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)

24. Crashing Low

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!

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V^^ Crashing Low ^^V

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That afternoon found Isao and Noriko standing outside the clubroom for the school's newspaper, exactly as had been asked of them the day prior. Since no one else was around they made small talk to kill time, but that didn't last long before they saw a group of familiar hair colors coming towards them. Their first hint the day wasn't going to involve just sitting down and typing up articles was the clothes on the older students. They were simple, easy to move in, easily replaceable, and more importantly, had seen their fair share of wear. Not that it did anything to lower their beauty, or in Yukari's case merely added to her cuteness.

There was still a fair bit of doubt between a few of them when they met up, directed mostly at the female youko, but nonetheless Ruby let them all into the room, where they each took a seat around the room to make themselves comfortable.

Noriko was the one that pointed out the obvious. "It would seem we're missing some people."

The original club members traded awkward glances, but luckily before anyone had to say anything the door slammed open and Kurumu stumbled in, dressed similarly. Though they had seen it often enough with all the time they spent together over the summer so far, the group still admired the unassuming length of her cerulean tresses. When it was out of its traditional clip, it fell well down her shoulders and even to the middle of her back, something both freshman hadn't seen before if their dangling mouths were any indication. Besides which, she looked positively radiant, and smiled as she pulled her hair back into a plain ponytail rather than its usual frilly clamp. Her movements were a tad discomfited, and when she pulled up a chair she sat down gingerly, but if anything that only increased the smile on her face.

"G'morning everyone! Sorry I'm a bit late!" she cheered, and Mizore fixed her with an amused look.

"Yes, you look completely crushed. Did you see Tsukune on your way here?" Her acting skills were top notch, to sound so honest even though she knew beyond reproach where he had been.

"I'm here, I'm here!" a voice sounded from down the hallway, and shortly thereafter the former human skidded to a stop outside the door. Seeing them all looking at him, he waved sheepishly. "Hehe, sorry guys."

The final nail in the coffin of what they were going to do today was hammered in by his apparel, in that he was wearing exactly what he had when he had shown up to fight the vampires, although he had thrown a white button-up on over the faded black shirt to hide the ragged ends of its nonexistent sleeves.

"Okay, did I miss a memo or something?" Noriko asked coldly. "You said we were going to talk and start on some interviews for the new term's paper."

"And how long did you think that would take?" Moka countered. "We're not doing your life stories, we're just giving the school a quick peek into who we are. We want them to learn about us from us and what we do around them, not from an article." Taking a brief minute to sort out her thoughts, she eventually went on at her friends' urging. "I'm thinking we should spend most of the other space on the Commission's mission statement and a quick recount of the most important rules. We have to assure the students that it's going to be different this time. We're not going to be throwing people in jail for running in the halls and we're not going to be beating them down for minor offenses. We need to get it across that we're still the same people they know, but now there are more eyes around the school." She suddenly shrunk in on herself as she looked at the others for reassurance. They had talked about it already, so she was mostly just relaying the obvious, but it still felt a bit strange to be in a position of authority more suited to her inner self. Her no one would dare question. "Um, right?"

Warm smiles were all that met her insecurity, and Tsukune was the one to step forward and say, "That sounds perfect, but we need to add one thing. Nura-san, you wanted to join the Newspaper Club, or at least help out. When Kuyou was in charge of the student police they literally burned our paper just for saying things they didn't 'approve of,' and you already mentioned the school worrying about censorship when we talked yesterday, Myobu-san. We can't have that possibility hanging over our heads. Most of us will be gone next year and you'll only have Kokoa to keep you in line; the year after that you'll be the seniors, and if you're still in the club, the two ranking students. Who'll stop you from doing whatever you want then, showing how it's done to the ones under you and starting the whole process over again? And yes, that is a concern.

"The headmaster has made a lot of good changes to the Safety Commission, but for our club above all we need to make sure we're always accountable even later on. We should talk to Nekonome-sensei about changing the newspaper so that even if one of the students is the editor-in-chief, she has to look over everything beforehand and if, for any reason, something doesn't happen as it should it goes straight to the headmaster. It's important that everyone knows we're being held responsible by the highest authority in the school." His eyes lit up when they passed by Ruby, and the witch fiddled with her fingers as she blushed under his gaze. "Actually, maybe we already are. I keep forgetting Ruby isn't a student or a member of the club. She's the assistant advisor, and she'll be here even when we aren't. We'll just remind everyone that she's also the aide to the headmaster. You fine with that, Ruby?"

She sauntered over to him with a smirk disconcerting to the freshmen of the room, and dragged her fingers down his arm coyly. "So you're asking me to keep the police in line, hmmm? I suppose I could do that. I promise that as long as I'm here the Newspaper Club won't be influenced by the Commission. Or else." The way her eyes glinted at the end made both Noriko and Isao tremble inside.

"I don't know," Kurumu said hesitantly. "She's not exactly the most…um…"

"Forceful?" Yukari supplied.

"Yeah! She not really the most forceful person there is. I mean, you're a wonderful woman, Ruby, don't get me wrong, but you're…well…"

Their resident genius sighed in exasperation. "Just spit it out already ~desu! Ruby, we love you, but you're a masochist. There, was that so hard?"

She yelped when in less than a second, her elder counterpart was right in front of her with what might normally be a beatific smile on her face…if not for the aura of malice that wouldn't have been out of place on Inner Moka gathering above, that is. Cowering in fear seemed like a very good idea to the young witch right then.

"What was that? You don't think I can carry out Tsukune's orders? Is that what you're saying?"

Her short life flashed before her. "Ye—NO! No, that's not what I'm saying ~desu! You can do it, you can do it ~desu! Please don't hurt me!"

In less time than it took to initiate the confrontation, it was over and all was right again. The sunflower sorceress gave her little friend an innocent smile and patted her on the head. "I didn't think so. Thanks for the vote of confidence."

The clubroom was deathly silent in the aftermath, while Mizore and Kurumu quietly upped Ruby's position on their 'people not to piss off' list. Needless to say, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the ebon-haired mage would succeed in her selected course so long as she interpreted it as an order from Tsukune.

Said vampire rubbed the back of his neck, flattered, relieved, and pretty embarrassed. Though it might not be the most ethical way to go about a situation, it did work, and Ruby seemed happy so he wasn't going to say anything about that, however much he might want to. "Well, we kinda got off topic, didn't we?" The terrified firsties just nodded numbly, and he could see that Moka was visibly trying to control a satisfied smile from growing. Regardless of what Noriko was and how she might have been raised, she was also only a first year student. She wasn't set in her ways; she wasn't beyond hope. It was comforting to be reminded of that. With a small smile of his own, he cleared his throat.

"Getting back to your question: no, you didn't miss anything because we just decided this after we left you two yesterday. Listen, we know you're both reasonably powerful—" He ignored the blonde's indignant huff. "—you wouldn't have been selected for this if you weren't, but we know better than anyone that there are times when you need to be stronger than you can be, let alone are. We're stepping into one where we have to be anything from mediators, enforcers, and even protectors. We can't bully, but like the headmaster said we can't allow ourselves to be bullied either. The two of you have basically been handpicked to take over where we leave off next year, so we decided we might as well help you get ready, because you're going to need it."

After giving them enough time to digest that information, Kurumu graced them with one of the kindest grins in her repertoire. They wanted them to know what they were getting into, not scare them to death. "We're not going to sugarcoat it; it'll be hard, but worth it." She clapped her hands, as if wiping them of that particular topic. "But enough about that, let's get to know each other a bit, ne? We'll get to the training later, but only if you want it."

Like they were going to say no to them, and their expressions showed that.

Inner Moka smirked maliciously.

V^^^V

"Welcome to Paradise."

Those words were the initiation into what would become a world of pain for the two underclassmen, but they couldn't even acknowledge them since they were too busy staring at the impossible vista stretching before their wide eyes. They had always wondered where the fight they had witnessed via shikigami had taken place. They wondered no longer.

"What…what is this place?" Noriko asked in awe.

Ruby twirled in place as she relished in the song around her. "This is a sanctuary made many years ago, a paradise for monsters that risked extinction otherwise. You'll see things here you might have thought long gone, and they're not all friendly. Don't worry though, we can handle it if anything happens. Now that you've seen this you're our responsibility, mine in particular, so you won't tell anyone about this place…or you won't like the consequences."

"Lips: sealed," Isao assured concisely as he pantomimed zipping his mouth shut. He for one had no desire to see what the Newspaper Club could do to someone they actually had a beef with, and by her nodding his blonde companion was thinking similar thoughts. Neither teen was going to deny the chance to get stronger, and training with three vampires was too good to pass up. Comfortable in his summer yukata, Isao had decided not to change and had only grabbed a wooden sword from his room, while Noriko had exchanged her starched and ironed clothes for the school's track suit. All that was left was to find out what was in store for them.

