DISCLAIMER: Rosario+Vampire belongs to Akihisa Ikeda. Scenario and original characters are mine. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1 – "Call me Kurumu-chan, please!"

A desolate wasteland. An overcast sky, filled with menacing clouds and rampaging bolts of lightning. Trees that looked as if they had been born dying. Gravestones and skulls instead of rocks. The constant laughing caws of crows and ravens. And in the distance, a large collection of gothic ramshackle buildings that he could see all manner of humanoid creatures approaching.

Aono Tsukune turned back to the bus driver. "…Are you sure this is the right place!?"

The man simply nodded, his eyes glowing underneath his cap. "Yep… Welcome to Youkai Academy! Hehehehe… do be careful now boy… it can be quite a scary place!" The bus driver laughed out loud, closed the bus door, and drove off, leaving Tsukune with his bags by himself. Tsukune could only stare in shock as the bus left him behind in this horror movie world.

"Oh man… what a creepy place. It's completely different from back home or anywhere else I've ever been! How did I end up here!?"

He then remembered about how he failed all his entrance exams and so had no choice but to enroll in this dubious-looking boarding school in order to have any hope of an education. His family and friends had wished him the best before he headed off into the mysterious unknown. He could even remember his dad making a joke of the name, thinking it referred to the teaching style, and his parents hoping the school would shape Tsukune into a bright scholar.

It looked like the reality would be far worse…

Tsukune sighed, grabbed his bags, and headed towards the biggest and most ominous building he could see, which he assumed to be the main school building.

"Scary is right… this place is super creepy… I just want to go home… it's okay to be a dropout, right? I can just work fast food or something like in an anime, right?"

He continued complaining to himself, not hearing the sound of an out of control bike heading straight for him until it was almost too late. He heard something moving through the air as well.

"Look out!" a female voice rang out, behind him.

"Huh?" Tsukune turned around, but the world swiftly become a blur, and then fell into darkness. The world was still dark as he regained consciousness, and he felt that he was lying on top of something oddly soft, his face planted in something pliant. He felt a weight on top of him as well. So he was sandwiched between… who or what exactly?

Tsukune perked up his head from its resting place, and stared directly into the purple eyes of a blue-haired school girl. She looked a little embarrassed, but was also smiling through her blush. She broke the silence with a giggle, as he quickly realized where his head had just been as his face turned just as red. He was pinning her down too, to make things even more awkward.

"Do you like them? Soft, aren't they?" she said.

Tsukune found himself subconsciously wanting to answer yes and drop his face back into… hey wait a minute… this girl has to be a youkai, right!? he thought to himself. Could it be true? It had to be! It's not like they were hiding anything with the name and environment. This must be a school for monsters, one that he, a human had found himself in. A bout of sudden nerves broke him out of whatever spell he was under and let him focus on the girl and the now moving and groaning weight on his back. Said weight fell off with a distinctly feminine yelp.

The purple-eyed girl giggled again, and Tsukune realized he should probably get off of her. And also introduce himself, figure out who the other girl was, and other things that would help him take his mind off of…

Tsukune stood up and offered the girl a hand. "Sorry about that! I'm Aono Tsukune. You are?"

The blue-haired girl took his hand. "Kurono Kurumu. Please be a good friend to me, okay?"

Tsukune helped her up and she promptly started leaning in to him. Apparently, she was dead set on making sure her chest was firmly pressed into his left side. He couldn't imagine why, or what kind of monster would do such a thing. Blushing, he forced his attention onto the other girl. She was also clearly a school girl, with pink hair and a hand held to her head.

"Hey… are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes… I just… I have anemia…" she mumbled as she took hold of his extended right hand, which he now realized was covered in blood in places. Somehow, none of the blood had gotten on Kurumu's uniform, and it looked like quite a bit was on his. But before he could ask if one of them knew where the infirmary was, the pink girl started gently licking the blood off his arm.

