Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire
Chapter 6: Meeting the Doktor
Moka and the other hosts of monstrous beauty slowly but surely departed from the Chairman's office, completely struck at what they had witnessed about Tsukune, the once-human ayashi with new power possibly enough to freeze half of the academy over in unforgiving frost before he would ever be brought down by anyone. However, to Mizore, this new little trait he'd picked up – and on such a level and extend of power in the margin – it filled her chilled heart with butterflies. If anyone could possibly establish a sense of warmth to a yuki onna, a mistress of ice, it was none other than Aono Tsukune. Always full of surprises, even from the day she first laid eye upon eye.
And as she walked through the campus shrouded in the midnight mist, she held out her hand to her heart and calmly witnessed it beat with even greater love for him than ever before. Her expression was emotionless for most part, yet though through it all, the slightest stroke of blush graced her pale cheeks. And with further processing on the manner, it became clear to her. Such feelings like this – surely they must be unhealthy. Both he and his new nature are the perfect spouses for her, and in that being said, he was positively crystallized in a glimmering aura of perfection, and to her refined tastes, like her favorite frozen dessert that she had always hoped that one day they could share together.
Entrapped and entangled in zeal of affection for her missing friend, she kept her thoughts locked quietly inside as she walked through a section of trees in the campus with the others.
Kurumu was greatly impressed as well. Lightning? She didn't know any monster in Youkai Academy capable of producing that. Although as a succubus the power to her didn't completely match her area of fighting, she was entranced at the beauty of the power that crackled at her Destined One's fingertips as he exhibited his new Nature upon a group of flesh-eating ghouls massive enough to crumble Kyoto. He wielded his new power mysteriously, although perhaps a bit ruthlessly, seeing as though it had taken it out of him almost instantly when he froze the large water form over from bank to bank, taking all opposing forces against him with the clamor. But although they were forced to leave him alone for the night for the sake of their own good mental states, she had faith that although he was down, he would rise again, stronger than he was before.
Because that was the Tsukune she knew.
Overcome with mixed feelings of his new ascension, she smiled to the moon, knowing through the tension and instinct of the ayashi that she was that it would not be long before the two of them meet again.
Aside of her, Moka walked along the group, slower than the others, as if there was something afflicting her innocent mind as she fidgeted her fingertips. Mournful as she stared the ground down, she felt sandwiched in between the Ura Moka and the boy that had taken her in as a friend upon her first steps into a new life. A better life, away from the eyes of the humans in the school that she cast herself out of. She liked Tsukune, and she hoped with every starving cell in her body that his feelings towards her as an individual Moka would not be affected by the horrid things that her other half did to him on the day he disappeared. Yet here he was, but the first words that she had heard the boy say had gravely upset her.
"How could I be dead?"
But he didn't look dead! He looked fine! Sure he looked a bit pale, a bit anemic like her, a bit altered around the eyes, but there was no mistaken that he was alive at least! And she wished only that the School Director had prepared earlier so that she could see just what had happened to him. People don't just buy their way into powers like this. Something was up. As much as she wished there was something that she could do, she was stranded at the mirror; a window making the distance of about thirteen light years away from each other seem like not such a long way off. And there she planned to continue her observation of Tsukune. Tsukune, who when last they had met person to person, had crawled away from her with his body in utter disrepair. The thought churned in her gut and made her mutter a grunt of displeasure. It was the sound that any displeasured person makes when they remember their most guilty memory. A sound embodying the urge to walk into the past and changed whatever that person might have said or did to another. And this was yet her deepest regret.
Her troubled heart heaved as she herself heaved a long sigh into the fog. There was no telling what Tsukune would think of her now. And she hated thinking about it almost as much as she did the possible outcome that he would glare her to death with his new eyes upon look at her next. And there was no worse way of dying than that. He frightened her. He did. And if it were at such a great distance, then she couldn't possibly imagine what seeing him would be like if he were standing right in front of her, a neglected ghost. It was like watching an animal that you abused since it was young escape and waiting for it to come back in a more dangerous form and rip your throat out. And the more she thought about it, the more the poor vampire shivered.
Yukari, walking in perplexed thought next to her, had a different concern in her mind. He couldn't remember? He couldn't remember anything? Of all times for a person to lose their memory. Now Tsukune has to go and leave everyone behind at school while he's off wandering a distant dimension fraught with danger and fun. …Mostly danger, but danger could be fun.
"Haaaaah it's troubling." Everyone turned in their due appropriate angle at the youngest witch as she practiced balancing her unique rod, a pout to her face. "I mean it's good that we found Tsukune and everything, but do any of you ever get that feeling that you think you'll be content with something until you achieve it and then you realize that you wanted more?"
"Eaaahh…Yukari…" Kurumu muttered in slight sweatdrop on her face, "You really could have stated something like that better…"
"Well it's true! Moka-saaaan~! In more ways than one!" She winked at her cheerfully, seemingly taking her level of desire with the pride of a vampire. Moka hardly paid attention. She was too much of a prisoner in her own worries to begin to speak. "But now that we actually found Tsukune…it would be nice to actually have him back. …Or at least if we could, um…converse with him."
"The Chairman worked hard finding him." Mizore breathed cold air out around the thin white shaft of the candy in her mouth as she spoke. "It would be too much to ask anymore out of him for now. I think he's more concerned about showing us that Tsukune was okay so that he wouldn't have us worrying ourselves to the point of neglecting our studies."
