The Night has only just begun
Chapter 1: How They all Slip Through our Hands
AN: I always feel so sorry for Mizore, she's dedicated to Tsukune to the point of foregoing her own feelings for his sake. And even though I support the Mizore x Tsukune relationship because I think it's a wonderful love, logic dictates she's going to lose Tsukune. Moka has two of the rules of Harem manga in her favor. 1) She was the first love introduced, 2) the manga is named after her, it's "Rosario + Vampire", not "Rosario + Yuki-Onna." So I figured why not try writing a fic.
Anyway the story take place in 3rd year of high School, I have only read the first season of the manga so all references and possible spoilers in this story will be from there. Please don't read this if you haven't completed the first season, I would hate to ruin any part of the well constructed plot of "Rosario +Vampire" for anyone, with this story which could be called sub-par at best.
Please tell me what you think, and remember constructive criticism is always welcome, I would like to improve my writing skills if possible. And yeah you know, the normal stuff, I in no way own any parts of any rights to "Rosario + Vampire" or any of the characters associated with the manga or anime, I am also writing this without express given consent from Akihisa Ikeda.
That brisk December morning third year high school student Aoko Tsukune woke up much like he had any other winter morning, the alarm sounded off at 6:00 AM; which he promptly reached over and turned off.
"Morning already," he sighed, "and I was having such a nice dream, I can still remember the way Moka's soft skin felt against mine."
He snuggled deeper into his warm blankets, thoughts of his dream lulling him back to sleep. A loud crash from outside sent him plummeting back to consciousness, with another sigh he threw off the blankets and set his feet on the ground. A mistake on his part the wood floor carried the icy sting of winter on its surface. With the motivation from the cold he leapt into action, hopping awkwardly to his window and opening the curtains.
Pure-white snow covered the entire landscape and thick icicles adorned every building and tree. The light reflecting from the snow and ice contrasted with the darkness of his room momentarily blinding him, It took a few seconds before his eyes could recover from the attack. He scanned the area taking time to notice how the icicles caught the light and made it dance. There sticking out of the ground it appears a particularly large ice crystal had fallen from the roof and penetrated the ground below, a miracle no one was hurt.
Tsukune no longer distracted; became again aware of how cold his feet were and rushed to his chest of drawers. He rummaged through the bottom drawer until finding his pair of black insulated socks.. His feet were still numb when he put them on but with any luck that would pass soon. He rushed about his morning ritual he was going to meet Moka and walk to school together, nut he wanted to get there extra early in hopes of being able to talk to her alone. 'Moka, if only I could defy logic and sweetly fantasize about a day where we walk to school together alone, but I know as soon as we leave the dorm grounds, everyone will begin their steady flocking towards me.'
He stopped at his calendar; before leaving his room, to mark off another day. It was December 16th and today he was going to ask Moka to come home with him for Christmas holiday. His mother had been insisting they come visit for a holiday seeing as it was their last year in high school. So he had promised her he'd be home for Christmas. With his resolve set he stepped out of his room and traversed the path to the gate outside the girl's dorm.
He leaned against the gate on the outside of the women's dormitory grounds, The usual meeting spot. It was dark and he could barely make out the watch hands, '6:45 we have plenty of time.' He felt it when he set his hand down, a strong malicious feeling from behind him. He had no time to react, hands clasped around his arms pinning them to his side then by a piercing pain in his neck which was subdued by the sudden rush of endorphins.
The clasping hands released him he then discovered his legs were too weak to hold him up, so he let gravity take it's course. From where he lay he looked up at the stunning image of Moka in a skirt, from an under image. Long, tone legs that go all the way up the skirt to reveal a pair of forest camouflage panties. An unexpected and exotic choice, but he approved.
It took him a few seconds for him to remember he was supposed to be angry."Moka I thought I told you, you're supposed to ask before you go and do things like that!" Tsukune exclaimed as he shakily pushed himself back up brushing the snow from his knees.
"Well I figured you haven't been minding lately, you've been letting me drink every time I ask, I thought you didn't mind anymore." Moka retorted defensively
"But still," Moka continued looking disdained, "I wish things could go back to the old days."
"The old days!?" Tsukune blurted out blissfully, 'Yes she must be talking about the days when it was just the two of us, don't worry we can use Christmas as a chance to let our relationship develop the way it should have. Before the interlopers came.'
"Yeah, back when your blood tasted better, but still thank you. You're a good friend letting me do that all the time, you know it's hard for me to get through the day without some of your blood." Moka explained cheerfully.
