Chapter 28
Song of the Lonely Mountain
Wanted to once again offer my thanks to your continued support and to apologize for the long wait; I had promised to be more abrupt with my writing, and yet somehow getting Chapter 27 out and ready took so long. Since writing, I have been inundated with suggestions and possible ideas for my story, some bad, but others quite good. Indeed, many of you out there have some truly amazing talent all your own, and I know you all have your ideas in what direction this story would or should go, some pretty damn good, but this story's direction I already have mapped out in detail; in all honesty the ending is pretty much decided right now. I'm like an artist, I already has had everything drawn or sculpted in my mind and as such anything new added, however impressive it may be, would have to be added in small snippets, at best. Your intentions are good and appreciated, but right now I'm just trying to get through, and God willing, if I make a sequel after this, (I've been doing this since 2011, and I'm still writing), I would most certainly be using these ideas for that.
It's funny, but in some way it feels I helped create a phenomena of sorts within the R+V universe that, I would hope the original creator be pleased, all seems to have started with Land of Fire's story some years ago, carried on by Mistress Winowyll and has since sprung forth in all these parallel tales by different authors, each with their own sequence of events, sequels, and their own unique characters and crossovers; why, one could stand out and see them as being one big saga, and I'm proud to say I helped contribute.
As for Ruby's harsh treatment of Moka in the last chapter, you do understand where she was coming from? She didn't do it just to be a bitch, in fact as I pointed out earlier these events run concurrently with one another, with Chapter 27 takes place right after Chapter 18. Essentially, Ruby and Ageha had just come back, so they're still plenty sore after that, at which point neither will be able to discern our heroine from our antagonist. As for those who thought her harsh assessment when it came to bestowing gratitude for Moka's many contributions in combat was unwarranted, it did seem like a valid argument when I wrote it. I wanted to open Chapter 27 with dialogue from the movie Troy where Achilles debated with Agamemnon on the merits of monarchs (Moka) gaining the glories of battle when it was the soldiers who die or are wounded; Ruby's rant to Kasumi sort of mirrored that message. But, there was method to her madness as she did make it clear that if she reacted to seeing our heroine so harshly and unfairly, then how would Tsukune act? Btw, if you thought Ruby was rough, wait until Kurumu meets up with her.
The nights in Japan had never seemed so dark or so cold for Tsukune Aono, but upon returning to his home country so soon after having left it, the fact he never felt completely at home made the frosty temperatures abundantly clear, with only a smoldering heat radiating deep within his soul, a heat that at times threatened to engulf him while stumbling about this crowded airport. He had been back for less than a minute and yet wasted very little time in finding a bus transport to take him to his destination: near to the northern mountains where Mizore's village lay. So consumed was he in this ever present fire and need to find much needed sanctuary that he never even considered contacting Yokai Academy to ask his bus driving well-wisher for a free ride; the thought of going back to a place filled with evil apparitions of a time long past that has long since been "tainted" was beyond considering. Instead, Tsukune used what money he had left to buy the cheapest bus ride he can find, taking him immediately out of town, but whose destination was limited; it was better than nothing.
The small bus was jam-packed with screaming children, heavy smokers, and fat passengers, making it impossible for him to find a comfortable seat and instead getting a tiny sliver at the edge of a seat that, while wide enough for three, was being hogged by two guys for some selfish reasons. He wanted a seat by the window, would have preferred to rest his weary head against a cool pane of fogged up glass, but it appeared grimy and pot marked with wadded up gum; nevertheless what gave these two filthy, gin soaked bastards the right to afford him so little courtesy?
What are you going to do?A voice in his head asked. Kill them? Transform, reveal your strength, your powers, your true self and murder all these people over a seat? Why not? You're not human anymore; what can they do about anything? Or, is she right about you? Perhaps you are weak and far too tainted by your human background to have a backbone.
Tsukune shook his head clear, trying to rid of dark thoughts that hounded him ever since Vegas, but he didn't know what to do, the answers seemed so unavailable now when years ago they were plain and simple. And so, for the next three hours Tsukune rode squashed from all sides in this dingy aisle of a wretched cattle car on wheels, being made to stand up whenever someone wanted to go by, his butt inadvertently touching his less than accommodating passenger and catching a crude comment in the process, while having to deal with children being allowed to run around, as their mothers hardly seemed interested. All of this helped increase his anger, and the demon inside that so badly wanted to unleash itself on them all just like it had on Kurumu, all to assert his dominance and rights as a superior being to ride the rest of the way at his leisure. In all of this, Tsukune tried to keep himself in check, biting down on his tongue so hard that the resulting pain afforded him a distraction from everything around, worried that he might lose what little remained of his sanity and praying to reach the way station to the north. However, he bit down so hard and so intensely that his tongue began to bleed without him paying attention to it and filled his mouth with blood, prompting him to cover his mouth.
"DISEMBARK!" The portly driver, a far cry from Tsukune's mysterious chauffeur, called when the bus finally stopped, words like a beacon of land for an ocean weary traveler.
He wasted no time getting off in a hurry and was pretty soon left standing in a tiny breeze way, coughing up blood. Tsukune hadn't bother to pack any warm clothing, just the clothes he had after leaving the Shuzen residence, but it quickly dawned on him that he let the bus drive off with his belongings.
"Shit; now what?" He asked aloud.
Seeing no other choice, he enters the lodge and was immediately greeted by the warm and spacious atmosphere of a simple, two story abode strewn with novelty, mounted animal heads and a roaring fire within a stone chimney.
This seems nice, he thought to himself, it being by far the calmest atmosphere he's felt since ever.
There were no strippers, nor heartache or depravity, and best of all it was devoid of any painful reminders of "her".
"Hello!" He called out, partially smiling that this was perhaps the best idea for him.
"Coming!" A British woman called back, and in came a blonde woman in her late thirties from the back who hurried over to the counter. "I do apologize."
"That's okay," he replied.
"We don't normally get a lot of customers around here, the buses usually stop, but no one disembarks."
"ARE YOU GETTING THAT OR JUST LOLLIGAGGING AROUND!?" Roared a man's voice from somewhere upstairs, his harsh words and hostile demeanor piercing the calm like a gunshot.
"I've got it!" The woman responded.
"Who was...?" Tsukune asked.
"Oh! N-Nothing, it's nothing really, just a...So, I'm Carol, I'll be your hostess; simply sign your name and I'll see to what accommodations I can afford. Will you be staying long?"
"Uh, no, not too long. I'm on my way to visit a friend, but I don't have any money with me, I left most of my stuff on the bus just now. If it's not too much trouble, can I wait here, at least until I can hitch a ride on up; if need be I can work for my stay."
"Well, Tsu-kune...A-o-nn-o?"
"Aono; but if it helps, you can call me Tsukune."
"I do apologize; as you can tell, I'm still trying to get a grasp on the Japanese language. But, anyway, in answer to your question, sure; trucks stop by here from time to time and they're always taking on strangers who need a lift, so in the meantime it's no problem to offer you at least a warm meal and some coffee on the house, it does get cold up on the mountain, far colder than you're dressed for, and besides, you look like you need it. Just park yourself by the fire, I'll get a soup going."
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry; m-maybe some coffee would do."
"How about some hot cocoa to warm your bones?"
"That sounds fine, thank you."
"Okay, shouldn't hurt, being a little worse for wears and all."
The comment caught him off guard.
"What makes you say that?"
"Oh, I meant no offense, you just seem like a man who's seen it all. Stop me if I'm being nosy, but is there any special reason for you to come all this way to see a friend alone without a coat, and leave your belongings on a bus?"
"...Personal reasons," he replied, brusquely.
"Oh. I'm sorry, I meant no..."
"It's okay; let's just say it's something you don't want to hear."
"Hm. Well, make yourself comfortable, I'll see to your accommodations in just a second."
"Sure," he replied, watching her disappear up the stairs, and once alone helps himself to wandering about the place, trying to discern all that he could from his benefactor.
By all appearances it looked like one of those family run winter lodges, in fact Tsukune could make out on the mantle overlooking the fireplace framed, color portraits of a family on vacation: a man, woman, and their young daughter. From the looks of the people, he theorized these must be Carol as a child, together with her parents; they were happy, so content, and seemingly unaware to the cruelties of this world going on around them that it made him bitter inside his cold heart.
