Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Chapter 7: Self-Righteous Suicide

• Angst, MCD

Ruby led the Newspaper Club into a vast, garishly-lit chamber deep within the bowels of Yokai Academy.  The air inside this chamber fairly crackled with energy, the tangible magic of maintaining the barrier between the monster and human worlds.  A faint rumble reminded the students that that barrier now stood on the edge of collapse.

Moka dashed to the center of the chamber, a raised, rectangular stone slab etched with arcane carvings.  Her eyes immediately fell on a particular area on the surface – a small, crucifix-shaped niche, into which was set a rosary similar to her own.  The rosary had bent out of the socket, and the gem in its center had shattered, scattering fragments all over the surface of the altar.

The vampire brushed her fingers along the warped metal with one hand; the other clutched the rosary around her neck.  “Tsukune!” she called.  “I need you!  Hurry, before, it’s too late!”  With all the strength available to her, Moka yanked the damaged rosary out of its socket.

Tsukune ran up to join her beside the dais.  “Are you planning what I think you’re planning?” the young man asked in a panic.

Moka nodded resolutely.  “My rosary… I think it can repair the barrier, Tsukune.  I need you to take it off me,” she explained.

“No way, Moka!  I won’t let you sacrifice yourself!” the young man protested, even as the whole building shuddered.  “There’s gotta be another way!”

“The Headmaster is working on a plan as we speak!” called Ruby from across the chamber.

“There’s no time!” protested Moka.  “The barrier will collapse if we don’t do something right now!”

“What about you, Moka?” asked Tsukune.

“Don’t worry about me, Tsukune,” Moka reassured him.  On impulse, she wrapped her beloved in her arms, her chin on his shoulder.  “As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters.”

“Moka…”

“Tsukune…”

With a lump in her throat, Moka guided Tsukune’s hand toward her bosom.  “I want to protect you, my love,” she whispered, not trusting her voice, “just like that other me does.  She’ll take care of you now… better than I can.”

Before the young man could protest, the vampire used his hand to release the rosary.  As the transfer process began, Moka placed the talisman into the niche in the altar.  The air crackled with energy again, but now it felt much less dangerous.  Runes in the floor illuminated themselves, bathing everyone in a soothing green glow.  A tangible pulse of magical energy leapt from the dais to stabilize the whole building.  Blinding light followed the pulse.

Once the light had faded, Tsukune opened his eyes to see Moka crumpled beside the now-inert stone slab.  The young man knelt beside her prone form and immediately noticed the silvery color of her tresses.  The human helped his beautiful vampire friend sit upright, though she clung to his shoulders for stability.  When Moka’s crimson eyes met Tsukune’s, he saw something he hadn’t seen from the aloof young woman before: regret.

“I… I’m sorry, Tsukune,” she murmured.  “I tried to stop her, but… she said she’d fight just as hard on your behalf as I do.”  The shell-shocked vampire’s gaze grew distant.  “She’s gone.”

~~~~~

Cold sweat covered Tsukune’s skin as he lunged out of bed, crying, “Moka!  DON’T!”  He panted as he ran a hand through his hair.  The darkness in his room felt as if it would smother him, suffocate him, swallow him whole.

“A nightmare,” he told himself.  “That’s all it was.”

The lie tasted bitter on his lips.  He knew better; that was no nightmare.  He’d stood and watched as the woman – one of the women – he loved sacrificed herself to save both the school and the human world.

“She’s gone,” he whispered to himself, his words leaking out into the darkness.  “She’s really gone.”

What happens now? he wondered.  Can I continue with this life, the way things have been moving forward without changing somehow?  I still have Mizore, Kurumu, and the other Moka; they’re all still here, and they still love me.

I don’t know about Yukari, either – she’s been returned to her younger, more childlike form.  He shook his head.  I still care about her, but how will she feel about things now?

Still, Tsukune’s thoughts dwelt upon the pink-haired beauty whose presence he now sorely lacked and sorely missed.  “She’s gone,” he repeated to himself in despair.

She did that for me, though, he reminded himself.  Moka said she wanted to protect me – and, by extension, my mom and dad and Cousin Kyoko.  She didn’t want the two worlds to collide and monsters to destroy the world.

Moka loved me, and I loved her.  What’ll I do now?  How do I move forward?  Tsukune stood and started pacing.  There’s no way I can choose among the others now; it wouldn’t feel right.  I’m stuck now, even more than before.

And how will the other Moka behave, now that it’s only her?  I can’t say I understand her well enough to even guess.  Visions of her beating the other girls up in order to drive them away from him danced through Tsukune’s head, though he dismissed them as soon as they arose.

“Still… she’s gone now,” he sighed, referring to outer Moka.  “Inner Moka will just have to deal, I guess.”

Tsukune stood beside his window and looked out over the silent campus, shrouded as it was in the clouded moonlight.  “It’s only been a few days,” he muttered to himself.  “Maybe, after a while, it’ll be okay.”

The thought settled comfortably on his shoulders, but not entirely so.  The young man hoped that he wasn’t just telling himself things would be okay to soothe the empty ache within his soul.  He replayed the images in his head, the memories from just a few days ago, over and over again. 

There really wasn’t any time to come up with another plan, was there? he realized.  The barrier would collapse at any moment.  Yokai Academy might have been destroyed, and monsters and humans would have clashed.  The bloodshed would’ve been… indescribable.

Moka did what she had to do to save us all.  She did a brave thing.  He shut his eyes to stem the flow of tears.  That doesn’t make it hurt less, though.

“I love you,” he whispered, his warm breath fogging up the cold glass of his window.  “Moka…”

If she were there with him, the pink-haired girl would have replied with his name.

“Moka,” Tsukune repeated, perhaps hoping deep down to summon her forth, so he could see her one last time.  No reply came, though none was truly expected.

Tsukune swallowed the lump in his throat.  “She’s really gone,” he croaked.

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A/N: And that, as they say, is that.  I hope everyone enjoyed, or at least appreciated, this little jaunt into a slightly different genre.  I don't think anything else I write for this R+V arc will be quite as weird, dark, or depressing as this.  That said, don't expect things to jump back to "light and fluffy" either.  As always, feedback - in the form of ratings, reviews, PMs, or posts on the discussion forum - is welcome, both for this chapter and for the story as a whole.

I don't know when I'll start on the next installment, but I hope it'll be ready to publish sometime this summer.  The next fic will be a one-shot, but I'm also in the middle of another project.  Time will tell.