Having discussed what the group had been up to without them the evening before, Rei was quick to pull the two witches off for a more intensive lesson in what more they could do with their magic. From a similar discussion with Inner Moka, it was Mizore who put her hand on Noriko's shoulder, much to Tsukune's shock.

"M-Mizore?"

She inclined her head with a serene quirk to her lips. "I may not like fire, but every snow woman knows how to deal with it should the time come. To make her stronger faster, constant confrontation with her weakness is for the best."

He was in front of her in an instant, worry on every feature. "But she's your weakness too."

Her eyes darted to the youko and back, and eventually her decision was to give a chaste peck to his nose and watch his face light up. It was innocent enough to come across as playful while not intimate enough to make the younger students look too far into it. "Trust me." Those words took any argument he might have had out at the knees, so he just nodded solemnly. "Now, is there a river nearby?"

Another nod answered her. "I'll lead you to it, it won't take long. You'll signal if you run into any trouble, right?"

"Of course."

As they walked off, Isao was left with the two remaining vampires and Kurumu, who looked between each other in silence.

"So…I'll be with Aono-senpai when he gets back?" he asked finally.

Kokoa shifted awkwardly "Well, I see you've got a bokken, so you must be somewhat familiar with swordplay…but I was really hoping to fight with Onee-sama today…"

"I think that's the next reasonable step most of us need to take," Kurumu expounded. "We can practice all we want, but now Mizore and I can have a challenge that'll really make us better."

"We both agree," Moka responded as she fingered her rosary. "I can work-out with anyone to help me, but Ura-chan can help everyone else. It was really her idea for Mizore to be the one to train Myobu-san. Mizore's strong, really strong, but she doesn't like showing it. Facing fire will give her some more confidence."

Kurumu surprised her by laughing outright. "Confidence? She has plenty of that. She's scared. You saw what she did to Alex-chan with one icicle, right? If she wanted to, she could do what Tsukune did when he came back too. It's everyone else she's worried about. You are a little right, though; all snow women are afraid of fire on a basic level, so having her face that should make her stronger, but where you're wrong is that she's going to do it at all and you think she lacks confidence. Over all the time I've known her and all the stuff we've been through, to me she's one of the bravest people I know. Just because she's shy doesn't mean she can't freeze the school solid if she wanted. You can put all your power into your fists and feet, she has to make sure she's careful if she doesn't want to accidentally freeze everything around her when she lets loose."

"Plus, if what you're saying is true, she will get just as much out of fighting Noriko-san as Noriko-san will get out of fighting her." All three stared at Isao, whom had said it. He simply yawned and scratched the side of his head with his wood sword. "Two weaknesses going at it will strengthen both in the long run. Fire melts ice, which makes water, which can make more ice to put out the fire. The only way for fire to overpower it completely would be for it to eliminate all the moisture, even in the air if it turns to steam, and it's obvious Shirayuki-senpai knows that. With a river close by she might as well be invincible—if she has enough strength and control, of course."

The blunette gave him a more appraising look than she had before. "That's…pretty accurate, actually. Maybe we'll just let you choose who you want to train with; we'll help you either way. I'm a succubus in case you didn't know, and as you probably should know, Tsukune, Moka, and Kokoa are vampires. The others are a bit preoccupied right now apparently."

Slowly, a small, unassuming smirk came over him.

"A succubus, eh?" He seemed to find some amusement in whatever mystery was solved with her disclosure. "Well, whatever works, I don't care. I'd rather avoid this altogether, but I'm smart enough to know it would just be more trouble to try and get out of it."

Smart kid, Moka's inner self commented, and her pink-haired equivalent giggled.

All heads turned to Tsukune's returning form as he came out of the bushes he had led the two young ladies into earlier, and he fought the urge to fidget under their combined gazes. "So…did we figure out what we're doing while I was gone?" he queried honestly, and all but Isao laughed. "What?"

"See, Nura-san? Tsukune already knows better than to fight our decisions. Good thing you didn't think your chances were any better," Kurumu confirmed with mock hauteur.

A blast of cold air punctuated by a fiery explosion in the distance nearly knocked them from their feet, and Tsukune was halfway into a sprint before he caught himself. The internal battle was visible in his body as he clenched his fists and grit his teeth, yet after they watched him shudder he turned around to come back to them. Running a hand through his lengthy hair, he managed to turn his grimace into a weak smile. "Now I know how Rei felt when I decided I needed to face the hyakume on my own."

Kurumu gave his arm a reassuring squeeze as she sidled up to his side, and he turned a grateful look to the illusionist much to her satisfaction. "We were just talking about that. Believe me when I say she can handle herself. That poor fox won't know what hit her."

The fact that they could still feel the chill lingering around them added to her claim.

"It's not that I don't know that, but…"

"When someone you care for walks into harm's way it's only natural," Isao finished offhandedly. When he saw the older man tense he just waved him off, totally unconcerned. "Lazy, not blind. It's obvious to anyone who looks you're all very close. How close I don't know, but it's none of my business so I don't care. You're taking the time to try and get us stronger; if I'm right it has something to do with those other vampire visitors I heard about. Long story short: you're protecting each other, and helping us helps that."

Really smart kid, Inner Moka amended. He might end up being more trouble than Noriko if they weren't careful, but from what they knew of him it shouldn't be a problem. They were going to have a lot of time with the two underclassmen, and even more important than getting them stronger was gaining their trust. Fear was the other route they could take, but she knew Tsukune wasn't the kind of person that could do that for long, nor would the others be able to give off the right aura for it. Only she and Kokoa truly knew what it was like to strike consuming fear into another being, which she could ashamedly admit she had done to her friends initially. One of Tsukune's best traits was his ability to go on in the face of that fear, and one she would always admire.

Therefore trust was the way to go, and that required time, patience, and a level of involvement that showed they cared what happened to them. It wouldn't be that hard because they did care, that was the whole reason they had gone along with being drafted into the Commission. In order to protect their school they would have to make sure it didn't fall back into bad practices once they left. As mere students they were doing as much as they could; any more would have to be done on the administrative side. Yukari wanted to be a teacher and Ruby was already part of the staff, so there was a chance that within a decade they could be assisting in more changes from that side of things.

Tsukune wasn't so farsighted, at least not yet, so he focused on the present. "You're right. We can't be sure more vampires won't show up, and they're our responsibility because they'll be coming for one of two people: Moka or Kokoa. We're not about to let that happen, and we need someone to protect the rest of the school while we're occupied. We don't want you getting hurt for our battles, but we'll make for damn sure that you're strong enough to protect yourself and anyone else from our battles. Might as well tell you that straight up," he explained seriously, and both Mokas had an instant of dread at his candor. That was certainly one way to see if they were wasting their time or not.

Isao's chocolate eyes searched the amber irises of the former human with newfound intensity, mutely weighing what he found there with a sharp cunning his usual disinterest had hidden. In a heartbeat the look passed and he was staring at the clouds again, but he nodded. "Seems like the rumors about the Newspaper Club are true. Okay, I can get behind that. Where do we start?"

He exchanged glances with the other three, and they just shrugged. "I'm still a bit sore from all the flying I did yesterday, so I think I'll be best on the ground today. If you know how to use that sword I'll be your partner; I need more experience against weapons and I'm sure I can challenge you enough to help your use against unarmed fighters. And you, Moka?"

"Ura-chan can do more. I'll get in my practice later," she replied succinctly as she held out the cross she wore. No one disagreed, and with a parting kiss the 'clink' of the rosary soon sounded, exposing Isao to the incredible show that was the shift between Moka's personalities.

Of course, the first thing she did when she opened her red eyes was grab her blood-mate's shirt collar and pull him into a much deeper kiss. If it was going to be a recurring theme like it seemed to be, Tsukune definitely wasn't going to protest.

The look she gave him when they parted made his ripped pants-turned-shorts tighten, something she was well aware of by the way she licked her lips. "Mmh, first things first: I'm thirsty. Then you can get to training. Kokoa and I have a lot we need to work on."

The redhead nearly fainted in joy.

Kurumu smirked. "I'll trade off with Tsukune 'cuz we're in the same boat. I'm still kinda sore too."

Both Kokoa and Moka fixed her with a dry look.

The succubus just laughed.

V^^^V

Meanwhile, two young women were staring each other down, one with alarm, the other with her normal impassiveness. Between them a wall of bladed ice sizzled but wasn't melting, despite the bolt of foxfire the blonde had shot with a great deal of her power.

"…How?" the blonde gaped.

Mizore simply examined her crystal fingers blankly. "I control water to make my ice, just like I can turn my ice back into water. No matter how much you melt you're only adding moisture to the air, and I can use that to make sure my ice doesn't melt at all. It's possible to get rid of it all, which is why we're by a river. I'll never run out of water here. You're in my element."

A flash of winter abruptly covered the scenery in a fine layer of snow, and suddenly Noriko was even less confident.

"W-What are you d-doing?" she asked shakily.

