A/N: Ahm back bisheeeeeez~!
Ack, it's been so long, so loooooong, I'm not even sure what to write first. I suppose the thing to do is humor you with an explanation for my lengthy absence:
I marched off to the battlefield to fight a familiar war. This war known to many fellow veterans as "College." I came, I saw, and I conquered; a newly grad. And now I return to the ol' fanfic stomping grounds – the horoscope of my writing career – to update. Explanation over. …Wait, was that as easy to read as it was for me to type? Huh. Okay, moving on, I guess…
It's not like I still care about you b-b…bakas or anything, but I do occasionally check back every once in a while, and I notice that this story still generates some impressive traffic. One or two of you might have even been kind enough to PM me and express your interest directly. If you are one such reader (and if you are, you know that you are), then I would like to give you each a wink, a nudge, and a thanks – you sexy sailors. Entertaining such a large and lively fanbase goes in no way without its stresses, even though I initially joined this site solely to improve my hand, and not to whore over encouraging reviews. It was only later that I learned that the most pragmatic way to maintain inspiration is to know that there are people out there who still even to this DAY enjoy my work, at least as much as I enjoy writing it. I take a few steps back to say that I am honored to write for those people – to write for you.
That aside, I donated many an hour out of the last few days to review both the manga and the anime. NOT for fun, ladies and gentlemen, no – just to make sure that my story honors the canon plot. R+V remains one of my favorite all-time stories, but even so, you'd be mighty shocked at how much you can lose when you spend years languishing beneath textbooks.
The second piece of the trouble was that, as I evolve my style, I tend to grow, ehh, let's say…morbidly repulsed with my older ideas? Nevertheless, it's too late to go back to previous chapters and change anything; the damage is already tragically engrained into your eyeballs. So I worked up the courage to peek back at my last chapter in order to avoid confusion with this new one. It didn't slay me like I thought it would, but still, God Almighty, the shit I DO for you people. smh
If you're still with me on this ride, thank you for your undying patience and welcome back! Let's get our hands dirty, shall we?
Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire
Chapter 8: Desire
"Damn it…"
The figure with red twintails gritted her fangs down to a hard bite. In her frustration, her cute, pouty face had gradually transformed itself into a menacing glare, hostile enough to make all headstones lined along the beaten path turn on their sides. Her loyal bat companion, normally seen resting peacefully on her shoulder or in her pack, hovered cautiously overhead; close enough not to excite suspicion, and far away enough to avoid being served for lunch between two slices of bread. His mistress was an angry eater, and it wouldn't be her first feeding frenzy.
"DAMN IT!" Nazo Koumori's tiny face seemed to shrink even further as he watched Kokoa punt an unfortunate skull lounging in the weeds. The thing went flying several hundred meters at Mach 3 before meeting its terminus at the road's fork. The jack-o'-lantern face sitting atop an innocent scarecrow detonated into several pathetic pieces – never again to brighten one's day with its shit-eating grin.
"K-Kokoa-nii! You really must calm down!" He chirped in his freaked voice, fluttering frantically to regain his midflight center.
"Calm down?!" The fire in her eyes redoubled, and if looks could kill, her pet was already a flash-roasted steak. "I'm at my wit's end! All my childhood I had one goal! ONE GOAL! But while Onee-sama sleeps inside a necklace, her body's mindlessly drawing circles around some…! Some boy!" She jerked her head up to face Kou, further begging the question with tears of frustration peeking through her glare. "Is that fair?! If so…HOW?!"
"Look, it's one thing to care about your goal, but right now you kinda have me crapping bullets!" He admitted in one quick breath. "Why? Why did you say such terrible things to your sister, chuu~?"
"WHY DID…I…huh?" She blinked her eyes a few times, as if reeling from a hypnotic trance. Her pet bat weapon may be a bumbling idiot a good deal of the time, but he kind of beat her with this point. Why did she lash out like that? Sure, it's true that her words weren't flowing with honey any day of the week, but she never made it her policy to unload everything in her angry heart on someone at a single whim. Especially with relatives and especially with people she had never met regarding people she had never met. It was almost as if…
She touched her lip, only half conscious of the action – the other part of her mind invested with concern, and yeah…maybe a little guilt in there too.
It was almost as if she couldn't even feel her mouth running. Like she was speaking to no one other than herself, even though everyone was clearly standing right there. As though she was standing outside of her body watching herself unravel from afar.
She ruffled her hair pensively, with her shoulders stuck at deciding whether to stiffen with anxiety or drop in surrender. The more she thought on herself, the guiltier she felt. The guiltier she felt, the angrier she got – because no one, especially her, appreciates feeling guilty. "What is wrong with me? I've never even met a human… And yet I…"
She hung her back against the trunk of a massive tree which stood as barren of green as all the others. Then, taking her backpack off with an exasperated sigh, she proceeding to rummage through its content. Her fingers recognized the smooth, sheen touch against a glass surface, and she pulled out a small vanity mirror, holding it in front of her face in a spiteful manner. "This is your fault isn't it. You told me that using you would unlock my potential, not turn me into a raving lunatic!"
The face of the mirror rippled mystically, and perfect circles pushed themselves outwards from the center to its elegant golden frame. Incredibly, the shape of a young girl emerged from within, equipped only with a small flower in her greenish hair, a couple pairs of dragonfly wings, and a lavender blouse that was practically one dirty thought away from being a complete see-through.
The small pixie creature let out a youthful yawn before opening her eyes, staring up at the perturbed vampire with two windows of sea-blue innocence. "It wasn't my intent to displease you, Master. I mentioned before that there was a certain 'weight' you had to bear when you use my power."
"Yeah?" Kokoa raised her eyebrows, unimpressed. "You mentioned weight, so naturally I figured you were just talking about the mirror."
"Hah~? How mean of you, Master! Take a good look at me." The fairy stood up on the edge of the accessory with remarkable balance, flaunting the drapes of her dress in a cutesy spin, "I'm travel-sized – for your convenience!"
"Cut to the chase, Tinker Bell. Whaddaya mean by weight?"
"Oh," the miniature monster giggled blissfully, "Master's being so modest; it's as if she didn't actually know!"
Kokoa's eyebrow twitched with growing impatience, and a tiny vein comically merged with her forehead. "You ever see the inside of a bug-zapper?"
"Ehehe, okay, okay~" 'This one's crazy,' she internalized with a bullet of sweat hanging over a nervous grin, 'better not stick my dick in all this crazy…' Putting on her best business face, she gently pulled the mirror out from the vampire's grasp, flying level with her surprisingly powerful wings as she struggled with the heavy object. "So you know that monsters have 'true' forms and 'disguised' forms, right? You have a side of you that you keep to yourself, and a side of you that you wear around others."
"Uh huh. Kid stuff, so go on?"
"Well, a monster's mind is bound to the same principle, you see. You probably have feelings that you keep to yourself, so you don't display them forthright. Those feelings are known as desires. They comprise the real you – the true face of a person who keeps it locked away beneath a mask. Right?"
Kokoa thought about this a little bit, putting a hand close to her chest to feel her heart beat shallowly. So that must've been where this empty, deprived hole she felt was coming from. That's why she felt a constant need to lash out at something – at anything – having to do with her sister. She figured ordinarily the thing to do under this kind of persuasion would be to throw herself at her big sister like she used to and glomp her until their two fleshes became one.
