Chapter 10: Lying Low, Part I

Kurono, Kurumu wasn't having a very good past few days. And now the situation had gotten worse. Who were these people? And what did they want from her? Her phone had no notifications, nor had she received any phone calls from anyone telling her about this sticky situation.

She had always liked men in uniforms, so organized, and manly, but at this moment she wasn't feeling it, this didn't feel right. The little witch that was by her side seconds ago was now gone, and their attempt at getting help was going nowhere. The men in the suits were tall and all with different muscular faces. They all seemed to close in on her. Where was Yukari? She stood there alone pinned against the wall waiting for help to arrive. Why are they trying to jump me? Kurumu thought to herself as she pinned her back against the wall and kept her hands open to attack.

"Kurono Kurumu, you could make this easy for all of us, mainly by allowing yourself to be taken, or you could make this difficult and we could kill you and dump your body at the castle." Castle? What castle? The leader of the group; a bald man with broad shoulders said. Kurumu had a hard time distinguishing between the men since all of them were large and bulky with the same faces. The only difference would have to be the skin tone and the hair on their heads. She made a mental note that bowl cuts do not fit bulky forty year olds.

"We can't kill her, we were asked to keep her alive." A strong female voice told the leader from behind. Kurumu had no idea where the voice was coming from, but it clearly wasn't on her side of the bet.

The bald men turned to her, looking her up and down. The main one gave a grin smile. "Alright, since we can't have any fun, then I'll just beat the shit out of you and take you to the castle." The woman appeared and walked in front of her. The lighting was only on Kurumu from what she could see, so her image was almost gone. Kurumu heard the woman crack her neck on both sides, but gave her a gentle smile that was only visible with the gleaming light glistening off of her teeth.

"You can try. Bitch." Kurumu chuckled, something sinister beginning to overwhelm her body. Her dainty her fingernails became something not so dainty, but claws. The back of her shirt tore and her wings appeared out of nowhere, giant and black with a talon at the end of the main joint. She flew up high, stretching out the lengths of her bat-like wings, from above they were mere ants and she was a predator. "Hah!" Kurumu crossed her arms mid air, and glared at them with confidence.

Those below her only stared above in astonishment, their mouths hanging wide open only to be shut close by the loud smack their leader gave a couple of them and signaled for them to the car where they grabbed guns and began shooting upwards. "Flap your wings, little bird. Let's see for how long you can fly with holes through those." One of them yelled.

Kurumu's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, she swooped down and slicing at them, the fastest she could, from the corner of her eyes she saw as they flew back, blood splattering. The shots stopped for a second, as they checked their numbers, but they came back as fast as they stopped, she attempted to dodge the storms they brought at first it was easy, but it had gotten tiresome. She swooped down below and began swinging at them, the first person she encountered had their gun. She sliced it away, along with their hand. He stepped back and screamed, holding the bloody stub, crashing into another. The next person had managed to create a scrape her in the leg. She angrily retaliated by taking his whole leg instead. Slicing it off with one singular movement.

Behind her was the woman, the true leader of the pack. Kurumu couldn't tell what she looked like at all through this time since the darkness around her was so great. The woman charged at her with the gun, smacking her across the face with the heavy weapon. The white ivory end of the gun was now tinged with a little bit of red. Kurumu's head spun to the side and her fell to her knees on the floor causing her to get a scrape. Blood dripped out of her mouth and her cheek felt bruised. She spat out the rest of the metallic tasting liquid on to the ground.

"You're not so tough, Succubus." The woman spat hitting her again across the face. Kurumu reached her hand out to stop the impact but the gun had still landed on her, bruising her hand and her face. Henchmen began to surround her, holding her shoulders and arms, pinning her to the ground. "Don't struggle."

"The fuck I won't!" Kurumu growled, spitting the extra blood collected in her face. "Fucking bitch!" She kicked and pouted just as a child would; but the remaining henchmen came to hold her feet down. They made her stand, but she had began jumping and flapping her wings all she could. She would make their work hell.

"For fucks sake, knock her out." One of the henchmen suggested.

"We can't, she's needed awake." Another one responded in annoyance, only to receive a groan in response.

The woman pointed at the car, and they went, dragging her in, barely fitting her body through her kicking and jumping. They shoved handcuffs on her hands right before she went in so she wouldn't fight. The leader patted away the dust she had gotten on her suit from the fight, and wiped away the sweat from her brow. A smile appeared on her face, another victory.

CLANG!

"Jesu-"

The man to Kurumu's left looked back, "Boss?"

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Kurumu flinched at the sounds. She knew these very well.

CLANG!

"Ouch!" Kurumu exclaimed in pain, patting her head with cuffed hands from the bronze pan that had fallen on her head. "Was it necessary for you to conjure a bronze pan on my head as well, Yukari?" Kurumu cursed at the witch.

"Hai, desu. You shouldn't have done something so stupid like that, you could have waited a bit longer." Yukari stuck her tongue out at Kurumu. Kurumu slid her feet out of the car but still sat while the small witch ran towards her friend, stepping over the mounds of knocked out people on the way there, she helped Kurumu up and undid her cuff.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem!" Yukari winked at her only for Kurumu to playfully look at her with a mixture of confusion and disgust.

"Do you know where these guys come from?" Kurumu kicked one of the unconscious henchmen over that was blocking her path, and looked down at Yukari. Yukari nodded, but the mood had gotten darker and her lively brown eyes became dim and black. "Yukari?" Kurumu nudged her now spaced out friend. Yukari didn't even blink. Kurumu looked around. They hadn't gone anywhere. She was still in the same place, her blood was still on the ground behind Yukari.

"Mikogami called…" Yukari started, remembering the headmasters words. "We're to go in hiding."

"W-What?" Her friend stepped back and crouched so she could be eye-level with the witch. "Are you sure?"

"The rescue went wrong, Kurumu…" The petite witch went on, the words slowing down. "Mikogami is rescuing Tsukune as we speak, he says that it was a massacre, what went on in that castle."

"I-Is he o-okay?!" Kurumu was filled with worry. "What about Mizore? Ruby?"

"I don't know." Yukari turned to walk. "But we've got to go before more arrive."

"Yukari?"

"Come on, Kurumu, let's go."

Authors Note:

Hello guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it's short and late but I'll be posting up the second part up soon, hopefully. I am currently working on another fanfiction along with this one, but I will still continue uploading constant chapters here, so maybe there will be two short chapters released here in like 1-2 weeks while there will be one longer chapter for that fanfiction or it could be the other way around depending on the feedback I'll get on the stories and the time I have available after school. This will be my main focus though, I promise. I appreciate all the love and support that you guys give me, and thank you for holding on for this long, guys. c:

Lots of credit to my wonderful friend Layla (Descendant-of-Blue-Blood)for editing, and helping me write this chapter.

Thank you so much for reading guys, and I will see you next chapter!

- Queen of Cellos