"'Suki, I promise, I won't do it again. It really did not feel that good, and gave me a distinct insight into how bad it hits girls to have their intimate areas exposed like that. Just say something, please," Tekeshi pleaded.
Utsuki had not said a word to him since he had transformed himself into a girl. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he thought it might be her body image issues, especially regarding her chest. Karasu hadn't been as upset, but he could tell she didn't want him to pull that again either, at least not without it being requested.
"Sis, come on. It was a little funny, at least admit that," Karasu did at least try to get Utsuki to open back up a little.
The addressed girl simply turned her head to her sister, "They were bigger than ours."
Karasu groaned, "Ok. I am putting my foot down now. We need to find someone that can help you get over this damn obsession. Our bodies are damn near perfect. Our figures are balanced and very visually appealing. We don't need bigger tits. Tekeshi, please, back me up."
"I don't think there is anyway I am going to make this situation better to be honest. I also don't think it would be good for our relationship for me to actually make any answer in either direction," he said, pretty sure that anything he said in reply would end badly.
"Kari, look at Mom, look at Mother, look at half the female teachers that the boys are always following around. Look at succubi. How do we compete with any of them, how are we supposed to keep him interested? Things change," Utsuki let her gaze fall as she spoke.
"Wait, that is what this has been over? Utsuki, I didn't fall in love with you because of your bust. I fell in love with you, because, I don't know that there is anyway that I could put the answer into words. You have never feared me, not matter what, even before you grew comfortable with the idea of me being yokai," he crouched down to look her in the eyes, "You never backed down from me, and you were always willing to accept me just as me. You didn't care about me being powerful, didn't care that I was weak for what I was. 'Suki, when you were half dead from what your father's uncle did to you, you still jammed your arm in my mouth, and made me drink your blood, because you were worried about me before yourself. That is why I fell in love with you. It wouldn't matter if you were flatter than Machiko is, or bigger than Aunt Kurumu. I didn't fall in love with a body, I fell in love with Utsuki."
Karasu had to raise an eyebrow, and clench her legs together a little. She was amazed at Tekeshi's way with words, and his ability to make a girl wet with them without realizing it. While it wasn't as strong as when she had been a demon, she could still feel a hint of Utsuki's emotions, and could feel them start to... grow fearful?
"'Suki, are you ok? Why did you suddenly go paler than you usually are," Tekeshi noticed the look in her face, and started to get defensive.
"Something is coming this way, something really strong. I don't like it," she whispered shakily.
At the same time Akasha was starting to relax with a nice cup of tea in a suite that Tsukune had given her and Issa the use of during her recovery. He had felt that since she was starting to be able to walk some, it might be more comfortable, and might make her feel better to be able to sleep in the same bed as the man she was going to remarry. It was a very sweet gesture, and one they had accepted without hesitation.
"It is so nice to see you content, My Dear," Issa said smiling from a chair on the other side of the small tea table they sat at.
"It is just nice to see you. You don't know how much it hurt to be bound to Tekeshi, and being there, yet unable to say anything to you. It was a hellish torture of its own. I'm so glad to be back," she smiled and looked into his eyes.
Issa stood and made the two or three steps to kneel next to her wheel chair, "I am glad you are back too. I hope that I never have to lose you again. I, know it is strange, but in a way I now feel like Tekeshi. Like, I am tired of all the fighting. I would rather find a home away from everything that has assailed us over our lives, and leave it behind. Just us, and only those we care about would know how to find us."
"That does... sound...," she started to say, but then her throat started to close up as she began to feel overwhelmed, and she could see Issa suddenly starting to tremble out of fear.
This was, strange, and terrifying. Vampires could feel the power of other yokai more easily than most, but this, this was like a true monster had just walked upon them.
"Issa, do you..."
He nodded as his eyes starting to bulge out of his head.
In her office Moka was going over grade cards. She never really enjoyed the job, and usually passed it on to her assistant. Sadly the tables had turned for that day. Or many really, given that her assistant was running her classes, rather than her given that she was five months pregnant. So here she sat doing the paperwork.
It wasn't the worst thing in the world though. The fact that she wasn't going to be doing any work the next month was killing her. She liked to work. Yes she would have loved to have just been a stay at home mom for Tekeshi, but the situation surrounding that just wouldn't allow it, and thankfully, she wasn't going to be forced to give up working for several years after this baby. Mizore had already told her that she was going to be looking after it while Moka was at work.
She had somewhat second guessed herself at first, deciding that Tsukune was going to take Mizore as his mistress. She didn't know if she would even consider having him marry her. She wasn't sure that she was willing to go that far, especially knowing that... they would lose her long before either of them passed.
