Lessons In Fury

Tsukune awoke with a gasp. Phantom pains wracked his body as he tried to get his breathing under control. Around him, four Ayashi girls ran to his side, trying to comfort him, each with their own, unique way.

In other words, Moka tried to rub his back while Kurumu tried to suffocate him on her chest while Yukari spoke about being the meat in a vampire/demon sandwich and Mizore deciding to make the ruckus stop by promptly freezing everyone solid.

Well, it did soothe his aching muscles.

Ruby walked in slowly, somberly, still not believing that the kind-hearted Tsukune, the boy that saved her humanity back at the Witch's Hill could possibly contain something like that. It was unbelievable, and yet she had no choice but to believe it.

The boy panted on the bed in what could only be remnants of the worst tortures imaginable. Poor boy, to have something like this thrust on his shoulders, just when things seemed to go relatively well...

Kurumu and Moka tried to console the boy a bit more while Mizore, ever helpful and calm, brought him a glass of cool water.

"Are you alright Tsukune-san?" Asked the older witch, after she extracted herself from Yukari's hug.

"Y-yeah... somehow... I... I just can't believe it... It... It's still inside me... I can still feel it... This is nothing like my other vampire transformations..."

It was then that it crossed their minds; the poor boy didn't even know what was going on inside him. He knew nothing and so it must have been even harder for him.

"That... that's because it wasn't a vampire transformation..." Spoke Moka hesitantly. "That... wasn't caused by my blood... It was... it was caused by yours... You... Tsukune-san is a... Headmaster said you are 'Akuchi'... supposedly you have remnants of the blood of a powerful demon inside you somehow and... m-my b-blood... strengthened that blood... enough so you could 'ignite' it in a sense and... transform at will..."

"So... so I'm... I'm a monster now?" He didn't use the words 'ayashi' or 'youkai' though, he instead used the word 'bakemono'... a dangerous, uncontrolled, evil monster. "I... I can... I can feel it... It... it calls to me... tells me to kill you... I... I'm so scared!"

What an admission both sides of Moka wondered. Tsukune might be kind hearted and meek, but even he had pride. To admit that he was scared of something, when he didn't admit it against her or even before Kuyou's overwhelming might. It must have been quite some blow to the youth's pride. Kurumu's and Mizore's thoughts followed the same basic pattern, only more open-minded than Moka; they had felt fear before, they had met beings who were so much superior than they, they could sympathize with him.

"N-no, of course not!" Jumped Kurumu, ready to defend him. "You're Tsukune-kun. Just like always! Only now, you are much stronger than before. Besides, we trust you completely Tsukune! We know you'd never hurt us, you're too kind to do that, even with a demon inside you. I think it's pretty manly that you can actually hold it back!"

Well, expected reaction from a succubus to turn anything into a sexual innuendo, but they agreed. Even if Tsukune didn't.

"I-I see. Thank you Kurumu-chan, everyone, for believing in me. B-but... could I have some time alone? I... I want to think for a bit."

It was an acceptable request. After all even if the girls had had days to think about it, he had only woken up from several days of unconsciousness, where his body had to adapt to its new power of transformation. When they left, Tsukune made sure they were out of the room before he released the iron-clad control over himself. The next several hours were passed in weeping and sobs, riddled with fear and terror. In his mind he could still hear it, taunting him, reminding him how weak, how pathetic he was. How he would never be able to hold him back.

So, Tsukune made a choice; he'd never use it again, that demonic power. After all, they had Moka on their side, he wouldn't have to use that power ever again.

What wishful thinking.

It took him quite a bit of time to compose himself, but Tsukune did it in the end. Wiping his face and making sure he had no obvious marks of his weakness, he got dressed and got ready to leave the hospital room. After all, he had completely healed.

When he got outside, he met up with the rest of his friends, even Gin had come to help him get over it, and began walking the familiar grounds of the Academy. Tsukune put up a good front, he really did. But he couldn't hide it from them, his pain, his sorrow, his fear. Even when awake the demon wouldn't leave him alone. It whispered dark words to his mind, urged him to let loose, to unleash the fury within. Why did he consider them his friends anyway? After all, were it not for them, nothing would have happened, he would have lived a normal, peaceful life, without people trying to kill him at every step... Without 'friends' that saw him as a walking meal or reproductive method.

And, as much as he wanted to deny the demon, he knew he couldn't. For, as much as he might love his friends, he could not deny to have several feelings of dislike to each and every one of them.

