The autocorrect on my computer has struck again. Much like the embarrassing trial with Kuyo, Oyakata of Witch's Ranch had her name swapped with the name Yukata, but it's now fixed.

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Gx, Rosario + Vampire, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, 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 is purely coincidental.

Don't the City Lights Look Stars To You, Ruby?

For the first time in many years, Ruby dreamed of her parents and the time they took her to the city after the sun had gone down when she was little and how she thought the lights were like… and the sound off car wheels squealing as the diver tried to make his car change course…

Ruby awoke before she could dream anymore and then bolted up right as she realized that she wasn't at the ranch or on the roof where she faced the young man before and with the group from then was watching her along with some more people with them.

"What is going on here?! Where-!" Ruby asked before she doubled over in pain, making the group notice that she was up.

"Easy there, you shouldn't be up right now Ruby!" Yukari objected to the older witch straining herself by moving.

Ruby glared at the group again as she asked, "Where am I? What are you guys?"

"This place is the hotel we rented for this and the next night." Jaden said before he shrugged and answered the other question, "And I'm a human."

Ruby stared at the young man for what seemed like hours before she found her voice, "H…Human!? Are you really a human?!" she blurted out in shock, "That's impossible! Humans can't use the kind of power!"

"No really! I'm really am a human. I'm in training as an Umbralist under a very powerful fiend that been my friend since childhood and I hang out with a bunch of yokai, but I am a human in both mind and body." Jaden said, holding up his hands as he explained, completely serous.

"A human… Who hangs out with yokai?" Ruby asked, feeling like she was falling into the twilight zone as the group introduced themselves and told her what they were, and Jaden smiled when they were finished and said, "Yeah, were an odd mix I'll admit."

"Stop joking around! Other yokai can't be friends with humans and witches! That's impossible!" Ruby declared as she grabbed Jaden and by the front of his shirt and shook him, making him wince in pain as it reopened.

Realizing what was wrong Ruby let go of his shirt as she remembered their earlier fight, "That wound… Is that where I slashed you?"

"Yubel stopped the bleeding and repaired most of the damage earlier, but wanted to let the injury close on its own as a "lesson in maintaining spatial-awareness'." Jaden said as Yubel apologized for not foreseeing that it could be reopen and closed the wound fully, making sure not leave a scar.

Ruby seeing the results of her actions put them in new light, making her feel very guilty as she asked, "Why? I tried to kill you, so why are you helping me?"

Jaden scratched the back of his neck and thought about the question before he answered. "Well, I been around and I've come to realize that having a reason is pointless, besides I kind of went overboard with my attack" Jaden said as he smiled at the teen witch "Besides I can't hate you for that attack you were just too awesome when you did it, seriously you were like a dark seraphim."

Ruby blushed at the compliment, unused to such praise, before she turned away to hide her newly reddened face, but too late to escape Jaden noticing and asking if she was okay.

'Why do people keep to falling for him, is he a descendent of Aphrodite or something?' everyone else wondered, they knew that he didn't do it on purpose from the way he reacted to their displays of affection but still it was frustrating the way he kept garnering more attention from other girls.

Meanwhile just outside the room, Nekonome was eating her way through several crates of fish and the bus driver was smoking one of his ever present cigars. "He, he, he, are you sure that letting them get involved in this case is a good idea, Ms.? That Jaden kid is chaos theory in a human body" The driver chuckled before he his tone became very serious, even though his grin remained in place, "But really now, that "case" that you've gotten those kids involved with is more dangerous than you seem to realize."

"If this little "research trip" gets out of hand we will request back up from the academy, is that clear?" the bus driver said, he had been told by the school's headmaster to keep a close eye on those kids, the vampire and Umbralist especially, and he doubted his boss would a prove of them being seriously harmed.

x-x

The next morning Ruby examined Jaden as he handed her breakfast, noting that she looked much better now that she had rested, and interacted with the others. 'I don't sense any youki in him right now.' The witch noted and then wondered, 'Is he really a human?" as she tried to remember what her teacher had taught her.

Memory Lane

"Mistress Oyakata, what exactly is an Umbralist, is it like a witch?" a fourteen year old Ruby asked the more experienced witch, who arched an eyebrow as she asked her student, "My dear little Ruby, what makes you ask such a question? Now that I think of it, where did you even learn that term, I don't think it was in any of the texts I gave you to study?"

