Mafia x Vampire

by Nain Tarlow

He is no longer Vongola Decimo. He was a puppet, a bait no longer useful. Thrown to the wayside, his guardians, even his mentor left him. Wanting to get away, Tsuna left Namimori and was soon enrolled in Youkai Academy. With new friends, new enemies on the horizon, can the former mafia boss move on? Or will the Mafia once again try to take over his life?

7. Chapter 7

Hey guys, Naintarlow here with the newest chapter.

First of all, I would like to apologize to anyone I unintentionally mislead. The sneak peek from the last chapter will not happen for 5 or 6 chapters, mostly depending on if I write chapters big like this or smaller chapters. It meant to give you guys something to look forward to and to see if you are interested in this small story arc that I planned.

Glad you guys seem to like the mystery in the background, I hope to work on it more, until the end of the first year of the Rosario vampire where a large mafia arc will occur.

Now, I present you the first and possibly last Tsukune pov chapter. I debated about making Tsuna leave for this chapter but it was planned from the start so I decided to stick with it. The next chapter will show you what went around Tsuna's side and finally the proper appearance of a few khr characters. This chapter is focused on Tsukune's development, but after Tsuna properly awakens his powers he would have the spotlight for the most part.

As for reviews:

Gold1992: Beta-reader is not a bad idea, gonna look into how that works properly. Until then please bear with it. Glad you liked it, next chapter will delve into these mysteries a little more so look forward to it. The idea with Mukoru's gang is interesting since I already have an idea for him to be reintroduced to the story. Wait and see what happens.

Enanza: Thanks again for pointing out these small mistakes. I will continue my unending fight against autocorrect.

Sorry for the confusion, the small trip to the past will wait for a little while, but it means a lot that you sound so hyped about it. All I can see that it will be interesting for all parties involved. I felt that aside from the future arc the bazooka's potential in canon was left unused. After all, with the bazooka, you don't simply go into the future, you travel into a POSSIBLE future, like Irie who started the whole future arc. That's why Older Tsuna was so cryptic a few chapters ago and he didn't want his younger self to learn anything, because it was a possibility at the time, the future he lived. Also, Older Lambo in chapter 3 stated the future can change, so there are a lot of variables involved and I plan to play with some of these ideas either in this story or maybe another focused on that.

The mystery of Massimo won't be revealed for a long time, but I like your thinking. Iemitsu won't be redeemed here (unlike my other fic) he will remain an eternal bad guy in this story. The reasons will b known later. I just finished the khr manga and the rainbow arc will definitely appear in later as well as Emma though a little (a lot) different than canon.

I'm embarrassed to say the second cover was left out because I simply forgot about it. From now on, I try not to forget, and here is this chapter's cover as atonement. As for Omote/Bloodriver as I said before it's one tricky question that I think the mange didn't address properly and I plan to add my own twist to it. What I like about Yukari is her possibilities and I will play around with a few of those in the witch ranch chapters.

LightJakRises: I'm glad to hear you like it. Tsukune always seemed to be a bit bland, like for the first half of the story he didn't have any personality aside from pining over Moka. Wonder what you figured out?

I was also shocked at the reaction to Yamamoto. I was a teen not long ago, and I can safely say teenagers are literally different species with different rules. It's still in the air that Yamamoto will be redeemed or not, but he will be given a chance at least.

pyre101: Hope you will enjoy the story. For the rings, in my mind, it's more like an amplifier than a requirement. It's possible to use dying will flames without them, but for most people, it's much harder. Hence my comparison to Yukari's wand. Not to mention there is Xanxus who uses neither HDW nor rings yet still fires a large amount of dying will flame and Iemitsu who uses HDW without a bullet or pill. Also, it was never confirmed that Lancia's ring is a sky ring. I know that traditionally skies are bosses, but not every boss is a sky otherwise it wouldn't be a rare element (despite being the most known characters with this flame type, just saying). The answer to your question, in the end, is maybe.

This turned out to be another big author note along with an already long chapter, but I'm not sorry at all. It really feels good to see so many reviews, favs, or follows, so I want to thank you for your support.

With this let's start the next chapter.

Chapter 7: A birthday to die for - Tsukune

Cover: A painting was shown with Tsukune on it running away from something. Moka stood next to the painting, a bandana covering her hair, paint dried on her face, holding a palette in her hands. She looked surprised as she watched Tsuna with a grin on his face busy drawing some big monster next to Tsukune.

-0-

Since he began to study at Youkai Academy, Tsukune thought a lot about whether he was lucky or not. On one hand, during middle school, he was living the life of a perfectly ordinary human. He had gone to school day after day, sat through the classes, didn't do remarkably well at physical activities, and went home in the end, read Manga, watched anime, and played video games. He had a few friends, but none of them very close, they would fell out of contact as soon they ended up in different high schools.

He had dreams of wanting to do something extraordinary with his life but who didn't? He was completely ordinary, his whole world was ordinary and he was fine with that. The least ordinary thing in his life was his tomboy cousin.

Yet ever since he stepped into that bus heading into the youkai academy, his life certainly changed. He was now in a school for monsters as one of the only two humans on campus. Add to that if their true origins were to be discovered they would be killed on the spot. He was also apparently a magnet for trouble because ever since the semester started he seemed to be attacked by various monsters every other week, for one reason or another.

Despite these, there were several positive changes in his life. He was never really bored and he found a very good if a little oddball group of friends in the members of the newspaper club.

Tsuna was the only other human student in the academy, and even though he made his life hell most of the time he was a true friend. He was distant, rude, tight-lipped about his life and past, seemed to outright look past him at times, sadistic to the point of constantly blowing up him in the name of training, push him into various dangerous and highly embarrassing situations, like when he bound his arms and legs together placed a large sign on him saying free target and left him at the archery club, routinely booby-trapped his room while he slept, and scared him to the death. But still, whenever he was truly in trouble he had his back, he was honest in a confusing blunt manner, and thanks to him, Tsukune never really felt alone in this whole bizarre situation.

Lambo was closer to Tsuna than him, most of the time obnoxious, and one of the main reasons he was getting blown up so often, but underneath the annoying traits, he was a good kid. Yukari likewise was much closer to Tsuna and he still felt the need to keep an eye on brooms when she was around.

He could hardly call Gin a friend, but nonetheless, he liked the older student despite his perverted personality. He could be dependable, though it mostly hinged on his mood and his passive-aggressive completions against Tsuna was funny to witness when he was not inadvertently involved in them.

Kurumu was also one of his close friends, though one he constantly found himself surprised by. Instead of the slightly vain and manipulative girl he first encountered, who hypnotized him, she became a funny, kind, and dependable girl, who he was happy to have as a friend. Though most of the time he was caught off guard by her affections towards him, being called her destined one, it helped his confidence when she always looked at him first, and not Tsuna who he compared himself to sometimes, coming up short most of the time.

And finally, there was Moka. The beautiful and kind vampire, who called him her friend, even after she learned he was a human. She was his first friend, he could even go as far as to say, he only has gotten to know Tsuna because he also gravitated towards her. And who can blame him? She was intelligent, compassionate and the most kind-hearted person he ever knew, human or youkai.

He was aware of the very large crush he had on her, heck, if Tsuna's constant comments were anything to go by, everyone was aware of it, save for the object of affection. He could also admit, that he was quite jealous that despite his hardest to be noticed by Moka, she and Tsuna seemed to be closer by the day. It was a maddening revelation. Especially, whenever he wondered whether it would have changed anything if it was him Moka drank from for the first time, not the brown-haired teen.

Despite these conflicting feelings, the training straight from hell, and the weird happenings around that they encountered on a weakly basis, Tsukune could honestly tell you that he didn't regret not leaving the school the first chance he got and he loved every minute of it.

That is why he was perplexed when one of the cornerstones of his new life was taken away from him.

"What do you mean there is no training?" he asked, not understanding.

He was standing in front of Tsuna's dorm room, ready for the morning training that usually consisted of him trying to get through minefields, pits filled with snakes, and the like. He already felt something amiss, when instead of the usual rude awakening, he woke up by himself, his torturer nowhere in sight.

"It means I'm not in the mood to train you." Tsuna told him, sounding a moment away from falling asleep.

Looking closer to him, he didn't look very good. Most of these days, predicting Tsuna's condition was a gamble at best. Sometimes he simply looked pale and a little tired, while there were days where he looked as if he had a fever and sometimes had difficulty simply stand. Other days he was fine physically but had a hair-trigger temper that left everyone with the exceptions of Moka and Yukari wary of him. Tsukune asked many times what was wrong with him, but he remained tight-lipped and upped his training whenever he tried to be stubborn.

Now he looked fine physically save for the increasingly larger, dark circles under his eyes. His hair was a mess and he didn't even change out of his pajamas even though by this time he used to be out in the open, running Tsukune ragged. It looked like he was once again in one of his lethargic days, Tsukune thought to himself.

