Dark Bloodlines

Disclaimer: All characters depicted in this story are fictional and any similarities to others is purely coincidental.

< >: Thoughts

Episode 2

School Days and Monster Nights

Sean sighed as he came home and went straight to his room. He immediately lay down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. As he lay in silence, he began going over the events of the last week since enrolling at Kuranitsu High School. At that moment, the phone in the hallway rang. Not wanting to get up, Sean decided to let the answering machine reply. His werewolf hearing however, instinctively tuned in on the call. He groaned when he heard who was the caller.

“Hello? Sean Logan? This is Shinosuke Sakara. I’m still waiting for you to say that you’ll join our swim team! The way you beat the school record at the 200 meter freestyle was awesome! Please call me back at…”

<How the HELL did he get my phone number?> Sean grumbled as he recalled that day. Though he had general control over his supernatural abilities, at times his non-human traits would express themselves and drive him to perform at his peak, even when it was more advisable to keep them under wraps. Unfortunately, that made him stand out more than he wanted.

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Flashback to Monday…

At the school’s main pool, the students gathered at the sides stared in amazement as they watched Sean shoot through the water like a torpedo. He was at least seventy meters ahead of his closest competitor and he swam completely underwater. Many wondered how he could hold his breath for so long, while the other swimmers were doing backstrokes, butterfly strokes and sidestrokes to keep their heads above water and take in air. They were making huge splashes to propel themselves, while Sean was swimming almost like a fish. By the time the others touched the opposite end and started to make the return trip, Sean was already at the finish line.

The coach gaped at his stopwatch, tapped its side to make certain it was functioning properly, then announced the time.

“Everyone, we now have a new school... and quite possibly an Olympic record time for the 200 meter freestyle!”

Everyone cheered and began crowding around the spot where Sean was still in the water. He then began to slowly slip down beneath the surface, hoping to hide himself.

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End of flashback…

Sean winced at the memory. He hadn’t meant to perform so well, but as soon as he hit the water, the traits he inherited from his great-great-grandmother Marina activated and took over. She had been a mermaid that his great-great-grandfather had married after finding the lost continent of Atlantis. As a result, Sean could breathe underwater and could swim at high speeds.

Then there was another time his paranormal powers put him in the spotlight, though he tried very hard to avoid it.

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Flashback to Tuesday…

Members of the basketball team were huffing and puffing hard as Sean easily weaved in and out, dodging their attempts to block him. His speed and agility was not to be believed. He then jumped up and seemed to float momentarily in the air as he slam-dunked the ball from over five feet above the rim.

As he came down, Sean looked around and saw the awestruck expressions of his classmates. He then remembered that it was supposed to be a practice exercise…. and he had already scored 40 points on his own. He gave them a sheepish look and pointed down to his feet.

“Uhhhh… it’s the shoes.”

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End of flashback…

Michael Logan’s son shook his head again. He couldn’t help it. When his blood got up, his werewolf speed, agility and endurance took over. When the class ended, the basketball coach was already counting the raise he would get after leading the team to the national high school championships. Provided of course, he convince Sean to join the team. Since then, he had been hounding the boy every day. And there were many similar instances in which he inadvertently displayed his physical prowess.

Of course, there were other times that his powers activated by themselves.

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Flashback to Wednesday…

Sean shook his head as he saw several of the boys trying to take a peek into the girls’ locker room. Using his keen hearing, he started to listen in on their conversations.

“Damn! They plugged up all the peepholes!”

“Looks like they’ve gotten wise to us!”

“If only we could see through walls!”

“Yeah, right! It’s not like we’re ghosts and we can go through walls and be invisible.”

The perverted trio shook their heads and left in disgust. After they had left, Sean approached the back of the building in which the girls’ locker room was on the other side, along with the girls’ showers. He then casually leaned against the walls and sighed.

Of course, his banshee mother had raised him properly and taught him to respect the privacy of others, especially females. He wouldn’t stoop to such perverted acts and…

“WHOOOOAAAAH!”

Sean immediately fell backward through the wall. However it had not collapsed, but rather the mixed-hybrid teen had phased through it. Realizing that his ghost powers had inadvertently activated themselves, he immediately concentrated to turn invisible. Just as he faded from view, several females turned his way. Just about all of them were in varying states of undress, with a couple of them nude.

“Did you just hear something Ayane?”

“I thought I heard a boy shout out.”

