[Hi everyone, Sorry for the long wait. Hope you're all feeling grand. Just want to say a couple of things before I start. First of all, if anyone is interested, I started another story, which may not be my best move since, as many of you may be able to tell by now, it takes a while for me to put up new chapters (Sorry about that by the way), but it's been on my mind for a while and I couldn't help but put it up. It's a crossover between Castlevania and RWBY called 'Remnant of shadows', if anyone is interested, I encourage you to have a look.
Also, I would like to say thanks to 'Burke23', who was the one who suggested the idea for this chapter in the first place a while back. Thanks very much Burke23.
Well, I won't delay you all any longer, enjoy the chapter.]
"I… I… can't believe this is happening to me." Tsukune said to himself.
Tsukune was now in a very unusual position. Reviewing the situation, he had won the affections of a vampiress who had a split personality, a succubus who would every trick in the book to get him to sleep with her, an eleven year old witch who had a fetish for both him and Moka, and now there was a snow-girl who would take any opportunity during her free time to stalk the human boy.
Seeing Tsukune's situation, Ethan, being the kind of 'supportive' friend her was, decided to support him, help him to manage his situation with the girls… and make fun of him at any given opportunity, much to Tsukune's disbelief. Granted, he knew that Ethan would mess with him if he ever got a girlfriend, but Tsukune now knew he had way too much ammunition for the job.
At the moment, however, Ethan was in the library catching up on some history, so he didn't have to put up with him for the time being. But, as if to make up for it, Moka, Kurumu and Yukari were clinging on to him as if their lives depended on it, while Mizore was hiding behind anything she could find, keeping herself hidden from Tsukune's sight (which he found strange if he had to be honest).
The first three girls were all giving each other fiercely heated glares, clearly not happy that Tsukune was being sought after by other women.
"Oh Tsukune, aren't you looking forward to today?" Kurumu asked.
"I bet it's going to be a good today, wouldn't you agree, Tsukune?" Yukari asked.
"Uuuhh…" Tsukune said, being unable to form words knowing the awkwardness of the situation.
Out of the blue, two kunai knives were flying through the air, striking Kurumu and Yukari in the back of their heads. The surprise and pain caused them to release their grip on Tsukune and collapse. Tsukune and Moka were surprised to see this. They turned to where the knives came from, seeing Mizore holding four more in her right hand, prepared to strike if she felt necessary.
"You all stay away from my Tsukune." Mizore said.
Kurumu got back onto her feet and glared at Mizore. "If you want to be with Tsukune, How about you try and talk to him instead of stalking him?"
"How about you quit suffocating him with your chest, he might be able to tolerate you more." Mizore retorted.
Both female monsters looked like they were about to have at it. Moka and Tsukune looked nervous, but Yukari looked excited, even having a camera out. "Ooooh! Looks like we've got a cat fight our way!" she said, hoping for a bit of action.
The girls were in battle stances already, flexing their fingers and preparing for a fight. However, before either could make a move, something flew between them, causing them to halt with their potential duel. All eyes turned to the object, now embedded in a tree. The object, now that it wasn't zooming through the air, was Ethan's staff.
"Whoa!" Tsukune said.
"Tsukune, I thought you said that you had it handled."
All present turned towards the source of the voice, revealing itself to be Ethan. He looked quite amused by what was going on. He walked over towards his staff, explaining himself as he did so. "I could hear a lot of noise when I was studying. I came out here to find out what it was, only to find it was you guys again." He said. When he reached the tree, he effortlessly pulled the staff out of the tree. Spinning it briefly, he took the guitar case off his back and proceeded to put it back inside. He hoisted it back onto his back and smiled at the group. "Granted, I would've enjoyed a good fight, but I'd rather that you guys didn't. Knowing the school rules, it's too risky in case you expose yourselves to too many people."
"Since when are you so cautious?" Tsukune asked Ethan, referring to how reckless he can be, especially when it comes to fights.
"I'm cautious when I need to be." Ethan answered. He looked back towards Mizore and Kurumu and gave them stern glares. "Now, if you two are finished acting like a couple of babies, I'm going to go back to studying. See you guys later."