"She doesn't want them to be tainted," he muttered, her words still fresh in his mind as he noticed how happy the people in these pictures were, even though they were humans and it was these that his wife was so afraid they would infect their children with whatever disease she believed they carried, that she resorted to destroying everything their marriage.
Looking up at them, a part of Tsukune wanted to smash these portraits to the floor, bitterness coalescing into envy, their smiles mocking everything he had been taught by Moka. However, a deep longing soon took hold, a sorrow of what could have been had instead emerged, as he picked up one and held it in his hand, looking at this small family with nostalgia and a piercing sadness. The man, her father, appeared to be having the time of his life playing with his daughter, posing together with her in goofy poses, and thought, in another time, in another life, this could have been him. Looking at these pictures, he soon found himself staring at himself, Moka, and their daughter, along with imagined moments at some far away theme park along with their friends, whom were kind enough to take pictures of them. He would have had a daughter just like the one in the photo, they both would together. Oh, the time the three of them would have had; he could almost hear Moka's cheerful voice suggesting that he and their child stand in the picture together in front of some park attraction, scolding him for posing stupidly as she took it, and their child's laughter, echo clearly in his mind.
"It looks nice," he muttered softly to himself, lost in this fantasy.
However, as he looked closely at the photos, what he did find odd was how the mother in each had her face blurred. He thought it was a picture error, though they were all like that; needless to say Tsukune found it a bit unsettling, yet it didn't deter the good feeling he felt. There was little mistaking it: this was the life he wanted. What was so wrong in it? Why was it okay for them, and not for him? Was it because they were human and he was not; not anymore? Was it asking too much of his vampire wife to have a life similar to this? It was something he could not answer.
"Here's your cocoa," Carol said later after setting before him a steamy mug at the dining table.
"Thanks," he said and sips it, noticing she put marshmallows without his asking. "It's good."
"Oh, thank you."
"I really like the marshmallows."
"Huh?"
"The marshmallows; I see you put in marshmallows."
"Oh, bugger! Did you ask for any? Oh no."
"No, it's okay, really? If it's a money issue, then..."
"It isn't that, it's an old habit of mine back when I was kid; anyway, I'm glad you like it. Oh, before I forget, you'll be pleased to know I heard on the CB radio that a trucker will be here shortly, so it looks as though you'll be getting your ride up the mountain, after all."
"Thanks. You're…you're a good person, I really appreciate everything you're doing for me; heh, you know, you kind of remind me of another blonde that I know. She's works as a maid and is a bit nervous, but she's good people."
"That's good to hear, and it's no problem; enjoy your drink and let me know if you need anything," she says and was about to leave when Tsukune, still overcome by the down home feel of this place, as well as Carol's childhood pictures, says:
"Actually, there is something you can do."
"Like what?"
"...This is stupid," he grimaced, feeling forlorn and confused as to why he even wanted this from her.
"Anything you'd like; just say it."
Where to begin; a part of him was still reluctant to tell her anything, thinking it was unbecoming of a man to just talk about his troubles and that there wasn't anything she could do about it, anyway. Maybe, it was because this atmosphere reminded him so much of home, his home, where mother and father no doubt worried for him, that he felt lost about what to do.
"Did you want to talk?" She asked, as if she somehow reading his mind, like the role of a mother was almost innate within this stranger. "It's alright; whatever is on your mind, I'd be glad to hear it, as you can see I've got nothing else going on!"
"Er, um, I just wanted to say that...this place is the nicest I've been in."
"It is?" She chuckled. "This dreary place? It's nice, but it could use some improvements!"
"It's nicer than what I've been to. It...It almost reminds me of home."
"Oh," she replied, taking note of the strong, yet bridled emotion in his voice. "Well, we try to maintain a wholesome abode for weary travelers like yourself."
"'We'?"
"Hm, my father and I; this is a family business, we own it. Well, actually he owns it, I just manage it on a day to day basis."
"Oh, so isn't just you, then?"
"No...No."
"He looks like he's a nice guy."
"Pardon?"
"Er, your father. See, I sort of..."
Tsukune glances over at the fireplace toward the family portraits placed overhead, and noticed her rosy face turn pale, for some reason.
"Oh," she said quietly, a note of forlorn and regret hidden underneath. "Those."
"I didn't mean to pry, they were just…"
"Oh no, see when father built this place, he thought they would bring a certain ambience; but, I really should take those down. I know a company that supplies family portraits of random people, those would be more appropriate."
"Well, if you don't mind me saying: you have a great family. Have no idea how lucky you've got it."
"...Thanks," she quietly replied; Tsukune assumed it was out of a shy, modesty on her part.
"...For the record," he continued to say, "I am glad I stopped by here."
"You...you needn't say all of that," she replied softly. "Really, it's all..."
"CAROL!" Roared a loud, angry voice that pierced the solitude of the moment. "What the blue hell are you doing down there! Flirting with another guest as usual, as if anyone would want ya!"
Looking up the stairs, Tsukune could see the source of all that foul screaming hobbling down to join them and beheld what looked to be a fat, decrepit old man hunched over his walking cane whose balding visage glistened against the firelight with some clear, oozing sweat, and a fiery glint in his blue eyes, which ignited with anger on the setting.
"Why aren't you busy fixing my meal like I ordered you to!?" The angry old man raved.
"I have already put it on the fire, it'll take time," she very calmly, yet forcefully replied.
"Could have fooled me by the way you were standing there, making idle chit-chat with another witless vagrant! Get in that kitchen you hideous, female ape and don't let me see you again until I get my damned food!"
"Hey!" Tsukune intervened, standing up to confront this irate guest. "Don't talk to her like that, she said your food was cooking, so wait!"
The old man looked at Carol with a wry look that bordered on unsettling.
"Imagine that," the wretched miser said, "you have some gallant oaf to fight your battles for ya, now eh? I say oaf because he doesn't appear to have much going on in that head of his or else he'd know he weren't defending no princess!"
"I'm going to get your food right, now!" Carol tells him. "Just, please calm down while I bring it out."
"DON'T TELL ME TO REMAIN CALM!" The man bellowed, stamping his cane down hard on the steps as if making his word final. "NOW GET MY FOOD AND IT HAD BETTER BE COOKED PROPERLY!"
Tsukune wondered who this person was that would dare interrupt the peace he felt, the first peace in so long, and come barking orders at this nice lady as though he owned her. He wondered why does she put up with it; put up with someone who is so abusive, when she can easily kick him out? It baffled him at how this small, weak human would have an ego that rivaled Moka, his own bitch of an ex-wife, and were it not for his advanced age and handicapped status, Tsukune would use Carol's brief absence to forcefully evict this fool before he threatened his solitude, any further.
Weak, a voice in his head insulted, making him feel shame for allowing this man's age to be an issue.
"So?" The old man asked, hobbling his way towards him.
Do not come to me, Tsukune secretly warned, but this troll-like man couldn't read the warning etched across his face and helped himself in front of him.
"What pre tell is your story?" He asked Tsukune, smiling with a sickening swagger. "What would bring your sorry carcass to this run-down, rambling shack? Was it to romance her? Ha! You'd be better off with a jackal, assuming there are any on this waste you peoples call a nation!"
"What I do is none of your business, old man!" Tsukune spat back, a response that surprised him a little bit, as it was beyond his usual nature to respond with that much hostility.
"Oh my," the old man said, whose expression, which was of a mock astonishment that seemed so vaguely familiar, that he could have been the spiritual double of another, vile person he knew, "well, Carol has finally found herself a tiger! Tell me, have the two of you done it yet? Ar-are you every bit the tiger in bed? Hehehehehehe!"
Kill him, a voice said in his head.
"...I'm just trying to enjoy my drink until I can hitch a ride," Tsukune said through great control on his part, but some inner level of pride and anger, seething to come out to check this fool, made him feel more ashamed than in control. "I would appreciate it if you left me alone to my business."
"Hitch a ride, well why didn't you say so sooner, I can take you to where you need to go! Give me a sec, I'll hitch up old Carol to my carriage and we'll get you there in no time!"
"You son of a…!" Tsukune yelled, almost leaping to his feet, ready to unleash his vampiric side upon him, but his common sense, threatened to desperately to reign him back in, a reminder that this person wasn't worth it, any more than Moka and Gin had been.