"I talked with Moka about what she knew about youko," the ice maiden said instead. "She said Kuyou had four tails and burned with blue fire. Yours is orange. Represented by the Kyuubi, which has nine tails, the tails must be a sign of power. So how many do you have?"

The vixen snarled at her, but backed down submissively when an icicle jumped out of the ground and stopped just short of her throat. Anger was all well and good, but there needed to be an understanding between them. Just because she was a youko didn't mean she was all powerful, and Mizore had a great deal more experience as well. It was the first step in Moka's plan to humble the fox—having a weakness be so obviously stronger would shave inches off her pride and annoy her into getting better. The understanding would come with Mizore's approach, and her personality made it perfect for her. She was blunt and concise when dealing with people she didn't know, yet she could still come across as gentle and unyielding. She could be both a friend and a rival, just like what had happened with her and Kurumu, but she could also be a teacher. In other words, she was the perfect partner for someone like Noriko.

"Two," the girl muttered, cheeks red with shame. "Kuyou had four in high school, and I heard he's nearing five now and he has to deal with university!"

"And you have your battle form?"

Her head shot up in surprise, and with no change forthcoming in the violet-haired woman, she rubbed a hand down her face. Just that they knew about it told her one thing. They had seen it. "The longer I'm around you people the more you scare me. Yes, I do."

"Good." With that, the snow thickened and started blowing in an arctic wind, prompting the freshman to start shivering even as Mizore stood unaffected. "Change. Now."

Fire wrapped around Noriko like a blanket, soon congealing into a vulpine form then further finessing into a feminine figure, revealing a demonic beauty with only flaming fur preserving her modesty and leaving pale skin etched with fine black tattoos open to inspection. They traveled around her navel and up the valley of her breasts between the trails of fire covering her, before branching out down her arms and up to her cheeks. One of Mizore's eyebrows arched. For a freshman, she had the beginnings of a stunning physique that would only improve as she got older. The snow under the blazing paws of the now bipedal spirit fox disappeared in the heat she sent off, but still her stoic opponent's expression showed no fear.

"What now?"

Mizore pointed a clawed hand at her. "Now I exhaust you. You shoot your fire as hot and as long as you can at my ice until you can't any longer. Then we stop, rest, and do it again. Begin."

The snowy wind chilled lower as the wall of icy blades jumped forward, expanding into two lanes that moved to envelop the spirit fox from all sides.

All Noriko could do was as she had been instructed.

It was a process that would be repeated many times over the coming weeks, but their evenings were theirs to enjoy, and the blue-eyed beauty had every intention of doing that. She had lost time to make up for.

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V^^^V

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A couple of days after that, Kurumu found herself cornered by her duet partner, quite literally. With both of her hands on the wall by either side of her head, Mizore gazed into the eyes of the trapped succubus with a look torn between lust and absolute gratitude.

Then she kissed her. Hard.

The charm mistress was left dazed and confused when the snow woman pulled away, a small smile on her pale lips.

"Thank you."

As she watched her walk away, Kurumu croaked, "You're welcome."

All she needed to do was figure out what she did.

V^^^V

A couple of days after that, Kurumu found herself cornered by Ruby, quite literally. In the same position as Mizore once was, her look too was torn between lust and absolute gratitude.

Then she hugged her. Hard.

The blue-haired bombshell was left aching and coughing when the witch pulled away, a bright smile upon her dark red lips.

"Thank you."

As she watched her walk away, Kurumu gasped out a, "You're welcome."

Now she really needed to figure out what she did.

V^^^V

Only a day after that she found herself cornered by Moka, quite literally. Once more in the same position she had been in twice already, the other woman's look was just as equally torn.

Then she said, "I don't know if I want to hug you, kiss you, or both. For now, I'll stick with the hug."

One bone-creaking embrace later, the young enchantress was left pleased but puzzled. "Will you please tell me what it's for? I have no idea what I've done!"

The pinkette's eyes glazed over as she shivered. "You've been teaching Tsukune how to give massages."

And then everything made sense. After all, she did so love their…lessons.

That time her, "You're welcome," was said with more than a hint of pride.

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V^^^V

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Pride was something that Alexander Valentine had swallowed what seemed like so long ago, when in reality it had only been a week. He could be forgiven for losing track of time though, considering what that week had entailed.

From dawn to dusk, every day, he and his mother had been battling it out, and her teaching methods became increasingly brutal the longer they went on—or so it seemed to him anyway. Their only breaks had been to consume what blood they needed; no fine food or drink that might take up time, just blood. Alexander had been pushed to his limits then his limits had been pushed far past whatever he might have ever thought was the border of insanity. He had been forced to delve into every tactic he had ever been taught over the course of his whole life, every dirty trick he could ever use and any advantage the terrain might be able to give him, and even then Ivy destroyed him again and again. Just to make it even more of a challenge, a sparkling silver cross now hung around his neck just as one did hers. Frankly, he couldn't really complain about it due to both his brother and Evangeline accepting rosaries of their own in a show of support. When he was finally allowed to go to bed he couldn't even enjoy it, since he passed out the second he hit the mattress and didn't stir until he was thrown out of bed the next morning.

Basically, life sucked. On the plus side, he was improving; just the other day he had nearly nicked his mother with his sword! Progress was slow in coming but that was expected, he would fight for it just like he swore he would. While he hurt, a lot, he had to admit the past week had been very fulfilling. It felt like he was actually doing something that would matter in the long run, not coasting through life in a haze of debauchery. He couldn't even say he missed that phase; whenever he thought of it he would remember that horrible pain in his chest and know why he continued to develop himself. The constant training also kept his mind from pretty much anything else, which was why he hadn't anticipated what he was currently doing even though he should have.

He tried to discreetly wipe his sweaty hands on his pants as he, his brother, and his mother walked down the impressive halls of the Shuzen mansion. He knew the summons was a given considering what his task had been, but now that he found himself sympathizing with the two youngest sisters his nerves were shot to hell. Only his mother's calm gait and instructions beforehand kept him somewhat composed, but when he thought of who he would be meeting even those were put to the test.

The antechamber was opulent and imposing, meant to intimidate as much as impress, and he could definitely say it was working. Stepping into the main hall was like nothing else, however; when he was younger he thought it looked grand, only now was he able to fully appreciate what he was looking at. Or rather, he would be able to fully appreciate it, had he been able to tear his eyes away from the man sitting in the throne-like chair at the end and the woman standing like a sculptor's masterpiece by his side.

Issa Shuzen sat nonchalantly, resting his cheek against his fist, and his very appearance screamed wealth and power. Despite the seemingly relaxed and semi-formal apparel, the Valentines knew each piece of the outfit was fit for a king and priced to match, while his eldest daughter stood in a Chinese dress of darkest blue, slit specifically to show off the miles of her firm legs. Inky tresses so like her father's teased the boundaries of her beautiful face, but even with the seal they knew she was wearing there remained two threads of silver dangling from her bangs. Her smile was as dangerous as it was seductive, just as her father's was both calculative and amused but framed by an immaculately trimmed goatee.

"What, you come and don't bring your mate again, Vincent-kun? I'm beginning to get the wrong idea behind your visits," Akuha Shuzen's lilting voice teased, and after what he had told them earlier Alexander wasn't surprised his brother winced slightly. Regret would do that do anyone.

He regained his cool easily enough. "Blood-mate now, actually."

The only sign she reacted at all was a small widening of her eyes, but she did react. "I suppose congratulations are in order, then. Miss Evangeline never struck me as the type to settle down, though I have to say you look quite striking when sealed."

It was true. With his long hair black as pitch and eyes a piercing orange that seemed to glow under the light, Vincent looked every bit as handsome as he did in his vampiric glory. He gave the customary nod of appreciation for the compliment. "My wife is a very picky person. She was just looking for the right one."

"Alas, something I myself have yet to find," Akuha lamented dramatically as she brought a hand to her heart.

Yes, I'm sure you're just broken inside, the eldest Valentine brother thought as he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Just because she was terrifying didn't mean her theatrics were funny, let alone believable. Still, he said, "Time is a vampire's friend. I'm sure it will happen eventually."

Smiling, she made her way to Alexander, prowling around him like a shark would its next meal. "Mmh, you're not looking so bad yourself there, Xander. The rosary suits you well," she purred as she ran her fingers down his arm. She wasn't lying either. While his brother enjoyed having his hair long, Alex kept his in a happy medium that curved down his face like his mother's, which was fitting since his eyes had changed to her palest electric blue, though like Vincent his hair was jet black.

It took all his will not to shudder at her touch. She was by no means unskilled in whatever she chose to do; seduction one of them. "Thank you, Shuzen-sama."

She laughed merrily, low and captivating. "You should know that's my father, Xander-kun. Call me Akuha."

He tried to make his gulp as subtle as possible, but her fanged grin told him she had seen it. "I'll…try, Lady Akuha."

Her grin became just large enough to be seen as predatory. "Yes, that's perfect."