Shocked, Tsukune cried out and fell backwards, taking the two girls down with him. Kurumu positioned herself so that his head was cushioned by her chest, while the pink girl now had a clear view of Tsukune's neck, which she leaned into and promptly bit, starting to…

Is she… drinking my blood!? thought Tsukune. Even more freaked out than before, he tried to push the girl off of him, but to no avail. Not until Kurumu finally noticed what was happening and joined in while saying, "Hey, back off! He's mine!", was the girl able to be pried off of him. The pinkette was dazed with a flushed face and was breathing heavily.

"Kurono-san, can you…?" She was pressing him down into her body. Not that he minded terribly (going to have to examine that later… he thought to himself), but he did still need to find the boy's dorms… and the infirmary… and probably the library, but after those for sure.

She interrupted. "Call me Kurumu-chan, please! You want to get up already, Tsukune-kun? If you insist…" She let him go, making a pointed effort to look displeased. Then she noticed his wounds. "Oh no, you're hurt! That must have happened when we ran into you! …but how come you're still injured? Most youkai can shrug off something like that… the vampire and I are fine."

Tsukune barely resisted the urge to panic and tried to make up a convincing story. "Uh… well, I… haven't eaten in a while, so…" Kurumu was still looking at him quizzically, staring directly into his eyes as if she were trying to see into his soul. "And with the whole 'vampire drinking my blood thing', I'm feeling a little weary, and that isn't helping." That part was true at least.

"Ummm…" the pink girl finally decided to speak up, holding up the wreckage of her bike. "Sorry about that… I just lost control…" She was still looking at Tsukune as if he were a particularly delicious meal, but had regained enough control to keep her eyes locked on Tsukune's face. "I normally drink out of hospital bags, so when I smell fresh blood…"

She took a deep breath as if to regain focus.

"Anyway… I'm Akashiya Moka, and I'm terribly sorry for running you over and then forcefully drinking your blood! Kurumu and I were racing and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going…"

"…Meaning I had to dive in and save you!" added Kurumu, beaming with pride.

Tsukune wanted to say something, but instead he staggered and would have fallen over if the two girls didn't reach out for him and prop him up.

"Ah! Sorry! I'm making a terrible first impression, aren't I?" said Moka apologetically. "Let me help you get to an infirmary."

"My bags…" Tsukune was able to mutter despite the fog in his head.

"I'll get them!" piped up Kurumu. She glanced at Moka first, and then left Tsukune to her for a moment while she easily hefted up his two bags in one hand. She then offered the other arm to Tsukune, which he gratefully accepted.

And so, this was how Tsukune's first day at Youkai Academy began, with him fainting in the arms of two cute girls as they dragged him and his belongings to the infirmary.

Tsukune woke up later in a hospital bed. He looked to his right and saw that his right arm was bandaged up and that Moka and Kurumu were sleeping on a nearby bench, leaning on each other for support. His bags were nearby. He decided not to wake them and turned to his left and saw a nearly-empty bag of blood hanging from a metal pole with a tube running into his left arm.

Well, this has been… a day, thought Tsukune to himself. So… if I've been enrolled in a school for youkai, does that mean all the staff are youkai as well? And why do they have human blood here? …I really hope that's human blood and not something else… He sighed, and looked up at the ceiling. Is this what he had to look forward to every day? The thought of dropping out was still pretty tempting… but maybe if he made friends with these two girls, it wouldn't be so bad?

They seemed friendly enough, if a little forceful. Not that he could blame them; they thought he was one of them. Right, he still needed to figure out if he should keep that a secret or not…

He turned back to the girls and saw that Kurumu was suddenly wide awake and watching him intently. He flinched and jumped up into a sitting position, which she took as a good sign and leapt onto him, smooshing his face in her chest once again. "Yahoo~! I'm so glad you're up now, Tsukune-kun!" When she realized Tsukune wasn't replying, she freed him, meaning he could now take a deep breath and gather his bearings.