"Sit yourself down you worn out, sorry excuse for a man," the old man nonchalantly warns, "she ain't worth being sent to the lethal injection chamber for attempted murder, which is what you will surely face if these jap-asians follow common law out here!"
"Look, I know you this may not have been the best vacation for you, but what gives you the right?" Tsukune asked. "What gives you the right to barge in here and start abusing everyone else here like they're your own servants? You're a guest here; a guest! This isn't your place and you don't own her!"
"...What gives me the right?" The old man asked, visibly astonished to be asked that question by the likes of him. "What give me the right? I built this place you sorry son of a bitch; I own the damn place, and I own her!"
Tsukune was confused at first, wondering what this old man was saying or if he was delirious and confused. But, upon seeing the vicious conviction in his eyes after making that statement, the revelation suddenly hits Tsukune like something violently and sick, immediately turning his shocked eyes to look at the photos again, then back at him; her father.
"…H-Her father?" He asked, but more to himself.
It can't be! Tsukune thought, for how could this cold, evil old man who would call his own daughter an ape, be the same one in the pictures.
"What did she tell you, that I was dead?" Her father asked. "Hmph; vulture! The whole reason she stays here and torments me so is to wait until I die so she can inherit the insurance on me and on this place! JACKAL! YOU CAN'T WAIT UNTIL I BUY IT, CAN YOU, YOU SICK WORM! WHERE'S MY DINNER; YOU PROBABLY POISONED THAT, TOO!"
"...I don't under...," Tsukune stammered, still overwhelmed, but fortunately Carol hurriedly returns with her father's steaming broth.
"I'm here, I'm here!" She replied. "Take your meal!"
"Eat it!" He demands.
"Pardon?"
"You heard me or are you becoming conveniently deaf in your increasing age!"
"For god's sake, there is nothing wrong with your food, you're being irrational!"
"Am I?" He asked and casually slaps the bowl from her hands, making it spill all over the floor.
Tsukune snaps from his shock and stands up, threatening to intervene, but Carol stops him.
"It's alright," she says.
"No, by all means, let your dupe jump in and finish the job of offing me just so he may plow into your skirts and share in the spoils you two plan to reap from my passing; I've lost my appetite! Oh, I find you carousing about downstairs with every suspicious looking stranger that stumbles along like a common harlot, forget to mention you have a father, instead puts on a show of this distressed damsel, playing host to a crazy, old man who happens to have a lot of money invested in this dump and I'm not supposed to believe there's some sinister purpose going on that I shouldn't be aware of?"
"Are you mad?" Carol asked, kneeling down to clean up the mess he made. "There's no more money to be had in this place or with you and you know that."
"I was mad to have created you."
"S-Stop it," Tsukune muttered, but the old man continued.
"Mad for having stuck around to be your father all for the sake of that harpy you call a mother; look at you, on the floor, on your knees just like her. Pathetic form of life! All you'll ever be is just like her: a whore!"
"That's enough!" Tsukune said aloud. "Go."
Her father, scoffing in derision and feeling self-righteous in having put his conniving daughter in her place, hobbles back upstairs, but not before repeating loud enough for her to hear:
"That's all you'll ever be! Just a whore!"
Unable to find the words for what he just saw and heard, Tsukune tries to help Carol clean up, whom tried to hide her embarrassment and scarred pain from him.
"...You're probably wondering," she began to say, picking up the pieces of her ceramic bowl, careful not to touch the scalding hot soup with her bare hands. "I know you are, I can see it in your face: what happened to that picturesque family you saw on the fireplace?"
"...I wasn't going to say anything," he muttered.
"But, you wanted to; they always do."
Tsukune stops what he's doing, looks up and asks: "….Your father?"
"I…Um…H-He wasn't always like this, there was a time when he was a very, very different man. He was kind, warm, loving and a hard worker; every time I saw him he'd smile, like he was happy to see me, but it seemed like ages ago. He moved us out here to Japan when I was 12 as part of some dream he had with running a Japanese Inn after spending a summer out here one time. You should have seen him, the big dreamer, it was so funny looking at him back then. But, we were happy."
"Then how? What about your mother?"
For a moment, he could've swore he saw what looked to be anger, and venomous hatred in the shadow she tried to maintain over her face until she was finally able to walk away from him. It filled him with dread, hoping it was something other than that, even going so far as to hope she had died and he was dealing with the loss.
"...One day," she began, "this Burt Reynolds wannabe stopped by, and she never looked back. Oh, but you must understand that she was happy, she'd found her dream man: a cheap, Burt Reynolds knock-off or so he tried to be. If that wasn't bad enough, she helped him make off with half the money father had invested in this place and left us high and dry."
"Sorry," he said in a gravelly voice, sighing heavily, wearily as he slowly brought the remaining shards to her. "I've been there."
"At first he blamed himself for her leaving," she continued without pause. "He thought that if had been a better husband to her, a better lover, if he had been this or that and everything she would wanted in a man then she wouldn't have left. I don't know to be honest, I don't know what would've kept her from going, but...it certainly wasn't either of us."
"CAROL!" He boomed downstairs again. "YOU BETTER GET TO WORK ON THAT BROTH, YOU LIZARD WOMAN!"
"You don't have to put up with this," Tsukune muttered to her.
"He tried to kill himself once," she continued. "Caught him trying to down a bottle of pills; they were able to save his life, but the damage was severe, that's why he uses a cane. Since then he's grown more and more hostile towards me; he's convinced that I am the source of all his miseries, my mother's daughter; at least he no longer blames himself. I can't leave him, Tsukune. Despite how he treats me, his hatred of me keeps him going. You said you've been where I am, then you surely you understand why I can't leave him?"
"But, you don't deserve this."
"You're right," she said with firm conviction, "I don't.
Suddenly the atmosphere, which had once been warm and comforting, became so unbearable that to Tsukune it suddenly had become indistinguishable from outside.
"Brrrrr!" Said a short haired, blonde woman, bundled up in a jacket and jeans having just shown up out of the blue. "Must be close to 30 degrees, Carol. Got my mug ready? Got the meter running and I'm on schedule, can't stay too long to chat, truck's running and everything!"
"Oh Anko, here," Carol responds, handing her a silver mug.
"Put it on the company tab," Anko replies and prepares to leave.
"Wait, Anko this is Tsukune Aono, he's looking for a ride up the mountain; I told him you were going that way."
"Up the mountain, huh? Where to?"
"Yuki Pass," he replied, but the very name itself seemed to send a frostier chill through the room.
"You want me to take you through there, kid?"
"Just where the road divides; I'll hike the rest of the way."
"You do know it's a dead end, I mean no one comes back from there."
"I can make it. Do I have a ride or not?"
"Okay, let's go. Thanks for the coffee Carol."
"Sure. And, Tsukune...I wish you luck."
"Yeah," he grumbled.
"CAROL!" Her father's voice came thundering down the stairs, reminding Tsukune that he was still here, and always would be.
"You better get going," Carol suggested. "Anko doesn't like to be kept waiting."
Tsukune looks at Carol, his eyes as dejected as they once were, his feelings unclear, but far from levity.
"Don't blame him for how he is," she quietly says to him with a thinly veiled bitterness that sounded alien to a woman whose voice had always sounded upbeat. "I don't. I don't blame him at all."
"CAROL!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Carol called back and quickly disappears back upstairs, leaving Tsukune alone in the lobby, staring, just staring after her, never once forgetting the man in those photographs sitting atop their fireplace, and how he felt.
A sharp horn blast from Anko's truck gradually brought him out of his stupor and he hurriedly hops into her truck. The brief exposure into the deepening cold did little to affect him except bring a welcomed relief from that "cozy" atmosphere he was in, and once in the truck's cab, with its heater and comforting seats, it felt like nothing to him.
"You got anything warmer than that?" Anko asked.
"No," he replied.
"You should have asked Carol for a coat, I'm sure she would have loaned you one, folks leave their coats here all the time."
"It's okay, I'll manage."
"You sure? Carol won't mind if you ask her, she's a nice lady, though for the life of me, I don't know why she puts up with that father of hers. I guess I'll never understand a relationship like that, know what I mean?"
Tsukune doesn't respond or makes any effort to go back, instead remains in his seat and tries, in vain to relax for the long, cold journey.
Two Hours Earlier...