He started to make his way over to the library, noticing how Kurumu was pouting and sticking his tongue out when she thought he wasn't looking. Moka looked at Ethan as he walked away. Suddenly, she gasped as she remembered something. She turned to the rest of the group, a worried loo on her face.
"Guys, I just remembered, Ethan's birthday is coming up this weekend!" she said.
Tsukune's eyes widened with shock, realisation hitting him hard as well. "Oh yeah… I can't believe that we forgot about that."
Yukari hopped up onto Tsukune's back and gave him an inquisitive look. "It's Ethan's birthday this weekend? How come you never told us?" she asked.
Tsukune looked a little nervous as he spoke. "Well, with all the crazy things that have been going on, it kind of slipped my mind." He then recomposed himself. "Plus… he hasn't really celebrated his birthday in a while. He was never close to anyone and being positive wasn't… the easiest thing for him."
"Poor thing." Moka said, a look of sadness and empathy present on her face. The rest of the girls also seemed a little saddened by the tale.
He looked back and forth between all the girls for a moment before coming up with an idea.
"How about we throw Ethan a party this weekend." Tsukune suggested.
The girls all looked to him with a look of surprise. "I thought you said Ethan didn't like celebrating his birthday?" Kurumu said, voicing their thoughts.
"Well, he hadn't for a while. But after coming here, his spirits seem to be lifted. He might even enjoy it." He said. He had a look on his face that said that this was something he would do, a hint of Ethan's stubbornness now present in him. "And I'm going to make sure it's the BEST day he ever had!"
Mizore stepped forward, plucking the lollipop out of her mouth before speaking. "I like that idea. I wanted to do something for Ethan to thank him for his part in helping me." She said. She suddenly began to look a bit bashful and began to blush. "Of course… a lot of the ideas I came up with I'd prefer to do with Tsukune." She admitted.
This caused Tsukune and Moka to look at her with confusion, Yukari to giggle and Kurumu to literally jump on her and try to strangle her. Instantly, Tsukune and Moka tried to pry them off each other, with Yukari running around them, rooting for Mizore to win.
"I don't know if I'll be able to live long enough to even make a proper plan!" Tsukune thought, a hint of worry now entering his mind.
…..
Ethan was now back in the Library, catching up on the various topics that he would need to research for his subjects. While he was able to keep up with the work load, despite the various situations they had gotten into thus far, he still found it hard to concentrate on studying the theory of it all. Eventually frustrated, he decided to take a break and head over to the cafeteria to get something to eat.
However, just as he was about to get out of his chair, he looked towards the direction he was headed for and saw Rebecca standing in one spot, a stack of books so tall that the overall weight was causing her arms to shake.
"Someone… please help me…" she said.
Immediately, Ethan went up to her and grabbed as many books as he could hold, even balancing some of them on his head. As soon as Rebecca felt the weight being relieved from her arms, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her vision, which was previously blocked by the stack of books, came in contact with Ethan, causing her to gasp and blush.
"E-Ethan!? What are you doing here?" she asked.
Ethan placed the books on the table he was sitting at before answering. "Catching up on some study. Having a hard time concentrating though, so I'm going to get something to eat. Yourself?"
"I was about to start studying actually." She answered.
Ethan raised an eyebrow. He looked back towards the books he placed on the table, estimating that there was enough there to cover eight years' worth of studying. He looked back at her, still wearing a confused expression. "You're going to read ALL of these!? When do you plan on finishing? The year 3000?" he asked.
Rebecca giggled. "I can get through books, scripts or pretty much anything you put in front of me pretty quickly. I can retain it all too, so I can study pretty quickly as well."
Ethan's jaw practically dropped to the ground after hearing that, not having felt so amazed since seeing the inner Moka for the first time. "…Wow… I'm so jealous right now. That's amazing!" he said.