"But what should I do then?" no matter how much he suffered, he didn't want to skip training. It hurt a lot, yes, but he wanted to be stronger, wanted to be someone who can stand next to Moka, and not have to rely on others to save him.

"No idea. But I'm going back to sleep." Tsuna said with a wide yawn, before abruptly slamming the door into Tsukune's face, leaving the stunned boy alone in the hallway.

-0-

"This isn't working at all." Tsukune grumbled to himself as he leaned on the fridge and tried to get his breath back.

He was in their usual clearing after he decided to try and train by himself if his trainer was unwilling, but had little success. He did a few basic exercises to limber up, something he never had the chance with Tsuna then went to the only equipment he could use, the fridge he pulled after himself most of the time. He was surprised how light it felt without all the added weight and with no grenades flying around, but he still felt he accomplished little. Tsuna's methods probably had a reason for them, but he never told him, so he did not know what he was supposed to use to train himself. It felt frustrating, like a lot of things in his life lately.

His birthday was almost here, yet he still not had the courage to confess to Moka. He tried to muster up the courage many times, but every time either someone interrupted them or they found themselves running from another out of control monster. With the addition of Yukari to their group, she sabotaged him every time, when he tried to talk to the vampire alone, insisting that Tsuna and Moka were destined to be. As if they needed any more encouragement.

He also felt homesick nowadays. This school could be so alien sometimes, that many times he felt it became too much for him. He tried to talk to his parents, mainly his mom at least once a week, but it wasn't enough to quench the feeling. Here, he felt so out of place. Like he was just the other human, Tsuna's boring sidekick or the guy who runs around in a boxer. He knew he shouldn't feel like this, but he didn't want to stay as just an ordinary guy. He wanted to find who Aono Tsukune really was.

He pulled out of his pocket a small pill and stared at it in contemplation. He was not proud of it, but when Tsuna and the others fought Yukari's bullies, he grabbed a dying will pill and put it deep in his pockets. He was sure Tsuna would be furious if he learned this, but the truth was, he didn't want to depend on the brown-haired teen all the time.

He was broken from his thoughts when a voice called out to him.

"Good morning, Tsukune-kun!" a cheerful voice sounded to his right, surprising him so much that he jumped up and almost dropped the dying will pill he was holding.

With his heart beating wildly, he looked over and saw a young girl with cyan-colored hair walking towards him, holding a small bag and smiling at him wildly.

"Kurumu-san?" he asked, sounding a little unsure. They usually met after his training when they went to the school building. While he was training it was mostly him, along with Tsuna and Lambo. Even Moka-san only joined just a few times.

Kurumu pouted at him as she walked closer, which made her very cute, though Tsukune forced that thought back down.

"Please call me, Kurumu-chan, Tsukune-kun. After all, you, my destined one, more than earned that honor." she told him, causing him to blush in embarrassment. Sometimes he envied her for being able to so bold in declaring things like that, but he never knew how to feel about her claims.

"Ku-Kurumu-chan." he stuttered out, at last, causing the succubus to let out a very bright grin. Other than his cousin he never had female friends his age, so he was unused to calling anyone with the chan suffix."What are you doing here?" he wondered out loud.

"Don't you want to spend time with me?" she asked with a pout, before instantly changing it into a smile as she sat down next to him."I brought some breakfast since you mentioned you normally don't have time for one after your training." Tsukune felt touched by the gesture. It was true, normally he had to go hungry till lunch, but he only remembered mentioning this to Kurumu once. Kurumu pulled a pink thermos out of her bag and looked around in confusion."Where are Tsuna-san and Lambo-kun?"

"Tsuna didn't feel up to it, so it's just me." he shrugged his shoulders as he accepted a cup of warm tea and a slice of toast."Ittadakimasu!"

The tea was very good with a slightly sweet taste. He knew Kurumu knew how to cook since she made him bentos quite a few times, and every time he found them delicious, but for some reason, he never thought she could also make such a fine tea.

They ate in silence, with Kurumu sitting very close to him, her body slightly leaning on his. It felt nice, unlike her other more brazen affections, he didn't feel overwhelmed and could properly appreciate it.

"Thank you, it was very good." Tsukune told her quietly as he finished the food, not willing to break up this peaceful atmosphere.

"You're welcome." Kurumu smiled at him, before raising an eyebrow in question."Ne, Tsukune-kun, why are you training so hard? I always wondered since you are already pretty strong." she asked, referring to the dying will state.

Tsukune looked over the empty clearing, thinking seriously about the question. Why was he truly training? To impress Moka? He knew her well enough that just being strong wouldn't impress her. To feel like he belonged here? With the newspaper club, he already had that.

"Guess, I want to stand on my own." he said softly, deep in thought. "Ever since I've come here, I felt as if I was in Tsuna's shadow. We are so alike, yet so different, I want to be my own person." he chuckled to himself while scratching the back of his head."Saying it out, it sounds like a really stupid reason."

"I don't think so. But I think you are already strong enough." she closed her eyes, enjoying the considerable warmer sunlight on her face. "To me, the Tsukune-kun who can stand up to the released Moka is strong enough." the human remained silent, not wanting to admit, that the him who stood up against Moka was influenced by Tsuna's dying will bullet."You and Tsuna are the same type of monsters, right? Since you use the same powers." she asked, opening her eyes to peer at him curiously. In response, Tsukune instantly stiffened and if he had been drinking anything he would have split it out.

"Ye-Yes." he stammered out, trying to remember the cover story Tsuna hammered into his head if Kurumu or anyone asked him."We essentially have the same power, but we have different ways to use it. I have a lot of raw power, but no control over it. When I use it, I essentially became a berserker with a single goal in mind." he explained, thankful that Tsuna had to foresight to think of something like this."Tsuna, on the other hand, has a weaker body so he could use much less power at once, but he had absolute control over it."

"Is that why your clothes tend to..blow up?" she asked, her cheeks quickly turning pink at the mental image. She turned her head away, not meeting his eyes. Likewise, Tsukune also couldn't look at her, his own face resembling a tomato.

"Yes. That's why I'm doing this training. According to Tsuna, we are doing this so that my body could keep up with my power while also make my body used to it." that was actually the truth. When he went after Tsuna, asking how his dying will state was so different, he told him, that he had enough practice with it, that he could control the output of the flames. When he pressed him further, he told him, that to use the dying will to its fullest he has to train his body to keep up with the power and his mind to help direct it.

"Than I think you are on the right path. You just have to walk forward." said Kurumu, trying to cheer him up. It gained her a small smile from the human boy who suddenly stood up.

"You are right. I can't let all this training go to waste. he told her, before pulling out the dying will pill and not letting himself think about it, simply gulped it down.

It was different, compared to when Tsuna used the bullet form on him. Those had been fast, and instant death that left him with a sole regret. This time it felt different. He lost all feeling in his body and for a moment he was truly afraid he would die. But he didn't want to die, not before getting stronger, showing everyone that he was not useless. That simple thought reverberated in him, until a searing fire blossomed in his heart, quickly spreading to the rest of his body.

He didn't even notice the lack of clothes on his person or the fire on his forehead. All worries, all insecurities disappeared, leaving only one single-minded thought.

"Get stronger as if I were to die." he roared out to the clearing, before rushing forward in the direction of the fridge that was left forgotten in the middle.

While he had a little difficulty moving it in his base form, bolstered by the dying will he easily picked it up and began to sprint around the clearing. After a while, he simply threw it away and began to go through various exercises Tsuna had him do before, with Kurumu cheering him on in the background.

Soon he felt the dying will fade away from his system, the blazing fire turn off, but something was wrong. Normally he would feel a little tired, a little lethargic, according to the Tsuna that was because the dying will remove external limiters of the body, so the sudden absence of power left him a little weak. But now, the effects were much worse. His vision swayed before him, and h couldn't feel any power in his body. Before long, he fell face first in the ground, unable to even move a muscle. As his consciousness faded away he was aware of the panicked shouts coming from Kurumu-chan.

-0-

Waking up never felt so hard. No matter how tired he was, never had he struggled to gain consciousness like this. Tsukune blearily opened his eyes, his vision swimming. His head hurt, feeling like Lambo exploded at least twenty grenades inside his head, to the point even thinking hurt. His limbs felt like they were filled with lead. He was shivering from the cold, even though he felt the warm comforter placed on his body and felt like he was burning at the same time.

He blinked in shock as the room he was in came into focus. He was surprised to find himself in his room instead of the infirmary or the clearing where he fainted. Looking around, he noted it was dark outside. This information further shocked him, since just before it was morning. Something serious must have happened to him to be out for most of the day.

