I do not own Rosario Vampire or any of the characters.
Athletics Festival
Damon smiled, wrapping his arms around Mizore, who pressed a kiss into his neck, smiling as she felt him shiver, pressing herself tight into his embrace. They were standing around with most of the other students, mainly meaning their group, currently, as they'd be taking part in the school's annual Athletics festival. Really the only part of that Damon cared about was the fact that it was an excuse for him to get to see Mizore in her underwear all day. Normally, they girls would wear a pair of dark blue "shorts" that were basically panties, and a normal shirt, but in a highly successful effort to make Damon's entire day worth lowering himself to the standards of the rest of the school by participating this year, Mizore had foregone the normal shirt in favor of a red tank top belly shirt over a sports bra, the top being red to show what team she was on. He loved it. The others, who, aside from Ruby, who was still recovering from the day before, were standing around them, were completely ignoring it, in favor of Moka, Yukari, and Kurumu fighting over Tsukune.
"You're too soft," Fang-Fang said, walking over in a sleeveless white shirt, loose black pants, a sash tied around his waist, and black martial arts shoes. "You're all too soft. Sports are a bloodless battle. Coincidentally, you're on the red team, Tsukune, and I'm on the white. If the white team wins, you'll have to join the Huang family!"
No one payed him any attention.
"Are you ignoring me!?" Fang-Fang shouted. "That's mean! That's cruel! That's so unfair!"
"Shut up!" Kurumu grumbled. "You're so annoying!"
"Why are you always bothering us, Fang-Fang Huang?" Moka asked. "You're a guy, so stop clinging to Tsukune!"
"I refuse!" Fang-Fang said. "I will do anything to get Tsukune to join the Mafia! Since today is the athletics festival, it's the perfect time for a battle!"
"Why don't you run along and play, kid," Damon grumbled. "You're spoiling the good mood Mizore worked so hard to put me in."
"I didn't work hard, I just put on a shirt that let you see more skin," Mizore said.
"Hush, you," Damon said.
"I don't care about you or your-"
Damon's eyes flashed warningly as he exhaled twin jets of flames.
"-girlfriend," Fang-Fang caught himself. "I'm here for Tsukune."
"And Tsukune wants nothing to do with you" Damon said. "Now beat it."
"I'm here to battle Tsukune and I-"
"Battles involve both sides bearing risk," Mizore said, stepping over in front of him, ice claws pressed to his cheeks just below his eyes. "If you want them to risk Tsukune, what will you risk in return? Your life?"
"Uh...that's..." Fang-Fang swallowed hard, having developed a very healthy dose of fear for Mizore after she froze him solid.
"Let's postpone this battle until later!" a feminine voice shouted from above them, all of them diving out of the way as something exploded to the ground, Damon having pulled Mizore to him with his tail.
The woman that had fallen from the air stood as the dust cloud thinned. She looked a lot like Fang-Fang, but wearing a dark black dress that hung low on her cleavage, parted down the middle had summoning charm tags lining the bottom of it, had loose sleeves, a necklace of pearls, a bell hanging from the collar, and a large hat with the brim upward like an inverted dog bowl with a small cotton ball on the center of the top.
"Let me guess, Fang-Fang's sister?" Damon asked, watching her carefully.
"How disrespectful of me," she said. "It's in my personality that my blood gets all excited when I hear about battles. But I won't reflect over it because I'm already dead."
"What!?" everyone except Fang-Fang gaped.
"Wh-Who are you and what are you talking about?" Kurumu demanded.
"Hello my little brother," the girl smiled, at Fang-Fang. "I came to watch the athletics festival."
"Sister!" Fang-Fang cheered before grinning wickedly as he looked to Damon, who instantly pulled Mizore behind himself.
"Oh leave the Fire Devil alone, Fang-Fang," the girl said. "Even together we wouldn't be able to beat him. And he's not like the rest or he'd have killed you already."