Rebecca blushed even more after hearing that, glad to have gotten approval from him. Ethan saw the blushing, but he didn't really understand what it was about. Deciding to ignore it for the time, he then asked. "If it's alright with you, mind if we do some studying together some time? I could really use the help." He said.
Rebecca was quick to nod back to him, a sudden gleam of hope appearing in her eyes. "Great! How about after you get something to eat? No time like the present, you know?" she said, slightly surprised by her own self-confidence there for a second.
"Sounds like a plan, back in a second." He said before dashing off for the cafeteria.
As he went off, Rebecca got to work preparing for the last minute study session. Seeing the books that Ethan had left on the table, she decided to start with Maths to begin with, pulling out numerous maths books from her own pile. However, her spirits immediately dampened.
In all honesty, she had fallen for Ethan after he saved, not just her, but all those you had suffered from the bullying of the class representative. After that, he hadn't been in school, so many assumed that he had quit. But, seeing as she didn't have the ability to tell Ethan how she felt, it also pained her to talk to him. He would probably feel gratitude towards her for helping him, but that would be it.
"I wish that he would see me in the same way." She thought to herself.
"You okay?" Ethan said, now standing behind her. The sudden surprise caused her to yelp and jump one foot from her chair. Landing back on the chair, she turned back to Ethan, who held up his hands as if in surrender. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He said, smiling apologetically.
Rebecca was motionless for a few seconds. She then smiled back at him, her face once again filled with life.
"I guess it doesn't matter as much… not as long as he's here." She thought to herself. With that, she motioned for him to sit with her. He complied and they got to work on studying back over math.
…
"OKAY TEAM! LET'S MOVE IT!"
Yukari was yelling at the other members of the newspaper club to try and organize the club-room for the party, rivaling the vocal cords of a drill sergeant (in all honesty, they probably would've chosen a drill sergeant over her at this stage). They decided to go ahead with the party today, considering the free time they had with classes cancelled due to what happened with a certain gym teacher. It was the perfect opportunity to throw a surprise party, leaving Ethan to do as he wished for his actually birthday.
"Yukari… do you think you can help with some of this stuff?" Kurumu asked, now feeling like she might strangle the young witch at any point.
"Someone has to supervise this whole thing. We wouldn't want it to look boring, would we?" she asked.
"How about you get your ass of that chair and show us how to do it." Kurumu retorted, resulting in Yukari summoning another water basin and slamming it over the succubus' head. Yukari, who was in fact resting in a chair with her legs propped up on a table, giggled away to herself. She then turned her attention to Tsukune.
"So, Tsukune, what other things would Ethan like other than fighting and drawing?" she asked.
Tsukune, who was cutting up paper for confetti, stopped what he was doing and pondered on Yukari's question. "Hmm… he likes, ummm…"
"Don't tell me you can't think of anything." Yukari said.
"For a guy who's hung out with Ethan for a while, you don't seem to know a lot, do you?" Mizore asked.
"Well, Ethan's the kind of guy who keeps a lot to himself. I was lucky enough to find out that he likes to draw. I mean-" he stopped suddenly, an idea suddenly popping to mind.
"What is it?" Moka asked, dashing away from the table she was making party hats on and went straight up to Tsukune.
"He actually likes music too. I remember him listening to some music in a store we were checking out, and he was bobbing his head to a song that was being played at the time. It was slight, but I noticed it." Tsukune said.
"Great." Moka said. "What was the song?"
At that, Tsukune's spirits dampened. He stayed silent for a moment, trying to remember the title of the song and band, but he was only drawing up a blank. In that moment, he pulled up a chair, sat down and covered his face with his hands. "Why… why?" he kept repeating to himself.
The girls looked at him with surprise.
"I think we broke him." Mizore said.
Yukari shot up from her chair, her wand held high. "I know!" she yelled, causing Tsukune to jump up from his chair, landing on the ground with his face in the next second. Yukari pointed towards Mizore. "Mizore, think you can 'monitor' Ethan so you can find ideas for a gift?" she asked.
Mizore calmly nodded her head. "I'm on it." She said, quickly dashing out of the room and leaving a large dust cloud from it. Moka then remembered Tsukune, turning towards him and giving him a sympathetic look.
