Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story. Just don't copy from this and I won't have to hunt you down!

"All right, Tsukune. Enough talk; prepare yourself." Inner Moka slid into a battle ready stance with the ease of thousands of times of use. Following the stance came a wave of her immense youki, and a beckon from the girl herself. Tsukune was mildly surprised; only mildly, because he wouldn't put a fight past her. Combat is something that Inner Moka truly seems to enjoy, and the stronger the opponent, the more she thrives. The whole ice manipulation deal only seems to have stoked her bloodlust even higher. To appease her (and to keep himself from three times the pain later on), he moved into his own battle stance, arms loose at the sides and feet wide open. It was one of the new ones Inner Moka had taught him herself; it was supposed to be for opponents who were stronger than he, and would help in defending himself. Supposed to, anyway.

None of that helped much, since as soon as she saw his compliance and readiness, she darted forth faster than any normal eye could see, sending kick after kick at his weak points. Tsukune's brain, not yet warmed up to the extreme intensity the vampiress was putting out, was only capable of commanding his body to dodge everything. If he did it correctly, he could glance aside some of the weaker kicks with his arms or feet, but these were not what he was accustomed to, and couldn't do anything safe with them other than keep out of their way.

"Come on, Tsukune! You can do better than this! Show me your true power!" With that, she continued the onslaught, pushing him to respond. If anything she stepped it up a notch, sending blows at quicker and quicker speeds. Now Tsukune was having trouble keeping up, and was running out of options. In the heat of the fight, he had abandoned any strategy that he might be able to use to overpower the vampiress, and she seemed to have noticed it. Having no strategy would be suicide by her reckoning, so she pushed him harder to make him realize that.With nothing else to give, his panicking mind drew upon every resource it had left; the result was a wave of unformed energy that did nothing but stop the assault for a mere two seconds. In this space, Inner Moka looked at him with an odd expression on her face before continuing.

The fight dragged on and on, with no further yield of snow fairy power, much to Inner Moka's frustration. From intense to underwhelming, she tried everything to evince some ice ability from him. Nothing worked, and Tsukune was winding down. He simply couldn't keep up with such a prolonged battle with the jaded woman; a vampire, and a strong one he may be, but Inner Moka was out of his league. Seeing that nothing would happen, she ceased the fight, and allowed Tsukune to catch his breath.

"What's wrong, Tsukune? I saw you use a snow fairy's power yesterday. What happened?"

Apparently she had wanted him to merely use his ice abilities from the get-go, he realized. A small sigh escaped his lips, and he said, "Moka-san, I didn't know you wanted me to use ice to fight. I don't know how to fight with ice." He didn't mention the fact that he felt as if he couldn't summon any more even if he tried, for fear of more pain.

"Well, then Mizore will have to fix that."

"What do I have to fix?"

"GAH! Mizore, where'd you come from?!" a rather unsettled Tsukune said.

"Over there," came her calm reply. A finger pointed over in the direction where Kurumu was idly looking about, an all too innocent look on her face. "Tsukune, you can use ice like I can. I saw you do it. Why can't you do it anymore?"

He stiffened, the question hitting him like a brick. Why can't he make more ice? He used to be able to before, hell, even on accident! So what is the problem? Inner Moka could tell he was having troubles, and poked in. "Tsukune, maybe you can't make ice because you don't have enough blood in you?"

He thought about that for a second, then blushed a deep crimson. She really didn't mean –

"Tsukune-kun? Are you saying you're thirsty?"

"W-What? I never... never said..."

Inner Moka shot a look at him, brooking no argument and stopping him in the same motion. After he was sufficiently cowed, she glanced over at Mizore to see her reaction. A simple flick of the snow woman's eyes in her direction told her all she needed to know.

"Tsukune-kun, if you needed to get something to drink, you could've just told me. I'd be happy to help." Tsukune's blush only deepened, unsure of how to approach the situation. He wasn't very comfortable with feeding from the eccentric yuki-onna, especially since she was so willing it was creepy. But, seeing as Inner Moka would probably hurt him if he didn't, and Mizore was completely fine with it, he saw no reason to continue objecting. After all, he was getting kind of thirsty, seeing as he hadn't had real blood in forever. The tomato juice and substitutes helped, but it wasn't as good as the real thing.