“No way, we sealed off all of those peepholes yesterday.”

“Stupid perverts!”

The girls then went back to changing clothes and taking showers. They didn’t notice a certain someone as he quickly exited the area.

A few minutes later, Sean reappeared in an unused storage room with one massive nosebleed.

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End of flashback…

Sean paused in this thoughts for a while, then shrugged. <Then again, there was that time I lost control of my banshee side…>

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Flashback to Thursday…

The windows of the science lab suddenly blew out, causing glass, metal and wooden shards to go flying in all directions. The walls of the building shuddered a bit as a shockwave rippled through the air, then expanded throughout the school grounds. Every student looked about after feeing the sudden air disturbance and high-pitched whine.

In the center of the devastated lab, Sean immediately hid himself among the throngs of confused classmates.

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End of flashback…

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Flashback to Friday…

Minasa screamed as the heavy load came hurtling toward her. The construction workers shouted out to her as the crane’s line snapped, causing the heavy steel girders to drop down toward the fear-paralyzed girl. However, just as she was about to be crushed by several tons of steel, a powerful figure streaked toward her and pushed her out of the way.

A thunderous impact was heard as heavy metal stuck the pavement. However, Minasa found her self flat on her back several yards from the impact area. Sprawled on top of her was her savior Sean Logan. With his lean but muscled body pressing up against her, she immediately blushed at the contact between them. Then she took on a confused expression for a moment and blinked her eyes as Sean pulled back and allowed her to sit up. Her friend Achiko came running up to them.

“Are you all right?”

She barely nodded her head as she continued to stare at his hair. She could have sworn it had been pure white a moment ago.

Sean let off a relieved sigh and remarked while leaning back. “Managed to get to you with two seconds to spare.”

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End of flashback…

Sean shuddered at the memory. If it had not been for his ability to foresee the imminent death of a person, then Minasa would have perished that day.

For the most part however, his supernatural traits had gotten at least a dozen sports teams after him and more than a few admirers among the girls. It’s not that he didn’t like the attention, but if they were to find out about his inhuman mixed heritage, who knew what would happen. There were already people from the occult and fortune-telling clubs who were investigating the strange events that were being sighted at the school.

Early on, Sean had detected the presence of several hundred minor yokai and other spirits in the area. Kuranitsu High School was reported to have been built on the site of an ancient Shinto Shrine, and as a result, was infamous for its numerous ghost sightings and paranormal activity. He didn’t want some student to stumble upon his secret, but his presence was causing the neighboring spirits to become more active. He made a note to check out the local phantasms and see if something could be done to lessen the activities of those poltergeists.

At that moment, he heard the front door open as his parents came home.

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Later at the dinner table…

“Mmmm. This is delicious dear.” Michael said as he took another bite of the sukiyaki his banshee wife had prepared.

Sheelin smiled at her husband’s praise. “I figured that I may as well learn to cook Japanese food while we’re living here.” She then turned her attention to her son, and noticed that he was picking at his food with a bored expression. “Sean? What’s wrong? Aren’t you hungry? Don’t you like the food?”

Sean looked up at his mother and shook his head. “Oh no, Mom. The food’s great, but I’m just not feeling much like eating.”

“Son, what’s wrong?” His father asked. “Did something happen to you at school in the last week?”

Their son paused for a long moment before letting off another tired sigh. Then he replied, “Well, you could say that.”

He started to explain the events of his first week of school and how his mystical powers have been giving him trouble and unwanted attention. His parents listened intently as he described every detail. At times, his father would chuckle a bit at his child’s predicaments, but still kept a serious mind about it.

As he finished with his story, Sean shook his head tiredly. “And I don’t really know what to do about all this. I’ve got at least a dozen of the sports clubs bugging me to join them.”

“Well, why don’t you?” Michael inquired. “It might be good for you to take part in some sports.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that I feel like I have too much an unfair advantage over the other players. It’s hard for me to keep my powers in check and I feel like I’m cheating.”

“It’s not cheating, my son.” His banshee mother insisted. “Cheating is when you’re not following the rules, and when you are using something other than your natural abilities.”

“That’s the problem, Mom. My natural abilities are just too… un-natural.”

“By human standards, yes.” His father agreed. “But you should never be ashamed of what you are and what you can do. Our family line has proudly upheld the Contract from its inception. Also, we have never been ashamed, to show those of the Other World, as to how much we are willing to promote the peace between Humankind and the Old Races. Our very bloodline is proof of our acceptance.”

