, experience telling her to stay out of sight until she knew exactly what was going on and how best to react.
"What?" the closer of the Student Police asked, evidently not quite believing what he'd just heard.
"I said my true love is down there," Meroune patiently repeated herself. "If you and your friends would please move out of the way, I'll go in and sort this out." Enrique's face melted in despair as she said this.
"Girl, maybe you haven't heard," he angrily replied, "but there's a Kamen Rider down there. Armor, mask, belt, jump kicks that'd smash you into little pieces of monster gore. Everything but the bike. You go down there, you're not coming back up."
"Maybe you should let us try," Toriel said. "If he's so dangerous, what makes you think you'll fare any better? After all, doesn't the Kamen Rider win every time he fights a monster? Maybe fighting's not the answer here."
"Get out of here, all of you! It's a matter of campus security!"
Meroune smiled sadly. "Then I guess you leave me no choice. Aquaus, ultimuus, summunuus." She held up the shell and suddenly a tidal wave ripped from the opening and washed over the Student Police. A few had a chance to yell in surprise before they were slammed against the side of the building. An icy wind picked up and froze the water, trapping most of the attackers inside it, seemingly courtesy of the lavender-haired girl who appeared from nowhere.
A lot of the Student Police screamed in rage as they managed to shift into their true forms and smash free with raw strength. They surged over the sheet of ice toward Meroune, and behind her Enrique and Toriel had already shifted into the forms of a merman and a goat-headed monster with balls of fire blazing in her hands.
But suddenly a blue and white blur ripped through the Student Police and scattered heavy monsters everywhere. It stopped, or rather uncurled in front of Meroune and the others. It was Felicia, but now fully shifted into her true form, a white tail curling out from the base of her spine and huge feline paws replacing her hands and feet, and only thin strips of white fur curving her lady parts.
"Should've known," she sighed. "It always ends like this." She crouched then pounced into a gang of monsters, kicking and smacking the campus enforcers away with her powerful legs and paws. Toriel lobbed her fireballs at the ones who got past Felicia. As they fought hard, Ginei dropped to all fours and howled as he morphed into a gray-furred wolfman and pounced into the fray, kicking and charging.
"Hurry!" Toriel said over her shoulder. "We'll keep them busy! Go save your friend!"
Enrique nodded and pushed Meroune toward the building as their teachers held off the Student Police. The rest of their little rescue party ran after them, Yukari waving her wand and clobbering a few monsters who got past Felicia and Toriel with falling wash tubs.
Moka squeaked with terror as she ran, but blew past Kurumu and kicking up dust. She was going to be part of this, she was going to show her other self that being able to crush another monster wasn't the only way to be brave. She had saved Nigeki when the Tear had taken control of him before, she could do it again.
Couldn't she?
Sparks that were somehow white and black at the same time flew off of Nigeki's side as Centorea struck him again with all her warrior's strength. And she let herself feel a small rush of pride as he swung at her head with his hand, morphed into a mass of sharpened tentacles, and missed with his slowed swing. Whatever kind of monster he was, even he couldn't stand up to a relentless assault from a determined warrior forever.
But however hard she tried to hide it, her legs were starting to shake from all the energy she'd been putting into her attacks; his hide was so thick, only her strongest blows seemed to do anything to him at all.
Suddenly he brought his arms back behind him and swung them forward, his fingers allextending out into long bladed tendrils that reached all the way to the walls. He slashed forward suddenly, digging furrows in the stone and doorways of the first few cells and knocking a storm of jagged rock and metal bars toward Centorea. She gasped and raised her shield in front of herself a second before jagged pieces of metal and rock lodged themselves in it, clenching her teeth to avoid crying out as one piece of metal gouged her arm and another a leg.
She threw down the destroyed shield and rushed toward Nigeki, who stabbed awkwardly at her head with a bladed arm before she twisted her upper half out of the way at the last second and smashed her front hooves against his body. A look of surprise seemed to form on his face as he went down and made a sound like hollow metal as he hit the ground, leaving a dent in it around his body.
Before he could think about attack again she pinned his arms with her hooves. He struggled for a few seconds but fell back seeming to accept defeat.
"Now, tell me!" she demanded. "What are you?! Why are you here?"
