Chapter Eight: 66 Steps
Within moments, Aja was on her feet as a massive, sickly grey creature dropped to the ground before her. The creature stood at nearly 3 meters tall, a great gaping maw filled with serrated teeth jutted at a vicious angle down and forward. Its body resembled a grotesque parody of a concentration camp survivor. The hair was a greyish-white, covering its head, lower arms and legs and crotch. A stump of tail protruded from behind. The arms, long and wrapped in ropy muscle and sinew, terminated in massive hands tipped with claws that could tear a full grown long horn steer to shreds in one swipe. It stood on digitigrade legs and regarded Aja with sickly yellow eyes.
"Ah," remarked Aja cooly. "A wendigo. I thought I smelled rot and hunger about you, Miss Fiddler."
The wendigo let out a hollow, rattling laugh and smiled hungrily.
"This won't take long," the wendigo wheezed. "Less, if you apologize now."
Aja's eyes clouded over from violet to pure black. She sank into a modified attack stance and began to slowly circle the wendigo.
"I have nothing to apologize for," she said. "I spoke only the truth. If you find offense in that, you will need a lesson in manners."
The wendigo let out a horrendous howl and lunged at Aja. Easily evading the swiping attack, Aja held out her clenched fist. A swirling, writhing shadowy mass gathered and resolved itself into a pudao, all detail obscured except its basic shape.
"Please do not make me hurt you, Miss Fiddler," Aja said as the wendigo turned for another attack.
"Kiss my furry ass!" the wendigo shouted and lunged at Aja again.
Jumping and dodging with easy grace, Aja pirouetted above the wendigo and caught it on the back of its head with the flat of her blade. The wendigo howled in pain and wheeled around for another strike.
At this moment, Moka, Tsukune, Kurumu and the vice-principal arrived on the scene.
"Stop this at once!" the VP shouted.
"I would like to, sir," Aja called out, evading another clumsy swipe. "But it would seem Miss Fiddler is intent upon inflicting harm on me."
"M-Miss Fiddler?" Kurumu cried out in shock. "That…that thing is Anna Fiddler?"
"That thing, sempai Kurono, is a wendigo," Aja explained between attacks and parries. "A particularly nasty one at that."
Enraged at being treated so blithely, the wendigo howled and lashed out with multiple palm swipes. Barely able to dodge, Aja took refuge in the massive oak near the head of the clearing.
'I certainly hope my bag is safe,' Aja thought as the wendigo thrashed through the brush surrounding the oak.
"Sempais," Aja called out. "Would one of you be so kind as to retrieve my bag from the foot of the willow while I deal with Miss Fiddler?"
A massive swipe from the wendigo's paw felled the oak Aja hid out in and toppled to the ground dangerously close to the disciplinary committee. Kurumu, gobsmacked and not knowing what else to do, complied with Aja's wishes and scrambled back to relative safety.
Moka pulled Tsukune aside and looked into his eyes.
"I know I said only if your life or mine were in danger," she began, twisting her rosary in her hands.
"You can't mean it," Tsukune said, almost pleading.
"I have to put a stop to this," Moka replied determinedly. "Now."
Tsukune reluctantly complied with Moka's wish and removed the rosary from around her neck.
At this precise moment, the shrubbery containing Robert Bruce disgorged a hulking, red eyed brute attempting to block the path into the glade. He stood nearly as tall as the wendigo, but was modestly dressed all in black, heavy combat boots shod in iron on his feet and a massive pike in his hands. Sitting atop his head, a baseball cap dripping a thick, red liquid. His evil grin revealing numerous teeth.
Inner Moka instantly sent him to the ground with a quick kick to the chest and the admonition to, "Stay down and know your place, Red Cap."
Momentarily distracted by the instant release of massive amounts of power, Aja was caught flat by a back hand delivered by the wendigo. She found herself plastered to a nearby elm and coughed up a small amount of black blood.
'Curse these physical bodies,' Aja thought to herself, wincing in pain. 'I'll never get used to this.'
On her feet moments later, Aja noticed a drastically changed and eminently more powerful Moka attempt to enter the clearing. With a graceful swipe of her arm, Aja blocked Moka's advance with an obstacle resembling a wall made of shadow.
"You think this illusion will stop me, daemon?" Inner Moka laughed haughtily.
Instantly, the "wall" began to writhe like a storm-tossed sea. Eyes and mouths appeared at random upon the surface, disjointed from each other and looking vaguely in Moka's direction. Presently, hands and arms grew from the "wall" and alternately beckoned to and grabbed at her. Disembodied voices chanting inharmoniously, "join us, join us."
Taken aback by this, Moka had no choice but to try and outflank the obstacle. At every turn, however, the "wall" would materialize from nothing and continue to chant disconcertingly. Kurumu attempted to fly over the "wall" but came back reporting that the glen and its occupants simply vanished into the gloom.
The vice-principal only smiled cryptically and suggested allowing the two combatants to finish their contest.
"I have the feeling Miss Rehael is not in a bloodthirsty mood," he said.
"This is no shadow," Moka declared some moments later. "What are you, Aja?"
"Now is really not the time for proper introductions sempai," Aja called out breathlessly. She evaded another swiping attack, but the physical body she currently inhabited was nearing its limits. This fight must end soon or she would be in serious trouble.
"I did not want to have to do this, but I have no other choice," Aja said aloud and to no one in particular.
