Thornless Rose
Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or the original canon characters.
Summary: Dragons are the bane of the human race. The dragons nearly killed our ancestors. They are greedy for power. They are violent and cruel and do not care about humans' well-being in the slightest…but is that really true? Rewrite of Dragon's Master.
"Dragon" – Normal Speech
'Dragon' – Normal Thoughts
Dragon – Telepathy (thoughts only)
A/N: This is the final chapter of this story. Now some of you may yell at me for the ending, but don't worry about it. There is a poll on my profile for what people want me to write next. On the poll at the moment are "Sequel to Thornless Rose", "Rewrite of Half-Breed", and "Secret Ambitions". Whichever one has the most votes by September 15 is the story I will mainly be working on for the next few months. I will occasionally work on the other two, but the winner will be the one I mainly write for if I can. Thanks for reading everyone and hope you enjoyed the story as I have!
Chapter 34: It's Just the Beginning
"Time to say goodbye…partner!" Tiaw yelled as the hunters threw or shot their weapons at the now shocked and surprised group.
"No!" someone yelled as a light shone from behind the hunters before disappearing as another figure shot off toward the group.
The hunters widened their eyes as they saw a figure rush past them and right in front of the attacks aimed at one particular individual.
"No!" several people yelled.
All that several could see was a large splash of red before they heard a loud thump from something – or someone – hitting the ground.
The hunters, tennis players, and other spectators could only stare with wide eyes at the scene.
"Rose…" Ryoma whispered as he stared at the figure in front of him.
Silence reigned throughout the entire stadium.
"Murderers!" Ryoma yelled at startling everyone. "Murderers! You're all murderers!" he yelled out with tears at the corners of his eyes.
"I can't believe it…" several people whispered in the bleachers as they stared with tears in their eyes at the one on the ground.
"Rose…" several of the tennis players whispered with their hands over their mouths in shock and surprise.
"That dragon… actually saved him?" Aloc questioned staring at the girl on the ground.
"How is that possible? Dragons don't have a care for humans in the slightest," Meiling questioned back with a confused look on her face as she stared.
The dragon was on the ground in her human form with a look of pain on her face. Several weapons were stuck inside of her back as she lay crumpled up on the ground.
All five of the hunters had seen what happened. As soon as all five of them had thrown their weapons at the male partner, they noticed a light shine behind them. Before they could even turn around to check what had caused it, they saw something zoom past them right in front of the boy and his comrades.
They were shocked to say the least when they saw the dragon jump right in front of the weapons knowing that she would get extremely hurt. After all, who wouldn't get hurt after having several weapons thrown right at your back?
"Murderers! Murderers! You're all murderers!" they heard from the dragon's partner.
Looking up at the boy, they saw him with tears in his eyes that were threatening to fall down his face. This same expression was reflected in several other's faces as well as they turned away or covered their mouths with their hand to stifle their sobs if they were crying.
"Why are they so sad over something like her?" Tiaw said jumping down next to Shao as she prepared another set of darts for the human partner. "It's not like she was close to any of them."
Shao and Betaes kept quiet as they took in the spectators' reactions. They couldn't help but wonder the same thing. Why were they so sad over seeing this happen to her?
"Well we didn't get the partner," Tiaw commented with a small shrug before she drew her arms in an 'x' in front of her, "but we can definitely get him now."
Aloc and Shao just glanced at the male partner as the others readied their ranged weapons.
"Aim to kill," Shao whispered loud enough for his fellow hunters to hear.
"Roger that," Tiaw said with an evil grin on her face as she threw her arms forward at the same time as Betaes threw his daggers with Meiling releasing several bolts from her crossbow.
"Watch out!" Ryoma yelled jumping up and pushing everyone away before jumping up onto the bleachers.
The several weapons embedded themselves into the wall.
Ryoma, unfortunately, could not reach Rose in time to avoid another attack if they had chosen to do so, so instead, he decided to make sure that he drew that attacks away from his partner.
Running along the bleacher wall, Ryoma made sure to grab his scythe from the ground nearby before rushing all the way past the hunters to the other side of the stadium. "Try to kill me now you weak pansies," he yelled out trying to get their attention on him instead of his fallen partner.
"Oh you asked for it!" Tiaw yelled before turning around on her heel and dashing forward.