There was no light on in the room, only the faint moonlight gave some illumination. He carefully tried to sit up but was unable to when he noticed a weight on his left side. Looking to where his arm was, he instantly became red in the face as he saw Kurumu sleeping while hugging his left arm to her assets and resting her head comfortably on his shoulder. She was snoring softly, trying to burrow herself to his side even in her sleep. Despite having no clue how they got here, Tsukune had to admit that the sleeping succubus was dangerously cute.

"Let her sleep Tsukune." a voice softly cut in, when he tried to wake the slumbering girl.

Flinching as if he was caught red-handed doing something perverted, Tsukune swiftly looked towards the door where the voice came from. There, leaning on the doorframe stood Tsuna. The moonlight only was able to light up his silhouette, but he knew it was his trainer, feeling the piercing gaze of his brown gaze on him.

"Tsuna-san?" he asked back, equally softly. It was both to confirm that he was who he thought he was and a silent question of what happened.

Instead of answering the human teen walked closer, stopping just at the edge of his futon. When he caught sight of his face, Tsukune resisted the urge to make a run for it. While normally Tsuna's face was cold and distant, there was usually some warmth and feeling beneath it. Now, it looked like it might have been carved from stone. His eyes were void of any emotion, and that scared him more than anything.

His face softened slightly as he looked at the sleeping girl.

"She looked after you all day, you know? She is totally exhausted." he said softly, crouching down and pulling the comforter up to her shoulders. There was a gentleness in the way he moved that seemed to be in contrast with his expression."She deserves a little rest."

Now that he looked at her properly Tsukune could see what he was talking about. Kurumu still wore her school uniform though it looked ruffled. Her hair was also a mess and frown on her face she didn't seem to be having a good sleep. Worse, he caught sight of dried tear tracks on her face. It made him feel like a jerk, for causing her so much worry.

"I'm sorry." he told her softly.

He turned back to Tsuna, but almost shouted in fright when he found the barrel of a pistol in front of him. He stared down coldly at the black-haired teen, a quiet snarl forming n his lips.

"Do you want to die?" he asked, fury evident in his voice.

"Tsu-Tsuna-san?" he stuttered out, genuinely afraid of the teen.

"If you want to die that badly I can make it quick." he told him while fingering the trigger of the gun."It's way better to make Kurumu, Moka, and the others go through that kind of worry needlessly." he seemed to want to say something else, but bit it back instead and stepped away. He seemed to stare into his soul for a long moment, before turning around and walking away.

"What's going on?" he asked just before the brown-haired teen left, finally finding his voice. From Tsuna's words, he understood whatever happened to him was because he screwed up something, and it caused everyone else a lot of worries.

Tsuna stopped but didn't turn back. Tsukune feared he would not answer but after a moment his soft voice reached him.

"I have a few favors to call in. Pray that I am successful and make it in time or your death won't be pretty." he told him grimly, before leaving Tsukune alone with a sleeping Kurumu.

He would stay up all night, thinking about the uncomfortable meaning behind Tsuna's words.

-0-

"You are awake, Tsukune-kun!" cheered Kurumu as she finally woke up a little after dawn and embraced strongly the still deep in thought human. Though embarrassed at first, Tsukune returned the embrace as he felt the subtle trembling of the young girl in his arms.

"Good Morning, Kurumu-chan." he forced a smile on his face for her sake.

She released him and leaned back a little, trying to get a good look at him, while she tried to wipe away the fresh wave of tears. Tsukune looked pale, tired but overall looked better than yesterday. A quick check of his forehead showed that the fever also mostly disappeared.

"Are you alright?" she asked after examining him, worry clear in her eyes."I was so afraid when you suddenly fainted."

Tsukune gave a gentle smile in response while standing up, albeit with a bit lty, showing her he was much better.

"I'm sorry for worrying you." he told her sincerely."Thank you for looking after me. I'm feeling a lot better." the last part was a little of a lie. While he felt better certainly, his body ached and he just simply didn't have any energy. But he still tried to mask it, for his friends' sake.

"I'm glad." Kurumu told him, before suddenly giving him another hug, before pulling away and hastily standing up."I almost forgot. You must be starving." with that, she hurried out of the room.

Now that she was mentioning it, he was pretty hungry and thirsty too. It was no surprise since yesterday morning he did not have anything to eat or drink. Of course, up until now, he had more than enough thoughts running in his head to forget this little tidbit.

Fortunately, Kurumu soon returned with a tray full of food that she placed down the table and motioned Tsukune to join her.

"Moka and I made some food yesterday afternoon while Tsuna stayed to watch over you." she explained as they both took their seat. He couldn't help but notice he had a much larger portion, even though he doubted that Kurumu ate much yesterday. Still, he was too hungry to voice it. "Ittadakimasu." she said, breaking her chopsticks.

"Ittadakimasu." he was quick to follow suit.

After the first bite, Tsukune was reminded just how hungry he was. He began eating quickly, forgoing usual manners in exchange for placating the bottomless hole he called his stomach. After devouring almost half his place, he remembered to slow down and chew. Looking up, he was met with the fond smile on Kurumu's face as she slowly ate and watched him. Now that he ate slowly, he could actually taste and found it was really good.

Soon only crumbs remained of the dish placed before him and Tsukune leaned back and gave a satisfied sigh.

"It was really good. Thank you." he told her, giving a thankful smile.

"You are welcome Tsukune-kun. Do you feel up to going to school?" Kurumu asked, worry evident in her voice.

"Yes. I feel better and I don't want to miss more than I already did." he told her. He didn't want to worry about his friends more than he already did, and it meant going to school, even if his body vehemently protested against going anywhere.

"If you are sure." she agreed with an uncertain voice."Do you need help getting ready?" she added with a faint blush on her cheeks. Likewise, Tsukune also blushed.

"No, I can get ready by myself. You should go and prepare yourselves." when she opened her mouth to object, he walked closer and put a hand on her shoulder, a small smile on his face. "Tsuna-san was here and he told me you looked after me all day. I'm very thankful but you have to look after yourself too. I will be alright." he assured her.

Kurumu looked at him, indecision clear on her face, before giving in.

"Alright. If you have any problems you wait for me, okay?" he gave her a nod, agreeing."I'll get ready and I'll come back, then we can go to school together. I will even drag Moka and Tsuna with us." she said resolutely. Tsukune felt touched by that since he knew she tried to use every opportunity to have them alone, without Tsuna and more specifically Moka around.

"Sure." he told her. With a smile Kurumu went back to her dorm to get ready for the day, leaving him alone for the time being.

Only after he heard his door close, did he let himself groan in pain, leaning on the nearest wall. He idly wondered if this was similar to what Tsuna must be going through daily, since probably whatever was happening to him was connected to the dying will. He resolved himself to ask Tsuna as soon as he could.

He pulled out a fresh school uniform and changed into after a quick shower, giving himself a much-needed wash. He took his time to get ready, thankful he didn't need to rush due to training and with plenty of time to get to school. After he was done he tidied his room a little, before a knock on the door alerted him that Kurumu returned.

Opening his door, he was soon swept away by a too strong for his taste hug by an excited vampire.

"Tsukune-kun. You are alright!" Moka cheered as she easily picked him up and spun him around in a delighted laugh. Tsukune couldn't enjoy the sensation of being so close to his crush, because his ribs cried out in protest of the vampire's absurd strength.

"Cut that out." Kurumu cried out behind Moka, gently hitting her on the head, releasing the still hurt human in the process."Tsukune still has some pains, you should be more careful with that brutish strength of yours." she said as she grabbed Tsukune and held him close to her, incidentally pushing his head into her chest, making him struggle to breathe.

"I'm so sorry Tsukune. Are you alright?" Moka asked, completely mortified at the thought of causing pain to her friends.

The black-haired teen waved her off as soon as he was released.

"I'm better, sorry for worrying you guys." he told her, a small smile on his face, touched by their care. He noticed someone missing and looked around, but did not spot Tsuna."Where is Tsuna-san?" he asked them.

Moka bit her lip, and looked away, confirming she knew something. At his and Kurumu's insisting looks she soon broke and told them what she knew.

"He told me there was a family emergency and was granted leave by the headmaster. He left this morning and he should be back in a few days."

Tsukune nodded in understanding, though privately he didn't believe that to be the truth. He believed there was a different reason for Tsuna to leave, something connected to those favors he mentioned last night. But he didn't voice it, not wanting to needlessly worry his friends, when they could do nothing. Still, he cursed the brown-haired human inside, hating that the other boy never told them anything. Not about himself, the dying will bullets, or anything relatively informative. He learned more about Tsuna from Lambo than from the man himself.

"This sucks." complained Kurumu as they began to walk to class."We are about to start the first full paper for our club. It will be a lot more work with one person down."

"Two, actually." Moka said, bowing her head in apology. "I have an art project I have to work on after class, so I won't be able to join you. It will only be for a week." she added when she saw their dismayed expressions.

