Here In My Arms

by Platinumsabr

(AU) What laid in wait past Anti-Thesis? A choice. What lay in wait past the choice? Consequences. A future...with who? Decisions, decisions, some not up to me, show me the truth, what I'm meant to be... (Rated M for adult content)

22. To Enlist A Vampire: Pt II

Disclaimer: I don't own Rosario+Vampire, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story. Simple enough, ne? Just don't copy from this story and we're all good!

.

V^^ To Enlist a Vampire - Pt II ^^V

.

Damn it! Moka Akashiya swore inwardly as she shook her head for the nth time.

Tsukune had done as her inner self had requested the night before, which was rather basic in its simplicity. She had wanted to sleep with him, as in go to bed with him next to her. The rosary could go back on in the morning as far as she was concerned, and after the day they had had, no one had said anything against it. Actually, it was more like the group had seen their respective states and decided they would both be better off with rest, though of all the people it was Mizore who had looked rather irritated at the delay. Her eyes could be very expressive when they wanted to be.

When they both awoke he had kissed her goodbye and restored her outer personality, then kissed her as well and told her he had some things to do and wouldn't see her until later. Naturally, she had asked if she could come along, but he had only smiled and said it was a surprise. That scared her, given that after what they had seen yesterday evening, she could only guess as to what his surprise would be. Rei's new look fit her nicely, but that wasn't what she was bothering her.

She hadn't been able to stop blushing all day!

Her friends noticed as she expressed her discomfort yet again, and Kurumu grinned widely. "Inner getting to you again?"

Her faced flamed anew at the reminder, and she nodded. She had thought she had been insatiable after finally getting to be with Tsukune again. Quite clearly she had been mistaken. Some of the things they had done…it was…it was almost too much for the innocent vampiress to handle even in her own memories! Freed from the withdrawal of his blood and his body, what she had done was almost too much for her to handle! Not that she regretted it one tiny bit, or wouldn't do it again if given the choice.

Of course, she didn't even need to tell Kurumu, the succubus had known instantly just from the look on her face. Mizore was finding her own quiet amusement at her situation, and it hadn't taken Yukari long to figure out what was going on, much to her mortification. No thirteen-year-old should know some of those words! And not that she had anything against their oldest family member, quite the opposite in fact, but she was profusely glad Ruby wasn't with them at that moment. Right then she didn't know if she'd ever be able to look her in the eyes again!

'Inner' Moka found the whole thing to be hilarious, which only aggravated the problem.

"Why so flushed, Moka?" the blue-haired vixen crooned. "Didn't you say he had to make you forget your name before he got near that rosary of yours?" Her smirk couldn't have gotten any bigger. "He must have done a pretty good job since it was reverse Moka we talked to yesterday, so what's eating you?"

Tsukune, the vampiress within responded succinctly, and her emerald-eyed doppelganger almost swallowed her own tongue as she made to speak.

Ura-chan! she shrieked as the currently sealed personality chuckled.

Having noticed the increased intensity of the heat now coming from her friend's face, Kurumu laughed. "Oops, maybe not the best question, was it? Inner must have made her time memorable, huh?"

"She…! And he…! They…!" Moka sputtered defensively, but she just couldn't give words to what she wanted to say.

And think, you're in my body, you could do all that too.

Her sputtering turned into instant spluttering, earning another laugh from the rosary.

"Hello," a new voice interjected.

After training solidly the whole time Tsukune was away and with threats coming out of nowhere, they didn't take too well to being shocked anymore. Where normal people might have jumped and ended at that, the newcomer was suddenly faced with four battle-ready monsters, all prepared to defend themselves. Eyeing the icy blade and finely honed nails held threateningly at his neck, the young teen rolled his gaze back to the Third Years effectively holding him at knifepoint.

"Hmm, I suppose I should have introduced myself first," he sighed lazily, careful not to push himself into the sharp edges at his skin yet not visibly worried. "My name is Isao Nura, First Year. You, you, and you," he persisted, pointing at Moka, Kurumu, and Mizore respectively, "The headmaster wants to see us. Would you be so kind as to remove your weapons from my throat? As much as I love the idea of not having to talk, I'd rather avoid the 'death' part. Inconvenient, that is."

Sheepish, the group relaxed simultaneously. Being snuck up on was one thing, accidently attacking a fellow student who had done nothing more than try to get their attention so he could deliver a message was another entirely. By all accounts, the teen hardly looked like he cared, still standing in the same lackadaisical manner and tapping his foot. At fifteen like most First Years, the boy was only slightly taller than Kurumu, and dressed in what could loosely be considered the school uniform despite the summer reprieve. The brown pants and white shirt were a must, but as a substitute for the typical green blazer, a dark red haori was draped over his shoulders, and a paper umbrella was being cradled between his folded arms. His strangely dual tone hair of black and charcoal looked naturally windblown backwards, styled away from russet eyes that managed to convey both disinterest and confidence. The very least they could say about the young man was that he didn't ogle them openly like so many others, which was a good mark for his character in their books, though to be fair they couldn't be sure he wasn't.

"Why didn't he send Ruby?" a confused Yukari asked.

The freshman shrugged casually. "I was told she was unavailable. I'm sorry Sendou-senpai, but I need to borrow your friends for a while."

Any apprehension the pint-sized witch might have had about the unfamiliar youkai was annihilated that second, and any further conversation with her was impossible as she danced around proclaiming, "Someone finally called me 'senpai' ~desu!"

He quirked an eyebrow at the display while Kurumu shook her head in her hands. "Excitable, isn't she?"

"You have no idea," Moka replied dryly. "How did you know her name?"

The look that question received made her cough nervously. "Don't insult my intelligence, Akashiya-senpai. I may not like using it, but I do have it. Everyone in school knows who the Newspaper Club is, even newbies like me. Now not to sound rude, but please, if we could be going? Shuzen-senpai is already on her way. The only thing I hate more than over-talking and over-thinking is all those stairs to the headmaster's office. The sooner I get that over with, the better."

Mizore snickered softly. "An interesting philosophy."

He shrugged again. "Whatever works, right?"

"True enough," she conceded, when Kurumu proved that particular point by choosing that moment to squish herself to her duet partner.

"Come on, come on! Let's go see what the Exorcist wants with us now!"

That once risen eyebrow returned to its former position, and Isao pondered aloud, "'Now?' This has happened before?"

The succubus of their group slapped him on the back playfully. "Yup! Heck, we probably see him more than the teachers do!"

As they walked away, Isao Nura asked himself just what in the circles of Hell he had gotten himself into.

V^^^V

While they were all gone, someone else had to find something to do in the meanwhile.

Being alone wasn't strange to Yukari Sendou, her past had required her to get used to the state sooner than most people would ever like. After years with friends that had literally turned themselves into a family, semantics be damned, she found herself in a situation she hadn't been in for a long while. Alone. It wasn't that often that everyone found themselves called away for one reason or another, but even though she was physically by herself, she was warmed by the knowledge that her family would always come back to her.

Safe in that, she had gone back to Ruby's room and pulled out one of their seal schematics. It was painfully obvious that with what was going on in their lives, being able to get to each other as fast as humanly possible simply wasn't enough. Tsukune had inhuman resources at his disposal and if he had gotten there any later things could have gone much worse than they had very quickly. They needed a way to get to each other instantly if they were separated.

Teleportation magic was terribly complicated and necessitated huge amounts of power, but power was one thing they were in no shortage of anymore. Tsukune had merely brushed their armbands to give them some more juice, just in case, and she knew that only if she pushed the majority of the energy she could channel into her wristband would she be able to match what he had added so easily. Thinking about the batteries they had made brought back the ache of her body, a thing she had been dutifully ignoring ever since Tsukune had so helpfully supercharged them. It was nothing, just a slight add to the dull pain she had been experiencing ever since the monochromatic duo had taken to training their underused muscles. The rewards that would come from those pains would make every little twinge of discomfort well worth it.

It all stemmed from the fact that magical batteries, especially of the size they had created, hadn't been done before. The man-eating plants employed by Ruby's deceased mistress were, in effect, familiars that could also be used as magical supplements if need be, though using them as such obligated a heavy price. They required no energy to maintain, only the care any regular plant would have need of, and they were natural repositories for energy, as their floral makeup gathered sunlight and their carnivorous nature made swift work of any vermin—or meat in general, as they had found out—trespassing their borders. It wouldn't be plausible at the school, not to mention they weren't exactly portable.

