Phantom + Vampire Disclaimer: What are you looking at me for? Danny Phantom and Rosario + Vampire all belong to someone else. Can I get back to writing again? < >: Thoughts Chapter 7 Heart of Ice (It’ll give you the chills) Lunch time at Youkai Academy… “Come on Danny! I made this lunch especially for you!” Kurumu declared as she held out a finely prepared bento. “Hold on, sister!” Nova interjected as she came up with a bento of her own to present to the ghost teen. “My boyfriend’s gonna be eatin’ my grub today!” “YOUR BOYFRIEND?!” The succubus exclaimed as she faced off against her rival. “SINCE WHEN?!” “Since now!” Nova insisted. “Danny Phantom is mine!” “Uh… would you mind not calling me that at school?” Danny asked, though he had a feeling that neither of them was paying any attention. Even though they were in a secluded area, he preferred to keep his alter ego a secret from the general school populace. Having others learning of his superhero status would also run the risk of exposing him as a human. “HE’S MY MATE OF FATE!” “HE’S GONNA BE MY MAN!” “LIKE HELL!” At that moment Kurumu shifted into her succubus appearance and bared her elongated nails. “YOU WANNA THROW DOWN, SISTER? CHECK OUT THESE CLAWS!” Nova shifted into her catwoman form and prepared to rip into her opponent. Danny tensed up as he prepared to transform and use his ghost powers to prevent the conflict. Just as the situation was about to escalate into an all-out brawl, two metal washtubs came out of nowhere and beaned both of the antagonists on the head. This caused them to fall facefirst to the ground in a daze. Fenton then looked over to one side and saw Moka, Akira, Clea and Yukari standing nearby. In her hands, the witch clutched her magic wand with both hands. Just as he was about to say something, he got a sudden chill down his spine when a cold breeze wafted past him. At first, he thought it had been his Ghost Sense going off, but he didn’t see a wisp of blue mist coming out of his mouth. He looked about and saw a familiar face hiding behind a large tree. He recognized the person as the one who had helped him against the School Police Committee. Before he could call out to her, his attention became diverted back to the bickering pair as they got up and started to yell at Sendo. “Damn it, that hurt!” “Yeah! What did you do that for?!” As they argued, he turned back to the tree and saw that the girl was gone. A little later… Danny and Ginei were currently shooting hoops in Gym Period when the American noticed something. For the past two weeks or so, the head Phys Ed teacher Kotsubo Okuto had not been seen. The assistant coaches had been the ones who had been leading the classes. “Hey Gin. Have you seen Okuto-sensei lately?” The werewolf took a shot at the free throw line and shrugged. “I haven’t seen him since the first few days of the semester. Although, I have been hearing some rumors about him.” “Like what?” “Well, mind you that I only heard this circulating around the sports teams while… uhm… you know doing the wash for the football team?” “Go on.” “The rumor said that he got involved in an affair with a student and then he got badly injured by that student. That could be the reason why he hasn’t been around.” “Really? And who was this student?” “I heard it was some girl who said to be an ice fairy.” This information caused Danny to miss his next shot completely and become completely silent. “Uh, Danny?” The ghost hero said nothing as he thought about a certain yuki onna. Later on… “So these are the most current articles?” Danny asked as he sat at his desk in the Newspaper Club. Akira nodded as he handed his president the files to the latest news reports at the school. “Mostly it’s all about the coming field trips to the human world and some other stuff.” Fenton nodded as he considered the prospect of seeing his family. Then he noticed a certain file in his hands. “Hmmm… this article is about the head Phys Ed teacher Okuto… “ He scanned over the article and his eyes widened in surprise before addressing his kappa friend. “It says here that he’s pressing charges against a student for assaulting a teacher, and pushing to have her expelled.” The water spirit nodded. “Yeah, I read that too, although the details are kind of sketchy at best. A day or two after the semester started, Okuto-sensei had been injured with severe frostbite. He had to be hospitalized for a while. He’s only now come back to Youkai Academy. And he’s really mad.” “I see. “ Danny then saw the name on the report. “Mizore Shirayuki… isn’t that the girl who sits behind us in homeroom with that lollipop in her mouth?” “That’s her. She wasn’t around much during the first couple of weeks or so of the semester, so maybe she did have something to do with Okuto-sensei’s injuries. She keeps to herself a lot and doesn’t seem to be in any school clubs. Considering sensei’s frostbite and freezer burns, she might be some kind of ice or snow monster.” “She is. Don’t tell anyone that I told you this, but she’s some kind of ice