"Can you really be so sure?" Kurumu asked. "Did you see Tsukune's expression? It's like…he's not the same Tsukune. And his eyes?"
"Did you see what he did to all those ghouls?!" Yukari jumped in uplifted excitement, her hand clasped tightly to the witch's wand she kept close. "Remember our encounter with a ghoul? Our first and only?"
She watched dissatisfied as the other three maidens' faces darkened. Who was the ghoul? None other than the man they were speaking of.
"How…can we forget…?" Their voices were laggard and raspy. Their thoughts turned to the past, and there they froze, for in their heads, they individually stood facing the mirage of abomination that became of Tsukune. It was temporary, but the memory stuck well. And it haunted their dreams.
In the back of their heads, they each had the image preserved perfectly in their minds. His face white with the stop of blood. His eyes rusted, dull, and red. Then in a wicked and unholy smile, the hideous erosion of skin and veins crack long down and across the neck displayed to them all where Moka's fangs had touched, scarred, desecrated. His dress shirt was shriveled and wrinkled. His raw wilderness was such that every cell – every vampiric cell in his body belonging to Moka seemed to taunt them, and the only word that he could spit was "Kill".
They each turned and fled that thought without a second glance, because even in their imagination, he still beckoned to them. Ever present. Always hungry.
Kurumu gently put her hand against her side where Tsukune had taken a jab against her, grazing her skin. She remembered his merciless strength and how he used it against his own friends that day. She never wanted to see him like that.
Ever again.
"I tell you, the day he turned into…you know, and he beat up all those Anti-Thesis thugs…" Yukari's outspoken reminiscence was frightful. "Remember how hard he was to stop, even for Ura Moka-san? And yet he…"
"Stop. None of us want to think about that." Kurumu stood firm against the subject. And in the snap of a finger, her demeanor changed from one of child-chiding concern to affection and heated passion towards another. "But mmmmm how Tsukune has improved! I mean I liked him before I thought he could do any of this, but—"
"Whatever he is," Mizore interrupted the smitten succubus girl, "Whatever Tsukune is now, he can fight."
They were nearing the ladies' dorm area now. Eager to know that the sooner they fell asleep, the faster time flew, and the sooner they could see Tsukune again, it was unanimously decided that it was necessary to take a short cut off the path. Through the grass they continued to step. The night air was alive with crickets and frogs creating nocturne tunes. All was at peace, and yet there was unrest amongst the campus.
It was along the journey that Kurumu had a crossing of revelation in her mind. In many of her squabbles with the other girls over the man that they all adore, she almost instantly grew the desire to surpass all of them in order to show Tsukune that she was different from the rest. Even a freakishly strong vampire like Moka. In a world of ayashi, to find the strongest mate was to be the strongest. And, of course, the most attractive. In this, Kurumu had confidence enough to be sure, but she needed to support all aspects of being the perfect Destined One as a succubus, including her ability to defend her family. What better place to start the tier of the strongest female than with her current rivals of love?
"I think it's fairly obvious that as things are now, only the mightiest of the ladies should have Tsukune." She dangled the challenge in front of all the other girls. They drew to her lightning rod accordingly.
"Neeee? You serious, boob-woman? You should not say such things unless you are at the top of the food chain." Mizore answered. Her fingertips instantly elongated into sleek and slender branches of claws seemingly composed of ice. "In other words, you would have to defeat someone who simply outmatches you in the end in order to get to Tsukune. Me."
A gentle smirk crept across Kurumu. As expected, the stalker-gal was the first to answer her challenge. The two of them had been the most involved with getting at each others' throats. Claws against claws. Charms against ice. The two enchantresses of romance had equal zeal against each other and for Tsukune, and it would have also been the case with Moka, except the sealed version was a pacifist, always keeping to her own in detest to violence. Therefore, Kurumu saw very little challenge towards that girl, except since Tsukune always seemed to enjoy hanging around her the most. Kurumu would probably have to take her last. It would take a long ways of training to go to even think about taking on S-Class things, but that was all part of what would make the charmer so proud of her accomplishment when she would finally defeat the ominous and menacing Ura Moka. The thought even now almost brought a tear to her eye.
"You can't be serious, Desu~. Moka-san would just crumble the both of you!" Yukari protested against the two would-be lovers posing challenged combat for Tsukune.
"Yukari-chan…" Moka broke her silence and spoke for the first time on the trip. "Why are you bringing me into this…?"
The witch snapped her head to flash a confident eye at her dreamed 'triple-sandwich-bed-buddy' before announcing "Well I mean right? It's how it always happens: amidst crisis and chaos, Moka-san will awaken and deliver swift retribution to the offender!" Then she cycled into a dreamier state of mind and spoke as she thought back, "Like remember when those ugly lizardmen attempted to assault me and you came and then Tsukune came and then you shattered their jaws and gave them various compound fractures and ---"
"Have you forgotten that Tsukune was the only one around that could awaken Ura-chan? Now if there was any trouble around, I won't be able to help much…"
Kurumu's attention voluntarily shifted from one issue to another. "Isn't there anyone else that can lift that thing off of you? A random human couldn't be the only one, what about the person that gave you that seal, Moka?"
"My dad? Well, he…"
Her father. A Dark Lord of Youkai Academy. If his hobby for completely and utterly overkilling any male in his presence so much as stepping near his daughter wasn't scary enough, his position was. He was the strongest of the Three, and if you came close enough to catch whiff of the terrible youkai energy pouring from his soul, you'd soon be aware. He always treaded alone; taking the lightest of steps through shadows and space, and growing up around him was troublesome even for the strongest of the sisters. You could think that he was halfway around the world, and he could be standing right behind you, arms folded in that 'fatherly' way. The punishment for wrongdoing really sucked too. Poor Kokoa – a couple of the times he was in real disdain, his S-Class super-swats usually put her down and kept her down – implying that she couldn't move her lower half to walk for a day or seven.