From that came the idea of using their own bodies as conduits to keep the natural energy stored safely, as even if gemstones had the capacity to focus nature's power, no non-living body could stockpile energy. Since plants were out, their options were severely limited until they turned to runic circles. Using magically-sensitive metals, which had been a pain to track down—and would have been harder had the headmaster not come through with one of the bonuses he occasionally gave Ruby over the course of her employment—they had alchemized them into the most receptive form possible and transcribed whole new concepts into the straps. It had taken Mizore's steady hand and impossibly sharp ice to do it, but they had. Instead of trying to hold the power in one place or gathering it through a natural magic circuit like a supernaturally-engineered plant, the energy would be inserted manually by another person and continually streamed through the body of the witch or wizard wearing it so it didn't diffuse back into the atmosphere. The magical metal would magnetize the energy once it was put in and the directions the runes gave it once there would keep it a constant flow. As long as it had that it wouldn't disperse, regardless of how much there was or how long it took to do so.

The other program in it was very straightforward: increase the amount allowed through as their bodies became more accustomed to handling the power. Combined with the training to strengthen their bodies, they were doubling their effectiveness. There were safeguards in place in the innumerable symbology they had used to enchant the belts, just in case, but they weren't expecting any trouble. Given that theirs was the first time something like that had been done before, they didn't have anything to go off of either. Basically, the bracelets emulated continually casting spells in a perpetual cycle, increasing in potency as it was safe to do so. With none of the energy having to come from the witch herself, fatigue of that kind wasn't a problem, though the strain was to be expected. As their youki grew, so too did their ability to cast after they had used up the excess. The strain would have been much larger had the energy merely been siphoned from nature with a focus and set into the same cycle. With the power having already been 'purified' in a sense, through the body of the one inserting it, it came out as one hundred percent battle-ready.

They were planning on using the same type of runic programming to set a very specific spell into some innocuous pieces of jewelry, or something similar, to create a group of talismans that were interconnected. By eliminating the variables of the spell itself and giving it a preset destination even, things were simplified enormously. The Rosary of Judgment had a similar enchantment in it, though much, much more complicated. It was the enchanting of the items themselves that would prove to be the tricky part, as they needed to be done at the same time, and that required colossal amounts of energy. Luckily there were three of them that could help out with the procedure, and one just so happened to be a veritable powerhouse.

So, she was using all of her considerable genius and every one of the obscure tomes Ruby owned—inherited from her former mistress or loaned to her by the headmaster—to finesse the circles upon circles of runes they would need to make the enchantment work properly, and more importantly, permanent. The challenge was well above the high school level or any dabbler in the arcane arts; this was low seal master level she was sure. As someone so rarely pushed mentally, Yukari was savoring the difficulty. She would enjoy it even more if she was actually doing it for fun and not out of a very real need.

As if called by the cramping of her hand, the door opened to enter a much needed distraction. Ruby hardly had time to turn around before Yukari was off her chair and into her fellow witch's arms, gaining muted chuckles as she squeezed her younger friend comfortingly.

"Where'd you go? Tsukune and Rei went somewhere this morning and Moka and the others were called to the headmaster's office ~desu!"

Her elder's face darkened for only a moment, then she patted the girl on the shoulder in what was obviously meant to mean, "don't worry." Her next destination was her fridge, where she gargled one of her premade concoctions and swallowed prior to popping an ice-cube into her mouth. The sigh of relief was probably more perturbing to the genius than her own earlier questions.

"Are you okay?"

Ruby nodded brightly, and was saved from having to explain anything when the door opened again, this time admitting another of their wayward friends, though without a good deal of the color she had left with.

For the second time in minutes, Yukari was given cause for concern. "What did the Exorcist want?"

Conflicted between trying to falsely reassure the young witch or blushing automatically should she look at the older one in the room, Moka chose to offer a weak smile and turn back to the door. "Why don't we talk about this outside? I need the fresh air right now, plus there's someone you need to meet, Ruby, if you haven't already."

Going from the look on her face, what awaited her probably wasn't anything new. If it concerned the school, Ruby had been getting increasingly involved in the day to day goings-on thanks to her employer, and in all truth none of them really knew just how deeply she was rooted into the academy. She told what she could, that was what counted.

Even from the top balcony, they could all see Kurumu talking animatedly with a relaxed young man that seemed to be taking her excitement in stride while Mizore looked on in amusement. Once disregarded, the black clothes he was holding in his arms became all too important when they could be seen for what they really were, though Yukari was the only one to tense when she discovered that. One didn't get to be considered—and rightfully so—the smartest girl Youkai Academy had ever seen by being unable to add two and two, and yet she ardently wished for that answer to be anything but four in this circumstance. Her pleading gaze on her family sobered the atmosphere like a wet blanket, but they couldn't blame her, nor was her question even needed to be voiced aloud.

"Guess who just got drafted as the female lead in Student Police, the musical?" Moka tried to say lightheartedly, but nervousness made it sound like nothing but a lame joke.

Predictably, Yukari's jaw dropped. This was so much different than the scenario she envisioned it just wasn't funny. "Y-You mean you're the head of the Student Police?" she all but screeched.

The young man supporting himself with a paper umbrella chuckled in what was sure to become a deep bass as he grew older. "The structure of the PSC was changed a lot from what I've heard, Sendou-senpai. She's only one of the leaders. The Third Year mentors have a guy and a girl as the main figureheads, while the Second and First Years only have a pair between them. Kinda interesting setup, actually. Takes lots of responsibility off my shoulders, at least!"

"Oh, right!" the pinkette exclaimed. "Ruby, this is Isao Nura, he was chosen as the male representative of the freshman and juniors."

"In other words: he's the one most likely to take over as the male lead when we all graduate," Mizore extrapolated quietly.

To this, the coral-eyed masochist smiled benevolently and bowed, her graciousness and familiarity enough to convey a greeting without words.

"Likewise, Miss Toujou," he replied to her silent welcome with a lazy grin, confirming what they had all suspected from the start. Ruby was a lot more connected than any of them gave her credit for. Though like Rei had pointed out all those weeks ago, simply knowing about the machinations of the master in no way made her able to speak about them.

In short order the explanation that had been given to them was given to the pubescent witch, and the genius found herself nodding in approval.

"Sounds good in theory. We'll just have to see what happens when school starts up again ~desu!" Right after she said that, her intelligent mind found a glaring flaw she just couldn't ignore. "And they chose you to be a part of it?" she gasped, pointing accusingly at Kurumu.

Said succubus' cheeks puffed out indignantly. "Hey! I've gotten my grades up! I didn't even have to go to summer school this year!"

"You skipped out on it in First Year anyway ~desu!"

She blushed. "O-Oh yeah…"

"We were all chosen for a reason," her snow woman companion stated with calm confidence. "When you think about it I have less of a reason to be on it than she does; I was almost expelled in first year for all the classes I missed. Moka as a leader gives the group a kinder impression than the past ones, and Kurumu supports that. If she's there, I'm there. We're both powerful, but our real strength lies in our teamwork. Let's not forget that we've had audiences for some of our training sessions, so we'll also be known as able to do what we need to."

What she didn't say was what her family already knew. Her experiences growing up and her own natural tendencies had made her a shy person outside of those she trusted, and while she could be blunt and to the point when it concerned certain things—such as everyone she held dear—she would still rather hide behind boxes than be out in the spotlight. Kurumu was her opposite in the same way black was to white, and not all of those differences were good things. Tsukune kept them grounded and together they balanced each other out, the same could be said in a social setting. That wasn't to say they couldn't do anything on their own, they would succeed either way, but together they would thrive. Had they not been distracted, a vampire could very well have fallen to their might, and that was no small feat.

"Yeah, but the really great thing about this is the official protection we can give Onee-chan," a familiar voice added from behind.

It seemed like days since they had last seen Moka's step-sister, when in reality it was only last night. She had been ecstatic to see her beloved sister out in full form, yet it was slightly tempered by what she had obviously been doing while she was there. She wasn't about to say anything about it, not when her sister had come out to see them despite what—or who—she would rather do. With a blood-mate, not to mention the lack of activity without him around, she could understand her dilemma. Still, as much as she might want to deny a certain turned human existed, she couldn't deny the happiness he gave to her sister. He has his uses, she supposed.

There was much gaping done when they got a good look at her, for while she carried her new uniform draped over an arm, it did nothing to hide the leather choker, complete with rosary, now around her neck. Her skin reddened under their scrutiny and she found herself fiddling with the item uncertainly. "D-Does it look good?"

"On the one hand I have to say it does," the member most prone to know fashion, namely Kurumu, admitted. "The other just tells me we need to get that sister-complex of yours looked at."

"Sh-Sh-Shut up! What do you think, Onee-chan?"

Moka made a show of thinking it over. "I'm of two minds about it too." The others all rolled their eyes, except Isao, who didn't get the joke. Suddenly serious, Kokoa fidgeted under her older sister's grave stare. "The ring wasn't working anymore?"