"Oh Tsukune." She said. She then looked up towards the ceiling and began to ponder. "I wonder how Rebecca's doing with Ethan?" she thought out loud.
….
"And I do this… okay, I think I got it."
Rebecca and Ethan have been studying in the library for a while now. While she did enjoy this study session with Ethan, it was really a way to distract Ethan for a bit. Yukari came to her and asked her to distract Ethan for a bit while they prepared a surprise party for him.
She was lucky enough to see Ethan studying in the Library; deciding to take the opportunity, she gathered as many books as possible and decided to help Ethan with his studying (which he really did seem to struggle with). They had been studying for a while now; Ethan was now more proficient with maths, history and science thanks to her. At the moment he was doing some biology exercises in a text book.
Ethan then slammed the pen he was using onto the table and shot his fists into the air. "HELL YEAH!" he roared.
Suddenly, the school librarian appeared from behind one of the shelves, placing a finger over her lips and gave him a stern glare. Ethan smiled back and held up a hand, mouthing 'sorry' to the librarian. She nodded and went back to her work. Ethan then looked back at Rebecca, who looked surprised and also like she was trying to hold back a laugh. When she recovered, she gave him a thumbs up.
"Glad to hear that you're getting on well." Rebecca said to him.
"Thanks for helping me. It's thanks to you I'm doing so well now. And it FIFTE- sorry, fifteen minutes." He said, quickly amending his volume as he didn't want to upset the librarian again.
"I guess I am pretty helpful." Rebecca said, suddenly fidgeting with her hands.
Ethan was silent for a few seconds before his eyes widened, quickly standing up. "Crap! I forgot I left some stuff in the newspaper clubroom." He said.
At this, Rebecca gasped, knowing that the rest of his club mates weren't finished preparing for the party yet. She tried to stop him, but he had managed to move too quickly, already close to the door.
"Not yet I'm afraid."
Before Ethan could even touch the door, he was immediately encased in a block of ice. As he stood frozen, his face currently showed a look of confusion. From behind a nearby bookshelf, Mizore popped her head, making sure that Ethan couldn't hear or see her. She quickly turned around and saw Rebecca, her face showing a look of shock and her hands currently covering her mouth.
"Hi Rebecca. I see you were struggling to distract our pyrokinetic." Mizore said.
"You didn't… have… to FREEZE HIM!" Rebecca roared.
"Relax, his body temperature is high enough so that he won't freeze, thanks to his powers at least. I guess if he was a human he would be dead by now." Mizore said.
Rebecca's face was completely drained with blood. "Please don't say that like its normal." She pleaded.
Mizore shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Hey, while you were with him, did he mention anything that would be good for a gift? We're kind of doing some last-minute shopping."
After Rebecca quickly recovered from the whole ordeal Mizore caused her, she pondered on different ideas. She noticed that he liked to practice fighting in the gym… he would draw a lot of comic strips when he thought that he was alone… other than that, there wasn't much to go on. At this, Rebecca's shoulders slumped.
"He doesn't really say much when we think about it, huh?" Rebecca asked.
"True, I-" Mizore started, quickly stopping when she remembered Moka said. "I think we could get him something related to his home country!" she stated.
"America?" Rebecca asked.
"Nope. Ethan's actually from Ireland." Mizore answered.
Before either could say anymore, they heard the ice encasing Ethan shatter. Mizore looked over and saw Ethan, steam coming off of his clothes and his hands currently coated in flame. Instead of a face of rage, he actually looked calm and relaxed, making Mizore relax a bit. Then Ethan raised a flaming fist up to his face.
"Any last words, Mizore?"
Mizore then became a little frightened. She looked back to Rebecca and waved. "I should get going, see you later." She said before darting out of the room.
Ethan gritted his teeth and was about to give chase when he abruptly stopped. He turned back to Rebecca and calmed his flames down for a moment. He sent a genuine smile towards her. "Thanks for helping me study." He said.