Kurumu who only loved him because he didn't let Moka kill her after she tried to make him her obedient slave.

Yukari, the ever-annoying witch who almost got him killed with her stupid pranks.

Mizore, who almost killed him too when he didn't immidiately claim to love her.

Ruby, who repeatedly tried to kill him.

Gin, who disgraced and almost killed him in his pursuit after some skirt.

And Moka... dear, dear sweet Moka. The girl with two sides, not giving him a definite answer for anything. The soft, pink-haired one would accidentaly crush his spine by hugging him on the morning and then proceed to suck his blood almost completely, seeing him as a friendly breakfast. The proud, red-eyed one would berate and look down on him as if he were something she wouldn't scrape off the soles of her shoes, glare at him for not following her unvoiced, irrational demands, demands he didn't even know about considering that he was a human.

Yes, he might love them dearly, but he always held a great amount of anger towards them, even if he would never admit it. His Inner Demon though? He had no problem putting a name and a face at every feeling of anger, no problem bluntly telling him who's fault it was every time they got into yet another unreal, life-threatening situation.

Tsukune snarled at the tree in front of him. It was bestial and furious and angry and inhuman. His fist landed on the treebark, and it shattered under the force of the unnatural strike.

"Damn it..." He cursed.

When he walked back to his dorm room, he never noticed two pairs of glowing white eyes observing his every motion.

Several days later, Tsukune was making his way to the Newspaper club. Moka and the others had gone off to do something together. If he were to guess, it would be another hair-brained scheme of Kurumu to sell more papers. Something that involved an unhealthy amount of visible skin.

Walking through the corridors, depressed and melancholic, wishing for the days when things were simpler, when he wouldn't blame his friends, when he didn't have a demon in his own blood, Tsukune heard a piercing wail, a piercing scream.

Now, normally, he didn't pay attention to such things, especially lately. No human would believe how many banshees lived in the Academy, and one could hear their screams any day of the week, on any place of the campus. But the problem was, he did recognize that voice.

Moka.

Tsukune's bag fell to the floor, but he didn't even realize it, he had already bolted towards her.

He ran, ran desperately, ran as fast as he could, ran faster than his human form should ever have allowed in the past.

When the scream came again, he was only going to make the last turn.

He made the turn and his demon form roared in agreement, in preparation for battle.

There, just ahead of him, three figures lay on the ground, hurt, bruised, blodied... defeated.

Next to them, several other figures, with non too friendy intentions, held another figure in the air, by her neck.

None of the girls nor their attackers realized what happened, but suddenly, the one who was holding Moka in the air by her throat suddenly found himself flying the other way, an enraged boy standing just next to the now-falling pink-haired girl, his eyes taking a baleful blood-red glow. Not just the iris, but the entirety of the eye was a blood red color, the only thing visible being a black slit in the middle. A demon's eyes.

"What the fuck do you want ya bastard?" Screamed one of the bravest attackers, one who hadn't seen Tsukune's face. "We were just gonna kill these bitches and then leave you fucking weaklings alone! Now we're gonna hav'ta kill ya bastards!"

Tsukune had ignored him for the most part, instead choosing the grab Moka before she fell to the ground. He set her down slowly, tenderly.

His heart beat loudly in his ears.

His very blood burned as it demanded retribution.

His sight went red as he wanted to do nothing but rip these bastards to pieces.

"The fuck you're ignorin' me huh?" Screamed the intruding ayashi before launching a powerful haymaker.

A haymaker that stopped dead before it landed.

By a human's thin hand.

A hand that seemed to bulge and deform, as if something was moving just behind the skin.

And then came Tsukune's voice. Cold, deadly, lethal... the voice of a true monster, not a half-blood trying to show off.

"I get it now... I see it... my mission, my purpose... To protect them... Yes, that's what I'll do." Spoke Tsukune, grave determination visible in his being as he held the Ayashi's attack off with one arm. And arm that began to bulge and disform slightly the more Tsukune held it. "Even if I have to give everything up for them... even if I have to sacrifice my own soul... I will protect them all...Because, that is my calling... Protecting them isn't a burden, IT'S AN HONOR I AM UNWORTHY OF!"

Because, in the small amount of time it took for Tsukune to come to the rescue of the pink-haired girl and the others, he had remembered.

He had remembered what happened.

