I do not own Rosario Vampire or any of the characters.
Rough Start
Damon yawned, stretching in his seat in the back of the bus. He had requested permission to go home for summer break, deciding he wanted to warm up a bit, but he had been denied, so, here he was, seated on the bus with the rest of the newspaper club, heading to the Human World to camp for two days.
"Dammit, and just when the prank war was getting good, to," Damon sighed.
Most recently, he had put salt in her bed, by use of telling her roommate to do it for him, which had the same effect on Mizore as itching powder would anyone else. She had not been pleased, and had retaliated by mKing his toilet spray bim when it flushed, then had glue bombed him and dropped a trashcan full of feathers onto him. The toilet had been particularly cruel, but the glue and feathers had burned off easily enough. When he got back, he had the perfect plan in place. He just had to go and pick it up from the school's contraband smuggler.
"We're here!" Nekonome, the club's adviser, announced cheerfully.
He walked off of the bus and stopped, staring at the field of sunflowers before them. It was so bright and colorful. Damon's stomach rolled.
"It's beautiful!" Kurumu gushed.
"Can I burn it?" Damon asked.
"No!" all of the others snapped.
Out of all of them, Gin was in summer school, and Kurumu was skipping. As soon as they were off the bus, Nekonome had left with the bus driver for fish. Damon sighed as the girls took in the field. Suddenly, something begsn to snarl at them from somewhere in the flowers.
"Now can I burn them?" Damon asked.
"No!" Tsukune snapped. "Everyone head to that cabin!"
He pointed at the abandoned shack on the edge of the field and he and the girls begsn to run toward it, Damon yawning and walking calmly after them. As he walked, whatever was in the flowers followed but didn't attack him. Eventually, it slunk away and he continued to the cabin, reaching it just as the others broke in, quickly slamming and barricading the door behind Damon. He looked arou d. Dust, run-down, a dark spot in one cor er that might be blood. Much better.
"Great find Tsukune," Damon mused. "Perfect place for a boy and his girlfriend to hide from the scary flower monsters."
Tsukune blushed dark red. "Sh-Shut up!"
Damon smirked, dropping into a chair, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"What's up with you?" Moka asked. "You used to be all high and mighty, then all of a second you were defending Tsukune, and now you're a close friend compared to how you used to be. Did you get a girlfriend?"
"No," Damon said flatly. "But...I was in that pool for three days and no one came looking. So...yeah. I...don't want to feel that alone again."
Moka nodded, smiling. "Well, you've got us for friends now."
"Oh joy," Damon said, rolling his eyes. "Wouldn't my parents be proud. Friends with a human, a witch, and a peasant. The only one they'd grudgingly accept is Moka."
"What are they like?" Tsukune asked.
"Thin, lazy, pale," Damon said.
Tsukune's brow furrowed in confusion.
"They're dead," Damon said. "They died...oh...must be fifty years ago now, I guess."
"That long?" Tsukune asked.
"Fire Devils live for thousands of years," Damon said.
"Jeez," Tsukune said. "How old are you?"
"Ninety," Damon said. "The equivalent of your late teens."
Tsukune nodded. "Must make dating hard."
"Fire Demons don't date," Damon said. "We just force whatever we feel like bear our children, which is a death sentence."
"That's horrible!" Moka gasped.
"Well would you willingly have a kid if you knew you'd die doing it?" Damon asked.
"Well...no," Moka said.
"Exactly," Damon said. "My race had to survive somehow. Of course, it helps that the child of a Fire Devil is a Fire Devil, regardless of the other parent."
"Do you have any kids?" Tsukune asked.
Kurumu smacked him, but Damon stared blankly ahead, trying to decide whether the memories of having children were his or his parents. It was hard to keep separate at times.
"No," Damon said finally. "None."
The conversation died after that.
Damon stared at the dead monsters. Kurumu had called Yukari a coward, and weak, so she had run out of the cabin. When they had gone after her, they had followed screams until they reached the sunflower field where Yukari had used cards and her magic to kill a handful of venus-fly-trap-like monsters, saving a pair of humans. However, she had passed out after it and hadn't woken up yet.