Ruby looked down as she realized that she had caused herself to be caught in having knowledge she shouldn't have had and confessed, "I read it in a book I read in your study, but it wasn't very clear so I hoped you would explain it. I'm sorry mistress, I know you said that I should just study the text you gave me but I really do want to become more powerful so I can help you protect this ranch."

Oyakata sighed as she rubbed her head in frustration before she spoke to the child, "I appreciate that you want to help me protect this place but there are spells in my study that you aren't ready for yet, so I'll tell you about Umbralists if you promise me that you stay out of my study unless I'm with you, understand?"

Receiving an enthusiastic nod of agreement, witch-elder started to explain what an Umbralist was and how it was different from their own kind to her student.

"As you know we witches are a race that can listen to the wind and commune with the spirits that dwell in this earth, ours is the power to use of this world's natural energy and the native forces for our magic which is passed down through our kind's noble bloodline. But unlike us and our male counterparts, the warlocks, an Umbralist is the exact opposite of us, starting as humans possessing no inherent powers of their own and drawing their magic from spirits and forces from a realm that is the mirror counterpart of this one, which they call the Umbra hence their title of "Umbralist"." She said and explained what that world was, "Unlike our Earth, the referred to as "the Waking World", and "the Mortal Realm", the Umbra consists of three worlds which are interconnected with each other, permitting travel between each other. These worlds are "Purgatory", "the Dreaming", and "the Spirit World"."

Ruby was hanging on her teacher's every word, wanting to ask how humans could learn to use magic without a natural affinity, but choosing to wait as her mentor explained what roles the three worlds played as parts of the Umbra, "Purgatory, also known by the other names of "the Land of the Dead", "the Shadow Realm", and the "Dark Umbra", serves as the resting for place spirits who were expelled from the other two worlds and the ghosts of those who can't move on to heaven or hell because of their own lingering attachment to the world or a curse. Most of those ghosts can't cross over to our world, which they call the "Land of the Living", for any great length of time. Only appearing in specific places and times but there are exceptions. Entry into the Dark Umbra can be accomplished by curtain spells and rituals, but generally only into the area known as the "Black Sea", where countless exiled spirits who have been stripped of their names and power dwell, once one enters that place they would be consumed by those shadow and be unable to leave unless they have taken precautions. If one wanted to inter the true land of the dead they would have to inter through a route through one of the other two worlds first or use one of the Umbralists' secret arts to open a path."

"The easiest world to enter is the Dreaming, or as it also known the Dream World." Oyakata said and started to tell her student about the second world in the collective whole of the Umbra, "The Dreaming is the realm of dreams where all dreams are born and can is the easiest realm to access the other two from, but fantasy rules in place of logic and reason and nightmares are so born there so it isn't always safe to travel through there without a guide of some kind. And the most common methods require the traveler to leave their bodied behind and defenseless against possession, but Umbra's can travel there with the same portals they would use to travel to the Dark Umbra and Spirit Realm, which they call the True Umbra, I trust that I don't need to explain that world to you."

Ruby nodded, as she absorbed all the new information her teacher had given her, and listened to what else Oyakata had to say. "I have explained the Umbra to so you can fully understand how much a power an Umbralist can gain, when I say that once he or she can learn any power of any resident of any of the three worlds. Umbralist comes to be when a human makes deals with forces that even we witches can barely understand, there are many recorded cases of Umbralists going mad under the influence or becoming mindless beasts of destruction. Only a mad man without regard for his own well being could ever think such risks are justified… Thankfully there aren't any Umbralists left since spells and rituals needed to gain a spirit guide or to a bind familiar have been lost for hundreds of years."

End of Memory Lane

'Umbralist, a person who can gain powers of the undead, fiends of darkness, and spirits of the light through unholy magic… he really doesn't seem like anything I'd imagine an Umbralist would be like.' Ruby thought as Jaden welcomed back Yukari as she returned from shopping.

"Hey you're "Jaden" right?" Ruby said drawing his attention back to her as she asked, "You said you were in training to become an Umbralist, why for the love of heaven would you seek to master such a power? Don't you know how dangerous it is to miss with the powers of the Umbra?"

"Wait! You're putting yourself in danger by studying Umbralism!?" Everyone else exclaimed before Scanty looked up in thought and asked, "Or is it called Umbramancy?" unsure which was right. "Maybe it's just called Umbra?" Kneesocks hypothesized.