After Yukari's miraculous recovery, everyone had gathered around in awe and affection, most especially the two women who mattered almost as much to her as her own mother, Ruby and Moka Akashiya. Once everyone had calmed down, and with Yukari's full recovery now guaranteed, they went to prepare for the long trip over to the U.S., to reunite with their remaining missing piece to their puzzle. Yukari, sitting comfortably in bed with her puppy resting loyally on top of her, was reading a magazine as though nothing had happened, all while Mr and Mrs. Sendo continued to look on in astonishment, but concern.
"I still can't believe how well she's taking," Mr. Sendo whispered.
"Indeed," his wife replied. "I wonder. Yukari, is everything okay?"
"Mm-hm," she replied. "Mama, I think little Yuki oughta to go home with you."
"Yuki?"
"My dog; remember?" Yukari replied, holding him up and then looking at them like they're the ones who are acting strange. "Guys, I'm alright."
"You sure?" Her father asked. "I mean, you did just come out of a coma."
"Read my mind; you can tell!"
"We want to hear it from you," said her mother. "It shames me to admit, but we found out that you've advanced yourself so far in your skills that you can resist even our efforts."
"Oh...Sorry."
"No, it's okay," her father laughed. "Actually, we couldn't be more proud. You've become quite strong."
"Thanks. Mother?"
"Yes dear."
Yukari puts down the magazine, her usually playful face now serious, and hands over Yuki to her dad, before flat out saying:
"I know what you're planning."
The witch couple glances at one another.
"I don't know what you mean?"
"C'mon, mom I wasn't born yesterday! I overheard what you were planning with Ms. Kurono and Mrs. Aono."
"…Dear, I know this...Moka is your friend and all, but she must..."
"Pardon my French, but dammit mother, I'm not stupid!" Yukari responds.
"Excuse me?" Her mother asked.
"Yukari!" Said her father.
"It's like you guys said, I've gotten stronger in my abilities and while I was unconscious, I was still able to read her mind when she was standing over me; I know, I know what you two know!"
The couple glances at one another again.
"What are you trying to say?" Her mother asked.
"What I'm saying is that...I know what has to be done, but you can't go through with this...It has to be me who does it."
"...Pumpkin," her father whispered. "You know what you're saying?"
"Moka and Tsukune are my friends, I know them better than either of you! And...what happened to me kinda makes it personal."
"Yes, but Yukari," her mother pleads, "you just woke up, you're a little weak, I don't think you should be undertaking this mission."
"Mama, papa, I'm fine! Really, I am! To be honest, I've gotten tired of lying in bed for the last couple of days, what with everything going on; I'm ready to go, again! Besides, I've been working with potions and I know how to get certain items to make this work!"
"I don't know."
"Mama, papa...let me do this. I know the plan, and I can see to it that it's done down to the letter. You can trust me."
The couple glances at one another, and then back at their daughter, whose gaze remained unwavering in her conviction.
As this small family of conjurers debated amongst themselves, elsewhere Kasumi Aono waited nervously and impatiently on the front steps, the cool, night air becoming a strangely welcoming atmosphere for her mood, as on the eve of departure her shoulders bore more than she had brought into this school with.
"Oh; Mrs. Aono!" Moka said upon coming outside. "I didn't know you were...I'm sorry."
"Please, you can call me Kasumi; really, I don't mind."
"Thank you."
"...You look different," she remarked, noticing Moka fixed up her long, pink hair into lengthy pony tail. "You change your hair?"
"You like it? I wanted to look different if we're going to meet Tsukune and that...I thought I should look decent. It's too much; I should change."
"No, no, no! You look fine. I think my son will be very happy to see you, no matter how you look."
"Thanks."
The two women sat on the steps together in uncomfortable silence, nervously wondering, and hoping that what lies ahead will work out for all of them.
"Mrs...Kasumi?"
"Yes."
"...What does it mean to have…courage?"
The question was an odd one, strange even this already frazzled mother, who didn't know how to respond.
"Is it the same as having fear? That, when you face your fears, that is courage?"
"Um...I don't know. It's not something I often think about."
"Do you experience fear?"
"...Yes; every day since quite recently, I imagine."
"So, what you're doing now, fighting your fear about Tsukune and the current state of your family; this is courage?"
"Where is all of this coming from?"
"...I don't know if I've ever experienced courage before, never had reason to."
"Don't be silly, you're brave."
"Brave yes, but...that's only because of my power. I've never experienced real fear, fear humans like you face, and so...I guess I've never had real courage to rely on, either. Does that make me a bad person?"
"Moka, dear, of course it doesn't! You've had courage, it's just you've probably never even knew you had it. That's sometimes how it works, you think you can't do something, but then when the need arises you do it without ever realizing it and...I'm confusing you, am I?"
"Yes," Moka giggled.
"Right. Sometimes, courage comes to all of us when we least expect it to, and I would imagine it happens to your people too; if it hasn't for you, then it will. You have to have faith."
"Faith?"
"Yeah, faith; you have to believe that when the moment counts, you'll find your courage to do what's right. How was that?"
Moka smiles and says: "It helped, thanks."
"Um, I'm afraid its patience that I seemed to have the hardest time in dealing with."
"Patience?" Moka asked, surprised and admired that Kasumi shared her aversion to it.
"Yes, I can't see how you can stand it; this waiting is killing me!"
"I don't care for it, either!"
"Is that so, huh? You know, if I could, you and me can take Koga's truck and go joy riding all the way over to Vegas right now."
"That would sound like an adventure!"
"Yeah, well this whole ordeal has felt like an adventure, especially when you consider how not too long ago I was a simple housewife. Maybe all of this is beginning to rub off on me!"
"You wouldn't mind telling me what that's like?"
"What is?"
"Being a housewife. Honestly, I've always wanted to impress you with my home cooking and show you how good a wife I can be for your son."
Kasumi places her hands on Moka's shoulders and stares with tears in her eyes.
"Oh!" She began to weep. "You will be the perfect wife for my baby boy!"
"Mrs...Kasumi!" Moka cried as she was hugged, tightly and painfully.
Hours later...
The snow had become fierce and blinding as the truck drove slowly up the mountain, and while their small talk had been mind-numbing, it was the driver's choice of listening material that only added to the misery raging outside.
The entire drive, Tsukune had been subjected to the most degrading crap he had ever listened to on a radio, not because of the music, but of their subject matter. It seemed like every song was about heartache and breakup. Somehow, Anko's radio was able to pick radio stations from white trash background, and some of it seemed to talk so much about cheating that he tried to ignore it, and yet it did little to dull the pain.
"There any way you can change the channel?" He asked, wearily.
"What's the matter, don't like a little culture?" She joked, but he didn't respond.
Later on, she began listening to some talk show that dealt with respecting women and the crap men do.
"Let's talk about infidelity," the male host said while in some group discussion. "One of our listeners had problems trusting every man she met, and she wanted to hear what we have to say on it."
Anko seemed to take a keen interest in the subject and upped the volume.
"Yeah," one of his female guests replied, "you know we're going to have a little somethin', something to say on that!"
"All guys are dawgs!" Said another woman. "Plain and simple! You know they're never, ever gonna commit!"
"Hm, mm, you said it!" Anko acknowledged.
"It is a damn shame when men don't appreciate the women in their lives," the host said. "A man once told me it's in our dna, that we must play the role of alpha dog in the relationship and alpha dogs go out and hump."
"Hump," one of the women joked.
"Yeah, that's right hump as many bitches there are out there; not that I'm saying any of you are bitches, just saying."
"That's the only women they prefer," she said. "And it colors their view of all women! Got a great, fine woman at home, but disrespect her and go out looking for another bitch. And, and I think its sad men have to feel like they're the hunter gatherers, going off to claim anything with a vagina!"
"Hold on there, we got a call," said the host. "You're on the air; what do you got?"
"Yeah, I'm a big fan of your show," said a male guest. "But, I've been listening to your discussion about men cheating all the time and I...well, what about the women? We can't forget the ladies who cheat on their man all the time."
"Well, that's a little different from when a man cheats," said the host. "When women cheat, it's because she's not getting the love she needs at home."
"Mm, hm," said one of the women hosts.
"Where else are we going to get the love and respect we want if you're always out working, and getting drunk with your bros," said the other woman, of which her colleagues seemed to laugh. "Don't deny it, you do it all the time!"
