A/N: Hey everyone. Been a while, has it not?
Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire
Chapter 4: The Blood Circle
Tsukune couldn't feel his pulse. No, it wasn't because he was 'supposedly' undead. It was because his heart stopped upon hearing the task to battle a vicious Paradise native from Hell that had just torn apart a water demon ten times his size, and well over ten times the ugly.
However, given the fact that his guide scared him more than the two other monsters put together, he was finally convinced that this was a must-do. It only came natural to Tsukune that ghouls weren't to feel such emotions such as fear, so if he wussed out now, then Garandou would most definitely (that is to say if not already) would discover his true nature. The nature that Tsukune had always loaded oppressively over his shoulders…as a human. Then that's when he wouldn't be able to run away fast enough.
That term 'human' brought him misfortune even now. Damn his origin. He couldn't have been incarnated as a vampire or a werewolf or something that was adept to fighting. Then again, for some apparent reason vampires and werewolves both seemed to be rare races despite their hearty S – Class leagues.
But even with Moka's empowering vampiric blood rolling through his veins, he couldn't help but wobble a bit in his movements with a touch of unease as he so slowly and unsteadily approached the base of the now reddish river. Again, being talked into doing this had not been easy.
At first Tsukune attempted the 'gentleman' approach with the inky-black entity, assuring that it would be impolite to steal a meal out from under another person, or rather, animal that had worked hard for it, and tried gently to convince him to leave him to his lunch, but the strange man countered it saying that it was not 'stealing', it was 'earning'.
"Since ghouls have and will ultimately adapt to the nature of Savagery," Selzix recalled, "it's only natural that two males skirmish against each other to deem which is the dominant – the superior. Often, an object of achievement is placed between the two so that there is extra sport and motivation to make the difference vantage absolute. This, as you should know, includes food, chuu."
"The way things are…how could anyone call it 'natural'?" Tsukune wondered dizzily.
"Truth to the Lord, how on earth can thou possess dignity worthy even to moveth thy bones if thou telleth me that thou hast never partaken in a Blood Circle before?"
The boy blinked cluelessly. "Blood circle?"
Selzix, whom usually flapped his wings with such vigor in his little body, now kept anchored to his tall partner's torn shoulder, securing all the faith he had that his master would not let any harm come to him now that such a dangerous fight was soon to start.
"Hai. A Blood Circle." He spoke the name in such a way that Tsukune could wager that the small mammal held some grudge against it. "As the name implies, a gory match to the redeath between two of one of the most infamous ayashi classes ever were, the Ghoul. Just thinking about the concept perturbs me greatly, chuu."
Tsukune tried to feign his worriment through holding his pose steady by putting a finger to his chin. "Are there any rules?"
"Hells no! The only rule that you blood-thirsty barbarians commonly associate with is the 'kill in the most mentally-disturbing way imaginable' rule. Don't tell me you've never even thought about it, chuu!"
"Surely, thou must have only recently departed?"
Tsukune avoided him with his brown eyes, staring down at an invisible object. In a way, he had sort of died…just not in the way that his companion was thinking. Getting rejected so coldly by the vampire that he adores had not been easy for him, and now, he was stranded in a completely different land, and he was too afraid yet to ask for a way to get back.
The only question he had to answer to himself was who it was for sure that he was most afraid of.
Garandou the Tragic?
…or Moka?
"…Hai," he finally and hesitantly responded. "In fact it seems like only yesterday."
"Ha. Allow me to grace thee with such humble favor as to enlighten thee upon the subject before instinct calls for it in time. However, this is the only charitable thing I wish to do for thee, else what wilst thou learn?"
Tsukune had a comical blush of shame sweep over before he blurted, "Look I'm not a newbie, I've fought before, I've just…never met another ghoul around here. For all that I know, the tradition might be different. Say, instead of going one-on-one, the whole mob is pitted against the challenger! I don't want that kind of attention!"
"Well I am ecstatic to see that thou art familiar with the rules after all. If I were to tell thee that nothing here changes in contrast to that of thy homeland, I will only assume that that will be all."
"Good luck Tsukune-kun!" Selzix called from the other side of the shrouded magician. "We'll be rooting for you, chuu!"
"Huh?? Wh-what?! No, wait! I-ah, uh…" Tsukune stammered his defense fruitlessly and unsteadily. His distress level was approaching critical mass, and he showed it as his ability to talk slowly withered away to broken stutters.
The hidden sage stared blankly at him and kept to himself. The bat did agree to do most of the talking. "Go on, go get him! Show us some of that ghoul proficiency from back home! Give him a few dabs of that fighting spirit, and this and that…" His voice had reduced itself to mumbles. "…n' stuff…"
'Heheh…I just talked myself into it deeper.' He thought as he sweat-dropped. 'I really am hopeless.'
Tsukune felt no safer than he would if he were on Death Row. They might as well have him dig his own grave before going out. But yeah, he saw himself, marching out there to the gap of the river, practically half-starved, half-naked, to challenge Big Brother to an ass-whooping over a dead demon-fish. Yeah, totally not the craziest part of his week.