"All three of those are correct, but which one is used is up to whatever the practitioner prefers and I prefer Umbra for future reference, Umbralism sounds a religious cult and Umbramancy sounds a bit too arrogant for me." Jaden replied, before he answered the more serious questions, "And yes, I am aware that there are risks in becoming an Umbralist, but for some reason I have an affinity for powers of darkness in spite of my human birth. So I was on the path to becoming one before I was in grade school."

Ruby was confused, "So why don't you stop?" she asked, if he knew the dangers why continue to learn things that would just put him in danger.

"I could stop using the Umbralist arts… but I want to stay at Yokai Academy with my friends, and I can't do that without being a burden on everyone unless I learn to control the powers of darkness that rest inside me by becoming an Umbralist." Jaden shrugged as he explained as he smiled at his friends, "I love my friends and staying at the academy with them too much to give it up… I guess I'm only human." He said and turning his head and missing the vast number of blushing faces.

As the group of friends talked and vested amongst themselves, Ruby's expression was becoming pained. "Stop… Stop joking around… You guys are so naïve." the teen witch said, her voice cracked with emotion.

"I… I'm not going to be fooled! I know what the human race is really like!" Ruby declared before she sprang up out of her futon and charged at Jaden, her hand raised and ready to strike as she shouted, "I'LL NEVER TRUST HUMANS! I'LL PEEL OFF THAT HATEFUL HUMAN SKIN RIGHT NOW!"

"Jaden, watch out!" Kurumu yelled as Mizore readied her ice claws while Scanty and Kneesocks hurried to get their weapons out of where they had accidently stored them in their laundry. But Ruby froze in place when she saw that he wasn't making any move to stop her.

Instead he was holding out one of sodas Yukari had bought to her and had a remorseful look on his face as he said, "I've heard about the plans for construction on your ranch and how it's terrorizing your home, so I can understand why you would resent humans… And I am sorry for everything that you've had to go through because of my fellow humans."

"I am not so naïve that I would believe that saying "I'm sorry" will fix anything… But I honestly want to help make amends between us. I saw the way you reacted when Yukari wanted to join you at your ranch and how happy you were and to gain a friend." Jaden said, as he smiled sadly, "So don't lose that light to revenge, I hate seeing nice people like you being filled with hate."

Ruby stared at the can for a while, starting to become friends with the strange human and the yokai girls was simple as excepting the drink… "Sh- Shut up!" she said as she forced herself to knock the canned beverage out of Jaden's hand.

"It's too late now… There is nothing you can do now." Ruby said, trembling as conflicting emotions ran through her, "The humans here have enraged the mistress, and in order to punish them she plans to turn this city into a sea of flames."

'Man, this could be a tragedy in the making" Jaden thought, remembering the feelings that made him become Haou and the destruction he had caused.

x-x

Late the fallowing Ruby was wake long after everyone else had fallen asleep; examining the bandages they had dressed the various cuts she had gotten in her fight earlier and finding that they had almost completely healed, 'My injuries are doing well' she thought before she caught sight of the canned drink that they had placed by her futon incase she wanted it later and picked it up as she looked at the group sleeping in the room with her, consisting Yukari, Moka, Jaden, and Kurumu who had rolled over to grab the Umbralist while Tamao, Scanty, and Kneesocks were in the room next to theirs.

"What's wrong Ruby, you couldn't sleep?" Yukari asked shocking the older witch, who had thought she was asleep, before she led her outside, waking Jaden as they interred the hallway.

"Hey Yukari, where is my magu? Ruby asked, and then explained when Yukari didn't understand the term, "You know the magic item that lets us witches channel the powers of nature, like your wand and my staff? Well I need it back now, since I can't go home without it."

"May be you should stay for a while" the younger witch suggested, "If you give them a chance they can be great and I'm sure Jaden would like to be your friend too."

"…Yukari… My parents died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver here in the human world." Ruby said shocking Yukari and everyone else, who were listening in around the corner, "We were out doing some shopping together when a car rushed towards us. My mom and dad pushed me out of the way, but…"

Ruby didn't say what had happened next, but it was clear to everyone what tragedy had be fallen as she continued to talk, "After that, all I could do was hate humanity. I hated the human race as a whole and places like this city, I hated everything that had to do with humans."

"Ruby…" Yukari said softly as she imagined the pain that her sister in witch-hood had endured.