The redhead sighed. There was the crux of the matter. Ever since her hair had started losing its color it had been getting progressively faster in its advance. She could feel her power even better than she had before; she was growing. She was still growing. With what was happening to Moka, they had all gotten scared of what could happen to her was that found out. As a proof-of-concept for their first project, Ruby and Yukari had made a simple enough talisman in the form of a plain ring, inlaid with the illusion of her once full head of red hair and dark green eyes.

A month is a long time, and over that time she began to appreciate the ring more and more as her strength bubbled within her. She knew. Though her power was unstable as it fluxed and bloated, she still held control of it, like any vampire. She held control of it, but she could no longer disguise herself willingly. If her youki continued to grow as it had, even with the ring her malicious power would soon unnerve everyone she was around. She now needed a rosary.

In answer to the question, she offered, "Pretty soon it wouldn't have done enough."

Her sibling nodded sympathetically. "You can remove it?"

"I would have skewered him on Kou-chan if I couldn't, Dark Lord or not."

They both knew how important it was that one vampire among them had access to their power whenever needed. Had Moka been able to unseal herself, neither Vincent or Alexander would have had a chance even with Tsukune away. Since she had to rely on him for that, the situation had quickly gotten dangerous. While they were all gaining strength at a truly remarkable pace by anyone's standards, it wasn't enough, not enough to compensate for the overwhelming might a vampire brought to the field of battle. To face facts, they had gotten extremely lucky. Alexander was hardly any older than them, and though fearsome in skill, Vincent couldn't have reached fifty, and that was being enormously generous to the older brother.

They needed to be prepared for the other ones, those that measures decades in the ticks of a clock, those with experience far beyond what any of them could hope to emulate anytime soon. Worse yet, there were also the ones with power to match the former, given to them simply by birth. The Shuzen family held the highest pedestal in that regard, and they still had the two older sisters unaccounted for, waiting in the wings. Things could go bad more ways than they could even think of, so they needed to be ready for any and all eventualities.

Having a rosary was simultaneously a curse and a blessing. One was thought weaker when wearing it, but it also kept the true strength of its bearer hidden until absolutely necessary. With it, a person could be any monster imaginable so long as it was concealed, and the element of surprise was never one to take lightly.

Tsukune was a living example of this. Brute force was deadly in enough quantities, but having the skill to not need to rely on it was a rank unto itself. As his rosary sapped his true strength, his enemies came to know the lesser talents he could employ and would adjust accordingly. Given that as long as his seal was out of sight no one outside of the school would know what he really was, his extra transformations would succeed in confusing them further, while hopefully leaving them open when he could at last show himself to the world. That strength coupled with the skill he acquired while being denied it would be incredible. Moka could only hope it would be incredible enough.

A cough caught their attention, where they all looked to see the subject of those thoughts smirking mischievously. "And the whole club's together. Here I thought it would take a little looking."

The words were hardly out of his mouth before an excited succubus had literally jumped into him with his name as her battle-cry. Luckily he had plenty of experience with that kind of encounter, even when her legs wrapped around his waist and their continued vertical existence banked solely on him. He had yet to figure out how to breathe cotton instead of oxygen, however, as much as that would have helped the current situation.

"Hmm, so that happens even when you're around other people," another voice interjected, its body formerly hidden by his larger size.

Alarmed, Kurumu looked at the newest addition from her place suffocating Tsukune, but when she—along with everyone else—did, the change couldn't have happened more quickly. Her happy countenance darkened to something bordering murderous, and with quick and deliberate movements had shifted from her lover's grip, pushing him protectively behind her as she flared her full features like a hissing cat. Yukari had gone from white as snow to red with rage, and her wand was in her hand before anyone could think to ask where she kept it. Akin to butterflies taking flight, the air exploded into a flurry of flying steel cards, each floating threateningly around the blond youko. And, as unlikely as it seemed, Moka's reaction was easily the most extreme. The cute pacifist adopted a hunched, near feral stance as a hiss was spit from between teeth wielding large fangs, and thankfully for Noriko's bowels no one was able to see the ghostly form of the vampire within the rosary, for if her outer self looked vicious, she looked like she would gain no greater joy than to bathe in her blood. No doubt the journey to get to that stage would be relished every step of the way.

Confused, but recognizing what her friends were doing, Mizore backed Kurumu up like the partner she was.

Ruby and Kokoa just looked on in utter confusion.

For her part, Noriko knew she should have been less surprised than she was after what she had been told, but all things considered she couldn't be blamed for it, nor could she be blamed for her knees shaking as badly as they were. It wasn't often one found themselves facing down death in so eager a form. Casting a blank, slightly remorseful look to Tsukune, she said, "You didn't tell me the whole truth in regards to my cousin, did you?"

He shrugged apologetically. "You took what I did say better than I thought you would. If you thought I was lying, here's the proof."

By then the others had taken in the same nuances that differentiated her from her cousin and were in various stages of relaxing, though they kept a distrustful eye on her even as they made the former ghoul their focus.

"Tsukune…who is this?" the charm mistress whispered in a tone choked with remembered pain.

Taking the cue, the young blond curtsied as steadily as she could in the face of so much malice. "My name is Noriko Myobu, and I've been chosen as the female head for the First and Second Years in the Public Safety Commission."

The silence was deafening.

"This is a joke," Moka muttered quietly as she trembled in restrained fury. "A sick, sick joke."

"Um, not to sound stupid or anything, but why are you all up in arms?" Kokoa had to ask. She could count on one hand the number of times her sister's outer form had been visibly angry. Hate didn't seem like something she was even capable of, so why one girl was garnering such a reaction definitely lit her curiosity.

"First year," Kurumu replied through a distinct hitch of emotion, "a student named Kuyou was the leader of the Student Police."

"He looked just like her…" Yukari put in somberly, where Moka took over.

"We were accused, tried, and convicted without anyone being told, and our sentence was death! He would have killed me but…but…"

"…but I jumped in the way," Tsukune finished softly.

Kokoa, Ruby, Isao and Noriko all gasped.

"So forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of this decision!" she sneered. "It's not like someone similar almost killed the man who would become my blood-mate!"

Tsukune stood a bit taller after that statement. No matter how often it was said, he always loved hearing those two simple words. Quieting her simmering resentment with a gentle kiss that provoked his favorite whimper from the back of her throat, he held her cheek in one hand and brushed back her hair with his other. "Everything turned out okay then, it'll turn out okay now. Just because she's his cousin doesn't mean she's just like him. Would you like people making that assumption with you and your sisters?" Disgusted, she shook her head. "I've already had the chance to talk with her; she seems like she'd do a really good job as a leader."

Only you, Tsukune. Only you, Inner Moka sighed, in something between amazement and disbelief.

Having seen for herself the very real bitterness held towards her relative, just as Tsukune had said, Noriko bowed as low as she would allow herself for mere hearsay. She would investigate more on her own. "I won't let you down, Senpai."

The fledgling vampire chuckled. "You know, I get the feeling you really won't." Seeing as Yukari had at last dispelled her large collection of deadly cards, he motioned to the group as a whole. "Now that all that is over with, we can get some proper introductions done. This wonderful woman right here is Moka Akashiya; that vision of beauty over there is Kurumu Kurono, and next to her is the lovely Mizore Shirayuki." They all blushed in turn as they were announced, but he paid that no mind. "Let's not forget our resident genius and budding idol Yukari Sendou; and last but certainly not least, the Newspaper Club's assistant advisor Ruby Toujou. I'd add more adjectives, but I don't know how comfortable you would be with me complimenting a staff member on how pretty they are."

Indeed, Noriko's cheeks had dusted with pink at the mention, but Ruby seemed very pleased with herself at least, as was the intention.

"You're pretty fearless even with the faculty, aren't you?" she asked him pointedly, and earned herself another shrug from the older boy.

"Ruby was a friend before she started working here," he explained plainly. "Then again, with how much she's been doing lately we might have to cut back on that casualness. For all I know we may have to start calling her 'sensei' soon!"

So it came to be that aforementioned witch's mind instantly put that into a much different scenario, and muffled giggles came from her as her face went rosy.

A collective step back was taken by any around her. Whatever she was thinking…they'd rather not know.

Undaunted, Tsukune continued, "So that's the Newspaper Club, other than Nekonome-sensei of course. Now I had an idea earlier: we should get to work on a special about the new and improved Student Police force! Maybe we could even put in a brief bio of each member, and we've got one of the leaders here too!" He paused there, confused. "But wait, you said you were the female leader. Does that mean there's a male one too? And more for different years?"

