Tsukune dragged himself out of bed, hoping against hope that Onyx would begin whatever scheme that he had come up with. It would not only make things drastically easier for him, but it would make things better for everyone… or at least… that's how Onyx said it would go.

He glanced out his window, and muttered to himself, "This had better work…"

A monotone voice asked, "What better work?"

His eyes bugged out of his head and turned slowly towards the foot of his bed. There, peeking over the foot board… was Mizore.

He said nothing for about three seconds, "………" Then exploded, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!?"

Mizore gave him her trademark half smile, "I felt like it."

He let his head fall back onto his pillow, "Why me?"

He looked up and Mizore was still there, "Could you wait in the hallway for a minute?"

Mizore nodded, "…ok…" and shut the door behind her.

He sighed to himself, "At least Mizore-chan didn't create a scene like Yukari-chan."

He walked out into the hallway… and the entire dorm was staring.

Mizore turned to look at him, "Why are they all glaring at me?"

He swallowed the knot of terror in his throat, "… They aren't. They are glaring at me because they think you spent the night in my room."

Mizore gave him a quizzical look, "… But I did…"

His face deadpanned, "…They think you slept WITH me."

Mizore cocked her head at him, "Did you want to?"

He voice came out weak, "… no…"

He hung his head and slowly edged his way through the crowd towards the door; Mizore following behind, throwing a curious glance around at the other boys.

When they were outside he paused and let out a sigh of relief, "Whew… how long until our first class?"

Mizore replied, "About an hour. We can take our time." And wrapped her arms around his right arm.

He let out an exasperated sigh and started to walk towards the main building.

About five minutes later something cold touched the back of his neck, he reflexively slapped at it… snow?

He stopped walking and turned to Mizore, "Mizore-chan, are you making it snow?"

Mizore gave him a blank look for a moment, then looked up, he followed suit. It…really was snowing, and he couldn't remember anything like that happening around Yokai academy before.

There was a shout from further up the path, "Tsukune!"

He turned to look at the speaker. Onyx was waving to him from about ten meters down the path. There were two other people with him.

Onyx waved him over, "Come over here, I have some people you need to meet."

A spark of hope flared within him, one of the people he could see was male. Could he be one of the boys that Onyx was going to set one of the girls up with? As he got closer however, the cold increased exponentially. When he got over to Onyx and the others his teeth were chattering and there was frost in his hair.

Onyx shook his head, "Ryu, could you raise the temperature just a little bit? Not all of us present are as… durable as others."

The other girl spoke up, "You could have mentioned that earlier."

The cold abated and he stopped shivering, "Thank you."

The boy Onyx had addressed as "Ryu" smiled at him, "You're welcome."

Ryu was a tall, lanky boy. With white hair, grey eyes, and very pale skin. He almost looked like Mizore if he thought about it…

Onyx set a hand on Ryu's shoulder, "As I'm sure you've figured out, this is Ryu Shinobi. My roommate. And the girl standing behind me is Luna Tachibana."

Luna was a blond, with golden eyes and…

Luna shook herself and tore off a heavy coat, she spoke at Onyx, "Bought time you got your icy friend to stop freezing me."

He finished his thought after Luna had stopped moving. To the previous thought he added, 'and very large breasts.'

Onyx chuckled, "You didn't have to stick around if it was uncomfortable."

Luna snapped back, "I have my reasons, so shut up."

The golem shook his head, "If you say so…" Then he saw Mizore, "Oh… Mizore-san, sorry, I didn't see you there."

Mizore stared blankly, "… it's fine…"

Onyx dragged Ryu in front of him, "Guess what, my friend Ryu here, he's a…" there was a crackling sound as a layer of ice appeared over his mouth.

Onyx let go of Ryu and flicked the ice over his mouth, shattering it, "I get it, you don't want me to tell them. Fair enough."

Ryu kept smiling, "That is appreciated."

He waited for a few moments before suggesting, "Ah, should we get going? Class is going to be starting soon."

Onyx took a look at his watch, something else he must have "liberated" from his former master, "… About fifteen minutes left so… yeah that makes sense."

As they started walking, the temperature started to drop again.

Luna whined, "Ryu! Stop doing that!"

Ryu laughed, "Sorry, it's reflexive."

Luna bit back, "It's reflex for you to freeze everyone around you to death?"

He looked around for a second… Mizore was gone.

He turned around and Mizore was about three steps behind, "Mizore-chan? Are you ok?"

It seemed like Mizore snapped out of a trance, "Ah… yeah."

Mizore was distracted??? Onyx's plan couldn't have been working already could it? Nah, that was simply too much to hope for.

Moka waited by the main gate to the school campus. Tsukune should be coming through the gates soon. Thinking about Tsukune gave her a nice, warm and fuzzy feeling.

Tsukune walked through the gate, along with Mizore, Onyx, and two other people.

She started to run over, she shouted, "Tsukune!!!"

The tall, white haired boy winced, and she suddenly felt very, VERY cold.

Onyx watched while Moka shouted, Ryu winced, and reflexively froze Moka into a solid block of ice.

Tsukune's eyes bugged out of his head, "M… MOKA-SAN!!!"

Ryu scratched the back of his head, "Oh? You know her?"

Tsukune got in Ryu's face, "Of course I know Moka-san, why did you freeze her??????"

Ryu almost blushed, "I'm sorry, loud noises bother me."

Tsukune ran over and started to futilely pound on the ice.

He shook his head and grabbed Tsukune by the head, "Tsukune, leave this to someone that has more than thirty times as much experience at breaking things. I'll have Moka out in three seconds."

