Given that the pocket dimension containing Youkai Academy didn't normally experience a changing of the seasons, the post-classes afternoon was the same as always. Outside, Gin could see the girls' basketball team doing drills in the cool, sunlit breeze. At any other time, Gin would have been more than happy to remain there and enjoy watching the girls handle the balls they were given, but today he had a job to do.
Business before pleasure, as the cliché went. And
oh, the business Gin had on his mind.... "One of these days," he hotly whispered to himself, "I'm going to get even with that bastard Kujo!"
'Aren't Gin and Jotaro friends?'
"Hell no -- that stone-faced son of a bitch saw fit to try and
cripple me even after my juniors had already kicked my ass, put me in the infirmary for
months before I could even walk again...!"
Emerging from the open-air corridors and fully into the western courtyard, Gin faltered for a moment as he came to a realization. "Come to think of it, his name is only one letter away from the
other guy I vehemently wish would drop dead." Despite himself, the werewolf journalist let out a chuckle. "Man, I needed that laugh."
"Can I help ya with somethin'?"
Gin blinked, not having realized
that he'd arrived at the school pool so quickly. Slicking back his hair, Gin covered his momentary confusion with an easygoing smile for the
country cutie before him. "Oh, I'm sorry if I spaced out. I'm Ginei Morioka, from the school newspaper. I'm writing a story about how some of the clubs have been affected by violent incidents that occurred last first term, and a lot of our classmates are particularly interested in the Swimming Club."
Would I ever team up with Jotaro and help him overcome an enemy? Not a chance in hell! The only reason I'd ever help an asshole like him would be against someone I already despise. ....someone like.... Him....
Wholly unfazed by his charm, the girl peered at him warily. "If ya came here lookin' for somethin' juicy," she trailed off, allowing the rest of her threat to remain implied.
Gin, for his part, just retrieved his notepad and a pen. "Rest assured," he said as an utter professional, "that I'm only interested in the truth, miss...?"
"....Seto," the girl eventually replied. "Sun Seto."
Sensing that she wouldn't like it if he acted familiar, Gin decided to keep things formal. "Miss Seto," then. "I'll be blunt: it's a matter of public record that the previous captain of the Swimming Club, Tamao Ichinose, was just using the club as a way to lure males into a trap so she and her cohorts could feed on them. Since you're the new captain of the Swimming Club, I'd like to get your opinion on this, as well as a comment on where you plan to take the club from here. If you please?"
Sun's response was both immediate and
passionate. "
Ichinose's behavior was a complete disgrace to all Mermaids! As a proud Seto mermaid, it's my responsibility to restore honor both to my species and to Youkai Academy's Swimming Club!"
Swaying in the breeze as if she were in the climactic scene of some old-school period TV drama, Sun's eyes were practically
blazing with the depths of her feelings! "I swear on my
life that anyone who wishes to join the Swimming Club is welcome to do so
without fear of harassment, endangerment, predation, or anything else! And if this vow should ever be broken, I shall gladly restore the club's honor by committing seppuk-MPH!!"
A scrawny boy with black hair, about the same age as Sun, had clamped a hand over her mouth. "What the captain
means to say is that we know our predecessors did some really horrible things," he said in a hurry, "but we refuse to let those mistakes be repeated in the future. Is there anything else you needed?"
To Sun, the boy whispered a little too loudly for Gin not to overhear: "Sun, I know you're passionate and that's great, but could you
please stop talking about killing yourself?"
Gin chuckled, before concluding his notes for this session. "Thanks, you two," he said with a slight grin. "I believe I have everything I need for the moment."
As Gin left the pair to their little
moment together and made his way toward the Wrestling Club, he still couldn't help the shiver that went down his spine. "If it weren't for the girl's thick backwoods accent," he mused, "I almost could've sworn I was talking to Moka and Tsukune...."
'Gin, don't you ever feel like you're not recognized? Like you deserve a trophy, or an award or something?'
Scoffing as he thought about the last question that had been directed at him, Gin smirked. "Fame's never been a concern of mine," he said to himself. "Maybe I don't want a
quiet life, but I don't do this for fame, either. I run the school newspaper and try to spread [the truth] because...."
His smile was small, and sincere enough that most people who knew him would've thought it belonged on someone else's face.
Because it reminds me of her.
__________________
Newspaper Clubroom....
"Okay," Tsukune said as if the ending of the previous update literally had never happened, "here's someone asking about.... ways of humans turning into monsters?"
Kurumu blinked. "Why would anyone want to do
that?"
Moka frowned cutely, thinking about it. "Maybe it's someone who feels like humans and monsters can't coexist, but doesn't like the idea of just killing people, either. And... I know that injecting someone with vampire blood repeatedly could potentially turn them into another vampire, but there's also a serious risk that they'd turn into a ghoul instead." With a somber shake of her head, she admitted, "I'd never wish something like that on
anyone."
"
Well," Yukari piped up as if she felt a recurring need to make herself relevant, "there are actually a few different monster species with mutagenic bodily fluids. Werewolves have their saliva, for example, which can transform someone they bite into another werewolf. This, along with their innate spiritual power, is part of why Vampires and Werewolves are considered to be S-Class Monsters -- the most powerful races in the world. Additionally," she continued, "there are different magic rituals all over the world that can revive dead or dying people as different varieties of zombies, and there are probably other kinds of transhumans that I don't know about yet."
After a moment's pause, she decided that she had something else she wanted to add. "Although if any such transformation took place, the former human would obviously be unable to use Hamon if they could do so originally. Well, not without cremating themselves alive, anyway."
"Hey," Tsukune observed as he read another letter, "this looks like another question that's right up your alley, Yukari."