“Yeah, well at times I really wish I was all human, instead of having just one percent.” Sean then got up and left his unfinished meal at the table.

Sheelin started to get up to follow her son, but was stopped as her husband put a hand on her right shoulder and shook his head, causing her to sit back down.

“Let him have some time alone for a while. I’m sure he’ll come around eventually.”

“This isn’t the first time he’s felt this way.” Sheelin pointed out.

“I know. I went through the same thing at his age. But eventually, I learned to accept it and the responsibility such power brings. But in time, I also learned that it can also bring joy as well. If it weren’t for my powers and my responsibility as a Contract Enforcer, then I would have never met a certain Irish beauty.”

Michael’s spouse blushed at the remark as she remembered back to the time they had met. Then she asked, “Do you think Sean will be all right?”

Michael nodded. “He’ll come around. I think that once he starts making friends and interact more with normal people, then he should come out of his depression.”

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Two weeks later…

“And now the official Sean Logan Fan Club will come to order.”

A tall girl with long black hair stood before a group of females consisting of freshmen, sophomores and seniors in one of the counsel rooms of the school. Her name was Ayane Kaisen and she was incidentally the class president of Sean’s homeroom. Like many others at Kuranitsu High, she had become quite smitten by the handsome transfer student, due to his incredible athletic ability and brooding demeanor. In fact, because of an incident in which Sean had saved her, she had become his dedicated admirer.

As she brought her group of fellow stalkers to order, Ayane took on a starry expression as she recalled when her valiant and brave Sean came to her rescue…

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Flashback to a week ago…

“Stay away from me!” Ayane screamed as she was being backed into a corner of the alleyway. In front of her, three street punks started to close in with leering expressions on their faces.

“Hey, don’t be like that.” One of the street toughs said as he started to reach for her. “We just wanna have a little fun.”

Ayane was pretty certain that their definition of fun was something she wanted no part of. However, she was outnumbered three to one, and had no avenue of escape. As she backed away, she tripped over a loose stone and fell backward onto her rear. She was about to scream in terror as the punks grabbed hold of her when one of them was suddenly pulled back and bodily tossed a distance of twenty feet. The other two turned in surprise and immediately received a pair of REALLY hard knuckle sandwiches to their faces.

Both went sprawling as if they had been hit by boulders, which in a sense they were. Sean looked down at his fists after Ayane’s attackers went down unconscious. He flexed his fingers a bit, then took a calming breath to power down his golem heritage, which had even more strength than his vampire traits. If one were to look closely, one would see that the skin of his hands had taken on a stone-like texture. His skin then returned back to normal as he reached down to help Ayane to her feet.

The class president looked up with a starry expression at her rescuer.

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End of flashback…

Ayane proudly displayed a blown-up photo of Sean on an easel stand, which had been taken by one of the new members who was also part of the Photography Club. The class president took on a dignified, yet adoring look in her eyes as she began describing the nature of the new club and about its idol.

“As you all know, Sean Logan is the talk of the school, and he is well-deserving of such praise.”

The other girls gave a rousing cheer in agreement.

Ayane smiled as she continued. “He’s handsome. He’s strong. He’s smart. He’s is the envy of all the sports teams and he has become the prince of Kuranitsu High School. And we as his attendants, must ensure that his nobility remains unsullied. It is our duty, no our privilege to serve him!”

There was another rousing cheer as Ayane worked the club into a frenzy.

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In other clubs, Sean was also the main point of interest as members schemed to entice him to join…

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The baseball club…

“Are you sure this reading is accurate?” Toya Kumo, captain of the baseball team, asked in amazement as he watched the video on the club’s tv.

The team shortstop, Hachiro Renko, nodded as he replayed the video. “We were recording the performances of the first group of tryouts for the team. We asked this guy to throw back a ball that got knocked toward the parking lot. And the radar gun had tracked the ball speed!”

The team watched in stunned silence as the video depicted Sean shrugging his shoulders, then picked up the ball and threw it casually toward the catcher. The player held out his mitt and let off a yelp as the ball impacted hard against his hand and drove him back until he hit the backstop. He let off a moan as he slowly slid down to the ground.

Then the screen displayed the radar gun’s readings.

“One hundred and nine miles per hour?! That’s almost a record breaker!” Toya gasped.

