Ikko's groaning echoed faintly through the door. Upstairs in the Kawamoto Inn, Mizore and Ruby waited with Ishigaki, fielding questions.
She had never met Ishigaki before, only hearing about her through Ruby's frequent conversations with the woman. Since the department's establishment, they had grown increasingly close to Yokai Academy, with Ishigaki specifically concerned about the Notables list. Apparently, such matters were her expertise.
"Did either of you see the injuries he sustained?" she asked, without looking up from her notepad.
"No," Ruby said, "He was down by the time we arrived."
"And the… spell, was it? The technique that suppressed the victim's transformation?"
"Demon Wall. It's a spell that abates symptoms and subdues the target. Without a seal in place to reassert control, the corruption will return."
Ishigaki paused in her writing. Her eyes shimmered. "You're sure?"
"Positive."
"Do we have any such seals?"
"I've already reached out to the headmaster," she said, "They're in short supply, and incredibly difficult to manufacture, but we should be able to source one that will help Haruhiko should the need arise."
"If?"
Ruby folded her arms. "It took multiple injections of vampiric blood to corrode Tsukune, who's our most comprehensive case study on the matter. As far as we know, Haruhiko only consumed a small amount. Demon Wall's effects should be enough to allow his body time to purge the toxin."
"We have no way of knowing that until Mister Akada is ready to talk." Ishigaki returned. "I can't deal in maybes when there's two dead, Ruby. You know that."
Mizore looked to the door, willing her eyes to see beyond it. She rankled at the language they used. A child, screaming and sobbing in the rain as his body stitched itself back into shape, was now 'the victim'. Even Ruby's description of Tsukune as his case study, as if his contribution to her medical knowledge was the sum total of his use in the moment, made her fists curl. "What do you make of it, Miss Shirayuki?"
"Hm?"
"Do you support Ruby's assessment of the victim's condition?"
"Can't say," she said, shrugging, "I'm not an expert."
Ishigaki scribbled something down. "Right. What can you tell me?"
Aha. Her turn. "I can tell you what Haruhiko's transformation reminded me of."
"Oh?"
"Ruby, you remember Kahlua, right?"
Ruby clicked her tongue. "You mentioned it during the fight. It's reminiscent, you're right. Not exactly, but close enough."
"Kahlua?"
"Kahlua Shuzen," Mizore leaned against the wall, explaining, "Assassin for the Shuzen family of vampires, and formerly in the employ of Fairy Tale."
"Relation to Koko?" Ishigaki asked.
"They're sisters. Koko…" Ruby looked down. "Koko watched her die."
"I think I remember seeing her file…" She chewed her lip. "Maybe they'll give me clearance to see it."
"Something you know that we don't?" Mizore asked.
"Perhaps," was all she said, "Could Kahlua's blood have been harvested and preserved?"
"Nothing's impossible. Fairy Tale is many things, and resourceful is one of them."
"Vampire blood, weaponized as a transformative toxin…" she mumbled, "Okay, that's everything I need from you. I'd like you to monitor Ikko for the rest of the trip."
"Excuse me?" Mizore snapped.
"He was exposed to the attacks of a creature exposed to heretofore unknown toxins, potentially derived from vampiric blood. There's no way of knowing what effect that might have on him."
"If you're suggesting—"
Ruby held up her hand. "Ishigaki's right, Mizore. We need to be prepared."
"To do what? Put him down?"
All of a sudden, Ruby's eyes sharpened. She stared Mizore down. "No-one's saying that."
She glared back, but couldn't hold it. Coiling her arms over her chest, she turned away.
Ishigaki cleared her throat. "I'll remain here for the rest of the trip, monitoring the victim and making sure his mother's okay. I'll leave your student in your hands."
"Thank you, Harue." Ruby looked her way, smiling faintly, "Have a good evening."
"Oh, I'll try. You kids love making me work for a living." A wry sigh trailed after her as she left for the lobby, where the rest of the group recuperated.
Mizore smacked the wall behind her. Ruby closed her eyes, placing a hand over her chest. "Not the finest start to our summer vacation, is it?"
"I don't want to talk about it, Ruby." She muttered, scowling. She consciously tipped her head to hide her expression in her hair.
