Madness Combat Extirpation

by RJC-316

In one reality, Dr. Christoff went AWOL and stopped Project Nexus before it could do any more damage. However, in another world, he failed. He died, shot to death, not long after pressing that button on that panel. But what if someone else was there? Who was always there, who adopted his ideals and form of justice? Years later, the story of that man was told.

1. Chapter 1

There are no words to express how sorry I am.

And you can tell by the number of words. The number of revisions, conflicting ideas, and other things made this extremely difficult to get out. And it's the first chapter! Not mention the number of words I have on this thing; and still, it's the first chapter!

I was gone for more than an entire year.

To be blunt I just got really lazy with a really bad dose of writer's block. Like a REALLY bad case on writer's block. It's right there in my other tabs, I want to click on it and start writing, but for some reason, I just can't. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I'm not the only one who has this problem.

A lot of other stuff has been going on with my personal life. Some of it's good, some of it's bad, especially with what's going on currently.

Got into a lot of games: Girls Frontline, Arknights, Phantasy Star Online 2, Code Vein, The Surge 2, Battle Cats, TF2 Classic.

Watched Transformers War for Cybertron Siege, which I enjoyed.

Still waiting for Project Nexus 2, Genshin Impact and Blue Protocol looks nice, and Mortal Shell looks good as well.

Still in college, but I managed to pass and I've been on break; which is why I'm finally getting around to doing this again.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, Kobe and Gigi dying (bless their souls), USA/Iran conflicts, Houston Astros caught cheating, George Floyd, Trump making things worse for everyone (not a hint of my political affiliation), white supremacists defacing black lives matter shrines, everyone thinking that Kim Jong-un was dead, a massive resurgence in Karens, and there was that big rainstorm that tore through New Jersey and left me without power as I was unfortunate to be caught in it; then came that explosion in Dubai, and now Kissanime and Kissmanga are down.

Yeah... So far, not a great year 2020, not a great year.

Seriously fuck COVID-19 and God knows what's going to happen the rest of this year.

But I'm with my family throughout all of this, so there is some silver lining.

And best of all, I finally got around watching and reading Jojo.

Speedwagon is best Jobro, though I wish he used his hat more often; seriously the man is the Krillin of Jojo. He's just there explaining all the badass shit going on; even in Eyes of Heaven, he was just, there. But hey that's why we love him.

Anyways I'm back, and I hope y'all are doing well during these turbulent times.

---

As usual, I don't own anything. I wish I did though, but I was born too late.

Graphic violence warning as this is a Madness Combat crossover, it's to be expected.

---

open/file_folder_RV_(01_ OF_ERROR)_

read/file_folder_RV_(01_OF_ERROR)_

WARNING: DAMAGED_(EXTENSIVE_DATA_CORRUPTION)_

run/repair:(file_01_OF_ERROR)_

System_reboot… 9%

System_reboot… 34%

System_reboot… 67%

System_reboot… 98%

System_reboot... fail

Trouble_shooting…

COMPLETE_

starting(CHAPTER I (ARRIVAL))

---

SOMEWHERE IN NEVADA

YEARS AGO...

---

The explosions of grenades roar and the sharp sounding blasts of gunshots ring out in metal hallways. Muffled screams that were filled with fear, desperation, and anguish could be heard as the source of those screams tried to get away from their oncoming fates; ripping meat and blood-curdling shrieks of pain were audible as they slowly started to fade.

Yet it all seemed so far, so very far away.

Two men are in a room.

One of them is a man in his middle years of age; light skin, black goatee with long hair, and a pair of black glasses on his face.

He was dying, lying back against the side of one of the walls while clutching the numerous bullet wounds on his gut with one of his hands. He knew that it wouldn't do anything, but it bought him at least a little time.

The other, in stark contrast to the middle-aged man, was a young man. He looked to be in his late teens to early twenties. His skin was lightly tan, he had black hair, and had black eyes. The young man was on both knees, kneeling beside his dying senior.

The old man coughed, blood came out from his mouth.

Using his free hand painfully reaches over his side to grab a couple of items. Turning his body just enough, or at the very least until the pain made him fall back down, he reaches over and gives the young man a couple of items. The items consisted of a small key and a grey PPK, a German pocket pistol.

The young man looked at the two items in his hands, confused, but regardless he kept the key in his pocket and set down the gun on the ground.

Both men look at the metal door at the opposite end of the room; it was silent now, the gunshots have stopped but they soon replaced with growling. They could hear scraping from the outside and then banging. They were trying to get in.

The two men look at each other, they both knew that there wasn't much time left, and the same could be said for the old man on the ground.

He coughs again, and more blood seeped out of his mouth, riding down his black beard. The young man sees the old man reaching out to him. He grabs his hand tightly as the old man leans forward, with the young man doing the same. He whispers something in the boy's right ear before pulling back, so does he. The young man nods his head, now knowing what to do.

The old man manages to give a small smile at the young man, but it's soon replaced by a look of pain. The young man closes his eyes, and waits with the old man who does the same; they never let go of each other.

Time goes, and through the banging and scraping that was getting louder by the second, through the painful anticipation, and despite the young man inwardly wishing that he did not want to, he slowly opened his eyes when the felt the old man's hand go limp.

The red sky shines its light on the both of them through the glass window the old man was lying against.

The young man gently lowers his elder's hand on the ground. Reaching over to one of the old man's pockets, he pulls out a black rosary.

He takes both of the old man's hands with the same gentle care and folded them together, with the rosary in between them, lay them on top of his bullet-riddled stomach. With a deep and hard breath, the young man got down on both of his knees and closed his eyes. The banging was getting louder, and he could hear the metal door dent and creak. But during this the young man remained unfazed, he had to mourn and not even the impending threat that was coming did not bother him.

The metal door finally broke, falling with a loud slam on the ground, but still, the young man remained unfazed.

The growling could be heard more clearly as he got up on his feet, picking up the PPK with his left hand and then placing it in his right. He gripped the gun, his finger hear the trigger.

He turned his head towards them.

From the shadows of the open door, a blood-soaked, green hand gripped the metal door frame. Red dripped down its blood-soaked fingers as small bits flesh fell out from its nails. The green-skinned, blood-soaked, torn clothed monsters that they were, their skin was ripped from random points on their bodies, exposing their muscle and veins underneath. Blood dripped from their open maws along with big chunks of flesh that were caught in their teeth, most likely from a person that they had consumed earlier.

These monsters, these former humans, Zombies as they are now called, were still hungry.

They were hungry for his flesh, despite eating a few people just recently and being drenched in the blood and smell that it came with, their hunger could not be satisfied. Something within their dead minds made them drawn to this room, and they found it: more meat. Now they were ripe for seconds, but they weren't just after the flesh of the young man.

Their gazes went over to the corpse behind him, they growled as saliva mixed with flesh and blood dripped down and hit the floor with a disgusting splat. They roared, shambling their way towards the young man.

Turning to face them, the young man pointed his gun at them. He fired, shooting at the closest one. The first couple of bullets hit the first zombie hit the head, they penetrated the skin and broke through the jawline. Still, the Zed kept going despite having two giant holes in its mouth. He pointed at its knees and fired, taking both out and forcing the zombie to the floor. He then took two steps forward and fired at the monster in the scalp which killed it.

Another zombie stepped over and lunged at the young man. He stepped to the right, narrowly avoiding getting grabbed. He then grabbed the zombie in return by the right side of its neck. He pushed the monster into the wall, he pointed his PPK up against the zombie's jaw. He turned his head away while keeping his left eye open while closing the right and fired; blood and clunks splattered up, creating a red mess against the wall and bits on the ceiling.

The bullet had gone through the jaw and left eyeball, completely missing the brain. Its right arm was raised and came down but it was blocked by the young man's arm, still holding tightly onto the monster's neck.

Again, he fired two more times into the same hole he made, turning his gun a bit more so that it would hit the brain. The bullets went straight up and broke through the skull, sending a small rain of blood on the top of the young man. This time it did die, and its body went limp which made the young man let go, allowing the corpse to slide down the wall.

He turned around to face another zombie shambling towards him followed a couple more. He slowly walked back and pointed again at the closest one. He fired at the monster, hitting it dead on in the forehead, creating a big hole in the back like before and it fell to the ground, dead. He looked at how many he had killed on the ground and found that he only managed to kill three of the zombies, and there were three more left.

He pointed his gun again at the next one and pulled the trigger.

Until the slide of his gun clicked back.

His eyes widened in realization as he looked at the gun in his hands.

The gun only had five bullets in it, not ten.

"Oh shit." He lifted his head at the oncoming zombies, he narrowed his eyes. "To hell with it." He cocked his arm back to throw the PPK at the closest Zed that was approaching, but realized he could still use the gun even if it was empty. It was hard and heavy and it was a good blunt weapon that he could use against them. After all, it was the only weapon he had aside from his bare fists. He could use his fists to beat them to death, but that was suicide and he could risk getting bit.

With only one option left, he did what any desperate man would do. He grabbed the PPK by the opposite end, by the barrel. He ran at the first zombie, swinging the blunt weapon at the monster horizontally at the jaw, which made a combination of blood, flesh, and teeth fly out to the right. It splattered onto the wall like an abstract painting while the zombie, its head still turned to the right, went down in a pool of blood that was a mixture of its own and most likely someone else's.

The next zombie threw both of its claws at the young man. He dropped the PPK and using both of his hands caught the zombie's wrists.

Despite this, the zombie reached forward with its head and its mouth open. The young man cringed at the horrid smelling mixture of saliva and iron. He moved his head to avoid the zombie's attempts at biting his head off while trying to move away from the other zombie that was still close by.

Still holding onto the wrists of the creature he swung the zombie into the wall to his left. The zed crashed face-first into the wall, dazed, but this didn't stop it. It stepped back, and before it could turn its head, the young man grabbed it by the back of the head and slammed it into the wall. The young man slammed the creature's head into the wall again, and again, and again until the wall started to have cracks in it and until blood started to soak those cracks.

But still, he kept going.

He kept going, making cracked indentation into the wall, while unintentionally painting that indentation and the area around it with splatters of red. Bits of flesh and skull hit him in the face from the force of the final slam. The zombie slid down the wall, falling to the right, leaving behind a trail of blood on the wall in the shape of a crescent.

The young man felt two claws grab onto him from behind. He didn't need to turn his head to look at the incoming zombie head that was behind his right shoulder. He elbowed the zombie in the face which made it stumble back, but it didn't stop it. He elbowed the zombie again, this time it knocked the monster to the ground on it's back but it was only a matter of seconds before it got up again.

He looked down and found the empty PPK. When the zombie started to get back up the young man kicked it back down at its mouth, knocking out a couple of teeth.

He got on top of the Zed and started to whip it with the PPK. He slammed the empty pistol into the zombie's face down like a hammer. He broke the monster's nose the first couple of swings and crushed both of its eyes on the next couple.

The zombie went limp, signifying that it was permanently dead, but he didn't stop. The young man kept slamming into the zombie as he heard the crunching of the skull. The handle of the gun was drenched in a disgusting mix of saliva, blood, eye fluid, and meat. He kept slamming the PPK into the zombie's head over and over again. Blood and flesh went flying while the former started to leak out of the zombie's head.

Still, despite the zombie being more than dead, and its face being a pulpy bloody mess, he kept hitting, slamming, and smashing with his gun.

Eventually didn't even use the PPK to hit the zombie's head anymore, he was using his bare hands.

He kept hitting and hitting to the point where he didn't care about the blood that was gushing going into his face or the fact that the blood was drenching his shirt and pants. He didn't seem to care about the flesh and skin that was ripping and tearing, the pain that was slowly crawling in his hand's hand fingers, or crunching of bone, he just kept going.

He kept going and kept going.

He kept going until his momentum started to slow, punches started to weaken and his breathing started to become heavy.

He finally stopped as his stamina had been exhausted.

He barely had enough strength to get up to his feet as his legs trembled and shook. The young man breathed deeply and looked up. He was in a daze, breathing heavily as he looked up at the grey concrete ceiling. Turning around he looked at the doorway. He couldn't hear any zombies, only silence. He tried to go through it, but he didn't get far, only going for a couple of steps past one of the zombies he had killed earlier.

He slipped and fell forwards into a pool of blood.

Though the pain, disgust, and exertion, the young man pushed himself off from the pool. He got up to his knees until he noticed something.

His right arm was shaking, and looking further downwards he noticed both of his arms were shaking.

A strange feeling came from his stomach and he started to feel sick. He wasn't sure if it was from the fact he went face-first into a pool of zombie blood, or the fact he could barely catch his breath or both, he just felt sick. He gagged and tried to throw up but there was hardly anything in his stomach, save for a couple of digested chunks of meat and soggy bread from the hot dog he ate earlier. A majority of what came out though were globs of saliva and stomach acid. His face was flushed red, and not from the blood. He felt hot, saliva dripped from his mouth, and his eyes were red and watery.

He tried to calm down, but he couldn't, and he started to clench his chest as if that would do something. The young man breathed hard alongside his heart and swore he could feel it beating out of his chest.

His eyelids and teeth were clenched hard.

Tears had started to roll down his cheeks, he could taste their saltiness when they touched his mouth.

He breathed in deeply, then he screamed.

His scream rang throughout the empty room, filled with nothing but the dead, and him.

Though it was a single scream, it was a long one.

It conveyed so much of the anguish and pain that the young man was feeling inside of him.

From the loss of the older man to the pain that was in his hands.

He couldn't think of anything but the searing pain that he felt everywhere.

He couldn't think about anything but the pain.

Pain.

Then there was silence.

It was the kind of silence that would come after a great battle, catastrophe, or slaughter that left behind only death and ruins.

He was completely alone, and there was nothing left alive here except for him.

The young man was so consumed in his feelings of helplessness and misery that he didn't see it coming.

A white bolt of energy burst out from the ground, and it entered the young man by his right temple. He screamed as he felt a massive wave of pain in his head. He was too focused on the pain on the right he did not notice another bolt of white energy coming from the left. The energy circled above him like a ring above his head, before diving straight into his left temple.

The pain became too much for him that he fell on his back.

Bits of the ceiling was coming down onto him. He managed to fight through the pain for a moment to watch bits of concrete fall on top of him, followed by another white bolt of electricity burst through the concrete ceiling.

The bolt of lightning went straight into the young man's forehead. He screamed even louder in agony as it felt like shards of glass being stabbed into his very brain.

He thrashed randomly on the cold concrete floor, holding tightly to his head and clenching his teeth and eyes tightly.

He was banging his head against the floor, which made his pain even worse.

He had no control.

In his convulsion, he turned himself onto his stomach. Again a large bolt of white energy stabbed the young man in the back.

The young man didn't get the chance to scream again when the energy pierced his skin and enter his spine.

The white bolt of electricity continuously hit him and lifted him in the air.

The white lightning covered his entire body and he glowed brightly.

He floated upwards, lifting not just him, but the bodies of the zombies he had killed and even their blood.

They were all suspended in the air until he was slowly being lowered back on the ground. When his feet touched the ground he stepped forwards and smashed his fist into the floor. At that exact moment, he punched the concrete the energy dissipated.

He stood up, his strength had returned to him, and his breathing and heart rate had become normal again.

He looked at his hands and then his whole body and saw that they were cleansed from the blood. There was not a drop of blood on him or on the clothes that he wore. There were no dried tear streaks on his face, sweat, or dirt on him either. He not only looked better, but he also felt better mentally. All emotions of pain, misery, and despair were gone. His arms had stopped shaking and he didn't feel sick anymore. He was clean as a fiddle. He looked and felt brand new.

He felt... stronger...

The young man found this out when he looked down the hole in the ground.

He had punched a hole into the ground, it was at least three inches deep.

He opened and closed his fists, feeling his newly acquired strength course through him. He turned his hand over and looked at the white energy dancing around his fingertips.

He would be lying if he said that it didn't feel good.

The young man lowered his hand and looked towards the open door, he remembered his mission.

Despite now having the power to continue, he couldn't go just yet.

He looked back at the corpse of the old man.

Despite the fighting that had just taken place, the man's body had continued to lie there, lifeless, but peacefully.

The young man walked over to him and knelt next to him, right in the same place where he was earlier. The young man sighed, reaching over and lifting the old man's body. He embraced the old man one last time, he stood up and gave one last respectful bow to the man who took him in and taught him everything.

The young man walked out of the room to continue his journey, his mission. He tried to avoid the blood that the dead Zeds were secreting, but he couldn't and so he had to go through the puddles anyways.

He sighed a bit, as he just got them cleaned.

But cleanliness was the least of his worries, he had a feeling his clothes were going to stain again soon enough.

---

SOMEWHERE IN JAPAN

YEARS LATER...

---

Tsukune Aono was a bit worried as he walked to the bus stop, tugging at the collar of his school uniform trough the mid-spring heat.

It was hot today, the sunlight was beating down on his eyes as he trudged through the heat while occasionally wiping the large amounts sweat off of his brow.

Tsukune was your average teenager who just got out of middle school, and was about to attend his first day of high school. Right now he was just walking to the closest bus stop that would take him there.

What set him apart from others around his age was that, unlike his peers and other friends, he didn't pass the entrance exam to get into high school or any of them for that matter. No, he didn't pass any of them. Even for the schools that would make him study abroad, he failed those as well, he was that bad and he was ashamed to admit that.

So while his friends moved on without him, he was left behind, and admittedly he was a bit screwed, and was education was equally so.

Thankfully, while wandering the streets a couple of weeks ago, his father came across a flier for another high school: Youkai Academy.

To the young sixteen years old this was a lucky break for him that came out of nowhere. In his father's case, it kind of did, it just blew into his face when he stumbled into an alley, though he had left out the part that he did so slightly inebriated on his way home from work.