Mizore somehow was beside him, and close enough to put even more heat in his face. She bared her neck, getting right down to business as was her usual approach, and tempted Tsukune to succumb to his now baser instincts. His teeth unconsciously bared themselves, savoring the upcoming meal. He hesitantly leaned in, fangs inches from her frosty skin. She didn't have time for it, and pushed forward, making contact herself and breaking the skin against his sharp canines. Once the blood was free to Tsukune's sensitive nose, desire took hold and he drank. The smell wafted to Inner Moka's nose as well, making her eyes dilute in similar hunger. For a brief moment, she wondered what it would be like to consume some of the yuki-onna's blood, then tossed the idea, disgusted of feeding from the weird girl.

Tsukune could taste it... very faint, but every now and then in between small swallows he could taste small hints of the frost hidden within the liquid. He recalled someone saying something to him a while back, something about consuming monster blood and the power within it. Ah, yes – one of his soul fragments had told him that; it had just been so long ago he hadn't gotten around to telling anyone, much less remember it. Either way, once he had drank his fill, he could feel both the power of lifeblood entering his vampiric veins, as well as the innate cold underlying the salty taste.

Satisfied, and a smiling Mizore nodding at him, he stood erect and waited. A few seconds, and the fuel was ready to use. Tsukune raised a hand palm up experimentally, and, with a bit of concentration, formed a crude but tiny crystalline mirror on his fingertips. Smiling, he showed the figure to Inner Moka, who walked over and examined it for a few seconds, before flicking it away. Tsukune flinched when it broke with a small tinkle, but paid it no mind, for he knew what the vampiress wanted. Now that the secondary vampire's power was restored to some extent, Inner Moka's lust for battle craved a fight, and she would have it, no silliness involved.

"All right, Tsukune. You've had your snack, now get ready." With that warning, she moved into her ready stance once more, and bid Mizore return to her training with Kurumu.

"Nah, I want to watch this. See how Tsukune can fare with ice at his hand."

A slitted red eye darted to Mizore's doll like face, daring the snow woman to rebuke its owner further. However, Mizore said nothing more, and Inner Moka really couldn't find a legitimate reason for her to leave. All right, then. Spectators weren't normally allowed to watch, but no one else was present save for their group, so she let it pass. If anything, Inner Moka's pride savored the chance to show another youkai the true potential of the vampire race.

The vampiress was in the middle of choosing how to go about engaging Tsukune again when he surprised her and started the fight himself, running in fast to try and deliver an uppercut into her abdomen. Interesting... even though he had initiated the battle, he retained the need to be gentlemanly... Either way, a strike was futile, wherever aimed. She sidestepped the attacked and let him stumble from lack of opponent. She shook her head when he recovered to let him know of her disappointment, provoking him to awkwardly charge once again. This time it was a low centered kick, from the looks of how low his torso was. She easily dodged that too, and taunted him for such amateurish attacks. He was better than this, and they both knew it. It seems she would have to force him to fight like the proud monster he was. So be it.

Face hardening in preparation, Inner Moka flew forth with the fury of that which she – and her race – were known for. Before the poor guy could even react, she had planted a powerful lifting kick that launched him like a catapult does a boulder. The resulting landing had Tsukune crash rather painfully through a tree or two, giving him scratches but nothing serious. After that unexpectedly cold kick to the face, Tsukune's blood boiled, and he got to his feet with a fury of his own in his eye. Now a relatively fresh vampire, Tsukune couldn't take too many hits without the rage of the primal beast within every bloodsucker rising, driving him to attack the oppressor with everything he had. This is what happened here; rage awoken, Tsukune no longer held back, and did not charge straightforwardly as he had the other times. Instead, he used his superhuman strength to jump back into the circle, and landed with eyes ablaze.