At the same time, Moka fell over onto the bench. She made a surprised noise upon impact and promptly woke up, flailing and falling onto the floor.

Kurumu turned to Moka, and judging that she was fine, turned her attention back to Tsukune. "You are OK now, right? You've been knocked out for hours over such a minor injury…"

Tsukune wouldn't have called 'being run over' minor, but he let the matter drop as that would lead to further questions. He did say to the two of them that he would be fine which reassured Moka and made Kurumu even more pleased. He asked them why they were still here. Moka said she felt guilty about the incident and wanted to wait until he woke up. Kurumu was keeping an eye on the vampire, and also wanted to make sure that Tsukune would be fine.

"Aono-kun, if you'll be fine, then I'll be on my way." Moka said while standing up. "I…" She looked at the two on the bed, glanced away, and furtively glanced back. "I hope we can become friends!" Kurumu was glaring daggers into the vampire girl's back and Tsukune was thinking the matter over as Moka departed. Sensing her foul mood, Tsukune turned to Kurumu and spoke.

"I hope we can become friends too, Kurono-san."

Kurumu blushed, then fumed and poked Tsukune in the chest. "Call me Kurumu-chan! I insist!"

"Alright then… Kurumu-chan," he replied, blushing a little from the sudden familiarity.

She giggled and practically jumped off of the bed. "Okay then, Tsukune-kun! I'll come talk to you later!" She waved him goodbye as she left. As she was doing so, a nurse appeared with most of her skin underneath her work attire wrapped in bandages. He supposed that she had to be some kind of mummy then. As if she could feel his stare, she turned to look at him.

"Ah, Aono-san, you seem to be doing well for a… well, you know. You should be able to leave soon, probably sometime tomorrow. It isn't too serious, after all. Make sure to eat a lot so you can recover naturally. And don't worry, that is human blood… though you might not want to know how we got it."

Tsukune gulped nervously. "Ah… is it safe for me to…"

The nurse cut him off, knowing where this was going. "Don't let it become common knowledge. But if you plan on making friends with those girls, you'll have to tell them eventually. One of them seems to have taken a liking to you and probably won't care either way. The other will hopefully be the same. In any case, don't come here too often either; it'll cause both of us trouble. To be honest, you should just drop out and run away while you can. Those like you don't have a high survival rate at Youkai Academy. I'm sure you can see why now."

Tsukune nodded. But… he didn't want to run away. So making friends with those girls would be his only option to survive. Besides, it's not like he wanted to go through high school friendless…

"Alright… I'm going to lock up now. I'll come back in the morning. Good night Aono-san."

"Good night, ummm…"

"Tsumugi-sensei."

"Thank you, Tsumugi-sensei."

The nurse walked off. The lights turned out, leaving Tsukune in darkness. Eventually, sleep claimed him, and he dreamed of blood drinkers and soft-bodied girls.

Sure enough, Tsukune woke up the next morning feeling much better, if a little stiff and sore. He heard some shuffling around and activity outside his field of view, and assumed that was coming from the infirmary staff. Not having anything else to do, he sat and thought for a bit about his situation and then eventually drifted back off to sleep.

Kurumu, elsewhere, woke up in a great mood, and practically leapt out of bed. She was feeling super confident in her plan to find her "Destined One" by assembling a harem since the first member seemed quite fond of her already. And to think, she hadn't even used any of her supernatural charm abilities on him at all! Only her natural gifts. She giggled to herself, certain that everything would work in her favor, as she got ready to visit Tsukune.

Along the way, she ran into Moka. The pinkette didn't seem to have slept well, having bags under her eyes that she didn't bother to hide. Bad dreams, Kurumu guessed. The two talked briefly as they headed to the infirmary, Kurumu teasing Moka over her desire to drink more of Tsukune's blood. Moka claimed she couldn't help it if fresh blood was just that much better than the stale bagged blood and that if Kurumu were a vampire, she would understand.