"So, that makes it alright for you to cheat on us, but wrong for us to cheat on you?" The caller asked.
"What I'm saying is that women are more often than not forced into the situation by their man," the host said. "If you're worried the lady in your life is thinking about drifting away, looking at other men and having second thoughts about your relationship, then make the effort to remind her why she fell in love with you in the first place, and I guarantee you she won't leave. We got another caller online: you're on!"
"I just want to say I love you guys and you are absolutely right!" Said a female caller. "I think it is all a man's fault that his wife or girlfriend has to cheat on him."
"Mm, hm," the hosts all agreed.
"I mean, why else would she do that; know what I'm saying? Obviously, there's trouble going on at home, her man's probably looking at other women, anyway, and I just want to add..."
"Stop the truck," Tsukune said.
"What?" Anko asked.
"Stop the truck!"
She looked outside, and then back at him as if he was crazy.
"Are you nuts, we ain't even there yet, and you want to get off here?"
"Yeah, I want you to let me off here!"
"Look, kid if what I'm listening to bothers you that much, I'll change it; no need to go die of frostbite on account of...HEY!"
Tsukune, fed up with her, thrusts open the passenger side door and threatens to jump out, forcing Anko to stop the truck so that he may leap out and immediately begins trudging through the bitterly cold snow alone, determined to brave the frigid air in his flimsy clothing, rather than sit in that truck, listening to that radio at the indifference of the driver, and feeling close to losing it again within that tiny cabin.
What did those idiots know? A dark, and bitter voice wondered. They all sounded so egotistical, so arrogant and apathetic when they were really such ignorant peons.
He didn't want to hear others imply that he was the screw up or make him feel wrong about everything, it took all of his measure to avoid from getting all worked up over it again.
Now alone, he had to make the long trek towards Mizore's snow village on his own reserves of power, which were steadily dwindling.
XXX
"Ms. Sendo," said Keito, "I really think you should reconsider."
"Yuki, calm down!" Yukari giggled at her puppy, who joyously licked her face as she gathered all of her things from the room. "No, you can't come with us, but we're be back. Keito and Deshiko will take good care of you."
The two PSC soldiers looked at one another, shocked at the role she was giving them.
"I beg your pardon?" Keito asked.
"Is that going to be a problem?" Yukari asked more forcefully, the tone of her voice causing the two women to reflexively clench their butt chicks out of fearful hesitation.
"N-No, m-master," Deshiko responded.
"Everything ready?" Moka asked, still a little timid around Yukari, afraid she might not really be glad to see her.
"Oh, hi!" Yukari happily greets. "Yeah; excuse me! That'll be all, you two."
"But, Yuka...," Deshiko argued, but one glance from Yukari was enough for Keito to usher her younger cohort away, leaving witch and vampire alone.
"Wow, how were you able to get them to leave, like that?" Moka asked.
"...Let's just say I know how to work them," she replied, the comment rife with some form of innuendo that Moka was not aware of. "So, you want to join me; I was just about to head downstairs and join everybody by the bluffs."
"You're sure you'd want me with you? After everything, I mean."
"Don't worry about all of that, once we see Tsukune again..."
"That's just it, I'm not sure he's going to want to see me, again; and even if he does, I can't make him understand that what happened wasn't me."
"Then luckily you'll have me along. I can be very persuasive!"
Moka heard a chuckle escape from her lips, the first time such a thing had happened in quite a while, making her realize just how dearly she'd missed Yukari's companionship.
"I guess things will work themselves out," Moka responds.
"Come on, walk with me."
Yuki tries to leap on her leg, keeping her from going, but Yukari ushers him back.
"I'll be back," she whispered to the little dog. "You don't need to worry this time; I'll be okay."
As if reaching her four legged friend through some telepathic link, the dog obeys and watches sadly, but confidently from the doorway as its master heads down the hallway.
"So," Yukari says. "What are you going to do when you meet with Tsukune?"
"Well, don't think badly of me, but...I'm going to wrap my arms around his neck and bite him!"
"Really?" Yukari laughed.
"Mm, hm; I haven't had his blood in a long time! Just thinking about him makes me so hungry."
"That's no surprise, his is the only blood you'll have. So, are you two going to get married?"
Moka thought on it hard, as though it was something that was long overdue, yet denied by troublesome events, and says:
"Yes; maybe no right off the bat, there are still things we need to work out first, but…once that taken care of, we will. We should have been, long ago. You think I would have made a good wife and bloodmate to him, don't you?"
"Sure I do."
"You're not just saying that, are you?"
"You know me, of course I meant it, as boobzilla would probably say about herself: you're the ONE, the only one, and don't think you're not, because you are."
"That's good. I know I am, I just like to hear someone else back me up on it."
"What matters is what you and Tsukune think, that's what'll be important in the end; trust me."
"What me and Tsukune think," Moka echoed thoughtfully, unsure if one half of her is onboard, but with Yukari along she felt confident any hurdle could be overcome.
"By the way," Yukari says to her, "this may sound like a weird question, but since you know you want to marry Tsukune, do you know what he likes?"
"OH!" Moka replies. "Um, sure...I...um, I think."
Of all her life being with Tsukune, she figured she knew all there was about him, but knowing his likes and dislikes never dawned on her.
"Relax," Yukari responds, "it's not that hard if you know him like I do. Say for instance, mouth wash."
"Mouthwash?"
"Yeah, mouthwash. What's your favorite flavor?"
"Um, cinnamon."
"Cinnamon?" Yukari asked, making a face.
"What's wrong with cinnamon, it tastes nice."
"You like cinnamon flavored mouthwash because it tastes nice?"
"Well yeah, plus it kinda looks like blood or something like that. You don't think he'd like it?"
"No."
"Oh," Moka replied, feeling down that the two of them wouldn't be sharing mouthwash every morning like some romantic couple would.
"You better get a mouthwash he likes, then."
"Well, what flavor mouthwash does Tsukune like?
"Mint."
"Mint flavored?"
"Yep, mint."
"Oh, okay. You sure he wouldn't be willing to share?"
"Yes!" Yukari said, impatiently.
"Okay, mint flavored mouthwash it is, then."
They walked in silence, but Moka couldn't help, but notice Yukari constantly looking at her, as if waiting impatiently for a response to the notion that Tsukune preferred mint like it was a deeply important issue.
"What?" Moka asked.
"Well?"
"Well, what?"
"Ugh, do you know why he prefers mint over any flavor?"
"Yukari, I don't care about mouthwash?"
"You should!"
"Why is that important?"
"It just is," Yukari insisted, her impatience growing on obsession, and was quickly becoming a nuisance with this little debate that seemed odd to Moka. "As his future wife, you have to know these things!"
"Mint flavored mouthwash is important?"
"Yes!"
"Fine, why does he like mint flavor so much?"
Yukari looked at her with purple eyes full of dismay, which suggested to Moka she might have said the wrong thing.
"Was that not right?" She asked her. "Why is mint such an issue?"
"Oh...," Yukari muttered, then playfully laughed it off, "silly girl, I can't tell you that!"
"Huh?" Moka asked, genuinely confused, however Yukari's giggling was just her way of putting her friend at ease, and quickly she dropped the facade and simply replied:
"...You have to figure that out."
Yukari said nothing else, but Moka could sense the young woman was unnerved and tried desperately to figure out what message, if anything, was her friend and staunch supporter was trying to convey.
"Okay, is everyone ready?" Mr. Aono asked surveying everyone gathered outside. "Do we need to make a list of whose going and who's staying?"
They all looked at him as if this was the dumbest thing he had ever done.
"Uncle Koji," said Kyoko, "this isn't a field trip, we're going to find Tsukie."
"Right, right!" He said, quickly realizing how dumb he sounded.
"Don't pay any attention to them," Mr. Sendo whispered, "I get the same thing from my wife and kid whenever I try to organize everyone."
"Tell me about it," Koji replied.
"So, Kyou is it?" Koga asked him. "You guys validate parking, right; I'm leaving my truck on school property?"
The fox demon casts a most unaccommodating glare at the werewolf, to which he kindly took the hint.
"Just wondering."
"Ugh, the sooner we get this thing taken care of, the better!" Kyou growled. "Where are the ladies of the hour anyway?"