'I swear that she is the most violent,' Ryoma commented to himself as he raised the scythe up to allow the blade to cover his face from the darts. Twisting the scythe around, he narrowly blocked a sword about to pierce his side from behind him. "That was dangerous," Ryoma sighed out in relief as he swung the scythe again to knock Shao away from him.
Jumping up and twirling his body, he avoided the daggers being thrown his way. Swinging his scythe to make the butt of his weapon hit the ground, Ryoma balanced himself on the weapon and held his hands on the very top of the hilt, so he wouldn't cut his hands on it. Being upside down made his head hurt from the blood rushing to his head, but it gave him enough leverage to suddenly swing down, knocking the scythe outward, and swinging both himself and the scythe in opposite directions to knock both Meiling and Aloc away from him.
"Why did you call us murderers?" Shao asked with a blank expression on his face as he charged Ryoma once more.
"Because you killed her!" Ryoma snarled before blocking the incoming sword with the hilt of his scythe.
"So?" Betaes questioned this time. "She is a dragon, is she not?"
"Dragons are the creatures of hell. Hunters were created in the past to stop their rampages throughout the world," Meiling commented as she knew the hunter's story.
"Just because she is a dragon doesn't make her like the rest in your so called story!" Ryoma nearly yelled as he forced the hunters back. "You are just like those hunters from her past…"
"Excuse me?" Aloc questioned, raising an eyebrow as he readied his weapon and got into a defensive stance along with Shao. The other three would do the attacking for now until they switched positions in a bit.
"You are just like those hunters from centuries ago," Ryoma sneered while narrowing his eyes. "You don't care how hurt she's been. You just care about killing her."
"Her kind attacked the hunters first!" Tiaw yelled back, getting angry. She could not believe that this human would dare go against everything she and her fellow hunters believed in. "The dragons were the cause of the war! They attacked the hunters first! They themselves are the reason they are nearly extinct!"
"You are wrong!" several yelled out startling the combatants.
Everyone on the battlefield turned to see that several of the tennis players had tears about to fall from their eyes. "You are horribly wrong!"
"What are you talking about? You don't know the legend! Even if you did, you don't know the entire story like we hunters do!" Tiaw yelled while the other hunters relaxed their stances just a bit. It seemed as if Tiaw wouldn't stop talking long enough for an attack on the boy. It didn't look like the boy would move any time soon either as he kept glancing at Rose's body further ahead to his right and by the stands.
"How would you know the entire story either?" Gakuto yelled angrily. He and a few others had just about had enough of the hunters messing up Rose's and Ryoma's life.
"You weren't alive then whatsoever! How do you know the hunter's story is true?" Kirihara yelled. He could not believe that they would honestly think that Rose would be anything like the horrible creatures from their stupid little stories. After getting to know her, there was no way she could be like what the hunters said.
"If they were so cherished, why would only one be alive then?" Tiaw yelled back.
Betaes stepped in saying, "They are creatures of hell. Her," he pointed at Rose's body, "powers belong to that of a dragon. The same dragons that tried to massacre our kind. We defended against them for it was in our self-protection. Therefore, we shall eradicate all those that dare trample over the human race."
With that said, Tiaw, Betaes, and Meiling all slung or fired their weapons at the tennis players that dared stand up to defend the dragon.
"And since when were you named god?" a voice called out before something rushed over knocking away all of the weapons before they even hurt the players.
"What in the world?" Meiling questioned stepping back while loading another bolt in her crossbow and aiming.
She was about to fire along with Tiaw and Betaes until they all stopped and widened their eyes in surprise along with a few others.
"It can't be…" Betaes whispered lowering his arms to his side.
"But… those injuries!" Tiaw yelled with wide eyes as she stared.
"Rose!" Ryoma yelled out surprised before he jumped over the hunters and right beside her. "What are you doing? You shouldn't be moving!"
"I'm definitely not going to be able to move very well for the next month after this!" Rose yelled back clenching one eye shut in pain as she clenched her hands into fists. "God dang, I can't believe that freaking worked." (A/N: When did I say she was actually dead?)
"How are you even able to move, let alone stand?"
"I knew I was going to get hurt badly, I just didn't know to what extent. As soon as these weapons – would you pull them out already Ryoma – made contact, I forced my heart to create new blood as fast as it could as I was pouring every bit of my magic into my healing property as well as keeping my human form," Rose explained as Ryoma and a few others helped rip the weapons out of her body.
"Why don't you just transform into a dragon, so you can focus on healing?" Yukimura questioned as he pulled out another dart from her skin.