"He's the king, Sister," Fang-Fang said.
"Then he's a good king," she said, turning and smiling pleasantly. "My name is Ling-Ling. Thank you for looking out for my brother, and for not killing him. I'm sorry he's such a handful sometimes. And none of you need to treat me like your elder. I may look like this, but the truth is, I died from an illness a long time ago."
"So then you're a zombie," Damon said. "I've actually never met one who could move around freely."
"Yes, ones like me are quite rare," she smiled, nodding. "Since I'm dead, I can also do this." She pulled her head off, holding it above herself while smiling.
"Neat trick," Damon said as she set her head back in place and stepped up to Tsukune, well inside his personal space.
"So you're Tsukune," she said, beginning to feel his body all over. "I hear from Fang-Fang that you're really strong. You have a good body. It's nicely shaped."
Kurumu swiped at her, missing, then wrapped herself around Tsukune possessively. "What are you doing to Tsukune!?"
"Less than you are," Damon pointed out as Ling-Ling laughed.
"And your face is cute too!" Ling-Ling laughed. "You're just my type. I want to kill you and turn you into one of my zombie friends."
"Stop saying such scary things so lightly!" Kurumu snapped.
"You can't do that sister!" Fang-Fang said. "Tsukune is mine!"
"Then we'll make it so that after he's dead he's mine," Ling-Ling smiles.
"No way!" Kurumu snapped. "Tsukune's body and heart belong is ours!"
"I don't belong to anyone!" Tsukune tried to argue, only for no one to listen.
"Just ignore them," Damon said finally. "We have better things to do than to listen to these idiots."
"Do any of you want to travel overseas?" Ling-Ling asked as they were walking away.
"What?" Mizore asked, all of them looking back.
"You said before we had nothing to bet with," Ling-Ling said. "If we win today, then we get Tsukune. However, if the red team wins, then the Huang family will take you all on a tour of China's gourmet and hot springs. How about it? Are you still going to say that this isn't a battle?"
"Yes," Damon said. "If we wanted to go overseas, I could order any of the other superrich Chinese monster families to take us in exchange for a reasonable favor from the Fire Devils."
"China is the Huang family's home turf," Tsukune said. "That place is scary and there's no way we'd go."
"O-Overseas!?" Kurumu was whispering excitedly with the other girls.
"Gourmet and hot springs with everyone," Yukari said, practically drooling at thoughts of something other than food. "That's a debauched idea."
"I've always wanted to go," Mizore said, glancing at Damon longingly, who rolled his eyes.
"Fuck it, we're in," Damon said.
"You accepted even though if we lose I'll be the one in trouble!?" Tsukune gaped, voice screechy and annoying.
"Calm down," Damon said. "I'm on the red team. It's in the bag."
Tsukune half-groaned-half-sobbed and followed the others to where the rest of the student body was gathering. However, as they arrived, they found Ruby standing off to the side with a microphone announcing the rule about no using monster powers or transforming, then announced the first-year girls' one hundred meter race. Damon stared at Ruby blankly. She was wearing a headband with a pair of tall black rabbit ears, a black leotard with the neckline exposing a mile and a half of cleavage and a fluffy white bunny tail on the back, and a small, open waistcoat with a pair of tails hanging just past her ass. She had on fishnet stockings, a pair of black heels, a white collar with a red necktie, and blushed slightly while smiling as she saw Damon. Even from a distance he could see her legs trembling.
"You think she's going to collapse?" Mizore asked.
"God I hope so," Damon said. "I need something to laugh at."
"Can you win without your monster powers?" Tsukune asked.
"Even without amplifying our supernatural energy, a Fire Devil is still stronger and faster than other monsters while in our human forms from having to compact our much, much larger and more powerful forms into such a tiny shell," Damon said. "Like I said, I've got this in the bag."
