Just as a reminder to everyone, sometimes evil people do evil things. So I would appreciate it if everybody would remember that while reading this chapter. Needless to say, both I and all of you do not approve of many things that evil people like to sometimes do. I said before that I am a realistic writer and the reality is that there are lots of evil in our world. Being a historian, I know this fact better than most and have included bits and pieces of some of them into my story to not only make it as realistic and relevant as possible, but to also help raise awareness about those issues since most people know nothing about them. No need to worry though, I do not plan to go overboard on that and will only insert it here and there if it happens to fit into the storyline. Thank you for continuing to read my story.

"The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing."

–Edmund Burke

The despicable assassin that Carl had hired to kill Kokoa's son, Takeshi, was barely foiled in her attempt to kill him in his crib and was herself killed thanks to Yukari's parents who were watching him at the time and the men that Fong-Fong had left as security at the house along with Takeshi's favorite playmate, Fong-Fong's giant panda, as per Tsukune's wishes since he had a bad feeling that someone might try to make an attempt on his and Kokoa's infant son's young life. Back at Takât Castle and after going through much suffering and hardships, Kokoa is brought out of the sealed space that Carl had thrown her inside by a maid that was sent by Fiammetta to fetch her. In the main hall she saw Fiammetta yelling at Carl with Jerk and Kahlua off to the side. After seeing what he had done to her, Fiammetta flew into a rage and slapped Carl around while continuing to yell at him for endangering her already fragile plans. Kahlua then interrupted her to ask how she was planning on pulling off her plans since there was no longer a head of the Shuzen Clan to make the exchange with her since the last head, her mother Gyokuro, had never selected an heir before her disappearance. Fiammetta then explained to her that since Kahlua was the oldest of Gyokuro's actual daughters, that she was the default heir and would willingly make the Blood Exchange with her whether she wanted to or not. After she explained her entire plan to them, a man wearing a white uniform burst into the room shouting that they were under attack.

Chapter 37: Airborne Assault

March 2, 2008

Takât Castle, a seaside Castle Tower

15 Minutes ago

The outer walls of Takât Castle were thick, around 10 feet or so, and obviously designed and built in an age when castles still played a large part in both warfare and keeping control of the commoners. The castle itself stood in the center of the outer walls with a sizable courtyard between it and the outer walls. In one of the castle towers built into the castle's outer wall, two dark-skinned guards wearing brown uniforms stand watch. They look all around the horizon as the dimming afternoon light glistens on the water's surface and one of them loudly sighs.

"This is so beneath us, Metin," one of them stated.

"I agree, Ufuk" Metin replies as he looks through his binos. "We are warriors of the mighty Saltik Vampire Clan and yet we are ordered to babysit these pale northerners?"

"They brought some of their own warriors; let them guard their own pasty asses. So why in the world do we have to watch them?"

"Politics, Ufuk, politics," Metin answers him with an irritated tone. "At least they put us in charge of the Vampire commoners and the other lesser species that our clan stationed here to guard them. The commoners obviously cannot possibly hope to equal nobles like us in any way, but they are still warriors that were trained by and are loyal to our clan and are part of the master race and are therefore superior to all other species on this miserable planet while the other lesser species here all make great cannon fodder."

"True enough," he replies and then sighs again. "I hope something happens to break the boredom, Metin. How in the world can we supposed to move up in the ranks and get stronger if we never get to see a battlefield? And why do we all have to wear these swords of all things? I use a long-handled Morning Star and nothing else."

"The swords are to make us look more dignified to our guests. As for the rest, you'll get your chance before long, we'll get our chance. The last Great War cannot be very much further off now. Even with our lack of truly powerful crossbreeds, we Vampires are not known for our patience. So the war will probably start within the next 20 years."

"20 Years? Are you kidding me! I can't wait 20 years for the rush of battle! I want to feel the heat of battle now! And I want my trusty Morning Star in my hands instead of this damn sword!"

