Today is a nice warm day here at Yokai Academy. And by warm I mean it's a smoldering forty-one degrees Celsius. I'm walking around the school's rooftops with Moka and Tsukune as we talk about how hot it is.
Tsukune stops dead in his tracks, causing us to turn to him as he shouts to the sky, "It's too damn hot! It's way hotter than the human world! Stop academy warming!" Moka lets out a light giggle at this and I can't help but chuckle a little myself, to which he seems more than pleased with himself.
"I wonder what's going on to make the school so hot all of a sudden. The barrier usually keeps this place in a Fall like environment. The people who are weak to heat will have to call off and stay home. I hear Mizore had to take today off too.", Moka notes as she looks to the two of with a slightly curious look.
I let out a slight groan, not quite sure what might be going on as I say, "You guys should stop complaining. In the underworld, on a good day the temperature reaches eighty degrees."
"You mean eighty degrees Fahrenheit, right?", Tsukune nervously asks as he seems to twitch in fear.
Shaking my head no, I swiftly correct the boy, saying, "That's eighty degrees Celsius."
They both almost die thinking about the amount of heat and Tsukune, baffled by my response, asks, "How does anything live there then?"
I give the boy a light laugh and say, "Most monsters that live in the underworld have a higher durability than the typical monster, so they can handle drastic temperatures quite easily."
"So that's why you're wearing a jacket in forty degree weather.", Moka notes as she points out my light grey jacket.
"What about you Moka? Won't you get sunburn easier than other monsters with your pale skin?", Tsukune questions the vampire as he gives her a concerned glance.
"Yeah, but the heat doesn't really get to me that much. It reminds me of summer, you know? Are you okay in this weather, Tsukune?", she answers as she fixes the collar on her white dress shirt, revealing slightly more skin and a tad bit too much cleavage.
Tsukune nods while we make our way to the door leading back into the school while his eyes start to wander where they probably shouldn't, but if he wants to take risks then I'm not going to stop him. She notices his staring and asks, "Tsukune, are you okay?"
The boy obviously panics a bit and fumbles to spit out the words, "No no no, yeah summer is great! If I get to see you like this then maybe I don't mind the heat."
Ignoring his awkward response, the three of us head inside and as we walk down the stairs, Tsukune mentions, "I also like the feeling that summer brings, and how it's full of events. Remember last summer when the Newspaper Club went and stayed in the human world together for a few days? We met Ruby and all sorts of things happened. It would be nice to go to a lot of places together again just like that and create special memories of those moments."
As we start to pass a window it opens from the outside and Mizore pops out saying, "There you are Tsukune, I've been looking for you."
Tsukune and Moka nearly jump out of their skin at the snow woman's sudden appearance and he frantically asks, "Mizore, how did you get there!? This is the second floor!"
She waves his worries off with one hand as she tells him, "Don't let trivial things like that get to you."
"Just accept it and move on, Tsukune. Now what was it that you wanted Tsukune for exactly, Mizore?", I question the purple-haired girl as I try to pull her through the window. She's a bit slippery from all of her sweat, but I managed to get her in without dropping her out the window.
She pulls out a letter from her pocket and as she passes it to the mostly human boy, Mizore explains, "My mom sent me a letter saying there's a little ceremony that's going on back home and to come back. She said that I could bring some friends if I wanted and I wanted to see if Tsukune would be interested."
"Friends? Does that mean I can come too?", Moka questions her as she quickly snatches the letter right out of Tsukune's hands.
Mizore looks over to her with a cold glance before letting out a light sigh and replying with, "I was mainly inviting Tsukune, but it doesn't really matter. I guess you can come along too."
Moka's eyes light up at this and she exclaims, "Oh Mizore!", while hugging her with a wide smile on her face.
"So? Coming? Not coming?", the ice woman questions them, confusion ringing through her voice like a lost pup.
"The rest of the group probably won't want to let Tsukune out of their sight so they'd probably want to come too. And I'd like to join in as well. I haven't seen a place with natural snow before so this will be a first for me.", I add as I close the window to keep the cool air in.
