I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Gx, Rosario + Vampire, or any other franchises used in this story related to the for-mentioned or not. The events and people in this story are completely fictional and any resemblance to real events or people in purely coincidental.

Snakes and Slugs

"Why don't you go out on a date with-" Gin started to ask Moka out when Jaden cut him off, "A pervert who you have already ejected off a roof," he said making the pinkette giggle under her breath and Gin scowl, "Okay, club time," he said changing the subject and trying to salvage his dignity, "Seven of girls have gone missing recently and we should look in to it."

Jaden nodded. The werewolf was right. If someone was abducting people in this school it could mean any number of horrible things, ranging from a perverted sicko to a Frankenstein wannabe, maybe even a twisted mix of the two-

"Plus they're all beautiful and if I rescue them from trouble their bond to be very grateful," Gin said with a lecherous grin.

"It's as if he wants me and the girls to hate him," Jaden mused as Tamao changed into her sea-serpent form to pound the upperclassman senseless.

x-x

"Thanks for seeing me to the art class, Jaden." Moka said as they walked down the hallway.

"Actually, I wanted to ask the teacher, Hitomi Ishigami right? About the missing girls since they were all in her class in one period or another. Now that I think about it, I would have been in her class if it hadn't been for all those consular visits to prove that I can handle taking care of a cat and I'm not crazy." Jaden said reflecting back to those times at the beginning of the term.

As they neared the art class Jaden began to feel something at the back of his mind like voices of duel spirits calling out in fear and despair. "Hay, do you feel that Yubel?" he asked his spirit partner.

Yubel didn't answer. She was trying to figure out why that feeling was more like a human's despair and not a duel spirit's, but unmistakably inhuman, maybe it was a yokai.

Jaden knew Yubel well and when she didn't answer him it meant trouble. Calling on just enough of the powers he shared with Yubel to see through dissipation to give him a heads up for trouble but not make his eyes change from their normal brown to Yubel's bluish-green and orange and started his investigation.

x-x

After talking to the students, watching Ms. Ishigami interact with the students, and having Yubel cheek inside the closets unseen after he left, Jaden was now pouring through Banner's research journal in the club room with the spirit of his old teacher instructing him what the alchemical formulas meant.

"What are you doing?" Yukari asked, fearful of what the answer might be.

"Mixing together an anti-venom to negate a medusa's ability to turn someone to stone," Jaden mixed one more ingredient into the caldron he was using making the contents release could of green smoke in the Umbra's face, "...something tells me that substituting holy for mistletoe was a bad idea."

"No, it does that normally," Banner informed the duelist.

"Why are you making something like that for?" Tamao ask she and Kurumu looked over his shoulder and Gin ogled them.

"Long story short, the culprit behind the missing girls is a medusa who - And where is Moka?" Jaden said as he poured a glass of the red bubbling liquid in to a steel cup.

"She's modeling for Ms. Ishigami," Gin said looking incredulous at the "anti-venom", "Are going to drink that?"

Not stopping to answer Jaden down the glass and blotted out the door.

"Guess so..."

x-x

Ishigami was in rapture she had already turned that Tsukiko Akemi girl into the eighth of her great art pieces and her snake hair had just bitten Moka, who had found where she kept the others, and she was just rapping up on explaining why.

"These statues are the pinnacle of art, and you're going to be my ninth great masterpiece," she said as she stroked one of the petrified girls' checks, which had real tears flowing down her from eyes.

"If you think that turning people into stone where their souls scream and weep in fear and pain is art..."

The Medusa and the sealed vampire looked to the door and saw Jaden with the Scythe of Nightmares and truly dark look on his face, "Then you're the one should gone to therapy during the first two months of school."

"What are you doing here?" the snake Yokai asked venomously.

"Answering the screams of your victims"

The intensity in Jaden's eye made Ishigami flinch as shadows curled around him as he changed to his "Yubelian Form".

"What are you?!" she yelled.

"I'm a once great being twisted into a nightmare," Jaden said his voice dripping with the promise of pain as he strode toward the person who tried to hurt Moka and condemned those girls to being frozen in misery as statues.

