Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Rosario Vampire. I am merely twisting the creators vision into my own dream. If the supernatural, sexuality, or violence is offensive to you, then you should not read this.

Chapter 33

December arrived at Youkai Academy quietly. It was Tsukune's first December with his friends and he thought it was kind of nice. It was nearly Winter, but under the barrier it was comfortable autumn weather. Tsukune had managed to establish a comfortable routine and was finally feeling like he could have a peaceful school life. He pulled two shifts a week with the Student Police, and filled in as needed whenever someone was out or needed some time off. The Newspaper Club had avoided any recent chaos, so they were able to produce content that was about the students and clubs of Youkai Academy.

Once a week, Tsukune would have a date with Moka, sometimes dinner in her room, sometimes they would go to the shopping center that serviced the students and staff of the academy. During each date he made sure to spend some time with Inner Moka, hoping to bring the two sides closer together. Tsukune had spent a second evening, two weeks after the first time, helping Kurumu wash her wings. Once a week Tsukune would also visit with Mizore for dinner. The Snow maiden had started asking Tsukune about the human world, getting him to spend time describing the most mundane things.

In between his school work and his time with his friends, Tsukune continued his training. He would go out jogging and practice with Tetsu Odari, or go thorugh the fighting katas that Moka had taught him. While sitting in his Student Police office he would review the book he had received from Lord Brone and try to practice his meditation and youki control. While it was all very pleasant to be enjoying peaceful student life, Tsukune confided to Ruby, he was starting to feel nervous about how long it could last, and how bad were things going to get if the expected explosion took longer to happen.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

'Why does this place keep getting stranger?' Tsukune asked himself. He stood looking at two rows of empty houses and sighed. He had discovered this place after he had found a map of the area contained within the barrier back at Student Police headquarters. This abandoned village was the closest of the unexplored areas to the dorms so Tsukune had picked it first to investigate. Because he had made the mistake of mentioning the map to his friends, the Saturday morning quick look Tsukune had been planning had turned into a Newspaper Club investigation outing.

Tsukune, Moka, Mizore, Kurumu, Yukari, and Kokoa were a short distance beyond the old building that the Outcast Ayashi had used as a base. The abandoned village was located at nearly a right angle from the school proper compared to the dorms, and further away from the bus stop. From studying the map, Tsukune knew that the staff had some apartment buildings available for there use, which made the presence of the village all the more puzzling.

Together, the group of friends started into the little village to investigate. Twenty identical houses lined the narrow, cracked street. Half way down the street were two buildings that were different from the houses. On one side was the kind of two story building where a family might live above a store that they owned. On the other side was a 'T' shaped, single story building that looked like it could be a small school. But even if every house in the village had one or two children the school would have been too large. The last building on the street was an odd, western style house that looked like it had been designed by the same hand that had drawn up the plans for Youkai Academy.

The large, Victorian / gothic house was weathered and empty. The front doors were at the base of a three story tower that had a sharply peaked roof. The rest of the house appeared to be two stories tall, with windows into the attic space. Tsukune felt trapped in a manga or anime as he and his friends walked towards the house. It was the strangest and spookiest building on the street, so of course the curious, teen-aged investigators had to check it out.

Tsukune looked to his friends to see if he could talk them out of visiting the old house, but soon gave up. They had the same kind of excitement in their eyes as the had during the 'Fruit Gathering' incident. Tsukune shuddered. Any hope of restraining the girls' curiosity was gone long before they stepped up onto the covered porch.

The house looked like it had suffered from more then just neglect. Windows were broken and the front doors were open and marked up. Graffiti was visible on the posts of the porch roof as well as around the entryway.

"Let's split up," Kurumu suggested in a cheerful voice. She promptly grabbed onto Tsukune's arm.

A small scuffle broke out as everybody argued over who should go with who. Tsukune was afraid that the girls would bring the house down on top of them if they got too carried away. He spoke up out of a desire for self-preservation.

"Everybody listen," Tsukune said, using the voice he had developed leading committees and the Student Police. "Here is how we do it. Moka and Kokoa will be the first group, Kurumu and Mizore will be the second group, and I will go with Yukari."

Kokoa and Yukari were the only two that looked happy with Tsukune's decision. Tsukune would have preferred to not go into the old house at all, but if he had to, Moka would have been his first choice for a companion. But to avoid an argument he had planed it so the one he had to worry about trying something the least was with him, while Kokoa would be near rabid in her desire to protect Moka if anything went wrong.