While Inner Moka was not prone to giving in to her vampiric wrath often, as doing so was reckless and beneath her, she could see Tsukune had succumbed to his rage, albeit not as fully as she would have thought. She swore his self control had no bounds... admirable, but it could get him killed if he used it incorrectly. Well, that's what she was here for – to teach him how to defend himself, and for his sake she would do it. These were the thoughts ambling around in her head as he prepared some other futile attempt at landing a hit on her, and... he wasn't doing anything. While she broke out of her reverie, he was still standing in the exact spot where he had landed, except his eyes were closed. She couldn't see the reason behind this, as she wasn't exactly too fast for him to counteract (when she wasn't trying), so he wasn't utilizing his youki detector, and it was stupid for him to stand there in anger with his eyes closed doing nothing at all, so what was he doing, exactly? She debated hitting him, but thought better of it. It would be interesting to see what he had planned, if he had anything at all. She closed her eyes as well, if only to imitate him.

They shot right back open after her own detector had went on automatically. She looked up into the dull, reddish sky to witness the thousands upon thousands of tiny icicles dangling ten meters above her head. The huge mass was wobbling dangerously, and, to her amazement, more and more formed as she watched. So this was what he had planned, eh? A rainstorm of spikes ready to fall on their heads? She would stop them before they could be launched on her, even though the range was huge – the cloud of spikes seemed to stretch for a good twenty meters. It appeared he wanted to cover as large an area as possible, because there wasn't much depth to the cloud other than a few spikes per meter. Not wanting to let him unleash the barrage any time soon, she darted forward to knock him off balance, but she didn't expect him to fade away as soon as her palm hit the boy. An after-image...? Damn, but he was fast. Apparently he was still monitoring her with his radar, even though he was preparing that massive attack... Regardless of whether or not he failed to use it on her, his ice manipulation powers were admirable. She'd have to reward him for it sometime later, for the accomplishment if nothing else. Now, where to find the real Tsukune...

She whipped her head over her shoulder to witness the statuesque Tsukune sitting cross-legged in a tree, seemingly still adding icicles to his rainstorm of spikes. She shook her head once again, surprised he would be so adamant about finishing the venture. Oh well; she would have to teach him to use variety as well. She ran to the tree he was sitting in, and kicked its trunk to shreds, forcing him to open his eyes and leap off the branch before the oak fell. Tsukune rolled to his knees, and to her surprise, resumed his previous position. A vein pulsed in her head in response; who did he think he was to stop in the middle of combat to sit down for whatever reason? No matter – she'd put him in his place soon enough. Silently, and with as minimal youki output as possible, she sneaked closer to him to put a foot in his ear for his insolence. To her surprise (and chagrin), Tsukune's head exploded in a shower of ice shards, and the crystalline body fell to the ground to melt. An ice clone, then. However pissed off this little trick made her, she was proud of him to see that he had relative proficiency over his abilities, however badly she wanted to kill him for making her fall for such a simple trick. Unless Mizore had told him how to do that... but she doubted it. They didn't speak to each other enough for that. Did they...?

Tsukune saw his opening while she fumed over his little act of subterfuge, and silently moved in to retaliate for that painful kick he received earlier. Calmer now, but still boiling, he had worked painstakingly to prepare that ceiling of ice above them, and was a little fatigued between maintaining them and evading Inner Moka at the same time. He could see that it was good practice for keeping tabs on anything and everything in a battle, but it was tiring. He had to toss those thoughts, though – he wasn't far from the wary vampiress, and he could tell she was looking for him. He had to be careful, because he didn't know the full extent of her abilities, and hopefully wouldn't have to to be beat her. He knew it was a longshot in the first place, and that it would take months of training, but he believed he could become as strong as her someday.

