I was going to post the next chapter of Changers, but I'm having a little bit of trouble getting it off of the ground. So, I worked on this.
CHAPTER 21
SLIP OF THE TOUNGUE
Kurumu absent-mindedly folded and re-folded her clothes, her head in a million places at once. She, like most of the castle, couldn't stop thinking about Tsukune. However, while the general concern was that the safety of the castle had been compromised, Kurumu was worried about Tsukune. She hadn't known the servant all that long, but she rather liked him. Besides, Moka obviously cared for him quite a bit, what with the way she was acting, and despite everything, Kurumu considered the two of them friends.
There was a knock on the door, and Kurumu wondered who it was. There were only a few people in the castle who would need her, and Kurumu shuddered at the idea that it might be Gin. Luckily, it wasn't. But Kurumu was confused. Instead of anybody she knew, there was a small black-haired girl, a petite brown-haired woman with a soft smile, and a tall man with a grin so wide it didn't seem to fit on his face. In front of the motley group was a servant who was looking rather nervous. "Sorry to interrupt Princess Kurumu," The servant said. "But I am giving the Aono's a tour of the castle-"
"The Aono's?" Kurumu interrupted, perplexed. "Oh, are you here to visit Tsukune?"
"Yeah!" Yukari cheered. Kurumu raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"But… he's missing." She said.
There was a moment or two of silence as everyone remained as still as statues. "Um, what?" Mrs. Aono said in small voice. "Missing?" Her eye started twitching. "What do you mean he's missing?"
"Well, he was in the hospital, and-"
"The Hospital!" Yukari cried. "What was he doing in the hospital?" Kurumu stared at the group.
"Wait…" She started, a little nervous. "You mean you…didn't know?" Kurumu guessed that they didn't by their stunned faces. Oh crap…
Mrs. Aono turned to their guide. "Where is Princess Moka now?" The servant, flustered, didn't answer. "Where is she?" Mrs. Aono urged.
"S-she's probably in the hospital right now." The servant said.
"Where is that?" Mrs. Aono asked. The servant told her, and Mrs. Aono, her husband, and Yukari took off down the hallway. Kurumu, on an impulse, followed them.
"What are you doing?" she cried to Mrs. Aono, who answered without looking back.
"Moka said she would take care of Tsukune; she not only let him get hurt, then she didn't tell us! Princess or not, she's about to face a mother's wrath!"
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Moka watched with a hand on her hip as Gin dragged his nose across the floor. He had already checked the beds and the furniture and was almost done with the examination of the room. Gin stood up and shrugged, indicating that he hadn't found anything out of the ordinary. Moka cursed under her breath. She had hoped that Gin's enhanced werewolf senses would have been able to find something amiss, some sort of clue to who had taken Tsukune. But there was nothing. Moka frowned.
"What exactly did you smell?" She asked. Gin gave her a confused look, but responded.
"You know, the usual: medicine, the docters, Kurmu, a couple vampires… nothing odd." Moka mulled over his words in her head, and then something occurred to her.
"A couple vampire scents?" She asked aloud to no one in particular. That didn't make any sense. Obviously there would be some vampire scent because of Moka's visits, but Kokoa hated Tsukune; she had made a point of never visiting. Could the person who took Tsukune been a vampire? It was a long shot, but it was the only lead Moka had, and she was going to take it. She was just about to give Gin more orders when she heard a large group of footprints coming down the hallway. Turing, Moka saw the Aono's sliding into the hospital with Kurumu following hot on their heels. Mrs. Aono had a flushed face, and something made Moka highly doubt it had been from the running. Uh oh.
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Ruby clenched her fist as she made her way down the hall. She had tried her best to ignore the calling ("Curiosity killed the cat," she kept chanting), but eventually she decided she could resist no longer. She had stormed out of her room and down the hallway, following the feeling as it grew ever stronger. She entered the main hall and went up the stairs, hoping that she was wrong. She turned a corner and saw the entrance to the hospital, and with it she saw the source of the feeling. Quickly hiding behind the wall, she peered out.
" Yukari…" She whispered. "You've grown up so much…"
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Tsukune grunted as he was punched yet again in the stomach. It had been going on for hours, this repeated beating. At first Tsukune thought that his captors wanted information, but after a few hours Tsukune realized that that was simply not the case. No, these people were hurting him because they wanted to. Tsukune was sure that there wasn't a single spot on his body that didn't have a bruise. His tormentor brought his fist back for another blow and Tsukune tightened his muscles in anticipation.
"Enough Hokuto." Came Corma's voice from somewhere in the darkness. The man hesitated, then lowered his fist and stepped back. So his name's Hokuto… Tsukune filed that little tidbit somewhere in his memory as Corma stepped forward and leaned down so that he and Tsukune were eye-to-eye.
"How did that feel?" Corma asked. Tsukune didn't; answer the obviously rhetorical question. Corma's face turned nasty and he bared his fangs. "Bad, I hope! Because that's how you made me feel!"
Somehow, Tsukune found the strength to ask "What do you mean?"
Corma snarled and he turned away. "You humans don't understand, but us Vampires live and die by our honor. You don't know what it's like to live in disgrace. To have your name spat upon by the very people whom you used to call your friends… And to have it all be because of the Akashiya's."
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You guys have no idea how much technical trouble I had while I was writing this chapter.