"Stay back!" the teacher shouted, her snake-hair flying out and biting the Umbralist, only for them to turn as gray as stone and stop moving.

"What's wrong? Taste bad?" Jaden spat in disdain as the snakes cracked and fell apart like dried out clay making the Medusa scream in pain and horror as all that left her snakes were bloody stumps thrashed around wildly.

"Must have been the anti-venom I took at lunch. I didn't expect it to kill your snakes though..." Jaden said as he began to notice his left hand feeling numb and stiff.

He tried flexing his fingers to get the feeling and shake stiff sensation, but he couldn't move them.

"Damn Banner and his book!" Jaden cursed as his arm began to petrify, "I guess mistletoe isn't an acceptable substitution for holy after all."

Taking advantage of Jaden's laps in attention Ishgami charged him and used what was left of her snake hair to toss him into arch of the door-frame to the storage-room where he fell to the ground with painful thud next to Moka, until he forced himself to his knees and tossed his scythe at the medusa, who dodged it to avoid getting beheaded.

"Moka..." Jaden said as the left side of his face turned to stone and used his good hand to grab the metal cross around her neck and pull it off her choker, "Don't you dare lose!"

The snake yokai was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the vampire's demonic aura but more was outraged at the two trying to upset her artwork, "You dullards! You don't understand anything about art all do you?!" she yelled as Fangs glared at her.

"Shut up," the sliver haired vampire growled and attacked with an ax kick to the head that made a crunching sound as the teacher's skull cracked the skin on head broke and started bleeding and Ishigami fell to the floor unconscious as Fangs fought the desire to finish the medusa off.

"Nice job. Although Jaden and I are going to have a few words with an alchemist later" Yubel said as she appeared before the red-eyed S-class yokai, smiling.

"Why are you here?" Fangs asked, when the fiend tilted her head in mock ignorance, Moka growled in mild frustration, "I doubt that you came, just to complement my fighting and invite me to tea."

"Actually, that's not far off," Yubel said lightly before adopting a more serious tone, "We need talk."

"Why would I bother talking to you? From what I can see, your status as a dual-spirit means that you're little more than a powerful servant with a big history," the vampire glared at the winged creature. She still didn't like the feeling she got when Yubel was around, it wasn't as if she was angry at the fiend for trying to force her to answer her questions when they first met.

"So you can understand how ironic that statement is.," Yubel answered, "You see, generally you get one life, to live wisely or foolishly and then that is it, but that isn't always the case."

Yubel looked the vampire squarely in the eyes to be sure that she had Moka's full attention and to be sure that she knew how serous she was and continued, "Moka, this isn't the first life Jaden has lived. In his last one he was a prince who was gifted with the power of darkness... and I was his hand-servant."

"Jaden is a prince!?" Moka exclaimed, unable to comprehend easy-go-lucky Jaden as royalty.

"Not any more. That Jaden died and his kingdom was destroyed," Yubel corrected before she narrowed her eyes "... And one other thing, Jaden would never approve of me telling you this but you need to know if you're going to keep fighting alongside us, he never had a friend named Haou. He was Haou"

x-x

Jaden woke in the hospital wing with a groan.

"Jaden, are you alright?" asked a concerned Kurumu, all of the newspaper was there except for Gin.

"I've learned a valuable lesson about substituting ingredients in magic potions..." Jaden said as he shook his head to help his vision clear, "You shouldn't… ever."

"No duh!" Yukari scolded, "You could wind up with a second head, or worse!"

Jaden laughed and shrugged, "Well, I'm alright and I'd like to think that is what important."

Moka's mind was filled with worry about what Yubel had told her, 'Yubel said that Haou and Jaden were one and the same... And those things that she said they did...'

"That isn't the point!" Tamao shouted as she punched Jaden on the top of his head, "Don't take such stupid risks!"

"What are you my mom?" Jaden teased, not noticing Tamao's embarrassed blush.

Moka smiled at the end of it all Jaden was still Jaden, 'None of that matters.'

x-x

The next day Gin was reading a magazine while everyone else worked hard on writing up the first draft on the Ishigami story.