Consequently, she only heard her approaching, and didn't anticipate the hands gripping her shoulders, pulling her off the wall and into an embrace. Mizore kept her arms coiled, not responding. "I'm worried too," Ruby whispered.
"And?"
"Being angry at him isn't going to make this better."
"Who says I'm angry at him?" Mizore hissed, breaking out of Ruby's hold.
"You told him to do one thing, he leapt into the jaws of danger instead."
She exhaled. "That's just him. I knew telling him to get out of harm's way wouldn't do anything, not with a human involved. He's too earnest to not want to help. I was always prepared to jump in and protect him, but…"
"What? What is it?"
"He's not…" She crushed her lips together. "He's not Tsukune."
"I don't follow."
"He doesn't have a vampire to swoop in and save the day—and I know it's not that simple, before you interrupt. He's not got the headmaster's backing to train and learn how to utilise the powers forced onto him. He's just human, and every time he gets involved, without fail, a chunk of that humanity gets ripped away. First Kia, and now this. How long before there's nothing left of him? How long before all his good intentions leave him as broken and twisted as Haruhiko is?"
Ruby frowned. After a long while, with only Ikko's groaning as company, she spoke. "He knew, going into this, what it might cost him. We all knew."
"That doesn't make it right."
"It doesn't. Nor does it mean we should just accept it. What it does mean is that there was always a possibility that a roll of the dice would have him suffer, or as you say, lose parts of himself. That's a risk he accepts, and continue to accept as he gets more involved in our world."
"I wish he wouldn't."
"As do I. I wish none of us had to make the choices we do," Ruby soothed, "We're his friends, Mizore. We can counsel him, chastise him, even, but it's his choice to make and ours to support. He's as involved as we are, now, and deserves every protection we'd extend to any of us."
"You're not telling me anything I don't know." Mizore countered, irritation stiffening her pose.
Ruby huffed. "Let's try a different tact, then. Your notion of his purity is nonsense."
She finally pushed her hair back, looking at her friend properly. "What?"
"His humanity isn't a stock of gold that we barter away with every exchange. It's not some magical talisman that diminishes every time he suffers."
"That's not what I meant."
"No?" Ruby's words flared. Mizore's arms opened. This was the first time she'd seen her truly cross. "So what did you mean when you said there's chunks of him that get ripped away?"
"I—"
"He's human, yes." She now stood mere centimetres from her, voice low so as not to carry but louder now than ever before. "But that's not something he protects or preserves, and neither should it be something you try to hide from the rest of the world. It's something he shares, the same way you share yourself when you interact with the world. It reaches out with every exchange, affecting everything it touches, and it in turn takes what we share with him. That doesn't diminish him. It doesn't make him less. It makes him, and us, stronger. The same way you strengthen us when you share yourself."
"And what if it kills him? What if he succumbs and becomes a creature like Haruhiko?"
"Every person in this building would give everything to make sure that doesn't happen, Mizore," she insisted, "We'll protect his life with every inch of our being. That's not the same as protecting his humanity. Understand?"
Mizore tore away, cursing under her breath. "That's all well and good," she spat, "But what if he doesn't want that? What if he wants to go back to his normal life, his human life, after all this?"
"If you truly believe he does, then you'll need to speak to him, Mizore." Ruby said, softening. "He's the only one who can tell you how he feels about returning to that world. Probably the only one you'll listen to, anyway."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your fear is blinding you." she stated, with the kind of finality that Mizore rarely heard from the woman who kept her door open for her friends at all hours. She heard the turn of a door handle, and Ikko's groans grew momentarily louder, and then she was alone in the hall.
Alone is how he found her.
Ikko approached from the burning sands. Perched in the shade of a rock formation, sheltering from the heat as the morning crept further and further along, Mizore watched the ocean lap up against the stone. Her hair swept in great, messy length over her shoulders, errant strands blown by the coastal winds like glittering ribbons of ice. She curled her arms around her knees, bringing them up to her chest, closing her off from any who tried to admire her. The same coverup from the day before, cleaned of the dirt from the construction site, was folded underneath her like a cushion. Her skin glistened, beading with sweat despite the tell-tale stick of one of her frozen lollipops jutting out from her mouth.
He announced himself with a whisper of a greeting. She didn't acknowledge him with a look, nor did she turn his way, but she spoke. "Glad to see you're up and about already."
