The next morning when I wake up and meet with the others to start our next newspaper articles we can't seem to find Tsukune. Considering how he's the only one who can get Kurumu to focus on anything, we go looking for him, searching every corner of the campus. After finding no sign of Tsukune anywhere on campus I decide to wait in the main courtyard for everyone else to show up. Mizore, Kurumu, Moka and Yukari all slowly arrive empty handed and Kurumu frantically asks, "Did any of you find any sign of Tsukune!?" The other girls only shake their heads in disappointment before turning to me for hope.
Giving them a slight shrug, I reluctantly tell them, "I got nothing, it's almost like the guy just disappeared into thin air."
"How did this happen!? He just suddenly disappeared for no reason! None of us have heard anything from him since class ended!", Kurumu shouts, pacing back and forth as she seems to be thinking of a way to track down the poor boy.
"Where could he be? We checked everywhere he usually goes, right? Could he be in danger...?", Moka woefully ponders as she looks down to the ground, fear and confusion seeming to fill her frantic gaze.
"Tsukune's the glue that holds this group together. How are we going to function without him?", Yukari questions as she looks to us for an answer, to which we have nothing.
"Did anyone else notice that he was acting a bit strange after we got back from the village? I thought he might've just had a bit of a cold, but now that he's nowhere to be found, could he 've gone back to the human world or something!?", Kurumu wildly guesses as her pacing quickly turns into her just running back and forth.
"Now that I think about it, he seemed a bit down recently. Maybe he got some bad news when we got back from our trip?", Mizore bluntly suggests, causing the panicked succubus to stop dead in her tracks, seemingly paralyzed in fear.
I let out a slight scoff at this before trying to calm her down by saying, "I doubt it, he trusts us enough to tell us about something like that. If I had to guess...he was probably feeling down because he was stuck doing nothing again while someone else saved the day. Or he saw Cerbero's strength and got a bit insecure about himself."
"Hopefully where ever he is he's safe.", the worried vampire sighs as she places a kind hand on Yukari's shoulder, causing the tiny witch's cheeks to burn up in the process as she rests her small head against Moka's pale thighs.
"You guys aren't off training? Did you get sick of being strong or something?", we hear Kokoa growl from up in the nearby trees. We all look around for her until we see the redhead sitting up in a tree, her eyes seeming to have a slightly warmer feeling than they usually do. "If Cerbero wasn't there do you think any of you could've stop our sister? I don't even know if my Big Sis could've stopped her rampage.", Kokoa bluntly notes as she drops down from her branch, joining us on the ground with a glare.
"Considering she was able to tank Cerbero's blows with only one of her limiters off...I don't know, but even if I tried back then the whole building would've toppled down on top of us.", I reluctantly admit as I turn my sights away from everyone else, instead fixating my gaze on the sky.
"So that's maybe one at best out of the six of us. That doesn't cut it, at all.", Kokoa growls as she makes her way over to us. "Since you all want to get stronger, just like I do, why don't we..you know...train..together?", she sheepishly continues, forcing out that last part as she comes to a stop a few feet away from us.
The girls just ignore her however as Kurumu pulls out a map of the campus and asks, "Where else could Tsukune be hiding?", while they search for any other spots Tsukune might be at.
"We should split up again. We'll cover more ground that way.", Moka quickly suggests, taking the lead as she usually does in these kind of situations.
"Hey! Don't just ignore me!", Kokoa furiously shouts at the girls, but they seem to ignore that comment too. Unsurprisingly, the little vampire begins to throw a hissy fit, flailing her arms in a rage as she proclaims, "You're all so cruel! Even though I finally built up the courage to ask you to train with me!"
"Stop being so loud! Besides, what can you teach us that we don't already know?", Kurumu growls back at the girl, quickly putting an end to her little tantrum.
Glancing over at me with a slight smile, Mizore giggles at Kokoa's expense as she bluntly suggests, "It seems more like she just doesn't want to practice by herself, right?"
"Seems that way to me.", I jokingly add before looking back at Kokoa to see her face is all red with tears starting to well up in her eyes from embarrassment.