His finger hovered over the top of the ice block for about three seconds as he identified the shatter point… right there. He tapped the spot he chose and waited. The crack he created spider webbed out and through the entire block. Once he was satisfied with how much it had spread he brought a clenched fist down directly on the top of the block. The shards of ice fell away in one large slide as Moka slouched down from lack of oxygen.

Tsukune ran over and scooped Moka up, "Moka-san?"

Moka sneezed, now pink all over due to the cold, "… Good morning Tsukune."

Tsukune slung Moka up onto his shoulder, hugging her and blathering, "Oh, thank goodness you're all right…" etcetera etcetera.

He leaned over to Ryu and Luna, "Wait for it…"

Moka rolled her head over and bit Tsukune's neck.

Kapuchu.

He chuckled, "Called it."

Tsukune's face deadpanned, "Moka-san, not in front of everybody."

He shrugged, "Why are you worrying about us? Really, you should be worried about them." He pointed behind Tsukune where Kurumu and Yukari were standing, mouths hanging open, and eyes burning with envy.

Tsukune's head slowly swiveled around to face both Kurumu and Yukari, "……… Ah…… hi?"

Kurumu ignored Tsukune entirely and grabbed Moka by the shirt, "What the heck are you thinking? Drinking from Tsukune in front of everyone!"

He reached forward and grabbed Kurumu by the back of her shirt, "Bad kitty, let go of the poor vampire."

Yukari froze for the slightest of moments… and fell over laughing.

Kurumu's face deadpanned, and she started flailing at him, swinging fists and feet, connecting with both but not doing anything, "You stupid pile of scrap metal, I am not your kitty!!!"

He held the succubus at an arm's length, "You have claws, and you are very moody. You ACT like a cat."

Ryu spoke a single word, "Class?"

He shook his head and dropped Kurumu, causing her to fall flat on her face, "Right… Tsukune, you'd better get Moka to the infirmary, being flash frozen isn't that good for something made out of flesh… or so I'm told."

As he started to walk towards Tsukune's class to inform Nekonome-sensei that Tsukune would be late, he noticed that Luna was no longer following him, but was glaring intently at Kurumu's retreating figure. Why on Earth would she be doing that? That was something to look into at a later date though; he had other things on his mind.

Kurumu sat at her desk, fuming over the golem. Onyx made her look like an idiot practically whenever she happened to cross his path, either by making a sarcastic comment (true though they were) or by putting her in an embarrassing situation. Like what had just happened, was Onyx dead set on making her life into a living hell? He was almost as bad as her mother… well, maybe not THAT bad.

At the front of the class, Nekonome-sensei spoke louder than usual, "Ok class, I have good news! Tomorrow we will all be going on a school field trip!"

That got her attention, maybe there was some way that she could get Onyx stuck where he couldn't get out, and there was always the opportunity to get somewhere alone with Tsukune…

She raised her hand, "Nekonome-sensei, where are we going?"

Nekonome-sensei smiled, "We've been invited to Egypt! Oh they have some wonderful fish there…" Nekonome-sensei paused and her expression changed from ditzy happy to concerned, "Shirayuki-san, are you ok?"

She turned towards Mizore's seat to see what the fuss was about… Mizore was usually pale but now… she was whiter that a sheet of paper.

Mizore was silent for a long moment, mouth ajar, looking almost ready to faint, before replying, "…………yes…"

Nekonome-sensei's head tilted to one side, "Maybe you should go to the infirmary, you look pale…er."

Mizore slumped down onto her desk, "I'm fine."

Nekonome-sensei continued to look concerned, but continued, "Ok then, be at the bus stop early tomorrow morning. Eight o clock sharp! And remember, bring lots of sun screen!"

Just as Nekonome-sensei finished the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. She began to race for the infirmary, where Tsukune had undoubtedly taken Moka. There was no way she was going to let that pink haired, sickeningly innocent vampire work Tsukune over while she wasn't there.

Mizore waited at the bus stop, dreading what was to come. Egypt meant desert, and desert meant lots of heat. She'd be lucky if she didn't melt within the first hour.

There was a shout from behind her, "Mizore-chan!"

Tsukune ran up with Moka, Kurumu, and Yukari on his heels. All of them in beach clothing; shorts, t-shirt, sunglasses. She didn't really have any of those.

Kurumu shoved her onto the waiting bus, "Move it stalker freak!"

This was going to be bad… but at least the bus had air conditioning, so she wasn't going to melt just yet.

Kurumu took a seat next to her and whispered in her ear, "Afraid that you're going to melt in the big, bad desert?"

She frowned and slowly froze Kurumu from the feet up, "… No…"

The cold apparently spread a bit too quickly, because Tsukune started shivering violently (as did both Moka and Yukari, although she really didn't notice that).

Tsukune's teeth chattered, "M… Mizore-chan… please stop… it's freezing… in here…"

She stopped freezing Kurumu, but only reluctantly. It's not like the succubus wouldn't have thawed out once they got to Egypt…

The bus driver at the front brought the bus to a stop abruptly, jarring all of them, before announcing, "We're here."

The door opened and let in a rush of burning hot air. Overwhelming the air conditioning in under a second. She would have tried to stay on the bus but she was carried off by the rush of people into the bright sunlight. Compared to the one that hung in the sky above the school, this sun was a bonfire next to a candle. Every breath was an effort... every movement a struggle. They had been let off on the top of a sand dune in the middle of the desert, with nothing in sight for miles. Why exactly were they here?

Nekonome-sensei shouted over the babble of the students, "This way class! We have a tight schedule to keep so no messing around."

The class began to move off, and Tsukune was swept along in the midst of Moka, Kurumu, and Yukari; leaving her to stumble along behind. It didn't take long of walking down the sand dune before she lost her footing and slid the rest of the way, sliding to a stop in the shadow of one of the dunes. The heat was only slightly less intense in the shade, but was still far above a level that she was comfortable with. Maybe she should just wait here… she blacked out from the heat.