By the time the two had arrived at the infirmary, Tsukune had awoken again and was walking around under the supervision of Tsumugi-sensei. Kurumu greeted him with a happy cheer and a tackle-hug, pressing his face into her bosom again. Moka gave a more hesitant greeting, watching as Tsukune pried himself out of Kurumu's grip (or rather, was allowed to free himself).

"Kurono-san, please don't injure my patient," added the mummy, watching the goings-on.

Kurumu chuckled. "Is he OK to leave now?" she asked the nurse. When the nurse nodded and walked away, Kurumu clapped her hands in cheer while Moka and Tsukune both sighed in relief.

Moka piped up as Tsukune gathered his belongings. "Hey, Aono-kun, do you know where the boy's dorm is? You were given a map, right?"

Tsukune paused. If he was given a map, he didn't remember looking at it. Instead of giving a proper answer, he chuckled nervously while not looking at either of the girls. Moka then seized the opportunity to start making amends and offered to show him around. Naturally, Kurumu wanted to join in as well, and so the trio took a casual stroll around campus before dropping Tsukune off at the boy's dorms to some quite curious stares.

Tsukune noticed he had gathered a lot of attention along the way, but couldn't be sure if that was from his bandaged arm or from the fact that he was in the company of two quite attractive girls. In any case, he would need to do a better job of blending in. Joining a club once that came up would certainly help, and so would becoming better friends with Kurumu and Moka. He was honestly looking forward to it, and not just because he thought they were both super cute.

But there was also a lot that he didn't know about the world he had suddenly found himself in. And he had no idea where to start – what kinds of youkai are there; what kinds of powers do they have; which ones don't mind humans and which ones hate them; and so on. With that in mind, Tsukune left his dorm room and headed for the library, a building they had passed by earlier.

The library had a similar aesthetic to most of the buildings on campus, even if it had a different design. Whereas most of the buildings on campus tended towards a more modern (in the sense of the 1800s and towards the present), its design hearkened more towards the ancient. It might be called a merging of architectural designs between a Japanese Buddhist temple and an old Western-style library. The imposing gigantic wooden roof and coal-black stone walls increased its impression of on imposing repository of forbidden knowledge, especially to those humans.

Tsukune, knowing this, entered anyway.

Thankfully, the interior, while still quite creepy to him, was close enough to a normal library. There were rows upon rows of bookshelves, all piled upon with various texts of both older and newer designs. There was no electric lighting that he could see – instead, the hallways outside of and between shelves were lit by torches, candles, and gas lamps. There was also, as far as he could tell, no signs or symbols indicating which books were located where.

He sighed, and pulled out his cell phone. No signal here, either. He sighed again, more deeply.

"Is something the matter, boy~?" a faint voice asked.

Tsukune replied with his eyes still closed. "Yeah, I'm trying to find some books but there's no signs or anything saying where… to…" He trailed off after realizing he hadn't actually heard anyone come up to him. He opened his eyes turned to see…

"AHHH!"

A ghost! This particular ghost had a humanoid form that was transparent like stained glass with an eerie purple aura surrounding it. It wore the familiar white robe and was surrounded by several floating pale purple fireballs. Unlike the typical depiction of a ghost, it had long white hair and purple eyes.

Said ghost turned its face away from the terrified Tsukune, who had fallen over in shock and crawled away to go hide behind a nearby bookshelf. "Hmph! See if I help you~!" the ghost stated indignantly in a faint yet distinctly masculine-sounding voice, as it began to turn away.

"Please wait!" replied Tsukune immediately, coming out from behind the shelves. The ghost paused for a moment, as if expecting more. "I- I'm sorry about that. I'm just not used to… well, the details aren't important. I'm sorry and that's what matters."

The ghost nodded. "Indeed~. Apology accepted~." The ghost had no legs and moved by levitation. As such, it floated closer to Tsukune, who also moved towards it. "So then, what brings you here~? The school semester hasn't started yet, you know~. Most of the students here aren't studious when they're not being forced to be~. Do you perhaps also love to learn~?"

