Victory, after two years of being humiliated by that up start writer, Story Death had won.
That Rattlesnake brat had held out longer than most and had survived those underlings the Devourer when he tricked him into storming Hiatus and the Problems when the challenged him, but now he was lying beaten and bloodied by its blade on the ground where he belonged.
Casting aside such thoughts it reached out of the pitch-black robe it wore with a skeletal hand for the jewel shining brightly on its pedestal. This was what it wanted, the story. At first glance it looked like a blue diamond, but it was glowing with a deemed light and slowly growing in size.
"Ha, looks like that snake didn't have any venom to protect its egg from a hungry mongoose." It permitted itself moment to gloat over its victory. Until it felt something it had never felt before, pain. Looking down he saw a black blade with a hellish blue aura sticking out of its chest.
"These fangs of mine aren't void of poison just yet." Rattlesnake said as he watched his opponent disappear into black smoke.
I am back!
As Moka woke up the next morning with the seal sound and secure around her neck, her mind was full of confusion and a lot of questions that tied into one labyrinthine mystery, just what was Jaden's power? Jaden's power was growing all the time and she couldn't imagine how it was possible for a human to become so strong in such a short time. But Jaden had already said that both of his parents were human, so it had to be true and it was possible, but that power didn't feel right. Like it was always calling out and something in the dark and lonely corners of her heart was trying to answer…
But, maybe she was over analyzing things, she thought as she changed into her uniform and headed to for the classes of the day.
XxX
As far as Moka and Jaden could tell everyone at the class-room was present… except for Mizore, who once again had skipped coming to classes.
"Mizore missed a lot of classes at the beginning of this school year due to her being suspended because some kind of incident, and she can't afford to miss too many more or she be too far behind to catch up with her class this semester." Ms. Nekonome told the pink haired vampire and the "Nuraihyon".
Jaden's attention fully attained at the mentioning of an "incident". The parties involved in closed cases involving the teaching weren't allowed to mention the specifics unless the chief of the internal affairs or the student police reopened it for investigation. So for Ms. Nekonome who was obviously involved as the yuki-onna's homeroom teacher to mention it like indirectly was little odd (especially since she had "accidentally" called the IA chief)…
"So, I want you two to drag her to class, okay?" The feline teacher continued to speak, "She'll either be in her room or at the cliff near her dorm."
As the two started out the door to do just as the teacher had asked, a person in his mid-twenties/early thirties, who Jaden recognized as the gym-teacher Kotsubo Okuto, came in and passed the both of them and marched over to the other teacher and said, "Ms. Nekonome, Mizore attacked two of my soccer team members."
Jaden turned a critical eye toward the gym teacher and told his friend, "Moka, head back to the newspaper-club for now… I'll handle things with Mizore."
XxX
Jaden didn't like the way things were starting to take shape. After Moka had left, Jaden had asked the teacher why he hadn't brought the case to the Student Police and was answered with, "The only way you can get something done that way is by showing how much "respect" you're will to give them."
After he asked if he could interview the team members, Jaden found out that they had been "beaten a half to death" and the basis for the gym teacher's accusation was that there was ice on the scene and Mizore's notebook.
Both were very condemning pieces of evidence… but something about that Kotsubo guy, didn't feel right. Even after he had left Jaden couldn't shake the feeling that something nasty was hanging around him like the stench of rotten sushi…
"Well if it isn't my favorite trouble maker, Jaden." A seductive female voice rang out from behind Jaden. Its owner, Kagome Ririko, was a woman with light-colored hair, circular glasses over her brown eyes, dressed in a white v-neck shirt with a wide collar and a dark skirt, and a matured figure that surpassed Kurumu's still developing one.
"Hey, how are you doing Kagome?" the student/chief of IA asked, unfazed by her antics.
"I've fine, but you need to be careful or you'll get hurt if you cause too much trouble for yourself. Not all the teachers here are as nice as me. That Kotsubo Okuto is a prime example of that." Kagome said soberly, "He's well-known among the faculty for making fast moves on the girls and being very strict. If he sets his eyes on a girl he never let's go… I think that in the start of this semester a girl was suspended because of him."