girl. I think she called herself a yuki… something.” “Oh, you must mean a yuki onna, right?” “That’s it.” “Well, I can see how the Phys Ed teacher got frostbite then. So I guess she’s guilty.” “I don’t think so.” Danny disagreed while shaking his head. “I’ve met her before and she doesn’t seem to be the type who would hurt anyone without a reason. And she did help me against the School Police Committee. “ “She did?” “Yeah, I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, I want you to put a hold on this article. I don’t want it run until we get both sides of the story. As a responsible newspaper, we have to print the true story and not to leave out any important facts.” “Got it. So what are you going to do?” “I’m going to see if I can get some information from Shirayuki. Seeing that we have similar powers, she might open up to me.” The ghost hero then demonstrated as he gazed upon a nearby glass of water on his desk and froze it solid with his ice eyebeams. Akira let off a low whistle. “That was cool… literally! So that’s your Ghostly Ice power I’ve heard about?” His idol nodded as he got up and left to discover the truth. An hour later… Danny shook his head after his interview with the angry gym teacher. According to what Okuto said, Mizore had confessed her love to him early in the year, and when he turned her down, she attacked him with her ice powers. He was dead serious on having her expelled. However, the ghost boy had his doubts. The Phys Ed teacher had a bit of a greasy attitude about him and Jack Fenton’s son could sense that he wasn’t telling the whole truth. His suspicions were vindicated, after the interview. He became invisible and followed Okuto-sensei after class. He frowned as he saw him peeping though some secret holes in the wall behind the girls’ showers. Danny had some very bad flashbacks with Ginei. As if in answer to his question, chilly breezes wafted by his face, making him turn his head toward a nearby lake. He looked about and saw no one around. He triggered his transformation to his ghost form and headed in that direction. A few minutes later and Danny landed on the far bank. He looked about and caught sight of a familiar person as she stood in the middle of the lake. Below her feet was a patch of ice, which kept her from sinking into the water. Swirling gently about her were tiny ice crystals that lit up like blue-white fireflies. Her eyes were closed and she had a serene expression on face. Her hair wafted about, giving her an eerie glow. The ghost boy could only watch in awe for a long while, not wanting to interrupt the moment. Finally, the ice girl opened her eyes and smiled as she saw Danny Phantom. “I knew you would come to me.” The look she was giving him began to give him the chills, but it wasn’t because of the cold. He took a deep breath and addressed her in a firm, but friendly tone. “Uh, well yeah I did need to talk to you. You realize that you’re being threatened with expulsion from Okuto-sensei right?” Mizore frowned a bit and replied, “Yes. But now that you’re here, I don’t care if I‘m expelled… as long as I have YOU!” With those words, she let off a massive blast of freezing wind, which immediately caused ice to form on Danny’s arms and legs, making him to lock up like a statue. In less than a heartbeat, the ghost hero found himself inside a block of frozen water. Mizore smiled as she walked over to claim her prize. However, to her surprise, her target did not remain immobile. Danny became transparent and simply walked out of his icy prison. He had a bit of an irritated expression on his face. “Now what was that for?!” “H-How did you…?” “Never mind that! Why’d you suddenly give me the cold shoulder? I thought we were friends!” The ice fairy was at a loss as no one had evaded her powers so easily before. “It… it is how… a yuki- onna expresses… her feelings toward someone… that she loves…” Her confession caught Jack Fenton’s son flat-footed. He backed off a bit as he began to wave his hands. “Whoa! Hold on a minute! Slow down! We just met and…” “We’re perfect for each other!” Mizore insisted as she continued to approach him. “We both have ice powers and I am much better than those other girls!” “Okay, now you’re starting to freak me out a bit. Why don’t we just…?” “You will be mine!” Shirayuki declared as she sent another blast of arctic air toward him. However, Danny was not going to let her freeze him again as he countered, this time with heat. He let loose with a widespread beam of Ghost Ray energy, warming up the air in front of him. This created a bit of a temperature imbalance, which caused a thermal wind to be blown back at Mizore. This didn’t sit well with the snow fairy as she sank to her knees in pain. “H-Hot! Too hot!” The Ghost Boy of Amity Park reined back his power, but kept on alert in case she tried something else. “Tell me. Was that what you did to Okuto-sensei? Was he telling the truth when he said you attacked him and tried to kill him?” The ice girl shook her head as she gave him a pleading