As he had kept doing over and over during their bouts of conversation, Noriko was once again struck stunned by her senior, this time in something near horror. The noble spirit fox actually slapped a hand to her face incredulously. "You mean to tell me you don't know about the leadership system that was put into place?" A shake of his head confirmed it, and she sighed before resuming her usual poise. "There are two leaders—one male, one female—for the freshman and juniors. These are the ones that are learning the ropes, after a fashion, from the two senior leaders since there's so little time left in the year. The younger ones can be changed, but they obviously thought it would be a good idea to have a command system in place right away."

"I turned down the head position for the lower years," Kokoa informed them as she waved a hand dismissively. "It's not really much of a title when you're under someone anyway. I've been training with Onee-chan for the past month; now that her boy-toy's back I might get to train with Onee-sama!" The way her eyes were sparkling was quite disturbing, to tell the truth.

"But wouldn't you be under Moka in any case if you were the junior leader?" Yukari questioned, to which the redhead scoffed.

"A vampire is a natural-born leader! My sister and I know plenty enough to do the job already. I'd improve more working with her outside of some formal function! Besides, I don't want the job next year. When you all graduate I'll just take over the Newspaper Club; beat some sense into the next generation, ya know?"

Kurumu shuddered. "I can really see her doing that."

"Hey, better than a womanizing pervert, right ~desu?"

Ruby just shook her head in exasperated amusement.

"Funny you should mention that," their brown-eyed friend began, "because I've convinced Myobu-san here to help us out for a bit. This year didn't go any better than the last one when it came to recruitment. We may have gained Rei, but I don't even know what to do with her come next year, or what she'll want to do. I say we use this opportunity to draw in some extra members; maybe if they like it enough they'll even join."

Wary glares were sent the vixen's way once more, but it would be stupid of them to turn down the assistance, not including the fact that after they graduated Kokoa would be the only one left, barring the staff advisors naturally. Since the Safety Commission wasn't a club so much as it was a staff-appointed responsibility, members did have the opportunity to do other things in their off time, but they were also constantly on-duty and couldn't allow loyalties to affect decisions should they need to be made. They all knew this, it had been explained to them clearly, and the Newspaper Club knew they were in an ideal position to do both, as what better place was there to report the news than from where the news was happening. As long as they stayed true to the facts, they were coming out ahead in this deal.

They weren't the only ones that noticed this.

"Would you have room for one more?" Isao spoke up at last, and almost everyone jumped when the seemingly invisible teen made himself known.

"Oh my goodness!" Moka exclaimed, "I'm so sorry, Nura-san! Tsukune, this is Isao Nura, he's a First Year."

He bowed. "I'm also the other trainee leader for the commission."

The only male vampire among them felt a terrible feeling build up in his gut, but he forced himself to bow back. "So how did you meet up?"

His pink-haired lover suddenly looked uncomfortable, and that feeling grew. "Well…he was the one that came to pick us up for the headmaster. Mizore, Kurumu and I are all part of the Safety Commission. I'm the senior female head."

Tsukune had the inexplicable urge to bash his head against the nearest hard object.

Meanwhile, Noriko's dignified demeanor gained a smug smirk. "I believe this occasion calls for an 'I told you so.'"

With a longsuffering sigh, he retorted, "You might remember I agreed with you, right?" At their obvious bewilderment, he drew himself up and gave an overdramatic stage bow. "In case you hadn't guessed, I'm a member too. At first I thought I was going to be the only one, but it makes sense that if Moka is a leader than I'm there too. She'll be great, and with me there to release her if she needs it we're all good. That makes one head we're missing, otherwise we've got the start of a great story!"

While they were digesting that, they also observed that the Kuyou lookalike had started staring at the person she had arrived with yet again. When Tsukune became aware of that, he almost couldn't bring himself to look. He didn't want to know. He really didn't. He looked anyway. Sure enough, he cringed when he saw the look on her face. "…What is it now?"

"I honestly thought you already knew," Noriko stated simply. "You weren't surprised at all when I mentioned it to the headmaster; you were only surprised by me."

Mizore saw Ruby's wringing hands and narrowed her magnificent ice-blue eyes. "He's the last leader, isn't he?"

Tsukune groaned when both his masochistic lover and the spirit fox nodded in unison.

"I knew the other shoe had to drop sometime. Last time the school had a festival I was put on the damn council, so of course this time I'm head of freakin' security!"

"It could be worse!" Yukari chimed in, and her caramel-eyed love-interest raised a brow curiously.

"How could it be any worse?"

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, actually, I don't know. That's what people usually say in this kind of situation though ~desu!"

Ruby put her hand on his shoulder in what was meant to be a comforting manner, and it was, for the second it took him to instinctively seek out her condition as his powers allowed. Everything else flew from his mind as she became his primary concern. "You're hurt!"

Her eyes widened at the exclamation, along with everyone else's. She shook her head vigorously, but that didn't stop him from grabbing her hand. Not seconds later he was jumping around the area clasping his mouth, muffling as many invectives as he knew. Being who he was, that wasn't very many, but he created some extraordinarily imaginative ones on the fly if they were interpreting him correctly.

Finally he just fell to the ground and moaned piteously. "Ohwww…thaht hurth…"

Upon being glared at by the remainder of her family, Ruby shrunk back, yet she did still move her tongue around her mouth experimentally. Finding herself unexpectedly pain-free, she smiled brilliantly. She would have proceeded to give Tsukune a most memorable kiss had they not been in the company of two impressionable First Years, but made a mental note to make it up to him at the nearest possible opportunity.

When the man made the arduous journey to sit upright, the groans of his muscles were almost as audible as his actual groans, but not nearly as loud as his bones popping into place. Idly rubbing the sudden soreness of his body where he could reach it, he might have said something had he wanted to make the effort. He found it just as easy to look over at his pain-loving witch expectantly, doubtlessly inquiring as to the nature of the injuries he had just incurred for her, and in a way she stared back with just as much interest.

She had no idea what that power entailed, but even the aches her magical battery had been putting her through had vanished. In fact, she felt great. After the others had sung the praises of the sleep-inducing healing formula she had slipped them, she had taken it herself later on to speed up her progress. How she felt now was eerily reminiscent of that, as though her body had been returned to peak efficiency and strengthened by the damage previously done. It had been a while since she had indulged in that potion, and she and Yukari had even empowered the commencement sequence for the wristbands before they had placed them on. Combined with the energy Tsukune filled them with so quickly after, their bodies hadn't been in as good of shape as they could have been before subjecting them to that, though fortunately they had been spared direct damage in the confrontation. The results weren't momentous by any means now that she was back to full health, but she did feel noticeably stronger, and the battery wasn't hurting her as fast as it had earlier. Judging by the amount of cards Yukari had been able to summon so seamlessly, the primary function worked just as well. They worked!

More pressing was what Tsukune had just done.

"You sure were busy in Paradise, weren't you?" she quipped.

He grinned innocently, as if saying, 'who, me?' His quirked eyebrow implied a similar question right back at her, and she twirled some of her hair around a finger playfully, deftly avoiding the look.

"Are you okay?" The skepticism in his expression grew, and she rubbed her neck fretfully. "I'll take that as a maybe?"

"Whahd do yew thiunk?" he countered petulantly.

Puzzled, Kurumu asked, "What happened?"

Ruby's bright smile returned with a vengeance. "Tsukune here decided to heal me without asking what was wrong first. I'm grateful though; I wouldn't have been able to talk for a while if he hadn't."

Everyone summed up their thoughts best with a synchronized, "Huh?"

Those thoughts came to a screeching halt when the witch stuck out her tongue, revealing a small jewel glittering in the middle.

"I would have been able to accelerate the healing process with my remedies, but this was faster. No possibility of infection either!"

"Why on earth would you do that to yourself?!" Moka virtually yelled, and the masochist's smile turned devious.

"Besides the obvious?" she hinted impishly as she licked her lips.

Both males present shifted awkwardly, and Tsukune was eternally thankful that he was already sitting down.

On the other hand, Yukari was much more practically-minded, which considering the circumstances was downright unusual. "That's…ingenious!"

The older ebony-tressed woman nodded proudly, and when the rest of their family didn't seem to be catching on, she showed them again. This time when the clear gem caught the light, their eyes lit up to match. As a witch's most closely-guarded secret, she wasn't going to say it aloud when two people she didn't trust on that level were around, but the ones that did know understood.

Her tongue was pierced, and pierced with a Dragon's Tear. There was no chance of her being disarmed anymore.

"Win-win scenario for you, huh?" Kurumu snarked teasingly, and Ruby winked at her.

"Jealous?"