For the first part of the approach, Tsukune had stalled for as long as Kami's Grace would nurture him, doing incredibly corny leg-stretches and warm-up routines at the safe distance away from the carnivorous carcass perching in the ankle-deep river. At that point, Selzix seemed so embarrassed to be part of the crowd with Tsukune that he had turned his roosting position the opposite way just to avoid watching him. Garandou didn't seem to care. He only looked on in somewhat of a trance.
"Don't kill the mood, boy, chuu…"
"Okay, okay. I was just trying to loosen up my muscles. We don't come back from things like this!"
"That body of yours no longer functions, there is no 'loosening up', GO." He spoke his feelings as somewhat of a harsh awakening.
So Tsukune, tail between legs, went.
Taking his first step into the flowing water as if almost checking for sharks, he made a (not so) steady amble across the current, feeling the surprising pleasantry that the water was actually incredibly warm, like a hot spring. Reaching down, he silently scooped up a few handfuls of the non-bloody water and splashed them in his face to refresh him and wake him up. He didn't care anymore if it looked suspicious to the creepy old guy behind him that a ghoul would be doing something like this. He was going to die soon anyways; might as well go out with the refreshing sensation of hot spring water.
However, his greatest regrets lay in the possibility that is becoming more and more likely, and that was that he would never see his family again. That he would never see his friends again. If he died at the hands of this human creature, he would never see her again. He wasn't sure exactly how much he didn't want that to happen – he feared Moka as much as he liked her – but he did realize that if there was even a glimmer of hope for his future, it started here.
…And it can't end here while it starts.
No…
He would survive.
If there was any way to survive the curses of this place, the curses of this Second Hell, he would find it. If defeating an already half-way dead monster was going to be where the tough path starts, then it's simply where it starts. No avoiding it.
But now, wading slowly through the more blood-tainted waters to get a closer look at his soon-to-be opponent, he instantly felt his spirited drives leave him again. Despite having looked very real while it crushed the Lochstress creature into the river and tore apart its very being, the danger now looked even more real up close.
Its appearances also have become more pronounced – more detailed, like the long lines of running blood that was now encrusted onto the skin of the young man's arms and exposed back. Other than the ugly, sooty dark brown and red coloring of spilt fluids, he could see the muscles, as well as long, pronounced scars running visibly down and around the man's pale body. Probably from experiences past living as a stray.
The undead's apparel consisted of a plain, faded brown pair of huntsman moccasin boots, and a matching pair of sturdy-looking clothed pants, with the pelt of some unknown creature clinging to his waist as a drape over them. He had long, unkept, raven black hair hanging down over his shoulders, although in spite of the exotic tone, it did look quite a bit wild and ruffled. No blame cast.
But the most noticeable features turned out to be the ones that disturbed Tsukune the most. Among his otherwise very well-built figure, nothing could draw the young boy's attention away from all the other features like the two wide gaping holes on the man's side, revealing a set of two or more ribs protruding wide out.
The world's ugliest compound fracture.
But that man, he was oblivious to any pain. Or perhaps he only made himself seem oblivious because he had to bear the wounds so frequently. Either way, Tsukune was not expecting an easy fight out of this guy.
To top of the terrible scourge wound, another familiar sight diverted his eyes. As he continued to watch the ugly wound, he noticed a long jagged black marking that flowed up directly past it, up to the shoulder as far as he could see past the thick, plentiful hair. But he already knew that he saw that exact same pattern run all the way up through its neck to the side of its face when it had turned to briefly glance at its surroundings.
Truly, the only thing this man could be was a ghoul. He looked far too disheveled to possibly be anything but. Still, it did manage to preserve most of its handsome features. You could almost see the beauty of him if not for the blood…and the scars on his back…and the protruding ribs…and the dead, lifeless eyes…and the fact that he was so primitively picking the animal in front of him clean of meat.
Drawing closer still, the gruesome details and ravenous sounds of muscle and tissue being torn apart became more and more pronounced. The closer he got, the more he didn't want to. Simple as that. He could still turn and sprint through to the opposite side of the river away from the others, but Kami only knows what he would hit next. Could be a ghost, could be a unicorn riding a bloody moonbeam. Every time he looked up at that fantastic sky, he was automatically reminded that anything that the imagination could hold could pop up anywhere at any given time, as well as all the things that the imagination couldn't.
Tsukune's mind was so frozen with fear and the inability to reason with himself that he didn't even realize how far he was from the self-moving carcass…that is until he found himself directly behind it.
The shock of how close it was rushed to him all at once, and he hoisted a startled breath that he just barely managed to suppress before he ended up startling the creature back to 'life'…which would have yet made himself very dead.
There the creature before him was, still apparently oblivious to the visitor right behind, remaining crouched down over the red and teal remains. From behind, Tsukune could hear the vibrant crunch of a rib slip loose, only guessing that the defiled spirit had taken it upon himself to pick it off into his mouth for testing the edibility.