"Ummm…" Tsukune decided against telling the ghost that he was an academic failure, and instead changed the subject, hoping this was the librarian. "I'm here for some specific books. This might sound stupid, but are there any books describing all the different types of youkai? And maybe also some books about human and youkai relationships and their history?"

"Hmmm~? That's not a stupid request at all~. It's good to want to know more about your fellow classmates~. An encyclopedia for youkai, hmmm, yes, I can think of several that we have~. Follow me~." The ghost turned away from Tsukune again and started floating down a seemingly random hallway between the tall shelves. Tsukune followed him, not needing a torch due to the ghostly fire balls giving off enough light for him to see his immediate surroundings.

"Thank you very much," said Tsukune as they were going along.

"No problem~. It is natural that I would help you, after all, being the librarian~. I am curious, however~. If you will indulge me, I wish to ask why a youkai is so curious about humans~? After all, most youkai either hate or are indifferent to humanity~. Few love humans, hahaha~."

Tsukune frowned. He thought that was the case, but was hoping otherwise. He also wasn't sure how to answer the question without giving away that he was human. He didn't know if this youkai was safe or not. "Well, I was raised in the human world, so there's a lot I don't know…"

"So, you had to come here, then~? Hmmm~." The ghost paused in place and turned to face Tsukune. Tsukune stopped as well. The ghost lights intensified, allowing them to see each other and the books on the shelves more clearly. "What is your name, boy~?" asked the ghost.

"Aono Tsukune. And yours, sensei?"

"Gakutorou~."

Tsukune blinked. Well, that's a very… appropriate name.

"So, Aono-san~. Is there perhaps something you don't wish to tell me~? Hahaha, don't look so surprised~. I am an expert in learning, after all, hahaha~. Unfortunately, sometimes it happens to me the hard way, which is how I became like this~," the ghost continued, gesturing to himself.

"Ah… may I ask what happened that caused you to… well…" Tsukune wasn't sure where to look, having been found out so easily. He settled to looking at some books on the shelves with no textual information printed on their spines, but seeming to belong in a set.

"Not at all~. This happened several hundred years ago, so I'm over it now~. I was once a human, seeking knowledge about youkai, and that led me here~. But rather than announce my presence as a friend, I snuck into this place and hid among the shelves during the day and stole food from the storage at night~. There are many secret powers here that one can learn and use for various purposes, even as a human~. And so I was able to spy on the living youkai and learn much about them~. But in my arrogance, I believed that they could not so much as find me, let alone harm me~. And so I let my guard down, and well… here I am, after a regretful end~. I did not pass on and was allowed to stay if I worked for them, and so I remain~."

Tsukune stared at the ghost in shock, eyes wide and jaw hanging open. Another human!? A dead man, who became a ghost!? A human who was now living amongst youkai, in life and in death!?

But… he had to wonder… "How many… know that about you, now?"

"Only a few~. However, it seems that you might have a better chance than I did here~."

Tsukune blinked, and moved to deny. "Ah, not sure what you're getting at, sensei, hahaha…"

The ghost cut him off with a laugh. "Of course, I would never ask if such a thing were true, Aono-san~. It's not appropriate, hahaha~. But if it were true, I wish you the best of luck~."

Gakutorou gestured to the same shelf Tsukune was looking at a few moments ago. "Several of the books you asked for are here~. But it's a bit much to carry a once, so take only a few, perhaps~? The rest will still be here waiting for you, so come by whenever you please~."

Tsukune thanked the ghost librarian, and began flipping though some of the books. He took in hand several of the books that contained general notes about youkai, taking particular care to pick up one with notes on vampires and another with notes on a youkai known as the succubus, one with features reminding him of a certain girl. With that, Gakutorou led Tsukune back to the main hallway and wished the boy a good day as he left for his dorm room for some reading.