"Akuha, quit bothering our guests; you'll have plenty of time for that later," came the pleasant rumble of Issa Shuzen. Authority was thick in his bass tone regardless of the lighthearted demeanor it was delivered in, and his daughter inclined her head respectfully before stepping back to his side. He sat up smoothly, moving his elbows to his knees so he could support his chin on his hands yet still effectively stare them all down.

"Now then, Akuha tells me that young Alexander paid a visit to Youkai Academy and was hospitalized for his trouble. Your family was given its chance and you failed, yet you chose to go back with your brother." His tone was kept light, but somehow it felt like he was suffocating them with the mere hint of his disapproval. It lasted only a second, then it was gone and he was smiling again. "But I of all people can appreciate ambition, and no doubt you wanted to salvage your pride. Judging by the lack of Moka's presence with you, only two possibilities come to me: either you left her at your home by her request, or you failed…again."

Ivy touched her sons' shoulders comfortingly before striding forward. "I'm afraid it was the latter. Let it be known the Valentine Clan is prepared to accept its responsibility and leave itself of your and the Elders' favor until such a time as you see it fit to bring us back."

An eyebrow quirked. "I didn't know you were aware of your son's actions."

"I wasn't," she replied honestly, "but my oldest went along with his plan knowing that, and even told your eldest of the next attempt. I would imagine they took that as permission, their knowledge of the rules notwithstanding. With both of my sons involved, claiming ignorance does me nothing."

Issa hummed thoughtfully. "True, very true. As I was told, he was simply trying to get his brother to own up to his mistakes, but so too can I understand Alexander's desire to preserve his pride. It doesn't change anything, but I can understand. Since you made no illusions about it I'll be lenient, but don't count on receiving anything of the same importance for a long time."

She bowed low, and her sons did the same. "Thank you, Lord Shuzen."

"I trust they are being punished appropriately?"

Alexander didn't even need to fake flinching when Isabella's gaze shot to him, and Vincent bowed lower when it was his turn.

He chuckled, though more than anything it just set them on edge. "I see. That's good, one cannot accept failure like this without penalty, but I'm saddened to see such a young Valentine cut off from so much at the beginning of his life." That was only a platitude and they all knew it, but it was necessary to keep up appearances.

Again, Alex flinched. By being cut off from the Elders' favor, and especially Issa Shuzen's, he had basically ensured the Valentines would be snubbed by any major vampire clan for the foreseeable future. No doubt their businesses would suffer as well seeing as so many major corporations were in fact owned by some of those clans, but thankfully they were largely self-sufficient. As it was, the only jobs he would be able to get would be within his family if he didn't want to start from scratch, and finding a mate would be all but impossible with it being specifically his failure. That didn't bother him as much as he thought it would, probably because he didn't feel worthy of one. The wait would give him time to better himself until he could be wanted for who he was, even if he had plunged the Valentines back into obscurity for the moment. It was as his mother had said: honor could be restored, it would just take time.

The Dark Lord stood, casually swiping the walking stick leaning against his chair in the process, and walked to where the youngest vampire present kneeled. Standing over him, it was not a position anyone wanted to be in, and Alexander could feel the sweat trickling down his neck as he bore the weight of the powerful monster's stare.

"I know you're still coming into your power, and I know you have yet to wield the weapons your clan is known for, but I'm curious as to how you lost," he said gravely.

They knew this was going to be a question, and he had been prepared for it.

"I believe my brother informed Lady Akuha that I had already tried once and was going to try again. I know he told her I found out Lady Moka has taken a mate. Let me be the one to tell you the one your daughter claims to be her mate…is the one that can remove her seal," the younger man answered politely.

It was the only thing he hadn't been told before. They knew he had been told something similar by Kahlua, but having it put so plainly and certainly right in front of him struck the Dark Lord momentarily speechless while his hands turned white-knuckled on his cane, even as Akuha's self-satisfied smirk faltered. The information before had been vague; they only knew Moka could be unsealed, now they knew just who was doing it. "You're sure of this?"

It wasn't a question, it was a demand.

"She beat me within an inch of my life, Lord Shuzen. It's not exactly forgettable."

"Yes, that I can imagine," the Shuzen patriarch remarked dryly. "For bringing me confirmation of this, consider your sentence's duration lessened." That said, he swooped his cane upwards, smashing it into the bottom of Alex's chin and launching him into the air, where he brought it down heavily onto his chest and bashed him into the floor, heedless of the hacking coughs the young man issued. "That," he hissed menacingly, "was my retribution for you daring to assume more than one chance with my daughter. Now get out of my sight."

Keeping the pain out of her eyes was hard for Isabella Valentine as she helped her son upright. She had anticipated it beforehand and told him he wasn't likely to escape the encounter unharmed, but that didn't change the fact that watching it being done had hurt. He had been merciful; she had no doubt that had the Dark Lord been unsealed that first strike would have killed Alexander without fail, and even now he had only delivered negligible damage. The real damage had been done invisibly, to their pride and prestige in the limitations placed on their clan for failing. It wasn't that he didn't expect some to fail, it was that they tried again despite that and failed again.

Akuha was as crafty as her father, and when Vincent had guiltily recounted his meeting with her to them earlier in the week, both he and Ivy could see what she had done in retrospect. She had never expressly given permission, nor had she stated she would pass along the information as a formal request to her father. She had simply documented his briefing and flirted about the topic, throwing off his analysis of the conclusion. She did everything but give her consent, and used his inherent unease of being around her to keep him from specifically appealing to her father.

They had to give her credit for her wiles; she was as skilled with her words as she was with her fists to do that to someone as naturally unruffled and methodical as Vincent. If they couldn't see through her deception they deserved what they received, and while Isabella was loathe to admit it, she felt the same. A great deal of humiliation could have been avoided had her sons only come to her, but so too would a great deal of good have been missed. In the end, the pros outweighed the cons.

"Thank you for your time, milord," she acknowledged the dismissal graciously. Vincent moved to his younger brother's other side without a sound, and together they made to carry him from the hall.

"Wait," Akuha's voice cut through the thick atmosphere of their departure. When both oldest son and mother turned again to look at her, she regarded them curiously. "You learned nothing else?"

Vincent stared her down unflinchingly with a glare fitting for her deception, before ever so slightly nodding. As the silence stretched out and the tension grew, his murmur was every bit as loud as a shout when he said, "…She claims to be blood-bound. Tread softly."

With the judgment that had been handed to his family, based on deceit at that, the Cerberus-wielder felt entitled to take pleasure in the looks on their faces at that bolt from the blue. He was only glad they couldn't see his grin as he and Ivy removed their injured family member from the mansion. As they were driving away, he finally allowed himself to chuckle, which swiftly bloated into gut-wrenching guffaws, and the pale-eyed woman beside him slowly joined in.

Alexander, unsurprisingly, just groaned pathetically from his place laying on the backseat. He was in a tremendous amount of pain after all; unconsciousness would have been welcomed. Sadly for him the insane training he was going through had hardened him enough to fight through it. "I know…I deserved it…but still…too bad we…couldn't…bring a…camera."

The other two just laughed harder. "Maybe next time, little brother."

All things considered, they had come out quite well for what they had done.

It wasn't much of a plan, but when Vincent confessed his fallback scenario to the possible failure of their mission and what it entailed, Ivy had instantly known it had potential. He had only given Akuha enough information to incriminate Alexander, or so he had thought, but she made sure to berate him for even thinking such a thing was possible. It would have had far more potential had the eldest Shuzen daughter not been stringing him along the entire time, and basically set them up for disgrace. It was Vincent's fault for falling for it, but the past was the past. The future was the important thing now.

The plan was simple: cover the whole truth by revealing a lesser, but still momentous truth. Even the claim of a blood-bond would put a damper on more physical attempts. Her sons were still getting hell for what they did while knowing the second-youngest Shuzen had made such as claim. Usually this translated into excruciating pain for Alex while in training, for Vincent it was whatever she could think of at the time, be it inane task or tedious request.

The truth was a powerful weapon, especially when used in degrees. So wrapped up were they in what they had been told, neither Issa nor Akuha had even thought to ask if they had discovered the name of Moka's blood-mate. The plan had been an overwhelming success, something all Valentines present would never forget just from the looks on the noble family's faces. No matter what the other vampires thought, they would always know what had gone on behind those doors had been a victory for the lesser clan involved, and they were walking away with two more steps on the board already planned. They weren't the only ones to have their pride stung, and with certain avenues lost to them, what would come next should be more predictable. That was what Isabella hoped, at any rate.

Vincent was having similar thoughts, going from his rapidly sobering mood. "Are you sure about this?" he asked quietly.

Ivy patted her son's leg. "Yes. Your father and I owe them your lives."

"And you really think he would do that to them?" Who he was talking about was obvious to both of the other occupants of the vehicle, and again, her answer was in the affirmative.

"Yes, I do. If not him, her. For all of young Moka's power, they are not invincible."

The rest of the ride was driven in foreboding silence, only one terrible question hovering above.