"Why do you all have to mock me when I'm just trying to be nice!?", Kokoa cries out, as she balls up her fist, ready to strike with all her fury.
"Because you get all skitish like this and it's funny.", I chuckle back at the tearful vampire as I walk over to her. And as I pat Kokoa on her dumb, flat head, I give her a slight grin as I tell her, "How about this: I promise I'll personally train with you after we find Tsukune, deal?", I say as I pat her on the head to make her feel better.
It seems to work as a slight smile comes across her face before she quickly bats my hand away and growls, "W-who gave you permission to touch me like that, I'll kick your ass when we find that idiot!"
Suddenly we hear a familiar chuckle before an ominous voice asks, "What's this? You are looking for Tsukune?" We all turn toward the school to see the Headmaster walking his porcupine thing.
"Headmaster? What are you doing here?", Yukari curiously questions the old man with a confused glance.
He ignores the little witch's question and instead answers our more important question outright, bluntly saying, "Tsukune is safe. He is under my protection. And starting from today he will be allowed to train in a special place."
"Train?! He's really training!? Why did that happen so suddenly!?", Kurumu desperately asks the geezer as she takes a quick step towards him, but the two guards accompanying him step forward and block her path.
"According to Ruby's report you encountered Fairy Tale, is that correct?", we hear a familiar voice ask. We look to the Headmaster's shoulder and see Lilith sitting on his shoulder.
"Oh yeah, I sent you to help the Headmaster after all that stuff with the mirror. How've you been Lilith?", I ask the fairy, who seems to give me a wide smile as she sees my face.
"I am well, Master. I have been following your orders perfectly.", Lilith gleefully replies hoping for praise. A quickly glare from the headmaster seems to subside this however, forcing the tiny girl back into a more serious tone as she lets out a fake cough into her clenched hand. "As I was saying, this organization is fairly dangerous. They are the opposite of this school, not wanting a peaceful coexistence with humans. That's why if they are making a move the academy can not simply stand by and do nothing.", Lilith quickly explains from atop the old man's shoulder.
The Headmaster furthers her explanation by saying, "Now in order to make preparations for the unlikely event of a battle we want as many people as possible able to fight. You all and Tsukune are no exceptions."
Lilith looks over to him with a raised eyebrow as she asks, "But Sir, isn't it still a bit too early for us to be sending him there? According to the calculations-"
But before she can finish her thought, he cuts her off by saying, "They'll be fine. It isn't that dangerous Lilith."
"'Isn't that dangerous?' How dangerous is this area you sent Tsukune to then?", Kurumu quickly growls at the geezer as she gets ready to beat the answer out of him.
"Oh, would you all like to take a look? Perhaps you could even help him with his training.", he happily replies as he turns back to the school and starts heading inside, waving his hand as he motions for us to follow him.
We follow him inside and he shews off his body guards before he leads us down into the basement. He eventually leads us to a room with a random door in the middle of it. "What the hell? There's just a door in here.", I cautiously note as we all walk into the room, noticing the only thing in the room.
"This door leads to a 'monster paradise' so to speak.", the Headmaster vaguely explains with a grin on his face.
"A monster paradise? What do you mean by that?", Yukari curiously asks as we start to inspect the door, walking around it only to find it isn't connected to anything. It's just a large door sitting in the middle of the room.
"Behind this door is an alternate dimension where I put all sorts of ferocious and nearly extinct magical creatures in order to protect them. Since it is such a dangerous place it would be the perfect place to practice controlling your monster energy, wouldn't you say?", the old man coldly answers before opening the door.
As I stand at the side of the door, I don't even see the other side of the door even being open. It still looks shut from the other side.
"Are you trying to get him killed!?", Kurumu furiously shouts at the old geezer.
"Well if you're that concerned for the boy's well being, why don't you go in after him? But I will warn you only once, if you go through this door I can not guarantee your safety. Now...what will you do?", he ominously replies with a slight grin on his face.
