AN: "Rosario + Vampire" and the majority of the characters in this work of 'fanfiction' belong to Akihisa Ikeda, writer and illustrator of the original manga. Any resemblance to actual locations, institutions and/or organizations in this 'fanfic' are coincidental, or altered for dramatic purposes.

Chapter 1:

"Like a good parent can't also be his child's best friend, a leader with authority requires some separation from subordinates" – Simon Sinek


"Tsukune!" Moka Akashiya sat bolt upright in bed, gripping the sweat damp sheet partially twisted around her. Her heavy breathing registered more in her ears than in the hollow bed chamber. She swallowed hard, her throat parched. "Tsukune?" she whispered into the dark. Bewildered, her anxiety piqued, Moka realized she was the bed's lone occupant. Calming down, she scanned the shadows cast by the moonlight diffused through gossamer curtains; he wasn't there.

Moka stretched her vampires' prescience. Emotionally, and in a very real way physically, she and Tsukune were connected. Time and trials made the two of them very aware of each other's feelings, disposition and sometimes even location. Marking one another as mates had reinforced this bond. However, current circumstances conspired to hide her beloved Tsukune from her in this moment of need. Recovering from her now nebulous bad dream was first. Second, Moka sensed Tsukune was deliberately concealing his presence or youki, as monsters termed it; a curiosity that only heightened her angst.

Her bright red cat eyes contracted as the tall doors to the room parted, silhouetting a figure crossing the threshold. Dusky beams of gray moonlight from the cathedral style windows highlighted the man in alternating light and dark relief, swiftly making his way to the bed .

"Moka!" Tsukune planted himself next to her a moment later, barely disturbing the bed. "What's wrong?"

Moka took in a deep breath, finding it easier to dismiss whatever macabre dream her unconscious mind woke her with now that Tsukune was at her side. Her eyes narrowed, her head tilting back as her aristocratic pride asserted itself. "You tell me, Tsukune. Why are you gone from our bed? Why are you hidden from me?"

Ever ready to admit he was wrong, even if he wasn't, necessarily, Tsukune's big brown eyes widened. Instinctively he lowered his head and shoulders in supplication to her, holding her gaze never-the-less. "Moka, I'm sorry. Is that what woke you?"

She shook her head and swallowed. With a careful finger Tsukune moved one of the long strands of silvery rose tipped hair off her forehead to regard her heavy-lidded eyes closely, as if she were ill. A teenage like glint of hopeless fascination remained ever present in his eyes when he looked at her. The gentleness of his touch gave her a shiver. "Here," he turned his back on her and pulled his top off, over his head. "I can hear it in your voice Moka. Take what you need."

Moka took in the "V" that was Tsukune's shoulders and back, and the lattice work of scars he had acquired in his teens by putting his human life on the line for her repeatedly. His becoming a "First Ancestor" vampire did nothing to hide those early wounds won by his adolescent naiveté and blind devotion to her. Without touching him, her fingertips traced along some of the scars until she found herself beholding the bite between his neck and shoulder, marking him as hers alone. There had always been an inevitability about her and Tsukune in her heart and mind, but seeing that mark drove the reality of it home for her.

Tsukune waited patiently. If he was tense, if there was a reason that even now he was blocking his youki, he made no mention of it to her. Moka was his sole focus and she was privately thrilled by that. Sensing her closeness, Tsukune tilted his head to the right.

"You don't have to," she said quietly. Her voice was low and predatory in stark contrast to her words.

"You haven't been sleeping, Moka" Tsukune said just as quietly. "Getting you a glass of water and tucking you in isn't going to be enough. Go on." Tsukune readied himself, concentrating.

The clumsy aggressiveness of her teenage enthusiasm for Tsukune's blood and companionship was absent, replaced in this moment by a very adult savoring of an intimacy she wanted to last. Pale and beautiful, as if the moonlight sifting into the room had coalesced, Moka settled in closer with shadowy gracefulness. Her knees sinking into the plush mattress brought her thighs, stomach and breasts into contact with Tsukune's back. Looping her arms under his, she set her hands gently on his shoulders, leaning into harder into Tsukune. With sharp fang and hot breath Moka ran the length of his neck from earlobe to trapezius and back up again to the middle, teasing at his flesh.

