The protection committee was a rightly feared force at Yokai Academy, with all of their members being vicious, sadistic, the sort of person who seeks out power because they intend to abuse it, rather than the much rarer "I want to help people" type who normally get crushed by the former.
Their leader was an honest to God S-Class monster, and that certainly didn't hurt. Even in the rare event they found themselves facing someone strong enough to fight back, he'd be more than enough to put them down by himself. So what did he need the others for? Well, he could hardly be <i>everywhere</i> and why would you bring a tank to squash cockroaches?
But here's the thing about things that you fear. You either fear them because they are big and obvious, born from instinctive reaction to a great big bear lumbering towards you tripping your flight or fight (seriously though it'll be the former) response... Though you can also be afraid of the things you do not see. The camouflaged bear lurking in the bush, waiting to pounce out and drag you away.
In the real world, the response to the latter is likely what gives rise to monsters in our imagination. The vampires coming to suck your blood in the middle of the night. Ghosts invisibly hovering and judging you for your taste in porn.
Then there was this shadowy group, who lurked within the very depths of Yokai Academy. A group of minions, overlooked by others for their role in menial tasks, who nonetheless kept things moving. Kept things flowing. Like cogs in the machine, if they were taken out then it would simply stop functioning outright.
"So what are we going to do about that boy now?" asked a tall, thin figure, who had an ethereal beauty about her, and a long thin pair of ears. Though indeed, all aspects of her appearance could be described the same way. Her face, her nose, her body, her fingers. Yet there was no question about her beauty despite this elongated effect. She simply radiated it, and damn your own eyes for trying to tell you any differently. Such is the power of the glamour from an Elf. "Confronting him directly when he's already this powerful seems ill advised."
"Not to worry," said a younger girl, though we had already met her. This was Annie, an assistant at the library. "I've already tipped off the protection committee that he's joined the Newspaper Club. After what happened last year, they're bound to investigate -"
"Beg your pardon," another voice interrupted. "Don't they have a couple of pretty young things in the committee? What if they send one of them to investigate, and he winds up adding them to his harem?"
Yes, indeed, this shadowy group was powerful within the school... But they weren't exactly great at this sort of thing. Casually crushing your random yokai? Sure. Planning out a way to take down a specific monster type that uses social guile and manipulation to get what they want? Not so much. Usually dropping off a quick tip to the protection committee was an excellent idea. They'd rip anyone even thinking of opposing their rule to tiny pieces, but Tsukune was a whole other kind of threat that needed a little bit more care and consideration.
"... I suppose we keep them from going to the newspaper club?" Annie weakly suggested. Then, more confidently added "Yes, that is exactly the right thing for us to do! Give those girls other tasks, keep them busy, and force the boys to look into it. That way, the Harem Knot will be properly disposed of once and for all!"
The fact that this would take more work than dealing with him themselves hadn't really occurred to them quite yet. Oh well. They still had room to learn.
<hr>
So those were the monsters that lie in the dark, who use imagination and shadows to make you scared of them. In the light - not quite so scary. Yet there were also monsters in the real world as well. Predators big enough to worry humans, like wolves and sharks. Then there were the smaller creatures who we fear almost irrationally - or perhaps in part due to venom. Who could ever forget mankind's common unwarranted fear of spiders?
Not one lunatic brunette called Keito, that's for sure. The grin on her face was like the spider that caught the fly, and she should know, as she was en route to a delicious dinner that very moment.
"Ah, pardon me? Aren't you with the protection committee?" a faculty member said. A woman with wild hair, the sort that defied attempts to tame it. Tall and lithe, with lengthy limbs, though Keito noted that she was still quite pretty. "Tsuchiya Kin, I am the school's therapist. Might you have a moment to spare? I believe we should be coordinating our efforts to reform troublesome youths."
Keito rolled her eyes. Therapists? Blegh. Pansies! The only thing worth having in terms of discipline was a good solid beatdown. Show the rogues their place in the world, grind their faces into the dirt and let them learn their place that way.
Still. The bitch was faculty. So she faked a polite smile and said "Certainly, let us discuss this later on. At the moment I am in the middle of investigating the Newspaper Club -"
And then, the bitch had the temerity to put her hand on Keito's shoulder.
"I cannot let you go there," Tsuchiya said, fangs starting to show out of the corner of her mouth, and her eyebrow twitching quite violently. "I really do not think it would be a good idea for you to go to that club right now. Could you please send one of your... male members over instead?"
"Oh, what's this?" Keito said. "I heard that in the human world, people like Queen Victoria were against women having the vote. Could it be that you're a woman of the modern age who believes that women are weak and cannot defend themselves?"
"That is not what I -" Tsuchiya said, but was quickly interrupted.
"I am fully aware they are headed by a werewolf, and have no fear, I can tackle him if he gets handsy. Even though werewolves are S-Class monsters, I have no fear of them. Mangy mongrels, ruled by instinct instead of reason."
Tsuchiya let her hand off Keito's shoulder and took a deep breath. Then removed her glasses, polished them, put them in her pocket and oh my gosh that was a lot of hair and fangs and <i>shit!</i>!
"I wasn't asking!" said the werewolf in front of her. "A pretty young thing like you can't be allowed to meet the Harem Knot! Who knows what evils he has planned at this very moment!"
<hr>
At that very moment, Tsukune was seated between Moka and Kurumu, with Yukari leaning over his shoulder, all three girls watching him intensely while Gin stewed in the corner of the room, biting on his thumb as he watched with envy and intrigue. Would he do it? Could he do it? Did he have what it takes to -
"Um, is this layout alright?" Tsukune asked, holding aloft a sheet of paper showing a perfectly serviceable front page format for a newspaper. Plenty of space for the headline, including a photograph to draw the eye. Some side sections advertising the new columns they'd be printing, and along the top was an extra space which would include a picture of the club. They hadn't taken it yet, but it was a pretty good idea.