Just then, as Cocoa was about to absolutely demolish the rest of the competitors, a zombie with a summoning tag hanging in front of his face appeared and took off at far beyond normal running speed. Damon narrowed his eyes, watching as Cocoa began to catch up, only for the zombie to throw a bomb at her, blowing her up and allowing him to easily win the race. Damon curled his hands into fists. After a moment Ruby, rather unhappily, announced that the zombies were allowed to compete, and that that one wouldn't be punished for blowing up Cocoa. Damon turned on Ling-Ling, who was watching him with a cold, calculating smile, her eyes dulled into a sinister, empty look.
"Do you like your zombies?" Damon asked.
"I do," Ling-Ling nodded.
"Then I should warn you," Damon said. "Each one that cheats, I'll be re-killing later. And also for each one that cheats, I'll be breaking one of your brother's bones. It's at one already. I dare you to challenge me on it. Breaking Yasha is a source of entertainment bread into Fire Devils."
Ling-Ling continued to watch him with the same expression, so Damon turned back to the track. And so, the events continued. The zombies continued to cheat, so Damon kept a running tally of how many bones he needed to break. Finally, it was Damon's turn to run. He walked out onto the track with the rest of the red team, cracking his knuckles. Then, he handed a rope to each of the other red team members, all of them tied into a pair of loops, allowing him to secure the others to himself.
"If you all drag me down, I roast you when this competition's over," Damon warned.
"But...the zombies..." one of them said, Damon snorted.
"Let me worry about them," Damon said, eyeing the five zombies on the track.
As soon as they were told to begin, Damon was off, the other red team students struggling to stay on their feet. Ruby cheered, as did the rest of the red team. Then, the first zombie hurled a bomb, the others following suit. Damon smirked, backhanding it up into the rest, all of them dropping by the zombies and exploding. Most of the zombies were blown apart, earning a deafening cheer from the red team, but one sailed forward, only for Damon to catch his robe, then rip the summoning tag off and shred it, the zombie fading as Damon and the others crossed the finish line. He untied himself and turned to the others, all of whom were sweating and ready to drop.
"Not bad," Damon said. "You're all pretty quick under the threat of death. You did passably well. And you earned our team a good number of points."
The others all grinned and began to cheer as Damon walked over to the others. Just as he arrived, the obstacle course started.
"You cheated!" Fang-Fang shouted. "No matter how you look at it, throwing the bombs back was cheat-"
Damon grabbed him by the throat, lifting him off the ground and snarling loudly, eyes shifting into his true form's eyes and his teeth growing pointed. "Using your sister's zombies is cheating! Throwing the bombs at all is cheating! If you're going to cry foul when your own bombs blow up your own teammates but not ours, then you're nothing more than a whiny, spoiled little brat who cries when he doesn't get his own way! Either play fair, or stop acting like a toddler when we repay your tricks with our own!"
He hurled Fang-Fang into Ling-Ling, both bouncing across the ground, Ling-Ling being broken apart into several pieces, which Fang-Fang had to reconnect. Damon turned back to the track as a Nekomusume girl copied Damon's trick to stop the zombies cheating again, allowing most of the red team, minus onw girl, to finish before the zombies. Next up were the first year boy, who didn't do as well at returning the bombs, but a handful of the red team finished first. Then, the second year girls went just as the reinforcements Damon had called showed up. Mizore and Kurumu were doing the obstacle course against a pair of zombies, and they were fast, but they couldn't go full speed without the zombies bombing them. Instead, Tsurara set a hunting rifle on Damon's shoulder and fired twice, dropping the zombies with ice bullets, allowing the girls to win.
"Nice shooting, Tsurara," Damon smirked. "You're as terrifying as ever."
"Speaking of terrifying," Tsurara said, a smile that was far too sweet for her sinister aura on her face. "What's this Mizore's been telling me about the two of you being together in her letters?"
"We are," Damon said. "I love Mizore, and for some unknowable reason, she loves me back."