The coarse croaks and yaks quickly ensuing made the boy behind turn ghost-pale with sweat drops all over. Honestly, it had the same effect as having his legs lock up completely straight in the middle of a furnace turned up to the max. The possible fight hadn't even started yet, and already, he felt he was on the verge of collapsing.
He quickly slapped himself awake, and the pain gave him a quick shot of adrenaline. Determined not to waste, he used the temporary courage to try and see if he could get the attention of the stray.
"E-excuse me…" His voice came out as a squeak, so he slapped himself again for extra tone. "Ahem…please, excuse me sir." The body in front of him didn't respond in anything contrary to what it was already doing. Using only its hands now, it blindly poked and picked at the inside of the ribs. The Lochstress juvenile ayashi was now deformed almost to the point of being unclear of what it once was.
Tsukune dared himself to reach out to the slightly older-looking male. He begrudged at the ridiculous action, but slowly followed up to it. His hand moved on its own, closer and closer to the stranger's bare shoulder, nearly getting up to the point of contact.
"Wh-what is that baka doing?!" Selzix screeched in an outraged tone. "Idiot, dur…his back is totally exposed! Attack while you still have the element of surprise with you! Don't go getting polite like that, or you'll lose an arm, chuu!!"
Tsukune's jaw could have quite literally dropped at the hypocritical glass bat shouting out to him right from the riverbank. Garandou slapped a slender skeletal hand over his concealed hood right about at where his forehead would be. The ghoul still didn't break away from its routine, and kept salvaging.
"Ah! What is the point in surprising anyway if you point me out like that?!" But looking back down, he was somehow disappointed that the undead beast hadn't granted him the least bit of acknowledgement. Just kept right on eating. "And you! I know you know I'm here! At least pay attention to me so I feel worth something if I get torn apart! This! Is! Not…!! Honorable!!"
While he was gasping for air from his own mental breakdown, he got a stunning reaction as the ghoul snapped its head around to gaze directly through him with that same emotionless demeanor, and Tsukune grunted at the sight of rib sticking out of its mouth. Everything washed to a dead silence. Its bloody red pupils of eyes were now devoid and gone, leaving nothing but two bottomless, glass holes leering up at him covered underneath a kind of glaze. As the boy watched him in a petrified state, the tiny bone shard wedged in between his two rows of somehow perfectly straight and white teeth suddenly snapped down in two under the pressure of incredibly strong jaws. This the ghoul did, without changing glances, or even blinking. And this the ghoul did, all in the matter of three and a half seconds.
With nothing more said or done, it silently turned back to continue its business.
Following Garandou's example, the boy slapped his own forehead hard with his hand. With that, he realized just exactly how much in this one event that he ended up slapping himself today.
But then he took a deep breath to calm himself down, not knowing if he was more scared than he was outraged. Was he not important enough to get even such a hungry soul's attention? Or moreover, perhaps he seemed that he wouldn't make a meal big enough to be worth the trouble? In any case, there would be no more prolonging. Time to do this.
Still, being as Tsukune always was…
"Okay…well…by the way…I'm gonna have to fight you. I don't want to have to do something like this, but I'm kind of tied against my will here, please forgive this." There was no way to see if the voracious feeder was listening. Tsukune nervously turned to face completely away from his opponent. It would be almost back-to-back if not for the fact that he was standing up straight while the zombie was still crouched over like some primal Neanderthal position. Closing his eyes unsurely, he shouted out to the air in front of him, "okay! So…I'm going to…count to three!"
"Oh my god…" Selzix muttered at the pathetic rendering. This was just getting sad.
"Mmmm…well…'tis an…interesting first move." Garandou stated with lack of a better tone. There, to the usually reclusive sage, was just no better way to put it.
"He's gonna get pwned, chuu."
"…"
Tsukune mumbled something to himself before proceeding with the first count. "…not going to eat you…he's not going to eat you……'kay, not going to – okay, ONE!" He shouted to the sky while facing away.
The creature didn't bother to make any distinction in the environment.
"…Two!"
Garandou was clasping his bony hands together in somewhat of an excited, apprehensive pose. Selzix, who wasn't as much looking forward to a Blood Circle brawl, regardless of if it was an innocent boy going in or no, shielded his eyes timidly with his lengthy wings, once again found clinging to his master's shoulder. He would look as soon as he heard the distinct spatter of gore.
"…Two and a half! …Two and two-thirds! …T-two and ninety-eight point nine percent!"
He cringed under his closed eyes. Here goes everything.
"…THREE!!"
Letting nothing but the adrenaline charges build up in his body and the strong gust of wind and spray of hot water viciously shoot up with his leg to guide it, he threw everything he had into a single first kick.
With a speed that must have been thrown into the nothing short of the swiftest of corpses, the stray had spun away from its disheveled meal, and Tsukune felt his kick come to a complete halt in the bat of an eyelid. Faster than Tsukune's brain could intake, the shirtless human creature seized him by the ankle, and there was a gust of wind swirling around and away to show the arrest of extremely oppressive motion.