"Well, let's get going. Even if he's fine in there, we might as well go in and at least help him train.", I quickly note as I walk through the doorway without any hesitation. After a second of wait on the other side by myself everyone else came in too. "What took you all so long? Did you get a map of this place or something?", I lightheartedly mock them as I look to them with a sly grin, only earning myself an annoyed glare from Kurumu.
"No, we were just making sure we could even come back from this place. Why did you just jump in here like that?", Moka swiftly replies before questioning my sudden rushing in.
"Because the Headmaster wouldn't throw Tsukune in here without a damn good reason and a way to get him out. So there is in fact a way out, I just don't know what or where it is.", I answer her as seriously as possible as I take in our surroundings. From the looks of things, we're in some sort of jungle considering the many thin, tall trees around us. Palm trees maybe?
Mizore seems to let out a heavy sight at that before groaning, "You're lucky you're cute, Reiji."
"Hey, I'm more than just cute! I'm fucking adorable!", I jokingly fire back, earning a slight giggle from the ice woman.
"Now let's just hurry and find Tsukune so we can get to training already!", Kokoa barks her orders as carefully searches for any sign of Tsukune. The only sign of life around us is the faint breathing we hear coming from the nearby bushes and much to our surprise when Kokoa opens the bushes up to see what it is, we're greeted by a wyrm, a kind of dragon that usually lurks under ground. It has a long, serpent-like body with brown scales and bright, glowing gold eyes with a giant jaw that it opens wide to unleash a powerful roar at us.
Kurumu isn't phased in the slightest by the beast's boasting however and simply grabs Kokoa's little pet bat, who transforms into a bat ironically enough, before using it to knock the scaly worm clear into orbit. "We don't have time for little runts like that. We need to find Tsukune.", Kurumu growls as she goes on ahead of everyone else, hunting for Tsukune.
And as we continue through this odd jungle, I start to hear this oddest noise. It sounds like...moaning? Not like pain induced moaning, but sexual?! I start walking towards the noise as I grumble to myself, "This better not be what I think it is. This better fucking not!"
The girls seem to notice this and awkwardly follow behind me, hearing the obvious moans as well. "What kind of monster makes those kind of noises?", Kokoa nervously asks the other girls with her cheeks starting to turn a light shade of red and a drop of blood leaking from her nostril.
"I don't know, but if my guess it correct it's...", I begin to say before we come across Tsukune wiping the shit out of some monsters while Ruby seems to be getting electrocuted, and liking it!
Ruby lets out one giant moan causing Kurumu to run up to her and wail her right in the face with the bat while screaming, "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"
As Ruby recovers from the bat to the face she just got I say, "God damn, who would've thought that Ruby of all people would be the kinkiest of them all?"
"This is so, perverted.", Kokoa mutters to herself as she wipes the blood from her nose.
Kurumu walks over to Ruby's side and says, "I'll let you take your time and tell us about the circumstances later. For now, let's deal with these pesky monsters."
We all get ready to jump in and help Tsukune, but Ruby stops us, quickly rising to her feet before extending her arms out to block our paths while saying, "Look, he's focusing so hard that he hasn't noticed you guys yet. And his monster energy isn't shocking me anymore."
"Yeah, look at how he's focusing his monster energy into his left side. He's getting better at this at least.", I cheerfully notice with a slight smile at the sight.
He suddenly focuses all of his monster energy into his left hand, causing a large wave of monster energy to be released. "He's focusing it all into his left hand!?", Kurumu exclaims, dazed by Tsukune's sudden skill.
"It seems more like he's compressing it.", Mizore swiftly notes as we see his monster energy seeming to retreat into his left arm, building up significantly like a hose builds up with water.
"It's so amazing!", Yukari shouts before the wave of raw monster energy blows her over.
"This can't be. This is too fast. I just started teaching him today and he's already come this far.", Ruby gasps in confusion.
With one swing of that whip he knocks out all of the monsters in his way, but falls to the ground unable to move. "I-I can't.. move.", we hear Tsukune say as he lays on the ground. I look over at the whip that he dropped. That's Belmont. The legendary whip that can undo any magic, even the strongest of seals. I can't get near that thing or we might all die. I need to stay a safe distance from it and I should be good, right?