Two successive arrows of pain shot through Tsukune's heart 'She was talking about my blood, and she still only thinks of me as a friend"
Tsukune sulked the entire way to school, responding only half heartedly to the questions and physical assaults of the gaggle of women who seemed to have accumulated around him
Homeroom began at 8:00 Tsukune had been sulking ever since his talk with Moka, he was so deep in his thoughts in fact, that he had failed to realize the peculiar individual who had been standing in front of the chalkboard all morning. He only recovered from his lament when their teacher Miss Nekonome walked into the room.
"Now as I'm sure you all have noticed we have a new transfer student," She called out to the class, "his name is James Masataka he's new to the school so I want you all to take care of him and make him feel welcome."
Tsukune looked up at the new student and his eyes nearly popped out his head. A tall dark skinned man stood in front of the class his muscles were bulging against his uniform, he was easily 6"5 with long thick rolls of black hair. Both hands were in his pockets, he looked incredibly calm even as the entirety of the class gaped at him. An unknown familiarity struck Tsukune as he studied the new student, but he was unsure what it was.
"Now as for your seat," Miss Nekonome went on un-phased despite the obvious shock of the class, "behind Miss Akashiya, there's an empty seat, she's the lovely young girl with the pink hair."
Moka waved encouragingly at James. Slowly He walked towards his seat, Tsukune couldn't help but notice Moka sniffing the air as James walked past. She smiled serenely as her face turned slightly red.
James made a sound "cheh" as he plopped in his chair.
"Now Tsukune as class president I want you to make him feel especially welcome and help him with any questions or concerns." Miss Nekonome turned to Tsukune, he caught a strange look in her eye, maybe some sort of signal, but she continued on, "James do you have all your textbooks and utensils?" He nodded in response, "good then we can start on today's lesson."
Moka seemed to be dazed and distracted in all classes leading up to lunch. What was weird was every class the seating arrangement was the same, with James always sitting somewhere next to her, 'this is too much to be coincidence, right? How he is sitting next by her every class? Maybe I'm just over-analyzing it.'
By the time the lunch bell rang, Tsukune had decided he was going to sneak off somewhere with Moka and ask his question, but he was going to have to be quick and get to her before anyone else does.
He stood up abruptly, "Hey Tsukune why don't we invite James to have lunch with us?" Moka asked from her desk on the other side of the room "None of you mind, do you" she asked looking around at the flock of girls already gathering around Tsukune.
'Totally shot down!' "Well I suppose so, he is new here after all." He replied dejectedly.
Moka nodded as she giggled, James stood solemnly, allowing himself to be lead to the cafeteria. All the girls clung to Tsukune as they travelled through the halls, except for Moka who seemed to be wandering off to the side distracted, while James brought up the rear. The café was oddly deserted considering the temperature outside; Tsukune just assumed that people were eating in the classrooms. Everyone took seats at the same table; there was the usual fight over who sat next to Tsukune, in the end Kurumu and Mizore sat next to him where as Yukari sat across from him. Moka sat next to Yukari, and on her left sat James.
"So James," Tsukune spoke up to start conversation, "Where did you just transfer from?"
"A school in America; Tom Husker academy." James answered, this was the first time anyone had heard him speak, his voice was deep and thick yet his accent was almost perfect for being a foreigner.
"Wow there's a monster school America too, is it as nice as Youkai Academy? You know I always wanted to travel and see other monster schools" Yukari piped in
"Well it wasn't a monster school it was a human school, and no it was nowhere near as nice as this school, the outside walls were not kept in good repair, neither was the bathroom. But the worst part was it was a male only academy."
Tsukune nodded understanding his plight, "So why were you attending a human high school, wasn't there a monster academy where you came from."
"Well I was attending a human school because I am a human." He so blatantly answered
Before anyone could warn him not to be divulging such information three loud crashes came from behind James, drawing everyone's attention, except for James's.
Three stocky men stood with sand colored hair stood behind James disbelief painted all over their faces "Did I just hear you right you bastard, did you just say you were human?"
The air about James suddenly changed; he still seemed calm but a dangerous aura began to emanate from him, "you got some kind of problem with that?" he asked without turning around.
"I thought I had been smelled a human, turns out it was you, huh? Well prepare to become our feast you pathetic weakling"
The assailants changed into their monster forms, each one of them a stone golem twice the size of James. The one who had done all the talking pulled his fist back past his head and let fly a vicious right hook. 'This is bad, he's gonna die, especially if he's only human' Tsukune screamed in his head as he tried to move to intercept it, 'I'm not gonna make it. Shit! How could I let this happen.' With a sickening crack the blow struck. But something wasn't right, James didn't seem at all fazed. Tsukune looked up to see that the large stone hand was stopped right behind James's head with only his open palm.
Surprisingly it was the golem who pulled his hand back rearing in pain, "How the hell did you break my stone hand!? You asshole, you lied! No human is that strong! Let's kill this fucker for embarrassing me and using such a dirty trick to pick a fight!
