Following Tsukune's engagement and marriage to Moka, Mizore Shirayuki had moved to Osaka with Kurumu Kurono to get away from her mother. If she couldn't find someone to love her soon, she would have to agree to an arranged marriage. She didn't want that, but she also couldn't deal with Kurumu's drunken episodes any longer; for this reason she retreated to the mountains where she was most comfortable. Being a snow woman, she enjoyed immunity from the cold. The snowy mountain wind was soothing against her naked body.

"Why Moka?"

Mizore and Kurmu's experiments with alternate realities convinced them that if it weren't for Moka, they never would have met Tsukune in the first place. Mizore and Tsukune weren't meant to be, but that didn't make her love him any less. Now she was paying for it with a broken heart.

"If was going to have to have children with someone, I wanted it to be him… Now what am I supposed to do? I don't have much time left…"

Just then, Mizore heard movement not too far from her position, and it was much too loud to be anything that lived up here in the mountains. With a simple gesture she created a cage of ice where she had heard the sound. She then pulled on her kimono and went to see what it was.

"I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"

Inside the cage was a young man with short black hair and glasses. A good look told Mizore that he was human. Judging from the color of his face and the amount of mucus around his nose, he had been out here on the mountain for some time.

"You look like you're about to succumb to hypothermia. What are you doing this far up the mountain."

The young man didn't know what to say, fortunately someone else was thinking for him.

"Be honest with her."

"My name is Akira Hirano… I heard there was a snow woman atop this mountain… I wanted to see for myself."

"Why?"

"My… my girlfriend dumped me… I thought… maybe I'd forget about her… if I saw something more beautiful."

"You're not afraid of monsters?"

"I have nothing to lose… I can't get my manga published… and the only woman I've ever loved has left me because of it… If I could lay eyes on a beautiful snow woman… I could die happy."

"Am I?"

"The stories I've heard… they hardly do your kind justice. Compared to my ex… you're a goddess."

Maybe it was his story about his broken heart, his cheesy line, or that Tsukune himself had once been human, but Mizore could feel herself letting her guard down. Just then she looked down and noticed a sketch book on the ground.

"What's this?"

"Don't! That's my…"

Mizore opened the book to find a quickly drawn sketch of herself in the nude.

"You are not angry…"

Mizore didn't know why, but she wasn't.

"You said you wrote manga?"

"Yes…"

"I take it you're also an artist…"

"Well… I didn't think anyone else could do justice to my creations."

"You're quite good at this."

"Uh… thanks…"

Akira seemed to be getting bluer by the second.

"You should get indoors before you freeze."

"Wait… you're not going to kill me?"

"Like you I've loved someone who didn't return my love… He's working to create a world where humans and monsters coexist… and I'm not about to make his job harder. But you have seen me naked, and I can't just let that go…"

Mizore dropped the cage and quickly conjured a sled for two.

"I'm sure I'll think of something to do with you once you're all warmed up."

Back on the island of Eve, Tsukune and Moka continued to enjoy themselves.

"Moka please… anymore and I'll be reduced to a puddle."

"If you can't even handle your woman, how are you supposed to finish your training?" asked Moka cuddling up next to him.

"Do we really have to go back tomorrow?"

"Was a month of getting back to nature not enough for you?" she teased.

"We've been here a month already?"

"Time flies when you're having fun… and we've certainly had a lot."

After a month of having Moka as his wife, Tsukune was beginning to think she liked having sex even more than drinking his blood. There had been plenty of both.

"Just because the honeymoon is almost over, it doesn't mean we can't still have fun…"

"I doubt we'll be able to have as much fun when monsters like your father are constantly breaking my bones."

"Even if your healing factor doesn't do its job, I'll always be there to patch you up."

Tsukune and Moka had spent most of the month au natural because they had the island all to themselves. Even after all that time, the mere sight of his wife's body was enough to drive Tsukune insane, not to mention the sensation of her skin against his own.

"Tsukune?" asked Moka showing a little of her outer self's shyness.

"I know I've said this a lot this past month, but having you as my wife makes me feel like the luckiest guy in the world."

"Trying to go another round? I thought you were exhausted."

"You said it yourself, how am I supposed to finish my training if I can't even handle my woman?"

By the time they were done, it was Moka's turn to collapse from exhaustion.

"Moka? Are you okay?"

Without warning, Moka pulled Tsukune down and sank her teeth into this neck.

"Moka…"

"I'm sorry Tsukune… but making love like that… it just left me very dehydrated… I didn't mean to ruin the mood."

"I tired you out this time? I guess I'm better at this than I thought."

"Tsukune Aono, you're the only man who can ever satisfy me."

"Are you talking about the sex or my blood?"

"Shut the hell up and kiss me."

With their energies spent at last, Tsukune and Moka began to drift off to sleep.

"I love you." said Tsukune "I always have…"

"And I you… and someday… our love will produce a miracle."

(To be continued)