The following week brought a meeting of Yokai's Newspaper Club, and as Tsukune and Kurumu made their way to the club room he noticed that the succubus looked much more cheerful and lighthearted than she had been the past few days.
"In a good mood today?" He asked with an amused smile. Kurumu nodded. The club room grew closer and closer as the pair walked down the hall.
"Just one of those days, I guess," Kurumu said. She almost looked like she was about to start skipping and singing any minute.
"Could it be because we've got a club meeting today? For a club that a certain purple-haired Snow Woman happens to be a part of?"
"...It might be," she answered quietly, with a little blush. Tsukune laughed.
"It's just that she's been running around with that friend of hers ever since she got here, we've barely seen any of her lately," Kurumu continued. "Even though it's only been a week since we've really hung out...I kind of miss her, you know?"
Tsukune nodded in understanding.
"We all miss her a little, it'll be good for us to get back to club activities."
They had reached the clubroom door now, the sounds of laughter floated out from inside the room. Tsukune slid the door open and the pair stepped inside. Kurumu stiffened as she glanced at the scene around her. The room was empty except for Moka, who sat at the table, and Tomomi Shion, who sat across from the vampire and seemed to be caught up in hysterical laughter over something Moka had just said. The succubus was about to demand what Tomomi was doing here, but Moka looked up and caught sight of them before she could get the words out.
"Tsukune, Kurumu! You made it!" she said cheerily. Tomomi raised a hand and waved at the duo, seeming to bear none of the resentment that Kurumu did for her.
Tsukune called out a greeting in return, and made his way to the table to sit with Moka. He seemed to find nothing unusual about the presence of the other Snow Woman.
"C'mon Kurumu, come sit down!" Tomomi said with a bemused smile.
"What? You're in the Newspaper Club now?" Kurumu asked, trying to keep the harshness out of her voice. She failed though, because Tomomi's smile faltered and she glanced down at the table.
"Just watching..." she muttered.
Kurumu let out a sigh and sat down among the others, taking the free seat that was the farthest away from Tomomi.
The three of them started chatting excitedly amongst themselves, laughing and smiling while Kurumu stayed silent and gazed out the window, making sure to tune out the conversation around her. A few minutes passed, and then the door slid open once more and a comically suave voice filled the room.
"Ah, I knew there was another beauty here among us today."
Even though 75% of the group already knew who the voice belonged to and let out an internal groan, they all turned their heads to see Ginei Morioka waltzing into the room carrying a bouquet of white roses. Moka took it upon herself to give introductions.
"Tomomi, this is Gin Morioka, he's-"
"I'm the beloved leader of this ragtag gang of amateur journalists," Gin had already sauntered up to the table and extended a rose to Tomomi before Moka had even finished her sentence.
Tomomi rolled her eyes, but then laughed and took the rose anyway. Gin flashed his cliché movie star smile and separated another rose from the bouquet.
"And one for you, princess," Gin handed a flower to Moka. He was obviously turning on the charm for Tomomi, but Moka played along, accepting his gift with a smile.
"And of course, not to be forgotten..." But as Gin offered a rose to Kurumu, he froze. Literally. A giant block of ice suddenly encased him from head to toe.
"What did I tell you about hitting on my girlfriend?" Mizore's voice cooly drifted into the room.
Kurumu's gaze snapped to the doorway where Mizore was standing with Yukari in tow. The succubus's eyes lit up.
"Mizore!" She jumped out of her chair and ran for the doorway, tackle-hugging the yuki-onna. Mizore staggered backwards at her sudden attack but smiled nonetheless.
"Gin knows better than to take over my job."
Kurumu laughed, releasing her grip on Mizore only slightly so she could look up at her.
"Hitting on me is your job?"
"Among other things."
Kurumu smiled gratefully and hugged Mizore again. This was the closest they had been since Tomomi had arrived a week ago, and Kurumu wasn't going to lose a minute of it. Yukari made fake gagging noises as she marched past the monster couple and took her place at the clubroom table.
"Shirayuki! Saved you a seat!" Tomomi called out.