Damon knelt, placing his hand on one of the monsters heads, sensing its supernatural energy. Instead, he sensed magic. The things were created by a witch. He stood, sighing and shaking his head and burned the three corpses, controlling the flames to keep them from spreading to the flowers.
"Is Yukari alright?" one of the two humans asked as they returned from having gone somewhere.
"She hasn't woken up yet," Moka said. "She should be okay, though."
"So, she's the witch who lives around here, right?" the human asked.
"No," Tsukune said. "We just got here on our research trip."
"Oh," the human said, seeming disappointed. "We just assumed because there's a rumor of a witch living near here, especially in a ranch nearby that we call Witch Ranch. But recently, there's a plan to build a new factory here. There's a rumor that the missing people are the managers that angered the witch."
"You have no proof that it was a witch," Yukari said, opening her eyes and sitting up, holding her left shoulder in pain. "Please don't blame a witch without proof. Humans could never understand witches."
"Well, anyway, this area is pretty dangerous, so we should probably get out of here as soon as we can," Tsukune said.
"In that case, we should head to the city where our motel is," Moka said. "We might run into Miss Nekonome there."
"Good idea," Damon said, looking over his shoulder toward where he had burned the dead bodies.
"Well, in that case, we can probably give you a ride," one of the humans said. "There are more than five of us, so it might be a bit tight, but we're not far from the city."
Damon looked over at their compact SUV and grimaced. However, be couldn't fly there in broad daylight ao he shrugged, looking to Tsukune.
"That would really help, thank you," Tsukune smiled.
The others began to pile in, but Damon paused, looking back and up at a tree where a girl roughly ths others' age was watching, a tattered half skirt hanging on her right aide and a sunflower in her left hand, and a wand with a crescent on the end, root-like sections holding a sphere in the center of it in her right. They stared at each other for a moment before Damon huffedb exhalling a short tongue of flame before climbing in, Kurumu sitting in his lap.
"Don't get any funny ideas," Kurumu said.
"I'd scrub my balls with a porcupine before I'd let you touch me," Damon said.
"Yeah well you're no prize catch yourself asshole!" Kurumu snapped.
"Oh like you care," Damon snorted. "You forget I know what your kind are like."
Kurumu tried to slap him, but he caught her wrist, moving both to his left hand and holding them in place. "Take it back!"
"No," Damon said.
"Take it back!" Kurumu snapped, eyes watering.
"Why?" Damon asked.
"I'm not a whore!" Kurumu shrieked.
Damon sighed, rolling his eyes. "Fine. I take it back about you. In regard to your kind, my statement stands."
"Why do you have to be such an asshole!?" Kurumu demanded.
Damon just stared at her and she huffed, looking away. Damon twisted around, looking back at a crow flying after them, a sunflower and a want with a sphere in the end clutched in its beak. He sighed, turning back to the front. After about another hour, they stepped out of the car and the humans waved, saying goodbye before Damon turned to Yukari, holding out his hand.
"Whst?" Yukari asked.
"Take my hand and don't let go," Damon said.
Just as she did, the humans arround them took notice of Kurumu and Moka, mobbing them instantly and shoving Tsukune out of the way. Then, someone stepped up behind Damon and Yukari.
"E-Excuse me," a male voice stammered.
They both turned, finding a dozen nerds standing way too close to Yukari.
"This is a cosplay right?" one of them asked.
"You're so cute!"
"Is there a cosplay convention going on?"
Yukari stepped behind Damon in fear as the nerds pressed closer, only for Damon to lift one by the throat with one hand.
"Get the hell away from my little sister!" Damon snarled, then hurled him backward into the other guys, who all fell to the ground before scrambling away. Damon tjrned on the rest of the crowd, who were all staring at him. "And you all, get the fuck away from our girlfriends!"
The humans all turned, sprinting away from them. Damon smirked, releasing Yukari's hand.
"And which of us is your girlfriend?" Kurumu demanded.
"Would you have prefered they stay?" Damon asked.
Murumu sighed. "No."
"Thank you!" Yukari said, hugging him.
"You're welcome," Damon said. "But don't let this spoil your opinion of humans. Most aren't actually like that. Most are more like the two you saved."
"Really?" Yukari asked.