Onyx stepped off of the bus into the blazing sunlight, gazing off into the distance where the rest of the school had gone.

Luna sprang off the bus behind him, "Wow… it's so open…"

He remarked, "Wish you could just cut loose and run out into the sands?"

Luna looked up at him, using her puppy dog eyes, "Would you cover for me so I could?"

He set his hand on Luna's shoulder, "Of course, just make sure that you're back in time." Before she ran off he called out, "You know that you didn't have to use the eyes on me, right?"

Luna stopped on top of a dune, going the opposite way from the scheduled trip, "I know, I just like doing it."

Luna vanished over the top of the dune where he assumed she transformed and continued off across the desert.

Ryu walked up behind him, "Guess it's just us huh?"

He replied, "Seems that way, unless you want to count the rest of Ririko-sensei's class and your "fan girls"."

Ryu's face twisted with distaste, "I would rather not."

He gestured off in the direction of the pyramids, "Then why don't we get a head start before Ririko-sensei can get her slaves into line."

Ryu looked back to where the Lamia was using the end of her tail to usher the students into a double line, "The idea is certainly attractive."

He started down the dune, "I second that. Now, the other classes should be about… Ryu?"

His roommate had stopped in the trough of the dune and was looking at something off to the side of the path. Now that he looked, there was a patch of purple hair visible through the sand.

He reached down into the sand… and hauled Mizore up out of it.

Ryu hesitated for a moment, "…Is she alright?"

He moved Mizore closer to Ryu… she moved, "I think so, the desert isn't all that kind to snow women though. Why don't you carry her?"

Ryu gave him a look, "And why would I do that?"

He dropped Mizore into Ryu's arms before speaking, "Two reasons. One, it's almost always cold around you and I think it would be better for her. Two… I'm barely able to stay on top of the sand as is. If I carried her I'd risk sinking into the desert and having to claw my way out up the side of the Sahara over a hundred miles away. Make sense?"

Ryu propped Mizore's head up against his shoulder, not looking altogether displeased, "Perfectly."

He turned his back on Ryu and started his way up the dune in front of him. All the while laughing to himself, this couldn't have worked out any better if he had tried.

Tsukune struggled to work his way free of Kurumu's clutches… and wasn't having much success. Kurumu had a vice grip on his right hand and was leading him from ruined structure to ruined structure without pausing for either Moka or Yukari. The latter of which was having trouble with the sand and was on the edge of tears.

Kurumu stopped him, "Tsukune, I'm hot, can you help me take my shirt off?"

His nose started to bleed, "WHAT?!?!"

Kurumu pushed herself closer, "Don't worry, I have a bra on this time."

He backed up against the wall of the ruin, "Ah… Kurumu-san… I…"

Moka yelled to him, "Tsukune! Mizore's gone!"

Kurumu was distracted by that shout long enough for him to slip out of her grasp and run over to Moka and Yukari.

He asked Moka, "How long has she been missing?!?"

Moka looked distressed, "I don't know, I haven't heard a word from her since the bus dropped us off."

He looked back the way they had came, "…Then… she's lost… out there?"

They all stared out into the desert for a long while.

He spoke what everyone was thinking, "We have to go find her."

Without waiting for Kurumu or Yukari, even Moka, he started to run back towards the desert. Even if it made things more difficult for him, he couldn't abandon Mizore out in the middle of the desert. He sprinted to the top of the first dune… something was catching the sun and sent a harsh glare into his eyes. He didn't see the glare for long though, he ran into Onyx only a few seconds later.

Yukari practically had to drag herself up the side of the sand dune to follow Tsukune. This was exactly why she hated to be short, the sand came up to her waist before she stopped sinking and it was really hot and… There was a loud smacking sound from the top of the dune. She looked up to see the golem slowly peeling Tsukune off of his chest.

Onyx tapped Tsukune on the forehead, "You really need to learn to watch where you're going, you know that Tsukune?"

Tsukune managed to speak, "Have you seen Mizore-chan?"

Onyx smiled, "Ryu has her, right behind me."

Right on cue, Ryu appeared. Mizore curled up in his arms.

Onyx continued, "She's sleeping now. Passed out from the heat I expect."

Kurumu commented, "No really? Did you think that up all by yourself?"

Onyx shot back, "It's the truth of the matter. And if you hadn't been so concerned with trying to get in Tsukune's shorts all of you might have been able to notice Mizore-san's problem before it escalated this far."

She couldn't help but start to giggle. Onyx had a way of being able to sensibly blame everything on Kurumu.

Kurumu turned red, and not from the heat, "You… you... IDIOT!!!"

Kurumu reached down, scooped up a handful of sand, and threw it in Onyx's face.

The golem shut his eyes to keep the sand out, blinked, and sneezed, "That's the best the kitty could come up with? Throw some sand from your litter box?"

Kurumu turned her back to Onyx and pouted, "Idiot."

Onyx started down the dune, "As much as I enjoy verbally abusing the succubus, I think we came here for a field trip didn't we? Shall we continue? I imagine that your teacher is already quite a long ways away."

Tsukune started to laugh while following, "Well… actually, Nekonome- sensei is hypnotized by a vendor selling fish. We've been wandering for about an hour because of that."

Kurumu burst out, "And there's NOTHING here! Just sand, rocks, sand, and more sand!"

Onyx smirked, "You didn't even go near the pyramid, did you?"

Moka answered, "But… Nekonome-sensei said that we weren't allowed to touch the pyramid."

Onyx's grin widened, "And where exactly is the harm in looking so long as there is no touching?"

