"Alright, kid, we've just passed into yuki-onna territory. What can you tell me about them?" Miyabi said to the eleven-year old seated near the back of the chopper.

"Yuki-onna are creatures of ice and snow. Their powers revolve around that, and so any kind of heat can be used to incapacitate or kill them. Their solution to the relative heat elsewhere in the world is to have some sort of dissolving candy to keep their body temperatures out of dangerous heights," Tsukune recited. "They are also very rare, due to the fact that their fertility will only last so long, and so a culture has been formed where they abduct humans with which to breed quite industriously."

"Very good," his master commended him. "Now, this is your first mission with me, so I would prefer you keep your eyes open and let me do the talking."

"Hai, Shisho," Tsukune responded. He ran a black-gloved hand through his waist-length silver hair, but was otherwise calm.

"Now, what we go to now is a diplomatic meeting, which means that even if your role is to play the mercenary enforcer, I still expect you to pay attention to the goings-on of these talks. Do you understand?"

"Hai," the kid replied.

Miyabi appeared as though he had more to say, but then the pilot of the chopper called out, "We're closing in now! Fasten your seatbelts!"

Miyabi sat next to his heir, and buckled up his seatbelt. They were homing in on the prepared landing area, descending out of the skies. Miyabi could already see the welcome party, but he could also sense the tension coming off of his heir in waves. "Calm down, kid. They might be kidnappers, but take it from me: there are worse fates."

Tsukune nodded, as the helicopter made its final descent for a landing.

Shirayuki Mizore wasn't supposed to be at the meeting site for the diplomatic discussion that was to occur that day between the Snow Priestess and representatives from the organisation known only as 'Fairy Tale.' She knew she wasn't supposed to be there-her mother had told her as much-but curiosity got the better of her. So as the helicopter that carried the Fairy Tale reps descended, she found a pillar to hide behind so that she could view the people that came off the aircraft, and perhaps satisfy her curiosity.

The first person off the helicopter she didn't like, mostly because she could feel the danger radiating off of him in thick, suffocating waves. His expression gave nothing away, and though he was uncommonly attractive, Mizore found herself wanting to do little more than run as far and as fast as she could, just to escape that monster. In fact, she had been about to do that, but the Fates had a different plan in mind for her-one that began with the next person off of the chopper.

The second person off the helicopter looked young-looked to be about her age, in fact. Despite this, his aura was very strange-very much as evil as the first person's, but not in the same fashion. While the first man's aura of danger screamed 'run', the boy's aura of danger was much less profuse than the man's. His hair was long and silver and cascaded down to his waist. He dressed almost entirely in black leather, with the exception of the upper chest, which was bare beneath the harness he wore. His blood-red eyes, in combination with his hair, revealed him to be a vampire of some sort, and his presence intrigued her. She kept staring, observing every expression that crossed his admittedly quite appealing face. She wondered what the relationship was between the man whose aura screamed 'run' and the boy whose aura whispered 'succumb.'

All too soon, however, the man and the Snow Priestess went into the conference room to begin their talks. She was resigned to this intriguing new arrival's participation in such. But he wasn't moving. She looked up at his face and saw his catlike eyes focused on her, studying her with as much intensity as she was studying him. Mizore, for some reason, felt herself flush, and turned to run away. But when she did turn, she came face to face with him. It took her a moment to hear past her galloping heart and be able to listen to what he was saying. "Don't the yuki-onna consider it rude to run away from someone you're studying without at least introducing yourself? Here, I'll go first. My name is Aono Tsukune. What is yours?"

"Sh-Shirayuki. Shirayuki Mizore," she stuttered shyly, squirming at the unusually direct gaze of the boy in front of her.

"Shirayuki? Like the flower?" the vampire asked with an unusually serious expression.

Mizore giggled at his overly-formal bearing. The boy in front of her was stiff and seemed overly-polite. It was like he had never learned to talk to people his age-or that if he had, those days were so far in the past that they might as well have never occurred at all. "Yes, like the flower," she said. Demonic aura or no, this boy was cute-awkward, perhaps, but awkward in a good way. "Hey, while the adults are talking, do you want me to show you around the village?"