"Yes," Damon nodded. "However, some of them can be liks that, and a few can be worse. Just like monsters. There are all kinds of people. These just don't have true forms or special abilities that they can hurt you with. They're forced to use weapons instead."
"Like what?" Yukari asked.
"We'll get into that at the motel," Damon said. "First, we have more importsnt things to discuss. The monsters were made using magic, so it's definitely a witch. And that witch is currently watching us."
Just then, a crow swooped down, flying so close to Kurumu that her skirt flipped up. Then, more began to swoop down, pecking and clawing at them rapidly. Damon swatted one pecking at him away and loomed around, blood running cold. Yukari was gone.
"Shit!" Damon swore. "She took Yukari!"
Just then, the crows scattered. The others begsn to panic.
"We need to find her!" Tsukune said.
They looked around, running through a back alley to a different street before Damon stopped, looking at a building where dozens of crows were flying around. He pointed.
"Up there," Damon said. "Let's hurry."
They all nodded and ran into the building, then up the stairs, taking them several at a time. As they ran, Damon repeated the worda of Yukari's conversation with the witch for them. The witch lived at Witch Ranch, and wanted Yukari to join her in killing the humans who wanted to destroy the sunflower field and the ranch. Just as they opened the door, Yukari nodded.
"Yukari!" Tsukune called out as he, Moka, and Kurumu bent over, panting for breath. "We heard...your whole conversation."
Yukari bowed her head, expecting to get yelled at.
"Let's go home, back to Yokai Academy, okay?" Tsukune smiled, offering her his hand. "Let's just forget about the research trip. Alright?"
Yukari smiled, reaching out to take his handb only for the other witch to yank her back, a wi g with blade_like feathers flashing out and splitting Tsukune's torso, including his heart.
"Tsukune!" Yukari and Moka both screamed, Moma catching Tsukune.
"Don't fall for their tricks," the witch was saying. "They're just humans. They're the enemy!"
"Hey bitch," Damon said, forming his scales and claws on his arms. "Who're you calling a human?"
"What the hell are you?" she snarled.
"Stand right there and I'll show you," Damon growled. "You hurt my friends, I hurt you worse."
He walked forward and she slashed at him with her wing, only for it to stop only a half centimeter or so into his scales. His other hand gripped the wing, and he yanked, ripping it off in a spray of blood.
"What are you!?" she demanded.
"I'm your worst nightmare," Damon said, just as he felt supernatural energy explode off of Tsukune. "And he's a close second."
"What the hell is he!?" the witch demanded.
"Special," Damon said.
"Please, stop!" Yukari said, stepping in front of Damon, facing the witch. "These are my friends! I wouldn't care even if they were humans! Our friendship is more important to me than anything! Even if it's a witch that hurts them, I'll never forgive them!"
"Your friends?" the witch scoffed. "Your friendships mean more to you than anything? Don't be such a fool!"
She shot into the air, driving her wings down at Tsukune, only for Tsukune to drill a fist into hher abdomen, knocking her out in one punch. Damon sighed, kneeling beside her and lifting her onto his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Tsukune asked as his hair went from its temporary silver back to brown.
"Well we can't just leave her here," Damon said. "At least not unless you want me to burn her."
"No!" Moka snapped.
"Well alright then," Damon said. "Let's go find the motel."
The others nodded, and they headed back down to the street. However, after hours of walking, the sun had set and they still hadn't found it. Damon sighed, setting the still-unconscious witch on a bench and inspected her back where he had ripped her wing off. She wasn't hurt, that he could see, so he leaned her back so she wouldn't fall over and sighed.
"Now what?" Damon asked. "Should I fly up and see if I csn find it?"
"Not yet," Tsukune said. "That'll be a last resort."
Damon nodded just and raised his arm, coughing into his elbow. As he lowered his arm, he sniffed and spun, growling. "Dammit Sensei! Where have you been!?"
Everyone spun, seeing Nekonome and the bus driver behind them, Nekonome holding multiple boxes of fish.
"What are you all doing here?" Nekonome asked.
"Nevermind that," Damon said. "Which way's the hotel? I'm tired of walking."
Nekonome laughed and nodded, she and the bus driver taking the lead, everyone else following, Damon once again holding the witch.
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