The headquarters tent was a mess of organized chaos. Which was really impressive to Tsukune, because he had expected everything to be a complete disaster. Reports were coming in, being checked, cross checked to other reports, and then disregarded and recompiled as the next reports were already coming in to supersede them. Orders were going out, and the person relaying them was receiving a reply asking what idiot sent that order, and telling them what was happening, and new orders were being sent back out that made more sense.
He had to admit, this was really a best case scenario. Especially since the latest numbers were somehow putting them in the better position. Which was the entire point of them attacking out of nowhere, with no mercy, and if what he was hearing was correct, an entire wing of half naked succubi. He should have known that was coming with who he had commanding the air forces.
"Sir, messenger from the Special Group," someone called from the entrance.
"Let them in," he called, hoping they weren't about to give him a casualty report.
"Uncle Tsukune, we have a laptop from the outpost that was the initial target," Harumi came in and gave him a floppy salute.
"Do you know what the contents are, and was there any... why is there a label on it that says passwords password is dorwssap," Tsukune suddenly felt nothing but confusion.
"I have no clue. Tekeshi just said that he had it, and that he wanted to see my panties in the next thirty seconds as I brought it out. Oh, uh," she suddenly reached down and held the waistband of her skirt out a little, "I forgot I wasn't wearing pink."
Tsukune placed his hand over his eyes, trying his best to hold back laughter, "Harumi, please tell me why you are wearing a skirt in the middle of an active battle."
"If they are staring at my panties, they aren't trying to kill me," was the reply.
"That explains why your mother is leading her wing around in their underwear. Ok, take it over to the analyst desk, and wait for orders to go back," he dismissed her with a wave of his hand, still barely containing laughter.
Given all the stress the last few hours had given him, he had really needed that. Still, at least she hadn't said anyone had been hurt. Now he needed to go back to being professional. He didn't want to, but there wasn't much of a choice.
"Have we heard anything from the mobile reserves, and the primary infantry command," he called over to the communications desk.
A clerk called back, "Mobile reserves have taken their sectors with little issues, and have split into three to support a push two kilometers south of the main push. Primary infantry command is reporting heavy resistance, but low casualties, no fatalities. Hold on, receiving a priority comm from primary air command, requesting you sir."
"Superior command here, what is the report," he walked over and picked up the headset he was offered.
He heard Kurumu respond, "Who the hell is superior command, I wanted Tsukune."
"Kurumu, I am superior command, I explained this three times. Just, what is it you have," there was no doubt that this was legit.
"Oh, sorry Tsukune, you know I have to have a little fun so I don't have a breakdown. Things look like they had no expectation of us hitting them like this. I guess they thought since we were going to take the moral high ground, we were going to play everything fair and square. We haven't taken any fatalities yet, which speaks to how well we are doing getting casualties to the rear for medical attention. They pressed pretty hard in the north, but Mizore's command ripped them to shreds. Unfortunately Mizore was one of the casualties," she gave her report.
The blood drained from the man's face, "How bad, could it prove fatal?"
"An orc that somehow seems to have been a track and field star managed to charge her lines, and knocked her good in the side with a club. My wing managed to help stabilize the line, and we got her back to Yukari. She has a broken arm, and two broken ribs. Nothing that looks like it could be fatal," Tsukune let out a sigh of relief from the succubus' words.
He had to take several moments before he could even think of saying anything else. When he had heard those words, he fully expected the worst. He had thought long and hard about what Moka had wanted, and with this event, he had made his decision to say yes to it.
"Take care of yourself, and don't end up there with her. Anything else to report," he asked hoping that things were going to continue to go so well.
"That village, we observed someone heading there from their lines. They had a squad escorting them, but they seemed like they were about to have some kind of a mental breakdown following them. It might not hurt to have Tekeshi's unit divert and investigate before they continue on behind their lines," Kurumu finished reporting.
"Agreed, I will send Harumi back to him with orders," he confirmed.
"How is my baby doing? She hasn't gotten hurt, has she? Why is she back at headquarters," he could hear the panic starting in her voice.