Though, when Tsukune saw the flier himself it seemed sketchy. He hadn't heard of that school before, let alone found it online or anywhere else when searching for a high school to enroll in. In the end, and despite his worries of the mystery academy, he was enrolled by his parents as a last-ditch effort to secure his education.

He really couldn't blame them for doing so, they were desperate and so was he, though he didn't show it.

The only problem was that he had to go away, not out of the country, but someplace far from where he lived. He had no problems with that, better than not doing anything his whole life. After signing the paperwork that came into the mail, getting his measurements for his uniform, packing his bags, and saying goodbye to his parents and cousin he was ready to go. The last obstacle he had to overcome was walking through eighty-seven degrees heat in a long-sleeved uniform, and not miss the bus that would bring him there.

No big deal, he hoped.

After crossing the street he started to walk down the sidewalk, just a few more crossings and he would be there. He walked for a while, just thinking about what the future had in store for him. He wondered what it would be like, studying and living away from his home town. Granted he has stayed away from home for periods, kind of like when his class went on a trip to Kyoto for a week, but this was on a whole different level.

His thoughts went back to his friends back in middle school. He wondered if they would remember him if they ever saw each other again, who knows, he could find a whole new group of friends and end up forgetting his old ones. It made the sixteen-year-old a bit sad, how he'll eventually grow apart from them. Sure, he was close with some of them, and he could probably meet and hang out with each other outside of school, but it wouldn't be the same, and that was also adding in the factor of being apart for long periods which made growing apart from each other a high possibility.

Still, he couldn't be mired in the past for long, let alone let any other worries drag him down. He needed to look on the brighter side, he was starting new at a new school, meet a whole lot of different people, see some new things, and just maybe enjoy his time away. All he could do is press forward and hope for the best.

For his sake and his family's.

Tsukune was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard sirens behind him. They were getting louder, in which he turned around. Two police cars passed by him in which they made a turn to the right, not long after another police car alongside an ambulance came from behind and went the same way as the previous cars.

Tsukune didn't think of it much, he just kept walking.

When he came across the street where the cops went through, he started to get curious.

He looked down the street and to his surprise he could still see them, they were surrounding a large office building. His curiosity growing, he wanted to go over to see what was going on. He pulled down his sleeve and looked at the time on his watch, he still had plenty of time to get to the bus stop. If he recalled the next bus stop was three or five more blocks away. At the insistence of his mother, he left forty-five minutes early, though that was because the nearest bus stop was far from where he was. Now he had sixteen minutes to get to the bus stop.

Still, he could spare some time and see what was going on.

Which is what he did.

He went down the sidewalk towards the cops. The whole street was darkened because there were a few large high rises across from where he was that gave off large shadows that blanketed the other buildings. He was nearing the police squad when he noticed that they were surrounding a building. When he got closer he saw that one of the windows, right above the entrance door to the building, was broken and noticed that something was dripping from it.

It went down the wall, almost down to the concrete.

'Is that... blood?!' He was now more curious, but while at the same time a very unnerved. Apart from he wanted to get out of there and go back to the main road, but at the same time, there was also a part of him that wanted to know what was going on.

He took a deep breath and jogged over there, he hoped that he wasn't going to regret this. When he arrived he found that he wasn't the only one there. Slightly over a dozen people were being held back by the numerous police officers there who were trying to look over one another to see what was going on.

"Please leave! This is a crime scene!"

"Vacate the street at once!"

Tsukune moved to pass the people and soon found himself in the front row, right in front of one of the blocking officers. He tried to look over the arms of the said officer and could see, though a bit far away, a black limousine. The vehicle was shot up, bullet holes, and scratched littered almost the entire car. The tires were deflated, the windows were broken, and one of the doors was left open. On the interior of said door was a large splatter of blood, dripping down onto the pavement alongside some red chunks. Looking to the left a bit, two people were carrying out a body bag.

Tsukune began to shake and sweat a bit, and it wasn't just from the heat.

This unnerved him, as he hadn't seen a dead body before and didn't plan on seeing one, let alone the grizzly aftermath of whatever went down here. He was grateful that they were in those things so he didn't have to.

He was already starting to regret this little sidetrack.

Tsukune backed away, moving past all the people again, and started moving back out onto the main road.

Sighing and wiping his brow of sweat he checked his watch, only a couple of minutes passed.

He had only about eleven or twelve minutes to get to the bus stop, and that was counting if it arrived late or not.

He looked back at the crime scene behind him and his mind drifted back at the car he saw, he could just imagine what the bodies looked like. Given that he saw those red chunks all over, it wasn't pretty, and it was a disturbing thing to think about.

Still, that didn't matter at the moment. He had a bus stop to get to, he can think about what happened here at some other time.

A few minutes later, after crossing a few more roads, and waiting at a few stoplights he had finally arrived at the bus stop.

Well, almost there.

He could see it nearby, in front of a sakura tree. The bus sign that was next to it was a great indicator. The stop itself was near the edge of a cliff that was guarded by rails. Said cliff was tall enough to give overlooking a view of the rest of the buildings below it and the coast that wasn't far beyond. The bright sun that made the water sparkle, combined with the pink petals gliding in the wind made this place kind of beautiful. He stood there for a moment, absorbing the scenery. He knew that was probably the last time he would see this in a while, so best to enjoy it while he still could.

Eventually, he resumed walking down the sidewalk, down the incline, heading towards the green painted shade that covered the benches.

As he walked over he noticed that someone was also there, sitting next to one of the metal posts.

He, like Tsukune, was wearing the male Youkai Academy school uniform: white dress shirt, red tie, green blazer, and brown dress pants. Though unlike Tsukune he was wearing white sneakers, whereas Tsukune was wearing brown dress shoes. As Tsukune was getting closer he got a better look at the person. He had short black hair, slightly tanned skin, and looked like he was around his age. He was wearing what looked like black glasses, which he assumed was for the sunlight and had headphones on that were connected to a small disc player.

'Maybe I should talk to him.' Tsukune thought. Who knows, he might end up running into the guy in the future. Granted it was a small possibility, but there was a chance. "Hey, excuse me?" The young man didn't answer. "Excuse me?" He tried again, taking a step forward, even waving his hand despite not being positioned in a spot for the young man to see. "Hello?"

This time the young man finally noticed him. He took his disc player and hit the pause button, though his headphones were still lodged in his ears. He turned his head and body to look at him. "Yes?" His voice sounded slightly deep compared to Tsukune's, but not deep enough to make it seem as if he were older than he looked. "Can I help you?"

"Uh, sorry to bother you." Tsukune started, giving an awkward laugh. "But I noticed you're wearing the same uniform as me. Are you attending Youkai Academy too?"

At Tsukune's question, the young man turned his head downwards, looking at his uniform, then looked at Tsukune's. "It's very obvious, don't you think?"

"I guess so." Again, Tsukune gave an awkward laugh followed by a smile that was equally as awkward. "Are you a first-year? Like me?"

"Yes, I am." The young man nodded to him, and Tsukune offered him one of his hands. "My name is Tsukune Aono, what's yours?"

"Russell. Russell J. Christoff." He introduced himself, taking Tsukune's hand and shaking it.

'Russell? That's a strange name.' Tsukune thought as he pulled back his hand. 'Maybe he's a foreigner?' He's never seen someone that came outside of Japan, so he really couldn't tell whether or not he was one.

Tsukune checked his watch again, it was a couple of minutes before his bus would arrive, or maybe more, he didn't know. Well, their bus, now that he thought about it.

He walked around Russell and sat in the open area next to him. Relaxing a bit on the bench, he looked at his fellow freshman. He was hunched over, his hands clasped together in between his legs. Tsukune looked in the direction Russell was looking at, the same view that he was observing a few minutes ago.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Tsukune looked at Russell who was looking at him. He saw that he was also soaking it all in.

"Yeah..." He nodded with a smile. Russell also nodded before looking back at the view "So Russell, why are you attending Youkai Academy?"

He got out of his hunched position and relaxed against the bench, his hands still folded were now resting right above his waist. "Same as you, graduated, continuing my education... You?"

"Same as you." Well sorta, he didn't want to tell him that he was attending this school because it was the only one left that would accept him and his embarrassingly low average grades. He gave a small, nervous laugh that made Russell look at him. "N-Nothing!" He waved his hands in front of him. "Say, Russell are you a foreigner?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just that I've never really seen someone from outside the country, so I can't tell let alone say..."

"It's alright." He reassured him. "I was born in the states, U.S.A if you can't tell what I mean. My parents were actually from the Philippines but they moved to America to give me a better life." He looked over at Tsukune and asked. "Do you know how long until the bus gets here? You just got here, but I've been here for thirty minutes now." Thankfully for Russell, he had his CD player to keep him occupied for the time, but that still didn't help him from the heat, even with the shade the bus stop gave. There was the occasional strong breeze, but that was about it. Since then he's been sweating like a hog, though that was a bit of an exaggeration.

Tsukune pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch. Russell leaned over, noticing this, he turned his wrist towards him so he could also see. "Less than three minutes." He shrugged while going back to his spot. Russell looked down at his CD player, tapping on the top of the cover. "Say, Tsukune."

"What is it?"

"Out of curiosity," Though he'll admit, it was mostly just to kill time. "did you grow up here? Like around this general area?"

"Yeah, my whole life. Lived with my parents and my cousin, Kyoko." Tsukune answered. He smiled a bit remembering the proud looks from his family, while at the same time he felt sad as he wasn't going to see them again until the school year ended. Maybe he could mail them at a later point when he got there. "My house is kinda far from here, had to walk a bit to get here. I even saw a crime scene a few blocks back." He pointed back at the way he came from. Russell glanced over to where he was pointing.

"Oh, that one? Yeah, I saw it too."

"It was kind of scary being there, to see something like that up close let alone the aftermath of it." Tsukune shivered as the memory of that shot up care resurfaced along with the blood and guts. "I wonder what happened over there, I didn't think to ask anyone. I just wanted to get out there."

"I know what happened," Russell said, making Tsukune look at him surprised.

"You do? Can you tell me?"

Russell sat up and motioned Tsukune to come closer, which he did. "Let me ask you: do you know about the Yakuza?"

"Th-The Yakuza?!" He almost yelled out but Russell hushed him. Even though there were at an open area he didn't want to let anyone hear them. Granted when you're talking about gang-related stuff, even if they're rumors you don't want anyone hearing about it. Still, Russell could tell that by his reaction Tsukune did know about the Yakuza or at the very least knew who they were or what they were about, which saved him some time explaining this to him.

In short, the Yakuza are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. There was a lot more to explain, such as the hierarchy that they used, but that was the gist of it.

The very mention of the Yakuza made Tsukune more curious than before. He leaned in closer towards Russell, intent on learning more.

"Yes, the Yakuza. That office building that you saw on the way over here? That building belonged to the Kyorei Clan." He explained. "You know who the Kyorei Clan are, right?"

"N-No, I'm afraid I don't."

"Can't blame you, they're new." He said, waving it off. "Anyways like I said that building belonged to one of their captains." He gestured Tsukune to get closer, which he did. "Get this, someone, I don't know who, stormed the building a couple of nights ago, and killed everyone inside."

"W-What?!" Again, he almost yelled and this time he almost got up from his seat, but he was pulled back down before he could.

"Will you calm down? But really, someone raided the building. An eye-witness said that he saw someone walk up to the captain as he stepped out of his limo, and then gunned him down with a TMP submachine rifle." He slowly pulled back with Tsukune doing the same. "After that, the man went on a rampage and slaughtered member in the building; big brothers, little brothers, even the secretaries at the front. There were no survivors. By the time the police arrived all the money that the clan had stored there was taken, and the drugs that they stored there as well, were destroyed."

"Drugs?"

"Yeah, I think it was methamphetamine. You know what that is right?" He asked Tsukune.

"Y-Yeah." He nodded. Tsukune kind of knew what it was, but only by name on the news, with some slight mentions of it in the history books on kamikaze pilots who took it on their doomed flights in World War II; but he knew, like almost all drugs, were extremely destructive. Tsukune was at the local library when the thought came to his mind.

He was studying for a science exam, which he failed.

He searched the internet via computers there; the pictures he saw, were horrible. There were worse pictures, worst drugs, and worse effects, but he was lucky enough to stop himself from searching any further.

"Well, as I said, all of it was destroyed by the time the police got there."

"Destroyed, how?"

"With lye apparently, it was all over the place when the cops searched the house. Whoever did it dumped it on top of the open drugs." Russell moved his body over again so that he was facing him. "Do you know what lye does to a body?" Tsukune shook his head, he wasn't starting to like where this was going. "Well you're better off not knowing then, but in short: it just ate away at their skin, and-"

"Okay okay! That's enough!" He stammered. "I've heard enough Russell, thanks!"

Russell raised both of his hands and stopped talking.

"But... wait... do you know who it was?" Russell looked at him again. "The one who did it?"

"No clue." he shrugged. "No one knows who did it, or why. Some cops are thinking that it's a clan war, or maybe it was a hitman, but who knows."

"Wow..." Tsukune whispered. "But, how do you know all of this?"

"I just overheard it by one of the detectives that were there when I stopped by to look." He explained while jabbing his right thumb back in the general direction of where the crime scene was. "But you didn't hear it from me." He gave Tsukune a look, and despite the shades that he wore that made his expression a bit hard to read, he understood it.

The bullet holes and blood now made a whole lot of sense. The images of the blood splatters and the body bags were still fresh in Tsukune's head and it still gave him shivers up his spine. Granted he would admit feeling a bit stupid feeling this way, it wasn't like he was there to witness what happened first hand.

He barely saw anything, well, if you counted a blood-soaked car door with meat chunks falling out and a few covered body bags.

In his defense, he was still technically a kid and has never seen anything like that in person instead of on the news, or in those video games that he would play in the arcade with his friends. Still, seeing all that was enough to frighten the young man a bit for a while, and with the grizzly account that his fellow freshman gave, he hopes that he'll eventually forget about in the next couple of days.

"If they asked me, they deserved it." Tsukune looked at him. Russell was sitting back against the bench, arms out, and resting on top of the backrest. "I mean, keep in mind they're mafia members. What do you think they do? Karma was bound to get the eventually for what they've done."

"I... uh..." Tsukune looked away. Though he couldn't help but feel that they kind of deserved it though. He, like everyone else, knew that the Yakuza and their clans weren't good people.

Sure they might have put off legitimate businesses and spearheaded relief efforts; like for that hurricane that happened two years ago, and that devastating earthquake that hit Suita. But a smart person would know that these guys weren't saints. They dabbled in underground gambling, prostitution, drug trafficking, racketeering, you name it.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder what happened back there, was it a gang war or something?

Now that he had thought about it, this wasn't the first time that happened. There were a lot of accidents like this one, and Kyoko offered to walk with him to the bus stop, both for the company and added protection, though he declined.

He remembered watching the news with Kyoko a few times, the anchorman talked about numerous killings happening all across the city all of which were related to the Yakuza in some way. And it wasn't just the Kyorei Clan, other clans were killed as well.

If he remembered the buildings or places that the clan members were killed at were fronts that hid their illegal activities or at least some of them. Said buildings were high-end ones like the one he had passed earlier, and inside the police found evidence of their crimes; consisting of extortion, illegal gambling, whore houses, and drug peddling. It made both him and his cousin disgusted when they showed it all on TV.

Granted they had never seen the dead bodies itself, just all the drugs, money, and the prostitutes that had their faces blurred out to protect their identities.

Though he could just imagine what the bodies were like, and he sort of got a taste back there at that high-rise.

The Yakuza and their clans, like the Kyorei Clan, were not good people.

Sure they had it coming, and there was still a part of Tsukune still felt that they didn't deserve it, but what did he know?

He was still fresh out of middle school, he still had that innocent idealism that they all had.

Tsukune had mixed thoughts, and he couldn't help but look at the glasses-wearing student.

There was something about him that he couldn't place.

Tsukune would think that he was joking around with him, but for some reason, he couldn't explain why but Russell sounded completely genuine.

He sounded as if what he said to him was the absolute truth. It was almost if Russell was the one that stumbled upon that crime scene before the cops had.

He just believed him.

Also, he found it a bit weird how relaxed he was talking about the whole ordeal as if it were nothing.

Did he just not care?

"Oh hey, the bus is here." Russell pointed down the road. When Tsukune turned, he stuck his head out of the shade of the bus stop. He put a hand over his eyes to block out the sunlight; sure enough, it was there. It was a large, yellow-painted bus coming down the main road and it was starting to slow down. Both Tsukune and Russell both got up from the bench as the bus was nearing the sidewalk to pick them up. Russell stuffed his disc player in the internal pocket of his blazer while Tsukune grabbed onto his case.

"Um, hey Russell? Where's your bag?" Tsukune asked.

"Right here." From the other side of the bench, he pulled out a not a small case like the one Tsukune was holding, but rather a large grey duffel bag.

"That's your bag?!"

"Yep." The bag itself could be worn on a person's back or could be carried normally with their hands. After putting the straps around him he had to lean his head forward a bit when the side of the bag that was above him dipped forwards and hit the back of his head since the bag had a length that was longer than it's owners height. Russell could immediately tell Tsukune was looking at him strangely. "It looks weird, doesn't it?"

"Uh, no not really." He said, but that was an obvious lie. 'Yes, it does! Where was he hiding that thing?! It looks bigger than him for goodness sake!'

The bus slowly began to stop while turning towards the curb. They could both hear the driver hit the breaks, followed by a loud hiss that came right next to them. The bus door opened up with a creak. The two looked at each other as if wondering who would step in first until Russell gestured Tsukune to go ahead, which Tsukune did with a nod and smile.