What if they were wrong?

.

V^^^V

.

Issa Shuzen sat again on his regal chair overlooking a hall that could hold most of Japan's population of vampires, deeply troubled. Akuha paced the floor in front of him with one arm over her stomach to support the other at the elbow, which held her chin in her hand as she frowned in concentration.

"…If she really is blood-bound, the Elders will never back any use of force on her, despite her place in the punishment," she said at last, though she was only voicing what they were both thinking.

"Do you think me inept? I know that!" he snarled, and she flinched back as if struck. "To resort to such an extreme measure…"

"But do we dare call her bluff?" This was one area even she was hesitant in. While her father was on the Council of Elders and granted the title Dark Lord, not even he would dare try to coerce a decision from them against laws that had been in place for millennia. It had been tried before. "I was told the boy came from the snow people…a blood-bond would be almost impossible to forge properly…"

Issa rubbed his forehead tiredly. "I know. But if I go against her directly and her bond proves true, not only would the Elders support her, they would dissolve her part in the punishment, and that would be disastrous. With Moka's luck the bond really has taken. To think, she found someone that could actually remove the rosary!"

"Kahlua did say something to that effect, didn't she?" the eldest daughter put forth with a small amount of hesitation, hesitation that was justified when he glared at her.

"Yes, she did. Which was why you were supposed to cut them off when I heard she was paying a visit to that old fool in China. It's amazing what the difference of a few hours can make. If you had just caught them at the main house before they had time to move on…" He rubbed his forehead tiredly. "What's done is done. Why that idiotic priest would even go through all the trouble to send them there is—" He stopped abruptly, nearly jumping to his feet as his mind whirled. "The seal, of course! It was never meant to be removed so often! Something must have happened to it that he couldn't fix! If she didn't want to come back here, she would have to go to another seal master! But why? Why would she do that at all?"

He froze, and slowly, ever so slowly, a dark, maniacal smile that unnerved even Akuha drew itself on his face. "No, she wouldn't…that would be too perfect…it couldn't…" His voice was tinged with awe, practically laughing as he went over the scenarios in his head. "But why else…? That must be it. Oh you poor, silly little girl, you thought…" He couldn't even bring himself to finish.

"…Father…?"

"Hm?" he sounded, and when he looked at her he remembered he had been voicing his thoughts to an audience. "Oh, Akuha; I'm sorry, I forgot where I was for a second there. Not to worry, I believe I've just solved our problem. Since Moka seems so hell-bent on disobeying, I'll have to show her the hopelessness of her situation. If not one, then…the other…"

His ever-darkening tone sent chills through Akuha. She knew that tone, and it brought a delighted smile soaked with bloodlust to her lips. "Is there anything I can do, Father?"

Eight years ago had held the happiest days of her life, and she wasn't about to let what was going on ruin what she had built for herself since. She was disappointed when he shook his head, but when he explained as much of his reasoning as he was willing to part with to her, her previous smile came back with a vengeance.

"Enjoy what time you have left, little sister. You'll know where you belong soon enough," she whispered.

The Valentines were lucky they left when they did. Her laughter would have resonated in their nightmares for weeks to come.

.

V^^^V

.

In the minds of two freshman, 'nightmare' described what they had been going through for the past week quite well. Noriko and Isao were sprawled out under one of the many trees of Paradise, enjoying one of their rare rest sessions before they were thrown headfirst back into Hell. Sweat was beaded on every exposed surface of their skin as their chests fought for breath, which even Isao could admit looked rather attractive on his fiery companion despite his current situation. The burn in his body felt good in a way, though he really wanted a nap.

If he had thought the Newspaper Club was impressive before, he didn't know what he thought of them now. For the past six days they had fallen into a routine that he equally loved and hated. They were given the mornings to themselves, to work on any leftover summer schoolwork and such, and after lunch they met in the clubroom to be shown the process of editing a newspaper into existence. It was a surprisingly time-consuming process that the seasoned group had down to an art form and the two First Years were only slightly better than abysmal at, but even that had nothing on what they did after. From two until six they were in Paradise, four solid hours every day essentially getting their pride as monsters handed to them on silver platters. It was painfully obvious to them that though they had been trained by their families as the youkai they were born into, the group that had now taken that burden upon themselves to further finesse had been through conflict they couldn't hope to imagine. Those four hours were more difficult than anything they had ever done in their lives, but simply a touch later and they were able to go to bed feeling stronger than the day before, and free of pain at that. It also allowed them to actually enjoy their evenings before they collapsed into bed, yet with it, questions upon questions started building in their minds.

They knew Tsukune Aono was a vampire, they had watched along with the rest of the school when a silver-haired woman fought a silver-haired man, each bearing fangs, red eyes, and enough power to level a forest with their bare hands. Nowhere in their mythos was a healing touch, or the other impossibilities Noriko had stared at from behind her dorm-room window for that matter. They weren't the only ones to notice this, and rumors were starting to circulate around campus, each one wilder than the next. They really didn't know what to believe, since the club had never claimed Tsukune to be anything but a regular vampire.

With any luck those questions would be answered in time. Their current concern was the group dynamic they were rapidly becoming a part of.

"So what she have you do today?" he asked when he could breathe normally again. Comparing tortures had become a routine for them, and an endless source of entertainment for him too. He made sure to keep all his complaints within the confines of his mind, else he earn unneeded ire. She, on the other hand, voiced her complaints openly and angrily, but most of her irritation was directed at herself for not being able to complete the challenges to her regular standards. Her snow woman teacher had earned her grudging respect, because no matter what she did she did it calmly, quickly, and with great precision. While she was openly pushing the younger girl's limits, she wasn't malicious in her intent otherwise Noriko was sure she would have died many, many times over. The thought wasn't as comforting as it should have been.

She huffed. "Let's just say I got to find out how resilient ice clones can be when she's actively strengthening their integrity. Oh, and hitting moving targets suck."

"She can make clones of herself out of ice? That move?"

"She can make clones of anyone out of ice, and they can do more than move," she admitted with a wince as she rubbed a particularly nasty bruise gaining ground on her arm. "And who were you with today?"

"Kokoa-sempai."

The simple answer earned another wince from the Youko. He didn't even need to say anything else. She had seen him practicing with Tsukune, and he was good, very good even with a fake sword, but Kokoa was…Kokoa. She knew that under his damp yukata he was probably one big welt.

"I'm sorry." There was really nothing else she could say.

He chortled. "Thank you."

A companionable silence settled among them as they gave their weary bodies some much needed rest, watching the remaining group continue at a feverish pace they hadn't let up even once. Frankly, the club's skill and tenacity was downright frightening. Just thinking that they were only two years older than them, and in one case two years younger than them, was a large serving of humble pie. They might not have considered themselves the most powerful youkai on campus, but to know some outclassed them so indisputably was a bit hard to swallow, despite the many rumors and tales of their exploits. Having those same people offer to instruct them was a suggestion immediately pounced upon, and after only a week of their torture—under the subtle title of training—they came to an astonishing conclusion.

"…You feel it too though, don't you?" she questioned as she sat up and stretched, popping bones back into place with a happy groan.

He wasn't going to pretend he didn't know what she meant. "Yeah. You noticed?"

Fire burst to life on her palm as her response, and while still orange, there was a very distinct blue tinge to the inner depth of her flame. That slight shift in tint may not seem like much to the untrained eye, but Isao could feel the heat roiling off her hand, noticeably hotter than what it had been only half a dozen days ago.

"When he 'heals' us, it follows the natural process. It mends and strengthens what we've injured, just like if we'd gone through the necessary days to recover. Mizore-sempai has forced me farther than I've ever been pushed or pushed myself, and if he keeps healing me… Isao-san, they…they really weren't kidding."

"They're going to get us as strong as they can as fast as they can, because they honestly expect something to happen," he stated plainly.

The Newspaper Club didn't think like regular students. They didn't worry excessively over trivial things like homework; as the freshman had found out, they had been done that for weeks. That may have seemed bizarre to anyone else, but as a member of the female dorm, Noriko distinctively remembered how much they had been practicing up until the other vampire debacle. It did make some sense for them to get everything that may have distracted them out of the way first. More than that however, was their mindset.

They were not only willing, they were preparing themselves to fight to the death against whomever or whatever was coming. Quite honestly, nothing else could explain the ferocity with which they fought. What they were doing wasn't training, it was far too insane for that, but it gained results faster than anything else, that they couldn't deny. Where normal students their age might do something similar to make themselves more attractive to the opposite gender, the journalistic group made no secret of their nigh familial bond, and the length they would go to preserve it.

Over the time they had spent together, sharing their mutual pain and speculating over their upperclassman had proven to be unexpectedly effective bonding agents, so at the very least the two freshman had learned to trust each other at their sides, though maybe not to the point of trusting the other with their backs just yet. They knew if they wanted to get anything like their mentors, that would need to happen sometime in the future, and even if they didn't want to, it would be nothing but beneficial if they did. The most glaring paradigm of that had been when they watched Mizore and Kurumu face off against Tsukune and Rei, and what happened after.