Tsukune instantly felt the tightening grip weigh down on his bone, and he looked down horrifically at the once-living force grinning violently back. The dead irises encased in its cold, otherwise empty eyes were now affixed upon him and his severely lacking fortitude. With his guard wide open, the creature wrenched his other hand just above the other tightly around the poor boy's lower leg, and with a might matched by only the creation of an S-Class monster, the vampire, the corpse heaved Tsukune (not so) gently out of the warm ankle-deep water and flung him in a wide arc above itself before aggressively slamming him back down with one ferocious downward arm into the moving stream's shallow bottom consisting of nothing but raw stone. There was a gargantuan shockwave of hot water that sprung out in retribution.
While the ghoul stood off to the side, letting the water splash harmlessly over him, it hung its head limply in a drab stationary lingering, waiting to see if Tsukune wanted more.
Which he really didn't.
Washing back onto the riverbank leaving a trail of red murk in the waters to blend with the older-spilt set, he breathed heavily from having a great wind knocked loose of him. As if a maul once a week wasn't enough, wouldn't want to make his life that easy, would he? With trembling fingers, he gently touched his forehead and quickly moved his hand away with as much as a grunt in pain. There was a small gash over it, and he wiped underneath it a few times to keep from having fresh blood flowing into his eyes.
He slowly dragged himself up to his knees to get a better view of the pretty lightshow in front of him consisting of Roman Candles, Jumping Jacks, tiny Barrage Cannons, and…oh, wait. It's only the delirium of his newly formed concussion.
He looked over and spotted his two dark spectators watching him patiently, along with an additional two. A translucent, but undeniably identical copy was situated right next to them. He could see the long drifting cape and the very same bat, now staring at him the same as the others with everything about them exactly spot-on.
Looking over a bit confused at the turn of the events, Tsukune said in wonder, "Garan-sempai." His voice was still groggy from the collision face-against-floor. "You never told me that you…had a twin brother."
There was a small gap of silence between them before the silent elder reluctantly replied, "…Twin brother…?"
Only after the image began to exchange sides with ghostly movements around the slightly confused creature did Tsukune come to light with the harsh reality.
"AH, not good, I'm seeing DOUBLE!!!!!" He shot to life with panic, but not quick enough to avoid the incredibly oppressive bare arms that grabbed him from behind by his shoulders and tossed him again for a second flight. However this time, rather than getting smashed flat into the rocky surface like before, he sped bouncing over the surface of the vast stream like a human skipping stone.
The air adventure was soon brought to a standstill when he smashed back-first into a tall healthy tree, making it splinter near the bottom. He threw open his mouth at the ever so familiar situation of having his respiration abruptly cut, along with the older, but still ever so familiar feeling of listening to his ribs go.
Unable to talk with his mouth still gaping for air, he still tried to think optimistically. After all, things could have always ended up worse.
'…Well…at least the tree broke my voyage…' The entire structure of the trunk that he was still attached to moaned and creaked rambunctiously, and not much later, the entire tree collapsed thunderously to the ground with Tsukune still on top. He was tossed off by the cruel force of the impact, back into the pebbled embankment. With his head partially submerged under heated water, he went ahead and finished his thoughts. 'You have GOT to be kidding me.'
His ears were going off like malfunctioning speakers, and the ensuing headache sucked. But half out of mind, he struggled to hoist his face up so at least he wasn't seeing everything from an awkward perspective. When he struggled to his knees, his sight blurred clear enough to see a distant figure lurching slowly towards him unrushed, but with undeniable killing intent.
At least it was slow enough for Tsukune to get the time to think how in the hell he could still move. He was getting his ass handed to him, but wouldn't a person normally be out of it if they were smashed against a stone ground and hurled into a tree? It made no sense.
But thanking his luck, he was more than willing to pardon the things that could've happened to him, which were by the way, grueling for him to even mentally ingest.
Trembling unsteadily with fatigue and injury, he tried his best to stave the distance between him and the monster, but it was drastically closing in for them. The other man's eyes looked empty for a moment in that savored moment away, but if Tsukune so much as peered at his pupils when he was close enough, the milky centers of the creature's corneas sparked with demands of insatiable hunger. Apparently it had known from the start that he was not one of its own kin.
And apparently it had been a while since it had seen a real live human.
Tsukune's own anguish had him almost mentally torn apart. 'I shouldn't be here!' he wanted to scream. Over and over again. Until his lungs bled out. Why couldn't he have just stayed back at the Academy and keep clear from the vampire he loves so dearly but fears so absolutely? It would have been much easier than having to survive in this extraterrestrial cage! It would be better than fighting this walking scourge. Wouldn't it? But staking it out here was what had to be done. If he would reappear outside of this world, he would reappear powerful enough to turn the Youkai Academy upside down with his bare hands. Or he shouldn't bother coming back at all. And it was looking like the latter deal.
Tsukune looked at the undead beast, and almost felt complete empathy at its complete loss of humanity. Even as it continued staggering towards him, reaching out for him, he could empathize with its loss.
Was this his own fate? Was this an avatar of foredooming?