Later that day, we're all standing at the bus stop as the bus driver finally arrives. We've been standing her for at least an hour, you'd think this old geezer would at least be on time for something like this! We eventually make our way onto the bus and Mizore tells him where we need to go.
I take a look around the bus to see that this isn't our usual school bus, it seems newer, having all kinds a small area for karaoke along with fancy new seats and windows. I also notice something more important than what we have, who we're missing. Neither Nekonome nor that perverted wolf are coming with us this time, why the Hell aren't they tagging along on this trip. They're usually up for ditching their work and going on these kinds of trips when they get the chance.
As soon as the doors close Kurumu shouts, "We're going on a trip! Step on it driver!"
The bus driver laughs and says, "Leave it to me. If it's an area joined by these fourth-dimension tunnels you can get anywhere in just a short hop."
"Is there Karaoke? I wanna sing!", Kurumu shouts as she finds a mic attached to a karaoke player.
"The Headmaster said that they were in the middle of adjusting the barrier and the heat went up too far. It seems like it'll take two to three days to get it back to the normal climate.", Ruby explains as she holds onto one of the the poles on the bus for support, choosing to stand rather than sit down like a few of the other members of the Newspaper Club.
"So then for that time we'll be with your folks, right Mizore? Thank God! I don't think I could've taken that stupid heat any longer.", Kokoa happily adds as she lazily lays across one of the new seats, taking the whole thing for herself.
"I bet snow girl land is nice and cool too.", Yukari gleefully cheers as she pulls herself up on the back of Kokoa's seat from her spot behind the little vampire.
Kurumu, giving the snow girl a skeptical glare, questions Mizore, asking, "But what's with the change? You'd normally be happy with just Tsukune, but you invited all of us. It's surprising! Is it gonna start snowing next?"
The bus driver quickly cuts them off before she can get an answer however, calling out, "I can see it now. We're almost at our destination.", as we all see the bright light at the end of the tunnel.
Once we exit the tunnel, we end up in what I can only describe as the mother of all blizzards. Makes sense that a place where Snow Women live is protected by snow.
The bus driver quickly ejects us all from the bus along with our luggage before giving us a tip of his hat and saying, "Here you are. Take care now." And before we can even say a word, the mysterious bus driver closes the doors and speeds off back through the tunnel from where we came.
Furious, Kurumu grabs Mizore by her jacket, pulling her close to her rage-filled face as she shouts, "Is this snow land or a blizzard!? Where the hell are we?"
As the wind picks up the rest of the group, excluding Mizore, Kurumu and myself, all complain shiver as they huddle together for warmth. I let out a loud sigh and say, "Stop complaining. It isn't even that bad." I quickly break up the two girls before assessing the situation, if they don't stay warm they'll probably freeze to death before we even figure out where the Hell we are. "Kurumu, make yourself useful and join the others. You can help keep them warm with your giant chest, you'll finally be useful for once.", I tell the succubus, who ignores my insult at the thought of getting to snuggle close to Tsukune.
The busty blue-haired girl leaps at the chance, nearly tackling Tsukune as she goes to warm him, saying, "Don't worry Tsukune~ Your darling Kurumu will keep you warm~" Well, at least Tsukune won't freeze. The others should be able to burn their monster energy to keep themselves somewhat warm, as for Mizore, she's probably immune to this kind of weather.
Tsukune, with is face turning a dark crimson, begins to panic and frantically exclaims, "Kurumu!? Not so close, not so close!"
Yukari ignoring Kurumu's usual overly loving nature, shouts, "This is our destination!?", in complete disbelief as she looks around at the frozen tundra around us.
Mizore nods to the little witch and says, "Just like how Yokai Academy is kept Autumn temperature all year, here the greater part of the year is winter. It's okay, once we get to my home the wind will die down and the temperature will warm up a bit." She begins trudging through the snow in one direction while saying, "It's this way. Stick close so you don't get separated."
We all follow close behind her as she asked us to and Kurumu asks, "What are you scheming Mizore?"
Glancing over her shoulder at the succubus, Mizore gives Kurumu her usual cold look before saying, "I'm not scheming anything, why do you ask?"
"This is too nice, especially for you. You're being so well behaved that it's weird.", Kurumu notes as we continue our trek through the snow.