To trust another so completely, know them so intimately that they could respond without prompting to any threat to their partner's wellbeing and not even hinder what they were already doing was…incredible. Predictably, Rei and Tsukune had lost, though not for lack of trying. They simply didn't have the same amount of time put into their style as was visible in every action of the black and white duet. In a fit of curiosity, and in what came to be more unsettling than the battle of the two duos, was when Moka had asked to replace Rei.

Vampire and vampiress, sealed and unsealed respectively, fought with an ease not even the familiar-bonded relationship could match. Rei was still developing, growing into her body, style, and herself. As close as they had become over their month-long excursion, it couldn't compare to nearly three years of deep friendship, anger, shy love, jealousy, tentative touches and heartache. When school ended it would be three whole years of learning everything they could over that time, and accepting it just the same when all was said and done. Despite having never formally tried it in advance, Tsukune and Moka put up a numbing performance against the original duet before they were forced to concede defeat. Moka because if she tried any harder she would do serious damage, and Tsukune because they had taken out the weaker link first, as much as he and Moka had tried to fight back. Seeing as they weren't actually trying to hurt each other, it had been a strictly physical match, no other powers involved, and again, experience had won out in the end. Of course, Mizore and Kurumu didn't consider it a real victory, but then again they had stopped caring about that a long time ago.

For Noriko and Isao, it showed just how profoundly the Newspaper Club had intertwined, and that continued as they kept swapping partners just to see how they fought together. The freshmen knew right then that they had to step up their game, and their readiness to learn from the more experienced students was paying dividends even they hadn't been prepared for.

"If this keeps up, I might really be able to get my third tail by the end of the year!" Noriko preened enthusiastically, and while he was happy with his own growth, Isao had to be the voice of reason.

"Remember, we'll have festival preparation to deal with when school starts back up though, so who knows how much longer we'll be able to have these sessions."

She waved the observation off. "That's only for the next two months, and yes, I realize we also have to establish our presence in the school."

"Ruby-sensei is the headmaster's secretary, and everyone except Kokoa-senpai is going to have their Third Year finals to deal with," he noted pragmatically, and she slumped.

"I know that's true, but…!"

He sighed. "Besides, if you make a big deal out of it, Captain Akashiya might stop them altogether."

The blond hoped he didn't see her shudder. Of all the new people they had met and the gradual warmth that was slowly being shown to them under Tsukune's direction, Moka Akashiya was still every bit as intimidating as she was that first day. The two had felt like idiots for not realizing who the silver-haired woman was sooner, but it soon became vastly apparent that the red-eyed beauty hadn't forgotten her initial hostility towards the fair-haired spirit fox. As a youko, in the beginning Noriko did have a brief moment of unholy irritation that she apparently wasn't worth the attention of the unsealed vampiress, but as if sensing her thoughts, Moka cast a challenging glare at the younger student with a small measure of her true power behind it. Needless to say she didn't dare think anything of the sort again, especially when she thought of the youko the Newspaper Club had previously dealt with, one at least twice as powerful as her.

Moka was the one person neither had dealt with personally over their exercises, but according to Kurumu that wasn't a surprise. Only one person had really been 'trained' by Moka, and that was Tsukune. Kokoa had only recently begun a similar style of instruction, and they certainly didn't envy her. Now that wasn't to say that her friends didn't take some of her ideas to heart, or if she hadn't been the one to give them in the first place, since there were times they felt like their limbs were going to fall off, but she had never coached either of them on a one-on-one basis. On a related note, she was also the only one that hadn't allowed them to address her by her first name, even with the correct suffix applied, and while her sealed form was content with 'senpai,' Inner Moka would have nothing but complete respect. Neither minded giving it to her, considering the group's accomplishments and her strength. It galled the vixen, for sure, but the woman was something to look up to, as much as she hated to admit it.

Still, Isao's argument had merit. "I can't disagree with that," she conceded, "but when I see how powerful they all are…it's…"

"Inspiring," the young teen beside her murmured.

While not the exact word she would have used, she found it much more fitting. The boy was lazy and talked as little as he possibly could, but his words were always chosen precisely, just like how he fought. It was strange how he could move so little and yet so much at the same time, a perfect conservation of motion and energy all the while restraining none of the force. He was a paradox, but not entirely unlikeable. Just that he would subject himself to the hell they were going through was proof enough he could work when he had to—or more accurately, didn't have a choice—and she would make sure he had plenty of reason to work when it was only the two of them in charge.

"Yes, inspiring works well, doesn't it?" Her gaze shifted to the twirling masses that were their instructors fighting each other, and focused specifically on the one trailing long silver hair behind her movements. "I want to be as strong as she is. Just look at her, she's—"

"Hot," her co-leader interjected smoothly, as he too took in what she was looking at.

The roll of her eyes as done by a superior looking down on a commoner was executed perfectly, though the image was slightly ruined by her unkempt state. "So you do have some testosterone hidden under all that lethargy," she mocked with a carefully crafted smirk. "Should I be worried for our mentor's virtue?"

It was a statement so utterly ridiculous he could only stare at her for a second before breaking out into loud, boisterous laughter. Being that everything he did, right down to his fighting style, was measured in the extreme, Noriko was caught unprepared for the assault on her eardrums, but other than the volume it was quite nice. When he finished wiping away the tears that had sprung from his merriment, he chuckled again. "Thank you, I'd forgotten I'm of the male persuasion. That means I can do this without worrying."

Her pondering on what he meant only lasted a moment, as he soon pulled his arms from his sleeves and pushed his sweaty yukata's top down to hang from its obi, allowing his pale chest some much needed sunlight. A fair eyebrow quirked with interest, but otherwise she remained unaffected. Obviously his swordplay wasn't something he had picked up recently, if his musculature was anything to judge by. It wasn't much, but he had clear definition and a lack of any noticeable body fat, though like she had thought there was a fair bit of swelling in places and bruising to match. She certainly could have done worse for a fellow leader, at least in the eye-candy department. She was also pretty peeved she couldn't do as he had; her clothes were practically sticking to her.

"Ah, much better," he sighed with a small twitch of his lips, having likely noticed the mild glare being leveled at him. "As for your other comment, I have no desire to be beaten to death with my own fists, so I think Captain Akashiya's 'virtue' is safe where it is. Tsukune-senpai complements her nicely."

She hummed her amusement. "I suppose. Watching them spar I never know if she's trying to tear him apart, or tear his clothes apart."

Isao went into a mild coughing fit, which for him was as good as choking on his own mirth. "You noticed that too?"

"If the kiss she gives him every time that rosary gets removed wasn't proof enough, I'm a woman too; I can tell." So far, that had been the only thing she had seen that connected the pale vampiress to her sealed equivalent, but it did show that beneath her distrust and austerity, the new Moka they had been introduced to earlier that week wasn't totally heartless. She was just far, far more guarded. In that, Noriko felt an odd sort of kinship with the powerful youkai, and that above all strengthened her resolve to one day get to her level. That meant continuing their lessons, no matter how her pride suffered in the process. Besides, only a few people were actually seeing her like she was, to everyone else she was the same as always. It was a small enough sacrifice to see the look on her family's faces, especially Kuyou's. She didn't know what Isao's home situation was like, but nonetheless he was with her too, and getting better every day. With their unique training situation, they were both certain that they were receiving a much larger payout for their efforts than the six days would have normally implied. The scary thing was, so was the Newspaper Club, as they could tell even as they looked for the signs Noriko had mentioned while Tsukune and Moka exchanged blows.

"She's got it bad," the brown-haired teen declared before the silence stretched any further.

The youko scoffed with a flip of her hair. "Oh you know that, do you?"

"You don't agree?"

"I agree, but to paraphrase a realist: 'there are two things a man will always believe about a woman; one, that she is weak, and two, that she finds him attractive.'"

He put his hand over his heart in mock pain. "Ouch. As a representative for my gender, I feel the need to point out I wasn't talking about myself in that instance."

She smirked proudly. "Did I hit a nerve? That was an awful lot of words for you."

He shook his head with a muttered, "Troublesome." Wiping off some imaginary dirt from his clammy skin, he stood and stretched, which did some interesting things to the muscles of his torso that she couldn't help but take in. After grabbing his bokken, a corner of his lips curled up as he extended a hand to his seated accomplice. She rolled her eyes again, but accepted the help to her feet nonetheless. It was as they were walking back to their trainers that he looked at her, and the mischief in his eyes made her tense instinctively. "So just to get this straight then, you weren't just checking me out?"

Caught red-handed, she fought hard to keep heat as hot as what she controlled out of her cheeks. Recovering quickly, she made a production of slowly looking him up and down, and showed just enough teeth in her smile to seem threatening when she reached his eyes. "Now I was."

To her surprise, that curl to his lips widened ever so slightly as he turned to walk away.