They didn't get to board the bus yet when they felt the gust of cold wind come out, courtesy of the ac that it had on. The two boys felt relieved and found it a lot better on the bus than out there in the heat. When they onto the steps of the bus they could see it's the driver. He was wearing a blue uniform complete with a matching cap that obscured his eyes. The two boys covered their mouths when they started to smell cigarette smoke, courtesy of the lit cigar that the driver had in his mouth.

"You boys heading to Youkai Academy?" The driver asked. His voice was a bit coarse a deep but considering what was in his mouth that was to be expected.

"Yeah, that's us," Tsukune said, a bit wary of the guy, while at the same time not wanting to open his mouth and run the risk of inhaling the smoke.

"Well then hop on in. We got plenty of seats." Using his other arm, as the other was on the steering wheel, he gestured to the open seats of the bus. When Tsukune peeked in to see who else was in there, he found that there was no one. Aside from the bus driver, it seemed like Russell and Tsukune were going to be the only occupants.

"Is it just the two us?" Tsukune wondered.

"Seems like it," Russell said.

Tsukune didn't pay it to mind too much. He reached down in his pocket to pay the driver, with Russell doing the same. "Don't bother kids." The driver raised his hand just as Tsukune was about to take his wallet out. "Today's your lucky day, Youkai Academy students get free rides. No strings attached."

"Really?" Tsukune looked back at Russell who just shrugged.

"Hey, free ride to school. Let us take it."

"Unless you want to give me your money, then please, go right ahead. I could use the spare change." The bus driver said with a grin and chuckle.

"We'll just get seated." The glasses-wearing student pointed at the open seats. "C'mon Tsukune." He patted Tsukune on the back as he moved around him.

Russell decided to sit in the back of the bus, much to the confusion of the brown-haired boy who, instead of joining his fellow school mate in the back, took a spot two rows ahead of him next to the air conditioner. "Why are you sitting there? Don't you want to be near the AC?"

"Eh, it's quieter I suppose," Russell said. "Also, I like the space. It's like a couch." He took off his giant duffel bag and also laid it in the much bigger, and open spot next to him.

Tsukune laughed lightly. "Whatever you say, I guess."

The bus driver pulled the lever that was next to him which closed the bus doors. The engines started up and soon after the bus started to move, they were off. "Alright, one more stop, then we're off to Youkai Academy."

Tsukune looked out the window looking back at the town. He gave a silent farewell to it and his family, as he wasn't going to see it again for a while. He was going to miss the town that he called home, but he couldn't do anything about it. Rather than attend a school that was in the area, he was going semi-abroad to someplace far away. All because he did poorly on his entrance exams.

'Maybe things will be better.' Tsukune thought.

He rested his arm against the window and propped up his head on his open hand.

He began to think about writing that letter to his mother the first chance he got.

As for Russell?

He was thinking about something else as his mind drifted over. Russell was also looking out the window that he was next to and watches the passing beach and ocean. He watched more specifically at the latter and the flow of its waters. The surface of the water shines and sparkles as a result of the sun's reflection. It was a beautiful and calming sight, and even on this bus, he could still enjoy that view. While he watches, the past echoes through him.

In his mind he thinks back to times before he came to this country, it's cities, and it's towns; other thoughts begin to resurface from the back of his mind. There were so many to think of, but there were a few that stood out to him inside of his mind. None of them could be considered good, let alone joyous. He thinks about how almost every choice, decision, and perhaps even mistakes that he has done has led him here.

He looks over to Tsukune, he was also looking out the window with his head resting on his arm against the window. Russell remembers why he is on this bus, and what it's destination was.

He remembers why he was looking after the kid in front of him, and how he got into this mess.

Safe to say, he has his work cut out for him.

Still, he had a job to do, but for now, all he could do was relax a bit until he got there.

He thought this as the bus started to slow down again, probably to pick up whoever else that was also going to Youkai.

The bus came to a stop and opened it's doors soon after. The new passenger stepped up on board and the driver looked at her. "Don't need to pay, sweetie. Students get a free ride." He gestured towards the almost empty bus. "Head on in." The girl walked down the aisle as the doors shut and the bus started up again. Tsukune a slight glance at who came in, and so did Russell.

What stuck out to them was that she wasn't wearing the school uniform, or at least not all of it. She did wear the school's skirt, but she wore a long-sleeved, loose white and black sweater with a baggy front pocket that was completely open at the shoulders held up by two black straps. She also wore white and purple striped stockings, stockings that matched her long and untamed purple hair. She also had a lollipop in her mouth.

The girl passed by Tsukune while he watched her head to the back of the bus. She looked at Russell and he looked at her. "Can I sit here?" She asked.

"Yeah, go ahead." She sat down in the other open space next to him, and she turned her head to look at him. He looked at her in return, she just stared at him. He turned away, but when he turned his head back she was still looking at him. He got up from his seat for a moment, to see what Tsukune was doing and he was just watching out the window again. Russell looked over to his side again, and again, she was looking at him.

She didn't say anything, she just stared at him. 'What is wrong with this girl?' He thought.

He adjusted his body to the opposite side, looking over through the window again. He looked at the town that he was leaving behind. The bus made a turn which made the young man see the town from a different angle. His eyes glanced around the sides of the passing buildings, and from a small, open plot of land that had nothing in it.

From there, for a split second, he saw the Kyorei Clan building.

His pupils dart around the bus from behind the darkened lens. It was spacious inside and very quiet aside from the occasional car honk of a passing car, the vague conversations of people that were passed too quickly to understand, or the bus engine running, there was hardly any sound to be heard. It was the epitome of a peaceful ride, though it could be boring, for him it was nice. It was a place where he could relax a bit before he got to his destination alongside his classmate.

"You look lonely."

Russell turned back when she had spoken out of nowhere, and just when he was getting comfortable with the silence again mostly because he thought she stopped. But no, she was still looking at him.

"I'm sorry?"

She had moved closer to him, which made him scoot back a bit, closer to the window. Unfortunately, he couldn't since his duffle was in the way. Now that she was closer it was hard not to ignore her. Her eyes bore into his despite the fact he was wearing shades. Her blue eyes were like frozen lakes with tints of other blues and purples mixed in. It was hard not to notice her now, and given how close they were, their legs nudging against one another, he was staring even more into his eyes than before.

There was something off about this girl, and it wasn't because she was staring at him for more than a couple of minutes now.

"You look lonely back here." She said.

"What? No, I'm fine back here." He said. Is that why she went back here? Because he looked lonely? Sitting at the back of the bus rather than next to the only other male occupant did give off that impression though.

The girl tilted her head. She didn't seem to blink, it was almost like she didn't believe him let alone the reassurance that he gave her. "What about friends? Do you have any friends?"

"...No?" Russell could consider Tsukune his friend, but they just met. And technically he was supposed to watch over him, not necessarily befriend him as per the agreement he was given.

The girl seemed to like the answer he gave. "You must be lonely, that's cool." She said as she smiled a little and leaned back into a normal position, but she kept staring at him. "I know what that's like."

"...What?"

"I don't understand friendship, or stuff like that either." She said. He continued to look at her, wondering where she was going with his. She sat up, taking the lollipop out of her mouth and leaned towards him again. Unlike before her face was close to his now. Russell leaned his body back because of it. She was examining him, from his lightly tanned skin that was completely different from her snow-white pale skin, to those strange black glasses that he wore. "I can tell, you don't have to hide the truth behind those glasses you wear." She pointed at him with her yellow sucker before putting it back in her mouth. "...and you're a lot cuter up close, you know?"

"...What?"

"It's okay. We're both alike, we know how it feels to be all alone. We're almost kindred spirits in a way." There were so many things wrong with what she said, but he didn't say that to her upfront. She asked him with some slight pink on her cheeks. "My name is Mizore Shirayuki, what's yours?"

What on earth was her plan here? Was she flirting with him? If so, he had to admit she had a really strange way of doing it. Russell was unsure whether or not to give this strange girl his name, in fact, he was tempted to get up from his seat and sit somewhere else altogether. Still, out of all of the things he's seen so far, this wasn't bad actually. It was weird, but he's seen weirder; which is probably why he didn't get up from his seat because he's just so used to strange occurrences happening in his life.

"Hey, Russell!" The two turned their head towards Tsukune, who spoke up and was unaware of what was going on in the back. Russell mentally cursed the brown-haired boy, as he just gave the girl his name unintentionally.

"Yeah?" He answered, wondering what he could want. This was just bad timing on the kid's part, so he couldn't be too annoyed with him; but still, at the worst possible time.

"What do you think it will be like over there at the school?" He asked his fellow freshman. Tsukune's head was turned towards the direction of his classmate, but he still didn't lean out of his seat to ask him directly.

"We'll see, I suppose. Let's just rest up until we get there." Russell looked back at Mizore, who was already looking at him first.

"Russell..." She smiled at him. The name was strange, but she didn't care. "I like it."

"Oh really?" He questioned with a small laugh. "Well, I'm flattered, thank you Mizore."

Mizore took the lollipop out of her mouth. Within her mind she was internally vowing to never forget the sound of his voice saying her name, she still didn't look away from him though. "I like you a lot."

"Oh geez." He whispered as he looked away. Did he just get an admirer?

He let out some air through his nose again and looked out the window once more. It was bright, sunny, and warm. But then he remembered something, one little problem that ruined this scene for him; he remembered it was pollen season. He realized this when he watched a clump of the yellow-white balls nudge against the bus window before flying off into the wind with some getting caught in the window frame. Mizore noticed too when she leaned forewards to know what he was looking at.

Tsukune noticed as well as he watched the clumps go past the windows. He disliked those little balls of fluff that came from flowers and trees that could ruin a person's sinuses and make their eyes water. Luckily for him, he was protected, but for the people on the outside, they were not so lucky.

He sat up in his seat and turned his head to follow a cloud of pollen go behind the bus and hit an unfortunate biker that was entering an intersection. The biker sputtered and coughed when the pollen entered his mouth. To make matters worse he wasn't wearing any goggles or glasses to shield his eyes, so a couple ended up nailing him right in both. He managed to stay up long enough to collapse and crash on the nearby sidewalk. He continued to watch the biker until he couldn't see him anymore.

"Ouch."

"What? What happened?" Russell called out.

"Some guy fell over when he was riding his bike."

"Ouch."

Tsukune laughed a little. "Hey, that's what I said!"

"Hey, kids." The bus driver spoke. "I hope you know what you're getting into. Youkai Academy is a very scary place." He laughed as if he was foreshadowing something to come. "But I have a feeling you'll see for yourself soon."

Tsukune, originally feeling optimistic was immediately turned off by the driver's remark and warning. "Wh-What does that mean?"

"He's just trying to scare you, don't mind him." Russell tried to reassure the young boy. Though he tried to, the seeds of worry were implanted in Tsukune's head. Not having anything else to do other than wait for the bus ride to end, he opted to do just that. When he noticed the tunnel coming up he decided to listen to his earlier suggestion and relax a bit before they arrived at their stop; and what better way to so by listening to some music.

He took out his disc player from his blazer pocket and put the headphones in his head. He lifted his disc player to his face to see what to listen to next, and after pressing on the 'Next' button a couple of times he found it. After hitting the play button he relaxed a bit in his spot.

He looked over to Mizore, she was still looking at him. He closed his eyes behind his glasses and turned away.

---

LATER

---

Russell opened his eyes when he felt the bus started to slow down. He noticed that the bus was traveling inside a tunnel, as it was a bit dark, though the lights that lit up the bus inside made things easy to see.

It was almost quiet, save for the engine of the bus that was running, and the surprisingly strong wind that came from outside of the bus. He could guess it sounded like over thirty-one miles an hour out there.

While he was out, Tsukune had fallen asleep sometime earlier, while the bus driver was focused on doing what he did best; which was driving the bus to their destination.

He still had his headphones in his ears, so he decided to give them a rest and take them out, but it was then he realized that one of the headphones wasn't in his right ear anymore. He immediately found the cord, and when he pulled it, he found out where it went.

Mizore had it, and it was it her right ear.

"Hello." She smiled at him, noticing that he was awake.

Not long after he had gotten relaxed, Mizore had spent the majority of the trip looking at his sleeping face. There were times when she had gotten the idea of poking his soft cheeks, but decided against it, as that would wake him up and ruin her looking at his cute face any longer.

After a while, her gaze drifted towards the dark blue disc player on his lap. She got curious as to what he was listening to and picked up the disc player.

She read the title on the digital screen, it read: Tell Me by Temperance.

Mizore tilted her head, she had never heard of that song before, let alone the artist; though that was in part due to the fact she hardly listened to any music, she liked the silence better.

Mizore set the player down, now looking at the headphone in Russell's right ear. A thought came to her, though he was unsure of it she went with it despite that. She slowly reached up, grabbing the cord and slowly pulling back her hand. The headphone fell out, landing onto the bus seat, in which Mizore picked it up and placed it in her right ear.

So she sat there, next to the guy she liked while listening to the music he liked.

"Can I have that back please?" He held his hand out expectedly. Mizore pulled the headphone from her ear and put it on his palm. He picked up his CD player, with his other hand, turning it side to side if she had done anything to it. There wasn't a scratch on it aside from the ones that were already on there, so he relaxed a bit. "Okay, one, don't do that." He started. "And two, ask before you do." He pointed at her with the headphone still in his right palm. "Okay?"

She nodded which seemed to appease Russell, which she liked because he was happy she was as well.

Russell hit the stop button and then the off switch on the player. He wrapped up the headphones around it and tucked it back in his blazer. He didn't want to waste the batteries even though they could last for a while.

"I like the song," Mizore said honestly.

He spared her a glance. "Thank you, it's one of my favorites."

The moment of peace was interrupted when Russell and Mizore both felt a sudden jerk forward. If it weren't for the seat belts that they put on before the trip, the two would have been thrown face-first into the seat in front of them. Or in Russell's case, down the steps and onto the floor, since he was sitting right down the aisle, and the back row seats were elevated.

"Ow!" Russell looked over to the seats in front of him when he heard Tsukune's scream. Tsukune didn't think like they did and ended up hurting himself. "My nose!"

"Hehe...We have arrived..." The Bus Driver announced, while at the same time chuckled as if enjoying Tsukune's accident, to the only passengers in the vehicle. The Driver pushed a lever next to him and the bus doors hissed open.

Everyone started to get up.

Tsukune was the first to get up, and who was rubbing his nose. Thankfully there was no blood, which was a good thing. He wanted to go through the rest of the day without the sight, let alone the thought of blood.

He grabbed his case and was about to walk out until he looked back at Russell and the girl that arrived earlier. 'Maybe I should wait for them.' He thought.

The two unbuckled their belts and got up at their own pace. Russell made sure he didn't leave anything and dusted himself off any dirt that got on him, as well as anything that he might have sat on, even though he was sure that he hadn't when he took his seat on the bus. He took his bag off from the open area and put on the straps, ready to walk out.

Mizore was still there despite the fact she could have just gone ahead as there was still enough space to pass by him.

She wanted to go with him.

Russell moved past her while she followed behind.

Seeing his fellow freshman coming Tsukune went ahead to exit the bus too.

They started to walk down the aisle, and when they breathed in through their noses they immediately wished they hadn't. The cigarette that the bus driver lit had made a noticeable cloud of smoke around the driver seat, and it was spreading back to where they were. Tsukune's nose wrinkled a bit and coughed slightly when he walked closer to the front of the bus, with Russell doing the same and Mizore using one of her sleeves to cover her mouth and nose. They held in their breathing as they didn't want to inhale the cloud.

Russell was lucky, due to his glasses protecting his eyes which prevented most of the smoke from getting in.

He hated cigarettes, he did.

Now, this could be chalked up to the stigma of cigarettes, opium, or anything similar to being able to ruin the internal organs of a person and could lead to life harming conditions in life. But it wasn't just that, it was something else. The young man really couldn't explain it in words to someone if they asked him why he disliked them. If anything, he would rather explain it by physically taking the said person to where he lived and showed them there. Because, as stated before, this wasn't something that could be explained with words, and only then would the person understand; and by doing so, who knows, maybe he'll get that person to stop smoking entirely.

Or not, it was their funeral it didn't matter to him.

Well, it did matter to him, just not too much.

He just didn't want to be around for the aftermath.

The trio was finally allowed to breathe again the moment they stepped out of the bus. They didn't get a chance to check their surroundings when they heard the bus driver speak again. "Hey, kids..." The trio turned back around. Instead of looking at them as they spoke though, he was still facing forwards with his hands on the wheel.

"Yes? Is there something wrong?" The Bus Driver looked Tsukune as if he was about to say something, but didn't. The driver's gaze then went over to Russell. The grin on his face faltered for a moment, but the Bus Driver regained his smile in a couple of seconds. "Nothing." The Bus Driver chuckled again as he pulled back a lever to close the bus doors. "I have a feeling you'll be alright."

"...What does that mean?" Tsukune asked, no getting what he meant, and he wasn't the only one.

"Nothing...Nothing at all..." The driver managed to get those last words out, right as the doors shut, followed by another hiss.

The group moved a good distance away to avoid getting hit by the bus as it moved. Russell and Tsukune watched the vehicle as it started to move off back into the tunnel, and as soon as it entered a blast of wind hit them in the face. But once again thanks to the glasses he wore, the former was mostly unaffected as he could see the bus disappear into the black tunnel with little issue. They could hear screeching from the tires on the road and a strange sound that was akin to the high speed winds that Russell had heard from earlier.

After turning and looking around, it didn't take long for them to notice the environment was drastically different from the bright, and breezing town that was full of life that they had just traveled from, and Tsukune was the first one to make these thoughts known. "What is this place?!"

To be blunt, and he would agree with this, the entire environment appeared to be a scene that ripped straight from a horror novel.

