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

Chapter 137

Tsukune returned to school late Friday night, or early Saturday morning, depending on how you liked to think about it. He slipped into the village quietly and made it into the manor without any problems popping up. After a bath, Tsukune set his alarm clock, laid out a fresh uniform, and went to bed. Tsukune was willing to admit that having someone take care of some things for him was nice, but he was able to take care of himself.

In keeping with his sense of responsibility, Tsukune had planned for a busy break, at least in part. He had put himself down for some shifts with the student Police for the first weekend of the break. After that he had a three day stretch where he would be on duty at the Koban. He gave himself a solid week free after that, hoping to relax before taking a couple more shifts before the end of the break. Trying not to think too much about what he had in front of him, Tsukune finally went to bed, eager for a few hours of sleep.

XxXxX

Moka had found falling asleep Friday night difficult. She was worried about Tsukune's mother. She was a sweet and wonderful person, much like her son, and had opened her heart to Moka. As she had gotten ready for bed, Moka hoped that Tsukune's mother would be alright. Part of her restlessness she knew came from a sense of selfish fear. Tsukune had hurried home to see to his mother, just as Moka would expect from him, but he had left Moka behind. It had always been Moka's fear that Tsukune would abandon the struggles she represented, leaving her to return to the human world. As she lay in bed, Moka argued with herself about her selfish worries, even as she worried about Tsukune's mother, until she slipped into restless sleep.

Moka woke early Saturday morning without the need of her alarm clock. Her own worries prodded her from sleep. After washing her face and gulping down a quick breakfast, Moka dressed and headed out the door. She wanted to talk to Tsukune, to find out how his mother was doing, and to reassure herself that he had come back.

Moka's apprehension grew when nobody answered her first knock at the manor's door. She knocked again, a little harder, in case Ruby was busy with Tsukune's breakfast. Moka was about to knock a third time when she heard someone approaching from within the house. When the door opened, Moka felt a wave of relief crash over her when she saw Tsukune on the other side.

"Tsukune," Moka said in a a voice caught between a happy cheer and a relieved sigh.

"Moka?" Tsukune said at the same time, surprised by her early morning visit.

Moka didn't wait for an invitation. She pushed her way in and embraced Tsukune, holding him tight and letting her enjoy the feel of his presence. Her body felt light as the tension caused by her worries seemed to melt away.

"Moka," Tsukune questiond as he hugged her back. "Are you alright?"

"I am now," Moka breathed into Tsukune's shoulder. She held on to Tsukune for a moment, just enjoying the feel of his body, before saying anything.

"Tsukune," Moka questioned. "How's your mother?" She pulled a little away from him so she would not be talking to his chest.

"My mother took a fall," Tsukune explained. "She broke her leg. It will take close to two months to heal, but..."

"Two months?" Moka's eyes went wide with shock. "Why so long? How bad was she hurt?"

"Moka," Tsukune said gently. "I'm from a human family. My parents are still human. Healing will take time, but it's nothing to be alarmed about."

"Yes..." Moka nodded. "I um..." She looked at Tsukune and felt a cold hand gripping her heart.

"I left Ruby at home to look after my mother," Tsukune said, moving away from Moka. He closed the front door at last. "Tonight I am going back to take her some things she asked for."

"Oh..." Moka said.

"I need to finish getting dressed," Tsukune said, starting for the stairs.

That cut though the fog clouding Moka's mind. She suddenly saw Tsukune in a whole picture. He had on his pants, socks, and an under shirt, and that was all. As he headed back up stairs to his room, Moka followed him, her mind racing to catch up to what he had said. The reason Ruby had not answered the door, Moka belatedly realized, was because she was taking care of Tsukune's mother. That meant Tsukune had to stop what he was doing, getting dressed, in order to answer the door. She continued to think things through as she followed him.

What had so caught up Moka's thoughts was what he had said about his mother. She had broken her leg in a fall and would need weeks, maybe months, to recover. Tsukune, just a year ago, had fallen and broken his neck, and was fine in just a few days. All the times Tsukune had gotten hurt, often for her sake, rushed into her mind. Right from the first day of their first year together, Tsukune had risked his life for her. Moka was given a real perspective on how real of a sacrifice he was willing to make. It would take his human mother months to recover from a broken leg. Moka couldn't escape the realization of how fragile and weak a human body was, and Tsukune had been willing to use his to protect and support her. All the times she could have lost Tsukune, even when it had been her own strength that had endangered him, filled Moka's heart with dread.