Gin studied it carefully. Then nodded in approval. The girls all leaped up, cheered, and then hugged Tsukune. Rather than Gin. Oh well. It was nice to see them like this. While he was a bit jealous, the sight was too wholesome not to tug at his heartstrings.
Ah, seeing people getting along, what could be better?
<hr>
It was funny, but Keito had been in the mood for a good throwdown today. Against a member of faculty, though? Not on the cards! She immediately went full monster form, unleashing all eight of her spindly hair legs from her chest and spitting out gobs of webbing all over the corridor. Naturally, the other students fled right away. Even more naturally, the werewolf therapist was far too fast for her to hit, resulting in her getting knocked to the floor.
"I'm doing this for your own good, foolish girl! You know not what you tangle with!"
"Quite an unusual therapy program you have," Keito said, then tugged on a piece of webbing stuck to the ceiling above to lift them both into the air, trapping the werewolf against the ceiling. "Unfortunately, I still have to decline."
Unfortunately, that just meant they were both stuck now. The werewolf had a stronger grip than she was expecting, apparently fiercely determined not to let her go. Still, if she thought this would be enough to keep her contained then she had another thing coming!
"Ah, Keito? You seem to be a little stuck," said an annoying voice on the ground. There was a bespectacled boy down there. "I just so happened to be coming by, and it seems you are in a fight with a faculty member."
"This interfering idiot is trying to stop me from reaching the Newspaper Club!" Keito yelled. "Get me down from here, so we can make her need therapy instead!"
"Tut tut tut, oh dear, oh dear, the youth of today simply won't listen to their elders," muttered a grubby little creature wearing overalls and thick yellow gloves. "Tsuchiya, we did tell you that you should keep that temper in check. How are you supposed to be a therapist if you can't control that?"
"You're one to talk," said another voice. A large, overweight woman wearing a food stained apron, a smock and a hairnet. "Being a gardner at a school where all the plants are already dead? That's a joke."
"Almost as much a joke as your cooking," the gardener said.
And then, a snotty looking librarian entered the scene. The same one that had dropped off the information about the newspaper club in the first place! "If you're quite done squabbling? Murayama, wasn't it? Why don't you take on the newspaper club instead? I think it would be better for us all if it was you that went instead of her."
"And why might that be?" asked Deshiki Deshi, another member of the protection committee, who was standing side by side with Sato, a tall haired boy who was watching with his usual sadistic enjoyment. "The more you deny her, the more I want to check it out myself!"
"That, I'm afraid we cannot permit!" said an extremely snooty lady with harsh angular features and a clipboard under her arm. Wasn't this one of the school's secretaries? "Really now, why is it that the young so often think they know better than their elders?"
It's funny how things can quickly escalate, isn't it? Now, the two groups that should be the most feared in the academy were squaring off.
On one side, the Protection Committee, comprising a spider woman, a golem, a cerberus and a Jiang shi. On the other, the much less well known but no less frightful Minion Association, involving a werewolf, a goblin, an elf, a salamander and a henchperson(read: Igor).
Each of them was frightening in their own way. One wielded obvious power, the other less obvious. While Keito had no idea what the hell was going on, it seemed that a brawl was inevitable. Well, that was fine by her. Even if she can't sink her teeth into the Newspaper Club yet, their time would come soon enough!
<hr>
"Cheese!" the whole group said, for that mysterious reason that nobody could quite place. Could it really be so simple that the elongated 'e' in the middle of the word causes people to smile when said in that way? No, it couldn't be that simple surely.
In any event, the newspaper club members were currently taking their picture. All huddled up together, with Tsukune in the middle, Moka and Kurumu to either side, Yukari in front of Tsukune, and Gin at the back with his hands on both Moka and Kurumu's shoulders to bring them all together.
Once the picture was taken, Kurumu and Moka kept on clinging to Tsukune's arm and slipped away from Gin. Honestly, Tsukune still felt a little bit giddy. All this preparation they were doing was quite relaxing compared to all the sex and being attacked and the sex and the - You know what, let's not focus on that for the time being.
"So... what now?" Tsukune asked.
"Now?" Gin smirked. "Now, we start hunting for stories."
"What if we don't find anything?" Moka asked. But Gin merely laughed at that.
"Don't worry, don't worry! That's one thing you'll learn quickly. If you can't find a story, it's because you're not looking hard enough. There's something happening every minute! All you have to do is look."
"Eh... I guess?" Tsukune said. Following this, Gin somehow managed to disentangle him from Moka and Kurumu and led him out towards the door. "Huh? You're coming with me?"
"Sure, sure! Us guys have to stay together, right?" Gin said. Which is how the two of them wound up wandering the school grounds together. After a couple of minutes, Gin sighed. "Those girls really are smitten with you, they're already following you like little lost puppies."
"I know," Tsukune said, nervously scratching the back of his head. "I think they're worried I'll catch the attention of another girl. Or something."
"Hah, ridiculous! What, do they think some babe is going to fall for you at first - unholy chicken mcnuggets, what happened here?"
That was an excellent question. What seemed to have happened was a fight. A big fight. There were several students strewn about the ground. One had skin like clay. Another had three heads, which were half dog and half human. Another was hopping around in circles, apparently despite themselves, around and around on a chalk circle but was otherwise unharmed, while the last was a girl who was face down -
<i>claim her.</i>
Tsukune was by her side in a heartbeat, turning over this purple haired girl. She seemed to be okay. Mostly. Had the living shit kicked out of her, but there wasn't any blood so far as he could see. A few scrapes, a few bruises -
"Why... do I smell bananas?" the girl whispered.
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