"Hey where is Jaden?" Kurumu asked, as if summoned by succubus's question the door opened and in walked Jaden with a shell shocked look on his face.

"Speak of the devil and he appears," Gin remarked, "Where have you been?"

"I went to see the head-master about the whole letting a psycho on the teaching staff..." Jaden answered weakly as he slumped into a chair.

"And what happened?" Everyone was scared about the answer that Jaden might give.

"You ever read "A man without a country"? A military man says that he never what's to hear about his country in court after not responding to his superior's orders, and they punish him by granting his wish," Jaden explained.

"Okay?" Gin said, prompting the younger student to continue.

Jaden stared blankly at nothing in particular and said, "I'm the new chief of Internal Affairs."

... The sound from Yukari's pencil dropping to the floor was like a gun shot.

x-x

Three hours earlier...

The head master watched as the boy in-front of him paced back and forth, half listing to the long winded rant he was getting. It was mostly one big scolding about not being careful in selecting his teaching staff, and not getting involved in problems.

"... At this point you might as will put me in charge!" Jaden exclaimed.

"Say, that's an idea," the robed figure said, this might just kill two birds with one stone, maybe three if he was lucky, "The Internal Affairs department has been unmanned for years. I have been doing what I can by having my personal guards take care of things when they come to my attention. But since you are so passionate about this you can take over as the new chief of IA."

Jaden felt every brain cell he had drop what they were doing to figure this latest twist out.

"You'll still go to class and you can continue to take part in whatever club you're interested in, but there will be some changes to your normal routine. I'll send someone with some paperwork for to sign and a handbook to clear any questions you may have about your new duties."

x-x

Back in the present Jaden finished recapping the past events, "And that's what happened in a nut shell"

"Mister Yuki?" a young man asked as he walked in.

"Here," Jaden said as he raised his hand.

"Alright, here is your book," the currier said as he handed Jaden a medium sized book with a leather cover. "And your paper work," he said placing the forms on the table where the duelist was sitting.

Thud!

Jaden stared at the mountain of papers before him. A monstrosity of legal documents, two feet thick from front to back.

"Ugh!" he moaned as he got started.

x-x

After his paper work was finished Jaden had found his way to the Internal Affairs department. It was a one story-building that was almost completely isolated from the main school and dorm-rooms and could be best described as one thing. A wreak

"...And one of the beams that should be in the ceiling supporting the roof has broken and made an excellent short cut to the basement," Jaden said to himself as interned the main room. "I know this the contract I signed said that it was the responsibility of the current chief of the IA department to handle the maintenance requirements, but this is going to take weeks to restore... Oh well, guess I'd better have look around," he said as walked across the room toward what would be his new office.

CRACK!

"I see that you've decided to start with the basement," Yubel said in her spirit state as she hovered over Jaden's limp form as he lay on top of the remains of the floor he was standing before it gave way beneath him.

"Shut up..." the duelist growled as he got back on his feet.

x-x

Two days later, the Newspaper Club were working on finishing the paper covering the Ishigami incident before their deadline.

Moka had been lethargic for the past two days; working on the paper just wasn't as fun without Jaden making his smart alack comments. As she let out a sigh she heard a moan emerge from the almost lifeless form of Kurumu. As a succubus, she was deeply attached to the one she chose as her destined mate and being apart from Jaden like this was taking its toile.

"Come on we can't waste time, it's been three days since the missing girl case was resolved. If we keep people waiting they won't be interested in reading about it," Gin said reminding his underclassmen that they needed to finish up soon as possible.

"Maybe, if you helped us instead sitting behind your desk doing nothing, we'd be able to make some headway!" Tamao growled, venom almost literally dripping from her mouth as Gin just ignored her and took a drink from his coffee and read a newspaper from the human world.

"I think that Gin actually working is impossible so how about I lend you a hand?"

Life sprang back in Kurumu's eyes as she turned and saw Jaden in the doorway.

Moka, Yukari and Tamao all got out of their chairs and rushed to welcome their friend back, but Kurumu beat them all to it and clung to the duelist like her life depended on it.

Jaden was surprised by the speed the blue-haired girl, and then smiled, "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you missed me."

