The True Monster

Two New Girls

His dorm room was a square fifteen feet by fifteen feet. Included was a small closet, a sleeping mat, a desk with a single chair, and a small combination fridge / microwave. The best thing that could be said about the room was that it was a single. Having gotten Moka to her dorm he had finally made it back to his. He was dirty, tired, and still feeling bruised and battered. Seeing the sleeping mat he dropped his back pack and lay down. He was soon asleep.

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He had the dream again, or rather the nightmare. He could feel the ropes biting into his hands. He could hear them cursing him, their voices so filled with hatred and rage. He could hear his own screams, begging them to stop, asking them what he had done to deserve this, promising to do anything if they would just stop. And overpowering everything else was the smell of gasoline.

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"No, don't!" He screamed and sat up. His heart was pounding and he was breathing hard. His body was covered in a cold sweat. Waking up in the pitch black he needed a moment to figure out where he was.

That's right; I'm in my room at Youkai academy. It was all just a bad dream, I'm safe. It took him a moment to completely settle down. As he did so he reflected on what a strange thought that was. Here he was surrounded by monsters who would kill him if they learned he was human. Yet he found that less frightening than a dream.

Well, he knew there was no chance of going back to sleep tonight. He checked the watch that he hadn't bothered to take off his wrist. Even in complete darkness he could read the numerals that flashed 4:12 a.m. That was great, class didn't begin until 8. Tossing aside his blankest he stood up and did some quick stretches. His ribs no longer ached, his back had stopped throbbing, and his right shoulder seemed to be o.k. now. As he'd expected just a few hours rest had been enough for him to completely recover. Stumbling over to the door he found the light switch and turned it on. Opening up his back pack he took out a large grey sweat shirt and some track shorts. Since he had nothing better to do he would go do some early morning training.

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He ran five laps around the campus and then scouted out a good spot in the woods not too far from the dorm. There he did some basic exercises like jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups, and chin ups using a tree branch for a bar. What he really wanted to do was work on his taijutsu and fighting styles. Unfortunately he didn't have a sparring partner. I wonder if Moka would mind sparring with me? He wasn't sure if it was really proper for a guy to ask a girl to spar with him. Then again, she was a bad ass vampire. He had a sudden image of Moka standing there in a fighting stance with nothing but shorts and a tee shirt on. His heart beat immediately picked up at the mental image. Yeah, I definitely need to ask her about it.

In any case that was something for later. He decided to work on chakra control. He picked out the tallest tree and immediately ran straight up its side to the very top. When he got there he pivoted and ran all the way down to the ground where he repeated the process. Doing this with an actual tree was a first for him. Previously he had only ever done this exercise on the walls and ceiling of his apartment with all the windows drawn tight. Iruka had warned him that if anyone even suspected he could use chakra he would be forced to move again and start all over. So his chakra and jutsu training had always involved the highest degree of secrecy.

Here though the rules were different. If someone happened to spot him using chakra it would not be a problem. As a matter of fact, from his point of view it would be a good thing. After all, it would be proof he was some type of monster right? No ordinary human could run up and down the side of a tree right? In fact that thought gave him a good idea for later. Something that might be a little amusing and help him reestablish his reputation as a master clown / prankster. He was very glad that he and Moka were now true friends, but he still needed to establish himself with the rest of the school. He could not have cared less about people respecting or looking up to him, he just needed to fit in for the next three years. Having everyone see him as the lovable and unassuming class clown would make that easy.