No amount of focus could stop his very human reaction of goosebumps exploding from his arms and torso. Moka grinned, feeling his response beneath her hands and body. Finally, she sank her fangs into Tsukune. He exhaled sharply at the penetration, feeling her razor sharp upper-canines ease into his neck, making him shudder. Lingering just long enough, Moka extracted what she needed, sating her thirst and sending her heart hammering against her chest. Pressed as close as she was to him, he felt it as well. Finished, Moka withdrew her fangs and laid her head on Tsukune's back. They shared a deep breath and satisfied exhale in perfect harmony.

"Better?" Tsukune asked. He looked over his shoulder and Moka gazed back at him, nodding once.

"I have had trouble sleeping." Moka confessed. She rested her head against his back, leaving her arms loosely around him. "I don't handle loss well. It was a simpler time when I could hide in my own skin, literally." She nuzzled into him, gripping him tighter for a moment; he reached up to take hold of her right hand. "When I could… hide behind my mother," she whispered wistfully. Moka used to believe that spending more time "unsealed" from her "outer" personality made her weaker, but in some ways, the opposite was true.

Tsukune had been very tactful the last few years when it came to speaking about "outer Moka", i.e. Akasha Bloodriver's doomed clone. To hear Moka bring her up was significant. Their friend Kurumu's disappearance clearly affected her more than she let on. "Moka…"

"I'm worried about her. I love her and I miss her very much," Moka admitted to the dark behind Tsukune's back so quietly, Tsukune almost didn't catch it.

"So do…"

"I can say that. You cannot, Tsukune."

The change in tonality made Tsukune turned around, observing Moka intently. Her quiet vulnerability was evaporating, faded into the darkness of the bedchamber. Haughty and jealous to a fault, she stared back at him with a knowing smirk, the red satin sheets draped on her like an imperial robe. Even though her personality had softened since her "outer" persona had been retired in a very permanent way, Moka made it clear, in a very "inner" Moka way, she would no longer tolerate rivals for her Tsukune's love after their engagement and marking of one another.

Tsukune disarmed her, putting his hand behind his head and smiling. "Now you sound like the Moka that terrified me at school. Good." He slipped off the bed, tugging the sheet from her hand, leaving her naked. With a snap, he straightened it and laid it back over top her as she curled up in it.

"There were nights the other Moka felt just like this," Moka admitted out loud, staring into a moonlit corner of the room. "Alone. Wanting you nearby. Every night, it seems, in hindsight. I guess in that regard we became of a single mind."

"Moka…"

"I don't know what has you riled Tsukune, but don't keep me waiting."

Tsukune felt his heart lurch and his blood shift. His youki, his monster presence, lit up like a light house to Moka's senses and she half sat back up to regard him mockingly, "Aw… did I make you lose concentration?" She slowly blinked her lavishly lashed eye lids over her practically luminescent red eyes, pouting her lips some over her fangs.

Backing away from the bed, Tsukune fought his irritation and baser instincts. "Moka, I'll only be a few minutes. Please."

She settled in as sleep overtook her, murmuring one last admonition he heard clearly. "Know your place."

Tearing his eyes from her sylphlike statuesque form, Tsukune walked to the door and slipped out, shutting it quietly but firmly behind him. When he was fully human, that small drink Moka took of his blood would have left him dizzy. Now, it was something his physiology coped with relative ease. This mattered because someone had slipped into their castle and he meant to find them before…

"Found you," whispered a thin voice.

The power behind the chilling whisper sent it echoing in and around the antechamber of the bedroom. Tsukune's reaction time was admirable, but a bit off, thanks to Moka's distraction. His eyes barely caught sight of the tall man standing on the wall, parallel to the floor before the attack came.

Tsukune ducked right, spinning along the attack arc of his assailant. Catching enough of the man's suit coat to use his motion against him, Tsukune exerted ample force to throw the man through the thick wooden pillar of the entryway. Instead, his attacker used Tsukune's strength and his own trajectory to complete a revolution around Tsukune, hands like claws reaching for the young man's throat.