"You're lucky Yukari… You have become good friends with those people, and Jaden is a great person who might just mange to redeem the name of Umbralist one day." Ruby said as she turned towards the younger witch, showing her tearful eyes and sad smile, "I wish I could have met you guys earlier."

Then she darted away, ignoring Yukari's pleas to wait, and noticing that she had knocked into Jaden as she sprinted down the stairs into the street and kept running until the hotel had been out of sight for some time and stopped when she heard the flapping of crows' wings.

'It is too late to turn back now…' Ruby thought as looked at the drink she still had in her hand and one of the crows flew close to her with her staff in its beak and offered it to her as it said, "I've come to help. I brought your "stick". Hurry back to the ranch or the mistress will be angry."

x-x

Back at the hotel the entire group was now up, Yukari and Jaden had tracked Ruby down but not in time to stop her from using her magic to transform and fly back to the ranch.

"He he, is this really okay with you?" the bus driver said, addressing the entire group as he entered the room but his eyes, "If you let things continue like this, you new little friend is going to be responsible for a lot of death and destruction."

Lighting one of his cigars and then taking a draw from it, the driver continued to talk, "The mastermind of "Witch's Ranch" is starting to put her plan in action. I'm betting that she'll bring an army to destroy this city and kill all the humans, and that army would include Ruby."

"Now how would you know that?" Jaden asked suspiciously. He had already figured out that the leader of the ranch was going to try something, but the bus driver was being a little too specific.

But the driver ignored the question and continued to talk, now addressing Jaden in particular, "So what are you going to do kid? The history between humans and witches goes deeper than you think. Can you really try to stop them and repair the ties between them if you don't know about it?"

"If two witches lead an army in attack against a civilian area for the purpose slaughtering everyone there, the human governments will view them as terrorists and well take militant action against any future yokai activity." The former conqueror of dimensions said as he stood up, "I'm not an ambassador trying to plead the good side of humanity so knowing about the past is pointless. All I care about in this case is Ruby's well being right now, so let's go get her."

Jaden eyes were steadfast in their resolve as he said, "I won't ask you to come with me… But I am going back to that ranch where the sunflowers grow."

x-x

When she had arrived back on the ranch Ruby approached the cloaked figure of her mentor, who remained silent as her student announced her presence. "I… I have returned mistress Oyakata." Ruby said, only to be greeted by silence, and started trembling in the cool night air as she clutched the canned soda still in her hand.

"So you were defeated by those mere humans, Ruby" the matron of the ranch said her voice too level to be claim, as a vine shot out of one of her selves and snatched the can out of her students hand and held it at eye level. "I heard about it from the crows," she sneered, her mad face glaring out from the hood, reviling her pale gray eyes with black circle, graying brown hair, and her face marred by thick vein.

"And it seems like you've enjoyed being warmly taken care of by them." Oyakata snarled, as the vain crushed the can in explosion of soda before it shot toward the younger witch's throat, "I thought I taught you better. Don't you realize how many witches have been killed because of humans, including your parents?"

"You're a disgrace to witch kind, Ruby." She said as she held up her magu, a book with a red stone in the cover, and made more vines appear and grab a hold of the younger witch, "Maybe you need to revisit some of those lessons again?"

"Mistress Oyakata, please forgive me!" Ruby begged as she cried out in pain as vines tightened around her pinning her arms and squeezing her throat, cutting off her air.

"Please… I can't… breathe…" Ruby pleaded as she started to blackout, but Oyakata was taking more notice of the sound of an engine drawing closer.

Both teacher and apprentice were left utterly shocked when a bus shot over the hill behind Oyakata and then skidded through the field to a stop.

"He, he, he, we made good time getting here huh kids?" the driver said as he opened the door and the disoriented Jaden walked out clutching his chest as he glared at the man casually smoking his cigar and said, "In light of how I did say, "Screw the god damn traffic laws. Just get us there" I'll not attempt to get divers license revoked. But seriously how did you get that metal coffin to jump that house?"

"Trade secret." The diver answered smugly.

