"Teki, it was torture without you all day. Why does fate conspire to keep us apart," a hyper active succubus whined as she plowed head on into a very apathetic vampire.
"Harumi, you have said that everyday for the past month. I get it, you still refuse to get over your childhood infatuation with me. Now get off me so that I can go back to my room and collapse for a few minutes," Tekeshi forcefully told the girl.
Since the first day of school it never failed for the blue haired girl to ram him at the end of the day saying that the lack of his presence was torture. The twins at least stayed quieter in their admiration, even if it was just as creepy and unhealthy as Harumi's. He knew that he needed to find someway to make them all understand it just was not going to happen. Now the task was to figure out just why the twins were obsessed with him, he already knew Harumi's story.
"Harumi, your panties are showing," Utsuki commented as she walked up to them.
"Liar, my skirt is long enough to cover them," was the reply.
"They are pink lace with a little heart cutout just under the waistband."
Tekeshi couldn't help but snicker at that. Harumi was highly intelligent, if a little air-headed. For her not to realize her tail had popped out without her wanting it to was right up her alley. The fact she hadn't felt the crowd of boys staring and crying at what they considered a beautiful sight was amazing.
He finally took pity on her, "Would you let go of me long enough to punish the guys who were staring at them."
Harumi looked up horrified, "They really are showing? My tail! Why must you betray me so, have I not treated you with the most caring manners throughout our life?"
Tekeshi shook his head as he removed his limiter. That was all it took. The girls were used enough to his aura it really had no effect on them, and Utsuki couldn't really feel it being human and all, but the other students suddenly found other things they needed to be doing. Slipping the ring back on he made a hasty retreat before Harumi got over her embarrassment. He almost didn't notice Utsuki follow him, the twins staying to poke fun at the traumatized succubus.
"Why did everyone clear out when you removed your limiter," she asked as they approached the dorms.
"My aura. Vampires are scary, to humans and most monsters. Our raw yokai energy is higher than almost every other kind of yokai, and that scares them. Only werewolves come close to how powerful we are, and most of them will defer to us unless there is a full moon. That is when they can use their speed and agility to fight us on an even ground. The only reason you didn't feel my aura is because you are human, even though you did feel a slight pressure in the air didn't you?"
Harumi stopped and thought for a second, "Now that you mention it, both then and during your fight with Fauru I found it somewhat hard to breath. I just chalked it up to fear during the fight."
"Feeling for an aura is something that would be useful for you to learn. Tell you what, this weekend I will start teaching you how to. Anyways I will see tomorrow," He told her as he started to the guy's dorms.
After locking his door Tekeshi flicked off his navy blue school blazer. He had to admit he liked the color better than the green that his parents had worn during their time in attendance at the school. Grabbing the hanger off the handle of the bathroom door he neatly hung the garment back in his closet. He then turned to his bed. He wasn't sure why boredom made him feel more tired than anything else, it felt like it sucked every bit of energy from his body, leaving him nothing except a semi-sentient husk that desired nothing but sleep.
He fell face first just as he heard a voice that he wasn't sure he wanted to hear, "You seem to be quite taken with Utsuki. I must say she is a very nice girl. She reminds me of your father during his first year at Yokai."
In the past Tekeshi would have immediately jumped into a fighting stance ready to confront an intruder to his room, today he didn't have the energy, "Last time you showed up I broke my neck, so I think I deserve a better answer as to who you really are. And just how the hell do you know what my father was like when he was still a human?"
Akasha looked up at the ceiling organizing her thoughts as the young vampire worked himself into a sitting position on his bed, "Both of those are very difficult for me to answer. Especially the second one. The first question you aren't quite ready to know the answer to yet, when you are I promise complete and full disclosure. In vitam meam et gloriam."
Tekshi's eyebrows went skyward, "Upon my life and my honor. And in Latin no less. That just increases my curiosity. Still, answer the second one now, I have the right to know that much."
The pink haired woman squirmed in her chair, or Tekeshi's chair though possession of articles was not important right then. She might have made a mistake mentioning the boy's father and her knowledge of him. What was worse is the fact he was right, she was the one responsible for him falling out of the tree. She really needed to get herself into the habit of thinking before opening her mouth.
"The silence act is not going to work, I know you have some connection to my mother given her reaction to your name and description. If I am good at something besides fighting, it is figuring out what is going on around me. Now what is your connection," ultimately he didn't get an answer as the woman with the bubblegum pink hair seemed to cease existing right in front of his eyes.
"Schizophrenia is common in people with IQs over 138, and I think that I may have it. Just what the world needs; A schizoid vampire. Mom and Pops are going to have a fit."