When we reach the peek of the hill, Mizore turns around and replies with, "I don't really care what you're thinking, but I wanted to show you guys this view. That was my original plan actually." The girl motions for us all to take a look and when we do, we all look on in amazement at the ice covered wonderland in front of us. It's an entire city made entirely out of ice with what seem to be three castle like structures, two smaller ones and one bigger. Makes sense that this place would be made entirely of ice.
"So this is your hometown then, Mizore? I have to admit, I'm impressed.", I note with my mouth gaped open in amazement before taking out my camera and snapping a picture of the frozen city in front of us.
After a long trek through the frozen tundra around it, we finally make our way into the frozen city, which is even more impressive up close. As we walk through the frozen wonderland, Kurumu gleefully takes in the sights as she shouts, "Amazing! This is the land of the Snow Woman!? It's totally unreal!"
We suddenly hear a familiar voice welcome us, saying, "Welcome to our humble village. I've been waiting for you."
We turn to see Mizore's mom, Tsurara. "Miss Shirayuki.", Tsukune says, surprised by her being there. How can you be surprised that she's here? She lives here, you idiot.
"Oh please, call me Tsurara. We haven't seen each other since that school event last year, have we Tsukune?", Tsurara replies with a smile as she walks over to our little group. "Well, what do you think? Do you like this place? It's beautiful, isn't it?", Tsurara asks as she showcases the wonderful designs of the ice city she lives in.
"Yes of course! It's the first time I've ever seen a place this beautiful!", Tsukune says as he continues to look around, mesmerized by the icy landscape.
"Most of the buildings are made with ice and because of the barrier that protects this place, the sky is always an aurora.", Tsurara happily notes as we continue to look at her homeland. Then her tone takes a sharp turn to serious as she gets closer to Tsukune and says, "But, in this beautiful land we are also concerned with a declining birth-rate. Compared to the scale of this land there is also the side of a declining population. So Tsukune, we'll have to get you and Mizore to start making children soon." The icy mother begins to drag Tsukune away in her frozen grip while saying, "Now come along. Your bed has already been prepared for you two."
As Tsukune struggles to break free of her cold, unrelenting grip, until Mizore throws an ice kunai at her own mother, knocking her out with a perfect headshot. With a slight glare aimed her mother's way, Mizore pries Tsukune free of her mother while scolding her, saying, "Such unnecessary concerns are useless mother."
Trembling in fear, Moka comments on Tsurara by saying, "She's a scary mother as always."
As she joins Moka's side, the two girls hold each other as Kurumu adds, "Moms like that make kids like this huh?"
We all head over to Mizore's house for the rest of the day. We all sit down at their family table for dinner and Tsurara says, "Yes yes. You came home for tomorrow's 'Flow Offering,' didn't you Mizore?"
"Flower Offering? What's that?", Moka asks.
Isn't she supposed to be the smart one? What does it sound like? Tsurara reels back a bit as she realizes that the pink-haired vampire doesn't know and says, "Oh, you haven't heard of it?"
"A Flower Offering is just like it says, it's a ceremony where you gather flowers from the mountain and then offer them at the temple. I told you I had a ceremony, didn't I? We gather little flowers called 'Snow Whites.'", Mizore blankly explains to everyone around the table as she waits for her tea to cool.
"Snow Whites?", Yukari questions as if that should mean something.
"Snow Whites are said to have the power of matchmaking. The daughters of this land who are turning seventeen offer these flowers to pray for a good match and lucky finds. It's like that 'coming of age day' thing that humans do. Tomorrow we have to dress Mizore up.", Tsurara coldly explains with her cup of smoldering tea sitting on her tiny plate.
"Coming of age day?", Moka nervously mutters to herself before seeming to zone off into her own little world.
Kurumu throws her arms into the air in complete gleeful stupidity as she explodes with, "That's sounds cool! I want to do it too! I want to get dressed up and get married!"
Tsurara gives the girl a light smile and says, "Oh, then shall we have all of you participate? I will lend you the kimonos and everything."