Tsukune tried to not show how much this news saddened him. His birthday was just a few days away and he planned on spending it with his friends in peace and maybe gather the courage to confess to Moka and ask her out on a date. But with the fainting yesterday, Tsuna's ominous words, and now Moka's absence, this birthday was shaping up like nothing as he imagined.

"For the week? But without you and Tsuna it would mean me and Tsukune-kun would be practically alone. Gin would do nothing but laze and order us around. Lambo is more of a hindrance than real help, so we could only count on Yukari-chan." she seemed to realize what she said because a large smile appeared on her face. She grabbed Tsukune's arm and held it close to her."On second never mind, just go to your project, while I will have a great time with Tsukune-kun." she said, cheering to herself.

"Ku-Kurumu-chan." Tsukune stuttered out embarrassed.

"You guys seem to be a lot closer to each other." remarked Moka with a small smile, though there was a little sad quality to it.

"Of course, it was inevitable, that my destined one will realize his love for me. Take that Moka." the succubus stated boldly while tightening her grip on Tsukune.

"Cut it out, Kurumu-chan." the human pleaded as he tried to get circulation back to his arm.

They talked and joked with each other until they had to split for classes and even if it was only for a moment, Tsukune forgot about all his problems.

-0-

The school day was long and tiring. Tsukune spent most of it lying on his desk in pain and trying not to fall asleep. It came and went at irregular intervals. Sometimes he felt just fine and acted it was like a normal day, but there were several times when it took everything he had to not fall asleep on the spot.

"Later, Tsukune." said Moka as they were about to part ways. He was going to the newspaper club while she turned into the direction of the art classroom.

"Oh, right. You mentioned doing an art project." remembered Tsukune, sadness evident as he wanted to spend time with Moka alone."What kind of project are you even doing? I didn't even hear anything about it in class." they shared most of their classes, art included after all.

At the question Moka blushed in embarrassment and turned her body away from him, not meeting his eyes. She held up an art textbook that she read most of the day as some kind of shield.

"Truth is, I was asked to model for a picture by the art teacher." she admitted.

"A-A model?" Tsukune asked back, shocked. Pictures ran through his mind, first Moka in stylish clothes posing, next Moka in a revealing costume and finally only wearing a sheet of some kind, embarrassment coloring her face...He quickly turned away from her and grabbed his nose to stop it from bleeding. "Th-That's great." he said at last.

"Well, see you later Tsukune." he was very thankful that she did not notice his little slip-up.

"See you later, Moka-san." he waved her goodbye, before walking to the newspaper club a little downtrodden.

When he arrived at the clubroom he was surprised to only find Gin in here. What was more shocking that instead of goofing off, the president wore a serious face as he read over a paper n his hands. He frowned at something, before writing in the open notebook placed at his side.

"Good afternoon Gin-senpai." he greeted the older student."What are you doing?"

Gin looked up, finally noticing Tsukune. He put the paper down and turned to him with a smile.

"Hey there Tsukune. Just doing some work." he looked around, trying to find a certain pink-haired girl. "Where is Moka-chan? You usually come together and I was feeling down so I wanted to ogle her a little." he admitted without any shame. It was a quality that he sometimes envied the older male for.

"She's not coming for a few days. She was asked to help with an art project." he answered honestly as he went to place his stuff down at his usual desk.

"Dang it. And I was planning using Sawada's absence to finally woo Moka-chan with my roguish charm." bemoaned Gin putting away the bouquet of roses he wasn't sure where he pulled out from. "He's not even here and he still ruins my plans. Curse you, Sawada Tsunayoshi." he yelled comically toward the ceiling.

It always amazed him how different Gin's and Tsuna's relationship was. If you didn't know them and just heard them badmouth each other, you would think they hated each other. But if you knew Tsuna well enough you could see he was apparently relaxed, not at all alert around the werewolf and it was true vice versa. Somehow they became friends while they insulted each other. It was weird but that was true for most things at this academy.

"Wait, how do you know Tsuna-san isn't here?" he asked, feeling a little confused. From what he gathered the other human's departure was kind of last minute.

"Haiji." said Gin, wincing as he rubbed his shoulder in pain. The name was somewhat familiar to Tsukune, he might have heard the name from Tsuna. "He whined all morning about his favorite sparring partner going away for a few days. Then he tried to spar with anyone he could get his hands on." he gave another wince as he stretched his back, an audible pop reaching the freshman."Guess who got to be the lucky one?"

Tsukune couldn't say anything to that so he remained silent. Thankfully after a few minutes, Kurumu entered the room, completely ignoring Gin and making a beeline to Tsukune and embracing him.

"Tsukune-kun, I missed you so much. How are you feeling? Want me to play nurse after the club." she said seductively sending the young teen spluttering n embarrassment.

Part of him admired both Gin and Kurumu for their ability to so easily confess their affections, while he struggled to even gather the courage to do that. Another, traitorous part of his mind conjured the image of the succubus in a nurse outfit and he had to grab his nose, another nosebleed imminent.

"Could you not do this in front of us?" asked Yukari as she also walked in with a pout, a sulking Lambo walking after her and quickly deposited himself at a faraway corner.

Yukari and Lambo did not get along really well, despite their similar ages. They both fought for the position of Tsuna's sibling with a vehemence that usually ended up in a lot of property damage. Tsuna also used to set them on him, in the name of training, so it was understandable that he had a healthy fear towards both kids.

"Here." said Yukari with a small smile as she placed a small jar full of some kind of white cream in front of Tsukune. At his confused look she explained."This is a cream for sore muscles. Tsuna-nii said yesterday you probably would be sore all over and asked me to make this healing salve for you."

"Thank you, Yukari-chan." he accepted gracefully. Even if he still feared to go near brooms thanks to her, he had to admit she was a very well-behaved good girl nowadays. For the most part.

"Who's the little kid?" asked Gin, while he was lazily leaning back on his chair and was watching them with half-lidded eyes.

"She is Yukari-chan, our newest member. Geez, you were even here when we welcomed her." complained Kurumu, while in the background Yukari pouted angrily at Gin. The older student blinked in surprise before shrugging his shoulders.

"Really. Well, I don't really pay attention to little girls." he said, before groaning in pain as a chair directly landed on his head, almost causing him to fall over. Yukari cheered happily, waving around her repaired wand, and even Lambo joined for once to laugh at Gin.

The club president calmly smoothed down his hair and took back his seat, indicating with his hand that they should sit down as well. His face changed quickly, losing his goofy expression and returning it to a serious one. Sometimes he wondered that just like with Tsuna which was the real face. The serious one or the sarcastic, goofy one? He let the thought go, concentrating on Gin.

"Everyone, listen up and listen well. We have our first official job as the newspaper club." he said with an authoritative voice as he stood up and walked in front of the board, chalk in hand. "The missing girls' problem." the others reacted in shock, none of them heard anything about missing girls."Seven female students disappeared without any trace, one after another in just one month. It's not entirely unusual for people to go missing, either running away or finding something dangerous deep within the forest, but not in these numbers. Something's going on and we are the right people to uncover the truth." he told them, before giving each of them a couple of sheets of paper.

As Tsukune examined the papers showing basic information about the missing girls, where they were seen last, and the like, he thought about how insane this could be that people missing could be considered normal. He once again thanked his lucky stars that he befriended Tsuna and Moka at the start of the semester. Tsuna was a human just like him, but he always seemed to be in control and had a trick up his sleeve, while Moka was a very strong monster. Thanks to them he was probably a lot safer than he would be otherwise, but it also strengthened his determination to get strong on his own, so he would not have to rely always on them.

As they all got a good look at the missing girls, Gin walked to the window, a hand on his chin.

"As you can see, each of these girls is seriously hot. If someone is holding them, hostage, I want to save them." for one fleeting moment, the president looked cool, with a serious look in his eye but just as easily his next words destroyed that sense of coolness. "If they see me in a good light, especially without Sawada around to steal to spotlight, I will sure to get lucky." he said with a perverted smile.

The expected reaction came as both Yukari and Kurumu grabbed the nearest thing to next and throw it at Gin who endured it with a laugh. In Yukari's case, she sent her entire desk at the pervert, while Kurumu simply grabbed the grenade Lambo was playing with next to her. The ensuing explosion blanketed the whole room with smoke and prematurely ended their club activities. Tsukune could only hold his head and sigh depressingly. Sometimes he could not believe the kind of friends he had.

-0-

The next day Tsukune felt a lot better. He still felt tired and just without the energy to do about just anything, but he didn't feel like he was about to kneel over, so that was a plus. He woke in his usual time and simply went to do a few light exercises by himself. Kurumu soon decided to join him, not wanting to let him out of her sight. He felt touched by her care, if not a little nervous about what she might do to him in the name of looking after him.

"Alright class, settle down." the art teacher Ishigami-sensei called out to the class, prompting the students to go and find their seats.

