Chapter 17

Keeping Pace

"You have to do something."

Moka glanced blearily at the silver cross lying upon her chest, rubbing at one eye with a balled-up fist. Though she had woken up several times already this morning, she had found herself in a funk, and after certain memories forced themselves to the fore had chosen to fall back asleep rather than to think any more of it. She had been in the process of doing so once more when the voice had spoken to her from the rosario, and she briefly frowned down at the seal she wore.

"I don't know what you mean," she huffed, closing her eyes and nuzzling a pillow in an attempt to get comfortable once again. Her inner persona, however, was not so willing to surrender.

"Get up! You can't afford to be passive in this whole thing. If Tsukune has to choose at the end of these dates, we- you need to be first in his mind. And lying in bed all day isn't going to do that!"

Moka sighed, her eyes open despite her desires otherwise. Placing a hand onto the pillow to force herself up, she looked again down at the rosario. "But what am I supposed to do? We all agreed to these rules; I can't break them just because. I just have to trust that Tsukune does care for me… and, anyways, why are you so bothered?"

"N-Never mind that! And, trust aside, you were barely able to sleep because of what Mizore said! And just thinking about Kurumu tomorrow…"

"I know, I know!" Moka moaned, sitting up from the bed. She stared down at her laps, her fists clenched. "But, I have to be fair, or else…"

"Being fair is one thing. Being invisible is another. Make him see you, and that will be enough," Inner Moka demanded through the rosario.

"Alright," Moka conceded, utterly unable to conceive of a way of doing what her other half wanted. She stood from the bed and started getting ready, relieved that the rosario had fallen silent. It was bad enough that she had tormented herself all through the night; she didn't need another voice to do so, even if it was technically still her own.

Minutes later, Moka walked down the stairs and into the common room, discovering Kurumu and Mizore standing in front of the television. Kurumu was indulging in her daily dance exercise, and Mizore had finally decided to join in, her days serving as a spectator giving her enough knowledge to keep up with the fast-paced motions. Moka thought briefly of joining in, but decided against it. She didn't have the heart for it this morning.

"About time you got up," Kurumu chided her, barely glancing away from the screen. "Even Tsukune has already been up and grabbed breakfast. He's in his room, working on his homework… so he'll be ready for tomorrow." The succubus spoke the last words in a sing-song, and an uncontrolled grin spread across her face. Beside her, Mizore shook her head.

"More like he was tired of your squealing about it and ran away. I'm sure the idea of it is a burden to him." Mizore sighed in sympathy for Tsukune's plight, earning her a bladed glare from Kurumu.

"Or maybe he couldn't stand to be around you, after what you made him do yesterday! I certainly wouldn't!"

"Someone's just cranky because she got a hold of one of the suckers I had already altered, and couldn't get it off her tongue for a half-hour."

"You said we could have them!" Kurumu roared, still dancing but looking like she was at the end of the leash holding her back from lunging at the snow maiden. "If you're going to turn them into ice-cubes, you need to warn us!"

"It was in the freezer, what did you expect…?"

Moka sighed as she listened to her friends' banter, looking to the couch but quickly deciding against it. "I'm going to go start on my homework," she announced, turning around and leaving the room. Behind her, the two continued to bicker, barely conscious of the fact that Moka had abandoned their company.

As Moka climbed to the pinnacle of the stairs, however, a notion darted past her, and she paused where she stood, staring at the door at the far end of the hall. She hesitated, locked in place, as she tried to muster the courage for… for what? She shook her head, turning to walk back to her room, but her rosario twitched against her chest, and she looked down at it doubtfully.

"Whatever it takes," the voice of her inner persona prompted harshly, and Moka nodded to it. Turning, she marched down the hall, her eyes locked on the door at its end. She still didn't know what she intended to do, but she knew that she had to do something.

She would figure it out for herself.

"Here you go, sir. It's the homework for Tsukune and the others, like usual."

The Headmaster of Yokai Academy glanced at the sheath of papers, reaching out to claim them from Ruby as he smiled eerily at her, noting the way she was shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot. Only slightly curious because he already suspected what he would find, he began to flip through the papers, nodding to himself as he did so and ignoring the way that Ruby's eyes widened. "Hrm, I know that the teachers have been assigning them extra work to make up for lost class time, but perhaps I should ask them to cut back a little; I'm sure they would appreciate a break from academic demands to enjoy their impromptu vacation. Oh, but what is this?" He paused, pulling out the letter hidden in the papers.

"Oh, Yukari asked me to send that, just a little note wishing them luck and reminding them how much we miss them," Ruby offered, her eyes turned away from the man sitting before her. The Headmaster's grin grew, and he lowered the letter onto his desk, away from the other papers.