Remembered his adventures, remembered his life. Remembered who he was. Not who he was supposed to be, but what his heart really called to him.

Because, no matter what anyone said, Tsukune cared, he cared a lot. And if someone wanted to hurt his friends... well, they'd have to meet his other side.

Youki exploded outwards, forming a pillar that obstructed his mutating form from the sight of others. Behind the veil, Tsukune's hands had turned to rapidly growing claws, his nails actually pushed off by the growing bones and falling to the ground. His own hands tore his skin along with his clothes as he roared in inhuman fury, as he made his wrath known and felt. A tail burst from his tailbone, long, sinuous, spiked, bladed, segmented, with strips of muscle obvious and uncovered. Bones erupted from flayed skin, covering him in plated armor, jagged spikes making it even more terrifying and dangerous than it would otherwise be. His face deformed, elongated and bone plates covered the vulnerable parts of his exposed flesh, making a crown like that of a triceratops to protect the back of his neck. Teeth, serrated and curved let acid drip from the non-existent lips. Hair, once a gentle chestnut color, now had turned to a harsh bone-white, maybe even silver color, rivulets of black blood marring its near waist length.

Then the demon roared again, this time in anticipation of slaughter, and he fell upon the terrified monsters.

On the roof of a nearby building, Mikogami looked on at the ongoing slaughter, his aide looking justifiably horrified at the spectacle.

"And that is why noone should try to hurt an Akuchi's friends and family..." Mikogami's voice startled Ruby.

"H-Headmaster?"

"Because their sanity is so precarious, because it is so unbelievably hard to control themselves, those bearing the Aku no Chi desperately latch on to something in order to protect their soul. Be it an ideal or a person. Huhuhu... Moka-san and the others have no idea how well protected they are. Few things can match the protection granted by a determined Akuchi... Even a mother's feelings towards her children would have a hard time rivaling it. After all, a mother desires to protect her children subconsciously, a command ingrained into her for the purposes of reproduction. But an Akuchi is different... they consciously, willingly devote their entire beings in the protection of someone, or something. That is exactly why they are such terrifying enemies; once their charge has been threatened, they will not even perceive danger to themselves, or pain, or wounds. They will fight ruthlessly and destructively until one of two things happen; either all their enemies die or their charge themself tells them to stop. And with Tsukune-kun's special circumstances..."

"S-special circumstances?"

"Kukuku... Moka-san's blood is still inside him. It fights his transformation, limiting his power but at the same time expanding his limits. His demonic transformation is now weakened because of the vampiric blood, but it will come out even stronger because of it, and with how the demon's blood is used, it can even become more powerfull. If I were to say, I believe all of Tsukue's children could gain a stable Aku no Chi bloodline, associated with vampires rather than demons. It could be the dawn of a new race. After all, Tsukune-kun wasn't gifted with merely vampiric blood, but with the blood of a Shinso, a Super Vampire, direct blood-inheritor of Alucard's greatest source of power. Truly, things will become so much more interesting... Don't you agree Ruby-kun?"

The witch could not answer.

Tsukune's claws ripped through one Ayashi before his tail went and stabbed another, impaling it through the skull, killing it instantly. Its friend died just as quickly from a blast of acid that melted his chest in seconds.

Screams littered the air, painting it as vividly as the now red earth beneath the demon's feet, as roughly as the bodies that were dismembered or melted beyond identification, not only of facial identification but even as racial.

The last one left was the one that had insulted the girls, the young demon's friends. He stumbled back as his instincts screamed at him to beg for mercy, screamed at him to fight, screamed at him to flee, screamed at him to take his own life away to make it less painful. But he could do neither. He could only watch as the near 10feet tall monster, no demon, walked towards him with what could only be described as torturous malice in its eyes. Eyes that held no pity, no sorrow, no regret for what it was going to do, only an unimaginable joy in ripping another enemy apart.

Tsukune, in his demonic form grabbed the Ayashi by the neck, much how he had wanted to do to Moka minutes ago. It looked at him closely at the face, as if memorizing its features, sniffed at him, shook him a few times. And then, then the face contorted into the most malicious version of an evil grin one could think possible.

The tail came from below and the restrained monster could only scream in abject pain as it impaled him through the genitals, into his stomach, through both his kidneys, came out from under his ribcage and turned around before impaling him yet again, coming out from his stomach and wrapping around his waist securely. The blades and serrations of the blade had made it excrutiatingly painful. They had scrapped and torn and ripped through almost all his internal organs like perfectly sharpened claws through wet paper. He couldn't help but scream in pain.