"Oh please," Rose scoffed. "My dragon form is bigger than my human form obviously. The moment I transform back, the more likely it is for these weapons to somehow get into my body instead of just piercing it like right n-OW!" she yelped as Ryoma pulled the last weapon out which happened to be a hooked dagger that curved to grab some extra flesh off of her.
"Sorry!" Ryoma said in surprise at her yelp. "I'll heal that."
"Don't unless you want me to have a major coughing fit," Rose said turning around and crouching with eyes glaring at the hunters in front of her. "I'm definitely not going to be able to move after this!" she yelled charging forward at the closest hunter who happened to be the spearman.
"Watch out Aloc!" Shao yelled out hoping to get the warning to him in time. He could only hope that the spearman could hold off the dragon in time as he charged forward with his own weapon.
Aloc raised the spear to block the girl only to be surprised as Rose just swerved around him and threw a fan. Looking behind him, he could only watch as the hunter behind him, Meiling, widened her eyes before the fan wrapped around her with a glinting wire attached.
The fan came back around and into Rose's hands as she tugged on the wire and threw the crossbow user to the ground, the wire digging into her skin and making small lacerations.
Releasing the wire from her fan, Rose had to jump back as Aloc swiped at her.
Taking another step forward, Aloc nearly slipped and fell as he stepped on something slippery. Looking down, he noticed that he was standing in a puddle of blood. As he followed the trail, he noticed that it was coming from the girl as she continued to hop around the area, avoiding attacks left and right. "What is that dragon thinking? Fighting like this…"
"Rose!" Ryoma yelled, throwing his scythe in a spiral at a hunter that was about to attack her from behind.
Tiaw, not expecting the attack from the human, could only raise her arms in defense against the twirling weapon as it struck her and pinned her by the shoulder.
"Now!" Ryoma yelled over to his partner.
"Right!" she yelled back, gripping one of her fans and snapping it in Tiaw's direction to unleash a full set of metal spokes which hit several pieces of Tiaw's armor, pinning her to the wall.
"Curse you and your dragon!" Tiaw yelled as she tried moving her hands to attack Ryoma when he went over to pry his scythe from her shoulder.
"Get back here!" Ryoma heard Rose yell as he turned around only to see Betaes rushing him. Gritting his teeth, he raised his scythe and parried all of the dagger swipes coming at his face.
"Just keep running, and she'll take care of the rest," Ryoma whispered to himself as he ducked under Betaes' arm and ran forward to avoid the sword coming at his legs. Turning around, he raised his scythe to block the spear aimed at him from the sky. "Or keep blocking. That'll work too."
Noticing a glint from the corner of his eyes, Ryoma pushed the scythe forward, knocking Aloc off his feet and into the wired fans spinning around him.
"The boy is heavy!" Rose commented as she tugged at the wires and swung her upper body in a half-circle.
"Aloc! Betaes!" Shao yelled as the girl was somehow able to drag Aloc across the field and make him crash into the dagger user. "Curses…" he sneered under his breath.
Turning to look at the dragon, he noticed her fall to her knees from the blood loss that she was experiencing. Her blood was practically pooling around her and giving off a black tint, signaling that some of it had dried.
"You're the last one," Ryoma commented, holding his scythe as he stood in front of Rose to defend her. "Any last words?"
"I would rather kill you and your dragon, but it seems that I cannot do so as hunters never work without their partners… Farewell hell creature," Shadow said, narrowed eyes glaring at them both before he threw a smoke bomb at the ground.
Several people coughed as the smoke cleared from the area. Ryoma sneered as he noticed that Shao and the four injured hunters were gone along with their weapons. The only thing that signified that they were even there to begin with was the marks of battle all over the field.
"My dear Onaylama this is going to hurt!"
Turning toward the source of the yell, everyone saw Rose fall onto her side as she breathed heavily from obvious pain.
"Rose!" Ryoma turned and kneeled next to her. "Are you alright?"
"Do I look alright to you?" Rose asked, looking at her partner with a raised eyebrow. Cuts marred her skin which would surely leave a few scars until they healed completely. Blood covered the floor she was laying in and was starting to make the remains of her torn clothes stick to the wounds on her body. In short… she looked like hell had run her over.
"You need some immediate rest," Ryoma commented picking her up from the ground and carrying her in his arms as he walked toward their teammates and friends.
Rose just gave a weak smile before looking up toward the sky as she said, "We won this battle… but we have not won this war just yet…"