Jaden remembering what the feline teacher had said about the yuki-onna and, never trusting coincidence, looked the teacher squarely in the eyes and asked, "Ms. Ririko, was that student Mizore Shirayuki? Please tell me, this could be really serious."
XxX
Mizore had been at the cliff as Ms. Nekonome said she might be, trying to come to grips with her rampant emotions as tears rolled down her face, when she heard someone behind her, "As usual you came here. You always come here when you get depressed, Shirayuki."
The yuki-onna was going to turn around to face him, hoping that she was wrong about whom it was, but two strong hands grabbed her from behind and she was only able look over her shoulder. But even that confirmed her fears; it was the gym teacher Mr. Okuto. "You should be careful around here. The wind is strong enough to make someone fall over the edge of the cliff"
"What are you doing-?" Mizore began to say in fear, until she saw his face and that smirk and knew what he was thinking. She started to fight her away out of the gym teacher grasp as he tried keeping his hold on her.
As she broke free, she tried to push Kotsubo away from her. Shoving the adult squarely in the chest pushed with all her strength… and realized with horror that she had pushed him off of the cliff.
Mizore rushed over to the edge to help him, hoping that he was fine; she didn't want to hurt him, but her concern was missed placed. A tentacle shot out over the edge of the cliff and wrapped around her leg and pulled her down over the edge's lip. The yuki-onna would have been pulled off the cliff entirely, but she managed to grab a small tree growing out of the cliff.
As she clung on to the tiny plant for dear life, Mizore looked down and felt her heart stop. Kotsubo had changed into his true-form, a kraken; it looked like he had an octopus on his back but the eight strong, suction-cupped tentacles were no laughing matter. "You really are troublesome girl, Shirayuki." The crocked gym educator said, as he continued to pull on her leg, "I was just joking before, but you already tried to kill me before when you attacked me at the start of the school year, and now I really am going to drag under!"
"You tried to molest me!" Mizore yelled as she tightened her grip on the plant to the point her hand was being cut on its rough bark.
"YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME RIGHT?!" He shouted, "IT SHOULDN'T MATTER WHAT I DO TO YOU IN THAT CASE RIGHT?!"
'When I first met him, I thought he was charming… I never would have fallen for him if I known what he was really like.' Mizore thought, as the tiny tree sprout she had been clinging on came uprooted, and remembered the brunette in the black coat and wished that he would come and save her but she still continued to fall, '…I guess I was alone from the start…"
And the yuki-onna fell down to the rocky red lake bed. Her bloodied hand stretched up to take a hand that she knew wouldn't be there. Except it was there and it clasped on to Mizore's out stretched arm. "Jaden, why are you here?" the young, purple-haired girl asked in surprise and bewilderment, unable to comprehend why he was there.
"While I'm not an expert on detective work or anything like that, I have sense for reading the darkness in a person's heart." Jaden said as he continued to hold on to the ice yokai, "And both the story Mr. Okuto tried to sell everyone about you beating two students without being provoked and the good teacher himself had the unmistakable stench of sinister intentions."
"SHUT UP, YOU LITTLE IDIOT!" the kraken shouted, another one of his tentacles shooting out to wrap around the brunette's neck so he could simply break the little shrimps neck and finish off his little stalker friend.
But then a young man appeared next to the two. There was no smoke or flash of light he was just suddenly there. Moving too fast for anyone to make out any of his features; he raked his hand over the appendage that threatened to break Jaden's neck causing a set of five scratches appear on it, making the teacher wince and then scream without warning. The second the stranger's hand was no longer in contact with the new scars, they lengthened and grew deeper with a discharge of purple energy until the tentacle was cut completely through in five places.
And then he flipped over the cliff's edge, spinning like a top upside down, and cut the tentacle holding on to Mizore's leg and disappeared again.