She was a woman in her early thirties with a tomboyish figure. She had brown hair that she wore in braids and a blank bandana put over it. She wore a tube top, slim jeans, pumps, and a long trench coat with paint stains over it. She was really enthusiastic about art and a lot of students liked her for her free-spirited personality. Among the girls, she was a role model, someone they wanted to be like.

Personally, Tsukune liked her and her class, because she was the most normal of their teachers, as in she was the easiest to not seen as a monster, because of strange behavior or her monster form bleeding over her human form. He also liked art because it was something of a refuge to him in this monster school. He was not very good, more like average, but in art class, he was able to just draw and pretend for a moment that he was in a completely normal high school.

"Alright, everyone got a seat?" the teacher asked and received a collective yes to her students, much to her delight."Then, at today's art class we will paint a picture using this month's theme of 'what's important to you?'. You are free to paint whatever you want, however, you want. Think about what's important to you in art, in your everyday lives, and most importantly, in the depth of your hearts." she looked very enthusiastic, further motivating her students."Don't worry if you can't finish today, we will work on it next week as well. I look forward to all of your paintings."

Tsukune stared at the empty canvas before him, muting the rest of the class around him. What was important to him? At first thought, he moved his eyes towards Moka, who was concentrating deeply on her painting. She was important to him, yes, but he tried to think of other things too that would be important to him. His friends, that was a given, his family. Then, as if summoned from deep inside his mind, a large fire appeared in his mind's eye. The dying will fire.

It was not really the spooky magic fire that was important to him, but what it represented. It was the resolution behind it, the hope that he can stand with his friends as an equal. It was the representation of what he accomplished since he came here to this academy, befriended a human who could be stranger than any monster at times, a bloodsucking vampire, a succubus hell-bent on seducing him, a perverted werewolf-senpai and a preadolescent witch with a penchant for pranks. Here he was given a chance to be someone more than ordinary, and maybe it only truly began when Tsuna fired that first dying will bullet.

"That's some nice work, Tsukune-kun. Keep it up, I look forward to seeing the full work." Ishigami-sensei praise snapped him out of whatever trance he fell into. Looking at his work, he was surprised at what he saw, since he was not aware that he even started painting.

The half-completed painting showed a large fire, it's a shade between the bright orange of his dying will and the darker orange Tsuna's fire was. Inside the fire, there was a dark, human-shaped shadow, that looked a lot like him. Around the fire were three more shadows, most of them half-finished. Two were clearly female, one of them with the easily recognizable wings and tail of Kurumu. The last one was a werewolf.

Tsukune dumbly looked at it, mesmerized by his work. He did not know he could create something like this. What he found curious the few unfinished lines around the shadows as if they were surrounded by fire.

He was snapped out of his inspection when the window closest to him opened up and a pretty girl popped her head in. She had very pale skin, but otherwise looked perfectly healthy, and had long light brown hair, with two braids framing her face.

"Hey sensei, I skipped gym class to have fun with you." she explained cheerily as she tried to pull the rest of her body in.

"You know that I should scold you for that right?" asked the art teacher with a rueful smile even as she went to help her. "Come on, take a seat." she said with a laugh as she led her to an open seat.

'Sensei sure is popular.' Tsukune thought, a little amused as Ishigami walked to Moka who asked her a few questions.'Maybe it's because she's so confident?'

After that, he tried to once again focus on his painting, but whatever inspiration he got, he seemed to run out of it. In the end, he didn't even add one line to the painting, not wanting to make a mistake. At the end of the class, he simply placed it at the side of the room, with the other paintings, and simply left, following Moka. It was the start of lunch break and they were on their way to secure their usual table.

"Moka-san." he suddenly stopped, looking resolutely at the pink-haired girl. He gathered up all of his courage, the decision made. He was gonna ask her to spend his birthday, the day after tomorrow with him he's gonna ask her out. Thankfully the corridor they stopped was void of people, it was finally his chance. "I have a very important question to ask of you." he said, trying to sound confident, but failed miserably.

"What it is Tsukune-kun?" she turned toward him, a bright smile on her face. She was this happy ever since their art class, where she talked with Ishigami-sensei about something.

Tsukune opened his mouth, but before any words could come out of his mouth, a body collided with his back, almost sending him face-first into the floor. Arms snaked around his neck, something really soft was pushed into his back and without conscious thought, he put his arms on his assaulter's legs holding them up.

"Tsukune-kun! I missed you! How was your day?" chirped Kurumu cheerfully from his back, only a moment later noticing Moka standing next to them. She frowned for a second before she smiled at the girl."Hi, Moka."

"Hello, Kurumu-chan." answered back happily the vampire.

For some reason, even though she could fly easily, Kurumu really took piggybacking Tsukune into a routine. Many times while they walked to school she asked him to carry her, though originally she wanted bridal carry, Tsukune was a blushing mess after that, and sometimes simply jumped at him, expecting him to catch her when he was not aware enough. It became a part of their routine so much, that he no longer complained, simply steadied her whenever she did this.

"Do you have to always do this?" he complained, though lacking any real feeling.

"Don't tell me you are not enjoying this." to emphasize her point the succubus tightened her hold on him, pushing their bodies even closer. His face red as a tomato, he wisely didn't answer.

Suddenly, Moka began to giggle to herself much to their confusion.

"You guys look much closer than before." she said to their questioning looks before she turned to Tsukune."What is it you wanted to ask?"

"Oh," just like that all the courage he gathered up slipped away like a balloon deflating. With Kurumu around and simply the perfect chance missed, he doubted he could even make one syllable. "Never mind. Let's go to lunch." he said in the end, indicating the direction of the dining hall.

"Onwards Tsukune-kun!" Kurumu pointed forward, expecting him to carry her as if he was her horse. Before he could complain that she lowered her mouth next to his ear and whispered to him."If you are lucky, I might feed you."

He would forever deny that his steps sped up and would be eternally grateful Tsuna was not here to tease him.

After lunch, he tried several times to get Moka alone to ask her out but was foiled every time. Some could be written off as just unlucky coincidence, but there were others he was pretty sure were simply sabotaged. He tried to talk to her after lunch, on his way to class, but unfortunately, he was called out by Nekonome-sensei to help her out. Afterward, Moka was snatched up by Yukari who wanted to spend time with her big sister. One time he was able to talk to Moka outside school, but before he could properly formulate the question for some reason one of Lambo's grenades fell just before him and exploded. Later he heard Lambo laugh from somewhere and he thought he heard Yukari too. His last chance was just after classes before they parted ways for the day, but Gin showed out of nowhere, flirted with Moka unsuccessfully, and after rejected, dragged him to the club by his collar.

Then the afternoon spent trying to find anything about the missing girls, but they found little else. At first glance, all the girls had nothing connecting them with the exception that each of them was pretty. They were in different classes, had different hobbies, nothing that could give a lead to them. Still, Gin was convinced there was some kind of clue somewhere.

In the end, he fell into his bed, completely exhausted and entirely unsuccessful in asking out Moka. He was asleep the moment his head touched his pillow.

-0-

Tsukune considered curling into a ball and pretending the sun didn't come up the moment he woke up. His head pounded like never before and his entire body just hurt. Like he spent the night overworking every single muscle he had. He was also so tired as if he didn't get even a wink of sleep.

A quick check of the clock confirmed he only woke up an hour later than he was used to. No training then. With a groan, he rolled out of the bed and tried to get ready for the day. It wasn't easy, he felt like death warmed over him and probably looked like that too. He felt more like an old man, instead of a soon to be seventeen years old.

"Way to start the day." he murmured to himself, a little unhappy as he went to freshen himself up.

He had the feeling something didn't look exactly right, but it wasn't until he went to put on his school uniform that he noticed what was wrong. As he was about to grab his shirt, he noticed something black on his left forearm. He looked closer and was shocked to find some kind of tattoo. It was a small black and white skull with a speech bubble coming out of it. What was more shocking was the writing in the bubble. It read 'I never got more than 80 on a test before.'.

He was quite embarrassed reading this because it was unfortunately true. Though to be fair, he also never had a score lower than 50, but it was not a fact that many knew. He had no idea who could have done this, well he had but to his knowledge, Tsuna has yet to come back to school, and also he would have done much worse than writing on his arm.

More annoyed by it than anything, he went to try and wash it down. But no matter how hard he scrubbed his arm, even if the skin around it became red, the tattoo didn't seem to vanish. Worse he found another one on his right arm, just under his wrist. when he was sure there was nothing there a few minutes ago. It said 'I thought about skipping school before, but this school is so scary I'm even scared to do that.', much to his own embarrassment. He had no idea how could anybody learn this about him or how the tattoo appeared on his skin.

He was beginning to seriously worry about whatever was going on and he had honestly no idea what to do. In the end, after 10 more minutes of washing both tattoos remained unaffected, he simply gave up, because it was time to go to school. He dressed in his uniform, taking care not to show any tattoos, and went to meet up with Kurumu and Moka.