"Relax, she was sent to bring in some intel. She is fine, just upset that she told Tekeshi she was wearing pink underwear, when she wasn't. He is keeping her out of danger, and using her as a messenger."
"Oh thank everything. I will let you know when I have anything more to report. Out."
Tsukune returned the headset, and started to consider the report of the individual. There was a chance that it could be, and he didn't know what could happen if Tekeshi's unit got caught up in a fight like that. He didn't have anyone else close enough to investigate though, and he needed positive ID to know what this person looked like, and if there was any chance of them being a vampire.
"Harumi, take these orders back. There is an unknown individual heading toward a vampire village nearby your location. You are to divert and investigate, but do not engage. They are someone of importance, and have an escort. If they notice you, run like hell," he didn't even look over as he gave the orders, and turned to the communications officer, "Get mobile reserves command on the line. Now."
He knew that his place was supposed to be there, but this superseded any other priorities. He needed to get Moka to start heading that direction as well, and meet her. Hopefully they were wrong, and this was just some weirdo anthropologist that had way more authority than he should have had.
"Have mobile reserves on the line."
Tsukune grabbed the headset, and waved the officer away so he could speak semi-privately, "Moka, I just sent orders to Tekeshi to investigate Vampiris. Apparently someone from Fairy Tale is heading there, with an escort. I want you to round up the most powerful people you have, and start heading that way. I will meet you enroute."
"This has the hallmarks of something we should ignore on it. I will see what I can do, and head that way. Resistance in our area hasn't been stiff. We have been steamrolling. We have the south part of the lines stable, and are headed to reinforce Tsurara. I will leave father in command, and get Akua, and a few others. How are things going otherwise," he heard the doubt in his wife's voice.
"Mizore got a few broken bones, and is in medical. Everyone else is fine as far I have seen. The only other thing of note is that the wing that Kurumu is leading..." he was interupted.
"I know, I got her those panties when she said that her and Heath were becoming a couple. They look so good on her, I doubt any man has been able to look away long enough to even think of hurting her," the gushing tone in her voice simply made Tsukune take a deep breath.
"Right, so you see nothing wrong with her flying around half naked around a battlefield," he asked.
"Tsukune, face it, men are easy. The only way her tactics would be more effective, is if she was completely naked," he didn't have to see her face to know that Moka was grinning seductively.
"Noted, and out," he reached over to cut the line.
He now knew the reason that human armies must have kept women off the frontlines. If they had men figured out that well, then all they had to do was jump around, and machine gun all the awestruck soldiers.
He gave a few more orders, and had Fang-fang take over for him in giving out strategic orders. He was surprised at how well the somewhat hapless kid that had tried everything to get him to join his crime family, had grown up into a strong and successful businessman, and now a military commander. He had wanted to have a field command, but given that his wife was several months pregnant with their second child, Tsukune had told him no way in hell.
He walked through the tent flap. He didn't worry about body armor like his wife and son. He didn't feel like it would do any good given who he was likely to be facing off with. It wouldn't even offer as much protection as a sheet of paper against a missile. He was suddenly regretting sending his son to do recon on them. He reached up, undid the buttons on his suit jacket, and let it slip from his shoulders. He then did the same with his shirt. When he was clear of the bounds of the camp, he ran. He ran harder than he had ever ran before in his life. His son's life was likely to depend on it.
A few kilometers away, Moka had gathered her people. She suddenly remembered who her son was. He might have grown into a good man, but he was still Tekeshi. He would not remember the last part that he was told, if they were pursued. Or confronted. If this was truly who they thought it was, then all the bravado and anger in the world wouldn't save them.
North of them, Tekeshi's unit was on the march toward Vampiris. Tekeshi himself was playing with the safety on his rifle. It was going to be useless against this person. It should do something against the escort, but he hoped he was going to be able to keep himself from trying to do anything stupid. He might be a genius, but that just meant that him and common sense weren't necessarily that close.
When he had been there with his mother, they had come from the other direction. This time he was on a hill a little ways away, observing the village through his telescope. He could see the escort outside the village. Whoever this was, was important, because he could see both Lizzie and Kuyo, and either the person who had seen them didn't really know how big a squad was, or they had met up with some other detachments.