Metin lowers his binos and looks at Ufuk.

"Then go out and dig up genie and make a wish for it!" he yells at him, irritated. "Just quit complaining about it! You are not the only one that thirsts for battle! Besides, that's just a guess. I doubt if even the council knows when it will start."

KAW!

They both turn to see a crow sitting on the edge of the tower, looking at them. They then see more crows flying around and past them while others are landing at their tower.

"Is this one of those migration things?" Ufuk asks.

Metin swatted at the crow and it disappeared into a cloud of dust, and before Metin could say another word…

BOOM!

…The tower blows up. They were both hit by Ruby's Denki Kurō Bakudan, setting off a chain of explosions along the nearby castle walls, forcing many of the guards patrolling on the walls to choose between getting hit by the explosions or jumping the 30 feet to the ground to avoid the explosions.

Still dazed from the explosions and their falls, the guards, all wearing brown uniforms, stagger to get up when…

SLICE! SLICE! SLICE!

…They are cut to pieces as a blue blur speeds past them.

A few miles away and now having seen the prearranged signal of Ruby's explosions, the Wong Family Jet races towards the castle out of the setting sun, flying at wave-top level to further avoid detection. As it nears the island and the castle, Ling-Ling pulls up and the plane starts climbing. Knowing that there was no place for the plane to land on that island, Fong-Fong and Ling-Ling had figured out and prepared another means of getting everyone on the island before they even left.

As the plane climbs up and over the castle wall, Tsukune, Moka, Yukari, Omote, and Mizore all jump out of the door. After they are clear of the plane, the ropes that they had hooked in the plane tightened, pulling their parachutes free, and they started floating down the two hundred feet into the ground with both of the "Flygirls," Ruby and Kurumu, covering them until they all hit the ground. [*1]

"Good luck everyone!" Ling-Ling tells them as she flies away.

"Thanks for your help, Ling-Ling," Tsukune replies on his PCD as they float down to the ground. "It looks like we caught them by surprise like we planned."

"Alright, we'll be waiting for you. Just make that you follow the plan and that everyone comes back."

"We will, no matter what we have to do or whatever we have to endure, we will all come back home without fail."

Ling-Ling smiles to herself, unable to think of any kind of a reply to Tsukune's deep and determined words. So she flies off as planned without another word being said.

2

Inside the castle

"What do you mean that we are under attack?" Fiammetta yells at him.

In the main hall, Fiammetta is visibly angered as she questions one of the few guards that she had brought with her from the Reinfeldt Clan.

"I saw two people flying around one of the walls and one of them was blowing things up while the other was cutting everyone down!"

She then quickly and angrily walks towards the noise outside, surprised and furious that someone actually had the nerve to challenge her and her plans.

They're here! Kokoa thought. They've come for me!

"Jerk, take Carl and lock up the brides in one of the towers," she tells him. "Then come outside and find me. If these intruders are still alive by the time you come out can have some fun with them too."

"As you wish, Aunt Fiammetta," he replies as she leaves.

"You heard your mom, little cousin, lock the girls up somewhere and come outside."

Jerk starts walking towards the doors that his aunt had just walked through.

"She told both of us to do this, Jerk."

Jerk turns around and walks backwards to face Carl as he spoke to him with a big smile on his face.

"And now I'm telling you to do it. I need get out there and hear someone scream before they're all dead. So I leave this task to you. Or can't you handle something as simple as that, 'mama's boy?"

Jerk turns back around and starts laughing as he leaves.

"Your name might mean Eric in the old tongue, but you really do live up to the modern English meaning instead," Carl grumbled under his breath.

He then grabs Kahlua by her elbow and leads her towards Kokoa.

"I'll lock you two up and hopefully I'll be able to get out there in time for some fun myself."

As he reaches for Kokoa, everything that he had said and done to her before flashes before her eyes and she lunges at him, going for his eyes with her nails. Carl then punches her in the nose, knocking her to the ground.