expression. “No. I didn’t attack him. He attacked me. People don’t believe me when I told them that teacher was a pervert!” Fenton paused for a long while, as he remembered seeing the gym teacher peeping in on the girls’ locker room. Then he said, “Actually, I do believe you. Let me guess. Something happened between you two, and he tried to take advantage of you. What happened afterward was self-defense, wasn’t it?” The lonely snow female nodded as she was surprised that Danny had such insight. “Yes. Early on this semester, I told him that I liked him. Okuto-sensei thought that gave him the right to force himself on me. So I froze him. Since it’s my word against a teacher, the school board is supporting him. And I don’t have any proof that he’s a letch. When I met you, I thought I finally found…, well, I guess that’s not going to be.” Danny softened up a bit after listening to her, and then decided to give her a helping hand. “Look, Shirayuki. I’m sorry that we got off to such a rough start, but I’m willing to try again. I’ll even help you clear your name.” Her head came up at his sudden offer. “Really?” Maddie’s offspring nodded. “You bet. But I’m going to need some help from those other girls to pull this off. So if you could lay off the freezing bit for a while?” Mizore nodded as she stood up, and then took on a panicked expression as she suddenly remembered something. “Oh no! I forgot about them!” “Huh?” “We have to find your friends and quickly!” “Why?” In another part of the school… Moka, Kurumu, Nova and Yukari found themselves scrambling for protection as multiple ice-clones of Mizore started to attack them. At first, they had thought it was a joke as they had been greeted at the doors of the Newspaper Club by several copies of Mizore. Then things got ugly as the duplicates became as pale and started throwing ice daggers at them. Everyone started diving for cover as the barrage of frozen projectiles punched holes in the walls like bullets. Hiding behind the Club President’s desk, Moka clutched at her Rosario, wishing Danny was there to take it off. Then there was a tremendous blast of green, ectoplasmic energy, which engulfed the ice clones in an emerald light. Then the constructs melted away into a large pool of water. The girls emerged from their makeshift shelters to see two people standing at the door. Danny nodded as he saw that no one was hurt and gestured to the girl beside him. “Hey gang. Sorry about the… uhm… misunderstanding…” “MISUNDERSTANDING?!” The girls exclaimed incredulously. Fenton turned toward the yuki-onna and said in an even but firm tone. “I do believe you owe them an explanation AND an apology.” Mizore took a deep breath and nodded as she entered the room. After a lengthy explanation and several apologies, Danny called the meeting to order and began laying out his plan to clear Shirayuki’s name and get that dirtbag gym teacher ejected from the academy. Once he finished with the details, the Youkai Newspaper Club began their preparations. Sometime after classes, a rumor began to spread that Mizore was hiding out near the lake, and that she was alone. The first person to hear about it was Okuto and he smiled evilly as he thought about how to get even with that icy girl who literally gave him the cold shoulder. Unknown to him as he left his office, he was being tailed by a certain invisible ghost hero. It wasn’t long before he was confronting the yuki onna at the lake. It took even less time for his greasy personality to surface. “You heard me, Shirayuki. You’re just one call away from being expelled from the Academy after that little attack on me.” “I only froze you because you tried to take advantage of me!” The ice girl shot back. “Ha! So what? “ The sleazy teacher taunted. “Where’s your proof? Even though that’s the case, who’s the headmaster gonna believe? A delinquent student or a teacher?” Then he took on a more sinister tone. “Of course, I could be persuaded to retract that accusation…” He then suddenly grabbed at her and pinned her down to the ground. “Let go of me, you creep!” “Oh don’t be like that! You know that I’m the only chance you’ve got to stay at the Academy. So why don’t we just let things go my way, and everything will be fine?” “I got a better idea.” A new voice rang out, catching both Mizore and the teacher’s attention. A blast of green energy plowed into the lustful jerk, forcing him off Shirayuki and sent him sprawling into the lake. He stood up while angrily sputtering as Danny Fenton appeared. He pointed a finger at him while shouting out in rage. “Fenton! I’ll have you expelled for attacking a teacher!” Danny simply shrugged his shoulders while crossing his arms over his chest. Mizore got up and ran to his side. “Like YOU said, Dirtbag, WHERE’S your proof? And speaking of proof…” The ghost teen snapped his fingers, which was the signal for his friends to reveal themselves from their hiding places behind trees and bushes. Each member was holding a digital camera. The instructor’s face went pale as he realized