She tripped and slid along the dune for a short distance before Onyx stopped her slide.

The golem smiled at her, "Hard for you to walk in this, isn't it?"

She was stubborn, "It is not!"

Moka spoke, "Yukari-chan, there's no harm in admitting it."

She remained stubborn, "I am not tired." And to illustrate her point, she pushed ahead of the others.

Ryu spoke a short phrase, "Watch out for snakes."

Tsukune watched both Yukari and Kurumu freeze in their tracks…

Yukari screamed, "Snakes?!?!" and rushed back to him as quickly as she could through the deep sand and threw herself up into his arms.

As he fell backwards from Yukari jumping on him, he turned, and panicked internally as he realized that he was falling backwards straight at Moka.

A large hand grabbed the back of his collar, followed by Onyx's voice, "Wow Tsukune, your balance is worse than the Leaning Tower of Pisa."

Kurumu shot Onyx a curious look, "What's that?"

The golem started to speak… and stopped, "I… I don't know… It might be a memory from when I was human that I can't fully recall at the moment."

Yukari started to squeeze him, "Tsukune, I'm scared of snakes."

He spoke with some difficulty, "Yukari-chan, there aren't any snakes that I can see. It's ok."

Ryu spoke again, "Are you blind? There are two just to your left."

He rotated his head slowly to the side, "Wh… Where?"

Ryu shifted his grip on Mizore so he had a hand free, "Two feet to your left, eyes just sticking out of the sand."

Yukari scrambled around so she was hanging on to him from behind, "…"

Onyx gave him a shove down the dune, "Just ignore them, and they will ignore you. That's how most snakes work."

He decided to take Onyx at his word, for two reasons. Reason one, Yukari was starting to get heavy, even with Ryu cooling off the area around all of them. Reason two… this was his selfish side wanting to be next to Moka rather than isolated by carrying Yukari.

Onyx walked up beside him, "Need some help?"

When he didn't answer Onyx simply reached down, plucked Yukari off of his back, and dropped her onto his own shoulder.

Onyx spoke to Yukari, "Don't fall off. Because I'm not going to pick you up."

Yukari whined, "No, I am not going to fall!" and grabbed onto Onyx's hair.

Onyx blinked a couple of times, "…………Ok then."

Mizore slowly became aware that she was no longer lying in the shadow of the dune, slowly being buried by the burning sands. Someone was carrying her in their arms. She opened her eyes and saw the same blazing sun… but it didn't hurt like before. In fact, it felt nice and cold. Like when she was home.

A voice sounded out, "Ah, Mizore-chan, you're awake."

She turned her head to face the speaker… Ryu? Onyx's roommate?

Words started coming out of her mouth, "Where… where am I?"

Ryu smiled, "Still in Egypt, following behind Onyx and the others. I would be right with them but… they are a bit noisy."

As if to reinforce the point, a shout emanated from up ahead, "Kurumu-chan! Let go!"

Ryu observed, "Kurumu-san is very persistent, isn't she?"

She glanced ahead to where Kurumu was practically throwing herself at Tsukune, "Yeah…"

Ryu kept talking, "Tsukune seems to have a problem with that."

She didn't quite understand what Ryu meant, "Huh?"

Ryu's eyes widened, like he had said something he shouldn't have, "Ah… I… didn't say anything."

She frowned and pressed, "What did you mean, "Problem"?"

Ryu blushed and the cool feeling abated somewhat, "Ah… well…"

She got in his face, "Tell me."

Ryu began to look even more flustered and the pleasant cold feeling vanished entirely, "Well… Onyx did say that Tsukune was having… "girl problems"."

She stared at Ryu for a moment, before slipping from his arms and sprinting forward towards Tsukune. She ignored the heat, something she never really thought that she could manage.

She ran up behind him, "Tsukune?"

Tsukune turned around and a large smile lit up his face, "Mizore-chan. You're ok."

She asked him point blank, "Am I a problem?"

Before Tsukune could say anything, Kurumu interjected, "Of course you are. Tsukune only wants, UMPH!!!"

The last sound was Onyx throwing one of his hands across Kurumu's mouth and burying the top half of the succubus in the sand off to the side of the path by throwing Kurumu like a javelin. The golem then did the same thing to Yukari. Moka was a few steps away and apparently didn't hear anything.

Onyx spoke to the stunned Tsukune, "I've made this conversation about as private as I can Tsukune. I think that now is the time to fess up. Speak the truth."

Tsukune's mouth moved, but no sounds came out, then he seemed to muster some courage and he took a deep breath, "… Mizore-chan… I… You really are my precious friend, and I mean that. But… I…" Tsukune squeezed his eyes shut, "I really don't feel… that way about you."

The resilience that she had momentarily built to the desert heat vanished like a puff of steam.

Tsukune gave her a sad smile, "I hope… that we can still be friends. Right?"

She felt a few tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "… Yeah… That's right."

Tsukune watched Mizore walk off into the desert, Ryu right behind her.

He spoke aloud, "I… hope I just did the right thing."

Onyx set a hand on his shoulder, "You did Tsukune. It is kinder this way. Although it hurts her now, it will feel better eventually. Ryu is a decent guy, and I think that he's quite smitten with Mizore. At any rate he'll be her shoulder to cry on. Now help me with these two. You get the little witch and I'll… get the something that rhymes with witch."

He shot Onyx a confused look, "Huh?"

The golem grabbed one of Kurumu's flailing limbs, "The succubus."

He began to pull Yukari out of the sand, "Oh."

Yukari whined and shook the sand out of her hair, "What happened?!?"

Onyx gave Yukari a straight face, "You fell off, head first. And Kurumu fell over forward because her breasts are too heavy."