"Kokoa!" yells Kahlua.

"You shut up!" he yells at her.

Noticing that she wasn't getting back up, he kneels down and checks her.

"Hah, interesting… looks like she was running on pure adrenaline and willpower alone despite being both physically and mentally exhausted and now it's finally caught up to her, heh heh."

"You get away from her you monster!" Kahlua screams at him.

He squeezes her elbow harder and turns to her.

"Then you carry her!"

He throws her on top of the unconscious Kokoa. She then picks her up and carries her in her arms to the room that Carl leads her to and walks inside. Kahlua was back inside her room from before and she laid her out on the bed. Kokoa then weakly opens her eyes.

"Nee… san…?"

"Out of my way," Carl says as he pushes Kahlua aside and throws her to the ground.

"What are you doing to her?"

"As long as we're here and with everything that she had damaged earlier is now in fine working order, I'll I think that I'll give her an undeserved treat by giving her taste of high nobility," he proudly declares and drops his pants.

"Get your filthy hands off of her!" Kahlua tells, grabs him, and tries to pull him away from her.

"I've had enough of your backtalk and interference!"

He grabs the back of her neck, pushes her to the foot of the bed, takes a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket that he had been saving for Kokoa, handcuffs her to the tall bedpost, and walks back to Kokoa who is still lying helpless on the bed in a daze.

"I don't care about you," he gloats over Kokoa. "But I know that I am going to enjoy this."

CHOMP!

He then feels great pain down there like something had bit him, jumps back, and looks down to see something a foot long, brown, and slimy on him. He sees one of his own leeches sucking on his dick.

AAAAAHHHHHHH!

He screams in a way that he had never screamed in his life, runs to the door, and slams it on the leech several times until it finally lets go and drops to the ground.

Heh heh, Kokoa thinks to herself after she plopped back down onto the bed. I guess using my undershirt as a bag to catch that thing and hiding under my shirt paid off.

He kicks it out the doorway as hard as he can and turns around in a fury.

"You bitch!" he screams. "How dare you do this to me!"

"…Fuck… …that…" she weakly antagonized.

Enraged even further, he grabs something out of his clothes, clamps it onto Kokoa's wrist and then whispers something into her ear.

"What…?" she weakly replies. "No… no… that can't be… NOOOOO…! Agh…! Gaya…! Ngh…! AAAHHHHH!"

"Kokoa!" screams Kahlua.

She desperately calls to her little sister who is now jerking all around as if she was having a seizure, but she can't even hear her anymore. Kokoa starts to thrash around even more violently like nothing Kahlua has ever seen before. Kahlua then glares at Carl as he gets dressed.

"You… what did you do to her you son of a bitch! What did you do to her?"

He just looks back and smiles at her.

"I gave her a Devil's Bracelet." [*2]

"You what?" she screamed in disbelief.

Knowing what they did, the thought suddenly hits her.

"What did you tell her? What did you tell her to make her violently thrash around like that?"

"Ohh… nothing much," he casually replies. "I just told her about how I hired an assassin to kill her little abomination and how she kills her victims."

Kahlua gasps in horror.

"You're forcing her experience helplessly watching her baby boy being murdered right in front of her eyes over and over again?" she asks in complete disbelief. "How could you be that cruel? Why would you tell her that? Take it off of her right now you evil monster!"

SLAP!

He backhands and knocks her back to the floor.

"Why shouldn't I tell her that? It's true."

"It's what?" she asks him as a feeling of dread washes over her.

"You heard me," he plainly states. "It… is… true. By now it should be dead and slowly digesting in the pit of her stomach only to be later flushed down the toilet as it should've been in the first place."

Knowing that she was completely helpless and that there was nothing that she could do, Kahlua just sat there.

"You're the devil," she quietly tells him.