X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Tsukune stood in the top of the tower looking out at the abandoned village. The room was a small library. A broken chair lay on the floor behind a scarred and stained desk. Empty shelves lined the interior walls, while the outer walls were glazed windows. He and Yukari had explored the second floor and had found their way to the tower library. Tsukune had to admit that he liked the house.

Everybody regrouped on the front porch to compare notes. It was a large house. A main hall, a dining room, the kitchen, two water closets and two additional rooms were on the first floor. The second floor had the master suite, two smaller rooms that interconnected across the hall from it, three additional bedrooms, and a western style guest bathroom. There was a full basement under the house and servant quarters and a small bath up under the eaves of the house. A walk around the house reviled that it had a fenced in garden on back, complete with benches and a gazebo.

Tsukune looked at the house and thought about what attracted him to it. It wasn't in a style that he would normally like, and it was far too big for his sensibilities to approve of. But there was something about the way it looked. A kind of exotic beauty of its own that could be brought out with care and careful attention, but without sacrificing the hard edges of its style. In his mind he could see Moka, ether side of her, fitting in with the old house. He would want to clean the place up a lot before he ever showed it to Inner Moka, he thought to himself.

The rest of the village was less interesting then the old house. The other houses were all the same basic design. Two bedrooms sized for six tatami mats each, a bath room, a water closet, a kitchen, and an eight mat living room. The 'store' had almost the exact same design on the second floor, while the first floor was divided into the store and the stock room, with a water closet for staff/customers. The 'T' shaped building could have been a town hall, a school, or both. It was just a collection of empty rooms with a pair of water closets in each wing.

It was evident from looking around that students had found the village in the past. Not just form the graffiti, but from some of the other things the friends discovered. Just randomly looking into the houses they found the remains of belongings that showed that someone had spent time there. It kind of reminded Tsukune of the times he had played house with Kurumu. He looked towards the succubus as they stood in a long unused kitchen where two chipped sets of dishes rested, covered in dust in a broken cupboard. He saw her looking back at him, with a slight blush in her cheeks.

As the friends walked back to the dorms in quest for lunch, they talked about the little abandoned village. Yukari thought it would be fun to be headmistress of a little school. Kurumu daydreamed of the little shop with the apartment above. She said she would like to make it into a bakery and sweet shop, and suggested that Tsukune could run the shop while she baked things in the back. The children could help out when they were older, after they got home from Yukari's school. Mizore talked about what it would be like to live in a normal village or town, where her and Tsukune's children to play and go to school. While Kokoa scorned the abandoned village as being lowly and dirty, Tsukune caught Moka looking back at the old house with far-away eyes.

XXXXXXXXXX

Tsukune suppressed a groan as he stood in the Board Chairman's office. He had asked Ruby if should learn anything about the abandoned village or about the other places on the map he had been curious about. The Board Chairman had learned of Tsukune's curiosity and had summoned the boy to his office.

The reason for Tsukune's dismay was that the Board Chairman had handed him a new set of responsibilities. The man wanted the village cleaned up. To make maters worse, there was a second village, a fishing and farming village that lay abandoned under the barrier also that needed restoration. It turned out that the two villages were planed for an acclimation program for monsters that didn't understand human society. The old building that the Outcast Ayashi had used as a hang out had been a part of the same program. It was where students could gain some vocational training while living immersed in human world surroundings.

The Board Chairman decided that Tsukune, who was human, and his friends that had grown up in the human world, would be well suited to helping get the program up and running.

"Relax boy," The Board Chairman said with a chuckle. "I am not expecting you to do this in an instant."

"Oh thank god," Tsukune breathed a sight of relief.

"I will have a work crew do most of what needs to be done. You and your friends will make sure that we have a reasonable representation of human society. I just want everything done before you finish your second year."

Tsukune tried to form an argument. The Board Chairman wanted to drop a huge job on his head, and Tsukune just wanted to have a normal school life. He never had a chance.

"I will have everything organized for you," The Board Chairman explained. "And Ruby will bring the information to you when it is ready." He gave Tsukune an intense look. "I am counting on you, boy. If you want to stay at this school I know you will show me your best effort."

"Yes sir," Tsukune answered crisply out of reflex.

"Good. Well run along now."

Tsukune didn't hesitate. He accepted the dismissal with good grace and tried not to appear hurried as he left. Once he was two doors and around a corner from the Board Chairman's office, Tsukune let himself sag against the wall. As he blew out a frustrated sigh a strange memory surfaced in his mind. Tsukune remembered sitting at home and seeing his father come home at the end of a long day, sagging against a wall in the same way.