This other time, he threatened (in a very 'fatherly' way) to pin a stake through Kahlua if she ever decided to bail out on another one of her sisters' graduations again for a guy, or, the term loosely used by himself, 'some sexually-driven anthropomorphic mongrel'.
Oh, the girls didn't need a mother by his side to keep themselves in line. They came quietly, and overall, everyone did a fair job of keeping themselves on his good side except for Kokoa, who was the most tomboyish out of all of them; a personality found to be distasteful by her father. He always believed that a proper girl was a girl that took interest in the kind of things that a girl should. Nevertheless, her personality stuck. Even a Dark Lord couldn't completely change a person.
But Moka's childhood wasn't an overall pleasant one, and on hear of her breath quicken as she announced that her father was too busy to devote his service to removing the Rosario practically weekly when it needed to be, it was fairly blatant.
They each stepped into the lobby of their dorm, deciding to stand in the center to keep each other at company for a bit longer. Kurumu let out a long, cat-like stretch, her impressive breasts bouncing as she threw herself slightly back.
"Ah." Yukari sighed as she sat herself on the floor and curled her knees up to wrap her arms around. "I feel only two-thirds complete. We need Tsukune back."
"And how do you propose we go about doing that?" Kurumu asked through a half-yawn. "Let me know if you have a plan, and I'll snatch him before you can blink."
"I'm brilliant, but I don't know if I'm the best." The witch responded with a sudden drop to her spirits. "That Garandou guy sure is creepy. I'm not sure if I want to try any magic around him. …What is he, exactly?"
"He doesn't look like he resembles a monster. He can't be all that bad…" Mizore concluded with some speculation. "But he's with Tsukune… We can't guess what he wants with him. The way he teased him into throwing himself at those ghouls…which I might add that he defeated with my element."
Kurumu could have practically dropped her jaw to the floor at hearing this dangled over her. It was clear that the snow witch was trying to base intimate traits off of what they had in common as if to let the rest of the harem think that Tsukune belonged to…her.
"How-how dare you!" She shouted aloud, and everyone was surprised at the fire that spontaneously rekindled in her attitude, arousing her from her drowsiness. Her amethyst eyes glistened potently as she continued, "You think that just because you don't have worry about overheating around him now you can simply pluck him out from under me?!" Her nails shot out into long, pink, razor-sharp claws, having half a mind to scratch the snow girl's face off. "Fat chance!"
"Oh?" Mizore's hands froze over to reveal her signature trait as a goddess of ice. "Because in his new development, I don't recall him growing breasts like yours, boob-woman."
"Wh-what in the hell is that supposed to mean??"
The seductress would have probably went into a bigger fit, but the mood of the entire room changed for the worst as a fifth girl entered the room, flinging her pigtails out in a way that said she was disgusted by what she was seeing. Her scowl was childish, but in her eyes a lighter hue of her sisters' there was deeper meaning. She wasn't much threat to look at, no, but this vampire was growing exponentially with natural pride ruling her veins. Kokoa stood in a tomboyish pose with her hand to her hip. Her loyal creature fluttered high in orbit around her, smiling happily as always.
"You four…" She pointed a well-kept fingernail at the lot of smitten ayashi females, "…are pathetic. You call yourself a succubus?" Her footsteps clattered near the other girls; each girl rewarding her blunt comment with their own disdaining faces. "Succubae are the creatures that embody the elements of Lust and Lechery. They are highly renowned for their charms and such, but even they have the sense to use their seductive powers to their finest and choose the strongest of creatures as their mates. Are you prepared to tell me that one of these…angels of pleasure is seeking favor upon a lowly human?"
Kurumu's cheeks gained slight color off of this criticism. "Don't you dare tell me how to spend my gifts."
"A yuki onna." Kokoa deliberately ignored her warning and carried straight on towards her next public victim. Shirayuki Mizore. The school stalker. "A witch of snow. Skin so pale, so flawless, eyes oh-so delicate and neat," she grinned with mischievous satisfaction as Mizore's posture slightly sank. "I heard that you ice maidens were short on your kind," her speech was slightly elevated with a jeering snicker, "but I never would've assumed that the cause was so desperate."
"You," Mizore stammered, glaring with more concern than anger. "Are you to say that Tsukune is weak after what everyone saw back there? He looks pretty fit for me – and that is to say, me alone." Her pale hands quickly shifted and transformed into long branches of blue ice. Her fingernails grew into long, translucent icicles. This devastating appearance she had used occasionally in the past; anything she merely touched could burst into a cold, inorganic glacier. Such was the power of her rare and exotic race. But Kokoa smiled at her unconditionally: she was faster than Mizore. "Are you one, Lesser Ura-san," She taunted Kokoa for her inferiority to her impassive sister, "to lay out the rules of the ayashi to us? To tell us whom we should be enamored with? The last I heard, love was a free emotion."
Kokoa's confidence blossomed further. Her smile only deepened, and she spoke again, revealing small, sharp fangs as she did so. It was that type of smile that you would just love to smack off of someone. "Oh don't get me wrong," she insisted, throwing her hands up in front of her. "I have nothing against any of your monster ethnicities. Please, do what you want for all I care. I'm just saying that it's shameful for just about any monster…to fall for a human."