Right off the bat, everything looked dead from where they were dropped off. There was a dark forest nearby that was filled with equally dead, grey trees that stretched around the nearby areas with equally dead ground and soil that yielded no grass or flowers. Speaking of said dead trees, there was even one dead tree right next to them, with crows and ravens looking down on them. They cawed at them, creepily staring at both Russell and Tsukune specifically as if they were ready to come off from their perches and peck their eyes out if they weren't covered. From the distance, the group could see a large castle-like structure. They could only assume that must have been the school. To add to the horrifying setting there was a lightning bolt that illuminated the school in the distance, giving off the impression that the school was probably some type of haunted mansion.

All the stereotypes were there, so it was safe to assume that.

"Seriously what is this?!" Tsukune demanded with understandable shock.

"Another bus stop?" Russell suggested, which wasn't the answer he was expecting.

"What? What are you talking about?"

Russell pointed to the right, not focused on the scenery itself as he was on the thing that they were nearby. He noticed a scarecrow with a pumpkin for a head holding a sign. He walked over to the sign which was covered in grime and stained green with moss, though he could make out what was on it: Youkai Private Academy.

"So wait, this is the place?!"

"Apparently." Russell shrugged. He moved to pass him and looked at the sign a bit closer. Below that sign, was another, and it was in a similar condition to the one above. There was something written on there, but it was too buried in dirt to read. Russell pulled back one of his sleeves and rubbed the dirt away with the bottom of his fist. It was only then they could see what was one there. Tsukune had started to see as well and got closer to read it. They could make out what it said, but just barely even with Russell brushing away most of the dirt off.

It was the bus schedule, and it said that the bus came back at the beginning of every month.

"The end of every month?!"

Russell winced a bit from his yell. "That's what the sign says, and I would appreciate it if you didn't yell so close in my ear, my friend." He pats Tsukune on the back. He turned around and took a deep breath. "All right then, let's get going." He said as he walked away with Mizore close behind him.

"Where are you going?" Tsukune questioned.

"Where do you think?" He said, not turning around.

"You mean that place that looks like a haunted mansion?!" He cried out.

"Yep." He said simply, again not turning around.

"Are you crazy?!" Tsukune yelled out. He was not wanting to go there after what he has seen so far. Now Tsukune knew what that bus driver meant when he said that Youkai Academy was a scary place. "I'm not going there, it looks dangerous!"

"Well, you could stay here." He said as he finally stopped moving to talk to him, with Mizore doing the same. "You stay here for a whole month to wait for the bus, but I doubt you can survive out here on your own. Or you could take your chances and come with us. Either way, you're stuck here Tsukune, so better make the best of it." Russell turned around again, they resumed their trek down the path that was marked by the several posts that were on both sides of the trail. The trail itself ran across the cliff before going deep into the forest, which probably led him to the school; that was what he was hoping at least.

"He has a point," Mizore said to him. "It's your choice."

Tsukune stood there as he watched the two walk ahead of him to God knows where. He looked around at his surroundings again, and the more he did the more his answer became clear. "Hey, wait up!" Tsukune called out to them, running to catch up. Russell felt relieved, for a moment he thought he was going to have to drag him over there.

As they walked around the dead ground Russell could smell saltwater nearby, which was probably from the hard to miss the ocean. However, there was something that caught his eye which made him go and deviate from his walk. He stepped off the trail to get a better view and to cure his curiosity, to the confusion of the other two.

"Russell?" He didn't answer him as he walked further from them. "Russell, what are you doing?"

He walked close to the edge of the cliff and could feel the winds getting a bit stronger as he got close. He slowed his walking and stopped. When he looked down, he wasn't expecting that. "...Oh..."

"What? What is it?" Tsukune asked.

"Well that depends," He said, still looking down the cliff. "what are your thoughts to a blood-red ocean?"

"What?!" Tsukune yelled again with Mizore stepping back from him from the scream. He immediately ran up to Russell's side to look at what was down there. He was running at such a fast pace he almost forgot to slow down in which Russell had to grab him by the back to prevent him from going over.

He could see it.

You know how seawater appears to have either a dark or light blue color, or in some cases dark green or light green depending on the biome?

Well, the water that was here, was none of those colors; rather the water was colored in an obvious and hard form of red. Not just red, but dark, red.

The entire ocean from the far as the eye could see was instead this reddish, red wine color. It was as if someone had taken all bottles of red wine from across the world and dumped it into the water. If anything it gave off the impression that it probably made out of blood instead. Perhaps it was something in the water or something underneath the waves like coral that gave it a distinct color. Whatever the case it just made this place that he had arrived to even more unnatural.

"Seriously, what the heck is this place?! Is that blood?!" Tsukune cried out. This was the last thing he needed to see right now, and the prospect of waiting back there at the bus stop for a whole month didn't seem to be so bad. He swore one more crazy thing he saw and he was running after that bus.

"I don't know, let me check." Russell set down his bag on the ground, far away from the edge.

"Check?" Russell almost jumped when Mizore came up from behind him. "How are you going to check?"

"I'm just going to try and smell it. If it smells like seawater then it smells like seawater, if it smells like blood then it smells like blood, and if it smells like wine... well, get the wine glasses."

He slowly moved closer towards the edge, inch by inch. Feeling that he was at a good distance he leaned in and inhaled sharply, right as there was a crash of waves below. When he processed the smell he coughed. He waved off the smell of the air from his nose. Wow, that was strong. "What is it?"

It didn't have the smell of an alcoholic beverage, and it definitely didn't smell like blood, just the salty smell of the ocean. There was another strange part of him that made him wish that the ocean turned out to be made out of red wine, that would have been interesting.

"Nope, just regular seawater." He reassured him which made him calm down a bit. But only just a bit, he was still not used to the surroundings and he hoped that things would be close to normalcy when they got to that supposed building in the distance. He moved past the two as he walked back to the path with the following close behind. They still had a place to get to, and though Tsukune would love to stare at the morbid scenery a bit more they didn't want to be late for school. They made his way back onto the pathway and followed it.

While they walked Tsukune made a few more glances around him. Everything was quiet, save for the occasional call of a raven from somewhere in the nearby forest or on the dead tree that was behind. He still freaking out over where they were, and he was equally surprised as to why neither Russell, not Mizore were finding any of this strange, what was wrong with them?!

You would assume that whoever was running this school would make the school a bit friendly to the students, especially new arrivals like himself.

Picture this: a young, fresh, young man or girl who had just gotten out of middle school and was about to start high school brimming with hopes and dreams for his or her future. All of what the young man had seen, would be the last thing that he/she would be expecting. Whoever was in charge of the academy thought it would be a suitable idea to horrify any newcomers as soon as they would step off the bus on arrival, and end up believing that they had stumbled upon the aforementioned horror novel metaphor.

He stopped when felt his right foot hit something. His eyes glanced towards the ground and saw it was a skull. This wouldn't be disturbing if it was some toy or prop, but not, it was an actual animal skull. "Ahhhh!"

"What?" Russell immediately turned around.

"I-I-I kicked a skull!" He pointed a shaking finger at the skull that he kicked.

"That's not the only one here." Mizore said.

"What?"

She pointed nearby.

He noticed that nearby were stacks of rocks, and each of the stacks on top had a single jaw-less, skull resting upon them. All of them looked old with dirt and moss growing on them, and these piles were just sitting on the side of the cliff face, right next to the path to the school no less which is why he one of them by accident. There were a lot of them, dozens even, all belonging to some type of mammal of some kind; or at the very least, something that left behind a skeleton when time had finally decomposed the body.

Tsukune immediately backed away while Russell moved passed him. He crouched down to the skull he had just kicked and picked it up with both hands to inspect it.

It looked strange, and obviously very disgusting since it was a rotting skull. It appeared to be some type of goat or sheep skull due to the large curling horns that were still on it, but that was what he was just assuming as he wasn't too knowledgeable in the science of dead animals. Looking at the skull a bit more he couldn't help but feel the sudden urge of taking the thing as a souvenir. There was a certain allure to skulls that made them collectible despite their rather morbid look and he was one of them. Sure it needed to be cleaned, but it would make a great mantle piece.

But the more he was looking at the skull, and fighting off that urge to take it, the more he realized that he probably shouldn't. It was probably due to growing realization that Tsukune might have stumbled upon a burial ground of some kind, and he had probably desecrated it as he had just kicked one of those piles by accident; and Russell would only be desecrating it even further by taking the skull as a type of memento.

Though he didn't want to, he was forced to leave the skull where he had found it.

He just hoped that Tsukune wouldn't be cursed or something for kicking it in the first place.

He paused just when he was about to turn around again when he heard a noise penetrate the silence. It wasn't another crow or some other animal, but rather the light squeaking and clanking that belonged to a bike, coupled with the tires moving fast on dirt and followed by the cry of a girl.

"GYAAA! OHHH NOOO! Coming through!"

Whirling around, the young man caught a glimpse of a young girl barreling towards him on an out of control bicycle. He immediately threw off his duffel bad and pushed Tsukune out of the way while grabbing onto Mizore and moving out of the way as well. The bike flew by him, with the front tire missing a collision with his right ribs by only a couple of centimeters, narrowly preventing any of them from getting run over by a long pink-haired girl on a bike. The girl sped past them, not once looking back.

The two boys watched as the girl soon went out of sight. Tsukune lifted a hand to his head and looked sheepish. "Thanks." he muttered. Tsukune slowly picked himself up while Russell did the same.

He let go of Mizore and held a hand out which she took. She smiled a little, her cheeks turning pink again. "We're holding hands."

Russell also noticed and let go soon after, much to her slight disappointment.

---

LATER

---

It didn't take long for the trio to find the entrance of the school. Going back to the horror novel metaphor the building itself was just as bizarre as Tsukune had first thought. It really did look like some sort of weird gothic mansion as opposed to a normal high school. However, their attention went over to the sea of people that were clumped around the main entrance yard. They were of course students just like them, and they were looking around and seeming as confused as they were. Tsukune was just happy to see normal people for once.

"So where do we go exactly?" Tsukune questioned while looking around.

"I'm guessing we're going where they're going?" Mizore pointed to a stream of fellow freshmen which were all being herded towards a nearby auditorium for presumably the entrance ceremony by a couple of faculty members.

"Alrighty then," He patted Mizore on the back lightly, which made the girl blush. "let's go."

When they got inside there were already countless people, male and female alike. Mizore noticed that the seating was mixed, which meant that both girls and boys were able to sit next to one another, and that gave her an idea. "Hey Russell, maybe we should sit together."

"Uh, sure." He shrugged.

She quickly looked around to find any vacant seats but found that most of them were already filled up. "But most of them are taken already... Just stay there, I'll look for empty seats for us."

She walked off, leaving Russell behind before he could even respond. "I'll just stay here then...I guess."

Russell just stood there with his hands in his pockets, watching. He could have gone with her to look for empty seats, but something tells him that she was dead set on doing it herself; maybe she wanted to make a good impression on him. So he just stood there with his only other male compatriot behind him.

"Oh man, where are we going to sit?" Tsukune wondered. "At this rate, we might have to sit on the floor."

Russell looked around at the numerous people continuously talking to each other as they sat down, one by one. All of them were young boys and girls ranging from their early to late teens, there were also a few others who appeared to be a lot older than that which got his attention. Then again, he knew that some people looked older than they looked and younger than they looked. He didn't know why people were like that, but they were.

His focus then went to look at the interior of the building they were all in. It was nothing special, just a really big open space with a large stage with curtains at the far end of the building where all the students were positioned towards. Looking higher above Russell noticed some scaffolding hanging around the sides of the walls. He assumed that they were working on a second level balcony or were doing maintenance on the ceiling. "Hmm..."

He was knocked out of his thoughts when someone bumped into him. The people around him were starting to sit down while others were scrambling to find vacant seats and those who did just sat then and there, not caring who they were next to. It didn't take long for him to realize the opening ceremony was about to start. "Hey." He almost jumped again when he heard Mizore behind him. "I found us a seat." She pointed to a couple of empty chairs next to a row.

Two for them, but not for Tsukune.

"It's fine, I'll find someplace else." He reassured them. He also began to take notice of the ceremony starting. "I'll see you guys later, hopefully!" He gave the two a wave, jogging off to look for a spot. Russell gave him a wave in return while Mizore was already grabbing onto his arm. She was pulling him towards the seats.

After getting seated he decided to just sit back, face forward in his seat, and listen to the opening ceremony. It was nothing really special, however, the fact the speaker looked to be a middle-aged man with a white robe with a cross around his neck would make this a bit strange in the eyes of some people. The speech was about adulthood and commitment and hopes for the future; essentially the types of values a child learns when growing up. Yet this speech held some value to some as Russell noticed that some of the students agreed with what the speaker was saying. Once he was finished some actually stood up to clap, then they were soon joined by every other student and teacher. Russell also clapped but he chose to sit down. Looking next to him he found that Mizore was mirroring him.

Not long after the speech ended everyone got up from their chairs and started to leave. "That was an alright speech, don't you... think?" When Russell turned to ask her, she was gone. He looked around, but he couldn't see her. There was nothing but an empty seat. 'Where did she go?'

Scratching the back of his head Russell relaxed a bit as he waited for everyone to leave. He did so because he didn't want to accidentally hit anyone with his duffel bag, let alone bump into anyone in general; though he could remedy this by just carrying it normally with one of his arms, it was a lot easier by carrying like a backpack.

It took a while before everyone had left, but eventually, the auditorium had been mostly cleared out with a few stragglers coming out last. He noticed that the man who announced the speech was still there and he was also beginning to leave. The man at the podium took a look at the young man and vice versa. If Russell were closer, he would notice the smile on his face underneath that man's hood.

"Hey, you!" Russell looked over behind him. Another middle-aged man with red spiked hair wearing a white tracksuit with azure outlines was standing in the doorway of the auditorium. He assumed that he was a part of the faculty. He called out to him. "Everyone left! Why are you still here?"

Russell turned back, and when he did he found that the robed man was gone.

"Hey! Did you two hear me?" The man called out to him again.

Russell got up from his seat, dusting off his behind of any dirt. He stretched his arms and took his duffel bag off the ground. He turned towards the man and walked towards the exit "I heard you, sir. I apologize." He bowed his head slightly to the man as he passed by him and walked out of the auditorium. The middle-aged man looked around the auditorium and shrugged as he left as well, leaving the empty auditorium.

However the auditorium wasn't actually empty, it still had one person left. Behind a nearby curtain on the stage was the robbed man, hiding behind it, with another smile on his face.

---

LATER

---

The whole academy in on itself was very large and covered enough ground to fill nearly ten football fields. It was more than enough to accommodate the hundreds of students that were there. Considering how big this place was it could probably accommodate even more, probably ranging to the thousands. Inside it resembled a normal learning facility. Walls painted light blue, and floors with white and azure tiles lined with lockers, classrooms, which filled with students that were mostly new scrambling to find where to go.

Following the ceremony he had to find his homeroom, though he technically didn't have to he was obligated to. There were no actual classes today as this was just a chance to meet his homeroom teacher, get acquainted with some of the other students that were there, and learn about the school rules and such. If he wanted to start off the school year blind that was his choice, but he wasn't going to do that. Once that first class was over everyone was free to explore the school until the classes actually started in a couple of days. Despite the unusual design of the building, he was able to find his homeroom without too much difficulty, thanks to finding the room numbers that were above the entrances.

Inhaling deeply and letting the air out of his nose he opened the sliding doors of the back entrance and poked his head in to look inside. It was a decent classroom and nothing too out of the ordinary. There was a blackboard with a teacher's desk and over a dozen others in front of it lined up into rows, and on the other side of the room from where he was standing were a row of windows that stretched across. There were only a few people inside, only six, four girls and two guys, and he was the seventh to enter.

"I guess I'm early." He said to himself and just loud enough for someone to hear him.

"You are." Russell spun around. Mizore was peaking out from behind a nearby support pillar, looking at him while the stick of her lollipop bobbed up and down. "Hi, again." Rather got up to him she just stayed there behind the pillar.

"...What are you doing?" He asked.

"Watching you." She answered bluntly.

"Why are you watching me?"

"I told you, I like you, a lot." She answered again, still behind the pillar.

Russell began to think. She wouldn't stop looking at him on the bus, she stayed close to him, and now she was looking at him from afar. "...Are you a stalk-"

"Yes."

Russell put a hand to his mouth. "Oh my God." He whispered. He just got here and this is what happens. He really should have moved seats back on the bus. Though he had a feeling that even if he did she would have just followed him or watched him from back there. "Wait a minute," He began to think again. "is that why you left abruptly back at the auditorium? So you could stalk me from afar without me knowing?"

She nodded.

"And you've been stalking me ever since the entrance ceremony ended?"

Again she nodded.

He didn't know what to say, he's never had a stalker before, ever, so he had no idea where to go from here. "Does your family know about this?"

Again, she nodded.

"Seriously?" He looked at her unbelievably. "And they're okay with this?"

Again, she nodded. "My mother's a stalker too."

Russell, at that moment, gave expelled all the air in his lungs followed by a humorless chuckle. 'This is... wow... this is a first.' He put his hand on his mouth again, turning around as he didn't want to look at her. When he did turn back around she was already walking towards him. He shook his head and took a glance at the room number that hung above the door. "I guess we're in the same class together aren't we?"

"It seems like it." Mizore turned to look over his shoulder and look inside the open door, taking note of the open seats. "Since we're in the same class...do you want to sit together?"

"I suppose so." Like he had a choice in the matter now that he knew her true nature. He took another glance around the classroom and his eye caught the row of empty seats near the windows. "How about there? Over by the windows?"

She nodded which meant she was fine with it.

The two walked in, with Mizore shutting the door behind her. They walked over to their seats, passing by some of the other students who glanced at them before returning to whatever they were doing. Russell took the middle seat while Mizore took the seat in front of him. She sat down while he set his bag next to his desk in the open area next to the window.