"Yeah," he replied, lingering at the edge of the shadow, "Yukari's a miracle worker."
"You only had a couple of scratches. Nothing to write home about."
"I guess so."
She didn't move. If he didn't know better, he'd say she wasn't breathing, either.
He cleared his throat, stepping awkwardly in the sand to try and disperse some of the heat from the soles of his feet. "May I join you?"
"Why so polite?" She said, sliding over. Ikko scrambled into the shade, sighing relief. Her presence radiated blissful cold.
"I don't know. You're not giving off 'talk to me' vibes at the moment."
"Yet here you are. Talking."
"Y-yeah." He mirrored her stance, pulling his knees up and fixing his eyes on the ocean. "Sorry."
"S'okay."
Waves sloshed against the rock, periodically cutting them off from the beach. From here, he could see nothing but the water, even with the beach and its many raucous visitors mere feet away. "It's beautiful," he whispered, "Do you know all the best spots to relax alone?"
"They're handy when you want to get away. Did Ruby send you to check on me?"
"N—" he stifled his reaction. "Yeah. I hadn't seen you all morning… thought you'd be mad at me."
"Why?"
"For endangering myself, again. You told me to get to the centre, to get safe, and I wanted to, but…"
"It's okay," she interjected, "I know you well enough at this point."
"You should be able to trust me to listen to you, though."
"You did listen to me. You and Yukari figured out where the storm was coming from. You found Haruhiko there, and thanks to that, he's alive. Those are the facts."
"So… what, then? What's wrong?"
She didn't answer.
Heart sinking, Ikko murmured. "Sorry. You're out here because you wanna be alone, right? You don't need me poking and prodding."
A shock of cold pierced his hand when he tried to move. Gasping, he looked down to see her hand over his. Since when did she run so icy? He sat back down and she eased her touch, whispering apologies. "Ikko."
"Yeah?"
"What are you gonna do when you graduate?"
"Uh…" He scrunched his mouth. Where was this coming from? "I… don't know. I haven't put much thought into that far ahead, honestly. I've been in four different schools over the past three years."
"Right." Mizore whispered. "You'll probably get pulled out at the end of this year then, huh."
His heart twisted. "I hope not."
"Why?"
"This is the most fun I've had at any school, ever."
"Seriously?"
"It's a low bar, but… yeah. Seriously."
"You wanna stay at Yokai?"
"Of course I wanna stay. Why would I ever want to leave?"
A particularly enthusiastic wave crashed up against the stone. Ikko thought he heard it crack. "Even after everything it's done to you?"
He scratched the back of his neck, tilting his gaze away from her. "It's true that I've broken more bones and taken more hits in these short months than I ever had in my entire life up until this point. Never had my soul sucked on, either, but… it's like what you said in Golden Week. I have the whole Writing Club. Su, Naoko, Nori, Kia… and not just them. Etsuko, Ruby, you… now Tsukune and them. I've never felt so—I don't know, welcome? At home?"
He heard another crack. Ikko looked to the beach, trying to locate it. It sounded close by, like glass shattering. "What was that?"
"Nothing," Mizore whispered, faintly, "I didn't hear anything. You think Yokai's your home?"
"Uh…" Frowning, he returned to their conversation. "Not Yokai, but you. All of you. My friends. I couldn't give you up, even if I wanted to. A-and I don't want to be taken away from you, either."
"From me?"
"Oh—oh, uh, I meant…"
He cast his gaze down. Words unbidden and, once upon a time, unwelcome, scratched at the corner of his mind.
"We can't deny what's there. Or at least, it won't do you any good if you pretend it's not."
He scrunched his eyes. "No. I don't want to… I don't want to lose you."
Silence.
Absolute silence. Dread gripped him, the same way it had when he had been caught in things that landed him in trouble before, but now so much worse. It froze the sweat inflicted on him by the heat. Dulled the sound of the waves.
"Ikko." Mizore said.
"Mm?" he replied, unable to form words. Terror at what she would say next forced him to look away from her.
"Come around the large rock to your right."
Not exactly the death sentence he anticipated. Confusion gripped him. "What?"
Her voice trembled with something. Hatred, probably. "Just—do it, okay?"