"And letting them know all that their investigations have produced today, no doubt. Filling them in on last night's conflict with Mori Retsu and the like." He shook his head slowly as Ruby's face paled. "That won't be necessary."

Gritting her teeth, the witch mustered the courage to stand up to her unsettling boss. "But, Tsukune needs to know what happened! If Mori Retsu is free, then he may come after them, and-"

"He won't." The Headmaster leaned back in his chair, staring at Ruby as if analyzing her. "Mori Retsu is no longer our concern, I can assure you of that. There is no need to worry your friends with such information, and no need to distract them from their studies there."

"But… if that's the case, why can't they come back to the school? I'm sure they would be safer here, and they wouldn't have to do the extra homework since they would be in class!" Ruby placed her hands onto the desk and leaned forward, her eyes wide as she pressed her point. "I thought that Mori Retsu was the reason that they had to leave!"

The Headmaster stared at her in silence for a long moment, and Ruby drew back from the desk, uncertain but unwilling to surrender. Finally, his smile slipping from his face, the Headmaster nodded, but his words immediately crushed Ruby's burgeoning hope. "No, it is still best that they stay in the human world for now. Other forces were involved in last night's turmoil; namely, Fairy Tale. Until we have things more under control here, they are far safer away from the school."

Closing her eyes in defeat, Ruby nodded morosely, turning to leave the office. The Headmaster's voice stopped her a few steps away, however. "I must say, I am impressed by your resolve. You and the other two, leaping in to do whatever you can to aid them at the slightest sign of trouble." Ruby glanced back at the lord of the academy, shivering at the gleam in his eyes as he leaned forward. "You would do anything, risk everything, to help them… to help him… wouldn't you?"

Ruby nodded slowly, but without any doubt in her eyes. The Headmaster smiled in response, inclining his head towards her in a silent salute. "Very well. You shall tell young Sendo and Shuzen to hold off on their investigations, as they are no longer needed, but you may also pass on to them my solemn word that, should a need arise, I will not hesitate to call upon them. If Tsukune should find himself in trouble enough, I will see to it that they are at his side. Is that satisfactory?"

Ruby hesitated, mentally probing the Headmaster's words for any sign of duplicity. Finally, she nodded minutely, and the man sitting at the desk before her chuckled, sealing their deal with, "Very well, then. I shall leave you to your other duties, Miss Toujou, and I shall see to it that such an eventuality never comes to pass. In the meantime, I say only this: trust in your friends." Without another word in response, only a nod and a final wary stare, Ruby walked out of the office, leaving the Headmaster alone once more.

When the doors closed, the head of Yokai Academy closed his eyes, evaluating his decision. If things got out of hand, he would be putting Tsukune's other friends in danger as well… but, it may well prove worth it. Time would tell, and, judging from his sources, it would do so within a week. He merely hoped that Tsukune would prove up to his expectations, else their situation would become grim indeed. Especially now, since Fairy Tale held the phylactery in their hands; if Thanatos were to acquire that…

The Headmaster stopped, shaking his head. No, for now he would have to heed his own advice. He would have to trust in Tsukune Aono, and pray that it would all work out in the end.

It was all the hope they had.

"Hunh. That's odd."

Tsukune glanced down at the page before him before checking his assignment sheet once again. He scanned the page, scanning over all of the chapters he had been ordered to read, before turning once again to the heading that had caught his eye. While he was not willing to wish more work upon himself, he could find no reason for this chapter's exclusion.

After all, wasn't the point of this book to give him information about Mori Retsu? And, if that was the case, then why would he not need to read this section, Unmanifested Liches? Wasn't that what their enemy really was, or was he something else?

Shrugging, Tsukune looked again to the list of assigned chapters, skimming over the work he had already completed down to the latest entry. Like the chapter he had just noticed, this section was in one of the appendixes, more specifically the one headed Related Undead. From his brief glimpse at the surrounding pages, each detailed a monster somehow akin to liches, perhaps to better allow readers to distinguish between them. From ghosts to zombies, it seemed like a who's who of the less-than-alive, and he had twitched to see the entry for vampires amidst the pages; perhaps that would be reading for another time. Of this encyclopedia of the moving dead, however, only one section had been assigned to him, and he blinked as he turned the page to look at it.

Wraiths.

Shrugging, Tsukune leaned back against the headboard of his borrowed bed and started to read, thankful that this assignment looked shorter than the others; after all, he had a lot of work to do, since he would be busy the next day. That would be his date with Kurumu… Shaking his head frantically to clear his mind, he dove into the text.