"Good to know. I think I'm developing a thing for blondes too."

She was left staring soundlessly at his back, or was until she realized she had been outdone at her own game.

Oooh, just you wait!

Though she didn't know it, a smile had formed on her face. The next term was going to be fun.

.

V^^^V

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Ruby Toujou was virtually skipping down the halls of the school, a bright smile plastered on her face. She had changed her shirt from what she usually wore, opting instead for a pink v-neck torn in horizontal stripes down her sides, revealing the white top underneath. She would have gone without the undershirt in truth, but she was a member of the faculty and thus, couldn't be showing too much skin, even though technically it was still summer vacation. The change of her norm was needed because while she liked her old shirt, she really, really liked being able to see the tangled black vines wrapped around her neck in every reflective surface she could find.

There was only a couple of days left before term resumed and the frantic preparation for the school festival would begin, not to mention the renewed stress of year-end examinations. Her workload would increase, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Things were going well.

Training with Rei had been a surprise, but she brought things to light neither she or Yukari had thought of before—much to their annoyance—and they were both close to grasping the concept she was trying to teach them. If they could get it to work, they would finally have something reliable to fall back on if an enemy got too close. The plans for their teleportation talismans were coming along nicely, and there was just a few kinks they needed to work out before they could enchant them. Lastly, and most importantly, she and Tsukune had managed to steal away a few private moments between just them, and he was learning how to give massages! She had made sure to thank Kurumu profusely for that.

Speaking of the succubus, her mood might have also had something to do with the wonderful experience that had been forced into her dreams the night before. Tsukune was certainly growing bolder under their combined tutoring. Not that she minded one teeny tiny bit. Far from it.

She giggled as she opened the door to the imposing office of the school's headmaster. "Good morning, Master! What do you want me to do to…day…?" Her voice, and her good mood, seemed to flee the second she laid eyes on the Exorcist.

He was holding a letter in his hand, one that was being crumpled in an ever-tightening grip the longer he read. Ruby had only ever known a few expressions on her employer's face: he had his default, sarcastic amusement, smug superiority, and very, very rarely, the occasional surprise. None of those were present. This was irritation. This was outright anger. His brow was furrowed, his jaw was set, and she was sure that if the paper he was holding had sentience it would be running for its godforsaken life under his glare.

"Ma…Master?" she hesitantly tried again.

He sucked in a harsh breath through his teeth and exhaled heavily, amazingly removing most traces of his former annoyance from his face as he did. Most, but not all. "I have an urgent delivery for you to make, Ruby-chan," he said seriously, his voice nearly vibrating with restrained emotion. "Don't come back until you've dealt with the fallout, no matter how long it takes."

She gulped. "M-Master, what is it?"

He just shook his head at her. "Plausible deniability. It's…better if you don't know beforehand. I did all I could." He handed her two envelopes, and her stomach turned to ice when she saw the names they were addressed to, personalized with a kiss made from blue lipstick. She cast pleading eyes on him, but he simply shook his head once more and motioned to the door.

Her feet felt like lead the closer she got to the dormitory, and try as she might she couldn't stop her hands from shaking. She knew, she could feel it in her bones that she was going to be the harbinger of a life's apocalypse. When she reached the door it was like her heart was being twisted in her chest, but she knew why she had been asked. The door opened, and she bit back a sob when she saw members of her family turn to see who had arrived. Tsukune and Kurumu were currently still in the succubus' room recovering from a night of passion, but everyone else was in hers, even Rei and Yukari. It looked like she had interrupted Yukari explaining what they had written out so far for their talismans, defining the seals used and what they could do individually.

Concern was the only thing they showed when they saw her.

"Ruby! Are you alright? What's wrong? Didn't you just leave for work?" Moka asked in rapid succession, already to her feet and leading the sickly pale woman back into her room.

She couldn't speak. She could barely move. Still, she put one letter in front of Kokoa, and robotically extended the other towards Moka.

Sufficiently unnerved, not even the prospect of mail made them eager to pick up the envelopes, and when they saw the lipstick kiss they both went whiter than ghosts. Kokoa dropped hers like she had been burned, and Moka lost all strength in her legs and fell to her knees. The redhead shot to her sister's side like a bullet, and forced down a growl when she saw hers was similarly marked.

"Together?" she inquired softly, and gesturing to the letter both now held. Hers could wait, there was a good chance Moka's was worse. Her sibling could only nod, and with trembling fingers the content was removed and opened, revealing handwriting they knew all too well.

Fear. That was the first thing both Inner and Outer Moka felt as they read. Fear turned to disbelief, then to shock, then to numb horror. Air was getting harder to take into her lungs, all she could see was her life crashing down around her, told in smug detail by the writing in front of her. What could she do? She had been checkmated. Of all the routes that could have been taken, why hadn't she anticipated this one? What options were available to her? What was left? Her mind was a maelstrom of questions barely cohesive in her terror; tears were the only answer she could come to. It felt like she was going to fall apart at the seams and there was nothing to stop it.

That was when the door was nearly ripped from its hinges, and while she vaguely heard a voice call her name, she didn't truly understand it until a pair of familiar, strong arms had wrapped around her. Tsukune. She was with Tsukune. He was holding her, taking in the shaking of her body, gently stroking her hair, and had buried his nose into the candy-colored locks to whisper calming words. He had no idea what she had just read, no clue of what had happened, but he knew she was distraught and that was all the reason he needed to be the rock by her side, she could feel it. She just cried harder. He didn't deserve this, they didn't deserve this! It wasn't fair!

"Moka, what happened? What's wrong?" he asked tenderly as he tried to keep the worry out of his voice. He and Kurumu had just been getting ready for the day when he had been hit with the worst array of emotions possible, and they all centered around fear; Moka's fear. He had barely pulled his pants on before he was off running, Kurumu not far behind.

She sniffled hard, trying desperately to rein herself back into control. "Ts-Tsukune, my…m-m-my tuition… I've…I've been p-p-pulled out of s-school." That hard-earned control shattered and she dissolved back into tears, and her mate felt his blood freeze in his veins.

"It's true," Kokoa whispered, her tone dead. "Her tuition for next term has been returned after argument from our family, and in case she tried anything they made sure she's been deemed prematurely ineligible for the orphan's scholarship by the school board." It was mechanical; impassive, like she was reading from a script. She feared if she added any inflection at all she would break down just like her sister. "Her bank account has been frozen and her allowance cut off. That means no money for blood-bags, herbal tablets…rent, fake identification if she tried to run; that kind of thing. If she tries to get help from her friends or their families they will be destroyed; financially, physically, whatever it takes. She's been cut off and told to come home immediately."

The urge to throw up was quickly rising in the young man, and his fear was rising just as fast. Moka was going to be taken away from him. Moka was going to be taken from him and there was nothing he could do about it. This wasn't an enemy he could combat with his fists, this was an invisible enemy, one that hit deeper and harder than any punch. This enemy ran the world. Money. Maybe if they had been given some notice before summer and every single one of them had gotten jobs for the month-and-a-half break, they might have been able to scrounge up enough for one semester. Instead, they had been preparing for a completely different fight while their opposition bided their time, waited until the last possible moment to spring it on them so they could do nothing.

He was useless. Everything he had done, all he had worked for, in the end he was just as useless as he had been in the past!

"We could…we could hide!" he brainstormed frantically. "You could hide in Paradise! There's plenty of blood for me there so you can keep feeding from me, and the pool is a reusable source of safe water to bathe in! We can put all your stuff in our cave; remodel it even! We have to be able to do something!"

Moka chuckled cynically, her tears now hiccups in the background as she wiped at her nose and burrowed her head into his chest. "A gilded prison. That man must know of Paradise, and if nothing happened and he couldn't find me, he'd eventually figure out where I went. He might even decide to leave me there for a few decades, let me stew in my failure. No money, no education; I'd be a sitting duck."

Tsukune was forced to swallow the bile in his throat. It was happening again. He was going to be useless again!

Everyone saw the gem in his rosary gleam, but what they didn't know was that Kurumu had basically siphoned all of his excess energy during their tryst that night. He looked fine, he may even feel fine, but right then he was as weak as his seal made him.

Then his eyes met Mizore's…and his stomach lurched. He barely made it to Ruby's wastebasket before he lost what he had eaten over the past few days.

Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god.

Mizore.

Money.

He then lost what he had eaten over the past week.

He was eighteen. They were eighteen! He didn't have a job lined up, who knew what his grades looked like so who knew what kind of university he could get into, and Mizore needed to start having children soon or she wouldn't have the chance! And he wanted children with her!

But he was eighteen! They didn't have the money! Where were they going to live, how were they going to pay for it? His parents weren't rich; they were well off enough to afford a comfortable home and not a cramped apartment, with enough left to send him to an expensive boarding school and still pay the bills, but he couldn't ask them for this.