that he had just been suckered into a sting operation. Jack and Maddie’s son gave the slime ball teacher an ultimatum. “Here’s the new plan. You resign from your position and leave Youkai Academy forever. If you don’t, I can guarantee that the footage we caught of your SECOND attack on Shirazuki AND your ‘confession’ is going into tomorrow’s edition of the School Paper. It’s your choice.” Kotsubo growled as he knew that the choice Fenton was giving him was actually no choice at all. Seeing that he had nothing else to lose, he decided to obliterate the entire Newspaper Club and that blasted ice girl. Letting off a roar, he triggered his transformation to his true form. Everyone ran for cover as the gym teacher morphed into a hideous squid-like creature, better known as a kraken. Huge waves of water splashed about and threatened to sweep them away as Okuto thrashed his huge tentacles about. Mizore wasn’t fast enough as she was snatched up by one of the grotesque limbs. The teenage yuki-onna struggled as she was raised up toward the monster’s gaping maw. The outraged instructor intended to bite her head off. However, a certain Savior of the Ghost Zone wasn’t about to let that happen. “I’m Going Ghost!” After transforming into his ghost form, he immediately flew up to her and grabbed onto one of her arms. He instantly made her intangible and they both flew out of his grasp. As they hovered high above the monster, he smiled at her. “Hey, you wanna have an ‘inside your body’ experience?” Mizore took on a puzzled expression. “Don’t you mean an ‘out of body’ experience?” “No I mean INSIDE. How would you like to put that jerk in his place and give him the ULTIMATE cold shoulder?” She looked down and shook her head. “I can’t freeze that much water and he’s too big.” “I can’t freeze that much either, but together we might able to do it. You wanna try?” She paused for a moment, and then smiled as she nodded. “Let’s do it!” Danny immediately descended down toward the transformed jerk and phased into Mizore’s body. Her eyes turned green as she made a graceful swan dive toward her tormentor. Then she shocked everyone as she cried out. “I’M GOING GHOST!” On the shore, Akira was shocked as his digital camera recorded the transformation. A burst of light appeared and became twin rings, which radiated outward. Her clothes morphed into a female version of Danny Phantom’s costume. Her blouse became black with Danny’s insignia. Her skirt turned white. Her leggings and shoes morphed together to form thigh-high boots of black with white highlights. Her hair turned snow-white. Meet Mizore the Ice Phantom. The sudden transformation took the lecherous teacher by total surprise as his intended victim swooped down for retribution. Then her eyes turned an eerie blue as she released twin freezing beams. She also fired off concentrated blasts from her hands. The entire lake was frozen solid to its bottom and the octopus-creature became encased in a glacier of ice. With Danny’s Ghostly Ice powers amplifying Mizore’s freezing abilities, she was now capable of creating an iceberg ten times bigger than the one that sank the Titantic! Mizore then made several circles the now frozen kraken, enjoying the ability to fly, when she heard Danny’s voice in her head. She let off a sigh and nodded as Danny took over and landed them both on the shore. Then she transformed back into her normal form as Danny exited out of her body, and then changed back to his human form. At that point, the other members of the Newspaper Club ran up to them. The very next day, Okuto was fired from the school, as Danny decided not to give the slime ball a chance to resign with dignity. As soon as the edition of the school paper was printed and distributed, the kraken gym teacher was cast out in disgrace by the school board and Mizore was cleared of all wrongdoing. However, much to the chagrin of the other girls, the ice maiden had formed an attachment to Jack Fenton’s son. “Uh, Mizore… you really don’t have to do that, you know?” The girl in question remained crouching behind her desk as she lovingly gazed upon her savior with her trademark stalker eyes. “Jiiii…” At that point, Akira tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey Danny, what was that thing you did with Shirayuki at the lake? It looked like you fused with her and combined your powers.” The Ghost Teen shrugged his shoulders. “It was something I figured was possible since I’m able to overshadow people. Since she and I both have ice abilities, I reasoned that I could add my power to hers.” “Cool! So can you do that with other people too?” “I’m not sure, but I don’t see why not.” Mizore let off another lovesick sigh, causing Danny to sigh as well, as he wondered if his life could get any more complicated. In the School Security Room, Kuyou’s eyes narrowed at the latest report on Danny Fenton. To be continued… Author’s Notes Well, that does it for chapter seven. Tune in next time as Danny and the gang go off on their first field trip to the Human World.