He could practically hear the steam coming out of Kurumu's head. But she didn't say anything, just turned on her heel and began to follow Moka.

Yukari turned to him, "Tsukune, could you carry me?"

Onyx picked Yukari up and spoke, "Actually, I need to speak with Tsukune alone for a moment, you go have fun with your blue-haired imbecile of a friend."

Before Yukari could do much more than whine, Onyx threw her up the path ahead of them.

His face deadpanned, "Was that really necessary?"

Onyx turned back to him, "Yes it was, now… Mizore is done… or in the process of it anyway. All that is left is Yukari and Kurumu."

He started to walk forward, following the girls, "What about Ruby?"

Onyx stopped dead, "…Ruby? A fifth girl? Wow… you were even worse off than I thought. Ruby is a girl, right?"

He nodded, "You've probably seen her and just not known it was her. Last time I knew, she was the nurse, although it has probably changed by now. She gets random jobs around the school."

Onyx scratched his chin, "I see… I think I know who you're talking about now. Wears that REALLY out of style dress, two brown braids down the side of her head… usually? And tells anyone who will listen how many things have happened?"

He fought hard not to laugh, "Yeah… that's Ruby."

Onyx spoke, apparently deep in thought, "I see… makes my job a bit more difficult, but she is a cute girl so………." The golem trailed off. Onyx's gaze apparently captured by a black, stone obelisk out in the middle of a patch of quicksand.

He asked, "Onyx? Something wrong?"

The golem waved him off, "You go on ahead, there is something about this thing that I recognize… I think I've seen it before but I'm not sure when or how."

He waited for a moment, and started after the girls.

Kurumu fumed, walking slightly behind Moka, who was now carrying a sand covered Yukari. Out of nowhere, Yukari had fallen out of the sky and landed on her, pushing her open mouth down into the sand. She STILL had pieces of sand in her mouth that she couldn't get rid of. If she knew anything about anything though, it was that Onyx was the cause of this misfortune as well as everything else. She heard a noise behind her and turned around; Tsukune was coming up behind them.

She spoke, "Did the golem get lost?"

Tsukune looked surprised, "Ah, no. He's looking at one of the monuments off to the side of the path. He said he might have seen it before. He can't look at it closely though because of the quicksand."

The word "quicksand" gave her the best idea she had ever had, she spoke innocently, "How far back is that?"

Tsukune looked over his shoulder before answering, "You can still see him, at least I think that is him gleaming in the sun. Why?"

She shrugged, "No reason."

Tsukune walked by, she didn't even notice. She was too busy planning her vengeance. She slowly slipped away from the group, growing her wings and flying back to where Onyx was fixated on the monument. She flew up high to get enough momentum… and dove, striking Onyx high on the back.

Onyx teetered forward, off balance, turned around, and saw her, "… Really?"

She kicked him in the chest, toppling the golem over into the quicksand, "Really."

Onyx changed into his golem form, "When I get out of here…"

She interrupted him, "IF you get out of there."

Onyx sank to his shoulders, "No, WHEN."

As Onyx continued to sink his arm raised above the sand, slowly vanishing into the depths as she watched.

She waited a full sixty seconds before bursting out, "YES!!! He's gone and I can hook Tsukune without a stupid golem breathing down my neck! YAHOO!!!"

The air suddenly got cold, "What did you do to Onyx?"

She turned around and came face to face with Mizore, "… I didn't do anything."

Mizore gave her a no nonsense stare, "We just heard you."

She pouted, "That's for me to know and you to never find out."

The tall boy next to Mizore shook his head and gave her a look of… pity, "It seems she'll have to learn things the hard way."

With that, both Mizore and the boy started walking away. She started to look away but something drew her attention back with a jerk, Mizore was……… holding the boy's hand???

She started to laugh to herself, "Looks like one less rival for me!"

There was a panting sound and Nekonome-sensei ran into view, a large sack slung over a shoulder, "… Where's everyone else?"

She pointed her finger after Tsukune and the others, "This way" and began to follow the teacher, "Nekonome-sensei, your tail!"

One week later:

Kurumu kicked back in her desk. It had been an entire week and she had seen neither hide nor hair of Onyx, and without the golem's interference she had even wrangled Tsukune away from Moka, twice! Mizore was playing with something that was hung around her neck that gleamed and caught her attention.

She leaned over and whispered, "Where did you get that?"

Mizore held it the object out and she got a better look at it. It was a diamond shaped piece of… crystal that was hung on a silver chain. The sun scattered when it passed through, throwing miniature rainbows all over the place. If she looked at it hard enough… she almost could have called it a scale… but what could possibly have scales that big?

Mizore gave her a half-smile, "That's for me to know and you to find out."

There was a distant crashing sound that shook the building.

Tsukune had a flashback to the first time something like this had happened. Onyx had been "summoned" by his former master and been inexorably drawn out of the building, regardless of who or what might have been in the way. But Onyx was free now… wasn't he? There was a crash from the front of the room and Onyx, in his golem form, stepped through the remains of the door. The golem slowly swept a glare across the room.

Onyx made a beeline through the room towards Kurumu, "You!!!"

The golem grabbed Kurumu by the scruff of her neck and dragged her out of the room, Kurumu kicking and screaming the whole way… and flashing the entire class in the process. He stood and started to race after Onyx, if he was going to hurt Kurumu than he… he used the ruined doorframe to sling himself around the corner and his face ran full bore into Onyx's outstretched hand.

Kurumu continued to struggle as Onyx dragged her down the stairs, out the front door, and across the campus into the woods. There was a hole dug into the ground.

She yelled at the golem, "Why are you doing this to me?!?"