"Really!?", Moka and Kurumu squeal out in unison. This is a bit fishy though, Tsurara isn't usually this nice, especially to Moka and Kurumu... What's she planning...
"Alright Tsukune, look forward to my beauty!", Moka confidently tells the boy, causing his face to turn a tad pink as she flips her hair back over her shoulder.
"Moka, taking advantage of the confusion you harlot!", Kurumu shouts as she elbows the vampire, giving her a light jab to the ribs before dropping down to her knees and confronting Tsukune herself. "You're looking forward to seeing me more, right Tsukune?", Kurumu desperately questions the nervous boy as she takes his hand into her own, causing his face to redden even further.
Ruby, looking down at the ground with a slightly pink face as well, nervously twitches as she says, "I-I'll do my best too, Tsukune."
I can't help but let out a light sigh at all of this before turning my attention to the ice cold mother and asking her, "Do guys have to do anything special for this event? I didn't exactly bring my finest clothes."
The woman shoots me a keen smile and answers with, "Oh not at all. Just show up and look decent is all we ask. The girls do this dressing up because most of them like to and because it's tradition."
Kurumu leaps across the table, pouncing on Mizore and wrapping the Ice Woman in a warm hug as she tells her friend, "Thank you Mizore! This is what you were planning all along. You invited us to your matchmaking event! I'm so glad. You're always all cool and so until now I didn't really have confidence in us, but you really do think about everyone, don't you? Even though we're rivals in love, we're still friends, aren't we?"
Before Mizore can give her an answer though, there's a heavy knock at the door. Based on the monster energy I'm sensing behind it, it's him isn't it? "Damn, what's he doing here?", I growl to myself as I get up from the table to answer the door.
"Oh, Mister Oni, please allow me to get it. This is my house after all, and you're my guest.", Tsurara suggests as she goes to the door, motioning for me to return to the table.
I just give her a slight chuckle before turning back to the table and saying, "Sure, go right ahead, Tsurara, but do be careful.", and waiting patiently for her to open the door.
I can feel her giving me a cold, confused glare from behind, but the icy mother eventually opens the door, though she does so quite cautiously. As she opens the door, she asks, "Who is it?", and I hear a familiar voice call reply with, "You don't remember me Tsurara? That really hurts!"
Everyone at the table, except for Kokoa, Ruby, and myself, start to ask, "Is that-", but before they can finish their question, Cerbero uses his charm to get through the door. Tsurara starts to fall backwards, but before she can slam into the ground, the demon catches her limp body in his arms.
I give the man a slight glare over my shoulder as I ask him, "Was that really the best way to get in here, Cerbero?"
He just gives me a comedic shrug and says, "I heard your club was on a trip and thought I'd swing by. This is some wonderful weather you have here, Tsurara."
With blood dripping from her nose, Tsurara unconsciously answers him, saying, "Thank you Cerbero..."
Mizore, seeing her mother in such a weird state, asks me, "What exactly did he do to my mother, Reiji?"
"All he did was give her his puppy dog eyes and she fainted. It's surprisingly effective, even on the Devil himself.", I reply as I rub the back of my head, not sure how to exactly explain how he has a charm magic to begin with.
"That's how I got out of working today and tomorrow to visit you all actually.", Cerbero adds as he gives the girl a sly grin.
"So, what are we going to do about her?", Kokoa asks as she points to Tsurara, who's laying as limp as a noodle in the demon's arms.
"She'll come to eventually, but what are you all going to be doing? I hear there is going to be a ceremony tomorrow, is that true? I do love parties.", Cerbero says as he gently lays the woman down on the ground, all while getting surprisingly excited about the upcoming even.
"Yeah, there'll be a Flower Offering thing tomorrow.", I tell him as we head to the table.
"Flower Offering? Sounds romantic. I bet there will be so many beautiful couples there.", Cerbero continues, closing his eyes with what looks like a blissful smile on his face. Is he okay? He usually isn't this loose and laid back.
When we finally get to the table, we continue with dinner as Cerbero takes Tsurara's place at the table. "So Tsukune, how is that holy lock holding up? No transformations I hope.", Cerbero questions the boy in a surprisingly laid back manor.