Suddenly Kurumu and Yukari start fighting over who will be training with Tsukune next and Kokoa walks up to me and asks, "Can we train now that we found Tsukune and all that boring stuff?"
I let out a lighthearted chuckle at the eager vampire before saying, "Sure, but we need to make sure we aren't in anyone's way when we do this."
"Fine, we'll just go over here where...", Kokoa begins to say before we hear Moka say, "Isn't this an interesting weapon? A magical item that can cancel the power of the seal?"
We turn our attentions over to her before seeing Inner Moka holding Belmont, her crimson eyes looking down at the weapon with a cold glance. "Ah, so Belmont even works on that rosary. Then I better be doubly sure not to get too close to that then.", I nervously note as I take a few steps back from the whip wielding vampire.
"So you were using this to train to use your monster energy. I see, but didn't you want to avoid becoming a monster, Tsukune?", Inner Moka asks Tsukune as she looks down at the boy with her usual scowl. He doesn't seem to have an answer for her though, since he's barely able to move after that last attack he pulled off. "I don't feel that you need to get stronger Tsukune. Whatever you do is because my blood flows through your veins. More importantly, since you improved so quickly, why don't we train together?", Inner Moka boldly suggests as she tests the motions of the whip, cracking it on a nearby tree and breaking the base of the thick trunk and causing the whole thing to topple over.
"Awww, is the big bad vampire asking the human out on a date? That's so cute.", I mock the deadly vampire as I get ready for my training session with Kokoa, walking over to the open terrain Tsukune made with his powerful attack earlier.
"No way! My Big Sis isn't as soft as that other Moka! She just wants to make sure that he gets stronger is all!", Kokoa says trying to fight off the thought of them on a date.
"Keep telling yourself that carrot top, but that's definitely Inner Moka's version of a date.", I mock the girl's older sister complex as she stands across from me, her burning glare seething with her usual fury.
"Shut up! I'll teach you what happens when you run your mouth about a strong and noble vampire like my sister!", Kokoa shouts as she raises her open hand into the air and snatches her pet bat out of the air, transforming the little monster into a rapier with a quick squeeze. The weapon isn't exactly impressive, since it only has a long blade without any edge, only seeming sharp at the very tip. The handle's made up of the bat's wings, which are forming the guard around her hand. As she grasps her handle with both hands, she rushes towards me for the first strike.
"Starting off on the offensive, how predictable.", I chuckle at the redhead as I dodge past her quick stabs, evading them with a bit of effort on my part. She probably chose that weapon in order to keep up with my speed. All of her other weapons seem to be built for large damage, but have a lot of weight to them thus making them slower overall. Her swings are quick and violent, but she keeps leaving small openings that I could easily punish. She swings once more and this time I choose the punish her mistake by dodging under her strike and knocking the rapier into the air.
"How did he-", Kokoa gasps in confusion before I flick her on the forehead and say, "You're dead. Better luck next time."
"Well that was quick.", Mizore chuckles as she walks over to us as Kokoa turns her bat back into its animal form.
"You went for a pretty quick attack, but it had way too many openings. You need to be a bit more precise with your attacks so you don't leave as many openings like that.", I bluntly explain to the little vampire as I give her a quick pat on the head.
"You know about swordsmanship too?", Kokoa asks in confusion as she looks up to me with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, swords are easy to understand weapons. Cerbero started my training with a sword before he had me practice with a chain. That reminds me, I need to bring that chain to these training sessions since we're going to be training like this from now on.", I say before checking on Tsukune. "So, what do you think Tsukune? Can you handle Inner Moka's 'advanced training?'", I question the boy as he stirs to life.
"If it means that I can get stronger and help protect everyone, then I'll do it!", Tsukune says like some courageous protagonist in a fantasy novel as he sits up from the ground, holding his head in his open hand.
"Alright then, while you do that with Inner Moka the rest of us will train here too. Don't want you to become so strong that you leave the others in the dust.", I joke with him as I give him a quick pat on the back, to which he lets out a quick wince from the pain.