She rolled her eyes. "Hello? Succubus here, remember? You'll have to do better than that."

Noriko could only hope she was succeeding in keeping the blood away from her face as she gazed speculatively at the young man on the ground. "Is it always like this?"

Instead of letting him respond, Kokoa flung an arm around the younger girl's shoulders like a long lost friend. "Finally! I think we're going to get along great, kohai! Just ignore them; believe me, it's for the best. I'm the only sane one here when it comes to…him."

Mizore's ethereal laugh sent chills down their spines. "Keep telling yourself that," she stated bluntly as she sauntered over to where Tsukune still sat, leaving the vampiress stammering behind her.

The blond watched in fascination as the graceful snow woman slid down to the young man's ear and softly spoke something as she played with her lollipop perhaps more purposefully than normal. His skin went florescent in short order.

"I see what you mean," she muttered.

Kokoa snorted. "That's nothing."

"He was very impressive when he was fighting those vampires. Strength-wise he'd be a prime candidate to those only looking for the strongest mate for any potential children. I suspect that's been taken however, if Akashiya-senpai's 'blood-mate' claim is any indication. What does that mean, anyway? Vampires have always been secretive; in that way I'm glad I have the chance to go to school with three of you."

The pigtailed teen mumbled something unintelligible.

"Pardon?"

"I said," the junior whispered harshly, checking to make sure the older male was still occupied before she turned back, "that we like the mystique. Plus, any aid in battle is a good thing." She checked again. "Now this isn't from senpai to kohai, this is from vampire to youko: don't say blood-mate lightly, especially if Onee-sama is around."

"Might I ask why?"

They nearly jumped ten feet into the air when Moka tapped their shoulders, and even though they couldn't see her, the grin was clear in her tone as she murmured, "Because to any Elder vampire, my name isn't Akashiya anymore."

Or Shuzen, her counterpart added seriously.

From her place just inches away from sitting in her lover's lap, Mizore noticed the man had gone very, very still. Had she been away from present company she would have whined, because his hand had quickly caught on to her guidance and had started running along the porcelain skin under her usual sweatshirt out of the others' view. Needless to say, that had stopped, and she was none too pleased about that, though only those that knew her best would be able to see that. A gentle caress to the bump of her spine just above her skirt's waistband had her eyes instantly to his, and the intensity of emotion in them almost took her breath away.

He motioned for her to stand up and she did so without a second thought, captivated by his smoldering stare. It was enough to tighten her stomach and send the moisture that had abandoned her mouth much lower, and she could tell it had a similar effect on the rest of their family when they were ensnared in its hold. Isao merely looked curious at the sudden silence, while Noriko did the same with the rise of a perfectly maintained eyebrow.

One of his eye-crinkling, embarrassedly apologetic smiles came over him. "Hehe, sorry guys. It was nice talking with you, Myobu-san, and nice meeting you, Nura-san. Tomorrow afternoon meet us in the Newspaper Club's room so we can get the paper done in time for the start of school. That is, if that works with you?" At their dumb nods, he chuckled. "And yes, my tongue still hurts. It's mostly healed though, thank goodness. We've got something to do right now, so we'll see you tomorrow. It'll be a good chance to talk about the Commission too."

"Why the hurry?" the freshman girl asked as she mentally filed away a now confirmed rumor of the legendary vampire. They did heal freakishly fast.

Unaware of her thoughts, Tsukune only laughed nervously. "I actually had a surprise I was going to show my friends after my meeting with the Exorcist. Guess I ended up being the one surprised instead, and it slipped my mind. Rei's been waiting for us, so we should probably get going."

They accepted the explanation and watched as the seven left, though not without noticing the looks they gave each other as they did. Equally apprehensive and yet excited at the same time, it was more than likely they had no idea what he was talking about, but they followed him nonetheless.

Isao shook his head ruefully. "He could have just said they needed to talk about something privately."

Noriko scoffed lightly as she dusted her uniform of some unseen contaminant. "While I'm sure that's part of it, I wouldn't doubt he's telling the truth. I've had a total of one good long conversation with him, and if that guy had to lie to save his life he'd end up dead in a second. He's good at omitting things he doesn't want to talk about though, so I do agree with you." The two stood in relative silence after that, awkwardly wondering what to do. "So…Nura-san?"

He coughed. "Um, Isao's fine. We'll be working together for a while, right?"

"Oh…yeah."

Talking with the Third Year had basically destroyed any preconceptions she had had about the organization she would one day lead, and she had glossed over the fact that if she did reach that position, it would be with the easygoing teen beside her. It could only go well if they were on good terms. She would share the power willingly, learn from those with more experience as best she could, and make a legacy so much greater than her cousin's it would be his name that came up in conversations about her.

This went against everything she had been taught as a monster that was revered as a god even in the present day. Power was supposed to be hers for the taking; she was born to be above the rest, finding criticism only in those of her own kind. She had never subscribed to that mindset as wholly as Kuyou, but then again she still wasn't as strong as he had been at her age. That worldview had been turned on its head the moment she stepped into the school. She was strong, more so than a lot of the students, but there was nothing that interested her. Standing out in one of the multitude of clubs would be easy, too easy. She wanted what her cousin had had, something that gave his power a purpose. Knowing the police force had been shut down before she even started had definitely dimmed her outlook on high school, but finding out about the Newspaper Club's notoriety was something else.

Then that fateful assembly had been called, and she had been shown power the likes of which even the venerated youko would fall short of.

Then a true threat to a member of the student body had shown up, and she was shown how that power was supposed to be used.

Suddenly the respect—and fear—the Newspaper Club had didn't seem so unlikely to her, and she could have kicked herself for not joining when she had the chance earlier in the year. Shortly thereafter her dream had come true, but as if that wasn't enough, her regret turned out to be a part of it! In some ways he was exactly what she expected, in others he couldn't have been more different. The same could be said of the group itself.

It was strange. The club didn't act like a club, it was almost like they considered themselves…family.

That was what she wanted to lead. That was the kind of Safety Commission she wanted to have.

There was plenty of time to figure out the best way to do that, and no better time than the present to start. "Well then, Isao-san, it's only fair for you to call me Noriko."

She found out he had a nice smile, though to her chagrin she also found out it looked every bit as relaxed as he did. Something told her the following years were going to be very trying, and swore to herself right then that if he tried to push off all the managerial nonsense onto her she would fry his sorry butt.

Isao Nura felt nameless dread crawl up his back.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Isao-san; I'll see you tomorrow."

"Likewise, Noriko-san. Tomorrow," he repeated as he made his way to the boy's dorm.

They knew it was going to be an interesting day.

Nothing with the Newspaper Club could be anything but.

V^^^V

That particular motley group of monsters was walking where their soul was leading them, through an all too familiar path, down the corridors and to an imposing door they knew very well. The nervous energy they had been exuding ever since they had left was still there, growing ever larger at his smug silence. The portal to Paradise was opened without preamble, leading them to the realm that, for a few of them, they hadn't been in for months.

"Com'on Tsukune, quit with the suspense! What's the surprise?" their charm mistress whined. If the anticipation didn't kill her, the fear would. They had gotten a good shock out of him the evening before, she almost didn't want to see what he could do when given time to retaliate.

His megawatt smile did nothing to make her feel better. "It's not bad, Kurumu, believe me. It's just a surprise. You wouldn't want me to ruin a surprise, would you?"

Their chorus of "Yes!" made him laugh.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop, but there is one last thing I need to do before you see it. Rei should be here any minute to take us there, and yes, I know you two have wings," he directed towards Ruby and Kurumu, "but that last thing I need to do is blindfold you."

Aforementioned witch clapped her hands together in glee. "Ooh! So we can see it from the air?"

"Not when I'm done with you," he replied mock-threateningly.

With those words lingering in their minds, a large shadow fell over them before a giant silver myth dropped from the sky and crowed her greeting happily. Tsukune rubbed her muzzle lovingly and she gladly leaned into his attentions, answering to an unvoiced question and putting herself as low to the ground as possible, silently willing her passengers onboard. It might have been frightening had the chance to ride a supposedly extinct legend not overridden every other instinct they had. How much she had grown over their time together was readily apparent when all seven of them were able to fit, rather effortlessly, on her back.

Tsukune turned back to face them, completely at ease with the situation despite how he was going to be sitting when they took off. It occurred to them it probably wasn't the first time he had done so. "Now I'm going to blindfold you, and Kurumu, since you're so much better at illusions than me, you get to close your eyes too. I'll be watching, so no peeking!"