Ducking and rolling, Tsukune struck upwards catching a lucky blow to the other man's gut. Acrobatically, and eerily silent, the man somersaulted in midair and landed catlike in a squat. Uncurling up to his full height, eyes blazing with reddish fire, Issa Shuzen made a show of straightening out his suit coat lapels and cuffs as Tsukune stalked out of the antechamber into the hallway.

So that's what it's going to be, Tsukune thought. No holding back.

The two vampires went at one another with a savage ferocity that could have torn a hole in the castle around them, but with practiced lethality that made only the faintest of sounds. A rustle of cloth, the muffled tap and thuds of limbs contacting, a sharp exhale here and there. It was a titanic contest no one would ever see or hear; conducted like a deadly dance between an assassin representing the very pinnacle of vampire skill and aggression, versus the inherit power of a shinso vampire married to the indomitable tenacity of a human.

"Enough!" Issa suddenly said with authority.

Tsukune made a final swipe and stopped himself short. Issa had his hands on either side of Tsukune face, cradling the young man like he was going to kiss him. "Well fought, but a poor finish. How about I tear your head off to teach you a lesson." Even in the darkness, Issa Shuzen's bloodlust and aggression were terrifying.

"Take a moment to listen to what your hands are telling you." Tsukune countered, controlling his breathing.

Issa's eyes widened ever-so-slightly realizing Tsukune's blood armor had manifested beneath his hands so suddenly, he hadn't anticipated the move. "Create…" Issa said evenly, referring to the vampiric shinso blood talent Tsukune performed.

"And blowing your hands off won't hurt me as much as it will hurt you," Tsukune said smiling. "Plus," he indicated for the older vampire to look down. Issa did, seeing the silver candlestick Tsukune had swiped from a shelf in the foyer with his last move. Broken in half and pressed into Issa's side, it was a crude and unexpected weapon.

Issa Shuzen looked up with an actual, rare smile. Tsukune swelled with pride inside. Early on he had been awed and respectful of Issa, but over the years had come to love and reverence him as a true father figure. Just as well, seeing as he was engaged to his daughter. Still, Tsukune was learning the ins and outs of the sheer aggression and hunter instincts of his mentor and vampires in general. It confused him at times, but not so much anymore that he would let his guard down before Issa made it clear their fight had ended.

"Son," Issa said warmly, gripping Tsukune's head. "You were going to kill me. Well played!"

"I told you Father," Moka's deep voice resonated in the entry hall. She stood in the crack of the parted doors, wrapped in a sheet, watching the two of them, her red eyes positively alight. "He'll be fine."

"Thanks for letting your father know where I was, Moka." Tsukune said lightly. There was no telling how much she had seen.

Moka smiled, predatory and demure all at once and mouthed "know your place" before pursing her lips in a blown kiss. She closed the door softly leaving father and soon-to-be son-in-law together.

Issa waited patiently because Tsukune couldn't take his eyes off her until the massively tall door clicked shut. He turned to face Issa, the blood armor fading from his cheeks. "I love your daughter," Tsukune said, enormously pleased he could say it out loud, uninhibited. It never got old for him.

"Don't talk to me like that, you human filth."

"Wh-what?" Tsukune did a double take.

Issa grinned again, "Tsukune-kun. Still as human on the inside as ever, I see. Moka is very lucky, and so is our family. Now, enough stroking your ego. We have business."

Tsukune nodded, giving the massive bedroom doors a forlorn glance. He fell in step behind Issa, realizing a moment later that his mentor hadn't moved at all. "Issa-sama? Taken aback and unsure of his error, Tsukune tried to hide his discomfort.

"Tsukune-kun, what are you doing?"