"How did you know about the holy lock?", Yukari frantically questions as she reels back in fear.
"Silly girl, I'm one of the highest ranked demons in the Underworld. Of course I can spot a holy lock from just a few feet away. We have to use them on monsters that have extraordinary power to subdue and capture them.", the dark-haired demon replies before taking a bite from a piece of bread.
Out of the corner of my eye, I manage to notice Cerbero looking over at Mizore when she isn't looking with a slight scowl on his face. Is she plotting something and he already figured it out? Much to my surprise, he glances around the table and his eyes widen in excitement. "Oh my, when did you two get there? We haven't met.", he notes as he places his bread back down on his newly claimed plate and focuses his attention on the little vampire and the taller witch.
"Oh yeah, this is Ruby, she's the adviser for our club and the Headmaster's right hand. And this is Kokoa, Moka's little sister and the newest member of the Newspaper Club.", Tsukune introduces the two girls as he points at them with his chopsticks.
"It is an honor to meet you all. I am Cerbero, Reiji's guardian, mentor, and father.", Cerbero explains to them as he gives them an honorable bow. They bow back in response and he says, "I see someone has finally woke up from her beauty sleep."
I look over his shoulder to see Tsurara, but she seems beyond pissed with her eyes glowing a bright blue as the room seems to get coated in a thin layer of ice. "Who invited you into our home?", she growls at the demon as he glances over his shoulder to her.
Cerbero lets out a hearty laugh at her attempt to intimidate him and happily answers her with, "I invited myself in. You passed out at the door and it would've been unwise to leave these teenagers by themselves without any adult supervision, wouldn't you agree?"
She seems to calm down a bit and she begins to walk away, heading for the nearby hallway before Cerbero stops her by saying, "Don't be a rude host. You should come back and eat with us, Tsurara. We can tell embarrassing stories about our children, though Reiji doesn't have many, I'd love to hear some about Mizore when she was younger." This seems to perk her interests and she rejoins us at the table, sitting between Cerbero and Mizore.
As day turns to night and the light from outside turns into darkness, everyone seems fairly tired and Tsukune asks Tsurara, "So where are we sleeping tonight?"
"Well, we have a spare room upstairs so you all will be sleeping up there.", Tsurara explains as she points to the stairs down the hallway.
"I'll show them where it is mother.", Mizore tells her mother as she heads down the hallway to lead the rest of us up the stairs.
"We're all going to be sleeping in the same room?", Kurumu questions the mother before she seems to zone out with a slight amount of blood dripping from her nose.
Tsurara gives the succubus a stern nod and calmly replies with, "You will be sleeping there too Cerbero, unless you want to sleep outside.", seeming to spit that last part at Cerbero like a threat.
Cerbero laughs her slight jab off and says, "This will do nicely. It has been ages since I've been able to sleep on the floor." That doesn't seem to be something that you should be looking forward to, but whatever. We all head upstairs to the spare room to see that it's a fairly big room.
There are already enough sleeping bags on the floor for almost everyone, only two of us will have to sleep without one. Cerbero reassures them all by telling them, "Don't worry, Reiji and I will go without the sleeping bags. You all sleep easy while we just prop ourselves against the walls and sleep.", as he wraps his arm around my neck, pulling me uncomfortably close.
"Fine by me. But try not to look like a passed out drunk, Cerbero.", I mock the old man with a slight grin, only causing him to laugh at his own expense.
He looks over to me with his usual warm smile and chuckles back, "But isn't that the fun part?"
As we all fall asleep a few hours later I'm woken up by a light noise. I slightly open one eye to see what it is and I see Mizore leaving the room by herself. Is she just going to the bathroom or something? After what feels like ten or fifteen minutes, Mizore still isn't back and I see Cerbero get up and walk out of the room. He looks like he's wide awake, so he probably saw the same thing I saw and decided to go after her. After he leaves I see Tsukune wake up and read some sort of paper that he found. Did Mizore hide a note in his blanket before she left? He then gets up and leaves just like the others did.
Not long after that, Kurumu rolls over and grabs at Tsukune's blanket only to discover that Tsukune missing and that Mizore and Cerbero are gone too.