She started grumbling good-naturedly, then yelped in synch with everyone else when their sight went black. Her first impulse was to fight the illusion blocking her vision, but she forced herself to calm. She knew who had done it, she knew it wasn't meant to be malicious. As the great beast they were on took flight, she chuckled inwardly as her friends cried out when their internal organs were momentarily rearranged. Being one of the two flyers of their family, only they would have any kind of developed resistance to the sudden stress put on their bodies. She would have enjoyed it more had she been able to see the landscape around them, but she comforted herself with the understanding that she would soon find out what Tsukune seemed so proud of.

It was too bad Rei could only take her true form in Paradise and other such places, since wherever they were going they were making good time. In the past when they had needed to get someplace that required flight it was an uphill battle, now it would be nothing; Rei was carrying all of them and she barely even showed a slight strain. More maneuverable than any aircraft, better equipped too, she truly was worthy of the mythological status her race's rarity had earned over the eras. Kurumu looked forward to the aerial acrobatics they would be able to do together. It had been too long since she had last stretched her wings.

Just then she felt the silver dragon gallop to a jarring stop, and one by one Tsukune led them down to solid ground, where Kokoa proved she really did feel nothing for him by professing her undying love for the dirt and proceeding to kiss it. Repeatedly. Rei sniffed pompously and stuck up her nose at the perceived snub to her skills, and her partner sniggered, leaving the others to wonder what was going on.

"It's okay, Rei. It's nothing against you, I'm sure it's just because the blindness made her feel the motions more," they heard him say, then, "Okay everyone, I'm going to let it off slowly so you can get used to the light again."

True to his word, their world started brightening gradually, filling with shapes and colors until it was completely back to normal. They had to blink a few times, mostly because some of them weren't sure they were really seeing Kokoa kissing the ground.

For one person though, she blinked, blinked, then blinked again. Ruby kept blinking as tears streaked her pale skin, as her lips quivered and a sob broke forth, and finally cried in earnest as she fell into Tsukune's arms and clutched him close. Alarmed by the development, they all spun to see what had brought that on.

Yukari, Kurumu, and Moka all strangled gasps as a sea of gold stretched out before them, swaying lightly in the breeze.

Sunflowers. Thousands upon thousands of sunflowers.

"That wonderful, magnificent man," Kurumu breathed softly.

Ruby's whole life had been uprooted and she had transplanted herself to Youkai Academy solely because they were there, but a piece of her would always be at the Witch's Ranch, where her first family had been. Somehow, someway, Tsukune had given her a way to have that in a place so close to what had become her new home.

Not wanting to disturb the moment between the vampire and his witch, Kokoa quietly inquired as to the importance of the scenery. While both she and Mizore—those who had come after Ruby's arrival—knew some of her background, they didn't know enough for the field of flowers to be anything but simply beautiful to behold. As they were filled in, the topic had apparently decided right then would be a perfect time to make up the kiss she hadn't been able to give him earlier, and then some.

Tsukune wasn't complaining. One second she had her hands clasped to his back, the next, one had gripped the back of his head and pulled him down to her waiting mouth, where she put her new piercing to good use exploring the inside of his. That was another thing that made her thankful for his strange healing method; she didn't know if she'd be able to go without this for another week.

His first word when she pulled away probably made sense to him, but only to him. If the dazed look was any indication, he certainly appreciated the gesture.

Her smile was positively illuminating, and as she pressed her cheek back to his chest, one word had to be said. "How?"

"Magic," he replied with a matching smile.

And it was, she knew that. The song of nature was a glorious symphony in Paradise, but the expanse before them all but glowed in its grandeur. "Rei?"

"Turns out I can help her with that whole 'growing' thing she can do. Over the month we did a lot of flying around, looking for different challenges and whatnot, but it wasn't until you came by that I smelled sunflowers again. To me it's one of your defining scents: sunflower seeds roasted in the sun with just a hint of incense. This place has almost become a home to me; when I smelled that I knew I could make this like a home for you too. I don't know how often you get out to visit the ranch, so I thought I would give you a piece of it here."

"…Tsukune?"

"Hm?"

"Are you going to shut up and kiss me or am I gonna have to do it again?"

He grinned mischievously. "Is this one of those questions where I'm supposed to say no?" A shudder went through her, but she glared at him nonetheless. The grin widened. "Just checking."

By the time the others were up to speed, Ruby looked like she was doing everything she could to pull him to the ground and have him take her right there. Tsukune was, at best, half-heartedly resisting, and the sole reason he was even doing that much was because they had company. For Ruby, that more than likely just egged her on. Rei could attest to that.

Kokoa cleared her throat noisily, and the elder witch frowned as she disentangled herself from her vampire's body. "That girl is wound way too tightly," she growled into his ear, and Tsukune quickly stuck his head into the crook of her neck lest he be caught laughing.

He was still fighting it when they were apart and looking expectantly at him, and he came so close to giving in when he saw the fiery redhead was even tapping her foot imperiously. He could just imagine her as one giant spring rattling off energy without an outlet, but eventually managed to douse the urge to laugh in her face. That didn't mean he could stop smiling like an idiot though. "Um…well…surprise!"

In an amazing display of coevality, they all palmed their faces at the same time.

"I think we got that much, Tsukune," Moka observed wryly. "I'm pretty sure we have a good idea why you did it too. It's gorgeous. Is this where you lived while you were here?"

The brown-haired young man looked to his familiar inquisitively, and she responded by letting loose a teeth-rattling roar at the mountain that had birds fleeing for miles. "Sorry about that. She was just giving a warning to the kamaitachi that live over her cave. Most of the monsters here aren't stupid enough to attack her when she's in her scaly splendor, but that was before. A lot of them are nesting now, and if there's one thing scarier than a pissed off monster in Paradise, it's a pissed of mother monster in Paradise."

Mizore's arctic blue orbs darkened towards him. "It's because of you, isn't it?"

The giant white reptile beside them started a wheeze-like rasp that would surely be considered a laugh anywhere else, and Tsukune glared at her. "Well, someone thought it would be a good idea to go after all the ones left when I found an ability that seemed useful, not counting the ones I hunted just for food. We went a lot of places too to find them, and there's still who knows how many more places to find out there. I don't like causing pain unnecessarily so…you do the math."

She strode up to him, grabbed his shirt's collar, and tugged him into an open-mouthed kiss so fierce when she let him go he breathed out frost. "I swear on the priestess if you so much as assist in another creature getting pregnant before me…" she struggled for a sufficient punishment, until she gave up and chose to go with, "My patience is limited. You do the math."

The sad truth was, that's what it came down to. Math. They all knew her patience wasn't the only thing limited. Her biological clock was ticking, and every day she went without trying her heart hurt. She didn't need to worry about getting bartered off to some unknown, Tsukune and the rest of her family had dealt with that once. If it was tried again, she didn't know what a prospective Dark Lord and a handful of potential Dark Ladies would do in response. It wouldn't be pretty, she knew that much.

With that burden taken away, the greatest joy in a snow woman's life could be enjoyed to the fullest, and that was becoming a mother. It was for that reason that if a snow woman did go to Youkai Academy instead of being educated amongst their own kind, they usually completed their Third Year curriculum at home so they could focus on that. She was the rarest of exceptions for circumstances already noted, and it was an unspoken agreement between the women that they knew she would be pregnant before the school year was out. She didn't have much margin for error, and he was coming to realize she was being at least partially serious every time she commented on the effects of his bites. He had wanted to wait until after school was over, but it was becoming clearer that he may have to settle on just the birth itself being outside, not necessarily the conception.

That in mind, he appeased her growing agitation with another kiss, initiated by him this time. She needed to know, and he needed to make her. Deepening the intimate embrace, he tapped into the living winter she had given him, allowed it to dominance, and felt it change him accordingly. Even Kokoa fidgeted when she saw Mizore's knees shake as an absolute cold so similar to hers took hold of her, mingled in their tangled tongues and provoked her own transformation. As a youkai who had to make sure her disguise's temperature was regulated with her ever-present candy, delving into a source of her glacial existence from another was intoxicating.

Her eyes were sparkling when they separated, any irritation forgotten. "I suppose I can wait a little longer."

He laughed as he led them to where he had lived for the past month, one half of the black and white duet under each arm. Moka couldn't begrudge them that, in fact she felt warmth at the closeness of her family, and yet there was also a part of her deep inside that resonated with heat not hers, love from another source. It was strange, yet beyond that it felt incredible, and even Inner Moka could sense some kind of change in herself. She knew she loved her new Clan, her family, but this love felt so intimate it was almost like…

A huge grin broke out on her face. So it was true after all. That certainly made things more interesting.