He moaned a reply, "All is ruin, all is waste, all will fall to the ground and crumble to dust…"
"Answer me!" Centorea yelled, levelling the tip of her sword at his face.
All he said was what he'd said before. "All is ruin, all is waste, all will fall to the ground and crumble to dust…" Centorea grunted in annoyance. Before she got the chance to think of another interrogation tactic, she realized she wasn't alone.
"Hold it right there, whoever you are! I fought through all your guards and I just beat your dreaded Kamen Rider, don't think I'll have any trouble with you!" Centorea called in challenge, hoping her voice didn't quiver from exhaustion. But the intruder wasn't a member of the Student Police. Instead it was a quintet of girls, seemingly just students. A girl with a lollipop sticking out of her mouth and thick ice claws on her hands, one with huge bat-like wings folded up on her back, one wearing a peaked witch's hat and carrying a wand that looked like a toy, another one with long wings sticking from her back and still dressed in her nightgown, and the last was a girl wearing a Rosario around her neck.
"…who are you and what do you think you're doing down here?" Centorea demanded.
Kurumu ignored the question, then squealed in fear when she saw Nigeki pinned underneath her and flew forward only to stop short when she found herself looking down the blade of Centorea's sword. "I'll say it again: who are you and what do you think you're doing here? And who's he? What is going on here?!"
"Leave him alone!" Kurumu screamed. But with Centorea distracted, suddenly Nigeki grabbed her by the legs and flipped her off him, then jumped awkwardly to his feet. His right hand morphed and formed into a long scythe, but he didn't move to attack. Instead he'd locked eyes with Kurumu who stood frozen as she looked into those bottomless voids in his face.
It was as if she was no longer standing in the dungeon. Instead Kurumu felt as if she were being pulled deeper and deeper into a black void. Even though she was surrounded completely by blackness somehow she could see a figure in the distance. Someone who seemed surrounded by light against so much darkness, head thrown back and fists clenched tight raised high over his head as if crying out in terrible pain. It was Nigeki Hitoribo.
As soon as she recognized him, everything that had happened between them came flooding back as if whatever was going on was wrenching the memories from her mind and flashing them in front of her face. She saw herself meeting with him while he stood in a tree practicing his flute. When the Tear had taken him over before and lashed out at her. Then when she'd come by his room later on to try to apologize for what she'd done. She saw him flinching away from her, then letting her in anyway.
Kurumu clenched her fists and steered toward where he floated in the void, then grabbed his arm and started pulling him back with all her might.
She gritted her teeth as she faced a painful thought: that maybe just the fact that she'd done something terrible by unleashing his dark side and he'd forgiven her didn't mean they were destined for each other.
But maybe she didn't need to leave it up to destiny.
"What's going on?" Moka cried in alarm.
"I don't know, but he isn't attacking anymore. Isn't that good?" Yukari replied, raising the edge of her cape to hide a smirk at Kurumu being frozen like a statue and sliding a felt-tip pen out of a pocket before sidling closer to the immobile succubus.
"Who are you and what is going on here?!" Centorea demanded again, hobbling closer and leveling her sword at them with a shaking hand.
Mizore pointed to Nigeki and said softly, "We're his friends. Who are you?"
"I'm…I was…My Centorea. I belong the Security Committee, but when the so-called Kamen Rider, your friend here, was captured…," she sucked in a breath. "I wanted to talk to him. See if he really was a spy or an assassin or whatever the captain thinks a Kamen Rider's here to do. When I got here, he was…like that."
They tensed and turned around at the sound of rapid footsteps coming down the stairs to the dungeon, and a few seconds later Meroune appeared, being pushed faithfully by Enrique. Then loping on all fours was a large wolf-man. "We're here," Meroune said, speaking for all of them. "Is my prince all right?"
"We're not really sure," Moka answered, walking forward to stand by Nigeki's side, not seeming to notice as a grinning Yukari scribbled on Kurumu's face. "We just came down here and we was like this. From what he told me before he would've had to be hurt or lost control of his emotions."
"He was in pretty bad shape after the captain got through with him," Centorea explained.