Still standing, Russell turned his body to look through the window to look outside. "I like this spot. It's not bad, and the view is..."

The view was and could be better though as it showed the dead forest that surrounded the majority of the academy. Looking below, the scenery wasn't as great either. It was a large dirt pathway that other people used to get around the school. It separated the building and the forest from each other. It was better than starting at the side of a brick building, that's for sure. Stepping a bit closer to the window, he looked up. It looked normal, compared to what he had seen so far. It was now cloudy and it looked like it was about to rain.

Overall, externally, from what he had seen was terrible. Then again, he's seen worse so he's not going to be too judgmental over this. Even though this place still looked like a haunted castle in his eyes, yeah, he agreed with Tsukune on that.

"...rather terrible. Is every tree in this academy dead?"

Better yet was everything in this academy was supposed to look scary and depressing?

"I'm not sure, but it seems like it from what I've seen," Mizore said while she was laying her head on her table while using her arms as a cushion. "It reminds me of my home in the mountains."

"You grew up in the mountains?" Russell asked.

"Yeah, with my mother and father."

He glanced back at the sparse number of people in the classroom aside from them. He couldn't see the teacher either, which meant she left to do something and was going to come back, or hasn't come in yet.

"Well, I suppose we got nothing to do for now. So you want to talk about anything?" She turned her head in his direction, though she didn't lift her head up. "We've got some time to ourselves until our teacher gets here, so lets...break the ice...as they say."

"I'm not really a talkative person..."

"As I said if you want to. If you don't then that's fine." Admittedly he wasn't a talkative person either, but here he was trying to do so. He would rather listen to his tunes again but he didn't want to drain the battery anymore. Aside from that, he could sit back down, wait, and let his mind roam around and think about whatever. But he's trying new things, and why not get to know his stalker better, right? "You can just sit there and do... whatever until our teacher shows up, your choice."

He could hear her hum to herself. She was thinking, bobbing the stick of the lollipop in her mouth. "Okay." He was half expecting her to actually start talking to him, but instead, she took a notebook from her pouch. This girl was a mystery, to say the least. His eyes darted down at his hand while his head was still looking at Mizore, his thoughts went back to when he helped her up. He swore his hand got colder the moment their skin touched.

He leaned back and lifted his head, he looked around the room, eventually over towards the front door of the classroom. A couple of students started to come in and they went for the first open seat they saw. They started talking about whatever while glanced at them. He noticed some girls talking and looking in his direction and when he looked at them they looked away, though he could see the blushes on their faces. He tilted his head and thought. 'Don't tell me.'

"What are you looking at?" Mizore asked, looking behind him. She was balancing on her seat while having her head tilted back. Even upside down he looked cute.

"Just...looking for the clock." He wanted to slap his forehead when he said that. It was a really dumb thing to say and it was the first thing that came to his mind.

Mizore's eyes looked over to where he was looking at. Still looking upside down she could clearly see the groups of girls. 'Potential rivals maybe?' She thought. She was about to write them on as such until she realized that they were most likely friends. 'No... Not a threat. They don't understand loneliness.' She looked at another new arrival to the class. She wore an alternate female uniform. A blue-haired girl with large breasts who kept her hair in a ponytail, and wore a yellow sweater over her button-up shirt, though like herself, she also wore her school uniform skirt, though she had super baggy socks. 'Maybe her? I should mark her down...'

He leaned back again. He watched as a couple of more students come inside from the back door. Not long after that their homeroom teacher arrived. She was a young blonde woman with glasses and a weird hairstyle; two tufts of hair were sticking out almost like a pair of furry ears. She was a rather beautiful woman wearing an open white blouse revealing a fiery orange and dark orange design, orange skirt, low heel sandals, and her eyes seem to be closed. But what Russell noticed immediately was the fact she had furry cat ears and what was above her butt.

'Is that a tail?' He thought to himself. She smiled at them and called on them to quiet down. "It appears that our time has come to an end. Nice talk, I guess..."

While Russell fixed his seat she took another glance at his face, specifically his glasses before she turned around to avoid getting caught looking at him. 'So mysterious, I like that as well...' Mizore let out a romantic sigh as she resumed her previous sitting position and resumed doing whatever she was doing earlier.

Which was drawing him?

The door opened up again. Russell saw that it was Tsukune, he was panting a bit, probably due to the fact that he had to run here. He got lost, and no one was really willing to help him get to his destination as they had to get to their own classes too. He noticed Russell and Mizore and immediately walked over to them. "Oh hey! Looks like we're in the same class." Tsukune took the empty chair that was to the right of Russell.

"It's obvious don't you think?" Russell said.

"Hello! And welcome to Youkai Academy, everybody!" She said cheerfully. "My name is Shizuka Nekonome, and I'll be your homeroom teacher this year!" The teacher had a rather big aura of kindness and cheer that seemed to be infecting everyone in the room, causing most boys and girls in the room to smile.

"I think you all already know this but." Ms. Nekonome raised her right pointer finger which also held a pointer stick; though it looked like a riding crop than anything. "This is a school built for the sake of monsters to attend!"

And with that, the boring, 'welcome to the school' speech became completely something else. Tsukune's reaction was very evident on his face, his mouth was wide open and his eyes looked blanks 'What did she just say?!' He glanced around the room to see everyone else take it in stride, including Russell and Mizore. 'Seriously what did this teacher just say?!'

Noticing this Russell looked at him. He lightly hit him in the hip, interrupting him from his freak out. "Something wrong?" He asked him quietly.

He looked at him. "Did you just hear what she said?"

"Yes, so?" He again did not know how to answer. Seeing his distress he decided to throw him a bone. "Look, I'll explain later, just keep quiet alright?"

"Our current problem is that the Earth has already come under the control of humans! In order for us monsters to continue to survive, we have no choice but to continue to peacefully coexist with humans."

She tapped the chalkboard behind her which showed a diagram of their world's current situation. The circle represented the Earth, the people above the circle were labeled as humans, underneath was a box that said monsters inside with an arrow that pointed to the 'Earth', and then in a spiked box had the monsters of the world in it on the far right. "At this Academy, you will be studying "How to coexist with Humans!" So for that reason, as a school rule, you will live your lives at this academy in human form!"

"Do you understand? It's a matter of being able to disguise yourself well as a human!" She explained. "This is the foundation of coexistence. You are never to allow any of your fellow students to know your 'true form' understand?!"

"Hey teacher, would it not be better for us to eat up those puny humans?" One of the students spoke up, specifically the one Russell was sitting right next to him. "And in the case of the beautiful girls, better to molest them?" The student who spoke, which had slicked-back brown hair, slightly tan skin, piercings under his lip, and the build of a football player.

From behind his glasses, he could tell that this guy was going to be a nuisance. Still, he didn't say anything or do anything aside from continuing to listen to the teacher.

'ACK!' Tsukune inwardly choked when he heard what the student said. Now that he thought about it he remembered what the bus driver said again. 'Is this what he meant?' He thought with realization. 'Oh man, this is what he meant!'

Mizore looked over her shoulder, taking a glance at the student. 'A typical bully." She though. "It doesn't matter to me what he does with humans or girls, as long as he doesn't come after me... or hurt Russell.' The thought alone made her grip the edge of her desk.

Surprisingly enough the teacher was unfazed by his question and decided to answer him. "Oh! Incidentally, here at Yokai Academy, the teachers and students are all monsters, there are no genuine humans here! Since this academy is within a secret sacred world protected by a powerful barrier, to those humans who come to know of our existence, we will bring them death or something!"

That statement alone was able to set Tsukune off again. He covered himself with a notebook just to avoid drawing attention to himself, but even then he was barely keeping it together. 'They'll kill me if they find out I'm human?!' He started hitting himself with a closed fist. 'Dammit father, why the hell did you find me this horrible school! What am I going to do?!' He opened his eyes, slowly calming himself. 'I've got to find a way out of here, but the bus won't come until the end of the month! Crap!'

As if to further emphasize the gravity of the death threat a bolt of blue lightning crashed nearby, right next to the window where Russell was sitting. He raised his left arm to shield himself, when the light died down he lowered his arm. He looked around and found that he wasn't the only one as everyone had instinctively covered their faces with their arms, including the teacher.

"Not to worry everyone! Lightning strikes are common here in Yokai Academy and are relatively harmless if not near the vicinity. I can assure everyone you have nothing to worry about~!" She reassured the students though there was a sparse couple that wasn't.

Her cat tail waved back and forth, which a few people couldn't help but stare at. After getting up to see where the bolt struck Russell leaned back in his seat and let out a breath of air, he was one of them. That bolt had hit the dirt road and was a couple of feet from the building and where he was. One didn't need to be a scientific genius to know why that was bad. Maybe he could ask to switch seats in the future because if he didn't he was most likely going to get skewered by shards.

"EXCUSE ME!" The front classroom door slammed open which got Ms. Nekonome's attention. It was followed by a female's voice and she was breathing as if though she had just gone through a marathon. "After the entrance ceremony, I kinda got lost in the school...Sorry, I'm late."

"Oh that's fine, just take a seat." She said to the new arrival, she also couldn't help but compliment the girl's looks "Well, what a cute one, and you are?"

Russell perked up a bit and sat back up while Tsukune moved the book away to get a good look at her.

After writing down her name with a piece of chalk she introduced herself with a bow. When she straightened herself everyone got a good look at her. She was a young teenager and was actually very breathtaking. She was shorter than him with bubblegum pink hair that fell down past her shoulders framing her heart-shaped face. Her skin a delicate pale-peach color that just seemed to glow. She had a slim form with curves in all the right places and wore the female version of the school's uniform: A white blouse underneath a green jacket and a plaid skirt that her long legs disappeared under.

"I'm Moka Akashiya. Nice to meet you all!" She introduced at the head of the class with a beautiful smile holding her bag with both her hands in front of her legs and the effect was instantaneous. Thanks to her breathtaking looks all guys in the room instantly fell in love with her, blushing madly along with a couple of other girls who thought she was cute too.

"Who is she? S...Such flowing hair...! Big eyes...!"

"Woah...She's so beautiful! Even if it's just her human form there isn't anyone else who could transform into such a beautiful girl...!"

One male student got off from his seat until one by one, most of the boys if not all of them, got up from their seat to get a better view of her or tried and greet her when she walked down one of the isles.

"HOT! SHE'S SO HOT!"

"I'M SO HAPPY TO BE IN THE SAME CLASS IN THIS GIRL!"

While she walked down the aisle looking for an open seat some guys got up from their seats and offered to sit in their seat instead. There were even some who demanded others to get out of their seat so that Moka could sit next to them, they didn't care if the person right next to them was a boy or girl, they were that desperate to get her to sit with them. Russell could only watch this from his seat, slowly shaking his head. He could understand that they were just teenagers and chalk it up their hormones acting up, or from just hitting puberty.

Granted he really shouldn't be so judgmental, everyone goes through someone like that, but this was a bit much. He wouldn't be surprised if they started hitting each other. Granted he probably would be surprised that people would be throwing hands over this. One would be surprised what one would do for someone, no matter the cost; and if that meant going as far as to knock the lights out of someone and push their unconscious body out of their seat so that having a beautiful girl like Moka would sit next to you, so be it.

"Wow, she's probably the cutest girl I've seen in my whole life," Tsukune said. "What do you think, Russell?"

Russell shrugged. "She looks nice, I'll admit."

That only made Mizore go on edge. Originally she wasn't interested in the new arrival, but now she had to rethink that. 'A rival?'

Now that he's thinking about it, she looked familiar. He was sure where but Tsukune could swear that she's seen her before. He started to think back a bit, he was pretty sure that he hasn't seen her back home; he'd be sure to remember a beautiful girl like Moka. He didn't see her at the entrance ceremony, her pink hair would be an obvious indicator. 'Pink hair?' He thought. Flashes of earlier appeared, back to the bus stop. He caught a glimpse of a girl with pink hair just as Russell pushed him and Mizore away to avoid her. 'No way, it couldn't be her, could it?'

Moka stopped right in the middle of the aisle that also placed her in the middle of the room. This effectively made her the center of attention, if she wasn't already before. She glossed around the room to look for an empty seat, anywhere was fine as she wasn't too picky. As she did she occasionally made eye contact with some of the male students. The sheer moment of being looked at the beautiful girl was enough for the guys to fall out of their chairs completely love-struck.

Eventually, she did find a seat, it wasn't the newly opened ones offered by the rest of the male students, but one that was already vacant. The seat just so happened to be behind Tsukune. Seeing the open seat she sat down in it, much to the regret of the guys that weren't near her, and to the relief of the guys that were.

'She's sitting right behind me?' Tsukune thought. For a moment he thought that his luck was finally turning just a bit. But these slowly went away, he remembered that was just her human form, so who knows what she's really like. But still fake or not she still looked amazing.

"Hey there," Russell said towards her and held out a hand. "Welcome to the class." He wasn't interested in her or anything, she was attractive he'll admit, but he was just welcoming her as a kind gesture. Also, now that he thought about it, wasn't she the same girl who almost ran them over earlier?

"Oh, thank you." Moka nodded with a smile, though confused as to why he was wearing sunglasses, she took the handshake as well. "I hope we get along in the future."

Russell cracked a small smile in response, which Mizore definitely noticed. 'Rival.' She gripped the edge of the desk again and bit down hard on her lollipop almost breaking it.

When Russell pulled back he felt that it was a bit colder than before. "Did someone leave a window open?"

"Alright then," Ms. Nekonome clapped her hands, getting the attention of the class again. "now that's of the way, let's call attendance." She took out a small clipboard with a list of the names on a piece of paper. She went through every single boy and girl alphabetically. When she called Tsukune he almost dropped his book, probably thinking he got found out. She then went past some other students, then Moka who she already knew was here, then Mizore who raised a small hand, and then to him. "Russell J... Christoff?

"Here." He said with a raised hand.

"Mr. Christoff, I was told that all your arrangements have been settled, and to call him tonight." Ms. Nekonome said. "And be sure to send your health documents to the nurse later about your eyes."

"Okay, I'll do that." He said with a nod. He knew what she was talking about.

"Hm, Russell J. Christoff, that's a first." She said, not hearing a name like that before.

The rest of the class was a basic rundown of the school itself and where certain places were located. Though most students knew some of this already, the transcripts they all had come with the necessary information in the form of a guidebook that any students needed to know, such as no being out past curfew, no misconduct, etc. Despite this, she still went over it as it was protocol he guessed.

Later she brought up a map of the area that pointed out the different locations and the details about them, such as the dorms that they'll be staying at, while including places that students stay away from like an abandoned dorm that was shut down, or places they should check out like the shopping mall.

Really, this place had a shopping mall.

Aside from the quick rundown of what classes there were at the school such as the Gym Class, Cooking, Art, Math, Music, Language Arts, Foreign Language (which was English), and some of the clubs that would be open in a couple of weeks, that was it. As mentioned before there would be no actual classes today; just a brief orientation.

The bell rang, signaling that class was over. Some students started to get their bags and other things and leave while Ms. Nekonome gave one last farewell. "Well, I guess we've reached the end of our time. I hope you all enjoy your time at Youkai Academy~!"

With that last flourish of genuine enthusiasm the intro class ended. Not long after both front and back sliding doors opened, one by one the students began to leave with some either staying to talk with new friends or to ask Ms. Nekonome any more questions that they needed answers to. Moka and Mizore left, God knows where the latter went. He thought about what he was going to do next and then he remembered the room that he was assigned to. There wasn't anything left to do anyways and he could explore the school at some other date, he had all of the rest of the semester and weekends to do so. He had practically all the time in the world. But right now, there was something that he had to care of and that was checking out his room and get these documents sent.

"Hey Russell, can we talk for a second?" Tsukune asked. He looked worried and Russell remembers that he needed to talk about the situation he was in, or at least bits of it.

"Yep."

After getting up from his seat he followed Tsukune. They passed a bunch of other students who were minding their own business. Tsukune seemed to walk faster than Russell and his head was looking around for something, and he found it. He went over to a classroom that looked empty. He gestured Russell to come in which he did. Just before closing the door he looked around and made sure no one was listening. "What is going on here?!" He whispered. "Is this place really a school for monsters?!"

"Will you quiet down?" Russell moved past him and opened the door again. He also looked around to see if there was anyone who was there, thoughts of a purple-haired stalker came to mind. "And to your answer your question yes it is, and given how you were acting earlier, your human?"

Tsukune stiffened, he didn't before, but he wondered why Russell was nonchalant about everything they've seen so far, Mizore included. Then he heard about they were told to stay in their human forms in order to hide their monster forms. He thought back to the bus stop and when they first met. 'Does that mean this whole time...?'

"If you're wondering if I'm actually a monster, the answer is no. I'm human as well." He admitted.

Tsukune looked at him with shock. "You're... You're not a monster?"

He shook his head. "And before you ask again, no I'm not lying either. I'm telling the pure and honest, God-given truth."

"But... But wait a minute, did you know that this place was a monster school? You knew, didn't you."

Russell sighed a bit with this one, but again he nodded. "Yeah, I knew."

He's actually known for a while now.

Tsukune tightened his jaw but didn't back down. "Why didn't you tell me this school was meant for monsters?"

"Well, would you believe me?" He questioned. "I didn't tell you because I knew you wouldn't believe me. I mean, you did probably believe me when I told you about that massacre at that high rise, but I'd seriously doubt you'd believe me when I said that the school is full of monsters. Seeing the way you reacted after that quote on quote announcement, I was right. My friend, could you look any more obvious?"

Tsukune began to rub his head, hard. In which Russell put a hand on his shoulder, calming him down. "Granted there were probably others that noticed you back there, but they could have just assumed that you were being nervous about something else entirely. So for now, you're safe."