As Kurumu finally let go and ignored the evil auras emitting from her club-mates Shizuka walked in with spirit in her steep as she greeted her sponsored club. "Good afternoon, how is everything going..." she said and trailed off when she saw Jaden, "I thought you were seeing to the repairs at your new office."

Jaden shrugged as he and smiled as he explained that the repairs were coming along fairly and it should be finished in about two more days well and that since he was still allowed to participate in club activities, he decided to see how his friends were getting along "Besides," he continued, "I still need to show up as the chief of IA anyway."

Gin's eyes widened as comprehension dawned on him, which went unnoticed by everyone except Jaden.

The others didn't quite understand what he meant by that remark, but were happy that he was back all the same.

'These kids have become a tightly knit group before I even noticed...' the cat yokai thought to herself before deciding to get things back on target. "Alright now that everyone is here we can get started for real and... I BROUGHT SNACKS!" she said declaring the last part like she had a lost treasure map as she showed the contents of her bags... raw fish.

"Oh, and Kurumu, a letter for you was at my desk," Shizuka said as she handed a letter to the succubus, who found odd since she couldn't figure out who would write to her.

It was addressed to "My dearest Kurumu" and signed as "Nagare".

As the name on the envelope didn't ring any bells, Kurumu opened it... and almost jumped in shock. Inside were photos of her in various erotic poses and a note that said, "If you don't want these pictures to be reveled to the public, meet me at the Monster Tree tonight."

"Hey, Kurumu what's the hold up? We still need to finish the first draft of the paper today," Yukari said, seeming to pop up out of nowhere right next to the succubus surprising the blue-haired teen. She quickly told her friends that she had just remembered something important she needed to do, and rushed off to deal with her new fond problem and return as soon as she could to help finish up with the paper.

x-x

The Monster Tree was well named. It was really tall and had three big cracks in the trunk giving the impression that it had eyes as well as gaping mouth.

Kurumu had rushed over right away to put an end to the nonsense that had called her out there, but it looked like she was alone.

"You got the photos and the letter I sent you, good," said a voice in the tree's upper branches, "'Long time no see" right Kurumu?"

"WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT ARE YOU AFTER CALLING ME ALL THE WAY OUT HERE WITH THOSE DIRTY PICTURES!?" Kurumu shouted up at the young man who began to climb down the trees, her face flush with anger and embarrassment. The succubus was glad that her friends hadn't seen those, she was hoping she could settle whatever this was about without them finding out... 'Wait, I panicked and hid them in the clubroom. I need to get rid of them as soon as I can!' Kurumu remembered trying to keep clam

"I really liked those pictures. You looked cute," the boy said as he caught his breath at the foot of the tree. He was smallish scrawny boy with freckles and hair that dropped down over one of his eyes and he was sweating heavily making it seem like he was dripping slime from his pores, which the succubus thought was a little creepy, "Don't you remember me? I'm Nagare Kano."

Hearing the boy's name, Kurumu felt something in here memory click into place...

(Hate doing this, but... Flashback)

It was at the start of the school year before Kurumu had met Jaden and the others and she was trying to amass her boy-harem.

Searching for new candidates to trap with her drop-dead body and love charm when someone approached her and, "Excuse me..."

"I was wondering if I could take a picture of you?" he asked the blue-haired teen.

Kurumu almost smirked but disguised it as happy smile. It was all too easy. "Well I guess I don't mind.

"Maybe, if you do a good job and take really cute pictures of me I might go out on a date with you," she said as she took a protective pose, serving as the starting sign for the boy to take pictures and seducing him.

The boy start eagerly snapping shots of the succubus as she changed poses and asked completely excited(in what way I'll leave to your judgment), "Do you mean it?!"

"Of course," Kurumu said, while what she really thought was, 'Too easy. But, I don't think I'll keep him, the sweating thing is a big turn off.'

(I really, really, REALLY, hate flashback scenes! . . . Back to the present)

'Wow I can't believe I forgot about that. I was so focused on getting as many men under my Love-charm as possible that I can't remember half of them now...,' Kurumu thought feeling a bit ashamed at herself now that she actually had found her life mate, Jaden.