But Onee-sama was out of reach. All that was left of her was this awkward shell of a girl filling in the shoes of the person Kokoa had looked up to since she could swing her pet bat without her arms falling off. Without the Inner Moka, the object of her want, she could not answer the call of her own desire to see her again. How do people respond when they have a desire they can't fulfill? They get sad. They get angry. But at least they had the benefit of choice to keep it to themselves.
This mirror – the Ririsu Mirror that Kokoa had…borrowed for the purpose of getting close to her sister, had utterly stripped her of that choice. Now everyone would hate her for it.
"Well hey, what are mirrors for exactly?" Lilith smiled a warm peachy smile, washed clean of every care in the world. She even blushed. "If you think about it logically, the function of my artifact does it tremendous justice. Some people are ashamed of their desires. Others merely lack the confidence to indulge them. But who cares whether it's one or the other…" Her grin broadened to the point where Kokoa could see the row of shark teeth breaking out. "So long as they achieve them in the end!"
Her "Master's" face dropped a palette or two in color. A streak of self-defeat coursed through the vampire that had foolishly intended to use the Ririsu spirit for her own gain. This, needless to say, was not what using something right was supposed to feel like. And as much as she wanted to blame her half-naked helper, even Kokoa could see through her own stubbornness and decide that really, this was just another brilliantly exploded plan in her face. What would she screw up tomorrow? Take a growth hormone that actually turns her into a super loli?
Fighting to get the color in her face back, she eventually just uttered the two most conclusive words in her verbal repertoire:
"Eff. This."
Lilith tried to process her wordy expression with a befuddled expression of her own. "Huh? What?" She blinked bubbly.
"A power that inhibits a person's judgment? If I really wanted that, it'd be more fun to just get drunk. Honestly, what a screwy artifact. Let's go, Batty." She called Kou by his pet name as she pulled herself to her feet, prepared to walk away.
"Ah!" It dawned on Lilith at a timely manner that her person of interest might be leaving soon. "H-Hey wait!" Alongside her shock, the weight of her own mirror conspired against the effort to remain airborne, nearly sending her crash-landing into the tree. "Master! Where are you going?"
Kokoa kept on stepping, acknowledging the spirit only with a parting "good riddance" wave.
"Your services are no longer required," she replied without turning around. "I'll settle this snafu with my sister the way I should've to start with – by myself! Don't let the mirror smack your pretty little ass on the way back to the Chairman's office."
Faster than the fledgling vampire could open her eyes, the mirror wound up right back in front of her face. She let out a quiet gasp of surprise before looking above the plate and finding a not-so-amused Lilith holding a scowl over her otherwise pristine visage. "I'm afraid it's too late to back out now," her voice sank into a lower, darker tone, "I'm already having fun." She leaned in closer, causing Kokoa to take a precautionary backstep. "Aren't you having fun, Master?" To the horror of the addressed vampire, the color in the eyes of the Ririsu spirit rolled into the back of her head, leaving nothing behind but the ghastly white of her sclera.
"S-Stop, wait," she tried her best to sound authoritative under the pressure of this developing problem, "a-as your master! Cut this crap out! Like right now!"
The evil green light trapped inside the glass only grew brighter. "You know what really pisses me off about people?" The spirit asked. "They carry so much potential. But they waste their measly lives without even noticing it! It would absolutely shatter me to see you take the same dull journey." She laughed again, but this particular laugh wasn't quite the girly giggle it was before.
Kokoa's eyes met with those of her reflection in the mirror. The light shined brilliantly throughout both of them. "What's going on? Ngh! My body…" A bright purple aura started to peak around her shape, fighting for release. Her muscles began to tense up from the change. Her breathing became more and more intense, and each breath expelled more heat than the last.
"And if you think you're mad at yourself now? If you think everyone hates you now…" The light grew brighter. Kokoa's body burned hotter. Lilith's grin grew wider. "Wait 'til you see what jealousy can do! Because after I'm finished here, everyone will be standing in the wake of a real, honest-to-God vampire!"
The wind surrounding Kokoa kicked up into a mad circular gust as she started to scream, her fangs visibly growing out into even sharper points. It wasn't such a pained scream as it was a rollercoaster scream. The overflow of energy. The headlong rush of adrenaline. The wave of heat and power sweeping over her petite frame. It could pose a real scare to someone so young; someone who had never before had the means to experience years of youkai development trying to fit inside of a single moment.
Koumori descended to ground level, wings traumatically wrapped around his pudgy center to appear as small as space would allow. "K…Kokoa-chan?" He muttered beneath the shivering leather of his limbs, "y-you look…oh damn…"
The air around his mistress began to quiet, but her monster aura was now the largest it had ever been – flickering around her slouching silhouette like a violet flame to a candlewick. Within it, somewhere, a crimson red eye glistened savagely, ready to fight.
"Ahaha, if I may be so bold, you look so much more beautiful writhing in anguish like that, Master!" Lilith exclaimed cheerfully with stars shimmering in her eyes. Then her expression turned serious, mimicking sincerity as her deceitful face was molded to. "But it's still not enough, I'm afraid. Your sister won't ever notice you if you just stand around this vacant dump." She gave the newly twisted girl in front of her an encouraging smile. "What say we pay the main campus a visit. After showing every monster here at school their place, you're bound to catch her eye in no time flat!"
Hateful steam hissed out of Kokoa's mouth, just as the wandering figure of a student wearing the green school uniform approached from behind.
"E-Excuse me," he stopped a couple meters behind her. He was a small, harmless looking kid, with short hair and rounded glasses. "This campus is super huge, and I'm a new freshman. I was wondering…" He paused at the sound of labored breathing, timidly looking up from his map and spotting the pair of glowing eyes now fixed on him with sinister new purpose. "w-was wondering…i-if you might happen to know where the…infirmary? …Was?"
A pair of fangs, quite longer than they were before, had now become the hallmark of Kokoa's demented smile.
"So you wanna see the inside of an infirmary, do you…?" She stepped forward; he stepped back. The distance between the two was closing too fast for comfort, and the boy grew more and more nervous. "In that case…" She sealed the last of the space from him with astonishing speed, and gripped him by his tie, raising him up with one arm like it was nothing. "…I'll help you."
"No…please stop…!" He implored pitifully, tears already welling up at the edges of his eyes.
"Time for you to know…"
"No…!"
"YOUR PLACE!"
The ensuing scream of the new freshman shook the forest of naked trees, and echoed over the entire campus.
"So then just as my mom was helping me pick out a style at the retail store, I asked her if I was a B, 'cuz you know, pretty much most of the girls my age were B's." Kurumu walked as she talked with a long, slender, arrow-pronged tail protruding freely from her panty line, enjoying nature.
"And?" The younger voice belonged to Yukari, who was currently captivated by the story.
"She gave me the dirtiest look! Then she just said 'Kurumu dear,'" she lowered her voice with a seductive undertone, a ridiculous parody of her mother's, "'if your shirt was our house and those things were B size, you must've invited all the boys at school to come live in our king size bed.'"
The witch burst out laughing. "Wooow, incredible desuuuuu~! And you were only ten?!"
