Adult-FanFiction.org : Manga

Distorted Fairy Tale	By : Xagzan Category: Manga M to R > Rosario + Vampire (Rozario to Banpaia) > Rosario + Vampire (Rozario to Banpaia) Views: 7181 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire or make money from it, and all its goodness belongs to Akihisa Ikeda

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
For Want of Composure, Pt. 4

At last they burst through the front doors, back into the sunlight. They kept moving, until eventually they had crossed several streets, clear and away from the Hall of Innocence, though the massive structure remained in their sights. It was then that Akuha threw Tsukune to the ground with an angry grunt. “Akuha-neesan, stop!” He could hear Moka’s continued protests as she dashed to him, feet heavy on the path. Dropping down, she placed a worried hand on his shoulder, intending to help him up.

The elder girl didn’t bat an eyelid. She did, however, turn briefly to her sides, as if searching for something; wide-eyed succubi stared back, muttering their confusion and astonishment to each other. “Speak,” she commanded the boy at her feet, looking at him through strands of black that had fallen over her face, casting shadows about the pale surface. “I suspected you might plan something, but I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. And this is how you repay my trust?”

Chancing to raise his eyes a little, Tsukune looked at her, trying to gauge her wrath by her face. His own anger from earlier was gradually giving way to nervousness. Oddly, however, Akuha wasn’t looking back at him; behind her, Kahlua observed the scene anxiously, her gaze darting back and forth between her two sisters; behind him, Moka’s warm body sat protectively, the scent of her silver tresses providing him some comfort; and yet, Akuha seemed somewhat…unfocused, perhaps distant, her eyes darting to and fro as she addressed him. And her voice, it wasn’t so full of rage as it had been a moment ago, but more level, with a hint of impatience behind it.

“Stop, it was my idea,” Moka asserted coolly, locking blood-red eyes with her sister’s own. She smirked, casually. “Sorry to disappoint you, Akuha-neesan, but I doubt you’ll be getting support from the succubi after that. It actually worked out better than I thought, although even I didn’t know Kurumu’s mother was the Matron’s sister.”

That was right, thought Tsukune. He still couldn’t believe there was a relation between the two. Even more shocking was the realization that, if this was true, then wouldn’t that make Kurumu a sort of, well, princess?

But now was not the time to dwell on that interesting tidbit. Akuha had suddenly turned half her attention to them at her sister’s unapologetic admission. A strange expression had taken hold in her eyes, not the previous impatience or irritation, no. One that made Tsukune’s blood run cold. For he had never before seen such a blinding, seething fury in Akuha’s gaze – a frightful look that made him think she was about to shriek and lash out and murder the next person who passed by. He primed his body to react to the impending explosion, but then, just as suddenly, the fire in her eyes was gone. No trace remained, indeed, she now looked so crestfallen Tsukune almost started to wonder if maybe he had been imagining things.

With a sigh, she said, her voice unusually childlike, almost unsettling in its sincerity: “It’s ok, Moka. I know you didn’t mean to lie to me when you told us we could use him. You would never do that on your own. It was Tsukune, wasn’t it? He made you betray me, didn’t he? Come on, you can tell me the truth.”

The younger girl blinked. “You’re…you’re not serious, are you? I hope you haven’t forgotten that I’m against what you and Fairy Tale are trying to do, Akuha-neesan.”

Another sigh, eyes going back to scanning the surroundings, occasionally flitting down to her wrist for a split second. “No, I guess I haven’t. No wonder he was able to get you to go along with him.”

Tsukune felt a stab of curiosity. What was going on? Akuha’s behavior was extremely unusual just now. Even after Moka told her this whole scheme was her intention, she was apparently refusing to believe it wasn’t Tsukune’s own doing. Then there was her bizarre tone, and that brief flash of hatred in her eyes. Something seemed off. And, more immediately, what exactly was she looking at? He tried to follow her stare himself, but could see nothing of interest.