"We shouldn't stay down here long," Moka warned the others. "We need to bring him back to normal so we can show he's not a real Kamen Rider like the Student Police think." She slipped her arms around Nigeki's body and squeezed him tightly, lightly pressing her cheek to his. As she did Centorea noticed the temperature in the room seeming to drop, and she could swear the ice claws over Mizore's hands were getting longer.
Meroune looked on uncertainly, finally asking, "I'm guessing something is supposed to happen from this?"
Moka stepped back, looking worried. Nigeki made no sign from the contact and the black shell still covered his body. "I don't know…it worked before, got him to change back to normal."
Quietly Meroune suggested, "Kurono-san seems to have done something to keep him docile…maybe the rest of us should help too." She looked up into Nigeki's eyes, then her own went blank and she stared at him totally transfixed.
Yukari turned to see what Meroune was looking at and met Nigeki's eyes next too. Moka stood protectively by the little witch before she look Nigeki in the face and went rigid, Mizore silently stepping forward and locking eyes with Nigeki herself. Ren went totally still alongside her.
Enrique looked over at Centorea helplessly, who shrugged back and sank to her haunches. He glanced at Ginei, who looked away, perhaps resigned to what a bad idea this whole thing had been.
Now what were they supposed to do?
Darkness flowed past all around them. Small lights, impossible to identify, raced by toward some unfathomable destination. Moka looked around and saw the other girls being drawn forward beside her, and tried to open her mouth but couldn't seem to form the thoughts to say anything.
But after a few seconds there was a point of light in the distance that wasn't pulled away by whatever force surrounded them, and after another few seconds it started to take the shape of a humanoid form, Nigeki's humanoid form, and Kurumu had grabbed one arm and was trying to pull him back away from the force drawing them onward.
Moka found herself unable to look away from his anguished face, and a splitting pain shot through her head as at the same time she saw their first meeting where she almost ran over him on her way into school. The relief she felt at meeting a friendly vampire so soon and disgust at what a fool he looked like avoiding her and cracking his head on a tombstone. Next she remembered him fighting off Saizou with awesome strength and at the same time thinking what a coward he was for needing a crutch to be able to fight a lesser monster. The fear she'd felt when he'd lost control to the Tear and lashed at Kurumu and Enrique, and disgusted at him lacking control over his nature. Understanding of hiding from her when he'd revealed himself as something that in so many ways was just like one of the most loathed of monster hunters, and at the same time loathing him herself for not reveling in such awesome power.
Suddenly a hot anger formed in Moka's stomach and she found herself next to Nigeki and grabbing his other arm. Kurumu looked over at her in surprise, then nodded and looked upward as they tried to pull Nigeki away, back to their own world.
Yukari saw his face locked in a silent scream. Then in the next instant she could see Moka and Nigeki standing up to the class president and his cronies even though they barely knew her, and then fighting Lord Raptor to protect her even after all the mockery she'd laid on him for the silly display of his "Mike Jaguar" outburst. Then when Ginei had confronted Nigeki with knowing the truth about his double identity, Nigeki had willingly come and waited to hear the verdict, not trying to attack or run away from whatever his fate would be.
She hadn't seen him much since being turned down for a spot in the drama club, but Moka wondered how he was doing sometimes, and if a brave beautiful girl like that continued to hope for the best for him, then maybe that hope for a three-way marriage could still pan out after all.
The young witch reached out and grabbed Nigeki's wrist on Moka's side, and they started pulling against the darkness even faster.
Mizore reached out and took Nigeki's arm next.
As she looked at his anguished face she saw a stream of memories too. The first meeting with someone else who'd been apart from monster society as much as she had. His coming to her rescue against Kotsubo and saving her from the worst kind of assault that could happen to a person.
And…and despite all the girls he'd met since coming to this school, he wasn't settling for just anyone. That night the mermaid had come back to his room and showed him her performance, Mizore had seen what she was really up to. He hadn't fallen for it either. There was only person for him, and he knew it.
He had saved her, and now she could save him and start building the foundations of a future between two outsiders. Mizore reached out and took Nigeki's hand on Kurumu's side.
Ren watched with amusement as the memories cycled by his eyes, of Nigeki standing up for him against a closedminded bully who knew the truth while the young vampire himself did not. The look of stupefaction on his face when he realized just why Ren was being bullied was priceless.