The succubus crossed her arms with monster pride. "Eeeeuuup!"
"Hm?" The lollipop stick clinging to their other friend's mouth twitched cutely as she snapped from her daydreaming face to look up at the sky.
"What is it, Mizore?" Kurumu asked from her side. "Did I finally say something to grab that airy attention span of yours?"
The professional stalker glanced over at the notorious tit machine with her signature deadpanned expression. "Did the forecast indicate that hell had frozen over, Kurumu? No, I'm not interested in your bra sizes; just thought I heard something."
"Huh? Come to think of it…" They each strained their ears, looking around for the source of the disturbance. "It sounded sort of like…"
Everyone held their breath for dramatic pause.
"…a seagull."
…
…
The other two girls gave the succubus identically unimpressed looks. It was actually quite impressive that Yukari's managed to match Mizore's, since she was the undisputed Queen of the Cold Stare.
"Kurumu." The small witch touched her arm passively, as if trying to reason with a crazy old lady gone off her meds. "What beach resort around the world did you visit…where seagulls make the sound 'Fungaaaaaah!'"
"Give me a damn break Yukari, I said what I thought it sounded like, not what it actually was!"
Mizore said nothing, and continued to stare out into the mouth of the woods bordering the freshly paved path. Uneasiness crept over her. The sound, almost like a cry for help, came from so far away. It was so subtle that even she almost didn't catch it in time. But subtlety was a natural strong suit of the elusive candy crusher, and she was well aware that severity often followed it closely. It was an instinct akin to a deer sensing danger when picking up the slightest noise – the slightest sign of trouble.
But the campus life around the girls continued to bustle. Students pulled school bags this way and that, chatting with one another in twos or threes. Occasionally you'd get that student that was only now discovering the inconvenience of the recent power outage by fretfully tapping at a dead smartphone. Mizore realized that she once again stood by herself, an isolated factor from bliss – the only one who sensed a coming storm.
"Ladies!" A smooth, charming voice caught the girls' attention from the side. They each humored themselves long enough to look over their shoulders. Then all three of them sighed wearily after a beat.
Enter Morioka Ginei: Youkai Academy's living cocktail of chivalrous appearance soaked around a shallow core of perverted tendencies and depraved, doglike thought. A real go-getter and loyal friend to a fault, but through-and-through, an utter moral absence when it came to the female persuasion. Currently president of the Newspaper Club, the girls had to tolerate his erotic play on a regular basis. There was even a rumor going around that he was under threat of being blacklisted from club activities altogether. Even if that was the case though, many unscrupulous characters tended to get away with a lot of surprising shenanigans at this institution. You could practically make a drinking game out of how many times the higher-ups didn't crack down on misconduct.
"You haven't had any sign of Tsukune these past couple days, have ya?" He asked, but the stupid grin on his face told them that he already knew the answer.
"No, Gin," Kurumu muttered under her breath, "but if you find him stuck at the bottom of a well, you'll hit us up, right?"
"Hey now, stop teasing," he coolly brushed her off with the casual wave of his hand, "I've been hard at work investigating the mystery of his disappearance. I know how much he means to you, and I couldn't bear the thought of losing the few precious club members I have to despair and depression, so," he proceeded to launch an overly technical explanation of his activities. The girls listening could almost see the complex algorithms and Matrix digits collapsing behind the werewolf. "I set up several ongoing forensics trails around campus correlating with the last location he was seen. From there I dismissed the cooler trails and got the top three hottest trails to triangulate around an area of interest. Afterwards, I took several snapshots of clues in that area pertaining to his whereabouts…including spots of dried blood."
Their eyes widened slightly, and Gin knew that now he had caught their interest, it was only a matter of time before the applause came around. At the end of the week, they might even trade up romantic allegiances from a certain someone to a certain other someone – after he impressed them with his expert tracking skills. "But don't underestimate the nose of a full-blooded werewolf. Even though it's quite old, I might've even been able to use the sample I found to catch a scent leading to a deeper – whoops!"
His sling bag, as if by some trick of the devil, had unfurled itself and regurgitated all its content. Slips of paper drifted as freely as falling snow in front of the girls, revealing a fleshy, photographic wonderland of bras, boobs, panties, and asses.
"Yeah…when you put it like that, I'm catching a scent too…" Kurumu leaned in towards Gin's stupefied face. "Smells an awful lot like bullshiiiiiiiiiiit~." She sang the last word in a harshly derisive musical tune.
Hnnng. He gripped his chest.
"Gin," Yukari added with a straight face, almost matter-of-factly, "you suck."
Hnnngg! He gripped it tighter.
"A shame." Mizore finalized with a countenance of stone. "If he were Tsukune, this eagerness for closure might have actually made me moist."
HNNNNGGGG! He dropped to all fours in a prostration of defeat.
"M-My kokoro…" He uttered softly from under his streaming tears, as though they were his dying words. "…It shall never doki again…"
"Get up…"
"Wait," the snow girl spoke up, "what's that?"
Kurumu and Yukari looked over at her. "Hm? What's what?"
Mizore pointed out towards the forest of dead trees. "…That."
They followed her finger just in time to see a stampede of students running toward them, screaming with absolute fear. Behind them, a sinister purple light burned brightly, and it too drew closer.
"Wh-what's going on?" Yukari asked, growing more vulnerable by the second. "What's everybody running from?"
Behind them, Gin stood up and narrowed his eyes pensively, his mood grown stoic and still. "The hell…?" He raised his head to sniff the air. After a moment of deliberation, his eyes snapped wide open with terror. There was only one moment in his life where he picked up a scent like this before.
The raw scent of power.
"Girls," he declared, looking prepared to flee at a moment's notice, "we've gotta get hell outta' here."
"Senpai, what are you talking about?" The succubus inquired impatiently with concern. "Come here! Hey! What's the matter?"
"Hey, isn't that…?"
They watched tree after tree collapse away from the big ball of energy overtaking the scenery. In the eye of the storm, a girl walked with dangerous determination. Her twintails, though intact, appeared longer and wilder than they remembered seeing them.
They watched on as a few rough-tug thug types put themselves in her way, clearly not intent on letting her do as she pleased.
"Who the fuck're you!"
"What're you doin' to our school!"
"You damn brat!"
"Step off bitch, this is our turf!"
One after another they went dashing over at the ominous shape teeming with unbridled youkai.
"No way. Don't tell me it's that bratty sister of Moka's…!" Kurumu refreshed herself. "What is she doing? Has she completely lost it?!"
"It's for real." Mizore admitted hopelessly. "Now we've got two of them."
The group of boys that aimed to dash into Kokoa immediately flew back with incredible force, like a wave of screams and pain. They scattered everywhere, falling onto hard pavement and into trees.
"Onee-sama," a young girl's voice called out flatly, "Onee-sama, where are you…? I'm so lonely… I want to see you…"
She wandered further into the heart of the campus as the Newspaper Club members exchanged glances.
"Eahh, Kurumu," Gin called over to her from aside in a half-whisper.
"Uuh?" She grunted nervously without taking her eyes off of the wild Kokoa that just appeared.
"You know I wouldn't by any means ask this question just because it looks like a vampire with a sister complex is rampaging through our school…but uhh…I dunno, have you seen Moka?"