Without resistance of the kraken pulling on her, Mizore was not only pulled up but half flew, hitting Jaden on the way up, knocking him off-balance and setting them both tumbling to the tree line where they stopped Jaden laying prone on the ground and Mizore on top of him.
"Gee, you sure move fast, boss."
"Shut up Gabriel," Jaden glared at the Cheshire-Cat, who was now in his true form. The best was to describe it was a werecat with gray fur and neon purple stripes.
"What did you do, you little piece of trash!" the kraken yelled as he hauled himself over cliff. His tentacles had completely regenerated already, but they didn't feel right, it was like they were the turning numb.
"The power of a Cheshire Cat is not just simple invisibility…" Gabriel said solemnly, as he flexed his hand letting his obsidian colored claws unsheathe to their full length of two inches, and the kraken lashed out with a tentacle that passed through the feline yokai like he was a marriage, who glared at the perverse teacher, "To full comprehend the power a Cheshire, is to feel the fear of facing an opponent who can warp his own existence to disappear and then reappear somewhere else entirely, or become like a sinister spirit who fights with agility and ferocity like a crazed wildcat. And as for what I did to your tentacles, I used the first of the Wonderland techniques…" A flash of five claws brought the five scars in to being heralding the inevitable limb severing effect.
"By pouring youki into my claws, anything I cut with them becomes infected with my power, like how things become irradiated in a nuclear fallout area, letting me warp the reality of the cuts shallow changing them to dismembering attacks." The gray furred yokai explained, "The attack I've been using in this fight is the first of the Wonderland techniques, Playful Kitten... And that numbing feeling you feel spreading in tentacles and body is the chemical agent I use in my nail polish… if you were curious about that."
"Stand down. I will handle things from here." Jaden said as he walked in front of the two others and faced the enemy, "Kotsubo Okuto, by the powers invested me as chief of the internal affairs department; I am placing you under preventive custody under the charges of assault and battery, sexual abuse, and tempted murder."
"YOU CAN"T ARREST ME, YOU LITTLE WANABE COP!"
"And resisting arrest"
"DON'T THINK THAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO TAKE…me in… without o-out… a… fight…" The kraken's voiced faded as he fell to the ground face first.
Jaden shook his head, while Yubel and Manna started to chant an old shadow spell to make the kraken change to his human form, and took a pair hand cuffs. "You already fought Gabriel and lost..."
"Not my fault it was over before the starting bell rang."
'Starting before the bell is against the rules of every organized sport ever created, you head case...' All conscious parties thought, as Jaden asked as respectfully as he knew how, if Gabriel needed to take his medicine soon.
XxX
After dragging his second arrest to the cells at the office by himself, uttering many curses upon people who disappear when you need them to help you, Jaden discovered the joys of processing the arrest of a teacher; having his medic attend the culprit's wounds, entering his information into the system, taking the culprit's finger prints, and writing case files and reports, all of which add to what normally be a five man operation manned by one teen; who also had write notices to his own teachers so he could be excused from class during the following few days. Jaden thanked all things he could think of from blind luck to predetermined fate that he had hired Sam as the medical chief beforehand and that she and Gabriel were willing to play gopher for him.
On her way back into work the next day, the poison bird yokai thought about the relationship between her and Jaden's former deck. They had always seemed like they were torn halve-way between hatred and respect for their former master, but now she and them now knew that they had been tricked with a powerful spell and the clouds were cleared a way, and she now knew where they belonged.
Walking to Jaden's office with a purpose, she opened the door to find a mountain of paper work on the desk and no duelist in sight. Since she was excused from class as a member of the IA department, she decided to wait in the office and see if she could help reduce the mountain of papers before Jaden got back and let herself in. "Looks like no one taught Jaden how to do paperwork, these forms are a really shabby job," She said as she looked over two unfinished copies of the same form, which Jaden had abandoned on the stack when he realized his mistake.