But for all that, Nigeki Hitoribo had been someone who'd come to his aid without even knowing why Ren was being persecuted. When he learned, his course didn't change at all.
Nigeki Hitoribo was a strange person, but if what his female friends had been saying about him was true he was a strange person who was willing to stand up for others.
If he was willing to do that, how could Ren do any less?
He hooked his arms under Nigeki's and helped pull against the darkness.
Meroune was the last, her heart seeming to clench as she saw the anguished face.
Memories flowed in front of her as they had with the others, of the terrifying Bloodstone catching sight of her in the swimming pool, but recognizing she was no danger and letting her go to focus his strength on the other mermaids attacking their fellow students.
It seemed such a ridiculous thing that would inevitably come between them; she was a creature of the sea, and something as simple as water was the bane of his kind. That which was her true home could never be his.
But knowing that made Meroune want to overcome the divide between them even more. He'd endured something so deadly to him, and had still had it in him to give her a word of comfort afterward. Surely that meant there could be more between than being co-stars in the school play.
Gently she slipped her slender arms around the immobile vampire's waist and smiled to herself. The other night she had been disappointed at how he had resisted her advances and insisted on escorting her home, but now it was a sign of reassurance. He wasn't looking for a cheap fling, and wouldn't be easily seduced by any pretty face to come along, and Meroune knew she wasn't the only one of those he'd met at this school.
It was like she'd always hoped it would be. Apair of star-crossed lovers, seemingly destined to be pushed apart by their differing natures, and by his battle against an inner darkness that threatened anyone who dared to close. A fine tragic romance.
And none of that mattered. To her, or to any of them. A second later, light filled their eyes.
Suddenly Nigeki's body trembled, and the shiny black shell over him started to crack, falling away from his eyes in particular and revealing those of a scared and confused young man beneath. Around him the girls gasped in astonishment as they found themselves back in the dungeon.
"What's…going on?!" Nigeki exclaimed, the black shell starting to creep closed around his eyes and mouth again. "Hensh…" he gasped, and for a second the Bloodstone flickered into visibility around his waist. Before it had driven back the Tear part of his being by amplifying the Vampire in him, but now he didn't have the strength to make it work.
As the shell continued forming over his eyes Mizore darted in front of Nigeki, then leaned her neck to one side and pulled her collar with one hand, exposing the skin. Nigeki looked at her in horror and let a precious second pass slip away, but then extended his fangs and bit into her neck.
Her blood had a chill to it that made his teeth ache, but it was vibrant and alive, the opposite of the Tear trying to close over him and absorb him forever. The voice that replaced him when it took over screamed in his ear, "Drink her dry! Sate your thirst! The flesh is weak, her death is the only way to prolong yours!" But after a few seconds he pulled back from her and gently lowered Mizore to her knees.
Immediately Kurumu was in front of him, offering her neck to him too, and he drank deeply, grateful for the salvation she was offering him. After a second she grunted and asked, while forcing a smile, "Is this what love feels like?"
"I…don't know," Nigeki answered uncertainly, anxious just to take this opportunity to regain his strength she was giving him.
As he pulled back from her as well and gently set the weakened succubus down, Yukari started to step forward to offer her blood too but Moka pulled her back. "No, you're too little," she told the young witch warningly.
"I'm old enough!" Yukari protested as Meroune wheeled forward and offered her neck next.
But Moka didn't let go. "That's not the point. You're little, and it's not safe yet," she said.
"Awww!" Yukari whined, frowning fiercely at the beatific smile on Meroune's face as Nigeki drank her blood. Even Ren stepped forward and offered his neck, and his head lolled back, a smile on his face as his long hair dangled behind him, and Moka almost tried to take Yukari's wand away.
Finally Nigeki stepped back into the center of the dungeon. The dark shell around his body had almost finished crawling over his eyes again, but he cried out in a booming voice that shook the walls.
"HENSHIN!"
The entire dungeon was filled with a blinding red glow and the other incarcerated students retreated deeper into their cells to avoid it searing their eyes. Nigeki's rescuers cringed away from it too, but then gasped in surprise as they felt a pair of powerful arms gathering them up and pulling them together against him. A minute later the light cleared, and the five found themselves crowded together in Bloodstone's arms.