The two other golems closed in with heavy steps, each one throwing a blow at him, one aiming for his head, the other for his midsection Tsukune made a move to intercept one of the punches while Moka moved to counter the other.
James's face tightened up as he yelled, "No! This is my fight." Before disappearing out of the way of the attacks
"So fast!" Exclaimed Tsukune shocked
Bob Reappeared behind them, "Your attacks are far too telegraphed, I don't even have to see them to dodge, the bloodlust pouring from your fists as you strike allow me to sense them from any direction and dodge accordingly.
"You fool you're right where we want you to be, Porcupine Quills!" He explained as large stone spikes quickly erupted from their backs.
James merely jumped back dodging the spikes, landing with one foot in front of the other, feet toward his enemy, knees slightly bent. His right hand was extended in front of, him palm up, whereas his left hand was behind him, palm down.
"Moron that's only half of the attack, Porcupine Arrow!" the 10 or so spikes shot out from the golems' back at amazing speed, Tsukune could hardly track them.
James smiled for a split then there was the impact, the dust in the air made it impossible to see anything. But as it settled, Tsukune noticed that James remained unscathed, as well as the surrounding environment. 'Impossible he destroyed all of the spikes before they could make contact, is he really human?"
"I thought I told you, if you attack with intent to kill I will dodge it every time, you must remain completely calm in a battle emotions such as anger only clouds your mind and makes your attacks sloppy. Now please allow me to demonstrate the proper way to fight."
He leapt forward appearing in front of his enemies nigh instantaneously, with his left hand still behind his head he thrust it forward in an open palm, it struck cracking though the stone. The strike was followed by a second strike from the same hand, one creating a visible blue shockwave which blasted all the stone from the golem's body reverting him back to his human form, a third successive palm sent him sliding along the floor twenty feet. Bringing his hands together; the wrists resting on each other, in front of him he shifted his feet to shoulder length and bent his knees before lunging both open palms at the chest of his opponent this was only one strike but the shockwave that hit as his hands did told all observers this had far more power than that last combo. The stone exploded off the golem's body before he fell to the ground where he stood.
James Pivoted the top of his body right as a stone spike emerged from the floor, dodging a spike aimed at his back which suddenly came from the floor. He grabbed the spike with his right hand and readied his open hand for an uppercut. As he brought the fist up to make contact the air itself seemed to accumulate around his hand like a miniature tornado before he struck the spike with which resounded with an explosion. The dust cleared quickly and the third golem had already reverted to his human form.
"How?" he questioned unbelievingly, "you beat all three of us without reverting to demon form, just how powerful are you?"
"I thought I told you I'm not a demon, I'm a human." James responded before sitting down.
The golem passed out after hearing the response, "How could a human possibly defeat three B-class Demons?" Tsukune inquired.
"I've spent my entire life training under many different martial arts masters, along the way I was taught how to control my ki, and with the power of ki anything is possible, the man who taught me how to control my ki gave me a demonstration by flying."
"Eh?" Kurumu said astonished, "You mean humans can fly?"
"Well that man had been training his entire life so he's an exception. He is a true master and, compared to those who taught me I am still but a novice, so far all I can do with ki is physical enhancements. I can't even materialize my ki as a weapon properly."
"Wow!" Yukari interrupted, "I never knew humans were so amazing, I always thought that they were only strong because of their numbers."
"Finding humans who are worth anything is like finding a needle in an ocean, it's rather depressing really, that's why I transferred to this school as soon as I heard about it, there were no challenges in the human world so I invaded the demon world, nothing will improve my strength like surviving here."
Moka who had been quiet up until now spoke up, "So are you some sort of monster hunter, killing us for your own gains." She looked hurt
"I'm afraid you have me all wrong, I took it easy on those three, they're all just unconscious, except for the leader I think his hand may be broke. But my goal here is to merely survive, through that alone I will become stronger, after all it's not like I'm starting anything, my being human should be enough to provoke attacks."
"That sounds like an excuse for violence if you ask me; your intent of being here is to cause fights." Mizore added
"I don't intend to cause fights; I just have to get stronger. There's someone who I must defeat, and to do that I must live with my life on the line and continue to fight stronger opponents. All the Human schools people feared me and left me alone worried that I may be prone to indiscriminate violence. But I know that here there are people even more powerful than me; and systematically I must improve until on the day they challenge me I can defend myself. So my methods may be crude and barbaric, even violent but this is the path I must walk, I can never forgive that person for what he did to me. So with these fists I will crush him." With his explanation over he stood and walked away.
"I knew I wouldn't be understood even here." He muttered as he was leaving.