Tsukune looked dead into his son's eyes as he digested the information he had just been told. Tekeshi didn't lie, he was always highly rational, and he was completely calm at the moment. It also made his own theory of Tekeshi having schizophrenia look even less likely in his mind. It actually looked more like he had made a mistake when he designed the seal he used to bind most of Tekeshi's power. Granted most of it he had to work out himself, using Touhou Fuhai's notes as a framework with which to design the most intricate parts. Given his inexperience there was a good chance he missed something that was now allowing Tekeshi's latent power to leak out and could lead to the destruction of the seal.
"You think she is just a hallucination that likes tormenting you," Tsukune snapped out of his thoughts as Moka spoke.
"Both times she showed herself she made a comment on my love life, as non-existent as that actually is. She also disappeared when I pressed her on answers towards her connection with you and dad. We all know that I am more intelligent than Aunt Yukari, even if I am lacking in knowledge and wisdom. So don't try to lie to me, and no more of this deflecting questions. I want answers as to what is going on, for both my good, and the possibility that I might become a danger to others if I am truly becoming mental unstable."
Tsukune had to sit back in his chair. If he said he wasn't proud of how forceful his son was in demanding information that by all rights he deserved to have, well he would have been lying like a dog. The problem was that knowledge could be dangerous if there was nothing to compare it to. Just knowing something was useless, you needed different viewpoints and personal experience to be able to know how to use it, and Tekeshi lacked that. Yes he could tell him that part of Yokai history had been manipulated to protect him, or he could reveal that ultimately he played very little part in the real defeat of Alucard, and that his grandmother enacted the self-destruction spell that annihilated her and Alucard, along with the other two Dark Lords. This was going to be a gigantic headache for the male shinso.
"What do you mean I should stop asking questions, and why did you decide to show up here, just to prove that I am having a mental break down or something," Tekeshi suddenly yelled leaving the two elders in shock.
In the end Moka was the one to give everything away, "Mother."
Tsukune groaned as Tekeshi rounded to face her dead on with a look in his eye that even he wouldn't be able to face without spilling where the bodies were buried, "What do you mean by mother? Wait a minute, Akasha, I forgot I heard Aunt Kokoa say something about an Akasha when I was very young."
Tsukune despised violence, especially when he had no other choice, but now was the time to use it. Taking a breath he seemed to fade from existence. He took a step straight through his desk his body seeming to pass straight through two feet of solid oak wood. As he finished the step he re-solidified and grabbed Tekeshi by the throat. The last motion was to bash him against the wall so hard that it gave under the assault.
"Kodomo, you will stop asking questions concerning this until I tell you that you are ready for the answers. I know that you are aware that the world is not so cut and dry in how it works, but knowledge is power, and power is dangerous to those not ready to wield it correctly. If you persist the punishment will be severe," Tsukune said in a low threatening voice that had made other vampires defer to him.
He was surprised by his son's reaction though. Instead of averting his eyes and begging for forgiveness, his eyes turned red and the sound of a piece of silver striking the wall before hitting the carpet was heard. Then Tekeshi faded from view into the wall, and Tsukune felt his upper body forced through the same wall rather than saw it due to the force. Moka and Tekeshi had come to blows from frustration in the past, but Tekeshi had never once raised his hand towards his father, and Tsukune knew that he indeed was to blame for the situation.
"I am tired of my questions being deflected, and being lied to when you knew that you had no real reason not to answer the question, but didn't believe that I should be given the answer. I am starting to see people that aren't there who have some connection to my family, and going by mom's reactions might be an image of my grandmother who nobody ever seems to talk about when I am around. What is g...," even without his limiter Tekeshi was no match for the sledgehammer blow that his mother planted in the side of his head.
"Tsukune, I don't know what is happening to him, but we may not be able to handle this like we have in the past. When he was just a child he had no reason to think we were lying to him, but he isn't so malleable now. We may need to give him some of the answers he seeks to stop him from pursuing more until the time is right. We don't have the choice of sending him away this time like we did the first time this happened," Moka said, concern written on her face as her husband extricated himself from the wall.
Tsukune sighed in half defeat, "Too much is happening too fast. If we could deal with Kouyo first, and then deal with our son's seeming mental deconstruction it would be so much easier. This is the worst possible timing for this to happen. Damn you Mikogami, why couldn't you have left me one of your mysterious letters giving me advice for something like this."
"Thank you for staying with him, Utsuki-chan. I would have asked Harumi or the twins, but I think he would not have been real happy with that," Moka said gracefully.
Utsuki smiled, "It's not a problem. He has been protecting me since before he was told to, this is the least I could do to start repaying him."