She shook her head. She really didn't need to think about things like that. It wasn't good for mental health. She was going to cherish every moment with all of her friends and family. Those that would be there for centuries, and those that wouldn't. Eventually, even her and Tsukune would pass on, there just wasn't anyway to know when.
She went to pick her pen back up, but suddenly didn't have control of her body. She blinked as she suddenly became short of breath. She could feel an enormous power approaching the school. It was stronger than anything she had ever felt. Stronger than even her mother or Utsuki. Not much outside of the thought of losing loved ones scared Moka, but she felt fear like she had never felt before right then.
Tsukune, was taking an uncustomary nap on one of the couches in his office. He had been tired, and the reason, thankfully was having to do her job. He was a very healthy man, and had no lack of sexual energy of his own, but he could not hold a candle to his pregnant wife when she hit the part of pregnancy that made her that horny. Not to mention that Mizore had suddenly gotten very needy in her own right. He wasn't sure how his father in law had dealt with it married to two vampires, but he was starting the think that he was about to lose out to him.
"What are you lazing around for? Aren't you a workaholic," he opened an eye to see Maggie rolling Akua into his office.
He sat up, "Your sister, has been doing things to me, that might make even you blush to think of. I have barely been getting any sleep lately. I don't know how she seems to be completely fine in the mornings. What are you needing today?"
"The rest of Maggie's paperwork just arrived at the Manor, so we decided to go ahead and bring them over so we could finish out the adoption process. Oh, and little Miss Doesn't Pay Attention to Her Food, is having to wait on a tooth to heal after she broke it on a chicken bone, rather than cut the meat off of it and eat it like a civilized vampire," Akua said with an amused tone.
Maggie just gave a pained and annoyed look, before she suddenly fell to the floor.
Akua pushed her chair forward and turned it around, only to fall out of it next to her. Her eyes were wide, and she was breathing short and heavily, like something was squeezing her chest. Tsukune stood to look around, trying to find the source of what was affecting the two women, when he froze up. Something was coming. Something that he could not make heads or tails of.
He managed to lightly swallow, as his vision started to blur. It felt like someone was squeezing his heart, as he fought to stay upright. He had fought so many things, but this only felt slightly weaker than his son, and wasn't trying to control its power. It had to be another shinso, but he had no illusion that anyone short of Tekeshi would be able to fight them.
Why had they come, and who were they?
Tekeshi led Utsuki to a bench and helped her sit down. He couldn't really feel anything. That was one of the downsides of what he had become. He was so strong, that he barely registered the power of any other yokai. He could barely feel his grandmother and Utsuki, and they were the two most powerful shinso vampires alive, second only to him in power.
He started to feel something. It was still pathetic compared to him, but it was definitely stronger than Akasha or Utsuki. He didn't recognize the feel though. It was completely foreign to him.
"Tekeshi, is she ok? Why does she look like she just saw a ghost, and I am not talking about Kato Aiko from third year," Karasu was extremely worried.
She didn't have the ability to feel the yoki of other yokai, which made sense given that she wasn't really yokai as it was typically described. Still Tekeshi had to wonder how she couldn't feel anything.
"I don't know. Something is approaching us, and it is way stronger than her," he stood and faced the direction the power was approaching from, and flicked out his wrist to have his .44 appear in it.
He, really doubted that the three hundred grain rounds he used was going to do anything to whatever this was, but it might slow it down out of confusion. He thumbed the hammer back as he planted himself in between the two girls, and whatever was approaching. While he knew it wasn't a threat to him, it was a threat.
Seconds passed as the feeling became stronger, and Utsuki started suffering more and more. Even Karasu was starting to get uncomfortable, like there was a strong current of electricity in the air, threatening a bolt of lightning where she stood. While most people had scattered when he produced the gun, the ones that hadn't, they were starting to panic and run now. At least, the yokai were. The humans were completely puzzled, and the ones that hadn't run, most likely thought that the pistol was fake, or at least just some sort of BB gun.
Soon, Tekeshi saw the source, and something felt off to him. There was a rather diminutive blonde woman, who was the source of the feeling as far as he could tell, walking toward them with a more normal sized dark haired woman. He couldn't figure it out at a distance, but the dark haired woman was speaking in, of all things, a language that Tekeshi didn't know, and seemed to answer unheard questions or comments.
"Teksehi," Utsuki's voice was quiet and strained, "What are they saying?"