"Tsukune," Moka said in a small voice while she watched him pull on his shirt. "I want to ask a favor from you."

"What is it, Moka?" Tsukune asked.

"I want to borrow Hiru," Moka said. "You said that Ruby asked you to bring her some things. I'll do that for you, so you won't have to worry about it."

"It's alright," Tsukune said. "I don't want to trouble you with..."

"No," Moka insisted. "It's no trouble. I want to do this. I want to go and talk to your mother."

"That would be great," Tsukune smiled. "I know she would like to see you. She even asked me last night when you would be coming for a visit again."

"Oh..." Moka felt close to tears.

"You can go with me tonight if you like," Tsukune offered.

"No," Moka closed her eyes tightly to hold back her tears. She shook her head even as she argued with herself over what she wanted, even needed to do. "Please Tsukune. I don't want to wait until tonight. I'll take the things to Ruby and send Hiru back to you. You and I can ride back to school later, if you want to..." She ended in a small voice.

Tsukune looked a Moka carefully. He may not understand her much of the time, but he could clearly see that this was something very important to her. It took only a single heartbeat for Tsukune to make up his mind

"Alright," Tsukune said. He went to where he had put Ruby's list. "I guess if I am Ruby's owner," He almost choked on the word. "I can give you permission to go through her things to find what ever she wanted." He handed the list to Moka.

"Thank you, Tsukune," Moka said, a small tremble in her voice.

XxxX

Tsukune gave instructions to Hiru before heading off for his shift with the Student Police. The day turned out to be a little frustrating to him. He had no complaints about the modest breakfast he had made for himself before Moka had shown up. He had planed to make a patrol that would take him bay the student cafeteria around lunch time. But Moka's behavior made him worry, and that distracted him from a few things he probably should have noticed.

Tsukune sat in his office with the door open as he reviewed recent reports. While he received summery reports almost daily, Tsukune like to look at the full reports and get as clear of a picture as he could, when he had the time. Summery reports told Tsukune that there had been eight instances in one night of someone trying to peek into the girls' baths, for example. By reading the full reports, Tsukune was able to learn about who had seen and/or done what. Tsukune made a mental note to visit the dorms after lunch to do a little investigating about the problem. He would have a couple of female Student Police go with him.

Tsukune was going over patrol schedules the first time his stomach growled that morning. He was looking to see how many times the schedule had been adjusted as people took unexpected time off. He wanted to make sure he didn't have a problem with someone habitually not doing their share of the work. He did pick out some names that he wrote done, to remind himself to have a talk with them as a later time. The next time his stomach growled, Tsukune thought about taking his lunch patrol early.

Tsukune wasn't really looking forward to eating in the cafeteria. He knew that he had been spoiled by Ruby and his girlfriends always cooking for him. Of course, in addition to just being hungry, there was an important thing he had to keep in mind when it came to his daily meals. When he returned to visit his mother and Ruby, Tsukune knew he was going to get an ear full from them about skipping meals if ether of them learned about it. He wasn't even sure what was on the cafeteria's menu for the weekend, it had been so long since he had any reason to even check.

Tsukune pushed thoughts of food aside and went back to reviewing reports. He went through the summery reports looking or any trends and then would ask one of the clerks to help him find the full reports that he thought needed closer examination. The filing system for the Student Police was simple, if someone was used to it. The reports were filed my date, and the plan was that they would be kept for four years. That should be enough time to keep a record for any student that was recurrently getting in trouble, and even allow for someone being held back a year. For each month there was an additional log kept. The logs were in two parts. The first were a record of the dates of incidents, the name of the Student Police member(s) that had been involved, the type of incidents, and the names of the students who were involved. The second log was record of monthly trends, such as how many shifts a given Student Police member worked, how many incidents they reported, and of what kind. It also listed the names of students that had been caught breaking rules with the type and number of infractions recorded. Reflection Papers written by offending students were filed with the corresponding reports and marked off in the logs. In the few occasions where problems had been reported to homeroom teachers, because of recurrent offenses, an additional note had been added to the logs as well.