I pretend to still be asleep as she shouts and when Moka nudges me to try to wake me up, I fall over and act like I just woke up. "Huh, what happened? Did I miss something? Did Tsukune steal my cigarettes?", I growl as I look around, acting confused through it all.
"Tsukune, Mizore and Cerbero are missing. Do you know where they might have gone?", Moka curiously asks as Kurumu continues to panic, throwing Tsukune's blankets and pillow all across the room.
"I think I know where they went. They probably went after that flower!", Yukari proclaims as she throws off her blankets.
"Yukari, what do you know that you aren't telling us?", Kurumu furiously asks the little witch as she grabs her by her pink night shirt.
"I-I know a little about that flower, the Snow White. I've used it before in magical potions. Its pollen has light hallucinogenic properties, the kind that can allure the opposite sex. Since it's known as 'The Matchmaking Flower' it's highly likely that Mizore is using its powers on Tsukune to...", Yukari begins to explain before they all think of what Mizore might be doing.
"Oh crap! She's the kind of girl that would do that too!", Kurumu shouts as she drops Yukari like a sack of potatoes.
"Chase them! We've got to find those two!", Moka exclaims as she rushes to get dressed.
"But the real question is, why did Cerbero leave? Did he follow them or did he go off to do something else?", Ruby questions as she puts a finger to her chin.
I let out a low growl as I rub my temple and say, "Cerbero probably caught wind of Mizore's plans and wanted to make sure nobody got hurt. He's a big softy like that. Always believing in a 'happily ever after' ending. He's hopeless." I reluctantly get up off the floor and follow the three girls out of the house, though I'm probably not that well dressed for this weather.
As we begin to walk out into the winter wonderland, we hear Tsurara call out to us, saying, "My my, where are all of you going in the middle of the night?"
We back and look up to the roof to see the snow woman has what looks like a gun over her shoulder and a smug grin on her face. "What the heck is that thing!?" Yukari shouts, reeling back in fear as she hides behind Moka and myself.
"Oh this is for the monster that shows up this time of year. I'm on patrol keeping an eye out for it.", Tsurara calmly replies as she cocks the gun. "It's dangerous for all of you so please go back inside where it's safe.", the snow woman continues as she looks around for what I can only guess is the monster.
Kurumu glares up at her and shouts, "That's a lie! You are just trying to scare us so we won't go after Mizore and Tsukune! Where are they!?"
Tsurara scoffs at this claim and says, "It isn't a lie, it's actually why I'm letting you all participate in the Flower Offering ceremony tomorrow. I wanted you to be bodyguards for the ceremony. If there's a monster on the loose then gathering flowers becomes quite dangerous, right? There will also be girls there who can't defend themselves. But since it's such a special ceremony I don't want to be carrying things like this gun around, you know? But Mizore said that all of you are quite strong so I thought it would work out in the end."
"You wouldn't happen to have told Mizore about this monster problem yet, have you?", I growl at the ignorant mother as I shoot her a burning glare.
She reluctantly shakes her head no while saying, "I haven't told her yet, what of it?"
Moka's eyes widen in worry as she turns to us and shouts, "Then Mizore went with him to the mountains not knowing about the monster!"
"We have to go after them and make sure Tsukune is safe!", Kurumu exclaims as she starts making her way through the snow.
"Hold on, you'll need this.", Tsurara says as she throws the snowball launcher to Kurumu, who surprisingly catches it with little effort. "You'll need it if you run into that monster out there. Please bring them back safe.", Tsurara suggests before heading back inside through the circular window to the attic.
After a moment of scavenging the area for clues, I manage to find tracks in the snow. They're shoe prints that look around Tsukune's size, they have to be his. "Hey, I think I found a way to find Tsukune!", I shout as I point towards the faded prints in the snow.
"We better hurry. That monster could be anywhere and if they aren't over reacting then they're in serious danger.", Yukari says as we begin to follow the tracks through the snow.
After a few minutes of tracking Yukari asks, "What do we do if we find the monster first? Do we kill it?"
"Probably, I guess that's what this gun is for.", Kurumu answers as she points the gun around at nothing.