"Is…is everything okay now?" Moka asked, a hopeful smile on her face but the slowness of her words indicated worry. She was still worried.
"The Tear's gone again. For now," Bloodstone said in Nigeki's voice, a little rougher thanks to his monstrous nature being magnified. "Thanks to you all…Kurumu, what happened to your face?"
"What? What do you mean?" asked Kurumu, who had panda eye blotches drawn on her face, crooked whiskers and the kanji for "iyarashii" written across her forehead. She immediately turned to Yukari, teeth clenched in rage. "YOU!" The young witch let out a yelp of fright before Kurumu lunged and caught her in a headlock.
"Is this…something they get up to a lot?" Bloodstone asked in confusion.
"Sometimes," Moka said, a sweatdrop the size of a bowling ball hanging onto her forehead. "Usually when Kurumu brings cookies to club meetings, won't say who they're for and Yukari tries to guess."
Bloodstone flinched at that. He actually had a whole cabinet back in his room full of bags of homemade cookies from Kurumu. And Meroune. And Mizore. But after he'd been stuck in the bathroom the entire night he'd tried some of Mizore's cooking for the first time, he hadn't dared to touch anyone else's.
Centorea cleared her throat to get their attention. "But now what?" she asked, walking up to them. "Are you a Kamen Rider? Are you a danger to the students? Why are you here, looking like that, if you aren't?"
"Why, I'd say it looks like he's collecting all his conspirators," said a voice from back toward the stairway. There stood Kuyou, hands clutched casually behind his back and a triumphant smile on his face. Behind him were a handful of other members of the Student Police, and Enrique the merman moved between them and his weakened friends, inflating his chest to blast poison gas if he needed to. Kuyou's smile didn't move at all. "Putting off the execution was a good idea after all, wasn't it? His friends blew their cover to ensure his safety and we caught them all at once!"
Enrique went into a fighting stance. "Don't try it, buddy. My dad was a Darkstalker, he taught me everything he knows," he warned.
"The Darkstalkers are ancient history," Kuyou replied as he closed in. "If they were here now they'd probably be asking us where they can get a deal on denture cream. Put those hands down, boy, and this will go better for all of you. Not much, but you'll have fewer broken bones to go along with your execution."
Enrique answered by blasting a cloud of purple gas down the hall toward Kuyou. Two of his underlings started to move in front of him to protect him, but Kuyou pushed them aside, and his body seemed to explode in flame. From out of the fiery mass surrounding him shot a barrage of fireballs that incinerated the cloud and went flying forward to explode around Enrique. The merman cried out in pain as he was blown off his feet and landed hard, his skin charred and fin torn.
Bloodstone groaned, his body still sore from just reclaiming control, but stood up and got ready to fight. Kuyou had beaten him before, but this time he wouldn't hold anything back. This little fire freak thought he was the strongest, but he hadn't seen anything yet. His eyes started to vanish behind his mask as he let Bloodstone take over completely, but he stopped suddenly as Moka, Mizore, Kurumu, Yukari and even Ren and Meroune formed a wall in front of him.
"What do you all think you're doing?" Bloodstone asked.
"You can't have him!" Moka said, ignoring the question. "He's not a Kamen Rider! He didn't come here to kill anybody! He came here to make friends and learn how to control his monster nature!"
Kuyou smiled still as he stepped out of the cloud of flame, totally unharmed. "Of course you'd say something like that when you're cornered and weakened," he said. "Any coward would. But there's no escape this time. Boys, if you would?" His underlings stepped forward and shifted into their true forms, led by a stony golem and a snarling three-headed dog man.
Another fireball came arcing from one of Kuyou's hands toward Nigeki's defenders, but Mizore lifted shaking hands and hurriedly formed an ice wall in front of them. Kuyou's fireball smashed through it easily, peppering the air with razor-sharp ice crystals.
"Out of the way!" Bloodstone yelled, shoving the girls out of the path of a huge chunk of ice. Kurumu landed roughly on her shoulder, but it was nothing compared to what would happen if that ice hit her. Bloodstone braced himself then swung his gauntleted fist and smashed it into a shower of frigid dust.