He simply looked at her, puzzled. "I thought that relations between Fairy Tale and your people were tenuous at best. Why would you show me, an agent of that same organisation, the layout of your entire village?"

"Well…" muttered Mizore. Truth be told, she hadn't thought about it that way. Even so… "I wouldn't show the other man the village. You don't seem so dangerous in comparison."

Tsukune laughed, and she could tell that it was the first time in many years that he'd had cause to do that. "I suppose you're right. Next to Shisho, I can't look like I'm that intimidating." He continued to laugh, finally running his black-gloved fingers through his long silver hair. "And to tell you the truth, I'm not really a part of Fairy Tale…"

"Oh?" prompted Mizore as she walked back to the village, and Tsukune fell into step next to her.

"Yeah. Truth is, I'm to be Shisho's heir, so I'm technically not an official member of the organisation. As far as the paperwork is concerned, I'm just a 'secondborn mercenary.' Though I don't exactly get paid, so I guess the terminology's a little nebulous on that score." Mizore realised that Tsukune was actually nervous to talk to her, which only made him cuter in her mind. Something caught her attention, though.

"You're a secondborn vampire?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah. Shisho saved my life by turning me when I was seven," Tsukune admitted. "Then I trained for a year with Akua-nee, went on a few missions, and then I began my special training with Shisho."

"That man sired you?" Mizore asked, incredulous. The difference between the two vampires was, to her, like night and day. "He seems really scary…"

Tsukune chuckled nervously. "Shisho isn't that bad. He's a harsh teacher and quite firm, but he's very fair. I learned a lot from him these past few years."

For Tsukune, this was the first girl he had interacted with who wasn't another vampire, and he wasn't entirely certain how to communicate with her, especially since most of the things that he and Akua-nee discussed revolved around combat and different ways to kill people. Kokoa wasn't one for discussion that didn't involve the premature end of Tsukune's eternal life, and there weren't many other females in Fairy Tale that were willing to interact with him and thus potentially piss off Gyokuro. So talking to girls about things other than killing people was a skill he had yet to master-especially girls as pretty as Mizore. Thus, when she showed him around the small village where she lived with her mother, he nodded and responded politely-formality being his only shield against the consequences of his lacklustre communication skills.

"Aono-san…" Mizore began.

"Tsukune, please," the vampire corrected.

"Very well. Tsukune-kun, do I make you uncomfortable?" Mizore asked, point-blank.

"Sorry, it's just that the only girl I talk to on a regular basis is Onee-sama," Tsukune said. He then muttered under his breath, "That, and you're really pretty, so…"

Mizore grinned and blushed when he said that. He didn't know that she'd heard, really- she'd be surprised if she found out that he actually knew he had given that last thought voice. It amused her, hanging out with the young vampire-it actually helped the pain of the human boy who had rejected her fade somewhat. In the ordinary course, she wouldn't have dreamt of doing what she now found herself doing, but the fact that for all his knowledge of yuki-onna customs, Tsukune still seemed like a stray puppy-lost and confused-and that he was off-balance made her feel better about the fact that she was as well. "And this is my house," she said finally, concluding the tour.

Tsukune nodded. "It's a lot different from Castlevania…" he said.

Mizore gave him a blank look. "What is Castlevania?" she asked, cocking her head.

"The headquarters of Fairy Tale," Tsukune explained. "Shisho told me that was the real name of Home Base."

"Oh," Mizore replied. She didn't know how to respond to that, save to ask, "What is Castlevania like?"

"It's a floating castle," Tsukune said offhandedly. "Shisho told me once that it was almost a millennium old."

"You live on a floating castle?" she asked, surprised and quite interested.

"Well, it's more like I'm stationed there most of the time. It's not quite a home."

"How do you mean?" she asked curiously.

"Well, it's really…I don't know…cold?" he replied. "Shisho said that Castlevania was once the home of the most powerful vampire in history, and knowing how lonely it would be to live there alone makes you kind of get why he went mad. There's just something…off about it, like it had seen far too much tragedy to have any compassion left within it."