"Kokoa-chan…" Moka spoke in her soft and timid voice. "You sound an awful lot like Dad. Please don't make such cruel claims."
There was no worse mistake for her to make than by speaking. Her younger sibling was made quickly aware of her, and her expression became cold and bitter. How dare she speak up to her. She wasn't even her real sister. The reason that Kokoa set out from home was to find Youkai Academy. And the reason that Kokoa set out for finding Youkai Academy was to find her true Onee-sama. And when her quest finally closed, she ultimately finds this feeble 'Omote' form of the elder sibling that she adored so wildly. She agreed that she would wait (however impatiently) for this Tsukune kid to come strutting along so that she could force him to surrender her sister back to her, but NEVER would she have taken to the assumption that Tsukune was a human.
Moka felt her sister look her over with her analytical eyes, much in the manner of how someone forcefully examines a dog to see if it's healthy or not. And as the innocent older sister kept still, Kokoa had long since discovered that she had some hidden feelings for that boy. Disgusting.
"You…" They all heard the strain of her teeth as they clenched tightly together. The evil she seethed was terrifying. "You are the biggest disappointment of all." Moka's chin slowly dropped. She could feel herself tremble in shame. Her sister held no pity. "I don't even want to state who you are. What you should be. I would only insult Dad. And myself. I could tolerate you, but to fall in love with a human…is something that an S-Class monster must never ever do."
"I…It's not like I…" Her sister was at a loss of words. Whether those words got lost in fear of what her sister might try to do to her if she spoke out, or if she was uncertain of her own feelings was unclear. Kokoa didn't care. She loved her sister, and she would now prove that by striking her hard with truth. If their father were here, he would certainly bring the conversation to a much more critical level.
"You what? You don't know? Well that's okay. Screw liking him, you chose to befriend a human? I'm not trying to be racist about this whole deal, no matter how much all of you may think I am, but I'm just trying to stick my neck out for my sister, even if that means sticking it out for you, Omote. It was Onee-sama that strove with such dedication to ensure that every creature knew his or her place, but human beings are the most indignant and stubborn creatures imaginable! Do you have any idea what kinds of sins humans are capable of – especially the men? Or did Dad teach you nothing?!"
Moka's lip quivered weakly.
"They lie! They betray! Sister, they can't ever be trusted! Men are as weak men do. They swoon and fawn over the prettiest girl. Tsukune must be no different. He'd break your heart one day…"
Moka burst out light years faster than she could have ever caught herself, and tears washed down her face as she did. Her heart was beaten. A shrill scream was in her head. In words, she let it out, and every cell in her body powered her on. "What do you have against Tsukune??!! Kokoa!!!!" The room itself could have possibly let out an audible gasp. "You think you know a human inside and out?! How could you?! You're barely in your teens!! You're barely past your first period! You think that humans are so evil and so malicious, but that's because of how Father raised you! How he raised all of us!!! I spent the lonely years of my life around humans! I have more experience where you have hardly any! No, Kokoa-chan. They're not perfect. But how you're dangling that imperfection over them makes them all seem like devils! Don't ever doubt Tsukune! Because from what it's worth, he's the strongest, kindest, most noble friend I ever had the privilege to know! Humans aren't weak! That they are is just what you and Dad…and Ura-chan believe! Be a little more true to yourself!!!"
If half the dorm area wasn't blown awake by the echo of her outburst, it would be amazing. Every girl in the lobby froze. Kokoa stumbled back in a state of awe, but she quickly retained a defiant stare. The two glared each other down; Moka's eyes were bright with water, and her sisters' were dry and strong. After a long silence, Kokoa burst out laughing. No one knew what to think.
"Now that's more of what I like to see," she announced in between strokes of glee, "Even a person as soft-natured as Omote losing her head. Over such a trifle matter. This is why I like Onee-sama more. She'd never bend to an act like this. She'd be more likely to kick the crap out of me, put my pieces back together, and then kick the crap out of them again!"
Moka rigidly brushed a strand of pink hair out of her eye line, and after a moment of calming her senses, she patiently replied, "I'm sorry you feel that way, Kokoa-chan. But Ura-chan isn't here now. I am."
"You are…" The new Freshman vampire nodded her head, "until Tsukune gets back. And then I'll make him rush for a chance to get that seal off, my sweet sister. I'll be sure that my words to you reflect that."
"I wouldn't talk like that if I were you." Kurumu broke in and warned her cockily. "Tsukune's just a little bit stronger than he was when we all saw him last time. And you've never met him. Are you really sure you want to risk that?"
If this wasn't a bluff, nothing was. She didn't even freaking know if the man was alright, let alone if he was tough enough to take on even a juvenile vampire. But if whatever she could say could help keep Tsukune from even more harm and stress, then it should be said, and would be said. And even though she was her love rival, Moka's words were touching. She had to put at least twenty-five percent of the whole cause to backing her up as well. And all things pushed aside, this was one really irritating little girl.
"You think that just because he incapacitated a group of corpses he deserves my respect?" She sneered stubbornly. "Hardly. Just remember what the Exorcist said. He's one of them now. It's unfortunate, but you'll find that the state of being dead is a bit…irreversible."
"Tsukune isn't dead." The other girls objected. "No. Definitely not dead."
Kokoa threw a hand to her forehead and laughed hysterically. This wasn't an argument. It was a comical flick. Well, there's no helping what the others thought. She confronted the group to protect her sister, not to shatter the already fragile dreams of these abnormally-toned monsters.