Rebecca once again blushed. She would have to get over this easily caused embarrassment at some point. But for now, it was a nice feeling. "No… no problem."
Ethan's expression suddenly became serious again. "Right, if you'll excuse me, I've a snow woman to melt." He said with a strong level of irritation in his voice as he gave chase. As he left, Rebecca turned around and saw the librarian, who was wearing a stern expression on her face, causing Rebecca to yelp with surprise.
"S-sorry Ma'am." She said, giving the elder a bow. As she did, the Librarian turned and walked away. When she was gone, Rebecca sighed with relief. She then began to ponder on what Mizore had told him. "He's from Ireland? I never would've guessed that. Then again, he does use a lot of phrases from there, like 'eejit' and… other words" she thought. She then came out of her thoughts when another thought occurred to her.
"How did he end up in Japan?" she asked herself.
…
"Aaaaand… that's the banner done." Tsukune said.
Both he and Yukari, now covered in paint, were painting a "Happy Birthday" banner for Ethan when he entered the room. They had painted a number of different flame styles around the words and the corners, relating it to his fire abilities.
"A fine work of art, wouldn't you agree everyone?" Yukari asked.
"It looks lovely." Moka stated.
"Not bad." Kurumu said. The Succubus was currently decorating a number of cookies and a cake she whipped up, once again showing off her baking skills having made them so quickly. Yukari dashed up to the cookies and eyed them suspiciously.
"You didn't lace those with any potions, did you?" Yukari asked.
Kurumu raised an eyebrow. "What? No way! Even if I did, it'd be a love potion for Tsukune." She stated.
"What!?" Tsukune said in disbelief.
Their conversation was interrupted when they heard an explosion outside. After they all jumped from the surprise, they all went to the window to check to see what was going on. After reaching the window, they were all surprised to see Ethan chasing after Mizore with his flame gauntlets active, throwing fireball after fireball at her. The snow woman, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered by it, and was firing back ice shaped like either knives or shurikens.
"What are they doing!?" Kurumu asked in shock.
"I guess Mizore's taking her job of distracting Ethan a little too seriously." Moka said with a deadpanned tone.
"Should, uh… we stop them?" Tsukune asked.
"Are you kidding? A battle between fire and ice, we can finally see which one triumphs." Yukari said, suddenly holding a bowl of popcorn and completely devouring it.
Tsukune sighed at her and continued to look at their friends on the outside. He was worried, no doubt about that, but he wasn't sure who he'd be more worried for. Ethan has proven himself to be strong, a skilled combatant and he had somehow managed how to learn how to control fire in as soon as he unlocked it. Although Mizore wasn't bad when it came to fighting either. She was agile, fast and she had even more mastery over her element, having been abe to shape it into tons of different shapes and could control it's temperature.
He will admit, while he didn't like the idea of his friends fighting, it was interesting to see how a battle between fire and ice would turn out.
Tsukune shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. "Uh, guys? Shouldn't we get back to the decorations for the party?"
"Hush!" Kurumu said, not wanting to have her attention taken away from possible fight that may occur. Tsukune couldn't help but cringe at the fact that all the girls were now focused on the possible conflict. He sighed again and decided to finish the decorating himself.
"The fight probably won't be as exciting as we might think." Tsukune said to himself.
…
Outside, Ethan was still full of rage as he tried to strike Mizore with a fireball. What's more is that each time Mizore dodged, it only helped to raise his anger at not being able to hit his target for once.
Mizore was aware that this would frustrate him. In the time she started hanging out with the newspaper club, she had gotten to know them all very well. Even to the point where she knew their habits, behaviour and more. She especially found this useful when it comes to getting to know Tsukune as she could stalk him at the right time without getting caught.
Ethan stopped throwing fireballs and decided to go for the hand-to-hand approach, zooming towards her with his right fist. Mizore didn't anticipate this though, only narrowly managing to avoid his attack. As she did, he jumped up into the air and fired a rain if kunai made of ice. Ethan built up some energy beneath his feet and blasted himself out of the sharp rain of blades.