All through the day, he remained tired and less prone to speaking up. Though he still tried to ask Moka out, but just like yesterday, all his efforts resulting with nothing to show up for.

Worse, when he excused himself before lunch and went into the bathroom to check on those creepy tattoos, he was shocked to find that instead of two, he had now five of them. One appeared on his chest, just below where his heart was, one on his right shoulder, and the last one on his left ankle.

Much to his horror, they were all accompanied by various embarrassing statements. One mentioned how until he was 14 years old, he believed his cousin who was two years older than him to be a boy. Another said that the Tokyo Ordinary People Association denied his membership, saying he was too ordinary to be included, while the last one proclaimed that he hid his doujinshi collection under his bed and had to relocate it twice since his mother found it both times.

He was seriously panicking about the whole thing but wasn't sure who he could turn to. Maybe it was a monster illness, but he was human and he was sure if he, for example, went to the nurse to check this out, his secret would be given away immediately. Maybe it was something to do with the dying will bullet Tsuna was shooting him, but in that case, his only source of information was not on school grounds. Lambo was unreliable at best and how could he go to Moka with this, when these skulls gave away his embarrassing secrets?

In the end, his only hope was that Tsuna came back soon before this thing could become worse. Luckily, according to Moka, Tsuna would be back any day now, because he said he would be only away for a few days and it had already been two days since then.

-0-

By the classes ended, Tsukune felt he was at the end of his rope. The tattoos worried him, but he could not do anything about them, and luckily no one saw them, but he was still unable to ask Moka out. Steeling his resolve, instead of going to the newspaper club, he went straight to the art building, intent on talking with the vampire, whatever happens.

He gulped a little in fright as lightning flashed across the sky, giving the building before him an ominous background. Like the rest of the school, the art building was also looked more like a haunted house, than a proper building and he wondered for a moment that if the monsters thought that buildings looked like this in the human world, or simply it was their own twist of style.

He was nervous as he walked through the too silent to be comfortable corridors until he reached the classroom. He knocked once to announce his presence before opening the sliding door and stepped in.

"Excuse me, can I talk to Akashiya Moka-san?" he asked, a little loud, but received no answer. Looking around, he found the whole classroom empty."Did I come too early?" he asked himself as he sat down at the nearest chair, figuring he would rather wait for Moka to arrive than to give up.

He fidgeted in his seat uneasily, he could almost feel the skull tattoos on his body call out for attention. He had the almost unbearable urge to rub them, but he was not sure if they really itched or it was his mind playing tricks with him. Nevertheless, he began playing with the cuffs of his uniform to occupy him, until much to his horror he noticed a new skull at the back of his left hand. He brought it closer to his eyes, morbid curiosity about what was written next to the skull.

"I am envious of Tsuna because Moka always sucks his blood." he read out loud, before he instantly got red in the face, quickly putting his hand into his pocket to hide the tattoo. He looked around, wanting to confirm that nobody heard him. Thankfully no one was in sight.

He suddenly looked up as he heard sobbing. He looked around, confused, the sound seemed to come from somewhere in the classroom. He stood up and began to walk toward the other end of the room, toward a larger cupboard where the sounds seemed to come from.

"Hello? Is anybody there? Are you alright?" he asked as he cautiously approached, the sound of sobbing increasing. He was further alarmed when he spotted some kind of fabric peeking out from under the cupboard, a fabric that looked alarmingly familiar to the school uniform.

Worried about someone being hurt or worse, Tsukune almost tore out the door, only to gasp in shock. Before him stood a statue of a young girl with a very familiar hairstyle. It was a nude state, with its arms trying to protect its modesty. But what was most shocking was the tears that fall from the statue's eyes and the sobbing sounds coming from it.

"What in the-?" he immediately backed away from the statue, dread forming in the pit of his stomach. "What kind of statue is that? Who puts something like that into a cupboard?" he asked himself. More than that, the statue was increasingly familiar, as if she saw the girl it was obviously

modeled after.

"What are you doing to my art?" an angry, hissing voice came from behind him, causing Tsukune to flinch in instinct.

Turning around he was met with the furious visage of the art teacher, Ishigami. She glared down at him with a dark look, her hair seemed to move as if alive and for once, the usually kind and smiling art teacher reminded him that she was indeed a monster.

"Ishigami-sensei." he tried to stay calm, even as he felt sweat forming on his forehead. "I'm sorry I barged in here, I just..." words seemed to fail him as he tried to back away from both her and the creepy statue.

The art teacher blinked at once as if suddenly recognizing him. Her countenance smoothed out in an instant, gaining a peaceful look, even if a moment ago she looked ready to murder him.

"Oh, aren't you Tsukune-kun from class three?" she wondered with a smile, followed by a carefree laugh, that instead of calming him, creeped him out further."So you came to pick up Moka-san, Tsukune-kun? Sorry, she's a bit busy being a beautiful model to spend time with you right now."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked back, confused.

Before the teacher could answer, the door to the classroom opened and Moka stepped through.

"Sorry for being late sensei." she started to say, though stopped and looked at Tsukune in surprise."Tsukune, what are you doing here?" she asked, sounding a little suspicious.

"Wel, you see..." of course thanks to the bipolar art teacher and the creepy statue, Tsukune's carefully gathered words disappeared in the wind, leaving him to stammer dumbly."I just wanted to ask you a question..."

Before he could say anymore, he was cut off by Moka who began to push him out of the room, blushing furiously. All the while Ishigami looked on their little drama with amusement.

"No' I'll be embarrassed, so you can't be here! Leave!" she said, confusing the human teen.

"Embarrassed? Could it be you are a nude model?" of course, his mouth had to move faster than his brain could, and before he could stop it, this less than innocent question came out.

"What I do is none of your business." she shouted, too embarrassed to try and think through what she was saying."Anyway just leave."

The words hit him like bricks. It was not something he didn't know. He knew despite everything that happened, she was much closer to Tsuna than him. Still, to hear that he mattered to her so little, tore him apart. He just wanted to spend his birthday with her, with his friends. Was that too much to ask?

"I get it now, you don't have to shout," he told her quietly. Moka stopped, surprised at his tone. It was a tried, defeated tone. "So after all this time, you didn't care at all about me. It was always Tsuna, Tsuna, and Tsuna." he said, anger leaking into his voice. One part of him knew he shouldn't blame Tsuna, who trained and helped him so much, but he was a teenager, he was supposed to be illogical.

He didn't wait to hear her reaction to any of this, he turned around and ran away. He kept his eyes closed, trying to keep the tears at bay. When he was little he used to cry at every little thing. When nobody played with him when they teased him or even when he saw a dead insect. His cousin made him grow out of that phase and he did not want to break that by crying now.

Before he could properly process just what happened, he stopped just before the newspaper club's door. He was out of breath, more than he should have been if he thought about it for a minute and had to brace himself on the wall. His entire body felt heavy, and he felt like he could just faint any moment. He was sure something was wrong with his body, but he had no one he could turn to anymore.

"Guess the only way to go is forward." he muttered to himself as he tried to calm his pounding heart and went to enter the clubroom.

„Here he is." called out Kurumu surprised as he stepped in. Gin was sitting at his usual place, looking bored while she was next to Yukari both of them around a strange orb that was on Yukari's desk. Lambo was sleeping on his usual desk."Hi, Tsukune-kun." she waved to him with a mile.

"You are late." muttered Gin, before throwing a paper in his way. "Yesterday an eighth girl went missing, so it's even more important we find them." he informed the downtrodden teen.

„Oh, right." he replied half-heartedly, after today's events he didn't really feel like looking into mysteries. That outlook changed drastically as he looked at her picture."This girl!" he cried out suddenly, the others looking at him in surprise. He was pretty sure that was the girl that snuck into the art class yesterday. And the statue he saw today. But that would mean...

"What's with you all of a sudden?" asked Gin in a bored manner, though he also tensed, as if bracing for not so good news.

"I've seen that girl yesterday in art class." he told the others, instantly gaining their attention. "And today I found a crying statue that looked exactly like her in the art building. But that would mean..." his eyes widened as realization kicked in. "Moka-san!" without waiting for the others he began to sprint back to the art building, his friends' cries going unanswered.

His head pounded way worse than before and it almost hurt to breathe, but he didn't let it stop him. Despite whatever happened between them a few minutes ago, Moka was still a dear friend of his. He would sooner die to let one of the friends come to harm. He may be weak, he may not be able to do a thing, but he still wanted to stand next to his friends, to make so many memories together.

Tsukune didn't notice but while he was running he was accomplishing something very rare and very hard to achieve. Without the aid of a dying will bullet, he was slowly slipping into the dying will state. He also didn't notice the burst of speed as finally the dying will fire appeared on his forehead and he sped forward, shedding most of his clothes.

