The New Boy

Chapter 2

Yukari's room was a mess. Books were splayed all around the floor, papers and notes covered her bed and desk, and a very concerned Moka sat cross-legged on the stressing witch's bed. For the young Yukari, that day had been the worst one yet for her at Yokai Academy.

Immediately after discovering her second place score, Yukari was completely speechless. By the time Moka caught up to her, it was as if she was holding and soothing a small child who discovered the remains of her broken toy. Moka had escorted Yukari to her room, and comforted for a good hour or so, before the younger girl had finally stopped crying.

Moka was glad she was able to comfort Yukari some, but she knew it wouldn't last long. The moment her tears had subsided, she began to tear through her notes and textbooks to try and discover where she had gone wrong on her exam. Before long, Yukari's room was barely recognizable, and Moka's growing concern was evident.

"Yukari," Moka began again, feeling a bit hopeless at the situation, "It's only one exam. And he only beat you by a point and a half…" She knew instantly what she said only threw fuel into Yukari's fire. The witch crossed the room in two strides, and Moka felt very small as Yukari jumped on the bed, hands on her hips, and stared down at her.

"You say that as if it isn't a big deal!" Yukari practically screamed, "A point and a half is a huge difference between pass and fail Moka! I basically failed for the first time here!" She jumped off the bed and dug through another literature textbook, "Maybe I missed a question in the literature section! If I find out where, maybe Nekonome will let me get some extra credit or something!"

Moka stood up, and put her hands on Yukari's shoulder, "Sweetie, calm down. You know you won't be able to retake anything…" Yukari stopped reading from her textbook, and turned around to face Moka. The pink-haired beauty braced herself to be screamed at again, but found herself holding Yukari again as she cried into her chest.

"It's not fair Moka!" Yukari sobbed, "I'm supposed to be the smart one here… You, Kurumu, and Mizore are so beautiful! But I'm beautiful and smart! That's why I thought Tsukune would eventually fall for me, despite my age…" Moka felt like growling, but controlled herself, knowing Yukari needed to get all of these emotions out, "And, now, I'm not the smartest student here! I'm just plain, little, dumb Yukari Sendo…"

"Hey, hey," Moka soothed, patting Moka's back, "Yukari, you're in no way dumb! Out of all of us, you're definitely the smartest, not to mention that without you and your brains, who knows how dead we would be right now!" She pushed Yukari away some, giving Moka the opportunity to wipe the tears from her eyes, "Please don't let this one incident change your opinion of yourself; do you know how amazing you are Yukari?"

Yukari looked down, seeming crestfallen. After a few moments, she nodded and gave Moka another hug. Moka smiled, feeling pleased that Yukari seemed to be calming down a bit more. Luckily, Moka had one more trick up her sleeve to cheer her up, "How about we go take a bath Yukari?" Yukari beamed up at her and nodded, before embracing her one more time, and whispering, "Thank you Moka…"

"Tsukune!" Kurumu ran over and held her dream-lover to her breasts, "You and I did so well on the exams! We should go out and celebrate!" She pushed the startled boy away, and met him in the eyes, "I can make you some yummy desserts…" She whispered seductively.

Tsukune was well used to being treated like this by Kurumu, so he had learned how to manage his breathing so he wouldn't suffocate in her arms. Smiling gently at her, Tsukune replied, "Sure, maybe the whole group can join in?" He turned away to pick up some papers he dropped when Kurumu embraced him, leaving the succubus brooding silently, behind him.

Straightening back up, Tsukune smiled at Kurumu, "Have you seen Yukari at all? Do you know if she's doing any better?" Kurumu shook her head, as the two began to walk towards the courtyard, "Last time I saw her was at lunch, but I think Moka went to love on her some…" Tsukune smiled in acknowledgement, "Good, I'm sure this is really hard on Yukari, and Moka can definitely give her some comfort…"

"Yes, and it means that's two girls who aren't swooning over you today Tsukune," came a familiar, monotone voice. Tsukune and Kurumu froze in their spots, unsure of where Mizore's all-too-familiar voice was coming from. "Why'd you guys stop walking?" The two spun, and gaped at the snow-woman standing directly behind them.

"Mizore, when did you get there?" Tsukune shouted, feeling slightly violated that Mizore always showed up out of nowhere. Mizore tilted her head curiously, "Silly… I've been walking behind you for the last 5 minutes…" Tsukune shivered a bit from the icy resonance fluttering from the girl.

Joined by Mizore, the three took a seat at one of the outside tables, and began to chat nonchalantly about general, day-to-day things, and some possible ideas for the newspaper. Kurumu looked up from a piece of paper she was jotting down some fashion ideas on, "Hey, Mizore look! It's the new kid…"

Across the courtyard was Jaden, sitting in the shade of a tree, and reading a mathematics textbook. "Hard to believe he's still studying after just taking an exam yesterday…" Tsukune commented, "He's really intense about his studying!" Kurumu observed him for a little bit, before she felt a light click on her head!

"Let's give him an interview!" Kurumu declared, "We'll make it a side column! It's not often a new student comes through here and completed aces every exam after just one week of school!"

Tsukune thought the idea was good, but considered the consequences, "Um, Kurumu, I don't think you're really considering Yukari's feelings in this…She would be really hurt if we were to put that in the newspaper!"

"Yeah, it would suck," Mizore commented nonchalantly, replacing her sucker with a new one, and smiling happily. Kurumu shook her head, "But we'd be doing it for her! I don't think Jaden is a completely honest kid! There's no way that kid could beat our Yukari after only a few days of school here!"

"Oh, so you want to see if he cheated in some way?" Tsukune asked, feeling a bit uneasy about it, "Isn't that a bit extreme Kurumu? Maybe he really is just super smart, and he's probably already trying to avoid attention for his grades already…"

Kurumu didn't seem convinced, "Let me run an interview anyway! If he seems legitimate, which I doubt, we'll come up with some excuse not to run the story for Yukari's sake! If he's a dirty rotten cheater, we'll publish it and restore Yukari's number 1 spot!"

"I don't know Kurumu… Jaden doesn't look like a cheater," Tsukune took a hard look at the boy casually reading his textbook, "Just, doesn't do anything to embarrass him if he doesn't deserve it, okay?"

Kurumu beamed, "You got it Tsukune!" Tsukune gathered his stuff and left to go to his gym class, and Mizore took a long hard glance at Kurumu, "You have ulterior motives. What's going on Kurumu?"

The succubus smiled deviously, "Oh, don't you worry about that Mizore! I just want to give our genius new student some time to shine!"

Here's Chapter 2! I hope you enjoy, and look forward what type of devious plan Kurumu has in store for the new student! Read and Review!