Ethan gathered the flames on his arms into the palms of his hand. When he had finished, he launched the flames at Mizore. Mizore grinned as she built up a shield of ice, making it strong enough to hold up against the blast. However, her confidence fell when the fire splintered into multiple balls of fire. They hammered against the shield, pushing her back and forming cracks in the ice. She tried her best to reinforce the shield with her power, but it wasn't enough. Eventually, the shield shattered and caused her to fly back.
Luckily, the barrage of fireballs ended as soon as the shield broke, encouraging him to launch himself up after her. As he got closer, Mizore morphed her fingers into ice claws and started slashing at the pyrokinetic. However, her moves were slightly clumsy, helping Ethan as he could easily avoid them.
"So her close quarters needs work, huh? Good to know." He thought.
Ethan launched himself back towards the ground, causing him to create a crater in the ground. He looked up to see the snow woman shooting towards him. Her expression was still emotionless, perhaps due to her cool and calm personality, but Ethan could tell that she was getting annoyed at not being able to catch him off guard.
Ethan smirked at her. "You ready to give up?" he asked.
The snow woman shot a rain of ice kunai, which Ethan narrowly dodged. When she landed, Mizore smirked back at him. "Not yet. I have to kee-win." She said, wanting to ensure she didn't spoil the surprise. Despite this, however, she actually did want to win this fight for some reason. "Why do I feel so compelled to win?" she thought.
They both deactivated their powers briefly. Instead of attacking directly, they proceeded to walk slowly to the side, unknowingly moving around in a circle. A large number of the student body had gathered around, excited to see who would win this battle of fire and ice.
"I bet Mizore's going to win this one." One of the students said.
"Are you crazy? Drake's always has the upper hand in a fight!" another said.
Ethan overheard many of the comments made. He was annoyed that there was a crowd gathering as if it was a spectator sport, partly because he didn't like the attention, but mainly because he knew that his attacks can be too wide spread, and someone could get hurt.
"Gotcha!" Mizore said.
Ethan was snapped out of his train of thought by Mizore's comment. Before he could say anything, his legs were suddenly encased in ice and attached to the ground. He tried to pull his legs free, but to no avail.
"What the feck!?" he exclaimed.
"I put as much effort as I could into that ice. Because it's more enhanced, your strength and flames won't be enough to break it." She said. Her hands morphed back into ice claws. "Time for the big finish." Mizore brought her claws together and built up as much ice in them as she could. When she built up enough, she raised it over her head, changing the shape of the material into… the largest sword Ethan has ever seen.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Ethan exclaimed.
"Say goodbye." Mizore said. with that, latched onto the sword and dashed towards him, readying the sword for a powerful swing.
Ethan proceeded to try and yank his legs out of the ice trap, now a little worried that he wasn't going to make it out of this one. "Oh be the feck! I think this woman is actively trying to kill me! ... Granted I think it's impressive that someone caught me out so well, but I'd rather stay alive!" he thought.
Back in the classroom, two out of three of girls all watched in horror as Mizore looked like she was about to slice Ethan into pieces.
"WHAT IS SHE DOING!?" Yukari cried.
"IS SHE OUT OF HER MIND!?" Kurumu said.
Moka stared out silently at the fight, a small smile forming on her face. the other two looked at her, a look of bewilderment forming on their faces as they saw that she wasn't worried.
"Moka! Whay aren't you panicking!?" Yukari asked.
"I knew we shouldn't have left that snow skank in the group!" Kurumu yelled.
Moka looked back at the two and winked. "Just watch." She said calmly.
The Succubus and Witch looked back at the fight, curious to see what had Moka so calm. When Mizore was close enough, she swung the sword at Ethan, aiming for his neck. However, just as the blade was just inches away from his neck, the blade suddenly stopped. Surprised, Mizore tried to push the blade forward. However, the blade wouldn't move an inch no matter how hard she tried.
"What? How-" Mizore started.
"Nice try."