Was it his destiny to end up looking like this savage animal? His destiny to end up with nothing but a broken chain on his holy limiter and a severed conscience? An example of what happens when you love too much and want to protect too much?
Because if anything, it was already turning out to be a lesson well learned.
"I don't want to fight you." He concluded. "But it's your future…or mine." The zombie didn't slow in its stead one bit. "…and yours is pretty far gone."
It was right up in his face. With a low groan creaking through ruined vocal cords, its eyes started to milk with complete white as it slowly cracked open its mouth.
Tsukune got into a defensive fighting pose. "I'm sorry."
It lunged at him.
Dusk was breaking heavy through the sill of Moka's bedroom window. The dorm areas were already filling up with other girls as well as the crowd discussion. What they did today, who's dating who, the everyday news. Which to Moka, was never all that new.
She closed the door behind her and set her school bag on the desk near the window, and subsequently kicked off her shoes. Keeping her long stockings on, she let herself flop onto the cushiony surface of her bed. She was still inside her school uniform, exhausted from sweeping practically every square mile of the woods twice. Though occasionally, Kurumu herself would appear as a lookout from the skies above, drifting on the two wings that the ominous counterpart of Moka would have snapped off if Tsukune hadn't intervened.
And then there was that other reason to be exhausted poking around in the background: the return of Loving Wonderful Sister. A sister that had almost made her one with the pavement if Kurumu and Mizore weren't there to make the jump on her. And thus the path to getting to Tsukune was made even more complex.
But no matter how it was put, Moka wasn't alone in her search of desperation. That was because it had become their search of desperation too. Tsukune was gone, and no matter how distant it would seem, none of the girls were having it.
She shuffled her body into a comfortable position so that her head was on her pillow. With her hands to her chest, she laid down staring at her ceiling.
'Tsukune.' She thought wondrously. 'Where are you? What are you doing right now…?'
"Ah! Garan-sempai! Heeeelllp meeeee, he's gonna eat meeee."
"I'm tellin' ya, Master. This wing is slightly longer than this wing. See the difference now?"
"…"
"…I cannot BELIEVE you twooooo!!"
Her thoughts were brought to cease when she heard her stomach rumble. As she put a gentle hand over it to settle it down, she instantly realized the reason. And she felt horrible for doing so.
'Ah. Tsukune's tasty, wonderful blood. It's been a while, hasn't it…?' She shook her thoughts abruptly as she shook her head. 'No. This isn't the time to think about that. Tsukune is not the source of my vitality. I've lived years before I tasted his blood…' Her limelit pupils dilated in startle as she drew a tiny gasp. Then they snapped shut in pain. 'Ooh…but it's so…good…'
She rolled onto her side and stared silently, mournfully at the wall inches in front of her. 'I know there's a reason I want him back. I know that it can't be about his blood.'
But for a second, she doubted herself. She felt like a truly horrible person. On one side of the rosary, she latched onto him, draining him as her nature commanded, and on the other side, swats him off of her like a fly, thanks to the ego that her nature also commanded.
She blushed at remembrance of the hospitality Tsukune always showed her. Showed everyone.
He was always there to tell her it was alright. Before the event leading to his disappearance, he had always gotten back up after taking a beating from Inner Moka, be it verbal or physical, and he had always held this…look in his stunning brown eyes that told Moka – both Mokas' – that he'd forget all about it tomorrow. He always knew when she was feeling down about something, or when she got ill, and he risked his own health to tell Moka that it was okay to suck his blood. He always thought of her. Her anemia placed before his.
That was the Tsukune that she always remembered.
Tears began welling up in her eyes as she pictured his smiling face in her mind slowly fading away. After about a half hour of reminiscence, she realized that all she was truly doing was mourning for something that wouldn't heal itself until she did something.
She sat straight up on her bed, crossing her legs in the middle of it, and rested her arms against it. "This is meaningless, isn't it?" She questioned herself. "Nothing good will come out of weeping over something that everyone else is still out working for. I'm slacking off."
She slowly helped herself off of the bed and headed back for her shoes. She still had some left in her to go out and search a bit more. In terms of caring for Tsukune, she wasn't about to prove herself the weakest link to any of the others. And she did in fact want to find him first.
She had her footwear back on, and she ambled for the doorway, shoes clicking softly against the neat, clean floor. She held her arm out for the knob, but she was nearly blasted back into her bed with fright with the enormous slam following the door swinging open all by itself. You could see the dents in the wall where it hit.
"Guess what, Moka-saaan!!"
"Aaaiiieee!" She squealed still in retaliation to the unwelcome intrusion.
In the doorway, Yukari stood with her fists clenched in an excited pose. She definitely found SOMETHING she liked.
"Hwah~ wha…what is it…" The vampire asked with semi-hyperventilation. After being stranded without feeding for so long, the last thing she needed was to be snuck up on.
Now with her hand graciously on her hip, the young witch smiled with renewed enthusiasm. "I went and spoke to Ruby-san! Then the two of us went to the Board Chairman! I told him what happened and what you did!"