Tsukune had the logs for the past three months on his desk for review. He was pleased to see how little trouble had been going on recently. He was distracted from his work when someone called out from the open doorway of his office.

"Captain Aono," A musical voice called for his attention.

"Yes?" Tsukune looked up.

Standing in the doorway was the Student Police member with runner duty. Zashiki Usa was a petite girl with an almost child like cuteness to her. Her small size hid the fact that she was actually the fastest member of the Student Police. Her cuteness disguised the fact that she had a downright wicked sense of humor when she chose to deploy it. Rumor had it that she was a part of the secret guard among the female Student Police that helped remind boys who had been caught while peeping, or committing similar crimes against girls, why such actions were a bad idea. Of course nobody had offered any proof that Usa or anybody else was issuing a little instant justice, and nobody had been seriously injured by such rumored occasions, so Tsukune felt no need to say or do anything about it.

"Captain," Usa said with a smile that was a little too innocent to be completely trusted. "We're taking our lunch break together. Would you like to join us?"

"Thank you, Usa," Tsukune said. Like every female member of the Student Police she liked him to address her informally. "But I didn't bring anything so I was going to head over to the cafeteria."

"We have plenty of food," Usa made a gesture out to the main office. "Please come and share it with us."

While her face and voice were calm, Usa's body was so tense that she almost quivered. Tsukune knew from dealing with his friends when a female had her heart set on something. He had little reason to refuse the offer, and suspected that giving in would be less of a problem than being stubborn about taking care of himself.

"I'll..." Tsukune stopped himself. He had been about to offer to at least buy drinks for everybody, but the nearest vending machine was not close. "Alright," Tsukune gave Usa a nod. He scribbled a little reminder to investigating getting vending machines for the headquarters before standing up. "Thank you."

As Tsukune joined the others in the main office he was not unaware that he was the only male in the room. Six girls were working in the office, because the weekend gave them time to catch up on their filing and logs, and the office gave them a place to hang out together. Tsukune did not staff the office only with females. Likewise he did not make female students work in the office. He knew that he needed some office staff, or he would have to rotate people though the office on a regular basis to keep up with the paperwork. The paperwork, the records of Student Police activities was one of the tools to keep Student Police from turning into a gang. It helped keep everybody a little more honest and accountable. That was something his father had taught Tsukune when he had asked the man why he did so much paperwork when he complained about it often.

Tsukune knew that the efficiency of the Student Police's filing system was at least in part by how well the office was staffed. Tsukune's office staffing was bigger than it needed to be for two reasons. On the practical side, the Student Police was just a glorified club, so having more people didn't cost anything. Tsukune didn't have to pay out salaries, and the school provided the needed office supplies. The other reason for the good office staffing was that Tsukune had seen an opportunity when he was first building up the Student Police. There were plenty of students that were interested in joining the Student Police, but were lacking in the confidence, or endurance, to do patrols, especially at night. Instead of turning these students away, Tsukune used them to help with the office work. Some of his office staff had gained enough confidence in themselves that they asked to go on patrols. Likewise, some patrol officers had discovered that they were more suited to office work. When someone was injured and couldn't do patrols for a few days, they could do office work so that they were still contributing to the Student Police, if they wanted to.

Tsukune knew that some people looked down on the office staff. Some thought of it as a punishment detail, or a job for the ones that couldn't handle being 'real' Student Police. Tsukune was quick to come down on anybody he caught putting down the office staff. He had no problem reminding anybody that the attack on the School Festival had been stopped as quickly and safely as it had been because Sheezu Aimi, the head of the office staff, had used her whistle to sound the alarm, while wounded.

Such thoughts flashed through Tsukune's head as he sat down to lunch with the office staff. He counted them as a part of the Student Police, and every bit as important as the patrol officers. He included them in the training days he tried to keep worked into the schedule. As he thought about all that his office staff did, and how much time he was in the office with them, he smiled.

"Captain?" Usa questioned as she poured tea.

"Hmmm?" Tsukune looked in her direction.

"Is everything alright?" Usa asked.

"It's fine," Tsukune Shrugged. "I was just thinking about all the important work that gets done around here." He made a gesture to the main office. "I'm lucky to have so many good people working for the Student Police. I... hmmm..." Tsukune's mind took off, chasing down a sudden idea. He didn't notice the six happy faces around him.