Tekeshi was unaware of what was going on as he lay in the hospital bed. Rather than take him back to his room while he was in his fragile mental state Moka had opted for sequestering him in the hospital wing until Yukari could arrive. Ruby was extremely skilled in nursing, however she didn't have the same understanding of mental conditions that Yukari had cultivated over the years, and it was mental help he was needing.
"What happened to him, if it isn't rude to ask, if so I'm sorry. I just don't like seeing him in one of these beds without knowing what happened."
Moka smiled at the girl again, "He apparently is suffering from a mild case of anxiety brought on by not being able to fully exercise his mental faculties. Humans with similar IQs often suffer from such conditions when they aren't challenged enough," she wasn't sure if that was true, but she couldn't tell her that in truth Tekeshi had a seal melded to his heart restraining an extreme amount of power so he doesn't die from it overloading him, and that seal may be in the process of breaking down and causing him to become borderline schizophrenic.
She had a feeling that if she told Utsuki that, she would run away, and she was still hoping the two might start a relationship deeper than just good friends. She knew it was extremely underhanded to work behind the scenes in her son's life on such things, but he had always been kind of thick-headed when it came to others that weren't wanting to fight him. And she agreed with him that none of his "little sisters" were right for him the romance department.
She wasn't the schemer her husband had become, no she was much worse, she was a mother who thought she had the perfect match for her child. When they made that decision nothing short of death was able to make them relent, and that might not even stop Aono Moka in pursuit of her goal.
Tekeshi's eyes opened to a room he really wasn't expecting. His room at the family mansion in Osaka. He hadn't been there in so many years he was surprised he recognized it at all. So many happy memories for him here. He just didn't know why he was there.
"You know, you are probably one of the smartest individuals alive, yet you cannot understand when to retreat and plan a counterattack. If you had just accepted their position long enough to get them to let their guard down, then you might have gotten something out of them," he heard himself say.
Calming himself he sat up, "I have never been good at retreating, I prefer to press the attack. That may be one of my greatest faults though. What is it you want with me?"
His other more fierce-looking self stepped into sight, "What I want is for you to realize your potential. Your parents are afraid of your power, they think it might destroy you, and if you don't get yourself centered and obtain the knowledge to handle it then you might just suffer that fate. I am nothing but a projection of that latent power, so I can't do anything more than tell you how to obtain me."
"God this sounds like a scene out of a cheesy manga. First time I ended up here I couldn't even speak, now I am holding a conversation with a supposed projection of power."
The projection pinched the bridge of its nose, "The fact you are able to speak here in the first place, is not actually a good sign. I will tell you this now and you should listen carefully. You might be the powder keg needed to bring down the obstacles keeping humans and monsters from being at peace with each other. However if you can't bring yourself under control that won't happen. Maybe you might listen to someone else."
Tekeshi looked toward the door as he heard it open, and was surprised to see himself as he appeared when he removed the limiter, "This is getting weirder by the hour."
"I am nothing more than your common sense. Unfortunately our host isn't good enough to tell us apart if we appeared the same, so I got the less cute version of us."
Tekeshi's mood dropped some, "I don't like being described as cute. Even if I have pink streaks in my hair, I am not cute."
Common sense just smirked, "Keep telling yourself that. He is right though. If you press the attack here you will end up shutting the door to any future answers. You need to approach this from a standpoint of guerrilla warfare. Work on them a little at a time, but change the subject before they can figure out what you are doing and your goals."
"That sounds all well and good for you, but I have been seeking these answers my whole life. You are just projections of me, it doesn't matter if you find out or not. I don't know if I am becoming schizophrenic or am suffering from some leftover piece of whatever it was that nearly killed me as an infant. I need to know what is happening," He retorted as forcefully as he could at the others.
The platinum haired projection sighed, "When they said you weren't ready for the knowledge they were right. This isn't some little bit of Greek mythology you have an interest in, this information could cause you to do something that could literally tear you apart if you don't have the ability to control it. I do give you points for actually pressing your father through a wall though, that took balls, especially since he can kill a person with a simple gesture of his hand."
"Don't remind me. He is one scary bastard when he wants to be, I can't even imagine the punishment he has lined up for me after that."
Common sense smirked, "Oh well. Mors ante ignobiles. It has been a good run, wish I had gotten a bit more use, but still I loved you like a brother. Vale."
"Why is everyone speaking in Latin recently?"
A/N: That got a bit awkward at the end. The reason for all the Latin phrases is in homage to the religion of one Vlad Tepes III. He was Roman Catholic, a little known fact about the granddaddy vampire. Anyways, please send me ideas. I like that the chapters are getting longer, I don't like that the content seems a little forced. Forced stuff usually doesn't get much love.