“Akuha,” Kahlua interrupted, “forgive me, but why did you leave? Lady Salome may have been angry but I think we could have tried to calm her down and change her mind. You just left the second she said to, without any sort of attempt to persuade her.”

“Never mind that,” Akuha said absently, her tone more level. “What’s done is…” A pause, as she still threw distracted glances down and across the block, then: “…done.” Under her breath, she muttered, “And it should be just about time…”

So low was her voice that Tsukune barely managed to catch what she’d said. But catch them he did, and knew Moka with her superior senses must have, as well. Just what was occupying Akuha’s attention so much? After all, himself, Kahlua, Moka, they were all there. No one was missing, so was she expecting—

Wait.

No, that wasn’t right. The four of them were all there, true, but… All of a sudden it felt like they were, in fact, missing someone. Why he felt this way Tsukune had no idea, since he couldn’t even think of who he might know that could be absent.

He was not left with much time to wonder, however, for a second later Akuha gave a pleased cry as she apparently triumphed in her bewildering search. Assisted by Moka to his feet, Tsukune turned in the same direction. And just like that, the question was answered. Moving at a hurried pace, two dark figures approached, gliding like shadows under the underground sun. They noiselessly crossed the remaining street between them—for some reason, none of the other people they suspiciously darted past seemed to even acknowledge their existence—and now Tsukune could identify the familiar newcomers.

It was the two Fairy Tale officers who had come with them to Yomotsu, and had accompanied them to the Matron earlier that day. The dull gold buttons running down their pitch black uniforms glinted brightly as they caught the sun.

That’s right. But then, I don’t remember seeing them during the meeting. Where have they been?

“Right on schedule!” Akuha chirped happily. The pair stopped before her, bowing calmly, no shudders or labored breaths as one might expect from someone who had been running as fast as they. The eldest Shuzen glanced between them expectantly. “Well, is it done?”

The one on the left nodded. A tall man, his head shaved, a face hardened with several faint scars and heavy-lidded eyes; a tattoo of a pale lightning bolt cut across his cheek. “Yes, captain. We were able to disappear surprisingly easy once we were inside. It’s almost remarkable how lax that place’s security is, given that it’s the Matron who resides there.”

“…And did you deliver the capsules?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Hold on.” Tsukune’s interruption stalled the officer, who fell silent with disciplined coolness. “Capsules? What are they talking about?”

His question was met with a glance from Akuha. “Wait,” she said, and signaled the officer again. “You used all of them, correct?”

The other one spoke this time, a younger man, probably not much older than the two Youkai Academy students there; his black hair clung like a wet mop to his scalp, indicating an overabundance of gel, and he appeared to be suppressing a cocky sort of grin under his professional veneer. “You bet we did! Ow! Sorry. You bet we did, cap’n.” He amended his statement at a sharp elbow in the arm from his partner, over his lack of the proper decorum due his superior. “I’d say give it ‘bout a day or so, and those babies’ll sprout up for all to see.” He gave a little chuckle, rubbing his shoulder, the other man remaining silent and, once more, motionless. “That’s why I think we should hightail it out of here pronto.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Akuha agreed. “Well done, you two!” Then, whirling around to her three companions, she beamed. Tsukune wasn’t sure he had ever seen her so happy before; this couldn’t be good, he thought, with something like dread creeping into his stomach. “Mission success, everybody! Time to go back to the ship.”

Her proclamation was met with blank stares. No one spoke, until at last Moka ventured: “A-Akuha-neesan? Success? Did we miss something? Last I remember the Matron wants nothing to do with Fairy Tale.” She then pointed at the two agents. “And where were they? Just what the hell did you have them do?”

“I’m not sure I understand either,” Kahlua confessed, eyeing her big sister with trepidation. “Akuha, what are you hiding?”

Akuha gave them an apologetic smile. “Oh, you girls, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you—well, I couldn’t tell you, Moka, you understand—but Kahlua, honestly it just didn’t occur to me.”

“What didn’t occur to you?” Tsukune’s voice rang out clearly.