"Then maybe you could live with us…?" Mizore offered. "Or at least come visit? I'd love to have a friend like you around. You just seem so…kind."

Tsukune's alabaster cheeks flushed at that. "I…I'd like that," he replied honestly. "But I have training to do…"

"Does your shisho give you any days off?"

"First and last Sundays of the month," he replied instantaneously.

"Then maybe you could come visit then?" she offered.

"I'll have to talk to Shisho about it, but I'd like that," Tsukune said with an embarrassed smile. Mizore felt butterflies in her stomach to have made him smile.

When the two eleven-year-olds left the house not necessarily hand-in-hand, but with an aura of comfort around them, Shuzen Akua stepped out of the shadows from which she had watched the entire exchange. Alucard would want to know about this new development.

As Tsukune returned to the landing platform, he bid Mizore farewell and tried his hardest to regain his decorum, once again slipping into the role of mercenary enforcer. He needn't have worried, because his master was right in front of the helicopter's passenger-side door. "I take it you had fun?" Tsukune stiffened in alarm, but his master only gave his unreadable smirk as he lit a cigar with a match. "Come now, I need to be back to base in three hours if I don't want to spend the next eight pretending to listen to Gyokuro bitching at me."

Tsukune nodded, and boarded the helicopter obediently. The aircraft took to the skies as Mizore watched the heavens whisk her new friend back to that awful, lonely castle.

Tsukune leapt into the shadow at the far end of the room before the fireball hit where he had been but a moment ago. Magic had been involved in their warm-up fights for years now, but in the ordinary course, his master would have ended it by now.

"Heard you made a friend," his master casually threw out.

Tsukune hesitated almost a second too long to dodge the next attack.

"Don't worry, kid. I'm not mad. It's good to have friends at your age. In fact, you should have friends at your age," Miyabi threw out conversationally as beams of energy launched across the room, testing Tsukune's agility and ability to evade. "Which is why I think what your new yuki-onna friend suggested might well be good for you."

Tsukune looked up in surprise, then backflipped to avoid the barrage of energy firing on his yoki signature.

"Don't look so surprised. Truthfully, this egregious oversight was my fault-I was remiss in teaching you almost all the skills you'll need but leaving the most important ones out. The art of conversation, for example. In fact, I think it would be better for you to live amongst the yuki-onna than doing what you have been doing in growing up around a bunch of trained killers and hired guns. You need to at least learn to pretend to act your age if you want to fool Mikogami, let alone Toho Fuhai."

Tsukune focused on not dying as the attacks became more varied, and began to go faster and faster, really testing his yoki control by way of evaluating the upper level of vampiric agility and speed that he possessed.

"However, there is one more thing that I must teach you," his master continued. "You are of the Shinso bloodline, kid, which, in part, means that your ability to transform your body will be high above that of any other vampire. Once you have mastered that final level of yoki control such that the sword reveals her form to you, and sealed that pact between you two with your final test, then you will leave Castlevania to live amongst the yuki-onna for a time until you turn fifteen. At that point, you'll be enrolled at Yokai Academy, and your very first solo mission will commence." With that, he ended the bout. "There is also one more spell for you to learn, but you will not be ready for the strain it puts upon you for a few years yet."

"Hai, Shisho," Tsukune said, bowing.

"Oh, and one more thing: you've got one more challenge to complete before you get to Yokai Academy. It's something you'll want up your sleeve if Mikogami decides to give you any trouble."

"What must I do?" Tsukune asked.

"Well, for one, you'll need to help me create your Holy Lock. Tell me, Tsukune, have you ever heard of the Lords of the Higher Worlds?"

Tsukune toyed with the brand new Holy Lock upon his wrist as he walked through the neighbourhood that still seemed to be attempting to recover from the massive arson case a number of years ago. The firestarter had not been found, and so many people chose to move. Not so with the Aono family, he noticed; they had never been rich, but the fact that the property value of the entire neighbourhood had taken a nosedive several years prior now made it an almost inescapable cage. This actually pleased Tsukune, because that made them that much easier to find. That's not to say he remembered what had happened on the streets he now traversed years ago, but the route was easy enough to recall.