"If it's a monster from around here wouldn't it be resistant to snow and ice?", Moka ponders aloud causing us all to stop for a moment and look to one another as we think about it.
"I guess it isn't the ammo that matters rather how hard this thing launches it at the monster. I guess we'll figure it out if we encounter it.", Yukari suggests as we reach a little hill.
As we get closer to the hill's peak, I begin to hear Mizore and Tsukune talking so I whisper to the others, "They're close. Keep an eye out. If she spots us she'll probably run for it and take Tsukune with her."
As we reach the top of the hill we see Mizore and Tsukune talking at the bottom. Kurumu kneels down and aims the gun at them before pulling the trigger. The gun launches a snowball so fast that it hits the ground with the force of a small bomb, that's some gun.
Mizore and Tsukune both look up to see where it came form to see us all standing at the top of the hill and hear Kurumu shout, "I found you, you backstabbing bitch!" "I gotta give it to ya, Mizore, this plan of yours was pretty clever. Be all nice to us and then steal Tsukune in the middle of the night. Very clever.", Kurumu says to her before cocking the gun and preparing to fire at them again.
"Go ahead and think that. I won't make any excuses.", Mizore calmly replies as she stares down the succubus' frozen barrel before she shoots at them again.
"No Kurumu, you'll hit Tsukune!", Moka frantically exclaims trying to get her to stop firing.
"And Tsurara gave us this gun to fight the monster!", Yukari shouts as she also tries to pull the weapon out of the enraged succubus' grip.
Kurumu ignores their warnings and furiously exclaims, "Shut up!" As she takes aim again Kurumu yells to Mizore, "Because It's just stupid, isn't it? I was so excited that you were welcoming me! I was so happy that I felt like hugging you! I felt like we were so close, but that was all just part of your calculations, wasn't it!?", as she tears start to fall from her eyes. The sniper fires away at them yet again, but this time Mizore manages to pull Tsukune out of the way and make it to cover behind a tree. "Where did they run off to!?", Kurumu shouts as she looks around frantically for her target.
I see a figure getting away and say, "That might be them.", as I point towards the figure. Sure enough, it's Mizore on skis made of ice with Tsukune in her arms getting away.
"She made skis out of ice?", Yukari questions with a raised eyebrow as Mizore starts to ski away with Tsukune.
"Hold it right there you bitch!", Kurumu shouts as she unloads three more shots at them, missing each one.
The pink-haired vampire tackles her to the ground as she shouts, "Stop! I don't think she's trying to trick us! If all she wanted was Tsukune then there'd be no reason to invite all of us here!"
"She does make a valid argument, Kurumu.", Yukari nervously notes as she grabs the gun from the blue-hair fury.
"Come on! Then why did she run!?", Kurumu growls back as she pushes Moka off of her.
Before anyone can answer her, we hear a loud roar. "What was that?", Yukari asks.
"It sounds like a howling beast!", Kurumu tries to answer as she grabs the gun off of Yukari and cocks it.
"No way, it's here, now!?", Moka nervously notes as she frantically looks for the source of the howling.
I glance behind us to see a large, burly figure with glowing blue eyes and giant hands. "I think it found us!", I exclaim as it pulls its fist back, getting ready to crush us with a single punch. I pull everyone out of the way, dashing out of the beast's range just in time to not die while Kurumu opens fire, hitting the monster in the shoulder twice.
"You got him, Kurumu!", Yukari gleefully notes as they see the two holes in the beast's body.
"This must be the monster Tsurara was referring to.", Kurumu says as she cocks the gun and aims to fire at it again.
Suddenly the damn thing heals up the holes in its shoulder like it was nothing. This thing looks like a Yeti, but they don't have healing abilities like this! It doesn't seem like healing either, there wasn't any blood from the wound, just snow. Could it be this is just an ice monster?
"No look! The wounds are already healed! This gun won't do anything to this thing!", Moka exclaims as she looks at the beast wide-eyed.
"Damn it all! What's this guy's problem? I don't have time to mess around with this guy! We have to hurry and save Tsukune!", Kurumu shouts as she points the gun at the monster.
Much to our surprise, the monster actually manages to speak, but only says, "Wrong. You are not the one I am looking for."