This seemed to reassure him for a bit, and that probably would have calmed him down completely if it weren't for that 'for now'. "W-Well should I do then?"

Russell exhaled, removing his hand and folding them with his own. "Well, my recommendation is to get a withdrawal notice started. If you're lucky enough it could get processed by the end of the week if you are careful. But if you're desperate and want to skip the formal process, leave a letter discussing why you left and hitch a ride on the bus. Though the sign at the stop did say it would only show up at the end of every month, the bus driver could come back later to pick up and bring back anyone who has second thoughts. Like I said, your choice my friend. It's up to you."

He unfolded his hands and patted Tsukune on the shoulder again, the same shoulder. No more words needed to be said. He turned to leave. "Why are you helping me?" Russell's hand was on the handle of the door when he heard it. He let go of it and turned to face him. "Shouldn't you be doing what you said? If you're human like me then shouldn't you want to leave as well?"

"Would you believe me if it were out of kindness?" He asked. "And before you answer that, yes, I'm helping you because, well, I'm a nice person. And despite how I look on the surface, I'll try to help to the best of my ability. But like I said, that's if you believe me up at this point since meeting me."

"Well, would you believe me if I told you that I do?" He said with a small smile. "But that doesn't explain why you're here."

"It's complicated," Russell said. "I was looking for something, and someone came to me with the answer to it. In return I have to go here under some conditions, that's all I can say. But the point is, what are you going to do?"

Tsukune looked down again. He clenched one of his fists. He started to remember why he was also here in the first place. How could he have forgotten? "I... I want to leave... but I can't..."

"Why not?" Russell crossed his arms. "Tsukune your life is at stake here, just go to another school, someplace abroad, there's probably someplace that will take you."

"I can't do that, I failed all of my entrance exams my parents took a lot of time and effort to get me enrolled at this Academy after I failed all my entrance exams." He admitted, Tsukune didn't want to admit it, but he didn't have a choice.

"You failed all of your entrance exams?" Russell said incredulously.

Tsukune nodded and looked like he was about to cry. "Even the ones abroad. There's no high school in Japan that would accept me but this one. I can't let down my parents again," Tsukune whispered and downcast. "I can't do that to them. Not when they were so happy to see me get into a high school. I went here for their sake and for my cousin's."

"They'll understand, you're life is at stake."

"They won't believe me! You said it yourself!" Tsukune exclaimed. "They'll think that the school curriculum was too hard for me to handle. They'll think I was a quitter that threw his future away, but what if I'm found out that I'm human. And I end up killed, and they'll probably never know what happened to me." Russell walked over to one of the desks and pulled out a chair for him. "Thank you." He sat down in the chair, hunched over with both hands on his face.

Tsukune had no idea what to do. After hearing what Tsukune had to say, Russell really couldn't blame him. If he stayed he was dead, and if he left he was dead but in a metaphorical sense. Though he was no different than the countless teens that were in a similar situation, Tsukune believed that his life was already at stake, even before joining Youkai Academy. If he hadn't taken this chance for a better future he probably would have remained a dropout, always feeling and believing that he had disappointed his family. He had no other options, no plan B, this was it. When it came to the love and respect from your family, death seemed to pale in comparison, as he was probably willing to stick around here if it meant that they wouldn't look at him as a failure.

"All these decisions you've made, and have made, poor or otherwise, up until this point... why did you make them?" Russell asked him.

Tsukune removed his hands to look at him, Russell didn't take a seat, he just stood there. "What?"

"These choices you've made, why did you make them?"

"...For the good of my family, for my cousin Kyoko, for myself." Tsukune admitted.

Russell walked up to him. "Then they weren't bad decisions. You claim to have failed, and you have, but the context behind those failures, weren't necessarily bad" He bent down, getting on one knee. "Tell me Tsukune, what does a man do, exactly?" He puts a hand on his shoulder. "He provides for his family."

"If I leave, this will cost me my family Russell," Tsukune said, not sure what he was getting at. And again, he felt that if he left, he would lose the love and respect that he got from them. But that was the farthest thing from the truth, and they'd still love him regardless, though he didn't know that. "I'll lose their respect, and they'll treat me like some kind of bum."

"When someone has children... father, mother... or when there are no parents... brother, sister... or when the parent is in the hospital... son or daughter they share the same thing: family. They will always have family, and they will always be their priority, responsibly... your priority, your responsibility, and through it all they provide. They do it, even when they're not appreciated, respected, or loved, no matter how much it hurts. They bear it up; the father, the child, the brother... the mother, the daughter, the sister, and they do it. Gender doesn't matter because it's all the same in the end, they're family. Because they're. all. men."

Tsukune could only stare at him deeply into his black glasses. Despite not being able to see his eyes behind them, he could tell that they were staring directly into his own. There was a hint of firm determination. A small spark, that wasn't there before, and Russell knew it. "... I'll stay, for now."

Russell pats him on the shoulder gently. "If that's your final decision," He started. "then I have nothing else to say." He stood back up and walked towards the door again. His hand was on the handle as he looked back at him. "Good luck to you, my friend. Pray that you make it until the break."

He opened the door and closed it behind him. He walked back towards his original classroom, after all, he did leave his bag behind. Russell didn't get far though, about a few feet until he stopped.

"I know you're there." He called out. "You don't have to hide." Sure enough, someone was there, behind one of the corners that led into one of the many hallways of the school. Mizore slowly walked out and headed towards him. "How much did you hear?"

"Almost everything." She said. "I followed you when you left the classroom. I waited a bit outside and then I peeked in from the other door." Russell turned around, hands in his pocket. Mizore had stopped, she was close to him. A few couples of steps and they would be touching each other. "So, you're human, huh?"

"What do you think?"

The stick of her lollipop bobbed up and down. "I'm not going to hurt you or tell on you. There was a human village near where I grew up and I've known a few humans, even cared for one." For a moment there was a small tinge of sadness in her eyes before being replaced with that stoic demeanor again. "I don't have anything against humans, especially not you." She walked closer now. "I heard what you said. About being a man, providing for your family, no matter how it hurts." She was so close now. She seemed to glide over and wrap her arms around his left. She looked up to him, there was a smile it was sad, but at the same time happy. "You have a heavy burden, don't you?"

Russell didn't even try to pry her off this time, nor was disturbed by her. "Something like that."

"We couldn't be any more alike." Her face blushed. "I want to learn so much about you, and know so much about you..."

Russell used her other arm to gently rub her head as he put her head against his shoulder. "You're welcome to try."

The classroom door that he was in, opened. Tsukune popped his head out and looked to the left, then right. He saw Russell and immediately ran up to him. He also saw Mizore hugging his arm. "Uh... am I interrupting something?"

"Not really, she heard us."

"W-W-WHAT?!" Tsukune yelled. He yelled so loud that anyone nearby could have heard him. So many things were running in his head right now, maybe Russell was right, maybe he could just make a beeline for the bus. Argh, but wait, he needed his letter ready first! There was some paper from his notebooks and there was plenty of lead in his pencil, so maybe he could get it done before anyone could-.

"Before you freak out, no, she won't tell anyone." He reassured him, which made Tsukune knock out of his panic and look at him. Russell looked down at Mizore, who was still cuddling his arm. Why was it getting colder? "Won't you?"

She shook her head. "I won't, you're little popsicle promises."

He wasn't sure how to answer that. "...What?" Yeah, that'll do it.

"Wait, really?" Tsukune felt a wave of relief rush over him. "Oh thank you so much!" He let out a breath of air, clutching his chest. He was almost about to have a heart attack.

"So what are you doing?" Russell asked him.

"Well, I was thinking if we could tour the school together." He suggested. His voice still sounded a bit down despite his newfound determination. "It's more fun with more people."

He shrugged. "All right, just let me get my bag from the classroom first." Considering what Tsukune had just gone through, it was best to humor him. "I just hope you don't mind her." He said, obviously talking about Mizore.

Tsukune gave a light laugh.

---

LATER

---

The trio walked around the school. They really weren't looking around for anything, in particular, just seeing what there was to see like visiting other classrooms and facilities, to admiring what caught anyone's eye.

Such as the multiple statues that littered the campus, the vending machine that looked like a cyclops, to just anything in general. Some of the restroom toilets were modeled to look like a Kappa. Really, they were painted green, the seat was painted yellow to match the bill, and the tank had eyes with a lump on the head to resemble the weird top that Kappas had.

While Tsukune pointed excitedly when they saw the gymnasium, theater, or outdoor pool, Mizore was busy writing down the numerous places that she could use as hiding places to stalk Russell. Which was a bit awkward, considering that she was currently stalking him from afar as she did this. Every time he would turn around or look in some direction he could catch glimpses of her purple hair. It was almost as noticeable as Moka's which is why it was almost no trouble to spot her if someone had a keen eye, which Russell had, much to Mizore's disappointment, which made stalking him hard, but not impossible.

They started to pass by some people who were either exploring the school as well or just loitering about.

Eventually, after going down another hallway Russell's mind started to drift off and began to listen to whatever was going on around them. Nothing too special, just some kids talking about some things that happened to them today, their plans, whatever. Occasionally he'd hear some small gossip about some guy or girl, but nothing too interesting as mentioned before. He had some views on what was considered interesting and what wasn't. He wasn't one to be drawn in by idle gossip unless they actually bore some fruit, because as they say there is truth in rumors. Though technically he was being drawn in by them by listening in the first place, he just couldn't help it.

Talking about a cute guy or girl wasn't really interesting, it was typically teenager talk. Unless said cute guy was him, and he would be a tad bit interested, but just a little. He remembered the group of girls that were looking at him back in his classroom. He shook his head, trying to forget about it. He didn't want to think about something as little as that, though he would like to know a bit.

But that was out of curiosity, honest. Mild curiosity.

"Well, time to listen to some tunes." Russell pulled out his player and put the headphones in his ears. After turning it on he flipped through the disc using the next button; he tilted his head when he found a particular song. 'What's that doing here?' He wondered. 'Isn't this my Temperance Album?' Despite the song being there he just shrugged as if it were nothing. 'I guess I put it there by accident, oh well.' He selected the song and waited as it started up.

"What are you listening to?" Tsukune asked. Russell lifted his player up to him so he could read the song playing. "Atoma by Dark Tranquility?" He said, and given the tone of his voice, it was obvious he hadn't heard of them before. "Is that some kind of band from the United States?"

"Yep, they're a really good band." He tucked the player in one of the open pockets. "And their songs are equally as, just as long as you like melodic death metal."

"Melodic death metal?" Tsukune questioned. "I'm not sure if I like that."

He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was more of a pop music person, especially the ones with cute idols. The first time he had listened to deal metal or just metal in general he really didn't like it. Granted that was because he was still young and didn't care about the lyrics or the actual sound of the music; he was too focused on the loud screaming. When Kyoko found what he was listening to she immediately told his parents that Tsukune was going through a phase, which he tried to deny in great lengths.

"Well, you be the judge." He took one of the headphones out and gave it to him.

Tsukune looked unsure. "I don't know Russell."

"Try it, just a little. If you don't like it that's fine." He said. Tsukune looked at the headphone and then at the person who was holding it.

The brown-haired human sighed. With a smile, he took the headphone. "Alright, here goes." He said as he placed it in his left ear. Russell pressed the resume button and music started again. With one ear open, he was still able to hear the things going around him while at the same time was listening to one of his favorite songs.

"Hey, who's that cute boy over there?"

"I don't know, but I think I'm in love!"

Curious, he followed the voice of the female to the right. It was a pair of girls whispering to each other, but they didn't know what whispering meant because the other female students overheard the two and with their curiosity getting the better of themselves, started to look at the glasses-wearing young man. Apparently his appearance was attracting some attention, which was surprising since he wasn't considered handsome, just average. But apparently those girls didn't see it that way.

"Did you see that boy? The one with the black hair and glasses?"

"He looks so dreamy!"

"We should try asking him out!"

'Please don't' He thought. He looked back at Tsukune who was looking blankly at the cover of his CD player. His head was slowly bobbing to the beat of the music, which made Russell crack another small smile. Though that smile soon faded when he noticed that more girls were looking in his direction. 'Oh no.' It was just like with Moka, except this time he was the main attraction. The nearby females instantly fell in love with and acted very similar to their opposite gender counterparts: blushing madly along with thinking that he was handsome.

"Why is wearing glasses indoors though?"

"I don't know, but I don't care he looks amazing with those on!"

"I wonder if he's single? Oh~ I hope he isn't!"

'I need to get out of here.' He looked around to see if there was a hallway to escape to. While he did he caught a glimpse of Mizore looking down at him from above on the second floor. Despite having that same blank face again she was internally getting irritated. He hasn't had a stalker before, but he's smart enough to know not to make them mad, otherwise, things would get worse. And did it get cold in here again?

He grabbed Tsukune, who was now bobbing his head around the 0:30 mark. He was so engrossed that he almost didn't notice getting grabbed. "Huh? What?" He hastily guided the two of them down a nearby hall quickly, and away from the female monsters. Once they were away he looked over to see if they went after them, thankfully, they didn't. "What's going on?" Tsukune asked. "Did we get discovered?"

"What? No, we were drawing a lot of attention so I just moved out of there." He said which Tsukune responded with a nod. He looked down and found that the song was almost over. "So how are you liking it?"

"It's okay, so far," Tsukune admitted as he was nearing the 0:40 mark. For being called melodic death metal it wasn't what he was expecting. He could understand the melodic part, but he didn't hear anything relating to the latter part. "It isn't what I was expecting, I will admit."

However, Russell quickly discovered that he wasn't the only one attracting unwanted attention. In the middle of the hall, near the stairs, someone appeared to be getting man-handled. Said person was Moka and she was getting victimized by that large, foot player sized guy from their class earlier. The guy who wanted to molest the girls if he recalled and that definitely set off some red flags in his head, especially now.

"Hey, isn't that Saizo Komiya?" One student watching asked. "I think I've heard of him."

"Yeah, he's always going after girls, human girls especially." Another student mentioned.

"Wasn't he forced in here because human society couldn't tolerate his violence and molestation?" Another whispered.

"Yeah, and now he's stuck with us."

That definitely got his attention, he looked down when he felt his right hand move, and saw that he was unconsciously trying to clench into a fist.

"Hey, Tsukune," Russell took out his earphone and handed it to Tsukune. Tsukune was humming along when he noticed it in front of it. "just listen to the rest of the song, I'll be back."

"Why? What are you going to do?" Tsukune asked him, but he didn't receive an answer. Russell dropped his duffel bag and walked towards the group of people.

Russell had begun to walk away from him, and he just watched him as he did. Russell moved past the group of boys that were apparently weren't doing anything. They were just watching as this brute was assaulting that kind-hearted girl? Now that was just ridiculous. Using his arms, he gently moved the male students out of the way, and the closer he got, the closer he could hear them.

"Come on, what is a girl like you doing all alone?" The thug was grabbing Moka by one of her hands forcefully, causing the girl to cry out. "Don't you want to be with a guy like me?

Russell started to push the people away, not caring about their protests about being not to the ground.

"L-let me go!" Moka cried. "Get your hand off me!"

Russell began to pick up the speed and started to fast run.

"Don't be like that baby" Saizo licked his lips. "I can be a good boyfriend, you just haven't had any experience yet-"

He swung her around, in which he was facing the group of people that were watching. He could see someone running in the corner of his eye. He just shook that off, that didn't matter, right now, all that matter was the hot babe that was in front of him, trying to escape his grip. He's seen a lot of girls in the past, but none of them could compare to her. Saizo wondered what kind of scream she'll make when he-

*POW*

Out of nowhere, something collided with Saizo in the face. Everyone that was around gasped in shock, including Moka. Saizo's mind hadn't processed what happened yet. He couldn't see out of his left eye, but he could move and see out of the other. He moved his eye to see, and just for a moment, he could. A right fist, belonging to another male student pushing against his face, hard. The punch was hard enough that it knocked him to the ground, and given he had a running start it was to be expected. The pain receptors were slowly starting to act up, and he was slowly feeling the hurtful sensation the moment he hit the floor.

"Gaahh! My eye! Fuck my eye!" Saizo covered his leaking eye with his hand, the very one that he used to grab onto Moka.

"Don't you know?" Saizo turned his head and used his only other good eye to look at the guy who hit him. He was standing there in front of Moka who was shocked, his hands were behind his back, and he couldn't see his eyes due to the glasses he was wearing. "When a girl says no, she means it."

"Holy shit, that guy just punched Saizo!" One of the bystanders cried out.

"Did you see him?! He came outta nowhere!" Another male student pointed out.

Saizo looked at the kid in front of him, wasn't that the guy in his class earlier today?

He remembered him, that shades wearing kid with a really dumbass name.

Probably wearing them to look like a hotshot.

Saizo looked at his face, despite not having any emotion while looking at him on the ground he believed that he was enjoying watching him on the dirt, humiliating him while everyone watched.

He gripped his bad eye and growled. "You bastard...!" He slowly got up to his feet, which made everyone watching go silent. They wondered what was going to happen next, they wondered if he was going to retaliate, or if that guy who clocked him would do anything in return. "Do you think I'm going to let that slide...?!" Saizo's left arm began to grow large, and the veins under the skin pulsed and were visible.

Everyone gasped when the delinquent swung his half-transformed arm at Russell. "Take this you arrogant ass!"

"Oh shit!" One student cried out.

"Look out man!" Another, more considerate, student watching warned.

The pissed-off Saizo swung his arm at Russell. He aimed directly at his head, in Saizo's mind he wanted to knock those shades right off his head, and maybe knock off his whole head while he was at it.

Again, not showing any emotion, he caught it. To everyone's shock again, he caught the half transformed hand as if it were a regular swing belonging to a human. "What?!"