Mizore immediately went still upon hearing that voice. She looked towards Ethan's face, but regretted it the moment she did. He looked at her with a clam expression, but his eyes were once again glowing ember. A thought suddenly occurred to her, prompting her to look at the base of the weapons blade. Sure enough, Ethan's hand was ignited and he had a tight grip on the weapon.
The pryokinetic gave her a blade-like grin. "Still feeling lucky?"
Kurumu and Yukari looked at the scene with their jaws hanging low. They both looked towards Moka, who still looked quite calm.
"Do you know what's going on?" Kurumu asked.
Moka nodded. "Each time Ethan's been put into a corner, something inside him awakens, something that gives him the power to fight back, no matter the odds." As she spoke, Ethan managed to break free of the ice trap and tightened his grip on the weapon enough to shatter the blade. "The first time I saw this was when Saizou attacked us, he used his strength for the first time. Then again when he was nearly drowned by the swimming club. Both times, he gained great strength, but he also becomes more ferocious."
"Should we do something?" Yukari asked.
In the background, the girls heard Tsukune laughing. They turned and saw Tsukune grinning and looking out the window.
"Trust me, there's no stopping Ethan when he decides to go all out. It was one of the reasons everyone was so afraid of him in our old school." He said. He finished putting up the banner for the party and went up to the window. "I feel kind of sorry for Mizore."
Back on the outside, an aura of flames coated Ethan, his gauntlets forming again. Mizore dashed to the side, trying to get some distance from her opponent. Ethan, in response, raised his arms high into the sky, clenching his fists, and brought them down as hard as they could. Upon contact, it created a powerful shockwave that blew away anything that was nearby. That included Mizore and the students that were nearby. The snow woman recomposed herself and dashed forward. She leapt over Ethan and made her way over to the building. Ethan narrowed his eyes as he built up a mass of flame in his right hands. He then threw it like a pitcher in a baseball game. The object zoomed past Mizore and impacted on the wall of the building. Mizore was momentarily dumbfounded by the fact that it didn't explode upon impact. However, she noticed that the flame was glowing more brightly, which led to the memory of Yukari telling her about one of Ethan's attacks.
"FLAME GRENADE!" Ethan roared.
As soon as he said that, Mizore back stepped away from the flame just as the flame's light began to intensify. The orb then exploded, a greater amount of force than usual erupting from the attack. The explosion sent Mizore flying and the building's wall to crumble to pieces. The students watching the fight were amazed by this display of power. What was most terrifying about it was that Ethan didn't seem the least bit affected by the attack.
It was like he had no limits to his power.
When the smoke created from the explosion faded, Mizore looked around, finding herself on the ground. She looked behind her to see Ethan standing over her. As this, her heart stopped. Tied in with the fact that he blew a large portion of the school apart and how he still had the clam expression and eyes, she felt like she was looking at death in the eye.
A few seconds of staring later, Ethan did something she didn't expect. He gave her a friendly laugh. With that, his flames faded and his eyes returned to normal. He squatted and offered Mizore a helping hand up. Mizore was confused by his behavior.
"Why… why are you not going to finish me off?" she asked.
At this, Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Finish you off? Why would I do that?" he motioned the hand forward a little more. "We're friends. Remember?"
Still baffled, Mizore slowly took his hand. He pulled her back onto her feet and placed his hands on his hips. "Granted, I guess I lost my temper after you froze me back at the library, so sorry about that." He looked at her with a curious expression for a moment. "Have you ever fought before?"
Mizore shook her head. "No. I practice with my powers a lot, and I practiced a lot of gymnastics when I was younger. But that was my first time in a fight." She answered.
Ethan gave her a small nod. "Okay. Just thought I'd ask. You weren't bad at all… that is until I lost my temper again."
Mizore then raised an eyebrow at Ethan. "Ethan. How long have you been using your flames for?" she asked. "And… if you don't mind me asking… what kind of monster are you?"
At this, despite not showing this, Ethan was a little nervous. "Um, well I… hang on a moment. I probably should've asked this earlier, but why did you freeze me in the first place?"