Having done that, Tsukune took a deep breath and walked up to the door of one of the last houses left on the street. This was to be his final test, and he was almost giddy at the thought of it being over, but he was also nervous; his palm itched to hold the tsuka on his sword, but the time for that was not now; he had to be patient. That in mind, he knocked firmly three times on the wooden door before him.

Within moments, the door had opened, and a very exhausted-looking, somewhat familiar woman stood before him. She looked over him wordlessly for a moment, before recognition flashed through her eyes. "T-Tsukune?" she whispered.

"In the flesh," he replied. "Konbanwa, Okaa-sama."

"Oh, Tsukune!" the woman cried, wrapping her arms around him.

There was a man behind her, and he was stunned in shock at Tsukune in the doorway. He dressed like a middle-class salaryman, and the deep black rings around his eyes indicated a great deal of stress over the past few years. "It can't be…" he whispered. "We had a funeral and… And… you're back?"

"May I come in?" Tsukune asked instead with all the decorum expected of his station. His master's many lessons on etiquette occurred to him in that moment.

The woman nodded, and Tsukune, for the first time since he had been seven years old, stepped over the threshold of the house. Once the door was closed behind him, he walked up to the man he knew to be his father, and moved into his embrace.

Aono Koji's eyes went wide, and he backed away with the blade of a strange sword through his heart. Aono Kasumi looked on with horror as her 'son' slid the blade out of his chest by pushing the body down with the boot…greave…whatever his footwear constituted, and then turned towards her. Paralysed with fright, both at the act of cold-blooded murder that had just occurred, it was child's play to walk up to Kasumi and ram that selfsame blade through her heart.

Both bodies fell to the floor, and blood gushed over the entire front entryway. Tsukune, believing very firmly in the philosophy of 'waste not, want not,' simply summoned all the blood to him and absorbed it. He opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk, closing the door behind him, and walking to where his master waited, beneath the streetlight. "Have you thought of what you're going to call her?" Miyabi asked point-blank, looking down at the bloody blade of the duelling sword Tsukune now wielded.

Tsukune shrugged. "Nemo, I guess," he said.

"The Sword Without A Name. Interesting," commented Miyabi as the sword completely dematerialised. "A worthy weapon of a pure Shinso. You have passed the final test."

"Domo, Shisho," Tsukune replied.

"I'll come around to the yuki-onna village to let you practise with how to wield her, but for now, your training in the arts of vampirism is over, kid," Miyabi said, clapping the boy on the back. Tsukune took one more look at his Holy Lock, which wrapped around his left arm. He scrutinised the charm, and smirked to himself when it was still there. He had earned this-had earned his Shinso bloodline-and now could leave Castlevania to live with his new friend, Mizore of the yuki-onna.

Mizore watched with uncharacteristic fervour as she watched the Fairy Tale helicopter descend to the launch pad. Her friend would finally be here, and here to stay. Her mother watched her with caring amusement. She leapt for joy as Tsukune walked out of the aircraft. His silver hair had been cut to reach just past the shoulders, and instead of that strange leather harness suit he wore when they first met, now he was dressed in ordinary trousers, riding boots, and a long black leather coat over a bare chest. This pleased Mizore-it was as if he had stripped away everything that reminded people that he had once been a transitive operative of Fairy Tale, just for her.

As soon as he had been greeted properly, Mizore ran up with uncharacteristic joy and embraced him. After an instant of hesitation, he returned her embrace, his head buried into her neck. "Okaeri nasai, Tsukune," Mizore whispered.

"Domo," he replied.

The first day together was everything that Mizore had hoped it would be, ever since that Fujisaki man had managed to get the Snow Priestess to agree to let his protege live with the Shirayuki family. Tsukune was a lot less high-strung, but still very nervous and eager to please. He was kind and compassionate, two things that she had always hoped the one destined to be her husband, the father of her children, would be. When she introduced him to her mother, he was polite and cordial, and her mother thoroughly approved of Mizore's taste in 'friends.'

There was something that was…off about him that worried Mizore, though. Beneath the demonic aura that he had as a vampire, there was another strange, multicoloured sub-aura, one that seemed to warp and change the area around him. And the source, she noticed-or at least the point at which that reality-warping cosmic chaos was strongest-was the chain he wore around his left forearm beneath his long coat.

