The Dark Forest was a different place at twilight.
During the day, it was merely unsettling, you could see a stretch of twisted trees and thick underbrush that smelled of damp earth and old leaves. At night, it became something else entirely. The shadows deepened, pooling between the roots like liquid darkness. The wind whispered through the branches, carrying sounds that might have been animals or might have been something worse.
Yukari walked quickly, her wand clutched in her hand, her hat pulled low over her eyes. She had taken this path a dozen times before, always during daylight. She had not realized how different it would feel at dusk.
A twig snapped behind her.
She stopped and looked back. Nothing. Just shadows and trees and the fading light.
She walked faster.
Then she heard another sound, the rustling of leaves much closer than before, and this time she was certain it was not the wind.
She tightened her grip on her wand. Her heart pounded in her chest.
Three figures emerged from the shadows ahead. They were the same lizardmen from the rankings, their monstrous yokai forms now fully revealed. The class representative still had a bandaged stump where his arm used to be, and his scales glistened in the fading light while his eyes burned with cold fury.
"Did you think we would forget, little bitch?" His voice was venomous, each word dripping with hatred. "You humiliated us. Do you think that by joining that bastard's club, we will forget? You all think you are above us."
Yukari stepped back, her heel catching on a root, and she felt horror as those classmates who usually wore their human forms now revealed their monstrous yokai shapes. She stumbled but caught herself.
"Stay away from me! I am part of the Newspaper Club now. Tsukune‑san will come for me!"
The lizardmen laughed. It was a harsh, ugly sound.
"He is not here," the class representative said. "No one is here. This is outside the Academy grounds. This is the perfect location for venting, for fighting without restraints, and who knows, maybe for eating a juicy piece of human meat? There are no teachers to interfere, and that arrogant bastard Aono will not get involved in our business. No one to save you."
One of his cronies cracked his knuckles while in his lizardman form, licking his lips with malicious intent and revealing the razor‑sharp teeth and long tongue of a lizard. "We just want to have a little conversation. Maybe teach you some respect."
Another drew a crude knife from his belt, its blade glinting in the dim light. "Or maybe we take something from you. An eye. A finger. Something you will not forget."
Yukari raised her wand, but her hands were shaking.
"Back away! If you think I am just a little girl, you are mistaken. I know how to use magic to hurt you!"
The class representative sneered, his scales catching the faint light. "Oh, we are so scared. What are you going to do, wench? Turn us into frogs? Make us dance? Your magic is nothing but parlor tricks. You are nothing without those tricks, only a worthless human."
Another lizardman laughed. "Look at her shaking. She cannot even hold her wand steady."
The third added, "Maybe she will cry. That would be entertaining to watch."
Her magic flickered at her fingertips, weak and unfocused. She had never been good at combat spells. Her strengths were in research, in analysis, in the quiet work of the mind. But none of that mattered now.
The class representative stepped forward. "Hold her down."
The cronies moved to grab her.
Yukari screamed.
A bolt of purple energy shot from her wand, wild and unfocused. It struck a tree branch overhead, splintering the wood but not hitting any of the lizardmen. The branch crashed to the ground, and the lizardmen laughed again.
"Pathetic. This is why witches have no place in our yokai circles. Who even gave you damned renegades the right to stand side‑by‑side with us? You are just a bunch of dirty humans with some mana."
One of them grabbed her arm. His grip was like iron, and she could not break free. Her wand clattered to the ground.
The class representative raised his clawed hand, his eyes gleaming. "This is for my arm."
A voice cut through the darkness. Cold. Calm. Unmistakable. All around the lizardmen and Yukari, a vast wave of blood mist began to surround them, and when the class representative attempted to move, he froze as three ghostly hands bound him in place.
"I would not do that if I were you."
The lizardmen froze, especially the class representative, who saw the Vampire Ghosts laughing at him and whispering all sorts of words, all carrying a single message: they were about to become a sacrifice to the "Blood King."
One ghost drifted close to the class representative's ear, its hollow voice a whisper of death. "Blood King demands your essence. You will feed his power. You will be forgotten, like the worm you are."