But he didn't give the Student Police the chance to attack again and charged before flinging himself at Kuyou. The captain was ready for him and grappled with Bloodstone for a second before suddenly exploding into flame again. Bloodstone wasn't deterred and punched at the flames with both hands, but gasped in surprise as something bit down on his fists. The sheet of flames faded and revealed Kuyou's true form; a Yoko, a giant fox-like monster with four tails wreathed in flames.
"No!" Moka screamed and grabbed Bloodstone from behind. Then, seeming to grin, Kuyou tackled Bloodstone through the roof of the dungeon in a deafening blast of sound and fire.
Air rushed past the two vampires for what seemed like forever, and for a second Moka wondered if the impact had killed them and they were passing over to the afterlife until they came to a bone-jarring stop a second later, Bloodstone having twisted underneath in midair so he'd hid the ground first. She looked down at him, unable to think, talk or breathe.
Then Kuyou came crashing down nearby, the flames covering his body seeming even brighter than before. "You're just making things even better for me, don't you realize?" the fox creature said gloatingly. "Fighting back against the campus peacekeepers at a school for young monsters, you must be here to slaughter our children!"
Bloodstone didn't reply. He wasn't going to get involved in banter with Kuyou; the fox might be taking too much time to enjoy this, but he was powerful enough to still be a major threat. He started to let his consciousness fade and the instincts of his true vampire nature take over, when he felt Moka seize his arm and press it against her throat.
"What are you doing?!" he demanded.
"I'm not letting you do this by yourself," she said, then pressed his hand hard against her Rosario. There was a rush of electricity that flung them apart and Moka's scream filled the air.
There was no time to waste. This entire experiment of sending him away to school had failed. There was no point in letting Moka be hurt and dragged down with Nigeki when the dust settled on this. He let Bloodstone, the primal hunter, take over completely, eyes turning a glistening yellow as he got up to face the Captain of the Student Police.
"After all that, nothing to say?" Kuyou challenged. Bloodstone didn't. He just rushed his enemy, the curved blades at his elbows flashing out to their full length. Kuyou flipped his tails and sent a barrage of burning spears at Bloodstone, who just raised his arms in front of him deflecting on the metal and blades in front of him, only staggering for a minute as two gouged his leg before continuing his charge.
Kuyou's canine face looked startled for a second before Bloodstone grabbed him and hauled him into the air. Kuyou growled and the flames around his body roared even higher, licking at Bloodstone's arms and body, but the vampire just roared in rage before throwing his opponent into the air, then jumping after him and slashing against Kuyou's side with his bladed gauntlet and knocking him back to earth with a vicious midair kick.
The fiery fox gasped in surprise as he recovered his senses and got up again, looking for his opponent. But Bloodstone seemed to have vanished into the darkness of night. Suddenly he spotted a hint of movement behind a hunk of rubble from the wall of the building. Kuyou snarled and blasted a fireball at it that erupted upward in a giant explosion, and out of it Bloodstone came jumping. He came down in a powerful flying kick, his outstretched foot gathering a red glow as he came down. Kuyou breathed a tornado of fire from his mouth up at Bloodstone, pushing back against him and slowing Bloodstone as he came down, scorching at Bloodstone's armor.
But suddenly another figure ran out of the darkness and delivered a roundhouse kick to the fox's side. His attack faltered for just a second, and in that second Bloodstone came crashing down and landed his kick right between Kuyou's shoulders. An explosion of red light erupted and when it cleared Bloodstone and Kuyou were grappling while snarling at each other like beasts. Bloodstone's armor was charred and cracking around him, but even as the fire around Kuyou roared hotter in anger and his gauntlets started to turn red from the heat he refused to back way.
And despite the roaring flames again a flying kick came out of nowhere and struck Kuyou in the back while he was busy trying to break away from Bloodstone. It was Moka, the true wild, threatening vampire. Kuyou turned and snapped angrily at her only to receive a hard kick across the face just before Bloodstone took advantage of his distraction and slashed across his body.
All of a sudden Kuyou whirled around, snarling in rage and blasting both vampires back with a wave of fire. Moka cried out as she went down, the only noise the savage Bloodstone made being the crash from his impact, fires burning all over his armor and pieces of the plating cracking off from his chest and arms.