“Aiyaa~ Should I tell you? Well, I am in a good mood now, and it’s not like there’s anything you can do about it. You see,” she gestured at the two officers, “these boys here just carried out a little task I’d given them. Do you remember what Salome said before, when she talked about the sacred tree of Yomotsu?”

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Remember how she said it was located right under our feet, at the very heart of the city?”

Something flashed in Tsukune’s mind then. A memory, something he had heard from…Kahlua? What was it? She had told them aboard the airship…

Akuha continued. “I had these two deliver a little something there, that’s all.”

And then it came to him. The thousand year frost tree. Kahlua had told them of Fairy Tale’s activities, that they had attached strange, ayashi eggs to the base of the tree, indeed throughout Japan itself. He blanched. It couldn’t be.

Moka must have recalled this too, for she suddenly blurted out: “It wasn’t those eggs?!”

“Ah?” The black-maned vampire’s eyebrow went up. “How do you know about the eggs?” Then, realizing the only way: “Aiya, Kahlua. So I guess Fairy Tale having our family’s support wasn’t the only thing you told them?”

“I didn’t say much,” Kahlua defended herself. “Besides, Kokoa and that witch already knew, so I figured there was no harm.” She smiled weakly, nervously fiddling with her earring.

“Well, it’s no matter. Anyway, the thing is, we knew the sacred tree here was located under the central dome, but we needed a way to get our people inside.”

“Inside?” Tsukune pieced it together, growing steadily horrified. “But we had the…meeting inside…”

The smirk that graced Akuha’s mouth didn’t help. “Yes we did. We had to have some excuse to get in, right?”

“Then, you’re saying this whole thing was all part of your damn plan? You had us meet the Matron so you could attach those eggs to tree? But…but…” Tsukune’s head was swimming with frantic thoughts; he could sense Moka’s growing anger, as well. “That doesn’t even make sense! Why go so far as to ask the Matron for an audience when you didn’t even care what her answer was? It’s no wonder you were willing to risk everything on such a flimsy plan, thinking that Kurumu and her mom liking me would help you! And how did your men go by unseen, even if they were inside?”

“So many questions today, dear Tsukune,” Akuha laughed. “Well, like I said, I’m in a good mood, so I’ll answer.” Reaching up to fiddle with one of the white strands of her hair, she exhaled deeply. Behind her, the two agents stood, dark and still as stones. “Don’t misunderstand. I would’ve had no problem with Yomotsu supporting us. The more the merrier, right? But, remember when I told Salome we were still a young organization without enough resources? Yeah, I lied.” She laughed at the boy’s perplexity. “We have all we need, thanks to these eggs. Weapons, soldiers, supplies, all that stuff I mentioned, we don’t need more of those, thanks to our little eggs there. Well, I suppose the divisions who have their own plans might want them, but, oh well.” Another laugh. “Of course if she had offered, I wouldn’t have turned those things down, but you saw to it that that wouldn’t happen.” Her voice didn’t even contain a hint of anger as she said this. “As for these guys, they’re Invisible Men, and can make themselves visible or invisible to whoever they please. No one would’ve seen them sneaking along the passageways, looking for the sacred tree. Just as no one on the street saw them running past just now, except for us.”

“Akuha.” With courage he later was surprised didn’t get him violently murdered, Tsukune took a few sudden strides forward and seized the girl by the collar. He peered into her eyes, crimson and deep, far deeper than he would expect of someone her age. “What the hell do you want? What is going to hatch from those eggs? Tell me!”

The two officers quickly made to act, but Akuha halted them with a raised hand. With dexterous ease, she loosened Tsukune’s grasp and slinked back like a slippery eel, smoothing out her coat. “Sorry, that’s not for you to know.” Turning her back to him, she started ambling lazily down the walk, her two lackeys trailing her. Tsukune, however, was not letting this go.

“Akuha!” He shouted, hands balled into clenching fists at his sides. A few passing succubi glanced briefly in their direction at the noise, but he ignored them. “Tell us what you’re planning.”