Aja caused a pall of shadow to descend upon the wendigo, effectively blinding it. Using the reprieve, Aja called upon her symbiote yuki-onna. Immediately, the glen was bathed in Arctic winds and snow. The wendigo, unused to the sub-zero temperatures slipped on a patch of ice and fell on its back. Aja crept from behind and placed her hand on the wendigo's head. As it tried to snap its jaws at Aja, she looked into the wendigo's eyes and calmly uttered:
"stop."
The fight was over like that. As Aja projected all the horrors of hell and its torments through her eyes into the eyes of the wendigo, the creature rolled over and whimpered like a hurt kitten.
The demon wall separating Aja from Moka and the others vanished at the flick of Aja's finger.
Moka rushed into the glade and immediately confronted Aja. Aja stood up and looked directly at Moka, the blackness receding from her eyes as they met Moka's. Moka came to a dead stop and gaped at Aja.
"Wh-What are you?" Moka asked, a slight tremor in her otherwise haughty voice.
"I am Aja Rehael, First Year student at Youkai Academy," Aja replied simply. The pudao she carried dissipated like fog as the winds and snow faded from the glade.
Kurumu, clinging to Tsukune, could only gape in silence. Tsukune wriggled out of her grasp with some difficulty and approached Moka. Here, he proffered her rosary and whispered, "I think the fight is over."
Moka glowered at Aja. The vice-principal approached the wendigo cringing and mewling on the ground.
"Poor soul," he spoke kindly. "You were only hungry, weren't you."
He gently laid his hand on its forehead, whispered a few words into the ear and stepped back. Gradually, the wendigo reverted to the naked form of Anna Fiddler.
Aware of the crowd surrounding her, Anna attempted to cover herself with her arms and sat upon her knees in the dirt.
"It was all my fault," she said, crying. "The others had nothing to do with it. I made them help."
"I know," the vice-principal said. "I think, for you, however, detention, restroom duties and an apology to Miss Rehael are the order of the day."
"I-I'm not going to be expelled?" Anna looked to the vice-principal with a hopeful look in her eyes.
"Not this time," he said kindly. "But consider yourself warned. This is your only strike. If you do anything serious like this again, you will be."
Anna hung her head and wept again. Presently, she came around and looked at Aja.
"I am so sorry," she said. "I let my pride get the better of me."
Aja smiled at Anna without any trace of malice, and said, "I accept your apology."
She then turned to Kurumu, held out her hand, smiled and said," Thank you, sempai, for rescuing my shoulder bag. I did not want to have to replace it."
Robert entered the glade, wincing as he gripped his chest. Making a mental note to never cross Moka again, he reverted to his human form and began apologizing to Kurumu, Tsukune and Moka.
Aja turned to Moka as she reverted to her cheerful, Outer self.
"I am sorry I used my powers to prevent you entering the glade," Aja said. "I assure you it was only out of concern for your safety and the safety of those you seem to hold dear."
Moka looked askance at Aja for a moment before speaking.
"How would you know what I am capable of doing for myself," Moka replied, her pride visibly hurt. "I was more than capable of handling the 'incident' with Miss Fiddler."
"I have no doubt that you could…now," Aja tried to reassure Moka. "However, once combat was joined, I simply could not take the risk, either to you, Miss Fiddler or to myself."
Moka seemed unconvinced, until Tsukune stepped forward, wrapped his arm over Moka's shoulder and concurred with Aja's argument.
"I think Miss Rehael is right," he said. "There were too many variables. She could just have easily attacked you in the confusion."
Moka's attitude softened slightly…enough for a slight smile to appear on her face.
"And here I thought it was my job as an upperclassman to look after First and Second Years, not the other way around."
"If I overstepped my bounds, I will accept whatever sanction you wish to impose," Aja replied, bowing in respect to the three sempais and the vice-principal.
"I think enough punishment has been doled out for one night," the vice-principal said. "You have accepted Miss Fiddler's apology and her punishments have been handed down."
Upon his pronouncement, the vice-principal turned to face Katya's hiding place.
"Miss Tymoshenko, you may come out now," he called out.
A visibly shaken Katya Tymoshenko staggered into the glen.
"I am sorry I got you mixed inta this," Robert said to Aja and bowed his head.
Aja smiled at him as well and said, "I bear no grudges."
Anna, still naked and trying to cover herself, stood up and apologized again. Aja nodded politely and proffered her uniform jacket for the sake of Anna's modesty. Anna gladly accepted and promised to return it before the end of the night.
"If there is anything I can do to make this right between us…" Katya began.
"I suppose there is one thing," Aja said.
"Anything!" Katya cried out in gratitude. "Name it and it will be done!"
"I reached the limit of my Russian language skills just before my encounter with Miss Fiddler," Aja giggled and scratched the back of her head and blushing deeply in embarrassment. "Would you be so kind as to tutor me?"
Katya felt her jaw drop to her knees as Kurumu face planted into the dirt. Tsukune and Moka sweat-dropped and the vice-principal roared with laughter. Even Anna giggled slightly.
"I-I guess…?" Katya stammered. This was going to be a long three years.
The End…?
A/N: I hope you all liked it. This was my first attempt at writing a fan fic, so please regard me favorably. If you liked what you just read, please tell me, I will make every effort to continue it.
Sorry about all the music references, but my collection of songs is simply too rich and varied to pass up using one or three for chapter titles. In case you were wondering, "66 Steps" comes from the soundtrack for Black Lagoon and was performed by Edison.