(+Hello Everyone. As you all know Ou-Rex left Fanfiction and she took all of her stories with her. Many of us wondered why she did such a thing and were she went. Well I Knight-Bishop found her. She told me her reasons for removing her stories and then leaving the site…and it saddens me to admit that Ou-Rex will not be returning. However she was kind enough to let me Post all of her completed stories back up so that you may enjoy them. However she has asked that none of you try and find her and that you all enjoy these stories as a memento to her career here as an author+)

The Origin of Ghoul: A Vampire's Bane

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Chapter I: A Quasi Existence

"Your body is breaking apart."

I warned him.

"If I continue to inject blood into you, you may end up dead. Right now your body has reached its limit."

I told him directly so there was no misunderstanding.

"That's a joke right? Because… wouldn't that mean I won't see Moka-san ever again?"

Though he mused it in light-hearted way the truth seemed to be something he wished not to face. I had to be stern.

"That can't be helped than."

I was harsh, something inside my chest just twisted. Those were cruel words that should have never been spoken.

"Besides, the one who would be troubled by not seeing you again would be the Outer Moka, even if you say that it troubles me."

I turned to face him with my mask on. I had to keep this resolve and treat him callously so he would leave, but I regretted my words.

"After all, no matter what happens to you guys, it doesn't have anything to do with me."

It was then I realized that I was the monster everyone had made me out to be. His eyes changed suddenly. He willed the happy-go-lucky façade he carried for the others, and put on the face he reserved only for me. It was a stern look of conviction.

"Nothing to do with you?"

He sounded hurt, but I cast my eyes away. It would do no good, no argument he may have had. I refused. I had made a promise.

*~~~~~~~~*

"Do not take this lightly!" Our father scolded us.

He had called us into his reading chambers. This was at a time where I was still me, and had yet to be cursed to my prison beneath the Rosary. He had been abnormally distant as of late, and it worried my mother, who lived in the human world, but left me in his care. Father was a liberated individual. In such a way that he found the company of multiple women far more enriching than the wholesome unification of a single woman. I was born of such a relationship. Mother had no idea that father had been in a relationship. He courted her for several months. Mother says if not for me he would never have admitted to the affair. Father's wife forgave him, but in turn mother had to leave. I was given status and fortune, while my mother fell into obscurity in the human world. I would not be reunited with her for a time, because on that day I was sealed.

The mother of my elder sisters, and my baby sister Kokoa, hated me. She would assault me, in not a physical manner, but preferred verbal abuse as it left no physical evidence behind. I was an exception among my siblings because of my high level of youki. My elder siblings accused me of being father's favorite. In retrospect they could have taken his affection at anytime. He trained me harshly and I would have to endure a great deal more with his strict lessons in both book and the art of war. I did not hate my father, for he gave me my strength and my pride, and he gave me my food, clothing, and the roof over my head, but regardless, I had felt something missing. Perhaps it was the stability of a proper family. Though my youngest sister and I were exceptionally close when compared to my two elder sisters, watching father philander about with so many women was something I had come to detest.

*~~~~~~~~~~*

"Is that what it mounts up to? The Outer Moka, to me, is…"

Is what? What is the other me to you really? I wished I did not care.

"I won't be fine if you were gone!!"

To this day I do not know what shocked me more: his words or our enemy's revival. In either case, it left my heart pounding.

*~~~~~~~~~~*

Although father was normally a very cold and aloof man: he had always showed us affection and kept the stern voice that a father should. He never raised a hand against us, because his frightening youki was enough to quell our rebellious tendencies as children.

His normally bright study was sheltered in darkness that day. The tower windows had all of their curtains drawn, though it was still midday. His reading chamber always had a very distinct scent to it. It was a masculine scent of leather and wood. I knew it as my father's scent.

I was the first to step toward his desk. He did not look well in the least. He was slumped in his chair and he looked worried, though this day I understand that it was not worry in his crimson eyes, but terror.

*~~~~~~~*

"Moka-san!"

Why did he continuously risk his life? It made me so angry. He was the only one who could make me lose my composure in such a way.

"You idiot! Why did you come?!"

I would feel my ire boiling over when I saw that wound on his back. I think I had been afraid.

"Your body is in a dangerous condition right now! My blood can no longer heal you!"

Why could he not understand the severity of the situation? Did he not understand the danger he was in? Did he not understand that I wretched at the very idea of him coming to harm, his weak body could not stand to the punishment. I wanted him to understand!

"Did you think that you could help me? Know your place! Your help is not necessary at all!"

Why did I continue to tell him such cruel things? The look in his eyes, after those words left my mouth, haunts me. I could not falter or he would not leave. I had to make him run away, even if it caused me pain.

"You can't even protect your own body!"

I could not even protect him.

"Never get involved in my problems ever again!!"