They took to Rei's cave with a good amount of enthusiasm, considering how sparse it was decorated so far. The pool had gained some weird looks, but after it was explained they had to admit it seemed like fun. Moka and Kokoa in particular were eyeing the large body of water hungrily, and no one could blame them when they realized that was one thing they had never done before. There wasn't even a table in the place, but they were all looking forward to designing the blank slate in front of them.

While Rei was changing back into her clothes, Tsukune sat down on top of his unrolled blanket, suddenly pensive. As they joined him, still chatting amongst themselves, Moka met her blood-mate's soulful brown gaze and just like earlier, her heart leapt into her throat. That place inside her that she had felt sing with power unknown, that had intensified a love already within her, now burned again with that warmth, directed solely at her this time. She could feel it.

He had heard her.

"The other reason I brought you here is because I wanted to be as far away from everything else as I could." Those eyes she had fallen in love with bored into her. "Moka…did you mean it?" The words were almost desperate, like he wanted—needed—to believe what his blood had been telling him ever since he heard that wonderful sentence spill from her mouth.

When she nodded, his grin could have split his face.

Kokoa merely rubbed her face in exasperation. She wasn't stupid. "When Onee-sama calls something family, she means it, idiot. A mate is like a husband, but to a vampire a blood-mate is their perfect match, the father or mother of their children."

Every set of eyes turned to Moka, who looked at the floor in sorrow. "Haven't you ever wondered why we don't rule the world, if vampires are immortal?" she proposed quietly, and slowly, the other girls nodded their heads. "It's because we aren't made to reproduce."

Everyone, even Tsukune, sucked in a harsh breath at that.

"But…but you have sisters," Kurumu pointed out.

"I didn't say we couldn't," she sighed. "But my sisters are all from different mothers. Only Kahlua-neesan and Kokoa are from the same mother, and you have to understand how rare that is. Mate is a title, basically showing their loyalty to that person, but it takes someone strong to have a child using only that, which is why my sire," she pointedly avoided calling him father, "was able to get his lover of the time pregnant."

Yukari nodded slowly. "Okay, I can get that. A strong mate can only help the would-be offspring, but that's still only half the equation!"

Moka smirked sadly. "And that's the catch. What does a vampire do?"

"Um…suck blood?"

"And what happens when we don't?"

"You get weak," Mizore stated, then her expressionless visage morphed in horror. "Sometimes so weak you faint…"

"Sometimes so weak we can't even support ourselves, let alone another body growing inside us," Kokoa whispered. "We usually take strong mates to help conception at the very least, which is hard by itself, but after that we're sharing our constantly-weakening body with something sapping that strength to develop. Let's face it, we need blood to live, but to give birth we need a lot more of it. With the creation of blood-banks it got easier, but a vampiress puts herself at risk too. Kahlua-neesan and I are pretty close together in years, and that's rare, I mean really rare. I think it's partly because Mom didn't want to be seen as less than Onee-chan's mom." Left unsaid was why. "Those brothers we fought, they may look close in age, but I'd be willing to bet there's at least twenty years between them, if not more."

Tsukune looked like he was going to be sick, and Moka quickly took one of his hands into hers with a reassuring smile. "But there is another way to make it less difficult. Instead of a mate, you make that vow for life. You tie yourself to your mate in the deepest way possible. If you do that, compatibility will never be a problem, ever, only the need to keep your strength up during the pregnancy."

"And we did that?" he pleaded hopefully.

Just knowing he wanted to make sure he could have children with her that badly made her squirm happily. "We did. I didn't mean for us to do it so early, but it was a good thing we did. It got our point across to Alexander well enough, and it'll do the same to anyone else that tries."

"You make it seem like you have to do something before it's true. Do you?" a confused Ruby asked.

Both Kokoa and Moka went red, and the pinkette coughed into her fist. "Um, uh…you see…it's a ritual, a blood-magic ritual. Blood-magic is powerful, but limited, and vampires use it most effectively because our blood is our everything."

"Yeah, I remember Vincent telling us about it. And?"

She cast a beseeching look at Tsukune, and he did what he knew she wanted—remove her rosary. The process was as awe-inspiring as always, and Inner Moka chuckled sensuously when she reclaimed her body. "Well, I deserve this after all the teasing I did today." She made herself comfortable on the blanket, shamelessly flaunting her figure in her stretch as she settled by her deliriously happy sister, though those watching were inclined to believe it was a show to draw attention away from the flush crawling up her neck. "It's a fairly simple ritual when you think about what it does. The intended pair join their bodies and throughout the act exchange blood, so much blood it would normally be dangerous. They form a connection so intimate their bodies will know each other on an instinctive level. The advantage of that when trying for children should be obvious."

Kurumu roared with laughter. "'Join their bodies?' It's a tantric ritual!"

The thing about such pale skin was, it lit up like a firework when blood rushed to it. Before the illusionist had time to take joy in the minor victory, she found herself nursing a giant bump on her head under Moka's trademark tagline, "Know your place."

As much as she enjoyed the images, both mental and the one in front of her, Yukari frowned thoughtfully. "You just told us how important it can be, so why did the Valentines compare it to a Familiar bond? Wouldn't they know better?"

The noble vampiress rolled her eyes disdainfully. "Probably because they thought Tsukune was a snow man. It doesn't work the same if only one is a vampire, mostly because of the amount of blood needed to be swapped. Monsters may fancy themselves bloodthirsty but few can drink the required amount straight, and more than once at that. They don't gain sustenance from blood, so losing that much and drinking it back does nothing for them. It's only been successfully recorded a small number of times in all our history, and even then it wasn't with the same potency as between two vampires. In our case I'd go so far as to imagine our bond will be stronger than most."

"I never thought of that," Kokoa admitted. "He's who he is because you gave him your blood, and he's been giving you his to drink for years. I can see you two taking that kind of thing into a blood-bond having an effect. What, I don't know."

Inexplicably, Tsukune started shifting around as he rubbed his chest. He felt…strange. He knew love, he had felt love, he gave his love freely, but for a second, he had literally felt someone else love him. It was weak, just barely there in some part of his being, but it was the single most humbling thing he had ever experienced.

"…Moka…?" When she graced him with a gentle smile, he gulped. "Wow."

"It seems to be maturing, slowly but surely. Just this morning I felt something neither mine nor Omote's for the first time, and it seems that if I concentrate hard enough I can make Tsukune feel the same."

He grimaced. "I must be more sensitive then." At their obvious bewilderment, he grit his teeth in pain. "When Alexander came the first time, I felt dead trees scream out your cry and I knew, I just knew somewhere inside me that you needed me. More than the tone of your voice I simply felt your fear. When they came the second time there was no way I was hearing anything other than my own blood pounding in my ears though, so that's no surprise. This connection won't do us much good if it doesn't get strong enough to be heard over our normal emotions, but it's better than nothing."

"That's so cool ~desu!" Yukari eventually cried. "Why don't more vampires do it?"

Inner Moka shook her head in contempt. "It's for life; they can never do it again. For an immortal, forever can be a long time."

"Unless you know," Mizore stated airily, already firm in her decision.

"Unless you know. I know."

That statement was repeated by everyone but Kokoa and Rei, though the latter did do it mentally.

"Shall we make it official?" Going from Kokoa's gasp, that meant something more than they knew. Naturally, they asked what she meant, each in their own way. The elder sister gave her sibling a sympathetic look, but carried on. "I've accepted a blood-bond and declared to belong to a new Clan. By all rights in the eyes of the Elders, Tsukune and I are husband and wife, leaders in every meaning of our own Clan. On that same vein, we can adopt people into it. To another vampire, it's like a mark of protection; if they mess with them, they'll bring down the wrath of that Clan. You really will become part of our family. I should have offered you this when we made that vow after Alexander's defeat, but I was…I was out of sorts, if you remember."

Like they would ever forget, not that night.

"I want to make one thing clear," Kokoa hissed with very real malice, her eyes hidden behind a veil of red hair, "this isn't something to take lightly. If you do this, it'll mean to a vampire, you're not a snow woman, or a witch, or a succubus. Another vampire has adopted you into their Clan; it would be like attacking that vampire's sister. Servants have worked their whole lives away trying to gain that status. Generations of servants have worked their whole lives away trying to gain that status!"

Even as they gulped, what was aggravating the younger vampiress became obvious. She was Moka's sister, the only one she had an actual working relationship with for that matter. For that to be infringed upon evidently didn't sit right with her, and they certainly couldn't hold it against her.

"You…you'd do that for us?" Kurumu rasped hoarsely, a sentiment that was shared by all involved.

"'Til death do us part, wasn't it?" was said as her answer, and as the significance sunk in, their jaws set in determination. They were family, markings of any kind didn't matter, but if it gave them an edge, any edge at all, be it legal or unwritten, they were going to take it and bear it proudly. Moka saw this in each set of eyes she looked into, and like before she felt the burning of love not platonic in the least throb from a place in her heart that she was quickly coming to enjoy. That alone was enough for her to know Tsukune was seeing the same things she was.