But not by slipping up; a small crack whistled through the air, making everyone's ears prick up. A brief moment of stillness fell over the group, and tensions wound tighter. Tsukune didn't want to continue movement for fear of her finding him, but if he didn't she might be on him before he could even react, as she did before. If he wanted to make use of that curtain of ice he made, he couldn't afford to be knocked further away from it. He would be hard pressed to do that, though; Inner Moka had disappeared in the blink of an eye, presumably to take him down when he least expected it. Tsukune continued to inch forward quietly from the edge of the forest back to the clearing, in hopes of evading her even though he knew a surprise attack was inevitable. Something moved infinitesimally out of the corner of his eye, making him whip his head in the direction of the disturbance and gather his power. To his heart's relief, it was only Mizore, sitting on a log and swinging her feet a few meters away. She was still watching the skirmish, apparently, which was fine by him as long as he didn't make a fool of himself. And he didn't do so, yet... did he? Her face lit up a bit when she saw him watching her and twiddled her fingers at him in a wave. A second later, though, her smile dropped and her eyes lifted a tiny bit above him. Tsukune wondered what she was looking at, when the trained warrior part of his brain told him of a possible enemy behind him.

"Tsukune, don't!" yelled a fearful Kurumu. "It's just me!" Tsukune had whipped around in a 180 faster than when he looked at Mizore with a long dagger of ice ready to be launched at a potential assailant. The startled succubus was merely watching them too, as she had had nothing to do when Mizore decided to stop practicing with her. They weren't getting very far to begin with... but it made for a nice view when Inner Moka and Tsukune really went at it.

Tsukune sighed, and released the ice back into the surrounding air as water vapor. They would have to stop butting in like that, it really wasn't healthy for –

"You're so cute when you're paranoid, Tsukune," Inner Moka whispered into his ear. Tsukune went completely rigid (a healthy reaction, in her opinion), anticipating what she might do. He had wanted to get back to the clearing, and it seems the woman was intent on helping him with that. With her foot. A well placed kick in the hindquarters sent him flying far into the clearing once more, where the ceiling of icicles dangled ominously. Quite a few of the floating stalactites fell from their perch, breaking harmlessly on the dirt below. Inner Moka noted this, and attributed it to his loss of concentration when he took the hit. It was surprising that more of them hadn't fallen, and was a testament to their training over the month. However pesky he got, the boy learned quick if he put his mind to it.

Tsukune dragged himself up off the ground, wary of the encroaching danger that was the vampiress walking toward him. He needed to think of a plan to release the trap and ensure she'd be immobile enough to be affected. He didn't get much time to ponder how, because when she noted he wasn't going to retaliate anytime soon, she ran to him and put another kick in his chest, sending him skidding across the ground and more icicles falling to their demise.

Right then, Tsukune discovered an ingenious way he knew he could capture her that would not fail. Smiling to himself, he staggered to his feet once more, waited for his spine to settle back correctly, and looked about for the regal ayashi, who had vanished once again.

Tsukune couldn't allow the vampiress to get so close to him again, not with that kind of power behind the kicks she put out. He knew she was holding back and could feel it, but he also knew if she used her full strength she could kill him, vampire or not. He decided to try a trick he had thought about using but hadn't had much practice for; it's pretty easy to distinguish when a vampire uses one of their specific abilities, such as hiding for healing, charging for brute force, and closing their eyes for rooting out opponents. Tsukune thought the last one was a bit too noticeable, and had taken the habit of clearing his mind of all thought and imagery input to try and utilize his youki radar without telling everyone in the world he was using it with his body language. It wasn't easy, but it would be beneficial both for combat and the multi-tasking ability. He let out a breath and tried it; no thoughts, not about Mizore or Kurumu, not about Inner Moka or the day he had spent with her yesterday, or even the great times all four of them had spent together during school. After a couple of seconds of concentration, his mind was clear and his radar was functioning (he could detect Mizore and Kurumu still over in the treeline). He opened his eyes, and although he lost the visual image of the youki signatures, he could still feel them being given off... did that mean he succeeded? He looked in their direction to see if he could pinpoint their location... there. Furthest tree in the front, to the left, upper branch. Signature seemed familiar with... Mizore's. Yup . He could see a bit of her purple stocking through the leaves. It worked! He could visibly detect youki signatures! He looked around to see if he could spot Inner Moka's... Mizore's was a kind of bluish white light, like looking at a fluorescent lamp with the shade covering it. Maybe Moka's was a more reddish color...