A few students who were on his way jumped away in surprise, shouts of jerk, hentai, and idiot were thrown after him, but Tsukune who fully entered the dying will state easily ignored them.

"Save Moka as if I were to die!" he roared as the art building finally came into view.

Instead of entering the building like a normal person, he chose to take a running leap and burst through the windows. Unfortunately, he missed his target and ended in an empty room. Growling to himself he went through the door and began searching for the vampire room by room until he heard a muffled scream and he took off in that direction.

Not bothering with opening the door, he simply lowered his head and broke through it, like a bull. He found himself in a large room, filled with states of crying girls in different positions. Ishigami-sense was also there, without her bandana, her braids looking and acting like snakes. She had a sinister expression on her face as he looked at him annoyed. Moka was also there, bound by the teacher's snakes and if he had the proper capacity of thought, he would have noticed her left hand slowly turning to grey stone.

He was not aware of it, but Tsukune made a very peculiar sight. He was clad in lime-green boxers, his body full of strange skull tattoos and speech bubbles. His eyes were wide and completely white as usual in the dying will state and the fire on his head was much smaller than usual. Add to that he was snarling in a way not dissimilar to that of a rabid dog, it was no wonder Ishigami eyed him warily.

"Tsukune-kun! Get out of here, run! You will get turned into stone!" pleaded Moka as she tried to get out of her bindings, but they were too tight and she found moving her body harder and harder every passing moment.

Unfortunately, there was no reasoning with Tsukune stuck in his dying will. With a mighty roar, he ran forward and grabbed some of the snakes binding the pink-haired girl, tearing through them with ease with his enhanced strength, but Ishigami still held a hold on her legs, while her entire left arm turned into stone.

"Aaargh!" the teacher cried out in pain at the loss of some of her snakes, glaring at the two of them furiously."You won't stand in my way. I won't let you ruin my art." she said, sending a new wave of snakes at them.

Tsukune, showing the barest minimum of survival instinct, jumped back from Moka to avoid them, but soon one of them entwined itself on his arm, biting him in the process. He cried out in pain, the shock of it strong enough to snuff out his dying will. And unlike Moka who had plenty of power in her that slowed the process, with him, it was much faster. In a few moments, his whole body was too heavy to move properly.

"Mo-Moka-san." he said, reaching out towards her, trying to get to her rosary, hoping that for once he would be able to release her other self, instead of Tsuna. "No matter how insignificant I am to you, you are my friend. I won't leave you." he struggled, using all the power he left, but it was simply not enough. Before long, his hand fell to the floor, unable to move.

"How is it? Your limbs turning into stone, becoming a prisoner of your body for an eternity!" Ishigami gloated as neither teens were able to do anything. Suddenly an explosion came from the direction of the door, smoke pouring into the room. "What is this? Aaargh!" she cried out in pain at the same time Tsukune and Moka felt the snakes around them being cut.

"Tsukune-kun! Moka!" Kurumu kneeled next to her destined one, checking on him, careful with her elongated nails.

"Moka-nee! Tsukune-san. Are you alright?" called out Yukari as she also ran to their side, looking worried.

"You guys!" Moka said as Yukari helped her stand up. Now her legs also began to turn into stone, making it difficult to stand. "Please get out of here, it's too dangerous." she warned them, more worried about her friends than herself. Tsukune grunted out something unintelligible, no longer capable of any movement save for his eyes, but it sounded a lot like agreement.

"How dare you?" roared Ishigami as the smoke began to clear out and she spotted the two other members of the newspaper club.

She made a move to send her snakes at them, but suddenly electricity flared up, causing her to back away with caution. As the smoke fully cleared, they saw Lambo standing protectively before them. ELectricity was cackling all around his form, concentrating around the small horns on his head.

"Is that Lambo's monster form?" asked Kurumu, strangely feeling a little intimidated by the most of the time lazy young boy.

Both Moka and Tsukune knew that to be not true. Though neither Lambo nor Tsuna explicitly stated, Lambo was just as much human as Tsuna, or to that, he was only seven years old, it was natural for them to worry.

"Lambo-kun! Please run away, she is very dangerous." cried out Moka, trying to step toward him. Tsukune likewise tried to get up but failed, most of his body turning to stone.

"I'll be alright, I'm not useless." Lambo's quiet words reached them over the crackle of electricity. The horned boy turned his head towards them, wearing a serious expression. His eyes, normally so open, so cheerful, were hard and determined, reminding them of Tsuna's eyes at that moment.

He turned back towards Ishigami who eyed him warily, her snakes wriggling around her. His whole demeanor was different. There was no slouch in his state, he looked taller, unmovable. He lowered his head, looking remarkably like a bull about to charge.

"Ever since back then, all I wanted to stand with Tsuna-nii and the others as their equal." he told them quietly, though no one had any idea what he was referring to. "I like sweets a lot and don't like doing as I'm told, but when things serious, I'll protect my comrades with my life. I'll be the lightning rod, taking the damage for others." he declared to them.

With that he charged forward, even as the others cried after him, telling him to stop. Ishigami stayed confidently where she was, smirking down at the young boy.

"Don't think that little light show will save you little boy." she taunted before she sent forward her snakes, no longer cautious.

Lambo in response gritted his teeth, seeing the snakes coming right at him. Surprising every onlooker, he deftly avoided all of them, still running forward the art teacher's way, while picking up more and more speed.

"Don't look down on me." he shouted as he closed on her."I'm Lambo of the Bovino family, a trained hitman but more importantly, I am Tsuna-nii's lightning guardian."

Seeing the danger, Ishigami made to dodge but was shocked when one of her statues that had fallen on its side in the commotion, somehow moved its hand and grabbed onto her ankle.

"How can this be?" she shouted, trying to free her leg from the stone hands. But it was far too late, Lambo reached her.

"Electrico cornata!" roared Lambo as he thrust forward, easily hitting his unmoving target. Ishigami cried out in pain as more than a thousand volts of electricity flew into her.

Tsukune, who was slowly losing consciousness, finally became unconscious just after seeing the art teacher fall.

-0-

"Ah!" with a shout Tsukune sat up, breathing frantically. His body still felt as if it were made of stone and he felt so weak, he doubted he could even stand right now. He remembered finding Moka with Ishigami, trying to free her only to end up captured, but after that, it became a blur to him.

He had to blink a few times to calm his raging heart and realize he was no longer in the art building. The white wall and the other beds around him told him he was the infirmary of the school, where he ended up quite a few times before, mostly because of Tsuna.

"What happened?" he wondered to himself, as he spotted an empty chair pulled to his side and a covered object next to it.

Before he could decide to do anything, the door opened, Moka-san stepping through. She was in her school uniform, and she seemed in perfect health, no trace left of Ishigami's stone spell. When she noticed him awake, she gave a blinding smile before running to his side and embracing him.

"Tsukune-kun! I'm so relieved you finally recovered." she cheered as she released him, sitting down on her chair.

"Moka-san? What happened, didn't I turn into stone?" he asked, feeling a little out of the loop.

"When Ishigami-sensei was defeated, her spell broke and everyone returned to normal after that." she explained to him."You were in the worst conditions out of everyone and you didn't wake up for a few hours. It's almost midnight." she said.

It took a moment for Tsukune to realize it meant it was almost his birthday. Despite all that happened during the day with Ishigami, all he could think of that he was unable to ask Moka to spend his birthday with him in the end. Feeling saddened by this simple fact, he looked down at his lap and instantly paled in mortification.

He noticed little later than he should, but he was still clad in his boxers, and with the covers at his waist, his chest and arms were bare before Moka. What was worse, the few skull tattoos that covered him seemed to have multiplied to the point that he was practically covered by skulls and various embarrassing speech bubbles below his neck. His head quickly snapped to Moka who was looking at the tattoos uneasily, before grabbing the covers and trying to hide his body, minus his head under them.

"Those tattoos..." Moka started to say, worry evident on his face.

His complexion from pale quickly changed to tomato red as he tried to unsuccessfully explain himself.

"I can explain this, Moka-san! I mean I can't they just appeared out of nowhere and I don't know how to get rid of them." he continued to stutter out excuses, not wanting Moka to think of him as some kind of thug. In his mind, he saw Moka repulsed and running away calling him an outlaw before he was arrested and thrown into jail.

"It's okay." Moka's soft voice cut through his overactive imagination. She had a soft smile on her face as she tried to reassure him."Lambo-kun told me this is an illness related to the dying will. Apparently, Tsuna-kun left the school to find the cure for it because he suspected you caught it."

"I see." is all he said as he looked down at his lap in thought. He was touched that Tsuna went to look for a cure, but once again he was angry at the other teen for keeping him in the dark all the time. He couldn't have told him about it beforehand so he could not panic? Tsuna was a man of contradictions most of the time.

"I almost forgot." Moka once again regained his attention as she picked up the covered object next to her. Pulling of a cover he met with a painting that Moka placed in his hands. "Here it is. Happy Birthday, Tsukune-kun." she said with a bright smile.