But again he got up and ran after Kuyou who dodged back and forth easily avoiding Bloodstone's punches that shattered the ground. "A vampire who's been taken in by a Kamen Rider," he growled with amusement. "Oh, this is a day that will live in infamy!"
Moka wordlessly closed in and launched a scissor-kick at Kuyou's jaw but he ducked under it before lunging at Bloodstone, catching the armored vampire's arm in his mouth and flinging him aside to crash into a boulder and split it in half. Before Kuyou had the chance to press his attack, though, again he was attacked from the side by something covered in blue and white fur in the shape of a wheel. He fell to the ground with an annoyed ground from the battering and looked up to see who his new attacker was.
"Ancient history, huh?" Felicia called mockingly. "Seems like my ears still work pretty good for such an old lady!"
"You're a spring chicken compared to me," Toriel said, fire dancing in her hands too, although looking uncertain what good it would do against an enemy like this. She turned back to Kuyou and warned, "Stop this, young man, and no one needs to be hurt."
"Like you, old lady?" Kuyou scoffed and launched a fireball from the tip of one tail. Toriel easily raised a wall of flame in front of her and Kuyou's fireball sputtered out inside it. Bloodstone dragged himself up on the edge of the boulder he'd hit, a part of him seething at what Toriel had been called.
"Try that again and you'll get you the spanking you deserve," Toriel warned Kuyou.
Kuyou just laughed. "You think I'm afraid of the faculty either?! You're nothing to me, and you're aiding a monster killer who's infiltrated the campus! You're just making me an even bigger hero!"
Felicia sighed wistfully. "Ah, to be young again. To have everything figured out already."
"You had that too, huh?" Toriel asked. "I thought I was the only one."
"Are you two going to talk like a couple old ladies or are you going to worry about beating the enemy?" Moka snapped at them. As if out of nowhere Bloodstone appeared behind her.
"Watch your mouth," he growled at her. Moka's face tightened in silent irritation.
Kyou sighed at the assembled group facing him down, then grinned. "It looks like I'll have to make this extra spectacular. Oh well," he said, then he started to glow. Not burn as before, but emit a dazzling white light. Bloodstone and Moka launched themselves into the heart of the light but something grabbed them both by the neck before they could hit Kuyou.
Again he'd changed, this time into a humanoid form wreathed in soft blue flames, vulpine ears poking through his long blond hair and a triumphant smile on his face. Four tails, now made of pure blue fire, extended out from his back.
"Vampires, aristocracy of the night," he grinned. "Looks like you've been on top so long you think there's nobody around who can knock you off your little perch. Let me correct that for you!"
He threw them away from him and launched a pair of fireballs after them that flew together into one massive ball and exploded in the air just behind them, flinging the two vampires to the ground like ragdolls. Kuyou jumped through the air and landed on their backs, his body burning brighter and hotter every second. Moka cried out by rolled over and kicked Kuyou's leg off her, and Bloodstone rolled into a crouch and rushed Kuyou slashing repeatedly with his blades but the fiery monster danced out of the way half a second too quickly each time.
Suddenly Kuyou pressed his hand against Bloodstone's chest and a deafening explosion ripped from his palm and blew the armored vampire away. Bloodstone arced through the air and crashed at Toriel and Felicia's feet, a gaping hole burnt in his chest armor and a patch of red, scorched skin visible underneath. Moka threw a flurry of kicks at Kuyou, but he stood still just absorbing the blows for a second before grabbing her by the leg and tossing her away to land beside Bloodstone.
Toriel let out a squeak of alarm at the sight of Bloodstone's injury but turned to face Kuyou, a fire of her own burning in her eyes. "Stop this," she said warningly. "Would we have to hide from people like the real Kamen Riders if it wasn't for monsters like you?"
"You know what, you've set me straight. From now on, I'll make sure to set a good, peaceful example so humans like that can just rush in and wipe us all out!" Kuyou roared. The blue flame around his body grew brighter and a column of it formed around him then spread out in a wave in all directions.
Toriel blasted at it with all her might and Felicia rolled into a ball and sped at it, trying to crash through, but Kuyou's wave kept coming and slammed into them both knocking them down. Bloodstone finally staggered to his feet, the light in his eyes turning brighter and angrier. He planted his feet and held out his hands in front of him to catch the wave Kuyou had created.