"Why don't you ask them yourself," Akua pointed out as Moka and Yukari walked up to the group.
"I'm glad you're feeling better," Ruby said, who runs up to hug Yukari tightly.
"Missed me?" Yukari asked while feeling up her ass and causing her to stiffen.
"M-Master, not in front of everyone, please!" Ruby nervously hissed, feeling ashamed and embarrassed, but then looked at Moka and immediately her expression turns sour. "So, you're coming after all?"
"Ruby," Yukari said, sternly. "Let's please, be nice; our focus is to find Tsukune, not start a fight, besides we need her."
"Fine," Ruby said, her voice not bothering to hide any vindictiveness, but reluctantly goes along.
Finally, the bus comes roaring out of the tunnel and Ageha disembarks to prep everyone.
"Here are your temporary Visas," Ageha said, handing them out one by one, but then glances at Ruby and added: "Like I said, they're temporary; and, given the favors I had to do, they can be revoked if I deem necessary! Is that clear?"
"You really shouldn't have," Ruby nastily replied.
"Uh, what my friend really means is that we're grateful for your hospitality!" Yukari kindly intervened.
"Mm; it's only through your mother's kind insistence that I'm even allowing your 'friend' here access to my sister's club."
"It's not a field trip, and yet we're all going to Las Vegas on a bus?" Koji asked, pointing out the obvious.
"I can think of worse ways to travel," said Koga.
"This is just to take us to the airport and from there...hopefully, we'll catch a different bus once we're there, right?" Asked Kasumi.
"Oh no, this is all you'll need to get to where you're going," the enigmatic bus driver said after a long huff of his cigar.
"I'm sorry; this is our what?" Kasumi asked. "Seriously, how else are we going to...? Is this some kind of magic school bus?"
"God no," he replied. "That tunnel you see behind me is a portal with forks that diverge into several tunnels all over the world. I can get you to Las Vegas in half the time it takes for your flight to be prepped and loaded; however, the time difference won't be affected and the jet lag will hit you just like a ton of lead weights, so you may not want to go to the pool tables right after you arrive."
"...Like I said, I can think of worse ways to travel," Koga quipped.
"It's really safe, Kasumi," Moka reassured. "We used to do this all the time!"
"Well, okay," she said, nervously holding on to Moka's hand. "However, is he reliable?"
The bus driver humbly bows with a wave of his hat.
"You coming along?" Koji asked Akua.
"Oh no, not yet at least; I am what you might say a wanted woman by U.S. Homeland Security," she replied. "But, I will catch up to you once I've taken care of something, and I know the coast is clear."
"Sounds good to me," Ruby interjected and boards the bus, but the blue haired succubus bars her way and says:
"Remember, you're coming to my sister's club only because I am allowing it; she hasn't forgotten what you did."
"You through?" Ruby asked, and nonchalantly walks past her onto the bus.
"Be sure to dress warmly," Yukari's mother told her, "I hear it gets cold there at night."
"Dear," said her husband, just as worried, but trying to remain strong. "Don't coddle."
"And remember," her concerned mother added, "if you begin to feel...you know, like you're about to faint..."
"Mama! I'm fine, don't worry, I'm with my friends!"
"You remember what to do, right?" Her father asked.
"I do," she replied, and hugs them both goodbye. "We'll see each other a day from now. Take care."
"You do the same."
The two witches watch their only child board the bus, both foreseers of the future and yet unable to ease a parent's fear of what may or may not happen to their child.
"There goes our little girl," Mrs. Sendo said to her husband.
"No, she's a woman now," he said.
Last, but not least stood Kyou, eyeing this misbegotten group with all the eagerness of watching a plague pass by.
"Well?" The Bus driver asked.
"Well, what? You don't expect me to come along; I have no love for the boy!"
"And yet, the more the merrier! C'mon, I know you're intrigued to see how this plays out!"
Growling to himself, the irate fox demon, spurred on by a curiosity he was loathed to admitting, reluctantly hops onboard, and with all seated and ready, the bus roars off into the tunnel; off to where Tsukune Aono was.
XXX
Unbeknownst to them, however the object of their search had only hours ago returned to Japan, just a few miles away and was now trudging through several feet of snow in barely any warm clothing save for a dinner dress jacket. It was evident by the plunging temperatures and shortness of his breath that he was getting close, and yet blinding snow whipping into him made a lucky hunch Tsukune's only source of navigation. The snow blew fiercely against his body, a body fueled with only a half drunken cup of hot cocoa that he had since discarded, all appetite for anything gone just like everything else. What remained important was reaching his destination, this refuge, and yet the trek up the mountain seemed unsurmountable.
Tsukune wondered, bitterly that if he was half the vampire she had wanted him to be, would this be any simpler? But, thoughts of her only fueled his desire to punish his body further, spurred on by an anger that continued to gnaw away at his soul, unquenched and merciless, destroying any common sense that existed.
"I'm weak?" He questioned himself, growling at the words as though he were repeating what some arrogant douche had said to him, even though said douche was himself. "Weak? No. No, no, no!"
Though his spirit raged with defiance, pushing himself forward with reckless abandon, his body did not share in its drive as it gave way underneath him and refused to go any further.
"I…I'm not w-weak!" He hissed, willing his limbs to obey him. "D-Don't let her w-win. Don't…!"
He was so weak, he had trouble speaking coherently while lying face first in the cold snow continuing to mutter those bitterly cold words, undaunted by this show of physical weakness; slowly losing consciousness.
In the dark recesses of his mind he swore he could hear jingle bells chiming ever closer to him.
Christmas? He wondered, most bewildered at the sound and yet in his increasingly rotting soul it triggered some longing memory of celebrating with his family, however miniscule the feeling was, thinking that he was dying. He did not fight his end with all the passion his human spirit would unleash like in older times, in fact there was nary that nor peaceful surrender towards it either, but just indifference.
Death, however had a strange smell to him, like hay and manure, followed by a wet muzzle that nuzzled against his frost bitten face and licked at him.
"Oye, there!" Said a small voice. "Tis' a mighty unwelcoming place for your kind to be lying around in this weather!"
Tsukune's weary eyes strained to reopen, and when they did, he beheld a most unusual sight: a small party of what looked to be gnomes with pointy hats and white beards, sitting in an open sleigh pulled by two reindeer, one of which was currently licking his face.
He thought Moka would see it as weakness, and in fact, Tsukune knew anyone would see it as weakness, that this very same "man", this mighty vampire who couldn't even hold onto his wife much less assert himself against the very man she slept with, was unable to climb a simple mountain, and had now been rescued by a group of dwarfish looking gnomes as they ferried him in their sleigh.
"You...You didn't have to help me," he muttered, voice still weak.
"You certainly weren't in the position to deny any!" The oldest of the party joked.
"I was fine on my own…I am a vampire…I should have done this on my own! Let me off here! Whatever happens to me, I deserve."
"Hmph, he sure sounds like a vampire!" Said one of the gnome's companions. "That or I think the snow has gotten to him; I've seen it happen!"
"Tell me, great vampire?" The leader asked. "Where might you be headed to in such a hurry, wearing nothing but a dinner jacket?"
"...The Snow Village; I have business there, not that it's any of your business!"
"Then, it might interest you to know that we too have business there."
"You do?"
"Yeah, we didn't come all the way from Norway just for the vacation! You haven't heard? The Helere Budokai is about to begin, and for your information it so happens to be a very exclusive affair for the snow people of the world, so you be needing more than your pomp and circumstance to get in."
"Us carrying an injured, lost traveler sounds like a good way for you to enter!" Said one of the gnomes.
Tsukune had no idea what was going on, but it sounded like he had little choice, his worn out bones notwithstanding, his wounded pride however forced to accept their hospitality.
"Tell me, great vampire, do you have a name we can call you?" The leader asked.
"...Aono!" He said, reluctantly.
"They have a first names where you're from?"
"Just Aono!"
"Very well, Aono it be; I be Jorgen, and these are my younger brothers: Jocser, and the youngest, Joninheim! And, believe you me, we were hoping to find a fourth member to join our merry party, as it gets mighty dull looking at these sorry faces for a full ride!"
"Hey, like you're a sight!" Said Joninheim.
"Besides, I can't wait to see the looks on Azar's face when we bring in a vampire to our games; the first of his kind to show up, and as our guest!"