"Whatever. I'm going to bed." She began to advance for the large row of stairs in the center of the lobby for her room, then stopped to add one last thing, half to the others, half to herself. "I don't believe I've ever had such a strong mix of outrage and entertainment settled in me before." As her dress shoes clattered along the marble steps, Mizore furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head wearily at the backside of the vampire child. Kurumu was still in a puff, and it would probably be half an hour before the heated blush in her cheeks vanished. She had never felt so insulted in her whole life.
"We ought to try and not let her words get to us." Yukari loosely advised.
It was the most blatant advice of the evening. Apart from her nature stemming from the vampire hierarchy to instantly hate anything that could be called a human, she just flat outright tried to smear in their faces that Tsukune was unfit for a monster of any kind. Really blasphemous words within the harem.
"Sorry." All of the girls turned their attention towards a now-ashamed pink-haired vampire that was busy mournfully bowing her head to them. "I'm so sorry that you had to see that. And I'm sorry that my sister gave all of us a hard time." The emerald glaze in Moka's eyes informed the others that she meant every word of what she said. She carried this innocence like an emergency first-aid kit, and no matter what kind of monster you were, your heart instantly yielded and softened to it. Her face was flawless, save for the few dried up patterns where tears had escaped her. Hurriedly, she did her best to make herself seem presentable and not quite as pathetic as she thought she now looked. Brushing a few strands of hair out of eye line and wiping the dry tear streaks away, she did another bow, her hands clasped together neatly in front of her uniform skirt. The other girls were so jealous that one could look so cute and pure, even in the midst of crying. "Vampires," she continued dully, "even young ones, they have a special talent. A 'knack' if you will. While Ura-chan's talent is her physical ability, Kokoa-chan's has always been using words – the exact words necessary for getting at others and hurting them. She's had a bit of a verbal wit ever since she was young. I'm guessing she got it from spending some time with my oldest sister…"
"She can keep them to herself for all I care." Kurumu said. "I just don't want to hear something like an S-Class monster spit that kind of junk, vampire or no."
"I understand," Moka despondently sympathized. "But truly," she clasped her hands together in front of her as if in prayer, her eyes sparkling with plead. "She only wants to protect her sister. I already know that she hates me and adores Ura-chan, but she has it in her head that by making me believe that all humans are bad, she can make me more like…my other. No…" She felt hot water brimming her eyelids again, but refused to let it fall. "I don't want to be. I don't have it in me to be as cold and tough as Ura-Moka. She…" The increasingly distraught vampire clutched her arm in a piteous gesture. "…She hurt Tsukune."
The others studied her for a good long while, every usually bright detail on her now crippled with sorrow, every pleasantry in her expression now darkened with actions that she couldn't control, and everyone knew it. They each watched her when she…punished Tsukune. Each too shocked to do anything. Yukari was still tied up in that tree; needless to say she was useless. Kurumu and Mizore had urged their bodies to move in to protect him with everything they had, but their feet clung firmly to the ground. Instinct called them away. Ayashi's instinct. Vampires are red flags. Crossing one meant imminent destruction. They cursed each other and themselves for cowering like rabbits in their holes, almost to the point where they had about as much breath reserved as they would if Inner Moka had kicked them each in the diaphragm.
And there was shock in their eyes.
Shock, that no matter what cold fate that Inner Moka had served to what monster, they would have never dreamt that she would damage the one that from the beginning was only trying to help. Compared to that notion, the fact that Tsukune might have been on top of her, preparing to…do something, was a transient blotch on the scene.
But none of it was Outer Moka's fault. After all, an aphrodisiac born to the whims of Yukari could happen practically to…any living thing with the ability to have sex.
Watching Omote struggle to be strong and not cry in midst of her apology made everyone else feel pathetic. For as hyped up on pride as Ura was, they sure wished that the innocent side would make an effort to show at least a little. After all, in spite of everything that's happened to Tsukune, it's not like Kurumu, Yukari, Mizore, and Ruby were furiously celebrating Moka's cataclysmic mistake. They knew when to leave the past behind and look towards a way to get Tsukune back, and optimistically, tonight they made their first real step in doing that: finding him.
Kurumu finally stepped towards her with an expression that Moka could have identified as one followed by a hard slap to the face upon reach of her. Then, the sound of her approach stopped directly in front of her, and everything else in the world froze.
"Moka. Look at me." She commanded. Her forehead creased slightly when Moka nervously declined. With a sharp tug at her shoulder, the succubus repeated her order loudly. "Moka, look at me!"
The vampire's enchanting green eyes trembled timidly, fearing for what might happen when she did. But she swallowed and turned her head up, facing directly.
To her astonishment, Kurumu's stern glare softened into an unreadable demeanor. "You can be such an idiot sometimes," she told her.
"Yeah…" She cracked in agreement.
"You put all of us through a hell of a deal of worry."
"Thank you…"
"But…" She hung the conjunction. "Everyone else is finished pointing fingers at you. Why can't you learn to let things go too, I wonder?" She finished the smart-alecky question with a tiny smile.
Moka didn't know how to react. "Kurumu-chan…"
"Seriously though, that Other you isn't gonna have any of us to answer to when we all find Tsukune and he finds her." She took a small break to stretch and yawn. "He might even kick her ass."
The vampire let out a small chuckle that was neither glee nor entirely fraud. "I suppose he might…unless he's still the kind Tsukune we all know."