It slammed into him like a wrecking ball, and a horrific surge of pain ripped through Bloodstone's body from his hands down to his feet. His body quivered but he held his ground and pushed back. One step. Then another. He screamed out as his hands started to burn through his gauntlets but still he pushed back against the wave. Finally he screamed and shoved it with all his strength and the wave cracked and then seemed to shatter, flying into the sky and fading from sight.
"What?" gasped a stupefied Kuyou.
"You think you're so powerful, you think you're a hunter or something?!" Bloodstone roared. "I'll show you power! The power of the people who dragged me back from darkness!"
He brought back one still-smoldering fist and his belt called, "Magnum Vermillion!" Then Bloodstone swung his fist and a blast of red light flowed from it that grew taller and wider as it flew toward Kuyou, who hastily fired back with a ray of his blue flames. The two attacks pushed back and forth for a minute, but sweat started to form on Kuyou's brow and hiss off as steam as soon as they touched the seething energy covering his body.
Bloodstone snarled as Nigeki slipped back into control and the lights in his mask dimmed, gathering all the frustration of this battle and his futile time at this school, knowing it was all over now in spite of all the friends he'd managed to make. His beam surged forward from the intensity of his rage and Kuyou let out one last strangled cry of surprise and panic before being engulfed. Bloodstone's blast shot past until it had gone past the cliff at the edge of the forest and disappeared over the blood-red ocean.
He stood over Kuyou's body, unmoving but merely unconscious. With a sigh of exhaustion Bloodstone released his armor but unlike usual it fell away in brittle chips instead of spraying away as liquid. The arm that had fired his final attack was totally uncovered by the force of the beam already, and the skin underneath reddened from the heat.
Nigeki slumped against one of the dead trees and sighed heavily, totally spent from the battle even with all the blood his friends had let him take.
His friends. They'd risked a fight with the Student Police to come and collect him, then given him their very blood to let him fight back against the Tear inside him. Even if Nigeki had absolutely failed to stay out of trouble, he'd managed to find some pretty great people here.
Suddenly Nigeki's instincts screamed a warning, and even as tired as he was he looked up to see Moka looming over him. Her expression was neutral, but even in the shape he was in he could tell her cold gazing was studying him.
"What is it?" he asked to break the silence. She replied by plucking out the Rosario still clutched in his hand, the one that had shot off his final attack, and wordlessly attached it to her choker again.
She shimmered and after a second the gentle pink-haired Moka was kneeling by his side, giving him a concerned look. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly, as if it was a stupid question.
"I don't know," Nigeki replied, but forced a smile. "I can't really feel anything right now."
"That's not much of a surprise," Toriel observed as she and Felicia limped over. "I've never seen a monster give off so much power as that last trick of yours."
"Yeah, well, enjoy it while you can," Nigeki muttered. "Tomorrow I'm getting kicked out of school."
"For what?" Felicia asked. "That guy wasn't protecting the students."
Nigeki sighed and rested his forehead against his knees. "My family still didn't say anything about the Tear in me or how I was keeping it under control. They never would've let me in if we had."
One side of Felicia's mouth turned up in a faint smirk. "We'll see."
Moka gave her friend a worried look and found the courage to place her hand on his shoulder. "But why did you change? Did they hurt you that much?" she asked.
"No," Nigeki replied. "I think it was more because I got knocked out without taking my pill to make sure I don't dream. If I have nightmares the Tear just eats it right up, and there's nothing I can do to stop it from taking over unless I wake up in time. ="
Toriel gaped at him for a second before kneeling in front of the young vampire herself. "You can't dream when you sleep? You poor, poor thing," she said and cupped his face supportively in her soft, fuzzy hands while she tried to give him a reassuring smile. His vision around Toriel seemed to blur, and somehow Nigeki thought it had nothing to do with his exhaustion.
"OHMYGODTHEREYOUAREAREYOUOKAY?!" someone yelled before Nigeki felt someone slam into him and wrap around his neck, choking the breath from his lungs. As the world blurred in and out from lack of oxygen he saw Felicia grinning as she held up her phone and snapped a picture.
This was what his life had become.