"I thought you promised to protect my daughter while staying away from her?" Tsurara asked.
"I couldn't keep that promise," Damon said.
Tsurara leaned forward until her nose was almost touching Damon's, her eyes all but shining with evil intentions. "If you ever hurt my daughter, I'll kill you." Then, she was smiling sweetly and leaned back, the sinister aura gone. "But I give you two my blessing. I saw this coming years ago, and while you're not my first choice, you do make her happier than I've ever seen her, so as long as you keep her safe and don't hurt her, I'll allow it."
"Thank you," Damon smiled, just as Fang-Fang stepped up behind Tsurara.
"You cheated!" Fang-Fang accused.
"What the fuck did I tell you?" Damon snarled, stepping out from behind her as she turned.
"That's too bad," Tsurara said, holding a hand out to tell Damon to let her handle it. "Those bullets I fired were ice, which leaves no visible injury and which melts, leaving no evidence. Besides, aren't we both cheaters? We heard everything that happened from the bus driver."
"That was a nice move," Ling-Ling commended. "You may be the enemy, but that was admirable."
"That was surprisingly sporting of you," Kurumu's mother, Ageha, said. "but I wonder how long you can keep that attitude."
Fang-Fang and Ling-Ling both glared at them all for a moment before walking away. Damon turned to Tsurara and Ageha as Yukari's mother, Fujiko, stepped up beside them. Ageha began to smooth out her hair, blushing and tugging her shirt down, exposing a few more inches of cleavage.
"Don't waste your time, whore," Damon said. "I'm not interested. Although, you will come in handy. Can you tempt females?"
"I can," Ageha nodded.
"Good," Damon said. "You're going to use your powers to tell the zombies to lose intentionally. Anything that doesn't, Tsurara will snipe. Anything that somehow makes it past the both of them, I want you to stop, Fujiko."
All three nodded and began to do exactly that. Between the three of them, and with Damon still taking the time to destroy the summoning tags of any he competed against, the red team had caught up within a handful of events, the two teams ending up neck and neck. Finally, the teams were released for Lunch, Damon joining Mizore, Kurumu, Yukari, and their mothers, Ruby joining them shortly after.
"I asked the chairman and he gave you permission to compete in the parents' competition, since..." Ruby trailed off.
"Since my own are dead?" Damon asked. "It's alright. I'm not afraid to talk about their deaths."
"Really?" Kurumu asked. "Then how'd they die?"
"Kurumu!" Mizore gasped, glancing at Damon, only for him to smile reassuringly at her, giving her hand a light squeeze.
"It's alright," Damon said. "They died when I broke my father's neck and ripped my mother's head off."
Everyone but Mizore and Tsurara stared at him.
"You...You killed your parents!?" Kurumu gaped. "Why?"
"To stop the war," Damon said, again making everyone that didn't already know stare. "It's a long story, but suffice it to say that a friend of mine turned traitor, so I killed him, but he planted seeds of doubt in my mind. So when I investigated the cause of the war, and what I had overheard from my parents before I fought my friend, I found out he was right. The Fire Devils started the war simply to have something to fight, then taught younger generations that the Yuki Onna started the war by assassinating our king and trying to wipe us out for being the opposite element. Once I found out, I brokered a peace with what few Yuki Onna we hadn't wiped out, with Tsurara acting as the negotiator. And we came to an agreement. I'd convince my parents to stop the war, and then I'd protect Mizore, as the Snow Priestess lied to me to make me believe I was meant to. My parents refused to stop the war, not caring that we were the bad guys, so I killed them. I refused to become king, because I didn't want to be like the long line of my ancestors who found out the truth and continued the war anyway. But, as the ruling prince of the Fire Devils, I declared an immediate cease fire, and then agreed to a truce with the Yuki Onna, ending the war. During the school festival last year, I found out another family usurped the throne while I was here, so I went home and killed them all, took the throne as the new King, and warned that if anyone tried to pull a stunt like that again, I'd personally lead the Yuki Onna, Yasha, and any Kishin I could find, as well as the Succubi, Vampires, and Werewolves against the Fire Devils and wipe my own race from the face of the planet."