This made her curious, and a curious Shirayuki Mizore had a great deal more stealth at her disposal than the average American spy. Thus, when everyone else in the house was asleep, she crept out of her room and into the guest bedroom, where Tsukune slept on the ceiling, suspended there by what appeared to be nothing. But this didn't stop Mizore for sneaking a peek at what seemed to be the source of the chaotic energy-the locking mechanism of the chain, upon which was inscribed a series of eight arrows radiating from a singular point.

The next day, Mizore, filled with curiosity at what had been done to her friend to make him as he was, she went to the Snow Priestess, and under the cover of confidentiality, she asked after the symbol she had seen. The Snow Priestess had been kind and understanding as she described the Holy Lock he had had when they met for the first time, but as soon as she was asked to draw the symbol that now dangled from his arm, she found that she could not. In fact, looking back, there was almost something stopping her from remembering it clearly. This, she could see, caused some measure of alarm within the Snow Priestess. Mizore tried again and again for an hour, until her head ached with the knowledge into which she could not tap. Finally, she promised to bring Tsukune to her so that the Snow Priestess could see for herself the terrible symbol that her only friend bore.

When she returned home, she looked into the guest bedroom and saw Tsukune still hanging upside down from the ceiling, but no longer was he asleep; it seemed as though he had entered some meditative trance-state. She tried to step out and thus not disturb him, but somehow she had done the unthinkable and made a sound, because the next thing she saw were her friend's catlike scarlet eyes opening and focusing on her with a strange intensity. "Yes?" he prompted.

"I…I just…"

"You wanted to take me somewhere so that you could learn the truth about my new Holy Lock," Tsukune said, his tone conversational and nothing near the malice or offence or suspicion she had imagined he would feel upon learning her true objective. "Isn't that right?"

Mizore nodded mutely.

The vampire dropped from the ceiling and landed on his feet, standing upright. "Then I'll get my coat and we'll go."

"Y-you're not angry?" she asked uncomprehendingly.

"Me? No, of course not," he said while he picked up his coat, letting her ogle the exposed skin on his back. It was tight, lean muscle she saw there, and it seemed to be his entire body that was encased in it. He slipped into the coat, which still left his well-defined abdomen and parts of his pectorals out in the open. It was strange-just yesterday he had been giving off unknown energy in waves, and now it appeared to have halved, such that had Mizore not known precisely how and where to look for it, she would not have been able to see it.

They walked up to the home of the Snow Priestess and sat before her. The Snow Priestess was cordial and kind as always, but that stopped the instant he showed her his Holy Lock. At the sight of it, the Snow Priestess's eyes went wide, and she told Mizore to wait outside, her tone brooking no argument. After Tsukune reassured her, she reluctantly obeyed, waiting outside the sealed room in which the Snow Priestess was talking to her only friend. She waited for an hour, and at the end of that hour, Tsukune stepped out, none the worse for wear. Mizore fixed him with a worried look, but he just smiled at her. It was an unsettling smile, given that his fangs were on full display, but that was only an issue until she reminded herself that her friend was a vampire. "Hey, Mizore-chan, how would you like to take an alternate route home?" he asked, extending his hand-the one covered in complex black markings.

"What do you mean?" she asked somewhat suspiciously.

"Just trust me," he urged.

She nodded slowly, gingerly placing her hand in his. The next moment, she was in Tsukune's arms in a bridal carry. The thought made her blush.

"Hold on," he warned, as massive black bat-wings erupted from his back. He bent down, his wings pointing up in the air, and then he leapt, his wings' downward drive gaining him enough air for him to shoot up into the sky. Mizore just shoved her face into part of his bare chest, clutching at the lapels of his coat as if they were lifelines. "Don't worry, Mizore-chan. I won't let you fall," he promised, his wings beating just enough to keep them in the air. Then his wings tucked in close to him, and she screamed as the suddenly tremendous speed at which they were descending blew the wind through her hair, almost making the experience too real for her tastes.