Moka's jaw dropped with heavy disbelief. "You WHAT? Yukari-chan!"
"Yeah, it's awesome isn't it?? Aren't I awesome??"
She would have gone into a weird little happy witch dance if Moka hadn't swooped in on her and grabbed both flaps of her cheeks with utmost frustration. Tears were comically shooting from her eyes as she stretched them disproportionately. "I don't believe you! After everything, this still traces back to YOUR aphrodisiac! It's you who started all this so why are you trying to pin it on meeeeeeeeeee!"
"M-Moka-shwran…wr-wrait…" she begged through a slur of words as she had her eyes closed with the pain. "Wr-wret me exshplain…!"
The agitated vampire didn't cease to listen to reason. "My sister came! She arrived a few days ago! That crazy girl wants my bones powdered in an ashtray! You think I didn't have enough to worry about? Between Kurumu-chan saying such horrible things to me and Yukari-chan going off and ranting, and, and…!"
The younger girl snapped loose for a moment and tried to fend off the outraged blood-sucker. "I have more to tell you, but I can't give you my most explicating details if you're gonna try to kill meee! Pretty please calm down!"
"Calm?! I was doing just fine until you…!"
"Found you AGAIN, big sister!!"
"NYAAAAAA?!" She drew back from the doorway at the recognition of the confident, carefree voice chiming at the door just in front of her. "K-Kokoa-chan!"
The pig-tailed girl had her bat at her side as usual. Glancing around her room, her exploring eyes soon dimmed to lack of interest when they hit her sister again. "Save it. Don't wanna hear it. Right now all that matters is getting your damn boyfriend back so I can see Onee-sama." She walked in with her arms crossed in a stern profile up to her older sister and leaned in at her for emphasis to what she was going to say next. "…My real Onee-sama."
"Ahh! Ts-Tsukune isn't my…!"
But her shorter sibling had already turned away and started walking towards the hall. "Like I could give a rat's ass less what he is. Let's just find him already." She partially growled, partially moaned her agitation.
The older vampire sighed. There was hardly a way to explain the entire situation to this little tycoon. It was luck holding together in the first place that kept her sister from killing her by filling it in her head that the only way to see the mad side of herself that her sister adored so childishly was to bring back the only person she knew who was always available to remove her limiter.
Did that mean that Kokoa had to like her? Psh. No. And she very well knew that on her own.
Nevertheless, go with what the going gives you when the going gets tough. And what Moka had was time. Make the best of it.
As she watched her sister leave and disappear into the dormitory hallway, Moka turned solemnly, earnestly toward the young witch, who was rekindled with new confidence. "Alright! Thanks to Kokoa-chan for giving me that opening and possibly saving my life! I was trying to tell you that there is another way to find Tsukune! A brand-new way!"
"Yukari-chan," she was desperate to know one simple thing. "What's the meaning of this…?"
The witch tried her best to act professional, but simply couldn't. "Oooo~ you make me all tingly when you're like that, Moka-saaaan~!" She cried with overjoy. "Board Chairman found a way! He is so COOOOOOL~~! Look it'd be better if I just explained it along the way to his office. Desu~, Stalker-girl, and Ruby-san are already waiting with him!"
"I-is that so?" She seemed to hesitate for a moment. Finding Tsukune…could it really be true?
Yukari cracked an expecting smile, already having plotted the vampire's next move.
And sure enough, after about a half minute's pause, Moka, stimulated with overflowing eagerness, made a very sudden full storm dash for the Chairman's office, blazing fire in her wake.
Yukari, who was well accustomed to the routine, simply latched onto her back as she passed, dangling with a single arm, while she let the older girl practically drive her to the destination. Moka never seemed to notice. And Yukari didn't expect her to.
But it would take them a bit longer to find out…that they were just too late.
One sound punch.
Another one.
Two more in return.
Three more in retribution to the two.
Tsukune was knocked off of his feet and splashed noisily into the ankle deep water. There were blotches of red clouding all around him.
He put his hand to his now bleeding face, feeling the gash on his lip.
"He's…really good…" Tsukune sputtered a few drops of his physical essence into the stream as it flowed by him. "You're really good…"
He was looking up at the towering figure lurching towards him with his neck hung to the side as if there were no spinal column to support it upright. The body swayed back and forth in random, unprovoked, fluid movements while the wide milky eyes burned hot into Tsukune's.
It stood still for a moment, as if anticipating the injured kid to act.
Tsukune scrambled back a bit for a brief breather in the water, and looked around. There were a few pebble-sized rocks in the water to keep the thing at bay, but for what? Procrastination of the inevitable? There had to be something he could use. Some sort of weapon.
His eyes continued wandering the flow, and in looking at the water now a gory murk of thicker red fluids, he swallowed hard and begrudged at the most sane strategy available.
The ghoul made a staggering reach for him, but he thought fast and rolled away from it. Then drawing his breath with the last ounce of stamina he had, he dove into the water mixed with organic insides' juice.
'This is soooo gross.'