"Azar?" Tsukune asked.
"A big, brutal warrior of the dark elves, rumored to be the most vicious of his kind outside of Valhalla, he is; don't worry, just don't like eye contact with him!"
"Quit worrying the boy!" Jorgen scolded.
"I was just warning him; he doesn't know what he's up against!" Jocser argued.
"You're the one who's scared of Azar!" Jorgen retorted.
"Am not!"
Tsukune blots out their incessant babbling, seeing no other option but to ride along, though loathed by it. However, he needed to reach Mizore's home, for no other reason than to find solace from his anger, peace on the mountain where no one will judge him, as there was none in this world that could offer it to him.
XXX
The bus pulled up just on the outskirts Caro's club, and Kasumi couldn't have been any happier.
"VEGAS BABY!" The Bus Driver shouted. "SLOTS, SHOTS, AND PLENTY OF BOOBS!"
"Would you please keep your thoughts to yourself," Kasumi muttered, holding her stomach and feeling a little worse for wear.
"Feeling that jet lag slam, madam?"
"Just let me off!"
Her ordeal going through that dark tunnel once was harrowing enough, but using that same tunnel to travel half way around the world felt deeply unnerving and unnatural, though she was careful not let that be known with the company she was currently keeping.
"So, this is it?" Koji asked, joining his wife who gawked at this huge building that had a neon picture of a nude, devil woman greeting the guests.
"Okay, this is going to be happy hour," Ageha explained to the group. "Some of you are about to see things that will be...well, less than what you're used to."
"He's...he's in there?" Kasumi asked, growing more and more frantic. "My son is in there?"
"Wow, Caro did alright for herself," Koga remarked.
"You know this woman; is she okay?" Kyoko asked.
"As in?"
"You know, not...slutty?"
"Don't worry about her," said Yukari, and then whispered to Kyoko: "Her niece is a lot sluttier."
"Ha!" Koga laughed. "You'll have fun, trust me!"
"We're not here to have fun!" Ruby said.
"Well, if you're not careful, that will prove to be quite true for you," Ageha remarked. "You're about to enter a succubus' domain, witch; I hope you're prepared?"
"Are you going to take us there or keep up the bitch act?"
While everyone stood around taking in the atmosphere, Moka stood silently, her attention caught by a slight scent in the air, recent and stronger than before, of him, of his sweat and blood wafting in the air every time the doors to the club opened to let in patrons. Without waiting for anyone to make a decision, she ran towards the building.
"Moka!" Kasumi yelled, but soon realizing there was little point in standing around wasting time, hurried after her.
"Well," Yukari said, "looks like we're going into a strip club!"
The rest head up the hill to the Gentleman's Club, leaving their bus driver and relieved chaperone behind.
"Thank Bael," Kyou muttered. "These fools are finally out of my hair! I curse that little vampire bitch for bringing all this drama into my lap!"
"Who says it has to end?" The Bus Driver asked with a grin. "It was fun, working to deliver much needed payback."
"Speak for yourself!"
"Alright, but this 'bitch' and her suitor did humiliate you worse than meatbag ever did; if not for them, your status might have remained un-soiled."
"What is your point?"
"My point is, that I figured you, of all people, would want to take this opportunity to at last redeem yourself against the vampire and wolf?"
"Even if I wanted to, my vampire is headed towards the strip club, right now."
"Doesn't mean you can't take it out on the other one; clone or no clone."
"Well, clone or no clone, she's safely absconded to her brood; I can't get to her."
"That just leaves the other."
"The 'other'?"
"Yes, the other, your old nemesis who, I assure you, is the one and only genuine article."
Kyou looks at his comrade, thoughtfully at first, but slowly growing a little emboldened by what he was proposing.
"Kyou, how would you like to join me on a wolf hunt?" The Bus Driver asked.
"...Tally-ho," Kyou replied with a devilish smile.
Running up the drive-way, passing by irate guests waiting to enter, Moka jumps to the front of the line only to be stymied from entering by a burley monster in human disguise that did little to make him seem less intimidating.
"Back of the line, Miss," he said in a deep, ghetto thick voice, his dark glasses reflecting the look of annoyance in her face, but accentuated his apathy.
"Let me in," Moka insisted.
"HEY, LADY!" Someone yelled behind her. "BACK OF THE LINE LIKE THE REST OF US!"
"SHUT UP!" The bouncer replied.
Finally, Kasumi and Koji had caught up, but the sight of this gargantuan man stopped their momentum.
"Um, excuse me, sir," said Koji. "But, we have to get inside, see our son's in there."
"Congratulations," he said.
"N-No, I don't think you understand," Kasumi intervened. "Our son is in there, right now with the...uh, madam of this establishment."
"Again, congratulations."
"He's my husband!" Moka yelled.
"Ooh, on second thought."
"Braxas," Ageha said as she and the others arrived, "its okay, they're with me!"
"As you wish; right on in!" The burly bouncer responded and graciously allows them all to enter, but was quick to stop one slick guest from slipping in with them.
The place was like stepping into another world, an alien world, where nothing made any sense, every sight and smell assaulting Moka's senses like never before, losing his in the process.
This is madness, Moka's inner personality growled with discontent. What would possess you to come this place, Tsukune?
The very atmosphere itself was so overbearing that she couldn't even her inner self speak. People of all shapes and sizes bustled about from place to place, taking in some exotic entertainment on stages she'd never experienced before. She could no longer hear her acknowledge their presence of her companions, instead began wandering through the crowds, trying to find some bearing of where to go.
The bar, she thought upon catching sight of it in the distance, maybe they'll know.
XXX
The place was like stepping into another world, an alien world, where nothing made any sense to him, anymore. This was not the tranquil Snow Village Tsukune had remembered from long ago, and yet as his sleigh rode through the bustling streets, full of traffic containing weird and wooly apparitions milling about, there was little doubt that this was indeed his destination. There were beings of every size and shape, from dwarves like his companions, to hairy giants that towered overhead, who crowded the streets before them in such quantity that it put Las Vegas to shame.
"Pull it in up there!" Jocser ordered, spotting a busy little tea house nearby.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Jorgen argued. "I'm the oldest brother! Hmph! We'll pull up there!"
"That's what I just said!"
"No you didn't!"
Tsukune could no longer hear them as his senses were quickly overwhelmed by all of this, wondering what this festival was all about that the snow queen would allow to descend on this once sleepy, little village.
The tea house in question, a lounge bar carved into the ice, was just as crowded, if not as cold, as it was outside.
"Thank Odin's Beard!" Yelled the middle brother. "Now we can get some Meade into this gullet!"
"I don't think they sell Meade out here!" Said Jocser.
"Yes they do," his brother argued. "We're guests, the Yuki Onna of these lands have to accommodate their guests."
"Meade?" Tsukune asked, partially distracted.
"Yes; come, it'll warm your bones!"
He was led to a circular, yet crowded bar where his companion orders to of their largest goblets of this strange stuff, fizzy stuff when someone roughly grabs the gnome from behind.
"Who tha…?" Joninheim asked, but upon seeing his assailant turns silent.
"I thought I smelled dwarf!" Yelled a tall, dark skinned elf like figure, clad in armor and draped with a cloak made out of a polar bear's hide.
"That's gnome, not dwarf you stupid el...!" Joninheim began to argue, but the elder brother intervened.
"A-Azar; m-my what a pleasant surprise!" Jorgen nervously stammered.
"Brother!" His angry brother whispered. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, this is bad!" Whined the youngest brother.
He was a tall, imposing character Tsukune could discern, and he wasn't alone as an entourage of similarly dressed kinsmen accompanied him, with wretched aura of entitlement wreaking from him.
"I thought I told you if I saw any of you 'dwarves' here in my presence..." Azar began to warn.
Tsukune roughly brushed the elf's hand from the gnome's shoulder and said: "Let 'em alone."
Azar looked at his throng, a look of genuine shock that someone would dare lay a finger on him, much less order him around etched across his crimson eyes.
"And, who might you be, boy?" Azar challenged, however Tsukune just turned his back to him, both gestures that served to deeply offend him, while all who witnessed it were shocked and on edge.
"Uhh, this young man is Tsukune Aono," Jocser eagerly answered. "He's new to our ways, so go easy on him."
"Is he?" Azar ominously asked.