"Let's get some rest. We have a lot of kissing up to do for Headmaster if we want to get him back anytime soon. And then," Kurumu winked, "Well, don't expect that I'll hand him over to you so easily!"
"Ah!" Moka's jaw dropped in surprise, but she was still undeniably happy to be forgiven by…at least almost everyone.
"Yeah~~!" Yukari shouted. "Then we can all get naked and celebrate! Party in my dorm room!"
Mizore slid in from out of nowhere, and held an arm up arced in an L shape. In a completely void face, she announced, "I enjoyed the part where Moka uncharacteristically got pissed off. Congratulations. You're five steps closer to achieving full womanhood."
Everyone laughed. And for the first time in days, Moka smiled again.
'Damn.' A voice spoke from the rift of Tsukune's mind. The entire screen of his pitch black vision zapped softly with light. After a few more moments, three more fleetingly flashed up, a bit brighter than the first. 'Damn it this hurts…' The voice, weightless, echoed. The sound of voltage softly came and went with the white streaks. And in his ribs, it felt as though a hundred worms were eating away at him from the inside. His sight was gone, he couldn't move, and he had no idea where he was. He dearly wished he could say that he was better off than he was the first time he awoke to an unknown place, but in fact, he was much, much worse. Nothing was going to get better. Not now.
'Seems the adage was right.' His thoughts spoke again as he strained against an invisible force over him. And in between pained grunts, it continued, 'Never…!' Jerk. 'Trust…!' Yank. 'A complete…!' Tear. 'STRANGER!!!' The universe around him instantly exploded like two gargantuan speaker phones between his ears turned to max, and he hit a blinding charge of static electricity as he tore himself upright off of the workbench of a bed he was sitting on. He was still bare-chested, and he undid from himself the remnants of straps that were likely the things that kept him pinned down. He surveyed the area. All around him: junk, junk, junk. Iron scraps torn off of cars, gigantic odd slates of illegible runes lining the walls like headstones, puddles and even a river of ankle deep sewage running along creases in the dented floors, and yet for the entire mess of the place, brilliant lights of some advanced technology hung towards the ceiling, keeping roughly half of the junkyard illuminated.
Tsukune was cold. Alone. Trapped inside a metal tomb with memories barely spanning the length of a day. He had never felt – at least remembered feeling – so bitter in his whole existence. It was like a Frankenstein novel. And he had never less felt like the monster.
His half-closed eyes glittered with golden sheets, repulsed not as much with his surroundings as the feeling in his stomach, no, his entire body. A hundred ways could describe the pain. A flammable bag full of white-hot embers, a rotting, crumbling mass of driftwood, a Dragon Ball Z character after about the sixth time they've been graphically beaten to death, anything along those lines.
He stepped off of his bed and ambled around for a while, doing his best to go at such a pace he didn't collapse cold again. It was difficult work managing a body that no longer functioned; he couldn't feel his heart beating in his chest anymore. And yet there was always that continuous, reassuring pain. Stepping barefoot towards a straggled puddle of black fluid, he caught a faded glimpse of his own image. His eye glowed up at him with a malevolent shine. His face looked just like Aono Tsukune's, yet his skin was as unbelievably pale. His cold outlook deepened on sight of the long crack running down the side of his face, cutting across one eye. He put a hand to it. It didn't feel like medical stitches, yet it ran deep.
So, so deep.
There was a sharp sting as the pads of his fingertips explored the wound a bit more deeply. There was the feel of tissue. And metal.
He took his hand away from the gaping ravine and held it out in front of him. His fingers were moist and dark red. Blood.
Upon look of it, his nature instantly fell unstable, raw with anger and with energy. With a low growl, he folded his hand into a fist and drew it back far, throwing it forward into his reflection and shattering half of the floor with his incredible strength. Gravel and shrapnel flew everywhere, and he slowly withdrew his bloody hand from the crater where once his own expression glared up at him.
So there were the facts. He felt miserable, bled plentifully, and now looked every meaning of the term evil. On the outside he looked perfectly like a human despite his golden eyes and pale skin. But inside the crack lining his cheek it felt like metal hooks and prods were working to pull the wound closed. And then there was a different…fuzzy feeling inside of him. Like electricity whirring busily just under the scar of his torso. In becoming whatever sort of ayashi he was, Tsukune had completely founded an excessive way to maintain survival. A boundless mechanism fraught with extraordinary powers.
"Damn you, Garandou." He chimed in a moan as he got to his knees. He hung his head up to the ceiling and repeated. "Damn you…"
"Ho. I see that our new and fine specimen has up and activated." Tsukune's eyes shot open, and he instinctively snapped his head in a hurry to the echoing and charismatic voice enveloped somewhere in the distant black. "And frittered away at my resources." Tsukune's eyes scanned a different direction. He had never heard that voice before. It wasn't Garandou. The voice belonged to a man; young, charming, and sophisticated. "No, let me guess…" The echo persisted. "…Collateral damage?"
Tsukune responded in fear by picking up an object many times his size and flinging it blindly at wherever the voice might be coming from. "St-stay away!" The weight of the metal boomed loudly, and a sinister laugh shortly followed. "Oooooh, I wouldn't, boy." Someone stepped out of the shadows from directly behind him. Tsukune sensed him immediately. Walking slowly up to his back. He timed himself just right, and then threw a punch into full arc, spinning around and coming into a grinning face that Tsukune caught for only a brief moment before it winked away in a blur of motion.