He was a little surprised that she could hear them at that distance, before remembering how strong a shinso's senses were, "I don't know. Sounds southern European, but I don't know it. It sounds Slavic. Maybe Serbian or Romanian. I'm just not sure," his answer was just as quiet.
The smaller woman noticed them, and she picked her pace up, leaving her companion in her wake, and looking a little frazzled. Her path led her directly to Tekeshi, who she stopped in front of, looking up at him with an odd look. He heard the hard rubber grip on the revolver start to creak as he tightened his grip.
"Husband, I finally found you," the woman seemed to speak into his mind.
"Husband? Uh, I am pretty sure I'm not married," he said, not sure what was going on.
Those though, seemed to snap something in Utsuki, who preceeded to stand up and yell louder than anyone on campus had ever remembered hearing before, "WHAT?"
The entirety of the vampiric family, save Akasha and Issa to that moment, sat in Tsukune's office. To that fact Tsukune was starting to realize that the place was starting to get crowded more in the last two years, than it had in the twenty before Tekeshi and Utsuki started attending. At one point, he had just done work in there, not have meetings with world altering consequences.
They all sat or stood on one side of the large coffee table that sat in the middle of the room, and the couch on the other side was occupied by the two women. Everyone except Tekeshi was extremely on edge with them there. The feeling of fear and dread was palpable, and the situation was serious enough that Tekeshi hadn't sent his weapon back to wherever he kept things like that.
"I apologize for the way My Lady surprised you," the dark haired woman said.
Tekeshi had a unreadable look on his face, "Uh, I, have no clue who you two are, or why she suddenly called me her husband."
"Uh, I don't know either. The indivi... uh..., I, ok. Please bear with us one second," the woman said before she closed her eyes.
They opened again, "Husband, do you not recognize me?"
Strangely enough, pretty much everyone instantly realized that the small blonde woman was the one speaking now. It seemed really obvious with how the dark haired woman would turn and speak with the blonde, without the blonde having said a word.
"I don't know you. I'm seventeen years old, I am damn sure that I haven't ever been married in that time, and don't have plans to be married for at least another two years. So, just, who the hell are you," Tekeshi was honestly annoyed as much as he was confused, given the effect it was having on Utsuki.
The blonde woman's face looked devestated, "Shinso, you... why are..."
Tekeshi interrupted her, "Wait, what name did you just say?"
"Shinso, what is going on?"
Everyone looked up at Tekeshi. His face became dark, as well as even more unreadable. He swore he could even feel the eyes of Jakkasu staring at him from her blade. He bent down slightly and gripped the back of the couch.
"Lady, I'm not Shinso."
"What are you talking about, I can feel you right there. You may not look like him, but that means nothing. You once took on the form of a very grumpy house cat to avoid a lord that you did not particularly like," the woman said.
He frowned and looked away from her, "I'm not him. I'm the one who killed him."
"Husband stop this, I know how you hate lies. If you have taken more lovers, you know that doesn't bother me. You had many before me, and since we married. Why," the pain on her face became even stronger.
"I'm not lying to you. About a year ago there was a major battle in a place called the Valley of the Dragon. Specifically where the village he was from, Vampiris, was located. I faced him one on one, and he nearly killed me. He almost killed one of my sisters. When I killed him, he passed, his power on to me. He, he is gone now," he couldn't look her in the eyes as he spoke.
"No. There is no one that as strong as you are. I know better. I know that you can't be defeated. Is it that you don't love me anymore? That you forgot about me, and just want me to leave," anger started to raise in her voice, making the body of the woman she was speaking through shake with anger as much as she was herself.
"I don't even... no, I think I do know your name," he stopped as he dug through his mind.
Utsuki looked up at him, "Tekeshi, who is she?"
He looke up finally, "You are, Candace. You were his wife. You, how are you here?"
"I woke up. You weren't there. Our daughters, weren't there. Everything was falling apart around me, turning to dust. You, nobody was there. I was forgotten," tears started appearing in Candace's eyes.
"I'm sorry. I, he fought hard, and he should have won. He was, ready when he finally fell. He, was glad to pass on being a demigod, and rest. I, don't know what I could say that would make you feel peace at this."
Candace stood up, anger starting to seep from her, making everyone but Tekeshi shrink back, "NO, stop this. I have seen barrages of arrows bounce off of you. I have seen swords snap smashing against your arm. Why don't you want to just acknowledge me, what have I done to you?"
The door opened then, and Akasha rolled into the room. The power that had come from Candace had done a number on her like it had all the other vampires, but the look on her face was just as incredulous as it had been on everyone else. They weren't prepared for the single word that she said though.
"Grandmother?"