Tsukune's eyes widened as he spotted the dark, purplish, and evil-looking wave coming from his left, behind a few of the trees over there. Is that... really what her aura looks like in reality...? It was definitely not a docile energy; it looked like a dark apple irradiating a wave of deep violet, and gave off the feeling of insinuating evil and distrust. Yet this impression contrasted heavily with what he knew of the vampiress; she were not visibly evil, oppressive every now and then but that was just her personality. He knew she didn't do anything evil, and certainly wasn't a reminder of the vampire stories he had been told about as a child...

Seeing the disturbing aura emanating from the girl he had come to accept as one of the most important people in his life, he was prompted almost subconsciously to attempt to look at his own aura. Tsukune brought forth his own arms and splayed his fingers, trying to see the same light that surrounded both of his ayashi friends. He kept peering at his skin, but no abnormal colors would make themselves known to his prying eyes. He strained and strained, trying his best to repeat what had been done before on himself, but no color of any type would make itself known to him. He brought his arms closer to his eyes, inspecting the pores of the now muscular forearms for any sign of latent energy. After a minute or two of straining, he gave up and dropped his arms, believing the attempt to be futile. But, as his left arm fell slower to his side, he thought he caught a glimpse of the darkest black ambient around the skin of his arm. Tsukune's eyes widened, and thought about what that may mean – Mizore's blue, Moka's evil-looking purple... the only color darker than purple was black...

The realization hit him like a ton of bricks, sending him to his knees. Black meant the purest kind of evil, merciless and intent on killing anything and everything in its path. He had always thought of himself of a nice person, never antagonizing anyone – so why did the blackest of black surround his very skin? He did not think he was evil; hell, he certainly didn't look evil! So why...?

Inner Moka darted from her hiding spot and went for the kill, only to pause and witness Tsukune on his knees in the middle of the clearing. Soon after, the curtain of icicles he had so painstakingly maintained fell and broke harmlessly on the earth between them, a thousand tinkling sounds ringing out throughout the dead forest. She knew something was wrong when she saw him helplessly kneeling on the ground; she became worried when his trap was apparently let go for no reason, meaning he had stopped the fight or had lost concentration on the move. The former was fine, she could reprimand him for that; the latter meant something was definitely askew, with him or with something dear to him. She quickly made her way to his side, but carefully as to not alert him into reacting instinctually (vampires were defensive creatures, and did not take well to being snuck up on).

"Tsukune...?" came her probing question, almost necessary when checking on someone. All she heard was Kurumu and Mizore running up to see what was wrong, or if he had been seriously hurt. "Tsukune, what is it?"

Inaudible mumbling came from the kneeling man, so quiet not even a siren would have been able to detect it. Inner Moka asked him what he said, and only further mumbling came from him. She reached to put a hand on his shoulder-

"NO! Stay away from me!" he shouted viciously. The violence in the action made her blood boil, but she quelled it when she saw his eyes – they were completely red, and not a shred of decency was to be found in them. All she saw was a carnal desire to get away... and feed. Why he wanted to do so right at this minute was out of her reasoning, but she saw that he was nearly insane with the need to get away and keep her, Mizore, and Kurumu away from himself. Looking at his entire profile, she could see some of the black tattoos creeping up over his shoulders, marking the return of the monstrous being that had torn apart Moburu and had defeated a werewolf.

"Tsukune, stop this! Right now!" she shouted. Her voice made his head snap slightly away, as if the sound hurt him.

"Tsukune? What's going on?" came Mizore's worried call. She and Kurumu were now beside Inner Moka, staring at the irate man in question who was fuming uncontrollably with more signs of the monster within emerging. The tattoos had now crept up his neck (and over his ribs, but only Kurumu envisioned that) and his hair had taken on the hue of the purest white snow, no longer silver like the vampire's signature trait.