"Pff," Kurumu sneered as her wings burst out of her back, ready to give flight, "that pacifist chick can't do anything without Tsukune. It's time to take this in our hands for a change." As if to emphasize her statement, her fingernails elongated into long, rake-like claws. Many people in the past gravely mistook the definition of succubi to be scantily clad ladies of the night whose strength was measured only by the number of men they charmed into their fold. But every ayashi packed a little something extra that had somehow escaped their pop cultural lore. By way of wing and talon, for instance, Kurumu's succubus race helped revolutionize what it meant to 'hit like a girl.'
"You can't!" Gin shook his head objectively, "you can't fight her!"
"If you're going to leave," she gave him a stern glance, "then leave."
The wolf sighed sharply and scratched the back of his head with growing agitation. Honestly, the women here. Wouldn't let you save their skins if you rushed to their side through fire and brimstone. He knew as well as any instinctive animal that Kokoa was on a whole different level now, but it's not like saving himself by running away would mean anything if every girl in school learned that had happened. Man cannot live on bread alone, after all – gotta throw the occasional breast into the mix too.
"Fine, fiiiiiiine. I know how you get." He reluctantly agreed. "If it's gonna be like this, I'll stay."
"So you can do more than just roll over." Mizore teased. Her hands crackled into large, glacial razors. Her monster form was nothing fancy, but she could bring a lot to the table with it. Primarily a nomadic tribe of women, the elusive yuki-onna were conditioned for far more than harvests and gathers. And even though Mizore hadn't been a part of it for a long time, she grew considerably more versatile for fights in her own right. Her vast focus and ability to manipulate ice was also found to be quite compatible with her teammates for astounding combination attacks, no matter who she fought alongside or against.
"I'll just…hang back and provide support from the rear." Yukari chipped in as they headed down to meet the strangely malfunctioning vampire. Sure she couldn't send foes flying with kicks, glide through the air, or make her own shaved ice, but the witch prodigy had an incredible memory, and she maintained its edge by putting it to work for her spells. Famous for bombarding adversaries with pots and pans, her latest endeavor is to one day ascend her mastery into the next level of destructive cookware: the Dutch oven.
"Onee-samaaaaaaa…" Kokoa moaned, swinging herself around to face random directions in a delirious fashion as she grinded her heels into the unconscious mound of bodies beneath her. Her body was still tinged with demonic energy. "Onee-sama… Please come out… I'm scared… It hurts… Feels like I'm about to…burst…"
"Yo! Wingtips!" The vampire's glowing eyes snapped over to look at the group of girls charging in her direction. Kurumu, with the advantage of her flight, was heading the party with tremendous closing speed, claws outstretched. "You've been asking for this for a looooong time now, haven't you."
Kokoa made a grin that nearly went ear-to-ear. "Hehe…Hehehe. Burst…really feels like I could…" With a powerful kick off the ground, she launched herself skyward at the succubus, who had been preparing to swoop in herself. "BUUUUURST!"
Kurumu's natural reflexes kicked in, and applying a powerful spin with her wings, she did a barrel roll that would've made Peppy proud. Her voluptuous frame left Kokoa's path in time to avoid getting hit, but the execution wasn't perfect.
She heard a harsh tear in her side, and peering down, she noticed a wide gash in her popular yellow sweater vest where the kid vampire had brushed by. 'She cut into my sweater…just by grazing it with her fist?' Kurumu panicked, arcing her wings to turn herself around. "Be careful everyone! If that crazy tsundere gets a fresh one on you, you'll be impaled!"
"This is insane! Doesn't she realize what she's doing? Someone could really die from this!" Yukari summoned an array of falling pans with her heart-shaped wand to slow Kokoa's advance, but they were blown aside by a powerful reversal.
"Wait, Yukari," Mizore interrupted, "take a closer look at her eyes."
The vampire now breathed heavily, the wicked glow of eyes fainting long enough to reveal the wetness of tears trickling down her cheeks.
"It's never me…" Her hands balled into fists, trembling along with the rest of her body. "It was never me… Even though I'm a vampire too… It's not fair…" Everyone watched her eyes widen with grief as she spoke to herself, almost like she was trying to push a harsh reality aside with all her might – and clearly failing. "Wh-why some human and not me? Am I being punished? Did I do something wrong?" Gin shot up to her like a bullet, and delivered a kick with many times the weight that he appeared to move on. She blocked the force with both of her arms, but her feet scraped several meters back.
"I…!" She gritted her fangs deplorably, shouting absently to the world as the werewolf charged again. The tears in her eyes redoubled, cascading down her tender face. "…I really, really hate humans!"
"Let me ask you something, Yukari." The snow girl closed her eyes and raised her chest, inflating her lungs with a deep breath as she prepared to make her move. "That sad face she's making. …Does it really seem like the kind of face that despises humans?"
Yukari examined Kokoa carefully. The way her voice almost tore as she cried out in pain. The way the salt of the tears burned her eyes. The way that the great love she held for her older sister now appeared to be killing her from the inside.
The witch gave her head a simple shake. "No." She concluded. "It looks a lot more…like the sad face you used to make when we first met you."
Mizore glanced back at her, and a bitter smile began to wrap around the lollipop in her mouth.
"Yeah…" She answered plainly as the two of them plunged together into a head-long charge towards the suffering girl. "That was…to my thinking as well."
"Keep her rooted, Senpai! I'm gonna sweep her away!" Kurumu shouted from the air, carving circles around her target like a scavenger bird.
"Well—" Gin could hardly get a word in as he weaved in and out of Kokoa's reach before her terrifying attacks could decimate him. "Just don't—" Dodge. "fall asleep—" Dodge. "on it—" Dodge. "pretty please—!"
'Wait for it…' Kurumu's eyes narrowed with unparalleled concentration, scanning her opponent for a conceivable opening. '…Go!'
As if anticipating the succubus's timing for herself, Kokoa's flow of movement broke its routine, which Gin had not been expecting. She caught the wolf by the collar and delivered a powerful high kick to his jaw, knocking him clear up into Kurumu as she made her way down. They rolled along the ground on top of each other, eventually stopping into a crumpled heap.
"Normally I'd like to open up with some sort of pun, like 'ice to see you again, Kokoa…'" Mizore explained as she walked over, trailing mist and crystals in her wake. "But instead…I'm afraid I'll just have to ask you to chill—damn it the pun came anyway." She lobbed a massive glacier, but the vampire side-stepped it with relative ease.
No matter how many more icebergs came flying, Kokoa kept her movements alive, until she phased behind the ice princess with a solid burst of speed.
Mizore's lollipop fell out of her mouth when she dropped her jaw in shock. "How did she…! Yukari!"
"Eh?" In a flash instant, the witch was cut off from help, standing directly in front of Lilith's latest plaything.
"You smell an awful lot like a human…" Kokoa grumbled disapprovingly, her eyes downcast by an eerie shadow. She raised her leg high up, briefly flashing her panties before bringing it back down over the unlucky girl's pointy hat. "LEARN…YOUR PLACE!"
"Kyaaahh!" Yukari shut her eyes tight and raised her arms up, bracing herself for the worst.
BAM!
The tremendous crunch of solid concrete shook the ground, and a massive crater lay open beneath Kokoa's heel, which was still steaming from the friction.