New to your ways, Tsukune bitterly thought. That's always my problem.
Tsukune's blood began to churn the more this character continued to hover around him.
"Tsukune Aono, is it?" Azar asked.
"Yes," Jocser replied, "see, he's a..."
"If I needed your opinion, then I'll ask for it, toad! Besides, this man here can speak for himself can he; that's assuming we can call him a man!"
Azar's companions muttered something in some strange, guttural elvis and laughed, while Tsukune slowly turned back around and stared this man in the face.
"LOOK HERE, EVERYONE!" Azar yelled to the crowd. "WE HAVE OURSELVES A GENUINE, CELEBRITY IN OUR MIDST! Yes, I've heard of you!"
"You have?" Tsukune asked.
"Oh yes. You're a man with some of the worst lady troubles on the planet, and by looking at you I can see the rumors about you weren't exaggerated in the slightest; you are a pitiful excuse for a man. Your 'female troubles' are renown even amongst the Dark Elf realm, as a source of amusement."
Tsukune started to ball up his fists, not to mention somewhat confused that someone like him would hear of it.
"Does that anger you, big man? If it did, then please feel free do something about."
"Look," Tsukune started to say, "I don't know what you heard, but…I have had a bad day and I'm not looking for a fight, I just want a drink, so if you don't mind, leave me alone."
"Spoken like a true woman!" Azar yelled out loud and he and his companions, along with a few spectators began to laugh. "Look, you know what your problem is? You're someone who doesn't belong here, in the company of higher level beings far above your station; so, why don't you know your place, big man, before I show it to you!"
"DO IT AZAR, DO IT!" Tsukune heard someone in the crowd cheer.
"HAVEN'T SEEN A GOOD BEAT DOWN ALL DAY!" He heard another one say.
"Now," he added, "the very sight of you offends me, and I would appreciate it, greatly if a cowardly worm like you were to disappear from it. I suggest leaving this village all together and back to whence you came!"
This entire time Tsukune Aono has been the ass of everyone's amusement; heckled, harassed, humiliated with nary a reaction to save his own pride, and the one time he did react was taken out on Kurumu; but the people who deserved his full, unbridled wrath? He never knew why, it was an answer that eluded him, even now. Yet, he reminded of his less than stellar reaction when the door to his bedroom opened to a stupidly, grinning Gin and her, laughing at him, while he just stood there.
Why did I just stand there? He asked himself, as though he felt everyone else thinking the same.
However, of all the people who have been in his face so far, none had really gotten to Tsukune than this Azar, with his smug superiority, of being told to "know your place", those obnoxious eyes looking down on him, and, perhaps most importantly, his long, flowing silver hair. Something snapped, and Tsukune knew that this time there would be no walking away.
"I got a better idea," Tsukune said menacingly, stepping up to the towering elf's face. "Why don't you make me leave?"
For a moment, the big elf didn't look like he would do anything and Tsukune strangely began to feel disappointed that he won't be getting the sweet release of his pent up rage, after all. But then, Azar gives him a sharp kick that sends him flying across the entire room and landing on some tables.
"Oh dear, oh dear!" Jorgen panicked.
"That was quick," one of Azar's companions said, but was surprised to see Tsukune stand back up, visibly unscathed and with what seemed to be a menacing grin on his face.
"So, is this the power of a big man?" Azar asked, unimpressed. "How pathetic. Mighty Vampire indeed!"
Tsukune wipes the blood oozing from his mouth with one hand, with the other hovering just over his other wrist, right where the rosary chain was wrapped.
"I have had a really bad couple of days!" Tsukune growled. "But, I'm glad you idiots don't leave well enough alone! So bad, so in charge, you gotta show it to everyone you think is beneath you when really, you are the inferior ones, even to me! You want to see how bad I can be? FINE!"
With a sharp pull, the chain comes off and suddenly the place is bathed in an explosive burst of vampiric energy as Tsukune Aono changes before everyone's eyes. And, without warning, and in a blink of an eye Azar receives a heavy fist crashing into his gut that slams him through the wall behind the bar.
With everyone left speechless, It was Azar's turn to rise back up and brush himself off, hardly phased by Tsukune's assault, but no less daunted.
"Now that's more like it!" The dark elf said with a devilish grin, forming ice around his right hand into spikey mace. "I've been wanting a good warm up for the match!"
Tsukune goes into his fighting stance, ready to challenge him and end this or possibly end him. For the first time, he felt a calm, excited feeling, a feeling that he can at last unleash all of his anger, his rage on a suitable victim without feeling the least bit guilty. He began to wonder if this is what she meant; that this was the vampire way, a way of life his human parents couldn't have instilled within him, as their way had him getting beaten up, laughed at, and humiliated, with it ultimately taking everything he held dear away.
Had she been right all along? Was he the fool this whole time? These were questions that he still had no answer to, but now he was going to embrace the monster within and find out for himself while he murders this fool before him.
"Um, Mr. Aono," Jorgen whimpered. "Sir?"
With a warrior's yell that silenced the gnome, Tsukune charged at the elf, his foe doing the same, when suddenly a gust of icy wind froze his legs into place, while icy missiles caused Azar to jump back as a woman appears in between them, head bowed, her hands barring the two men from moving any further.
"What is the meaning of this?" Azar yelled, ready to attack the young woman, but a pale hand touches him on his shoulder, stopping him.
"No, it would not be wise to assault my daughter," a beautiful, white haired woman kindly said.
"And, who are you, wench? Who dares interfere and lay their hand on me!"
"Oh, pardon me," she said, quickly removing her hand, yet remaining polite, "allow me to introduce myself: I am Tsurara Shirayuki."
"Shirayuki?" Azar asked, the name readily familiar. "Of the Shirayuki family, friends to the royal household of the Snow Queen?"
"The very same, and as guests to our land it is our hope that you would kindly observe our rules in refraining from fighting until the tournament begins."
"Tsurara," Tsukune muttered, staring at the woman in white as if she were a ghost from some distant, long forgotten past who smiled warmly at him.
"Oh, hello Tsukune Aono," she greeted. "It's most fortunate that my daughter and I came here in time, you would have been seriously hurt; Azar is one of the top fighters of the lands across the plains of Asgard."
"…Your daughter?" Tsukune asked, just now catching the word and looks carefully at the woman standing before him, her head bowed, face concealed behind a mane of beautiful, and hauntingly familiar, lavender colored hair.
"We've been expecting you," Tsurara said.
Slowly, the woman raises her head, and Tsukune locked onto pale blue eyes from a bygone era, eyes that seemed to tug at something within him that he tried to push into some darkened corner of his soul. Her snowy white face and small, pink lips greeted him with the warmest smile he had ever seen, and ironic trait for the snow woman Mizore, whose soft voice spoke his name clearly:
"Tsukune."
XXX
As Moka stumbled through the crowd of horny patrons many took immediate notice, liked what they saw in the pink haired stranger and groped her in the process, and yet she shrugged off all of it just to get information on Tsukune's whereabouts.
He must be here, her inner persona said, mindful of the concern in even her voice. Even in this den jackals the smell of his blood is strong.
I smell someone else's, she replied.
Practically, running headlong into the bar, she literally begins leaning over in a frantic attempt at getting the bartender's attention.
"Whoa, shimmer down, lady!" He says. "The booze ain't going out, yet; just hold on through the night until your shift is over!"
"I need answers!" She yelled. "I'm looking for someone!"
"I know a lot of someones; anybody in particular?"
"Tsukune!"
"What?" He asked, trying to understand what she was saying over the loud music.
"TSUKUNE AONO!" She repeated. "HAVE YOU SEEN HIM?"
"OH! YES!"
The answer brought joy in her worn heart, a joy that turned into relief that at last her ordeal was over.
"Where can I find him?" She asked him.
The bartender was about to respond, but his attention was pulled elsewhere by another woman who approached the bar a few seats down.
"EXCUSE ME!" Moka yelled, irritated.
"Look, I don't know, but maybe she might know something! HEY!"
As he grabs the woman's attention, Moka looks down the other end and there, locks eyes with someone from her past, but not the person she'd expected. Her hair was a sky blue, eyes violet in color, and a chest was as large as she remembered, but it was Kurumu whose glittered lips parted to express disbelief upon seeing someone she never hoped to see, again.
"Moka," she said.