Whether it was to further fan the flames of his anger or not, Akuha paused tossed an irritatingly bored look over her shoulder. “What do you mean? You already know Fairy Tale’s plan. We simply want to destroy the human world.” Tsukune made to protest, but she wasn’t done. “Yomotsu was our last target, the last batch of the eggs. It’s only a matter of time until they siphon off all the spirit energy the tree gives off. And then…” She trailed off, flicking an expressive glance at Moka, who herself now remembered something the Matron had said earlier.

“Isn’t that energy used to create the barrier around the city?”

“Energy we need, Moka.” Akuha’s tone took on the usual sweetness and care it did whenever she addressed her sister.

Tsukune, however, was by this point boiling with fury. “Then what? You’ll just leave them vulnerable like that? Are you planning to attack them? How does killing innocent succubi fit in with your plan, Akuha?” When she didn’t respond, he turned heel with cutting sharpness and, breaking out into a run, yelled: “There’s no way I’ll let that happen!”

“Tsukune!” Moka’s shout rang on deaf ears, the boy flying forward with a singular thought.

He had to warn them.

He had to rush back to the Matron’s audience chamber, incensed as she likely still was, and tell her and the whole city what Fairy Tale was doing. On he ran, brushing past other pedestrians, speeding by shops with glass windows, buildings with vines and leaves running up their sides from cracks in the ground. Even over the loud clomps of his shoes on the pavement, he could still hear, hot on his trail,

Fast as he was going, he could still hear over the loud clomps of his shoes on the pavement, someone hot on his trail. Akuha, Moka, whoever it was, he didn’t have time to stop. Crossing the last street amid the annoyed shouts of those he blazed by, he found himself returned to outer plaza of the central dome, huffing, his heart pounding in his chest. There they were. The doors were in sight, and the guards that flanked them, getting closer as he approached, closer…closer…

A hand gently found its way to his wrist. At the same time, another took a light hold of the shoulder on the same arm. Before he could even register what was happening, Tsukune was careening through the air, as if the ground had been stripped from under him. Panic only registered in his mind the second before he crashed back down to earth. He landed on his side with a pained shout, tumbling over himself until he came to a stop, face down and covered in the newborn bruises and scrapes he could feel on his arms and legs and face. The sound of rushing feet reached his ears; he hoped it was the surrounding succubi coming to help, but that hope died as he was suddenly yanked to his feet by his arm, which was twisted behind his back with unforgiving force. The silky whisper that caressed the shell of his ear alerted him to the identity of his follower.

“Wherever do you think you’re going, little Tsukune?”

He winced, more from the pain than her reintroduction of that demeaning moniker. “Let go, Akuha,” he growled. “If you want to stop me from warning them, you’ll have to kill me first.” The dizziness from his fall left a haze in front of Tsukune’s eyes, but he could still make out several onlookers standing nearby, taking in the scene with hushed gasps and murmurs. Turning his head to his captor, he was unnerved to see a wildness in her eyes and a heated blush that had warmed her cheeks; her hair was all in a rough mess from chasing after him, and stray strands clung damply to her smooth skin. From this close distance, he could smell her subtle layers of perfume battling with the scent of sweat caused by her exertion, anxious to burst forth. Dabbing at her pink lips with her tongue, she moistened them further as she held him in her clutches. Despite his predicament, Tsukune couldn’t ignore how seductive she looked.

Her grip, unfortunately, was not as favorable as her countenance. “It’s too late, there is nothing you can do.” Something in her voice made Tsukune give an inward shudder. He didn’t want to consider it too hard, but she almost sounded…turned on? “Come now, be a good boy and follow me back to the ship. I promise if you do, I might even decide not to throw you back in the brig, even though you richly deserve it for coming up with that little betrayal back there.”

“I didn’t—forget it.” Again he wondered at the accusation; had Akuha merely not heard her sister admit to being the mastermind? That didn’t seem right.