Another ghost circled the lizardman with the knife, its translucent fingers tracing his scales. "The King's blade hungers. Your essence is a due tribute to our King."
The third ghost hovered above them, its form flickering like a candle in the wind. "No escape. No mercy. Only darkness awaits. We shall usher in the return of the Vampire Kingdom."
The class representative tried to move, but the ghostly hands held him fast. His scales paled. His breath came in ragged gasps.
They turned toward the center of the blood mist as it condensed into the form of Tsukune, who severed the arm holding Yukari using his dark clawed fingers. The limb fell to the ground with a wet thud, and the lizardman stumbled back, screaming.
Yukari, who had tears in her eyes when she saw that Tsukune had actually come for her, could not stop crying as she held tightly onto his body.
She did not even feel scared by the current form Tsukune had revealed, with his black hair now turned white and devil‑like wings at his back. His eyes were crimson, glowing in the dark of the forest. His fangs were visible, sharp and white against his pale skin. The darkness around his feet rippled, as if something was moving beneath the surface, waiting to be unleashed.
The class representative sneered, though his voice wavered. "Aono. You are alone. There are three of us. You cannot stop us all."
Tsukune stepped forward after placing Yukari down from his arms. He revealed a malicious smile that showed his protruding vampire fangs. "You think I am alone?"
He revealed his Sacred Gear as a sea of shadow wrapped around them, swiftly settling in the form of a dark portal that could summon an army of chaos to subjugate any of his foes.
"I do not need them to stop you at all. In fact, why even bother explaining things to a dead lizard?"
His voice was flat. No anger. No threat. Just indifference at the statement of a fact.
The lizardmen charged when they felt Tsukune's revealed yoki begin to rise from B‑tier to something higher, maybe A‑tier, and then it increased further, bringing the lizardmen to their knees as if it was approaching a pinnacle they would never be capable of grasping.
Enraged by yet another humiliation, the class representative forced himself up and lunged at Tsukune, swinging his claw at Tsukune's throat with his remaining arm extended, his scales gleaming.
Tsukune did not dodge. He caught the lizardman's wrist, twisted, and snapped the bone with a sound like breaking a dry branch.
The lizardman screamed, his face contorted with agony. "My arm!"
"That is what you call an arm? In my eyes, it is just a crafting material for a trinket."
Tsukune shoved him back and drew All‑Black from his shadow, opening another portal toward the Abyss where the Necrosword remained while not feasting on the living. The Necrosword materialized in his hand, its blade dark as void, its edge hungry. The weapon pulsed with malevolent energy, and the shadows around it seemed to writhe.
The second lizardman lunged, his knife aimed at Tsukune's chest.
Tsukune sidestepped. The blade flashed.
[You have slain a Lizardman (C‑tier), gaining a part of its essence.]
The lizardman's head separated from his body. It hit the ground with a wet thud, rolling once, twice, before coming to a stop against a tree root. The body followed a moment later, collapsing in a heap.
The third lizardman froze. His eyes were wide, his scales pale. He dropped his knife and raised his hands.
"Please! I surrender! I will do anything!"
Tsukune looked at him. His crimson eyes were cold, unreadable. "You threatened a child. You drew a weapon. You were part of a plan to hurt someone who could not defend herself. And now you want mercy?"
The lizardman begged. "I was following orders! It was his idea!" He pointed at the class representative, who was still clutching his broken wrist, his face pale with shock and pain.
Tsukune glanced at the class representative. "You."
The class representative tried to run. He scrambled to his feet, his legs pumping, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Tsukune's hand shot out. A chain of blood erupted from the shadows, wrapping around the lizardman's ankle. He crashed to the ground, his face hitting the dirt.
"Please." His voice was choked, desperate. "Spare me. I will leave the Academy. I will never bother anyone again."
Tsukune knelt beside him. "You threatened someone under my protection. You do not get to walk away."
He drove All‑Black into the lizardman's chest.
The body convulsed once, twice, then stilled.
[You have slain a Lizardman (C‑tier), gaining a part of its essence.]
Tsukune stood, his blade dripping. He turned to the remaining lizardman, who had collapsed to his knees, his hands pressed together in prayer, his reptile face wet with tears.