Mizore disentangled herself from Kurumu's grip (which was a rather impressive feat) and made her way over to sit next to Tomomi. With a wave of her hand she thawed Gin, and he stood shivering and disgruntled in the pool of water at his feet. Kurumu watched as Mizore and Tomomi sat close together and felt some of the cheerfulness draining out of her. She repressed the urge to growl at the white-haired girl and took back her seat that was the farthest away from Tomomi (and now Mizore as well).
"Hmph. You people know the drill, get to work," Gin muttered, unhappy about being turned into a Popsicle and shaking water off the now-wilted roses.
The gang stared around at each other blankly, unable to come up with a newsworthy story on the spot like that. Tomomi's eyes flicked around expectantly, waiting to see what the club was like when it sprung into action.
"Really? Nothing at all?" Gin asked as he wrung the last drops of water out of his school jacket.
But the past week had been rather uneventful, as uneventful as life at a school full of monsters could be. Gin sighed and muttered under his breath.
"Great...another slow news week..."
"There never seems to be anything decent to report unless it puts us in dire peril," Mizore noted.
Tomomi was still looking around eagerly, waiting to watch the club go to work. The room was silent again.
"Okay, well, I'm not even part of the Newspaper Club," Tomomi started to say, "but why don't you write about the field trip?"
Gin's mood suddenly improved 200%.
"Brilliant idea! Not only are you a rare beauty among beauties, but a creative genius too!" he preached, flitting over to the table to give Tomomi more ridiculously white smiles. The rest of the group had confusion on their faces.
"Field trip? There's a field trip?" Tsukune questioned.
"Yeah, to the Human World. Nekonome-sensei told me," Tomomi explained.
The room was suddenly filled with excited chatter over the upcoming field trip and what to write for the newspaper article. Kurumu, however, was staying silent. Her pretty little head was already planning out the hundreds of things she and Mizore could do together once they finally broke away from the mundane school campus. All the human things she had heard about; restaurants, movies, picnics, parks, Kurumu could do all of them with Mizore and spend some much-needed time with the yuki-onna.
At this point Tsukune had mentioned how much he missed the Human World, and Tomomi had just revealed that she lived in the Human World too.
"This is great, Tsukune and I can show you around, since we're going someplace different than wherever you guys went on the last Human World trip," Tomomi said. "Mizore, I can't wait until we get there, there's like 50 different places I want to take you to."
Kurumu's happy little train of thought suddenly jumped off the tracks and crashed head first into a mountain.
Mizore's expression seemed to say that she had no problem with spending a fun day in the Human World with Tomomi instead of Kurumu, and once again the blue-haired girl literally felt the happiness being sucked out of her.
An hour passed and the group had plans for the next issue of the Yokai newspaper already laid out, along with plans for the field trip. The gang slowly trickled out of the room as everything got wrapped up, until only Kurumu, Yukari, and Mizore were left. Kurumu was hanging back by the window, watching and waiting for the little witch to gather her things and leave the club room. Finally, with a wave and a "See you later, desu desu!", Yukari was gone, and just the succubus and the Snow Woman were left in the room.
Mizore was almost out the door herself when she stopped and turned around to look at Kurumu.
"Aren't you coming?"
The room was growing darker and darker as the sun started to set, and the window behind Kurumu painted the walls with splashes of orange and red. Kurumu mentally steadied herself and got straight to the point.
"Are you really going to spend the entire field trip with Tomomi?" Her eyes didn't flicker with anger, but disappointment. Mizore looked confused.
"What are you talking about?" She retreated from the doorway and stepped back into the room. Kurumu moved too, stepping away from the window and walking in Mizore's direction.
"Tomomi said she had a lot of places she wanted to show you...and I just thought the field trip would be a chance for you and I to hang out..." the succubus quietly explained. Mizore frowned.
"I can do both. It's not a big deal. And we're all going together, it's not like you and I will be in different places. There'll be plenty of time for us to spend together."
Kurumu's spirits didn't seem to lift.
"Yeah, you're right. No big deal. I'm just being weird about the whole thing..." she muttered, walking past Mizore and heading for the door.
"Kurumu-"
"I'll see you tomorrow," the succubus gave her girlfriend a very forced smile, then left the club room, closing the door behind her.
Mizore stood alone in the middle of the classroom, very confused and very lost.