Oyakata narrowed her eyes as she remembered that one of the ravens had mentioned a boy that matched his description. "So, you're the ones who were taking care of Ruby while she was in the town" she said venomously

"You say that like I should have left her alone and defenseless." Jaden said before he grew serous. "I recognize that look in your eyes… I've seen it in the mirror not too long ago. So I know that pleading for you to forgive humanity is useless. So I am asking you… don't attack the city for Ruby's sake, or I'll be forced to stop you." He said as the rest of the group marched down from the bus, revealing Kurumu was wearing the outfit that Burstinatrix had made which had been dubbed as her street fighter outfit.

Oyakata glared the group as she noticed that the witch-child was among them her eyes, sharing the same resolve as the rest. "Fine then you can all die trying to do just that, by the product of my greatest floral manipulation magic, monster that I've grown with the most " she said as she raised her book up, the red stone glowing brightly as a green plant creature start to rise out of the ground, pushing aside the mounds earth it was under while one of the sunflowers closed forming it's yellow tipped tail.

"No, tell me you didn't!" Jaden exclaimed as he recognized the creature's humanoid body with its clawed arms, sharp dagger teeth, and the large red eye in the middle of its head with two smaller eyes above it and three more on either side from Yubel's lessons, "You planted hanabake?!"

"Han-a-what-now?" Tamao asked her aquatic up bringing leaving her clueless as to the nature of the monstrous plant.

"Hanabake or Man Eating Plant" Jaden said as he started explain, "In simple terms, it's a vicious monster plant that grows slowly by absorbing energy under in the soil while mimicking a form of plant until it's ready to emerge. It has a body as hard as steel and is very capable in combat."

"And I think now is good for me to assess those skill." The mistress of the ranch said before she issued an order to her monster plant, which was crouched anticipation, "Exterminate them all!"

The green beast lunged forward, eager to rend the flesh-things in front of it. But Jaden held his hand and the Scythe of Nightmares appeared in a flare of miasma as his outfit disappeared and was replaced with his battle gear. The red cape bellowed behind him as he rushed forward and impaled the hanabake on the blade and flipped it onto its back and then ripped the curved blade out, sending green fluids spraying out.

Jaden swung the blade back in front of him making the creature's "blood" on it splatter on the ground as miasma collided around him like smoke. "I'm a human, but I'm also an Umbralist. So don't mistake me as some naïve boy with some cheep tricks. I don't want to hurt you." He said to the eldest of the three witches with a hard look in his eyes before he softened his gaze as he pleaded for her listen, "I want to help. Please… let me, if not for my sake or yours then for Ruby. She is still in pain from losing her parents and wars don't heal, they only reopen wounds, deeper than before, and create new ones. So please stop this and let's try to think of a new way to protect this ranch without bloodshed and get humans and witches on the path to understanding each other and living side by side."

Ruby was shocked, 'Humans and witches living together. That's… what my mommy and daddy where talking about before the accident' she thought as she remembered what they had side to her.

"Don't make me laugh!" Oyakata snarled as she had more hanabake emerge from the ground, "You may call yourself an Umbralist, but you're just a human who got his hands on an old relic of magic. Trash like that can never understand witches! DIE!"

Jaden quickly dispatched the five attacking him from the front, but another emerged from the ground behind him. He tried to turn around in time to attack but it was just too close for him to hit it with the blade, so he channeled his shadow magic into armored outfit to increase its defensive powers. But a long blade stabbed through the man eating plant stopping it cold.

"STOP FIGHTING! PLEASE MISTRESS, STOP TRYING TO HURT THEM!" Ruby cried out with tears in her eyes as more of the blades from her wings joined the one in the creature's chest and sliced it as she spun next to Jaden's side.

"Ru… Ruby, you…" Oyakata stammered at the shock of her student's apparent betrayal.

"Mistress… is this really okay?" Ruby asked the woman who had taken care of her and taught her all she knew about magic after her parents deaths. "Is a battle really the only way to settle this?" she asked as she remembered her parents' wish for humans and witches to live together, hoping that Oyakata would call off her plans to attack the city.

"Mistress, I…" Ruby said, as a tear followed down her cheek as look at the woman she viewed as a mother to her, "I want to have faith and believe in Jaden and everyone else."

Jaden and the others smiled, happy that they had gotten through to Ruby, but soon they shouted as a vine shot through her shoulder with the speed of a bullet.

"Every single one of you is a fool. Damn pests." Oyakata growled while the Umbralist tried to use his shadow magic to heal Ruby's wound as the matron of the ranch willed all of the thousands of hanabake to rise from the ground, "I'll destroy you, the town, and everything in my way myself

To Be Continued