Carl turns around and leaves the room without another word being said. He then hurriedly walks to the nearest bathroom to get first-aid for his new wound. After he finishes, he makes his way towards the sounds of battle and one of his clan's servant's rushes up to him. He then relays Carl's mother's orders for him to go wait for his father who was due to arrive at the island's docks. He became angry over what was obviously part of her punishment for him. As angry as he was however, he knew better then to defy his mother. As powerful as he was, she was even more powerful and even more ruthless. He curses under his breath and angrily walks towards the docks as his mother told him to do.

3

The Castle Courtyard

Back in the rear courtyard behind the castle and near the outer walls, Tsukune, Moka, Omote, Mizore, and Yukari all touch down onto the ground and hurriedly take their parachute harnesses off. Mizore had taken care of a pair of men in brown uniforms that somehow got past Ruby and Kurumu with her Ice Kunai, despite feeling the lingering desert heat in her insulated full-body suit that she was wearing to help keep her cool in a region that can easily go beyond 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.

"Kill them!" a nearby guard in a brown uniform yells as he and several others emerge from a tower doorway and charge at them.

"Get going, Tsukune!" Yukari yells to him. "We'll handle them! Just stick to the plan, desu!"

Knowing that she was right but hating the idea of leaving her and the others, he grudgingly turns and runs towards the castle itself with Moka and Omote, leaving Yukari and Mizore to deal with the enemy troops. The plan was for the fast and ranged fighters (Kurumu, Ruby, Mizore, and Yukari) to distract, tie up, and wipe out as many of their enemies as possible outside in the courtyard while the hand-to-hand fighters (Tsukune, Moka, and Omote) run inside, find Kokoa, and get her out of there. At which point, everyone would pull back to the docks and hijack a boat to escape from the island. [*3]

"Stand back, Mizore! I'll take care of them, desu!"

Yukari throws a deck of tarot cards in the air and they start swirling around her.

"Let me read your fortunes for you!"

Her tarot cards rain down upon the enemy soldiers and hit their marks, cutting most of them down. One of them however throws her cards back with the wave from his aura from releasing it and charges forward, straight for Yukari. He draws his kilij and swings it at her from the side. [*4]

CLINK! SCRAPE!

Mizore had jumped in front of her and parried him with her Ice Claws and deflected his kilij. That also left him open and gave her a chance to counter-attack him. She slashes her Ice Claws at him with her other hand but he jumps back in time to avoid them. He then charges her and swings his sword at her. She parries swing after swing from him and slashes at him with her claws several times, but can't land a single hit on him.

What the hell kind of monster is this guy?

Mizore then gets a good look at his eyes.

"Yukari!" she calls out. "This guy's a Vampire!"

She glances back at Yukari just in time to see another warrior above her about to fall down right on top of her with his kilij drawn, ready to cut her in half and no time to warn nor save her. He swings his sword at her and…

CLINK!

…It hits Ruby's Steel Feathers that makes it just in time to protect Yukari. He lands on the ground and tries to rush around them to go after Yukari again, his sword at the ready. [*5]

"Yukari!" an anxious Ruby yells down from above her. "Look behind you!"

"I'm on it!" she shouts back as she whirls around and points her wand at him, sending her tarot cards at him and forces him to jump back from her. He then furiously yells at them.

"I'll kill all of you for what you did to Metin! I could only watch helplessly as he fell into sea below us, had his power drained from his body, and drowned! I, Ufuk of the mighty Saltik Vampire Clan, will avenge his death!"

His eyes burn a hot red as he charges at them again.

4

The Castle Rear Entrance

Near the castle, Tsukune, Moka, and Omote reach a large doorway with double doors and Tsukune hurriedly opens one of them. His eyes instantly widen in shock as he stops in his tracks and…

"Look out!"

…Calls out to the others, jumps onto the two girls, and they all fall to the ground as a stream of intense flames knocks both doors wide open and shoots out over them. From inside, a single woman casually walks towards them.