Onyx shifted back to his human form, and now she could see how royally furious he was, "You really need to ask? I was stuck on the bottom of the desert for over a week until I was able to claw my way up the side of the Sahara basin. Then I had to run across the entire breadth of Asia, hijack a boat, and run across Japan to get back to school. Do you have any idea how long it is going to take me to grind the sand out of my joints? It… itches."

To illustrate his point Onyx rolled his shoulder, sand fell in a cascade to form a small pile at his feet. Onyx then grabbed her by the head and held her in the hole while his free hand pushed dirt in around her.

Onyx didn't stop working while he spoke, "I think I'll make you appreciate what it's like to be buried alive. I think a week will do."

She started to panic, "But… But I…"

Onyx finished and walked away, not allowing her to say anything in her defense… but… what could she say?

Tsukune slowly woke up, with a splitting headache.

He rubbed his head and sat up, saying the only word that came to mind, "Ow."

Moka was right next to the bed, "Tsukune?"

His head felt foggy, "What… what happened?"

Moka shifted uneasily, "Onyx-san dragged Kurumu away… but he said that he wasn't going to hurt her, just teach her a lesson."

He was surprised, "Really? Did he say why?"

Moka nodded, "Yes, he said that Kurumu knocked him into a pit of quicksand while we were in the desert. That's why he was gone for a week."

Before he could say anything more, the door to the infirmary burst open.

A tall, menacing boy walked in, "Which student was…" the boy's eyes narrowed with hate, "…you…"

The appearance of the boy jarred his memory of freshman year, "You… you're the head of the public safety committee! Why are you here?"

A ball of fire formed in the former PSC leader's hand… then faded away, "I'm back because I never left. I've been bidding my time until I can get my revenge… on all of you. But I don't think now is the best time. You're not all in one place."

The fox demon turned on his heel and stormed out.

He unconsciously put his hand to his chest where that boy had impaled him upon a spear of fire, "Why now? Of all the times he could show up again… why now?"

Onyx started to walk towards the school building. He hadn't seen the slightest wisp of Ryu's presence since he had gotten back so he could assume that the guy was busy with… was that crying? He followed the sound of the noise, recognizing immediately where he was heading.

He stared down at the girl he had stuck in the ground, "… She cries in her sleep? Really?"

The ground around Kurumu's head was literally inundated with tears; it squished if he stepped on it.

He started talking aloud, "Seriously? Just how much can one person cry in less than a day?"

He crouched down to look at her face; tears were STILL streaming down like a torrent.

He face palmed, "Why do I always fall for this crap?"

He grabbed Kurumu by the head and yanked. With the amount of water in the ground the succubus came loose without much force exerted. He carried her out of the woods by the scruff of her neck. Moka was walking down the path towards him.

He stopped the vampire, "You, take this… girl back to her dorm. And don't you dare tell her that it was me that dug her out of the ground. Am I clear?"

Moka, with a scared look on her face, nodded, "Ok."

He started stalking towards the school, fuming at himself.

A voice called to him from the side of the path, "Hey!"

He stopped and turned to the voice. Luna was hanging from the branch of a tree by her knees. Upside down, skirt flung "up", arms crossed behind her head.

Luna shouted, "What was all that about?"

He replied, "You should know. You do the exact same thing with your eyes. That girl cries incessantly. Both are rather difficult to ignore." He started to walk again and paused, "… you want some help getting down?"

Luna swung in place, "Why would I need help getting down?"

He coughed politely, "Last time it did not end well. You landed on somebody, a freshman as I recall, and traumatized the poor kid."

Luna remained where she was, "It's not my fault that the kid didn't see me… or that the branch broke."

He glanced at the branch Luna was on, "… And you aren't concerned with the one that you're using?"

Luna replied, "No. I jumped on it a couple of times to make sure."

The branch started to bend, Luna did not notice.

He did, "… I think you might want to get down now."

Before Luna could either say anything, or do anything, the branch snapped and he snagged her by the leg before she hit the ground.

He hung Luna's face in front of him, "I hate to say it, but I told you so."

Luna pouted, "I could have landed gracefully."

He set his friend upright, "If there had been someone below you to land on." He gave Luna a light shove in the direction of the main building, "Come on, class is going to start soon."

Luna let out a huge sigh and almost toppled forward before he caught her by the shoulder, "… You really need to learn to compensate for that when going around on two legs, you know?"

Luna gave him a hurt glance, "… It's not my fault…"

He let out a sigh of his own, "I know that, and you know I know that. That's partially why we became friends, remember. Your dad was having a… temper tantrum about how you look in the school uniform."

Luna smiled, "And you punched him out because of it."

He shook his head, "I still don't really get why you're so happy that I sent your father on a one way trip to the horizon. When you get back home he's going to be furious."

Luna's face took on the look of a person lost in thought, "Oh, I think he might act a bit differently than that…"

He left her alone for the moment. Although he wasn't quite sure why Luna's eyes kept drifting from him to the void and back.

Ginei Morioka sat, perched on the railing surrounding the school roof, aiming his camera around the campus. Doing his usual peeking. He swept the lens of his camera across the school courtyard… and brought it to a stop on Ruby. With the hiring of a new nurse Ruby had gone back to being relatively freelance in her duties around the school. Right now she was sweeping the paving stones around the entrance, in her usual attire.

There was a thumping sound behind him, "Staring at any one girl in particular?"

He turned around, hiding his camera behind his back, "No… no one at all."

Onyx gave him a knowing look, "Tsukune and the others HAVE told me… and my circle of friends, about you perverted tendencies. The camera strap around your neck kind of gives you away to."

His shoulders slumped in defeat as the golem came over to the railing, "Fine… yes. The one by the gate. Her name is…"

The golem cut him off, "Ruby, I know. Smitten are we?"