He looked curiously at the painting before him. It showed him in his school uniform standing before a window, with Moka and Tsuna standing at his sides, all of them smiling. It might not have been the most beautiful or realistic painting in the world, but the sentiment behind it meant a lot to Tsukune.

He felt tears, happy tears gathering in his eyes and he moved his hand quickly to wipe them away.

"I worked hard to draw the three of us for the 'What's important to you' theme." she explained sheepishly, a little embarrassed by the picture's quality."It's not the best, but I hope you like it."

He simply nodded in answer, too choked up by the emotions that surged forward within him.

"Sorry for hiding it. I know I worried you, but I wanted to learn to paint properly from Ishigami-sensei. In exchange, I became her model, and I was really embarrassed by it." she told him, looking away."I wanted to give this to you, so I can show you how much it meant that I met you."

Tsukune realized that this was his chance. He wanted to confess to Moka on his birthday when the two of them were alone and he doubted he would ever get a better chance. Do or die, as they say.

He took a long breath, steeling himself. Dying will or not he will confess to Moka right here, right now. He looked at her square in the eyes, trying to convey his feelings not just with his words but his eyes too.

"Moka-san, I also...you are..." he had a hard time forming the first words, but as soon as he began, words poured out of him without stopping."You also mean a lot to me. For me, someone who just came to this academy, I felt lost and uncertain, but it immediately changed as soon as I met you. You become my friend without any reservation and accepted me for who I am. To be honest, one of the reasons I stayed in this school was so that I could continue being with you. You are beautiful and kind, you accept people for who they are not what they are and I am really lucky that I met you. The truth is, I really like you Moka-san." declared Tsukune, his face dusted with red as he unconsciously leaned in Moka's direction.

Moka looked a little taken aback by his words. before giving a blinding smile. She looked so radiant, he found it a little hard to look directly at her.

"I'm glad you feel that way." she said in a soft voice, causing him to snap his head to hers, feeling hope rise in his chest."For me, my friends the dearest treasures that I have. I've felt alone so long, that the thought of being surrounded by friends was nothing but a wishful dream on my part. But then, I met you. I like all my friends, Kurumu-chan, Yukari-chan, Lambo-kun, and Gin-senpai. But more than that, those who mean the most to me are you and Tsuna-kun, who were the first to accept me, me the scary vampire as their friend. With you, I was able to experience that wonderful warm feeling, which meant that I was alone no longer. Even Ura-chan likes you two even if she doesn't admit it." she said with a slight smile, while her rosary seemed to emit indignation."That's why I'll always treasure your friendship."

Just as quickly he felt his hopes lift, they just as soon plummetted towards the abyss. Tsukune looked down as the weight of those words hit home. To her, he was just a friend and it was very clear that was all he would remain. Still, even if he felt disheartened by the unknowing rejection, he knew he should be grateful at least for her friendship because she valued it so much.

He was broken out of his thoughts when the doors quietly slid open and they heard a voice neither heard in a few days.

"Man, you look like you're on your deathbed. Cheer up, it's your birthday." Tsuna said while snickering to himself as he stopped in front of Tsukune's bed.

"Tsuna-san?/Tsuna-kun!" the two cried out in surprise, looking at the brown-haired teen curiously.

Instead of the school uniform, Tsuna wore a black, fancy suit, complete with an orange tie. The suit looked very expensive at first glance, Tsukune doubted that his family earned enough in a whole year to afford something like that. 'Was Tsuna from some rich family?' he thought, feeling even more insignificant next to the other human for a moment.

Despite the suit, Tsuna was still pale, with worryingly darker rings around his eyes and a tired slouch of his shoulders. But he was a good enough actor that only those who could know him well enough noticed this, others easily fooled by his antics.

"Heard you got into some trouble without me here." he commented as he looked over Tsukune who was still hiding behind covers."How do you always end up in these messes? he asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Well, you see..." Tsukune tried to give excuses, so he was distracted enough that he couldn't react before Tsuna grabbed his covers and pulled it away from him. Just as quickly his other hand lashed out and Tsukune felt something sharp in his left shoulder."What are you doing?" he asked, grabbing onto his shoulder after Tsuna pulled back.

When he looked up he met the other teen's relieved face while he held an empty syringe in his hand.

"Looks like I made it just in time. Congratulations Tsukune, you are not dying." he covered up his expression with his dry tone.

He was about to ask back what he was talking about when Moka unexpectedly spoke up.

"Tsukune-kun, look." she said in wonder as she pointed at his body.

Looking down, he met with the various skull tattoos on his body fading one at a time. He also noticed that he immediately felt better since he woke up, honestly felt like a living man for the first time in the last few days.

"That's the skulls disease or the shame to death disease." explained Tsuna."It's an illness that targets people like you and me and it's fatal, there is no cure." he smirked at their alarmed expressions."That's why I had to call in a few favors to have something that can negate the disease, so you're welcome."

Suddenly feeling cold, Tsukune clutched his covers close to his chest as the realization hit home. He was dying? He would have died without knowing the reason, without able to say goodbye?

"W-What?" he asked, his voice breaking up.

Tsuna blinked in surprise as if his reaction was difficult to understand.

"Didn't I leave you a note that explained it?" he asked, the perfect picture of innocence."I was sure I left one for you."

Before anyone could react, Moka lashed out with her hand, grabbing Tsuna's cheek and pulled hard on it, causing him to give a small cry and lean towards her while his face was stretched comically.

"Moka-chan! It huuuwts!" he said as small tears gathered in his eyes. Moka continued to pout angrily at him.

Looking at them, it struck Tsukune how funny this whole picture was. Here he was, a normal human boy in a school of monsters after almost completely petrified by his art teacher, confessing to his crush a sweet vampire who had a much scarier personality sealed away and being rejected, only for the other human on campus, his sadistic ruthless trainer to tell him that he almost died because of the secret human superpower he was trying to master. All those pent-up feelings, all those revelations became too much to him, and in the end, he simply found the whole situation hilarious so he suddenly burst out laughing, surprising the other two.

They looked at him for a long moment, before they also burst out laughing, the simple relief that everything will be all right shared between the three. They were still laughing when the door once again opened admitting Yukari, Lambo, Gin, and Kurumu who quickly joined them around Tsukune.

"Tsukune-san, I'm so glad you are alright." said Yukari as she handed him a small voodoo doll. "Nee-san said that today is your birthday. This is my present, a warawara-kun doll." she told him cheerily. Tsukune figured he would ignore that Yukari not that long ago tried (and succeeded) to control him through one of these.

"Here's some candy, get better." mumbled Lambo as he gave him a bag of candy that had only a few candies left in it. He obviously ate the others judging by the candy paper stuck in his hair and his mouth full of candy."Don't worry I ate all the ones you didn't like." he added with a completely innocent expression.

"Tsukune-kun, I baked a tray of cookies filled with my love for you. Happy Birthday." said Kurumu, though he noticed her smile was a bit more subdued than normal and she didn't try to embrace him the first chance she got.

"You know rewarding reckless actions gonna make him think it's okay to run forward without thought." said Gin as he sleepily scratched the back of his head, looking like he just woke up."By the time I found a teacher and went after you, you and Ishigami were out cold. Would it have killed you to wait a moment for us?" he huffed, but gave a small smile to his underclassmen."Still, good job. Happy birthday."

"Let's have some fun." said Kurumu with a bright smile as a birthday hat was put on Tsukune's head and a few board games and drinks were brought out.

Though he still felt a little weak thanks to the fight against Ishigami and the skull disease, he was quick to join the festivities and enjoy a birthday spent with so many friends. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Moka drag Tsuna away with a serious expression, but he refrained from pointing it out to the others. He may have been disheartened by Moka's apparent rejection, but she was right, he should treasure his friends. And looking back on his life until now, he realized that he had the most fun, the most excitement since he came to this school for monsters. He couldn't regret any of this.

Of course, a moment later he realized that with Tsuna back he would insist on training in the morning, no matter how little sleep he could get or how weak overall he still felt. The others looked on shocked as he suddenly curled into a ball and began to sob since he just knew that Tsuna will be extra demanding to make up for the lost time.

-0-

How was it? I debated a lot about how to write the chapter, not liking some of Tsukune's canon reaction, but in the end, I decided to stick to canon for this one.

A few clarifications about the chapter. The skull disease I changed it that it would kill in 24 hours, instead 2 as in the anime, because I felt that it would be a little more dramatic for Tsukune to worry about the skulls for a whole day. Also, the statue grabbing Ishigami. Since after her defeat every statue returned to normal, I think it requires active concentration in her case. With being cornered and about to be skewered I think her control would slip enough that a statue with a stronger than normal will could do this much. If they can sob then they can grab onto her as well.

We also had young Lambo's first fight! Go, Lambo!