The mafia wasn't an option, even if the Wong family liked them for what they had done in the past. Dealing with Fairy Tale had been mostly repayment for fixing Moka's rosary—not that they wouldn't have dealt with them anyway. He didn't want to get into debt with any organized crime group, even if they were probably one of the few things that could hold off the promised threats from the Shuzen family. He was already associated with the Underground in the rumors of certain circles, but asking for money from the mafia was the last thing he wanted to do. That he knew them or not didn't matter. He didn't like the fact that they were their best bet to beat what had been done to Moka. It had been hard enough getting Fong-Fong and Ling-Ling to go back to China after all was said and done, he didn't want to give them reason to come back and resume their 'recruitment' drives. They were friends, but he couldn't count on them to not have ulterior motives. Why was he even considering the yakuza?

Panic was encroaching on him fast. He was useless. He was going to be a useless husband, a useless father. Why couldn't he do anything right?

They were all staring at him now, far past worried at the cold sweat on his body, the unhealthy pallor of his skin, the unfocused, near crazed look in his eyes. Moka could feel everything he was going through with such perfect clarity it was clear how strong it was for him, and in that moment she was more scared than she had ever been, in spite of the life sentence that was now crumpled in her hand.

"Tsukune! Tsukune calm down, it's alright, it's going to be alright," Kurumu soothed quickly. The room was in chaos. Moka and Kokoa were distressed messes, the others were varied between worry and fright, and Tsukune seemed to have thought up something new that troubled him even more than all that and was swiftly approaching hysterical.

Oh how he wanted to believe her words, but he couldn't! Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have said what he did, but panic had a tight grip and it wasn't letting him go. "Alright?" he laughed feverishly. "How? How is this going to be alright? We're STUDENTS! I've been spending so much time training… I…I did my homework but I only did enough to get my homework done! Who cares if I can crush cars if I can't get into a good school?! I…I don't have anything planned…no school…no job…what the hell is wrong with me?! Family? How are we supposed to be a family when I've had my head stuck in the clouds! Moka's broke! Yukari's a prodigy and a scholarship shoo-in but she's thirteen! Ruby has a job but that's not going to be enough, and I don't have any money! And M-Mizore…Mizore wants kids…deserves kids, and I'm…a-and I-I'm…"

It was stupid, it was selfish, it was damn near heartless, but Tsukune did the only thing his frenetic brain would agree to.

He ran.

The whole dorm creaked as he cleared the railing, when from the mildly breezy day a great wind crashed like a tsunami against its side. In the time it took them to blink, he was gone. Overwhelmed, Moka started crying again, and no one knew who to go to first. She solved that problem for them by struggling to her feet and rushing out after him, which sparked a mass exodus following her.

There was only one place he would go, even if that place had even more space for him to hide in than the academy. Regardless, she would find him. She had to. She knew why he had run away, probably better than he did himself. It was actually hard to feel anything of her own in the face of his jumbled emotions, which spoke volumes considering how weak their bond was.

When the true depth of his alarm had hit her it was like a bucket of ice water to her once so turbulent mind, and with his frightened tirade she was able to really comprehend the reason for it. It's amazing how fast one can calm when their mind has something more pressing to worry about. For once it had been Tsukune to almost instantly latch on to the larger picture. Both she and her inner self had thought only of the direct consequences and what it meant for her; Tsukune on the other hand had thought of what it meant for them. He hadn't thought of it like she was facing it by herself, he had thought of what it could mean for all of them. Then he had taken the problem and expanded it, took it past simply the present and thought of what a similar situation could mean for them in the future. Granted, in doing that he had skimmed over the current crisis, but his heart was in the right place. That she could feel intimately.

He was hurting, they all were, but it was the differences in their pain that made her quicken her pace. She had never been more thankful for the strange emotional connection their blood-bond gave them. There could be no confusion between them when it came to underlying intentions; if one felt it strong enough, so would the other. She was scared, she wouldn't deny that, but he shared in every bit of her fear, if not more. A lot more. The disparity came in the form of what else he was going through.

Shame.

He felt helpless. He was utterly ashamed there was no way for him to help his family when they needed him most. He had done so much, tried so hard, and then been shown that for all his work, he still couldn't do anything. Disgust, anger, all directed inward, and the shame of it made him run away.

It was a chilling wake-up call to her befuddled senses. This was exactly what her father and sister desired; they wanted them fragmented, they wanted them to hurt each other. They wanted to destroy them mentally, destroy their relationship and their allies, before they came in for the kill. The sad thing was, she knew if they didn't have their bond, it would have worked. Tsukune's words would have hurt her, hurt that he couldn't understand what she was going through and focused on himself. But that wasn't it, thanks to their connection they were both able to know exactly what the other was feeling if it was strong enough, and she knew he had felt every drop of her sorrow. So too was she able to feel firsthand the pain he was experiencing, the consuming love he had for them that only intensified the agony of realizing that their family, their whole family, could be crippled so easily and he had thought of nothing to try and prevent it before. It woke her up. Alone, they were strong. Together, they were invincible. It had always been that way.

She just needed to remind him the burden wasn't only his. If they wanted to be a true family they needed to face this the same way they had faced everything else, even if it seemed hopeless, even if they had no idea what to do. They would face it together, so even if the end came, at least they were by each other's side.

And so the tears continued to fall as she rushed to Paradise's doorway.

V^^^V

Tsukune ran through the landscape of the different dimension, his third home it seemed, with the wind at his back and a scream on his lips. He didn't care that the scenery was but a blur around him, he didn't even care that his feet had hardly hit the ground since he jumped off the tallest floor of the women's dorm, all he cared about was doing something, anything to get his mind off his failure. Monsters respected strength, it was the truth that sometimes force was the best option available, but he had forgotten the most important truth, one he had known even as a human! Everyone respected wealth.

He had a family, a wonderful, incredible family that he loved with all his heart and soul, but their weakness had never stood out so much before. All but one of them was still in school!

For all his humility, kindness, and former cowardice, Tsukune Aono was a man before he was a vampire. For every situation he and his friends had been put in, all the pain they had gone through, only those closest to him would be able to list the amount of times he had actually cried. There had been times he had lost hope, times he had been hurt both physically and emotionally, but only very rarely had tears truly fallen from his eyes. When Moka had initially rejected him was one. Now was another.

He screamed as he lashed out at the forestry around him, a roar of hurt and rage that came from deep within and went to the highest octaves he was capable of creating. It echoed for miles, not that he noticed, and warned every endangered youkai that the predator that had stalked them under cover of darkness, hunted them during the blazing daylight hours, was mad. If that didn't give him a wide enough berth, the mass destruction that soon followed did. He screamed spells in languages he didn't even understand and had only been taught their effects, from regular Latin as when he had started to the ancient Greek Ruby and Yukari had only begun to cover. He screamed as clouds and lightning thundered in the sky above, yelled as ice from his hands and powers he had only started to explore devastated the background, howled as earth and wind trembled and crushed, shrieked in absolute despair because he knew no matter what he did here it was making no one feel better, not even him. What it came down to was he had run from his family when they needed him, all because he couldn't accept how useless he was to them. He was worse than useless!

It didn't take long for him to tire since he had so willingly given his succubus most of his energy the night before, and when that happened he let out one last keening wail before collapsing to his knees and crying in earnest, where none of his family could see him.

That was how they found him, kneeling in the middle of a devastated environment and crying his heart out. As the large silver dragon that had carried them settled to the broken terrain, Moka was already sliding down her side. She hit the ground at a run and gathered her broken mate into her arms, and he responded instantly by enveloping her with his own.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Moka I'm so sorry," he sobbed into her shoulder, repeating the words over and over and changed to match every member of their family that joined the embrace, even Kokoa. This time, no one noticed the rosary gleam. He told them he was sorry for running, he was sorry for not being the friend, the mate, the husband he should have been, but before he could go on he was silenced by Moka's insistent kiss.

"You're forgiven, Tsukune, just please, please don't scare us like that again," she whispered through renewed tears, while her inner self did the same.

"We'll get through this, just like we've gotten through everything else," Ruby added.

For Kurumu, their heart, there was only one thing to say: "Together."

He coughed a rough laugh. Hadn't he once told Moka the same thing, back when Alexander had first come and been defeated? She had felt the same way, and he hadn't taken his own advice. "Together," he agreed hoarsely.

They bundled together, tighter than before. They wouldn't let this break them apart.

Somehow, someway, they would figure out what to do, but they had very little time to do it.

Moka was going to stay at Youkai Academy.

Even if they had to go to the mafia.

V^^^V

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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

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Outtake Theatre

What happened on the way to Paradise with Isao and Noriko…

The Newspaper Club walked along a path they knew well, leading the two confused freshman along behind them.

"Behold, the place we'll be training you…!" Ruby said dramatically as she flourished her arm towards the large stone door to Paradise.

Isao said what both of them were thinking.

"Oh my God a giant rock!"

.

…

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm sorry, I just had to put that in there. Internet cake to however knows where that came from. (The cake is a lie, lol!)

Anyways, now that's really all for this time.

Sabr