"People think that I am some charity maker? I only spared Gin because he was more useful to me alive than dead. Who would pass up drinking daily pure‑blooded werewolf blood? But you? What can you give me?"
He tilted his head, letting the silence stretch.
"Nothing. You are useless to me if I keep you alive. You can always run and tell anyone what happened here, but it would not make a difference. I am no longer afraid of facing the worst that can come at me."
He released his grip on All‑Black. "All‑Black, this one is all yours."
The Necrosword did not fall. It hovered in the air for a moment, pulsating with dark energy. Then it began to change. The blade elongated, widened, and the darkness around it coalesced into something solid, something terrible. A massive jaw formed, lined with rows of shadowy teeth. The maw opened wide enough to swallow a man whole, and the lizardman's screams were cut short as the dragon's maw closed around him.
There was a crunch, a wet, grinding sound, and then silence.
[You have slain a Lizardman (C‑tier), gaining an insignificant amount of essence.]
[Interference has been detected.]
[Cannot collect the lost essence of the slain target.]
---
Tsukune dismissed All‑Black. The sword dissolved into shadow, returning to whatever void it had come from. He let out a slow breath and walked toward Yukari.
She was huddled against a tree, her knees drawn to her chest, her body trembling. Her hat had fallen off, and her wand lay on the ground where she had dropped it. Tears streaked her cheeks.
He reverted back to his human form while stepping toward her. He knelt in front of her, his eyes fading from crimson to brown. His fangs retracted. He kept his voice soft.
"Are you hurt, Yukari‑chan?"
Yukari shook her head. Her voice was barely a whisper. "You… you killed them."
"I did."
"Why?"
"Because they would have killed you. Or worse." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "Because they were monsters who wanted to do bad things to you. And because I can. It is that simple. Not everything is as in fairy tales. You should know better as an inhabitant of this twisted supernatural world. Kill or be killed. A world where the definition of the law of the jungle applies to the letter."
Yukari stared at him as he talked with what she could perceive as bitterness. Her tears slowed, and he wiped them with his spotless hand. "You saved me again."
"That is what I do for those who become part of my family." He stood and offered her his hand. "Come on. Let us get you back to the dorms without further incidents."
She took his hand.
As they walked, Yukari looked back at the clearing. The bodies were already dissolving into ash, as if some devouring beast had consumed everything, leaving no traces for those investigating the "murder."
"Will anyone find out?" she asked.
"No." Tsukune's voice was quiet. "No one will miss them. And even if they do, they will not find anything to link it to me. As they boasted, in this forest, all secrets are kept, and any fight is looked at with a blind eye even if it results in death."
Yukari was silent for a moment. Then, softly, "You are not like how I imagined you to be, Tsukune‑san."
"Is that so? Then how have you imagined me to be?"
"Weak, since I heard the rumors that you were a human just like me. Also, a bit of a dummy for coming to such a place. Yet still a good person at heart."
"You got two out of three wrong, Yukari‑chan. All of it is propaganda, aside from the fact that I am a good person."
They walked in silence. The forest grew darker, but Tsukune's presence was a shield. Yukari felt safer than she had in months since attending the Yokai Academy.
---
At the edge of the forest, near the girls' dormitory, Tsukune stopped.
"The girls' dorm is just ahead. I cannot get too close, or Madame will start chasing after me, demanding that I pay for the property destruction caused by that idiot dog. You will be safe from here."
Yukari turned to him. "Tsukune‑san… thank you. For everything."
"You are part of the club now. That means you fall under my protection. No matter what you do, I will always have your back."
Yukari blushed. "I… I will do my best. To be useful."
"You already are." He reached out and patted her head gently. "Now go. Get some rest. It has been a long day for you, for sure."
Yukari nodded and ran toward the dorm. She stopped at the door and looked back.
Tsukune was already gone, vanished into the shadows.
She whispered, "My hero."
Inside her room, she lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Her heart was still racing, but not from fear.
'Maybe this Academy is not so bad after all.'
She closed her eyes and, for the first time in months, slept without nightmares of gruesome monsters coming to eat her, all because she had her vampire guardian watching over her nights.