I had nearly growled, fighting back the rage and fear that continued to fill me. He could not understand my worry. I fought to protect his pride. I fought to protect his honor, because he had always stood up for mine, but I was caught off guard. When the water began to sap away my energy all I could think about was to defend myself and hold my ground so he could not get to Tsukune. He still tried to intervene. He still tried to protect me. Was I not clear enough? Was I not harsh enough? My anger was at its limit. I was suffering this pain so you did not have to, yet you still sought to give up your life so I would not be harmed. I was unlike my outer self. I did not need him to hold my hand, he needed me. I had to make him understand that I could protect myself, that he was out of his league.

"I am different from the Outer Moka."

How different were we? Yes, she always sought to hide behind him to shield her emotions. She constantly put him in danger with her acts of blatant affection. She put him in danger. I would never do such a thing to Tsukune.

"Even if I am on the verge of death, I will ask request help from anybody. You are not necessary to me, Tsukune."

I said those words again. The barefaced lie burned at my throat, yet it did not deter him. He used his body to shield me from the strike that was sure to kill me. I had told him… purposely hurt him and said he wasn't needed. Even so…why…? I found myself screaming at him as I held his crumpled form in my arms.

He had said to me he had become frustrated with my telling him it was not his concern. He had acted rashly because of my insensitive words. It had been my fault he did not allow me to protect him.

"To me, the current Moka-san, and the outer Moka-san are important to me."

His words were like a knife to my heart. Had he known how long I waited to know that? For him to assure my beliefs?

"That's why I want to protect Moka-san."

His words were clear because his actions have shown me as much, but I still could not believe someone would sacrifice so much for another. It was something I had never seen before. My mother, my father, my siblings: they always acted selfishly and never concerned themselves if they were hurting others. Tsukune was different. He was the only one I had ever seen to openly accept others, no matter who or what they were, and look to you with a kind smile, even as he lay in a pool of his own blood. I found myself shouting. My self-control had snapped.

"Tsukune!!"

He was getting cold to the touch. That warmth that always surrounded his body was slipping through my fingers. Could I do this? The first few times he had gotten lucky, but it did not change the fact that I had broken my promise.

*================*

I remember when I had first heard the word Ghoul: I was five years of age. I did not learn what exactly one was until much later.

As with any child my age, youkai or human, I was frequented to naps. My youngest sister, Kokoa, had just turned three. She had gotten a pet bat for her third birthday. She had named him "Koumori", though it was bit redundant, she was only three. I had lived with my father for all of my life and had not seen my mother since I was one, so I could no longer accurately recall her face, but I did recognize her scent. I would often come across the soft floral smell on some of the gifts that she would send me from the human world.

My father lived in a typical manor which vampire nobles were accustomed to. My two eldest sisters made frequent visits and held a shared room at the end of the second floor hall, but they otherwise spent little time at the house, both busy with school and work. Kokoa and I spent most of our time together. Though she spoke in rather abashed tone she was very upfront about the things she wanted.

Our father called me and my sisters to his study. Aneue and Kahlua-nee were home for the weekend and I was let out early from my tutor as my young attention span could no longer deal with it and I threw the equivalent of a tantrum: I flared my youki. For my age I had very exceptional youki, but that only made me a target for my father's stricter training.

I had walked with Kokoa, having picked her up from our play room, to the basement room. We were not allowed entrance in fathers study unless summoned. Not that I would have wanted to go there. It was an unsettling place. I was not scared, just uneasy. Kokoa did not seem bothered by it, just pleased by the fact that I was holding her hand as we traveled down the winding stone steps. His book chamber was unusually dark, especially for midday. He had always kept the curtains opened to allow the maximum amount of light for reading, refusing to use light until his candles became too weak for his youkai eyes. He was a stubborn, old world youkai. He was what vampires would consider an elder, an individual wither over two centuries of life at their stead. I admired my father for his power and strength, which showed with his age.

I ignored my sisters' insults as I stood with Kokoa in front of father's desk. She went everywhere with Koumori, even bathed with the poor thing. He looked over to us from his place, his crimson eyes noting each of us with reservation.

"I need you girls to promise me something." He began.

It seemed very odd he would suddenly speak in such a manner with little explanation on o why he was asking such a thing of us. The others did not ask, and I did not expect Kokoa to do more than nod and agree, but I wished to understand what reason inclined me to make a promise that I knew nothing about.

"Promise what?" I had been the only one to speak up. My elder sisters stared at me as if I was suicidal.

My father simply laughed. He understood that I was, in many ways, like him. I would not corner myself by suddenly agreeing to a burden I knew nothing about. He looked at me with a proud grin. My sisters hated when he looked at me like that, but if they wanted praise they should have not been so easily deceived simply because he is our father.

Father stood from his seat and folded his arms behind his back. I noted at an early age that he always did that when he would lie or otherwise withhold the truth. My sisters seemed to not have noticed his habits, being that Kokoa was far too young to understand, and my elder sisters were gone every chance they got. He turned to us and cleared his throat.

"Do you girls know what a Ghoul is?" He finally asked, only to receive confused faces in return.