"Haha! Did someone leave the windows open?" The handsome voice teased. "I think I felt a draft!"
Tsukune didn't take it to personal reaction, but instead threw another full arc, but this time, his offending fist was caught by a brown-gloved hand. He lurched himself forward and met face-to-face with a guy as elegant-looking as he sounded. The first thing that the two saw in each other were their eyes. Tsukune's, frozen gold; the new stranger's, a hazed glyph of azure. He had silverish hair that was neatly combed from side to side into two long sections of bangs. His skin wasn't quite as pale as his own, but still not a whole lot healthier off. His eyebrow was raised in a sporty-good way, and he carried a never-changing smirk.
The two kept in a close grapple, and Tsukune didn't feel like trusting another person today. "Who are you?" Tsukune asked sternly and cautiously without letting up.
"You ought not think so much as who I am as…whom I may become." He announced fluently. "Your punishment, for example, for your current acts in decimating my laboratory."
"My punishment?" He hissed. "You speak as if anything that could possibly happen to me…" He wrapped his other hand around the man's shoulder tightly, making him respond in a light 'oh' sound. As Tsukune dragged the fellow's feet off the ground and flung him towards the nearest wall, he finished, "HASN'T ALREADY HAPPENED TO ME!!"
His furious expression faded slightly when he watched the apparent scientist catch perfect footing along the surface of the wall he had been thrown at, and on it, he simply stuck, still smiling down upon Tsukune.
"You…you're standing on the wall?" The bafflement in his eyes quickly left, and in concern he asked, "Why did you bring me here?"
"If I tell you," the professor spoke from the wall, "Do you promise to stop trying to die so quickly?"
Tsukune had another heavy, probably painful object already situated in his arms, but on hearing these words, his hostility melted away, and he slowly put it back down, his gaze never leaving where the gentleman awkwardly stood on the wall with his arms neatly folded. As soon as he was sure that Tsukune wasn't about to make another rash move, he finally gave him a soldier's solute and announced, "Good man." He gracefully kicked off the wall in a gently heave of his breath and landed perfectly on one knee. Standing still where he was, Tsukune had a clear view of the man's whole form. His apparel said it all. Elegance. A brown trench coat with lines of metal shaped his slender stature, from under the opening; he set sight on a pair of metal leggings probably built for dexterity rather than defense, seeing how easily the scholar seemed to walk wearing them. He had a fancy vest with linings of gold and green, and around his collar was a gentleman's scruff with a red brooch decorating it. In height, he was only slightly taller than Tsukune, but previous experience told him that he was still a hell of a lot faster.
Despite what had just transpired between them, this man took no regard whatsoever towards any manner of caution or care in approaching the obviously perturbed boy; in fact taking a chipper joy in the advance, eager to get a look of his subject now that he was fully conscious. At the rate he was going, Tsukune was have afraid that he would bowl right into him, and he threw his hand out to stop his course, but it was grabbed and quickly flung aside, and the young man warned "Stop". Then with no mood change, he wretched his covered hand around Tsukune's cheeks and sharply turned them side to side as if to scientifically observe which side was the better one.
The boy's eyes were filled with wear, not fazed at all by this awkward act as it had been done before. His cheeks were rolled into flaps from the pressure until he finally slapped the man's hand off of him. "Enough," he commented.
The scientist shook his own hand from the surprising amount of force and then drew it behind his back in a professional posture. "My client did say you'd be stingy." He muttered.
"Client? You mean Garandou?"
He looked at him for a moment, then chuckled jovially. "Ah, yes, yes. Your 'Garandou' was the one that brought you…" He turned away and spread his arms out as if to acknowledge his entire lair, "To this place." His note echoed eerily.
"Umm," Tsukune rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeeeeaaaaaaahh…"
"This…place, this…study of snuggery, this…mansion of the mechanical, this…"
"It looks like the inside of a gigantic trash compactor." Tsukune thought out loud, causing a loud, almost girly gasp out of the man standing near him.
"How-how can you say that about my home?" Tears comically drenched down his face for a moment. "This place…" A spotlight instantly hit him, the source: God knows where. "is an auditorium of adroitness to which the machines orchestrate, my innovations act, and I…" He threw himself into a kneeling pose, overdramatic in every sense of the word. "…am the director." He whispered oh so dramatically.
"…You're a questionable case." His onlooker replied blandly.
"That's what the boys back at the academy told me, HAHA, I'm still trying to prove myself that it isn't true. But you're here now, boy, and we can all pay our fair dues against the Fairy Tale organization."
"I'm sorry, and you are…?"
"My name…is Faustus." He presented Tsukune with a nice, low bow. "Doktor Faustus. Perhaps you've heard of me." A deadpanned exchange between faces. "…No?"
"I've gotta say, I don't believe I've ever heard of you."
"…Well how about this, I'll even give you a hint, it's 'doctor' with a K. You know the German word?"
"I don't take a German class."
"Oh you don't?"
"…I'm Japanese."
"Japanese? Really?? Enrapturing! I wish I understood Japanese…"
"…But…we can both understand what the other is saying…"
"Enough of your squabbling fritter upon my intervals, boy. Come with me. I have something to show you."
Tsukune kept his feet firmly planted on the ground as Faustus trotted away. The scientist wasn't at all slow to catch on, and stopped at only a few steps. Then he stared back at him.
"Why should I trust wherever you plan on leading me?" He questioned him politely. "The last time I trusted someone I wasn't familiar with, I ended up trapped here. And then the time after that, I lost my pulse. I apologize, but I don't have any desire to discover what I have left to lose. I'm setting off on my own."