There was, however, no sign of any stain where Yukari would have been, and the power-crazed vampire looked around urgently for her prey. The tears in her eyes were murking up her vision, but she was evidently no longer conscious to it, even as they ceaselessly continued to fall.
Yukari was reluctant to open her eyes, but quite happy when she finally did.
The first thing she saw was a face that she frankly wondered if she would ever see again. Not a single brown hair on his head appeared to be changed from their last encounter, though as the deep red of his suit caught her eye, it occurred to her that he might have tried his hand at a bit of cosplay.
She covered her mouth with both hands, trying to hold back the tears of relief that made her eyes glisten. "Tsu…"
The rest of the girls all looked over at the pleasant surprise that Yukari picked up…or rather…had picked her up.
"Tsukune…!"
She hung bridal style in his arms, burying her head in his chest as she screamed his name in pure joy. The lost and found boy kept his eyes tethered to the vampire that had nearly made a mess out of her.
"Hey," he called calmly to Kokoa as she pulled her leg out of the rubble, "come on now, that's enough."
She blinked her eyes a few times, and the wheels in her head began to turn ever so slightly while she processed his face. The brown eyes of his glare set firm with resolve. The pallid nature of his skin clashing slightly with the spirited crimson of his uniform. A boy you could single out from the school crowd just as you could a cardinal from a canopy of green.
Her eyes narrowed into daggers, twitching visibly with her cringe. Her long fangs had remained miraculously intact after grinding against one another so wrathfully. The dilapidation of her humanity had clearly not affected her memory, because she recognized him all right.
"Aa…Aaa…" Her monster aura seemed to sour, darkening into a shade of purple so close to black that you could shave the color off of it with a knife. The swelling of energy up-winded her twintails as it swirled into a maelstrom of chaos – powerful, but clearly unsteady.
"…Aono TsukuneeeeeeeEEEEEEEE!" She screamed at him in as little time as it took to warp up to her new target with a flash of her vampiric motion.
Against her speed, he was almost beside himself while attempting to secure the witch in his arms. Nevertheless, he managed a quick hop backwards up a full flight of stairs just as the enraged girl made impact and formed a new crater where he had just been standing.
'Seriously?' He thought to himself as he hastily (yet gently) set Yukari aside. 'This is how my first day starts?' He began pacing back down towards Kokoa, hoping to hold her attention long enough to allow Pointy Hat to get somewhere safe.
He felt a tug on his sleeve stop him.
"Wait, Tsukune…!" He glanced down from his side at the young girl he saved, and the distressed spell-user could have sworn that she spotted a small flicker of gold gleam past his eye in the daylight. She stared at him intensely; the purple orbs of her eyes shivering slightly as she took in a strange new impression of the boy that she had planned to share with Moka in the sack. An impression…that she couldn't quite wrap her hat around. Something about him just felt a bit…off.
Her hands loosened on his arm, eventually letting go entirely. "Nothing…" She muttered softly to him. "It's okay…"
He spent an honest moment trying to read her, but realizing after a beat that he still had something he needed to do, he hurriedly turned back and said, "Ah, I'm sorry that I couldn't have met you in a better circumstance! If you still want to talk, you'll come find me later?"
Without waiting for a response, he hoisted himself back down the stairs, driving a heavy downward knee to land on Kokoa, who had been standing on top of the fresh hole she just made. She jumped back in time to successfully evade him, and his landing easily dug the crater to twice its original width and depth.
"Why are you doing this?" His question was just as much a plea as an interrogation. "Why are you attacking your classmates? Have they done something to hurt you?"
"Not them…" she seethed, "just you!"
"You're going to have to help me understand." He insisted. "Wait, have…have I even seen you before?"
"Shut up! Batty, come over here!" She stretched her arm out to the side, expecting a certain pet to fly promptly into her hand.
Kou came fluttering into view from behind her. "But Kokoa-chan, we've never even met this guy, is it really necessary to—"
She flashed him a venomous glare that shut him down fast.
His tiny ears drooped flat – the bake-bake bat's version of a dog lodging its tail between its legs. "Aah! Wh-what I mean to say is, is it really necessary for you to ask! I'm on it! Here I go, chuu!" He slipped into her outstretched hand, and his body morphed into a large hammer with a spike jutting out of the head.
"You'll see me…" Kokoa grinned menacingly as she walked towards Tsukune. "You'll see me very well after this. The whole school will. And then finally…finally," she held her weapon up by the shaft and charged, "SO WILL ONEE-SAMA!"
"Onee-sama? Who the he—UGU!" In spite of the fact she rammed the head of her mallet clear into his torso, he still hadn't expected it to compromise so much of his defense. He slid back, doubled over slightly on one knee, clutching his ribs with some degree of pain.
"Tsukune!" Kurumu and Mizore called over from the side. "Are you all right?"
"It's wonderful to see you again!"
"Hang in there! We'll come help you!"
"No!" He held his hand up to them in a halting gesture, and they paused accordingly. "I feel it. This vampire is newly awakened. Please don't waste your lives! If you try your luck with her, it's bound to run out."
He knew that what he said was true. But the fact remained strange. As he examined Kokoa's petite body, he knew how irregular it was for a vampire to exhibit such extreme youkai output at such a young age. Almost as if…
"Fine, then," he agreed, rising to his full height, "I don't know who you are or what I did to make you so angry, but if you're going to fight me, then I won't hesitate."
He kept his eyes hard on her as she approached brandishing a two-handed hammer with a familiar bat face grinning comically on the headpiece. A strength-grade monster with a transformer bat as her weapon of choice. The most basic of all vampire fighting forms. He understood that no matter how much power a vampire had, it was as good as nothing if there were no surprises to it. And it's not as if he decided to come back to the land of the living without a few surprises of his own.
But he wanted to somehow finish this fight without gravely harming her. That was where the real challenge was. He believed in giving the best first impression, and he doubted that the headmaster of the school would be too thrilled if his first day back involved the ruin of another student.
'All I have to do to halt her advance,' he mulled his strategy over to himself, 'is apply one well-aimed blast of nitrogen ice to her legs, and…'
No, no, no, that wasn't safe at all. If he cryogenically froze her from the waist down, her upper half might struggle so much that her legs could crumble to pieces. And if he decided to freeze her upper body just to keep that from happening, her heart would stop, and there was no guarantee that he could resuscitate her without any lasting damage.
'N-Never mind!' He scrubbed the plan and started from scratch. 'Instead, I'll discombobulate her by boxing her head with a powerful electric shock to each side! That'll…!"
Damn it, no. If he generated too much power to her temples, it could cause permanent brain damage. Not to mention the makeover magic of an electrical burn to her skin. Try again.
'Th-then I can just immobilize her body with my special poison!'
No.
'Lacerate her with shrapnel and weaken her from blood loss.'
Noooo~.
'The power of friendship…?'
You read too much shounen.
'Then I'll just…! Just…! Gwaaaahh…'
Awestruck by his lack of foresight, Tsukune tore at his hair with both hands in realization that even though every defense countermeasure he brought with him was indeed a vampire countermeasure – every vampire countermeasure he had existed primarily to cripple or kill anything up to and including…a vampire. In a school environment, this response to violence was in fact typically frowned upon.