The splash. Red droplets sprayed everywhere. Some splattered onto the carcass's face, and the jaw dropped in a riled nature at the act. The entire body twitched about with more unprovoked movement, and it slowly ambled up to where Tsukune inevitably landed. The ripples still outlined with distinctly different shades of scarlet.
With a sudden lunge, as if the ripple ring were his most hated enemy, the creature tackled the spot, and an even bigger splash was the result. It made long punches and grips and claws at the surface, each one creating their personalized splashes, until slowly, like a dying engine, the splashes elongated; the ripples subsided.
The bloodied human creature was staring on and around itself like a caged animal, wandering the area relentlessly for its new pray. Its long black hair flopped about as the limp strands of it concealed the better parts of his face.
"Wow. That's really good thinking for a ghoul." Selzix proclaimed. "The ghoul's have a mixed sense of observational abilities. Some better than others. While ghouls cannot react to sight or tactility, their constructed sense of smell and hearing does them wonders. If scar-chested ghoul remains hidden like that, he'll blot out his opponent's chance of spotting him through the strong fragrance of the blood in that water."
"Impressive. But Tsukune is eluded by one thing." Almost on cue, the tiniest gurgle of a bubble breaking the surface of the current, even in spite of the roar of the rapids, caused the ghoul to snap its drowsy face at that destined spot. The shaded enigma finished his words. "…He must not make noise."
It was a lesson learned too late.
Creaking its mouth open in a wide arc, as if no longer limited by jawbone length, the undead abomination shot out in a half-sprint half-crawl for the spot where Tsukune was undoubtedly hiding. With a flash movement, it tore out a piece of itself, and with the sharp pike in hand, it sent it spearing through the water surface and penetrated something solid.
Blood gurgled up from all around the shaft of the bone stake. Something living was wriggling and writhing down underneath it. Like a worm on a fish hook.
Garandou and Selzix fell into complete silence as they watched the ruthless dead thug twist and wedge it even deeper still with both hands now wrenched tightly around the thin shaft.
It took a long matter of minutes as they continued watching the movements beneath the spear point come to a cease. The blood ran down the embankment and washed against the soil and rocks as it passed.
"Oh. So the one eating was the stronger of the two after all… I suppose we always had a hunch this was coming. But for a ghoul to be able to use a weapon like that…from its own body no less…" The bat turned its tiny head to look at his master before turning back to face the gory mess the stray ghoul had made. "A lot of weird things have been happening today…haven't they, Garan no Danna?"
The hood was unreadable, as it had always been. It just continued facing the tragic scene.
Out of nowhere: "Tsukune is not finished."
"Ne?"
They both watched the hunter reach down through the water and pull up the body of what he had just harpooned. Still holding it up by the long sharp bone, it narrowed its glazed eyes at the sight of a limp creature identically resembling the one Tsukune was eating earlier that day. The blood continued dripping into the water below.
"Oi."
The neck of the unsuspecting ghost snapped sickly to the boy right behind him.
"I wasn't hiding there."
With a quick motion, he carved his fist into the thing's exposed ribs, making the whole body curl up in surprise. With a quick second coming, he used his second fist, the one with his holy locket no less, and smashed into the side of the wild ghoul's jaw. With a half-effort grunt, the whole body crashed down into the water. The current hid the still motionless vessel from sight.
"Oh, um…" the bat was not too sure how to take the surprising turn of the events. "Good…going?"
"His punches were really something."
"What happened out there?"
The tattered cloak was as a statue while he continued to survey the scenes.
Tsukune looked around his surroundings one last time, watching the water continue to file down the river, and the suns in the starry sky beginning to retire from sight. With nothing contrary to what he had seen before, he turned back to face the two and jinxed his luck saying, "I think I got him."
A pale hand shot out of the water from between his legs and grabbed a tight hold of Tsukune's ankle. He didn't even have time to express his startle before the overpowering force quickly overcame him and threw him under the water.
"Look at that! He just imitated the same tactic that Tsukune-kun just used!" The glassy black bat exclaimed.
"It can process actions. That corpse was just waiting for the child to teach it something new."
"Have you ever heard of a ghoul even near capable of doing something that serious?!"
The strange man thought for a long moment, and responded truthfully.
"…Nay."
Tsukune kicked it off of him and drew back away for another breather. 'So it can use weapons. Wonderful.'
The ghoul bounced back quickly against him. On the verge of closing in, it tore out an additional spike out of its thigh. Tsukune jumped back.
"Those aren't his bones! They're the spines of that bigger guy from the beginning! He was hiding them from me! Craaaap!"
"Unimaginable. So the stray was hiding the remnants of the juvenile within its own wounds. 'Tis the perfect surprise."
"Looks like it's been munching on a few military brains. It's not just using weapons – it's concealing them from Tsukune-kun so he can't see until he's up close. It's the perfect ambushing tactic. It's a freakin' marine."
"The second that boy leaves himself open…"
"It's over, chuu."