"I see that the little mice are quite lively and quick. I'm glad. It makes it all the more rewarding when I finally kill you because it's the lively ones that make the best screamers when they are slowly dying in sheer agony."

The three of them jump to their feet, not sure what to make of this woman.

"Who the hell are you?" Moka angrily shouts.

"Humph! You peasants all have such poor manners. It is customary to introduce yourselves first, especially after you've so rudely interrupted us after arriving unannounced."

"Like it was good manners to kidnap our precious little sister?" Omote passionately shouts.

"Your little sister?" she asks and stops.

Fiammetta then realizes who they had to be.

"Hehehe… I see now, you two are the two halves of Moka Shuzen that I've heard about. The original Moka somehow had her body split and gave half of it to her fake personality that was her guardian artifact spirit; such senseless sentimentality. You should've just thrown her away after you were done with her. But thanks to your weakness, you now only have roughly half the power that you used to have."

Omote is visibly struck by her harsh words. Before they even left Hong Kong, she was not sure whether or not it would be a good idea for her to even come since she thought of herself as the weakest out of everyone. She did not have Kurumu's or Mizore's abilities, Ruby's or Yukari's intelligence and spells, Kokoa's or Moka's strength and killer instinct, nor did she have Tsukune's steadfast resolve. She had been training with Moka a great deal and while she did get stronger, she was still nowhere near the others and that weighed greatly on her mind. Now, with everybody's lives on the line and a fearsome opponent like this woman facing them, she was even less sure of herself than ever.

Moka steps forward, throws her arm in front of Moka, and glares at Fiammetta.

"She is not a fake! She is my sister! And I will not forgive anyone who talks about her like that! Not even a senile old crone like you!"

Moka… Omote thinks, very touched by her words.

Fiammetta becomes enraged at Moka's declaration.

"Old crone, am I?"

She starts walking forward again.

"I am Fiammetta Reinfeldt, wife of the current head of the High Noble Reinfeldt Vampire Clan, and I will not be mocked!"

"Tsukune, Omote, go! I'll hold her off!"

"But Moka…" Omote tried to say.

"Go, damn it!" Moka angrily replies. "Remember why we're here!"

Hating to leave her behind and alone like that, Tsukune and Omote nevertheless knew what they had to do. So they both run away to find another entrance into the castle.

"I'll show you what an 'old crone' like me can do to someone with only half her strength, you disrespectful wench!"

Moka starts hopping up and down and stretches her limbs out.

"Then you're in for a real surprise, you old hag."

Even more enraged by both Moka's confident words and condescending actions, she fumes at her.

"I was considering the possibility of capturing you and making this a triple wedding with another member of our clan, but now I think I'll just kill you instead!"

To be continued…

Note #1: Since parachutes normally take up to several hundred feet to fully deploy, Fong-Fong gave them all a modified version that hooks a rope connecting it to the plane that would quickly pull them open and allow everyone to be dropped at low altitude and minimize the amount of time that they would have to spend helplessly floating down to the ground. This was a tactic widely used by all sides in World War II for these very reasons.

Note #2: Devil's Bracelet – As the name implies, it is a bracelet that only the devil himself would give to someone. It is a very old brand of bracelets with unknown origins designed to do only one thing: to make its wearer suffer. While locked onto someone's wrist, if the wearer thinks of a strong fear, it then forces its wearer to experience that fear coming true over and over in their mind until someone unlocks it with its key. If left alone, it will eventually wear down, damage or even destroy its wearer's mind.

Note #3: This is before Omote found her own fighting style.

Note #4: Kilij – A type of curved sword primarily used by Turkish cavalry since the early middle ages. Since it is designed primarily as a slashing weapon it is not very good at

stabbing.

Note #5: Steel Feathers – They are very simply Ruby's extensions from her wings that she usually uses for offense and can be very effective.

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