'Wait!' He snapped his eyes open. 'I could try using… "that"…'
He already had what he needed. He just needed to make a minor adjustment. Then he'd be ready to incapacitate the rampaging fledgling.
"Humans have no place with vampires!" Kokoa cried at him, taking another swing. Tsukune swatted it out of the way as it passed over his midsection. He took solace in how easy it was. For as much strength as she dedicated behind each of her blows, she still lacked technique with her weapon. You don't need to withstand attacks if you can tell where they're coming and going.
"No place!"
Swing.
"None!"
Miss.
"Why did you come back?!" She demanded harshly while continuing to shower him with blows. "Why couldn't you just stay away!"
She raised her hammer high up over her head for a huge downward pounding, but Tsukune managed to stop it by catching the shaft. Their hands touched as they both braced the weapon, and the real fight ensued.
"Tsukune!" Kurumu had just about enough bench-warming to get her through next year, and she got back on her wings, prepared to swoop in and break up the wrestling match. "I've had all I can take! No one's killing my man before I even hold him again!" Mizore and Yukari had expected this rash reaction, and they both held onto her by the tail, leashing her in place. It looked oddly like they were flying a Kurumu kite – one that jiggled amusingly the more the wind blew.
"Hyaaaa~ cut it out, Crazy Cushions!" Yukari squealed with her eyes fast shut in a humorous posture.
"You heard what the man said. Are you eager to die?" Mizore inquired coolly.
The blue-haired nymph shot them both a defiant glare as she remained suspended in her takeoff animation. "Let go of me, you two! If Tsukune dies in my place, I'm not forgiving either one of you!"
"Kurumu, look at me." Mizore demanded. The winged monster turned back and spotted the frustration spreading across the snow girl's face. It occurred to her that she hadn't recovered her lollipop either, and she was certain that her friend was already feeling the repercussions of not bringing a spare. "You think we're having fun? Holding back isn't any easier for us than it is for you."
The succubus's anger seemed to fade somewhat, and her glare surrendered into a dismal sulk. "Hah…but I…"
Up close amidst the struggle, Tsukune could see all of the details of Kokoa's face that he missed from afar. He could see the tears already drying up against her skin. And from behind those quivering eyes, he could distinguish a sorrow she was practically hurting herself by trying so hard to conceal. A peculiarity that almost justified all of her madness. One that Tsukune came to understand quite well.
"What happened?" He muttered to himself, just as much as to her.
From behind Kokoa's tormented face, a cruel laugh drifted into his ears, and along emerged Lilith, hanging the mirror by her grip as she flew in to spectate.
"I see…" Tsukune narrowed his eyes on the artifact as the glass surface teemed with an evil glow. "You happened."
"Ehehehe~" the spirit stuck her tongue out playfully as she witnessed the two in their death struggle. "Of course, silly! Take a look at what's in front of you. Who'd have thought that such a small girl would have so much to get off her chest!"
"J…Just what did you do to her?" He could hardly grunt out the question while bearing the weight of Kokoa's weapon. It was getting heavier by the second as she used her arm strength to push it further down. Given enough years, this vampire had the potential to mature into a phenomenal fighter.
"Do to her?" She looked almost insulted. "Don't make it appear as though what's happening is a bad thing. Can't you tell all I'm doing is returning her to her beloved 'onee-sama'?"
"Ugh…" Tsukune was eventually brought down on one knee. The youkai he was struggling to fight off was overflowing. Clearly he had yet to tap the bottom of her reserve. Just what the hell was that mirror?
"One glimpse into this," Lilith gave him a toothy grin, "and you can achieve any goal you have! Sky's the limit. That doesn't sound like such a bad deal now, does it?"
"And just," he replied through gritting teeth, "what possible goal would she have in mind…where she indiscriminately beats people to a bloody pulp?!"
Unwavered by guilt, the spirit just shrugged her shoulders. "Meh. Who knows. That's not my business."
Tsukune generally made it a policy of his to be as understanding as possible, but there was no time for leniency on demons. "I've heard enough." He agreed to himself. If rough was how she wanted it, rough was how she would get it. "Hey! Anyone out there who still wants to help…" The gang reacted by inching closer, sincere about taking up whatever request he had. Gin had apparently recovered from the kick, and Kurumu and Mizore were bringing up the front line. "…Fetch me…that stupid mirror!"
With a flash of purpose shining in their eyes, everyone answered at once.
"On it!"
Lilith's smug smile sank into a nervous one as she realized her predicament.
"Uh. Uh-oh."
Kurumu came swinging in toward her, dangling Mizore underhandedly as her wings heaved against the wind. Gin, no pushover for foot speed, was covering several strides per second below them in a mad dash, throwing his upper body forward to maximize his momentum.
Yukari, sadly enough, had no perks when it came to either sprints or marathons, and she noticeably lagged behind the others. "Y-You guys…" she huffed in between breaths. "Wait…wait up~!"
The Ririsu Mirror had other plans about getting captured. Clenching her teeth in a show of annoyance, Lilith hoisted the relic up and sped away as fast as her wings could carry both her and it. In spite of her look, she turned out to be remarkably swift. Even though the succubus in tow had her easily on wingspan, she knew how to take advantage of her small size and disappear into her lofty surroundings.
"Okay then, ladies and germs," she taunted as she moved, "if you really want to disappoint your day that much… Catch me if you can~!"
Kurumu and Mizore flew after her, watching with some discouragement as the pixie zipped back and forth with the alacrity of a Golden Snitch, casting small flashes of white light as her flight path ricocheted. If it was even within the realm of possibility, capturing something like her was going to be some shitty chore.
As everyone shrank into the distance, Tsukune realized that now was the time to settle things with his new vampiric playmate. He had already knocked out two birds with one stone: separating the mirror from Kokoa and distracting everyone from the hazard of getting in their way. From here on out, everything should be gravy.
In a decisive moment, he finally released his grip on her weapon and slang behind her in a blurred motion, watching the head of the hammer drive into the ground and carve out a tremendous chasm where he knelt less than a second prior.
He inhaled his breath and felt the familiar surge of electricity course down his arms, flowing obediently into his palms and around his fingers. Holding his hands open, he delivered a quick precision strike to Kokoa's side, and felt the energy leave him to burst against her.
The girl let out a gag of pain as she jostled violently and lost control of her balance. He didn't stop at one blow, however, and as she staggered backwards in surprise, he raced to her other side and stung her again with a sharp flick of his limb. He continued to execute an onslaught of charged attacks against her petite frame, and the glow of his fists left arcing patterns behind with his merciless speed. If he was trying, he could've probably written his name and used it to tie her up.
He avoided her head and limbs, keeping all of his attacks relegated to her center. She kept sustaining blows, but Kokoa must've been made of sturdier stuff than she appeared, because she stayed stuck to her feet.
Eventually, the glow in Tsukune's arms began to wane and fade, gradually dying down into the plain appearance of normal jabs. His advances slowed to a crawl, until he quit skirmishing altogether. Numbness filled his hands, and he shook them out in an effort to restore feeling. "Well?" He asked her, breathing heavily. "Are you satisfied?"
She too was panting fiercely, but her eyes kept alive and alert, like those of a cornered animal. She ambled unsteadily up to Tsukune, stumbling once or twice before she got up to him. He held himself perfectly still, graciously allowing her to lean her arm up against him, gripping his jacket.