As if to answer his question, a familiar young girl in a witch outfit appeared from the rubble and summoned a barrage of water basins, all of which struck Mizore with full force.
"YOU IDIOT! YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO MONITOR ETHAN FOR PRESENT IDEAS WHILE WE PREPARED FOR THE PARTY! NOT HAVE HIM DESTROY THE SCHOOL!" Yukari roared.
"Damn, she's pissed." Ethan thought, seeing how Yukari was using more than her usual quota of water basins. When she finished, Mizore was covered in many more bruises than after the fight she and Ethan had. His eyes suddenly widened, as his face formed a look of confusion. "Wait. Party?"
At this, Kurumu, Mizore and Tsukune slowly rose from the rubble. They all looked dizzy and were swaying from side to side, but still managed to hold up the banner that said 'Happy Birthday' as high as they could reach.
"You guys… planned a surprise party? For me?" Ethan was more than surprised.
"We heard that your birthday was coming up, so we thought we'd celebrate the occasion." Yukari explained.
After she recovered from her dazed, Moka continued for Yukari. "We heard that you also don't like celebrating your birthday, but we still wanted to do something special. Everyone helped."
Yukari went back to speaking. "Yeah. Me, Moka, Kurumu, Tsukune, Mizore, Rebecca-"
"Hang on. Rebecca?" Ethan asked.
"Yep. We saw her and asked if she could keep you busy for a bit. Just as well, she was headed for the library as well when we saw her." Yukari looked at Ethan's expression and saw that it was unchanging. This caused her, the rest of the girls and Tsukune to become worried.
"Do you… not like it?" Moka asked.
After a few more seconds of silence, Ethan broke into a spontaneous fit of laughter. He had to hold his sides to support himself. His friends looked at each other in confusion as they couldn't understand what was going on.
"I'm-I'm sorry guys I…" Ethan had to pause to take a deep breath, which helped to calm himself down. "Sorry. I was laughing there because… well… how can I not like this? True I never liked to celebrate my birthday for a while but…" he brushed his hair back with his hand. "I really appreciate what you guys did." He said in a much calmer tone.
At this, everyone's faces lit up. Tsukune got back on his feet and smiled. "Well, now that the birthday boy is on board, we can… OH CRAP! WE FORGOT TO GET A PRESENT!"
Ethan quickly raised a hand in response. "No need Tsukune." He said. He looked towards Mizore and smirked. "That fight was more than enough of a present."
"A duel between fire and ice isn't something you see everyday, is it?" Yukari commented.
All the teens laughed slightly for a moment. It was then interrupted when Ethan clapped his hands together. "Well? It's a party, isn't it? Let's get to it!"
At this, everyone cheered. They went back into the building and gathered as much if the party materials as they could. They were all surprised to see that the cake Kurumu made was still intact, with a single candle in the center. Kurumu, who had recovered from her own daze, held it up to Ethan and smiled.
"Make a wish, birthday boy." She said.
Ethan stared at the candle. Seeing as it was part of the tradition, be thought best to comply. He thought about it for a few seconds before blowing out the candle. Everyone clapped.
"What did you wish for?" Tsukune asked.
Ethan looked back at his long-term friend and smiled. "That we don't get stuck with cleaning up this mess."
At this, all present, except for Ethan, looked back at the destroyed part of the building. They fainted a second later, Ethan managing to catch the cake before it hit the ground. He couldn't help but laugh. He then thought back on the actual wish he made.
"I wish… for us all to be happy. Now and in the future, no matter what comes our way."
[AAAAAAND… that's another chapter down, a fair bit more to go. Before I sign off, I just want to say thanks. A lot of you gave me great reviews for the story, which really helped to inspire my writing. I know I don't say it enough, but it's the truth. It also makes me happy to hear that you guys enjoyed the story so far, so I'll be sure to keep on writing till the end. Also, I want to say sorry again that it took so long, but with my other stories and the things i have to do outside of writing, it's not always easy to keep up. hope no one is too mad.
Well, that's all from me for now. Hope to you enjoyed this chapter and that you're all having a nice day. See you all later.}