Wraiths are a type of undead noteworthy primarily due to their soulless state. While most undead are deceased bodies that retain the soul, wraiths are bodies bereft of one. Because of this, these monsters are emotionless and entirely pragmatic, seeking only to maintain their own existence and perhaps to carry out a lingering goal remembered from their previous life. They are often quite adept at this, as they are exceptionally hard to destroy, and tend to reconstitute themselves even after being dealt enough damage to annihilate most types of undead.

However, the fact that wraiths lack a soul also constitutes one of their greatest weaknesses. Because of this, they are reliant upon other beings to provide the necessary life-force to keep them animated, draining the spiritual energy from released souls in order to avoid destruction. To accomplish this, they typically develop a means of severing another soul from its corporeal form while still binding it to the physical realm, and slowly siphon away its energy over the course of weeks. Finally, they gorge upon the last vestiges of power, releasing the soul from its torment to pass to the afterlife. While it is possible for this monster to sever the soul in such a way to create another wraith, most avoid this in order to prevent competition for food. Also, while wraiths are notoriously hard to destroy, they do retain a strong survival instinct and thus would seek to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves.

Wraiths are often linked to liches since the ritual a prospective lich undergoes can, if poorly enacted, sever the link between soul and body in such a way that causes the soul to pass on while the body remains. In this case, a wraith is born; a far cry from the mighty lich that it should have become, and hollowed of any of the emotions that would identify it with its living form, yet still powerful in its own right.

Other important facts about wraiths include their ability to retain and utilize magical knowledge from their previous life, and their tendency to single-mindedly pursue a single goal. Typical examples of this include-

Tsukune froze as the repeated rapping at his door pulled him out of his homework, and he stared towards the door for a moment before realization dawned upon him. "Be right there!" he announced, dumping the tome onto the bed and walking towards the room's entry. He was halfway there before he realized the problem with his situation: while the Seal of Screaming kept him safe while he slept, it would be useless if he willingly opened the door to any amorous intruders... though, now that he thought about it, he had already removed it from the door this morning. A memory pushed into his mind, a vision of the time Kurumu visited him in his bath while they were staying at his parents' house, and he shuddered to think what could happen in a room that conveniently featured a bed.

Still, his nervous optimism overcame such concerns, and he opened the door and smiled at the girl on the other side, his eyes widening in surprise. "Moka, hey! What brings you here?" He chuckled weakly, but fell silent when he noticed the bright blush on her cheeks and the way she favored staring at the floor over meeting his gaze.

"Well, it's been a few days, and since you will be gone tomorrow, I was wondering if…" Her words trailed off, and she dared a glance at his expression, tentatively reading his reaction.

"Oh. Oh! Sure!" He stepped back into the room, waving her on in. "Come in; it'll be easier in here, and you won't have to worry about being interrupted." Glancing guilty back in the direction of the stairs, Moka followed him into the room, closing the door behind her. Tsukune stood waiting in the middle of the room, tugging on the collar of his shirt to pull it away from his neck. "I'm sorry, I had completely forgotten. I was working on homework, and with all that's been happening…" His nervous chatter died as Moka stepped up to him, placing a hand on his chest. She stared up at him, and as he met her eyes he was surprised to see, emerging from underneath her earlier shyness, a burning stubbornness. Her jaw set as she came to a decision, she waited for a long moment before leaning forward, her lips parting slightly as she came, a hand curling around his neck to pull him down towards her.

Tsukune's eyes shot open wide as their lips met, and Moka responded to his sudden stiffness by pressing slightly harder, until he relaxed into the kiss and began returning it in earnest. One of her hands stayed at the back of his neck, while the other arm curled around him, and he let his own hands gently take hold of her. After a long moment the two parted, their faces hovering close together as they tried to read each other's eyes, still wrapped in their embrace.

Finally, Moka broke away, glancing aside as her face colored with shame. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, wincing. "I was just thinking about tomorrow, and yesterday, and how I don't know if I'll get to have another date with you, and-"

"Don't apologize," Tsukune said firmly, smiling warmly. "You just surprised me, that's all. I had thought that you were here for… something else."

"Well, I am, but…" Moka shook her head rapidly, waving her hands before her. "No, I hadn't planned on doing this, it was just…!"

Tsukune glanced to the side, wearing a blush of his own. "Well, I don't mind," he admitted bashfully, shrugging. He had only a heartbeat's warning before a relieved Moka lunged at him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a grateful hug. He returned this embrace as well, laughing to himself as Moka squeezed him tightly.

"I'm sorry," he eventually murmured, and Moka drew away from him regretfully. He looked at her with a melancholy gaze, his smile pained. "I know how hard it is for you… well, I guess I don't, really. But still, I'm sorry for what I'm putting you through. I wish I could choose… but, then again…"

Moka nodded, and thought briefly of how happy Mizore had seemed the previous day. She knew that being the one Tsukune chose would deprive her friends of that happiness, but would that be worse than being one of the ones who wasn't chosen? Tsukune, lost to her forever… it was a terrible thought, one that had plagued her all throughout the previous night.