The zombie carried the perfectly shaped broken off spines coursing with potent venom towards his target. Each slender bone was over three feet in length. Tsukune saw what was coming and stepped back with his hands in the air. "Easy now. Let's just take this easy." The thing was hunched over, brandishing its new objects. "Let's be gentlemen…and…" He threw his hand into the water, pulled up a big stone, and lobbed it blindly at it in the blink of an eye. "…FIGHT FAIRLY!"
The impact of the rock stunned it, and Tsukune rushed in to take out the real viable threat. He kicked the first pike out of its hand and rushed for the other, but the undead recovered faster than anticipated, and grabbed for Tsukune. Both struggling for control of the weapon, they both tried their best to keep the dangerous tip pointed at distinct opposite directions from themselves.
Eventually the hilt slipped loose from both of their hands, and it stuck out into the river like a thin pole. The ghoul recoiled with a backhand to Tsukune, and he fell back into the muck.
Before he could get back up, the corpse came again, and this time, it wasn't planning on letting go. Pressing its weight down on Tsukune for maximum restriction of movements, it grabbed for his head and smashed him down against the ground.
The poor boy choked on warm water, and before he knew what was happening, he was pulled back out of the water and suspended up high by the ghoul's arms around his throat, bloodied. Beaten.
"Ooooh. …Is he down for the count?" Selzix wondered with interest.
The black magician gave no sign that he would respond.
Tsukune was on the verge of choking. Whether it be from water, blood, a mixture of the two, or an increasingly crushed windpipe, it was doing it for him. Dangling with mud and scratches all over his chest and face, some more serious than others, the vision of the other long-haired boy and his empty, dead eyes was failing him.
But before it could falter any further, he caught quick glimpse of that holy locket. Dangling on his right hand. It was shining like a row of gemstones between him and death's advocate. Now Tsukune was about to do the last thing that his free will commanded him not to. There were no second thoughts.
His movement wobbled. His shaking hand started towards the beads of silver clinging to his wrist.
The bat instantly caught this, and fluttering high over ahead, he asked with stress "Ne! Tsukune-kun! Whaddaya doing??!!"
The cloth-bound recluse continued watching.
The boy wearily snapped his head for as far as the death grasp on his neck would allow him. "I…uck…" He choked. "…have a plan…"
"I don't believe what you're saying! You're about to be snuffed out, boy! At least be a man and accept it! There's always a stronger ghoul. That's as nature plans! Accept it, chuu!!"
Tsukune cracked a smile underneath the blood coming down his chin. "I'm not…" He winced. "Saying it's a good plan…I'm not…even saying it'll…work…" He finally grabbed a hold of what he was after and let his arm hang off of it. "But I'm all out of ideas. This is the end of my rope. I won't…stand to be wiped out by this empty husk."
"It's just one curse as followed by another in the end."
That only caused Tsukune's weakening expression to smile a bit more. "Don't worry about that… I'm still…cursing the luck of having ever met you two…in the first place…"
The two black figures stood away from him, eying them with emotions that they kept to themselves.
After a moment more of watching him in his struggle, Garan grinned maliciously. "Be that so…?"
"If my dying plan…doesn't fall through…if I'm killed either by what I do or by what the ghoul does…my deepest regret," he tightened his fingers around the beaded limiter, "was that I couldn't be with the people that mattered most." Five black figures in the definite outlined shapes of the girls he befriended through that school flashed through the back of his mind.
His slowly beating heart gave a sudden jump of adrenaline, and he tugged with all the strength that he could at the artifact. Static wrapped around his body at the struggle, and that's what it felt like. Pulling the limiter loose was like pulling a tooth loose. It hurt, but it had to be done.
Suddenly, distinctively, it snapped loose, and the silver-lined fragments flew in slow motion.
As Tsukune became sleepier, his eyelids were growing heavy. His eyes slowly closed before the ghoul that still held him suspended. Unlatching its jaws to bite into the boy's neck, the zombie drew nearer to him. Its horrid face dimmed out of his sight.
His eyes closed completely shut.
'Moka-san…'
A great explosion of scarlet and lightning erupted in the valley, blowing the carcass far out of sight. Where Tsukune was once being subdued, now a strobe light times a hundred was flickering furiously. The whir of angry electricity the color of Moka's vampire aura far outdid the subtle sound of the water current.
The two creatures that Tsukune had met just before were staring wondrously at the brilliant display of raw malice before them. The water was distinctively kicked up around where the boy tore off the only thing that kept his humanity together. Not a drop entered the distortion.
Unlike Selzix however, the strange magician known as Garandou simply smiled beneath his cowl and murmured these words.
"And the first ghoul…is always the most difficult to snuff out."
A shadow of purest black took a step outside of the circle of twisted energy. The lightning around him did not fall quietly. It clung to what was coming out, as if it were the only thing that gave it life.
Two white, unreadable dots peered out from the white and scarlet light at the two others. The remnants of the locket fell from the unidentifiable figure's right hand…
…And splashed solemnly into the murky depths below.
The protective ward around Tsukune's afflicted mind, body, and soul…was gone.
But the only thing that the mysterious man the new Tsukune was now peering at did was deepen his smile.
"I was wondering…when it would happen."