"Jesus!" Kurumu said. "You don't do anything in half measures do you?"
"With my species, I can't," Damon said.
"So, the whole reason the Yuki Onna are on the brink of extinction and have to have that horrible rule about being forced to have children starting at seventeen is..." Yukari trailed off.
"Entirely my kind's fault," Damon nodded. "And also probably more than their species can recover from."
"We'll manage," Tsurara said. "In time."
Damon nodded. After a few more minutes, it was time to head back and Damon stood, grinning widely. "Who's ready to obliterate some zombies?"
The others all cheered and stood. As they did, Damon extended a hand, focusing. Scales began to fly out of his arm, streaking forward and swirling together before him before forming into a man with Damon's face plus some age lines, a proud expression born of life at the top of the strongest race, though lacking the arrogance that often accompanied it, and a powerful build. After a moment, the scales tightened and turned the color of skin and clothes.
"You can make scale dolls?" Mizore asked.
"It took me a while to get the hang of, but yeah," Damon nodded. "Everyone, meet the man my father used to be before he found out the truth about the war."
"What happened afterward?" Mizore asked.
"He grew arrogant and self-glorified," Damon said. "Like I used to be, but worse. He didn't have friends, or someone he loved, so there was nothing to save him from himself. I owe you all my thanks. You all saved me."
Mizore slipped her hand into his.
"No one he loved?" Kurumu asked. "What about your mother?"
"My birth mother was a Yuki Onna," Damon said. "The child of a Fire Devil regardless of the other parent, with no exceptions. And when they're born, they kill the mother. It's half of how our species won every war while taking over Hell. The woman I call my mother was a Fire Devil that rivalled my father in power, and so was chosen as Queen."
"What about when female Fire Devils have children?" Yukari asked.
"They don't," Damon said. "Female Fire Devils are...generally only around for either sex or to fight."
"What about love?" Kurumu asked.
"It's forbidden," Damon said. "Love is considered a weakness, and monogamy is treated as much as a taboo among Fire Devils as polygamy is for everyone else. So a Fire Devil taking a mate is forbidden, and if one falls in love, they are forced to kill that person, then sent to die on the front lines so that they can't turn on us out of revenge."
"But, you're in love with Mizore," Kurumu said.
"I am," Damon said. "I've also ordered that rule be forgotten. It's not going to take well, and I'll likely have to defend my throne, or keep good on my threat, but I tried. Now let's go or we're going to be late."
The others nodded and they headed back to the sports festival, getting ready for a mock cavalry battle where the parents held the children in a piggyback, and the objective was to steal the opponents' top hats, each of which had a ribbon of their team's color around the base of it. Violence, powers, and transforming were all forbidden, so, naturally, the white team was comprised entirely of the Huang family, while the red team was Damon and the others, then a handful of the other students and their parents. The battle was awful, even without violence, which there was "accidentally" plenty of. Zombies trampled fallen students and parents, Damon "accidentally" ripped summoning tags as he stole hats, and Damon's scale puppet "accidentally" used his entire body being as hard as Damon's scales to break the zombies' bones without making it look intentional. However, soon enough, they were being pushed back anyway. Kurumu and Ageha got knocked out of the competition by Ling-Ling, who allowed Kurumu to take her entire head in order to distract her long enough to take Kurumu's hat. Damon stopped a zombie from taking Mizore's, "accidentally" crushing its arm bones when he grabbed it, then took the hat just as Tsukune and Moka arrived as a team, Moka on Tsukune's shoulder, minus her rosary, and Tsukune using his vampire blood to the fullest extend, his hair as silver as Moka's.