He figured his people could easily deal with the escort, but that wasn't in the orders. He was just to observe, and stay out of any fights. It was the fact he hadn't been able to see this VIP he was told to look for, that gave him any kind of pause. That meant they were either a vampire, or a human, and had gone into the village itself.
'I don't like this. You should take your people and leave. It isn't just not safe, we all may not live much longer if you don't,' he heard Jakkasu say into his mind.
Tekeshi let his question back through, 'I have my orders. If it looks like they have noticed us, then we run. Until then I observe, and wait for any further orders. Look, you seem to know so much about this place, why don't you actually tell me something useful, instead of being some emo kid who wants to sound like they have a severe case of chunibiyo.'
'I just, can't. It isn't something that I could even hope to explain. You have to trust me, if you value everyone's life. If he notices you, you won't be able to get away. Nothing would be able to. He will kill you,' the concern that was being transmitted was deafening.
'Jakkasu, that tells me nothing. Right now, I am having to figure out what I need to send to my old man as to how to deal with... HOLY HELL,' something impacted just below the hilltop, sending the young vampire flying as he replied.
He came down hard. He wasn't used to having the breath knocked out of him, but the feeling of a full size van on his chest was unmistakable. He couldn't have been spotted though. His telescope had a see through glare shield, and he hadn't had that much of his head sticking over the top of the hill. What could have even torn the top of the hill off like that.
"Tekeshi, are you ok? Someone help me drag him," he heard Utsuki's voice, but all he could see at that moment were blurs, and he didn't have the lung capacity to create speech.
He felt himself being drug by three or four sets of hands. Even though the entirety of the group he was leading was made up of females, all but three or four of them should have been able to drag him alone. That must have meant they just wanted to get their hands on him, especially that one that had theirs way too close to something that only Utsuki had permission to get her hands near.
Eventually his vision and breathing seemed to restart. He hurt, but it didn't seem like whatever did it was actively pursuing them. They were only about a mile and a half from the village, so it wouldn't have taken more than five to ten minutes for someone even in just half decent shape to have gotten there depending on how fast they were moving.
"Did anyone see where that missile came from," he asked as soon as he could speak.
"Missile, the ground just exploded under you. Onii-san, we thought you were done for. Does it feel like anything is messed up real bad," he saw Asusa off to his left.
Looking further he saw Utsuki and Harumi on his right. Looking at his legs he saw Yusa with her hand still on the inside of his upper thigh. Yeah, that one actually tracked. Thankfully, it wasn't one of the witches.
"I think I am ok. Does anyone know what happened," he asked still getting his breath to settle into a normal rhythm.
Harumi shook her head, "No one does. You came flying back, and then spend an hour in and out of consciousness, while we drug you over two kilometers. Nothing has seemed to have chased us yet, but Gozen-san told us to watch over you, and took the rest of the witches to picket, I think it is picket, the area to watch for anything."
"I was out for how long? That can't be right, it only felt like a couple of minutes," he couldn't believe that.
"You came down really hard. I thought, you might not make it for a moment. You had me so scared, don't do that again," Utsuki wrapped her arms around him as she started crying.
He got himself into a sitting position, and stroked the girl's hair as she cried. They had been noticed. He was certain of it, but what he didn't understand was the lack of pursuit. He had somewhat valuable intel about their force strength. That alone would justify...
He could feel his parents. He knew that yoki, and he could feel many other vampires engaging in battle with weaker yokai, and one really strong one. He had to go back, he had to be there. If it truly was, then they needed every bit of strength they could get.
He stood up and let his ring fall into Utsuki's hand. She looked up as he unshouldered the broken rifle and let it fall. His breathing had changed, to that of anticipation. He grabbed hold of Jakkasu's saya, and let it fall to the ground exposing the shining length of the sword's blade. He felt something calling him to battle, and it would not be denied. It could not be denied.
"Tekeshi, what, what are you doing," Utsuki asked as he started walking forward.
"Onii-san, where are you going," he didn't pay attention to which sister said the words.
"Tekeshi, stop, tell us what is going on before Dyke here has a heart attack," Harumi called after him.
As he walked forward, he could only say this, "It's calling me."