Greedily devouring the contents, Yukari tilted her witch hat to one side in thought. "A form of matter and energy manipulation caused purely by harnessing the rotational force of finite and often handheld objects? Hah! That's a good one, maybe they can take this [Spin] idea and get it approved for a late-night F-list TV show."
"...for the sake of completion," Moka asked, "would you maybe elaborate on that?"
Yukari fixed her idol with a flat look. "Moka, dear, I love you and Tsukune both.... but do you
really want us all to sit here for six hours while I lecture about how geometry, physics, and even magic
do not work that way?"
"...not really," she sheepishly admitted.
When no one at the table offered a dissenting opinion, they decided to move on.
______________________
As Gin turned the corner, he tried to jump back in alarm from the zombie chick reaching out for him.
'Tried to', because she already had both hands on the collar of his jacket by the time he was ready to take a step, and she'd turned and shoved him against the brick wall. There might've been a pretty face under the makeup, Gin decided, but as it stood now?
She looked like a demented KISS fan that lived in a dumpster.
Constantly twitching and jittering, as if she had only the bare minimum control over her own body, she got much further into Gin's personal space than he really wanted her to. After a moment, he realized:
I've seen this before. She must've been a human who got turned into a revenant. Poor thing's screwed no matter where
she goes.
"The hive demands.... a
rematch. We
know you're in his class," the girl spat out in a ghostly groan. "We... want....
Kujo!"
At this development, Gin couldn't help but
grin. "I take it that you're the new captain of the Wrestling Club, right? Let me guess, Jotaro Kujo - an outsider who isn't even an athlete - humiliated the club back when Chopper was running it, and you want to vindicate the club by kicking his ass?"
The newly-identified Wrestling Club Captain's response was to push a little
harder, driving Gin into the wall and officially causing property damage. Oh well, Gin had seen other students do a hundred times worse and get away with it. Still, it wasn't getting any easier to
breathe in this state, so....
"Okay! I promise! I'll tell Kujo that the Captain of the Wrestling Club wants a piece of him, got it?"
The girl's entire body spasmed, then, releasing Gin and dropping him to the ground. As he took the moment to experience great big gulps of
FRESH AIR, he got a chance to further examine the girl and saw that she had written several words on exposed parts of her body. VENGEANCE and DEATH were present, and
DECAY featured prominently in a couple of places, but on her upper arms were two that stood out by being unusual: ROSE, MARY.
"...and just between you and me," he added with a weary smirk, "I hope you kick his ass so badly he never shows his face at Youkai Academy again."
Rosemary grinned, showing teeth. Gin suddenly found it much harder to continue smiling.
__________
Kurumu blinked. "...does anyone know if there's a monster race called 'Rock Humans'?"
"That's a random question," Moka observed. "And if there is, it isn't one I've heard of."
Yukari nodded, propping her chin on one hand. "I've never seen any mention of a race like that in the library, either, and I've read a pretty good percentage of what's in there...."
Sharing glances around the room, Tsukune asked, "So the official answer is that we don't know? ....okay then, we officially do not know."
Peering through much of the remaining questions, a vein popped in his forehead. "....aaaaaaand it looks like a lot of what's left is from Moka's admirers."
"We covered Succubi last episode," Kurumu muttered with a bemused smile. "Might as well do Vampires this time."
"Hold up Tsukune," Yukari said as she looked through the indicated letters in greater depth. "It looks like a lot of these have to do with human literary culture as well, so we'll need your meager expertise too!"
Indignant, Tsukune mouthed 'meager?!', but ultimately let it pass. "Okay then, it looks like fact vs fiction regarding famous movie and book vampires. Can you turn into a bat or other forms, Moka?"
The vampire in question blinked. "I can't, and I've never heard of a vampire in real life who can completely change their form into something else. At most, it's rumored that exceptionally powerful vampires can control their own blood, but I think that's pretty much it. What's the next question, Tsukune?"
Tsukune read the letter, before cracking up in a smirk. "'Where," he quoted, "'did Bram Stoker get the stones to write Alucard - the legendary fiend that was defeated by the Three Dark Lords - as a hairy-palmed old man who got killed by a bunch of random schmucks with nineteenth-century tech?'"
Moka, Kurumu, and Yukari shrugged, before Kurumu smirked. "I guess he was born with them?"
Moka rolled her eyes at the comment. "Well, given that Alucard was long since defeated and is never coming back, who really would've cared?"
"Although that does make me curious," Yukari admitted. "Not about Dracula, but the other famous literary vampire, Carmilla. I know she's based on the historical Elizabeth Bathory, but I've never gotten around to researching her myself. Is it true that she turned into a vampire from bathing in the blood of virgin girls?"
Moka furrowed her brow in thought. "I don't know for sure, but I was always told that a Vampire murdered her during one of those bloodbaths as punishment for wasting blood."
That got Kurumu's attention, causing her to turn in surprise. "Really? Because when I was a little girl, my mother told me that she turned into a Succubus, and then died of a broken heart when her chosen lover rejected her because of her sins."
_________________
Stretched languidly on a sofa in the dimly-lit room, the blonde moved his Queen several spaces to the side. "'Do my flesh buds work on monsters', you ask?"
The lips that so many women had given their lives to embrace, curled up into an amused smirk. "What an unusual question, Enrico."
Feeling chastised, the priest in training hung his head in embarrassment. "I deeply apologize," he said as he maneuvered one of his rooks to protect his King. "I didn't mean to question your powers, I was just... curious, I suppose."
The mass of pure muscle and sensuality rippled, before it emerged as honest, amused laughter. "More than a few creatures have underestimated the power that I, DIO, possess."
With a self-assured sneer, he took the offending piece with his bishop: checkmate. "By all means," he said with a casual gesture to the werewolf corpse that Pet Shop was even now dining upon, "let them continue to do so."
<---------- [TO BE CONTINUED]