"So can we go on our date now?" Nagara asked, "I took some really nice pictures of you, right?"

Kurumu was going to say "no" and get it over with but, the boy took more copies of the dirty pictures of her, "Or I am I going to have to show these to your friends at the newspaper club?"

Kurumu's eyes widened in anger and shock. She couldn't let those pictures be seen by anyone even if it meant spending an afternoon with this blackmailing slime-ball. 'I'm sorry everyone.' she thought and vowed to handle this quickly and then return to her friends to help finish the paper with them.

x-x

Kurumu felt like she should bathe in holly water to get rid of the dirty feeling she had. Her "date" with Nagara had turned out to be a perverted photo shoot where the blackmailing scum made her wear slutty outfits like a bunny-costume that was two sizes small, and uniforms for a nurse and maid that were unmistakably short in the skirt and tight in the chest.

And now it was late, and as she neared the club room Kurumu thanked god that it was over and hoped she was in time to help her friends on the paper. But, when she opened the door she fond everyone was standing up to leave and grabbing their bags.

"Kurumu..." Moka said almost reproachfully making the bluenette flinch, "We had just finished up for today."

Tamao stretched her arms out and said disinterestedly, "We've already got the first draft finished, all that's left is to polish it up and then publish it... See ya."

And then they all walked on back to their dorm-rooms, leaving Kurumu alone feeling distraught and lowlier than a bug.

"I had fun today."

Kurumu whipped around to see Kigumi standing in the door grinning, "I can't wait for our next one tomorrow."

"Unless you'd rather I show these newest pictures to you 'beloved Jaden'," he said showing the pictures that he had take of her that afternoon.

Kurumu was ashamed that she wasn't there for her friends and was beyond sure that they thought that she had ditched them. She didn't care anymore about the photos or anything else she was mad now.

"GO FALL IN A LAKE AND DIE!" she shouted at the repulsive teen and ran out the room.

Undisturbed by the succubus' outburst, Kirgumi stood where he was for a minute and thought about his next move...

The photos had failed him and that meant that he needed to figure out a way to put more pressure on her or get something that would work. He was starting to think it might be a good idea to keep the threat of him giving the pictures to Jaden constant by joining her club, but then the newspaper drafts caught his eyes... Yes, that would work nicely.

x-x

The next day the newspaper club discovered that all of the work they had completed the day before was gone.

"Even the back-up data on my computer has been deleted!" Yukari said, as she looked through the digital files, "And the keyboard is covered in some kind of weird slime." And Kurumu knew who the culprit was the second that, she heard the word slime.

'Nagara' the succubus thought with a venomous will set in iron as Gin sighed, ignorant of the thoughts in Kurumu's head, and told everyone that there was nothing they could do but write it over again.

Seeing that they wouldn't be able to finish the paper in time, Kurumu could see only one thing to do and told the others that she wasn't going to be able to help out again.

"...I see...You really don't consider us friends..." Moka said as Kurumu opened the door, too quietly to be claim as her head tilted down making pink hair cover her eyes in a shadow, "You just hang around here and run of when things get hard..."

Moka had never understood why Jaden trusted Kurumu and why the bluenette had claimed him as her mate but she remembered how she viewed her as a nuisance to be dealt away with, "If you walk out that door don't bother coming back!" the vampire yelled, until she felt Jaden's hand on her shoulder.

"That's enough Moka. Come back as soon as you can Kurumu." The Umbralist said softly as Kurumu walked out the door, not seeing the buxom young woman trying not to cry as she walked out.

x-x

"So you finally showed up. I knew you would if I took something important to you," Nagara said to Kurumu as she walked up to the tree where he lounged in the upper branches again.

"Of course with work this poor I might as well burn it..." the scumbag said, as he held the stolen newspaper drafts and lit a cigarette lighter. He knew how it was suppose to go down, she would beg him not to burn it and then-

"And what if you do burn it?" Kurumu's voice was claim... as claim as a graveyard. "You laid your filthy hands on something that my friends and I poured our sweat and souls into... I'll never forgive you," she said, as her eyes came into view full of hate and anger about to explode.