He simply glared at the golem and remained silent.

A devious glint appeared in Onyx's eyes, "Why don't you… go say hi."

Without warning, one of the golem's hands clubbed him in the back and sent him flying towards the gate.

On the roof Onyx muttered to himself, "Rats… I think I got the angle wrong… oh well. Two down and two to go."

Ruby Toujou set her broom aside and sighed to herself. It had taken a lot longer than usual to clean up for some reason. A loud screaming noise drew her attention upwards… She was suddenly tackled by someone falling out of the sky; with their face landing…

She pulled the boy's face out of her chest and slapped him, "Pervert!"

The dazed face of Ginei, now with the addition of a large, red handprint across his face spoke, "It wasn't my fault… the golem hit me off of the roof…"

Deciding to humor the perverted werewolf, she glanced up at the roof of the school. Sure enough, a giant of a boy was leaning on the railing, and when he saw her glance up he waved cordially before turning around and vanishing from sight. She suddenly felt rather guilty for hitting Gin… but he had had it coming… still.

She helped Gin up, "I'm… I'm sorry."

Gin waved it off, despite the throbbing red mark on his face, "Ah, it's nothing."

She spoke, and immediately did not know why, "Is there… anything that I could do to make it up to you?"

Gin momentarily looked surprised, and at first, she thought that he was going to say something extremely shallow and perverted but… Gin replied, "I… have a photography sabbatical coming up… would you like to come?"

She hesitated for a moment, then the thought of Tsukune surrounded by four other girls slipped, unbidden, into her head, "I… I'd like that."

Tsukune led the girls, with the notable exception of Ruby, out into a small clearing. He was going to break the news about the PSC leader to all of them at once.

Kurumu spoke, "Ok Tsukune, why are we out here?"

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth, before he spoke though the reason for them being there was answered for him, "I believe that he brought you out here to warn you about me."

The PSC leader crashed down from the trees in an exploding fireball that threw each of them to the far corners of the clearing.

The fox demon was already in the final form that he had taken just before being defeated at the end of freshman year, "I was hoping that all of you would gather out of panic and I would be able to finish you all at once. Now that blasted werewolf and the other witch are gone. But four out of six in one place is good enough for me at the moment. The other two can burn when they get back!" The demon turned to look at their sprawled forms, "Now… who should die first… I say… the human!"

He felt the heat build, and saw the spear of flame erupt from the ether in front of one of the PSC leader's hands. He closed his eyes in anticipation of his demise… He felt a rush of air and something carried him out of the way. He opened his eyes… and saw a blond head of hair in front of him and… he was sitting on what looked like the body of a golden horse.

Disbelief filled his voice, "L… Luna-san?"

Luna shot a look at him over her shoulder, "Let me make this abundantly clear… I don't like you, and I never will. Understand?"

On the inside, he let out a huge sigh of relief, "Crystal."

Onyx marched into the center of the clearing, already in golem form, "… Wow… somebody has extreme anger issues."

The fox demon shouted, "Silence construct!!!"

A wave of flame emanated from the PSC leader and enveloped Onyx for a full sixty seconds. The flames vanished and Onyx stood, untouched.

Onyx rolled his shoulders, "Well… at least you melted all of the sand in my joints into glass. At least it'll be easier to clear out."

The fox demon snarled, "Come then, construct. Let's see what you're made of."

Onyx strode forward, "Steel, for your information. And you might just live to regret those words."

Onyx swung his right fist in a vertical chop that the PSC leader was easily able to slip around. The fox demon then danced out of the way of three more blows before skittering away to the edge of the clearing.

The PSC leader laughed, "Too slow to hit me, too powerful to fell. No matter, I don't need to kill you, construct, to take my revenge." Flames began to gather around the fox demon with a furious roar.

Onyx drew his fists apart, "Gather around me!"

Luna shot forward like a dart and he desperately grabbed onto anything he could to avoid falling off. He shut his eyes… he was suddenly surrounded by a low warmth, and felt… energized.

He heard Luna speak, a dangerous note in her voice, "Let. Go. Now."

He suddenly became aware of where his hands were, in a vice grip on Luna's breasts.

He flung his hands wide, blabbering, "I'm sorry!" Over and over. He fell off of Luna's back in the process.

He stood slowly… inside the protective bubble that Onyx was projecting. The fire was still there around his feet but… it didn't hurt at all.

His observations were interrupted by Luna, "Well? Summon your vampire friend already!"

Luna shoved him at Moka. He flailed his arms for balance… and one of his hands caught the Rosario, followed by one of Moka's breasts. The red flash quickly followed and he was aware of Vampire Moka's icy glare drilling into the back of his head.

Vampire Moka spoke, "Glad to see you to Tsukune."

He suddenly suffered a massive nosebleed.

Vampire Moka slowly gazed around the interior of the protective field, "… Is there a reason I'm not collapsing this time?"

Onyx replied, still as a statue, "That's because you were considered an enemy at the time, regardless of whether or not I thought so. Now I consider you an ally… although I'm relatively sure that you don't think the same way."

Vampire Moka glared up at Onyx, "You have a remarkable talent for stating the obvious."

Onyx glibly replied, "And for saying the things that no one else dares to say, especially about you. Now here is the next remark I have… unless you enjoy fighting naked, and heavily charred, I advise you to stay in the field."

Vampire Moka remain outwardly calm, but he thought that he saw an angry twitch in the corner of her left eye, "Until? We can't stay here indefinitely."

A wave of sheer cold washed through the area and extinguished all of the flames.

Onyx spoke, and dropped the barrier, "Until the cavalry arrives, which is now."