Kurumu gasped when she arrived, recognizing the transformation for what it truly was. Astonishingly, Tsukune still retained his rationality until the point where he had started backing up, step by step. She couldn't tell if he recognized any of their distressed calls to him, but he did seem to be backing up faster after hearing them. Inner Moka, deciding she had had enough, marched forward to retrieve the inane boy acting out. However, seeing her advance, Tsukune turned and bolted before the innate rage could completely consume him, sprinting as hard and fast as he could in a straight beeline for the opposite direction of any nearby civilization. He had at least that much coherent thought to stay away from everybody else. But all of his other thoughts were obliterated, replaced by confusion, hurt, and ever-present anger; aimed at himself, at his friends, at his family, even at the school itself for shaping him into the animal he had now become. Kurumu looked at the space he had occupied a second ago forlornly, sad to see him go at first, then furious instantly after for bolting for absolutely no reason.

"HEY! Get back here, Tsukune!" she shouted, but to no avail. He was gone.

Mizore looked about, as if confused about what had just happened. There wasn't much emotion on her face, as per usual, but for this instance it showed a noticeable deal of concern. She looked over her shoulder at the melting ice that was meant for Inner Moka, then back at said girl and Kurumu. She didn't know exactly why he had gone off like that, but she would track him down (if not for his own good, then for herself and the others) and find him.

Kurumu fumed for a bit longer, but she knew yelling at trees wouldn't bring him back, so she released her true form and took to the air in an effort to find him. As she flew off, Inner Moka watched both this and Mizore's musing apathetically, only wanting to find the nonsensical boy and beat some sense into him for running off. She turned in the direction of the school and went to the one person who could locate him if he truly meant to hide from the trio.

X-X

Kurumu couldn't find him! She had flown all over the school grounds and the surrounding area, even stopping to search in the abandoned buildings scattered around, but there was no sign of him anywhere! It had been about half an hour, and her shoulders were getting tired of flapping her wings incessantly. She gave up, thinking he'd be back soon (or at least strong enough to not die while out in the wilderness – even though there weren't any wildlife in the realm). Returning to the dorms, she landed just before the fork leading to either one and looked around, hoping to see Mizore somewhere. She knew the snow maiden had ventured off in hopes of finding the stray ayashi herself, but Kurumu hadn't seen her while flying overhead. She assumed Mizore was just doing her stalker thing and wasn't easily seen with all the trees around. With nothing better to do (there was no way in hell she was doing homework), she started pacing back and forth to wait for someone – or something – to meet up with her.

Inner Moka didn't think leaving the seal off for hours for more than a few days was a good idea, but this was necessary. Her timid other self simply wouldn't have the audacity to do what she planned, and would probably just amble about as the other two were out in the forest. Regardless, she waited outside the huge oak doors leading to the headmaster's inner sanctum (more commonly called his office). There was nothing wrong with visiting the headmaster, nor was there any reason to fear the man, but she respected his power as a Dark Lord and would act appropriately – well, mostly, seeing as she was merely leaning against the wall in wait for the right time.

Passerby would stare at the immobile vampiress as if she were a new decoration or a giant blue frog, and some would stare a little longer to appreciate her well-toned legs, but the creepy feeling she gave off kept most of them a good and respectful distance away.

"Come in, Akashiya-kun. I've been expecting you," came the headmaster's creepy voice from behind the doors. He was about to say something to stop her from damaging the doors – they were pretty expensive, and antique – but she nevertheless slammed them against their hinges and walked straight down the path leading to his desk. Irate, and in no mood for games, Inner Moka opened her mouth to demand his assistance.

"Silence, girl." She stopped short, unaccustomed to being talked down to in such a manner. She remembered her etiquette, and took a small bow before beginning to address him once again.

"I believe I said silence. I demand respect from all my students, no matter who they are. Now, tell me – appropriately – what you seek, child."

Inner Moka's fury was only given more fuel with the rather curt statement, but she quelled it. Anger would not help her here. "Headmaster, a... an acquaintance of mine has gone off recently." She noticed his smirk, and could tell he was repressing a chuckle, but she went on; "He is out of his mind, possibly dangerous, and needs to be brought back. Seeing as I can't do this, I am asking you to help me locate him."