"I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN!" Jaden exclaimed as he shot out from under the papers, sending them flying all over the place, the bags under his eyes and anxious expression letting Sam know that he had not gotten the medically recommended eight hours of sleep.
After Jaden had gotten himself a pot of coffee to help him stay awake, against the recommendations of the resident doctor, he got back to finishing his work. "So what did you want to see me about?" he asked, as he filed away the last of his carbon nightmares.
Sam took out her deck from her card carrier and held them over for Jaden take, "These belong in the hands of a warrior like you. And now I think that I need to find my path. After I've found it, I'll assemble my deck according to that path..." Sam stopped talking and sighed as she noticed that Jaden had fallen asleep standing up. Not feeling motivated to start the speech again when he woke up she set the cards on his deck and left him a note before she headed back to class.
XxX
After managing to wrap up at the office Jaden went to met up with the others at the newspaper club, bursting through the door yelling, "STOP THE PRESSES!" Making everyone jump in surprise as he enjoyed their reactions, especially Gin's who fell out of his chair, "I've always wanted to say that… but seriously now, stop whatever you're doing I have a first page story for us to run…"
XxX
"Mr. Kotsubo is currently recovering from his injuries in the holding cells and should have recovered an about another week or so. And Mizore was cleared of all wrong doing so her expulsion was canceled and her record was expunged… And that is how I spent the past couple days." Jaden finished explaining as the newspaper club stared at him with disbelief at the stories absurdity and silent shock as experience told them that it was most likely true.
"Only you, Jaden… Only you…" Tamao said as she rubbed her temples.
Jaden shrugged as he tried to ride out the integration he was being subjected to by Kurumu about the yuki-onna, Mizore. It was little unsettling how she set up the traditional integration table and changed into a woman's suit and skirt so fast... The fact that her nails were slowly elongating into claws was unnerving as well. (Succubae are #3 on the list of top ten female creatures that you should try to never spurn.)
A chill ran along the duelist's spine as he felt a familiar aura in the room with him. "Why don't you come out Mizore? You don't need to hide from any of us here." Jaden said to the hidden snow girl, who popped up from behind the window. The blizzard looked at him with a stoic gaze until the corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile.
"You cut your hair." Jaden noticed that the snow girl's untamed locks that reached down past her shoulder-blades had been cut in an organized array of short spikes and the two long locks on either side of her face thinned and shortened to her checks.
"I figured that since I was going to put this incident behind me I might as will get a haircut." Mizore explained, pleased that he had noticed the change.
Walking over to where he was sitting she gazed deeply into Jaden's eyes, making him turn a little flushed as he found himself noticing the beautiful crystal like shade of light blue of her eyes. "Thank you for everything, Jaden…"
XxX
'And so Jaden made another 'friend' and gained a stalker. Burstinatrix is not happy about the fact that she is a yuki-onna, but she'll get over it in time.' A demonic looking hand wrote in a black book with a raven feather quill, pausing to think for a moment. Unbeknown to most of the other spirits in Jaden's deck, Yubel had started a dairy. It was one of the little hobbies she started to keep herself copied.
The sounds of a loud explosion and glass breaking, accompanied by someone yelling "BURST JUST BROKE A CHANDLER!" disturbed her thought.
Sighing in resignation Yubel finished her entry to her dairy before going to inspect the damage, '…I really hope that she gets over it sooner rather than later. I am getting tired of repairing the 'hotel'… P.s. I need to work on getting a deal worked out with the Red Cross. Another game of he is mine broke out after it was sparked when Kurumu got territorial because of Mizore thanking Jaden and it ended when he passed out because Moka sucked out two and a half pints of his blood.'
* I'm sorry about introducing Kagome Ririko this way. I just sat down to write her in this chapter and I realized that I hadn't explained how she and Jaden had met… And if Jaden's grades ever slipped low enough for extra lessons, Yubel would have much more motivating incentives in store for him to get his grades back up than a leather outfit and it would be unpleasant and demoralizing for the characters, me as the writer, and utterly disturbing to read.