They watched James walk out of the cafeteria, Tsukune could almost understand where he coming from, he has had wishes of revenge against those who picked on him when he was younger. He felt it his duty to explain to him the infinite cycle of revenge, revenge only gives birth to more hatred and revenge. He began to stand up to follow but Moka stood up first and chased after James.
Tsukune was shell-shocked; she had been acting weird all day, ever since James came to school. He dropped back into his seat, 'why is she acting so peculiar today?' a thought suddenly popped in his head, 'No way. She doesn't have… feelings for him, does she? I always thought she liked me.'
Kurumu wrapped her hands around Tsukune's head and pulled it into her breasts, "Why so down, allow my breasts to cheer you up, behold Magical Happy Jiggle!"
Kurumu began bouncing up and down causing her breasts to jiggle, before a washbasin fell on her head, "No fair, attacking when Tsukune's unprepared!"
Kurumu quickly recovered, "All's fair in love and war, you'd know that if you weren't a little kid"
"Tsukune's not interested in your advances, you would know that if your IQ weren't equal to of a hammer's!" Yukari retorted.
The two of them erupted in a full on cat fight, Mizore took this chance to close in on Tsukune, "Come on Tsukune follow me to the crooked cliff, if you're not feeling right the best thing to do Is skip class and throw stones into the sea."
Tsukune turned down her request without hurting her, "Sorry I'm fine, just a little tired, besides the midterm is coming up I really need to cram in as much information as possible."
"Suit yourself, I'll be there during class so if you want to skip out we can spend some time alone," her pale face pinkened as she spoke.
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind" Tsukune replied rubbing the back of his head nervously.
Mizore nodded and smiled.
Moka, James nor Mizore showed up for the last 2 classes of the day. Tsukune was worried; it was very unlike Moka to miss a class unless there was something seriously wrong. So by the end of the day he was nearly frantic, as soon as class ended he bolted out the door telling everyone to go to the newspaper club ahead of him. And so Tsukune began his search of the school for any signs of Moka. He went to many places the cemetery, the bus stop, the alleyways. But there was no sign of Moka, stopping in at the cafeteria to warm up he managed to eavesdrop on the conversation of 2 passing girls.
"Moka was absent from math and physics today, without her there it was just another boring lecture."
"Moka, do you mean that vampire girl from class 3-3? I heard from Izuma that she was up on the roof with that new transfer student."
"Really I thought she was into our class prez Tsukune."
"Oooh maybe they broke up, now all we have to do is get those other girls away from Tsukune and he'll be all ours."
The girls then walked off giggling and continuing their gossip, 'On the roof huh? I wonder what they've been doing up there this entire time' without another second to spare he rushed to the stairwell and up the 7 flights of stairs, 'If that bastard did anything to Moka, I swear I'll kill him!' He made it to the roof entrance and hesitated, for some reason he felt he really didn't want to open the door, then after only a moment's delay he pushed it open ignoring that feeling.
The snow had gathered on the roof as it had all across the landscape, and for the second time today the flare of the sun reflecting from the snow blinded him. But he was much quicker to recover this time, yet when his vision returned he wished the light had struck him blind. Standing in the middle of the roof was Moka and James in each other's arms, their lips locked in an embrace.
Time stopped for Tsukune as he stared at the horrible soul crushing sight before him. He tried willing his eyes to look away, yet they stood transfixed on the two people holding one another tight. slowly they began to move as if in slow motion the kiss broke and Moka replaced her lips upon James's neck.
The tears fell like monsoon from his face melting away the snow in tiny drops where it fell. He couldn't bring himself to do anything other than turn around and leave. With the speed he had flown up the steps he descended them, completely blind and numb to his surroundings. He was rushing somewhere but he didn't recognize where. He was only half aware of entering the male dormitory and travelling to his room. A movement from outside his window suddenly caught his attention, something white had moved past his window. He opened it and stuck his head outside looking in all directions he saw nothing other than eternal snow. He shut the window and fell back to the hardwood floor
The tears began to rain freely as his mind raced back to that event. It didn't make any sense, he loved Moka, and he was certain that she had felt the same, all this time he thought she was just bad at recognizing and accepting her feelings. But it turns out all those times she had called him nothing more than a friend, she meant it. "Absolutely no romantic thoughts at all, how could I have been such a fool how could a vampire like her ever fall for an ordinary ghoul like me?'
"It was a platonic relationship after all!" He spat bitterly as his sobs became tristful ironic laughs, before degenerating back into tears "What a fool she never loved me, how could she have?"
Just then a clicking noise sounded from the window as it opened. Tsukune looked up trying to regain his cool.
AN: Well that's it for chapter 1, I'll be sure to post the second chapter as soon as possible.