"Even if your dead, don't you think you should pay for your sins?" Moka asked. "Your crimes call for punishment. I'll have you pay for your crimes with that body of yours."
"You're going to try to take us all alone?" Ling-Ling smirked. "You shouldn't underestimate us."
"Sister, no!" Fang-Fang warned, having seen Moka's true power one of the multiple times he'd attacked Tsukune in the last day. "That's the strongest one! Tsukune's wife!"
"So what!?" Ling-Ling smirked. "When in a battle, it's common strategy to take out your opponent's strongest assets first!"
"That lunchbox you wasted," Moka said, blushing slightly. "You know, I...I...I also took part in making that lunchbox! I'll have you face death for trampling over it!"
Damon snorted in amusement, covering his mouth as Moka spun, her feet both lashing out at the zombies as she supported herself on Tsukune's head with her hands. Her kicks, not only were in direct violation of the no violence rule, but also obliterated all of the zombies besides Ling-Ling, who crashed tot he ground in a bloody heap right beside Fang-Fang, admitting defeat but vowing to beat her the next time they fought.
"Tha...That's against the rules!" Ruby said. "We can no longer ignore such obvious use of violence and powers! Moka Akashiya, get out!"
Moka grunted in annoyance. "I didn't care about the sports festival from the beginning." She tossed her hat to the white team as Damon was collecting the zombies and Ling-Ling's, stacking them and giving them to his puppet, who held them in front of himself. "More importantly, I haven't finished cooling my anger. I need to riot some more. Go Tsukune!"
Several of the students around them shouted in fear and surprise, and Damon simply sighed.
"That's cheating!" someone on the white team shouted. "Abide by the rules!"
"You cheated first!" Kurumu shouted, both teams charging and beginning to brawl, parents and children alike.
"It's a brawl!" Ruby shrieked. "It's a huge brawl! There's nothing I can do anymore!"
Damon sighed, he and his puppet walking around through the brawl, going completely unhindered out of fear of their wrath, collecting hats from the white team as they went, both he and his puppet scooping up any hats they could find. Finally, after about ten minutes, they walked over to Ruby and the Headmaster, Damon dropping off of the puppet and letting it deconstruct, the scales returning to him and sinking into his skin as he set the stack of more than twenty hats on the table beside Ruby, who smiled, hugging him.
"You're amazing," Ruby smiled.
"And you're supposed to be resting," Damon said.
"Do I need to be punished again?" Ruby asked hopefully.
"You're unbelievable," Damon groaned as Mizore walked over to wrap her arms around him, her top having been ripped apart at some point, as had his shirt during one of the earlier events, allowing him to revel in the feeling of her skin against his, as she only had her sports bra on now.
"Well, since you've still got your hat, and the event has apparently ended, the red team is the winner," the headmaster said. "Would you mind getting everyone's attention for me?"
"Love to," Damon said.
He turned to the brawl, shifting his head and neck into his true form's, albeit smaller, then roared, the ground throughout the entire Great Barrier vibrating, all of the brawling monsters covering their ears to avoid going deaf, though Mizore, Ruby, and the Headmaster were safe, thanks to Ruby using magic to protect herself, Mizore ice to do the same, and the headmaster being the species he was. Finally, Damon let his roar end and shifted his head back, lifting his hat by the brim in a greeting to the rest of the two teams, all of them staring at the tower of hats beside him. Instantly, the red team began to cheer, even before Ruby announced them the winner. The teams separated, now that the brawl had ended, and Moka allowed Tsukune to put her rosary back on. Then, they all went their separate ways, all of them having the rest of the days off to spend it with their families. Damon was about to go sulk in his room when both Mizore and Tsurara grabbed his arms, dragging him along with them, Damon actually allowing him to laugh at their matching, excited, elated smiles. For all her big talk about not liking him, and her threats on his life, he could tell just by that smile that Tsurara was actually ecstatic Mizore had chosen him.
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