The demon only chuckled at him. Then, using the tail to hold him up, Tsukune grabbed his prey by both arms and spread them open, not bothering to reign in his supernatural strenth, strength that drove his wicked claws into the soft skin of his target, strength that turned bone to shards and powder. Then, he began pulling. He pulled the arms to the side and the tail downwards. He pulled and tugged harshly, enjoying the tortured screaming of his prey, the one who attacked what was his.

Then, the demon's toy broke. The arms were ripped off their sockets with an unholy tearing sound, the tail constricted strong enough to turn the insides to formless meat. Before the tortured monster could let its last breath go, though not before it had screamed its lungs out, Tsukune brought down his oversized, wolf/bear jaws on the poor soul's head and crushed it.

The remnants of the cause of his anger fell to the ground in a thud and Tsukune turned around, walking towards his wounded friends. Moka, the only one still conscious, flinched at his motions.

It took her a second to realize how much that hurt the boy when the pain, the anguish, the pure torture of what he had done, of what he had showed them, the regret of them having seen that side of him etched itself deeply even into the malformed face. Moka, both sides of her, could only pray to never having to understand the pain he must have felt at that moment, so much to have made a face utterly incapable of human expressions take such a tortured look.

Tsukune turned around almost immidiately and ran off, ran to his dorm room to get a change of clothes. That is what he said, what he convinced himself. But the truth is, he wanted to run. Run away. Run away from his own reflection on Moka's green eyes. Run away from her sorrowful eyes. Run away from the eyes that looked at him as if pleading him to never transform again. Because, he knew he could not stop now. Now, he had power. Real power. Enough power to protect them. And, if saving them, if letting them live one more moment in peace and happiness, if that meant him loosing his soul... then so be it. So let it be.

The demon inside could only laugh maliciously at its host's thoughts. Those humans made it so interesting to play with. His thoughts might have been iron-clad, but everyone had a weak point. Everyone. And he just so happened to know Tsukune's.

The brown-haired boy would not gain a single moment of restful sleep that night. He was too busy trying to maintain his sanity against his Inner Demon's assault.

A/N: After popular request (or so I think since less than half a dozen people bothered reviewing), I decided to make this into a full-fledged story. It won't be 'epic' in length, but I think that's better, since I won't be dragging it by the hair to make it last or something. If I were to say, it's going to be mid-to-long, but that's just my opinion. Also, unlike my other fics where I make the story as I go, I have already determined and set the basic points of the story. Now, getting there is a whole other game of ball. Hopefully it's going to be fun and interesting, though if someone is interested, they can adopt this story or make their own version of it.

For the fans of DnD who want to have a basic idea of what Tsukune can do, I have his basic stats here. No, I'm not listing his abilities and skills, just his feats, the demonic features he has and his natural attacks. I think you'll agree with my assessment of him being seriously dangerous:

Aono Tsukune, Human, Demonblooded level 6

Feats: Extra Demonic Features (Human), Extra Demonic Features (level 1, 6), Improved Critical (Claw) (level 3)
Demonic Features: Enhanced (Claw) Damage x2, Keen Natural Weapon (Claw), Size Increase, Enhance (Tail) Damage, Keen Weapon (Claw), Reach Weapon (Tail), Energy Blast (Acid), Fast Healing (2), Maiming (Claw) Weapon, Second Attack (Claw)

Taint: 0

Claw: 2 attacks at +6 BAB, 2D6 slashing, 15-20/x3, reach 5ft.

Tail: 1 attack at +5 BAB, 1D10 piercing/slashing, 19-20/x2, reach 10ft.

I think he deserves a quite high ranking when it comes to killing stuff eh?

Also, please people, if you like this fic, review and tell others to as well. Reviews feed my Lady Inspiration, which in turn helps me make better fics. I'm not gonna be a rev-whore and threaten you or something, but the more reviews I get, the better and faster I write, not to mention I know what to shoot for when it comes to what you want to read. So, for all of our enjoyment, if you feel you have something to say, please do so.

Today, on this 9/6/2012, I, Soulblazer87, do hereby leave this site, possibly forever.

I shall not update this, or any other story.

I shall leave them on, however. Should you desire to follow my stories, do so in my new site of residence: www dot yourfanfiction dot com.