"Ah, so young Aono has ran off, has he?" Inner Moka's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, surprised he already knew about his disappearance. Apparently the old man knew more than he let on – she wondered how much he truly knew, but stopped when the hooded man spoke again. "Yes, Akashiya-kun, I know about your friend, and I know he has... a little problem concerning his anger. I also know that the student named Kobayashi Moburu has attacked him on two occasions, which certainly didn't help with his situation. You see, Moka, I wanted to discover what happens when a human is transformed into a vampire, and seeing as you provided the experiment's materials right here, I thought nothing of stopping it. Oh yes, I know Tsukune was once human, too. Funny, isn't it? Oh well, I should probably bring him back. He might hurt himself if let loose for too long. You are dismissed, child."

Struck dumbfounded, Inner Moka stared at the smiling, hooded man and wondered what he was getting at. Just how much did he know? Shaking her head, she went to leave, but cast a glance over her shoulder to consider the Dark Lord a bit more. Incredible, but ever-so annoying. A horrible combination, in her opinion. She was glad to be done with the man, and wanted nothing more than to leave and forget the whole thing, and see Tsukune come back safely.

As she was leaving Mikogami's office, she stopped short to consider that last thought, eyes widening slightly as they have been so many times nowadays. Just what did she mean by considering his safety? He was a full-fledged vampire, for crying out loud; it's not like he couldn't survive in the wild for six hours or so. Could he?

Disgusted with herself for actually conceiving the thought of worrying about him, Inner Moka went back to her dorm and returned the seal to its proper place. She would leave such petty feelings to her more compassionate self.

Mizore was usually exceptionally talented at finding people of interest to her, especially when they were well-hidden, but this certain guy was proving tiresome to the patient yuki-onna. Picking people out of the crowd was simple enough, because they were all humanoid and was usually in plain sight; this is like picking a stick out of a room full of hay. He would be impossible to miss, if she were looking in the right spot. However, having only covered a quarter of the total reasonable search area so far, she didn't think she'd find him anytime soon. Mizore wanted more than anything to get him home and help him deal with whatever had happened to get him so riled up, but she couldn't do that with no Tsukune present to comfort. Damn it, where was he hiding? Calling forth her superhuman patience once more, she continued her meticulous search through the woods that seemed determined to hide her most cared friend from her.

Even pacing was boring! Kurumu couldn't handle standing here doing nothing while everyone else at least tried to bring him back, however futilely; if she couldn't see him from the air in a forest with no leaves, he didn't want to be found.

Snap.

Kurumu's ears pricked, picking up the noise in the quiet afternoon day with ease. Heart beginning to race, she looked about inconspicuously, trying to figure out where the sound came from. Seeing nothing, she searched more obviously, but still found nothing. Suddenly she felt that someone was standing behind her, and whipped around – to find no one there.

"Psst, Kurumu, over here!" whispered a voice, making Kurumu turn back around once again. Her face lit up instantaneously when she saw who it was.

"Tsukune!" She practically flew the distance between them, crushing him with one of her now-usual full body hugs. "Where have you been?" she asked after letting him go (after a solid minute).

She had just noticed that Tsukune's neck still bore the ominously black tattoos over his neck, and his eyes were still completely red. Apparently he was not yet over what had set him off, but the other features had receded. Maybe he had regained some composure over the time he's been gone. After all, an hour could do wonders for a man whose heart was as big as his resolve.

"Kurumu..." he started. He could not make eye contact with her. He had run away to save them the sight of his despair, but after considering the situation, he had realized over the hour or so he had been gone that Kurumu was the best option for helping him contemplate the question he had been asking himself. She had noticed his difficulty in this:

"Tsukune, what is it?"

"Kurumu, am I an evil person?"

Author's Notes: Yaay I finished this chapter with most of my writing skill back! I'm not a complete failure! Well, this is all I can give at the moment, and I apologize if the plot's taking a bit to materialize, but I assure you I have it under control :) Until next time! Vincent.