Well, in any case Tsukune couldn’t focus on it now, preoccupied as he was. Gathering up his strength, he strained to break free of his grip, but the leverage Akuha had on his arm assured that would not happen. Baring his teeth, he turned to her again. “If you don’t let me go right now, I’ll tell all these people what you’re doing!”

The whisper in his ear stayed playful, yet was tinged with a sudden lethality. “Ohh, I wouldn’t do that. I doubt they’d believe you anyway, but then if they did, they would come after us.” Then, her voice lowering even more to a deadly purr: “And then I’d have to kill them all to get out of here. You know I could. Would you want that on your conscience?” Saying that, in an uncommon lack of self-control, Akuha let her tongue ease forth past deadly white fangs and trail a small, warm path along her captive’s ear, while simultaneously pressing her body even closer to his, her breasts meeting his muscled back, hardened by exhausting training sessions with Moka. She giggled. “Aiya, I think all the excitement today has got me a little bothered.”

Tsukune immediately scolded whatever sick part of himself was sharing that sentiment, not helped at all by the close contact between them. He was about to retort defiantly, but a quick yelp from the older girl cut him off. “Ah! What am I saying?” She hurriedly backed up an inch, reapplying tight pressure to the grip on his arm which she had allowed to go slightly slack. “No, no, I have to control that little urge. Moka wouldn’t like it if I were to just take you here on the street in front of all these people.” That part at least, Tsukune in his present state was whole-heartedly thankful for; he did not share Akuha’s apparent disregard for an audience during…such activities.

Taking sudden notice of the surrounding succubi staring at them, Akuha called out: “Ah, sorry about that, everybody! This guy just tried to rob me, but I’ve my stuff back. Oh! Oh no that’s ok! No need to call the police, thank you. I’ll bring him to the station myself. Alright, let’s go, buddy, you’re coming with me! I’ll teach you to go against me.”

And with a sharp tug, Akuha turned and started marching off, dragging Tsukune behind her by the wrist, several perplexed women—unaware of the double meaning in the girl’s words—staring at their retreating backs. For his part, Tsukune sighed and slumped with resignation. His hands really were tied, as Akuha had pointed out to him. If he called for help, there would be a whole host of bloodied corpses littering the streets. He couldn’t allow all those innocents to die from his hasty actions. Today, he would be forced to suffer this defeat, but together with Moka, he would quickly have to concoct another scheme to strike at Fairy Tale, including how to remove these mysterious eggs from the various monster homelands where they had been placed. Although, this might be much easier said than done, since according to Akuha, eggs had now been placed in all their intended locations. God knew how many places were infested.

Such were the thoughts racing through his head as Akuha led him back to the others: apparently none of them had followed her in the chase. As they neared what he recognized as the spot he had left, however, he caught glimpse of something dead ahead. At that very spot, a small huddle of succubi was gathered in circle, seemingly looking down at something in their midst.

“What’s this?” He heard Akuha wonder aloud.

She approached, cautiously, with Tsukune in tow, not wanting to encounter a crime scene or anything like that. But then, why would there be such a thing here? This was definitely the spot she had left her sisters and subordinates, wasn’t it?

They reached the outer edge of the crowd. Unwilling to risk asking anyone to move aside, Akuha lifted herself on her tiptoes, peering over the few heads between her and the spot of interest.

What she saw was enough to make Tsukune cringe at the sudden pressure she applied to his wrist, accompanied by a soft gasp from the black-haired vampire. Unnerved by her outburst, and the crowd, at the spot where Moka had been, he quickly made to look for himself, craning his neck over the people until it came into view.

It took him only a second to recognize the black, disheveled shapes on the ground as the sprawled bodies of the two Fairy Tale members. They lay there on their backs, allowing Tsukune to see the fierce bruises that had been left on their faces and the tears in their clothes, revealing more assaulted and wounded bits of skin. Something had beaten these men bloody.

The thing that stood out the most to Tsukune, however, making his heart sink in terror, was what wasn’t even there before his eyes.

The two agents were alone.

Moka and Kahlua were nowhere to be seen.

To be continued…
- 8
- 9
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Distorted Fairy Tale