"This thing can speak?", Yukari asks in amazement as she takes a step towards the beast.
"Looking? This thing is looking for someone?", Moka questions as she squints at the beast.
Before we can figure anything else out it begins to turn into ice shards while saying, "Wrong.", and heading in Mizore's and Tsukune's direction.
"Is that thing after Tsukune?", Kurumu frantically asks as it disappears into the snow.
"Only one way to find out. Yukari, how big of a wash tub can you make? Can you make one big enough to fit all of us?", I ask the tiny witch, earning myself a confused glance.
She takes a moment to think about it before giving herself a quick nod and says, "I think I can do that, but what are you planning to do with it?"
With a sly grin creeping across my face, I tell them, "We're going to ride it like a sled down this hill and chase after that damn thing. That's my plan."
"Okay! Mega Huge Golden Wash Tub go!", Yukari calls out as she summons the biggest wash tub she can muster, causing the massive pan to crash into the snow.
"We need to hurry and stop Mizore!", Kurumu shouts as she jumps into the pan, pulling Yukari and Moka in with her.
With all the girls in the pan, I give it a tough shove to get it started before jumping in while saying, "Here we come Tsukune!" And much to my surprise, the pan actually starts shooting down the hill, following along the path Mizore left behind in the snow with her icy escape. This plan actually worked!? We're heading down this hill faster than we'd be able to on foot, at this rate we'll catch up to them in no time.
After a moment of cheering for our success, Yukari happily asks me, "So what's your plan for stopping this thing?"
As I hunch over at her question, I suddenly realize that I hadn't thought that part through quite yet and I somewhat frantically ask her, "C-can you make the pan disappear as we jump from it?"
"Well duh, but hopefully we don't run into anything.", Yukari replies as we start to go even faster down the hill, hitting a perfect slope to boost our speed even further. Let's just hope this works
We eventually reach Tsukune and see a bright looking ice woman run off with Mizore. Who the fuck is that and where is she going with Mizore? I can't launch fire at it or I might hit Mizore. What do I do? We all jump from the pan and watch as the creature gets away with Mizore and Tsukune is left face first in the snow unconscious.
The girls all crowd around Tsukune and Moka frantically calls out, "We need to get him back inside or he'll freeze to death!"
As the girls all desperately try to warm Tsukune's freezing body, we suddenly hear Cerbero call out to us, saying, "Oh there you guys are. I've been waiting for you all to show up." We look around to try and find him before we hear him say, "Ahem, down here." We all look down to see Cerbero's head sticking out of the small snow pile on the ground.
The girls all freak out, screaming at the top of their lungs in fear as they back away from his head and Yukari asks, "Where is the rest of your body?!"
Cerbero laughs at their reactions, but I'm not in the mood for games. As I take a step towards him, I glare down at him with rage filled eyes and furiously ask him, "What is that thing and where is it taking Mizore!?"
"Oh that thing? That was the Snow Priestess. You could say she's like the Devil of the Snow Woman land so to speak.", Cerbero answers me as he stands up out of the snow and dusts himself off.
"We have to get Mizore back, right Cerbero?!", I growl back at him, but he shakes his head no.
"Sorry kid, I can't get involved with other governments. It could start a war, though the Snow Woman clan wouldn't be able to stand against the Underworld's army and they have few allies that we don't share.", he replies as he looks up at the large castle in the distance. "But what I can do is give you this little keepsake. It's one of my chains that I used to use in battle a long time ago. And I can say that the tower over there, the biggest one of them all, looks pretty important. I wonder if the Snow Priestess is held up in there.", he continues as he hands me his old chain, the cold metal stinging a bit as it touches my bare hands. It's a long chain that partially places in my hand before wrapping the rest of it up the length of my arm. "Now I'll help your friends get Tsukune back to the house. You go cool your head a little, okay?", he finishes as he gives me a sly grin and a quick wink.
I know what I have to do now. I have to go save Mizore from that ice bitch and if she stands in my way I'll just shatter her like glass. I start trudging my way through the heavy snow, heading towards the large castle in the distance without saying another word to my friends, they should already know what I'm gonna do now.