"Wait, we're going to be training too?", Yukari quickly asks as her eyes widen in glee with her wand pressed close to her chest.
"Yep, if these Fairy Tale guys are really this dangerous then we all have to be able to at least beat someone as strong as Karua.", I happily fire back at the vampire loving little girl.
"If it means that I'll be able to help Tsukune, I'm all in!", Kurumu courageously exclaims as she starts to fill with determination.
"I want to help Tsukune too!", Yukari quickly adds, trying to show just as much excitement and dedication as Kurumu.
"If it means I get to spend more time with you, I might just have the time to join.", Mizore coldly adds as she shoots a slight smile my way.
"If I truly must get stronger...then I guess I have no other choice, I'll join you all as well.", Ruby reluctantly adds as she steps forward to join us.
"Hey! I want to get stronger too! I still want to beat Karua and Moka one day...so I have to become stronger! Count me in on this!", Kokoa pridefully shouts as she shakes her fist at us.
"Good, my training will be tough as hell though, so I don't want to hear any of you complaining.", I bluntly warn them all, causing Yukari and Kokoa to shiver a bit at the thought of my gruesome training.
Inner Moka simply rolls her eyes at my warning before turning her cold, crimson gaze toward Ruby and asking, "Can I borrow Belmont so I can get used to my body? It's been a while since I've been released."
"But, isn't your training tomorrow? Would you need that long to get reacquainted with your body?", Ruby cautiously exclaims as she reels back at the idea of just giving Moka the whip.
Inner Moka just nods her head and I groan, "I guess that happens when you're sealed away for months at a time." Then I turn my sights back over to the other girls before letting out a light chuckle to myself. "Well, while you go training with Tsukune tomorrow I'll be training these guys. This should be fun.", I tell the silver-haired vampire as I turn away from her and make my way towards the exit, or at least I think the exit's this way.
Everyone else begins to follow me as Ruby says, "W-wait! You can't just leave her with Belmont!"
"Why not? She'll bring it back tomorrow. You shouldn't worry so much.", I groan back at the irritating witch before finally finding the door. With that we head out of this 'Paradise' world and back to reality.
When we get outside it's already night time and we decide to go to bed and train tomorrow since we don't have school. I head to my room and when I get there I head straight for my bed. Much to my surprise, I lift my covers to find Mizore waiting for me.
"What took you so long?", she asks me as she pops out from under my covers.
"Mizore, why are you here? More importantly...how did you get in here?", I awkwardly question her as I raise an eyebrow at her. The window's locked and I'm the only one with a key to the door so how did she even get in?
"Well, back at the village while you were asleep I snagged your room key and made a copy. We're married now so it's only natural that I have a key to your room. Now come to bed so we can go to sleep together like normal couples do.", she cheerfully replies as she pats on the other side of the bed.
"You really think we'll both fit on my bed?", I nervously chuckle as I take a single step toward the bed.
She shoots me a quick wink as she gleefully replies, "We will if I lay on top of you."
"H-how about we try sleeping next to each other first before we go that far?", I frantically suggest as I lift the covers again, mentally preparing myself for the unavoidable.
Before I can react, Mizore grabs the collar of my shirt and pulls me into bed with her, causing me to land right next to her flat on my back as my widened eyes focus on her cheeky smile with our faces mere centimeters apart. "Perfect fit. Now let's go to sleep. We'll need as much energy as we can get for the training tomorrow, right?", Mizore says as she lays her head on my chest.
"Yeah, if these Fairy Tale guys are all as strong as Karua and as durable as Miyabi then we're going to have to get stronger if we want to really stop them.", I answer her after a long yawn. She takes my arm and wraps it around herself like a scarf before falling asleep. She's so cute when she sleeps. Are these other Fairy Tale guys really that strong? Karua even gave Cerbero a little trouble back at the village so if they're as strong as her then everyone else will need to at least be on Moka's level to stand a chance against them. I eventually stop worrying about it and fall asleep.