"It's alright," she said, trying but failing to keep her voice light. "I know that you care a lot for all of us, and it can't be easy for you. I just worry that…" She looked down, unable to voice her nightmares. "I just worry," she concluded lamely.

"No matter what, I'll never abandon you," Tsukune reassured her gently, knowing it wouldn't be enough. "I promise you that."

Moka nodded bravely, looking at him again. The fact that they were still embracing occurred to her, and she pulled away, suddenly embarrassed. Tsukune let her go, scratching the back of his head uncomfortably. After a moment of silence that lasted an eternity, Moka met his eyes. "Ah… do you mind if I, you know…?"

"O-Of course," Tsukune agreed, not entirely certain what she had in mind this time. Again she turned to him and leaned in, but her destination was far more in line with her typical behavior, and this time the weakness in his knees came from his sudden anemia.

"Thanks," Moka said, wiping her lips and sighing in rapture as Tsukune staggered over to the bed, looking decidedly pale and dehydrated.

"No problem," Tsukune jovially mumbled, collapsing onto the blankets and not moving.

"I'd better be going," Moka commented, suddenly aware of what would happen if one of the others caught her in Tsukune's room. He grunted assent from the bed, too focused on trying to make the room stop spinning to shape a more coherent response. With a final peek to where he had flopped face-first onto the mattress, she opened the door and stepped out, closing it securely behind her.

She turned to make her way down the hall, but found an obstruction a few steps away: Kurumu, waiting with arms crossed in front of her chest and eyes sharply narrowed. The vampire glanced at the door, flailing for a possible excuse that would placate her friend, but Kurumu cut her off before she could begin to speak. "And to think you were angry at me when I tried to wake him up for breakfast." Moka was surprised at the edge in her friend's voice, but had little to offer in response. "But it doesn't matter. Tomorrow is mine, and you can't sabotage that." Despite herself, Moka took a step back as she noticed the determination burning in Kurumu's eyes, and the succubus turned around without another word, walking to the stairs and climbing down without sparing a glance back at her friend.

A wave of remorse crashed over Moka as she realized what she had just done. She hadn't broken the rules, not exactly, but still she felt guilty. Beyond her conscience, however, another concern tugged at her attention: what would their exchange mean for Kurumu's actions on the next day? Had she just made things that much worse?

She had hoped for some reassurance, but as she walked back to her room she felt anything but at ease. Thinking of Tsukune proved to be a welcome, warming distraction, but all too soon such thoughts devolved into concerns about her rivals, and the cycle repeated over and over as Moka sat on her bed and clutched a pillow. There would be little reprieve from that merciless repetition, and even as Moka forced herself to take up her textbooks to distract herself her mind reeled between giddy warmth and glum anxiety.

But, from the rosario she wore at her throat, there was nothing but the feeling of grim satisfaction and a smug silence.

Author's Note: Ah, a day late on this one, but considering my writing schedule I don't feel too guilty; after all, I had to write at least this much on other projects. Next week should, I hope, prove more merciful, as I merely have to produce another section for the webnovic in addition to this story. As such, I'll offer a vague 3-7 days for the next installment; after all, I'm not entirely sure whether it will be Kurumu's date, or the latter half of this chapter's day… should I conjure up something to fill it.

Oh, since I did mention it so much in the previous chapters, I did achieve the hits-goal I had set for myself last month. This of course means that I intend to write enough to surpass that goal again this month; I am, quite potentially, my own worst enemy in this respect. It was the same philosophy I set when I was in commission sales this winter: set a goal, surpass it, set a higher goal. Sadly, I failed at that practice there, but then again I was not quite skilled enough at pushing people to buy more than they really need, and my Achilles' Heel was little old ladies who wanted new televisions. Sigh… may they enjoy those televisions; it was worth drawing my boss' ire for not overselling to them, I say.

Ahem. Forgive me, I visited my old place of employment today, and I fear it shows. Anyways, what I'm really trying to say is that I intend to be writing until my fingers fall free, in the hopes of surpassing my arbitrary-and-slightly-higher new goal. Hoorah. A bonus for you, I hope, since that means my productivity should stay fairly high… unless that thing with the fingers happens. That would be a setback.

Enough inane babble from me for one night. I shall hope to see you all again soon, and eagerly anticipate hearing your opinions on this latest installment. Your input shall give me the motivation I need to take up the keyboard once again and begin crafting the next chapter, which I don't doubt will be easier in coming this time.

But, before all that, it is time I sleep.

~Wynn Pendragon