He dared to open his eyes. Bizarrely, where Mizore had been before, there now lay shards of fractured ice, melting quickly and soaking her coverup. He pushed off the rock that served as their seat, and circled around the large, craggy boulder that separated one section of beach from the other. Water lapped over his feet, up to his ankles, as he did so.
An arm shot out and yanked him off-balance. The motion threatened to tip him over, but the one seizing him used the momentum to pin him against the rock.
He opened his mouth to yelp, but a head of blue hair startled him into stopping. Cool, slender arms clutched between his shoulders and at the small of his back. His arms wide, expecting to defend himself, Ikko fumbled his words, managing only her name. "Wh—a—Mizore?"
She squeezed, nails biting into his t-shirt. He lowered his arms, hands brushing against cool skin and the straps of her bikini as they settled, feather-light, on her shoulders. "I can't lose you." she whispered, breath a chill on his chest.
"You…" Ikko curled his fingers, coaxing her to break reluctantly away. Her hands slid to his waist, and his to her arms. "What're you saying?"
Her eyes puffed slightly, and pink swelled in her cheeks. Gone was her lollipop. Her eyes, clear as ever, shifted softly in the shaded half-light, reflecting his nervous glances back to him. "You're so warm, Ikko," she said, "And you're so careless with that warmth. You share it with anyone who gets close to you, even me."
A heat entirely separate to the summer sun built in his cheeks. It settled his eyes, forced them to linger on hers.
"I've done nothing but push you away. Ever since I found out you were human, I've tried to push you back into that world. Even when you said you wanted to stay at Yokai, I always thought you'd return someday, leaving all this behind. I thought I was protecting you.
"Then Ruby said something, last night whilst you were recovering, that made me think on why I said those things. I realised that I wasn't protecting you, I was protecting myself. Forcing myself to keep you at arm's length, to keep you distant as a… thing to protect. To keep safe. Not as a friend, even as you tried so hard to stay close to me. Every time you got hurt, I saw that as more proof of you needing to get back to the human world. From Kotsubo to yesterday, it was all the same to me. I never stopped to think about you. I only saw the harm."
Ikko opened his mouth to speak, to say something, anything, but the outpouring of her emotions paralyzed him. He knew that a single word out of place, a stray thought, a moment's hesitation could end everything she was trying to share with him.
"Did you mean what you said?" she asked. Her fingers curled against his waist. "That you want to stay in this world? Even after everything it's done to you? Everything it could still do?"
"I…" he wanted to look away. Her eyes put him on the spot, made him keenly aware of the thumping of his heart against his ribcage. He didn't. "Yeah. There's so much for me to learn, to do, and I want to stay. I know that means you have to stay, protecting me, but—"
"What if I wasn't?" she urged.
Ikko blinked. Had she moved closer?
Her fingertips slipped over the small of his back.
He stammered. "I-if you weren't?"
"If I wasn't there."
The answer came so easily, Ikko didn't know why he'd ever thought to fight it. With a smile, he abandoned the last of his restraint, pouring his heart into his words. "I don't know where I'd be without you, Mizore."
She bridged the inch between them. Her lips brushed against his. Closeness encouraged his eyes to close, and Ikko leaned into the kiss. They lingered for the scantest of moments before she broke their embrace. "Stay," she said, "Stay with me, Ikko. Please."
He couldn't think straight. His mind pulled in a thousand different directions, all of them angled towards Mizore. Realising his hands had dropped from her arms, he moved to clumsily cup her hips and her waist, securing her against him. "I'm not going anywhere," he replied, certain, "Not without you."
Mizore broke into a smile, a true and full thing he'd only seen once before. He revelled in the beauty of it, how it shone through every facet of her being, softening and thawing every edge she'd ever held against him.
The waves lapped gently against their legs. Holding each other, they listened to the ocean for a while, before the noise of the crowds began to swell. Somewhere in there he heard someone calling Mizore's name.
"Kurumu." She sighed, peering around the crag that hid them. "We should probably get back."
"Wait." Ikko blurted.
"Yes?" Mizore met his gaze. His chest tightened, twisted, exploded and shrieked all at the same time.
"C-could we do that again?" he managed, sure he sounded like an idiot.
For a mercy, she didn't seem to mind. They kissed once more, stealing just one more moment before the world clawed them back to reality.