"It is unusual for you not to have an obento, Captain" One of the office staff said, trying to get a conversation going. "Or have someone bring you one."

"Something came up," Tsukune said dismissively. "Most of my friends are busy away from school right now."

"Won't you miss them?" Another girl asked.

"Of course," Tsukune gave a nod. "But Kurumu is working on starting her career, so I'm not going to hold her back just because I want to be with her. Ruby and Moka are visiting... I'll see them later. I have not had the chance to tell Mizore what has happened... Hmmmm. I suppose I should see her later and let her know what's going on. She would be hurt if I left her out."

"What about the rest?" Usa asked.

"Yukari isn't much for cooking," Tsukune said, thinking of the Newspaper Club. "Her strong point is studying, and she enjoys it, so I don't want to bother her. And Kokoa... Mmmm, no."

"How about In..." Usa started to question.

"I can take care of myself," Tsukune said. "For my first year and a half here, I was able to look after my daily needs, in spite of being the weakest student in school."

A round of protests burst from the six young women. The did not believe that their captain could have ever been week. Tsukune was forced to endure their admiration, while carefully dodging their offers of support. He assured them that they were a big help to him for their efforts as members of the Student Police.

Tsukune and his office staff actually finished eating while their conversation continued on. When Tsukune put down his chopsticks and thanked them for lunch, the young women started to politely question him about the food. Tsukune answered politely while trying to avoid giving any false praise, or sound like he was favoring anybody. He recognized a competition when he found himself in the middle of one. The conversation transformed into one about preferences when it came to food, meals, and the presentation of them. Tsukune was not sure what it was that made him nervous, but as he listened to the young women asking questions about his preferences, that had started with food but were moving to such details as dishware styles and dining room furnishings, he felt that it was time to leave.

"Again," Tsukune said, breaking the thread of the conversation. "Thank you for lunch. I won't have to visit the cafeteria today now, but I still want to make an inspection patrol." He got to his feet and offered the office staff a small bow. "Thank you for everything."

XxXxX

At the girls' dorms, Tama was on duty at the local office. Tsukune exchanged pleasantries with her for a moment before getting to the purpose of his visit. He wanted to inspect the area where the peepers had been sighted recently, to see if there was anything to be done to to help reduce the problem. Together they did a walking inspection of the area.

The girls' baths were on the ground floor at the back of the building. The baths extended beyond the rest of the building in a single level section that looked almost like an addition to the original building. Next to the baths was a fenced in shed that housed the boilers for the dorm. The only windows for the baths were narrow and high enough up that some kind of step would be needed even for a tall person to look in. The reports had told Tsukune that the peepers were ether caught working in teams, or using some kind of mechanical assistance, such as stilts or a periscope. Tama and Tsukune took their time walking around the baths as they considered the problem. The ground had already been cleared of any kind of concealment a peeper might use to hide, and the patrols all kept an eye out for the appearance of any boxes, barrels, or other potential step-ups that might be used.

Tsukune couldn't see anything that could be done in the short term about the peeper issue. He and Tama discussed a few ideas, but nothing solid came out of it. Tama did suggest that Tsukune might gain more insight if he looked at the problem from within the baths, looking out the windows. Tsukune refused her suggestion, ignoring her smile. After asking Tama to talk to the other girls to help look for ideas, Tsukune turned to leave.

"Captain," Tama said at the last moment. "I heard that your mother was hurt."

Tsukune froze. He realized that he had not been paying attention to who might have been around when Ruby had told him his cousin had called, or when he had used the public phone to call home. It wasn't unreasonable that he had been overheard.

"A friend heard you at the phones yesterday," Tama confirmed, talking to Tsukune's back. "I hope that she will be alright."

"Thank you, Tama," Tsukune said. "I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Yes," Tama said, glad that Tsukune wasn't facing her. Taking about his family, his mother, was a personal thing to be doing, and she felt a little embarrassed about being so forward. "With as strong as you are, I am sure your mother must be strong too."

"Tama," Tsukune said, turning his head to look back over his shoulder. "I was only able to become strong by coming here and making friends that were willing to help me."

"What?" Tama questioned.

"Excuse me," Tsukune said, walking away.