The Broken Seal

As usual, please review! It helps motivate me to get the chapters up a bit faster

Chapter 5:

For how knows how long, Moka drifted in and out of consciousness. She vaguely remembered being in excruciating pain, followed by cold relief from presumably a wet towel. There were low voices, talking in worried tones. She couldn't see any of their faces, but was too exhausted to care. When she finally fell into a deep sleep, she stayed in it for what seemed like years.

Moka's eyes were closed, but she could feel consciousness seeping into her. Part of her wished to slip back into the merciful blackness that kept the pain away from her. But her pride forced her to struggle to awareness. Her eyes creaked open, revealing a very blurry ceiling. She blinked slowly several times, trying to focus.

Then one by one, five familiar faces came into view. Kurumu, Yukari, Mizore, Tsukune, and then...Kokoa. Her younger sister's flaming orange hair came into view, already giving Moka a splitting headache.

"MOKA, YOU'RE AWAKE!" Kokoa practically shrieked. She flung herself upon her sister's broken body and squeezed...hard. Moka hissed as bolts of pain shot through her body. But she was more awake now. "Damn it...get off me, Kokoa," she gasped.

Kokoa reluctantly peeled herself off of Moka's torso, but was still bouncing up and down.

Moka was a bit confused at first about how she got bedridden. But then all the previous event came crashing down on her like a sledgehammer. Daiko...how he had deceived her by using her friends...the terrible torture...and...how Tsukune and the others had come to her rescue...and...

Tsukune's kind brown eyes gazed down at Moka. She saw worry...relief...and...pity? Moka inwardly scoffed. 'I don't need anyone to pity me...' But she really did look pitiful at the moment. Scars and burns littered her body, but was covered up with crude white bandages that restricted her movement. She was only wearing a dark red bra followed by matching underwear, and a light jacket to go over her shoulders. Moka could see Tsukune eying her body up and down, and it drove her nuts.

"How do you feel?" Tsukune asked quickly, noticing her distress.

"Oh, just perfect, can't you tell?" Moka pushed as much sarcasm in her voice as possible. Tsukune seemed a bit taken back at her sudden coldness.

"Where am I?"

"You don't recognize it?" Yukari asked. "We're back at Youkai Academy...in the infirmary."

"What happened with Daiko?" Moka asked suddenly, sitting up. Once again, her body throbbed and Moka gasped at the sudden pain.

Tsukune gently touched her shoulders, pushing her down. Moka knocked his hands out of the way, refusing any help. Tsukune looked a bit hurt, but quickly brushed it off. Moka almost felt bad for being so rude, but she had to remember...'It was my friends who got me in the situation...' another voice inside of her argued, 'and it was your friends who got you out of it too...' but Moka ignored it.

"We barely escaped from Daiko. We just came to fetch you and then left almost right after," Mizore said quietly. "Daiko said that he would be back for us..."

"No," Moka interrupted. "He'll be back for ME," she practically sneered. And then, a thought occurred to her. "Tsukune...why haven't you put the rosary seal back on me?"

Everyone froze at the question.

"Uh...Moka...listen..." Tsukune began nervously. Moka's eyes narrowed.

"While we were trying to escape from Daiko, he sent one hell of an attack at us. Along the way, I lost track of the rosary. You have to understand, Daiko trashed the entire place. It was destroyed. When I finally found the Rosary..." Tsukune paused, and everyone in the room fidgeted. "Well...I guess I'll just let you have a look at it."

Tsukune reached behind him and took a small bundle from the table. Moka's heart raced at what she knew she was about to see.

Gently unwrapping the cloth around the item, Tsukune lay it in front of Moka. Sitting right in front of her looked like jagged shards of silver. Burnt pieces of silver. There were even bits of the ruby that was once emblazoned in the middle of the cross.

Moka didn't reply. She lay there, piecing the burnt chunks of the rosary back together, as if that would fix anything. Then much to everyone's shock, she started chuckling. It started out as a small laugh, but then gradually grew, until everyone thought she was delirious.

"Hey...Moka..." Kurumu began nervously. "You okay, girl?"

"You're acting strange," Yukari pointed out.

"Oh, it's nothing," Moka smirked. "It's just...I finally have my freedom. I don't need this damned seal anyway..." she swept up the charred pieces and flung them against the wall. Moka forced herself up to a sitting position, ignoring how the room began to spin at the effort.

"You might want to lie back down," Kurumu said cautiously. "After being unconscious for three days, you shouldn't be getting up..."

"Three days?" Moka gasped. 'They've been taking care of me for three days? Am I that dependent on friends?' she cursed herself. "That's it..." she murmured aloud. 'I can't keep relying on people to take care of me. What happened to the days where I was solitary? Besides...I'm only putting them in danger. If Daiko wants to come after me, he'll come after me, and me only."

Taking a deep breath, Moka slid her long legs out from under the white sheets and struggled to stand.

"Wha...! Moka what are you doing?" Tsukune sat up, alarmed. He ran up and tried to help her. Moka pushed him away, and Tsukune was shocked by how little strength she had. It was obvious that she had tried to put some power into the push, but it didn't budge him at all. Instead, she was sent stumbling a bit away.

Kurumu caught her before she fell onto the ground. "Alright Moka, why don't you just give up on this act? You're in no shape to be standing, much less walking around."

Moka knew she was right, but still gritted her teeth. "Don't tell me what I can or cannot do." She pulled Kurumu's hands off of her and did something that surprised everyone.

She began to peel off all her bandages, starting with the smaller ones on her hands, and then climbing up to the ones on her arm.

"Moka just what are you doing?" Yukari exclaimed. "You know, it took us forever to wrap you up!"

Moka glared at her. "Then you were just wasting your time. I don't need your help. I don't need anyone's help."

"Bitch," Mizore whispered. "If it weren't for us, you would still be getting your ass beat by Daiko. This is how you thank us?"

"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have fallen into his hands in the first place," Moka spat, venom coating each word. She winced at all of their incredibly hurt expressions, but ignored it. 'This is for the best,' she thought. 'I need to separate myself from them.'

Moka yanked off the last of the bandages on her arms and legs, revealing the ghastly cuts underneath. She shrugged off her jacket and moved on to her heavily wrapped up stomach, uncoiling the layers, making sure to slow down as she reached her bloody wound. Moka quietly hissed as she removed the bandages from her abdomen. Upon being exposed to air, the burns stung and ached even more.

Tsukune could see her visibly shaking from the pain and begged, "Please stop, Moka."

Moka ignored him, took and deep breath, and tore the white cloths from her chest. The sticky wrapping detached from her skin and she shuddered as her fragile and broken skin became vulnerable to the air. Moka took some more deep breaths to steady herself, and then peeled off the smaller bandages from her face. Moka tossed all of the messy, blood-stained rolls of cloth into a corner in the room.

Now she was standing in front of all of them in her underwear, covered in splotches of dark red and purple.

Tsukune stared in dismay at the terrible shape that Moka was in. Even so, it didn't stop him from examining her body from head to toe. She was so slender and well-shaped it distracted him well from the hellish wounds she bore.

Moka began to half-stride, half limp out of the room. She swayed unsteadily, and barely managed to latch onto the doorway when she stumbled.

"Sis, come on," Kokoa laughed nervously. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Out," was all she mumbled.

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Yep I know Moka is being a reaaaallllll beeatch. But please review and tell me what you think! Next chapter will hopefully have more Moka X Tsukune.