Using his body as a support in a sort of drunken way, she finally answered his question by violently dashing the head of the hammer into the side of his skull, so fast and sudden he couldn't even see.
His head rang like a bell as he flew up into the air, motionless long before his rough landing had kicked up a cloud of dust.
She walked up towards his limp body, weapon still raised in eager anticipation within two trembling arms. When she finally made her way to his side, she nudged him with her foot a few times, turning him over onto his back to have a look at his face. The side of his head was caked with blood, and his face was frozen still – almost peaceful.
The turbulent aura around Kokoa's small body seemed to calm down while she gazed at his tranquil features.
"Is he…" She managed weakly, trying to get her bearings. "Did I…"
She dropped her weapon, and it morphed back into Kou's bat form, flapping remorsefully away. Sprawling down onto her knees, Kokoa took a moment to reflect on what just happened – as though she had once again been standing outside of her body, watching everything she had been doing from afar in a dreamlike realm.
"I…haha…" Her mouth twisted into a maddened smile. "Hahaha…I, I did it! I crushed him! Haha, can you see me now, Onee-sama? I knew he couldn't protect you! He couldn't even protect himself! Does he really deserve your attention?! Don't I deserve your attention now?! Huhh?! Do I?!"
Falling to hysterics, she laughed uncontrollably to herself for several long seconds, accompanied by nothing but the silence of the campus she destroyed.
Her laughing got slower…
…And softer…
…And weaker…
…Until it was gradually replaced by something altogether different.
"Uu…uwaaah…" Her face had completely flooded with water, and her surroundings seemed to melt away with the sensation of tears occluding her vision like hot wax. "Wh-what have I done…?" She asked herself, holding her face with her hands. "What have I done…? What have I done…? What have I done…?"
She repeated the question for several moments, watching droplets of anger, of frustration, of bitterness, of sorrow all leave her chin and land in front of Tsukune's lifeless body. She sobbed uncontrollably, feeling no less pathetic than she did on the day Moka had left her behind.
But then, yet another feeling had crept up on her. She felt her stomach, around where Tsukune had delivered all of those painful stings. The feeling – nonexistent just a short while ago – had since grown too demanding to ignore. A lump began to form in her throat, and she found that swallowing to push it down was about as helpful as filling it with sand.
She felt…dry…empty…
Thirsty.
Conveniently, a sweet scent caught the vampire's attention by the nose. A scent coming from the direction of the boy she had just silenced. She had never smelled such a nice, fresh fragrance before in all of her short life.
Crawling feebly over to his head, she leaned over and stuck a timid tongue out, lapping up traces of blood with kitten-like fashion. Her face flushed with a certain debauchery – a certain imbalance of the humors. She felt even guiltier about what she was thinking about doing, but by now the thirst had gnawed on her so much that she couldn't even stand up anymore. The ayashi inside of her had taken complete hold, forbidding her from turning down an opportunity to indulge on such sweet blood given the affairs of her desire.
"I…I'll just do it…gently…" She insisted under her breath, closing her eyes dreamily as she opened her mouth. The fangs revealed themselves on cue, ready to do their job.
Her teeth slid around the soft flesh of Tsukune's neck, and the two points sank down with a ready bite.
Then came the part she hadn't been anticipating.
Her entire body seized up, shot full with a powerful jolt of lightning. The brutal sensation of a thousand tiny shotguns going off inside her mouth knocked her away from her meal, and she was out cold.
Tsukune's body began to stir, and slowly, he sat himself up. "I'm sorry." He apologized somberly, "it was the only choice you gave me."
"Tsukuneeee!"
Everyone came rushing back, and took quick notice of how the tide of battle had completely capsized. He climbed to his feet and dusted off his pants as they inspected the handiwork on the vampire girl now lying ass-up in a humorous snail position. Steam sizzled out of her hair; her twintails now sticking up straight like a pair of fuzzy horns.
Gin whistled. "Christ, man, what'd you do to her?"
"Ahaha~" Kurumu snorted with glee, openly less sympathetic than the werewolf with regards to the uptight bitch. "Looks like she took a bite out of a jellyfish sandwich!"
"Well..." Tsukune tried to find the best way to explain exactly what she just went through. "I might have given her a few good shocks to the abdomen, where she keeps the most water in her body. And by singeing her electrolytes slightly, I might have also made her incredibly thirsty." He looked around to make sure they were all following. "And, umm, after I got her to bite me, it's also possible that I released a teensy bit of electricity that I had been storing in the iron of my blood cells."
"Sooo long story short," Gin crouched down to have a better look at her, "she bit Pikachu's tail."
"Oooooooo so cooooool, Tsukune! When did you learn to do that?" Yukari asked with admiration sparkling in her eyes.
Embarrassed, Tsukune snuck a glance back at Kokoa as her bat companion fervently tugged at the back of her skirt with his mouth in a vain attempt to pull her up. The only thing that he managed to accomplish was giving her pantsu shot a wider scope. "I didn't mean for it to kick that hard…" He scratched his cheek nervously. She wasn't going to be happy when she woke up.
"Well don't lose any sleep over it," Kurumu stretched her arms back over her head in a relaxing pose, "trust me, that kid had it coming. Instead…" Her expression turned devilish, and without warning, she wrapped both of her arms around Tsukune's unsuspecting head, pulling him mercilessly into a position that – little he may know – had been a part of their personal history many, many times over. "Oh Tsukune it's just so good, so good to see you~! I knew you'd come back for me! The rest of the girls gave up on you, but my heart endured, and look you're here! Right here, and this handsome face of yours is never leaving me again!"
"Mmf! MMMF!" He clawed uproariously for air, stuck in the stuffy valley between the buoyant replicas of Mounts Fuji and Kita.
"Hey now oppai ayashi, don't just go deciding things for yourself desuuuuu~!" Yukari broke into a fit.
"Mm-hm…" The snow girl nodded her head weakly in agreement, glistening tiredly.
"Hmm? Hey Mizore, what's wrong?" The witch leaned over with concern. "You look a little green around the gills."
Indeed, the stalker girl appeared to be having trouble catching her breath, and she stooped unsteadily on her feet, like a puppet losing strings. "It's fine…I'm fine… Just a…little warm." She fanned out the collar of her shirt.
Kurumu gasped, releasing her love target as she remembered, "her lollipop! She can't keep her temperature without it!"
Tsukune perked up warily, protective instincts kicking back in. He began hovering around the area frantically, scouring for the object of interest. He eventually spotted a small stick lying off to the side of the road, the last clean part of the candied rock shimmering proudly as if to let him know that it had survived.
"Ah," he grunted, "it got dirty." Mizore watched with captivated sapphire eyes as he knelt down to pick it up. Looking over at her hopefully, he cracked a quirky grin and asked, "I don't suppose you appeal to the Five Hundred-Second Rule, do you?"
She smiled through her fatigue, shaking her head dismissively. "It's okay, don't worry about it. Getting indoors is a noble first step for me…"
"Nonsense!" He objected. To everyone's surprise, Tsukune whipped out his tongue and proceeded to clean the sweet sphere of candy, effectively giving them a reverse-fanservice moment. As the strong muscle finished polishing off the rest of the dirt, the lollipop gleamed with restored color, as pristine as it had been before Mizore even began using it.