The shortstop nodded. “And the coach thinks he could have easily broken the record if he really tried. Kyoske got a sprained hand, and he had extra padding in that glove. The coach really wants this guy.”

“I can see why. A pitcher like that could smoke any batter with that kind of fastball. So what’s his name?”

“Sean Logan. He’s an American transfer student.”

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The soccer club…

“I’m telling you, if we had Sean Logan as one of our forwards, we’d be able to make it all the way to the nationals!”

“Are you sure he’s that good?” Hisoke Kunta asked. He was the captain of the team.

“I saw it myself!” Kenta Renshiro replied. He was one of the team’s linemen. “We asked him to kick back one of the practice balls toward the goal. He kicked it back like a cannonball. Akira couldn’t even come close to stopping it and you KNOW how good a goalie he is!”

“It could have been a lucky shot.”

“No way!” Kenta denied. “When we saw that first kick, we thought it was a fluke too! So we asked him to kick it past Akira again. He put TWENTY shots past him!”

“Whoa! He actually scored that many goals?”

“Yeah, and that’s not all. We asked him to take part in a practice game with us and he ran circles around the entire team! We couldn’t stop him! He was just so fast and his endurance was incredible!”

“He sounds like a dream come true. So is he going to sign up with us?”

Kenta’s excitement over Sean’s abilities then lessened as he told his captain the bad news. “I’m afraid that he’s not interested in playing soccer for the school. He said that he only played with us for fun.”

“Well get after him! We can’t let a player that good slip through our fingers! If he’s all that you say he is, then I want him on the team by our next practice session!”

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The track and field team…

“Someone outran Genda?!” The coach said in disbelief after he was told the reason why his star runner was not attending practice that day.

Satora Hisota nodded as he explained what had happened. “Well, that’s what happened. Genda was bothering some girls when that new transfer student came along. You know how much of a jerk Genda can be. To get him to leave those girls alone, he challenged Genda in the 500 meter dash.”

“But Genda can’t have lost in the 500 meter.” The coach insisted. “That’s his best event and he holds the school record.”

“Not any more. That transfer student left him in the dust and beat his best time by three seconds.”

“So that’s the reason why Genda isn’t here now?”

“Yeah. He’s still sulking over the fact that someone beat him, and that new guy was still wearing his school uniform when he beat him.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then this new student just became Genda’s replacement.”

“But coach, he said he wasn’t interested in joining the track and field team. He just beat Genda to help out those girls.”

“The reason why he beat Genda and shook him up doesn’t matter. The fact is, if he’s fast enough to beat my best runner, then I want him on the team! What’s this boy’s name?”

“I think he’s named Sean Logan. He’s an American, so it shouldn’t be hard to find him.”

“Good. Have a team uniform set up for him. It shouldn’t take long for me to get him signed up.”

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The football team…

“What do you mean he won’t join up?!” Sentaro Fujin, captain of the football team, exclaimed.

Gin Linaka, one his linebackers, shrugged. “When we asked him to be our new running back, he said he wasn’t interested.”

“Do you realize that we have a chance to get to the finals with this guy? I’ve never seen anyone dodge and weave like that. And did you see his speed?”

“Yeah, I know. I heard he beat out Genda Tsukana of the track team yesterday.”

“He BEAT that loudmouth?”

“Yeah. And from what I heard, Tsukana didn’t show up for practice because he’s still sulking over the fact that the new guy beat him and his record.”

“Well anybody who could shut that jerk up is definitely all right in my book. I don’t care what it takes. Beg him! Bribe him! Whatever! I want Sean Logan on the team!”

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Later…

“Hey Minasa!”

Achiko’s friend waved to her friend as she approached her during the lunch hour. As the two friends sat down at a table, they began discussing about a certain transfer student who had been the subject of many gossipers.

“So have you heard the latest about Logan?” Achiko asked.

Minasa nodded as she replied, “Who hasn’t? It’s only been three weeks and just about all the sports teams are in an uproar because he refuses to join any of them. I’ve even heard rumors that the coaches are trying to convince the principal to force him to sign up for their teams.”

(incomplete)

Monster Powers

Mermaid: Able to breathe underwater, fast underwater swimming

Werewolf: Enhanced hearing, agility, endurance

Kiang Shi: Intangibility and invisibility (difficult to control)

Golem: High amount of durability and super-strength due to rock-like skin.