"Following you. You said…"

"I said we have business. Not family business. So, what does that mean?" Issa's manner was calm with only a hint of condescension. He turned back around facing Tsukune fully, taking pleasure in making the young man squirm. 'First Ancestor' vampire or not, Tsukune's training and formation into the leader former headmaster Mikogami believed him to be was an ongoing chore Issa Shuzen took very seriously. Not only because the bus driver had hired him to do it, not only because of Tsukune's involvement with his daughter Moka, but because the young man proved to him continuously he was worth the effort.

"What was the last thing my daughter said before retiring to your bed chamber?" Issa asked sharply.

That was easy. Tsukune remembered everything Moka ever said. "He'll be fine?"

"No. That was the last thing she said out loud. What did she tell you before closing the door?"

Tsukune blushed, threw his hand behind his head and smiled, "You saw that, huh? She said 'know your place.'"

"And as an authority figure and husband?" Issa leaned in, eyes bugged out some in a gesture that let Tsukune know he was being tested.

"If your business was urgent, you would have said so…" Tsukune began.

"Go on."

"If it was Shuzen family business, then of course it is urgent. But you did not say that it was that either."

"So?" Issa's eyebrows went up and he stared expectantly at his protégé.

"So… as headmaster of Yokai Academy, I say…" Tsukune trailed off. He composed himself, stood upright in his sensible pajamas and faced Issa eye-to-eye. "Your business can wait until I take my morning briefing. Right now I have my own business to attend to, Issa-kun. You know your way to the guest chambers?" Tsukune affected an imperious tilt of the head and seriousness that he rarely displayed.

The two shared a relaxed moment, one relieved the other impressed. "Headmaster," Issa said with a curt bow. Tsukune returned the bow, but not nearly as deep, embracing the role of academy headmaster and head of house. He watched Issa disappear into the shadowy corridor of the veritable castle he had gifted to Tsukune and Moka on their engagement. When Issa was out of sight, Tsukune glanced down at his hand. The silver candlestick had stung a little more than he admitted. '…human on the inside…' echoed Issa's words in his head as he walked into the antechamber and put the candlestick down.

With a confident smile on his lips, Tsukune entered his bed chamber, Moka clearly awake and waiting for him. Barely containing her very "outer Moka" enthusiasm, she opened her arms and let the sheet slip away as the door closed behind him.


The scent of the terrace was relaxing. Lavender primarily, there were basil, rosemary, yarrow and lemon balm plants among other herbs growing in boxes and stone enclosures all around the spacious, pea gravel lined walkways. Ancient styled statuary graced the various paths and walls while a muted fountain gently bubbled in the background, the water running down layers smooth rocks into an artificial pond. In the pond swam goldfish. Tsukune had insisted there be goldfish with a tinge of nostalgia, remembering a night spent at the Yokai festival with Moka's outer personality as she existed at the time. All in all, the garden terrace was designed with the couple's relaxation in mind.

Moka had already surprised Tsukune that morning, half tackling him from behind and taking her morning "slurp" of his blood. He didn't mind. He never had. If anything, her excitement to see him, even though they had just spent the night in each other's intimate company, made up for any discomfort her "breakfast" may have caused.

"So good," she whispered in his ear before kissing his cheek. Flitting around him and taking a seat on a beautiful wrought iron chair, she crossed one leg over the other and stared at Tsukune, her kimono sleeved satin dressing gown showing plenty of leg. "I thought I would cook breakfast this morning," she announced brightly.

Tsukune was surprised, "Really?" he stopped tying his tie.

"Tch, idiot." Moka shook her head and waved at someone beyond Tsukune.

Servants, also provided by Issa and his resources as head of the Shuzen family, came forward and set places on the wrought iron patio table for the both of them. One of the servants bumped Tsukune's hip with her own purposefully as he moved to sit down. His eye shot open, taken aback and stared at Moka, his half tied tie again abandoned. Confused whether he should admonish a clumsy servant or let it go, he noticed Moka squinted and grinned in silent amusement.

That's when he noticed the mass of purple hair on the woman that had bumped him. He looked down, she looked up with pupil-free eyes the color of glacial ice, adjusting her lollipop from one side of her mouth to the other. Even though she was dressed in much the same fashion as she had as a teenager, she had managed to blend in with the black clad servants effortlessly.