"You won't forgive me?" the slimy boy repeated gritting his teeth before a crazed grin bisected his face and he started to change into his true form, "I don't care if you forgive me. I'll just take you the hard way."

x-x

The newspaper-club were working on the paper hard until Jaden stood up and walked toward the door stopping just a few feet away of someone asking what he was doing and clarified before they asked.

"I didn't see any sign procrastination or avoidance in Kurumu," Jaden's face showed concern for his absent friend, "The only thing I really saw was pain and determination. And those two emotions rarely mix well, so I'm going to look for her."

"Besides..." he muttered just barely loud enough to be heard, "I wouldn't feel like the paper was finished without everyone here."

"Aw," Yubel said in the recesses of the harbinger's soul.

'Be quite you...'

"OH MY GOD!" Tamao shouted as she held up the letter and pictures that Kurumu had hidden in the toolbox.

x-x

After Jaden rushed to the monster tree with Moka in tow while the others looked in any other place they could think of. Stopping at the tree Jaden closed his eyes as drew on Yubel's power and manifested the diamond shaped red eye as he opened his eyes reveal the orange and blue-green colors of Yubel's eyes.

"Jaden, what are you-"

"Ever since the incident with Ishigami four days ago I have begun to notice that my original power to see the unseen and hear spirits has been growing stronger. I'm going to see if I can't find track Kurumu with it by-" Jaden stopped mid sentence glared, "Found her and she's in trouble!"

Jaden took forgetting his dark-skates in his rush, Moka barely keeping up with his pace.

x-x

Not pausing to knock Jaden broke down the door to the storage room where he sensed his friend and found Nagara in his true-form, making him identifiable as a Mad Slug, his slime filling the room with a putrid smell.

"KURUMU!" Moka screamed arriving a few second after Jadendid, the succubus was on with in her true-form looking like she had some kind of fever as Jaden seemed to teleport in a blur affect next to her.

The Mad Slug ignored the two-toned brunette and stared at the vampiress, "Moka! I guess that it's my lucky day. I was going to go after you next but now I can have both at- AAAAAAH!"

The words that Nagara was going say next were lost as he screamed in pain as the Scythe of Nightmares' blade was raked across his hide.

"You're lucky I don't know where your vital organs are, or I would have stabbed 'em," the wielder of the Darkness of Justice growled with murderous intent.

Ready and more than willing to fight to kill Jaden brought the blade around into position for another attack only for his vision to fade out of focus. 'What the-'

The Nagara seeing the pause in the attack used a tentacle like move and laughed as the duelist into the wall, "I give off a poison into the air in this form, leaving my victims helpless as I have my way."

Jaden groaned as he tried to heal himself with darkness and finding that it was just too hard for him to focus and heard Moka fell to the floor under the effect of the toxic air.

"Don't... Touch..." Kurumu said, her voice barely a whisper, as she forced herself to her feet and called on a hidden strength she didn't know she had.

"MY FREINDS!" she shouted her violet eyes glowing with a vengeful power as the floor split open and vines covered in black thorns shot and in snared the blackmailing rapist making him scream in pain as the vines cut deep gashes and the succubus charged toward him and brought her nails down in the final blow, making the vines and the wounds disappear.

'What was that power just now?' Moka thought in awe.

"An illusion... The highest order of succubus are said to have ability to make illusions so powerful that they can affect the real world," the voice of the inner vampire explained from within the rosary, "She isn't at that level yet, but to think she had this kind of power hiding inside her..."

'Incredible, I can tell that this was her first time using that power and she still has a vast amount of still untapped potential,' Jaden thought and then glared at the scythe in his hand, 'Meanwhile, I couldn't do anything. I feel so weak!'

"Then we will grow stronger," Yubel stated, "Besides it isn't your fault that you're not immune to poison."

x-x

The late that evening when Miss Nekonome came to lock up after her students who told her that they planned to stay late to finish the paper. She found all of the newspaper club fast asleep and the paper finished.

'They really have become such tightly knit group,' she thought as she took the paper to be published.

And so group of friends slept as the ever watchful Yubel kept an unseen guard on them as they dreamed.