"Ahaha," he laughed lightly, "Sorry. To keep from grossing you all out, I should probably explain. My particular subhuman category of monster leaves my mouth completely sterile. No matter what it comes into contact with, the saliva in my mouth is designed to kill bacteria more than any sanitizer on the market." He walked up to Mizore, whose face was now overheating for a completely new reason. "Here." He gave it back to her. "Haha, I have to envy you. It's a very tasty flavor."
You could practically see the flowers fluttering around the smitten snow girl's head while she clasped the gift between two praising hands. She had tried the old indirect kiss routine several times before, usually after Tsukune had finished using a spoon for his meals. This was the first time it had happened where she hadn't had to do a thing. In fact, she was frankly ashamed of herself that she hadn't thought of it.
"Uu," she blushed, "Well I'm…glad you like it." The other girls dropped their jaws in flusters as she approached him timidly, "Hey…" she added, lifting a delicate hand to his shoulder. "You wanna know what my favorite flavor is…?" Her touch against his shoulder was so dainty, so ladylike that he could scarcely feel it, even as she tenderly pulled his face closer to hers.
"HELL no!" Kurumu and Yukari broke entry with identical elbow drives against the stalker, who was sent reeling away from their man.
"Hey, don't be fooled by that frosty broad, Tsukune, I have all flavors you need!" Kurumu's assets bounced vivaciously as she tried to resume her glomp. "Once you go stack, you don't ever go back!"
While Tsukune was incidentally forced to stare at the succubus's…stack, the gash in her clothing below caught his vigilant eye.
"Oh no," he cried, "you're injured!"
"Eh?" Kurumu blinked in some confusion before she deduced what he meant. "Oh this? No, I'll be fine, this is just a—"
"Please be still!" He insisted, approaching her with his finger and thumb forming a pincer C-shape. Electricity crackled distinctly between them. "I can cauterize that wound. Don't worry, it won't hurt. You should experience nothing but a pleasant tickling feeling."
"T-Tickling feeling?" She stammered, realizing for the first time where the rip in her clothing actually was. Everyone had their very own kinks to the body; 'switches,' if you will, which caused them to…react in a certain way. For Kurono Kurumu, that exact spot happened to be located just along her side – right beneath her underboob. All her life, she kept that side of her a secret.
Apparently that was now subject to slight change.
"Ah, please," she backed away carefully, holding her arms up in protest, "I'm actually really, really delicate down the-AAaahnn~" Her face flushed with intensity as Tsukune tagged her in the side, determined to seal up the imaginary injury. Witnessing the interaction, Yukari and Gin, in spite of any jealousy they'd otherwise feel, giggled hysterically to themselves as the self-proclaimed mistress of sex was getting her tables turned in more ways than one.
"Aah, aahnn~…Tsukune…th-thahahat feels…hah~…huh~…" She moaned suggestively, peering weakly over at him from a drowsy eye as she drowned in sexual excitement. Her long whip-like tail, as if by some will of its own, had curled itself longingly around Tsukune's arm as he continued to pour medical attention into the opening of her clothes. Unaware of her compromised state, he just kept on welding. Usually, this would make her incredibly, unbelievably happy, but…
'Oh no… If this continues…' She shut her eyes tight, either to restrain or brace herself. 'I'm gonna…in front of everyone…!'
"Just…" Tsukune concentrated harder.
'Tsukune…' She held his sleeve with an iron grip.
"About…"
'Aah, aah…I'm losing it…!'
"Done!"
He released her from his coil, and she sank into the ground like a puddle, occasionally twitching with some lingering spasms.
"Phew," he wiped his brow. "Fixed it."
And he did. He suuuuuure did.
"Oh. There's no blood? I-I'm so sorry, that was careless of me." He chuckled awkwardly.
Kurumu was still flat on the floor, heaving hard to calm herself down. She managed to avoid Critical Mass just by a hair's breadth, but that was waaaaay closer to her erotic fantasies than she was prepared for.
"Need a helping hand, my delicate lotus?" Gin dropped a smooth line as he leaned down and offered to pull her up. "You may be a flower, but not all flowers belong on the ground."
"D-Don't call me that…and don't touch me." She droned. "I'm busy…hah…feeling…"
He furrowed his lip. "Okaaaaaaay?"
"Oh yeah," Tsukune remembered. "The mirror – did you guys catch it?"
Everyone exchanged gloomy looks.
Yukari was the only one brave enough to give him the news. "No…" She muttered sadly. "She got away. I'll bet she's still roaming free about campus as we speak. Sorry we couldn't help…"
"Hey," she felt a hand give her head a reassuring pat, "No worries, I know you did everything you could. Whether it's today or tomorrow, everything eventually gets done." He looked back over at Kokoa, still motionless on the ground. "It's a shame how things ended up like this, though. I feel they could've gone so differently…"
"Eh." Gin walked over to her with his hands tucked in his pockets. "Don't even sweat it. I'll take her to the infirmary. You guys go wherever you need to be."
"You better not do anything creepy with her…" Mizore warned.
"Hey c'mooon, don't give me that, I ain't even that into lolis." He resented as he scooped her up into his arms.
"Then Senpai," Yukari tested him, "you wouldn't mind helping all these other guys to the infirmary too, would you?" She gestured towards the large pile of moaning boys twisted together in almost cartoonish positions.
Gin's eyebrows dropped in utter disappointment. He may be a carnivore, but he comes for the buns – not the sausages. "Sheesh, what do I look like, a sled dog? Let 'em drag themselves."
He departed with the unconscious vampire, leaving the others behind.
"Pervert."
"The worst."
"Come on Tsukune!" The boy snapped awake as he realized that a different girl was pulling each of his hands. Another one clung to his side, brushing affectionately against him. "There's lots more people who wanna talk to you!"
"Oh, I, I see." He replied with a shy smile. 'What in the hell did I do to become so popular? I hope this doesn't become a problem…'
"Hey, Tsukune, what's the story behind the fancy getup?"
As they escorted him off of the yard and continued their chatter, he carefully turned his head back towards a tall, lanky figure leaning far off to the shadow of the trees. The white dots of its eyes watched them ominously as they went.
Tsukune's smile erased, overrode by a stoic composure. Without uttering a breath, he mouthed two words to the shadow.
Start digging.
As if by direct response, the figure heaved a spaded shovel over its shoulder, and disappeared from his sight.
But unbeknownst even to Tsukune, someone else had been viewing the spectacle. Leaning against a tree even further out, another figure busily ruminated. A long ribbon of smoke was escaping the cigar he held between two gloved fingers.
"I see…" He pinched the edge of his mustache, cracking an eerie grin that released a fume of smog. "I hadn't expected him to be back quite so soon." His eyes shined brightly from under his uniform cap. Then he held the cigar back up to his mouth, and the tip of the joint glowed with hot embers.
"I suppose," he concluded before departing for himself, "once reality finds you, you can't escape it – even if you wanted to. So I wonder what that girl will do…once Tsukune finds her."
A/N: Aaaand scene. Whew. Hope you guys appreciate how long I made this fucker. I myself consider it the best way to apologize for such hiatus. I'm gonna go take a huuuuuuuuge nap.