"Wise, boy? Do you find it wise? It was with my help that got you off your feet. And then besides, a while back, I seem to recall your going off like a wild animal and attacking me. Are you to say that I should have more of a reason of trusting you than you of trusting me?"
The man might act crazy, but he knew logic. Tsukune didn't have a good answer to that question, so he chose his best one.
"No. …But you don't know what I've been through."
He ambled past Doktor, and from a grin over the shoulder, Faustus responded, "You haven't either."
Tsukune stopped, and for a period of time, the two gazed opposite directions just over each others' shoulders. "That wraith told you about me, didn't he?"
"He saidn't a word. But it's just like that monger to drop weird animals with depressing histories off at my doorstep. Probably how he earned his title, 'Tragedy'."
"Are you saying…" He shifted his glassy eyes over at the young doctor, "that you know something about me that I don't? …Something that you're willing to tell me—?"
"AH! Little miss 'Garandou'!" He instantly jeered out to the dreary shade that overlooked his territory. "We were just talking about you!" The air was stilled and enshrouded with silence. Faustus pouted and came up with another quick jab. "Is it my birthday today? I see the present, but…where is the clown?"
The sliding sound of a blade penetrated the atmosphere, and a long, sleek, razortine tendril wrapped along the young-looking professor's throat. He did nothing but look on with his mouth gaped in sheer amusement. "You see, boy, words can buy you anything. If you hear naught, see naught, and bear naught, then only curse the air around you, and the most unusual and entertaining characters emerge!"
"Art thou so high in thine own ego, shady professor, that thou knowest naught of death when it brushes near?" Tsukune's shoulders became pensive recognizing the coarse and wizened whisper.
"Garandou." Tsukune called out darkly as he witnessed the tall, blackened figure with the doctor in his death grasp. "What do you think that you're doing, showing up now? There's nothing left for you to take from me."
"There is always something, boy." Faustus corrected.
Garandou said nothing. And for a minute, his and Tsukune's eyes locked in mortal combat, until Faustus finally added, "Aaaaah how about those troposphere conditions, eh? Talk about bland. Just like this situation. Why can't we all just get along…?"
The lone funeral cloak finally pushed Doktor away, and he staggered near Tsukune, who thoughtfully caught him and walked around to his former companion. "Test after test," he scornfully told Garan, "I underwent test after test of yours willingly, and patiently. I came here to find you. Why I needed to find you, I can't remember. I destroyed one ghoul, even half an army of them, and now it comes to my demanding of questions that ought to be and will be answered."
The elder remained bitterly silent.
"Hehehe, do you not just love a strong, controlling man, Reverend?" Doktor jested as he sat around cross-legged on a junk pile in the distance to light a gent's smoking pipe. Instead of a lighter, a snap and spark ignited a flicker of flame from the tip of his finger, amazingly. Really, the scene was astounding and unusual; a man that dresses that elegantly – looks the Look – yet still finds his home gleefully in such a place. "You're wasting your time with him, boy. He will only answer to one person in the same room as he."
Tsukune's patience was falling swiftly under with the combination of his misfortunes and the constant pain his body was now feeling. "Not to seem rude, but if that's so the case, maybe it's time for you to leave. Doctor."
"In due time," he replied without losing any of his enthusiasm. Then, with the pipe to his mouth, he proceeded to light the beacon while he finished, "But there appears to be a guest at the door. And I think I have a fair idea of whom he came here to find."
"Huh?" His leer set on the crumbled passage of the large lab just in time to see a pale, bloody hand grasp the side to pull the rest of the figure in. As his horrific features illuminated with the candles and the electrical sesames decorating Doktor's abode, Tsukune came to the even more pain-staking realization that there existed someone that he wanted to see even less than Garandou.
The man coming in looked only slightly older than the young doctor. An entire side of ribs was rather unattractively showing from his otherwise well-built torso, and his long, raven black hair swamped side to side of his pale-eyed gaze as he lumbered into the area, a gory grin of exposed white teeth and tendons around the cheek from the trouncing he had taken as Tsukune's so-called 'first' kill.
Tsukune's stomach turned from the guy's condition. He covered his mouth in shrill disgust and shock, and through a muffle: "I wasn't very thorough, was I…?"
The stray ghoul stood in an arched, cannibalistic stature in the doorway as Tsukune was in the process of receiving the kind of grin that a skeleton has. Quite literally. But this time, Tsukune could understand a ghoul's voice patterns. And though he wasn't sure how much touching-up his newly learned skill needed, he was quite sure that he had it right.
In a dry, coarse voice foaming with madness, the voice of the ghoul seemed to say, "I'm surprised you could push me that far. …You irritating little spitfuck." Everyone in the room stared at him. But he never removed his eyes from Tsukune. "The next time," he spoke horridly as he lumbered closer. Blood was gushing out of his maw and down his throat. "you cross a kind of ayashi that can't be killed…I suggest you figure out they can't be killed before you cross 'em. 'Cause ghouls always bounce back."
A/N: WOW I have been busy, lately. This chapter took longer than I thought… I've got a few things to clarify. For those of you not familiar with Doktor Faustus, allow me to start by saying that he most certainly is NOT an OC by me, he is a real…myth…I suppose. You can check his profile out on the SparkNotes, which let me tell you are awesoooooome~. Aaaaaah you can't begin to imagine how much I have been dying to finally get to use Doktor! :3 As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.