Ryu glided across the ground to the edge of the clearing.

The PSC leader turned toward Ryu, "I severely dislike interruptions. Leave before you burn to ash."

Ryu didn't move an inch, or speak a word.

The fox demon spoke, "Fine, on your head be it."

A huge fireball erupted from the combined fists of the PSC leader. At the same time, a giant spire of ice shot up out of the ground to envelope Ryu. The fireball hit the ice… and splashed off. Not even a single drop if ice had melted.

The fox demon roared in anger, "How can this be?"

Within the spire, a pair of purple eyes began to glow.

The PSC leader stared in astonishment, "Wha… What is this?"

The spire shattered… and out of the center of the mass uncoiled a vast, shining, scaled monster.

He stared at Ryu's true form, mouth hanging wide open, "A… A… A DRAGON?!?"

Mizore spoke, softly, "Uh huh."

All of them around Onyx turned to stare at Mizore, they all shouted at once, "You KNEW???"

Mizore just nodded and continued to stare at Ryu, a half smile on her face.

Ryu's mouth didn't move, but his voice carried across the clearing to the fox demon, "If you wish to surrender now, I doubt that you would be harmed."

Flames blazed around the PSC leader, "Never!"

Ryu uncoiled both his tail and neck, doubling his presence in the clearing, "So be it."

The fire around the PSC leader instantly went out, the fox demon glanced around in horror, "What?!? Why you mother…" the PSC leader was frozen solid before he could say anything else.

Kurumu ran out and stood in front of the frozen fox demon, "What was that? I CAN'T HEAR…"

Ryu winced from the shouting and froze Kurumu as well.

Onyx shook his head, "Ryu…"

The golem went over to both ice blocks, and shattered the one holding Kurumu, she fell to the ground in as if dead, but he could she her breathing so…

He turned to Vampire Moka and held out the Rosario, "Moka-san…"

Vampire Moka held her hand up, pushing him slightly away, "Hey, golem!"

Onyx stopped walking away, not looking back, "… Let me guess. You want a re-match?"

Vampire Moka shot Onyx an arrogant smirk, "You read my mind."

Onyx turned around and ground one fist into the other, "You realize that there is no way you can win."

Vampire Moka stuck one hand on her hip, "That's only what you say."

Onyx shook his head, "Vampiric pride… Tsukune, you and the others might want to clear out. This is going to take a very long time."

As if to illustrate the point Vampire Moka rushed Onyx, landed two swift kicks that did absolutely nothing, and dodged Onyx's return swing.

Luna started to lead the way out of the clearing, "Come on, when Onyx says that it's going to take a long time it's going to take a VERY long time."

He started to follow. The rest of the group followed shortly thereafter.

Yukari spoke to Luna, "What exactly are you?"

One of Luna's hooves pawed the ground angrily, "You've never seen a centaur before? How sheltered ARE you?"

Yukari's face lit up, "Then… that makes you part horse?"

Luna gave Yukari a curious glance, "… I suppose…"

Yukari gave a joyous shout, "Yay!!! I've always wanted to ride a horse, but my parents said I was too young!"

Luna trotted a few paces away, "I'm not a horse! I'm a centaur. I don't carry people for a living."

Yukari followed, "But you just carried Tsukune! I'm much lighter, you won't even know I'm there!"

After about five more minutes of pestering Luna gave in and Yukari rode on Luna's back to the girls dorm.

Next morning:

Tsukune walked along the path to the main building. Just when he saw the gates he heard loud noises coming from the woods off to the right of the path.

He muttered to himself as he cut through the brush, "They can't still be fighting… can they?"

Sure enough, when he got to the clearing from the night before… Onyx and Vampire Moka were still going at it, with the same fervor as when he had left last night.

He thought that one of Onyx's blows was about to land and couldn't help but shout, "Moka-san!"

Vampire Moka paused at his cry and shot a look over her shoulder to look at him. Onyx didn't seem to notice Tsukune, only Vampire Moka's momentary distraction. The golem launched himself into the air to attempt a full body slam on Vampire Moka. He couldn't help himself; he sprinted out into the clearing and shoved Vampire Moka out from under the flying mass of steel. He looked up just in time to watch Onyx come down…

Vampire Moka picked herself up off the ground and looked back to where the golem had created a miniature crater in the ground.

She ran up and kicked Onyx in the side of the head, "Get off of him you idiot!"

The golem slowly complied, "Yes oh queen of the universe…"

Tsukune lay, still clutching the Rosario, twitching, at the exact epicenter of the crater.

Onyx spoke, "Tsukune… you really need to stop trying to be a hero, you'll live longer."

She put her hands on her hips and shook her head, Tsukune was always trying to protect her, even when she didn't need protecting… it suddenly made her extremely jealous of her other side… a giant metal fist closed around her.

Onyx held her up in front of him, no expression visible on his metal face, "I don't recall you calling off the contest. Are you going to do so now? Or do I have to squeeze?"

Left with few options, she nodded her head, "Fine."

The golem let go, "Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean myself up before school." As he walked away Onyx paused, "… If it's any consolation, that was the longest fight I've ever had. The only people that I've never beaten ran away. You have my respect, if that means anything."

The golem left the clearing.

She spoke aloud, "Endurance… I guess he corners the market on that game…"

There was a groan from behind her, the PSC leader's head was all that had emerged from the block of ice that the dragon had encased him in. She walked over and prodded the fox demon in the side of the face.

The PSC leader twitched, "Wha… YOU!"

A smirk lit up her face, "Yes, me. Learned your lesson yet?"

In response, the fox demon started to violently rock the block of ice.

She smiled, not wholly disappointed by the response, "I take that as a no."

She kicked the boy right in the face, HARD.