Russell looked at the fist in his right hand. It was definitely larger than it was before, and he thought that he should get those veins checked out.

Though he tried to pull his arm back, Saizo found out that he couldn't. He pulled but this asshole wasn't letting go. It was if his arm was stuck in a wall.

Though shocked, that didn't deter Saizo from doing the same with his other hand. Almost transforming his left hand, he swung it. "You mother fuck-!" And again, Russell caught it. "What?!"

"He caught both of them!" One student cried out in shock again.

"Holy shit that guy must be strong!" If he was able to catch both fists, half-transformed, then he had to be strong.

Saizo looked at both of his arms caught in his grasp. How was this possible?! How was this asshole stronger than him?! He was shorter than him for God's sake!

His body began to shook when he was slowly being forced down. Russell kept pushing, forcing him down to one knee, and then to the other. "You bastaaard!" Saizo's body shook as he tried to fight back, but he couldn't. To make things even worse, for him, and to piss him off, even more, the guy holding him didn't look like he was struggling! It was as if he was nothing! "You... son of a-!"

Russell shook his head, tutting. "Bad boy." He leaned back and threw his head forward. His forehead collided with Saizo's, this managed to daze the latter for a moment, in which Russell headbutt him again. He immediately let of his arms and swung at Saizo's head. His right fist collided with the left side of his neck which made him yell in pain. Using his left hand he clocked the delinquent in the nose, not hard enough to hit him, but still enough to hurt him. Not done, he proceeded to knee Saizo right in the gut, which knocked the wind out him.

Saizo stumbled backward, he moved back towards the looking group which forced them to back up as well.

Moka, who was still there had moved far away from the two, but still, she didn't run, she watched the guy who was defending her attack her attacker.

It took a couple of seconds for Saizo to get his bearings, but when he lowered his hands the glasses-wearing student was greeted with a look of absolute hate and anger. He didn't care about anything at that point, not the rules, or the people that were watching, all he wanted was to pound that guy's face in. He growled as his whole body started to pulse. It started to get bigger and his clothes were starting to rip.

"Oh shit, he's going to transform!" A male student cried out, realizing what he was doing.

"Here?! But that's against the rules!" Another student yelled out.

'Oh dear, can't have that.' Russell thought as ran at Saizo with alarming speed. Saizo ripped off his blazer with both of his arms growing bigger with claws. His dress shirt was starting to tear, but not his pants surprisingly. Seeing his victim run at him he was more than welcome to tear him apart now. Saizo threw his fist towards him. Russell managed to slide under the fist, dodging it was embedded in the floor behind him. He was ready to pull his hand out and stomp him again, but then he noticed where he was.

Near his crotch area, and he noticed the clenched fist.

His moment of anger slowly disappeared, and his good eye, along with his bad eye widened when he realized what he was going to do.

Russell got up from the ground and proceeded to punch Saizo, right in the crown jewels.

"AAAAHHH!"

"OOOOOOOHHHHH!" All the surrounding males cried out. Some were clutching their own packages and looking away.

Moka covered her eyes and turned her head the moment she saw it, though she still refused to leave.

The pain was enough for Saizo to stop mid-transformation and clutch his balls in pain; he fell to his knees, clenching both his eyes and teeth together. Saizo's breathing became heavy as he tried to fight the pain with no success; his body shook due to said pain.

Still, despite the pain, he was remarkably able to slowly open his good eye, now leaking a bit.

Russell got up to his feet and dusted himself off, but he wasn't done. He stepped back a few steps and began to spin. Using the momentum he jumped and poked his foot out, kicking Saizo right in the left side of his face, knocking him out. He fell to the side with a large thud.

He looked at the knocked out delinquent for a second before looking at his would-be victim. "Are you okay?"

Her hands were still covering her face, she slowly lowered them to look at him. "Huh?"

"I asked you if you're okay?" He repeated. "He didn't bruise you, or anything?"

It was hard to tell, but she would tell he was concerned. Moka looked at her wrist, the same one that Saizo grabbed earlier. He was only grabbing her hard, but that was enough to make her cry out when he wouldn't stop or let go of her. "N-No, I'm alright."

Russell gave a thumbs up and started to walk away. He walked towards the group of people, they were understandably shocked at what happened. They just saw a regular guy take down the infamous Saizo like he was nothing, and he was still in his human form! Granted, they didn't know that he was human, but still, that was a sight to behold for the students watching.

"Someone get him to the nurse." Russell jabbed a thumb towards Saizo, he was still groaning in pain despite being unconscious. Surprisingly a few students would do what he said. They were the more considerate students did, even though they didn't want to they felt that they had some moral obligation to help him out. Even if he was a molesting delinquent. A few guys rushed over and picked up Saizo's body and slowly dragged him away.

Russell moved silently, and quickly through the group, all the while he could hear them murmur.

"Holy shit, that guy took out Saizo!" One student cried out, more amazed than horrified.

"I know! Did you see that kick?!"

"Forget the kick, did you see that hit to the groin!?"

Russell passed the group and soon found Tsukune, he had moved from his spot from earlier. He must have gotten done with the song, or maybe he just got curious as to what was going on and went to watch. "That was amazing!" Tsukune exclaimed, gazing at him with unmasked admiration. "Where did you learn to do that?!"

"You don't want to know." He looked at the CD player in his hands. "You are done with the song?"

"N-No, I stopped listening earlier, but still that was amazing Russell!" Tsukune handed him back his player, which he tucked back in his blazer.

"Yeah, I guess. Come on," he said, motioning the fellow human to leave. "Let's get out of here before more people start to show."

---

LATER

---

The two of them would eventually part ways when it started to get dark and everyone was already heading out of the school. After following the map that they were given they soon reached the dorms that they would be staying at, and it was a sight to say the least. It was a large, apartment-like complex that was surrounded by gravestones, dead trees, and crows. Russell was pretty sure that he had seen some uprooted coffins as well. When Tsukune saw this he was on the verge of freaking out again, but he didn't thankfully.

"Well, I guess this bye for now." Tsukune turned to Russell, there was a worried look on his face and Russell couldn't blame him. It looked like a dump on the outside, but not so much on the inside, maybe. "They can't really make us stay here, right?"

"I don't know, maybe?" He shrugged. It could be worse, he thought. They could be sleeping in tents or in a cave for that matter, but he should be thankful enough that wasn't the case, and that they were sleeping like regular people with regular housing; as much as two humans staying at a school for a monsters could. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, see you Russell." Tsukune waved as he walked inside first.

He watched as Tsukune disappeared inside, but he didn't follow. He turned around, and surveyed the area. After looking past all the gravestones and dead trees, for a moment he could see it, purple hair. "I can see you over there." He called out. "No bother hiding."

Sure enough, Mizore popped her head out from behind a gargoyle. He had almost forgotten about her to be honest; he was too busy trying to get away earlier that he wondered where she went again.

"That's the second time you've found me," Mizore said, hiding a tone of disappointment mixed with frustration. "how are you able to?"

"You're hair is a good giveaway." He pointed to her long purple hair, which Mizore took note of.

"Maybe I should shorten it then." She said. "That way you don't see me."

Russell waved it off. "Eh, I wouldn't." He said offhandedly, which made her tilt her head. "Your long hair suits you, don't ruin it."

Never mind then, that was enough for her to keep it long. If he wanted her hair to stay the way it was, it was staying the way it was.

"So, what are you doing here?" He questioned. "Shouldn't you be heading to your room as well?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because it's getting late?" He mentioned. He even pointed to the sky that was slowly being darkened by hues of orange and yellow. "There's also a curfew?"

"But how will I know where your room is?" She questioned in return.

It didn't take long for him to realize what she was going to do if he didn't spot her. "Were you going to follow me until you found my room?"

"I was," Mizore admitted with no shame whatsoever. "but looks like I'm going to have to try something else."

"What does that mean?" He wasn't sure if he liked that. It could mean a lot of things, like her trying even harder to stay undetected, or stalking him from the outside while he was asleep. Either way, he wasn't going to like what she was thinking.

"You don't have to worry." She smiled. She passed him by dragging her hand across his torso as she did. "See you tomorrow." He watched as she also disappeared within the entryway of the complex, but not before saying one last thing. "I saw you earlier, what you did to that delinquent earlier."

"Oh? So what did you think?"

"Nothing, but how were you able to do that?" She questioned. "You're human aren't you? Not everyone can take on a monster, so how?"

Russell shrugged. "I well trained I guess."

He technically answered her, but at the same time, didn't. Despite this, she seemed to be okay with it, maybe. "...So you say." With that she went inside with a small wave. "Catch you around~."

'Probably going to have to watch out for that one.' He thought. It was then he remembered that he still had a call to make, recalling what Ms. Nekonome had mentioned earlier today. He also had to hand in his medical files to the school nurse when he had the chance, so that way the teachers wouldn't bug him about wearing shades indoors. They'd probably think he's a delinquent or something, but hey, looks aren't everything. Someone could look intimidating while being a really nice person on the inside, or could be a generally nice person on the outside, or be a complete sociopath on the inside.

He entered the lobby of the complex, which was very spacious and had students that were still up. They were conversing with each other in casual clothes rather than the school uniform. Paying them no mind he found the stairwell and walked up towards the floor where is room was located at. As he walked up the stairwell he was right in his earlier thought that it was better on the inside on the outside, and the same could be said for the school in general. Aside from the horror show outside, it was livable. Granted, now that he thought about it this place was supposed to cater to monsters, rather than humans.

All this horror and dead things, the gravestones, crows, and architecture was made to make other monsters feel more like home; the same couldn't be said for a human like Tsukune, or him for that matter.

Though Russell was a special case, he was used to stuff like this, don't ask why.

After walking through the hallways, filled with boys and girls who were loitering out and talking, he found his room.

He pulled out his wallet, in one of the flaps was a key; he put it in the lock and turned.

It was dark inside, though he could still see thanks to the open window at the far end of the room. After flicking on the lights he closed and locked the door behind him. He took of his shoes and left them in the doorway to not drag any dirt in. He walked down the hallway and got a good view of his living quarters. The room was rather spacious with a green sofa against a wall, in front was an empty table. Behind the wall was an open kitchen with a fridge and another table with a few seats.

There were some open spaces, but he could fill those at a later date.

He walked back to the hallway and check the door he passed by; he opened it and found filled with clothes; jeans to shorts, t-shirts and long-sleeves, even boxers, all with his size; below the clothes was a small tool box.

Walking back he caught another hallway past the kitchen. Russell walked down there and found three other rooms; there was a futon in the middle with a single bed. It had a mirror drilled in the wall and another closet near to it. On the far end was a small desk next to the window with a computer and monitor; he got closer, and found that it was already plugged it.

The second door led into a restroom with a dryer and washing machine; on top of both machines were detergents and softeners.

Then came to the last, third room; the room itself was windowless. But that wasn't what caught his eye; it was the fact that it was, like most of his room, already filled with stuff.

In this room were a couple of crates and cases, the latter of which looked like they were military use.

Also there was a large table with a chair and on that table were black crates, and in those crates were folders. Next to the crate he could spy rolled up blueprints, and some other papers. On top of the stack was a small phone, a small flip phone; under the phone was a small note that read: "Call me, the number is in the phone book."

Russell tossed his bag to the floor next to one of the legs of the table; he opened the phone to find that it was already on. After pressing through the contacts, he found the phone number; he pressed on the call button and the screen told him to wait, followed by ringing. Russell sat there waiting through the beeping; he looked over at the box and put it to the floor. He took one of these folders and was about to open them until the ringing stopped, followed by a click on the other end.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Christoff." The voice sounded middle-aged. "I trust that your living arrangements are your satisfactory?"

"They are Chairman." He answered. Russell made some room on the table to open one of the files he got; followed by a few more. "And I trust my other rooms are prepared?"

"Almost, Mr. Christoff. We still need to move some of your... equipment," Russell held in a small chuckle,but let out another small smirk. "but I can assure you, they'll be dropped off at your marked locations." The Chairman reassured him. "And as you can see you have the following documents prepared for you, read them and utilize them to how you see fit."

Russell sat on the chair provided, and opened one of these folders; he skimmed through them, student files. All of them contained the info of every student and faculty member that was at Yokai Academy. All of them dictated their names, height, age, sex, color of hair, eye color, etc; but most importantly their monster form. That was definitely going to come in handy in the future, and was going to make things very easy for him.

"But tell me Mr. Christoff, how goes your first day?" The Chairman asked with genuine interest, but Russell could tell there was more to it. He could already tell that somehow; he knew what he went through the moment he exited that tunnel with Tsukune and Mizore. "Meet anyone new?"

"Yes, a couple." Russell closed the file and opened up another. He had just went to the names in the box, starting with the letter 'T'; he skimmed through looking for the 'S' section of files, and soon found them. "Met a girl named Mizore," After skimming through the S's he found Mizore's last name; he sat on the table, he'll read it later. "and the other's a boy named Tsukune." Russell went over to another crate that had the A's and skimmed though it; he soon found Tsukune's name and opened it up. "You didn't tell me that he was human like me."

The Chairman chuckled on the other end; Russell rolled his eyes as he started to read what the file had on his companion. Unsurprisingly when he checked the box that would say what species of monster it was, there were bold letters that said unknown.

"Tsukune Aono is indeed a human like you, the second human to enter Yokai Academy in discretion. I knew his life would be endangered the moment he arrived here."

"He's going to get slaughtered." That wasn't an exaggeration; there was a high possibility that he would get torn apart if someone got curious. Worst case scenario, Tsukune could get into a fight; while his opponents would transform, he wouldn't; and get promptly torn apart.

"That was why I assigned you, to look after him and be his helping hand."

"I'm serious." Russell said while closing the file.

"And so I am, Mr. Christoff."

"You told me, when we first met, that you wanted to branch both worlds; human and monster, together." He recalled. "And I agreed with you, but I also said that might not happen."

"Mr. Christoff, are you telling me that you would rather remain in hiding and treated as an outcast for the rest of your life?" If he was on the other end of the call, he would see a frown.

"It could lead to something you don't want. What happens when Tsukune isn't this miracle child that will bring monsters and humans together?" He said, bringing up a good point. "Worst case scenario, you could end up distancing them even further; or even better outright war. People won't like what they don't understand, and they'll just be more fighting."

"That's a very harsh reality that I've already thought of; something you've demonstrated this morning." The Chairman countered.

Russell stopped for a moment; of course, he knows about that. "Fair enough, but you're proposing is something that's against what's already accepted as the norm; if not the status quo."

"That is true," the Chairman accepted, "but that's only because they are blinded by the stigma surrounding humans, which is again, something you exemplified this morning."

"That was different."

"Is it? Humanity has always fought for reasons either motivated by self-interest and selfishness; and as you stated, you don't like what you don't understand." The Chairman brought up another point; humanity has always been a complicated race.

"That's not true and you know it," Russell said. "we're not that simple, and besides that scum deserved it; he was going molest that girl."

"True." He couldn't help but admit that both sides, human or otherwise, shared a sense of depravity. "But still, remove all the evil and depravity and something could come out of it. It might take decades, but if there is a slight sliver that it might happen, won't you take it? Learn to accept that unity between the two worlds can be achieved if you believe in it."

"As a man of faith I can actually, but still you're asking a lot from me."

"I'm telling you to keep an open mind." The Chairman tried to amend.

Russell sighed, his right hand was on his forehead right now. "...Look, binding agreement aside, I think that this a tall order. I'm concerned about the fallout here; do you even have a Plan B? Just in case everything blows up in your face? And worse yet, war does come?"

There was a moment of silence, something that didn't go unnoticed by him. The Chairman turned some papers, followed by a pen scribbling. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

'This guy...' Russell thought, while internally remembering why he took this job with him in the first place. There was one thing for sure, binding agreement or not he wasn't going to be around for the fallout; he probably was going to though, just to see who he could save after the mess. "Is there anything else you wanted to go over? Or can I hang up now?"

There was a small breath of air on the other end. "Not yet." The Chairman said. "Your first day, what are your thoughts?"

"Everyone here is crazy, Tsukune's an idiot, and I have a stalker; not to mention there are female girls looking at me with looks that I feel uncomfortable with."

"A stalker?"

"Mizore Shirayuki, I met her on the bus and now she won't leave me alone," Russell explained. Now that he thought about it, why not look up said mysterious stalker? Reaching over, he took the file from the stack; he should put those back later. He opened the file while the Chairman gave his response. "now she's obsessed with me."

"Ah, I see." He could hear more scribbling on the end; probably paperwork to do, and he was probably talking to him on speaker while he did this. "So what of the 'miracle child'? What are your impressions of him?"

"Well," He tried to think of something, but found that he couldn't. "he's a kid; and young, no surprise there. He had thoughts about leaving, and I tried to talk him into it. I even made a small speech, but he took it the wrong way, and now he's staying here."

The thing was, Russell was trying to convince Tsukune that even if he returned home a bum, and his family might blame him for it, it was okay. It was for his sake, namely his safety; and for their sake, so they wouldn't have to wonder why their son went missing or turned up dead; unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Tsukune believed that it was his duty as a man to stick it through and go with it, which is the exact opposite of what Russell wanted; so this was on him.

"You tried to convince him to leave?"

"I did. I just told you; I made a small speech and everything." He was a bit proud of that speech as well. He had read most of Mizore's info, and safe to say he wasn't sure what he was expecting. It was the basic stuff; her name, hair color, eye color, name of parents (though for some reason her father's name was also blocked out as unknown), height, age, etc. There were also some other things that caught his interest; apparently Mizore had problems. She had some issues in junior high and was extremely anti-social; not to mention very depressed and lonely, and was recommended to have a close eye on her just in case. 'Was she suicidal?'

Then came what she was: a Yuki-Onna.