Then, just before they were going to hit the ground, Tsukune extended his wings again, slowing their descent gracefully and alighting upon her doorstep. He let her down gingerly, her legs wobbling from all the adrenaline that had been rushing through her while in the sky, and helped her into the house, while his wings folded back in on his coat, slipping back into the ether from which they had come. "You okay, Mizore-chan?" he asked with concern. "That was a trick that Shisho taught me about a month ago-transforming my body, I mean. I didn't mean to scare you…" She slapped him across the face, knocking his head to one side. Then, she took his jaw and forced him to look at her, and kissed him full-on.

"That was exhilarating," she said breathlessly. "All the same, let's not do it again."

Tsukune didn't answer save for a dumb nod. It appeared as though he had gone into shock when she kissed him. "Uh, yeah, sure," he said, bewildered. "Won't happen again."

"Domo," she responded. She then tilted her head to the side, exposing her pale neck to him. "Now, here."

"Uh…what?" Tsukune asked.

"You vampires need blood or you get anaemic. Isn't that right?" she said, using his own words against him. "Drink mine."

"Are…are you certain?" Tsukune asked, suddenly all business.

She nodded-well, as best she could with her neck in its current position.

He cleared his throat. "This is my first time," he confessed. "Having blood offered to me, I mean. Shisho always said that being offered blood is a very different experience than taking it, so…"

"It's alright," she said, her voice quiet and soothing. "It's my first time, too."

Tsukune cleared his throat again, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "You're absolutely sure you want me to…"

Mizore, getting tired of her friend's indecision, grabbed his surprised head by the hair and shoved it into her neck. There was a moment of hesitation, and then she felt two pairs of small pinpricks in her neck.

And then her blood began to flow into his mouth. Mizore threw her head back and moaned; she had always been taught that vampire bites hurt, and yet this was hands down the most intimate, erotic experience she had ever had in her young life. The pleasure was making her knees unstable, and so she slumped into his grasp, melting into his hard-muscled body.

Then, all too soon, it was over, and Tsukune pulled away, his mouth still covered in blood-her blood. "Thank you, Mizore-chan. I… I hope it was as good for you…"

She kissed him again, tasting the salt-and-iron flavour of her own blood.

When she pulled back, he was completely speechless-so much so that she spent the better part of the next three minutes trying to get him to snap out of it. Finally, his scarlet eyes refocused on her, and he nodded as they slipped back into the house.

Neither of them noticed Shirayuki Tsurara in the corner, sipping a cup of tea and sighing at the inexperienced passions of young love.

The Snow Priestess watched the vampire with whom Mizore was so enamoured leave her private chamber, and then slumped down in the seat. When he had come here for their diplomatic meeting, Fujisaki had said nothing about a new Knight of Swords being selected, let alone the boy's being allowed to interact with the precious children of the yuki-onna. She had very few choices-she could tell Mikogami about it, but both Mikogami and Toho Fuhai would probably decide that the new Knight of Swords had to be put down, quickly and by any means necessary, which would likely involve her people being slaughtered in the crossfire, which, given that the population of yuki-onna in the world was already endangered, was unacceptable. She could perhaps go over Fujisaki's head to Gyokuro, but that would likely gain the same response out of her that Mikogami would give. The Knight of Swords was a dangerous creature, cunning and quick, underhanded and sly, and for Fujisaki to back one-Hells, if Mizore was right, he had probably been artificially created by Fujisaki-put her in a bit of an unfortunate position.
Then again, she had known Fujisaki Miyabi for years, and though he had quite the forked tongue, he had no quarrel with the yuki-onna. She didn't like it, but it seemed that her most rational option would be to just turn a blind eye to the fact that the Knight of Swords was almost literally within striking distance, and hope that Fujisaki knew what he was doing. And she had to admit, while she might not always like Fujisaki Miyabi, he at least always had an agenda, or a plan, or at the very least a motive.

Dammit, she hated this whole situation already.

Her head was beginning to hurt, and so she called one of her handmaidens to brew her a pot of tea. She seriously debated whether or not she should spike it…

AN: And so ends the introductory arc of this story. Next stop: Yokai Academy