Rating: Mature
Warning: Graphic Depiction of Violence
Categories: F/M
Fandoms: Rosario Vampire (Manga)
Characters: Aono Tsukune, Shuzen Akua
Additional Tags: Temporary Character Death, Romance, Drama, Alternative Universe,
BREATHE UNDERWATER
Jerome 092
Summary:
"You kept me breathing under the water when everyone else left me to drown. You were the light that shone through the darkness. Now, I'm blind 'cause you're not around."
A different story, with a different approach. Another Alternative Universe is where Tsukune doesn't fall in love with Moka or any of the girls from his friends. This is just a dark love story between a human and a different vampire. Aiya!
Notes:
I wrote this story after re-re-rereading Rosario+Vampire and coming up with an idea of how things would change if a certain character met another certain character during a very special point of the story. How will that change everything and everyone around him and her?
'Was it perhaps a mistake?' He asked himself as he looked at the crowd returning his gaze with disbelief, some with disgust, others with surprise, and a few with anger. No. Deep down he knew it wasn't a mistake. What they had tried to do had been a terrible mistake; something out of the ordinary, something... monstrous.
"Is that child also one of them?"
"They've abducted and hypnotized him! Kill him!"
His legs trembled with fear and adrenaline. Nonetheless, Tsukune remained standing, with the bravest expression a child of almost ten years old could muster in front of an armed group of villagers from a country he barely knew. He swallowed hard with fear.
He glanced over his shoulder at the girl, his friend, still crumpled in the cold mud. Oh, no, she wouldn't like to know that Jasmine's precious dress was torn to shreds; he knew she would be furious.
"Chase them!"
His eyes widened when he perceived the terrifying and aggressive emotion in those words. Something that, if he knew Chinese, he would have been able to identify immediately; but it wasn't necessary to know Chinese to understand that those words meant something: danger.
"Run, Jasmine!" Tsukune roared, taking Jasmine's injured arm.
With a little time, Tsukune would have managed to free her from the tough and rough ropes that bound Jasmine's wrists behind her back, but the boy was barely skilled with the use of a rusty knife. With no time, Tsukune pulled the older girl forcefully, forcing her to follow his hurried pace through the unpaved streets of the village.
He knew it would be difficult. He knew it would be almost impossible to escape. So why?
Why had he risked so much to save a girl?
For her, for her red eyes...
Tsukune frowned, ignoring for a moment the image of those red eyes of a girl who had captivated his heart in an instant―
―Wait.
Of course!
She. She was the key. They would only have to―
"Gaah!"
He gritted his teeth and swallowed the scream that sought to escape his throat. He kept running, ignoring the pulsating pain, throbbing from his back, growing with every breath. He kept going and going, trying to see beyond the barely contained tears of pain.
"Little brother!"
He heard her. Her sweet and melodic voice, pure and innocent, like that of an angel. An exceptional contrast to the cold and soulless voice she usually spoke or reacted with... Few were the times Tsukune could remember hearing a real emotion from her when she spoke. And one of those few times was when he first met her. He could still hear her fluent Chinese when she exclaimed, surprised: "Aiya!"
Tsukune tried to keep moving forward, step by step, but it became increasingly difficult for him.
It was then that he felt a second explosion of pain in his right leg that forced him to scream, take a few staggering steps forward, and fall unceremoniously onto the rocky ground.
"Oof!"
He lifted his head from the ground, spitting out the dust that had entered his mouth and trying to see as far as the darkness and the poor lighting of the village allowed him. They hadn't gotten far. The line of trees was only a few meters away.
Tsukune looked at his hands, scratches and superficial cuts filled with dust greeted him.
"J-Jasmine..." He spat with effort. He looked to his side, Jasmine lay a little better than him, with only scratches on her white dress. "R-Run― Ah!"
The words were snatched from him when he felt tremendous pain in his other leg.
"We've got them!"
"They thought they were so clever to run away like this..."
"Let's finish off these monsters."
"J-J-Jasmine..."
"Tsu― Gya!"
But when Tsukune tried to get up from the ground, ignoring the protests of his tired and injured muscles, ignoring the pain that pierced through his back and legs, what he received was a strong blow that left him stunned and forced him back to the ground violently.
His head spun, the sound became numb as if someone had deliberately plugged his ears, and a faint tone emerged. Everything looked so blurry. Tsukune wanted to rest, he felt so tired. He even felt tired of breathing.
What would his mother say this time?
What would his father say this time?
What would Kyoko say when she found out he had run away again in the middle of the night just to be with them again?
He smiled heavily at the thought of his dear cousin.
Maybe he should have listened to her just this once... She was right. He shouldn't have gotten so involved in other people's affairs.
But, he just wanted...
He just wanted...
He just wanted to see her again, hear her voice, listen to her complaining about everything around her, see how despite the negativity she seemed to transmit like that of a black cat he could make her smile.
Yes, Tsukune wanted to see her smile again... And see those red eyes one last time before going home.
But now, he was very sleepy... Yes, it was time to sleep. Kyoko would surely find him asleep on some street in this village and would make a beastly scene. Yes. She would do that.
"Aiya!"
His heart raced for a moment, regaining strength for an instant.
"What's going on here?"
Perhaps he didn't understand a single word, but Tsukune recognized that voice. It was her...
"A-Akua, no!"
'Akua!', he thought with mirth.
"Tsukune? Jasmine?" A pause. "What happened? What have they done to you? Oh, poor, silly human. Why?"
"They... J-Jasmine... I had to..." He coughed.
"I know..." She sighed angrily. "I shouldn't have let you return, Jasmine. I knew this would happen."
But Tsukune couldn't say anything else, his body gave in at that moment. As if all the strength in his muscles evaporated, Tsukune remained motionless, unable to react. And the few moments of lucidity that remained in him served him to hear a few words, a sentence that would have made him break out in a cold sweat of fear.
Akua's monotone voice roared not by its strength, but by its fierceness.
"I'm not sorry, Jasmine. They're going to pay dearly for this."
Screams out of pain were the last thing Tsukune heard.
*.*.*.*.*