Russell had no idea what that was, but he'll find out some other time.

"And apparently, he flunked every single entrance exam in Japan; even the ones going abroad, he failed them. I mean, he could move to the U.S and enroll in a school there, but I don't think his family has the money in order to do so. You didn't have anything to do with that, right?"

"No," The Chairman sounded amused. "That was all Tsukune's doing, no strings were pulled on my end."

"Ah." The guy was just an idiot then.

"Not everyone can be as smart as you, Russell." He said. "Do you have any other questions before you hang up?"

"How long until the rest of my equipment arrives?"

Again, he could hear papers flipping on the other end. "In a couple of days," The Chairman answered. "you're a delicate case Russell, and some others have requested to have their belongings moved as well. Given the contents of your belongings, we will try to get here as soon as possible; mark my words it will arrive. Anything else?"

A thought came to his mind; he walked over to a box and looked for the 'K' section. "Did someone check out of the nurse today? One that was beaten up?"

"I take it you're talking about Mr. Saizo Komiya, aren't you?" He was notified by a couple of teachers that they saw some students carry a badly beaten person to the nurse's office. The Chairman was slowly starting to figure out what was going on. "He's still there in the Nurse's Office, but he'll be out soon; though I have a feeling he won't be."

"No he won't, and he's going to be trouble in the future; count on that," Russell said. He opened Saizo's file and started to read it. "If he goes missing, don't send anyone out to look for him."

Again there was another breath of air on the other end, but at the same time, it was filled with amusement. It was as if he already knew what he was planning, and what he was about to do; in fact, he did, and he welcomed it. "I see, well then, you know what to do; as per our agreement."

"Indeed." Russell flicked the top of the folder, closing it; he looked at it as if it were nothing.

"Good day, Mr. Christoff."

"Good day, Chairman."

Russell and the Chairman hung up, closing their phones coincidentally at the same time.

He stood up from his seat, hands on the table. He took a breath of air and turned his head to one of the crates; if he recalled, there was a toolbox in the closet. After bringing back the box from the hallway he opened it up and took the hammer; he gently hit his left palm a couple of times. He walked over to the first box he laid his eyes on; he got to work removing the nails. He removed all four of them and pushed off the top; Russell gazed down at the contents of the box and nodded; he could work with this.

'Alright then,' He thought. 'the end has begun.'

---

LATER

---

It was almost night time by the time Saizo Komiya walked out the front gates of the main entrance. His eye had a bandage wrapped around it like an eye patch and there was another covering his nose.

It was cool this night, and it was understandably dark out. Everyone else, student or faculty had already gone home at this point; the teacher's lived off-campus and used the tunnel to get themselves home while the students already headed towards the dorms; though you could catch a few reckless or daring students still up, wanting to break curfew.

After waking up with bandages all over his body he found himself in the nurses' office. Some good samaritans had dragged him thereafter a scuffle earlier today, and it didn't take him long to remember what had happened. After getting caught having fun with way too many human girls he was sentenced to attend here as a form of rehabilitation. But not long after arriving at the school, he could already notice the number of hot girls that were there; so many to count. He could just imagine all the ways he could have fun with all of them; just wrapping his tongue all over their bodies as they screamed to stop was just one.

Then came homeroom, and he, like every male in the class was greeted with a sight: Moka Akashiya.

Her long pink hair, shiny legs, beautiful face, and above-average size chest was nothing he had ever seen before; so it was only natural that she would be next on his female conquest. He would ambush her while she was alone and take her to his room; whether she would willingly or not, that was no importance, all he cared about was getting her out of those clothes and onto his bed.

That is until he came.

The very thought of him made Saizo's blood boil and the pain coming from his bandages just intensified that.

Never in his life did he go through something like that, and feel so damn humiliated. He was no stranger to those who fought back; there were countless others who would try to stand up to him, only to be beaten with an inch of his life or torn apart with his bare hands. There was this one time where he took some guy's girl and violated her right in front of him. He tried to fight back with a pipe and he broke his arms and legs and left him watching; though that was the reason he got into this mess in the first place he didn't regret it; serves him right for not treating a girl the right way.

Still, that guy, that Christoff or whatever he beat him and knocked him out as if he were nothing; in front of a small crowd no less. He still had no idea how he was able to do that, was he an S-Class monster? The important thing was that it was only a matter of time before the rumors would spread, and he would be called a complete laughing stock. His reputation of being a fierce and strong monster was in tatters now. The thought of being ridiculed by everyone in the hallways made him clench his fists so hard that he started to draw blood; all because of him.

When he got his hands on him... he was going to make it slow. He was going to tear him limb from limb; rip his organs out, and chomp down every last piece of him until there was nothing left. He might even keep those stupid glasses as a souvenir. They'd probably way better on him that on that entitled little asshole.

"That fucking asshole is going to pay, I swear it...!"

"Are you talking about me?"

Saizo's head shot up when he heard the voice; it was him. He was leaning against the stone pillars of the entry gate; his arms were crossed, and he was wearing those stupid, fucking glasses again!

The very sight of him made Saizo's anger reach its peak and seeing the little ass responsible for all of his pain made this too good to be true. "You... you...BASTARD!"

He tore the blazer that was draped around his back as he started to transform. His skin stretched and his body started to grow, with his muscles and height tripling in size; with spikes that were slowly growing from his body. When he was finished transforming Saizo Komiya had become hulking monstrosity with grey skin, fangs, and a long tongue. His clothes on his chest were completely gone; thrown off during his transformation, but this also included his bandages. The bruising behind the bandages were still visible and they still hurt him, evidenced on how after he changed he clutched his eye that was still swollen.

Saizo was an Orc. They were similar to Goblins and are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race, contrasting with the benevolent Elves in Mythology serve evil forces, though they share a human sense of morality; Saizo on the other hand, no so much.

"Oh, so that's what you look like," Russell commented while still leaning on the pillar. "you look uglier than I imagined."

"Do you... have any idea... what you've done to me?!" The orc angrily demanded as he stomped towards him. "You humiliated me! My reputation is ruined! I'm nothing but a weak punk now!"

"Was there a difference before?"

Russell's statement seemed to anger him even more; he didn't care that his body hadn't healed yet, and he could give a rats ass about not showing his monster form; he just wanted to see that little prick dead.

"Ooohhh... I'm going to make this painful... and slow!" Saizo swore. He roared as he charged at him like a mad bull.

"Well then," Russell kicked himself off of the pillar; he gestured Saizo to come to get him. "as they say: catch me if you can."

Saizo leaped into the air; as he came close to him he swung his massive fist downwards. Russell moved out of the way, jumping back and avoiding the punch that completely obliterated the pillar; the Chairman was going to be cross with him later, he thought. Saizo pulled his hand away from the ground and noticed the large chunks of stone he made. He grabbed the largest piece and chucked it at him. Russell moved the right, completely dodging it; however, Saizo grabbed a couple of more large blocks of rock and threw them at him; while continuing charging at Russell as well.

He ducked under the first large rock and jumped away from the other, including the second one by simply leaning back; though it did manage to graze his blazer. Even with one good eye, he knew that he was still dangerous. Saizo lunged at him with both of his massive claws forcing Russell to dive right under him. He crashed into the dirt; he shook his head in pain, grabbing onto his bad eye that had gotten dirt and dust in it. He growled angrily and spun around, when he did a rock clocked him in the forehead.

That didn't do anything to him but did make him even angrier. He roared again, in which Russell booked it; he dove into the nearby forest of dead trees, in which Saizo gave chase. "Get back here you coward!"

Russell ran past dead tree after dead tree; he vaulted over a fallen log which was promptly bashed by the angry orc. Saizo grabbed both pieces of the log and threw it at him; the first piece missed Russell, crashing into a tree; the second one landed right in front of the glasses-wearing student; and again, he vaulted over that one too. He continued to run through the dead forest, occasionally glancing behind him to make sure the orc was still chasing him; and he was, and he was out for his blood.

He glanced behind him again, when he did he saw a long tongue reach out for him. 'Didn't know they could do that...'

The tongue was getting closer until he noticed that they had entered an area that was littered with gravestones. Russell leaped off one of the many gravestones, just missing getting his left leg wrapped by the orc's tongue. Saizo pulled back his tongue; the gravestone was loose enough for him to pull out. After pulling it back with him he threw it like a javelin towards his prey, who was standing in front of a tomb entrance. The gravestone collided with the stone door, creating a blast of stone and dust.

The orc eventually caught up, slowly approaching the smoke. He growled and sniffed the air; this was too easy. He entered the cloud, trying to get just a little whiff of that asshole's scent; however, when the dust cleared he found nothing; nothing but a busted tomb and a lot of dirt, no dead body. "GRRRAAAAAAAHHH!" He gave a loud roar in the air, immediately spinning around to look for him. "Where are you?!" His one good eye drifted from tombstone to tombstone, tree to tree, trying to look for him.

He slowly walked through the dirt path that was there; scanning all he could see. 'It's too quiet... did I lose him?!' He growled as he heard something move behind him; followed by cawing and feathers raining down him. "Grrrrrr... stupid birds!" The orc spun around again when he heard footsteps; again, he could hear them, pattering against the ground and on the tombstones. He scanned the area carefully, side to side for anything that moved; he snapped his head to the left and more black feathers fell.

Saizo growled, he wasn't going to let this bastard getaway. He sniffed the air again, and he grinned ferociously. "Got you!" He immediately gave chase, following the scent. He ran past the never-ending line of tombstones and trees, all the while following the path that was laid out in front of him. Eventually, he came to a large clearing; he was surrounded by gravestones that were in a circular position around him. He stomped his way towards the middle of the circle. He sniffed the air again, his scent was here, but where was he?!

"COME FIGHT ME, YOU COWARD!" He yelled. "DAMMIT WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Just then, right behind him, hiding behind a cross-shaped tombstone Russell moved out from his hiding spot; and he was holding something. "Here."

Saizo grinned, exposing his sharp teeth which were ready to tear into his flesh.

He spun around, arms raised with his mouth open.

*BANG*

Saizo froze when he heard it, he then felt a large pain coming from his abdomen. Looking down he could see his chest bleeding badly; blood was gushing out from a hole in his stomach, and it was big. He slowly put his hand on the wound, then he looked at his hand. "W-What...?!" He looked up at the glasses-wearing boy in front of him. In his right hand was a silver-grey revolver; a Smith and Wesson Model 500 with an 8 3/8 inch barrel to be exact; the smoke was still coming from the barrel.

Saizo could barely register what was happening until he coughed up blood. He put his massive clawed hand over his mouth while the other was on his wound.

Russell looked at him coldly behind his glasses; it seems not even monsters were bullet resistant; though that might be because he was using 350 grain jacketed hollow points.

He watched as Saizo coughed more blood through gritted teeth. The orc slowly raised his head to look at him with even more hate that was now laced with shock. "Where *cough*...the hell... did you get... a gun?!"

Russell answered by shooting the orc again in the shoulder, forcing his hand to move away from his wound. He screamed in pain as a chunk of his shoulder was blown off. The chunk of flesh plopped to the side with a disgusting splatter of blood. Saizo stumbled back a couple of steps, breathing heavily through gritted, blood-soaked teeth. "I don't know *cough*...who you are... but I don't care." He growled. Russell walked around the circle of tombstones with the orc doing the same. "You disrespected me... humiliated me *cough* got in the way of taking Moka *cough* Akashiya..."

The glasses-wearing student said nothing, keeping his gun pinned on the pissed off, but wounded orc. He could tell he was going to get desperate, which also meant reckless.

"...And I don't know *cough* how the fuck *cough* you got a gun here... but it won't save you...!" Saizo struggled to keep standing up. He fell on one knee, one hand on a tombstone while another was on his wound. He pushed himself off, leaving behind the stone marked with his blood. "I swear... I'm going to rip you apart and eat your fucking organs... piece... by PIECE! GRAAAAAAHHH!"

With another roar, Saizo ran at Russell with full fury; fully intending on ripping him apart if it was the last thing he did. Russell fired another into his chest, and though it blew another hole that went out the other side it didn't stop him from charging; Saizo was consumed with rage and desperation, and he wasn't going to stop.

'Good.' Russell thought.

With the last of the strength that was inside him, Saizo lunged at Russell, hoping that one of his hands could grab him; if not, his tongue would! The slithery thing shot out at the same time as his arms.

Russell lowered his gun and rolled to the side.

Saizo's eye widened as he crashed through a tree and soon found himself lunging off a cliff. Russell turned around when he heard the crash; he almost jumped because of the impact. When the last of the splinters fell he walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down; the cliff was on an incline suitable enough for him to slide down on; he stopped his momentum thanks to gargoyle statue that was buried beneath the dirt. He dusted his behind of any of the dirt before walking towards Saizo.

He was surprisingly still alive; however, that was debatable. Saizo's body was impaled through the chest and stomach, via a large stone crucifix that was sticking out from the ground. His organs hung out on top of the cross, namely his heart and part of his lung; however to Russell's surprise it was still beating.

Saizo's arms and legs twitched as his body was slowly starting to fade; he himself had blood leaking from the massive hole in him and from the mouth; he was probably going to choke on his own blood. Russell walked over to him and stood right in front of his head so that he could see him.

Saizo's pupils slowly made their way towards him; Russell leaned forwards and asked. "Are you scared, Mr. Komiya?"

He stood back up, and reached towards his glasses, taking them off.

He leaned forwards again, making sure that Saizo got a good look at him; the orc's one good eye widened. Never in his entire life was Saizo scared; he led a fearless life as he did whatever he wanted without the repercussions. He wasn't afraid of the law, his parents, nothing; however, what he saw in his last moments, made him scared. His mouth was quivering open and his good eye was the widest it could have been.

"Well," Russell stood back up and moved back; he pointed at Saizo's head. "you should."

*BANG*

The upper portion of Saizo's head exploded; chunks of blood, skull, and brain matter went flying. The rest of his brain hung out, dangling in the air via the brain stem that was still attached, alongside his eye that was hanging via the long nerves; blood fell out like a fountain, in which Russell had to step back in order to prevent his shoes from getting wet.

He looked at himself and didn't feel any remorse for what he did. He looked up at the moon; it's glowing, pink-red light shining down on the both of them.

Russell took a deep breath and let it out. He put his glasses on and walked away.

"Goodnight Saizo."

---

MEANWHILE

---

Back near the tunnel, near the bus stop was a lone bus. The bus driver stood there, leaning against the hood of his vehicle; he took a drag of the cigarette he was smoking. He basked in the red glow of the moonlight, and he could feel it. Somehow, someway, despite not being around where that glasses-wearing kid was, he felt what had just happened.

The bus driver grinned, his obscured eyes glowing white. "Kid, you have no idea what this place has in store for you..."

---

SINNERS: 1

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file_folder_RV_(01_ OF_ERROR)_

STATUS: COMPLETE

RESUME_WITH_LOG(?):

(Y) (N)

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If you do not know what Madness Combat is free to look it up on Youtube, and especially Newgrounds. Please watch them in order to get you well acquainted with the general idea of the series.

Look up Krinkles on Youtube for the main series. I'd recommend watching the main series first, then the Incidents. They don't have to be in that general order, that's your call.

Also with the whole computer loading error/loading thing that I'll be doing from now on; that's to emulate the 'glitches' that happen in both the MC series and the Project Nexus game. I'm not trying to do it do be edgy, I swear.

Also, if anyone is complaining about my OC, being too overpowered remember this: This is a Madness Combat Crossover, and most protagonists tend to be semi-overpowered and over the top like this; so again, watch the videos. So my character is able to fight many groups of enemies, in a gory fashion, without getting hurt without a scratch wouldn't be far off. With that being said I'll try not to make him a full-blown Marry Sue character, he'll still be smart and a badass; but he won't be a stranger to failure and screw-ups.

Also, I'm not the best with guns; I've never gone to range let alone held one, I have played Girls Frontline, but that hardly counts. So I apologize if I get anything wrong; because true to Madness Combat, there's going to be a whole lot of guns.

To answer some questions before someone asks them:

Will the A.A.H.W or Project Nexus show up in the future: Yes, though if PN2 comes out this year that will be even better; that's more stories I can tell with that.

Will Hank, Stanford, Deimos, or Tricky show up as well: Maybe, I haven't thought that far yet.

Will Russell's origin be explained more thoroughly, as well as how he got a job as the Chairman's watchman: Yes, I've planned it out and it will be explained in more detail.

Will you follow the cannon: Yes and no, I will try to follow the cannon mostly; but things will change. Imagine it from this perspective: imagine he show/manga as you remembered it, but add in a ruthless anti-hero with lots of guns; one person can make a whole difference.

I should also mention that I'm going to try and not use honorifics for simplicity, though some people will still say their native languages.

Will my OC have a harem: I don't know honestly, I just paired him up with Mizore at last minute; though it will be one-sided until things change; kind of like what Gray goes through. Man, Fairy Tail was a wild ride; might do a story on that in the future.

Also, if you don't like semi self-inserts and other kinds of similar story-lines, I am not sure this is the story for you; some guest readers don't seem to understand that, and they need to learn to chill out.

Poor NeonZengetsu.

The trolls are relentless with that guy.

Then again this is the internet; this is a place where you can say, and do, whatever you want because some people believe that because they're behind a screen no one can kick their asses.

Last thing: Now that I have my story and my origin all figured out now I'm going to delete the two old ones sometime after I get this uploaded. Out with the old in with the new, and I thank anyone who was still following my story despite it being abandoned and I hope you share the same support on this one.

In all seriousness though, I hope you enjoy this story and I hope you all stay safe during these times.

I know that my writing, grammar, and punctuation isn't all that great, but hey, give a guy a chance. I've been out of the game for a while, and I need a couple of refreshers, so criticism and advice are welcome.