"Good morning Tsukune." Mizore said in her breathy voice. "Your servants wouldn't let me touch the food…afraid I would cool it off, I guess. So I brought Moka her sparkling wine." Tsukune smiled warmly, and took his seat as Mizore finished out her temporary role, pouring Moka's glass and setting the bottle down. She stood back and waited as the servants cleared away.

Moka stared meaningfully at Tsukune and then glanced at Mizore.

"Hm? Oh… of course." Tsukune stood and gestured, "Mizore-san, please. Join us." He turned to a slower moving servant. "Please bring us a couple more chairs. Our friend will be joining us and I'm expecting another."

"Sir," the man gave a bow and moved to comply.

"This is not something I'm used to Moka," Tsukune said, waiting for Mizore to be seated. "Castles and servants, formalities…

"There's responsibility being in charge, Tsukune," Mizore explained. Coming from the very ordered society of the snow fairies, etiquettes and protocols were things Mizore learned plenty of growing up. She regularly defied, side-stepped and otherwise flouted several of them, but she was no less aware.

"For being in charge, I seem to get pushed around a lot," Tsukune said, only half joking. He finally finished setting his tie right in his collar.

"Consider it more training," Moka said before sipping her wine.

They ate for a while, Mizore picking over the pickled vegetables before she broke the tranquility of the morning. "Any word from Kurumu? Or my mother?" Mizore stared at her plate. The hurt in her voice made Tsukune stop drinking and set his tea down. Moka grew uncomfortable as well.

Clicking on the flagstone stairs indicated the start of Headmaster Aono's daily briefing was approaching, delivered, as usual, by Ruby Tojo. Tsukune smiled at Mizore and indicated Ruby approaching behind them. Having become the "go to" administrative employee of Yokai Academy's previous headmaster, Mikogami, Ruby was a natural choice to be Tsukune's right hand at the school. Insightful, knowledgeable and totally dedicated, she made herself indispensable to Tsukune when he assumed control of Yokai Academy.

"Headmaster," Ruby said with a bow, arriving at their table. She always called him that now. Were all things equal, she would have availed herself in all ways possible, professionally and intimately for the former human. It was a testament to her masochism and professionalism that while her feelings for Tuskune would never come to fruition, the performance of her duties never faltered. She found purpose making herself Tuskune's to do with as he pleased, or didn't, as the case would be.

Xenophobic regarding humans when they first met her, Ruby proved ironically adept at affecting different, contemporary human appearances, usually with a "naughty" air. That morning she presented herself in the tight pencil mini-skirt, heels and tailored suit shirt and coat of a "sexy secretary". With briefcase and tablet in hand she waited patiently to be acknowledged.

"Good morning Ruby-san," Tsukune said, turning around and standing, gesturing for her to sit in the fourth chair.

Ruby was genuinely delighted to see Mizore and Moka. And wished them both good morning as a tiny, sand blond fairy in a lavender dress alighted from the garden on dragonfly like wings to sit on her shoulder. Another "employee" from the Mikogami era, the fairy, Lilith, seemed not only reformed, but happy in her employ at the Academy. "Good morning Headmaster. Good Morning everyone," she said pleasantly in her smoky voice.

"Issa-kun, did you want to go first?" Tsukune asked, turning to his left. Ruby and Lilith suppressed a gasp. Mizore adjusted her lollipop by hand, visibly impressed. They hadn't seen the older vampire's approach at all, much less take a seat opposite them. Moka and Tsukune shared a smile.

"I'd like to hear was Miss Tojo has for us first," Issa said with a nod to the witch.

Ruby wasted no time. "Ginei and our agent have been in contact." She paused dramatically, her ruby red eyes taking in the group.

"And?" Moka demanded.

Ruby smiled wide, "They've found her. They found Kurumu."

There was a collective sigh from everyone there. Mizore brushed away a tear with her sleeve and received a surprise hug from Moka whose own eyes were glistening and then another from Ruby who was similarly affected. Tsukune, having caught Ruby's tablet when she dropped it, sat back heavily, relieved.