Maybe this was why so many younger vampires were warned against even thinking of choosing a blood-mate frivolously. Vampires were prideful creatures, low in number, but seemingly invincible on the battlefield. Their weaknesses were only whispered, for if one thought to use those against them they had to make sure they were dead by the end, otherwise the vampire would take that defeat and shove it down their throat before they removed their head from it. To feel someone on the level she felt, to know he could feel her too, that she could never hide from him…of course it could be interpreted as a weakness, and if there was one thing a vampire hated, it was being reminded they had weaknesses. Love had to be there for that to work, else they kill each other to be rid of it.

The others would be targets either way, at least with this they had grounds for lethal response. Monsters may be forbidden from interfering in the physical affairs of humanity, but when it came to inter-youkai dealings there were some things that were a given. For vampires, a human could bear that mark and if something happened to them, the Clan concerned had to be allowed to protect them in any way necessary. That would prove invaluable, and she knew it.

"Hell, for you guys it might as well be a marriage ceremony," her younger sister muttered mutinously.

If there had been any hesitation in them whatsoever, there wasn't any more.

Moka cupped Kokoa's face with both hands and forced her to look right at her. "Kokoa, you will always be my sister. Always. I can't ask this of you; I won't. The status and prestige you have right now is a godsend, even if you've been mocked before. Keep it for as long as you can. You'll be my sister no matter what, let's wait and see if this is really necessary for you before we do it."

The redhead sighed deeply and let herself take comfort in the hold of her role-model. "Damn you and your logic."

They shared a laugh, but it was Rei who asked the critical question, speaking up for the first time since she had returned to her human body. "What are the requirements for this to be done?"

"It's another blood ritual. A bleeding cut is presented to the adopter, who then adds their own blood and marks a chosen area as the oath is exchanged. The mark of blood will take a distinctive shape if the magic is recognized. The magic in that mark is what another vampire will pick up on, even if the mark itself is out of sight."

In seconds Mizore had formed a knife and sliced open the palm of her right hand, stoically letting the life-giving substance pool in her hand as she held it out towards her two vampires. Moka was rendered momentarily speechless at the act, that and the appetizing smell now permeating the air. Knowing she had to take the lead since Tsukune had no idea what to do, she solemnly cut her own hand with her fangs and gestured for Mizore to pour hers into the other. After that was done she told Tsukune to do as she had, and soon she had all the ingredients needed. Dipping her fingers into the collected blood, she asked, "Where?"

And with all seriousness, the snow woman pointed to the ring finger of her left hand.

Moka felt Tsukune's hand press next to hers, joining the Clan leaders in one motion as she directed them where indicated. A few simple words that vocalized the as of yet only hinted destruction of the Akashiya name and consent from their friend finalized the impromptu ceremony, where the wet blood flashed black. What was revealed was a tangled ring of black vines that struck a disturbing resemblance to Tsukune's as a ghoul, but a ring nonetheless. Mizore's smile when she saw that was absolutely spectacular.

The sole male among them healed the insignificant wounds and drank the remaining blood to continue, which was a good thing since Kurumu was nearly vibrating with excitement. Once the process was repeated, sure enough she chose the same spot, and did a little happy dance when she sported an identical band on her finger. At Ruby's turn, she blushed brightly and tugged the choker of her shirt down, to soon bear one of a different kind. Yukari only showed the slightest hesitation before cutting her hand as she had seen the rest of her family do; a tribute to the adolescent's strength.

Tsukune wasn't about to let this one go silently however. "Yukari," he said softly, and her back went rigid at the steel hidden in his tone. Fear of rejection welled up inside her, yet when she looked at him his eyes were dark with worry and he was right beside her, so close his scent was easy for even her human nose to pick up. She felt like she could drown just in the presence he put around her, but she commanded herself to meet his gaze. His gentle smile melted her heart. "Yukari, you're thirteen, I want you to know that you have a choice no matter what. This is a promise I would make to you either way, but this isn't a trap you can't escape from; this is something to show you that your family will always back you up. If you…if you meet someone down the line, like when you go to get your degree, I just…I don't…"

For a thirteen year old witch, her slap was every bit as devastating as from one twice her age. The splotch normally associated with the aftereffects was especially gruesome coupled with the blood that had been on the hand delivering it, but it was the look on his face that really set the scene.

"Okay, first: OW! Second: mmh," he hummed with a grin as he shook off his shock and stretched his tongue out to taste the scarlet smear dripping down his cheek. Moka merely clucked disapprovingly before demonstrating her ability to clean it better, and the petite girl watched in wonder as he shivered when the vampiress licked a swath spotless.

"Hm, it's not Tsukune's, but very well balanced. Tasty."

Every piece of exposed skin on Yukari turned a deep crimson, but nevertheless she held out the hand that was again holding a puddle of her lifeblood.

Tsukune sighed. "You get what I was trying to say, right?"

She nodded briskly. "You were trying to tell me that you would support me even if I happened to fall in love with someone that didn't save my life; that didn't laugh and fight and nearly die beside me; that wasn't everything I had ever dreamed of, and couldn't understand why my parents are only a small part of a much larger family that I would lay down my life for at a moment's notice. I don't just love you, Tsukune," she declared sincerely, her dark violet irises shining with maturity beyond her years. Her favorite linguistic copula had been abandoned completely; she wanted this to be remembered as the words of the woman she would become, not the young teen she currently was. Prejudice had forced her childhood mindset to an early death and her genius had further destroyed it. She knew what she was doing. "I loved Moka at first sight; I love Ruby, and Mizore, Rei and Kokoa, and yes, even you, Kurumu. You're friends, sisters, soul-mates, maybe even lovers when the time comes. How could I ever love someone else the same way I love you?" No one was able to answer her. When she was sure they understood, she gave a toothy smile. "Besides, you aren't getting rid of me until I get my threesome ~desu!"

While the group as a whole groaned, Tsukune and Moka traded a nervous look.

The ritual resumed without much fuss, and this time there were no interruptions, not even when she chose the same spot as the black and white duet. Just like that they were done, leaving everyone to examine their new art as they talked about what to do next. When Rei had asked if she needed one, Moka had said that as a familiar she was already a part of their family, since she had taken Tsukune's blood in the finalization of their bond in the first place.

They had cemented themselves together in their hearts, now it was such that even other vampires would have to acknowledge it. They were as ready as they could be, but with that only one thing was left weighing on their minds.

"So what are we going to do about the Commission?" Mizore asked.

"I see only one thing we can do," Moka replied. "We could always leave them unprepared for what's to come, but I know that's not an option in our position. If we tried to do everything they wouldn't be able to handle next year, and Kokoa still needs to finish school. So we do what the headmaster wants: we train them."

Kurumu pondered the proposition as she tapped a finger on her chin. "Okay, that would work. We take those little leader wannabes and make them into real contenders so we don't have to worry about the rest of the school while we're dealing with whatever happens next. If I didn't know any better I'd swear the Exorcist made up that whole 'junior leader' position just to force us to…" The dull looks she received from Moka and Kokoa made her stop in embarrassment.

"Of course he did. No one would take the new Commission seriously if it wasn't headed by these two," the youngest vampire present stated plainly as she thumbed towards her older equivalents. "The whole school has seen what they can do, and more than that, they know them. The other two will gain status simply by being associated with them, and that will pass over to the rest of their years here. Even if we don't do anything extra with them, just the fact that they were with us will give them rep. We've been painted into a corner. In this case it definitely isn't a bad thing; we've been given some of the strongest students in the school and basically told they're ours for the rest of the year. We need all the help we can get even if it's just on crowd control."

"And still do what the Commission needs to," the snow woman added.

"So checking all the clubs and following up on the rules," Ruby supplied helpfully.

Tsukune laughed. "And if anyone claims we're playing favorites, we quit!"

"If the headmaster lets us. He does have a few favors to call in."

That laugh turned into a groan. "Don't remind me."

"So we train them?" the succubus checked.

In the end, it was unanimous.

Luckily no one but Moka could know her thoughts, because they wouldn't like them. They would train them, but that didn't mean she would. She was going to make sure Noriko didn't become another Kuyou. Tsukune may be able to look past the family resemblance, but she knew firsthand how hard it was to get past ingrained behaviors. It would be hard, and she would be watching every step of the way.

Their hell started tomorrow.

V^^^V

.

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or just want to talk, send me a line. I wouldn't object to you filling in that review box either.

'Til next time!

Sabr